← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Shocking Audio Shows Hunter Biden BEGGING For Money From Family, plus Gas Prices Soaring Under Govt. Regulations.
00:52:21
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- [00:01]
Ben Ferguson
Big breaking news in the Hunter Biden fiasco with the Biden family. We're going to have that for you in just a moment. Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz and I am the new co host, Ben Ferguson here with you today. We have a lot to talk about, Senator, obviously, in the, in the news world, but this is a moment that is an honor for me. I am beyond excited to get to co host your, your podcast with you and do this with premier networks. With iHeart. We're gonna be expanding for everyone listening to three days a week, which is gonna be so much fun, I think, for the Verdict audience here and something that's been important to you to be able to get to expand this and reach more people.
- [00:47]
Ted Cruz
Well, Ben, that's exactly right. And the expansion is gonna change the format a little bit in that two of the three are gonna be audio podcasts. So we're gonna do video, where the objective is gonna be to continue to do video once a week. But two of the three, including obviously this one, are going to be audio only. And that's one of the ways we're going to expand the coverage and hopefully connect with a lot more folks that are looking for the inside scoop, looking to understand what actually is happening and what it means.
- [01:15]
Ben Ferguson
You know, it's so, I think, important now for us to be able to go around the media and go directly to the audience, which is, I think, one of the reasons why your podcast has exploded and why it made sense to expand it to three days a week. And you and I are so much aligned, I think, with our goal and our objective. I started in radio for people that don't know me when I was 12 years old. It was my mission field. I started in TV on Bill O'Reilly's show on Fox when I was 17 years old and have been doing TV and radio ever since. And I have my own podcast, my own national syndicated show. And it's. You and I have that same mission, which is, I think, to change hearts and minds of Americans with facts and the real story behind some of these, the ridiculous headlines and the propaganda of the left. I jokingly say that, you know, my job is to make liberals go insane with facts and figures each and every day. And I love my job because for me, this is my mission field very much the same way. I think you believe God put you on earth to stand up for values, traditional values, for the sanctity of life, for the Constitution, for the Second Amendment. Part of the reason why you obviously went to law school.
- [02:30]
Ted Cruz
Well, I Will say, the only problem with that mission there, Ben, is I think liberals start out insane. And so really the only thing you're doing is exposing their mental illness. I don't know if you happened to see yesterday on Twitter the video of this crazy lady who had stolen money from two little kids in their lemonade stand. And she's wearing a mask and the father is asking her, please give back the money to my children. And this crazy lady is just berating him that you are endangering us because these children are selling. Selling lemonade and you shouldn't be allowed to sell lemonade and you need masks. And it was a level of COVID paranoia that was just. You watched it and it was interesting. A, she wasn't faking it. This was not. She believed this in the core. You know, if they had been injecting Ebola into the neighborhood cats, she would not be more worked up. But B, she felt an absolute entitlement. I'm going to take these children lemonade stand money. And at the end of it, she gives the money back because he very calmly demands that she do so. And then she knocks the whole stand over and knocks the lemonade over. And it. It's a mental illness at that point. When you think as a busybody that you have the right to control somebody else and if they don't comply with your paranoia, then you can use force to force them to comply.
- [03:55]
Ben Ferguson
You've done this and seen this on college campuses. You do a ton of college campus speaking. I do some as well. And even in the college campus world, we've seen these massive, I think, changes with just personalities where it used to be, you could go in and you could have a grand debate and there would be people that would prepare. Right. Look forward to the opportunity to question you or to question me on a certain topic or issue. And now there is no longer a grand debate with many on the left. It's just scream at you and tell you and name call, you're a bigot, racist, homophobe, xenophobe. The list goes on and on and on and on. And they just go, you know, now we're domestic terrorists. Now we are a culture. We're a domestic terrorist organization that is a threat to democracy. We see Democrats running on that, doubling down in many of these races. We saw in the Senate race in Ohio where they're doubling down. The Democrats, they're saying that they believe that if you support conservatives, people like the MAGA movement, that you are a threat to our nation and should be treated like you are a domestic terrorist organization no different than Al Qaeda.
- [04:59]
Ted Cruz
Well, look, the president called half the country fascist or semi fascist. I will say, though, that this podcast so far has managed to cut through some of that and that the campus tours we've done, you know, we've seen a number of liberal students come and show up and they come to the front of the line and they ask their questions, and we've had very little. We had at University of Wisconsin, Madison, one one leftist kind of run up and scream f you and then scamper off. I kind of chuckled the courage of your convictions. But, you know, beyond that, we have not had the rudeness and incivility. That's a good thing. So. But all right, there's a lot of breaking news, but before we do that, I want to drill down a little bit. A lot of the Verdict listeners, I assume know who you are, have seen you on tv, have listened to you on radio or your podcast. But there are some of the Verdict listeners who don't know you. You and I go back a decade from when I first ran for Senate. I think we met back in 2011. And your story is pretty remarkable. And so I just want to take a minute to kind of walk folks through your history night. Now, you kind of casually mentioned that you started on radio when you were 12, which is a pretty crazy and wild thing. Yeah. Maybe tell the story of like how the heck that happened, because most 12 year olds don't, don't get on the radio.
- [06:21]
Ben Ferguson
You know, my. My life took an interesting turn and I'll talk a little bit about myself so people know kind of what got me to do what I'm doing now. We were hit when I was very young by a drunk driver. And that drunk driver died. And thank goodness we lived. I grew up in a family that was law enforcement. My dad was a police officer when actually we were hit by that drunk driver. He wasn't with us. It was my mom and my sister and I. And that gave me, I think, an instant kind of life purpose at a very young age because I realized how quick life could be taken away. And I paid attention to stuff. I was homeschooled.
- [07:01]
Ted Cruz
And how old were you when that car accident?
- [07:04]
Ben Ferguson
I was like five years old. I was five. But it was my first vivid memory because I remember the impact. I remember my mom. You know, we all had our seatbelts on, but we had the lap seatbelts. They didn't in the backseat have yet. Those shoulder straps and the whiplash broke my sister's collarbone from the snapback of the impact of the wreck. He hit us going over 100, and he didn't have his seatbelt on. He went through the passenger window of his car. As he turned sideways at the very last moment, we hit his passenger door and he hit our windshield. And I remember getting out of the car and my mom's head had hit the windshield and there was blood coming down her face. And I just wanted to get to my mom. And I remember running out of the back door, and I couldn't. I had to walk over his body, and I couldn't get her door open. And a man came along. To this day, I still think it was God's intervention. And he said. He grabbed me and took me to the back of the car. And he said, I've got this. And he got my sister out and he got my mom out. And then they rushed us all to the hospitals and even separate us. And my sister and I went to the children's hospital and she went to the adult, the med. The trauma center. And that moment was a moment where I think I realized and didn't take for granted life. And having that moment was a blessing in disguise because it made me, at a very young age, realize how important it was to stand up against right and wrong. My dad laughs to this day that when I was a little kid, after that he was a police officer. And we would be in Kroger, and I would see somebody, senator, buying beer. And I would tell my dad, like, I need you to, dad, arrest him. Because I was very literal. I didn't understand. You know, I saw beer and thought, that guy's gonna drink it and they're gonna hit my car and I'm gonna die. And. And my dad was. He had to explain to me, like, laws, son. I can't arrest him for buying beer. It's okay to buy beer. And he talked about consumption. He talked about what the law says and how you can't get behind the wheel if you've been drinking. And this blood alcohol level, which back then was a 1.0 before they changed it to 0.8. And so that had that impact where I was paying attention, I think, to more things because I wanted to understand how this country worked and how laws worked. So you Fast forward to 1112 years old. I'm sitting in the back of the blue four arrow starred van. And that was one ugly van, by the way, that Ford made. And my mom was listening to talk radio. Now, this is before talk radio became more conservative. This is before Hannity or Beck, Right. It was Limbaugh just kind of come onto the scene. But a lot of news talk stations had liberal shows and conservative shows. And there was a liberal host, a city council member in my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. And in that. In my hometown, she was screaming about the school lunch program and the Contract with America in 1994. And this contract there was part of it was a school lunch program. And you may remember this ripper, Richard Gephardt, held up a bottle of ketchup, and he said, is this what conservatives are going to call a vegetable? And she continued to say that Republicans were going to starve kids and it was going to be their only hot.
- [10:12]
Ted Cruz
Meal a day, that they were part mean, the ketchup or himself.
- [10:17]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, right. Exactly. Yeah. Bingo. Yeah, exactly, exactly, exactly. And so I'm in the backseat, my mom's school teacher, right? And then she's teaching us homeschool. And I said, mom, there's no way that anyone would do that to children. And she immediately perked up, Right. This is a, you know, school mom's dream. She's like, well, honey, how do you know that? I'm like, mom, I can't think that any adult would take away a child's lunch. And she said, well, why don't you call our congressman and get a copy of the bill and you can read it. I'll help you read it, and you can see if you're right. So I did. I called Ed Bryant, who was our congressman at the time. He faxed the bill to my dad's fax machine with that old roller fax paper, right? That falls on the ground. You have to put it back in order. And I read the bill, and sure enough, she lied to her audience. And I found out that the Republicans wanted to increase school lunch funding by 3.7%, and Republicans wanted to increase it by like 4.3%. And the Democrats were calling the difference in their two numbers the cut, even though both were clearly increasing school lunch funding. And I called her and we got into this big debate, and I said to her, she was yelling at me, and I said, ma'am, I said, have you read the bill? And she said, well, no one reads the bills. And I said, well, I did, and maybe you should before you go on the radio and lie to people. And it just blew up another show. It was one of those moments that just happened. And I read her the bill on the air and told her why she was wrong, and I was great.
- [11:48]
Ted Cruz
At what point does she say, wait a second, are you 12? How does that come out?
- [11:54]
Ben Ferguson
My voice had not changed yet. It was pretty clear that I would, you know, I had the. I had not yet hit the full puberty yet. And so it was, you know, the high, little squeaky kid voice. And she was like, how old are you? I mean, she's yelling at me and I'm like, 12 years old. I said, Ma'am, I'm 12. And so this other show that came on the afternoons heard this call, and they went on the radio at drive time at like 5:00, and they played the phone call and they said, whoever this kid is, if anyone knows who Ben is, please tell them we're talking about. We want to talk to him on the radio. So my mom and dad's home phone starts ringing from friends that are listening. They're like, they're talking about Benjamin on the radio. And so I called in and they put me on the air and they're like asking me about the bill and reading the bill and just. They were kind of enamored with this idea of a young person getting involved. And they're like, have you ever seen a radio studio? And I was like, no, ma'am, no, sir. And they were like, well, put your mom on the phone. And this is all live on the air. And I hand the phone back to my mom. They're like, can you bring your son down here tomorrow and let him see the studio? My mom's like, sure. So I go down there, they're going to have me as a guest for 10 minutes. And the first break we went to, one of the hosts looks at me and she goes, you're dying to talk, aren't you? I said, yes, ma'am. And she goes, next time you have something important to say, raise your hand. So I did. And I was on for an hour and a half. The phone lines were jammed and they were like, this is weird. Can you come back tomorrow? I was like, I have to ask my parents. So my parents drive me back down the next day. I'm on for another hour. They had me come back a week later. And then literally they hired me a week after that at 425 an hour. Minimum wage at the time. And. And I been doing radio ever since. Fell in love with it. Because radio for a younger person, people didn't judge you based on what they saw, right. Your age. They didn't look at you and think you don't.
- [13:37]
C
You.
- [13:38]
Ben Ferguson
You can't have an opinion because you could hide behind the microphone and they would Listen to what you said. And it was a great equalizer. And once I realized that I could be judged by the content of what I was saying and not because of how Baby Face I looked, I knew this was what I was going to do probably for the rest of my life.
- [13:56]
Ted Cruz
And so you went from there to going on tv.
- [14:00]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah.
- [14:01]
Ted Cruz
And how did that happen?
- [14:03]
Ben Ferguson
I was. So I was. I did a hit that was like a news piece that happened to show up. I think it was on cnn. And it was about getting out the vote and young people voting. And that was right when MTV was doing Rock the vote. And Bill O'Reilly had just come over to Fox News Channel had just launched, and there was a guy from Memphis, Tennessee, who was, I think his producer at the time and called me and said, hey, he wants to have you on. There's this new channel called Fox News now on cable in Memphis. Fox News wasn't even available yet. So their pitch to me and Bill O'Reilly and I laugh about this every time we see each other when he comes out with a new book and come on my show. And we always laugh because the pitch, Senator, was, was, hey, we have this host who's the former host of Inside Edition, and he'd really like to have you on his show. And so I did the show. We sparred, we fought. It went. It went really well. And then that was the. That was it. They started having me back on a regular basis, and I started doing other shows at Fox and Shepard Smith and Gibson show back when he was there. I mean, we're talking about the old lineup, Neil Cavuto. And it took that one hit with the guy who used to host Inside Edition, as they described it. And I remember doing the show and no one could watch it. Right. Your parents are proud of you. You're 17. They want to see it because no one could see it. And so they FedEx me a VHS. No, a beta tape. It was a beta tape of the appearance. So we had to find a friend who had a Beta machine so we could even watch it.
- [15:36]
Ted Cruz
Wow. And by the way, for a lot of our podcast listeners, you may not know what a beta tape is. You know, when. When the very beginning of being able to play movies at home, you had two different types. You had a VHS cassette and you had Beta, which was son of Sony Betamax, and they were competing size, and Beta was a little bit smaller, and VHS won out. It was a battle to see who would be the market dominant. And Beta got crushed and went away. So it's you have to be of a certain age to know what the heck a Betamax or a Beta is. And then that later became DVDs, and then that later became Blu Rays. And now, you know, our kids probably won't know what DVDs or Blu Rays are because it'll all be streaming and who knows, it'll be virtual in about 10 minutes.
- [16:20]
Ben Ferguson
Oh, exactly. It's. The world has changed and the ability to reach people has changed drastically over the last. I remember when I started radio, we had the eight tracks and you would hit the button and the eight track would play during the commercial breaks. When I started, I mean, I was 12. And then they gave you a big magnet that you would demagnetize the tape so you could rerecord over it. That's how long I've been in this business.
- [16:45]
Ted Cruz
Okay, so you're doing radio, you're doing tv, you're a teenager, you go off to college at Ole Miss on a tennis scholarship. Now, I guess you, you're pretty hardcore tennis player.
- [16:55]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, I started playing tennis. My. My aunt was a racquetball player and so she was sponsored and she used to send ektalon racquetball rackets to me for holidays. And I would go play and this tennis coach walked up to me as he saw me hitting on a racquetball court, and he's like, hey man, why don't you play a sport that other people actually play? And he goes, why don't you try tennis? And I was like, okay. And so I went out and hit a few balls with him and he saw that I had, I guess, you know, some talent. And he was like, all right. He was like, you need to probably get in a tennis clinic. And so I started, fell in love with the game, understood very quickly. My parents didn't have a lot of resources and I knew I needed a scholarship to go to college and tennis was going to be my way to pull that off. And I played in college and absolutely fell in love with the game. Got to see the world and play overseas and meet really interesting and cool people. And, you know, this playing, you put your basketball guy, obviously. And I got to play in high school and just having that team sport and taking a little bit of a break from the politics and the radio and tv. And I would still drive back and forth from Ole Miss. I'd still fill in on radio for guys like Michael Reagan, Ronald's son, and G. Gordon Liddy, Oliver north and some others like that. So I was able to keep my hand in the political world. But having that break and just to be a college student and a college athlete is something I tell kids all the time. If you're passionate about sport and you get to play, play it to the highest level. I've never talked to anybody that regretted playing in college. I have a lot of friends that regretted not playing in college because maybe they didn't get a scholarship to the university they wanted to go to. So they're like, all right, well, I'll just give up on the dream. And almost. I mean, I don't know anybody that's ever told me that, you know, if you have that ability to play, I think at that level, you run with it and you do it because you'll never forget those moments with those teammates.
- [18:56]
D
And.
- [18:56]
Ben Ferguson
And I think there's also something cool about sports. Like, there's a very small window, Senator, you know, this, where you can get to play it, and it's based on age at the highest level, it's so fun to keep playing later in life. But when you get to play at. At peak physical condition at that age where you can maximize your potential, it's a very small window. And getting to play at that level was. Was something. If I could go back and do it again, I'd do it all over again.
- [19:23]
Ted Cruz
Well, and Ben. And you had size and speed and strength and talent, all things, sadly, I was lacking. So. So, you know, you very kindly threw me a bone of, oh, you're a basketball player. I was a mediocre high school player, and I still play today. And I'd say I'm still right about the level of a mediocre high school player. So, you know, it was a very different experience from being a varsity athlete at a major university and competing at the top level. But one of the things I think is interesting, so you're a varsity athlete, you're in a fraternity, you're a big man on campus. But then you're also jumping on airplanes and flying to New York City and going on TV and on Fox at the same time. What was that like?
- [20:10]
Ben Ferguson
It was, you know, back then, when I was in College, I was college. 2000, 2004, satellite. You know how we do TV now? You just grab, you know, they do it by satellite. The cost is very inexpensive now compared to what it was in 2000. So if you were going to do TV, you got on a plane, and I would literally run, you know, haul it from Oxford, Mississippi to Memphis, get on a plane, fly to New York to do tv, and then come Back and then, you know, people around campus figured it out, right? Like this is weird, you're doing tv, but you're also, you know, hanging out at lunch. And it was, it was pretty funny, you know, it was, it was hilarious to see their reaction of like, hold on a second, you're the same guy that's screaming on Saturdays at the football game and Sunday morning you're doing the Sunday morning talk shows. This is weird. And I was, I was lucky. I got to experience both at the exact same time. And I also, it turned into me seeing bias at the first, first level I've ever seen. Bias from adults, you know, from people in positions of power against young people. And that was the most shocking. I almost failed a class. And you're going to laugh when I tell you which class I failed. It was a 400 level class and it was literally entitled Editorial and Opinion Writing. If there is any class, senator, that I should pass, it would be Editorial and opinion writing. And I had this professor.
- [21:51]
Ted Cruz
Those who can do, those who can't, teach. Oh, so tell me, I assume the professor was some wild eyed leftist.
- [21:59]
Ben Ferguson
Oh, hardcore leftist. And I walked in the first day, he knew exactly who I was, he knew exactly what I did. And it was my senior year and I would, had just signed a book deal with, with William Morrow, Harper Collins to write a book. And so it had been written about, it was, you know, is obviously a big deal writing your first, you know, big book. And I was doing a ton of TV then and I walked in and it was game on. And he would do entire lectures, basically yelling directly at me in the class. Well, this class had three papers that you wrote that were a third, a third, a third of your grade. Well, if you fail one of them, do the math. It's not good, you're gonna, it's gonna be bad. And so I did my first again, editorial and opinion writing. I did my first piece and he gave me an F. And I went to the head of the department and.
- [22:54]
Ted Cruz
I said, now was your, was your first piece, was it an editorial or was it writing about editorial writing?
- [23:00]
Ben Ferguson
No, it was like literally write an editorial, like an opinion piece. So I think I wrote about the second amendment and he failed me. And it looked like he got hammered and then spilled the red ink. I've never seen more red ink and, and writing on a paper. And so I went to the head of the department and I was like, look, like it's obvious this dude has it out for me. And they're like, well he's Tenured and he's senior, he's been here, he's premier, he's written for all of these magazines and newspapers and you know, I can't overrule him. And I'm like, all right, fine. And I know what's going to come. I'm going to write the second one, he's going to fail me. Second one comes, sure enough, he gives me a D. And I went back and I'm like to the head of the department, I said, okay. I said, now, now you're really screwing with my life. Like, I have to have this class to graduate. It's, if this grade stands, I'm going to fail the class, which means I'd have to come back and take this class in another semester. I'm going to be gone. I'm going, the Bush campaign, like, I'm out of here and this could really screw up my life. And they're like, I'm sorry. So I ended up going to the chancellor of the university and he said there was nothing he could do. And I said, all right, well I just want to give you a heads up. I'm going to go on, I think it was on Fox, and I said, I'm going to tell my story. And then the whole thing changed. Senator. Well, hold on a second. Let's see if we can come compromise. Well, you just told me, you just told me a second ago you can't compromise and that you're just gotta stand with this decision. He goes, well, what are you proposing? I said, take my name off the papers, give them to three different professors in three different departments and let them grade it. And if they fail me, I'll accept the grades. And they all came back with A's and that changed it. But that was the moment that I really was, I became angry and I was like, I've got to keep doing this because what if you didn't have that threat of being able to expose them on national tv if otherwise. This, and this is what's happened, I think, on college campuses is so many kids now are held hostage, they can't speak out, they stay quiet, they sit on their hands, they write what they think these professors want them to say instead of having a grand debate. And that's where we, I think how we've gotten to the point where we are in this country right now, where it's basically indoctrination no longer a grand debate.
- [25:16]
Ted Cruz
That's exactly right. And that's why verdict is something very, very different. Look, I think we are going to have A fun and amazing time doing this show together, doing it three, three days a week now, doing it regularly so, so that folks can count on it to come out. And I think it's going to be. It's going to be a different vibe than, than Michael and I had. Michael as sort of Yale academic brought. Brought a very kind of conservative Catholic vibe. That was fun. And I think you and I have a very different vibe that it's going to be interesting and engaging and help. Help get really to the bottom of the issues that are happening right now.
- [25:54]
Ben Ferguson
And I'm going to give people updates. I'm going to try to work on your tennis game. People don't know this yet, but we're going to, we're going to secretly prepare you for greatness in the tennis world. That's part of, that's part of my new mission field, Senator. We got to get that elbow right and then, and then I promise we're not going to lose if we play doubles together.
- [26:12]
Ted Cruz
So I actually, I have tennis elbow, which Ben knows. And given how lousy my tennis game is, I don't even deserve to have tennis elbow. Like, like that you have some modicum of skill or maybe my skill's so bad, that's why I have tennis elbow. But anyway, Ben gave me this, like, basically little electro shock thing that you strap on your forearm and it shocks it. And I'm not sure if it actually helps or if he's just screwing with me and wants to see how frequently I'll shock myself, but I'm doing it regularly and I will confess it is actually helping. So that's been an interesting experience as well.
- [26:50]
Ben Ferguson
I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night, Senator, you know, give you electrode shock afterwards. There's going to be some physical therapists out there isn't going to be yelling at the, at their phone right now going, do it, Senator. It's a tens machine. Do it. It'll work. So, yeah, you're going to. Now you're going to get filled with tweets coming to you on advice on how to do it.
- [27:09]
Ted Cruz
Well, I will confess it has made it. Made it feel a little bit better.
- [27:13]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, that's what I, that's what I like to hear. I want to ask you about some of the big news of the day that, that I. That I think is shocking. There is some new audio that has been released on Hunter Biden and it is shocking audio of Hunter begging for cash to go, claiming it's for rehab. He is begging his. His brother's widow who he ended up dating, hooking up with whatever after his brother died, begging her for points, reward points from a credit card as he's claiming he's going to check into rehab. And Senator, when I listen to this and this just came out, there was two things that shocked me. One, I genuinely have compassion and feel bad for Hunter Biden because it's obvious he's an addict. He's addicted and this is right around the time, just weeks before his gun purchase. But there was something else in this audio that I think was so disturbing to me and that is at one point, well, he's begging her for these points and she's like, no, I'll send you to rehab, I'll do it. I'll book your ticket. But I'm not giving this to you. Because she knows it's going to be used, I think, for drugs, drug abuse. He says, well, give it to my uncle. And then she says no to that. And then he says, well, give it to my dad. And it was such an eye opening moment for me that I think just tells you about Joe Biden and James Biden and the fact that they knew that he was a struggling addict and they exploited it. They sobered him up for the moments they needed him to get the deals done and the corruption and keep the money flowing to their family. I want to play this for you and get your reaction and I'll do it.
- [29:04]
C
No, honey, I don't want you to know where I'm going. It's very important. You won't give me my money. Holly, please give me the money. I mean, it's just points, honey. It's points. I'm not even asking you points. I'm asking you for my points. Care? You don't care. I will do it all for you. Okay? Here, how about this? Not you. Okay, you give it to. No, no. Give it to my. Give it to my Uncle Jimmy.
- [29:28]
Ben Ferguson
No.
- [29:29]
C
Give it to my Uncle Jimmy. What's the difference?
- [29:31]
Ben Ferguson
No.
- [29:31]
C
Why?
- [29:32]
Ted Cruz
I don't care.
- [29:32]
Ben Ferguson
I'll do it again. Give it to my dad.
- [29:34]
C
You're not using it. Give it to my dad.
- [29:35]
Ben Ferguson
I said no.
- [29:36]
C
It's really important me that you don't know. Give it to my dad. Otherwise don't ask me again. I'm hanging up. I can't pay for the place otherwise. You're killing me. Why are you doing this?
- [29:47]
Ted Cruz
No.
- [29:47]
Ben Ferguson
Senator. You hear that? And I have. It made me sad. If you've ever known somebody that's become addicted to drugs, whether it's illegal drugs like this or Prescription drugs. I have compassion for people that are struggling and I hear that. And he basically is saying, send it to my uncle. And she says no, because she obviously doesn't trust the uncle. And then he says, give it to my dad. And she doesn't even trust her own father in law to do the right thing and to actually make him go back to rehab instead of just giving him access to what, you know, his next fix here. I've never felt more compassion for him as a human being than this tape that just came out.
- [30:27]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, that's, that's really hard to listen to. That's someone who is clearly hurting, clearly is lead and is living a very troubled life. He's an addict and all of us have known addicts in our lives. My older sister Marion tragically died of an overdose. And addiction is a cruel and horrific disease. And he's clearly in the throes of it. The desperation in his voice. Anyone who's had loved ones dealing with this has heard that desperation before. I'll tell you, listening to it, what it reminded me of was Ray Liotto's character in Goodfellas when he was an addict and he's begging his wife again. It was the same back and forth of begging his wife and the panic. But you're right that it also illustrates that his wife believes that neither his uncle nor his father are going to do anything about it. That you couldn't trust giving the points or giving the money to dad, that they wouldn't just turn around and presumably, at least, you know, you infer from listening to that that she thinks they're going to give it to him and let him buy drugs with it rather than ensure that he gets in rehab. And that, you know, look, if Hunter Biden were Hunter Jones or Hunter Smith, he would be someone who had a very troubled life and you would want to see him get help. But it, but it wouldn't be news. His conversation, conversations like this wouldn't be talked about. What's different is his father's president, United States, and the evidence that has come out of, number one, his father, his father's official position being used essentially to immunize him from the crimes that he's committing. But number two, that the very significant evidence of his father being directly involved in corruption makes it a matter not just of a private son who is struggling with addiction, but of a question of public corruption. That at the end of the day, this has never been about Hunter Biden. This is about Joe Biden. This is about the President and what he's willing to do. And those questions, you know, I think that recording only amplified those questions.
- [33:01]
Ben Ferguson
You know, it's amazing how they're trying to act like Hunter Biden's business dealings can be separated from his father and his uncle and the big guy getting 10%. You know, I. Part of my background, I own a gun range and a gun store and a barbecue restaurant. And if my dad was, you know, giving a massive government contract to my gun range. Right. For. For law enforcement, that's a conflict of interest. And that obviously would be a massive problem. I know that. Right. At the basic level. Yet NBC News Today came out and said, well, there's nothing wrong, nothing illegal with Hunter Biden taking money from foreign governments, acting like immediately that that's a closed case. I want you to hear this. This was on msnbc, their NBC reporter saying this earlier.
- [33:52]
D
There's a lot of people who evade taxes, who are never prosecuted criminally. So that's going to be a big issue in this case in terms of, like, corruption, conflict of interest. We've never heard a hint that that was. That there were potential criminal charges there. Because Hunter Biden wasn't an office holder. It was perfectly legal for him to take money from foreign governments. As long as it wasn't. He wasn't inappropriately giving them information from his family or something. There's no hint of that.
- [34:18]
Ben Ferguson
There's no hint of that. I mean, NBC News looks at you with a straight face, and you've seen it. You've seen all the data that's come out. You've seen just all the suspicious activity reports on their bank accounts. And they say in their actual words, there's nothing here. There's nothing that says that any of this was nefarious. And they say it with a straight face. And I think that's what worries so many Americans is they truly believe, oh, my gosh, they're gonna get away with this. I mean, if they just nail Hunter Biden with tax issues and they just nail him with a gun issue, those are technically the two issues, Senator, that you probably cannot connect to his father and all the other stuff that they actually did is that they should be charging him with. If they don't, then he's gonna basically walk away with a slap on the wrist with the alibi. And I think it's clear his family knew it. Well, we can say he's a drug addict, so you shouldn't be hard on him.
- [35:13]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, the. Obviously, DOJ is leaking like a sieve right now and projecting that they are going to indict Hunter Biden on a tax claim and a gun charge. Those are. I'm glad to see it on one side in that the law should be blind. And the fact that his daddy happens to live in government housing on Pennsylvania Avenue should not give him a get out of jail free card that nobody else has. But it's disturbing for the same reason, which is that what they're leaking suggests they're not looking at the corruption. They're not looking at whether the corruption from Ukraine or the corruption from China, and in particular, that they're not looking at the connections to his dad. The reason anyone should care is because of his father. And you know, the clip you just played from NBC is truly absurd because take something like Burisma. And every time we talk Burisma, that brings us back to the very beginning of verdict launched on the first day of impeachment, when we talked about Burisma a lot. Hunter Biden was given a job at Burisma where they paid him $83,000 every single month. Now, what expertise does he have? He doesn't speak Ukrainian. He doesn't know anything about oil and gas. He has no relevant expertise. He had one qualification and one qualification only, which is that he carried the DNA of being the son of the sitting vice president at the time. And so NBC, well, there's no question of corruption or anything, really. Why does a Ukrainian gas company pay him that money? What are they getting? And by the way, Hunter Biden's father, Joe Biden, then the vice president, was the point person for the Obama administration on Ukraine. So it was literally bribing essentially the family of the lead US Policy person. And I'll tell you one thing to understand, okay, look, if you're a foreign government, let's say you're the Ukrainian government, let's say you're Communist China, and you're trying to influence a US Decision maker. Now, if you just show up and hand Joe Biden a paper bag full of cash, you could try to do that, but that's a little clunky and a little obvious and transparent. Even the shills at MSNBC might have a hard time explaining that one away. But there's a second way you do it, which is listen the video you played or the audio you played of Hunter talking to his wife. It is clear that Hunter Biden was a financial burden to his entire family. He was a financial burden to his dad. His dad, I am sure, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, trying to take care of his very troubled son. And look, we all respect that you should do what you can to help your children, especially when they're troubled. But by Burisma giving Hunter Biden $83,000 a month, what they did is they took that obligation off of Joe Biden's balance sheet. In other words, he didn't have to support Hunter Biden because lo and behold, the Ukrainians are doing it for him. And then later on in China, the private equity deals that he did in China, multi billion dollar deals. You've got indications there, including as you noted, that the 10% for the big guy, let's be clear, the big guy is not talking about someone who's fat. It's talking about Joe Biden. And once again, it is highly disturbing that doj, it doesn't seem, has even the slightest interest in looking into anything that could implicate Joe Biden. This is all about finding a fall guy.
- [39:06]
Ben Ferguson
And with an alibi. With an alibi. A Phil. And I mean, look, you and I both have compassion for Hunter. When you listen to that tape, don't think that tape's not going to be played. If they're in a court, when people are on a jury are going to say, this guy, this poor guy's an addict, he's addicted to drugs. Okay, yeah, he broke the law, but maybe we'll give him a little compassion here. That's been their game plan the whole time. Even when they brought out Joe's sister when she did this, the morning show, Sunday morning show, CBS this Morning or whatever it was several months back, she clearly laid out the plan for the family. And that was, he may have done something wrong back in the day, but he was an addict, so it's not his fault. And that's always been the alibi, which meant they could exploit him and get even to do more insane deals. And I think you and I, and this is something the American people have to ask themselves. Does Hunter Biden exist as a businessman in any of these capacities? Whether it's with, you know, Chinese Communist Party and the, and the oil and gas deals with Bob Alinsky, the whistleblower about their deals with Russian oligarchs and the former mayor of Russia's wife giving him millions of dollars with him being a defense attorney for more than a million dollars for a guy that's going to prison and missing in China or Burisma, does any of that happen? Forget his last name, Hunter Biden, does any of that happen without his father being involved in those deals? I would argue it's impossible to separate Joe Biden and James Biden from any of this.
- [40:34]
Ted Cruz
Look, I think that's right and I think DOJ is once again being partisan and political. And what I fear is that this is also being done for a very explicitly partisan purpose, which is that Merrick Garland has decided if we indict Hunter Biden, then he can turn around and indict Donald J. Trump. And I think that is his objective at this point is to say, gosh, we're not political. Look, we indicted the guy who is so plainly guilty and recorded videos of it and put it out to the world. And we could only not indict him if we ignored it. But it's all about having the look how even handed we are.
- [41:11]
Ben Ferguson
We're doing both sides for people that are angry. And I would be in this category. Senator, you hear this. And if the DOJ doesn't do a special prosecutor, if we don't get real indictments, just these two kind of slap on the wrist indictments that insulate the President, what does justice look like if you guys take control of the Senate, if Comer takes control, you know, in the leadership role there in the House to investigate, you know, Congressman Comer said that Hunter Biden, quote, is a national security threat who may be compromised, who may have compromised the President. And that's what he says they're going to look at in the House side. But what does justice look like if we don't get these indictments? Can you guys get a special prosecutor or is that. No, because the President is Joe Biden. Is there anything that you guys can actually do when you're investigating him to go back and force the DOJ or the FBI or law enforcement do their job if they don't do it the first time around?
- [42:12]
Ted Cruz
Well, I think the election matters powerfully because having a majority gives you the ability to then convene hearings. And those hearings there has been essentially zero oversight of the Biden administration with Democrats in charge of Congress. They put partisan politics above everything else. So they don't want to know the answers to any of these things. I think we are extremely likely to see a Republican House and I think there's a good chance we'll see a Republican Senate. If and when that happens, I think we will see, I hope and believe, vigorous hearings examining all sorts of issues. The corruption, the corruption, going straight to the top. Joe Biden, his involvement in it, Dr. Fauci, the origins of COVID the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the funding from the nih Regain of function, research, all of that. The involvement with Big Pharma in the administration's policy, the involvement with the teachers unions in the administration's indefensible policies. There are so many topics that are screaming for oversight. I think we will see hearings on every one of those topics. Those hearings may involve subpoenas if witnesses refuse to attend. Having the majority means you can issue subpoenas and use legal compulsion to make witnesses attend. You can have lawyers who engage in investigations. But you asked, can Congress appoint a special prosecutor? And the answer to that is no. Under our Constitution, we have separation of powers and only the executive can execute the laws. So the questions of prosecution, it is only Article 2, the President, the Attorney General, that have the authority to indict anyone, to prosecute anyone to bring a case. Congress, the legislature, can pass laws that need the President's signature to become law. And Congress can, can hold hearings and shine a light. So I had been calling for two years for a special prosecutor to look at Hunter Biden, for a special prosecutor to look at Anthony Fauci. This administration laughs that off. They don't care that they are going to be corrupt and political, and they do not care. With a majority, what the hearings can do is shine a light and put pressure. But at the end of the day, the only person with the authority to appoint a special prosecutor is the Attorney General of the United States. And so that's one of the reasons why I believe one of the first orders of business should be impeaching Merrick Garland. The degree to which he has turned DOJ into a partisan nest of hornets. Working on behalf of the White House, working on behalf of the dnc, I think has profoundly compromised the integrity of the Department of justice and the FBI. And as an alumnus, I worked at the DOJ in 2001. That is both very sad, but it's also incredibly dangerous.
- [45:16]
Ben Ferguson
I want to switch gears real quick before we run out of time today to gas prices. Senator JP Morgan, CEO, came out earlier today in an interview and he said this about American oil production. As he also said, we're headed into a recession if we're not already there. That obviously made Wall street perk up. But I want you to hear what he had to say about America with oil production. America needs to play a real leadership role. America is the swing producer, not Saudi Arabia, and we should have gotten that right starting in March. It's almost too late to get it right because obviously these are longer term investments. America needs to play a real leadership role. You rarely see CEOs come out in this way and this happens and you tweeted this out. Valero has now fired back with facts after the California government is wanting to investigate oil and gas companies for the gas price spikes there that are hitting seven, eight dollars a gallon in some parts of California. Because the California Energy Commission, and obviously this is political right before the elections, wrote executives at five oil and gas companies and are demanding answers for sharp price increases. And basically the vice president for state government affairs at Valero said, okay, you want to know what's happening? Fine, we'll tell everybody. He said California for Valero is the most expensive operating environment in the country and, quote, a very hostile regulatory environment for refining. He also said California policymakers have knowingly adopted policies with the express intent of eliminating the refinery sector. Valero said California requires refiners to pay very high carbon cap and trade fees and burden gasoline with the cost of low carbon fuel standards, saying, quote, with the backdrop of these policies, not surprisingly, California has seen refineries completely close or shut down major units. And he said when you shut down refinery operations, you limit the resilience of the supply chain, saying, don't blame us for this. You guys have isolated this market. You guys have destroyed this market. You guys have made us produce a unique blend of gasoline, and now you want to investigate us while you set up this entire thing. I'm glad finally some companies are speaking out like this.
- [47:44]
Ted Cruz
I think it's really important to see companies pushing back, you know. The letter continues and it goes right at the California regulators. The letters from Valero says, quote, from the perspective of a refiner and fuel supplier, California is the most challenging market to serve in the United States. For several additional reasons, California regulators have mandated a unique blend of gasoline that is not readily available outside of the West Coast. California is largely isolated from fuel markets of the central and eastern United States. California has imposed some of the most aggressive and thus expensive and limiting environmental regulatory requirements in the world. California policies have made it difficult to increase refining capacity and have prevented supply projects to lower operating costs of refineries. It is a great example of just responding with facts. And this is. We're seeing this nationally with the radicals, the Green New Deal radicals and the Biden administration. And California is the Wuhan virus, epicenter of the craziness that is in the Biden administration. All of these nutty ideas originated in California. With the crazies there, it is the reason people are fleeing California in droves. But when it comes to energy, the reason gas prices are so high nationally, $5, $6, even $7 a gallon is because Joe Biden and the people he appointed want gas prices to be high. They promised. Joe Biden on the campaign trail promised that he would end drilling on federal lands, both onshore and offshore. And they have bent over backwards trying to do that. They have put in place dozens of rules and regulations and policy designed to make it harder to develop oil and gas in the United States. They shut down the Keystone pipeline. They shut down exploration in anwr, the incredibly resource rich, very small section of Alaska. They shut down new leases in offshore drilling where there are vast reserves in the Gulf of Mexico. They're not giving new leases there. They are not granting permits for pipelines. They're not granting permits for refineries. And not only that, they're cutting off the funds to pay for exploration. There are two avenues to fund a new exploration project. You neither have debt or equity. The Biden banking regulators are hammering banks not to lend oil and gas projects. And on the equity side, the Biden appointees to the SEC are hammering efforts to raise equity to fund that. Also, if you have no capital, you can't drill. And so what's happening? The bad guys are getting rich. Russia's getting rich, Iran's getting rich. Venezuela is getting rich because they're producing. And by the way, they pollute a lot more than America does. So the Biden zealots are shutting down, are hurting the environment at the same time. And as bad as all of that is, California takes all of that and does it on steroids. So when you pay seven bucks a gallon in California, I guess you could be grateful because in a year they want you to pay 10 bucks a gallon. And this is the direct result of policies passed by people who don't give a damn about your life. They don't care about your kids, they don't care about working people being unable to afford to get to work or get to school. This is a religion for them and the consequences of their policy. That's for little people to worry about. It doesn't trouble their pretty little heads.
- [51:30]
Ben Ferguson
Senator, we're off and running with verdict. As I said earlier, I'm looking really forward to doing this with you three days a week. It's going to be fun for everybody listening. I will say it every time. Make sure you hit that little forward arrow on your phone and share this on your social media, whatever social media you're on. Please write us a five star review that helps us reach more people and change hearts and minds. When you write us a review and send her. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's an honor to get to spend time with you talking about these issues. And this is going to be, as I said, a exciting expansion with Premier with iHeart. An exciting expansion to do this three days a week. And I can't tell you how excited I am personally.
- [52:14]
Ted Cruz
We're going to have a lot of fun.
- [52:15]
Ben Ferguson
It's going to be a blast. That's it for this edition of Verdict with Ted Cruz. We'll see you back here literally in a couple days.