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Ben Ferguson
Well, happy New Year's. It is nice to have you with us on Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. And we are going to have a lot of fun on this show and on Friday's show is we are going to go through some of the biggest predictions over the last year and some of these even go back further. But we founded information now that proves that we were right on this show of things that you're not going to hear anywhere else. Predictions, big predictions that we made right here. This will be a two part series. So today, New Year's Day you're gonna get part one and then part two on Friday. And in no particular order of importance, we're gonna do our top 10. But we're not ranking them as one through 10 is in the biggest. These are just 10 predictions in general. And so with that being said, let me first say to you center, happy New Year.
Ted Cruz
Well, Happy New Year. I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's Eve. I hope everyone is is excited and ready for 2025. I'll say last night, Heidi and I and both our girls, we were at Mar a Lago with President Trump. I will tell you, it was a wild evening, an incredible evening. We'll talk on a future podcast about everything that happened New Year's Eve. But it was a great way to celebrate not just the end of the year, but to celebrate a fantastic election. A new administration coming in, a new Congress coming in, change that is in the air and at a time of celebration. It's also a time to reflect on this podcast and on what we do. And in particular, one of the things we do on this podcast that a lot of people don't do is we make predictions. I stick my neck out and make predictions about what's going to happen, make clear, explicit predictions. And I have to say over the Ron of Verdict, we have a remarkable record of those predictions proving correct over and over and over again. And many of the predictions we make on this podcast, very few, if anybody else is saying you're certainly not getting it in the New York Times, you're certainly not getting it in the Washington Post or ABC, NBC, CBS or CNN or MSNBC. And so we're gonna go through 10 predictions that on this podcast we have made that have proven correct. And the principle going forward, if you want to know what's going to happen next, what's going to happen in 2025, what's going to happen in 2026, what's going to happen going forward? Well, listen to Verdict because we're gonna keep making predictions and so far our batting record is pretty damn good, including some predictions that at the time we made them were widely, widely ridiculed and deemed crazy tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theories. And now they are indisputably correct.
Ben Ferguson
And let's go back and let's start with one that's way back and now we have a lot more confirmation to yet again we were right. I want to go back to March 10th of 2020. March 10th, 2020. Get that in your head. We're in 2025 now, January 1st. And you said that in fact COVID 19, you believed was coming from a lab, that this wasn't some man made, this wasn't some organic thing, this was clearly man made. And if you said that, by the way, on social media, you were shut down. You were put into what we refer to as social media jail. Your reach was limited, you couldn't run ads.
Ted Cruz
It changed people. In 2020, in 2020, Facebook and Twitter and Google, they were all actively suppressing, saying that Covid was a man made virus, that it was not something that had just naturally leapt from an animal to the human population, but rather that it escaped from a lab. It was suppressed. We now know that Facebook, that Dr. Fauci was communicating with Mark Zuckerberg, asking him to suppress it. And yet somehow, starting back in March of 2020, this show was laying out the facts. And for our loyal listeners and viewers, they were hearing the facts about COVID right at the very beginning. Give a listen. March 10, 2020.
Michael Knowles
This was just a bad case of bat soup, that people ate something they shouldn't have eaten and that's how it spread. Others have pointed to this strange coincidence that there is a virus testing laboratory in Wuhan. Do we have any sense of the true origins of the virus?
Unnamed Medical Expert
Well, we don't know for sure. I've asked medical experts and they've said based on the sequencing of the genomes, it does not appear to be artificially created, that it appears to be a virus that has occurred in nature. You're right that a lot of people have focused on the Wuhan Virology Institute that is located right there. And indeed they've got researchers there that are studying coronavirus and studying bats. I mean, that, that, that raises some obvious questions. At the same time, it's very interesting. Do you remember back last fall when, when the Houston Rockets, when Daryl Morey, the general manager, tweeted out about Hong Kong, he said, stand with Hong Kong. Stand for liberty. Right. And, and the NBA went crazy And China went crazy and the NBA apologized profusely. I have to admit, it's kind of the same thing that anyone suggests. Well, gosh, you know, there are thousands, hundreds of thousands of cities all across the world. It just so happens this outbreak is there right where this virology lab is. And the collective media acts with this outrage of, okay, take your, take your tin hat off. How dare you even ask that question? You know, it's obviously a question that people are going to inquire. Look, the first step needs to be stopping this, this virus, stopping the disease and protecting human life right now. But there are certainly going to be questions following up if there is any connection or not. And that seems at least a reasonable question to ask.
Ben Ferguson
You. Listen to that. And again, we're going back now till 2020 for that. You were spot on. And that was something that the media and social media said made you a conspiracy theorist.
Ted Cruz
Yeah. And listen, there are two predictions that came out that we were laying out. Number one, that Covid did not occur just naturally, did not occur in a wet market from someone eating bat soup, but rather that it escaped from a lab. And number two, that in particular it came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. And look, early on you're dealing with limited information. And I was trying to do my best to walk through that limited information. By the way, I gotta say in that clip, Ben, you sound kind of funny there. You know, you don't have much of a sudden twang. You know, you sound like, you sound kind of like a Yalie. It's a little weird.
Ben Ferguson
I've always, you know, wanted to know what I'd sound like if I went to the Ivy leagues. And now I know. Compliments of Michael Knowles for making that happen. Right.
Ted Cruz
And for long time Verdict listeners, Michael Knowles, my dear friend, Ben's dear friend, was my co host for the first couple of years. And so that was Michael and me back then, before Ben came on board. That was in March, March 10th of 2020. Let's go forward a month later to April, to April, we had a little more information. I want to listen, I want you to listen to verdict laying out the evidence that this virus not just escaped from a lab, but escaped from the Wuhan Institute for Virology in Wuhan, China. Give a listen.
Michael Knowles
I want to turn for a moment from the economy into the virus itself. And I want to take just a slight victory lap because I remember on this very Show, Senator, on March 10, over a month ago, you suggested that there was very likely a Link between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and this virus that just so coincidentally happened to occur within a couple miles of that institute during that time. The mainstream media said this was crazy, this was a conspiracy theory. There was no evidence of it. Now we are getting multiple reports all saying that the virus came from the lab. My question here is not. My point is not just to take a victory lap. My question is, did the US Government know that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was conducting this sort of dangerous research? And if we did know, why didn't we stop it?
Ted Cruz
Absolutely.
Unnamed Medical Expert
Yes, the U.S. government do. And in fact, when you and I brought this up on March 10th over a month ago, you're right, it was treated as tinfoil hat. Conspiracy theory, nut jobbery. Well, it turns out there wasn't just one. There were two labs within miles of.
Ted Cruz
Where this outbreak break occurred that were.
Unnamed Medical Expert
Studying coronaviruses from bats and that there were internal State Department wires before this pandemic, raising concerns about the security in those labs and that an accidental virus could escape and cause a global pandemic. But I'll tell you, it's worse than that. And let me give you some, some breaking news right now, which is the US Government was funding the Chinese research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Your taxpayer dollars and my taxpayer dollars. And let me give you specifics that we just got today. Today, an inquiring of the National Institutes of Health. Did any of your money go to the Wuhan Institute of Virology?
Ted Cruz
The answer is yes.
Unnamed Medical Expert
And here's what, here's what they told us in writing today. They said in fiscal year 2019, the funding for the Wuhan Institute for Virology was $76,000. And the $301. $76,301. Now what did it go to? And I'm repeating what NIH has told me in writing. It went to. It was part of an overall 3.7 million dollar funding program that went to six years in sites in China, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Myanmar. And, and here's what they were studying. These are NIH's words. The project included studying viral diversity in animal parentheses bats reservoirs, surveying people that live in high risk communities for evidence of bat coronavirus infection and conducting laboratory experiments to analyze and predict which newly discovered viruses pose the greatest threats to human health.
Ben Ferguson
Center. It's pretty clear. And that's part two of this prediction. You were right as well.
Ted Cruz
Yeah. Look. And we now know this like what we were predicting then. That was crazy. Fringe theory has now all been confirmed. Let's Fast forward to February 2023. February 2023 the Washington Post reported FBI director said COVID 19, quote most likely originated from lab incident. That's the FBI's position now. June of 2023 the New York report reported. New York Post reported, quote, U.S. taxpayers supported research in three Chinese labs that included risky gain of function experiments with coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the National Institute of Health, nih and the U.S. agency for International Development. USAID provided $2,168,345 in grant funding to the Chinese research institutions between 2014 and 2021, according to the Government Accountability Office. The report shows $1,413,720 in sub grants allocated by the Manhattan based Eco Health alliance went to the Wuhan Institute of Virology where hazardous research was conducted on bat coronaviruses. July of 2023 Reuters reported. Quote, US suspends federal funding to Wuhan lab over noncompliance December 2024 Fox News Covid most likely leaked from Wuhan Lab Social distancing not based on science Select Committee finds and then finally December 26th of 2024 just a few days ago the Wall Street Journal wrote the bombshell story that we did an entire podcast on entitled Behind Closed Doors. The spy world scientist who argued Covid was a lab leak. Well, there were scientists arguing that behind closed doors, but there was also the verdict podcast making the argument laying out the facts right at the very beginning. And I got to say on Covid we were proved exactly right.
Ben Ferguson
Final question on this prediction. Looking forward, do you think we're going to learn a lot more about Fauci, the COVID up and Covid when Donald Trump is inaugurated after January 20th?
Ted Cruz
So I do and I am urging the incoming Trump administration to engage in full transparency. That's a discussion I have had with Pam Bondi at the Department of Justice. That's a discussion I've had with Kash Patel who will be going to the FBI. It's a discussion I will have next week with RFK Jr. Who will be coming in as HHS secretary. Every one of them I am urging use full transparency, make it public, let the public know and, and I'm going to keep pressing them to do that. And I think they're, they're going to follow through. We're going to know a lot more. That is a very good thing.
Ben Ferguson
Let's move on to another prediction. This may be one of the my favorite predictions that we've ever made here on this show. Because when we said it, we got a lot of pushback. And there were a lot of people that said what you were saying was just absurd. We had our tinfoil hats on again. I mean, there were people that were angry over this. And that was the big prediction that you made, that Joe Biden would not be the 2024 Democratic nominee.
Ted Cruz
Well, that's right. And I made two related predictions. Number one, early on I said, I believe Joe Biden would not be the Democrat nominee. He would not be on the ballot in 2024. I also predicted, I said the only people that were. When people were later talking about replacing him with Gavin Newsom or Gretchen Whitmer or some other people, I said, no, that will. The Democrat Party is a bean counting party. Next in line is Kamala Harris. And the Democrat Party cannot, cannot, cannot push her aside, cannot push an African American woman aside for a white guy like Gavin Newsom. Their party would spontaneously combust if they tried to do that. So I said the only people who could replace Joe Biden are Kamala Harris or Michelle Obama. And I did lay out that I thought Michelle Obama, if I were a Democrat, I would much prefer Michelle Obama to Kamala Harris because Kamala Harris, as the whole world has seen, is a lousy candidate. So if you're a Democrat who wants to win and you're stuck with Kamala Harris, there's only one human being who can push Kamala, Kamala Harris aside. That is Michelle Obama. Now, what I think happened, I think they tried with Michelle. I think Michelle said no. And so prediction number one, that Joe Biden would not be the nominee. That came 100% correct. Prediction number two, that he would be replaced either by Kamala Harris or Michelle Obama. That came, came true as well. Although I did think Michelle Obama had had a very real possibility. So let's listen this. This first Excerpt is from September 18, 2023. So more than a year, a year and three months ago, where I laid out, laid out this possibility and give a listen. So here's the scenario that I think is perhaps most likely and most dangerous. In August of 2024, the Democrat kingmakers jettison Joe Biden and parachute in Michelle Obama. And I want you to pause and reflect on that.
Ben Ferguson
So I'm pausing and I'm reflecting, as we said. And so is everybody else listening right now.
Ted Cruz
I view this as a very serious danger.
Ben Ferguson
I'm smiling right now because it terrifies me. And I also could totally see this happening.
Ted Cruz
So Michelle Obama, number One, you don't infuriate African American women, which is a critical part of the constituency that Democrats are relying on to win. But number two, you avoid the problem if you pick from any of the four. The other three are pissed because they're all, to some extent, peers. They're rivals. They're all jabbing knives at each other. Michelle Obama, because she was first lady, has the ability to kind of parachute in above all four and say, hey, we're not picking among any of you. You guys can all fight it out next time. You're all going to be on the same level.
Unnamed Medical Expert
We're coming.
Ted Cruz
This is the Obamas saving the day. And I think in terms of a solution that unifies Democrats, there ain't nothing like that. I also think Michelle is not all that eager to run for president, but to parachute in In August of 24, a couple of months before the presidency, and suddenly wake up and be president.
Ben Ferguson
Not a bad gig. Not a bad gig.
Ted Cruz
It's not a bad gig at all. Now, would she do it? I don't know. I've met Michelle, but I don't know her personally in any meaningful way. I don't know if she would do it. I do think Barack Obama is already running the Biden administration. I think he is already the puppet master behind this Biden White House. I don't think Joe Biden is the decision maker. And so when I see the media turning on Joe Biden right now, I think the odds of Michelle Obama parachuting in in August of 2024 have risen dramatically. And that ought to scare the hell out of anyone who is unhappy about the direction this country is going and doesn't want us to go even crazier. In an even worse direction.
Ben Ferguson
In an even worse direction.
Ted Cruz
Well, and there you heard in September of 2023 making the prediction that Joe Biden would be jettisoned. And by the way, at the time that happened, very few people were making that prediction. When we put that podcast out, it drove a lot of news. There were headlines, there were people that were shocked when I laid out that Biden was not capable, that his mental capacity had diminished, that he was not gonna be the nominee, that the Democrats realized it, that they were gonna jettison him. The media ridiculed it. You go forward to February of 2024, I went on Maria Bartiromo, I said, I think Obama's driving the train, which is also what I said back in September 2023, John Harwood, who, you know, was the former journalist for the Wall Street Journal, and for NBC and who's a hard leftist, a vicious leftist. He retweeted my comments on Maria Bartiramo and his entire commentary was, quote, impossibly stupid conversation. So that was his learned journalistic view, is that it was impossibly stupid to say that. Um, I will tell you, just, just in November of this year, I, I retweeted Harwood shot, shot at me. And I just said, want to know why Nobody trusts the media. Just nine months ago, a fake, quote, journalist claimed it was, quote, impossibly stupid to observe that Joe Biden was not mentally competent to be president. Now everybody admits it. What say you, John J. Harwood? Of course, Harwood didn't respond at all. He ignored it. All right, let's go forward though. Not only did we lay it out in September of 2023, but then fast forward to the debate, the debate between Joe Biden and, and Donald, Donald Trump. That was on June 28, 2024. You and I recorded a verdict podcast immediately after the debate. We went live, recorded it that night and give a listen to what the verdict podcast said the night of the debate.
Ben Ferguson
Senator Cruz, I didn't think it could actually be this bad. It was worse than even I think either of us could have imagined. And now the Democratic Party is screaming, replace the president.
Ted Cruz
Well, you and I are sitting here. It is 10:17pm Texas time. It is 11:17pm East coast time. The night of the debate, the debate just ended. And I have to say we have just witnessed what I believe is the most consequential presidential debate in U.S. history. Sometimes debate change. Debates change things, sometimes they don't, I believe to bite tonight's debate change things fundamentally. And I believe the odds have now skyrocketed. I believe the odds are north of 80% that the Democrat Party will remove Joe Biden from the ticket and replace him. And I believe they are likely to replace Joe Biden with Michelle Obama because Biden did so disastrously badly tonight that Democrats across the country are in utter freefall and complete panic. We're going to break all that down tonight.
Ben Ferguson
Yeah. And by the way, this was a prediction that you made on this show back in September of 2023 that the Democratic kingmakers could bring in Michelle Obama will break all that down center. Yet another prediction there. Again, you go back and look at the night you made it right at that debate and you said there's no way he's going to be on the ticket. And it was absolutely correct.
Ted Cruz
Well, to be fair, what I said was the odds were north of 80% that he would be pulled off the ticket. That prediction that Joe Biden would be removed from the ticket, which by the way is unprecedented and was almost universally ridiculed in the media, that prediction came 100% true. I also articulated there were only two people who could replace him, Kamala Harris or Michelle Obama. I believe Michelle Obama was more likely. The Michelle Obama thing did not come to pass, but the Kamala Harris thing did. And in fact, I predicted that the Democrat kingmakers would jettison Biden in August of 2024. They in fact did so on July 21st of 2024. So I was 10 days off in terms of predicting it. And by the way, to be clear, I predicted that way back in September of 2023. So. So over a year earlier, I predicted within 10 days when they would throw Biden off the ballot. And, and I'm going to make actually a brand new prediction here. I'm going to predict that in the next year or two we are going to get confirmation that there was serious outreach to Michelle Obama to see if she was willing to replace Joe Biden on the ballot and that Michelle Obama said no. I don't know that, but my instinct, my judgment tells me that happened. And we'll see in the next year or two. If that gets confirmed, we'll have a subsequent podcast. If that gets confirmed publicly, we'll go back and revisit it. Regardless. Prediction number three, Joe Biden will not be the nominee. Check true. Prediction number four, Joe Biden will be replaced by either Kamala Harris or Michelle Obama. Check true. So that's four predictions. Let's move on to prediction number five.
Ben Ferguson
Number five is another big one here. And that is the prediction that Joe Biden would pardon death row inmates. You said that it was going to happen and it did. Plus the even more I would say disgusting deal that was given out to Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the mastermind of 911 to spare his life. The mastermind of 911 and a man that was also before even 9 11, involved in many other terrorist attack that killed women and children and the elderly, innocent bystanders that he did around the world.
Ted Cruz
Well, and this is a prediction that we made on August 18, 2023. Give a listen to what we said back in August of 23. I'm going to make a prediction as well, which, which is that these are not the only mass murderers that I think this administration is going to refuse to follow federal law and impose the death pen. I'm going to make a prediction right now, which is Joe Biden, before he leaves the White House, will commute the sentence of every federal prisoner on death row that he will do it for every one of them. And that includes, it includes the white supremacist and Nazi who murdered nine African Americans at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in a horrific hate crime. He's on federal death row. It includes the Boston bomber who murdered innocent people by exploding a bomb at the Boston Marathon. One of the two brothers is still alive. He's on death row. And my prediction right now is Joe Biden intends to spare every one of these mass murderers. Every one of them. Many of them are racist, bigoted, homicidal lunatics. And I think we're going to see him commute all of their sentences before he leaves the White House.
Ben Ferguson
Well, if you won't take out the mastermind of 911 and you won't give him the death penalty, is there anyone that you'll give it to? I mean, it doesn't get any worse than this. It doesn't. And yet that's exactly what he's done.
Ted Cruz
Well, so my prediction again in August of 23 is that he would remove the death penalty, that he would commute the death penalty for the federal death row point prisoners. That has come to pass. Now, to be clear, this prediction proves slightly off. I predicted that he would commute the sentence of every single federal death row prisoner. He instead commuted the sentence of 37 out of the 40 federal death row inmates. And so there were three he did not. And interestingly enough, the three he did not are the three that I identified in October, or rather in August of 2023. So the three he did not were the murderer at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, the murderer at the Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and the Boston Marathon bomber. And those three are the only three he did not. Now, I identified those three because they're the most horribly egregious. They're the most famous and infamous. They are. Two of the three, at least, are vicious, unrepentant racists. And so I have to say, my prediction, it was not 100% right. It was 92.5% right. Because instead of commuting 40 death sentences, Biden commuted 37 out of 40, and he left the three most egregious and famous ones off the table. Why? Because they knew that the press was so utterly corrupt that without those three that they would get almost no criticism for it. That would, you would just go under the carpet, not really be seen. And I have to say I underestimated the incredible cynicism. And I gotta say nonetheless, that is a profound disrespect for the rule of law. Among those that Biden did commute the sentences was a Nazi and an Aryan brotherhood racist. You know, Joe Biden stepped forward and said, hey, we're the Democrat Party, we're here for Nazis and Klansmen. I mean it. But 92.5% prediction correct. And sadly another element of this prediction just became confirmed moments ago. So this episode we were talking about the plans to spare the life of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 911 and and this podcast put enormous public pressure on the White House. The White House, Karine Jean Pierre was asked about it and the heat became so much that they backed off of it. Well, sadly the news just broke that they're going back to trying to spare Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. They're trying to do it literally on the way out the door. And the contempt that Joe Biden, this entire White House has for the voters, they are trying to break everything on the way out the door. They're trying to frustrate Donald Trump every way they can. They are such vicious partisans that there is no, no respect for the Constitution, for the rule of law, no respect for the voters. They don't care what the voters said in November. They are trying to literally break everything on the way out the door. And I gotta say it is grotesque.
Ben Ferguson
It really is. We're gonna have part two of our predictions. We will continue this on Fear Friday morning. So may make sure you hit that like subscribe auto download button and we will keep giving you hard hitting predictions. So you know what's actually going to be happening in this new year. It is going to be a very fun one especially with Trump in office, Republicans control of the House and the Senate and we're going to have a lot of predictions for you. So make sure you hit that subscriber auto download button and on Friday we'll have part two of this. Also don't forget grab my podcast, the Ben Ferguson Podcast on those in between days and I'll keep you updated on the latest breaking news as well and we'll see you back here Friday morning.
Summary of "The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson"
Episode: Ten Verdict Predictions that ALL Came TRUE! (Part 1:1-5)
Release Date: January 1, 2025
In the January 1, 2025 episode of The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson, host Ben Ferguson engages in a compelling conversation with Senator Ted Cruz, focusing on a retrospective analysis of ten significant predictions made over the past years that have undeniably come to fruition. This episode marks the first part of a two-part series, delving into predictions numbered one through five. Below is a detailed summary capturing the essence of their discussions, enriched with notable quotes and timestamps for reference.
Discussion Overview:
The first prediction tackled in the episode revolves around the origins of COVID-19. Back in March 2020, Ted Cruz asserted that the virus originated from a laboratory leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a claim that was initially dismissed by mainstream media as a conspiracy theory.
Key Points:
Early Prediction: Cruz and the Verdict podcast posited that COVID-19 was not a natural spillover but engineered in a lab (00:51).
Media Suppression: Cruz highlighted how social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, and Google suppressed discussions about the lab leak theory, limiting Cruz’s ability to disseminate this viewpoint (03:31).
Evidence Emerges: Over time, reports from credible sources such as the FBI (February 2023) and the New York Post (June 2023) began supporting the lab leak hypothesis, corroborating Cruz’s initial stance (07:02).
Notable Quotes:
Ted Cruz (00:51): "We laid out the facts about COVID right at the very beginning... You were laying out the facts that many others ignored."
Michael Knowles (04:14): "Do we have any sense of the true origins of the virus?"
Conclusion:
Cruz emphasizes the accuracy of this prediction, underscoring the importance of independent journalism in unveiling truths that mainstream outlets may overlook or suppress.
Discussion Overview:
Building on the first prediction, Cruz delves deeper into the U.S. government’s financial ties with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, revealing substantial funding that facilitated gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses.
Key Points:
Funding Details: Cruz disclosed that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) allocated $76,301 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in fiscal year 2019, part of a larger $3.7 million funding program spanning multiple countries in Asia (08:28).
Research Activities: The funding was directed towards studying viral diversity in bats, surveying high-risk communities, and conducting experiments to predict threats to human health (10:46).
Institutional Compliance: In July 2023, Reuters reported the suspension of federal funding to the Wuhan lab due to noncompliance, aligning with Cruz’s predictions (10:46).
Notable Quotes:
Unnamed Medical Expert (08:46): "NIH's words... studying viral diversity in animal reservoirs, conducting laboratory experiments to analyze and predict which newly discovered viruses pose the greatest threats to human health."
Ted Cruz (09:35): "We have got to give specifics that we just got today... It went to six sites across various Asian countries."
Conclusion:
This revelation not only vindicates Cruz’s early suspicions but also highlights the potential risks associated with international scientific collaborations and the importance of transparency in funding allocations.
Discussion Overview:
Cruz shifts the conversation to U.S. politics, specifically predicting that President Joe Biden would not secure the Democratic nomination for the 2024 presidential election.
Key Points:
Initial Prediction: Cruz forecasted that Biden would be ousted from the Democratic ticket, an assertion met with skepticism and ridicule at the time (14:12).
Replacement Speculation: He further predicted that Biden would be replaced either by Vice President Kamala Harris or Michelle Obama, emphasizing the Democratic Party’s reliance on specific prominent figures to avoid internal conflict (14:12).
Outcome: As the election cycle progressed, Biden was indeed removed from the ticket and replaced by Kamala Harris, aligning with Cruz’s prediction (22:04).
Notable Quotes:
Ted Cruz (14:12): "I believe Joe Biden would not be the Democratic nominee. He would not be on the ballot in 2024."
Ben Ferguson (16:23): "I'm smiling right now because it terrifies me. And I also could totally see this happening."
Conclusion:
Cruz’s foresight into the Democratic Party’s internal dynamics and strategic decisions underscores his analytical approach to political forecasting, demonstrating a high degree of accuracy in his predictions.
Discussion Overview:
Following the removal of Biden from the ticket, Cruz elaborates on the plausible candidates who could replace him, namely Kamala Harris or Michelle Obama.
Key Points:
Candidate Viability: Cruz argued that the Democratic Party, described as a "bean counting party," would struggle to push aside Kamala Harris without causing internal strife, whereas Michelle Obama offered a unifying alternative absent of direct competition (17:07).
Michelle Obama’s Role: While Cruz believed Michelle Obama had the potential to be a unifying figure, she ultimately declined the nomination, leading to Kamala Harris being appointed instead (17:09).
Party Dynamics: Cruz suggests that the party opted for Harris to maintain solidarity and avoid fracturing the base, despite his preference for Obama as a more palatable candidate among diverse constituencies (17:32).
Notable Quotes:
Ted Cruz (17:07): "Michelle Obama, because she was first lady, has the ability to kind of parachute in above all four and say, hey, we're not picking among any of you."
Ben Ferguson (21:39): "Yet another prediction... it was absolutely correct."
Conclusion:
This segment not only confirms Cruz’s accurate prediction about Biden’s replacement but also provides insight into the strategic maneuvering within the Democratic Party to maintain unity and voter support.
Discussion Overview:
The conversation transitions to a critical evaluation of President Biden’s decisions regarding federal death row inmates, specifically pardoning individuals convicted of severe crimes.
Key Points:
Initial Prediction: Cruz anticipated that Biden would commute the sentences of all federal death row prisoners, aiming to abolish the death penalty at the federal level (23:54).
Actual Outcome: While Biden commuted 37 out of 40 federal death row sentences, he notably spared three high-profile inmates, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks (25:58).
Partial Fulfillment: Although Biden did not fully comply with Cruz’s prediction, the majority of his actions aligned with the forecast, demonstrating a significant shift in federal policy on capital punishment (26:14).
Public and Legal Implications: The selective commutations, especially of high-profile terrorists, have sparked controversy and debate over the implications for justice and the rule of law (25:58).
Notable Quotes:
Ted Cruz (24:33): "Joe Biden intends to spare every one of these mass murderers."
Ben Ferguson (26:14): "Joe Biden stepped forward and said, hey, we're the Democrat Party, we're here for Nazis and Klansmen."
Conclusion:
Cruz’s forecast highlights a transformative, albeit incomplete, move away from the death penalty in federal cases, raising important questions about the balance between justice, mercy, and political ideology.
The episode concludes with anticipation for Part Two, where the remaining five predictions will be dissected. Both hosts reiterate their commitment to providing unfiltered insights and accurate forecasting, encouraging listeners to stay engaged for continued analysis.
Final Notable Quotes:
Ben Ferguson (29:32): "It really is. We're gonna have part two of our predictions... On Friday we'll have part two of this."
Ted Cruz (24:33): "They're trying to literally break everything on the way out the door. They are such vicious partisans that there is no respect for the Constitution."
Overall Insights:
This episode underscores the significant impact of accurate predictions in shaping public discourse and political narratives. Ted Cruz’s collaboration with Ben Ferguson serves as a testament to the power of informed commentary and the importance of challenging mainstream narratives to uncover deeper truths.
Listeners are left with a sense of validation regarding Cruz’s foresight and a keen interest in the forthcoming predictions that promise to further unveil the accuracy and depth of analysis presented by The 47 Morning Update.