← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Justice Corrupted: FBI STILL Refuses to Take Accountability for Politicization
00:44:51
Loading summary
Transcript60 lines
- [00:00]
Ted Cruz
Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz. Ben Ferguson with you. Senator. It was a lot of headlines that kind of came out of nowhere from the FBI Director, Ray, and he had a lot to say in the sit down interview with Brett Baer over at Fox News. And I want to get your reaction, first off, to the FBI director's inability to answer a very straightforward question about January 6th and possible FBI informants. Here is what he was asked and his lack of response.
- [00:32]
Brett Baier
Full confidence in that.
- [00:33]
Ben Ferguson
And the other Twitter question we get a lot is, did the FBI have undercover agents or paid informants or assets among the mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6th?
- [00:43]
Brett Baier
Well, as I'm sure you can appreciate, Brett, I can't really appropriately talk about when, where and how we use confidential informants.
- [00:51]
Ben Ferguson
Is it classified?
- [00:53]
Brett Baier
Well, we have information that is about any number of topics that is law enforcement sensitive. But you should not read into my inability to answer a question because of my obligations as that as a clue or a hint in any way about how accurate your reader's tweet is.
- [01:16]
Ted Cruz
I mean, Senator, that's not a very good answer for a lot of Americans that want answers. We are getting a lot of the footage that's going to come out of January 6th. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy's talked about being transparent. He believes it was politicized January 6th. The January 6th committee was politicized. Are you satisfied with Director Wray's response?
- [01:35]
Chris Wray
Absolutely not. That was a ridiculous answer. And listen, there is a fundamental problem at the FBI and at the Department of Justice. It's something that we've talked about a lot on this podcast, which is that DOJ and the FBI have been profoundly politicized. The last book I wrote, Justice Corrupted how the Left has Weaponized Legal System. And by the way, I would encourage folks go buy that book. I detail how first Barack Obama and now Joe Biden have turned DOJ and the FBI into partisan tools they use to attack their enemies on January 6. In particular, there are enormous questions about the responsibility, the culpability of the FBI and the doj. What did they know? What was their involvement? And listen, let me say something about Chris Wray. So I've known Chris Wray a long, long time. When I came out of law school, I graduated law School in 1995 and the first judge I clerked for was a judge named J. Michael Ludig. He was at the time the top conservative federal appellate judge of the country. Judge Ludig and I were very, very close. He was like a second father to Me, Judge Ludig was a very young judge. He was 41 years old. He had been on the Federal Court of Appeals for five years. He was appointed by George Herbert Walker bush at age 36. So he was the youngest federal appellate judge in the country. Judge Ludig had been Antonin Scalia's very first law clerk. The first year Antonin Scalia was on the D.C. circuit Court of Appeals. And so Judge Ludig was someone who was just. He was an incredible judge. He taught me. He was really the first person after law school to teach me how to be a lawyer. So I knew Chris Wray because Chris clerked for Judge Ludig. I think it was three years before I did. So I was the fifth year Judge Ludig was on the court. I believe Chris was the second year Judge Ludig was on the court. And I've known Chris a long time. Chris is a good guy. He's a very smart lawyer. He's a very decent man. He loves America. Chris is not a left wing activist. But I will tell you, I've been incredibly disappointed with the job Chris Wray has done as the head of the FBI. And the reason, and I've had this conversation with Chris directly more than once. The reason is Chris is fundamentally he's a company man. He's someone who believes his job is defend the FBI, that that his responsibility. He's someone who has been at DOJ a long, long time. He was the head of the criminal division under George Herbert Walker Bush. He was someone who was a prosecutor for a long time. And he believes his responsibility is whatever the career lawyers the FBI has done, he needs to circle the wagons and defend them. And I have had energetic and even screaming conversations with Chris where I've said, listen, you are not helping the FBI when you are defending Democrat partisans who have corrupted the FBI, who have turned it into a weapon to advance the political interests of partisan Democrats. It doesn't help the institutions, it weakens the institution. And on this question, listen, it is a matter of enormous public import to know whether the FBI had informants in the January 6 riots and what role they played. And as a matter of accountability, the public interest is massive. Now, Chris doesn't want to answer that. The FBI doesn't want to answer that because the obvious inference from their refusal to answer that is yes, they had FBI informants that participated in the riots. And the question that arises from that, and this is something I talk about at length in the book Justice Corrupted, is the extent to which FBI agents or FBI confidential informants incited the behavior. So one of the things I talk about in the book is the plot in Michigan to kidnap and murder the governor of Michigan, Democrat Gretchen Witwer. Now that broke shortly before the 2020 election. And it was the sort of story that was really fabulously beneficial for Democrats because Democrats message was those crazy right wing Republicans and especially those Trump Republicans are a bunch of violent insurrectionist terrorists. They're terrible and we need to stop them.
- [06:53]
Ted Cruz
And so, and it was a national story. I mean, they played it up. I remember it being used by Democrats all over the country, Senator, that were like, this is something to seize on to basically attack Donald Trump on the national election. But also to say you don't want Trump Republicans in the House and the Senate and the school board, city council.
- [07:16]
Chris Wray
If they up and down the ticket.
- [07:18]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, they want to, they want to murder you and they want to take out our politicians.
- [07:22]
Chris Wray
And look, it was designed also for reasonable people that, that like, you know, reasonable people don't want to advocate violent acts of murder and terror. And so the media and the Democrats were trying to say, if you support Trump and the Republicans, you're in support of violent acts of terror and mayhem. And with the Gretchen Whitworth story, when it broke, you're like, holy crap, they want to kidnap and murder a governor. That really sounds bad. Now, when DOJ went to trial, what happened is that initially when they went to trial, every single one of the defendants was either acquitted or had a hung jury. They couldn't convict anyone in. The principal defense at the trial was that the FBI engaged in entrapment, that it essentially the FBI had placed informants among these right wing extremist groups. But the argument of defense counsel was these extremist groups were not particularly violent. Until the FBI informants kept saying, hey, isn't it great idea to go kidnap and murder the governor? And they're like, oh, I'm not sure it is like, no, no, no, this is a good idea, this is a good idea. And the law is that you can be prosecuted if you plan or commit an act of violence, but the government can't entice you into it. It can't be their idea. They can't be the cause that causes you to go along with the corrupt plan. And at the trial in front of the juries, I mean, the Justice Department had a massive black eye because the defendants prevailed. And by the way, the special agent in charge of the Detroit office of the FBI who had this massive debacle of the prosecutions going south on him because his agents had engaged in a misconduct and incitement, got promoted, got sent to D.C. and got put in charge of the January 6th prosecutions. You literally can't make this up. They took the guy who had this enormous black eye.
- [09:35]
Ted Cruz
Yeah.
- [09:36]
Chris Wray
And they said, you're the right guy to engage in political prosecutions. And here's what Chris Ray should say. And listen, I hope, as I said, Chris is a friend. I hope Chris is listening to this podcast. I doubt he is, but I hope he is. Here's what Chris ought to do. Chris ought to say publicly. Ordinarily, the FBI does not reveal confidential informants. And there are strong law enforcement reasons to do that. When we get some guy who goes undercover into a drug cartel, sure, you want to keep that guy confidential. You don't want to out them. So in the ordinary course of affairs, we protect those sources. That being said, the public interest in knowing what happened on January 6, what led to the riots, what led to the acts of violence, that public interest is so significant that we at the FBI are going to tell you. How many agents did we have in that riot? How many confidential informants did we have in that riot?
- [10:39]
Ted Cruz
And how many people were basically on the payroll.
- [10:41]
Chris Wray
Yes. And what were their roles in inciting the violent conduct? That is a matter of enormous public interest. And Chris Wray, in his answer there, and consistently, he refuses to answer that question. And I think he's doing a disservice to the American people by protecting the bureaucrats at the FBI rather than accepting public accountability.
- [11:06]
Ted Cruz
Yeah. There's. There's a name that's become very famous, and it is a name from January 6th, Ray Epps. And I want to play something that you said about Ray Epps when you were talking to the FBI, because it.
- [11:19]
Chris Wray
Became senior official at the FBI that I was questioning about this.
- [11:23]
Ted Cruz
Yeah. And Ray Epps is a guy and a name that Everybody remembers from January 6th. And before I play that, I want to tell everybody about our friends over at Chalk. If you're a guy and you're ready to fight back and you're not ready to lose the war on masculinity, then you need to check out Chalk. Chalk is a way to help real American men maximize their masculinity by boosting testosterone levels up to 20% over 90 days. Now, I've been taking Chalk's male vitality stack, and I can tell you it works. You can maximize your masculinity today@chalkchoq.com that's chalk choq.com. use the promo code BEN for 35 off any Chalk subscription for life. Choq.com code, Ben. Fight back. Don't lose your masculinity and take chalk. Check out the Vitality stack today. 35% off promo code Ben. I want to play senator for everybody listening. And this was you questioning, as you mentioned a moment ago, a top person at the FBI about Ray Epps and really about his disappearance from the public after he was so public on January 6th. Take a listen, Ms. Sadburn.
- [12:38]
FBI Official
Who is Ray Epps?
- [12:39]
Chris Wray
I'm aware of the individual, sir. I don't have the specific background to him.
- [12:44]
FBI Official
Well, there are a lot of people who are understandably very concerned about Mr. Epps. On the night of January 5, 2021, Epps wandered around the crowd that had gathered and there's video out there of him chanting, tomorrow we need to get into the Capitol. Into the Capitol. This was strange behavior. So strange that the crowd began chanting, fed, Fed, Fed, fed, fed, fed. Ms. Sanborn, was Ray Epps a Fed?
- [13:13]
Chris Wray
Sir, I cannot answer that question.
- [13:16]
FBI Official
The next day, the next day on January 6, Mr. Epps is seen whispering to a person. And five seconds later, five seconds after he's whispering to a person, that same person begins to forcibly tear down the barricades. Did Mr. Epps urge them to tear down the barricades?
- [13:36]
Chris Wray
Sir? Similar to the other answers, I cannot answer that.
- [13:40]
FBI Official
Shortly thereafter, the FBI put out a public posting seeking information on individuals connected with violent crimes on January 6th. Among those individuals in the bottom there is Mr. Epps. The FBI publicly asked for information identifying, offering cash rewards leading to information leading for information leading to the arrest. This was posted and then Sometime later, magically, Mr. Epps disappeared from the public posting. According to public records, Mr. Epps has not been charged with anything. No one's exchange explained why a person videoed urging people to go to the Capitol. A person whose conduct was so suspect the crowd believed he was a Fed, would magically disappear from the list of people the FBI was looking at. Ms. Sanborn, a lot of Americans are concerned that the federal government deliberately encouraged illegal and violent conduct on January 6th. My question to you, and this is a. This is not an ordinary law enforcement question. This is a question of a public accountability. Did federal agents or those in service of federal agent actively encourage violent and criminal conduct on January 6th?
- [14:56]
Ted Cruz
Not to my knowledge, sir. I mean, Senator, this seems to be the new playbook of anybody in government that doesn't want to answer question, they just say it's classified or it's an Ongoing investigation. This is exactly what Rae just did in the simple question was asked about informants on January 6th.
- [15:14]
Chris Wray
So Chris Wray and the FBI should answer these questions. We need to have accountability. We need to know. Listen, with Ray Epps, I don't know the man. I never met him. I don't know his background. But I will say, you watch that video as I have, as many people have, of him urging the crowd on January 5th, let's go into the Capitol. And the crowd turns on him. They begin chanting, fed, Fed. Fed. That's weird, Ben. I've never seen anything like that. When the crowd is like, wait a second. Why is this guy trying to urge us to commit a criminal act? Maybe he's a private individual with no connection to the FBI. If that's the case, it raises the question, why wasn't he charged? I mean, we had video of him urging people to enter the Capitol. They've charged lots of people to enter the Capitol. But if he was on the payroll of the FBI, then you had the federal government. You had law enforcement encouraging criminal and violent acts. That's a very, very different scenario. And to date, the FBI refuses to answer. How many FBI agents were there on January 6th? 1 10, 1 00, a thousand? I have no idea. And by the way, a lot of people figure, okay, you're a senator, you're on the Judiciary Committee. The Judiciary Committee has oversight authority of the FBI. You know this. They briefed you on it? Nope. They haven't told us a thing. What I know is what Chris Reyes said in public, because when he testifies. And by the way, today Merrick Garland, the Attorney General, is testifying in front of us. He's going to stonewall because Merrick Garland has been the most political Attorney General we've ever had. And Chris Wray. Now, it's not that he's a partisan leftist, it's that he believes his job is defend the senior bureaucrats at the FBI. And I gotta tell you, one of the amazing things that's happened over the last couple of years. I regularly get FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors who come to me who contact my office, and they say, we love the Department of Justice, we love the FBI. We believe in the law enforcement mission, and we are incredibly unhappy at the politicization of our senior leadership. It is. I revere the Department of Justice and the FBI. They're incredibly. So I will tell you, on the right, there are a bunch of people who say, let's abolish the FBI. Now, I don't think that's a good idea. The FBI does a lot of really important things. They fight child kidnappers, they fight drug dealers, they fight human traffickers, that they fight mobsters. I am very grateful for the law enforcement mission of the FBI. What I think we need to do is clean house at the FBI and get rid of the hardcore partisan Democrats who burrowed into the senior positions at the FBI and who've corrupted the FBI. And my biggest concern with Chris Wray is he's unwilling to do that. He's unwilling to take that on. And, and, and it is. He ought to engage in radical transparency. And I'll point to two examples Chris Ray ought to follow. Number one, Elon Musk, when he bought Twitter, where he publicly made, he exposed the internal emails of the corruption at Twitter that broke the big tech oligopoly on political discussion. Secondly, and second, you look at the job John Ratcliffe did at the DNI as the Director of National Intelligence. So John Radcliffe was appointed by Donald Trump. It was just a temporary interim appointment. I think he was there like six weeks. It wasn't very long. But John, who's a Texan, he's a friend, did an incredible job because he opened up and made public many of the abuses of the DNI and the intelligence community, how they'd been politicized. And in six weeks he made a massive impact. My advice to Chris, follow the example of Elon Musk and follow the example of John Radcliffe. Prioritize the long term integrity of the FBI over your short term personal loyalty to the hardcore Democrat partisans in the senior career positions of the FBI. If you want to save the institution, act boldly to save and strengthen and preserve the FBI.
- [20:12]
Ted Cruz
You know, it's interesting that you mentioned that because one of the questions that Ray was asked by Bret Baier was about social media companies censoring things when it came to the FBI, having basically conversations with them on the regular, sometimes daily in the run up to the election. I want to play that for you next, but before we get to that, I want to tell you about Patriot Mobile. A lot of you have been switching to Patriot Mobile, the only Christian conservative cell phone company in the US and you're switching because you're tired of giving money to companies that don't stand with your values. That is where Patriot Mobile comes in. They are the only Christian conservative cell phone coming in the US and you get the same exact coverage that you have right now. You don't have to worry about switching coverage and losing anything. At Patriot Mobile. They use the same G4 and G5 networks that you're on right now. Now, there is one difference. When you pay your bill, you're actually supporting conservative causes and organizations that you help support that we're talking about organizations. Stand for your first and your second amendment rights, the rights of unborn children and even helping with adoptions. If you are ready to stand up for what you believe in with the dollars you spend every month, switch your cell phone to Patriot Mobile and make a difference with every phone call. 878-patriot. That's 878-patriot. Use the promo code. Verdict. You'll get the best deals of the year. You can also go online to patriotmobile.com verdict that's patriotmobile.com verdict Senator, I want to play this for everybody. And this is Chris Wray being asked about the social media companies and how much pressure were they putting on these social media companies to silence and censor stories. Listen to this.
- [22:04]
Ben Ferguson
Let's start with the laptop. The FBI has had access to this laptop for more than three years. Why is this investigation on the Hunter Biden laughing tops taking so long?
- [22:14]
Brett Baier
Well, the investigation is being led, as you may know, by a U.S. attorney appointed in the last administration out of Delaware. And the FBI is actively supporting and working with that US Attorney on that investigation.
- [22:27]
Ben Ferguson
But the whistleblowers are telling these lawmakers that there was an internal effort to shut down the investigation from the beginning. Have you found that?
- [22:34]
Brett Baier
I have not found anything like that.
- [22:37]
Ben Ferguson
All right, so. So let's talk about the FBI and what you told Big Tech or some agents did about the authenticity and providence of Hunter Biden's laptop. What about that from an FBI perspective?
- [22:50]
Brett Baier
The FBI does not is not in the business of functioning as the truth police.
- [22:54]
Ben Ferguson
Understood.
- [22:55]
Brett Baier
We don't tell social media companies to censor anything.
- [22:58]
Ben Ferguson
Well, the Twitter files suggest something different. I mean, there was an FBI request numerous times. Taibi puts it out FBI San Francisco request to ban certain accounts. Twitter personnel in this case went on to look for reasons to suspend all four accounts that the FBI wanted to ban or suspend. Was is it appropriate to flag social media accounts on Twitter or elsewhere due to politics or government policies? When it comes to Covid, is it appropriate in any way? You're saying it doesn't happen, but there's evidence that it had.
- [23:34]
Brett Baier
We don't tell social media companies to ban accounts.
- [23:39]
Ben Ferguson
But you suggest.
- [23:40]
Brett Baier
Well, what we do is tell social media companies about information that we have about foreign disinformation campaigns by foreign actors, by foreign intelligence services. And those companies then make decisions about what if anything, they want to do about it.
- [23:55]
Ted Cruz
I mean, Senator, you hear what he's saying here? And he said, we don't tell social media companies to censor anything. That, I'm sorry, in my opinion, is a complete lie. The emails and the Twitter files show the complete opposite coming from the FBI.
- [24:09]
Chris Wray
Look, you're exactly right, Ben. The Twitter files demonstrate that the FBI was repeatedly asking social media companies to censor stories they didn't like. And the most striking example is the Hunter Biden laptop. The Hunter Biden laptop. The story broke when the New York Post wrote about it in October of 2020, right before the presidential election. And it was a story that was incredibly damaging to Joe Biden because it suggested corruption at the very highest level. And the FBI asked big tech, please censor this story. The FBI suggested a big tech. It was Russian disinformation. Now we know that now know that was garbage. That was a lie. It was not Russian disinformation. It was, in fact, true. The laptop is true. It's been confirmed. It was Hunter Biden's laptop. By the way, it's not me confirming it. Hunter Biden's lawyers, in filings have said it was our laptop. And we're really unhappy that you took our client's laptop and made it public like they have implicitly admitted. Oh, they tried to back that away when they realized, oh, crap, we shouldn't have made that admission. But it was true and incredibly relevant to the election. The FBI said, please block it. And social media saluted, said, not only jump, but sir, how high? And again, Chris Wray, he thinks he's defending the FBI. He's trying to say, okay, my job is to defend my guys. Baloney. Your job is not to do that. The degree to which Big Tech got in bed with the FBI and actively censored the American people and, and had an effect of. Of essentially rigging the election. It had an enormous consequence on the 2020 election that this story was suppressed and the FBI is directly responsible. And I don't understand why Chris Wray doesn't feel any responsibility for that. I just think he's. His entire focus is, my job is protect my guys. Even if my guys are crapping all over the FBI and destroying its integrity, I gotta defend the people that are hurting the FBI. I think that's a basic and profound misconception of the responsibility of the head of the FBI.
- [26:32]
Ted Cruz
And you would think as a law enforcement guy, right, we're supposed to be not political, but right and wrong. If you saw members of your organization writing these emails that are clearly politically biased. That would just piss you off for lack of a better way of saying it. And you would want to at least make sure that doesn't happen anymore. And again, he's saying, no, no, no, we don't do this. Yes, you do. It's in writing.
- [26:58]
Chris Wray
Oh, look. And privately, Chris expresses concerns with these issues. He's very good at saying, oh, I want to stay out of politics, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. By the way, I actually believe him. I think he would like the FBI to focus on law enforcement. I just think he doesn't have the willingness to take on the extremely partisan leftists, many of whom are now in the senior career leadership of the FBI. And he views it as, I don't know, I don't want to speculate, but he's unwilling to take them on. Maybe he thinks he can't survive that. Maybe he thinks it somehow damages the FBI. I don't want to impute motives to him, but the fact is he's unwilling to call him out. He ought to hold accountable every person at the FBI that urged social media to censor the media and censor people for expressing their political views. He ought to make public. Here's Every person. The FBI had it January 6th. Every informant. We had it January 6th. This is not a run of the mill Mafia case. This is an issue of enormous national import. The American people need to know. I think he doesn't want to do that because the FBI would be embarrassed by those facts. And so he believes he can just stonewall and tell Congress, go jump in a lake, we're not gonna tell you. And the American people don't deserve to know. And I think he's wrong in that.
- [28:31]
Ted Cruz
There's something else that came up. And I was truly shocked by the FBI director's response. And it was a question about the drug cartels. There was some shocking for some Americans to see. I unfortunately, was not shocked by some of the testimony today by the victims when it comes to fentanyl in Washington, D.C. talking about how it's destroyed their family. There's a couple of them that have gone viral, including one mother who lost not one, but two sons to fentanyl. And this is one of the reasons why I think it was very clear that there was a direct question asked to Ray from Bret Baer about this war. And it is a war. It's a war with fentanyl, It's a war with the cartels. And he asked him, is it time to designate the drug cartel Cartels as terrorist organizations. And we couldn't get a straight answer from the FBI director on that.
- [29:33]
Ben Ferguson
Listen, on immigration, do you believe the cartels should be designated as terrorist organizations?
- [29:40]
Brett Baier
Well, I do believe that the cartels represent a significant threat. And we have hundreds, the FBI has hundreds of investigators, investigations that go into cartel leadership. And I'm interested in all appropriate legal tools that will help us go after them. We are going after them. Obviously, we're not responsible for the physical security at the border, but we recognize that the threats emanating from the border are serious.
- [30:06]
Ted Cruz
Senator, I'm going to cut him off there because why can't he just answer that simple question with a yes?
- [30:12]
Chris Wray
Because unfortunately, the leadership of the FBI is too concerned with politics. The answer shouldn't be yes. It should be hell yes. Look, we. On a recent podcast, we walked through my cross examination of the head of the DEA where I talked about the incredible harm that Mexican drug cartels carry out. Where I talked about the over 100,000 people that last year died of drug overdoses in the United States, the vast majority from Chinese fentanyl flooding over the southern border. Now, the head of the FBI, I've sat down and talked with her. I think she's actually kind of pretty similar to Chris Wray. She's a law enforcement person. She wants to prosecute the bad guys. Her answers were very political. And because she's not, I think, a terribly political person, she was bad at it. She was repeating the Democrat talking points from this administration. So their talking point is the drugs that are flooding into this country are coming over the legal ports of entry and not over our unsecured southern border. We don't have an unsecured southern border, they claim, despite the fact that five and a half million people have crossed illegally under Joe Biden, the worst illegal immigration in the history of our nation. That's the incredible record of the Biden administration. She was trying to repeat the talking points of no, no, no, no. People don't cross illegally over the southern border. If they do, they certainly don't carry drugs. The facts of the country. I asked her a very simple question. Is the fact that these drug cartels have made tens of billions of dollars because of our open southern border is the fact that the single best thing that ever happened to the Mexican drug cartels with Joe Biden becoming president because they made massive amounts of money. Is it a good thing that these vicious criminal drug cartels have made tens of billions of dollars? Now, look, for any cop and for any honest law enforcement person, for anyone running the dea, the answer ought to be, hell yes. Like, just like Chris Ray, should we designate the Mexican drug cartels as terrorists? Hell yes. They are engaged in murder and torture and horrific acts of violence. They are terrorist organizations. But much like the head of the DEA that we played that cross examination, I think, last week, he doesn't want to say that because he gets that the political taskmasters in the White House don't like that answer. So he just dodges. And I just wish that. And by the way, eventually the head of the dea, after I asked her, I think four times, finally and reluctantly said, yeah, it's a terrible thing. Like vicious drug cartels, they make roughly half their money from drug trafficking, roughly half their money from human trafficking. It is a terrible thing that Joe Biden has given them tens of billions of dollars. No kidding. Why didn't you say that the first four times you asked? I asked you because she was trying to follow the partisan talking points. I think that's sadly what Chris Wray is doing there too.
- [33:34]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, no doubt about it. I want to ask you lastly about one other thing that Chris Wray said in that debt with Wuhan. The FBI is one of two parts of the government. Now, the Department of Energy and the FBI are saying they believe the most likely cause of COVID 19 is actually that it came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, that it came from a lab that didn't come from animals, didn't come from a wet market, didn't come from all of those other lies. And I want to play for you his response on Wuhan. But before we get to that, let me tell you about Augusta Precious Metals. If you've been saving for a long time for retirement, then you probably know more than others that right now it's a really important time for you to be able to protect your assets. And that is where Augusta Precious Metals comes in. They can help you protect your assets with a gold IRA or a 401K. And they're different. Why? Because they'll also tell you if a gold IRA isn't your answer. They give you the facts. A lot of it depends on how you've saved, for how long you've saved and when you're retiring or if you're already retired. Augusta Precious Metals is all about protecting your money in this crazy economy. And it's really important the closer you get to retirement, because you have no time to make up losses. So if you've saved a hundred thousand dollars or more, take a look and get their Free guide. Now, more importantly than that, sign up for free for their web conference. I have done this and I did it before. I invested my money, which I want to protect. And I use gold and silver for a portion of that. Call them and sign up for the web conference. 8774-Gold IRA. That's 8774-Gold IRA. Or visit Augusta precious metals.com say I sent you and they'll pay your fees for up to 10 years. That's Augusta precious metals.com Augusto precious metals.com Senator Lastly, I want to get your reaction to the FBI director. He was asked about the lab leak question. It was pretty simple what he had to say in response. Here it is.
- [35:42]
Brett Baier
The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan. Let me step back for a second. You know, the FBI has folks, agents, professionals, analysts, virologists, microbiologists, etcetera, who focus specifically on the dangers of biological threats.
- [36:07]
Ted Cruz
I mean, this was probably the most candid answer he had during the entire interview. And he actually says, look, for a long time we've considered the lab week to be the most accurate, quote, theory here.
- [36:20]
Chris Wray
Yeah, listen, this is the only answer in the interview that we've discussed tonight that I like and respect. The FBI under Joe Biden concluded that the most likely explanation for COVID 19 was that it escaped from a Chinese government lab. They concluded that with what they call moderate confidence. And so in the intelligence community, when you have a conclusion in intelligence, you have sometimes conclusions with low confidence, sometimes with moderate confidence, sometimes with high confidence. The FBI concluded it with moderate conferences. This weekend we had the bombshell report that the Biden Department of Energy came to the same conclusion. They concluded that the most likely source for COVID 19 was a Chinese government lab. Now, they were less certain about it than the FBI. They said they concluded that with, quote, low confidence evidence. But they still thought their assessment, their best judgment was that was the most likely source. Now, as regular listeners of this podcast know, we have been laying out the facts on the origins of COVID 19 for three years. Go back and listen. I actually tweeted today, go listen to the podcast that we put out in March of 2020. Look, the pandemic broke on the national scene in January and February of 20. So this was early. This was right when the pandemic was starting. And we put out a podcast in March of 2020. We put out a second podcast in April of 2020. So right at the outset, where we walked through the evidence that this virus originated at a Chinese government lab. Now, at the time, the Democrat talking points and the corporate media talking points and the Chinese Communist Party talking points were all the same, which is that it is a crazy tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theory to say that it came from a Chinese government lab. We walked through on this podcast and by the way, Anthony Fauci in writing was asking Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Facebook, please suppress anyone making the arguments that this came from a Chinese government lab. I gotta tell you, Ben, I remain amazed how the Verdict podcast did not get censored at the time because we were one of the very few places on planet Earth that you could hear those facts. For whatever reason, they didn't take us on and censor us. And three years ago, we laid out the facts. Let me point to three data points that are really compelling. Number one, the Wuhan Institute for Virology. The Wuhan Institute for Virology is a Chinese government lab and it studies viruses. That's why it's called an Institute for Virology. It studies not just viruses, but it focuses in particular on coronaviruses. The particular type of virus that COVID 19 is. It doesn't just study coronaviruses, it studies coronaviruses from bats. And by the way, the best scientific evidence we have is that COVID 19 came from a coronavirus carried by bats. Now, the bats that carry the coronavirus don't occur naturally around Wuhan. How far away are they? The closest bats are about 900 miles away in caves, a long, long way away from Wuhan. Where is the Wuhan Institute for Virology? It is a few hundred yards away from where the wet market where the first major outbreak of the COVID pandemic occurred. You can literally drive a golf ball from the Wuhan Institute for Virology to the Wuhan Wet Market where the pandemic occurred. I want you to think, just as, as a statistical matter, what are the odds that a pandemic in a coronavirus carried by bats would occur at a wet market a few hundred yards away from a government lab studying coronaviruses carried by bats? They are. The odds are incredibly low that that is a coincidence. That's fact number one. Fact number two, we now know that not one, not two, but three different employees of the Wuhan Institute for Virology in November of 2019. So a couple of months before the pandemic erupted on the worldwide scene, November of 2019, they checked themselves into hospitals for serious health conditions. That suggests it doesn't prove, but it is a powerful suggestion that those may have been among the first public outbreaks of COVID 19. Fact number three. What did the Chinese Communist government do after the pandemic erupted? Well, we know that months before the pandemic, they had begun buying and hoarding PPE protected personal equipment, things like masks and gloves. They had done it in advance of the pandemic. That suggests foreknowledge. We also know that they directed the Wuhan Institute for Virology to destroy the samples of the coronaviruses they were studying. That suggests guilt. As we talked about in a previous podcast, in a court of law, in a civil case or criminal case, if an individual destroys evidence, a judge can instruct the jury, you may draw a negative inference from the destruction of evidence. You may conclude that the destruction of evidence demonstrates a guilty mind, demonstrates that the evidence would incriminate whoever destroyed the evidence. In this case, it was the Chinese Communist government. And the obvious inference is that COVID 19 was a virus they were studying at the Wuhan Institute for Virology, and it escaped and caused this pandemic. I also think. I think. I actually think the evidence is overwhelming of that. And by the way, the evidence was overwhelming three years ago. What the hell took the Biden Department of Energy three years to get there? I'm glad they got there and I'm glad the FBI got there. But why did it take so long? This podcast, we figured it out three years ago in March of 2020. Go listen to that podcast. We laid out the evidence then. And by the way, I gotta say, it's one of the reasons why listen. I would encourage folks who listen to this podcast, and we have an amazing community of verdict listeners. Share it with your friends, because you learn things here on this podcast that you will not learn watching TV news, you will not learn reading the newspapers, you will not learn listening to the radio. This podcast is designed to tell you what's happening before it's news. And I gotta say, the FBI, I'm glad that Chris Wray is willing to say that. But at the same time, the corporate media and Big Tech and Chris Rey is protecting and apologizing for Big Tech. Big Tech and the corporate media did everything they could to stigmatize, to silence, to suppress anyone laying out the evidence that this came from the. From a Chinese government lab.
- [44:15]
Ted Cruz
No doubt about it. It was a very interesting interview and even more fun to hear your response. The FBI director, Ray here. And it's the goal of this podcast, like you said, to give you what's happening even before it happens. Wuhan's a great example of that. We will see you guys with a special verdict taping. We're going to be doing live from the stage at CPAC in just a couple of days, so make sure you listen to that show as well. Don't forget, share this podcast with your family and friends. Write us the five star review. It helps us reach more people that don't know about this show. So please do that. It helps us tremendously on the charts and we will see you back here in a couple days. Live from the stage of cpac.
- [44:51]
Ben Ferguson
Taxes was taxing. Now taxes is relaxing when you file.
- [44:55]
Chris Wray
For free I can file for free TurboTax Free Edition.
- [44:58]
Ted Cruz
Roughly 37% of filers qualify.
- [45:01]
Chris Wray
Simple Form 1040 returns only. See if you qualify@turbotax.com free.
- [45:07]
Ben Ferguson
Hmm, I can file for free now this is Taxes. File for free with TurboTax Free Edition and get your maximum refund. No schedules except for earned income tax credit, child tax credit, and student loan interest. See if you qualify@turbotax.com free.