← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
00:29:09
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- [00:01]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. And Senator, I gotta say, this is an email I feel like should be sent out every single week. What did you do at work last week? That is an actual email sent out from Doge to government employees. You even responded to it.
- [00:19]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, it's, it's amazing. Every day it seems we see the same story playing out. We see Elon Musk holding the federal government to account. We see Donald Trump standing up to the swamp in Washington. And we see the media and the Democrats losing their mind. Elon Musk with the most basic question any boss asks of what did you accomplish this week? And somehow that is deemed shocking and unbelievable. And it really is a sign of what needs to happen. We're going to break that down and break down the response to it as well. We're also going to talk about a back and forth between President Trump and the governor of Maine where the governor of Maine, a Democrat, is continuing what a lot of the Democrats are doing, which is massive resistance and in this case, boys and girls sports. It turns out the Democrats, they want them some boys and girls sports and they're willing to stand and fight and do anything. And Trump made clear Maine is at risk of losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds if they continue to defy the executive orders on boys and girls sports. And the Democrat governor is eager for that fight because that is apparently what today's Democrat Party is all about.
- [01:34]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, that's a really important one. And we're going to talk about that in a moment. I want to tell you real quick about our friends over at the ifcj. After more than a year of war, terror and pain in Israel, there is still a great demand for basic humanitarian aid. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has supported and continues to support those in the Holy Land still facing the lingering horrors of war and those who are in desperate need right now. Your ongoing monthly gift of $45 will provide critically needed aid to communities in the north and the south that have been devastated by this ongoing war. Your generous donation each month will help deliver to those in need, including evacuees and refugees from the war torn areas, first responders and volunteers, wounded soldiers, even elderly Holocaust survivors and families who have lost everything, plus so many more that are in need. And you can provide hope during this time of great uncertainty. I want to say thank you because so many of you have been helping and that's why we keep telling you about the ifcj, because you're having a real impact on the people in Israel. So give a gift to bless Israel and her people by visiting support IFCJ.org that's one word. Support IFCJ.org you can also call to give 888-488-IFCJ. That's 888-488 IFCJ 888-488-4325 or supportifcj.org and thank you for checking out their incredible work. They're doing all right. Before we get into the big story Center, I gotta say thank two things. One, to this audience. You guys are incredible. And thank you for hitting that subscribe and auto download button and making sure you save the show. They have changed the algorithms to actually hurt podcasts like this one. So we want to remind you, make sure you hit that subscriber auto download button and save each episode so that we can continue to grow the audience and find other people out there and help give them the important news we give you every single day. But we also gotta say thank you because this podcast, they put out a list of the best 100 election podcasts. And I gotta say, because of the audience, Senator, you and I, this podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz, was ranked number one political podcast in America for the election. And that's amazing.
- [04:04]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, that's right. This is a list that is done by million podcasts.com million podcast.com and they rank podcasts, they rank them based on their content, and they put out a ranking of the best 100 election podcasts. And I gotta say, it was pretty fantastic. But Verdict was number one in the entire country, the single best election podcast in the country according to millionpodcast.com and so that, that I want to say thank you, as Ben did to all of our listeners, because the content we're putting out day after day is very hard to get there. There is not another place you can get it. And so thank you. And that's a big win.
- [04:44]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, huge win there. And you, you want to talk about another big win? You mentioned it a moment ago. I, I gotta say, there's certain emails that, that happen in headlines right now with this administration that, Senator, I find great joy in. I smile. I think a lot of people listening this show are gonna smile at this story we're about to tell you about, which is there was an email that went out to all government employees saying, what'd you do last week? Tell me the top five things you did in your job. And the left and the unions and the woke people in the government are just like crying and losing their Minds.
- [05:20]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, Elon Musk tweeted out this week, quote, consistent with President Trump's instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation. Very simple, five bullet points. Tell me what you got done the past week. Now the media and the Democrats, they are freaking out. A classic example is, is Senator Tina Smith, Senator from Minnesota, very liberal Democrat. She tweeted out the following quote, this is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk, except he isn't even the boss, he's just a dick. So that's the Democrats response. Asking someone, what did you get accomplished this week at work? Is unacceptable because they live in a world where apparently meritocracy doesn't exist, where government workers aren't expected to do anything positive for the voters, for the taxpayers. And Elon responded to Tina Smith, a very simple question. What did you get done last week? Now I gotta say, I read that and my reaction immediately was, okay, this is something frankly bosses do all the time. It's a very reasonable thing. I've been in a lot of jobs where my bosses have asked for a weekly report at the end of the week. What did you get accomplished? I've submitted hundreds or thousands of weekly reports over the year of what's been accomplished during the past week. That's something a lot of very productive workplaces do. So, so I responded on Twitter. Here, here's what I tweeted out in response to Elon. A fair question, Elon Musk. Here's mine. 1. Passed out of the Senate, the Take it down act to protect kids from deep fake porn to confirm Cash Patel at FBI and Lutnick at Commerce. 3. Pass the budget resolution to secure the border, rebuild our military and unleash energy. 4. Chair to hearing on freeing up 600 MHz of spectrum for commercial development so the US will beat China to 6G. And 5 met with 20 African ambassadors on strategies to combat China in Africa. So that's what I did last week. And I gotta say, you know, it's an interesting thing. Why don't doesn't all hundred senators report back on what they accomplished last week? I think it's a perfectly fine thing for federal employees to do it, but at the end of the day, I've got 31 million bosses. I work for every man, woman and child in the great state of Texas. And I try on a regular basis. In fact, this podcast is an aspect of that accountability. It's an aspect of sharing with the men and Women I work for, what it is that I'm doing, what I'm fighting for and what we're able to get accomplished. And it really does say something about the current surreal expectations of Democrats and federal government workers that asking, what did.
- [08:44]
Ben Ferguson
You do last year? You know, when the woke left was like, oh, we gotta have like safe spaces for people in colleges and kids. That's in essence what their response is here. They came out hardcore and they're like, how dare you? This is harassment to ask what we did last week. You're, you're, you're making us stressed out. This is making people worry and fearful for their jobs. Yeah, if you're not doing your job, you should be fearful. If your job is, is something that you can't even explain, you should be fearful you're going to lose your job. But this idea that this is, quote, harassment. We had unions that came out saying, you can't harass our union members this way, all by asking a simple question. What did you do?
- [09:29]
Senator Ted Cruz
Let me ask you, Ben, you've worked in a White House in comms. Is this a strange question to get? What did you accomplish last week?
- [09:36]
Ben Ferguson
No. And especially when you work, for example, on campaigns, you know, there's accountability every 10, 12, 15, 24 hours. What did you do to respond to this? What are you doing this. Here's the next project. What have you done with this? Like, that is a very normal way of doing things. And I can tell you whether it was on the campaign or we were working on Social Security reform, you had deadlines and you had, you had meetings every day. And if you came in unprepared, it could cost you your job. No doubt about it.
- [10:05]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah. Look, it's the basic idea of having deliverables. But there's a very strange dynamic in Washington right now. The average federal office building up until a few weeks ago was empty. The attendance is 5 to 8%. More than 90% of federal workers are not going to the office. Now that is bizarre. Look, I get in the height of COVID there was a period where everyone stayed home. But you know what happened? The rest of the world went back to work. Like, everyone's gone back to work. And in the private sector, I don't know of a place where people don't go into the office anymore except the federal government. And I gotta say, to Democrats, this is treated as an entitlement, that they are owed this. And to see people freaking out, well, if we have to go to work, that makes it very hard to figure out childcare. Well, guess what? That's called work. Yeah, it is hard to figure out child care.
- [11:07]
Ben Ferguson
That's real.
- [11:08]
Senator Ted Cruz
Look, every parent who has a job has to figure out child care. Why do federal employees get to stay at home in their pajamas and bunny slippers when everyone else has to go to work? I think these two are intertwined. This expectation, I am entitled to a federal paycheck for the rest of my life. I, I don't have to produce anything. I don't have to ever go to the office, and I can do my job simply by diverting funds to radical left wing groups. All of this is intertwined. It is the politicization of government. It is the lack of respect for the taxpayers, the lack of respect. Look, this is intertwined. We've talked about this as well, with how Joe Biden behaved the last three months of his presidency after the election. I have never in my life seen a president behave like Joe Biden did because he behaved with absolute contempt. He spent three months trying to do everything he could to stop Donald Trump from delivering on the promises that he made to the American people. That the voters said overwhelmingly, we want most presidents when they leave, when they lose, they're like, okay, fine, all right, the next guys are coming in. We're going to transition over. The voters have spoken. You know, I may not like what the voters say. I was on the other side, you know, if your side loses. But the absolute arrogance, the lack of regard for the voters and the taxpayers, it is also intertwined. Name a Democrat, an elected Democrat who has said once, thank God Doge is pointing out all of this waste, fraud, and abuse. Thank God we have stopped sending millions of dollars for transgender surgeries in Guatemala. I haven't heard a single Democrat, not one of them. And it's because they don't think they owe anything to the taxpayers or the voters. For them, it's about power. It's not about honoring the commitment you made to the men and women who elected you.
- [13:16]
Ben Ferguson
You know, the other part about this is there was a lot of people that were trying to spin this email as, like, this was a national security risk because it went out to all employees. And there was guidance that came back very quickly from certain departments going, hey, like, you can't necessarily say what you did this week. So hold on before you respond back. And. And yet the media tried to spin this into, oh, my gosh, all these rules are about to be broken and you were putting people's lives at risk. Elon Musk, by sending out this email, I, I think it's important that we clarify. Look, there were some positions that it was totally fine to say, hold on, we can't do this.
- [13:52]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, of course. And so there were natural places where employees were told, don't respond to this email. For example, Cash Patel told FBI agents, don't respond to this email. Run, run through your management to respond to this email. Why? Because when you're dealing with classified and confidential law enforcement, there are national security and intelligence operations where you can't have this kind of report going and going through non classified channels. So of course that's the case. But. But if you're a run of the mill employee in the federal, in a federal agency, those constraints are not there and those employees are obligated to respond.
- [14:40]
Ben Ferguson
No doubt about it. Also, let's talk a little bit about cpac. You had a meeting with Elon Musk right after he was given this chainsaw. You even got a picture. I was there with the chainsaw that we tweeted out. It was actually really fun. And Elon Musk is loving this new opportunity to make a difference in this country.
- [15:00]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah. I will say, in addition to the five things that I tweeted that I accomplished last week, I did, did follow up with one more tweet and said, oh yeah. And six, I got to hold a really badass chainsaw.
- [15:12]
Ben Ferguson
And this chainsaw is amazing.
- [15:15]
Senator Ted Cruz
Okay, you gotta understand. So Javier Milei, the President of Argentina, showed up with a gold and silver chainsaw for Elon Musk. And this is not a run of the mill chainsaw. This is a gold plated chainsaw. It had Elon Musk's musk on it. It had Viva la Libertad on the blade. The blade was long. It was a massive chainsaw. It had brass spikes coming out of the main body of the chainsaw, like something out of Mad Max and Thunderdome. And the pull cord, where you start, it was a set of brass knuckles.
- [15:54]
Ben Ferguson
I mean that was, that was just so cool.
- [15:57]
Senator Ted Cruz
It was seriously badass. And it was. I told Elon. So you and I spent the afternoon at CPAC last week and we did Friday's podcast. We did from CPAC on Thursday. And we interviewed Pam Bondi. We interviewed Pam Bondi live on the stage. We've done Verdict live on the stage of CPAC several times. Let me encourage folks, by the way, if you didn't listen to Friday's podcast interviewing Pam Bondi, it was one of the very first major interviews of the new Attorney General that has happened. Pam and I have been friends A long time. And so we had a really good and candid conversation about what she's doing, what she's accomplishing, what her objectives are. So if you didn't listen to Friday's podcast, go back and listen to it, because it was an interview that. That. That I think was really worthwhile. But afterwards, you and I hung out.
- [16:48]
Ben Ferguson
After.
- [16:49]
Senator Ted Cruz
Afterwards, I spent about 20 minutes with Elon and. And Javier Malay delivered this chainsaw to Elon. By the way, Malay brought it up on stage while you and I were doing the podcast. I. I gotta say, my security guys were freaked out. They're like, a guy is running on stage with a chainsaw, and never mind that it was a head of state running on stage with a chainsaw. That. That's just a little surreal. Like, you have guards that. Whose job it is to keep you safe. It is. Despite the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre, we rarely deal with people running at us with chainsaws. And yet that happened at cpac, and yet somehow it was okay.
- [17:28]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, it really was. There was also another bad A moment, since we're talking about bad A moments at the White House that happened while we were. At some point.
- [17:37]
Senator Ted Cruz
Come on, Benjamin. Benjamin, if you're gonna do it, do the full intro.
- [17:40]
Ben Ferguson
Badass moment. There we go. There was a badass moment.
- [17:45]
Senator Ted Cruz
I'm trying to rescue your dignity. A bad A moment is just a weenie way of putting it.
- [17:52]
Ben Ferguson
All right, we'll go with badass. There was a badass moment, the White House, where the president straight up called out a governor who was in attendance for the governors. They had a bunch of governors come to the White House. They had their big governors meeting. They invited these governors to come to the White House. And. And the president just straight out called out one of the governors for the plan that had leaked, in essence, that he was going to defy the. The. The. The directive from the federal government about protecting women from men playing in their sports, transgender, you know, individuals claiming that they're chicken. And the president just said, like, I don't care. You're here. Glad you're here. Are you going to not go along with what I told you to do? And it was one of those flashpoint moments just showing you, I think the difference is time and the mentality of this president.
- [18:40]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, no, that's exactly right. Trump is not backing down. And I got to say, the Democrats, that seems they've learned nothing from the election. Here. Give a listen to the exchange between the governor of Maine and President Trump.
- [18:51]
C
The NCAA has complied immediately by the way. That's good. But I understand Maine is Maine here. The governor of Maine. Are you not going to comply with it?
- [19:03]
Ben Ferguson
I'm complying with state and federal laws.
- [19:05]
C
Well, I'm. We are the federal law. Well, you better do it. You better do it because you're not going to get any federal funding at all if you don't. And by the way, your population, even though it's somewhat liberal, although I did very well there, your population doesn't want men playing in women's sports. So you better come, you better comply because otherwise you're not getting any, any federal funding. Every state. Good. I'll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one. And enjoy your life after Governor, because I don't think you'll be in elected politics.
- [19:36]
Ben Ferguson
I mean, the trash talking. I just got to say, looking at the female governor, Maine saying like, hey, the people there want this too. You should listen to the people. I'll see you in court. All right, great. Look forward to it. I don't think you're gonna be in politics much longer either if you keep this up. This is just a different Donald Trump this time around.
- [19:55]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, it is. And by the way, there's also real teeth to it. So. So simultaneously with this exchange, the U.S. department of Agriculture announced that it initiated a compliance review of the University of Maine, and the state could be in jeopardy of losing $100 million in federal USDA funding over non compliance with the executive order on keeping males out of female sports. And at the end of the day, and by the way, this is not hypothetical. This is happening in Maine. In Maine, there was a transgender boy who identifies as a girl who took first place in the girls pole vaulting at Maine's Class B state championship. And it's a win that helped the high school take first place overall. And so, you know, how would you feel if it's your daughter who's in second and she's the best pole vaulter in the state, who's a girl, but there's a dude who says, no, I'm a girl who beats her and dominates. It's just fundamentally unfair. And I gotta say, overwhelmingly 80, 90% of Americans agree with that proposition. And what's striking is this is not Democrats fighting on some issue where the voters are with them. I promise you, even in Maine, the voters don't want this. They're not happy about this. And today's Democrat Party this election, if there is an elected Democrat who learned anything from this election, I don't Know who it is, because not only are.
- [21:40]
Ben Ferguson
They doubling down, this has become like the new litmus test, though, of the extreme left.
- [21:43]
Senator Ted Cruz
Right.
- [21:44]
Ben Ferguson
You must have.
- [21:44]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, but they're also doubling down on open borders. They're also doubling down on anti Israel. Look, the Democrats in the Senate voted against sanctioning the icc, the International Criminal Court, which has gone after Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel. Every Democrat but one, every Democrat but John Fetterman voted against Israel. And they did that after the election. They did that just a few weeks ago. I mean, that's where the Democrats are right now, is they're still open border, they're still anti Israel, they're still pro boys and girls sports, and it's. Look, this is the same issue we started with, fundamentally. I think the Democrats love to prattle on about democracy, but when they prattle on about democracy, what they really mean is they want power and they don't care what the voters want. They don't care about respecting the will of the voters. Instead, they want to fight against the will of the voters. It's why they indicted Trump not once, not twice, not three times, but four times. It was designed to stop democracy. It's why you had multiple Democrats, judges, and state officials trying to remove Donald Trump from the presidential ballot. Because nothing says defending democracy like stopping the damn voters for voting for your opponent and making it impossible. This is all intertwined, which is. It is a lack of, of humility, a lack of understanding that you have a boss and the boss is the men and women who elected you.
- [23:21]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, it's a great point. And it's, it goes back, I think, to the core issue of he's listening to the people, as you mentioned, and he's doing what the people said with a mandate. And that is, that is what this election was about. And it's also, I think it's clear the reason why he's doing things, which moves me to the FBI. You got to go to the swearing end of Cash Patel at the FBI. But it's clear that the President's not just like checking a box at the top and saying, okay, now, business as usual. We also found out today that he has decided to name Dan Bongino, who many that listen to the show probably listen to his show, his podcast as well, and know him from Fox News Channel, former Secret Service agent, former police officer in New York City, a very outspoken critic of the Deep State. He's now the deputy director of the FBI. I mean, he is, he is truly draining the swamp and bringing in people that are all about reform.
- [24:23]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah. On Friday, I was at Cash Patel swearing in and it was a terrific moment. I think Cash is going to bring fundamental reform to the FBI and I think it is desperately needed. The FBI is an institution. It is an institution with a long and storied history. And I don't think there is any institution in America that has lost more respect, that has had its integrity compromised more than the FBI has. Actually, the CDC may be rivaling it. Fauci may have done as much damage to the credibility and respect of government health sciences as James Comey and Christopher Wray did to the FBI. But both institutions are sorely in need of reform. I think Keshe Patel's gonna come in and do that. And I gotta say, Dan Bongino, he's a good friend of mine. He's a good friend of yours. He is a strong conservative, he is a reformer. And that combination of Cash Patel and Dan Bongino I think is going to be really potent to bring the FBI back to its core mission. And its core mission is stopping bad guys, it's stopping violent crime, it's catching the very worst criminals, it's stopping terrorism, it's putting terrorists in jail, it's keeping America safe. It's not being a politically woke enforcer for left wing ideology, or for that matter, for right wing ideology. I don't expect the FBI to suddenly be a right wing enforcer. I want the FBI to lock up murderers. And to be clear, I want them to lock up murderers whether they're Republicans or Democrats. I don't care if you're killing people, if you're raping women, if you're hurting kids, if you're human trafficking, if you're drug trafficking, if you're a terrorist, I want the FBI to go after you and lock you up. And that's what their core mission is. And I'm very confident that Cash Patel and Dan Bongino, with Pam Bondi as Attorney general, that they're going to bring the FBI right back to that.
- [26:19]
Ben Ferguson
Let's give a quick update about where we are with all these cabinet positions. You guessed that you thought all the big ones were going to get through. So far that has been exactly the case. And look, they didn't want Pam, they didn't want Patel, they didn't want several of these others. They went after Kristi Noem. We saw a lot of them at CPAC this weekend. The biggest, big positions are getting filled with the people that Donald Trump promised the American voter. How encouraged are you by. I would Also say the Republicans that are in Congress right now seeming to stick together pretty well.
- [26:56]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah. Look, I think the Republicans in the Senate and the Republicans in the House are aware that we've got an historic mandate from the election in November, and we've got an obligation to deliver on our promises. We can't screw around. Failure is not an option. And I do think that is something in both the House and Senate that Republicans get. I'll tell you, when it comes to confirmations, we are moving at the fastest pace in 25 years. We're moving at a much faster pace than Cabinet nominees were confirmed under Biden or in the first Trump term. I predicted on this podcast that all of President Trump's cabinet nominees would be confirmed. And that's been the path. That's been. That's been the ones they went after. They went after Pete Hegseth. Hegseth was confirmed. They went after Tulsi Gabbard. Tulsi was confirmed. They went after Bobby Kennedy. Bobby was confirmed. And so other than Matt Gaetz, who withdrew very early, and Gates would have faced a very rocky path, but other than that, once Gates withdrew, and I made the prediction after Gates withdrew, that's exactly what happened, which is every cabinet nominee has been confirmed.
- [28:09]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah. It's incredible. What do we have on the horizon when it comes to what's next, when it comes to confirmations?
- [28:16]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, next week, the confirmations that are coming up, we're gonna do the Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll, and then we'll be voting on Jameson Greer to be the United States Trade Representative. Both of those are expected next week. And then we're gonna go after some of Biden's failed energy policies in the Senate. We're gonna go after rules and regulations that drive up the cost of energy and make it harder to heat your home, harder to that drive inflation. And so that's going to be the priority in the Senate this coming week.
- [28:48]
Ben Ferguson
It's going to be awesome. We're going to have it all here for you. Don't forget to hit that subscriber auto download button and make sure you save the podcast. That helps us tremendously reach a new audience. Also, grab my podcast, the Ben Frank Ferguson Podcast, on those in between days. I'll keep you updated on the latest breaking news as well. And the center, I will see you back here on Wednesday morning.