← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Media Ignores Hunter Biden Testimony, JAN6 Sentences Reduced, & Biden Sidelines Border Issue for 40MINS in SOTU Speech Week In Review
00:30:20
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- [00:01]
Ted Cruz
It was a massive week in political news. Welcome. It's Verdict with Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. And these are the big stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week. First up, shocking testimony from Hunter Biden. And there was no coverage from the media as they were obsessed with the State of the Union. Also, lower sentences for January 6th offenders. Why did their sentences get reduced? Because of corruption with the Biden prosecutors. And finally, Biden doesn't cover border security until 40 minutes into his State of the Union speech. It is the week in review, and it starts right now. There's an impeachment inquiry that's happening of the President of the United States of America, Joe Biden. The media is acting like it's not happening at all. Most people that listen to the show, if you're not listening to the show, you may not even know this is even happening. There was really some shocking testimony that happened last week in the House and info that was coming out from people that were having to sit in front of this committee, including the president's son, Hunter Biden. He had some admissions, and the media refused to touch the story altogether. You wouldn't even know it was happening if you watch the nightly news.
- [01:19]
Ben Ferguson
Well, that's exactly right. So Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, he insisted Hunter had not made money from China. Well, Hunter has now admitted that was a lie. Now, he tried hard not to, but. But he admitted it anyway. And so deposition testimony was released. And let me read, read some of it. Question. Your father went while he was running for president and said his family never received any money from China. Your father. Answer. Yes. Has also said. Answer. You're right. He's never received. He's never interacted with any of your business associates. Is that correct? Yes. But if you introduced him to Ye Jeming, that would be untrue. No, that is not untrue. I'm telling you this. The question being asked that you're stating is that my father said that I never received any money from China. The government of China, unlike Jared Kushner, I've never received any money from a foreign government. He question. He didn't say government of China, by the way. He said China from China. Well, so understand. Okay. This is the sleight of hand he's trying to do. He's claiming now. Well, he didn't get money technically from the government of China. It wasn't signed government of China. But here's what he. Here's what he did admit. He shifted it to. Well, yeah, of course. I got money from China. It was just a Chinese company controlled by the Chinese government and funded by the Chinese government. But it wasn't from the government of China. It was from a Chinese company. And here's. So the questioning continued. How many millions have you received from Chinese companies? Because he admitted, and this is the bombshell admissions, I have received money from a Chinese company. How many millions have you received? And he said, well, he didn't know the exact amount, but let me read this exchange. Quote, did you receive money from China or not? Answer, quote, I received money from a Chinese company. Question, how many millions have you received from Chinese companies? Answer, I don't know the exact amount, but I know that it was all completely legal and it was incredibly ethical, this lie, right?
- [03:42]
Ted Cruz
I mean, I'm sorry, I'm taken aback by the quote because it's just so funny. It's like it was. It was. I never did it. I never did.
- [03:49]
Ben Ferguson
I did it.
- [03:49]
Ted Cruz
Never did it. Well, I did it. But. But it was all legal and ethical and everything was fine. So stop asking questions. How dare you act like we did anything wrong.
- [03:57]
Ben Ferguson
Incredibly ethical. And this is a guy who photographs himself smoking crack while being with multiple prostitutes and who's made tens of millions of dollars selling favors from his father who was abusing a position of public trust. But understand, I received money from a Chinese company. This is an admission. And I want us to play what Joe Biden said because I want. Because you need to hear how this is directly contrary to what Joe Biden said.
- [04:26]
Ted Cruz
My son has not made money in.
- [04:29]
Ben Ferguson
Terms of this thing about. What are you talking about?
- [04:32]
Ted Cruz
China. I love that. This thing about what? About this thing. Oh, yeah, China. Like, I mean, what a brilliant move by him during the presidential debates back then, where it's like, ah, China. I don't even know what you're talking about. It's absurd.
- [04:44]
Ben Ferguson
Look, it's a flat out lie. My son has not made money from. What is it, this thing you're talking about? China. That's what he said. Now here's what Hunter said under oath. Quote, I received money from a Chinese company. Those two statements are categorically inconsistent. Joe Biden lied and he lied in the presidential debate with Donald Trump and he lied about the corruption of his son. That's what the testimony is. And by the way, did you see that in the 6:00 news this week?
- [05:16]
Ted Cruz
Nope.
- [05:17]
Ben Ferguson
Wonder why.
- [05:18]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, well, and there's also you and I predicted this months and months and months ago that your favorite WhatsApp text ever, which is you know, the shakedown with his dad sitting next to him. He was asked about that, and I have to go back to it because it just. It's hysterical. He says, I sent the text, but I was drunk or high when I sent it. My dad wasn't there. Which is exactly the alibi we said they were going to use, right? Oh, he was a drunk kid. He was a high kid. They treat him like he's a kid kid, not. Not a grown adult in his 50s. You know? Now this is just a addict who was. Who was desperate for cash and didn't know what he was doing.
- [05:58]
Ben Ferguson
But it worked. He got the cash.
- [06:00]
Ted Cruz
He got the cash and he's like, oh, my dad wasn't there. Let's just remind people we could have found out for a fact using GPS data.
- [06:09]
Ben Ferguson
And we still can't.
- [06:10]
Ted Cruz
We still can't. Okay, so. So explain for everybody how we could still find that, why and who's blocking it from us, knowing for the GPS data if daddy was, in fact sitting next to his son.
- [06:21]
Ben Ferguson
So, listen, it's not complicated. We know the exact date and time that WhatsApp text was sent. And the investigators. The investigators wanted to subpoena the GPS data on Hunter's phone and Joe's phone. And if they were both in the same location, then it would turn out Hunter was telling the truth, that Daddy was sitting there. And the IRS whistleblowers blocked that said, no, you cannot subpoena the GPS location because it would prove that Daddy was there. And their objective, the Biden Justice Department's objective from day one, has been to protect Joe Biden. Look, look, I'll get. I'll give another example. So. So Jim Biden provided testimony about Hunter Biden and had an undisclosed meeting with a corrupt Chinese businessman whom Hunter has called. And this is Hunter's language, quote, the effing spy chief of China. He didn't abbreviate effing. But, and this in particular was a meeting that occurred in September 2017 with Patrick Ho. Patrick Ho was an executive with Chinese energy conglomerate cefc. And by the way, CFC China Energy paid Hunter and Jim Biden $5 million. So this wasn't a small amount. Remember Joe Biden saying, said Hunter didn't get money from that China thing except for that $5 million. But they had a meeting. According to Jim Biden, he and Hunter Biden had a, quote, pleasant lunch in Hong Kong with Ho. And at the end of the meeting, Ho asked to meet alone with Hunter Biden. And here's the quote. From Jim Biden's deposition, quote, Ho said, can I borrow Hunter for, you know, a half hour? We're going to go in the next room. And then Jim Biden said, well, he didn't know what they discussed in the next room. This is a man that he had a half hour private meeting with, a man whom Hunter has described as the effing spy chief of China. And by the way, just two months after Hunter Biden gets pulled aside for this secret half hour meeting, you know what happened two months later? Federal prosecutors in New York indicted Ho on charges that he offered bribes to African officials to obtain oil rights for CFC China Energy during a meeting at the UN General assembly in 2014. So this is a guy who a couple months later gets indicted for bribing, yeah, public officials, and he wants to have a private meeting with Hunter Biden. And he does have a private meeting with Hunter Biden. We know also that CFC China Energy paid Hunter Biden $1 million to represent Ho, even though there's no evidence Hunter Biden did any sort of legal work on any of the cases. And, you know, one of the things also that, that Ho did is he gave Hunter Biden a diamond ring because, you know, yeah, that's what the spy chief of China should do, is give the son of the vice president, now the son of the president a diamond ring. You know, just. But, but remember, remember Joe Biden said, told the American people that, that Hunter hadn't gotten anything from. What is that thing, that China thing.
- [09:54]
Ted Cruz
Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week. Now on to story number two. You know, we have a judicial system that's trying to lock up Donald Trump everywhere they can. Going after him, trying to bankrupt him, bankrupt his family, basically sending warning shots across about any other conservatives thinking about running for office. But then we also have learned a lot more about what happened on January 6th to those that were there on January 6th that were sentenced to jail. There was major corruption within the Biden Department of Justice. And I think it's really. This has been underreported. And I think it's an extremely important story that I would, I would challenge everyone listening right now take this part of the podcast and put it on social media, because what we're about to explain to you, it tells you just how corrupt the Biden Department of Justice when they come against conservatives.
- [10:53]
Ben Ferguson
Well, unfortunately, that's exactly right. In the past few days, there was a decision from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Now, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals is the federal court of appeals in D.C. it is considered the second highest court in the land, second only to the U.S. supreme Court. There are a total of 13 different courts of appeals, but the D.C. circuit is the most prestigious. Judges from the D.C. circuit regularly become Supreme Court justices afterwards. And. And this was a unanimous decision from a panel, and it's a panel that the full D.C. circuit is one of the most liberal circuits in the country. But this panel was three judges appointed by Democrats. The opinion was authored by Patty Millett, who was an appointee of Barack Obama. It was joined by Cornelia Pillard, who was an appointee of Barack Obama. And it was joined by Judith Rogers, who was an appointee of Bill Clinton's. So you have three Democrat appointees. And they concluded that the Department of Justice was wrong when they enhanced the sentences of individuals convicted of rioting or storming the Capitol on January 6th. And they use an enhancement called the administration of justice enhancement. And here's what Judge Millet wrote for the unanimous opinion. The phrase administration of justice does not encompass Congress's role in the electoral certification process. Text, context, and commentary show that the administration of justice refers to judicial, quasi judicial, and adjunct investigative proceedings, but does not extend to the unique congressional function of certifying electoral college votes. Quote, Administration of Justice enhancements are typically reserved for defendants who disrupt judicial proceedings, such as a courtroom trial or a grand jury investigation. More than 100 of the defendants have had administration of justice enhancements applied to their sentences.
- [13:05]
Ted Cruz
Wow.
- [13:06]
Ben Ferguson
And every one of them now is going to go and seek and presumably receive a lower sentence and potentially a significantly lower sentence. And what is striking is the Biden Justice Department sought this enhancement contrary to the law over and over and over again because they are engaged in a jihad. They are like Javert going after Jean Valjean. It is their quest. Look, Merrick Garland has absurdly said the Department of Justice has devoted more resources to going after the January 6 protests than any other event in our nation's history. And by the way, that includes September 11th. What an absurd statement. And to be clear, individuals who engaged in violence on January 6, and there were certainly individuals who engaged in violence, who assaulted police officers. If you engage in violence, you should be prosecuted and go to jail. But what the Biden Justice Department has done is use the excuse of the violence of a limited number of individuals to persecute hundreds and even thousands of individuals who engaged in peaceful protest, who spoke, who expressed their passionate First Amendment views, but did not engage in violence. And this enhancement was an effort that they wanted to go after you. Even if you engage in no violence. They wanted to lock you up. They wanted to lock you up a long time for the crime of being a Donald Trump supporter. And it is striking to have a unanimous decision from three judges, all three appointed by Democrat presidents, saying, no, this is not the law. And of course, sadly, the corporate media has not covered this virtually at all.
- [14:56]
Ted Cruz
They haven't. And it's not just that. It's also journalists that are involved and there's still harassment that's going on from January 6th, which, I mean, this was January 6th was, you know, several years ago now. Blaze News investigative writer Steve Baker, who had been reporting on January 6th, was charged. He was by the FBI, handcuffed by the FBI. And this is another example of the abuse of power here. I think this is a writer, a guy who's been reporting on January 6th. And it's like they went after him because they don't like what he was actually reporting on. And he said this after he was arrested by the FBI. This is what he said.
- [15:39]
Steve Baker
I probably don't have a lot to say right now. I need to process for a little while. I'm actually still shaking a little bit. I don't like what I just went through. I don't like the deliberate humiliation that they put me through. There was no reason to do that. There was no reason to march me into a courtroom in leg chains today. There was somebody there answering for a felony and they weren't in chains. My charges are misdemeanors. It's just, it's mind boggling. But that is unfortunately the type of selective persecution that January 6th defendants are facing. And ultimately what we are looking at here and probably the only reason that, that many of the January 6th defendants have had to go through. What they've had to go through is because of what I've talked about so many times and what I've written about so many times. It's called scary words. It doesn't matter if it's Stewart Rhodes. It doesn't matter if it's the grandmother who chanted usa, USA in the Capitol. It's the scary words that were said. If you don't say the right thing at the right time and comport to the right narrative, that's what they're going to do, is they're going to come after us. And that's exactly what's happened. It's not. These charges have nothing to do with my behavior at the Capitol. These Charges are reflective of what I said before and after my speech, what I thought about things, what I joked about. That's what this was reflective of. And so that's what we're up against right now.
- [17:18]
Ted Cruz
I mean, you hear him and it's not what he did on January 6, what he said before and after he talked about that grandmother that was charged when she chanted usa, usa, usa. I mean, they went after anyone that was in and around January 6th. Even if you were not violent and if you reported on it and they don't like your narrative, they came after you and they put this guy in leg change just to prove a point. We are bigger than you.
- [17:41]
Ben Ferguson
Well, it is selective persecution. And it's not prosecution. It is persecution. It is targeting the enemies of the regime. And I have to say, it is sad. You know, Merrick Garland used to be a judge, actually a judge on the D.C. circuit. It was his old colleagues who slapped him down. Understand there's a personal element to this. They all served with Merrick Garland for years. He was very well respected when he was on the D.C. circuit. And yet three of his Democrat appointed colleagues just unanimously reversed what his department is doing because it was contrary to the law. And it's sad to see Merrick Garland turning the Department of Justice into just a partisan enforcement arm. It's doing enormous damage to the rule of law. And two unanimous decision within days of each other doesn't seem to have caused them even a moment of pause, a moment of hesitation to say, hey, maybe we should change our course. And I will say also more broadly, we're going to discuss in a later pod the persecution of the media that the Biden Justice Department is engaged in. And you just gave a good example. But this is all about not the fair and even handed administration of justice. This is about abusing power to go after the political enemies of the White House. And today the D.C. circuit decision that just came down a few days ago is a big victory for the rule of law against the political abuse of power by the Biden Justice Department.
- [19:11]
Ted Cruz
As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing. I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.
- [19:25]
Ben Ferguson
So I predicted before the speech that there were four words that Biden would not say, Lake and Riley and Jeremy Caceres. Now, as it so happened, he kind of sort of said Lake and Riley.
- [19:39]
Unnamed Commentator
But he almost tried to, but he.
- [19:41]
Ben Ferguson
Did so in response to heckling, to someone calling out, say her name. And there were many members of Congress wearing buttons and pins that said, Lake and Riley, say her name.
- [19:52]
Ted Cruz
He said the wrong name.
- [19:54]
Ben Ferguson
He said, Lincoln Riley, who was the.
- [19:57]
Ted Cruz
Head football coach at usc.
- [20:01]
Ben Ferguson
It. And he had one of those buttons. So I think one of the members of Congress had given it to him.
- [20:08]
Unnamed Commentator
Yes. I don't know if it was Congressman Andy Ogles who actually invited me tonight or if it was Marjorie Taylor Greene or. But there were a handful of the conservative congressmen who had it. And what I heard from one of the members was that when they handed it to the president, he leaned and he said, oh, I like your button. But I don't think it was sarcastic. I think he legitimately had no idea what was going on and what it represented.
- [20:33]
Ben Ferguson
Well, look, when the heckling happened, he responded, and he did sort of try to say her name, although he didn't get it right. But then, look what he said. He said, you know, she was killed. I'm sorry, she was killed. And he expressed sympathy for the parents. And I gotta say, that may have been the moment that pissed me off the most, because, listen, so Lake and Riley's parents were invited. And actually, you know, they were invited and they decided not to come. And I understand they are grieving the loss of their daughter, their home in Georgia. And the Georgia House member who invited them left the seat vacant in honor of Lake and Riley. And, you know, frankly, they don't want Joe Biden's empathy. They don't want a Hallmark card from him. They want their daughter back. And what Joe Biden didn't do is take responsibility for his direct culpability. And let's walk through. Lake and Riley never should have been killed. The illegal immigrant who murdered her was caught. He was apprehended in Texas, in El Paso. He came illegally from Venezuela. We had him. And what should have happened is the Biden administration should have followed the law. They should have put him on a plane and flown him back to Venezuela. And if Joe Biden had done that, Lake and Riley would still be alive today.
- [22:05]
Unnamed Commentator
But it wasn't just El Paso. So frustrating about this. A totally preventable tragedy is they could have gotten him in New. They did get him in New York. He committed a crime in New York. They let him go.
- [22:17]
Ben Ferguson
He was arrested for endangering a child.
- [22:20]
Unnamed Commentator
That's right.
- [22:21]
Ben Ferguson
But New York City, again run by Democrats, calls itself a sanctuary city, and they let him go. If Joe Biden had deported him, Lake and Riley would be alive. If New York City had kept him in jail, Lake and Riley would be alive.
- [22:32]
Unnamed Commentator
Forget about New York City. He ends up in Athens, Georgia, and he steals from a store. I forget which store it was. The Georgia authorities, I think he was cited with a misdemeanor for shoplifting. You had three distinct opportunities, three chances.
- [22:50]
Ted Cruz
To get rid of him.
- [22:50]
Unnamed Commentator
Three chances, three strikes, you're out. And a poor American student winds up dead because of it.
- [22:55]
Ben Ferguson
And by the way, let's be clear. Jeremy Caceres is a two year old boy, a beautiful little boy, who was murdered just weeks ago in Prince George's county In Virginia, about 30 miles from where Joe Biden was standing. And that little boy was murdered again by an illegal immigrant that Joe Biden let go. This is happening across the country. We're getting day after day stories of children raped by illegal immigrants. Joe Biden has let go and he had zero acknowledgement of that. Zero intention of changing anything. It was just, it was just crocodile tears of I'm so sorry about your daughter without acknowledging it happened because of his policies. And he continues to do those policies, which means there'll be another Lake and Riley tomorrow and another. Another set of parents that he again disingenuously apologizes.
- [23:51]
Ted Cruz
Well, and the proof that the President doesn't seem to care about this issue is the fact that it took him 40 minutes into an hour speech to even mention the border on his own. That's how far they buried the border issue in his State of the Union speech.
- [24:06]
Unnamed Commentator
What I wondered when he was brow beating the Republicans for not voting for even more illegal immigration, which is what his border bill would have done, is is he just counting on the American people not realizing that he is dismantling the fence that the Texas border authorities are putting up, that it's not merely passivity that he's allowing.
- [24:30]
Ben Ferguson
Actually, I'll give you a little bit of correction on that. He wants to dismantle it, but he hasn't actually done it.
- [24:37]
Unnamed Commentator
He hasn't succeeded.
- [24:38]
Ben Ferguson
No, no. The razor wire is there. And they ended up, Texas had gotten an injunction preventing the Biden administration from removing the razor wire. And that injunction got reversed. So the Biden administration is no longer prevented from removing the razor wire, but they have not done.
- [24:58]
Unnamed Commentator
So they wanted to do it. They're prevented from doing it. They're then allowed to do it, but they got spooked by the politics of it.
- [25:04]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah.
- [25:05]
Steve Baker
Wow.
- [25:06]
Ben Ferguson
Wow.
- [25:08]
Unnamed Commentator
That's actually encouraging that someone at the White House is saying, hold on, that really crazy thing that we were Gonna do? Maybe. Let's hold off for a few days.
- [25:17]
Ben Ferguson
Wow.
- [25:18]
Ted Cruz
All right, before we end, I gotta get you guys reaction to two different things. Two clips from cnn. You guys were obviously in the chamber, and you. You didn't get to see all the commentary. I want you to hear what CNN had to say about the state of the Union. This is clip one. Listen, he seemed like Walt Kowalski. You talked about this earlier. He said, walt Kowalski and Gran Torino screaming at kids. Get off my lawn. Like an old guy screaming at kids.
- [25:43]
Steve Baker
My guess is that when he got into the heart of his agenda, the things that you ridicule about the cost of food and, you know, price gouging and so on, I bet you that scored with a lot of people. I think that the. The populist economic agenda is. Is a powerful, powerful thing for him. Look, there are parts of it. I'm not sure that the attacks all landed exactly. They may have landed well in that room, for sure. And they landed well with base voters, for sure. I'm not sure with those swing voters that they landed as well.
- [26:18]
Ted Cruz
But I do think that's David Axelrod, the former Obama, you know, senior adviser, who's saying, you know, in response to one of the commenters saying, look, it was. It was like an old guy screaming to the kids, get off my law. It's what you said earlier, center. But they're saying cnn. And he's even admitting, hey, there's a pretty good chance that didn't play well or land with independent voters.
- [26:40]
Ben Ferguson
Ben, you're really scaring me. Are you telling me that unbeknownst to me, I was channeling David Axelrod on cnn? Holy crap. I might have to just hang it all up right now. It's over. I am off the rails.
- [26:54]
Ted Cruz
Michael, pour him a drink right now.
- [26:56]
Ben Ferguson
Something.
- [26:56]
Unnamed Commentator
We need to correct something.
- [26:58]
Ben Ferguson
And I gotta say, even worse. Axelrod's analogy is better. He threw out the whole Gran Torino, like. Like he took it one notch better. I am just thoroughly humiliated.
- [27:09]
Ted Cruz
And not only that, you'll like this one. So then there was another commentator on CNN who actually said this about the president's speech.
- [27:17]
Ben Ferguson
Listen, he talked about snickers and snack chips before. Before he ever got to the border. He was obsessed with his political rival more than he was obsessed with the condition of the American people. It was so weird. This guy lectures us all on unity, the soul of the nation, and he gives the most partisan convention speech in place of a State of the Union that I've ever heard. It's the literal opposite of Unity. It's so partizan. He's obsessed with taunting Republicans. It's not statesmanlike. Let me say one more thing on Israel.
- [27:49]
Ted Cruz
I mean, that was Scott Jennings, a former colleague of mine, who said that. And he's right, by the way. I mean, he did talk about snickers and snack chips before he ever got to the border. It was his words. It was just weird.
- [28:02]
Unnamed Commentator
I like his observation that Joe Biden thought he was at the dnc. Maybe that's as simple as that. He thought he walked into the convention, whoopsie daisy. It actually was a joint session for the State of the Union. But the man doesn't remember his own name.
- [28:16]
Ben Ferguson
I will say one thing that also that clip reminded me of. It was odd how many times he referenced Trump. I cannot think of any State of the Union in my lifetime with that many references to your opponent. The former president. The former president. The former president. And he's like, you know, I believe in, in truth and happiness and love and puppy dogs and fairies and my opponent believes in hate and suffering and misery and dead puppies. Like, like, it was just like. Really, dude?
- [28:53]
Unnamed Commentator
A little defensive.
- [28:54]
Ted Cruz
You would say Campaign 101. I will tell you the list of things Biden didn't mention. The State of the Union. You guys ready for this? He did not mention US service members killed in Afghanistan. He did not mention US service members killed by Iranian backed proxies in the Middle East. He did not mention gas prices. He did not mention TikTok or China. He did not mention North Korea. He didn't mention Cuba. He didn't mention school choice. He didn't mention the classified DAX scandal. He didn't mention Hunter Biden or the Biden corruption. He did not mention fossil fuels. He did not mention deporting illegals. He did not mention a border wall.
- [29:31]
Ben Ferguson
He.
- [29:31]
Ted Cruz
He did not mention the attacks on pregnancy centers. And he did not mention China's human rights abuses. Notice a lot of those connect with people that have given money. The Biden crime family. I'll leave it with that. Senator, your reaction?
- [29:45]
Ben Ferguson
Well, but did he have anything to say about how many chips are in a bag of chips?
- [29:49]
Unnamed Commentator
I think, you know, I think he did touch on that important subject.
- [29:53]
Ben Ferguson
You know, the State of the Union may be in trouble, but the state of chips is really in trouble.
- [30:00]
Ted Cruz
As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day. You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards. I'd love to have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson Podcast. And we will see you back here on Monday morning.