← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Ukraine MELTDOWN plus Trump's first State of the Union Address of the 2nd Term
00:36:05
Loading summary
Transcript43 lines
- [00:01]
Capital One Advertiser
If you love to travel, Capital One has a rewards credit card that's perfect for you. With the Capital One Venture X card, you earn unlimited double miles on everything you buy. Plus you get premium benefits at a collection of luxury hotels when you book on Capital One Travel. And with Venture X, you get access to over 1,000 airport lounges worldwide. Open up a world of travel possibilities with a Capital One Venture X card. What's in your wallet?
- [00:26]
Ben Ferguson
Terms apply.
- [00:27]
CNN Reporter
Lounge access is subject to change. See capital1.com for details.
- [00:31]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, happy Monday. Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. And if you missed our podcast that we did over the weekend on the Zelinsky disaster in the Oval Office, I'm going to tell you right now, we put out that emergency pod, go back, listen to it, grab it. That's why if you haven't hit that subscriber auto download button, make sure you do that so you never miss when those big moments happen and we get together and do a show real quick. So, Senator, we've got a lot happening right now, including a joint session of Congress. It's gonna happen on Tuesday. But Zelensky left the White House and he hauled it to Europe begging for money.
- [01:11]
Ben Ferguson
Well, the fallout continues from the epic meeting last week between President Zelensky and Donald Trump. The consequences have been massive. As you mentioned, we did an emergency podcast Friday afternoon within hours of the meeting. We put it out. Normally we put out pods Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We put out two pods on Friday, one Friday morning and one Friday afternoon. We did it because we wanted to cover what was happening then because it was that consequential. So I will say, as Ben just mentioned a minute ago, if you didn't listen to Friday afternoon's pod, I'd encourage you to go back and listen to it. I believe this will go down in history as the most disastrous Oval Office meeting that has ever occurred. We're going to break that down. We're going to break down the fallout that has happened in three days since that meeting. We're also going to talk about the fact that tomorrow is the first State of the Union address for the second Donald Trump term. We're going to talk about what President Trump is likely going to say tomorrow and how it's going to be received. All on today's pod.
- [02:12]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, you got to love the Oscars. Every year it gets more and more woke and every time when you think they're done, nope, they'll double down on it. Want to talk to you real quick about an incredible organization called the IFCJ and the work that they're doing for the people in Israel. If you want to help, then listen to me for the next minute. Because after more than a year of war, terror, and pain in Israel, all of Israel is brokenhearted after learning of the tragic deaths of the Beavis children who were held hostage in Gaza. And so many are still hurting throughout the Holy Land, where the need for aid continues to actually grow. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has supported and continues to support the families of hostages and other victims of the October 7 terror attacks. And with your help, IFCJ has provided financial and emotional help to hostages and their families and to those healing and rebuilding their broken homes and broken bodies. But the real work is just beginning, and that's why your gift is helping to provide critically needed support for families in Israel whose lives continue to be destroyed by terror and uncertainty as Israel remains surrounded by enemies. You can give a gift to bless Israel and her people by visiting support IFCJ.org that's one word. Support IFCJ.org or you can call to give 888-488-IFCJ. That's triple 8488- IFCJ 888-488- IFCJ are all online@supportifcj.org all right, so let's give a quick recap of what you mentioned a second ago. But you think this is gonna go down history. This meeting at the Oval Office is maybe the worst Oval Office meeting in history. It seems that Zelensky may be agreeing with you at this point by the amount of backtracking he's done. He's done some interviews. He's saying, we can get this done with America. He ran to Europe begging for aid support. And now there's basically, the UK And France are like, you screwed up big. We're going to try to help you put this deal back together. And we'll be the liaison with the United States of America since you screwed it up so badly.
- [04:35]
Ben Ferguson
Well, Zelensky's Oval Office performance was disastrous. And listen, at some level, it's not complicated what he had to do. He was there to come to President Trump and seek his help, seek his help, seek the United States to stand with him in some way, shape or form in their war with Russia. And Zelensky is beleaguered. He is a wartime leader. He feels desperate. But to be clear, the United States is also his principal patron, his funder. The person who has paid for the war for years has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to Ukraine. And so in any sane and rational world, Zelenskyy would come into the Oval Office hat in hand, would come into the Oval Office being grateful for the support that the United States has given and to be honest, kissing Trump's ass. I mean, this is not a complicated dynamic. And by the way, it's also not a new dynamic. I've been in a lot of Oval Office meetings. Just about every foreign leader comes in and treats the President of the United States with respect. That is incumbent on the office. The United States is the world's leading superpower. And so foreign leaders, foreign heads of state, whether they like the president or not, they treat the president with respect. I will tell you, any president, if there were a foreign leader who treated them the way Zelensky treated Trump would have been pissed off and the consequences would have been bad. With Trump, the consequences were spectacularly bad. And listen, one needn't be a forensic psychologist to understand that it is a really dumb idea to go into a meeting with Donald Trump and insult him and condescend him and attack him. If you do that, Ben, I can actually give out the probabilities to amazing precision. If you attack and insult Donald Trump, the chances that he will punch back are 100.000%, especially in every instance.
- [06:52]
Senator Ted Cruz
Always. Yeah, exactly.
- [06:53]
Ben Ferguson
I mean, behind closed doors on global tv.
- [06:57]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, like, and that's the part where it was like such shocking tone death. And you and I mentioned this in the pod on Friday, but the ambassador from the Ukraine, I think she summed up perfectly, holding her head in her hands like, this is a disaster that no one knows how to fix.
- [07:14]
Ben Ferguson
So look, I think the problem is Zelensky has been surrounded by an echo chamber of left wing Democrats. He's been palling around with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. He's been palling around with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. He's been palling around with the New York Times and he's become, this is a guy who appears in Vanity Fair, appears in People magazine, and he's become a leftist cause du jour. And he made, I think, the stupid assessment of, gosh, all the people I hang around with, they hate Donald Trump. They think Donald Trump is an idiot. So I should go in and treat Donald Trump like he's an idiot. And it was, I think he felt, I think Zelensky went into the Oval performing for the New York Times and believing that the world be like, oh, Zelensky stands up and puts Trump in his place. Ha ha, ha. And it was truly absurd. It backfired enormously. And by the way, this is the same political idiocy that led Zelensky last fall to go and effectively do a campaign event with Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania and to come to the United States in the middle of the presidential campaign to come to the United States and do a New York Times interview attacking Donald Trump a month out from the election. And you and I did a whole pot at the time going, what the hell is wrong with this guy? Is he just an idiot? Look, I don't know who's going to win the race. Both you and I thought Trump was going to win, but nobody knew for sure. At a minimum, Zelensky knew there was some real possibility that Trump was going to be the president. Did he think it made sense? Like, what foreign leader comes, by the way? I wouldn't have advocated Zelensky should come campaign for Trump either. He's the president of Ukraine. He ought to be focused on Ukraine and stay the hell out of our elections. Like. Like it was an idiotic idea out of it.
- [09:12]
Senator Ted Cruz
There's no upside to this. And then whoever wins, that's who you work with, and that's how it is. So why would you risk it? But this goes back to one of two things. Is this because he is not. He's a fake politician in the sense where he's an actor that, you know, figured out a way to get this job and there's no elections happening there right now. And he feels like he believes the international press, which, by the way, did turn him into a rock star. I mean, he became the Taylor Swift of dudes in politics and was piped into the award shows like we had on Sunday night. I mean, this is a guy that I think started maybe believing the press, that he's untouchable. He's amazing. He's this incredible leader.
- [09:56]
Ben Ferguson
Look, he thinks he's George Washington. He thinks he's Winston Churchill. He thinks he is. He is larger than life. And everyone around him, and particularly Donald Trump, are just beneath him. And that arrogance and condescension came out, and it really is. I think it's the danger of believing your own pr, like believing your own bs. Listen, I've met Zelensky multiple times. People ask me, all right, is the guy totally and utterly corrupt? And I want to urge our verdict listeners, there is a danger in talking about Ukraine and foreign policy to fall into extremes and to say either Zelensky is a glorious hero defending liberty, and everyone with morality will stand against him, against the Worst scourge humanity has ever seen. Vladimir Putin. That's one view. I don't think that view is right. There is another view, which if you spend your time on Twitter, you could see as the sort of countervailing view, which is Zelensky is a corrupt, evil autocrat. He's a Nazi. He's a terrible human being. He started the war against Russia. And Vladimir Putin is a misunderstood, kind soul who we just need to embrace because he's a giant teddy bear and we need to love. Unsurprisingly, that view isn't right either. And one of the things, look, that I love about doing a podcast, if you do a TV or radio interview, both you and I have done a ton of TV or radar interviews. If you've got five or six minutes to discuss an issue, you gotta talk about it in a quick little soundbite. You gotta talk about it in a sentence or two. This podcast, we can actually talk about issues and don't fall into the mistakes of believing the extremes on either side. My view of this. Has Ukraine struggled with corruption? Yes. It has for a long time been one of the most corrupt countries in Europe. There's been endemic corruption throughout the government, throughout the economy. Absolutely, yes. Is Zelensky implicated in that? I don't know. But given the history of corruption in his country, it's not reasonable to acknowledge there's some reasonable possibility. It's not unreasonable to acknowledge there's some reasonable possibility of that. The United States has also been shoveling hundreds of billions of dollars to this war with no accountability. It's been dragging on forever, and people are tired of it. People want it to be over. Donald Trump campaigned on, we're going to end the war in Ukraine. Enough is enough. We're not sending our money there anymore. That is a mandate that came out of the election. Now, you may not like that, you may not agree with it, but Trump was not hiding. That was the outcome he wanted. Kamala Harris was not hiding the outcome she wanted, which is to pay for the war forever and ever and ever and keep shoveling cash to Ukraine no matter what. But, by the way, not enough cash that they win and not cutting off the money to Iran, which is making drones and sending them to Russia, that it's using them to kill Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. So fund both sides in perpetuity to keep the war machine going. That was Kamala's position. The voters voted for Trump. That mandate means something. But. But, But I will say, if you look at the aftermath of the Zelenskyy Oval Office meeting. It was a disastrous meeting for Ukraine. I actually think because Zelenskyy's performance was so bad, it was not a good meeting for America. Zelensky did harm to America, too. Why? Because who was happiest in the world about that meeting? And the answer is Vladimir Putin. I think Putin was laughing his ass off as he watched that because Zelensky was such a jerk that he did real damage to Ukraine. And the consequence of Zelensky's behavior is it benefits Russia, and benefiting Russia is not good for America. I do want to urge everyone who listens to this podcast as I watch Twitter. We're so captured by tribalism that there are people on the right who are fed up with the Joe Bidens and Kamala Harris's and the virtue signaling on Ukraine that they've decided Putin is just awesome. Let me be clear. Putin is a KGB thug. He is a murderer. Putin is not our friend. And Putin's ambitions, you don't have to intuit them, you don't have to infer them. He has told us his ambitions. He has said that he believes the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century is the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He wants to reassemble the Soviet Union. In fact, he said more. He said he wants to go back to the old Russian empire before the Soviet Union. That was even broader and that had Russia controlling much of modern Europe. That would be a disastrous outcome for America. My view is America first, which means I want our allies to be strong and I want our enemies to be weak. It's the reason I've urged President Trump. Yes, you campaigned on we should end the war in Europe. Enough is enough. Stop sending money. But we want a negotiated outcome that is a clear loss for Russia. Why? Because Russia's our enemy, Putin is our enemy, and we don't want our enemy made stronger. Zelensky's performance was so bad, so outrageous, so infuriating, that Zelensky increased the chances of an outcome that benefits Putin. And that is bad for Ukraine, bad for America and bad for the world.
- [15:35]
Senator Ted Cruz
Which brings us to now where we are. And look, you've got UK and France and Ukraine that have agreed to, quote, work on a ceasefire plan and try to get, I guess, Zelensky back into a conversation with the President of the United States of America. They're having this big meeting over in Europe. A lot of different countries are there. The summit includes France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic and Romania. The Turkish foreign minister, the NATO Security General and the presence of the European Commission and the European Council will also attend. Now, you notice I didn't say the United States of America. This is part of, I think, the most interesting part of President Trump's meeting with Zelensky. It's like, look, you take us for granted. You come in here, you lecture us, you have no plan for peace. You clearly aren't here for peace. Good luck. And now all of these other leaders are having to step up and say, okay, let us try to help you fix this so that we can save your country, because he did so much harm to Ukraine.
- [16:44]
Ben Ferguson
And look, I say, great, if Europe wants to step up and fund the war for another year, knock yourselves out, guys. Like our checkbook is done. But, but it is striking. It's an indication of just how disastrous Zelensky's meeting was that he immediately ran to the United Kingdom, to France, to meet with the king of England. All right, here's one story from npr, uk. UK prime minister unveils steps towards a Ukraine peace deal, urges US Cooperation. Here's what NPR reports. Quote, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday laid out a framework for a plan to end Russia's war in Ukraine, one where Europe will lead the charge for securing peace. Yay. While still relying heavily on US Backing. Boo. The proposal is the result of emergency talks held by European leaders in London following President Trump's heated exchange with Ukrainian Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky at the end of at the White House last week over the weekend, leaders from over a dozen countries got together to discuss a roadmap for peace and security for Ukraine as the country faces its third year of war with Russia. The emergency summit was also aimed at working to preserve Ukraine's relationship with the U.S. and Americans involvement in the war overseas. Starmer said that Europe must do the, quote, heavy lifting to secure a lasting peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine and that the UK should lead the front. He emphasized that, quote, this effort must have strong US Backing, which if he means more hundreds of billions of dollars, the answer is no. Thank you. But he continues, quote, through my discussions over recent days, we've agreed that the UK France and others will work with Ukraine on a plan to stop the fighting. Starmer said at a press conference on Sunday. Then we'll discuss that plan with the United States and take it forward together. Now. It's interesting to do so. Starmer vowed the United Kingdom would ramp up its support for Ukraine. That included a loan of. What do you think?
- [18:41]
Senator Ted Cruz
A lot of money. Right?
- [18:43]
Ben Ferguson
What do you Think. Pick a number.
- [18:45]
Senator Ted Cruz
Oh, gosh. See, this is when you get me in trouble, because I'm going to either be way too low or way too high. Let's call it 50 million.
- [18:55]
Ben Ferguson
So higher than that. So you're even more pessimistic. Okay, that includes a loan of 2.26 billion British pounds, which is $2.84 billion. So look, $2.84 billion, that's real money. Except for the fact that the United States has spent about $175 billion on Ukraine. That's part of the fundamental imbalance there.
- [19:19]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, here's the thing about finding money. Like, you go back to Trump saying, like, we're no longer just an open blank check. There was also something else that was said that Europe, quote, needs to step in and release some 200 billion euros. It's 207 billion in, quote, seized Russian assets to help fund the war effort. So all of a sudden, they're now saying, well, we got 200 billion or 207 billion in US dollars, 200 billion euros of seized Russian assets. Maybe we should use that money instead of our own money to help them in Ukraine. And I'm like, wow, you turn off the spigot in America, a brilliant, simple plan, and all of a sudden they find 200 billion euros sitting around. They're like, okay, maybe we can give that to them now.
- [20:04]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, look, I'm all for the Europeans stepping in and doing everything they can. If they want to do that, knock yourself out. They're welcome to spend their money, but we're not the welfare provider for the world. And to be clear, why are we borrowing when we got $36 trillion in debt? Why are we borrowing money from China to give it to other countries? That makes no sense. And it is an interesting shift. Now, look, I will say one of the frustrating things about this meeting last week in the Oval is the meeting was there to sign an agreement, an agreement that had been negotiated ahead of time. And that agreement was an agreement where Ukraine would give the United States a substantial interest in its rare earth minerals and valuable resources to pay back the $175 billion we've given them. That agreement made a lot of sense. That agreement was pre negotiated. I think the White House thought Zelensky was gonna show up, sign the agreement, and leave. He didn't. Instead, he put on this performance. And I actually want you to listen to this exchange on cnn because it's a striking exchange. The first speaker is Scott Jennings, who, by the way, Scott Jennings is doing a phenomenal job on cnn being a voice of reason and common sense, fighting against a bunch of numb nuts and left wing commies. He's really doing an effective job. And he's in this case talking with Josh Rogan. Josh Rogan is a very smart reporter for Washington Post Intelligence. He does foreign policy. But look, Josh Rogan and Scott Jennings do not often agree. Listen to this back and forth as they're analyzing what happened with Zelensky in the Oval Office.
- [21:55]
Scott Jennings
I don't know if he needs an apology. He needs Zelensky to recognize the position that he's in.
- [22:01]
Ben Ferguson
Which to you is what?
- [22:02]
Scott Jennings
We're their patron. We're their best hope for the killing to stop and for them to emerge from this sovereign and prosperous. And we're also their best hope as a business partner. I mean, all Zelinsky had to do today was put on a tie, show up, smile, say thank you, sign the papers and have lunch. That's it. And he couldn't do that. And this followed 10 days of being difficult in private and now one day of being stupid in public. This did not have to go down this way. And however you feel about why it started, why it's going on, who's right and who's wrong, we can help them in this and come out okay on the other side. And he's making it hard now.
- [22:43]
Josh Rogan
First of all, I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I actually agree with Scott and everything that he said was basically right.
- [22:50]
Ben Ferguson
Wow.
- [22:50]
Josh Rogan
I know I'm going to get killed on social media for admitting that, but so follow through on something.
- [22:55]
Senator Ted Cruz
And he is not.
- [22:56]
CNN Reporter
That was.
- [22:56]
Scott Jennings
So I have a short answer on this. So the short answer is the Trump administration believes that if Ukraine goes into business with the United States, that in and of itself is a security guarantee. If your interests become our interests, we're going to be interested in making sure our interests are secure. So it would have been wise for him to understand the economic deal, the mineral deal is a security guarantee in and of itself. And he lost sight of that today in the argument. Premeditated.
- [23:24]
Josh Rogan
I don't know.
- [23:24]
Scott Jennings
I think Zelinsky misplayed it in the room. And you can. And we could disagree about J.D. vance's position on it or agree on it, but either way, Zelinsky certainly had been briefed on what the right way to handle this was. And all he had to do was walk in there and say, thank you. I'm really grateful to be here. We want to be partners with the United States. We're Grateful for your leadership. Where's the papers and what are we having for lunch? That's all he had to do. And look, the posturing doesn't have to occur now. If. If he is serious about wanting peace and ending this war. You don't have to keep posturing as a tough guy. Everybody knows you're tough. All right, the Ukrainians are tough. They're brave. They're fighting a much larger country. Everybody knows. The question for Zelinsky is, can you take off the military uniform and put on the uniform of diplomacy? He failed the test.
- [24:12]
Senator Ted Cruz
He failed diplomacy. That test today. He. It was not a hard meeting. This wasn't something that was going to. It was harder to screw it up than it was to get it right.
- [24:23]
Ben Ferguson
Look, he needed mostly to be saying, sir, yes, sir. Thank you, sir. May I have another it. And Scott is right. Look, this deal on minerals had the advantage for Ukraine of having the Trump administration being an integrally involved economic partner with Ukraine. That's really beneficial. And. And the. The alternative is. Is very different, which is with. Without the United States, Ukraine's prospects are really dim. And so if you know that your prospects for success are miserably sad. Unless President Trump supports you, in what universe do you come in and start attacking and insulting him?
- [25:15]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, it doesn't. And this is now, how fast can Europe get this back together? But I do love. They found billions and billions and billions of Russian assets. Like, oh, well, maybe instead of our taxpayers over in Europe paying them, giving them, maybe we'll just take this money we can. We've seized and frozen, and then we'll use that in the war effort. That makes more sense for the short term. So we're gonna go down that road. It's amazing how fast Europe found cash when America said, no more from us. We're not gonna be suckers. Which brings me to tomorrow night. Let's just have a little fun with this for a second. Because you mentioned earlier to say the Union, others are gonna say, well, technically, it's a joint session of Congress. Can we explain very quickly why the first time the president addresses a joint session of Congress, it's not technically called to say, but afterwards it is.
- [26:10]
Ben Ferguson
Okay, so I believe tomorrow's address is a State of the Union. You're right. But, but, but I think the sort of tradition is wrong. The origin of the State of the Union comes from the text of the Constitution. Article two, section three provides, quote, he, the President shall from time to time, give to the Congress information of the State of the Union. And Recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary expedient. And so that's. That's the origin of it, that the Constitution says he shall give. Give to Congress information on the State of the Union. Now, traditionally, the first address the President gives when he's newly elected is not called a State of the Union address. It's rather just called an address to a joint session of Congress. And traditionally, the first State of the Union is the second address he gives. So a year from now, that will be called a State of the Union. In my view, the plain text of the Constitution is, if the President's giving Congress his views on the State of the Union, it's a State of the Union address. And so I think the tradition is wrong. Now, it's interesting if you go and look at the history of it. Initially, it started in writing. So George Washington sent written messages to Congress instead of delivering them in person. So did John Adams. So did Thomas Jefferson. So it started out that the State of the Union was delivered in writing. Then Woodrow Wilson in 1913 delivered his message in person, and Franklin Roosevelt did the same. The first radio broadcast of the State of the Union was in 1923, and the first televised address was in 1947. And it wasn't until 1965, which was not really that long ago, that President Johnson began delivering the address in primetime. And then in 1966, the opposition party began offering a televised response to the President's speech. So today, we think of it as a national speech that's covered on tv, on every one of the stations. It didn't start out that way, but. But tomorrow we're gonna see exactly that. A national speech given to the country, given to a joint session of Congress. I'll be sitting there on the floor of the House listening to it, and as will millions of people across America and all across the world.
- [28:32]
Senator Ted Cruz
What do you expect in this speech? I mean, this is going to be one where I think it's going to be a lot about, A, we won, B, this is what we're getting done for the American people. I think the President understands how important this speech is to continue momentum moving forward for Doge and other things. But I actually think this is one of the most important speeches he's going to give, because this is at that critical moment where it's like, all right, you know, are we winning? Yes, here's what we're doing. Here's what we promised we were going to do, and keep supporting and backing us, because we're all in.
- [29:07]
Ben Ferguson
So my Prediction is the theme of the speech will be promises made, promises kept. And it will have many similar themes that the inauguration speech had about the mandate from the last election. But the difference is going to be the inauguration speech was on the first day of the second term. So at that point, nothing had happened yet. It was literally raising his hand and taking the oath of office is what made him president. So he hadn't been able to do anything yet in his second term when he gave that speech. In this instance, we have seen the Most consequential first 40 days of a president in history. There's never been a president hit the ground running the way Donald Trump has. There's never been a president issue as many executive orders do as much as Donald Trump is. And so I expect the speech to be number one. I expect a lot of focus on the border. So on the border, I think the president is going to say, we had chaos, we had open borders, we had 12 million illegal immigrants, we had the worst illegal immigration in the history of our country. We had an invasion at our southern border. The American people said, enough is enough is enough. I expect the president to point to in the gallery victims of illegal immigration. I expect to see the families of people who were murdered by illegal immigrants, whether Lake and Riley or Jocelyn Nungaree or Rachel Moran, I expect to see the families to highlight this was a tragedy, it was wrong, and Americans were suffering every damn day. As I put it at the RNC convention this year. And we've seen in just 40 days, the number of illegal crossings plummet over 90%. I fully expect President Trump to say, you elected me to fix this problem and we are fixing the problem. If you're a murderer, if you're a rapist, if you're a child molester, if you're a Venezuelan gang member, get the hell out. Because if you don't, we're gonna find you, we're gonna arrest you, we're going to deport you. We will secure the border. And that's a promise made and a promise kept. I think that's gonna be a major, major theme. I think energy.
- [31:20]
Senator Ted Cruz
How important do you think this is? I mean, is this one of those where you're like, hey, if you're on.
- [31:24]
Ben Ferguson
The team, look, I think it's important. I don't think it is game changing either way. I think the President will do a good job. I gotta say, State of the Unions are always interesting. And we'll talk about, on Wednesday's pod, we'll talk about how it was and so you and I will record this after the State of the Union. That's going to be a brutal one, by the way, because State of the Union goes on forever. And then I typically do various media. I don't know if I'm doing Hannity, I often do Hannity after State of the Unions. But I'll do some media and then you and I will record the pod at midnight or one in the morning. So. But we will record it and I'll give you my real time assessments of how it went. But look, I think the President is gonna do a terrific job with it. And I don't know that it matters. I don't know that it will change anything fundamentally other than I think a lot of people, you will have tens of millions of people watching and you will have even more globally watching. And I think the basic message, the American people voted, they elected us, they gave us a mandate and we are delivering on that mandate. We are producing results. We're doing what the voters sent us here to do. I think that message is really important and I think that message will be conveyed. I'm glad of that. I think that's really important. By the way, I'll say one of the things that I'm looking forward to. So later today I'm going to do an event in the Capitol with the first lady, with Melania Trump. I'm going to do an event with the first lady on my legislation, the Take it Down legislation. The Take it Down legislation protects young girls, protects women from so called revenge porn, protects them from deep fakes. So we've seen multiple instances, we've seen teenage girls who, one from Texas, Elliston Berry, who was a freshman in high school and she woke up one morning and a classmate of hers, a boy in ninth grade, had taken a perfectly innocuous picture of her from social media, had used AI to create a deep fake to make it look like they were naked pictures of her. They were not real, they were fake, but if you looked at them, you thought they were real. The AI technology is such that you can't tell. And this boy at her class had sent it to her classmates and this poor girl woke up in tears. If you could imagine, you and I are both parents, it's hard to be a teenager anytime. But for a young girl to have all your classmates think they're looking at naked pictures of you, or in some instances you have deep fake videos where they can create pornographic videos of real people that look like they're engaged in lewd and explicit acts. And my legislation The Take it down act makes it number one, a crime to post non consensual intimate images. And number two, whether real or deep fakes made using AI. And number two, it puts an obligation on social media platforms and tech platforms to take this garbage down when the victims notify them. In Elliston's situation, I met with her, she reached out to me as her senator and raised this. And it's actually how I encountered the issue because it was a concern raised by a constituent. And I drafted this legislation in response to her concerns. I met with her and her mom at the time the pictures had been up on Snapchat for nine months. And I asked her and her mom, I said, well, what's the story with the pictures now? And her mom said they're still up. And they said, her mom said, I've called Snapchat, I've emailed them, I got round and round and round, they will not take them down. And I turned to my team, I said, dammit, I want you to get the CEO of Snapchat on the phone right now, this afternoon. And I said, those pictures will be down today, Ben. They pulled the pictures down within two hours. Now you know what, it should not take a sitting United States senator to make a phone call to make that happen. The victim ought to have the right to get that down. And so my legislation puts a legal obligation on the part of the tech platform. If the victim notifies them, they have to take it down. So tomorrow I'm going to do an event at the Capitol with the first lady, Melania Trump. We're going to have Ellison, Barry is there, we're going to have other victims who have been victims there to highlight this legislation. My bill has already passed the Senate 100 to nothing. I believe we'll get it through the House. And I think you could see the president talking about issues like that at the State of the Union as well, laying out, we have a mandate we're going to deliver and here's what we're delivering already.
- [36:07]
Senator Ted Cruz
That's awesome. Well, we're going to have a big show after the joint address, State of the Union on, so get ready for that. Make sure you hit that subscriber auto download button wherever you get this podcast and please share share it on social media. If you would write us a five star review, we'd also greatly appreciate that it helps us reach a new audience every time you do that. So if you'll do that as well, that would be huge. And the center and I will see you back here on Wednesday. Morning.
- [36:38]
CNN Reporter
Check engine light on. Take the guesswork out of your check engine light with O'Reilly Variscan. It's free and provides a report with solutions based on over 650 million vehicle scans verified by ASE certified master technicians. And if you need help, we can recommend a shop for you. Ask for O'Reilly Variscan today.
- [37:02]
Ben Ferguson
Auto parts.