← Verdict with Ted Cruz
Verdict with Ted Cruz
Shutdown Dems Gaslight, claiming they DON'T Want Free Healthcare for Illegals, plus Fighting the Crime Epidemic in Blue Cities
00:34:38
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- [00:00]
Ben Ferguson
This is an iHeart podcast. Hey, it's Bobby from the Bobby Bones Show.
- [00:06]
Ted Cruz
I had an incredible time at this year's iHeartRadio music festival and even got.
- [00:10]
Ben Ferguson
The chance to hang out with Diplo and Bailey Zimmerman while I was there. How did Ashes come together?
- [00:14]
Ted Cruz
Diplo? I pulled up real quick.
- [00:16]
Ben Ferguson
He was about to leave on tour. You're about to jump in your tour bus and we had like three hours.
- [00:20]
Ted Cruz
It was really cool.
- [00:20]
Ben Ferguson
He literally just like randomly showed up to my house and I'm like, oh, hey Diplo, what are you doing? He's like, I have a song that.
- [00:26]
Ted Cruz
I want to show you.
- [00:27]
Ben Ferguson
And I was like, okay. You can listen to the full episode.
- [00:29]
Ted Cruz
Out now, wherever you get your podcast. And big shout out to my friends at Hyundai for making this possible. Had a blast cruising around festival weekend in the all new Palisade hybrid.
- [00:39]
Ben Ferguson
Mint is still $15 a month for premium wireless. And if you haven't made the switch yet, here are 15 reasons why you should.
- [00:46]
Ted Cruz
1.
- [00:47]
Ben Ferguson
It's $15 a month.
- [00:48]
Ted Cruz
2.
- [00:49]
Ben Ferguson
Seriously, it's $15 a month.
- [00:51]
Ted Cruz
3.
- [00:52]
Ben Ferguson
No big contracts.
- [00:53]
Ted Cruz
4.
- [00:53]
Ben Ferguson
I use it. 5.
- [00:54]
Ted Cruz
My mom uses it.
- [00:55]
Ben Ferguson
Are you playing me off? That's what's happening, right? Okay, give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront.
- [01:02]
Ted Cruz
Payment of $45 for a three month plan $15 new customer offer first three months only, then full price plan options available, Taxes and fees extra. Cmintmobile.com the US electric grid is approaching a breaking point as demand soars from data centers and home energy use. Our aging infrastructure can't keep up and the Department of Energy warns that without action, blackouts could surge 100 fold by 2030. The good news? One solution is already here. Propane. It's American made, stored on site and always ready. Powering homes and businesses with cleaner, reliable energy that doesn't depend on the grid or the weather. Learn more@probane.com Take a deep dive into.
- [01:40]
Ben Ferguson
The stories making the news headlines across the world.
- [01:43]
Ted Cruz
The News Agents we're not just here to tell you what's happening, but why? From me, Emily Maitlis and me, John Sopel with Global's award winning podcast the News Agents Dropping daily covering everything you need to know about politics and current.
- [01:56]
Ben Ferguson
Affairs and The News Agents USA listening.
- [02:00]
Ted Cruz
To the News Agents on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search the news agents to start listening.
- [02:09]
Ben Ferguson
I'm Rodney Williams. And I'm Travis Holloway. Welcome to the wealthbreak Podcast, a real conversation about finance.
- [02:17]
Ted Cruz
Let's Be honest, building wealth doesn't look the same for everyone.
- [02:21]
Ben Ferguson
I feel like sometimes being broke is a cycle and that we might have to revisit that. And we're not stopping at success stories.
- [02:28]
Ted Cruz
What happens when it doesn't go right? How do you cope with it?
- [02:32]
Ben Ferguson
Because wealth isn't just about money. It's about creating a life where you.
- [02:36]
Ted Cruz
Thrive and help others do the same. Listen to the Wealth Break podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
- [02:44]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you as well. We are right in the middle of a government shutdown that Democrats were yearning for. It's the Schumer shutdown. But there's also a lot of misinformation or as I like to call it, lies that are coming out of the shutdown and things that Democrats are accusing Republicans are, that just aren't true. And we're going to cover that today as well.
- [03:09]
Ted Cruz
Well, the Schumer shutdown continues. The federal government is partially shut down. Between 17 and 18% of the federal government is closed. It's going to stay, stay closed as long as the Democrats continue their temper tantrum. But at the same time, we're also getting a bit of a history lesson. 76 years ago, George Orwell wrote the classic book 1984 about the oppressive totalitarian government he perceived of the future and also about Orwellian doublespeak. And I gotta say, Chuck Schumer and the Democrats in Congress are doing an illustration of this now. They are gaslighting the American people. They are attempting to argue things that are simply false, in particular to shift from a book to a movie like Casablanca. They are shocked, shocked to find there's gambling. And they're shocked, shocked to find that anyone is saying that they want free taxpayer provided health care for illegal aliens. Yeah, well, the nice thing about this podcast is that we bring the receipt. So we're going to lay out the actual facts because the Democrats are gaslighting, the media is gaslighting and the facts are clear that this is the Schumer shutdown and it's going to end when they cave. We're also going to talk about a hearing that was in the Senate Judiciary Committee this past week focused on rising crime and the horrific murder rates and crime rates in blue cities and the Democrat policies of releasing violent criminals that endanger their citizens. Democrats have decided they are all in not in support of protecting innocent families, but rather in support of the murderers and rapists and child molesters that Soros DAs are releasing onto the streets. We're gonna break those facts down as well. And finally, we're gonna talk about the continued pattern of left wing ideologically motivated violence, whether it ISIS attacks on ICE agents and ICE facilities or whether it is yet another horrific anti Semitic attack in Great Britain. Over and over again we see the extreme rhetoric from the left has deadly real world consequences. All of that on today's podcast.
- [05:14]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, it's really, it's going to be interesting to look at what we're witnessing now and how the world's reacting to it as well. Want to tell you real quick though about our awesome sponsor and that is Patriot Mobile. I have got a cell phone and I can tell you I've been using now Patriot Mobile for years. And the reason why is because I know that my dollars are going to a company that are not actually fighting against my Christian values. Patriot Mobile was started more than a decade ago by a group of conservatives that found out where their money was going with Big Mobile. They didn't understand and you may not realize just how bad it's gotten. Big Mobile gives big donations to hardcore leftist causes, organizations and groups that actually support and pay for abortions, for example. If you don't want your money going there, you now have an option. It's Patriot Mobile. They give you amazing nationwide coverage. I travel all the time and I love the coverage I get with Patriot Mobile because they're on all three major networks. That also means that you are going to get the coverage you're used to, if not even better coverage when you switch. But here's where the magic happens. Every time you pay your bill, they take about 5% of that bill at no extra cost to you and they give it back to conservative causes that fight for first and our second amendment rights, that fight for the rights of unborn children, and also that support and advocate the families of fallen soldiers, wounded warriors, and our men and women that wear a badge. So if you want to make a difference with every call you make, with every text you send, then switch to Patreon Mobile and I'm going to give you a free month of Service. Go to patriotmobile.com verdict it's patriotmobile.com verdict or you can call them 972 Patriot. That's 972 Patriot. Use the promo code. Verdict. You're going to get a free month of service. And switching has never been easier. You do it over the phone in literally minutes. Keep your same cell phone, keep your same phone number that you've got right now and or upgrade to a new phone. Treat yourself if you want a new one and every dollar you spend, you're making a difference. Patriot mobile.com verdict or 972 Patriot all right, so let's just give a quick overview of the shutdown. Real quick. Center for people that are just joining us. This shutdown was premeditated. It was well thought out and organized by the left. And this is all because Chuck Schumer need to say, hey, crazy's in the Democratic Party. I promise I'm crazy. Please, aoc, don't primary me and don't get rid of me as being your leader.
- [07:46]
Ted Cruz
Well, I'm not sure I would say it was well thought out, but it was certainly premeditated. And you're right. You put your finger on the reason, which is Chuck Schumer and the Democrats have a political crisis. And the political crisis actually has nothing to do with government funding. It has to do with the rise of the extreme left in the Democrat Party and Schumer. Several months ago, Schumer worked with Republicans to keep the government open and that was the responsible thing to do. And so of course, the crazy left wing fringe got furious and they almost cost him his job. And in fact, it's striking. Democrat Senate candidates all across the country are being asked, do you support Chuck Schumer to be leader of the Democrat Party? And to a person, not a one of them is saying yes. Nobody's saying yes. It's that bad. AOC is breathing down his neck. He's looking over his left shoulder at her. And so this shutdown is really Schumer beating his chest and saying, see, I hate Donald Trump too. I can shut the whole federal government down. Aren't I tough? Now what's interesting, he doesn't have an exit ramp. He doesn't have a plan to end this. This is just a temper tantrum. And amazingly, almost all the Democrats are standing with him. All but three. The first couple of times we voted, all but three Democrats voted shut the government down. Now the ostensible policy demand they're making is they want free taxpayer provided health care for illegal aliens. Yeah. Although the amazing thing I mentioned 1984aminute ago, they are engaged in doublespeak where Democrats are going on TV and saying, no, no, no, we don't want free health care for illegals. That's not remotely what this is about. And the media, cnn, boy, they are spinning so fast that they are like windmills in a tornado. They're spinning so fast. So I'm going to give you three compelling reasons to demonstrate that they are utterly Full of crap when they are lying to you. Reason number one, the actual text of the Democrats cr. Now what? What's a cr? A CR is a continuing resolution. It is legislation that keeps funding for the government going. The House of Representatives controlled by Republicans passed what's called a clean cr. That means all the House did is say the funding that we had a couple of days ago keeps on going tomorrow. We fund everything at exactly the same levels. We change nothing. We just keep the lights on. We don't shut the government down, we keep going. That's what the House passed. Now when Joe Biden was President, do you know how many times Republicans worked with Democrats to pass a clean CR and keep the government open for Joe Biden?
- [10:30]
Ben Ferguson
More than a dozen if I remember correctly.
- [10:32]
Ted Cruz
13.
- [10:33]
Ben Ferguson
There you go.
- [10:34]
Ted Cruz
13 times the House has passed a clean CR. The Senate, we voted repeatedly on the clean CR. If the Democrats voted yes, boom. The government would stay open. What they've done instead is they have not a clean cr. They have a CR that keeps government open, but it also repeals major portions of the one big beautiful bill and in particular provides for health care for free taxpayer health care for illegals. Now let me read you the text from the Democrat CR. On page 56 of the Democrat CR it says, Subtitle B of Title 7 of the act titled An act to Provide for Reconciliation pursuant to Title 2 of H. Conraz 14 Public Law 1, 1921 is repealed and any law regulation referred to in such subtitle shall be applied as if such subtitle and the amendments made by such subtitle had not been enacted. In no event shall payment be made to a State under this section for medical assistance furnished to an individual unless such individual is a a resident of one of the 50 states, the district of Columbia, or a territory of the United States and b either a citizen or national of the United States or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residency. That's the language they're repealing. It says you have to be a U.S. citizen or a legal immigrant to be eligible for Medicaid. That's the language they want to repeal. I'll tell you what else they want to repeal. They want to repeal section 71109 entitled Alien Medicaid eligibility. That's further language that makes clear that illegal aliens are not eligible for Medicaid. They also want to eliminate section 71201, limiting Medicaid coverage of certain individuals. They want to eliminate section 71303 requiring verification of eligibility for premium tax credit. All of that is what they're trying to get rid of. That's number one on the express terms of what they're doing. Here's the second point. Every time you see a Democrat or anyone from the corporate media lying to you and say Democrats don't want to provide free health care for illegals, I want you to remember the debate in the presidential election with all the Democrat candidates. Now, for those of you watching on YouTube, you're about to see it, but if you're not watching on YouTube, just listen and we'll describe what happens here. Give a listen and give a watch.
- [13:01]
Ben Ferguson
Raise your hand if government, if your government plan would provide coverage for undocumented immigrants. Okay, let me. That's everybody, Senator, everybody.
- [13:14]
Ted Cruz
For those of you just listening, listening on radio or listening on podcast, every single Democrat candidate, every one of them raised their hand. Poor Joe Biden, he looks around, he's a little sort of scared. And he's the last one whose hand shakily goes up when he realizes, oh, my party is now all crazy people. This is what we have to say. So just, just, I promise you, if you turn on the tv, you're gonna see Democrats lying to you, saying, we don't want healthcare for illegals. All of them. There was not a single candidate for president who disagreed. That is the position of the party across the board. But here's to argument number three. If they didn't want free health care for illegals, why are they shutting down the government that they say right now? Well, existing law prohibits providing health care to illegals, and they're deliberately lying to you. If that's true, why would they want to repeal the language from the reconciliation bill that blocked illegals from getting the benefits? The reason they're going all in, the reason they're willing to shut the entire federal government down is they've made the decision that, that their party is all about open borders and free stuff for everyone, especially illegals. I don't understand why. I genuinely don't understand why today's Democrats have decided they care more about helping illegal immigrants in this country and in some instances, violent criminals and gang bangers, than they do American taxpayers, than they do American citizens who go and work hard, provide for their family, pay taxes, and apparently they do all of that in order to give free health care to illegals. And by the way, remember this also, you know, because they admit it. Both California and New York provide free health care to illegals. Gavin Newsom campaigned on this. He was very proud of saying, we're going to give Free health care to illegals. And here's one of the games that Senate Democrats are playing is California says it pays for the health care for illegals with state funds, but money is fungible. And so the federal government is flowing money into California. They use it, they fill one bucket with it, and they use state money for the illegals. But it all goes to the same effect. That is why the Democrats are willing to force a government shutdown. And they have forced a government shutdown because the eligibility requirements of the one big beautiful bill have real teeth to them. And the Democrats are panicking about it. If they had no teeth, if this wasn't happening, why would they throw this gigantic fight? It makes no sense. And the Democrats know this.
- [16:04]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, I think they certainly do as well. And this goes back to why I think it's shocking. Democrats are still digging in on this shutdown center. And that is because the American people are not behind this. They don't support it. Even almost 50% of Democrats, it's upper 40s now of Democrats, say they're not in favor of this shutdown. So this really does go back to what you and I were talking about a moment ago. This is all Chuck Schumer shutting down the US Government to try to save his own political future.
- [16:36]
Ted Cruz
Look, that is exactly right. And if you're not inclined to believe me, if you're not inclined to believe. Ben, take a listen to Chris Cuomo fact checking. The Democrat lies on this.
- [16:48]
Ben Ferguson
It's not true. The Republican partisan spending bill that they introduced is not clean.
- [16:55]
Ted Cruz
Well, first of all, let's be clear.
- [16:56]
Ben Ferguson
It's not a clean bill.
- [16:57]
Ted Cruz
It's a dirty bill.
- [16:59]
Ben Ferguson
Well, that's all a lie. It's not a clean continuing resolution. Listen, I like Hakeem Jeffries. I think he's got an amazing future. He's got better fights than this. This is a clean cr. What does that mean, by the way? Continuing resolution. Instead of passing a real budget like they should, this just says, hey, remember the last one? Let's just continue at those levels again. All right? Now, that may mean that certain people.
- [17:23]
Ted Cruz
Who should get less won't.
- [17:25]
Ben Ferguson
Certain people who need more won't. But a clean CR means that this is an extension from the last set of, in this case, Biden's spending levels. Okay? That's what a clean CR is. This is a clean cr. Wait a minute. Cuomo disagrees with Jeffries. Jefferies must be right. Don't take my word. Take the word from the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. They say this is about as clean a CR as you could get. Okay. Again, it's a continuation of a march stopgap measure. This is literally going and saying we're going to keep Joe Biden's budget. Like that's the easiest way I can.
- [18:01]
Ted Cruz
Describe this and understand. That is Chris Cuomo. That is former CNN primetime star. That is loud, vocal Democrat Chris Cuomo saying Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrat leader in the House, is lying to you because you know what? He is. He's gaslighting. And. And kudos to Chris Cuomo for having the guts to speak the truth. I wish his old colleagues at CNN could follow suit.
- [18:30]
Ben Ferguson
Operation Overlord the D Day Beaches It's Ben Ferguson and you and I share a passion for history. So I hope you'll join me next spring on the D Day beaches in Normandy. The invasion that sealed Hitler's doom. Omaha and Utah. Discover the sacred patch of sand with me. 10 days in Europe, luxury hotels and fully escorted by America's leading expert on France and the D Day invasion. Ken chase, Paris champagne country 5569 and that includes your airfare. Stand at General Patton's grave site, Baston Point, Du Hoc and Mulberry Harbor. Call now on your cell phone, dial pound250 and say the keyword Conservative Tour or go to conservativetours.com an A plus rating with the BBB. All your sightseeing in Paris too. You'll have the option to receive a one time auto dialed text message from iheartmedia and I'll see you on the Shahz Elize. I am sure if you've been listening to conservative radio and podcasts, you've heard a lot of talk about gold and silver. Now there are people that ask me all the time who do I trust? And that is Kirk Elliott Precious metals. You get more than gold and silver. You get trusted guidance from a that puts people first.
- [19:49]
Ted Cruz
Always.
- [19:50]
Ben Ferguson
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- [21:10]
Ted Cruz
I had an incredible time at this year's iHeartRadio music festival and even got.
- [21:14]
Ben Ferguson
The chance to hang out with Diplo.
- [21:15]
Ted Cruz
And Bailey Zimmerman while I was there. Check this out.
- [21:18]
Ben Ferguson
So how did Ashes come together? Diplo well, I kind of briefly met Bailey I think at Morgan's show, one of them and I think he's just the guy in Nashville. He's cool as hell and I had a new kind of sound I wanted to do and I think he's the one guy that can carry it and I came to his house, I had a show, I pulled up real quick, he about to leave on tour, you're about to jump in your tour bus and we had like three hours play the record for him. We kind of like got a scratch and then he handled on his own on the road. Yeah, it was really cool. He really just like randomly showed up to my house and like oh hey.
- [21:51]
Ted Cruz
Diplo, what are you doing?
- [21:52]
Ben Ferguson
He's like I have a song that.
- [21:54]
Ted Cruz
I want to show you.
- [21:54]
Ben Ferguson
And I was like okay. And then now we're here playing it live. You can listen to the full episode.
- [22:00]
Ted Cruz
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- [23:42]
Ben Ferguson
Move to something else that's really important. The Senate Judiciary is having a big hearing and it deals with blue city chaos, Democratic run cities. Uh, the report that's out now is pretty clear. Out of the top 20 most crime ridden cities, 18 of them are controlled by left wing hardcore Democrats. And you guys are now looking into this. So what does this actually mean?
- [24:07]
Ted Cruz
Well, this week the Judiciary Committee held a hearing on out of control crime in Democrat cities. And it really is horrific the policies. It turns out when you let violent criminals go, when you undermine the police, when you put in place prosecutors who won't prosecute crime, you get more crime. This summer, the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley is the chairman, put out a report that showed that the Biden Department of Justice sent taxpayer funded grants to Soros backed soft on crime NGOs and in particular, here's what the report said. Under the Biden Harris administration, the Vera Institute was awarded millions of taxpayer dollars to prop up left wing district attorneys who would then partner with the Vera Institute to implement Soros backed progressive policies. These policies included prioritizing violent criminals over victims and declining to fully prosecute felony charges including assault, kidnapping, rape and murder. And here's some of the key findings from the report. In New York, New York County DA Alvin Bragg partnered with the Vera Institute and declined to prosecute certain misdemeanor felonies, actively working to downgrade felony charges to misdemeanors and refused to detain criminals before their trials. Meanwhile, Bragg attempted to prosecute President Donald Trump for federal campaign finance violations. In the year 2025, there were over 48,000 individuals arrested for misdemeanors in New York county. Wow. But only 3,000 of them were detained. 48,000 arrested, 3,000 detained in Georgia, Athens, DA Deborah Gonzalez partnered with the Vera Institute and pledged to protect illegal immigrant defendants and release criminals on bonds that did not require the posting of money. In Wisconsin Milwaukee DA John Chisholm partnered with the Vera Institute to implement progressive soft on crime policies and reportedly told the Milwaukee Sentinel, journey, quote, is there going to be an individual I divert or who I put into a treatment program who's going to go out and kill somebody? You bet. That is the Soros DA bragging he's gonna release criminals who murder people. And in 2020, the Milwaukee DA's office released a criminal twice before. He ultimately drove an SUV through a Christmas parade, killing six and injuring 62 others. This pattern is happening over and over and over again. What is amazing is the Democrats are not learning. They're not saying, gosh, maybe we should stop siding with the criminals. Instead they're doubling down.
- [26:51]
Ben Ferguson
They're doubling down. And you see these stories that pop up. And there was one dad that went before Congress to testify about his daughter and just how many times the man that killed his daughter, that took his daughter's life, had been arrested and released. And if you didn't hear that, people should go listen to it because I think it's really important. But we're seeing this happen where criminals are being caught and released dozens of times. Like dozens of times center. And they're just like, yeah, so what, they go out and then they kill somebody? Like, okay, maybe we should, I guess, lock that guy up. My bad. It's insane.
- [27:28]
Ted Cruz
Well, and here was a portion of the hearing this week. Give a listen. Prosecute violent criminals. Innocent victims die right here in Washington D.C. in 2012, murders in D.C. totaled fewer than 100. By 2023 murders had nearly tripled. 274 lives taken in a single year. These are the real world consequences of Democrat crime policies that let murderers go.
- [27:58]
Ben Ferguson
And the policy, to be clear, Senator, is a simple one. DA's were instructed when they took money basically from Soros, they're bought and paid for by Soros. And what they were instructed to do was to have prison reform and bail reform. They wanted people out of the prisons. They didn't want people to go to prisons, they didn't want people to be held in prison because of bail. And so that is part of what they're advocating for here.
- [28:22]
Ted Cruz
It's comprehensive and it's at every stage. It's a left wing agenda that wants to, number one, abolish the police, wants to defund the police. And by the way, that's not just empty rhetoric. If you look at jurisdictions across the country, in Minneapolis, they slashed funding for the police department. In New York City, the NYPD, they cut over a billion dollars from the NYPD's budget. In Austin, Texas, our home state, $150 million cut from the police department. So that's one way they do it, is they attack the police directly to wanting to either abolish or defund the police. But secondly, they go after das. And George Soros has spent tens of millions of dollars funding DA campaigns for radicals who've gotten elected in many major cities across the country. And when they get in, they refuse to prosecute violent criminals, they downgrade felonies to misdemeanors, they abolish cash bail. So they catch a murderer, they let him go. They catch a violent criminal, they let him go. Here's another portion from the hearing. You know, it's clear from this hearing, the Democrat talking points have come out. Both Senator Padilla and Senator Booker spent a great deal of time talking about, quote, red states. There's a reason they were talking about red states, because unfortunately, most red states had blue cities. And that's where the crime is. If you want to look at, in 2023, the large cities with the most homicides per 100,000 people, number one was New Orleans, Louisiana. Number two was Memphis, Tennessee. Number three was St. Louis City. Number four was Baltimore City. Number five was Washington, D.C. democrat crime policies kill people. Soros DA's who let murderers out of jail kill people.
- [30:01]
Ben Ferguson
So when you look at this being exposed the way that you guys are doing it, what is going to be the mechanism that can obviously help stop this from happening. And how can Congress use that leverage?
- [30:13]
Ted Cruz
Well, there are lots of things we can do. One is what President Trump has done, which is he sent the national guard to Washington, D.C. and the result of that is the crime rates have plummeted, the murder rates have dropped 58%. Now, you would think rational people, if Democrats were rational people, they'd be celebrating. Wow, the murder rate has plummeted. That means people are alive because the National Guard is there stopping murders. But they're not. They're furious. And I'll tell you, in the wake of George Floyd dying, yeah. The D.C. city Council passed a soft on crime package of legislation that lessened the penalty for violent crime across the board. That tied the police hands and made it much, much harder to prosecute crime. And the result was crime rose dramatically. Carjacking and violent crime rose dramatically. I've introduced legislation in the Senate called the Clean DC Act. Clean DC act reverses those 2022 laws. It reinstates tougher penalties on violent crimes and it allows the police to actually go after the violent criminals. At the hearing, the head of the D.C. police Union testified and he explicitly asked the Senate to pass my legislation. Pass the Clean DC Act. Give a listen to the head of the D.C. police Officers Union.
- [31:33]
Ben Ferguson
That is why we also support the Clean DC Act. It begins the process of undoing harmful legislation, restoring balance and rebuilding MPD strength. This is not just a DC issue. Other cities that embrace the same policies are now facing the same consequences. The lesson is clear. When leaders attack police, communities suffer. When lawmakers strip away tools and protections, criminals thrive. If this is not corrected, the crisis will deepen here and nationwide. I urge Congress to act, support the Clean DC act, roll back failed legislation and work with law enforcement instead of against us. Officers want nothing more than to protect their communities. But they cannot do it alone. Again, I thank you for the opportunity to testify and I welcome any questions the committee may have.
- [32:16]
Ted Cruz
Thank you.
- [32:17]
Ben Ferguson
One of the things, Senator, I like about where you guys are going with this is that this is not going to be a short term thing. This is actual reform you are advocating for to make sure that these cities don't go back to these liberal policies where innocent people are dying every single day.
- [32:34]
Ted Cruz
No, that's exactly right. And the first obligation, the first obligation the president, the commander in chief has is to protect this nation, to keep us safe. The first obligation, really every elected official should put front and center is protecting the health and safety of the men and women you're elected to represent. And you know, it is striking, just like we talked about a minute ago with the shutdown where the Democrats are engaged in gaslighting. You heard in the segment I was talking about what, what both Cory Booker and Alex Padilla said in that hearing where they both had talking points almost exactly the same, where they said, well, you know, there are bad crime stats in a bunch of red states and they went through a bunch of red states and they're right. There are red states where the crime stats are problematic. My response, which they have no reputation to, is that is entirely driven by the blue cities in those red states that are governed by left wing Democrat mayors and left wing Democrat das who refuse to prosecute violent crime. And so yes, look, Memphis, Tennessee was number two on the list. Now Tennessee is a red state, but you know, God help you if you live in Memphis when you have local officials who will not prosecute the bad guys. And that's True in Baltimore, that's true in New Orleans, that's true in Washington D.C. and rather than address it and admit it and fix it, the Democrats are trying to distract people by engaging in dishonest rhetoric.
- [33:58]
Ben Ferguson
The left wing Crime Statistics center are brutal BLM protests. For example, 2020, there are over 10,000 demonstrations and cause 1 to 2 billion in insured property damage. According to Axios, this is the most expensive civil disorder in US history. There were also 19Americans in the conservative numbers who died directly caused by the demonstrations. And that's another data point that the left and the media does not want to talk about. But if you look at this and you see what the Democrats have done to our cities and the fact that this has all been, I think, bought and paid for, funneled money going into these groups that are advocating for this type of organized violence, that's the other thing that scares the hell out of me.
- [34:49]
Ted Cruz
Well, and I want to draw a linkage between each of the stories we're talking about today, which is that we see left wing policies that undermine law enforcement, that seek to abolish or defund the police, that put Soros prosecutors in office, that release violent criminals, and you see the result being more and more violent crime. You then see Democrats engaging rhetoric to obfuscate, to hide that, to pretend it's not happening. But you also see the left engaging in increasingly angry rhetoric, demonizing their opponents. And if you look at ideologically motivated crime, the vast majority of it violence that is ideologically motivated, the overwhelming majority is on the left. As you mentioned, the BLM riots all across the country, American cities burned all across the country. Not just that, you look at the anti Semitic, anti Israel campus protests. Those were leftists, those were anarchists, those were jihadists, those were communists. All across the country, over 2,300 anti Semitic incidents reported on campuses, which is by the way the highest ever recorded. That was in 2024 and 2025, the LA riots this year, 2025, 17 people injured. A state of emergency in LA County. The city reports 19.7 million cost as of mid June.
- [36:12]
Ben Ferguson
Wow.
- [36:13]
Ted Cruz
Of course, President Trump the target of two assassination attempts. Tragically, our friend Charlie Kirk successfully murdered in a horrific assassination. This pattern, the murderer who flew from California to Maryland and to murder justice Brett Kavanaugh. Thankfully, he was arrested by the police before he could carry out that heinous act. But, and by the way, you go back to 2017 when a gunman came to Washington D.C. looking for elected Republicans to murder, went to the congressional baseball practice and opened fire, hitting multiple elected Republicans, nearly killing Steve Scalise. Had the bullet been an inch, one side or the other, Steve, a good friend, would have been killed that day. Instead, he was injured badly. Thankfully, he survived. This pattern is happening over and over and over again. And there's a direct connection between the demonization. Look, when Charlie Kirk was murdered, far too many on the left celebrated, cheered it on. When Luigi the Nutcase murdered the CEO of a health insurance company. Supposedly respected members of the media celebrated. Leftists are getting his face tattooed on them. They celebrate violence. And this week, we saw two more instances happen. We saw, number one, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents targeted in two separate car attacks. During enforcement actions in Chicago this past week. Two different car attacks. It turns out that when Democrats demonize ice, when they call them Nazis, as the Democrats have done over and over and over again, our last podcast, we played a whole clip of Democrats calling ICE and law enforcement Nazis and Gestapo. It turned out when you use that kind of language, there are lunatics who listen to it and move to violence. As you know, I was on the ground in Dallas and was on site within minutes of the sniper attack at the ICE facility in Dallas by a deranged leftist who wrote his left wing agenda on the shell casings, emulating what Charlie Kirk's murder had done. This pattern is happening over and over and over again. And I gotta say, Ben, it's disturbing. I don't see. I don't see many Democrats modulating.
- [38:38]
Ben Ferguson
No, they're not.
- [38:39]
Ted Cruz
Their rhetoric. Gavin Newsom just this week called Steve Miller, the Deputy White House Chief of staff, a fascist, using the same language that motivated, among others, the murderers of Charlie Kirk. And they keep doubling down and doubling down and doubling down. And they know more ICE agents are going to be targeted. They know more police are going to be targeted. And I want to be clear about something, because some will say, well, gosh, there are crazies on the right who commit violence. And that's true. Yeah, but if you look at ideologically motivated violence, the crazies on the right who commit violence are usually just mentally deranged people. Or to put it a little different, liberals can be the victims of violence as well. So Nancy Pelosi's husband was attacked by a deranged mentally ill person with a hammer. Now, that was tragic. But I would not describe that as ideologically motivated violence. He was simply a victim of a mentally ill person engaging in an act of violence. And that's horrific. And there's a difference. You and I didn't Celebrate that nobody. Violence is never, never, never. Right. And the difference is the left celebrates it far too often, encourages it on the front end, celebrates it on the back end, where it. Whereas any principled conservative I know of will condemn violence across the board, say, do not engage in violence. And compare the difference of the reaction when George Floyd died and you had violent riots and fires across the country compared to when Charlie Kirk was murdered and you had candlelight vigils and prayer vigils. And the violence was from the leftist attacking people, praying and holding up candles.
- [40:18]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, well, and not only that, you even had Democrats this week attacking Jeffries, talking about those that went to the Republican convention as being, like, extremists. I mean, they're not dialing this back.
- [40:28]
Ted Cruz
Well, super villains. Super villains is what he called the inauguration.
- [40:31]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, yeah. Excuse me, the inauguration. Yeah, he talked about the inauguration. He said that there was a super villain convention. And that is them not downplaying this. That is him ratcheting it up, knowing that we just left Charlie Kirk's funeral from being assassinated.
- [40:48]
Ted Cruz
And the hate on the left, it is directed at conservatives, it is directed at capitalism, it is directed at Americans, but it's also viciously anti Semitic. And on Yom Kippur in Manchester, a Syrian. A Syrian, ironically, with the name. Wait for it, what was the name of this murder? His name is Jihad Al Shami, and he targeted worshipers at a synagogue on Yom Kippur. This pattern is happening over and over and over again, and it's wrong and we need to stand against it.
- [41:32]
Ben Ferguson
Amen to that. Don't forget, we do this show as a podcast three days a week. So if you're listening on the radio, make sure you download this podcast. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we're gonna have a lot of news that's gonna be breaking. Obviously, the deals with the government shutdown. If you wanna know what's happening behind the scenes, and that is reason number one to download Verdict with Ted Cruz. Because each and every day as this continues to unfold, we're gonna have the news that matters to you the most. Because guess what? This is gonna happen in the Senate. That is where Senator Ted Cruz is. And it's the best part about getting co hosts with him is I get to hear, just like you do, what's happening behind the scenes before it's even hitting the media. So you'll know exactly what's going on. Also, if you want to watch this, you can watch us on YouTube as well. So you can watch us on YouTube as we do most of these now on video and download Vertic with Tech Cruise wherever you get your podcast and Senator and I will see you back here next week on this radio station and on the podcast Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Hey it's Bobby from the Bobby Bones Show.
- [42:32]
Ted Cruz
I had an incredible time at this year's iHeartRadio music festival and even got.
- [42:36]
Ben Ferguson
The chance to hang out with Diplo and Bailey Zimmerman while I was there. How did Ashes come together?
- [42:41]
Ted Cruz
Diplo? I pulled up real quick.
- [42:42]
Ben Ferguson
He was about to leave on tour. You're about to jump in your tour bus and we had like three hours.
- [42:46]
Ted Cruz
It was really cool.
- [42:47]
Ben Ferguson
He really just like randomly showed up to my house. I'm like, oh hey Diplo, what are you doing? He's like, I have a song that.
- [42:52]
Ted Cruz
I want to show you.
- [42:53]
Ben Ferguson
And I was like, okay, you can listen to the full episode out now.
- [42:57]
Ted Cruz
Wherever you get your podcast. And big shout out to my friends at Hyundai for making this possible. Had a blast cruising around festival weekend in the all new Palisade Hybrid. Oral health goes beyond just aesthetics.
- [43:07]
Ben Ferguson
It's deeply connected to your general health and well being.
- [43:10]
Ted Cruz
That's why preventing oral health problems before.
- [43:12]
Ben Ferguson
They start is so important.
- [43:14]
Ted Cruz
When you use the Colgate Total Active Prevention system, you're not just helping to.
- [43:18]
Ben Ferguson
Prevent oral health problems like cavities and gingivitis, you're laying the groundwork for overall wellness. Colgate Total's three product routine includes a.
- [43:26]
Ted Cruz
Reformulated toothpaste, an innovative toothbrush and a refreshing antibacterial mouthwash that all support a healthy mouth.
- [43:33]
Ben Ferguson
In fact, the three products were designed.
- [43:35]
Ted Cruz
To work together to be 15 times.
- [43:37]
Ben Ferguson
More effective at reducing bacteria buildup in.
- [43:39]
Ted Cruz
Six weeks starting from week one compared.
- [43:41]
Ben Ferguson
To a non antibacterial fluoride toothpaste and flat trimmed toothbrush.
- [43:46]
Ted Cruz
Take control of your oral health and get the Colgate Total Active Prevention system.
- [43:50]
Ben Ferguson
Today so you can be dentist ready. Visit shop.colgate.com Total.
- [43:57]
Ted Cruz
Hey, Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. Now I don't know if you've heard.
- [44:00]
Ben Ferguson
But Mint's Premium Wireless is $15 a month. But I'd like to offer one other perk. We have no stores.
- [44:10]
Ted Cruz
That means no small talk crazy weather we're having. No it's not. It's just weather.
- [44:15]
Ben Ferguson
It is an introvert's dream. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment.
- [44:21]
Ted Cruz
Of $45 per 3 month plan, $15 per month equivalent required New customer offer first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra.
- [44:26]
Ben Ferguson
See mintmobile.com Take a deep dive into the stories making the news headlines across the world.
- [44:32]
Ted Cruz
The News Agents we're not just here to tell you what's happening, but why? From me, Emily Maitlis and me, John with Global's award winning podcast the News Agents Dropping daily covering everything you need to know about politics and current affairs.
- [44:45]
Ben Ferguson
And The News Agents USA listening to.
- [44:48]
Ted Cruz
The News Agents on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search the newsagents to start listening.
- [44:58]
Ben Ferguson
I'm Rodney Williams. And I'm Travis Holloway. Welcome to the wealthbreak podcast, a real conversation about finance.
- [45:06]
Ted Cruz
Let's be honest, building Weft doesn't look.
- [45:08]
Ben Ferguson
The same for everyone. I feel like sometimes being broke is a cycle and that we might have to revisit that and we're not stopping at success stories.
- [45:17]
Ted Cruz
What happens when it doesn't go right? How do you cope with it? Because wealth isn't just about money.
- [45:23]
Ben Ferguson
It's about creating a life where you.
- [45:24]
Ted Cruz
Thrive and help others do the same.
- [45:26]
Ben Ferguson
Listen to the Wealth Break podcast on the iHeartradio app. This is an iHeart podcast.