Senator Ted Cruz (4:39)

Well, that's exactly right. And it was heartbreaking as, as Lake and Riley's mom wept in court listening to the 911 call. 18 minutes. 18 minutes that lake and Riley fought. She fought. She fought to avoid being raped. She fought for her life. And tragically, at the end, this monster, this murderer, bashed her head in with a rock. And it's horrific and it's preventable. What is so, so infuriating is that this should never have happened. And I want you to listen to Bill Melugian from Fox reporting on the opening statements of the trial that really laid out the tragedy of what unfolded.

Dana Perino (5:24)

Dana, it was really hard to listen to that opening statement from the prosecutor. The condition that Lake and Riley's body was found in, the fact that her Garmin watch tracked the very moment her heart stopped. I can only imagine being her family. I think this just shows why we as a network made it such a priority to cover the border so much these last few years. These mass catch and release policies, they have consequences, real world consequences that affect real people. Particularly when it comes to the mass catch and release of Venezuelan men. I mean, how many live shots were we doing together in 2022, 2023? Hundreds of them in Eagle Pass in El Paso, watching these lines of hundreds upon hundreds of Venezuelan men just walking into the country single file every day, not running, not hiding, very nonchalant because they knew they were going to be released with a court date potentially years away. And the problem with that is you can't vet Venezuelan men. Venezuela does not cooperate with the U.S. we have no database, no records to run their names against. So what you're listening to right now with this horrible case with Lake and Riley, unfortunately it's not even an isolated incident. What happened just a few months later, Jocelyn Nungare was murdered in Houston. A 12 year old girl allegedly sexually assaulted and murdered at the hands of two Venezuelan illegal aliens who have been caught and released at the Texas border just weeks prior. Sound familiar? Unfortunately, it's been happening all over the country. Whether it's trende, Aragua setting up footholds across the country, migrant crime happening in different cities across the country. The idea that what happens at the border, stays at the border ended a long time ago. You look at Rachel Moran, she was murdered in Maryland. You look at Lake and Riley, that happened in Georgia. Jocelyn Nungry was in Houston. These catch and release policies affect the entire country. And say what you want about Donald Trump and the way he campaigns, but at his rallies he wasn't bringing celebrities up on stage. Who was he bringing up? Jocelyn Nungaree's mom, Rachel Moran's mom. Real people who suffered horrible, horrible, horrible consequences as a result of these catch and release policies. Listen, back to you, Bill.

Shannon Bream (7:44)

Malaysian. It is interesting to imagine that you actually could have been standing right there or Griff Jenkins could have been reporting to us on live shots as we watched people just stream across. And it's certainly possible that we were down there when he crossed over and before he came to New York. Bill Malaysian, thank you so much.

Ben Ferguson (8:02)

The question that so many people have after hearing that, Senator, is how much longer is this going to happen? Because we're even hearing reports of surges of illegal immigrants that may be trying to get across before Donald Trump takes office. And this is because they still refuse to act at the White House.

Senator Ted Cruz (8:20)

Well, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, they want every illegal alien possible to come into this country between now and January 20th, because they look at every one of them as a future Democrat voter. And you know, the trial of Lake and Riley's murderer, where they played the 911 call, they went through the timeline and one of the things, Lake and Riley, she wasn't killed at 2 in the morning. She was killed just after 9am she left the home, her home, jogging on the University of Georgia campus at 9:03am she was seen at 9:05am jogging with her cell phone in her hand. And then at 9:11am she called 911 while running. And. And there was a minute long recording where you can hear a male voice. And the jury heard the operator repeating herself saying, Clark County 91 1. Hello, Clark County 911. Can anyone hear me? The call ended at 9:12am and if you can imagine Riley's mom listen to that in court, the suspect didn't, didn't even. His face didn't move. He had no reaction as he listened to what happened. And the prosecution laid out that this murderer was, quote, hunting for females on the campus when he came upon Riley. And here's what the prosecutor said. And to the jury, she said, quote, when Lake and Riley refused to be his rape victim, he bashed her skull in with a rock repeatedly. The evidence will show that Lakin fought. She fought for her life. She fought for her dignity. And in that fight, she caused this defendant to leave forensic evidence behind. She also marked her killer for the entire world to see. I've got to say, the tragedy of what happened to Lake and Riley, the tragedy of what happened to Jocelyn Nungaree, the tragedy of what happened to Rachel Moran, the tragedy of what has happened over and over and over again. All of this was preventable, but we can at least take solace that we will see crimes like this begin to be prevented on January 20th.

Ben Ferguson (10:50)

You mentioned January 20th and obviously that's coming soon. Not soon enough, but is there no change of your colleagues that realize what this election was about in D.C. where they say, hey, guys, maybe we want to get ahead of this, Maybe we really, really misread this with the American people. Maybe we should start now and not just allow for these open borders. Or is this just the official policy of the Democratic Party, that we are always open borders no matter what?

Senator Ted Cruz (11:23)

So I don't know. It has not been very long since Election Day. We were back in session last week. So I was there with the Democrat senators. I'll tell you, they're just kind of a little shell shocked. I think they're stunned by the election results. We'll see if they change. I'll tell you what I am urging. I would like to see us in January when we get the new Congress sworn in. I'd like to see one of the very first bills that we vote on be the justice for Jocelyn act, the law that I've introduced that mandates that when illegal immigrants are detained that they be kept in detention, that they not be released as long as there are detention facilities there for them. I'd like to see that vote early on and put every Democrat on record and we'll see. Maybe they look at these election results and say, okay, we've gotta change, or maybe they don't. Maybe they dig in and say, we don't care, and we're gonna keep doing the same thing over and over again. But I think we ought to force them in January, go on record. Have you listened to a word the voter said? Or are you just. Are you just stuck on open borders? No matter who dies, no matter who suffers, no matter who the victims are.

Ben Ferguson (12:35)

Part of the story. And I think it's important for people to understand. Lake and Riley's murderer entered the country illegally back in 2022. There's a timeline. And we knew that this person was in the country illegally, and yet we kept allowing him to come back.

Shannon Bream (12:56)

Listen, Shannon, I want to just remind everybody, how did Jose Ibera get here and how did we get to this point? So In September of 2022, he crossed illegally on the west side of Texas in El Paso. He makes his way all the way to New York. And that was In September of 2023, as we've seen a pattern. Arrested in New York City then, but let go, makes his way down to Georgia. And in October 2023, he was cited for shoplifting. Okay, that's crime. But he's let go again. And in February 2024, this is when he is. This is the date where he is charged with the killing of Lake and Riley. So I was just looking the bigger picture, Shannon. Well, under President Trump, these are the types of numbers you're looking at for ICE removals of illegal immigrants who for whatever reason were in the country illegally, but also criminals that were in the country illegally. Then you look at the Biden administration and those are the numbers. And that's one of the reasons you see this number, Shannon, which I think is amazing. Immigration being the most important issue either overall. And in Georgia, 20%, 18%. But look at the difference. In 2020, it was 3%, 4%. So something happened, I think we all know what it was, which is the change from Biden to Trump on border policy.

Ben Ferguson (14:11)

There it is, Biden to Trump on.

Senator Ted Cruz (14:13)

Border policy that understand that timeline, Ben, three times this murderer. And by the way, you will notice I will not say his name. I will not say the names of any of these bastards. I'll say the names of the victims. But these bastards deserve to be forgotten. They deserve to be prosecuted and executed and utterly forgotten because they are evil. What they have done to these victims. But this monster, three times was apprehended. Three times he was let go. The first time he was apprehended was in 2022 in El Paso, Texas, and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the Democrats let him go. Had they followed the law then? Had they put him on a plane and they flown him back to Venezuela, had they kept him in detention, Lake and Riley would be alive. The second time he was arrested and let go was in New York again, New York, Democratic prosecutors, he was charged with endangering the safety of a child, but let go again. The third time he was arrested and let go was in Georgia again, Democrat prosecutors. Over and over and over again, there is a pattern. And the good news, you know, people wonder, well, how does this change so quickly? Why does January 20 matter so much? Well, look, on January 20, we're not going to build any new wall. On January 20, we're not going to likely hire any new Border Patrol agents. So you wonder what can change so quickly? And what can change so quickly is a simple policy decision. On January 20th, I am absolutely certain that Donald Trump will instruct the Border Patrol catch and release ends now. If you apprehend someone, you detain them and we deport them. And the thing to understand, not only does that mean the first step in the timeline of the Lake and Riley murderer ends because they never let him go in 2022, but it also means the numbers plummet because everyone who comes, they have cell phones, they call their friends, they're called their family. So on January 20th, and by the way, people are going to know this on January 10th, they're going to know this is what Trump's going to do. So it's not even going to take the phone calls. It's going to take, oh, there's a new sheriff in town. And we will see, mark my words, by January and February of next year, we will see the numbers plummet massively.

Ben Ferguson (16:36)

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Senator Ted Cruz (19:25)

Well, understand right now that Democrats are actively trying to steal an election in Pennsylvania. Dave McCormick has won that Senate race. He's won. The AP has called the race. Bob Casey, the incumbent Democrat, has lost. Bob Casey doesn't want to concede. Apparently, Bob Casey and Chuck Schumer are election deniers. They don't like the results. They brought in a guy named Mark Elias. Mark Elias is the top Democrat litigation attorney for elections in the country. Mark Elias's job is to try to steal elections, to try to get illegal votes in, to try to get Democrats to win no matter what. I'm gonna do something that I rarely will do on verdict. I'm just gonna read from the New York Times. The New York Times is not a paper that I respect. It often is profoundly dishonest. But when the Democrats are too extreme for the New York Times, that tell you. Tells you something. Here. Here's an article from the New York Times. The headline quote, in Pennsylvania, the election litigation continues with a twist as a Senate recount plays out. At least four counties are ignoring an order from the state Supreme Court that undated or misdated mail ballots cannot be counted. And the article begins, in an election defined in part by a tsunami of litigation before the polls even open. Few states saw as much legal haggling over which ballot should count as Pennsylvania. The polls have long since closed, yet a new round of litigation is flooding the recount battle between Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat, and Dave McCormick, his Republican challenger, who currently leads by around 21,000 votes, a margin rarely overtaken by a simple recount. The landscape, however, is different. In at least four counties, Bucks, Philadelphia, center and Montgomery. Local election officials are acting in open defiance of a ruling from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that arrived weeks before the election. The court found that mail ballots that are missing the date on the outer envelope or that have the wrong date cannot be counted for this election. The Bucks County Election Commission felt differently. Quote, it's a pretty stupid thing to not count someone's vote simply because they didn't date an envelope for a ballot, said Robert Harvey Jun, the chairman of the board and a Democrat who's desperately trying to steal the election. That that last part is me editorializing during a meeting on Tuesday where The board voted 2 to 1 to count 405 ballots with date errors on the envelope. He added that election officials know when ballots were printed for voters, making the outer envelope date requirement meaningless. The law needs to be changed. Mr. Harvey said the commissioners were advised that they were likely to be sued no matter how they rolled. So we're going to get sued either way. I'd rather be on the side of counting ballots than not counting them, Mr. Harvey said. So you have four counties that, that are battling the State Supreme Court, that are refusing to follow the State Supreme Court. You've got Bucks, Philadelphia, Montgomery and Center and the commissioners. Lisa Dealey, who's one of the Democratic commissioners on the Philadelphia board, said before her vote that she felt a local city court had ruled on the ballots, that the ballot should count, and that the State Supreme Court did not reject that decision. And so in an interview, Seth Bluestein, the Republican commissioner on the County Commission, reiterated that the State Supreme Court had already settled the issue. Quote, even though the commissioners and the boards of elections have some discretion in how they vote, when you have something as explicit as an order from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, we need to follow that. And what is amazing, if you listen to one of the Democrat members of the Bucks County Board, Diane, Diane M. Ellis Marsagalia, here's what Ms. Ellis Marsagalia said. She's a Democrat on the Buck Bucks County Board. Quote, I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn't matter anymore. In this country, people violate laws anytime they want. So for me, if I violate this law, it's because I want a court to pay attention. There's nothing more important than counting votes. So you've got Democrats in Pennsylvania openly defying the law. You've got the State Supreme Court. By the way, the State Supreme Court are Democrats. The State Supreme Court has issued an order as to what ballots you can legally count and what ballots you can't. And these local Democrats are pissed because under that result, the Republican has won. And so their view is we're going to keep illegally counting ballots and keep illegally counting ballots until the Democrat wins. And the instant the Democrat wins, we're done. It is shocking and it is happening in plain daylight. And mind you, that's not me saying that. That's New York Times.

Ben Ferguson (24:19)

So how do you. And this is where people have lost. I think just total faith in the system. If the court has said you can't do this. And they're like, yeah, screw it, we'll do it anyway. What is the recourse? And is there a real chance they could actually succeed in stealing this election? Because as you said it, and I agree with you, this is active, an active campaign by Democrats to steal an election they know they lost.

Senator Ted Cruz (24:43)

Well, look, there's litigation. And I can tell you, the McCormick campaign, they have hired serious lawyers. They're engaged in litigation, they're fighting back. And hopefully the courts will stop this. But I'll tell you what, it's not just the New York Times. Do you know who the Democrats have lost? They've lost the Washington Post. So here's the Washington Post editorial board. Quote, democrats thumb their nose at the rule of law in Pennsylvania. Elections need rules and they must be applied equally and consistently. And this is the Washington Post editorial board, no friend to Republicans. Quote. Before the November 5th election, Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that provisional ballots must be signed in two required places and that mail in votes must be dated. Yet elected Democrat officials in Philadelphia and three other counties, Buck center and Montgomery, voted this week to defy these and other court decisions at the request of lawyers for Democratic Senator Bob Casey, who trails GOP challenger Dave McCormick by about 24,000 votes. With almost all of the roughly 7 million ballots cast having been counted, these Democrats decision will almost certainly be overturned on appeal. But the mere attempt to defy judicial rulings is corrosive to democracy and invites similar behavior in future elections. Now this is, this is the Washington Post who's pointing out, and by the way, understand you've got elected Democrats in, in, in Pennsylvania who are voting openly. We are going to ignore the Pennsylvania Supreme Court because we want the Democrats to win. And why are they doing this? Because Bob Casey, the Democrat went to them and said, ignore the Supreme Court. It's more important that I, the Democrat, win than that you follow the law. And, and you know what I gotta say, if there's a Democrat in, in Washington who is embarrassed by this shameless undermining of democracy, I don't know who it is. It certainly hasn't been Joe Biden. It certainly hasn't been Kamala Harris. It certainly hasn't been Chuck Schumer. It certainly hasn't been Bob Casey. They're all cheering this on. And these are the same people that you could not shut them up from talking about their love for democracy except for the fact that when they're trying to defy the law and undermine democracy.

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Senator Ted Cruz (29:32)

Well, the Democrats, they're not actually looking introspectively and saying, gosh, maybe we're wrong on the issues. Maybe the fact that over 70% of Americans thought we were on the wrong track, maybe that's a problem. Maybe we shouldn't have had an open border and let this country be invaded. Maybe we shouldn't have spent money like drunken sailors and caused inflation that hurt working families across this country. Maybe, maybe, maybe we shouldn't have waged a war on energy that hurt everyone who's struggling to make ends meet. Maybe we shouldn't have undermined our friends and allies and we shouldn't have appeased our enemies. Maybe we shouldn't have given $100 billion to Iran that funds terrorists and Hamas and Hezbollah and causes a war. Maybe we shouldn't have transformed peace and prosperity into war across the globe. Maybe we shouldn't have turned the other way and in fact secretly cheered on anti Semitic protesters that threaten students. Maybe our policies are wrong. That that would be a rational and sensible thing for Democrats to do. So they're not doing that. Instead they're saying, hmm, maybe if people just didn't know what we were doing, maybe if they couldn't say what we were doing, maybe if they couldn't criticize what we're doing, yeah, that's how we'd win. So Jen Psaki, Joe Biden's former press secretary, Jen Psaki went on a podcast and she said this, quote, one of the things that's changed ever since I got involved in politics is just the rise of the percentage of people who get their information off of platforms that have no fact checking mechanism and no accountability for having disinformation spread. Quote, local TV is held to a higher standard of accountability than social media platforms in terms of accurate information on their platforms. That is crazy. Quote, laws have to change. I don't even know the entire answer to it, but it seems to me to be a core issue. And in particular, she focused on Trump appearing on Joe Rogan, the fact that he could go directly in front of the voters. And here's what she says. Quote, I don't think Joe Rogan deserves 100% of the credit for Donald Trump being elected. But it was a misunderstanding of kind of also how people are getting their information and an undervaluing of some of those platforms that Trump was doing. This is sadly where the Democrats are. Understand, she's not saying we the Democrats need to communicate better. She's not saying we, the Democrats need to change our policies. She's saying we need to change the laws to make it illegal for that SOB Joe Rogan to say things we don't like. We need to change the laws to make it illegal for anyone to post on X what the actual facts are of what we, the Democrats, are doing. If we can silence everyone, then we stay in power forever. That is dangerous as hell.

Ben Ferguson (32:14)

Yeah. Listen to Jen Psaki when she was doing this, this podcast and what she said.

Senator Ted Cruz (32:19)

And no accountability for having disinformation spread. Right.

Shannon Bream (32:24)

And as you know well, and I mean, when I, when I got started.

Senator Ted Cruz (32:27)

In Democratic politics, you know, most of.

Shannon Bream (32:30)

It was like local TV ads. That was what it was about, obviously.

Senator Ted Cruz (32:33)

National tv, local print, those local TV is held to a higher standard of accountability than social media platforms in terms.

Shannon Bream (32:42)

Of having accurate information on their platforms. That is crazy.

Senator Ted Cruz (32:47)

And so it is.

Shannon Bream (32:49)

How, how does it change? How is it, how is it, how.

Senator Ted Cruz (32:52)

Are people held to account?

Shannon Bream (32:53)

Laws have to change.

Ben Ferguson (32:55)

Laws have to change. Senator, I guess we just need to start locking up anybody that says something we don't like.

Senator Ted Cruz (33:00)

That, sadly, is where the Democrats are. And listen, we talked before during the election how this campaign with Kamala Harris and Tim Waltz was the most anti free speech campaign since John Adams who had signed the Alien and Sedition Acts. And it really is historic and dangerous. I'm glad that the American people repudiated that assault on free speech. And yet I don't hear anyone in the Democrat Party defending free speech. And sadly, I think they're going to double down on the answer is more censorship. So no one dares criticize us.

Ben Ferguson (33:40)

I agree with you there. Don't forget we do this show Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Make sure you hit that subscribe or auto download button right now so you don't miss an episode. And on those in between days, grab my podcast as well, the Ben Ferguson Podcast, and I'll keep you up to date on the latest breaking news. And the Senator and I will see you back here on Wednesday morning.