Trump Revokes Student Visas for Chinese Nationals, Transgender Athlete Policy Shift in CA, Take It Down Act Targeting Deepfakes Signed & ABA Barred from Judicial Nominations

Summary

The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson – Episode Summary Release Date: August 6, 2025

In this episode of The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson, host Ben Ferguson engages in a dynamic conversation with Senator Ted Cruz, delving into four pivotal topics shaping the American socio-political landscape. The discussions focus on the Trump administration's revocation of student visas for Chinese nationals, California's policy shift regarding transgender athletes, the enactment of the Take It Down Act targeting deepfakes, and the American Bar Association’s (ABA) removal from judicial nomination processes. Below is a comprehensive summary capturing the essence of each segment, including notable quotes and timestamps.

---

1. Trump Revokes Student Visas for Chinese Nationals

Transcript Reference: [00:00] – [06:53]

Overview: The episode begins with Senator Ted Cruz introducing a previously unreleased segment where Ben Ferguson discusses significant policy changes under the Trump administration. A primary focus is the aggressive revocation of visas for Chinese students in the United States, initiated as a measure against espionage and intellectual property theft.

Key Points:

• Espionage Concerns: The Trump administration, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is intensifying efforts to revoke visas of Chinese students suspected of having ties to the Chinese Communist Party. This move aims to curb espionage and protect U.S. intellectual property.

• Balancing Act: While tightening security measures, the administration seeks to maintain openness to genuinely talented individuals who contribute to American innovation and economic growth.

• Ben Ferguson’s Perspective: Ferguson emphasizes the necessity of this balance, stating, “The administration is cutting the right balance here... We're not gonna welcome people to this country who are trying to undermine and destroy this country.” ([04:43])

Notable Quotes:

• Ben Ferguson: “China engages in extensive propaganda and espionage...we’re trying to stop spies, we’re gonna stop terrorists.” ([01:59])

• Senator Ted Cruz: “Why are we doing so much for Chinese students?... the administration is basically saying, we're trying to put a stop to this.” ([00:00])

---

2. Transgender Athlete Policy Shift in California

Transcript Reference: [06:53] – [14:21]

Overview: The conversation shifts to California's recent policy reversal concerning transgender athletes in sports, highlighting the state's move to ensure fairness and safety in female athletics.

Key Points:

• Policy Reversal: California has amended its track and field policies to ensure that biological females are not unfairly disadvantaged by transgender female athletes claiming female status, thereby preserving competitive fairness.

• Political Implications: This shift signifies a retreat by a traditionally progressive state from previously radical policies on gender and sports, reflecting a broader acknowledgment of public concern over fairness in women's athletics.

• Public Sentiment: Ferguson cites focus group data indicating that concerns over boys competing in girls' sports are paramount among moderate women voters, debunking the notion that this issue is confined to the extreme right.

Notable Quotes:

• Ben Ferguson: “This issue shows that truth and sanity are winning.” ([13:18])

• Senator Ted Cruz: “We don't want to give up... this is the fight that is worth fighting on.” ([10:32])

---

3. Take It Down Act Targeting Deepfakes

Transcript Reference: [14:21] – [24:43]

Overview: Senator Ferguson discusses the recently signed Take It Down Act, a bipartisan legislation aimed at combating the rise of non-consensual explicit imagery and deepfakes, emphasizing its significance and personal anecdotes from affected individuals.

Key Points:

• Legislation Details: The Take It Down Act criminalizes the distribution of non-consensual intimate images and mandates tech platforms to remove such content upon victim notification, addressing both “revenge porn” and AI-generated deepfakes.

• Bipartisan Support: The act garnered unanimous support in the Senate and an overwhelming majority in the House, illustrating its wide-ranging appeal across political lines.

• Victim Stories: Personal testimonies, including that of Elliston Berry, a teenage girl from Texas whose non-consensual deepfake images led to the law’s pivotal passage, underscore the act’s critical impact.

• Presidential Endorsement: President Trump highlighted the law’s importance during its signing at the Rose Garden, reinforcing the administration’s commitment to protecting individuals from digital abuse.

Notable Quotes:

• President Donald Trump: “This will be the first ever federal law to combat the distribution of explicit imagery posted without subjects' consent.” ([17:01])

• Elliston Berry: “All you need to do is insist that it be taken down as a matter of law.” ([22:18])

• Ben Ferguson: “It should not take a sitting senator making a phone call to get those pictures taken down.” ([21:35])

---

4. American Bar Association Barred from Judicial Nominations

Transcript Reference: [24:43] – [32:31]

Overview: The final segment addresses the Trump Justice Department's decision to exclude the American Bar Association (ABA) from the judicial nomination process, critiquing the ABA's historical biases and influence.

Key Points:

• ABA's Declining Role: The ABA, traditionally involved in evaluating judicial nominees, has been sidelined due to its perceived left-wing bias and flawed evaluations of candidates.

• Historical Bias: Ferguson highlights instances where the ABA inaccurately deemed highly qualified conservative judges as "not qualified," citing examples like Robert Bork and Edith Jones to illustrate institutional failures.

• Policy Changes: Under Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Department of Justice announced that the ABA would no longer have special access or influence in vetting judicial nominees, aligning it with other advocacy groups without preferential treatment.

• Impact on Judicial Quality: This shift is expected to enhance the quality and impartiality of judicial selections by removing partisan biases embedded within the ABA’s evaluations.

Notable Quotes:

• Ben Ferguson: “The ABA is a hard left advocacy organization masquerading as a nonpartisan professional organization.” ([27:35])

• Senator Ted Cruz: “You can be like every other whack job organization on the left, but you're not going to have any special access whatsoever.” ([30:37])

• Ben Ferguson: “To not know what Article 2 is...you will flunk constitutional law and not graduate law school if you don't know what Article 2 is.” ([31:25])

---

Conclusion: In this episode, Ben Ferguson and Senator Ted Cruz dissect critical issues affecting national security, gender fairness in sports, digital privacy, and the integrity of the judicial nomination process. Through detailed analysis and firsthand accounts, they underscore the Trump administration's efforts to address espionage threats, protect women's athletics, safeguard individuals from digital exploitation, and ensure impartial judicial appointments. The discussions reflect a broader narrative of challenging established progressive norms and advocating for policies that resonate with the silent majority's concerns.

---

Note: All timestamps correspond to the provided transcript segments.

Transcript

[Ted Cruz]

This is an iHeart podcast. Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. And we did a show that had some really important topics in it a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, that show was replaced as we were covering the catastrophic flooding that happened in the Hill Country. And we want to make sure that we gave you all the info on that and the relief efforts and how you could help the people in Kerrville and the surrounding areas that were affected. And, and we were talking about that show, and it's an important one because it dealt with a lot of issues. Number one, Trump revoking Chinese student visas. You probably heard about that nowhere else. Also, California reverses policies on transgender in sports. How that happened, the very important take it down act. It was important to protect people from revenge and people putting fake pictures of them online as well. And finally, the ABA won't have any role in judicial selections. This is massive. So we decided we're going to let you hear that show that we never got to put out. So right now, here it is. All right, so let's dive into this big first topic center. And it deals with what you mentioned earlier, China and Chinese student visas. There was an interesting number that was thrown out earlier in the day on tv. And I'm going to quote it. I'm not sure if it's exactly accurate, but it is. And that's why I said it was. I saw it earlier today, and I want to prefix that with saying it, but it said that there are about 500American students that have visas in China and more than 280,000 Chinese students in the US is what was said. Why are we doing so much for Chinese students? Many of them, by the way, they come in here that spy and rob of us of our intellectual property. And the administration, Trump administration, is basically saying, we're trying to put a stop to this.

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, what the Trump administration has announced, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that they will begin aggressively revoking the visas of Chinese students in the United States. China engages in extensive propaganda and espionage, and they're going to begin vetting and vetting aggressively whether a particular student seeking a visa to come to this country has ties to the Chinese Communist Party. I think this is long overdue. And it's part of a broader effort. They're also engaged with foreign students that are coming to the United States, examining their social media history, examining if they have a history of radicalism. So if you are seeking a student visa to come to America and you've been public saying, I hate America, I want to destroy America. Which, sadly, we've seen some of these radical students who've said that. And nonetheless, Joe Biden and the Democrats said, welcome to America. We need more people who hate our nation and want to destroy it. Well, I think the president's exactly right to stand up and say, we're not gonna welcome people to this country who are trying to undermine and destroy this country. With respect to China, you know, the question of espionage and intellectual property theft, that's existed since the dawn of time. Look, when the first caveman invented the wheel, I suspect somebody stole his idea and made another wheel. That that's part of the human condition. What is not ever before existed is a nation state with massive economic resources like. Like China, making it a state policy to engage in the theft of resources. And so I am very. I think it's exactly right that we're going to vigorously scrutinize those students coming in to make sure that they are not operating as agents of the Chinese Communist Party. Now, let me say at the same time, look, part of the reason you don't get that many Americans going to China to study is you don't have a whole lot of folks that want to go to Chinese universities, whereas people from all over the world want to come to American universities. And I will say, if you have people who are not agents of the Communist government, we want the best and brightest in the world coming to America. We end up having inventions coming here because the best and brightest students across the country come and come and study science and engineering, and they make inventions. And those inventions in turn fuel American companies and they create great jobs. And so I think the administration is cutting the right balance here, which is saying we're gonna stop spies, we're gonna stop terrorists. But at the same time, that doesn't mean that we wanna close our doors entirely to brilliant physicists and engineers from around the world being able to come to America and benefiting from the fruits of that.

[Ted Cruz]

You know, there's one thing that we mentioned, gosh, it was probably a little over a year ago on this show in the podcast that we do, I tell people, this is why you should download Verdict with Ted Cruz. We do it three days a week. We talked back when, under the Biden Harris administration, there was even warnings coming from their administration that the number one threat to this country was China and Chinese espionage and influence operations. That is now a kumbaya moment with the Trump administration, where, in essence, two administrations that saw nothing, eye to eye, both agreed on China and what they were trying to do in stealing intellectual property and sending an incredible number of spies into this country. And many of them come through our university system.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah. But the Biden administration did next to nothing to stop it. So they acknowledged it's a problem, but at the same time, they were complicit in it. And I'll tell you, I have, for over a decade, been leading the fight to stop Chinese espionage, to stop Chinese propaganda, to stop China's malign efforts. I think we need a comprehensive effort to take on Communist China, much like we had under Ronald Reagan, to win the Cold War against the Soviet Union. And I'll tell you, Ben, one of the very first pieces of legislation that I authored and passed dealt with exactly this, and it dealt with what are called Confucius Institutes. So Confucius Institutes were started at US universities all across America, where there were roughly 200 of them, and they were. They were controlled by Communist China. They were paid for by Communist China by the government, and they were used to engage in propaganda and espionage on campus. I authored legislation and said, if you have a Confucius Institute on campus, you will not get funding from the federal government, from the Department of Defense. I passed it into law, and I'll tell you, that simple piece of legislation resulted in over 100 Confucius Institutes shutting down at universities across the country, shutting down their espionage, shutting down their propaganda. I think the Trump administration's announcement is the next step in that very important fight.

[Ted Cruz]

Senator, let's deal with California. And there has been a fight since the President came in with his executive order on trying to protect women from men being in their locker rooms, being in their sports, beating them up. We saw it during the Olympics in boxing. We've seen countless women who. Their achievements have been taken away from them on the podium because of men claiming they're women, which is impossible in reality. And California decided they were going to stand up to Donald Trump. And guess what? It didn't go very well for them.

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, listen, we've seen the Democrat Party getting more and more radical ever since Donald Trump took the oath of office back in 2017. They hate Trump. And they've gotten more and more extreme on a host of issues. And one of the poster children for their extreme issues is embracing boys and girls sports, men and women's sports. And it is wrong, it is unfair, it invites injury, and it also deprives both girls and women of. Of athletic victories they should have and they've earned. There are differences between boys and girls. There are differences between men and women that did not Used to be a controversial proposition. It is only in today's Looney Tune left that they can't tell to the difference between men and women. But I gotta tell you, even though in the Senate, Senate Democrats, all of them, continue to defend men and women's sports and boys and girls sports, we're seeing the state of California, we're seeing the Democrats beginning to retreat. We're seeing Gavin Newsom, the governor who's been a far left radical governor. He's got ambitions of being president. He's looking at, looking at running in 2028. And he's decided, okay, we're on the wrong side of an 8020 issue. I want to get the hell away from this. And so California announced this is a big deal. They're changing their policy for track and field so that if you're a biological girl and you got, you missed out on making it to the state championship because you were beaten by a biological male who claims to be a transgender woman, then the girl, you will still get your slot, you still get invited to the state championship. Look, that's a significant step in the right direction. And Gavin Newsom is embracing it. And I gotta say, this really illustrates that at least some Democrats realize, wow, we are on the wrong side of an issue that America, America wants to protect girls sports and women's sports. We want to protect our daughters, and we don't want to see them hurt or competing unfairly. And so the crazy thing is that means in track and field in California now, they may give three gold medals, one to the boy, one to the girl, and one to the transgender athlete. You may have gold medals all around. Uh, but for bright blue California to make this concession, it shows that, that at least some Democrats realize they are way on the wrong side of this issue.

[Ted Cruz]

This also, I think, is an issue that it's worth fighting for. And I think many that are listening are saying, we don't want to give in and we don't want to give up. And the pendulum went so far to the radical left for so many years that this is the fight that is worth fighting on and fighting over and showing California having to change girls track and field championship roles after the Trump threatens funding over the trans athletes is just an example of, hey, we are in many times the silent majority and we need to start acting like it, especially on these types of issues.

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, I'll tell you, Ben, this, this issue is a powerful issue. And as you know, I ran for reelection in Texas last year in 2024, it was a quarter billion Billion dollar race. I was Chuck Schumer's number one target. And my campaign was the first campaign in the country last year to put real time and energy behind this issue of we're gonna protect girls sports from boys competing. And we put tens of millions of dollars behind this issue. What's fascinating is the media completely misunderstood the issue. So one of the things that my campaign did is we did focus groups in Houston and Dallas of undecided moderate women to understand what issues move them. And we tested 30, 35 different messages. The number one issue that moved undecided moderate women in Texas was boys and girls sports. And when I started campaigning on it, it was very funny. The reporters are like, oh, Cruz is trying to appeal to the crazy right wing. And I was just laughing at him. I'm like, you guys are so clueless. This is not the crazy right wing. This is soccer moms. This is soccer moms who love their daughters. And we led on this issue. And then you saw Senate races all across the country pick up the same message because they were seeing the same data. We were. We saw President Trump lean in hard on this message.

[Ted Cruz]

Some of those women that you were talking to, let's be very clear, had moved from California because how many people from California moved to Texas over the last six years? A lot.

[Ben Ferguson]

We have over a thousand people a day moving to the state of Texas. And California is overwhelmingly the heaviest, the largest state that is sending people to Texas. But this issue, what's fascinating, Ben, is, you know, four years ago, this issue did not work politically. You saw campaigns try to raise it four years ago. And I think people thought then that it was jumping the shark, that it didn't feel real four years ago. I think people said, oh, come on, that's not a real threat. Well, you know what we've now seen? Lia Thomas, the swimmer, who is a biological man and looks like Michael Friggin Phelps, who we've also seen. And I think this was really a seminal moment in the Olympics. The two dudes competing in women's boxing and beating the hell out of women. And I think a whole lot of people said, wait, this is not theoretical. This is happening over and over and over again. Enough is enough. And I think this is another milestone that California is retreating on. This issue shows that truth and sanity are winning.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah. And now the question becomes, how much are they going to be able to fight back through the court system? And is this going to be something that's going to be, unfortunately, an issue for probably years to come?

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, look, we'll see. And to be honest, California hasn't conceded altogether. They're still having biological males compete against women, which is, which is unfair. It invites injury. You know, if you're playing volleyball, we've seen women who have a biological man spike the ball into their head and they get injured. I mean, I mean, it is. California is still Looney Tunes. But the fact that even the lefty government of California is saying we've gone too far, that's a very positive sign.

[Ted Cruz]

Senator, let's talk about this other incredible moment. Donald Trump signed the Take It down act into law. It's something that you championed and remind people what this law's intent and why it is such an important piece of legislation to protect not only young people and minors, but really anyone from just evil and hateful revenge from an ex.

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, this is legislation that I authored that President Trump signed into law this week. Actually, he signed it into law in the Rose Garden at a big ceremony in the Rose Garden. I've done a lot of bill signing ceremonies in the Oval Office. This first time I've been in the Rose Garden. Because you had victim groups and victim advocates and people who have been victims of non consensual explicit imagery. Now, what is that? That's really two different things. Number one, so called revenge porn. So if you have a boyfriend and girlfriend and they're in a relationship and they take explicit pictures or videos and then they have a breakup and one or the other is mad and they say, okay, I'm going to stick it to you. I'm going to put this out for the whole world to see. And it is an utterly grotesque violation of privacy. Nobody has the right to do that to somebody else. And it's something we're seeing happening more and more often. There's a second manifestation that is new and it has to deal with technology, which is more and more we are seeing people use AI artificial intelligence to create deepfakes and deep fake fakes where they appear to be either a picture or a video of a real person, but it's utterly fake. And so they make a naked or explicit image of someone and put it out. And the incidence of deep fakes last year increased 3,000%. And over 90% of the victims of deep fake explicit imagery are women or teenage girls. And so it is growing massively. And so the Take It down act is legislation that I introduced that makes it a crime, a federal felony, to post non consensual intimate images, either real pictures or deep fakes. And secondly, it puts a Federal statutory obligation on tech platforms to take the pictures down, to take the videos down, because the platforms have been horrible responding to victims, they ignore victims, they leave the images up. And so the victim ends up being, being victimized over and over and over again by the images staying out there. And so the Take It down act get puts a legal obligation that when the victim notifies them, hey, that's me, that's an explicit image of me. And you don't have my consent to put it up. They have to take it down. This legislation I introduced with Amy Klobuchar, Democrat from Minnesota, and we passed it through the Senate. We passed it unanimously. It was 100 to nothing. And then the House took it up and passed it with an overwhelming bipartisan majority and President Trump signed it into law. And give a listen to what President Trump said this week in the Rose Garden as he signed the Take It down act into law today.

[Donald Trump]

It's my honor to officially sign the Take It down act into law. It's a big thing, very important, so horrible what takes place. This will be the first ever federal law to combat the distribution of explicit imaginary posted without subjects consent. They take horrible pictures and I guess sometimes even make up the pictures and they post it without consent or anything else. And very importantly, this includes for forgeries generated by artificial intelligence known as deep fakes. We've all heard about deep fakes. I have them all the time, but I don't. Nobody does anything. I asked Pam, can you help me, Pam? She says, no, I'm too busy. Too busy doing other things. Don't worry, you'll. You'll survive. But a lot of people don't survive. That's true. And so horrible. With the rise of AI image generation, countless women have been harassed with deep fakes and other explicit images distributed against their will. This is the wrong. And it's just so horribly wrong. And it's a very abusive situation like in some cases people have never seen before. And today we're making it totally illegal.

[Ted Cruz]

Senator, one of the things I just, I love about this legislation is the fact that not only is it bipartisan, but you had the first lady who really got involved in this as well. It was important to her. And that made it, I think, even easier to bridge the gap.

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, we did. The first lady became very active in pushing this bill. She reached out to me and said she wanted to help get it over the finish line. So last year we passed it out of the Senate 100 to nothing. And the House failed to take it up. Last year so it did not pass last year. And so we got to this year to the new Congress. I passed it through the Senate again, 100 to nothing. And the real battle was to get it to rise up the priority list of House leadership. And so when the first lady called my office and said she wanted to help, what I did is I invited her to come to Capitol Hill for a roundtable where she could hear from the victims. And also at that roundtable was the speaker of the House and Steve Scalise, the majority leader, and Brett Guthrie, who's the committee chairman in the House. And when the first lady asked them, will you please pass this into law, they committed to her. They would. And this was the day before the State of the Union address. And you may remember at the State of the Union address, Melania was sitting with a teenage girl from Texas, Ellison Berry. And President Trump told her story in the State of the Union and called on Congress to pass this bill. And I'll tell you, it's actually, it's a fascinating story of how this bill came to pass, because it originates with one teenage girl in Texas, Elliston Berry. She's from North Texas, from Alito, Texas. And a year ago, she was 14, and she was in ninth grade, and she woke up one morning and her phone was blowing up with texts from her friends because a classmate of hers had taken a perfectly innocent picture of her from social media and had used an app online that he had found to create a deep fake and then sent what appeared to be naked pictures of Elliston to all of her ninth grade classmates. And so she was in tears. Listen, it is hard to be a teenager. I'm the father of two teenage girls. I know the pressure that is on teenage girls. It's much harder to be a teenager today than when you and I were teenagers, Ben. And this was just. Just horrific. Well, what happened is her mom, Ana. Look, Elliston and Anna are constituents. They're Texans. So Anna picked up the phone and called my office and said, hey, look, you're my senator. Can you help my daughter? And my staff, to their credit, they elevated this to me, and they told me what had happened to Elliston. And this is happening more and more all over the country. And so I said, look, let's draft legislation to fix this to address the problem. And so we did. And it was because of Elliston that we drafted it. But as I said, it's happening all over the country. Well, elliston came to D.C. the day we announced the bill last year for the press conference. And I Sat down and met with Elliston. I met with her mom in my office. And in the course of the meeting, I asked, I said, hey, what happened to the pictures? And her mom said, it's the most frustrating thing in the world. She said, this happened nine months ago. She said, I have been calling and emailing Snapchat over and over and over again. They just stonewall us. We get no response. Ben, I turned to my staff, I said, I want you to get the CEO of Snapchat on the phone today. I want those pictures down today. They pulled them down within two hours. Now, it should not take a sitting senator making a phone call to get those pictures taken down. And now, as a result of the legislation Trump has signed, every victim has a statutory right to insist that it be taken down as a matter of law, automatically.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah. In fact, Alison Berry got to go on Fox News Channel with our good friend Kelly McEnany and talk about this moment. And here's what she had to say. Take a listen.

[Elliston Berry]

But you didn't stop. You decided to go and talk to your local congressman. You get connected with a senator and then you manage. There you are standing behind the President of the United States changing the laws for other young women like you. Did you ever think this day would come? I never would have thought that this could ever be my reality. My mom, she's really an amazing person and she's the one that's been pushing for this and she's the one that's encouraged me so I wouldn't be able to do this without her help and her support. And she really just has encouraged me to the point where I, I feel, I felt encouraged about this. So having the opportunity to speak about this and to bring awareness really just means so much, especially it's so much growth seeing how scared I was at first and seeing how confident I am able in this situation. Well, other young women now have recourse, thanks to you, Ellison Berry. So impressive. Thank you.

[Ted Cruz]

I love it. It's just, it's finally a happy ending to a really hard and sad subject.

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, and Ben, at the signing ceremony, I was able to introduce Elliston to the President. I introduced also Francesca Manni, who's another 15 year old girl who was in New Jersey. And the exact same thing happened to her as happened to Elliston. And I also introduced Brandon Guffey. Brandon Guffey is a state rep from South Carolina. And tragically, his oldest son got what we thought was a direct message from a cute girl and she convinced him to send naked pictures to her. Well, it turned out it was not a cute girl, it was a con man. And the con man began extorting him and threatening. I'm going to send these naked pictures to your friends and family. Well, Brandon's son Gavin killed himself and we are seeing suicides across the country. So I introduced Brandon and his family, the president, too. And this law is a victory for everyone that is a target of this kind of exploitation.

[Ted Cruz]

All right, Senator, so let's dive into this other issue that really is an interesting one. You've got a lot to say about the Trump Justice Department telling the American Bar association that it will no longer comply with ratings for judicial nominees. Now, explain the politics behind this. The ABA has had a lot of power and they're basically now saying, we're not going to let you guys have that power because there's been a lot of bias coming out of the American Bar Association.

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, the American Bar association, it's a national organization of lawyers and it is a left wing advocacy group. It is not fair, it is not impartial. It is a radical left organization. And the ABA has had a formal role in judicial selection for 75 years. It started rating judicial nominees in 1953. And until 2001, the ABA actually had a formal role evaluating judicial nominees before they were nominated. So a president, a Department of justice and Administration would share with the aba, hey, we're thinking of nominating Ben Ferguson to be a federal judge. And they'd go and research and interview former clients and at some point people would say, wait, Ben's not even a lawyer. How the hell is he going to be a judge? Like, like, like he probably should go to law school first. And, and, and, and by the way, that that point is not crazy, but they engage that they would do a formal role and they would rate the qualifications of judicial nominees. Now, here's the problem. For decades, the ABA's qualifications measures were wildly biased. So, for example, Robert Bork. Robert Bork. Ronald Reagan nominated Robert Bork to the Supreme Court in 1987. Robert Bork was, by any measure, one of the most qualified federal judicial nominees in the history of this country. Robert Bork had been the Solicitor General of the United States, the chief lawyer for the United States in front of the Supreme Court of the United States. Robert Bork had been one of the most renowned and respected law professors for decades. Robert Bork had been a federal judge on the U.S. court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit. And so a remarkable career. And yet the ABA, when they evaluated Robert Bork, they concluded he was Quote, not qualified to be a judge. They also concluded the same thing for Frank Easterbrook. Again, brilliant, brilliant judge, brilliant professor. One of the greatest judges to have ever served on the Court of Appeals, Frank Easterbrook. The ABA concluded he was not qualified. Also, Edith Jones, Edith Jones is a judge on the Fifth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals down in Texas. I know Judge Jones well. She's a phenomenal jurist. One of the best and most conservative judges in the entire country. The ABA rated her not qualified. Well, the breaking news is this week the Trump Justice Department announced the ABA will no longer have a role in judicial selection. They will no longer have a role in vetting. They're out. And, and, and the Department of Justice said, you know what, they can chime in like any other left wing advocacy group, but they don't have a role in this process.

[Ted Cruz]

This is going to have like, I think a big impact on the quality. Pam Bomb Bondi informing the ABA that they'll no longer enjoy the special access to judicial nominees. And the left, by the way, when that news came out, they totally freaked out. And I think that also shows just how much they were depending on the ABA to get rid of good candidates that were maybe more conservative.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah, and, and, and so Pam Bondi sent a letter to the president of the aba and, and, and she said, quote, while the ABA is free to comment on judicial nominations along with other activist organizations, there is no justification for treating the ABA differently from such other activist organizations and the Department of Justice will not do so. And so previously the Office of Legal Policy, which, which is the, the, the, the office within the Department of Justice that handles judicial selections, they changed. They had previously directed judicial nominees to provide a waiver to the ABA to let the ABA access non public information, including bar records. And so no longer is the Department of Justice going to tell judicial nominees give the ABA special access. That is over. And moreover, Pam Bondi says, quote, nominees will also not respond to questionnaires prepared by the ABA and will not sit for interviews with the aba. In other words, you can be like every other whack job organization on the left, but, but you're not going to have any special access whatsoever. This is something I've called for a long time. I have for years, for more than a decade, advocated that the ABA is wildly biased and it should not have a special role in the process. And I want to commend President Trump and Pam Bondi. It's the right thing to do.

[Ted Cruz]

Senator, we hear a lot about bias and bias against conservatives, but my other question Is were they also biased in advocating for liberals?

[Ben Ferguson]

Absolutely. They are a hard left advocacy organization masquerading as a nonpartisan professional organization. And Joe Biden over the last four years nominated over and over again radicals and zealots, many of whom were wildly unqualified. And the ABA was more than happy to stamp them with a rating of qualified. And one example is Charnette Charnell Bajelkongren, who was wildly unqualified. And yet the ABA happily deemed her qualified and rather than me lay out how bad she was. I want you to listen to this, this cross examination from my colleague John Kennedy to this judicial nominee in the Senate Judiciary Committee here. Give a listen.

[Donald Trump]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and congratulations to all of you. Judge on the far end, tell me what Article 5 of the Constitution does.

[Elliston Berry]

Article 5 is not coming to mind at the moment.

[Donald Trump]

Okay, how about Article 2?

[Elliston Berry]

Neither is Article 2. Okay.

[Donald Trump]

Do you know what purpose of ISM is?

[Elliston Berry]

In my 12 years as an assistant attorney general and my nine years serving as a judge, I was not faced with that precise question. We are the highest trial court in Washington state, so I'm frequently faced with issues that I'm not familiar with. And I thoroughly review the law, our research, and apply the law to the facts presented to me.

[Donald Trump]

Well, you're going to be faced with it as a. If you're confirmed, I can assure you of that.

[Ted Cruz]

He was dumbfounded at the end there. Like, I can't believe you don't know this well.

[Ben Ferguson]

And let me underscore how simple the first two questions are that he asked. So the Constitution has seven articles. It's not a very long document. Article five is, is the article through that lays out the process for amending the Constitution. It's fairly basic. That was his opening question. She had no idea what Article 5 was. Article 2 is even more fundamental. So the first three articles of the Constitution. Article 1 creates the Congress. Article 2 creates the president and the executive branch. And Article 3 creates the federal judiciary. To not know what Article 2 is is stunning. To give you a sense you will flunk constitutional law and not graduate law school if you don't know what Article 2 is. She was being nominated to be what is called an Article 3 judge. I assume she had no idea what Article 3 was. And nevertheless the ABA said she's qualified to be an Article 3 judge even though she has no idea what it is. I'm very glad the ABA no longer has a role in making those determinations.

[Ted Cruz]

As always, thank you for listening to verdict with Senator Ted Cruz. Ben Ferguson with you. Don't forget to download my podcast. And you can listen to my podcast every other day. You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards. I'd love to have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson Podcast. And we will see you back here on Monday morning. This is an I heart podcast.