Media Normalizing Terrorists in America, Social Media Censoring Conservatives & Biden Campaign Doubles Down on Amnesty Week In Review

Summary

The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson – Episode Summary

Release Date: May 11, 2024
Host: Ben Ferguson
Guest: Senator Ted Cruz
Title: Media Normalizing Terrorists in America, Social Media Censoring Conservatives & Biden Campaign Doubles Down on Amnesty

Ben Ferguson returns with a compelling episode of The 47 Morning Update, featuring a deep dive into pressing national security concerns, the suppression of conservative voices on social media, and the Biden administration's controversial amnesty policies. Joined by Senator Ted Cruz, the episode unpacks the intersection of media influence, political strategy, and immigration policy shaping America's current landscape.

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1. Media Normalizing Terrorist Threats

The episode opens with Senator Ted Cruz expressing his alarm over the media's portrayal—or lack thereof—of terrorism threats stemming from the southern border. He questions why media outlets seem to downplay these national security concerns.

• Ted Cruz (00:01):
  "Why is it that they're trying to act like this isn't a national security threat?"

Ben Ferguson reinforces this concern by referencing FBI Director Chris Wray's warnings about the imminent risk of a terror attack within the United States.

• Ben Ferguson (01:16):
  "If you want to be outraged, listen to what Chris Wray, the administrator of the FBI, is saying about the risk we have of a terror attack right now in the United States."

The conversation highlights troubling statistics indicating a sharp increase in individuals on terror watch lists apprehended at both southern and northern borders. For instance, fiscal year 2023 saw 169 individuals on terror watch lists apprehended at the southern border halfway through the year—a significant rise from the single-digit numbers during Trump's presidency. Additionally, 630 terror suspects were encountered at the northern border over the past two fiscal years.

• Senator Cruz (03:30):
  "In fiscal year 2023, 169 people on the terror watch list were apprehended at our southern border."

Cruz critiques Democratic leaders, including President Biden, for their perceived inaction and policy decisions that he believes contribute to these escalating threats.

• Senator Cruz (05:38):
  "They do not want to hear the evidence. They're like an ostrich plunging their head in the sand."

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2. Social Media Censoring Conservatives

Shifting focus, the episode delves into the influence of Big Tech on public opinion and the systematic suppression of conservative voices. Senator Cruz shares personal anecdotes about his experiences with account suspensions following his criticism of platforms like Facebook.

• Senator Cruz (11:30):
  "I've been a victim of it. I spoke out again against Big Tech a few years ago at a CPAC convention and before I landed home, after I spoke out about Big Tech, specifically Facebook, my accounts were shut down."

Ben Ferguson introduces a significant Senate report titled "Weaponizing Terms of Service: How Online Service Providers Use Broad Policies to Silence Conservatives." The report documents numerous instances where social media platforms have disproportionately targeted conservative content and figures. Notable examples include:

• Twitter suspending the Babylon Bee for satirical content about a Biden official.

• Facebook and Twitter suppressing stories related to Hunter Biden's laptop before the 2020 election.

• YouTube removing content from conservative figures like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and blocking episodes of Ferguson's own podcast, "Verdict."

• Ben Ferguson (15:35):
  "We know that Twitter, before Elon Musk purchased them, suspended the account of the Babylon Bee for making a joke about a Biden administration official."

Further, the report discusses how online service providers exploit their control over essential infrastructure—such as domain registrars, web hosting, and security services—to deplatform conservative organizations effectively, limiting their ability to communicate and organize.

• Ben Ferguson (20:35):
  "There are three main categories of infrastructure that keep websites running: domain registrars, web hosting companies, and security protection companies."

This strategic silencing is portrayed as a deliberate effort to skew public discourse and influence election outcomes by marginalizing conservative viewpoints.

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3. Biden Campaign Doubles Down on Amnesty

In the final segment, Ferguson and Cruz tackle President Biden's immigration policies, specifically his push for amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants. They argue that this approach not only exacerbates national security risks but also prioritizes political gain over the safety and well-being of American citizens.

• Senator Cruz (21:20):
  "We need to start handing out amnesty. Somehow that's going to fix the problems in this country..."

Ben Ferguson criticizes the administration for favoring illegal immigrants as potential future Democratic voters, suggesting that this strategy undermines national security and strains public resources.

• Ben Ferguson (22:43):
  "Given the choice between illegal immigrants and American citizens, they're with the illegals."

The discussion highlights the case of Marvin Perez Lopez, an illegal immigrant arrested for kidnapping and sexual assault, to illustrate the real-world consequences of current immigration policies.

• Ben Ferguson (23:27):
  "Marvin Perez Lopez... was arrested on May 4. He turned himself into the border patrol but was released, only to be charged with serious crimes shortly after."

Cruz and Ferguson argue that Democratic lawmakers are complicit in these outcomes by supporting policies that allow dangerous individuals to enter and remain in the country, prioritizing political advantage over public safety.

• Senator Cruz (29:09):
  "Why do they keep voting in favor of releasing 11 million illegal immigrants... when there's an enormous risk of terrorism?"

The episode also touches on local resistance to migrant shelters in Chicago ahead of the Democratic National Convention, framing it as a politically motivated attempt to manage public perception.

• Ben Ferguson (29:15):
  "They're trying to be utter hypocrites and say, don't do it to our own community."

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Conclusion

Throughout the episode, Ben Ferguson and Senator Ted Cruz present a critical view of current media practices, Big Tech policies, and Democratic immigration strategies, arguing that these elements collectively pose significant threats to national security and political integrity. They call for greater accountability and transparency to address these issues, emphasizing the need to prioritize the safety and interests of American citizens over political expediency.

Listeners are encouraged to engage further by accessing the full podcast for an in-depth exploration of these topics.

For continued updates and in-depth analysis on America's most pressing issues, subscribe to The 47 Morning Update on the iHeartRadio app or your preferred podcast platform.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Ted Cruz (00:01):
  "Why is it that they're trying to act like this isn't a national security threat?"

• Ben Ferguson (01:16):
  "If you want to be outraged, listen to what Chris Wray, the administrator of the FBI, is saying about the risk we have of a terror attack right now in the United States."

• Senator Cruz (03:30):
  "In fiscal year 2023, 169 people on the terror watch list were apprehended at our southern border."

• Ben Ferguson (15:35):
  "We know that Twitter, before Elon Musk purchased them, suspended the account of the Babylon Bee for making a joke about a Biden administration official."

• Senator Cruz (21:20):
  "We need to start handing out amnesty. Somehow that's going to fix the problems in this country..."

• Ben Ferguson (22:43):
  "Given the choice between illegal immigrants and American citizens, they're with the illegals."

• Senator Cruz (29:09):
  "Why do they keep voting in favor of releasing 11 million illegal immigrants... when there's an enormous risk of terrorism?"

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This comprehensive summary captures the essence of the episode, highlighting key discussions, insights, and conclusions drawn by Ben Ferguson and Senator Ted Cruz. It provides listeners with a clear understanding of the topics covered, complete with notable quotes and their context within the conversation.

Transcript

[Ted Cruz]

Welcome. It is verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, the Weekend Review. Ben Ferguson with you. And these are the top stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week. First up, the media normalizing terrorist threats coming across our southern border. Why is it that they're trying to act like this isn't a national security threat? We're going to deal with that. Also, conservatives are continuing to be silenced on social media. This is a big part of the plan by Democrats to stop Republicans in the presidential election will expose it all. And finally, Biden's reelection campaign is doubling down on amnesty now for all illegal immigrants. It's the Weekend Review, and it starts right now. There's two things that worry me, and I want your take on this. Number one, it's almost like the media is worried the same way you are, that there's a real chance of a major terrorist attack. We've seen warnings from Director Wray at the FBI and others who are saying they're concerned even about attacks that would mimic what we saw against the people in Israel. But it's also like they're trying to normalize the idea that, yeah, there's a lot of terrorists in America, and if something does happen, it's like, yeah, we knew this. We covered it. We talked about it. Maybe you shouldn't be as outraged.

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, if you want to be outraged, listen to what Chris Wray, the administrator of the FBI, is saying about the risk we have of a terror attack right now in the United States.

[Ted Cruz]

From an FBI perspective, we are seeing a wide array of very dangerous threats that emanate from the border. There is a particular network that has. Where some of the overseas facilitators of the smuggling network have ISIS ties that we're very concerned about and that we've been spending enormous amount of effort with our partners investigating. Ray said a key word there coming across the border.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

Like, he's telling you how they're doing it. So if he knows this, and that means. I'm sure he's given the same briefing he just gave America to the President. United States of America. Why would you not then close the border if this is what you know is coming across the border? And my second question is, after 9, 11, I remember, like, we learned very quickly how they. That the terrorists were able to use certain loopholes and things to get into America. And we. We squeezed down those instantly. I'm worried that even if they. If there is a terrorist attack, they're still gonna keep the border open.

[Ben Ferguson]

Look, Joe Biden doesn't care. Kamala Harris doesn't care. Chuck Schumer doesn't care. Nancy Pelosi doesn't care. I've been fighting for years to secure the border. And every Democrat is on record over and over and over again, I forced a boat on HR2 which would actually end, catch and release, secure the border, stop these terrorists from coming in. And, and every Democrat in the Senate, all of them, there are no moderates on this issue. All of them party line, vote. Open borders, Open borders. Open borders. Every Democrat in the Senate voted to throw out the impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas to hear no evidence. They don't want to hear the evidence. They're like an ostrich plunging their head in the sand. Do not tell them about the terrorists coming into this country because they don't care about who came in yesterday and they don't care about who's gonna come in tomorrow.

[Ted Cruz]

Let's talk about the numbers because that's the other part of this warning. It's not 1 or 2 or 10 or 15 or 20 that are on the terrorist watch list that we know have come across the southern border. It's an alarming number in the hundreds.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah, look, when Trump was president, the number of people that were apprehended on the terror watch list coming into the country was every year in the low single digits was one or two was a very small number. In fiscal year 2023, 169 people on the terror watch list were apprehended at our southern border. 169 this fiscal year. We're only halfway through. We already have nearly 100 who've been apprehended at the southern border again, that.

[Ted Cruz]

Are on the terror watch list.

[Ben Ferguson]

On the terror watch list. And by the way, that's the southern border, the northern border. The stats, 630 terror suspects were encountered at the northern border in the last two fiscal years.

[Ted Cruz]

The New York Post breaking that aspect of the story. So it's not just, as you mentioned, the southern border, it's the northern border, which is another problem, which is by all accounts is even more, I guess, open, easier to come across. Many believe it's much larger.

[Ben Ferguson]

And if you are a terrorist, if you are heeding Iran's call for global jihad against America, if you're heeding Hamas's call for, for global jihad against America, if you're heeding Hezbollah's call for global jihad against America, if you're heeding Palestinian Islamic Jihad's call for global jihad against America, if you're heeding ISIS's call for global jihad against America. It's not complicated. You come across the border in a place where there's not a lot of border security, where you can be one of the nearly 2 million gotaways. These are just the people who've encountered the numbers are even more concerning of the gotaways and the Democrats, at the end of the day, they are willfully complicit in an open door policy to terrorists who want to harm Americans.

[Ted Cruz]

You've been there when Ray's been testifying and you know Ray, the FBI director. Did Democrats ask any tough questions of him? Like hey, we know how many are on the watch list that we've gotten, right, that were on the watch list. But do they even care about the gotaways or is it, is it if I don't ask and it doesn't exist and then I don't have to be held politically accountable for it.

[Ben Ferguson]

Democrats will not ask a single question about illegal immigration. They will not ask a single question about gotaways. They will not ask a single question about the children being brutalized by human traffickers. They will not ask a single question about the women being sexually assaulted by human traffickers. Their approach is just hide from the issue. They don't have a defense. So they ask totally. You know what they'll ask about? White supremacists. They'll get all worked up about white supremacists. Mind you, they're not concerned at all about the anti Semites on college campuses. Well, maybe it's because the people funding the anti Semites are also funding those same Democrats campaigns.

[Ted Cruz]

Let's talk about the political fallout of this. If heaven forbid, there's an attack is part of the Democrats defense. They think that the American people are too stupid to connect these dots. I mean, you see the report from NBC News. You see Christopher Wray out there warning you. You have a president that knows about it. Do they just assume that they that the media is going to carry water for them, that there is attack? There will be no accountability for the people that allowed for the open border policy which allowed them to come into this country. I would be terrified if I was a Democrat running for reelection, knowing this is a real possibility. And the FBI directors warning you, you would think you'd want to say something on the record that says, hey, we got to get this under control.

[Ben Ferguson]

Ben, I honestly don't know. Because they don't defend themselves. They don't present an argument, they don't present any alternative. Listen, they count on the corporate media to cover for them to Hide what they're doing. And I think many of them are naive. For them, it is all politics.

[Ted Cruz]

So it's not about safety or security of your family or their family or our family.

[Ben Ferguson]

11 million illegal immigrants and they say these are future Democrat voters. And what we care about is staying in power. And if people have to die, so be it, because they know people are dying every single day. People are dying because of this open border. And the Democrats will do nothing to change it. It's who they are. I don't know how many listeners of verdict are PhD students in economics, but there's a theory called modern Monetary theory, and it's a bunch of gobbledygook that is designed to basically justify big spending liberals just printing money like there's no tomorrow. And it's all sorts of fancy verbiage to explain it doesn't matter how much money you can print, you can just spend into oblivion. Everything will be fine. We can afford free everything for everybody. Well, I want you to listen, and I'm going to present this without further commentary. I want you to listen to Jared Bernstein, who is the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Biden White House. So he is the top economist for Joe Biden explaining what modern monetary theory is. And I want you just to understand this is the genius behind bidenomics. Take a look.

[Jared Bernstein]

The US Government can't go bankrupt because we can print our own money.

[Ben Ferguson]

It obviously begs the question, why exactly are we borrowing in a currency that we print ourselves?

[Unnamed Local News Reporter]

I'm waiting for someone to stand up.

[Ben Ferguson]

And say, why do we borrow our.

[Ted Cruz]

Own currency in the first place?

[Unnamed Local News Reporter]

Like you said, they print the dollar. So why, why does the government even borrow?

[Jared Bernstein]

Well, the. So the. I mean, again, some of this stuff gets. Some of the language that the. Mm. Some of the language and concepts are just confusing. I mean, the government definitely prints money and it definitely lends that money, which is why the government definitely prints money and then it lends that money by selling bonds. Is that what they do? They sell bonds? Yeah, they sell bonds because they sell bonds and people buy the bonds and lend them the money. Yeah. So a lot of times, at least to my year with mmt, the language and the concepts can be kind of unnecessarily confusing. But there is no question that the government prints money and then it uses that money to, To. So, yeah, I guess I'm just. I don't. I can't really talk. I don't. I don't get it. I don't know what they're Talking about like, because it's like the government clearly prints money, does it all the time, and it clearly borrows. Otherwise we wouldn't be having this debt and deficit conversation. So I don't think there's anything confusing there.

[Ted Cruz]

Wherever he went to college, I really think they should take back their diploma. And this is the guy who's the top economic guy at the White House.

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, let me just say every economic policy of Joe Biden has flowed directly from the genius and wisdom you just heard displayed.

[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. Senator. Big Tech is obviously had a massive influence over public opinion in this country. We saw a recent report that came out just on Tik Tok, for example, where they were 45 to 1 stories that were pro Palestinian, pro Hamas over Israel. That's one example of how they've really been able to shape public opinion, especially with young people and the riots and the chaos we're witnessing on college campuses right now. But there's also something else that's happened with Big Tech. I've been a victim of it. I spoke out again against Big Tech a few years ago at a CPAC convention and before I landed home, after I spoke out about Big Tech, specifically Facebook, my accounts were shut down. They have never worked the same way as they did before. The reach has disappeared. I've witnessed it. Uh, and, and many other conservative leaders out there are going through the same things. And it always seems to happen. Senator. Right. During a big election cycle where the Democrats get a free flow of information out and conservatives get hammered and silenced.

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, that's exactly right. So I started last year as the ranking member on the Senate Committee of Commerce, Science and Transportation. And from that position as the ranking member, which means the senior Republican on that committee, I launched an investigation into the abuse of power Big Tech. And this past week we put out a major report. The report is entitled Weaponizing Terms of Service How Online Service Providers Use Broad Policies to Silence Conservatives. Now, there are a lot of instances that, that we know about that get a lot of publicity. We know, for example, that Twitter, before Elon Musk purchased them, suspended the account of the Babylon Bee for making a joke about a Biden administration official. We know that both Facebook and Twitter suppressed stories about Hunter Biden's laptop before the 2020 election. We know that Facebook removed posts suggesting that COVID 19 originated in a Wuhan Wuhan lab, something we talked about at length on this podcast and a theory that has now been confirmed both by the federal Department of Energy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We know that YouTube took down a March 2021 video of a panel discussion with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis during which he disputed claims that children needed to wear face masks. We know that YouTube also, which is owned by Google, blocked access to a November 2023 episode of this podcast Verdict because we were criticizing the corporate media's favorable coverage of Hamas and, and YouTube deemed okay, you must be an adult to see what is on the network news. We also know in 2022 DirecTV dropped one America News Network at less than a year after Democrat leaders in Congress sent a letter to the CEO calling on them to stop carrying the network. We also know they did the same thing to Newsmax. Now I lit Direct TV up and they ended up bringing Newsmax back. We also know that Intuit, at the direction of its banking partners, refused to provide payment processing and payroll services to gun manufacturers and, and sellers. And we know that JP Morgan Chase closed the account of the National Committee of Religious Freedom which was created by former State Department Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom and former U.S. senator Sam Brownback. We know that GoFundMe block the release of $10 million of donations to the Canadian Truckers Freedom Convoy. We've seen that happen over and over and over again. Well, what this report does is it lays out an entirely new area of discrimination and it is using web based products and services, online service providers to ban conservative organizations from using their technology. And it's going after the infrastructure that is needed to communicate. And in fact this, this investigation reveals that online service providers are following a playbook for silencing conservatives. That leftist organizations, including the Southern Poverty Law center, which is wildly left wing and hates conservatives, and the Anti Defamation League, the adl, they together put together this strategy, this playbook to quote, remove infrastructure services that conservative organizations need to operate. And so I'm going to describe that playbook and what they're doing in particular.

[Ted Cruz]

When you look at their playbook and this, this amount of influence, I mean this can change and alter certainly an election cycle. It can certainly, I would argue, change a presidential election as well. And that's the reason why they're doing this. When, when you think about, you know, you've got millions of people that follow you Facebook, I've got over a million. But if you turn off and throttle either one of us, then the reach that we have compared to the left, it just disappears. It's the old saying, right? If a big tree falls in the forest and no one's around, did it make a sound? And that's exactly what they did. But it wasn't just to one or two people. They were doing this to hundreds of top conservative voices that that people look to for their opinions, specifically when it comes to election year issues.

[Ben Ferguson]

So that's exactly right. And what this report focuses on is it uses a couple of key examples. It uses, number one, Slack's removal of libs of TikTok's workspace. It focuses on event rights, removal of event pages for events related to Matt Walsh's what Is a Woman Documentary, as well as an event where Riley Gaines was scheduled to speak. And it focuses on Bontera's termination of its relationship with Independent Women's Forum, which deprived that organization of major nonprofit technology service provider services. And all of this follows. There was a report that was put out by the Anti Defamation League and it is called Bad Gateway. How Deep Platforming Affects Extremist Websites and and here's what the ADL recommended. It says, quote, de platforming websites removing infrastructure services they need to operate such as website hosting, can reduce the spread and reach of extremism and hate online. But when does deplatforming succeed? And here's what ADL explained. Quote this report shows that deplatforming can decrease the popularity of extremist websites, especially when done without warning. And they go through we learned four important lessons about how deep platforming affects extremist websites by which they mean anything right of center. Number one, it can cause popularity rankings to decrease immediately. Number two, it may take users a long time to return to the website. Sometimes the website never regains its previous popularity.

[Ted Cruz]

Bingo.

[Ben Ferguson]

Number three, unexpected and unexpected is key. Unexpected de platforming makes it take longer for the website to regain its previous popularity levels. And number four, replicating deep platform services such as discussions, discussion forums or live streaming video products on a standalone website presents significant challenges, including higher costs and smaller audiences. Now I want to go into a little bit more. This is what the ADL report. It has an entire section that says what is deplatforming? And by the way, the corporate media insists when we talk about deplatforming that we're making it up. Well, if you actually read the blueprint, they are very explicit. The left is explicit. They want to silence you. So let me read from this ADL report. Quote There are three main categories of infrastructure that keep websites running domain registrars, web hosting companies, and security protection companies. Number one, the website must be able to register and keep a domain name. A domain name such as google.com or adl.org is how visitors find a site. If a website is removed from domain name Services, it becomes much more difficult, if not impossible, to find. Number two Web hosting companies and content distribution networks provide digital storage space for all the files, pictures, videos and software that make up the content of a website. When a website loses its hosting provider, the site's content disappears. Losing a cdn, a content distribution network, can cause slow service for high traffic sites. And number three, a third category of infrastructure provider includes companies that protect websites from external security risks such as distributed denial of service. DDoS attacks DDoS attacks flood a website with fake traffic to overwhelm it, rendering it unable to answer normal user requests. If an infrastructure company such as a network security firm Cloudflare, refuses to provide DDoS protection to a vulnerable website, it is vulnerable to being flooded with traffic, rendering it inaccessible as before.

[Ted Cruz]

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 center. I want to talk about what's also happening at the border. The President of the United States of America has come out and it's pretty clear we now know what his re election campaign slogan, I guess for the onslaught of illegal immigrants coming into this country is going to be. It is. We need to start handing out amnesty. Somehow that's going to fix the problems in this country and it's something that we can all be proud of if we give amnesty. Here is the President of the United States of America in his own words.

[Jared Bernstein]

I love it when people say why dreamers? Can you imagine a kid 2 years old saying mom, don't take me across Rio Grande. It's against the law. Give me a break. These have been model citizens. Congress has to act and the right thing to do is to keep pushing forward until we get it done.

[Ted Cruz]

So there's his famous line, get it done. So he is doubling down now. Not only do we have a wide open board borders, we have countless millions of illegal immigrants coming in. But he refuses to admit the carnage that is taking place at the southern border. And now it's pushing for amnesty Part one, which would be all of these, as he describes them, dreamers. And then the next part would be, well, more illegal immigrants and then part three would be even more illegal immigrants. This is what he's doing for this election.

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, listen, Biden's making clear that Joe Biden and the Democrats, they stand with illegal immigrants. And given the choice between illegal immigrants and American citizens, they're with the illegals. Given the choice between criminals and law abiding citizens, they're with criminals. And that is a consistent theme. It's why 11 million people crossed into this country illegally. Because they look at those 11 million illegal immigrants and they say, hey, those are future Democrat voters. We stay in power if we let them in. And they turn a blind eye to the people who are suffering and dying. You know who Joe Biden didn't talk about this week?

[Ted Cruz]

Who is that?

[Ben Ferguson]

He didn't talk about Marvin Perez Lopez. Now, who is Marvin Perez Lopez? Well, he was arrested the last couple of days. He is an immigrant from Guatemala. He was arrested over the weekend for kidnapping a minor under the age of 13 and sexual assault. That's according to Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. Marvin Perez Lopez, who's in the country illegally, was arrested on May 4. Perez Lopez reportedly left Guatemala in early January, crossed through Mexico and what did he do? He turned himself into the border Patrol. But of course, Joe Biden, being a Democrat, he turned around, he let him go. Do you know when Perez Lopez was given a court date?

[Ted Cruz]

I'm afraid you're going to say years from the moment they let him go.

[Ben Ferguson]

2027. There you go, 2027, he was released, he went to Florida and then he turned around and he's now been charged with kidnapping a minor under the age of 13 and sexual assault. Now, we're not going to say the minor's name, but we are going to point out week after week after week, every single week, there's another violent crime committed by an illegal immigrant. Joe Biden releases. And what is he, is he talking about that, does he care about this child who was kidnapped and sexually assaulted? The answer has to be no. Now look, when I say that, Ben, some people might say, gosh, that's harsh. What do you mean he doesn't care about a child kidnapped and assaulted. If he cared, he would stop releasing illegal immigrants. You can't keep doing it when you see, hey, when I do this, children get kidnapped and raped, maybe I should stop doing this, that that's actually what someone who cared about the crime and wanted to prevent the next child from being kidnapped and raped would do. Joe Biden. And by the way, every single Democrat in Congress, without exception, every single senator, every single House member, they don't care either. Why do I know they don't care. Because if they cared, they'd be willing to stand up to Biden and say, enough is enough. Stop releasing violent, criminal illegal aliens.

[Ted Cruz]

Stop.

[Ben Ferguson]

And in the Senate, every single time I force a vote, and I've done it over and over and over again, every Democrat, all of them, vote in favor of releasing illegal immigrants, even if they're committing crimes against children in America.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah, I know. There's, you know the old saying, you know, see no evil, hear no evil, right? And then you can insulate yourself. The Democrats, though, have heard enough to know just how bad it is at the border. And now every state's a border state. And seeing how bad it is with what's happening, whether it's in New York City, whether it's in Denver, Colorado. I mean, it's widespread. The chaos and the anarchy and the destruction and the abuse of children, the sexual abuse, the human trafficking, the drugs, the fentanyl. Is there any of your colleagues that truly still don't know, or is this just a. If we don't talk about, then we don't have to admit what we already know.

[Ben Ferguson]

Look, it's hypocrisy, I'll tell you. Tonight I was in a classified briefing in the Senate. I was a classified briefing talking about all sorts of things, including threats of terrorism in the United States. And there was a Democrat senator who at some point was sharing that based on the briefings he'd received, there's an enormous risk of terrorism. He's deeply worried. We do much more to prevent it. And I remember sitting there and thinking, gosh, what you're saying sounds very reasonable. Why do you keep voting in favor of releasing 11 million illegal immigrants? Like, at some point you can't claim I'm worried about the threat of a terrorist attack when you have nearly 2 million gotaways, when you have Iran calling for global jihad against America, when they have Hezbollah and Hamas calling for global jihad and the Biden administration letting them go. And he was. What was interesting is sitting in this classified briefing, this Democrat senator sounded impressive, emphatic. He sounded believable. I'm like, wow, he's really worried about a terrorist attack. But you know what? Just a couple of weeks ago, we had a vote on the impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas, who has let 11 million illegal immigrants go. And this Democrat, along with every single other Democrat, voted to throw the case out, to hear no evidence they didn't care about the risk of terrorism. That's the simple reality.

[Ted Cruz]

One other thing, and you talk about hypocrisy which does make me laugh. The Democratic Convention is going to be held in Chicago. And we're now hearing that ahead of the Democratic Convention. They are going to clear out the area of illegal immigrants. Take a listen. This from local NBC News in Chicago.

[Unnamed Local News Reporter]

Strong reactions tonight from residents after learning Mayor Brandon Johnson is considering plans to open a new temporary migrant shelter in their south side neighborhood.

[Jared Bernstein]

And he don't know where to put him. Why would you put him in our neighborhood? Well, why don't we go by your house?

[Ben Ferguson]

All of that money that he's given them.

[Ted Cruz]

We've been begging for years. We've lived here our whole life. We have a lot of bad things.

[Ben Ferguson]

That happen here already.

[Ted Cruz]

We do not need this. We just do not.

[Unnamed Local News Reporter]

Located just blocks away from Guaranteed Raid Field, the proposed building near Canal in Pershing is in the city's 11th Ward.

[Ted Cruz]

Look at where it's at. It's hit in the back.

[Ben Ferguson]

Why is that a good location? We have no amenities here as it is.

[Unnamed Local News Reporter]

Alderwoman Nicole Lee issued this letter to constituents yesterday saying she was notified earlier this week and met with the mayor on Thursday. She says the city wants to move migrants staying at the Standard Club near the Dirksen Federal Building to her ward before the Democratic National Convention.

[Ted Cruz]

This is just insane. It doesn't make sense. Keep them downtown. Keep them. I don't know.

[Ben Ferguson]

I mean, this is not our problem.

[Unnamed Local News Reporter]

The alderwoman made it clear she is against the proposed plan, citing safety and location concerns and lack of justification for the move. She says, quote, as our city grapples with this unprecedented influx of migrants, it is crucial that we handle the migrant crisis safely, responsibly, and with full transparency. The well being of our communities must be the top priority.

[Ben Ferguson]

But all we want to do is house our veterans and they're getting kicked to the side. For the people who didn't do anything.

[Ted Cruz]

For this country, yet those men and.

[Ben Ferguson]

Women honorably served, they should be coming first.

[Ted Cruz]

I love the last guy there talking about our veterans, but you go back to why they're doing this. Senator, read behind the lines here. This is because the residents are downtown and the area where the DNC is going to be, they're saying, hey, we got to clean this up. It's got to be nice and fresh, friendly, and look good for the Democratic National Convention. We gotta move them out of this area. All right. Throw them out there in this other part of the city.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah, no, that's exactly right. And I thought the most revealing comment in that montage you played was the alderman saying, this is not our problem. Now, she's a Democrat. All of those elected officials are Democrats. They keep voting for Democrats. They vote for a wild left wing Democrat mayor. They vote for a wild left wing Democrat governor. They vote for a wild left wing Democrat senator. They vote for a wild left wing Democrat president. Every one of those supports an invasion of this country of illegal immigrants. And they say, well, this is not our problem. Send them to Texas, send them to Florida, send them to anywhere other than our state. But we want them to keep coming in because you know what? We want them to show up in Texas and Florida and we want them to vote Democrats so we can be in power. But we don't actually want to deal with this invasion. The hypocrisy is massive. And if you want to change this, we need to have some real accountability. If they want open borders, we ought to send every single one of them to these blue jurisdictions until they realize 11 million people, this is not right. They're doing it to Texas, they're doing it to Florida, and by the way, they're doing it to every other state in the union. But they're trying to be utter hypocrites and say, don't do it to our own community.

[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.