← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Massive War Crimes in Israel & the Radical Left Celebrates
00:49:48
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- [00:01]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. And we have a lot to talk about when it comes to Israel. There are so many people asking questions about Biden's response. Also, colleges in America that are backing Hamas and Black Lives Matter standing with them as well. Plus, how many illegal immigrants have come across the border that are on the terrorist watch list. We're looking at the border through a different perspective now with what just happened in Israel. Senator, let's first start with the president's response. It was shocking to see him not talk about Iran, not talk about the money going to Iran, and not warning the terrorists to not lay a finger on the Americans they're holding hostage. Your thoughts on what he said to the world today, really what he was saying to the terrorists?
- [00:49]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, let me start by just observing where we are. We are five days into the most serious attack on Israel in over 50 years. We are seeing atrocities unfold every single day. Saturday was the single biggest day of mass murders of Jews since the Holocaust. We've had over 900 Israelis murdered. We've had thousands of Israelis injured. We've had hundreds, potentially more Israelis kidnapped and taken hostage. And we are seeing atrocities, war crimes carried out each and every day. You know, Monday night I went to a synagogue in Houston and attended a solidarity service as Jews throughout the Houston community came together. We had about 2,000 people in Houston come together, including people of other faith standing with Israel. On Tuesday night, I went to a solidarity service at a synagogue in Dallas. Same thing. Couple of thousand people from Dallas coming together. I've got to say, number one, the pain and agony in the Jewish community in particular is enormous. The number of people I saw just weeping, the number of American Jews who have family members who live in Israel, who have family members wise or friends who were there, who have been scared for what it meant. At both of the services in Houston and Dallas on Monday and Tuesday, they had Israelis stand up and speak and tell their stories. And I got to say their stories were powerful. Talking about friends of theirs talking about the terror at the Dallas synagogue. The Israeli talked about that she and her husband and their three kids had lived in a kibbutz just a couple of miles from the Gaza Strip. And she described with tears running down her face, she was having a very hard time tell this story. So she's been in the United States for about three months, but they had lived in the kibbutz before that, and she's spending a year fellowship here in the United States. She described how their friends began texting them and on WhatsApp apps in utter terror. She was a schoolteacher in Israel, and she described how her students were texting her as the terrorists were arriving. And she was getting text after text after text saying, they're here, they're knocking on the doors, they're breaking the windows, they're shooting down the doors. She was. She was listening to the terrorists attacking home by home by home. It's worth understanding this is something that has not happened since the Nazis death squads going house by house by house and murdering every resident there simply because they're Jews. It is horrific. And this is Israeli. She described Tuesday night how her sixth grade students were texting her in terror, and then in the midst of the text, they'd go silent. How she had students of hers who were killed. She described a good friend of hers who was a teacher who had several children who was fleeing, fleeing from the terrorists that were there to murder them. And she described how her friend made a choice, how her son was on one motorcycle and she and her two daughters were another motorcycle, and she pulled off and saved her two daughters and watched her son captured and kidnapped by the Hamas terrorists. You remember the movie Sophie's Choice, where a mom is forced into the unspeakable, the unimaginable decision of choosing between your children. And I listened to this Israeli woman in tears describe her friend who saved two of her children, but is filled with fear and agony that the child she was not able to save, he's been kidnapped. He's presumably been taken back to Gaza. She doesn't know what he's experiencing. Presumably horrible treatment. This is happening. This is horrific, and it's happening. We're seeing images. We're seeing images of babies shot. We're seeing images of babies beheaded. We're seeing images. There was an outdoor concert. You had hundreds of Israelis there, and they arrived and just began firing machine guns, gunning them down in massive numbers, chasing them down and killing them. They began grabbing the women and the little girls and raping them, violently raping them. The images that they are horrific. This is evil. There's no ambiguity about it. There's no justification about it. There's no. On the one hand. On the other hand, anyone who rapes and murders children is evil. These are barbarians. Now, all of that is. Before I get to your question, Ben, what did I think about what Biden said today? Well, he finally got around to talking five days into this, and he finally said today something that should have been said on Saturday, which is America stands with Israel, period, full Stop. I'm glad he finally said that. Why did it take five days? Why did it take five days to say that? Why, in the hours after this attack began, did the Biden State Department tweet out urging Israel, do not engage in a military response. Stand down. Violence solves nothing. As you know, I blasted that tweet in three in the morning, at three in the morning. Within minutes of when they sent it, and within the hour, the State Department pulled it down. But subsequently, Tony Blinken sent another tweet, another tweet urging Israel not to engage in military retaliation for what they're calling Israel's 911 for the greatest murder of Israeli citizens. And our State Department is saying, do nothing. Again, I blasted that Biden State Department tweet, and again, they deleted it very shortly thereafter. So Biden five days later says, america stands with Israel. That's good. They finally got that sentence correct. But I got to say, his administration didn't stand with Israel on Saturday. They didn't stand with Israel on Sunday or on Monday or finally on Tuesday, they get the statement out. But you know what they haven't done? They haven't addressed Iran in the slightest. Iran is who planned this. Iran is who organized this. Iran is who funded this. They haven't addressed their own culpability for sending the money that funded this. They haven't said they're going to stop sending the money to Iran. Instead, they've given talking points. America stands with Israel without any substance behind it. And meanwhile, we have Democrat after Democrat in the House attacking and undermining Israel. It is horrific. And I got to tell you, the Jewish community in America is grieving. The Jewish community across the globe is grieving. But not just the Jewish community. Christians are grieving. Anyone with any sense of humanity, when you have monsters murdering babies, that's what we're seeing. And even worse than that, we're seeing monsters murdering babies. And we're seeing leftist ideologues rationalizing and justifying it.
- [08:37]
Ben Ferguson
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- [10:57]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, look, unfortunately for two and a half years, the White House has answered that question. They're on the side of Palestinian terrorists and they're on the side of Iran. Now, Ben, let me say right now someone listening to that may say that's, that's extreme. That's not where they are. Let me back it up with facts because people are asking about the 6 billion. I'm glad, glad they're asking about the 6 billion. They should. But there are four separate buckets of cash that anyone reasonable and rational should ask about because all four of them have gone to fund these atrocities. Number One is the $6 billion. The Biden administration spent $6 billion as ransom to get five Americans out of Iranian captivity. Now, when that happened, I pointed out that they set the ransom at $1.2 billion per American. And what I said and what many others said is the result of this will be many more Americans taken hostage. And in particular, Iran will take many more Americans hostage. Now, what I didn't realize is that it would be just a few weeks until that happened. One of the things the White House acknowledged on Tuesday, at least 14American citizens were killed by Hamas in this attack, and potentially upwards of 20Americans were taken hostage. So the Biden administration demonstrates to Iran, hey, if you take Americans hostage, we'll pay you billions in ransom. They released five, and they'd now taken upwards of 20. 20 at the price the Biden administration sent is $24 billion. I am very sorry. That prediction proved accurate, but it proved accurate within weeks. And there were many others saying the same thing. That's bucket number one. The $6 billion, that's the only thing the media is talking about, even a little bit. But there are three other buckets that are highly relevant. The second bucket is another $10 billion. That is $10 billion of money that was in Iraq that the Biden administration, just a few weeks earlier than the 6 billion, released 10 billion to Iran. I believe the ransom was actually 16 billion rather than 6, because you have the 6 plus the 10 that they had released a few weeks earlier. That takes them to 16 billion. But that's not even the majority of the money Biden has sent to Iran. Look, when Biden became president, he inherited a situation where the Middle east was at peace. In fact, peace was breaking out between Israel and Israel's Arab neighbors. The Abraham Accords had just been signed, and Iran was on its knees. Its economy was crippled. And the reason its economy was crippled is because the majority of their revenue comes from oil sales. And the Trump administration, at my emphatic urging, had enforced strict sanctions against Iranian oil sales and had crippled their oil sales. Well, Joe Biden came in and immediately began not enforcing those sanctions on oil. As a consequence, for two and a half years, Iran has been selling oil like crazy. Much of it they're selling to China. So it's aiding two of our enemies. It's aiding Iran and China. They have earned in excess of $40 billion from selling oil because Joe Biden will not enforce the sanctions against Iran. Right now, today, Iran is selling 2 million barrels a day of oil. And you know what Joe Biden didn't say today? He didn't say, we're finally going to enforce oil sanctions. He didn't say that he didn't impose any new sanctions. He didn't force any new sanctions. So presumably tomorrow Iran will sell 2 million barrels of oil. Now, I got to say, in the debate over the money, people are saying money is fungible. Money is fungible. That's absolutely true. That's part of the argument. That's part of the argument about the $6 billion. And the marionettes who are defending the White House, they say, well, the $6 billion could only be spent on humanitarian purposes. And it's absolutely true that money's fungible. So if you fill 6 billion in one pot, they can spend other money on terrorism and attacking Israel. But that doesn't address the $10 billion and it certainly doesn't address the $40 billion in oil revenues which can be spent on any damn thing they want. And there's actually, Ben, there's a fourth bucket of money that almost no one in the press is addressing, which is the hundreds of millions of dollars that the Biden administration has sent to Gaza. And when they sent it to Gaza, at the time, I led a coalition of 17 senators urging the Biden administration, do not send this to Gaza. If you send it to Gaza, it will go to Hamas and Hamas will use it for terrorism. Seventeen senators altogether joined me in sending that letter. Now, on the other side in the House, some 150 House members, all Democrats, wrote a letter urging. 145, actually House Democrats sent a letter urging that the money be released to Hamas. That included, among others, Colin Allred from Texas. 145 Democrats sent that letter urging the Biden administration to send hundreds of millions to Gaza. Now, what happened? The Biden administration assessed it. And here is the amazing thing, which again, the media is not covering. The Biden administration knew for a fact that the money they were sending to Gaza would fund terrorism. Let me read you the quote from the internal Biden administration document. Quote, due to its overall strength and level of control over Gaza, we assess there is a high risk Hamas could potentially derive indirect unintentional benefits from US Assistance to Gaza. In other words, this money, there's a high risk it'll be used by Hamas for terrorism. And you know what they did? They didn't say, oh, we don't want to fund terrorism. We don't want to fund death squads murdering Israelis. Instead, they said, no, actually we do. So they waived the anti terrorism restrictions under US Law and they sent the money anyway. And in the press conference on Tuesday, Joe Biden did not address one syllable of one word of anything I just said. He didn't address any of the four pots of Money that in a very, very real sense, the death squads and the worst attack on Israel in 50 years was funded by money the Biden administration chose to send to Iran and chose to send to Hamas, which is controlled and funded by Iran.
- [18:03]
Ben Ferguson
By the way, what you just mentioned is exactly why this podcast we do. It is so that people can take that, that no one's covering. And we said this yesterday. You guys did an amazing job or two days ago at sharing this intel everywhere you can. If you're on social media and you want to have an impact, please take this podcast and share it wherever you are in social media so that other people hear about this. And I want to go back to the money you just mentioned for a second.
- [18:31]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah.
- [18:31]
Ben Ferguson
Scott Kirby, who is. Who basically, I guess, is the de facto president, United States of America, because he's the only one that seems to be talking from the White House about any of these issues. The president won't take questions. We don't see him. They call lit at noon every day. He claimed on Fox News that the, quote, iran sanctions are being enforced. He got called out for lying by Brett Hume. I want to play this back and forth because it talks about the money and the difference in the exports and how much money Iran is making right now because America is not enforcing these sanctions.
- [19:06]
John Kirby
Listen, I don't have any policy decisions with respect to that to speak to you today, Brett. I think it's important for people to remember that not a single dinar of that, of those funds has gone into Iran. Not one, not, not any. Nothing's been allocated out of that fund. Yeah. And we're going to watch it. Money is fungible. You get $6 billion over here for humanitarian and food, so then you can move money someplace else. And then you have the not enforcing sanctions that allows Iran to cash in on its oil around the world. Brett, Brett, with all due respect, I just got to push back on you there. It's not that we're not enforcing sanctions. We have been enforcing them. As a matter of fact, we've added sanctions.
- [19:47]
Ben Ferguson
We've.
- [19:48]
John Kirby
We've sanctioned 400 entities in Iran just in the beginning of this administration, let alone the sanctions that came before us. And as for the fungibility, again, that money was never going to be tapped by the Iranian regime. They were never going to see it themselves. It was always going to go to vendors that we approved to go to buy humanitarian assistance and medical and food to get to the. Directly to the Iranian people. The regime was never going to see that or feel that. And they haven't asked for it. And the other thing I'll say, Brad, just before we get off this topic. No, no, John, I want to just push back on one thing. You said that the sanctions are being enforced. The Iranian exports of oil to China to 2026.6 billion, 2021, 23.1 billion, 2022, $30 billion. So how is that enforcing the sanctions on Iran?
- [20:36]
Ben Ferguson
I mean, Senator, I'll just stop there and let you respond to that. They're lying. And he just got called out for lying. You go from 6.6 billion in 2020 to now you're talking, you know, 30 billion in 2023. How is that enforcing these sanctions? The White House is clearly looking the other way.
- [20:54]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, they are. And they're doing it because the number one foreign policy objective of the Biden administration remains, I assume to this day re entering the disastrous Obama Iran nuclear deal. It's their number one priority. It's why they're undermining the war in Ukraine. It's why they are making every other foreign policy issue subservient to, to flooding cash into Iran. And listen, the numbers are clear. Iran right now, today is selling 2 million barrels of oil a day. When Biden came into office, they were selling a tiny fraction of that because the oil sanctions had crippled their economy. And this was not accidental. It's a conscious decision. And you know John Kirby. John Kirby is a retired rear admiral from the Navy. He's someone who devoted his life to the military and he's turned into Baghdad Bob. He's just willing to go out and lie for the Biden administration. When he is saying things like we are enforcing sanctions, he sounds like Karine Jean Pierre. And I gotta say, the willingness. I actually find it sad to see someone, a career military man willing to sell his integrity down the river by just lying on behalf of an administration. That's what he's doing.
- [22:15]
Ben Ferguson
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- [24:03]
Senator Ted Cruz
Because they don't believe it. Because this president is so weak that if you take American hostages, he won't come after you. Look, Joe Biden has already become Jimmy Carter. And even worse, I gotta say, I was a kid when Jimmy Carter was president. I remember the hostage crisis in 1979 and 1980 where American hostages were held in Iran. Same people doing it for 444 days. It brought down the Jimmy Carter presidency. I remember, for example, that the TV show Nightline. I don't know if you know this, Ben, but it was started during the Iran hostage crisis. Because every night abc, this is back when we had functionally journalism would cover the hostage crisis and Ted Koppel started Nightline to cover it every single night. The ongoing hostage crisis. Where CNN on the American hostage crisis. Where's ABC? They could relaunch Nightline. Where's CBS, NBC? We have 20American hostages. And did the American President say, if you hurt a hostage, we will. There will be massive repercussions. Nope, nope. Instead his State Department said, stand down. No military repercussions whatsoever. Apparently take a hostage and, you know, we'll get out our checkbook and write billions of dollars. This weakness is endangering America and it's endangering our allies.
- [25:28]
Ben Ferguson
I want to ask you quickly about the media because something you just said reminded me of the media. Are you shocked by the amount of anti Semitism we are witnessing on TV right now from people that many respect. Journalists. I want to give you an example. Andrea Mitchell today said this about Hamas. Historically, the Palestinian Authority has gotten weaker.
- [25:52]
Senator Ted Cruz
And weaker as Hamas has gained strength and popularity because the Palestinian Authority is weakened by the Netanyahu's government settlement expansion.
- [26:01]
John Kirby
And by showing that it has not much authority.
- [26:04]
Ben Ferguson
I mean, she keeps giving excuses for why Hamas is gaining strength and says, well, it's because of this or it's because of that. And she went on to continue to say, even after that, that, that this is because of the problem that Israel created. And she's saying this on TV while she's also putting out the propaganda from the Palestinian health ministry that 830 innocent people killed in Gaza, another 4,250 injured, many of them children. And she's selling this to the American people that there's, well, there's a both sides quote argument here. Israelis are not beheading infant children. They're not dragging women through the streets and raping them. They're not throwing dead bodies in the back of the trucks like we saw during the Holocaust. That is only the terrorists on the side of Hamas, period.
- [26:57]
Senator Ted Cruz
The corporate media hates Israel. And you have to understand a very important part of the strategy of Hamas. They engage in this barbarism, they engage in these attacks, and they know the response from Israel is going to be a military strike. I believe Benjamin Netanyahu is going to take out Hamas. I think he is going to take out their military leadership, take out their weapons, take out their rockets, take out their soldiers, take out their terrorists. He's going to eliminate Hamas. That is going to be a bloody war. It is going to last a minimum of weeks. It may last months. Hamas strategy, as Israel engages in that effort to take out Hamas is going to be to count on the corporate media to be their PR spokespeople. So we're already hearing just a few days into this conflict, the Palestinian body counts. What, what the corporate media doesn't tell you is the reason Palestinians are dying is because Hamas wants them to die. Because Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields. Israel is sending text, is sending warnings asking civilians, get out of the way, get out of harm's way. We're going to strike this location here, it's a Hamas stronghold. It's a headquarters. It's where they have rockets. Get out of the way. Hamas is telling the civilians, stay there. Why? Because we want you dead. You have to understand Hamas, they want Palestinians dead because a dead Palestinian and even Better. A dead Palestinian mother or child is invaluable to Hamas as a propaganda tool because they know that the tweeting numbskulls in the media will use that to attack Israel and will say they are barbarians. That is what this is all about. And so you need to get ready. The New York Times. The New York Times will wage a PR war against Israel. It will portray the Palestinians as oppressed people. And these poor Hamas terrorists are just misunderstood. Let me tell you, when you are beheading babies, you're not misunderstood. You're a monster, and you deserve to be treated as such.
- [29:10]
Ben Ferguson
There was also something else that shocked me, and it happened today on tv. John Kirby was asked a question, and this terrifies me, about our readiness as a nation militarily. He was asked about the possibility of a special operation to rescue Americans from Israel. And he answered in a way that I couldn't believe it.
- [29:33]
John Kirby
Listen, you ruling out some kind of special operation to rescue American citizens? I'm not ruling any. I'm not ruling anything in or out, Brett. We're not prepared to do that at this time. We just don't have enough information to get into policy possibilities and options. We obviously take the safety and security of Americans overseas very seriously. President Biden has made that clear. And bringing home now almost 40Americans that were wrongfully detained. We'll certainly act with that same sense of alacrity and urgency here and seriousness. But again, we just don't have. We just don't have the numbers to confirm. We don't have the information to be able to talk with any great specificity about what the options might be.
- [30:12]
Ben Ferguson
He just said there just to the world and to the terrorists, we're. And I'm quoting exactly, we're not prepared to do that at this time.
- [30:23]
Senator Ted Cruz
The Biden administration is incapable of projecting strength. It's incapable of standing up to our enemies. Biden's approach from day one is to every enemy of America, whether it is Iran, whether it is North Korea, whether it is Venezuela, whether it is China, whether it is Russia, projecting weakness and projecting appeasement. So he cannot say, if you do not release Americans, you will face overwhelming consequences to the military leaders of Hamas. Release the Americans or you will die. That's actually what a commander in chief who's defending Americans would say, by the way, Benjamin Netanyahu, who doesn't have time for the nonsense that the Biden White House engages in. That's exactly what he's saying. He is saying they are going to eradicate Hamas, that they cannot Live with this terror threat, with these monsters targeting women and children and civilians. They're not engaged in war. They're not attacking military targets. Hamas is not. They are engaged in terrorism, targeting babies. Babies are not military targets. And unfortunately the Biden administration, their weakness causes our enemies to be stronger, to be more aggressive. Because they say this president is a pushover. And the more hostages we take, the more billions of dollars he'll give us. And then we'll use those billions of dollars to take even more hostages and to kill even more Jews. That's what's going on here. And the Biden administration bears direct culpability, which is why after Joe Biden gave his statement, he ran out of the room and didn't answer a single press question. Because they cannot defend their disgraceful policy.
- [32:08]
Ben Ferguson
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- [34:08]
Senator Ted Cruz
I think it's despicable what they're protesting for. Protesting.
- [34:12]
Ben Ferguson
Congratulations. And the fact that you can't condemn.
- [34:14]
John Kirby
Women and children and elderly people being.
- [34:15]
Senator Ted Cruz
Murdered in the streets. What about it? Do you condemn it?
- [34:21]
Ben Ferguson
I already said.
- [34:22]
Senator Ted Cruz
Why can't you say yes?
- [34:24]
Ben Ferguson
Because I already gave you my answer.
- [34:25]
Senator Ted Cruz
You didn't give an answer. And every. I think anybody who would watch this would understand what you're actually.
- [34:32]
Ben Ferguson
This is a man who's at a protest against Israel, who's been elected to the state legislature. You put that and you combine that with the squad. Senator, I. I will give a little credit. The White House at least today understood that they needed to stand up against Omar and Talib and others. The White House press secretary did say that what they had said was repugnant and disgraceful, their statements on Israel. But you combine these younger leaders with what we're now witnessing on college campuses at Harvard, at University of Penn, it scares me for this country. There was a conversation even about this on cnbc, even cnbc, who deals with financial issues like what the hell is going on on college campuses? And this is what they said.
- [35:21]
Senator Ted Cruz
Let me ask you a question. Let's say you're the president of Harvard University. Yeah. If you've looked at what's happening at Harvard, there are students who Mind boggling. Mind boggling, right. But students who are gathering to support the Palestinians. To support Hamas. Yeah, frankly, very, very, very specifically to support Hamas. And what's happening? What is the role of the president of a university or frankly, the president of a company when they have either students or employees or others who want to view and express that position, which I find disgraceful. But I wonder. Well, I think there's. What the answer is supposed to. Look, the first thing that I would do if I was president, Harvard University, I would say we are clearly not educating students, for students to think that again, you know, murder at scale is somehow legitimate, that occupation causes terror. I mean, there are no Israelis in Gaza, for goodness sakes. It's a silly turn of phrase. But to your question, what would I do? Well, number one, I would say we need to revisit our entire core education because they're clearly not teaching morals or values. That's number one. And then number two, the president of Harvard, like the president of UPenn, like the president of any of his institutions, needs to stand up and speak out and say, this is disgraceful and wrong. Students are.
- [36:40]
Ben Ferguson
But they're not doing that, Senator. They're not saying it's wrong. They're waiting days to even respond. And it's only after famous alumni and donors finally came down on them. To the point where they're like, you have to give a statement and they put out a basic statement on paper.
- [36:55]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, let me say the voice you were just hearing there was Jonathan Greenblatt. He's the head of the Anti Defamation League. And I'm glad he's speaking out. He actually was speaking clearly and effectively there. The ADL has a long history of calling out anti Semitism. In recent years, it has been far too willing to basically act as a defender for the Democrat Party and as a partisan. And so I'm glad they're standing up and speaking with clarity here. It's important. But look what happened at Harvard. You have 35 student groups that put out a statement. I want you to understand what they said. I'm going to read you from the joint statement by Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups on the situation in Palestine. Note, notice the situation in Palestine, not Israel. They don't even acknowledge Israel exists. We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence. That's the opening sentence. It is Israel's fault that Hamas terrorists are murdering children. It is Israel's fault that Hamas terrorists are raping women and little girls in the streets and parading them through the street. It is Israel's fault that they are kidnapping toddlers and holding them hostage. It is Israel's fault that they are using those toddlers as human shields. They're using women and men as human shields. It is Israel's fault that Hamas terrorists are murdering civilians indiscriminately, walking house by house by house. And if you're a Jew, they murder you. What a ridiculous, outrageous situation. And look, that statement they put out. Initially, for the first couple of days, Harvard said nothing. It was the only statement from the Harvard campus that, that anyone seemed to be aware of. Then Harvard put out an initial statement that was the most milquetoast, lukewarm statement of, well, we want to be a safe space for people to have all sorts of views. You know, the pro genocide mass murder view and the anti genocide mass murder view. No, I'm sorry, that's not a topic of reasonable debate. Beheading babies is always, always, always wrong. Period. Full stop. Finally, on Tuesday, the president of Harvard was guilted into condemning we stand against Hamas's beheading babies. It took five days of getting pounded, I got to say. Listen, I'm an alumnus of Harvard Law School. It is embarrassing that our universities, the problem is they become petri dishes, they become incubators for radical left wing views. And other than a Hamas headquarters. There are few places with more vicious anti Semitism and hatred of Israel than America's elite universities today. You talk to to Hillel students, You talk to Jewish students on campuses. They're afraid. They're afraid of violence. They're afraid to wear a yarmulke, they're afraid to be publicly identified as Jewish because they risk violence. They risk swastikas being spray painted on their student center. They risk attacks from the radical left. And the radical left more and more embraces, cherishes and nurtures antisemitism. And schools like Harvard, sadly, are the breeding grounds for this hatred. And they can't figure it out enough to stay. Genocide is bad. That should not be a controversial proposition.
- [40:34]
Ben Ferguson
Well, and even members in Congress, Rashid Tlaib was asked directly to her face what she thought about women being raped and babies getting their heads cut off. She wouldn't answer the question. Take a listen to this.
- [40:51]
Senator Ted Cruz
And burn children alive. Do you support Israel's rights to defend themselves against brutality? We're just gonna go through here. You can't comment about Hamas terrorists chopping off babies heads. Congresswoman, do you have a comment on Hamas terrorists knocking off baby head? You have nothing to say about Hamas terrier clogging out babies heads. Do you condone what Hamas has done? Chopping off babies heads, burning children alive, raping women in the street? You have no comment about children's heads being chopped off. Congressman, why do you have a Palestinian flying outside your office if you do not condone what Hamas terrorists have done to Israel? Do Israeli lives not matter to you?
- [41:58]
Ben Ferguson
I mean, Senator, that was, whoever that reporter was, God bless her for continuing to ask a basic question. Children were burned alive, babies heads were cut off.
- [42:09]
Senator Ted Cruz
And I gotta say, if you haven't seen the video of that clip, you ought to Google it and watch it because watching the video is even more disturbing. So Congresswoman Tlaib is walking down the hallways in Congress. So the steps you hear the whole time or she's walking, she's walking, she's walking. And this reporter just asked her, do you not have a comment on chopping babies heads off? How hard is it for a Congresswoman to say we should not chop the heads off babies, we should not burn children alive, we should not rape women in the streets. That is not, in a normal sane world, a controversial proposition. And yet her politics are so radical, she cannot bring herself to say that she has in front of her office, she has a Palestinian flag. It's interesting. She has a Palestinian flag and she has a Transgender flag, which is ironic because Hamas would murder anyone who's gay or transgender. So, like, the two flags are utterly in conflict. But in today's modern left, that nobody bothers with intellectual coherence. They embrace their ideology and don't worry about it. But I gotta say, it is stunning. Like, she walks a long, long way. And the end of that video, she gets on an elevator and the door closes and, you know, she asked, do Israeli lives matter? And by the way, Congresswoman Talib conspicuously avoids using the word Israel. She refers to Palestine. Look, today's radical left in the Democrat Party does not acknowledge Israel's right to exist. And I gotta say, it's not just Congresswoman Talib. It's Cori Bush, it's aoc, it is the hard left of the Democrat Party. And by the way, it's the Biden State Department, whose response initially to this was Israel, stand down. Do not engage in any military action following the worst attack on Israel in 50 years, following Israel's 9 11. Do nothing. That is sadly the view of today's radical left. And for the Democrats who don't agree with it, I hope that they find the courage to call out the members of their own party that are saying things that are disgraceful.
- [44:28]
Ben Ferguson
Black Lives Matter. They have also come out in support of these terrorists standing with Hamas, standing with what they have done the same Black Lives Matter that received billions upon billions of dollars in free advertising from virtually every major league sport in this country. They were given end zones and helmets, decals on helmets. They were given the corners of TV time on different parts of fields to give them free press. And now they're coming out supporting. And I bring that up to go to something else. There was a Muslim man speaking to a large crowd today in Times Square of those that were supporting Hamas and the Palestinians. And this Muslim man speaking in New York City said, this is the correct religion. We will not stop until it enters every home. Now, that is a concern that many people are worried about with terrorists coming across the border. We have new numbers that have come out that deal with special interest aliens. The apprehensions specifically from people coming from the Middle East. We also have found out, Senator, that we've had more people that have been caught coming across the southern border illegally that are on the terrorist watch list this year than the last five years combined. When you witness what happened in Israel and you remember 9, 11, and you look at this open border and you look at these special interest aliens, and you look at the number of people on the terrorist watch list that have been caught five times more than or more this year than the last five years combined. There is a real concern now that something like what happened there could happen in America.
- [46:09]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, listen, that's exactly right. And if you look at the statistics from Customs and Border Patrol, here are the people who have been apprehended crossing into the United States illegally over the last two years. And this is just focusing on the special interest countries, which are the countries where there is a high predominance of terrorism. From Syria, 538. From Yemen, 139. From Iran, 659. From Iraq, 123. From Afghanistan, 6386. From Lebanon, 164. From Egypt, 3153. From Pakistan, 1613. From Mauritania, 15,594. From Uzbekistan, 13,624. And from Turkey, 30,830. And that is from October of 2021 to October of 2023. Now those are the numbers that have been caught. That doesn't count the million plus gotaways, the people who weren't caught. And I got to say, as we look to next steps, there is a real risk of escalation in Israel. There's a real risk of additional terrorist attacks. There's a real risk of Hezbollah in the north. Hamas is primarily in the south and the Gaza Strip. Hezbollah is north of Israel. Hezbollah has not yet actively engaged in this war. They may well begin raining rockets down on Israel, which would give Israel a two front war. There's a real risk of additional acts of terror. But there is an enormous risk of acts of terror in the United States. And when Joe Biden and the Democrats and every congressional Democrat is complicit in this, when they implemented their open border policies, when they began letting terrorists into those countries, into this country in massive numbers, it is only a matter of time before we have another terrorist attack. And I've got to got to say, in the midst of this war in Israel, the chances of that are rising dramatically. And look, I pray to God it doesn't happen. I pray to God it is not of the order of magnitude of September 11th. But the Biden administration, if they have open borders, if you were a terrorist and you wanted to murder Americans, the Biden administration has made it blazingly obvious what you should do. You should go to Mexico and cross illegally over the border because they'll let you. They won't catch you. You'll get to stay. And then you can wage war and commit acts of terrorism. And I think America is much, much less safe because of the intersection between Joe Biden's weakness, number one, Joe Biden's policy of funding enemies of America like Iran and like Hamas, number two, and Joe Biden's open borders with all of the other Democrats. Their open borders, which is are allowing hundreds if not thousands of terrorists and other criminals to flood into this country. The chances of a serious terrorist attack I think have never been higher since September 11 than they are right now today.
- [49:17]
Ben Ferguson
Don't forget we do this show three days a week. Please make sure you share this podcast on social media to help other people hear what we are continuing to talk about and break here and the perspective of what you're not getting to see on the big media networks. We're giving you the stuff that they refuse to cover. Also, don't forget on the in between days, join me. I'll keep you updated on the breaking news coming out of Israel. Download the Ben Ferguson podcast as well. And the senator and I will see you back here in a couple of days.