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Senator Ted Cruz
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Ben Ferguson
Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. Senator, we've got one heck of a show. We're dealing with, well, some Democrats that just fell flat on their face on the international stage. We have that for you. Also, Barack Obama decided to go after law enforcement again. And we even got you a little update on the sewage problem on the Potomac the Democrats are mishandling yet again.
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, all of that is happening. We had three likely Democrat presidential candidates in Munich at the Munich security Conference. They tried to engage in foreign policy and let me just say, it did not go well. You had aoc, you had Gretchen Whitmer, and you had Gavin Newsom and it was a mess. We're going to come with the details where you're going to listen to exactly what they said and you're being kind. And boy, all three of them wish they could do, do a take two and reset. As you noted, Barack Obama also, I guess he was feeling lonely, you know, laying back at his mansion, collecting the millions of dollars Hollywood has paid him. And so he decided to get back in the political fray by unleashing a frame flamethrower, attacking ice, attacking Trump. Just, just viciously engaging in the partisan battle. We're going to break that down for you as well. And finally, as you noted, we're going to give an update on the billion gallons of sewage that Democrats have dumped into the Potomac River. And the latest update on that. As bad as that story is, the latest update's even worse.
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, it really is. I want to take a moment and I want to talk to you real quick about an organization that is just doing amazing work. It is called Compassion International. I want you to just pause what you're doing for the next 60 seconds and I want you to imagine Lucy, a 7 year old. Her stomach often aches with hunger. Her small hands, instead of holding crayons, know only the struggle of survival on dusty streets. School is a distant dream. Medical Care a forgotten hope. Lucy's potential is overshadowed. Her future is dim. But what if someone stepped in? What, what if there was a way to ignite hope for children just like Lucy? Well, there is. And that is with Compassion International partners and the local churches that provide children holistic support. More than just food, they receive critical medical care, life changing education, vital skills training and spiritual development all in Jesus name. And you can empower a child just like Lucy to break free from poverty. I want you to do what I've done and sponsor a child today. You can visit compassion.com that's compassion.com all right, so let's start with this security, you know, event in Munich that they have. And can you explain to people why this event is, is kind of like a resume thing. If you're looking to run for office, if you're trying to raise your stature, you show up there in Munich. It's a Kumbaya event is how I describe it. So but give people the background and why everyone that's trying to be somebody wants to be there in the political world.
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, the Munich Security Conference is held every year and it's in Munich, obviously. And you get, you get quite a few leaders from the United States who go over. You get both Republicans and Democrats. I've been to it numerous times. You get foreign heads of state, you get secretaries of state, you get foreign ministers and they're from all over. A lot of Europeans go and people more broadly go. And it can be a very productive time because when you go there are these panel discussions and conferences, but you also do a whole series of one on one meetings. And so you can go to one place and meet with a half dozen different heads of state. So it can be very efficient in terms of having productive national security and foreign policy conversations. Now two people who went, I believe for the first time were AOC and Gretchen Whitmer. Now it is no secret that both of them are looking quite seriously at running for president as a Democrat only because the Communist Party is not having a contested primary, but they're thinking of running in 2028. And if you run for president, you presumably should know something about foreign policy. You should be able to say, spin a globe and have some clue about some country that is further out than Brooklyn. Well, AOC took a hand at it. And by the way, she's, you know, a young vocal socialist in America. She was going and expecting just to be embraced in Europe. I mean, look, young, pretty socialists. That's, that's kind of like, like European.
Ben Ferguson
Eat Right, yeah, it's. This is like, this is. She was saying an easy street. No, no prep time needed.
Senator Ted Cruz
Right? Yeah. But, you know, in terms of being ready for prime time, listen to this exchange she had when. When asked about one of the most pressing foreign policy questions across the globe right now, would and should the US.
Hagar (Israeli Journalist)
Actually commit US Troops to defend Taiwan.
Senator Ted Cruz
If China were to move?
Hagar (Israeli Journalist)
You know, I think that this is such a. You know, I think that this is a. This is, of course, a very long standing policy of the United States. And I think what we are hoping for is that we want to make sure that we never get to that point, and we want to make sure that we are moving in all of our economic research and our global positions to avoid any such confrontation and for that question to even arise.
Ben Ferguson
All right, Senator, look, I've had the privilege of working on quite a few campaigns and some presidential campaigns, and this would be one of the first questions. And you, when you do prep, whether it's a debate prep or a major get on stage event, we call it, you know, rolling out the, the agenda of a candidate, how was she not prepared to answer that question? And the scary part was the whole room was like, she has no idea what she's saying right now.
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, yeah. Look, everyone knew that. You know, several things come to mind. Number one, you know, the popular GIF online of Carrie Elwes kind of. Kind of fluttering his eyelashes. Yeah. That's what I immediately think of, like, looking at this, like, well, that's. That's something.
Ben Ferguson
That's something. Yeah.
Senator Ted Cruz
I also am hearing in my head Kamala Harris going, wow, that's a word salad.
Ben Ferguson
Yeah.
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah.
Ben Ferguson
I mean, I mean, it's not, it's not even. I mean, it was a. It was a, A blunder that I would argue would probably come up in a campaign. Right. Like, even if you try to fix this now, it's out there how unprepared she is for national security issues. And this would have been if you and I were doing debate prep or, or this prep for her in a meeting, like, hey, what do you think you're going to ask immediately? I would have said Iran. I would have said Ukraine and Russia, and you would have said Taiwan and China. Like, those are the top of the list. Without even having to make a list.
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, it's one of the things Democrats, and particularly those on the far left, they're used to being in environments where everyone agrees with them when. Where they're just kissing their behind. Oh, you're so wonderful. You're so cool. You're so awesome. You're so h. Most Democrats, they don't do hostile media interviews. They won't go on Fox News. They go on MSNBC or CNN or even the networks, and they just, just get slavering praise and never get challenged. So. So that was clearly a problem. And I got to say. Okay, so Gretchen Whitmer, Governor of Michigan, considered a serious presidential contender by many observers. She had a similar problem. Listen to Gretchen Whitmer getting asked a question on Ukraine. What does victory look like? Ambassador? No, please, I'd love to. I'd love to hear your answer. It is. The two that I am on the panel with are much more steeped in foreign policy than a governor is. But, you know, I do think that Ukraine's independence, keeping their, their landmass and having the support of. Of all the allies, I think is. Is the goal from my vantage point. Go ahead, Ambassador, do a better job.
Ben Ferguson
You and I, by the way, know who the ambassador is that she's looking at asking to bail him out, like begging for repro. A conservative to bail her out. I laugh because his, his response center was exactly what I would have done. I think what you would have been. You're like, no, no, please, I want to hear your answ. Ladies first. You go ahead, tell us what you think here.
Senator Ted Cruz
And the ambassador, Matt Whitaker, who's the US Ambassador to NATO, was Donald Trump's acting Attorney General in the first term. So. So he is close to the president. He is a conservative. And the idea that she looks to him and is like, can I call a friend? Do I get a lifeline?
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, yeah. Do I get a lifeline to the hardcore conservative that works for Trump across me? And then she even comments like, well, they know more about this than a governor would know.
Senator Ted Cruz
And by the way, the. They. She's also talking about aoc. That, that after AOC is like, what is this Taiwan thing of which you speak?
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, yeah. Where is Taiwan? Yeah.
Senator Ted Cruz
And then Gretchen Whitmer is asked, okay, Ukraine. Ukraine. What is. I know. No, Ukraine. I'm sorry, who. Who Ukraine. What? What. What's that?
Ben Ferguson
It's a Bill Clinton joke, right? I've never met her. I don't know her. I haven't. I know nothing about her. Right. Ukraine. I've. I don't have no idea.
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, you know, I'm waiting for them. You know, I did not have relations with that country. Like, like, that's exactly. You know, it's interesting. There was on Fox News Digital by David Marcus, who writes for them that I actually thought was a very interesting article. I retweeted it this week, I read it and I just thought it was interesting. It was Democrats Munich Meltdown Exposes Left's intellectual void AOC's cringe inducing word salad on world stage should embarrass old school liberals. I want to read a little bit of it because I thought he made very good points. When I was growing up in the 1980s, there was a galaxy of left wing, even socialist intellectual stars such as Noam Chomsky, Michael Foucault and Gore Vidal, whose works were like an ink well that politicians and commentators could draw from. Judging from the Munich Security Conference this weekend, that inkwell has run dry. Take this gem of a comment on Global Order from aoc, Queen of the Democratic Socialists Quote what we are seeking is a return to a rules based order that eliminates the hypocrisies around when too often in the west we look the other way for inconvenient populations to act out these paradoxes. Huh? Allow me to translate this into English. I'm returning to Marcus's column. Quote yeah, the west is bad and mistreats the marginalized rest of the world. The use of 25 cent words and highfalutin sentence structure cannot hide the banality of what AOC is saying. Not even the assuring allure of assonance would help given the asinine simplicity of her word salad. Not to be outdone, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, after apologizing for being less well versed in foreign policy than AOC offered this take on the war in Ukraine. Ukraine's independence, keeping their landmass, I mean the support of all allies I think is the goal. From my vantage point there is just nothing here but empty words that paint a picture of the facile progressive worldview, completely divorced not only from reality on the ground, but from any sound intellectual framework whatsoever. The American right has a core of intellectuals, from Christopher Rufo, who we've we've had on this show on Verdict, to Victor Davis Hansen, who's a good friend, to Mark Dubovitz, who's another good friend, and on and on, who can be referred to or drawn on in policy debates both foreign and domestic. In fact, about a decade ago we had intellectual dark web phenomenon with figures like Jordan Peterson and Barry Weiss, who are broadly seen, if not as conservative, as right leaning, who are their counterparts on the far left. Who is the contemporary socialist intellectual who AOC could have referenced to support her claim that what is needed is massive global redistribution of wealth. I would posit that outside of the very narrow corridors of race and gender, such far left public intellectuals no longer exist. And for two very important reasons. The most obvious cause for the current dearth of popular far left socialist intellectuals is the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. At least for the next two decades. The game was up, the experiment had failed, and nobody wanted to be called a socialist. The second reason is that what took the place of outright socialism was the cultural Marxism, specifically in the form of critical race theory. And essentially they've replaced their foreign policy with just all about race and gender and identity politics. And I got to say, this is a dangerous world. By the way, neither of those questions are easy. Let's take Taiwan. Taiwan is China. Taiwan is the single most likely place for a major powers conflict on the face of the earth.
Ben Ferguson
Yeah.
Senator Ted Cruz
The biggest surprise I have from Joe Biden's presidency is that China did not invade Taiwan in the final year of Biden's presidency because Biden would have done nothing. Biden would have been utterly impotent. And I can only assume that she was concerned about the prospects of success. He didn't want to fail and so he didn't make the move. I do not believe China will make a move on Taiwan while Trump is president for the very simple reason that I think Xi is afraid of Trump.
Ben Ferguson
And Trump's been clear. He, he is a response president, like don't push me. Watch. And there's multiple examples of that. That's why his foreign policy is so effective.
Senator Ted Cruz
And listen, in terms of what the US military response would be to an invasion of Taiwan, it has been US policy for a long time to have some degree of measured ambiguity. We will defend Taiwan, but we haven't specified precisely how. Yep. Back in 2019, I traveled to Asia and I went, went first to Pearl harbor and then I went to Japan and Taiwan and Hong Kong and India and, and that was designed to be a friends and ally tour all surrounding China and discussing with, with, with heads of state and, and cabinet members. A question I posed, I posed at the time the Japanese Prime Minister, Abe, who sadly is no longer with us. But, but I posed to him, I said, what would Japan do if China moved militarily on Taiwan and made an amphibious landing? And I gotta say, the blood drained from his face. He did not like that question. He did a lot better than aoc. It wasn't that he had nothing to say, it's just that their ability to repel that militarily, I think is less than is ideal. The single best way to deal with it is to deter it in the first place which AOC kind of stumbled to at the end. But, but look in, in national security parlance the, the doctrine is called making Taiwan a porcupine. Making it so difficult to, to capture that you prevent China from engaging. Because, and I've been through and studied the war games where, where China moves on Taiwan, the US responds militarily. There are lots of scenarios where that escalates into a really, really ugly shooting war. And, and so, so no one in their right mind wants to see that happen. Which is part of why the US makes clear look, if you move on, on Taiwan you could very well see a, a serious US military response. That's part of deterrence. Another part of deterrence is providing Taiwan the weapons, the missiles and landmines and everything that, that, that makes it difficult for an amphibious landing to be quick and successful. Everything I just said, I promise you AOC has no idea about any of that.
Ben Ferguson
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Hagar (Israeli Journalist)
My name is Hagar, I'm from Israel. I'm a journalist for Haaretz and my question is for Congresswoman Ocasio Cortez. I wanted to know if you think that the Democratic presidential candidate in the 2028 elections should reevaluate military aid to Israel. I mean to me this isn't Just about a presidential election. Personally, I think that the United States has an obligation to uphold its own laws, particularly leakey laws. And I think that personally that the idea of completely unconditional aid, no matter what one does, does not make sense. I think it enabled a genocide in Gaza and I think that we have thousands of women and children dead that don't, that was completely avoidable. And so I believe that enforcement of our own laws through the Lehi laws, which requires conditioning aid in any circumstance, when you see gross human rights violations is appropriate.
Ben Ferguson
Senator, I'll let you take it from there because that one, honestly, when I saw it I was like, wow.
Senator Ted Cruz
So look, AOC is a founding member of the squad, she is a hardcore leftist. And, and, and if you really want to translate what she's saying, she's saying, listen, I'm a Marxist and I hate Israel because on the left we hate Israel because Israel we think is a colonialist oppressor. The Marxists divide the world in into two groups, oppressors and victims. And in AOC's world, Israel is an oppressor and the Palestinians are the victims. And, and once you fall into that framework for today's lefter leftist, you support the violent revolutionary overthrow by the so called victims of the so called oppressors. Now, she threw out the claim that, that Israel has committed a genocide in Gaza. That is a total lie. But, but I will say there's a particular irony for an American to go to Germany where an actual genocide occurred, where The Nazis exterminated 6 million Jews in concentration camps, where they committed human experiments and torture, that remains the most concentrated evil humanity has ever seen. And for her to say it blithely with no acknowledgment of that, it is ideology over truth. That that answer is grotesque, what AOC just said there. And I will point out on the claim of genocide, you know, it's interesting, do you know who just recently contradicted that?
Ben Ferguson
Who's that?
Senator Ted Cruz
Hamas.
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, Hamas.
Senator Ted Cruz
Hamas just publicly said that they are providing aid to over 50,000 widows of Hamas terrorists. Now mind you, the narrative is that Israel was killing innocent women and children. The death toll varies, but it is somewhere between 60 and 70,000. So Hamas is admitting 80% of the people killed were Hamas terrorists because they're giving money to the widows. Sorry, you killed our terrorists, we're going to give you money.
Ben Ferguson
Yeah.
Senator Ted Cruz
AOC of course doesn't acknowledge that at all. Because ideology. Israel will always be bad. America will always be bad. Capitalist will always be bad. Anglos will Always be bad. And, and if you have clear queer Islamists, transgender witches, that may be the like height of, of virtue in the world. You know that. And you know, the amazing thing is I actually think AOC is one of two frontrunners for the Democrat nomination in 20. In 2028. I think it is Gavin Newsom. And as you see, Newsom probably is, is marginally ahead right now. But aoc, she is the ID of the Democrat Party and it is not short for idiot, but, but, but it is. She is the like raw anger.
Ben Ferguson
She's the Donnie nationally right now.
Senator Ted Cruz
And by the way, let's. Since, since this, this podcast, we make lots of predictions.
Ben Ferguson
I have said this is my favorite part of the show, by the way, when you say you're about to make a prediction. Because if we keeping records, you've been pretty, you've been, you've been getting on the All Star team every season. So keep going. I'm ready.
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, we tend to do at the end of the year, we go through the predictions that we made on this podcast and we have an incredibly high. I think we're north of 80% of being accurate. I've said before that the inaugural member of the AOC for President committee will be Chuck Schumer, because Schumer is terrified of AOC primary him from the left that I said before. So that's not a new prediction. Here's my second prediction. Here's the prediction, though. If Schumer succeeds and gets AOC to run for president, he says, alexander, you're much too important to be a measly little senator. You need to be in the Oval Office with every ologenius ooze he can tell her, here's my prediction. If AOC runs for president, Mondame is going to run for Senate against Chuck Schumer.
Ben Ferguson
I think that's a brilliant prediction.
Senator Ted Cruz
And by the way, brilliant if that happens. I think the odds are greater than 50%. Schumer decides not to run. That Madame announced. Schumer may look at it for a little while and then he's like, and he is a political animal. And, and, but I don't think Schumer can win. I don't think Schumer can beat AOC in a primary. And I don't think Schumer can beat Mondami in a primary.
Ben Ferguson
And Schumer, by the way, doesn't want his legacy to be Cuomo. Right? Where all of a sudden you go from this big grand job you had for a long time to all of a sudden you just flame out at the end and people look at you as kind of like a disgrace. Oh yeah, that guy didn't know when to leave. I think has has is somewhat like Nancy Pelosi, where they want to feel like they go out on top.
Senator Ted Cruz
Sure, you want to go out on top. By the way, speaking of flaming, it is interesting that Barack Obama decided to flame Donald Trump and ICE and everyone else. I don't know, I guess he's sitting there resting on his hundreds of millions of dollars and just getting angry and decided he wanted to take some swings.
Ben Ferguson
So this is interesting. And this is where I've been saying this a lot over and over again, especially in tv. The Democratic Party as a whole is anti law enforcement. It's not just the AOCs of the party. A perfect example of this being part of their platform center is Barack Obama doing a podcast this week. And he is, I would argue, blessing the democratic movement. Right. The Marxist, socialist and communists. You've got my blessing. I'm probably one of the biggest names in the Democratic Party, if not the biggest name of the elder statesman. Now that people listen to, I'm giving my blessing that you can attack ICE agents now. And this is a platform of the dnc.
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, absolutely. Here, let's give a listen to what he had to say.
Barack Obama
The rogue behavior of agents of the federal government is deeply concerning and dangerous. The sort of behavior that, you know, in the past we've seen in authoritarian countries and we've seen in dictatorships, but we have not seen in America.
Ben Ferguson
I mean, you're calling ICE agents who are just enforcing the law rogue agents. That. That is from a former eight year president, the leader of the Democratic Party, still.
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, no, that is exactly right. By the way, that same message was conveyed by Gavin Newsom in Munich. Give a listen to Gavin Newsom. We'll talk about these two together. But I want to remember all those images of masked men, the secret police, something familiar in Germany. Those first images came out of my state, the second largest city in the United States of America. We saw 4,000 National Guard federalized, first time. We'd never seen anything like this. And 700 active duty Marines sent not overseas, but to the second largest city in the United States of America, militarizing the streets of my city. Masked men. Masked men showing up unaccountable.
Ben Ferguson
Let's be very clear, Senator, that is Gavin Newsom comparing American law enforcement to Nazis.
Senator Ted Cruz
Yep, yep. Which. Which by the way, is what Obama was doing too, by the way. Just like AOC and Whitmer Newsom is apparently thoroughly historically illiterate. He said, we've never seen National Guards federalized in the states. I guess his history book does not discuss the civil rights movement. He's never heard of a president named Dwight D. Eisenhower. He's never heard of sending the National Guard into Southern states. When Democrats who refused to desegregate schools resisted, Eisenhower sent the National Guard in. The pattern is the same. In this instance. You have Democrats who are saying, we refuse to comply with federal immigration law. Then you had, in the 50s and 60s, you had Democrats saying, we refused to comply with civil rights law. In both instances, it is lawless Democrats attacking law enforcement. You know, Gavin Newsom is proudly following the tradition of Bull Connor, another Democrat politician. The demonizing of law enforcement is. Is central to who they are, central to who the party is. And now I want you to listen to Barack Obama in this podcast because he does a judo move that. That is classic Barack Obama. Give a listen.
Barack Obama
The other side does the mean angry demagoguery. You know, exclusive us them, you know, divisive politics. That's their. That's. That's their home court. Yeah, our court is coming together. Our court is, look, you know, a great example. Wasn't political. Bad Bunnies halftime show.
Senator Ted Cruz
I knew you were going to say that.
Barack Obama
Well, it was. It resonated. It was smart because it wasn't preaching. It was showing. It was demonstrating and displaying. This is what a community is.
Ben Ferguson
By the way, I love that he's just admitting there, yes, this is a smart political move to have a political statement at the super bowl during halftime. He's admitting what we were saying, that it was a political decision. And he's like, it's a brilliant political operative move for the NFL to do this.
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, look, I mentioned that what Obama was doing there is judo, and judo is. Is. Is flipping and using your opponent's weight against you, against them. But, but it, but it is also. It is classic Orwellian. It is accusing the other side of doing what you are doing. Barack Obama, I think in any fair history, he will not go down in history as this because most historians are leftists, so they will. They will carve him into Mount Rushmore. But, but, but if you were fairly assessing his legacy, he is one of the most bitterly partisan leaders our country has ever had. And I think much of the, the rage, the anger we have of the two sides screaming at each other finds its origins in the Obama presidency. And I gotta say, I. My principal reaction to that is one of regret of the Lost opportunity. Listen, Barack Obama was elected as the first African American president ever. For a country that for a century plus had slavery. To elect a black president was a big damn deal. And Obama was given by history the opportunity to. To be what he claimed to be, to be coming together, to be a healing president. And he chose just the opposite. He chose. He. He chose to just rub salt in the racial wounds, to divide. If you remember early on the beer summit he had where he demonized law enforcement right at the beginning of his presidency, you remember he described people in small towns in America as, quote, bitter and angry and clinging to their God and their guns. And you remember Michelle Obama saying that when Barack Obama was elected president was the first time she'd ever be in America. Country. Yeah, like it is. And if you look at the fruit. Listen, I believe that Barack Obama fundamentally is a Marxist. He was just a few years ahead of me at Harvard Law School. We did not overlap. But I think he is steeped in cultural Marxism. Now, when he was president, he was not vocal about all of that because the country at the time was not ready for it. But. But I think AOC is the spiritual grandchild of Barack Obama. I think Mondami is the spiritual grandchild of Barack Obama. And as you and I have talked about on the POD before, during the Biden presidency, maybe the most frequent question I got asked is, who is running things?
Ben Ferguson
Yeah.
Senator Ted Cruz
And the really terrifying answer, I don't, in fact, know. Yeah, I know it wasn't Joe Biden. He did not have the capacity to make decisions. Everyone knew that. The Democrats all knew that. Everyone knew that. The press knew that. They just didn't report on it. I don't know. But my theory is the person who was running things is the guy who we just played. I think Barack Obama was the grand puppet master. He had a bunch of young apparatchiks who are little, little Marxists that were his former staffers in the White House. And the open borders, we saw that was Barack Obama's intention. The radical dei, the demonization of law enforcement, all of that is the fruits of Obama, by the way. The disastrous foreign policy, the embrace of Iran.
Ben Ferguson
Iran sending cash on pallets, literally.
Senator Ted Cruz
And listen, Obama sent $1.7 billion of cash on pallets and planes in the middle of the night. Joe Biden said hold my beer and flowed $100 billion to Iran. Now, when I say Joe Biden said it, really, the person who said hold my beer was Barack Obama. He said, now I'm just really going to do it using using the puppet Biden. But, but for him to accuse Republicans, the bitterness Obama has shown over and over and over again as he's using rhetoric. You know, he's just demonized ICE and called them. Called federal law enforcement agents, totalitarian agents. And then he says, gosh, it's the other side that's mean, not like us. And actually, the word that I love that he says in that little clip is exclusionary. The right is exclusionary, and that's such a total lie. It is the left that is vicious. You must believe in exactly their orthodoxy or you are excommunicated. Look at, look at J.K. rowling. J.K. rowling, who by any measure is politically on the left, but she has this crazy view that, that women exist and that to the intolerant leftist is unacceptable and she must be canceled. And you look at all of these Hollywood ninnies who were in the Harry Potter movies who won't associate with her. She literally made all of their careers.
Ben Ferguson
She made them.
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah. She literally made millions of dollars from when they were children. And they are too. Their virtue is too great to be seen in the same room. And by the way, Barack Obama, in addition to being a hardcore leftist, and I think much of his worldview is actually anti colonialist. If you look at. It's why he, he hates Israel, because he views Israel as a colonial power. And it's why fundamentally, he doesn't believe American power is legitimate. You know, he was asked as president, do you believe in American exceptionalism? He says, sure, I do. Just like the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism and the British believe in British exceptionalism. Which is to say, no, he does not. Because American exceptionalism is recognizing there's something unique and extraordinary in the United States of America. There's never been a nation in the history of mankind that has been a greater force for good on planet Earth than the United States of America. And lightning would strike Barack Obama before he could utter that sentence.
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, you're absolutely right there. All right, lastly, before we wrap, Senator, I just think it's time for us to just say we told the left, so we told everybody this was going to be government work. No doubt about the sewage problem pouring into the Potomac. Don't worry, it's going to be around for what, another nine months is what they're saying now.
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, we covered on the last pod how over a billion gallons of sewage, the largest spill of wastewater in American history, is happening in D.C. and Maryland into the Potomac River. Democrats are really bad at government. They want government to be the answer of everything. But they can't run a hot dog stand. Well, DC Water says it will now take another nine months. Nine months to fix the sewer pipe. That's just staggering. If anyone were remotely competent, you would fix it in days, not in nine months. But you've got Democrats in charge, so nine months. They will continue spewing human refuse into the water. And the amazing thing is the Potomac is going right by the mansions in Georgetown where you have all the liberal lobbyists. And so they will. They will get a reminder every day of just how ineffective Democrats are at running stuff.
Ben Ferguson
No doubt about it. Don't forget, we do this podcast Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Hit that subscribe or Auto Download button. You can also tell Siri or Alexa play Verdict with Ted Cruz. And if you want to watch the show, you can do it on YouTube or Facebook as well. And the Senator and I will see you back here on Wednesday morning.
Senator Ted Cruz
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Podcast Summary: “Dem Presidential Candidates Crash & Burn on Foreign Policy, plus Obama goes on the Attack”
Podcast: Verdict with Ted Cruz
Date: February 16, 2026
Hosts: Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
In this episode, Senator Ted Cruz and co-host Ben Ferguson dissect recent foreign policy blunders by three leading Democratic presidential aspirants—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), Gretchen Whitmer, and Gavin Newsom—at the Munich Security Conference. They also react to Barack Obama’s return to the political fray, specifically his sharp criticism of law enforcement and his alleged influence on Democratic Party direction. The episode rounds off with a biting update about a government sewage mishap in the Potomac River.
The episode maintains a sardonic, sometimes combative, overtly partisan conservative tone. Cruz and Ferguson punctuate analysis with jokes and pop culture references, painting Democrats as unprepared and ideologically rigid, while advocating for conservative positions and leadership. Their language is pointed and sometimes mocking, especially regarding Democratic missteps, with Cruz delving into policy history and making bold predictions.
This episode delivers an unfiltered conservative critique of Democratic foreign policy acumen and party leadership, arguing that ideological dogma and intellectual decline have left the left floundering on the world stage. The show also underscores what it views as the Democratic Party’s antagonism toward law enforcement and governmental incompetence, while asserting that the direction of the party is deeply influenced by Barack Obama’s legacy. The episode is peppered with memorable one-liners and biting analysis, offering fodder for listeners seeking a right-of-center perspective on current politics.