← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Islamist Revolution in Syria-What It Means, plus Trump Dominates Meet the Press
00:30:44
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- [00:01]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome. It is verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. And Senator, we've got a lot to talk about tonight, including the shocking news coming out of Syria that Assad is gone. He's out of the country, out of power.
- [00:16]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, that's exactly right. We've seen the Bashar Assad regime toppled this week after a 14 year civil war. Now, Bashar Assad is a cruel and horrible dictator. He's taken refuge in Russia. His falling is a major loss for Russia. It's a major loss for Iran. It's a major loss for Hezbollah. All were allies, all are seriously hurt by his falling. But the rebels who have toppled him may well be even worse. It is radical Islamists who have been fighting against him. Many of them are remnants of Al Qaeda, remnants of the Islamic State and the people of Syria and Israel and America may soon find that the new leadership is even worse than the old. We're going to break that down in real depth. Beyond that, Donald Trump went on Meet the Press this week. He did and it sat down, did an extensive interview and laid out a calm, clear vision for coming in, for securing the border, for getting the economy coming back. We're going to break that down as well.
- [01:21]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, it's really an interesting interview especially to see how the media is not getting him flustered at all and it's driving them crazy. We'll play some of that audio for you in a moment. This holiday season for your loved ones, a perfect gift can be giving them extra security. And with increased crime and violence around our country, we need to remember that personal safety and security for you and your family is the most important thing in life. Now what if there was a way to effectively defend yourself and and deescalated situation without the irreversible consequence of using deadly force? Do you really want to pull the trigger and deal with the financial and mental repercussions? Well, don't compromise on your peace of mind. And that is where the burner less lethal pistol launcher comes in. A burner can save two lives, is an incredible compliment to owning a firearm. And if you or a family member is in a situation where you feel threatened, you can start with less lethal. It is legal in all 50 states. No permits or background checks are needed. Now I own these myself and I have given them to many of my family members. They're also incredible gift. If you have kids or grandkids, maybe they're under the age of 21, living off campus, living in an apartment by themselves. Well, this is an amazing way for them to protect themselves. It is designed for easy use by all age groups 18 or older. The burner launcher has powerful deterrents like tear gas and kinetic rounds with a 60 foot range, giving you much more distance between between you and that threat than you will get with using pepper spray or a taser gun. One shot can incapacitate an attacker for up to 40 minutes. Used by government agencies and law enforcement around the country and over a half million units have been sold. So look at the videos and you're going to see just how effective this is by going to Burnaby. Rna.com verdict that's Burna B Y rna.com verdict you're going to get 10% off your purchase as well. That's by rna.com verdict for 10 off center. Let's start with the last thing that you said when you were, you were mentioning what has just happened with Assad. Following this is great news in theory, but I go back to Libya and Gaddafi. When Gaddafi fell there, there was a lot of people like, all right, this is great news. And we got rid of a horrible human being. But then the country fell into in essence civil war and total anarchy and chaos. And that is the big concern here obviously is that now the remnants of Al Qaeda, ISIS could actually be in charge of this country.
- [03:53]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, I'm not convinced it's great news at all. Listen, the world is a dangerous place and there are bad dictators. But we've seen a pattern for the past 20 years of Americans supporting people, toppling dictators who are fighting terrorists only to have the terrorists take over and start fighting Americans instead. And, and my perspective on this is is this good for America or not? I would say at best it is too soon to tell. Let's step back and do a little bit of history. Bashar Assad is a dictator. He's a monster. This is a man who used chemical weapons against his own citizens. He's responsible for murdering hundreds of thousands of people. So nobody with any sense defends Bashar Assad. The problem is the rebel groups fighting against him. Many of them may well be worse. Many of them come are connected to Al Qaeda, to radical Islamic terrorists. And the challenge is, and we saw it, you're right, we saw it in Libya when Gaddafi was toppled and we ended up with even worse radical Islamic terrorists taken over. We saw it in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was toppled and we ended up with even worse radical Islamic terrorists taking over. In this case, the people fighting are Islamists. They are remnants of Al Qaeda, they are remnants of the Islamic State. And One of the leading Islamist groups who played the critical role in toppling Assad is Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, hts, which is a former affiliate of Al Qaeda and part of the rebel forces. And the Islamist leader of HTS is Abu Muhammad Al Golani. He right now has a $10 million bounty on his head from the United States. Now he is trying to. The press is describing him as a more moderate, radical Islamist. I'm not sure what a more moderate radical Islamist is. You know, I think back to 2014. 2014, Barack Obama was president. You remember, Barack Obama drew what he called a red line. And he said, if Bashar Assad uses chemical weapons, America will respond with force. We will attack it. Well, Assad did use chemical weapons. And Obama came to Congress to ask for Congress's agreement to attack Syria. Now, I'll tell you, at the time, I kept an open mind. I wanted to actually hear the Commander in Chief's justification for why attacking Assad's regime was in the US national security interests. And I could imagine a scenario. Listen, Assad had major chemical weapons caches. He used chemical weapons against his own people. I can imagine a mission that might make sense to go in and perhaps take out the chemical weapons. I could see that if he could lay out a credible case that those chemical weapons could be used against Americans or our allies, that's a mission I could see making sense. But at the time, and this is back in 2014, you had multiple rebel groups affiliated with radical Islamic terrorists. Al Qaeda, Al Nusra. And they were fighting. And the question that I asked, and I asked this repeatedly of the Obama administration, both in classified briefings and in public briefings, I said, okay, if you succeed in toppling Assad and the chemical weapons fall into the hands of the radical Islamic terrorists, how is that better for us? How do you prevent the people who take over from being worse than the people who are there right now? And I gotta tell you, they had no answer. It was utterly incoherent. At one point, John Kerry was the Secretary of State. He said their objective was to conduct a, quote, unbelievably small attack, basically a press release. Essentially, what John Kerry was saying and the way he justified it is he said, well, by crossing this lines, they violated international norms. So we have to do an unbelievably small attack to register our protest to their violating the international norms. I thought that was completely incoherent. Either the attack would be too small to do anything, in which case, what the hell are we doing? Or it would be strong enough to succeed in toppling Assad, in which case there was a risk of the weapons falling into the hands of our enemies. So I oppose Barack Obama attacking Assad in 2014 because he could not articulate a clear basis why it was in US national security interests. Now, fast forward a decade later. The civil war has waged on and on and on. Now, several things have happened. One, Russia is weakened significantly by the war in Ukraine. Russia is at a much weaker place. Number two, Iran is in a much weaker place. Israel's war against Hamas and Hezbollah have weakened Iran, and Hezbollah is in a much weaker place. And so that's one of the factors.
- [09:06]
Ben Ferguson
That I think explain to people, just so they know all three of the countries you just mentioned, or I should say terrorist groups, and then two countries, they were the ones that have been propping up Assad for the last, in essence, decade, especially when these rebel forces started gaining in certain parts of the country. And Russia came in, said, hey, we got your back. Iran said, hey, we got your back. You've got. The terrorist organizations are like, hey, we'll keep you in power. We'll prop you up. Now they're all distracted. And that's how these rebel groups were able to pull this off this time.
- [09:38]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, that's right, that all of the groups that were propping Assad up were weaker. And I'll tell you, President Trump put out, I think, a very good statement in response to this. And here's what Trump wrote on on Truth Social. He wrote, quote, assad is gone. He has fled his country. His protector, Russia. Russia. Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer. There was no reason for Russia to be there in the first place. They lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine, where close to 600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead in a war that should never have started and could go on forever. Russia and Iran are in a weakened state right now, one because of Ukraine and a bad economy, and the other because of Israel and its fighting success. Likewise, Zelensky and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness. They have ridiculously lost 400,000 soldiers and many more civilians. There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin. Trump added, quote, too many lives are being so needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed, and if it keeps going, it can turn into something much bigger and far worse. I know Vladimir well, this is the time to act. China can help. The world is waiting. And I gotta say, I am glad that that Trump is expressing caution about what is happening in Syria. And that caution is well founded. The Biden administration, they're celebrating. The Biden White House is trying to victory lap this as a great victory for democracy. Well, we'll see. But when you have individuals who have been terrorists for many years, who have been radical Islamists, look, when the Islamic revolution happened in 1979 in Iran, it was a horrible development for the people of Iran. And so is there celebration right now on the streets of Syria? Sure, because Assad was a monster and people are celebrating the toppling of a monster. They also celebrated the toppling of Saddam Hussein. They also celebrated the toppling of Gaddafi. They also celebrated the Cuban Revolution in 1959. And we have seen many, many times that revolutions of one oppressive dictator can far too often be replaced by an even worse regime. And so I think this is an exceptionally dangerous time right now. And it is going to be important to do everything we can to prevent chemical weapons from falling into the hands of Al Qaeda terrorists who would use them against Americans.
- [12:16]
Ben Ferguson
Let's talk about that aspect. And also the White House Fox was reporting, and you mentioned a moment ago that Biden seemed to in essence take credit for Assad's downfall. And it was almost like it was, hey, this is a great victory moment for me. I can add this to my resume and say, look what I've done. And there was a lot of questions asked. Here's how they reported it.
- [12:37]
Kristen Welker
Hey, Lucas.
- [12:38]
Doc
Well, good evening, Doc. A lot changed in the region, it turns out. And President Biden also mentioning this was an historic opportunity in Syria, but cautioned about risk and uncertainty with a U.S. designated terrorist group closing in on Damascus and toppling the Assad regime. And of course, President Biden also seem to take credit for Assad's downfall.
- [13:00]
Donald Trump
Our approach has shifted the balance of power in the Middle East. This combination of support for our partners, sanctions, diplomacy and targeted military force when necessary.
- [13:13]
Ben Ferguson
You hear that from him and you're like, okay, so your foreign policy in the Middle east is screw Israel any chance you get. But you're wanting to claim now that you're part of what took down Assad and then also saying, now we know there's a bunch of terrorists that are now going to be in charge in Damascus. But hey, we still think this is a great day.
- [13:32]
Senator Ted Cruz
Look, the world is a very dangerous place. And unfortunately, people who are enemies of America become stronger and stronger under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. And when Trump comes into office on January 20, he's going to inherit a very dangerous world. But I am comforted. Our enemies are scared of a strong commander in chief. That's what we need right now.
- [13:55]
Ben Ferguson
Let's move to Donald Trump and this interview that he did, and it was one where I love how unflappable he was. And one of those moments in this conversation, it does tie into what happened in Syria. Was Donald Trump talking about, I have stopped wars with tariffs. And they're really trying to hammer him because he's using tariffs as leverage around the world right now. He's made it very clear with Canada in the conversations with Trudeau and Mexico and others that he is not going to allow for America to be taken advantage of. I want to get your reaction to this back and forth that he had in this interview with Kristen Welker, who was really trying to rough him up.
- [14:33]
Donald Trump
I'm a big believer in tariffs. I think tariffs are the most beautiful word. I think they're beautiful. It's going to make us rich. We're subsidizing Canada to the tune of over $100 billion a year. We're subsidizing Mexico for almost $300 billion. We shouldn't be subsidizing. Why are we subsidizing these countries? If we're going to subsidize them, let it become a state. We're subsidizing Mexico and we're subsidizing Canada and we're subsidizing many countries all over the world. And all I want to do is I want to have a level, fast but fair playing field.
- [15:07]
Kristen Welker
Sir, your previous tariffs during your first administration cost Americans some $80 billion. And now you have major companies from Walmart, Black and Decker, AutoZone saying that any tariffs are going to force them to drive up prices for their consumers. How do you make sure that these CEOs, that these companies don't in fact pass on the cost of tariffs to their consumers?
- [15:32]
Donald Trump
They cost Americans nothing. They made a great economy for us. They also solve another problem. If we were going to have problems having to do with wars and having to do with other things, tariffs. I have stopped wars with tariffs by saying, you guys want to fight, it's great. But both of you are going to pay tariffs to the United States at 100%. And they have many purposes, tariffs, if properly used. I don't say you use them like a madman. I say properly used. But it didn't cost this country anything. It made this country money. And we never really got the chance to go all out because we had to fight Covid in the last part. And we did it Very successfully. And when I handed it over to Biden, the stock market was higher than what it was just previous to. Covid coming in was actually higher. Tariffs are a. Properly used. Are a very powerful tool, not only economically, but also for getting other things outside of economics.
- [16:35]
Ben Ferguson
You hear him talk there, it just. I love his demeanor, number one. And when she's trying to get in, you know, in this fight with him, he's not taking the major, saying, this is my policy. I have a mandate. The people said they want this. I am going to do this.
- [16:51]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, let's be clear what the mandate is and what it isn't. Donald Trump has a mandate to secure the border. Absolutely. Donald Trump has a mandate to bring our economy back, to bring inflation under control, to. To. To bring us back to peace and prosperity. When it comes to tariffs, listen, Trump's views have been. They've covered a wide range. Trump has frequently spoken about his support for tariffs. And this goes back 40 years, in the 1980s when Reagan was president. Trump was critical of Reagan for being a free trader. And Trump has long supported tariffs. Now, I will say, you know, when I am talking right now to, to all sorts of business leaders in Texas, to people across the country, probably the biggest policy uncertainty they have about what's going to happen the next four years concerns tariffs and what the new administration is going to do. And to be candid, I am not certain. I am not certain what their policies are going to be. I will say there was a lot of substance in how Trump answered that question. Number one, where he made the point, look, you don't do tariffs like a madman on everyone. That if you do that, if you impose tariffs on everyone, you are raising costs and raising taxes on the American people. And that is not a good idea. So I'm glad he is saying that there are some voices in the echo chamber around Trump that would love to see tariffs raised on everyone. And so I'm glad he's saying, no, we're not gonna do that. He's also drawing a distinction that I think is important between tariffs used as a matter of economic policy versus tariffs used as leverage to achieve a different policy victory. And I would point in particular to the tariffs that he's threatened on Mexico and Canada of 25% each. And to be clear, what he has said on that, when he announced that he was going to do that, was he would impose those tariffs unless. And the unless is critical. Mexico and Canada both vigorously assessed in securing our borders and stopping the flood of illegal immigration, and that is using Tariffs for a very different purpose as leverage to move other countries to adopt policies that are in America's interest. And I gotta say I strongly approve and agree with using tariffs as a lever, particularly to secure the border. When Trump was president the first time, he used the identical threat, a 25% tariff on Mexico to force Mexico to bring them to the table and get them to agree to the remain in Mexico agreement. And remain in Mexico was the principal vehicle that produced the plummeting numbers of illegal immigration, that produced the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years because Mexico didn't want those tariffs. As I understand what Trump is saying, he's saying the same thing here. So he is not pledging, I don't believe, big tariffs on Mexico and Canada going forward as a matter of economic policy. What he is, and I'll point out that if he were suggesting that, that would be directly contrary to the actual policy that he implemented when he was president because he rejected nafta. But he negotiated the U. S. Mexico Canada Trade Agreement and the U. S. Mexico Canada Trade Agreement, which produces a lot of benefits to the United States, a lot of benefits to Texas, was an agreement that President Trump negotiated to get a fairer trading agreement between America and Mexico and Canada. And so when you're talking about tariffs on Mexico and Canada, I understand the president to be saying what he said very explicitly in his public statement, which is that he's using them as leverage to secure the border. Now, more broadly, when it comes to tariffs, I expect the president to be vigorous using tariffs, especially regarding China. And I do think we should be very focused on China. China is the greatest geopolitical threat facing the United States. And I think Donald Trump is clear eyed about that in a way that Joe Biden and the Democrats are not.
- [21:03]
Ben Ferguson
Let's talk about the border. And there was certainly a pretty intense conversation about what Donald Trump has said he wants to do. And I think the American people actually know what his plan is. The media just doesn't want to accept that he has a mandate to do it. Here is part of that conversation.
- [21:21]
Kristen Welker
Let's talk about mass deportation, one of your big agenda items. You've talked about prioritizing people who have criminal histories.
- [21:28]
Donald Trump
Correct.
- [21:29]
Kristen Welker
But is it your plan to deport everyone who is here illegally over the next four years?
- [21:34]
Donald Trump
Well, I think you have to do it. And it's a, it's a very tough thing to do. It's. But you have to have, you know, you have rules, regulations, laws, they came in illegally. You know, the people that have been treated very unfairly are the people that have been online for 10 years to come into the country. And we're going to make it very easy for people to come in in terms of they have to pass the test. They have to be able to tell you what the statue of Liberty is. They have to tell you a little bit about our country. They have to love our country. They can't come out of prisons. We don't want people that are in for murder. So we had 11,000 and 13,000 different estimates. 13,099 murderers released into our country over the last three years. They're walking down the streets, they're walking next to you and your family and they're very dangerous.
- [22:21]
Kristen Welker
13,000 figure I think goes back about 40.
- [22:24]
Donald Trump
No, it doesn't. No, it's within the three year period. It's during the Biden term. Now, that was a fiction that they put that out. This was done by the border patrol. It's 13,099 and it's during the Biden period of time. And these are murderers, many of whom murdered more than one person. You don't want those people in this country.
- [22:43]
Kristen Welker
But you're saying something, sir, that's significance. I just want to make sure I'm clear, which is that you're saying, yes, you're going to focus on the people with criminal histories, but everyone who's here illegally has to go.
- [22:54]
Donald Trump
I'm saying we have to get the criminals out of our country. We have to get people that were taken out of mental institutions and put them back into their mental institution, no matter what country it is. Do you know that Venezuela, their prisons are at the lowest point in terms of emptiness that they've ever been. They're taking their people out of those prisons by the thousands and they're drunk and just to get back because they know exactly what you're getting at. Number one, we're doing criminals and we're going to do them really rapidly. We're getting the worst gang probably with MS.13. And the Venezuelan gangs are the worst in the world. They're vicious, violent people. And you see what they've done in Colorado and other places, they're taking over, literally taking over apartment complexes and doing it with impunity. They don't care. They couldn't. They just are. They're in the real estate.
- [23:45]
Kristen Welker
You know, the local police say that is not the case in Colorado.
- [23:48]
Donald Trump
Oh, it's totally the case. I mean, I don't believe the local police. I play it. I used to play it at my rallies every Single night? No, it was. They're breaking into doors, they're taking over the building.
- [23:58]
Kristen Welker
But, sir, you. You.
- [23:59]
Donald Trump
And by the way, the police. The police are afraid to do anything.
- [24:02]
Kristen Welker
You raised the point that the logistics are complicated.
- [24:05]
Donald Trump
You said yourself, but everything's gone.
- [24:08]
Kristen Welker
Yeah. You mean you need 24 times more ICE detention capacity just to deport 1 million people per year? Not to mention more agents, more judges, more planes. Is it realistic to deport everyone who's.
- [24:20]
Donald Trump
First of all, they're costing us a fortune. But we're starting with the criminals, and we got to do it. And then we're starting with others, and we're going to see how it goes.
- [24:29]
Kristen Welker
Who are the others?
- [24:30]
Donald Trump
Others are other people. Outside of criminals, we have convicted murders. We don't mean people that are even on trial. We have people that have murdered numerous people, are on our streets and in our farms, and we have to get them out of our country.
- [24:45]
Ben Ferguson
You know what's amazing to me, Senators? The fact that Christian Welker there was just like, well, this is impossible. You can't do this. So why even act like you can deport or round up a bunch of heinous criminals? There's way you can do this. So. So let's just admit defeat and say, we can't do it and we can't afford it. We. I mean, the Biden administration just sent, what, another billion dollars in funding to Ukraine. Why don't we spend some money here and actually get what we need to get rid of these heinous criminals? I think that's the point he's trying to make.
- [25:16]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, and we're going to see that happen. We are going to see, on January 20th, we're going to see the new administration come in. We're going to see them reverse catch and release immediately. We're going to see them return to building the wall. We're going to see them reinstate the remain in Mexico agreement. What it is going to mean is that on January 20, if you come here illegally and you're apprehended, you will be deported, and we will see the numbers plummet. They'll plummet immediately. The first priority Trump is going to focus on is securing the border itself, and very closely connected to that is going after illegal immigrants, and in particular, as he said repeatedly, starting with the criminal illegal aliens, starting with the convicted murderers, the rapists, the child molesters, starting with the Venezuelan gangs, starting with the most dangerous illegal immigrants. And, you know, Welker was saying, well, gosh, this is going to be expensive. It's going to take a lot of resources. I'm going to hold on to that clip. That's going to be valuable because you know what? Congress is going to we are going to take up and pass a reconciliation bill. We're going to do it early in this next year that is going to provide funding to enable us to secure the border. We're gonna get it done. And I think Trump was very matter of fact laying out this is a mandate from the American people. He intends to do it and I intend to work hand in hand with him to make sure it gets done.
- [26:34]
Ben Ferguson
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- [29:01]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, I mean, Donald Trump shakes hands like a man. And when it came to Macron, he shook hands in a way that was a dominating way to shake hands. Macron was nervous, he was uneasy. He wasn't sure what to do. Now, Macron's own political situation in France is incredibly tenuous. And listen, the contrast, Macron has been kissing up to Biden like crazy. Biden, when he interacts with Macron and every other world leader interacts from a position of weakness, none of them are afraid of him. None of them, none of them are worried about what he might do. You know, you look at that at our southern border, I'm reminded we did a podcast, I don't know, about a year, year and a half ago where we played amlo. Then the president of Mexico standing next to Joe Biden and just crowing how he's the only president in our lifetimes who has not built even one meter of wall or fence neon Metro. And he's saying, and Biden just grinning like a goofy fool while AMLO is saying, well, look this guy, we can just run all over him. Well, we have seen that, that, that Trump is not someone that foreign leaders are going to run all over. And so, so that is that. That is a powerful demonstration of the simple fact that America's back.
- [30:18]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, no doubt about it. We don't forget we do a show Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So make sure you hit that auto download or subscribe button. Please share this podcast wherever you are on social media and write us a five star review that helps us reach new listeners. And on those in between days, I'll keep you updated on the breaking news. We've got a lot of breaking news happening around the world, so grab my podcast as well, the Ben Ferguson Podcast. And the Senator and I will see you back here on Wednesday morning.