Oil Means National Security, Rep. Jim Jordan vs Jack Smith & Crime Crashes Coast‑to‑Coast Week In Review

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Oil Means National Security, Rep. Jim Jordan vs Jack Smith & Crime Crashes Coast‑to‑Coast – Week In Review"

Podcast: Verdict with Ted Cruz
Hosts: Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
Episode Date: January 24, 2026
Main Theme:
This week’s episode dives into three pressing issues: the critical role of oil and energy independence in U.S. national security, the contentious congressional questioning of Special Counsel Jack Smith by Rep. Jim Jordan, and the dramatic drop in crime rates across the country under President Trump’s administration.

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1. Energy Independence and National Security

Discussion Points:

• Oil Prices & National Security:
  Ben Ferguson recounts a recent dinner with oil executives and a White House official, highlighting frustration among producers over lower oil prices, contrasted with the administration’s focus on energy independence as a strategic geopolitical tool.
  • “Our energy independence policy is also a national security policy. Because when you take away the money...to the leadership in Iran, to Vladimir Putin in Russia, Venezuela is another example...that money...completely disappears.” — Ben Ferguson (01:13)
• Balancing Act:
  Senator Cruz discusses the Trump administration’s balancing of U.S. oil prices to hurt adversaries while protecting domestic producers.
  • “There's a balance because from a US national security interest...oil and gas and energy are powerful weapons against our enemies and to buttress America.” — Ted Cruz (03:39)
  • Cruz warns that prices falling below certain thresholds (e.g., $40/barrel) would devastate smaller U.S. producers, especially in Texas’ Permian Basin, weakening America’s ability to produce oil and increasing dependence on adversaries.
• Impact on Adversaries:
  The hosts emphasize that oil revenue is a lifeline for “petro tyrants” like Putin, Maduro, and the Iranian regime, so American oil abundance undermines their power.
• Venezuela’s Oil Infrastructure:
  Cruz shares insights from conversations with oil CEOs on Venezuela’s diminished oil output due to collapsed infrastructure and mismanagement under communism, noting it would take 5–10 years and over $100 billion to restore substantial Venezuelan production.
  • “Venezuela right now is producing about a million barrels a day, which is a fraction of what their capacity is...I said okay, what would the time frame be to take Venezuela from 1 million barrels a day to 3 million barrels a day? ...the response was 10 years.” — Ted Cruz (07:07)
• Refining Capacity:
  U.S. Gulf Coast refineries are uniquely suited to handle Venezuelan “heavy sour crude,” and an influx of such oil would have more impact on Canadian and Mexican producers than Texans.
• Cuba’s Vulnerability:
  Cruz gives a personal and historical account of communism in Cuba, detailing the collapse of Cuban and Venezuelan lifelines and the regime’s current economic fragility, now largely sustained by Mexican oil. He suggests U.S. pressure on Mexico to cut this support could destabilize the Cuban regime further.
  • “If you look at the history of Cuba...for decades, Cuba was effectively a satellite state of the Soviet Union...Now with Venezuela no longer sending oil...and the Cuban economy is in freefall...My hope is the Trump administration is going to lean on Mexico to stop that oil going to Cuba.” — Ted Cruz (12:46–13:56)

Notable Quotes:

• “God has a sense of humor and that many of the worst players on planet earth depend upon oil revenues. They're in many ways petro tyrants.” — Ted Cruz (03:11)
• “Communism is a great way to destroy jobs and make your people incredibly poor.” — Ted Cruz (11:51)

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2. Rep. Jim Jordan vs Jack Smith – Accountability & Power

Key Segment: 16:57–26:10

Discussion Points:

• Jack Smith in Congress:
  Ted Cruz frames Special Counsel Jack Smith's prosecution of Donald Trump as a “historic abuse of power,” suggesting it was far graver than the Nixon administration’s Watergate scandal.
  • “Jack Smith was the point of the spear on the greatest abuse of power we have seen in modern times.” — Ted Cruz (16:57)
• Jordan’s Line of Questioning (With Audio):
  Highlights from Rep. Jim Jordan’s interrogation of Jack Smith include the grilling over reliance on Cassidy Hutchinson’s disputed testimony in the January 6th investigation. Jordan presses Smith on whether he would rely on obviously uncorroborated and hearsay evidence, exposing weaknesses in the investigation.
  • “Did you ever confirm the President leaping across the seat, grabbing the steering wheel...do you ever confirm that?” — Jim Jordan (21:03)
  • “We interviewed a...another firsthand witness who was in the car who did not confirm that happened.” — Jack Smith (21:07)
• Cassidy Hutchinson’s Credibility:
  Cruz shares that Hutchinson was a past intern in his office but states he has no memory of her, and ridicules her description of a fictional exchange involving him in her book as evidence of her unreliability.
  • “It was an exchange that she said occurred after she went to the White House...that is truly fantastic because it never occurred.” — Ted Cruz (25:03)
  • “It speaks volumes that both Jack Smith and the Democrats...were perfectly happy to rely upon a fabulist whom they knew was not telling the truth.” — Ted Cruz (26:04)

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Memorable Moments:

• “[Jim Jordan]: And that’s the point...The fact that they used her in a primetime hearing and you won’t rule out using her...when everybody knows she wasn’t telling the truth, that says it all.” (22:47)

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3. Crime Rate Plummets Across America

Key Segment: 27:49–33:03

Discussion Points:

• Historic Drop in Murder Rate:
  The discussion presents recent statistics showing a roughly 20% nationwide decrease in murder rates year-over-year, credited to Trump-era law enforcement policies including National Guard deployment, increased arrests of violent criminals and gang members, and deportations.
  • “If you look at January through October of 2025...5912 murders were recorded in the US. In that same time period in 2024, 7369 murders were recorded. In other words, there are about 1400 people alive who were not murdered because of common sense law and order policies.” — Ted Cruz (28:33)
• City-by-City Breakdown:
  Major crime reductions in major metros: Chicago (-30%), New York City (-20%), Baltimore (-31%), Oakland (-33%), among others.
  • “Birmingham, Alabama, it dropped 49%. Albuquerque, New Mexico, it dropped 32%. Atlanta, Georgia, 26%...” — Ted Cruz (29:38)
• Other Crime Trends:
  • Motor vehicle theft down 25%
  • Robberies down 18%
  • Aggravated assault down 8%
• Media Treatment:
  The hosts criticize mainstream media for allegedly minimalizing these statistics and refusing to credit Trump administration policies:
  • “Axios wrote the first story...has fallen, but they say, well, it’s unclear that this has anything to do with Donald Trump...It is a level of dishonesty that is incredible.” — Ted Cruz (29:55)
• Law Enforcement Achievements:
  • Violent crime arrests up 100%
  • Disruption of gangs and criminal enterprises up 210%
  • Fentanyl seizures up 31% (enough to kill 130 million Americans)
  • Child predator and human trafficking arrests up
  • Four of FBI’s “top ten most wanted” captured (matching all four years under Biden)

Notable Quotes:

• “In one year, [they] captured as many on the top 10 list as Biden did in four years. The media want to say this drop in the murder rate...just happened magically. It’s probably due to global warming or something.” — Ted Cruz (32:10)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Oil & National Security: 00:49–14:59
• Jack Smith & Jim Jordan Hearing: 16:57–26:10
• Crime Rate Drop: 27:49–33:03

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Overall Takeaway

This "Week in Review" episode presents the hosts’ viewpoint that U.S. energy independence is a critical tool for weakening adversaries, discusses perceived politicization in federal prosecutions, and trumpets significant falls in national crime rates as proof of effective Trump administration policy—while criticizing the media for failing to report these topics fairly. Stories are colored by personal anecdotes, direct quotes from recent testimony, and a tone that blends humor with sharp political critique.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

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[B]

It is verdict with Ted Cruz, Weekend Review, Ben Ferguson with you. And here are some of the big stories that we talked about this week that you may have missed. First up, we oil. Is it a issue of national security? Well, President Trump is dealing with that exact issue and oil executives are also breaking it down. We had a very interesting conversation with some of those oil executives and we're going to explain to you exactly what they say about that issue and energy independence. Also, Jim Jordan goes up against Jack Smith, you remember Jack Smith, the special prosecutor that tried to overthrow the will of the people and get rid of Donald Trump. Well, now he's having to answer for exactly what he did. And it's truly unbelievable. And finally, the media not talking about the most amazing part of all. In the first year of Donald Trump's presidency, the crime stats nationwide have come down drastically, literally saving people's lives. So why is the media not talking about it? We'll give you those stats and explain it all. It's the Weekend review and it starts right now. There is I had, I had dinner the other night with some, some oil executives and they were frustrated a little bit because the price of oil has come down. And one of the people at the table was also White House. And they said, what you don't understand is that our energy independence policy is also a national security policy. Because when you take away the money, that is to the leadership in Iran, to Vladimir Putin in Russia, Venezuela is another example of this. Right. Then what you the money that they need to survive and to hold on to power and to pay their forces to keep them in power and to go after their citizens just completely disappears. That is part of, I think, what Donald Trump and It was very interesting to hear this kind of back and forth. It was like, hey, I'm sorry that the price of per barrel is not where you want it but it's helping American families to lower gas prices and it's a national security thing for us as well. And it's allowing some of these, these horrible people in the world to start teetering a little bit because they don't have the cash flow they had two, three, four years ago under Democratic leadership.

[C]

I think that's right. There's also a balance that President Trump and the Trump administration are trying to strike which is we've seen the price of oil drop dramatically from, from 100 bucks a barrel to down just around 60 bucks a barrel, a little bit lower. That has weakened almost every bad guy in the world. That is weakened Russia, that is weakened Iran, that is weakened Venezuela and Maduro because it is, I guess God has a sense of humor and that many of the worst players on planet earth depend upon oil revenues. They're in many ways petro tyrants. Now Maduro's not Maduro is inmate number two, five, seven, whatever.

[B]

But he used to hanging out with Pete Iddy.

[C]

Yeah, but I'll say this, look, there is a balance because from a US national security interest. Look, oil and gas and energy are powerful weapons against our enemies and to buttress America.

[D]

But you don't want to slash the.

[C]

Price of oil so dramatically that you devastate US producers. And as you know, I talk to, I represent Texas, I talk to a lot of US producers and I will say at down around 60, $70 a barrel, you see what we've got now which is gas prices at about 2, 3 bucks a gallon depending on what part of the country you're in. Now if you're in California, there's still four or five buc a gallon.

[B]

But that's, that's on you for living in California, voting for those nut jobs.

[C]

But yeah, that's Gavin Newsom of the Democrats fault. But, but here, here in Texas you.

[D]

Fill up your tank, it's you know.

[C]

Somewhere between two and three bucks typically is what you're paying right now. I think that's a sweet spot is 60 to $70 where it lowers under Biden, when we had $100 oil you were seeing four or five, six, seven dollar a gallon a gasoline that really hurts consumers.

[B]

Yeah, crushing, crushing middle and lower class families even more than anybody else.

[C]

I will say this, if you see oil prices plummet, so let's say they drop from the 60s down to say the 40s or below.

[B]

It hurts a lot of people.

[C]

That's when it starts doing real damage, in particular to the independent producers, the small guys in West Texas and the Permian. That's when you see drilling basically stop. And by the way, the majors will be fine. The ExxonMobils, the Chevrons. I mean, look, those are companies that literally have more revenue and assets than most countries on planet Earth. They're that massive. So the majors will survive a drop. But what happens if we see $40 oil? You'll see bankruptcy, bankruptcies throughout the Permian Basin of the small producers. And when those guys go away, those are the guys driving production. And what it does is it weakens America's ability to produce oil and makes us more dependent on foreign adversaries. So I think what President Trump and the administration is trying to do is stay in a sweet spot where oil is low enough that our enemies are weakened, but not so low that we're devastating U.S. small businesses. And I think they're doing a pretty good job of trying to balance those two factors.

[B]

Well, I was talking to some. Some small refineries, and that was exactly their concern center was, hey, these small refineries that keep these small towns going, that employ a lot of people, they want to make sure that they're okay as well. And like you said, that's where this administration kind of has to weigh both. Both ends of this. Because you don't want to hurt mom and Pops, you don't want to hurt the small ones. Like you said, the big ones will be okay. But these small refineries that literally power these small towns where they are, you don't want them to get hurt either.

[C]

Yeah. And look, in the last several weeks, with everything happening in Iran, everything happening in Venezuela, I've been reaching out to energy leaders, primarily in Texas. So I've had conversations with the CEO of Chevron and the CEO of Valero, the biggest refiner in America. And I've had conversations with a number of smaller E and P exploration and production independents in West Texas, and they've expressed optimism. Number one, in terms of Venezuela. Venezuela, as we've talked about, has the highest proven reserves of oil in the world. No country has more.

[D]

But the Venezuelan infrastructure has completely collapsed.

[C]

Communism is not capable of producing what they should. And so Venezuela right now is producing about a million barrels a day, which is a fraction of what their capacity is. I will say. I asked one of the major CEOs, I said, okay, what would the time frame be to take Venezuela from 1 million barrels a day to 3 million barrels a day. And the response was 10 years that it doesn't happen over like it would tens of billions of dollars of investment.

[D]

And perhaps north of $100 billion.

[C]

Now you would recoup that. But the infrastructure has so degraded. And I said, all right, so 10 years to go from 1 million a day to 3 million a day. How about just from 1 to 2? And the answer was five to seven years. So the first million, you add a structure. It's an infrastructure.

[B]

It's just straight up infrastructure. Right, right.

[C]

And you could keep going up from there. I also am talking to refiners. So Venezuela produces what is called heavy sour crude, which is a different sort of crude than in West Texas. They produce what's called light sweet crude. You refine them very, very differently. Now, it so happens that the refineries that were built to handle heavy sour crude are along the Gulf coast. They're in Texas and Louisiana. And so we've got the capacity. I've been told that the Gulf coast refineries could almost overnight refine an additional 250,000 barrels of the heavy crude from Venezuela. Now, interestingly enough, when I've asked the refiners, okay, what would the trade off be? What would the impact be say for West Texas producers? Yeah, the refiners at least were not that concerned about it. And they said, look, the other producers of heavy crude are Canada. And so the tar sands in Alberta. And I said, look, more Venezuelan crude would impact Canada and actually Mexico. Mexico also produces similar crude to what Venezuela and Canada produce. And so that in terms of the impact, those are the trade offs. And that's the kind of decision making the Trump administration is engaged in right now.

[B]

I want to ask you one final question before we wrap here. We talked a lot about Venezuela in the last couple of shows. We kind of know the state of play there. We've talked a lot about Iran today. Can you give us, for everyone listening, just a quick update on what's happening in Cuba. We've mentioned it several times of, of how things could be teetering there. Give a little bit of an update for people that they understand what's happening on the ground there as we wrap things up.

[C]

So look, the Cuban regime has been a communist dictatorship since 1959. As you know, that for me is not some abstract statement because my family was directly involved in it. My dad was a kid. He was 14 when he began fighting in the Cuban Revolution. And to this day, my dad turns 87 in March and he Told me, he said, look, the revolution, he said it was 14 and 15 year old boys who he said were too stupid to know any better. And, and, and as you know, you know my dad well. But, but when I, when I want to give my father grief, I'll call my dad a communist gorilla. He gets very mad.

[B]

I have a feeling that. So during game night when you guys are playing games, I just, I feel like that's when that's going to get used the most.

[C]

Yeah. And he will say, I was not a communist, I was never a communist. He was a kid. And they were fighting against Batista who was, who was a dictator, he was corrupt. And, and Batista's thugs threw my father in prison and they tortured him. And, and so when my dad came to America, he was fleeing Batista and he came to Texas at 18 with nothing and he couldn't speak English. He came seeking freedom. His younger sister is my Thea Sonia. And my Thea Sonia, I adore my Thea Sonia. I call her my Tia Loca. She's my crazy aunt. She is a fireball. She was there in 59 when Castro took over. And the young people, the Cubans didn't realize Castro was a communist. They just thought it was a people's revolution against Batista. He took over, declared he was a communist, he began firing squads, he began executing anyone who disagreed with him. He began seizing people's lands. And my Theasonia fought in the counter revolution. She was, there were, there was a whole counter revolution of the people trying to fight back. And my Thesauna ended up being thrown in prison and tortured by Castro's goons. So, so I take it very personally when it comes to communism, it strikes very close to home. If you look at the history of Cuba starting early on from when Castro took over and made Cuba a communist dictatorship. For decades, Cuba was effectively a satellite state of the Soviet Union. Remember the whole Cuban Missile crisis under JFK and the Soviets provided them a financial lifeline. Look, if you're a communist, you destroy the economy. That happens all across the world. Communism is a great way to destroy jobs and make your people incredibly poor. Cuba went from. It was the number one sugar producer in all of Latin America. They just destroyed the sugar industry and everything else and brought massive poverty to Cuba. They survived because the Soviet Union sent them money and they sent them money because the Soviets wanted a military satellite just 90 miles off the coast of America. Now when we won the Cold War, when the Soviet Union collapsed, suddenly that financial lifeline disappeared. And what Happened was Venezuela stepped into the breach and you had Hugo Chavez and then later Maduro, both communist dictators who destroyed the economy in Venezuela just like Castro had in Cuba. Chavez and Maduro did the same thing in Venezuela. And Venezuela had a corrupt bargain where they would send oil, which they had a ton of, and they would send money, which they had a lot of, in exchange for selling the oil. And what they would get back is enforcers and thugs. There was a reason Maduro's entire protection detail were Cuban guards. And, you know, in the article I just read, it talked about how one of the reasons is Maduro didn't trust Venezuelans because he was such a terrible leader that he was afraid Venezuelans would turn on him, which is why he used Cuban enforcers instead. Well, with Venezuela, with Maduro having been arrested, no longer in power, Venezuela is no longer sending oil and no longer sending money to Cuba. And the Cuban economy is in freefall, just like the Iranian economy is in free fall. The regime is incredibly precarious. And I'll tell you what's keeping it alive right now, which is Mexico is still sending oil to Cuba. And my hope is the Trump administration is going to lean on Mexico to stop that oil going to Cuba. I think that may be the single most important piece to nudge Cuba beyond the tipping point, much like Iran is. And I think the communist dictatorship is terrified that they will lose control. Now, the counterbalance to that is the Cuban regime has a massive oppressive machinery that has been in place for decades. And that machinery can be really brutal. And so I think the vulnerability right now is that when people face a collapsing economy, they get angry and, and they can turn on their leaders. And so I think the Trump administration, I think President Trump is encouraging that. But. But it is the economic factor more than anything that I think is, is. Is putting the regime in a massively fragile position.

[B]

Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week. 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 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, holistic support. More than just food, they receive critical medical care, life changing education, vital skills training and spiritual development, all in Jesus's 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. now on to story number two. All right, I want to get to another big story, Senator, and it deals with Jack Smith. He was in front of Congress. I would assume 90% of this audience does not know that he had to testify before Congress this week. Not because they're uninformed, because the media refuses to cover this. They think this is old news and just hashing out something that happened a long time ago so no one should care. I think we should remind people of why accountability is still so vitally important and what Jack Smith was a part of. Can you just give a quick synopsis to people so that people remember who is Jack Smith? What was he doing to abuse power and just how corrupt was his, quote, investigation To Donald Trump and others, Jack.

[D]

Smith was the point of the spear on the greatest abuse of power we have seen in modern times. And to put it in context, what Jack Smith did was orders of magnitude worse than what the Nixon administration did during Watergate. During Watergate, you had a couple of half rate burglars break into the headquarters of the dnc, the Democrat National Committee. In this instance, Jack Smith, what he did was orders of magnitude worth. He went directly after President Trump indicted him multiple times. He did so for a very explicit reason because he wanted to prevent the American people from re electing him. It was an effort directly to subvert democracy. It was the first time in the history of the United States that a president or former president has been indicted. Jack Smith did it twice. And then he also teamed up with his rogue Democrat local prosecutors to do it two more times. He also subpoenaed the phone records of roughly 20% of the Republicans in the Senate. In a fishing expedition, he targeted over 400 Republicans. It was a political persecution. If you're a fan of Les Mis, Jack Smith would make Javert blush. He was out of control and he continues to be brazen. And I will tell you, his testimony testified for the House of Representatives. It was a disaster. Jim Jordan, your friend and mine, he's been a guest on the verdict podcast before. Jim Jordan chaired the hearing. He opened the hearing by pointed out that the FBI when it raided Mar? A Lago, that it searched Melania's closet because apparently her clothing and underwear is a matter of national security, according to Jack Smith and the Biden doj. And it searched Barron Trump's bedroom because, you know, going after a teenager is really the best use for the Department of Justice. And I guess it is if you're willing to abuse your power. I want you to listen to Jim Jordan talking about Jack Smith at the hearing here. Give a listen.

[E]

Gentleman yields back. Mr. Smith, is Cassidy Hutchinson a liar? She was their star witness January 6th committee, their star witness in one of those staged and choreographed hearings they paid the former President of ABC News to put together. She was fact the only witness at this special prime time hearing, Tuesday, June 28, 2022, 8:00 in the evening. And she told some stories. I mean, these were, these were some stories she talked about present. Lunged across the back seat, grabbed the steering wheel, tried to drive the car to the Capitol. And I just want to know, you think she was lying, Chairman Jordan?

[F]

My assessment of that particular issue is that with respect to the testimony about someone lunge or the President lunging towards the driver, my recollection of her testimony about that is that it was secondhand. She had said she'd heard that from somebody.

[E]

You familiar with the name Tony Ornato?

[F]

I'm sorry?

[E]

You're familiar with the name Tony Hornado?

[F]

Yes.

[E]

White House Deputy Chief of Operations. Deputy chief of staff for operations. Right. You remember, you know, you remember what he said about it as I sit.

[F]

Here right now, I do not.

[E]

Yeah, he said it didn't happen. How about Bobby Engel? You familiar with that name?

[F]

Yes, I am.

[E]

Secret Service agent who was actually in the car that day? You know what he said? He said it didn't happen. And they both said the first time they ever heard this story was when Ms. Hutchinson testified in the primetime hearing as their star witness of the January 6th committee. By the way, did you ever confirm her testimony about this particular incident?

[F]

We conducted, as I said before, our own independent investigation of all aspects of the case that we thought was relevant, we attorneys from my office.

[E]

Did you ever confirm it? That's a simple question.

[F]

We interviewed her, I should say attorneys in my office.

[E]

Did you ever confirm the President leaping across the seat, grabbing the steering wheel, this whole concoction she brought up in the January 6th hearing, do you ever confirm that?

[D]

Right.

[F]

We interviewed a. Another firsthand witness who was in the car who did not confirm that happened.

[E]

But also your deposition to the committee last month, Mr. Smith, you said this. My recollection with Ms. Hutchinson was a number of the things that she gave evidence on were secondhand hearsay. You remember making that statement to us last month in the deposition?

[F]

I did. And I was referring particularly to what we're talking about now.

[E]

Yeah. And you also said Ms. Hutchinson, regarding this particular claim was a second or even third hand witness. We ask you, if you were a defense attorney, how would you handle cross examining her if she was on the witness stand? And you said, if I were a defense attorney, Ms. Hutchinson were a witness, the first thing I would do was seek to preclude her testimony because it was hearsay. You remember saying all that?

[F]

Yes, that's correct, sir.

[E]

That's correct. Right. We going to put her on the witness stand if you ever got to trial.

[F]

We had not made final determinations as to who we were going to call as a witness.

[E]

We had a large still considering her.

[F]

We had a large choice of witnesses in this case.

[E]

Are you familiar with what Washington Post reporters Carol Lennig and Aaron Davis said in their book? They did his book, 300 some pages book on Chronicle and the whole investigation of the Justice Department. And here's what they said on page 310. They said Jack Smith had wondered whether some of Hutchinson's claims might be relied upon at trial. Still, at one point, Smith told the elections team he wasn't ready to give up on Hutchinson's account. Ultimately, however, Trump administration officials uniformly, fiercely disputed her accounts under oath. Prosecutors on your team told Smith they wouldn't want to use Hutchinson as a witness in court, and Smith agreed. Are Carol Lening and Aaron Davis who wrote this, are they lying?

[F]

My recollection is that I certainly had not made any final determinations about who we were going to call.

[E]

And that's the point. That is the point. The fact that they used her in a primetime hearing and you won't rule out using her. Didn't rule out using her, putting her on the witness stand when everybody knows she wasn't telling the truth, that says it all. That's the degree the left and Democrats were willing to go to get President Trump putting on the witness stand. Someone everybody knows is making it up. Everybody knows that. And you were willing to do, by the way, you know how many times Cassie Hutchinson was mentioned in their report, the January 6th report? Any idea, Mr. Smith?

[F]

I do not.

[E]

185 times. Someone that the whole country knows wasn't telling the truth and you were still considering putting her on the witness stand because you had to get President Trump. And everybody can see that.

[B]

Senator, you listen to that line of Questioning. And that's just five minutes of pure facts and gold from Jim Jordan reminding people what they were trying to do on the left, even when they knew that things were being made up, that lies were being told. And this is no different than Russian collusion back in 16 when the FBI had already declared that they thought that the Steele dossier was, quote, user generated and they used it anyway. That's exactly what was happening here with a special counsel. It was weaponize and do whatever you want to do to try to stop Donald Trump from becoming president again.

[D]

Well, and what Jim Jordan did there was also highlight the willingness to rely on people that were lying, that were obviously lying. You know, I will say it's interesting. Cassidy Hutchison, I don't know her personally. Before she worked in the White House, she was apparently an intern in my office. Have no recollection of her. We have lots of interns who come in and out of the office. We tend to have interns in the spring semester and the fall semester and also during the summer. And typically I will sit down with the group of interns that are with us for like a 20 minute meeting in my office and I'll talk with them a little bit.

[C]

So I assume I met her when.

[D]

She interned, but I don't remember her. She wrote a book. Right after her star testimony, she wrote a book of all of her stories. And in it she describes this exchange with me, this conversation that she says happened with me that is truly fantastic because it never occurred. And it was an exchange that she said occurred after she went to the White House. And the dialogue back and forth she makes up has me kind of like tugging on her shirt sleeve and asking for her help.

[C]

And it has her strongly sticking it to the senator, I have to admit.

[D]

So I, I didn't read her book, and I think very few people actually did. I did what's called the Washington Read. When someone writes something about you that's sort of making a little bit of news, which is I went and read the like page where she talks about it and I literally laughed out loud at the exchange because it was truly fiction. And the fact that she was willing to fictionalize a conversation with me that did not occur tells me that the other pages of the book are quite likely to be fiction as well. And it speaks volumes that both Jack Smith and the democrats running the January 6th commission were perfectly happy to rely upon a fabulous whom they knew was not telling the truth.

[B]

As before. If you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can Go back and download the podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing for the next 60 seconds. Can you hit pause on your life and just think about this? Every day, millions of children face a crushing reality. A constant, defeating message echoes in their empty stomachs and their desperate eyes. It is that you don't matter. Poverty doesn't just steal food and shelter. It steals hope, dignity, and the fundamental belief that they are loved. But there's another message, one of boundless love and hope. Through Compassion International, you can change the child's story forever. You can sponsor child just like I do. You can introduce them to a loving heavenly father. You can equip them with education, health care, and the support to overcome poverty. This isn't just about one child. It's about transforming families, revitalizing communities and changing nations. It's about proving that every child truly matters. So help give a child a future. Give them hope. Visit compassion.com today. That's compassion. I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed. All right, Senator, so let's just get back to this headline. A lot of people not paying attention to it because why? Well, no one's covering it because it's good news. There are fewer Americans that are becoming victims of crime, fewer people in America that are being murdered. All of this because of Donald Trump's leadership and trying to go into dangerous cities and make them safer for all Americans.

[C]

That's right.

[D]

Let's start with crime. And what was released this week is the latest murder rates. And the murder rates across the United States decreased nationwide, roughly 20%. And let's put that in specific numbers. If you look at January through October of 2025, and you compare it to the same time period in 2024, in 2025, approximately 5912 murders were recorded in the U.S. in that same time period in 2024, 7369 murders were recorded. In other words, there are about 1400 people, 1400 people alive who were not murdered because of common sense law and order policies, because of not releasing murderers onto the street, because of deporting murderers and violent gang members. And let's break the numbers down. Chicago, the murder rate dropped 30%. New York City, the murder rate dropped 20%. Birmingham, Alabama, it dropped 49%. Albuquerque, New Mexico, it dropped 32%. Baltimore, Maryland, it dropped 31%. Atlanta, Georgia, 26%. Oakland, California, 33%. Washington, D.C. where President Trump deployed the National Guard, 31%. These are historic lows. And if These Trends continue. The US may record its lowest murder rate since 1960. That is 66 years ago. That is a stunning result, by the way. Border crime. Border crime. Other violent crimes also decreased in 2012, including a 25% drop in motor vehicle theft, an 18% drop in robberies, and an 8% drop in aggravated assaults. Now these data are being reported, and what is really quite interesting is, is the media is doing everything they can to cover it up. So Axios wrote the first story on this, and they talk about the murder rate has fallen, but they say, well, it's unclear that this has anything to do with Donald Trump or DOJ or the FBI or policies that Republicans have put in place deporting violent criminals and murderers and gang members, which is truly. It is a level of dishonesty that is incredible. And I want to give you some of the raw backgrounds that explains why the murder rate has dropped so profoundly. Here are some raw numbers. And this was put out by FBI Director Kash Patel of what has happened. That would explain why is it that we've seen a 20% drop in murder rate in the last year? We've seen an increase in violent crime arrests.

[C]

What rate do you think the increase.

[D]

In violent crime arrest has been?

[B]

What has it been? I have no clue.

[D]

100%. Wow. All right, how about this? Gangs and criminal enterprises disrupted. What rate do you think that that increase has been?

[B]

I'm gonna guess it's gotta be significant.

[D]

210%. A total of 1,800 gangs and criminal enterprises disrupted. All right, fentanyl. More than 2,000 kilos of fentanyl seized. That's up 31%. That's enough to kill 130 million Americans. There have also been more than 6,000 child victims located. That's an increase of 22%. There have been more than 1,700 child predators arrested. That's an increase of 10%. There have been more than 300 human traffickers arrested. That's up 15%. There's a 35% increase in espionage arrests. And four of the FBI's top 10 most wanted fugitives were captured. And to give you a sense of that, in one year, do you how many. How many of the FBI's top 10 list were captured in the four years of the Biden presidency?

[B]

I'm going to guess it's less than 5, 4.

[D]

So in one year, they captured as many on the top 10 list as Biden did in all four years. And the media want to do everything they can to say, nope, nope, this drop in the murder rate. It just happened magically. It's probably due to global warming or something. It has nothing to do with, with arresting murderers. It has nothing to do with deporting murderers. It certainly has nothing to do with Ms. 13 gang members being put in jail and deported, despite the fact that the way you join ms.13 is by murdering someone. And this is real results. And then you put on top of it, you put on top of it the drop in overdoses. And when we come back, we're going to give you the drop in overdoses, which is even more profound. Even more lives have been saved in the past year.

[B]

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

[A]

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