← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Illinois Judge Throws Trump OFF THE BALLOT, Just Hours Before Supreme Court Ruling, plus BlackRock ADMITS that ESG is Costing It Billions & Hunter Admits That He Got Millions from China
00:44:07
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- [00:00]
Talkspace Sponsor
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- [01:01]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome. It is verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. And Senator, today could be a very big day when it comes to news coming from the Supreme Court.
- [01:10]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, that's exactly right. Later this morning, the Supreme Court is expected to hand down its decision. In the Colorado decision, the Colorado Supreme Court had thrown President Trump off of the ballot. And of course, Maine had done so as well. And just last week, Illinois jumped into the mix. We'll discuss all of that and explain what to expect beyond that. Blackrock, the massive, massive financial company that really has been one of the critical, if not the critical driver of esg, the environmental and social justice movement, just made a filing with the SEC where they admitted that this has been an economic disaster, that they're losing billions. We'll get into that as well. And then finally we're going to get into some of the really major testimony that the Biden family has been been giving in Congress behind closed doors. Both Hunter Biden and James Biden, Joe's brother, have admitted that multiple things Joe said were just flat out lies. We'll get into all of that in today's verdict.
- [02:15]
Ben Ferguson
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- [04:24]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, that's exactly right. And let me tell you why we're expecting the Supreme Court decision today. Yesterday, on Sunday, the court put online a statement that at least one opinion would be handed down today. And that happens at 10am The Supreme Court typically hands down its opinions at 10am and the court also put online the court will not take the bench. Now that's a very unusual public statement. I can't recall the court ever doing so. Typically when the court decides decisions, it will come in usually at 10am on argument. Hand down days. And you know, when they are, they put out a calendar, we're going to hand down an opinion on this day. They don't tell you what opinion it's going to be, but they tell you that opinion is coming down. Well, they did that on Sunday. They added a brand new argument hand down day and it is today, Monday. And the justices had not been scheduled to come back to the courtroom until March 15th. And so this statement is unusual. And the timing of it is tomorrow is Super Tuesday. Tomorrow is when Colorado is voting. And so I think there is a high likelihood that the justices made the decision. We need to hand this opinion down before Colorado election day to resolve it. And so I think by 10am today we will have the opinion. If we have the opinion on the next verdict, Ben and I will get into it and we will discuss exactly what is coming. I will remind everyone that when Colorado issued its decision, the Colorado Supreme Court, a divided 4, 3 decision, my immediate reaction then is this opinion is dramatically wrong. It is a usurpation of democracy and it will be reversed. It will be reversed by the Supreme Court. And I said that very next day, not only will it be reversed, but I think there's a very real likelihood that the decision will be unanimous. Now, hopefully the next podcast we do, we'll know whether or not that proved true. I hope it is unanimous. I think it being unanimous would be really good for the country, really good for the court. But we'll find out it. I am 100% certain that Colorado will be reversed. Now, what happened with Illinois? Illinois was one individual district judge in Illinois. And if you look at, actually we had Colorado Supreme Court and then shortly thereafter that you had the Maine secretary of state. So Maine was the second state to order Trump off the ballot. And then Illinois just became the third. And it was one judge, a judge named Tracy Porter of the state circuit court in Cook county. And she issued a ruling that said the state Board of Elections, quote, shall remove Donald J. Trump from the ballot for the general primary election on March 19, 2024 or cause any votes cast for him to be suppressed. So look, let's be clear. On the face of the order, Democrats are not quite explicit. This is voter suppression. And let me read that again. Her order is shall remove Donald J. Trump from the ballot for the general primary election on March 19, 2024, or cause any votes cast for him to be suppressed. Ben, this collective effort, Colorado, Maine, Illinois, added to the Department of Justice, relentless persecution of Trump, added to Georgia and New York state courts, relentless persecution of Trump. All of this is in total the greatest assault on democracy in the history of our country. I do not believe that is hyperbole because what they are trying to do is tell the American people we will not let you vote for the candidate you want to vote for for president, even though right now he's likely to win. We hate him so much, we are ordering, as the judge in Illinois said, quote, any votes cast for him to be suppressed.
- [08:45]
Ben Ferguson
You have this idea of copycats. And I think it's pretty clear that whether it's activist das, it was like once Donald Trump, for examp got taken to court, it emboldened copycats to come forward, Fanny Willis's and others to jump all in in New York City, to jump all in there and to go after Trump and find ways to do it. But there also seems to be, and this is really concerning to me, Senator, the copycats that happened with Colorado and then you mentioned the other states as a country are we and specifically as conservatives, and I'm guilty of this, I think most people listening are probably going to agree. You don't pay a lot of attention to who's running for judge. You may pay more attention based on crime in your area to DA's and things like that, but a lot of times most people don't know who their judges are. Are we way more vulnerable than we realized with activist judges? I mean, you look at this judge in Illinois. I mean, this is a judge that if you look at the background, we're talking about someone that's basically a traffic court jud. How does a judge in that position have enough power to take a presidential candidate off the ballot? And do we need to wake up as conservatives and say, okay, it is time for us to get hyper focused on picking good judges again?
- [10:08]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, there's no doubt judges have enormous power and judges, any judge can issue any order he or she likes. Now, whether it is enforced depends on a number of things. One is simply whether the executive branches will comply. You know, there was a famous early battle with the Supreme Court in 1832 where John Marshall was the Chief justice of the Supreme Court and he authored an opinion for the Supreme Court concerning Indian tribes that Andrew Jackson didn't like. And Jackson is widely quoted as saying, John Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it. Now, whether he actually said that or not, it may be apocryphal. It's believed that the actual words that he said to Brigadier General John Coffee were the decision of the Supreme Court has fell stillborn and they find that it cannot coerce Georgia to yield to its mandate. So that's whichever way it was. The principle, if a decision is so wildly out of touch, people are not going to comply. That is a reality. But beyond that, just within the judicial system, there's the simple reality that decisions that are lawless will not be carried out because if the appellate system operates, they will be stopped and they will be forced to comply with the rule of law. And so what will happen here if we are right that later today the Supreme Court will reverse the Colorado Supreme Court decision, and we'll make clear that Colorado courts cannot throw Donald Trump off the ballot because individual judges or justices or courts or individual Democrat state officials conclude that they think January 6th was an insurrection. And they think under the 14th amendment, that means Trump can't appear on the ballot. Once that order is issued, Maine and Illinois will resolve themselves. In Maine, either the secretary of state will reverse her decision or the courts will order her to do so. In Chicago, either the judge will reverse her decision or other courts, either the appellate courts in Chicago or ultimately federal courts will order her to do so or order the Board of Elections not to comply with the order. But let me pause for a second. You know, you said we should focus more on who judges are. It's worth spending a little bit of time examining who this judge is. Who is Tracy Porter? Now, Tracy Porter is a native of Chicago's south side. And she went to college at Cornell College and then got her law degree at Drake University. She spent four years as a litigation attorney in the Office of the solicitor in the US Department of Labor in the 1990s. And then she worked as a lawyer in private practice and in law school. And then in 2021, she was appointed to a traffic court position. That was three years ago. She was resolving traffic tickets. And then in 2022, she won an election for a full term as a judge of the Cook County Circuit Court. So she's a brand new judge. She was a traffic court judge. She just was elected to the Cook County Circuit Court. And you know, one of the things that she said, her quote when she was appointed in 2021, here's a quote from Judge Porter, quote, my motto is impacting lives and changing communities. And that is how I will approach this new position. Understand what she's not talking about following the law like the rule of law is nowhere to be found. This is a Democrat partisan activist. And she, I have no doubt was thrilled, thrilled to have an opportunity to strike back at Donald Trump. And you know, it reminds me of, do you remember the foreman of the Fulton County, Georgia grand jury that indicted Donald Trump? And it was this young woman who went on a media tour afterwards, one of the most disastrous media tours, like the only media tour I could ever recall a grand jury foreman going on, where she said, you know, something to the effect of, well, just the opportunity to like ask questions to Donald Trump. Wow, that was just great.
- [14:57]
Ben Ferguson
Just to swear him in. Remember, she was like fantasizing over the idea of getting to say, you know, do you solemnly swear? I mean, it was the craziest exit interview ever. But it also showed how embarrassing it was that even the indictment of Trump.
- [15:10]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, and I think that's exactly who Tracy Porter is. An angry left wing partisan who, fresh off of traffic court, says, I have the power to order Trump off the ballot in Illinois. And the good news is this decision will be reversed. And I think it will be reversed very, very quickly. As soon as the Supreme Court decides, both Maine and Illinois will resolve themselves as well.
- [15:40]
Ben Ferguson
Final question on this. There used to be a fear that you could be rebuked if you went outside the law too much if you're a lawyer and you kind of went rogue. Judges were held to this higher standard. Is that in essence gone now in our society? It seems like it. If you look at this last year.
- [15:57]
Senator Ted Cruz
Oh, look, this, this Judge Tracy Porter, she'll be a hero in Democratic circles. She'll go, she will be introduced as the judge who ordered Donald Trump off the ballot and Democrats will cheer.
- [16:10]
Talkspace Sponsor
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- [16:11]
Senator Ted Cruz
Look, she, she's, according to the Cook County Democratic Party, she's written law review articles on the quote, school to prison pipeline. In other words, she's there to let people out of jail and in particular, to not enforce the law in schools, so to allow violent criminals to commit crimes in schools. She's also written law review articles on voter rights and mortgage short sales. Well, voter rights, apparently the voters have no rights because she just issued an order on its face engaging in voter suppression. And she has also professional associations include the Chicago Bar association, the American Bar association, and the Black Woman Lawyers association of Greater Chicago, where she was a former member of the board of directors. When she goes to Chicago lawyers gatherings, the angry partisan Democrats will cheer her. Voter suppression because they have convinced themselves that, number one, the judiciary is just a means of imposing their policy and exercising power. But number two, they've convinced themselves that Donald Trump is the devil. And so everything, everything, everything is justified. Fighting back. Fortunately, at least we still have some modicum of the rule of law in America.
- [17:42]
Ben Ferguson
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- [20:40]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, that's exactly right. And let me say this is a topic that I discussed at great length in my latest book. My latest book, as longtime verdict listeners will know, is called how to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America. And if you haven't read the book, I'd encourage you go online and buy the book because there's an entire chapter on how big business went woke. And you know, if you wake up and wonder what the hell happened that Bud Light has suddenly decided it hates its customers, what the hell happened that Target stores are trying to advertise to 2 year olds Tuck friendly bathing suits? What the hell happened that Disney thinks that princesses should have mustaches? Well, all of these are interrelated and they are in significant part driven by the ESG movement. The ESG movement is environmental, social and governance. And it was a bunch of left wing activists that decided to use money to enforce their left wing objective. We just talked about left wing activists on the courts using the courts to enforce their objective. What the book Unwoke talks about is how the left has seized every major institution of our society and is using them to force a cultural Marxist agenda. When it comes to ESG, BlackRock is the most important player in the world. Now, who is BlackRock? Well, you know, most people, if you're living your life, you may not know who BlackRock is, or at least you may have some general sense there's some big company, but you may not know exactly what they do. BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager. BlackRock has $10 trillion in assets under management. 10 trillion. It's interesting, you said they're a multibillion dollar company.
- [22:33]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah.
- [22:34]
Senator Ted Cruz
Actually, no, they're not.
- [22:35]
Ben Ferguson
Trillions.
- [22:36]
Senator Ted Cruz
And to put that in perspective, $10 trillion. That is nearly a third of the entire US national debt. That is a crap ton of money. And crap ton is a technical term used with investment, by the way. BlackRock is part of what is called the big three of the index fund managers. The other two are the Vanguard Group and State Street. And in the book Unwoke, I talk about all three because with the trillions of dollars they control, they have begun voting their shares. So they invest in companies and let's say, Ben Dioni. Any mutual funds?
- [23:16]
Ben Ferguson
I do, yes.
- [23:17]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, so do I. Most people do. Many people own mutual funds. Well, if you buy a mutual fund, what Blackrock and State Street Vanguard have started doing is they put these mutual funds together. The mutual fund then goes and buys a ton of shares in all sorts of companies, and they've decided that they are voting essentially your shares in support of their politics. It used to be that mutual funds didn't vote on political issues. And these giant index funds said, wait a second, we are the biggest stockholders in virtually every major American company. If we vote as radical leftists, the companies will have to obey us. Now, the leader of all of this is a guy named Larry Fink. Larry Fink is the CEO of BlackRock and he's been driving this. And just a few years ago, he proudly would preen about ESG and how he was going to force the world to change. Well, just recently, BlackRock had a filing with the SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission. And BlackRock's filing. This is reminiscent. We did a podcast several months ago about how Disney had a filing at the SEC where Disney acknowledged to shareholders, our radical politics are costing us billions of dollars. And Disney's disclosure said, our political agenda is out of step with our customers. It is causing our customers not to want to buy our product, and we are losing a ton of money. And we did a whole podcast talking about what a remarkable disclaimer to the shareholders, hey, hey, shareholder, we don't give a damn about shareholder value. Our politics is all we care about. And so we're losing you money. Well, what's interesting, BlackRock just did essentially the same thing. Let me quote from what BlackRock filed at the SEC. Quote, BlackRock faces increasing focus from regulators, officials, clients and other stakeholders regarding ESG matters. And the company said in its filing that it is, quote, subject to competing demands from different stakeholder groups with divergent views on ESG related matters, including in countries in which BlackRock operates and invests, as well as in states and localities where BlackRock serves public sector clients. This is a big, big deal.
- [25:49]
Talkspace Sponsor
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- [26:50]
Ben Ferguson
Talk about this activism, you're supposed to have a, I guess a fiduciary duty to your shareholders, right? To do what's. It seems like this went outside the scope of that as well, which is part of the controversy that you're basically saying, hey, I may not be doing what's best to protect your money. I'm pushing an agenda here. That is not how it's supposed to work when you're investing.
- [27:13]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, that's right. And it's interesting their reference to other stakeholders. Look, look, the stakeholder is supposed to be the shareholder and you're supposed to have an obligation under the law to, to maximize shareholder value. And the other stakeholders, what they mean is our political objectives, that we're gonna violate the law, we're gonna violate our fiduciary duty. And listen. All right, so listen to this clip. This is BlackRock CEO Larry Fink where he says that ESG, he admits ESG is driving energy prices higher. And he says that's actually a good thing because it shrinks the quote, green premium. Here, give a listen.
- [27:54]
Ben Ferguson
Because of the rising energy prices, we are certainly seeing the green premium shrink quite considerably. And so the amount of investment dollars.
- [28:03]
Senator Ted Cruz
That are going into new decarbonization technology.
- [28:06]
Ben Ferguson
Is accelerating and accelerating very rapidly.
- [28:09]
Senator Ted Cruz
So he's quite happy when you fill up your tank and it pisses you off that it's 100 bucks to fill up your truck or your minivan. You know what? BlackRock, you may not know Larry Fink's name, but he played a pivotal role in it. And listen here again in 2022 where he says ESG is all about enabling him to, quote, force behaviors. Give a listen. Well, behaviors are going to have to change. And this is one thing we're asking companies, you have to force behaviors.
- [28:44]
Ben Ferguson
And at blackrock, we are for forcing behaviors. I mean, we are forcing behaviors. This is the mentality of we're too big to fail. We have so much money we can dictate. And you're just lucky that you have your cash, basically with BlackRock. So therefore, we get to do these.
- [29:01]
Senator Ted Cruz
Things and understand these bastards are flying giant, giant private jets. Larry Fink's carbon footprint is larger than a small town in whatever state you live in. Like, this is, there's an arrogance. This is like John Kerry who flies private jets all over the place while trying to shut down your ability to get in your suv. The utter hypocrites as they live in their gilded castles. And they say we are gonna force behaviors from the little people. Well, the beauty of it is it's now coming to bite them. And this is what I discuss in the book on woke. Because the book is all about strategies to fight back. And I talk about in Texas. So in Texas, there was a bill called Senate Bill 13 and Senate Bill 13. Look, I usually stay out of fights in the Texas state legislature. I mean, Lord knows I have enough fights in Washington, D.C. with Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden. And so what happens in Austin, I usually leave that to the. To the state legislators.
- [30:05]
Ben Ferguson
It's like Vegas for you. What happens in Austin stays in Austin.
- [30:07]
Senator Ted Cruz
There you go. Now, there have been really two significant exceptions. One has been school choice. And I get very involved in school choice. And we've got an historic opportunity in school choice. And by the way, I will say, if you are running in the state, if you're a Texas voter, get out and vote in the primaries. Election day is tomorrow, Super Tuesday. Get out and vote in the primaries. In particular, in the state legislature, I've endorsed a whole bunch of state legislative candidates who are pro school choice because we have a bunch of Republicans who killed school choice in the legislature. And so we need to elect Republicans that actually will do what the voters want and do what's right. But that's one example. The second example concerns ESG and woke big business. And Senate Bill 13 was a very simple bill. It said, if you boycott oil and gas, Texas will boycott you. And listen, oil and gas produces millions of jobs in the state of Texas. It produces enormous amounts of revenue and benefits for Texas. And these WOKE Wall street firms have been boycotting oil and gas and imposing massive costs on oil and gas production. And by the way, benefiting Russia and Iran and Venezuela and our enemies in the process, and ironically, hurting the environment in the process. But their WOKE politics cannot. Facts and data and reason cannot interfere with their WOKE politics. And What Senate Bill 13 said is okay, if a company is boycotting oil and gas, the state of Texas will not invest in you. Now, Texas has massive amounts of cash that we invest, we have pension funds, we have endowments, massive university endowments. And so what I did with Senate Bill 13, I called the Senate sponsor, I called the House sponsor and I said, listen, how can I help? What can I do to get this to pass? I wrote an op ed urging every state legislator to vote for Senate Bill 13. And then I sent that op ed to every single member of the state House and every single member of the state Senate. It passed. Well, Senate Bill 13 has had an enormous impact and you are seeing the consequences of it. And by the way, Texas also passed another bill that said if you attack the Second Amendment, Texas will not invest in you. If you try to take away the constitutional rights of Texans, we're not putting our money with you. And that has had enormous impact as well. But what I urged in the book Unwoke is other red states to do the same thing. Use our leverage to make it expensive, to make it hurt to give power to the phrase go woke, go broke. And in particular, BlackRocket, it's filing, it complains, quote, some US states and state officials have adopted or proposed legislation or otherwise have taken official positions restricting or prohibiting state government entities from doing certain business with entities identified by the state as, quote, boycotting or quote, discriminating against particular industries or considering ESG in their investment processes and proxy votings. And it goes on to say soon, quote, other states and localities may adopt similar legislation or other ESG related laws and positions that adversely impact BlackRock's business. This is what winning looks like. This is, this is. And in fact, let me read a little bit more from the filing. And this is an official SEC filing from BlackRock and it, and it says the divergence between their politics and the financial interest of their shareholders. Here's what it says. Quote, divergence has and continues to increase the risk that any perceived or actual action or lack thereof by BlackRock on such matters on behalf of its clients will be viewed differently by various stakeholders and adversely impact BlackRock's reputation business, including through withdrawals, redemptions, terminations or decisions not to commit or invest new capital by clients as well as legal and governmental action and scrutiny.
- [34:36]
Ben Ferguson
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- [36:59]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, that's exactly right. So Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. He insisted Hunter had not made money from China. Well, Hunter has now admitted that was a lie. Now, he tried hard not to, but. But he admitted it anyway. And so deposition testimony was released and let me read, read some of it. Question your father went while he was running for president and said his family never received any money from China. Your father. Answer. Yes, has also said. Answer your right. Uh, he's never received, he's never interacted with any of your business associates. Is that correct? Yes. But if you introduced him to Yeming, that would be untrue. No, that is not untrue. I'm telling you this. The question being asked that you're stating is that my father said that I never received any money from China, the government of China, unlike Jared Kushner, I've never received any money from a foreign government. He. Question. He didn't say government of China, by the way. He said China from China. Well, so understand, okay, this is the sleight of hand he's trying to do. He's claiming now, well, he didn't get money technically from the government of China. It wasn't signed government of China. But here's what he. Here's what he did admit. He shifted it to, well, yeah, of course I got money from China. It was just a Chinese company controlled by the Chinese government and funded by the Chinese government. But it wasn't from the government of China. It was from a Chinese company. And here's. So the questioning continued. How many millions have you received from Chinese companies? Because he admitted. And this is the bombshell admissions, I have received money from a Chinese company. Um, how many millions have you received? And he. And he said, well, I. He didn't know the exact amount, but let me read this exchange. Quote, did you receive money from China or not? Answer, quote, I received money from a Chinese company. Question, how many millions have you received from Chinese companies? Answer, I don't know the exact amount, but I know that it was all completely legal and it was incredibly ethical. This.
- [39:22]
Ben Ferguson
Right. I mean, I'm sorry. I'm taken aback by the quote, because it's just so funny. It's like it was. It was. I never did it. I never did. I did it. Never did it. Well, I did it. But. But it was all legal and ethical, and everything was fine, so stop asking questions. How dare you act like we did anything wrong.
- [39:37]
Senator Ted Cruz
Incredibly ethical. And this is a guy who photographs himself smoking crack while being with multiple prostitutes and who's made tens of millions of dollars selling favors from his father, who was abusing a position of public trust. But understand, I received money from a Chinese company. This is an admission. And I want us to play what Joe Biden said because I want. Because you need to hear how this is directly contrary to what Joe Biden.
- [40:06]
Ben Ferguson
Said, my son has not made money.
- [40:09]
Senator Ted Cruz
In terms of this thing about. What are you talking about?
- [40:12]
Ben Ferguson
China. I love that. This thing about. What about this thing. Oh, yeah, China. Like, I mean, what a brilliant move by him during the presidential debates back then, where it's like, ah, China. I don't even know what you're talking about. It's absurd.
- [40:25]
Senator Ted Cruz
Look, it's a flat out lie. My son has not made money from. What is it, this thing you're talking about? China. That's what he said. Now here's what Hunter said under oath, quote, I received money from a Chinese company. Those two statements are categorically inconsistent. Joe Biden lied and he lied in the presidential debate with Donald Trump and he lied about the corruption of his son. That's what the testimony is. And by the way, did you see that in the 6:00 news this week?
- [40:56]
Ben Ferguson
Nope.
- [40:58]
Senator Ted Cruz
Wonder why.
- [40:59]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, well, and there's also you and I predicted this months and months and months ago that your favorite WhatsApp text ever, which is, you know, the shakedown with his dad sitting next to him. He was asked about that and I have to go back to it because it just, it's hysterical. He says, I sent the text, but I was drunk or high when I sent it. My dad wasn't there. Which is exactly the alibi we said they were going to use, right? Oh, he was a drunk kid. He was a high kid. They treat him like he's a kid, not, not a grown adult in his 50s. You know? Now this is just a addict who was, who was desperate for cash and didn't know what he was doing.
- [41:39]
Senator Ted Cruz
But it works. He got the cash.
- [41:41]
Ben Ferguson
He got the cash and he's like, oh, my dad was there. Let's just remind people we could have found out for a fact using GPS data.
- [41:49]
Senator Ted Cruz
And we still can't.
- [41:51]
Ben Ferguson
Oh, we still can't. Okay, so, so explain for everybody how we could still find that, why and who's blocking it from us knowing for the GPS data if daddy was in fact sitting next to his son.
- [42:01]
Senator Ted Cruz
So listen, it's not complicated. We know the exact date and time that WhatsApp text was sent. And the investigators, the investigators wanted to subpoena the GPS data on Hunter's phone and Joe's phone. And if they were both in the same location, then it would turn out Hunter was telling the truth, that daddy was sitting there. And the IRS whistleblowers blocked that said, no, you cannot subpoena the GPS location because it would prove that daddy was there. And their objective, the Biden Justice Department's objective from day one, has been to protect Joe Biden. Look, look, I'll get, I'll give another example. So, so Jim Biden provided testimony about Hunter Biden and had an undisclosed meeting with a corrupt Chinese businessman whom Hunter has called. And this is Hunter's language, quote, the effing spy chief of China. He didn't abbreviate effing. But. And this in particular was a meeting that occurred in September 2017 with Patrick Ho. Patrick Ho was an executive with Chinese energy conglomerate cefc. And by the way, CFC China Energy paid Hunter and Jim Biden $5 million. So this wasn't a small amount. Remember Joe Biden saying, said Hunter didn't get money from that China thing except for that $5 million. But they had a meeting. According to Jim Biden, he and Hunter Biden had a, quote, pleasant lunch in Hong Kong with Ho. And at the end of the meeting, Ho asked to meet alone with Hunter Biden. And here's the quote from Jim Biden's deposition. Quote, Ho said, can I borrow Hunter for, you know, a half hour? We're going to go in the next room. And then Jim Biden said, well, he didn't know what they discussed in the next room. This is a man that. He had a half hour private meeting with a man whom Hunter has described as the effing spy chief of China. And by the way, just two months after Hunter Biden gets pulled aside for this secret half hour meeting, you know what happened two months later? Federal prosecutors in New York indicted Ho on charges that he offered bribes to African officials to obtain oil rights for CFC China Energy during a meeting at the UN General assembly in 2014. So this is a guy who couple months later gets indicted for bribing.
- [44:43]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah.
- [44:44]
Senator Ted Cruz
Public officials and he wants to have a private meeting with Hunter Biden and he does have a private meeting with Hunter Biden. We know also that CFC China Energy paid Hunter Biden $1 million to represent Ho even though there's no evidence Hunter Biden did any sort of legal work on any of the cases. And you know, one of the things also that that Ho did is he gave Hunter Biden a diamond ring because, you know, yeah, that's what the spy chief of China should do is give the son of the vice president, now the son of the president a diamond ring. You know, just. But, but remember, remember Joe Biden said, told the American people that, that Hunter hadn't gotten anything from. What is that thing? That China thing.
- [45:35]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, that's a great point. It's going to be one heck of a week here on verdict, especially with a Supreme Court ruling we're expecting to come down. So make sure you hit that follow subscriber auto Download button and and remember, we do the show Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Download my podcast Ben Ferguson Podcast. I'll keep you updated on this breaking news on those in between days. If this comes down later today, we'll have that for you. But don't forget, hit that Follow subscribe button and please share this podcast wherever you are on social media and the Senator and I will see you back here Wednesday morning.