Ivy League Presidents BOMB before Congress, plus Dems Fight to Cover Up Jeffrey Epstein Flight Logs

Summary

Detailed Summary of "The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson" Episode: Ivy League Presidents BOMB before Congress, plus Dems Fight to Cover Up Jeffrey Epstein Flight Logs Release Date: December 11, 2023

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1. Introduction to the Shocking Congressional Testimonies

The episode opens with Ben Shapiro and Senator Ted Cruz delving into a tumultuous week in Washington, D.C., where presidents of several Ivy League institutions were summoned to testify before Congress regarding anti-Semitism on college campuses. Shapiro expresses astonishment at the universities' inability to effectively condemn anti-Semitism, suggesting a gross failure in preparing their presidents for such high-stakes testimonies.

Ben Shapiro [00:00]:
"Now, you would think they would have been prepped by their staffs, by their PR groups at the university to hound and not screw this up if they were prepped."

2. Senator Cruz's Analysis of the Testimonies

Senator Cruz echoes Shapiro's sentiments, labeling the testimonies of Harvard's Claudine Gay, Penn's Liz McGill, and MIT's Sally Kornbluth as catastrophic. He draws a parallel to the infamous tobacco CEO hearings, emphasizing the presidents' lack of understanding and empathy toward anti-Semitism.

Ted Cruz [00:57]:
"I cannot think of testimony that has gone worse for the witnesses in my time in the Senate."

3. Breakdown of the Congressional Hearing

The discussion pivots to a specific exchange between Congresswoman Elise Stefanik and Claudine Gay during the hearing. Stefanik challenges Gay on the declining percentage of Jewish students at Harvard, eliciting evasive and context-dependent responses that Cruz criticizes as deceptive.

Elise Stefanik [03:18]:
"The population of Jewish undergrads at Harvard has plummeted from roughly 25% in the 1980s to between 5 and 10% now. Why is that?"

Claudine Gay [03:38]:
"That is not data that we collect as part of the admissions process."

4. Accusations of Deception and Historical Context

Cruz vehemently denies Gay's claims, asserting that Harvard indeed monitors Jewish student demographics. He also brings up Harvard's historical "Jewish quotas" from the 1950s, highlighting a longstanding issue of racial and religious discrimination within the institution.

Ted Cruz [04:39]:
"I do not believe her. And in fact, I would be willing to wager a large amount of money."

5. Defining Cultural Marxism and Its Impact

Cruz introduces the concept of cultural Marxism, explaining how it frames societal issues through a Marxist lens that dehumanizes Jews and supports violent uprisings against perceived oppressors. He connects this ideology to the anti-Semitic rhetoric observed on campuses and the failure of university administrations to protect Jewish students.

Ted Cruz [08:15]:
"Cultural Marxism uses the mechanisms of culture to frame the world through a Marxist lens, but not just socioeconomic."

6. Consequences for the University Presidents

Highlighting the repercussions of their testimonies, Cruz mentions that Liz McGill of Penn was fired due to her inadequate responses, influenced by donor pressure. He suggests that similar fates could await Claudine Gay of Harvard and Sally Kornbluth of MIT.

Ted Cruz [16:26]:
"Each one of those individuals... could easily see all three of these college presidents lose their jobs because of this testimony."

7. Personal Accounts of Jewish Students' Safety Concerns

Cruz shares personal anecdotes from conversations with Jewish friends who report feeling unsafe on their respective campuses. He describes instances where Jewish students have gone to lengths such as booking travel under less conspicuously Jewish-sounding names to avoid potential violence.

Ted Cruz [25:56]:
"Pretty much all of them are saying their kids are reporting, they don't feel safe, they don't feel protected."

8. Moving to the Jeffrey Epstein Flight Logs Controversy

The conversation shifts to another pressing issue: the fight led by Senator Marsha Blackburn to subpoena Jeffrey Epstein's flight logs. Cruz criticizes Senator Dick Durbin for obstructing the subpoena, suggesting a deliberate cover-up to protect high-profile individuals.

Ben Shapiro [28:36]:
"Senator, I want to move on to another issue this week that was kind of shocking."

9. Detailed Account of the Subpoena Battle

Cruz recounts the legislative maneuvering surrounding the subpoena for Epstein's flight logs, highlighting Durbin's evasive behavior and the strategic blocking of amendments aimed at uncovering who utilized Epstein's private jet. He underscores the significance of revealing potentially implicated politicians.

Ted Cruz [29:26]:
"Why is he defending it? And you may have been as shocked as I was. This doesn't seem like a smart political move yet."

10. Exposing Senator Durbin's Evasive Tactics

Using audio clips from a Fox News interview, Cruz demonstrates Durbin's reluctance to acknowledge the existence or significance of the flight logs. He portrays Durbin as obstructive and unwilling to pursue the truth.

Ted Cruz [35:44]:
"He's flat out lying. It is objectively false."

11. The Republican Push for Transparency

Cruz emphasizes the importance of transparency and accountability, advocating for the subpoena to be upheld. He references historical instances of contempt charges, predicting that if Hunter Biden does not comply, he may escape repercussions due to DOJ inaction.

Ted Cruz [43:02]:
"If he doesn't show up, the House will hold him in contempt."

12. Final Thoughts and Call to Action

Concluding the episode, Ben Shapiro and Ted Cruz encourage listeners to stay informed and engaged, particularly regarding the ongoing investigations and their potential impact on American institutions and politics.

Ben Shapiro [43:45]:
"All right, I say 100%. He doesn't show up. All right, we're gonna cover it this week. That I can promise you."

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Key Takeaways:

• Failure of Ivy League Presidents: The administrations of Harvard, Penn, and MIT showcased a troubling inability to address anti-Semitism on campuses, leading to public backlash and professional consequences.

• Cultural Marxism Defined: Senator Cruz articulates cultural Marxism as an ideology that dehumanizes specific groups, in this case, Jews, framing them as oppressors and justifying violence against them.

• Impact on Jewish Students: Personal anecdotes reveal widespread fear and insecurity among Jewish students, highlighting the real-world consequences of the universities' inadequate responses.

• Epstein Flight Logs Controversy: The episode underscores ongoing political battles to uncover the truth behind Jeffrey Epstein's associations, with significant resistance from key Democratic figures like Senator Durbin.

• Call for Transparency: Emphasizing the need for accountability, the hosts advocate for the subpoena of Epstein's flight logs to expose potential wrongdoing among influential individuals.

Notable Quotes:

• Ted Cruz [00:57]:
  "It was a train wreck. It is reminiscent of, you have to go back more than a decade to when the tobacco CEOs testified before Congress and it was blood, blood all over the hearing room."

• Elise Stefanik [03:18]:
  "The population of Jewish undergrads at Harvard has plummeted from roughly 25% in the 1980s to between 5 and 10% now. Why is that?"

• Ted Cruz [08:15]:
  "Cultural Marxism celebrates when so-called victims are murdering so-called oppressors."

• Senator Cruz [18:51]:
  "This is genocide."

• Ted Cruz [35:44]:
  "He's flat out lying. It is objectively false."

• Ted Cruz [43:02]:
  "If he doesn't show up, the House will hold him in contempt."

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Conclusion

This episode of "The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson" presents a critical examination of the recent congressional testimonies by Ivy League university presidents, highlighting systemic failures to combat anti-Semitism on campuses. Additionally, it delves into the political maneuvering surrounding the subpoena of Jeffrey Epstein's flight logs, emphasizing the broader struggle for transparency and accountability within American politics. Through incisive analysis and firsthand accounts, Ben Shapiro and Senator Ted Cruz provide listeners with a comprehensive overview of these pressing issues shaping today's America.

Transcript

[Ben Shapiro]

Senator, good to be with you as always in person this week as if you're listening to this. This is also a video version as well. You can grab it on YouTube and on Facebook as well. Also parts of it will be on X. So make sure that you go and see some of these clips that we're going to be having for you. If you're listening, audio only. I want to start with this shocking week coming out of Washington, D.C. you had the presidents of several of these Ivy League schools. They were asked to come and testify before Congress about anti Semitism on college campuses. Now, you would think they would have been prepped by their staffs, by their PR groups at the university to hound and not screw this up if they were prepped. Everyone that prepped them should be fired because they didn't do anything to make Jewish students feel more comfortable or feel safe on their college campuses. And it really, I think, shocked the nation that these universities clearly were refusing to condemn anti Semitism on their campus.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, that's exactly right. This week was very consequential. You know, since October 7th on this podcast, we have covered in virtually every episode either what is happening on the ground in Israel, what is happening in Gaza, what is happening with Hamas, or the corporate media's bias pro Hamas bias undermining Israel, or the vicious anti Semitism that we're seeing on the left. Whether it's the squad in the House of Representatives or whether it is on university campuses. I will say the testimony of three university presidents that occurred last week in the House of Representatives was extremely consequential. You had the president of Harvard University, you had the president of Penn, and you had the president of mit. I cannot think of testimony that has gone worse for the witnesses in my time in the Senate.

[Ben Shapiro]

Wow.

[Ted Cruz]

It was a train wreck. It is reminiscent of, you have to go back more than a decade to when the tobacco CEOs testified before Congress and it was blood, blood all over the hearing room. I mean, it went badly. These university presidents demonstrated zero understanding of the vicious antisemitism that suffuses their institution. Zero understanding, zero empathy. And they thoroughly embrace the rot of cultural Marxism. And it was. And throughout it all, their testimony, they were smug, they were condescending that they had a know it all attitude, that almost every question it was, how dare you ask me this question. So let's start with just a little exchange of, of Elise Stefanik, who is a member of Republican leadership in the House. Elise is a Harvard graduate. She and I together led a letter of members of Congress. Who are Harvard graduates? Denouncing Harvard's treatment of Jewish students? Denouncing their inability to stand up and condemn October 7th. Their inability to condemn the Hamas atrocities. And Elise did a terrific job here. She's asking what should be a very simple question. How many Jewish students are there on campus at Harvard? Give a listen, Dr.

[Elise Stefanik]

Gay. According to the Hillel College Guide, the Crimson Freshman Survey, and even Harvard's own Education Next Journal, the population of Jewish undergrads at Harvard has plummeted from roughly 25% in the 1980s to between 5 and 10% now. Why is that?

[Claudine Gay]

That is not data that we collect as part of the admissions process. So I can't speak to those numbers or to the trajectory.

[Elise Stefanik]

So what is the percentage of students who are Jewish at Harvard in undergraduate now?

[Claudine Gay]

We do not collect religious affiliation as part of the admissions process.

[Elise Stefanik]

Do you not rely on data collected by Harvard Hillel, which you visited for. For the first time after October 7th? I'll just be honest with you. When I was a freshman, I enjoyed going to Harvard Hillel and had the opportunity to celebrate Shabbat dinners with my fellow undergrads. The fact that it took you until after October 7th to go to Harvard Hillel is unacceptable. Yield back.

[Ben Shapiro]

I mean, Senator, you listen to that. There's a lot of data and universities love sharing data about how diverse their student body is. I remember going back on trips when you're trying to figure out where you're going to go to college, and they had every breakdown of everything. I guarantee they probably know how many transgender students are on campus.

[Ted Cruz]

Let's cut to the chase. She's lying. She's flat out lying. I do not believe her. Listen, this is the Harvard admissions process. That is the most Bean county admission process ever. They've got a quota for one legged transgender opera singers. And by the way, it is Harvard at Claudine Gay's direction that was litigating in the Supreme Court to defend their right to discriminate based on race. Yeah, so. And by the way, you know, she says we don't keep track of religious affiliation. Well, being Jewish is two things. It is a religion. Judaism is a religion, but it is also an ethnicity. There are people who are ethnically Jewish. There are people who are ethnically Jewish who can religiously be another faith. They can be Christians. There are messianic Jews who are ethnically Jewish, but yet their religion is Christianity. There are Jews who are atheists who are not do not follow Judaism, but are nonetheless Jews. And by the way, there are People who are non Jews who nonetheless convert to the Jewish faith. So when she says, well, we don't know how many Jews there are, I do not believe her. And in fact, I would be willing to wager a large amount of money. The statement that we don't collect a data on how many Jews there are in the admissions process is a flat out lie. Because they certainly look to race and ethnicity and being Jewish is an ethnicity. And let me point out also a broader irony. Look, Harvard has a terrible record when it comes to racial discrimination. Harvard is an institution that believes in racial discrimination. In the 1950s, Harvard had what were called Jewish quotas. They capped the number of Jews.

[Ben Shapiro]

Wow.

[Ted Cruz]

Who were allowed into their classes. And they formally capped them because. And they were starting to move to a more meritocratic admissions process. And Jewish students were doing well. They were getting good test scores, good grades. So they were getting in on merits in a higher percentage. And so Harvard stepped in and said, we don't want too many Jews. And so they put Jewish quotas in place. So for a Harvard professor, the president of Harvard, to say, well, we don't know. Look, Harvard Hillel is a student organization on campus. I have to admit, the stats that Elise Stefanik just said, yeah, we actually.

[Ben Shapiro]

That was shocking just on its face.

[Ted Cruz]

I mean, I can tell you when I was at Harvard for law school, when I was at Princeton for undergrad, the stats she mentioned when she was there, it was about 25% Jewish. That feels about right to me of what it was then. I don't know the stats from my time there, but it was a significant percentage of the class. A lot of my friends were Jewish. It was a large percentage of the class. If Harvard is down to 5 to 10%, that is a stunning drop. And you would think Harvard Hillel would keep those records. It says a lot that the president of Harvard had never been to Harvard Hillel. So apparently when it comes to student groups, that's not one she cares about at all. But number two, there is a blind spot. University administrators are bathed in cultural Marxism, in the views of the radical left.

[Ben Shapiro]

For people that listen, they may not know the definition of cultural Marxism. We talk about it a lot, especially in this context. Say, can you just give that definition again? Because I think it's so important they understand it.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, Karl Marx, when he wrote the Communist Manifesto, he laid out a view of the world. And it was a view based on economic determinism. And it was a view of inevitable conflict, conflict between oppressors and victims. And for Marx, he used a socioeconomic lens. So the oppressors were the owners of capital and the victims were the proletariat, the working men and women. And the solution that he advocated was the violent revolution of the proletariat against the oppressors. Cultural Marxism uses the mechanisms of culture to frame the world through a Marxist lens, but not just socioeconomic. So today the cultural Marxists, they look at Israel and they have coded. They have defined Jews as oppressors. They look at Israel and Gaza, they have coded, they have defined Palestinians as victims. Once that is the case ideologically, the cultural Marxists support the violent revolution of the so called victims against the so called oppressors. It's why 35 student groups at Harvard cheered on the Hamas atrocities and said, every murder, every rape, every child that was slaughtered is 100% the fault of Israel. Because cultural Marxists celebrate when so called victims are murdering so called oppressors. It's why Black Lives Matter. The Chicago chapter sent out a tweet of a paraglider, the same paraglider that Hamas terrorists used to murder hundreds of Israelis at the outdoor music concert saying, we stand with Palestine. They're celebrating the mass murder of civilians. Why? Because in their worldview, those civilians were the oppressors. And so they root for the violence. These administrators, the reason why you're seeing such vicious anti Semitism on campus is they have bought into the view that Jews are colonial settlers. They are oppressive. And so we should all celebrate, in their view, when the oppressors are slaughtered. It is grotesque. And we're going to play right now a segment of questioning that is enormously consequential. I tell you what you're about to watch, what you're about to listen to, has already resulted in one of these three witnesses being fired as we stand here today. Liz McGill, the president of Penn, lost her job because of how she answered this question. By the way, the chairman of the board of trustees of Penn lost his job because of how Liz McGill answered this question. So that's one. And I think we could easily see all three of these college presidents lose their jobs because of this testimony. So if you're watching on YouTube, watch and see their expressions. If you're listening, give a listen.

[Elise Stefanik]

Does at MIT, does calling for the genocide of Jews violate MIT's code of conduct or rules regarding bullying and harassment? Yes or no? If targeted at individuals not making public statements, yes or no? Calling for the genocide of Jews does not constitute bullying and harassment. I have not heard calling for the genocide for Jews on Our campus. But you've heard chants for Intifada. I've heard chants which can be anti Semitic, depending on the context, when calling for the elimination of the Jewish people. So those would not be According to the MIT's Code of Conduct or rules. That would be investigated as harassment if pervasive and severe. Ms. McGill, at Penn, does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn's rules or code of conduct? Yes or no.

[Ted Cruz]

If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment. Yes.

[Elise Stefanik]

I am asking specifically, calling for the genocide of Jews, does that constitute bullying or harassment?

[Ted Cruz]

If it is directed and severe or pervasive, it is harassment.

[Elise Stefanik]

So the answer is yes.

[Ted Cruz]

It is a context dependent decision, Congresswoman.

[Elise Stefanik]

It's a context dependent decision. That's your testimony today. Calling for the genocide of Jews is, depending upon the context, that is not bullying or harassment. This is the easiest question to answer.

[Ted Cruz]

Yes.

[Elise Stefanik]

Ms. McGill. So is your testimony that you will not answer yes, if it is?

[Ted Cruz]

If the speech.

[Elise Stefanik]

Yes or no.

[Ted Cruz]

If the speech becomes conduct, it can be harassment, yes.

[Elise Stefanik]

Conduct, meaning committing the act of genocide. The speech is not harassment. This is unacceptable. Ms. McGill, I'm going to give you one more opportunity for the world to see your answer. Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn's code of conduct when it comes to bullying and harass? Yes or no?

[Claudine Gay]

It can be harassment.

[Elise Stefanik]

The answer is yes. And Dr. Gay at Harvard, does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard's rules of bullying and harassment? Yes or no?

[Claudine Gay]

It can be depending on the context.

[Elise Stefanik]

What's the context?

[Claudine Gay]

Targeted as an individual. Targeted as at an individual.

[Elise Stefanik]

It's targeted at Jewish students, Jewish individuals. Do you understand your testimony is dehumanizing them? Do you understand that dehumanization is part of antisemitism? I will ask you one more time. Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard's rules of bullying and harassment? Yes or no.

[Claudine Gay]

Anti Semitic rhetoric.

[Elise Stefanik]

And is it anti Semitic rhetoric?

[Claudine Gay]

Anti Semitic rhetoric, when it crosses into conduct that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation? That is actionable conduct, and we do take action.

[Elise Stefanik]

So the answer is yes, that calling for the genocide of Jews violates Harvard code of conduct? Correct.

[Claudine Gay]

Again, it depends on the context.

[Elise Stefanik]

It does not depend on the context. The answer is yes, and this is why you should resign. These are unacceptable answers across the board.

[Ben Shapiro]

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[Ted Cruz]

No.

[Ben Shapiro]

They knew that this was going to be a rigorous back and forth and they were deliberate in their anti Semitic stance here. This was not an accident.

[Ted Cruz]

All three of those presidents side with the protesters ideologically. When they see crazed anti Semitic protesters chanting from the river to the sea. By the way, from the river to the sea means from the Jordan river to the sea. It is calling for the annihilation of every Jew in Israel. That's what from the river to the sea means when they chant Intifada. Intifada was the war that the Palestinians that Hamas waged on Israel murdering Israeli civilians. They are calling for death every one of those college professors. They're rooting for the protesters. They're rooting for Hamas as they walk past them. They view the protesters as the good guys and they view their Jewish students as, as the bad guys. That's why this question was so difficult for them. Look, it also, it's worth noting when it comes to genocide. This is not an abstract question concerning the Jewish people. The Jewish people were the subject of the most horrific genocide in the history of humanity. Adolf Hitler and the Nazis murdered over 6 million Jews, systematically murdered them in concentration camps. Anti Semitism is an evil that has been on the face of this planet for millennia. It is a unique evil. It is a persistent evil, and we are seeing it. And you know, Elise Stefanik, at the end, she pointed out that you're dehumanizing the Jewish students. Notice Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard. She said, well, it depends if it's particularized. What part of we should kill all the Jews is not particularized? If you're a Jewish student and someone is screaming at you, kill all the Jews. That's pretty damn particularized. If someone goes to you and screams, kill everyone named Ben. You'd feel pretty particularized by that.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

And this is not speech. This is not arguing about we should have a one state or two state solution in the Middle East. This is not a public policy debate about.

[Ben Shapiro]

It's not a great debate. It's genocide.

[Ted Cruz]

It is. And it's harassment and threats. Look, the first of those witnesses, Sally Kornbluth, who's the president of mit. MIT has allowed Jewish students to be kept out of class. So their ideology is directly interfering with carrying out their pedagogical mission, the mission of a university to educate their students. Jewish students have repeatedly reported being afraid to go to class because they're being threatened with violence. And the MIT president won't do a damn thing about it. She won't protect her Jewish students. Each one of those individuals. Look, Liz McGill I actually know. So Liz clerked with me.

[Ben Shapiro]

Really?

[Ted Cruz]

So the year I clerked on the Supreme Court, I clerked for Chief Justice Rehnquist. She clerked for Ruth Bader Ginsburg. So I knew her then. She's a lawyer, very smart. You know, she was always kind of lefty. She was fairly benign. She was nice enough among the clerks. There were clerks that were really very partisan and very lefty. Liz McGill never seemed excessively so. But she was happily in the left. Left of the clerks. She's a law professor. She was the dean at Stanford. She was the provost at Virginia, and now she's the president of Pennsylvania. I'll tell you why she was fired. She was fired because a number of donors stood up and said, we're cutting off the cash.

[Ben Shapiro]

One of them was threatening $100 million.

[Ted Cruz]

Multiple donors. I sat down with Mark Rowan, who's the chair of the board of trustees of Wharton, which is one of the schools, the business school at Penn. He was calling for her to be fired. He was helping lead the fight. We've seen multiple people, we've seen Ronald Louder threaten to cut off the money he provides to Penn. We saw the Huntsman family that had been big donors threaten to cut off the money to Penn. That's one of the very few ways to get a woke university's attention, is go after the money. And listen, I think there's a very good chance that the presidents of Harvard and MIT could be fired as well. But I'll tell you, both those institutions are hoping this just blows over.

[Ben Shapiro]

They're defending them, in essence, by not firing them right away after they witnessed this testimony.

[Ted Cruz]

This testimony was a train wreck. And look, it's worth noting also, none of the three expressed one iota of empathy. None of them expressed what a Jewish student would feel walking down the sidewalk and having protesters not engaging in speech, but threatening and harassing. Look, I am a free speech absolutist, but free speech does not protect the right to make threats or harassment. Threats of violence. Why is it that the MIT students couldn't go to class because they were afraid of being injured, physically harmed? Why is it. We talked about this on an earlier verdict, that the USC professor, an economics professor who happens to be Jewish. Why did USC ban the Jewish professor from stepping foot on campus? Because anti Semitic protesters threatened him with violence. And the administrators at USC side with the protesters and not their own professor. Yeah, none of the three of them have the tiniest bit of empathy. Look, we've seen footage of students at Harvard, Jewish students at Harvard being harassed. There's a difference between engaging in free speech and engaging in active harassment. And by the way, all three of them hate free speech. Every one of them. If you misgender someone.

[Ben Shapiro]

Game on.

[Ted Cruz]

If you see Lia Thomas, who's built like Michael Phelps and is anatomically a dude, and if you make that point, that is, in their view, that's clearly harassment. It's clearly over the line.

[Ben Shapiro]

That's when you can get kicked out of school.

[Ted Cruz]

But if you call for the genocide of the entire Jewish people, that, as they say, depends on the context.

[Unknown]

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[Ted Cruz]

Oh, oh, auto parts.

[Ben Shapiro]

Two things I want to ask you Quickly, on this, number one, even the president that was fired still got to keep tenured job as a professor.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah.

[Ben Shapiro]

At the university. So there's your golden parachute.

[Ted Cruz]

She's in the law school, she gets paid, never a professor.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah. I mean that, yeah, you got demoted, but you still kept your basic job, your tenure job in the law school, indoctrinating kids. Which brings me to my question, too. When you were growing up, and it was the same way for me, you wanted to go to the best school you could get into. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, you know, Wharton. I had friends that went there, for example. That was the Holy Grail. I look at this now, and I would say to any parent out there, just because your kid can get in now doesn't necessarily mean you want your kid to go there, in my opinion, because the way that they're indoctrinating and not protecting people, for example, that are Jewish, do you want to give them your money? And is it time as a country that we step back and go, okay, let's look at where, you know what they're teaching your kid now, not the history of these universities, because they're not the same that they were from 10, 15, 20, 30 years ago.

[Ted Cruz]

So let me say this is not theoretical or hypothetical. Since October 7th, I've had a lot of conversations with friends of mine who are Jewish. I probably had between 50 and 100 conversations with friends of mine who are Jewish. It's interesting. I've asked many, most of them, I've asked, hey, did you have family or friends that were in Israel that were impacted on October 7th? I gotta say, it's been stunning to me. It's been about half the people I've asked who are friends of mine answered yes, that they personally were affected, that they personally had a nephew, had a niece, had their son's best friend, had a roommate that either in some instances they had friends or family who were killed or were kidnapped on October 7, or in more instances, they have friends or family who've been called up in the IDF and who are fighting Hamas right now in those conversations. I've also had conversations with multiple friends of mine who are about our age and they have college age kids and they have kids that are at these universities. And I've heard, I would say north of a dozen of my friends have directly related to me that their kids feel unsafe in college right now.

[Ben Shapiro]

Wow.

[Ted Cruz]

And it's close to 100% of the friends of mine who have Jewish children that are in college right now. Pretty much all of them are saying their kids are reporting, they don't feel safe, they don't feel protected. They're afraid to go out. You know, one friend of mine was discussing how his daughter and another group of Jewish students, they were studying abroad in Spain. And they decided when they were traveling around in Spain and they decided when we book the train tickets, when we book the hotel tickets, we'll have the friend of ours who has the least Jewish sounding name, we'll book it under that name. Because they're afraid of violence.

[Ben Shapiro]

Unbelievable.

[Ted Cruz]

Simply because of being identified as being Jewish. This is real. It is pervasive. And these universities are teaching this, they're indoctrinating this. They're allowing this hate to fester. And it's grotesque.

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[Ben Shapiro]

Senator, I want to move on to another issue this week that was kind of shocking. Your colleague Senator Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee has asked for a basic request and that is subpoena. The Epstein flight logs, they exist. We should know who was on those planes. And Dick Durbin kind of wanted to have it both ways, claiming, hey, I didn't really know about this so therefore I don't have to do it. But I'm willing to talk about it. But this should be a simple like yes or no question. For him. Do you want Epstein's flight logs to be out there? Yes. Do we want to know who's on those planes? Yes. Do we want to know who's involved in this human and sex trafficking? Yes. So why is he defending it? And you may have been as shocked as I was. This doesn't seem like a smart political move yet. Maybe there's so many Democrats that he's trying to protect here or big donors. I don't understand it.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah. Look, look. Durbin is doing everything he can to cover this up, to hide the Jeffrey Epstein flight logs. Take. Take a look right here. This is a Fox News reporter questioning Dick Durbin as he walks to a Judiciary Committee hearing. Give a listen.

[G]

I don't know anything about his flight logs.

[H]

Why won't you subpoena them? Why don't you want to know the issue?

[G]

I know who Epstein was, but I certainly don't know anything about the issue.

[H]

Well, he was charged with sex trafficking, so why don't you want to know who was utilizing his private plane?

[G]

Never been raised by anyone.

[H]

Senator Blackburn has wanted to subpoena them, and there hasn't been a vote in your committee.

[G]

Said a word to me. Not a word.

[H]

But aren't you curious, like what high profile or powerful people might be closeted predators and pedophiles? Does that concern you? So why won't you subpoena them if you can?

[G]

It's the first time anyone has raised it. Thank you, Fox.

[H]

So do you. Are you curious about it? Will you do it?

[Ted Cruz]

All right, so Durbin is lying. Just like when Claudine Gay said Harvard doesn't know how many Jewish students we have. Baloney. Yes, they do. Durbin is flat out lying. Now, let me give you some backstory. This fight occurred in the context. And we talked about this in a podcast about a week ago.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

Where the Democrats subpoenaed Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo. Harlan Crow, very successful real estate developer based here in Texas and Dallas. Leonard Leo has been very active with the Federalist Society for a long time. Very active in helping with judicial selection, in fighting for constitutionalist judges. The Democrats hate them. And the subpoenas, going after Harlan Crowe and going after Leonard Leo are part of their ongoing effort to harass the Supreme Court, to delegitimize the Supreme Court, and in particular, to target Clarence Thomas. They despise Clarence Thomas. So in response to that, a number of Republicans had different amendments that we were pushing that if they were going to force a vote on these subpoenas, we were going to force a vote on our amendments. So when we went into it, I had an amendment that would subpoena the GPS data for Hunter Biden's cell phone and Joe Biden's cell phone at the exact moment that Hunter Biden sent the WhatsApp text to the Chinese Communists saying, I'm sitting here next to my father. Because we know from the IRS whistleblowers that when the investigators wanted to find out, was he in fact sitting next to Joe Biden when he was extorting the Chinese Communists, the Biden DOJ blocked that and said, nope, you can't find that out. So that's what I wanted to tee up. I think that was important. I think we should have voted for it. I'm going to continue to look for an avenue to vote for it. Marsha Blackburn came up with, I think, an even better idea of a subpoena to vote on. And her idea was that we should subpoena the Epstein estate for the flight logs to his plane. And in particular the Lolita Express, the private jet that flew down to Jeffrey Epstein's island with lots and lots of politicians, allegedly mostly Democrats. We don't know. We don't know who was on it.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah, show it. If there's a Republican, fine. Let's find out who they are.

[Ted Cruz]

Now, we do know that Epstein was an original friend of Bill, that he was very close with Bill Clinton. He was so close with Bill Clinton. Do you know what Jeffrey Epstein had hanging on the wall in his apartment?

[Ben Shapiro]

Maybe one of the creepiest, weirdest things ever. Yeah, go ahead and tell everybody because it's truly shocking.

[Ted Cruz]

A painting of Bill Clinton wearing a blue dress, Monica Weski red high heeled pumps. It's just weird. That's what Epstein had hanging on his wall in his New York house. So Marsha Blackburn introduced an amendment to subpoena the flight logs. I thought her idea was fantastic, so I co sponsored her amendment. So it was a Blackburn cruise amendment to subpoena the flight logs. Now, the first time we were going to vote on the subpoenas on Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo, we didn't vote on them. And I can tell you, like all the Republicans, we were all ready for combat. Let's go battle the Democrats. This is a partisan witch hunt. And what happened? So back behind the dais, there's a conference room where the Judiciary Committee meets. You have the dais there and behind it there's a conference room. And you can go and have meetings there. I can tell you Dick Durbin was sitting in that conference room with Jon Ossoff, the freshman Democrat senator from Georgia who serves on Judiciary. And Durbin and Ossoff were having a huge, heated, heated conversation. I don't know for sure what they were discussing. I didn't overhear their conversation, but it was energetic. And it delayed and delayed and delayed. And then Durbin ended up deciding not to vote on the subpoenas. And I'll tell you, all the Republican senators, we were like, what's going on?

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

And a number of us thought it was. A number of Republican senators suggested the problem was Ossoff told Durbin he was not willing to vote on the Epstein subpoena. Now, I don't know if that's because he didn't want it voted on or he didn't want to vote. No, I don't know why, and I don't know if it's true. I mean, we were. Durbin never explained any of it to us. He just canceled it. Fast forward then to when they did vote, vote out the subpoenas the way he did. So he allowed no amendments. He just rammed it through and blocked all amendments. And so the logical inference is the only way Durbin could get his votes for the Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo subpoenas is to stop a vote on the Jeffrey Epstein subpoena. And somebody, and I think the most likely candidate is Jon Ossoff, really, really, really doesn't want to vote on that. I think that's all the more reason to vote on it. And by the way, if Ossoff is listening to this and he says, hey, that's not true, I'm happy to vote on it.

[Ben Shapiro]

Great, let's vote on it.

[Ted Cruz]

Let's vote on it. There's an easy way to resolve it, but it's interesting. So Fox News asked Durbin that question in the hallway you saw at the end. He's like, thanks, Fox, with this, like, nastiness. Well, what happened next was interesting. So Durbin went into the hearing room and he tried to, tried to rehabilitate himself.

[Ben Shapiro]

He tried to say, cover your ass, politics.

[Ted Cruz]

So watch what he said as soon as he came into the hearing room.

[G]

Senator Blackburn, before you leave, I want to make a point for the record, since I understand you made some statements about the Jeffrey Epstein flight logs. There's a Fox reporter in the hallway who asked me about this, and I said I had not spoken to you one time about this issue. I think you'll back me up on that. I'm not, not mistaken. I didn't know that this was even a subject of your amendments, which, if you'll recall, you were the first on the list until the two hour rule was invoked. I don't know anything about this request on your part. I'll be happy to discuss it with you, but I haven't done any discussion with you to this point.

[Ted Cruz]

Correct?

[I]

Mr. Chairman, I know, and I think you're fully aware that I had two amendments, one dealing with Epstein and Sotomayor. I brought it up previously.

[G]

I have to confess, I didn't know that you offered that amendment. Happy to discuss it with you. But I want to point on the record, you and I have never personally discussed this, have we?

[I]

We talked briefly on the floor as a committee.

[G]

You never mentioned what the subject matter of your amendment was. You said you wanted to offer in committee.

[I]

I brought up my. The subject matter of my amendment.

[Ben Shapiro]

Three weeks. Not in my presence. Do you believe him?

[Ted Cruz]

Well, the nice thing is, as they say, we can roll the tape. What he said there is a flat out lie. It is objectively false. We're going to show that to you in just a moment. It is unequivocally false. It is possible. Giving him enormous benefit of the doubt. He forgot. Yeah, it is possible. It was not a knowing lie, but it is unequivocally 100% demonstrably false that the words he said are wrong. And I'll show you why. We're gonna. Right now play the tape of that first hearing. Now, I was there. Marsha Blackburn was there and Dick Durbin was there. And you're gonna hear Marsha bring up her amendment about Jeffrey Epstein. He just said you've never mentioned Jeffrey Epstein in my presence. I was not physically present. Well, you're going to see Dick Durbin, recognize her, and then cut her off while she's bringing up Jeffrey Epstein. Roll the tape.

[I]

I seek recognition. Senator Blackburn, since we're in the business of issuing subpoenas now, here are a few more that I filed a subpoena to Jeffrey Epstein's estate to provide the flight logs for his private plane.

[G]

Thank you, Senator. When I recognized you, I didn't know what subject you wish to speak to. As I announced at the beginning, the first thing we'll consider the two judicial nominations. Then we will move to the subpoena.

[Ben Shapiro]

So she's speaking to the man in the middle of the room. He's right there in the middle. It's direct eye contact.

[Ted Cruz]

He's looking directly at her. He's at the hearing room. He's in the center. Center. I'm in between Durbin and Marsha Blackburn, we're all sitting there. She flat out says, I want to subpoena Jeffrey Epstein's flight records. And he hears it, he recognizes her. Then he interrupts and says, no, no, I want to do some other stuff first. This is easy to resolve. We should subpoena Epstein's flight records. If there are politicians, Democrat or Republican or anybody else who was on that plane, who was going to that island, who was molesting and sexually assaulting children, we should know who they are. We shouldn't have Jeffrey Epstein's client list and the fact that the Democrats are apparently in a full on panic. I don't know if Durbin knows somebody on that list or multiple people or I don't know if they're just afraid. I don't know what their fear is, but they're plainly terrified of voting on it. And if I'm wrong, Durbin can solve it very easily by bringing it up for a vote and issuing the subpoena. And to be clear, when we subpoena those flight logs, we should make them public. I will tell you this. One of my favorite moments in all of Senate judiciary was when John Kennedy leaned forward at a hearing and he said, Christmas tree ornaments and Jeffrey Epstein, two things, you know, didn't hang themselves.

[Ben Shapiro]

And this is why he is a legend of the Senate.

[Ted Cruz]

I almost laughed down a lung. And I'm sitting there, John sits a couple of seats to my right. I almost fell over. I was like, I cannot believe he just said that in a live and open hearing of Senate judiciary. He did. But it seems to me, I don't know if Jeffrey Epstein had a visit from Hillary Clinton late at night. I don't know what happened, but it seems to me Dick Durbin really, really, really doesn't want you to know what happened.

[Ben Shapiro]

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[Ted Cruz]

Look, there are a lot of times where I have strong, strong senses of probabilities. I have to say, I really don't know. I put it at about 50, 50. Wouldn't surprise me at all if he did show up, but it would not surprise me if he didn't. If he doesn't show up, the House will hold him in contempt. But if the House holds him in contempt, the Biden Justice Department is not going to prosecute the contempt finding. And so just like Eric Holder was held in contempt of Congress, if the House holds Hunter Biden in contempt and the Biden DOJ refuses to do anything about it, Hunter gets off scot free. So actually, as I'm talking about it, I'm talking myself into you're coming to.

[Ben Shapiro]

My side on this. No way he shows up.

[Ted Cruz]

I'm talking myself into 60, 40. He doesn't show up.

[Ben Shapiro]

All right, I say 100%. He doesn't show up. All right, we're gonna cover it this week. That I can promise you. So don't forget, it's gonna be a very big week with a Hunter Biden investigation. Do not miss a single episode. Hit that Follow subscribe or auto download button wherever you get this podcast. Apple has changed their algorithms. We've heard from a lot of you, you got to go back in there, make sure you hit that follow button. If you don't auto download so many episodes, they'll actually shut it off. It's very weird how their new algorithm works, so make sure you do that. Plus, we have a RE weekend recap every Saturday, so if you miss some episodes during the week, we grab a few different things from later in those episodes and put them in our Best of on Saturdays. And the Senator and I will see you back here on Wednesday morning.