← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Protecting Kids From Deepfake Exploitation, plus Trump Surges w Black Voters & Russia Passes USA in Europe Gas Sales
00:45:28
Loading summary
Transcript53 lines
- [00:02]
Host
Welcome.
- [00:02]
Ben Ferguson
It is verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. And Senator, we have got some really important legislation that it needs to be talked about that you're working on in a bipartisan way. Give people a little bit of update on that. And also we've got some other breaking news we're going to deal with as well.
- [00:21]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, that's right. So this week I launched major bipartisan legislation for focused on protecting kids online. And as you know, that's been a huge focus of mine for years. But in particular this is focused on AI, artificial intelligence and deep fake technology that is being used more and more to exploit children and in particular to create explicit images of teenagers, of women and to put it publicly, taking their face and melding it with explicit sexual images, either pictures or videos, and making them public. And the victims that are happening are growing and growing exponentially. And so I've introduced legislation, bipartisan legislation, number one, to make it a crime to publish deep fake images, intimate images of an individual without their consent. But number two, and this is really the most important part of the legislation to mandate that big tech companies take down those images at the request of the victim. The name of this bill is the Take It down act because right now when you have a victim and we have victims in Texas, we have teenage girls and many of these deepfakes target teenage girls. These images get posted that their friends at school see them. And the big tech platforms will not take down the images. They leave them up. And so this legislation will, would create a legal and statutory right for a victim, for a victim's parents to say, take this garbage down, it's not right, it's not real, it's non consensual and pull it down within 48 hours. And so that legislation we launched this week, and I'm hopeful we'll get that passed. Secondly, Ben, we're going to talk about the polling numbers that are coming out and in particular the enormous surge of support that Donald Trump and Republicans are seeing among African American voters. And I gotta say, this has Democrats freaked out. This has the corporate media losing their minds. They're very frightened about what this portends. And finally, we're going to talk about major news that did not get a whole lot of coverage because it actually reveals the absolute abysmal failure of the Biden administration's foreign policy and domestic policy. And that is in the month of May, Russia overtook the United States as the gas supplier to Europe. That is catastrophic. It's catastrophic for jobs in the state of Texas. And it's catastrophic for our national security. But it is also an enormous benefit to Vladimir Putin and Russia. And that is a gift of Joe Biden and the Democrats. We're going to explain that as well.
- [03:07]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, no doubt about it.
- [03:08]
Host
One of the things that so many of you that are listening have been.
- [03:10]
Ben Ferguson
A part of and we want to say thank you, is helping the people in Israel.
- [03:15]
Host
The International Fellow Fellowship of Christians and Jews is on the ground right now helping so many people in Israel that desperately need your help. There have been a lot of attacks have taken place even over the last several days. And the attacks on Israel have increased since October 7th with Iran and its proxies launching an attack of hundreds of drones and missiles. You may remember that news stories. Israel is really in a point where every day the people there are having to deal with a harsh reality of terror and that is by design by these terrorists. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is on the ground now addressing all the urgent needs. And that is where we're asking for your help. IFCJ is preparing for the worst by packing emergency bomb shelter kits that can be delivered to those that are in desperate need. And your life saving donation today will help assemble and place these kits with enough food and life saving emergency supplies for 20 people huddled in a bomb shelter. The cost to put together and distribute these kits is $290. And your gift now will help save lives. Not only is IFCJ doing this, but they're also helping install actual bomb shelters because there are not enough in the different areas that are being hit. And that is another thing that you can get involved with with ifcj. Now what we're asking you to do is get involved because there is a matching donor. Yes, it will double your impact and help provide twice the support. All you have to do is call IFCJ, 1-888488, IFCJ. That's 1-888-488- IFCJ. Or go online and give now to support IFCJ.org and help the people in Israel that support IFCJ.org I want to.
- [05:09]
Ben Ferguson
Start with painting a picture here especially so people understand just how important this bipartisan legislation is. You're working with Amy Klobuchar introducing the tools to address known exploitation of innocent people. This has become a moneymaker online, by the way, for people that want to do this to celebrities. We saw that recently happen with Taylor Swift and it really brought to light just how damaging these deepfakes can be and these in this, this kind of revenge that some People will take on, on exes and others or people they just want to harm or even just make money off of. But there's also, I know people personally who have been affected by this that are not famous, that are not a celebrity, and it has ruined the reputation. We have seen warnings from parents on the issue of suicide with young girls, young te boys who have had been exploited in this way with things that aren't real, that are fake and they can't get them taken down. They are then bullied and it's been tragic and cost many young people their lives. And that's why you guys are doing this.
- [06:21]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, that's exactly right. And I'll tell you, one of the major things that brought this issue to my attention was actually a call we got from a constituent, a mom, a family that live in North Texas and Alito and her daughter, a 14 year old girl was targeted, targeted by a classmate, A classmate that took her face and her image from social media, from Snapchat and other social media and used AI used deepfake technology to graft her face onto explicit nude images that were not her and publicized those to all of her classmates. And so she's 14 years old. This poor girl goes into school with all of her classmates believing that, that they've seen explicit sexual images of her. And it was a total lie. But obviously it traumatized this teenage girl significantly, as any young person would, or for that matter, most adults would. That is a horrific experience to go through. And listen, there's always been the ability for someone to Photoshop and put Ben Ferguson's head on Arnold Schwarzenegger's body. And by the way, that was you and Conan the Barbarian. I was really impressed. You should not have punched the camel. I'm gonna sick PETA on you. Punching a camel is a bad move. But look, if you graft your head onto a different body, it was fairly obvious to someone watching. What's changed is with the deepfake technology, it can now look completely real, that people can look at it and go, dude, I didn't know Ferguson was so ripped. And that here's an amazing stat. Up to 95% of all Internet deep fake videos depict non consensual intimate Images. Up to 95% and the vast majority of them target women and girls. And so this is becoming a tool, a tool for cyberbullying, a tool for attacking, maybe attacking an ex girlfriend or an ex wife or an ex partner that you're mad at and using it just to smear them and attack them. And so this bill, I've introduced it along with Amy Klobuchar. Amy Klobuchar is a Democrat, as you know, from Minnesota. It's also co sponsored by Cynthia Lummis, who's a Republican from Wyoming, Richard Blumenthal, who's a Democrat from Connecticut, Shelley Moore Capita, who's a Republican from West Virginia, and Jackie Rosen, who's a Democrat from Nevada. So we brought together both Republicans and Democrats and the two elements of this are, number one, making it a crime, making it a felony to publish non consensual intimate images without consent against someone's wishes. But number two, as I mentioned, and I think this is the piece, so there's other bills people have introduced that make it a crime to do so. And so there are multiple bills and I'm a co sponsor of other bills to do that. That's a good idea. The piece that is not reflected in any other legislation I know of that's been filed is the take it down component, which is the obligation on the social media company or the big tech company to take the content down.
- [09:41]
Ben Ferguson
And so, and victims have said this to me and said this to you is it's one thing that someone does it, it's another thing when there's no mechanism to take it down when you see it, when it's being used against you. We saw this recently with a doctor and nurses and they were used and they tried to get it taken down and they couldn't get it down. Like you just said, there's no incentive in essence for these big tech Cummings to even care or notice or respond to you.
- [10:11]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, look, that's exactly right. And as we all know, this happened to Taylor Swift. So Taylor Swift, you had people who took her image and made deep, fake, false, explicit images. And because Taylor Swift is a global superstar, she spoke out and big tech took it all down. So if you happen to be a global superstar, you can get it taken down. But if you're just an ordinary kid, you're powerless. And let me tell you a story that really illustrates this. At the press conference we did this week, we had victims and we had the moms of victims who had been targeted by this who came and joined us. And one of the victims was this 14 year old girl. And I mentioned that her mom initially reached out to my office and she's a Texan. When I sat down with the mom last week, she expressed to me frustration. Last week she said the images are still up, Snapchat has left them up. And she said, I've Called repeatedly. I've emailed, I've tried to say, take down these false images of my daughter. They're horrific, they're wrong. And Snapchat basically said, go jump in a lake. She got a run around, she couldn't talk to a human being. She got referred over and over and over and they're still up. And I'm sitting there in my office and I turned to my team and I said, that is garbage. And I told my team, I said, I want us to get on the phone with Snapchat today. And I told my team, if need be, put me on the phone with the CEO of Snapchat. And I told the mom, we are going to get this taken down within 24 hours. They took the images down now, but.
- [11:50]
Ben Ferguson
It took, and this is the, this is the scary part, it took someone getting a hold of you. Yes. And, and then having a United States Senator from Texas to then call and basically say, I want to talk to the CEO to get them to respond. The reality is the majority of Americans are not going to be able to pull that off. And that's exactly so important.
- [12:15]
Senator Ted Cruz
And it shows. It's effortless. They could do it instantaneously. They know how to pull it down. They're just, they're so unaccountable. There's such a hubris and arrogance that they don't feel the need to respond. So if you're a global superstar, you can get it taken down. If you're able to get a member of Congress to intervene on your behalf, maybe you can get it taken down. But if you're just an ordinary teenager in Texas who wakes up one day to the friggin nightmare of walking into 8th grade and every kid there is looking at an image on their phone that appears to be you doing explicit sexual activity, that is an absolute nightmare. And right now big tech acts with impunity. This legislation, I think we're gonna get this legislation passed. It needs to be passed because you should have a right to say, take this damn thing down and take it down now.
- [13:10]
Ben Ferguson
So let's talk about what the big tech world is gonna respond with. And we've already seen this play. They've said, well look, this is a state issue. The state should deal with this. And there's some states that have, there's, I think over 20 states that have dealt with this. But, but you guys are doing it differently from a federal perspective. And that is where there's going to be real teeth in the repercussions for those that don't abide by this federal law that you guys are working to pass.
- [13:37]
Senator Ted Cruz
Correct? Correct. And listen, we've talked before about that's, that's one of the benefits of my role as the ranking member on the Senate Committee of Commerce, Science and Transportation. The Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over about 40% of the U.S. economy. And it is as the ranking member, as the senior Republican, I'm able to drive legislation like this. As you know. You know, the FAA reauthorization bill that was just signed into law a few weeks ago was the hundredth piece of legislation that I've authored and passed into law. And from the Commerce Committee, we have jurisdiction over big tech. And so few things focus the mind of an industry more than the government with jurisdiction over that industry. And so states are acting and I'm glad the state of Texas has acted and that's important. But what we're not seeing is the mechanism to require that the content being taken down. And actually we modeled it after existing federal legislation. When you're dealing with a violation of, of trademarks or copyrights that you have a right. You know, if you are Jimi Hendrix, and by the way, if you're Jimi Hendrix, you're dead. So I hope you're not Jimi Hendrix. But if you're Jimi Hendrix or the estate of Jimi Hendrix and someone puts your content online, you have a right to say, go take it down because that's my content and I own it. And so that's an existing legal mechanism in the world of intellectual property. And we borrowed that model for taking down non consensual intimate images. Now I'll say earlier this week I was talking with an editorial board of a major paper in Texas and they were asking, I think, Devil's Advocate questions. But one of the things they said is, they said, well, what about the First Amendment? Isn't there a First Amendment right to do this? And I said, no, no there's not. And I said a couple of things. I said, number one, from the very beginning of the First Amendment, it has never covered defamation. It's never covered libel or slander. And so when you have false content that depicts someone in a way that is defamatory and intimate and sexual images that are not, you are by definition defamatory. That has always been understood from the very first days the First Amendment was adopted as not being within the protection of the First Amendment. But secondly, the First Amendment free speech protections have never covered the intentional infliction of emotional distress. And so if you engage and this is connected to defamation, but the First Amendment does not empower you to harass and exploit and abuse other people. And you can be sued and liable for doing so. And it's no defense to say, well, gosh, under the First Amendment, I can say anything I want. That's not how our legal system works. And it's why, as I said, I think we are going to get this done. I think we are likely to get this legislation passed. And when we do, it is going to be a major protection for kids and for Americans across the country, in Texas and across the country.
- [16:58]
Ben Ferguson
And that brings me to this question. And there are a lot of people, especially parents, grandparents, are gonna be listen. And this is something they say, hey, this isn't Republican, Democrat. And this is why I think you guys are working so well together. With you and Amy Klobuchar and the others you mentioned, this is just an issue of right and wrong. So what do they need to do to make sure that their voice is heard, especially if they're in favor of this?
- [17:21]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, speak out and make clear that this is the right thing to do. Look, you and I are both parents, if you could imagine the frustration. And so many parents listen. Dealing with Big Tech generally. And as you know, this has been a passion of mine for a long time. I've authored and supported multiple bills designed to protect kids online. So a different bill that I have is a bill called Kosma, where I've joined with Brian Schatz, who's a Democrat from Hawaii. And Kosma would prohibit children under 13 from being on social media at all. So it would ban that across the board. And that children under 17, it would prohibit Big Tech from engaging in algorithmic boosting, which is the process that they push content at teenagers. And as you know, Big Tech, in the pursuit of the dollar, pushes all sorts of horrible content at our kids. They push substance abuse and alcohol abuse. They push self harm, they push suicidal ideation, they push body image, particularly for young girls. All sorts of body image issues. We're seeing dramatically increasing instances of depression, of anxiety. You know, the surgeon General under Joe Biden just wrote an op ed in the New York Times decrying the risk to mental health from social media of young people. The solution, or at least part of the solution, I think, is the legislation I have with Brian Schatz. It also includes another bill that I've authored with John Fetterman, obviously another Democrat, called the Eyes on the Board bill, which says that any school that receives federal funds, which is pretty much all of them, is required to ban social media from their WI fi on campus because kids on campus ought to be paying attention to school and not on Snapchat chat or Instagram or something else. And what I will say on all of these, Ben, is I literally don't know a parent who is not scared, who is not frustrated about how do you protect your kids online? 100%.
- [19:38]
Ben Ferguson
Couldn't agree with you more.
- [19:39]
Host
It's shocking now.
- [19:40]
Ben Ferguson
It's scary. It's the Wild west, and there seems to be no real protections for children.
- [19:46]
Senator Ted Cruz
And look, when you and I were kids, we didn't deal with this. No, this was not a world. You know, when I was a teenager, my parents would have me. I'd like, you know, lay on the floor on like, the landline phone, talking to my girlfriend till one in the morning. And that was like as much as you dealt with. You now have these phones that are these portals to just about everything evil in the world, to sexual predators, to bullies, to people just targeting our kids. And you know what's interesting, Ben? So in the Senate, as you know, look, there are a lot of people who are really damn old. I mean, a lot of my colleagues are in their 70s or 80s or even 90s. And I gotta admit that my colleagues that are of that generation are kind of a little bit befuddled by this issue. They look at it and frankly, you know, their kids weren't dealing with it when their kids were children and their grandkids are now, but they're often less connected to it than they would be. And what's interesting is the people that I'm joining with, the senators that are teaming up with me on this, both Democrats and Republicans, almost all of them are either in their 40s and 50s, they're younger senators, and almost all of us have kids that are either teenagers or adolescents. And almost to a person, if you're a parent and you've got kids who are younger. So you're just starting to face this, but I'm sure you're worried about it now. And I promise you, in five or 10 years, you're going to be terrified about it, because every parent I know is.
- [21:21]
Host
All right, I want to take a moment to talk to you about my friends over at Ammo Squared. This is an amazing idea that has now become a reality, and that is you can stock up on ammunition every month, automatically with Ammo Squared. It is truly automated.
- [21:37]
Ben Ferguson
Set it.
- [21:37]
Host
Forget it. Ammo purchasing program. You get to pick your caliber. You set your budget, and you select. Select a shipping trigger, and that's it. Now if you've ever dealt with not being able to find ammo, especially like we just had with COVID you know that two things happened. One, you couldn't find it and two, the prices quadrupled or even went higher depending on where you were. And that didn't last for a few weeks. It lasted for well over a year. In fact, the prices still haven't gone back down to where they were right before COVID happened. Well, with Ammo Squared, your ammo grows slowly over time and is stored for free as it builds up. Now I want to give you some free ammo in your account right now. Now here's the other thing. All you have to do to get your ammo when you're with Ammo squared is, well, click the button and automatically, bam, your ammo is shipped. It's like an ammunition subscription on steroids because you aren't forced into a set budget and shipment every month. Instead you decide your budget and you schedule when you want your ammo shipments to show up. Ammo squared offers over 60 different caliber options and each shipment contains carefully curated mix of factory new ammunition from brands you know and love. It's budget friendly and customizable. Buy as little as literally a few dollars a month and use dollar cost averaging to your advantage. Now everything's managed online. Whether you change guns, you want to get rid of an ammunition you have, change it for another caliber. You can do it all online. Or maybe you see prices skyrocket and you've got a lot of ammo stored up, you can sell it back instantly for big money. There's no minimum to buy, no memberships needed and no extra fees. Customers can buy ammo on a small budget then watch it grow over time like a savings account. Now get some free ammo in your account right now. Sign up@ Ammo squared.com verdict. That's Ammo squared.com verdict today to get free ammo in your account.
- [23:33]
Ben Ferguson
I want to also get to another story and this one actually makes me laugh. CNN and rarely do I get to say this has been left speechless. Senator, after polling.
- [23:46]
Senator Ted Cruz
Can you just say that again?
- [23:48]
Host
Yeah, right.
- [23:48]
Ben Ferguson
CNN left speechless.
- [23:50]
Host
Exactly.
- [23:52]
Ben Ferguson
After polling finds Donald Trump headed for, quote, unquote, historic performance with black voters. Now, there's two parts of this that that are that we bring up at the very beginning. One, it is amazing that no one's calling out just the straight up racism aspect of this, that the Democratic party and the media just assumes that if you're black you must support the Democratic party. And if you don't then you're basically, in their mind, not a real black person. You're not, you're, you're not a, a real black woman. You're not a real black mother.
- [24:24]
Host
Right.
- [24:24]
Ben Ferguson
You're not a real black father. No, no, you're, you're, you're an Uncle Tom. You can't leave the Democratic plantation to, to think for yourself because you must be a Democrat, a modern day slave. In essence, the Democratic Party. And now they can't believe that Donald Trump is headed for literally historic performance with African American voters saying, we don't like this. What's happening under the Biden administration. And Biden's support for black from black voters under the age of 50 has cratered over the last four years and they don't know what to do with this.
- [24:59]
Senator Ted Cruz
Look, that is exactly right. They are shocked that they come in with an assumption that anyone who is African American must support the Democrats. As Joe Biden famously or infamously said, if you're not supporting me, you ain't black. Which is just an arrogance that I think suffuses the current Democrat Party. And it's worth. Well, I'll tell you what, just listen to CNN as they're discussing these polling numbers. Senior data reporter Harry Etten is with us. So where does the race stand among.
- [25:37]
Harry Etten
African American voters right now? Yeah, I keep looking for this to change, to go back to a historical norm. And it simply put, has not yet. So this is the margin or Biden and Trump among black voters. Compare where we were at this point in 2020. Compare where we are now. You know, at this point. Look at this. In 2020, Joe Biden was getting 86% of the African American vote. Look at where it is now. It's 70%. That's a 16 point drop, John. And more than that, it's not just that Joe Biden is losing ground, it's that Donald Trump is gaining ground. You go from 7% single digits at this point in 2020 to now 21%. And again, John, I keep looking for signs that this is going to go back to normal. And I don't see it yet in the polling. If anything, right now we're careening towards a historic performance for Republican presidential candidate the likes of which we have not seen in six decades.
- [26:31]
Ben Ferguson
And when you dig into this, I love this, by the way, they're basically saying we need to go back to normal and you guys need to get back on the Democratic plantation. They're saying that on tv.
- [26:41]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, it is not subtle who CNN is rooting for. They want Joe Biden to win. They want the Democrats to win. And they're shocked and they're terrified and they are freaking out. And listen, I think this is an incredibly important shift. I think we're seeing African American voters moving towards Republicans. I think we're seeing Hispanic voters moving towards Republicans even faster. And I think that is, it's part of the broader demographic shift we're seeing of blue collar voters that are moving towards Republicans. We're seeing the old conventional wisdom was that Republicans were the party of the rich and Democrats were the party of the poor and working class. I'm not sure that was ever true, but it is especially not true now. It has been turned on its head today. Democrats are the party of rich coastal elites. They're the party of big tech billionaires and Hollywood moguls and California environmentalist billionaires. And I think Republicans, we are the party of truck drivers and steelworkers and cops and firefighters and waiters and waitresses and everyone who works for a living and has calluses on their hands. And I think also. So there's an overlap. Listen, if you're right now, say you're an Hispanic guy in South Texas and you work in the oil fields and you drive a pickup truck and you go bird hunting on the weekends, you're voting Republican, number one, you're seeing the invasion at our southern border the Democrats have caused. But number two, the Democrats have declared war on your livelihood and way of life. And so we're seeing Hispanics moving Republicans significantly, but African Americans, we're seeing movement as well. Not as rapidly. But listen, the simple reality, and I'm going to give Donald Trump credit, he went to Detroit, he went to an African American church. He made the case, he said, listen, for the black community, your lives have gotten a lot worse under Joe Biden and the Democrats. Between inflation, between crime, you look at what has happened and he made the point illegal immigration. Who do you think 11 million illegal immigrants are taking jobs from? They're not taking jobs. Jake Tapper is not losing his job to an illegal immigrant. It's actually a point you remember I made in 2016 in the presidential where I said if you suddenly had crossing the border, a bunch of lawyers and bankers and journalists coming here to take the job of rich professionals in the media, then you would have a crisis, then they would lose their mind. But their view is, no, no, no, that's fine to bring 11 million people in who take the job of low income workers, who take the job of the working class who take the job of a lot of legal immigrants in the Hispanic community and who take the jobs of African Americans and drive down their wages. And I think you're seeing a lot of voters. I mean, the numbers among African American voters have more than doubled. And that's got Democrats really freaked out.
- [29:47]
Ben Ferguson
This goes back to a podcast that we did with actually, your Congressman, Wesley Hunt.
- [29:51]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah.
- [29:52]
Ben Ferguson
Where he was on this show and I would encourage people to go back and listen to it. But he discussed the bigotry of low expectations that the Democrats put on African Americans. And he said at the time, and I'm going back to this quote, because I wrote it down, it's to create victims. And he was talking about how the Democratic Party has really victimized the African American community with low expectations, high crime, high poverty, and basically the government getting you addicted to poverty. And I encourage people to go back and listen to it. But that seems to be the case, in essence, that Donald Trump is now making. And Fox, by the way, when these new poll numbers came out, I want you to hear how they explained it.
- [30:35]
Unnamed Fox News Reporter
Listen, has Biden down nearly 30% among Black voters since the 2020 election? What's changed? Look at the economy. The optimal color is not black or brown. It's green. You hear me say that almost every day. Trump has gained 15 points in that time. Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina, downplaying the numbers here. He says, I don't think black voters have left the fold. I don't know what is going on with the polling taking place here. How can the polls get that so wrong? That's going on all over the the country. Well, not everybody sees it that way. Political reports, prominent black Democrats are setting up alarm bells over Biden's black voter problems.
- [31:15]
Ben Ferguson
I mean, the arrogance there. Just Clyburn, who's saying, I don't believe this. I don't see it. I don't think this is actually happening.
- [31:23]
Host
Right.
- [31:24]
Ben Ferguson
As he said, that's not going on all over the country. How can the polls get that so wrong? It's, it's, again, I go back to this idea and what Wesley Hunt said on the show. The Democratic Party believes they own the black community and you cannot leave.
- [31:39]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, listen, I would encourage listeners, go back, as you just said, Ben, listen to the podcast we did with Wesley Hunt. And actually that was one of the video ones we did. So you can watch it on YouTube but also go back and listen or watch the podcast we did with Eric Johnson, the mayor of, mayor of Dallas, who's African American. And he was elected as a Democrat mayor of Dallas. He's now become a Republican. And both with Wesley Hunt and Eric Johnson, both of them are friends of mine, we have a real discussion about how the Democrat agenda has utterly failed the African American community. And the approach of Democrats is not to provide real policy solutions, but it's instead to demagogue. Remember, Joe Biden went, I think it was in front of the naacp, if I remember correctly, where he said, they're gonna put y'all back in chains. Which is ridiculous. And by the way, if you want to talk about who enslaved African Americans, the answer to that was Democrats. It was Democrats who were the party of slavery. It was Democrats who founded the Ku Klux Klan. It was Democrats who wrote the Jim Crow laws. And by the way, you're in my party. The Republican Party was founded to end slavery. That's why our party was founded. The first Republican president was Abraham Lincoln. The Democrats recorded on race issues have been horrible, and yet they demagogue and scare people. And I do think you're seeing African American voters saying, all right, enough already. Produce results. And by the way, I'll give you three issues that I think resonate powerfully in the black community. Number one, inflation in the economy. And African Americans are getting hammered by that. Number two, safety. And the combination of the invasion at our southern border, which is endangering African Americans and all Americans. But also the Democrats undermining the police. Undermining, pushing for defunding the police, for abolishing the police. That has resulted in a lot more African Americans being murdered. And the Democrats like to say black lives matter. Well, their radical policies result in more African Americans being victims of murder. But number three is school choice. And as you know, school choice is the issue. I think it is the most important domestic issue in the country. It is the civil rights issue of the 21st century. And today's Democrats are the modern day Bull Connor. They are standing at the school door saying, we will not let low income students out. I believe every child in Texas and every child in America should have a right to access excellent education. And it ought to be about education, freedom, the student and your parents should decide, not bureaucrats who want to keep kids trapped.
- [34:22]
Ben Ferguson
Finally, just to expand on this, it's not just African American voters that Biden has lost touch with. There is now new data with Hispanic voters. For example, another policy that Trump has doubled down on, mass deportations, is now popular in this country. The majority of registered voters favor a new national program to deport all, undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S. illegally by 62 to 38%. That is massive. But here's you break that number down now. A majority of Hispanic senator favor mass deportations in America as well, 53 to 47. And this is another blow to Joe Biden with, quote, minority voters.
- [35:08]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, that's right. And it is the fruits of the failures of Democrat open border policies that are. People are seeing the absolute disaster of. And I'll tell you, years ago, I was doing a national interview with Jorge Ramos. Jorge Ramos was, of course, is the national journalist. And he accused me of being, and I'm going to quote him, a traitor to my race because I believe in securing the border. And his view was, as an Hispanic, I'm not allowed to support securing to the border. He practically yelled on me on national television that I'm a traitor in my race. And I asked him, I said, jorge, tell me what would happen if I went illegally to Mexico? What would they do? And he said, oh, they deport you. And it's like, well, okay, if Mexico is allowed to enforce its laws, why is America, why are our laws less consequential? And you know, Jorge Ramos chairs the national news program on Univision. And yet the view that he characterizes as a traitor to your race is now, as you noted, according to polling number, the view of the majority of Hispanics in America.
- [36:27]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, exactly. I wanna move finally to another important story, and it deals with Russia. And I want people to think about this story through the lens of if we're trying to stop Russia, and that's the policy of the Biden administration from overtaking Ukraine, and the goal is for Russia to lose and to fall back, to retreat within their borders and to leave Ukraine alone and for Ukraine to stand and zelensky to stand, etc. Then why are you allowing what we're about to tell you about to happen? And that is this. Russia overtook the United States of America as a gas supplier to Europe in May. And this is a Texas issue very much because this is an opportunity to highlight how important it is that we support in Texas and around the country our exploration of natural gas and oil exploration, liquid natural gas and exports. You've been working on this, yet the Democratic Party has been trying to shut all that down, which only feeds the war chest of Russia and Vladimir Putin to overtake Ukraine.
- [37:42]
Senator Ted Cruz
That's exactly what's happening. You know, the Daily Caller focused on this story. They wrote a story entitled Russian Gas Sales to Europe Exceed US Supply As Ukraine war rages and Let me just read the beginning of it. Russia overtook the US in terms of natural gas supplied to Europe in May as the war in Ukraine continues. According to Financial Times. Once the leading supplier of gas to Europe, Russian deliveries fell off drastically following the start of the war in Ukraine as European states rushed to support the Ukrainian cause. According to Financial Times. However, despite the west sanctions and attempts to get off Russian fuels, Europe is still buying considerable amounts of gas from Russia. While the Biden administration has paused approvals for new liquefied natural gas LNG export terminals for further complicating Europe's long term energy supply. If you look at what has happened, Joe Biden and the Democrats, and by the way, the Democrats in Congress are united in favor of this policy. They are helping Russia, they are hurting our allies, they are hurting Europe, and they're hurting jobs in Texas and hurting jobs in America. And listen, the United States is globally the number one producer of oil and the number one producer of natural gas in the world. And we are and should be the dominant energy superpower on the face of the earth. Bizarrely, Joe Biden and the Democrats have this incoherent view that they hate oil and gas produced in America, which by the way produces jobs, raises wages here in the United States. But they seemingly love oil and gas produced by our enemies. They love Russian oil and gas, they love Iranian oil and gas, they love Venezuelan oil and gas. And let me say, Ben, if someone presses back and says, come on, Ted, that's hyperbolic, that they don't love oil and gas produced by our enemies. Let me point to a simple data point. Let's take, for example, Iran. Iran, when Joe Biden became president, was selling roughly 300,000 barrels of oil a day in export. It was the principal funder of their theocratic regime that is the leading state sponsor of terrorism. When Joe Biden came in, he stopped vigorously enforcing the oil sanctions. By the way, the Trump administration, at my vigorous behest, had been aggressively enforcing those sanctions, which is why they had dropped the 300,000 barrels a day. Today, Iran is selling 2 million barrels a day. The Biden administration's policy, and every Democrat in Congress supports this. It is allowing the Ayatollah to reap. They've made over $80 billion because the Democrats won't enforce oil sanctions. Likewise, Russia, you know, the Democrats say Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine. And yet Joe Biden is halting the sale of American natural gas to Europe, which means the Europeans are buying them from Vladimir Putin. The Democrats are literally funding Russia in the war against Ukraine. It is incoherent and it's indefensible.
- [40:51]
Ben Ferguson
When you look at this and you see what this administration has done, they've. They've empowered Putin, they have empowered the terrorists in the Middle east, they have allowed for sanctions to go just completely overlooked and just look the other way and act like they don't even exist. Exists with Iran. And you look at this, this is a national security issue.
- [41:15]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yes.
- [41:16]
Ben Ferguson
As much as it is an issue of oil and gas. And all this, by the way you talk about the other issue of safety here we have. I'm pretty sure right now the Strategic Petroleum Reserves in this country are at the lowest levels or close to the lowest level they've been in my lifetime.
- [41:32]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, it's 40 or 50 years since the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has been this low. And the Biden administration is talking about releasing a bunch more oil right before the election, trying to just goose the economy and cause gas prices to drop just a little bit, because they think voters are stupid. It's the same thing they're doing with their fake student loan forgiveness. Remember, they did that before the 2022 election. They knew it was illegal. They knew the courts would strike it down, but they thought voters were stupid. They're doing it again. They know it's illegal. They know the courts are gonna strike it down, but they're trying to fool. They do not have a high impression of young people. The same thing with releasing oil to lower the gas prices. They think people will forget. But let me say two things in terms of Russia passing the United States as the supplier of gas to Europe. Number one, when it comes to inflation, as you know, last Thursday, Donald Trump came to D.C. i had lunch with him along with all the other Senate Republicans. We spent a good chunk of the lunch talking about inflation and talking about the Americans who were hurt by inflation. And Trump rightly focused on that. Energy is a huge driver of inflation, not just in terms of the bills people pay, whether it's their natural gas bill or their heating oil bill or their gasoline bill. But energy is a huge driver of the cost of everything else. It's a huge driver of the cost of food, whether it is the oil and gas products that go into fertilizer. So that drives up the cost of growing food, or whether it is the cost of transporting food, all of that, or whether it's the cost of refrigerating food in the grocery store, all of that drives up inflation. And so one of the things Trump committed, and I will work hand in hand with him, is leading the effort, we're gonna produce energy here at home and that's going to drive inflation way, way down. Bidenflation is hurting Americans across this country. But let me say a second point, Ben. The one justification Democrats could try to give, let's say for halting liquid natural gas exports is, well, yes, it hurts jobs, yes, it hurts national security, yes, it hurts our allies, yes, it benefits our enemies. But. But they might say we're doing it because of the environment. We're doing it because Mother Earth, we're doing it because the world is going to end in 12 years. As an aside, you notice how it's always 12 years. 40 years ago, the world was going to end in 12 years. 30 years ago, the world was gonna end in 12 years. 5 years ago, the world was gonna End in 12 years. The 12 years never seems to advance. And next year my prediction is the world's gonna end in 12 years because that's their talking point. But let's say you believed it. Halting LNG sales hurts the environment. Why? Because it's not like the European suddenly say, okay, we're not gonna heat our homes. We'll just freeze to death in the winter. We don't love our kids, so we'll just let them die. No, they're going to heat their homes. So what are they going to do? They're doing what they're doing right now, which is if they don't buy it from America, they buy it from Russia, they buy it from Iran, they buy it from Venezuela, they buy it from our enemies. And every one of them produces oil and natural gas much, much dirtier than we do. Or secondly, they do what Germany has done. They shift from natural gas to coal for electricity production that pollutes much more and emits much more carbon dioxide. So this policy is hurting everybody, including the environment.
- [44:55]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah. Never forget that they're spending your money like crazy, sending money to Ukraine while also helping fund with these policies exactly what Vladimir Putin needs, and that is a war chest for his military attack on Ukraine, all because we're allowing them to be the big player. Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Hit that subscribe auto download button number one. Number two. And this is really important, you can listen to the weekend review as well. We do that as well in the center. I will see you back here in a couple of days.