← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
SCOTUS Throws a Tariff Curveball, Did SOTU move the Needle & 2 Olympians-Patriotism vs. Paycheck Week In Review
00:34:29
Loading summary
Transcript85 lines
- [00:00]
Ben Ferguson
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:02]
Public Podcast Announcer
Guaranteed Human support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory services by Public Advisors, llc. SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available@public.com
- [01:06]
Ben Ferguson
welcome. It is verdict with Ted Cruz Week in Review. Ben Ferguson with you. And these are the stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week. First up, Donald Trump still moving forward with tariffs even after there was a ruling from the Supreme Court. How was he able to do that? And did he actually get advice from a Supreme Court justice? Yeah, he did. We'll tell you all about it. Also, the State of the Union speech, it moved the needle for Donald Trump with Americans, including some Democrats. What did he say that connected with so many Americans? We'll have that for you as well. And finally, an interesting story out of the Olympics. Two different Olympians with hearts in different places. One skating their heart out for America and the other one saying, yeah, I may have grown up here, but I'd rather skate for China. That incredible story in just a second. It's the Weekend Review and it starts right now. All right, I want to move on to another issue. And we made predictions on this show. I should. This is why I should say you made predictions on this show. Separate myself from them. I I was.
- [02:07]
Senator Ted Cruz
Look at this. Who's we, Ben throwing me overboard so fast.
- [02:12]
Ben Ferguson
Center, you made a prediction about the Supreme Court on tariffs. It was actually really funny. This morning. I was doing a Fox News Sunday. Shannon Bream looked me. She goes, I listened to y' all's the show when you were making your predictions. Because 99 of the time, Ted's right on the Supreme Court. And he made a prediction. He thought it was going to go the president's way on these. It didn't. But there was also something interesting in there. Brett Kavanaugh wrote basically in there. And I found this incredibly interesting that, hey, what we're saying you did, you can't necessarily do it that way. However, here is a way you can do it. It reminded me almost of like Obamacare when they're like, well, if you do it this way, then you can get away with it. But the way you're doing it, don't keep doing it that way, do it this other way. It was like a roadmap for him to still have tariffs, still have the power that the presidency needs to do this. And you saw the president jump all over that with a 10% saying, this ain't going away. I don't know if this is a big of a defeat as Democrats and media are trying to make it out to be. And the president's instant response, I think proves he still has a ton of power.
- [03:11]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, listen, I'm going to start by eating crow. I did make a prediction on this podcast and I make a lot of predictions on this podcast and we've never tallied the number, but I think we're north of 80%, maybe even north of 90% of being right.
- [03:25]
Ben Ferguson
I'm going to give you credit it's above 90 because I make sure I give you a hard time when you're wrong. And that's not very often. So this is on that sheet. But, you know. Yeah.
- [03:33]
Senator Ted Cruz
And by the way, we don't make small and mild predictions. I mean, I mean, we make bold and aggressive predictions in 2024.
- [03:42]
Ben Ferguson
The biggest one. Yeah. Joe Biden. Let's, let's just talk about it.
- [03:45]
Senator Ted Cruz
I predicted that Joe Biden would not be the nominee a year before it happened and said they are going to replace him. He is not going to be on the ballot November. And the corporate media made fun of me like crazy for that prediction. Of course, it was exactly right. We've made a lot of predictions. We broke down in March and April of the beginning of COVID I laid out the evidence that the COVID virus escaped from a Chinese government lab right at the beginning. And the predictions that we laid out there, the evidence we laid out there was square on. Right. So I made a prediction that the Supreme Court 5, 4, would uphold the President's use of tariffs. That prediction proved False. What actually happened is 6, 3. The court struck it down. I also predicted that John Roberts would write the majority opinion. I guess that that did prove technically accurate. But he wrote the majority opinion going the other way. Here's why I thought the court was going to uphold the President's tariffs. And I said, there are massive reliance interests. There have been hundreds of billions of dollars of tariffs collected, and the court is reluctant to dramatically upset the status quo. And I did say, if the court were deciding this issue a year ago, right at the beginning of the Trump administration, I said, I think they'd come out the other way.
- [05:06]
Unidentified Conservative Commentator
Yeah.
- [05:06]
Senator Ted Cruz
But after a year plus, after this being central to the economic and foreign policy agenda of the President, I thought the court would not struck it down. That proved wrong. But at the end of the day, I don't think it matters a whole lot. Let's cut to the conclusion. I don't think the consequences of this decision are gonna be all that much. What the court decided narrowly is that one particular statute, ieepa, does not give the President the authority to impose tariffs. Now, mind you, IEEPA gives the President the authority to, quote, regulate importations. Yeah. And so the majority opinion concluded, the president can ban an import from a country, can say, we will import zero German cars into America. He can do that. But he can't say we're going to charge a dollar for each one of those German cars. Yep. That is a pretty loopy conclusion. And I got to say, the dissents, Justice Kavanaugh wrote the lead dissent. Justice Thomas wrote an excellent dissent. I think the dissents get the much better of the argument that the words that Congress put in the IPA statute regulate importation. And Justice Thomas had an originalist dissent where he goes through in the foreign policy area. In particular, the ability to import goods from other countries was never viewed as a right. It was a privilege the government allowed you to do. And in fact, tariffs were a major tool government used to regulate importation from other countries. So I think the majority decision is wrong. But here's the thing that matters. There are so many other statutes that allow the President to impose tariffs that I think we will see essentially the same regime. It's gonna be a little more complicated. He's gonna have to do a little bit more work. It's gonna require some more legal proceedings. But I think you're gonna see him. We saw immediately the president announced a 10% tariff on every country. He then upped that to 15%. But I think at the end of the day, the President will continue to use tariffs as a critical part of his foreign policy. And I hope, and we've talked about this on verdict before, I hope that he uses tariffs as leverage to open up foreign markets. I don't want a world where we have high tariffs for everyone. But I do think tariffs are very powerful leverage, and I think the President has ample authority to continue using them.
- [07:35]
Ben Ferguson
You know, it's interesting about this. When it happened, there was two people that were really celebrating, two groups, I should say, the Democratic Party and China. And China was really celebrating this. And then they were talking about buying soybean crops from other countries instead of America. And that was like one of the big things that really blew up in. In the media and on social media. And then you have the same excitement from the Chinese Communist Party as you did from the Democratic Party. That tells me an awful lot about this tariff war issue. This is just to Democrats, not about what's best for America, not about us having better trade deals, not about saving American jobs or American manufacturing, protecting that or bringing jobs back to this country in manufacturing and bringing back American businesses to our soil. They just want Donald Trump to lose. And they're on the same team with China on this one.
- [08:26]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, that. That's where Democrats are. That's where much of the media is. Let me walk through two things. Number one, there's gonna be some chaos. One of the reasons I didn't think the court would do what they did is you've got hundreds of billions of dollars of tariffs that's gonna be collected. There's gonna be massive litigation. Everyone that's paid the tariffs is gonna look at, do I go back, do I sue, do I try to collect it? It's gonna vary in terms of whether they filed a timely protest to the tariffs. I think some of those tariffs, the litigation result is gonna be, no, you can't get it back because you didn't timely protest it. Some. Some of the people who paid tariffs will have timely protested it. And. And so there's a very good chance this is going to cost American taxpayers billions of dollars, maybe even tens of billions of dollars or more, that litigation chaos will unfold for years. I didn't think the court would do that. But in terms of the President's ability to do this. So let me walk through some of the different statutes that are available. There is, number one, section 338 of the Tariff act of 1930. That's actually the Smoot Hawley act, which authorizes the President to impose tariffs of up to 50% on imports from any country that, quote, discriminates against U.S. businesses. The statute is vague and it is short and no President has used this authority. So it's uncharted area, but it remains on the statute book. So that's one area. Another area, which is where the President went pretty much Immediately is section 122 of the Trade act of 1974. The section 122 gives the President the power to impose duties of up to 15% for up to 150 days in order to address, quote, large and serious balance of payments deficits. Congress has to vote to extend them past the 150 day limit or else the duties expire, but the President is able to reissue them on expiration. This is what the President used as a result, immediately to impose the 15% tariff. So that's one avenue. And then there are a couple of others. Section 301 of the Trade act of 1974 authorizes the U.S. trade Representative to investigate and act upon results of an investigation revealing unfair trade practices. Section 301 has been used quite a bit. In 2024, the Biden administration opened three investigations under Section 301 and determined that the countries had violated the provisions there. That's also what what in Trump's second administration, US Trade Representative's office has opened a 301 investigation into Brazil and China and they're considering one for Korea. So section 301 takes an investigation. It's a little slower, but it gives more potent tariff authority. There is also Section 232 of the Trade Expansion act of 1962, and that allows the President to impose restrictions on goods and imports. And following an investigation, if it's found that the imports, quote, threaten to impair US national security. So Trump has used that for steel imports and aluminum imports. In 2025, he expanded steel and aluminum tariffs, increasing the aluminum rate to 25%, eliminating all country exemptions. To date, the Trump administration has launched 12 different section 232 investigations. Concluded five. And then there's finally section 201 of the Trade act of 1974, which permits temporary safeguard tariffs to protect domestic industries from serious injury called caused by import surges. Trump has used section 201 to put tariffs on solar cells, on modules and in residential washing machines. Look, the long and short of it, you guys don't need to memorize all those different section numbers. The point is there are a bunch of different federal laws that give the President a bunch of authority to impose tariffs. The lawyers and the administration and work a little bit harder. As Justice Kavanaugh said in dissent, at the end of the day, the Supreme Court said, well, you check the wrong box and you pick the wrong statute, so these tariffs don't apply. But the bottom line is going to be the President's going to be able to get there using other means.
- [13:05]
Ben Ferguson
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. I want you to pause what you're doing for just one minute and I want you to hear about Alejandra. She lives in a remote community with very few resources and little to no health care. So when Alejandra gets sick, her parents have no real options, no doctors in their community, and no money for real medical care. By the third day, her body was shutting down. She woke up and just long enough to tell her mom, I can't take the pain anymore. I can't keep going. Her parents drove hours to find a doctor who tried everything, but she needed a private hospital and that was impossible for her family to afford. And that is when Compassion International stepped in. Through Compassion, Alejandra was treated and against all odds, she survived. She lived because someone just like you took action. Right now, unfortunately, there are children just like Alejandra who won't survive unless someone like you steps in. Compassion International partners with local churches providing children with the support that they need. Critical medical care plus food, education and the hope of the Gospel all in Jesus name. So help a child just like Alejandra. Today you can visit compassion.com that's compassion.com
- [14:40]
Public Podcast Announcer
support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year. You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available@public.com disclosures now on to story number two.
- [15:43]
Unidentified Conservative Commentator
The question that I have as a, as a proper conservative who is always looking for the downside of things just to temper my, you know, jubilation.
- [15:53]
Senator Ted Cruz
Do you think.
- [15:54]
Unidentified Conservative Commentator
I think universally the speech was viewed as quite good, quite effective. Does it make a meaningful difference in the midterms?
- [16:02]
Senator Ted Cruz
Look, I don't.
- [16:03]
Ben Ferguson
I think it does.
- [16:05]
Senator Ted Cruz
Do you? All right.
- [16:05]
Ben Ferguson
Lay out why, and I'll tell you why. This speech was the things that irritate Republican slash moderate voters about Trump, that it's all about him. And he doesn't know when to, you know, the mean tweets and to. When to shut up and, and, and the things that irritate those that can stay home. Watching his demeanor tonight, he came across in such a way of like, these guys don't want this. These guys don't put you first. These guys don't do this. He also was giving incredible accolades and, and awards and the U.S. h. There was momentum there. It was one after another. It was 100-year-old man, a veteran. It was the guy who was flying the helicopter, the Chinook, and telling his story. He was praising what makes America great and the people that make America great. I actually think that if you are a moderate voter, someone maybe a Republican, that traditionally stays home during the midterms. I actually think that this speech landed with you more than any other speech of Trump, the way it played on tv. I think it also is going to land on the economic issues of him reminding the no tax on tips, the no tax on overtime. I'm trying to make life more affordable, the gas prices. Those are things that I actually think will. You know, they've been hammering him on approval ratings at 40 this or 39 or 38, depending on what poll. I think he gets a bump that actually stays because he landed it so well in the audience and he looked really calm. He looked really just like, I'm doing this because I want to fix the country. And other speeches haven't come across that way always.
- [17:48]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah. Let me agree with you in that I think the message tonight was the record of the last year. The record of the last year, I believe, is objectively phenomenal. And I've been in The Senate now 14 years. We've never had a year where we've accomplished even a few fraction of what you did this year. Has been accomplished in the last year. I mean, it is staggering. And he did a good job. You know, we talked about on the last pod, how, how I spent 30, 40 minutes on the phone with, with Trump last week. And one of the things we talked about was messaging for the midterms. And I said, listen, we need to focus on results, on the very real Results. Securing the border, 99% drop in illegal crossings. And then I encouraged him. A message that's not getting the attention it should is the impact on crime. Yes.
- [18:45]
Ben Ferguson
Amen.
- [18:46]
Senator Ted Cruz
Murder rates have dropped 20%. Drug overdose deaths have dropped 20%. There are literally thousands of Americans who are alive today because Trump was elected and Republicans won Congress.
- [18:57]
Unidentified Conservative Commentator
That's a great message.
- [18:58]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah. And that's been lost. And I was really happy, like the first 20 minutes of the speech were laying out that message.
- [19:08]
Unidentified Conservative Commentator
Yeah.
- [19:08]
Senator Ted Cruz
And going through murder rates and crime rates and DC Rates and like how unhappy the Democrats were that crime rates had plummeted in D.C. and New Orleans and your hometown of Memphis.
- [19:21]
Ben Ferguson
Memphis, yeah.
- [19:21]
Senator Ted Cruz
And the Democrats were furious that fewer people are being murdered.
- [19:25]
Unidentified Conservative Commentator
They wouldn't stand up en masse for murder declining.
- [19:28]
Senator Ted Cruz
You know this.
- [19:29]
Unidentified Conservative Commentator
I was looking at the polls in aggregates, read of the polls from just January and February leading into this.
- [19:34]
Senator Ted Cruz
And to be fair, the pro murder community in America is pretty small.
- [19:37]
Unidentified Conservative Commentator
It is. Look, it's a constituency, but it's not the one you want. And so I was looking at his aggregate of polls. Marist, pbs, a handful of others. And the hard fact, I spoke to some members of Congress about this today, the hard fact is Republicans are underwater on the economy, on economic perception. I think you could, could turn it around. But right now we're a little bit underwater on health care. Democrats always win on health care and on defense of democracy, or it's kind of a contrived category. But anyway, they win on that. So the ones that we're winning on right now quite decisively are immigration and border enforcement. Even more so now the border is shut down. And especially on crime. So the key, it seems to me, is one, that tells you people are concerned about safety. And two, if you can tie all of that together, the crime relates obviously to illegal immigration. That's why it's called illegal. And the housing prices even all the way to the, you know, the fact that you have six months consecutive decline on housing prices coinciding with mass deportation
- [20:44]
Senator Ted Cruz
with 2 million people being deported, and that's just less demand. That's right. You know, by the way, like a couple of weeks ago, the Houston Chronicle had a front page story that said murder rates in Houston have declined 18%.
- [20:57]
Ben Ferguson
Yep.
- [20:58]
Senator Ted Cruz
And Heidi showed me the article because she knew it pissed me off.
- [21:02]
Ben Ferguson
Because you talked about this the other day.
- [21:04]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yes, the article. The Chronicle says nobody can figure out why. It's completely inexplicable. The experts we talk about have no idea why the murder rate is dropping. And it, like, doesn't occur to them that arresting and deporting murderers and gangbangers will reduce the murder rate. Like, like, it's not. This is not rocket science.
- [21:25]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah.
- [21:26]
Senator Ted Cruz
Fewer murderers means fewer murders. But yet to Democrats, that makes no sense to them.
- [21:33]
Unidentified Conservative Commentator
Yeah.
- [21:34]
Senator Ted Cruz
And so that message was good. I also liked on no tax on tips that he had the, the mom who was the waitress stand up and he said, between no tax on tips and no tax on overtime, she's going to take home 5,000 more dollars this year than last year. That was real and it's not abstract. And by the way, the Democrats wouldn't applaud for her like the mom waiting tables. They're not rooting for her. And they want to take that $5,000.
- [22:02]
Unidentified Conservative Commentator
And that's real money. $5,000 is real money. It's not some abstraction. So nuts and bolts. If this was a speech obviously geared at the midterms, do you think it moves the needle?
- [22:16]
Senator Ted Cruz
If you keep message discipline of focusing on it? Yes.
- [22:19]
Ben Ferguson
By the way. Yes. Yesterday morning, you and I have been talking about this. I had breakfast with Speaker Johnson and you talk about the reason why I think this one sticks. There is a very real sense that Republican leadership have our act together for once that we haven't had in a long time. I also think that matters. Speaker Johnson understands he basically has a 1, 1, 1 person majority he does not want to have. And President Trump doesn't want to have the Democrats take over the House. It is insanely slim. And I think they're working so well together, the same way, Senator, that you work so well with the president. There does seem to be that we're actually on the same team for once. I've not experienced that many times in my life in the Republican Party. Like, there's always the infighting. We always want to screw it up when we get power. There's different people jockeying for positions. There does seem to be a little bit of momentum now that we're on the same team going the midterms. That's the other reason I think this speech will continue in the momentum, because you have Johnson and others advocating, look, I hope so.
- [23:22]
Senator Ted Cruz
To play Devil's advocate. We're a very divided country. And so the people who hate Trump still hate him after this speech, for sure. They're not actually listening. And so I do think, Ben, you focused on the right area, which is the people who voted for him in 24, but may be demoralized by the press narrative that has been driven. And to the extent this focuses them on, wow, we're winning some big, big victories. I also really liked, look, the no tax on tips emphasis. I liked, because I wrote that, that bill, and I really liked his emphasis on the Trump accounts, because, as you guys know, I ran too, and the Democrats wouldn't applaud for that.
- [24:08]
Unidentified Conservative Commentator
Sorry, I actually have to pause here because I'm sitting in the upper part of the gallery to the right. If you're the president pointing and you didn't get. Everyone was standing up at certain moments. That was one where I bolted up. And other people were kind of slower. I think they didn't quite process what the Trump accounts meant. I'm really into the Trump accounts. Like, Trump accounts, I think are such a white pill, you know, focusing on gang chase, which is an existential issue. It's so practical. And I'm gonna confess something. I should follow this professionally. I'm supposed to follow this closely. I did not know that you were pushing the Trump accounts, that you were.
- [24:47]
Senator Ted Cruz
I wrote it.
- [24:47]
Unidentified Conservative Commentator
Unbelievable. I should have known, but I didn't know.
- [24:50]
Senator Ted Cruz
In fact, do you wanna hear the story of the origin of the Trump accounts? It's a cool story. I've told it on the pod, but not in a while. So they originated from a poker game in Vegas. Typically, several poker pros will come. I'm buddies with a number of the poker pros. And so we're sitting at the Bellagio 3 in the morning, and Phil Hellmuth, who's one of the greatest poker players to have ever lived, Phil would tell you he is the greatest poker player to ever live. And he's got a real argument to it. He's got, I think, 15 bracelets. So it's crazy.
- [25:23]
Ben Ferguson
That's a lot.
- [25:25]
Senator Ted Cruz
So we're sitting there playing poker, and he asked me, he says, hey, do you know Brad Gerstner? And at the time, I didn't. I'm like, yeah, who's he? And he's a very successful venture capitalist in Silicon Valley. And he has this idea that was called Invest America. And I'm like, what's that? And Phil describes it for a minute, and I said, hey, that sounds like something I'd be really interested in. And so Phil pulls out his phone and he puts together a text thread and connects me and Brad and says, you2 should talk. You would really like each other. The next week, Brad gets on a plane, flies to D.C. comes to my office and pitches the Invest America accounts. I immediately called my policy team in and said, let's start drafting this. So we drafted the legislation. Now, Brad has said for months he had talked to a bunch of other senators and none of them did a damn thing. He talked to them and they'd all kind of nod and be like, yeah, yeah, that's a great idea. And then no one would do anything. We sat down and wrote the bill. That is the bill that his Trump accounts. It was my bill that we wrote. Great. And it is literally the case that if Phil Hellmuth does not connect me with Brad Gerstner. April a year ago. There are no Trump accounts. And the American. The kids of America do not have trillions in investments, which is what they're going to have through Trump accounts.
- [26:56]
Ben Ferguson
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 you to pause what you're doing for just one minute and I want you to hear about Alejandra. She lives in a remote community with very few resources and little to no health care. So when Alejandra gets sick, her parents have no real options, no doctors in their community, and no money for real medical care. By the third day, her body was shutting down. She woke up and just long enough to tell her, mom, I can't take the pain anymore. I can't keep going. Her parents drove hours to find a doctor who tried everything. But she needed a private hospital and that was impossible for her family to afford. And that is when Compassion International stepped in. Now, through Compassion, Alejandra was treated. And against all odds, she survived. She lived because someone just like you took action. Right now, unfortunately, there are children just like Alejandra who won't survive unless someone like you steps in. Compassion International partners with local churches, providing children with the support that they need. Critical medical care plus food, education, and the hope of the gospel, all in Jesus name. So help a child just like Alejandra. Today you can visit compassion.com that's compassion.com
- [28:33]
Public Podcast Announcer
support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI it all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year. You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available at public.comdisclosures I want
- [29:35]
Ben Ferguson
to get back to the big Story Number three of the week you may have missed. All right, Senator, let's talk about the Olympics. There were so many cool stories out of the Olympics, obviously celebrating hockey that kind of took everything over when that happened. But there were some other really incredible and important stories in these Olympics, and one of them that just is something we got to talk about is involved not only China, but also America's gold medalists who won in figure skating. It's an amazing story.
- [30:07]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, look, we obviously have the incredible victory of winning the gold in both men's hockey and women's hockey. And I got to say that moment was extraordinary at the State of the Union. It was wonderful to see the men's gold winning Olympic hockey team there. The pride they had for America was fabulous. But there's also a story that got some coverage, but I think it's worth going back and focusing because it was a powerful contrast and it was a contrast between two Olympians. It was a contrast between Alyssa Liu and Eileen Gu. Now both are women of Chinese heritage. One Alyssa competed for the United States. The other Eileen competed for China. Let's start with Alyssa because Alyssa's story is extraordinary and I want to read from a tweet from a fellow named Afshine M. Ronnie, I don't know who this person is, but I thought the way he wrote it was very effective. Here's what he said. The ultimate American revenge story. The script couldn't have written it better. In 1989, Arthur Liu fled China as a political refugee after the Tiananmen Square massacre. He came to America with nothing but a dream for a free life. Decades later, his daughter, Alyssa Liu, became the face of Team USA. But the CCP didn't forget. Before the 2020 Beijing Olympics, the FBI uncovered a brazen spying operation. The target, Alyssa and her father. The Chinese government tried to stalk them on US soil, intimidate her into silence, pressure her to turn her back on the country that gave her family refuge. The FBI had to give them 24. 7 security just so she could compete.
- [31:58]
Ben Ferguson
Isn't that amazing?
- [32:00]
Senator Ted Cruz
She faced intimidation. She refused to be a pawn. She walked away from the sport for two years to find her soul again. And then she came back with a vengeance. Today, the story is complete. In a flawless performance to Donna Summers, MacArthur Park, Alyssa Liu just did the impossible Olympic gold. The first American woman to win individual gold in 24 years. She didn't just skate for a medal. She skated for the freedom her father risked everything for. She didn't just win for herself. She won for the flag that protected her family when the world felt small. That's what a patriot looks like. Now, I gotta say, I want to give listeners some background into this show. The way you and I record this pod is we sit down right before recording it, and we go through all the stories that are in the news. We say, all right, what do we want to talk about? And by the way, the pod is not scripted like you and I don't know what we're going to say. We just sort of talk about topics. We pick a couple of topics and riff on it. And I want everyone to know Ben is like, no, no, no, I don't want to cover this story. Ben said, I hate Americans. I hate Olympians. I can't skate. And that's true. I'm a very good skater, and I'm secretly a communist.
- [33:28]
Ben Ferguson
Okay, there we. Okay, got it. Okay, I see we're going here now.
- [33:31]
Senator Ted Cruz
Are you a good skater? I suck at skating. I'm a horrible skater.
- [33:35]
Ben Ferguson
So my dad's, you know, from up north, and that was, like, one thing. They would take us skating as his kids, and then we would skate on the ponds. We went to North Dakota. So, yeah, I've been skating a long time.
- [33:45]
Senator Ted Cruz
I'm an unbelievably bad skater. I basically wobble around the skate rink and hold onto the walls the whole time. It's terrible. Like, four year olds come skating past me and are like, get out of the way. Like you, you. You terrible thing.
- [33:59]
Ben Ferguson
I can. I can picture this, and I believe you completely that you're not overselling that point at all.
- [34:04]
Senator Ted Cruz
I'm not, but let's just say for the record, I can kick your ass at basketball. And to be clear, I've broken your finger playing basketball.
- [34:12]
Ben Ferguson
That is true. They kicking me a part. At some point. We might need a one on one game. Just so the audience knows the score here. I've just said give me.
- [34:19]
Senator Ted Cruz
All right, look, look, you've got mass and strength, but I'm just saying you can't shoot to save your life. All right, why did I want to cover this story? Look, some of it is, as the child of a refugee from Cuba, I find Alyssa Liu's story inspirational. I find it.
- [34:38]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, you identify with it. It's incredible.
- [34:40]
Senator Ted Cruz
And listen, there's a contrast with her and Eileen Gu. Now, I want to say something. So Eileen Gu is also of Chinese heritage. She's a student at Stanford. Alyssa's a figure skater. She won the gold. Eileen Gu is a downhill skier. She won two silvers. Both were offered the opportunity from China. The Chinese Communist government said, we will give you millions of dollars to compete for China.
- [35:07]
Ben Ferguson
Literally millions. You're not joking. Like some reports have been upwards of 6 million plus.
- [35:11]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, like massive amounts of money. And Eileen said yes and Alyssa said no. Now I gotta say, in the conservative media, there's been a world of hate pounded and dumped on Eileen. I'm not in that camp. Look, she's a 20 year old college kid. I don't have any hate or animosity to her. I understand. I mean, look, if I were in college, no one. There've been reports she received like $14 million. No one ever offered me $14 million in college. I understand that. And there is something of a tradition in the Olympics. You think about the NBA where you have all these stars, you know, Victor Wembanyamu in the NBA competes for France. Alperin Shengun competes for Turkey. They have lots of people who are from other countries. They compete for other countries and no one is horrified. And they're not like, you're a horrible human being.
- [36:09]
Ben Ferguson
Let me say, here's the difference.
- [36:11]
Senator Ted Cruz
It's different. It is different, but go ahead.
- [36:12]
Ben Ferguson
It's different. The reason why it's. This one's different is when you grow up in America and you do everything in America and you're part of this country and this country supports you. And then because someone throws money at you, you defect to communist China. That's the difference between if you come into the league from another country and you play in the NBA and Then you go back to, like when I played tennis, a lot of the guys from smaller countries would go back and play Davis cup or the Olympics for their team. It was awesome. Like, there was teammates of mine that made their Olympic team. There was from, you know, Kazakhstan or smaller nations and they were the best in their country. That's not defecting from America. Right. But when you're in America and your American citizen, then you're like, all right, I'm literally defecting and gonna go do this for China. And I'm. It's solely for a big payday. It was. It's from an athlete standpoint. I get the money, but it is different than if you're in the NBA and you're from France, like Marc Gasol and Pau Gasol and they go and play against the USA in that game. Like, I have no qualms about that. That's where you were raised.
- [37:12]
Senator Ted Cruz
To be clear, the Gasols are from Spain, not France.
- [37:14]
Ben Ferguson
Spain, wherever it is. But you get my point.
- [37:17]
Senator Ted Cruz
We Latins don't like when you call us French. Like that is getting it wrong.
- [37:22]
Ben Ferguson
I apologize. The pow and mark. There you go.
- [37:24]
Senator Ted Cruz
Okay, you are right that it's different. You know, Victor Wembanyama is French. He grew up in France. Like his whole background is that so. It is different when you go and play for the country you were born and grew up in. Both Alyssa and Eileen were born in and grew up in America. So that is different. That being said, there was some real vitriol directed at Eileen. And Listen, she's a 20 year old Olympic athlete. I don't have anger towards her. But my view is simple. If you decide I want to compete for China, I want to win the gold medal for China, you can do that. But you know what you're saying? I want 1.3 billion people in China to root for me and I want to beat the United States of America. Well, you know what? I'm not going to root for you. I'm going to root for the athletes that say I'm competing for America. I'm not. I thought people were a little bit overwrought in condemning Eileen Gu. I don't know her at all. And she's a talented athlete and she's a 20 year old kid. But she made the decision she wants the Chinese to root for and she does not want America to root for. And to be clear, when she made that decision, she's saying, I want the United States of America to lose. Yeah, that's a decision I disagree with. And the Contrast with Alyssa Liu. She was offered millions of dollars.
- [38:53]
Ben Ferguson
Senator, I also think just really cool part of the story is Alyssa Liu's father. We mentioned that earlier, but, like, this is a guy that sacrificed everything, had to flee. The country, comes to America, he is literally being attacked and still being hunted by the Chinese government to the point where the FBI is coming after him. And on top of that, stays focused to make his daughter an Olympic gold medalist while having to look over his shoulder to the point where the FBI had to give them protection. That's the best part of this story as well. Like, they love this country. They didn't take the money, by the way. They took the money. I'm assuming they wouldn't need protection anymore, right?
- [39:32]
Senator Ted Cruz
Look, he was incredibly driven. He raised his daughter. She was extraordinary. And I will say one aspect of this story that I really like. According to the Internet, according to Twitter, apparently Alyssa Liu is politically liberal. And so leftists are like you conservatives can't cheer her on because she is allegedly woke. I don't know if she's politically liberal or not, but you know what? I don't care. She competed for America. When she was standing there, she had the American flag around her shoulder. She's tearing up as the. As the Star Spangled Banner. She's cheering for America, and I'm cheering for her. And I don't give a damn if she votes for Barack Obama or Joe Biden. She's an American, and I'm proud to cheer her on.
- [40:12]
Ben Ferguson
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. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.