War w Violent Illegal Criminals & Biden's Pardons become a Disaster

Summary

Verdict with Ted Cruz: Episode Summary Host: Ben Ferguson and Senator Ted Cruz
Episode Title: War w Violent Illegal Criminals & Biden's Pardons become a Disaster
Release Date: January 24, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of "Verdict with Ted Cruz," co-host Ben Ferguson delves into three pivotal topics dominating the political landscape: President Donald Trump's aggressive stance on illegal immigration, the release of long-sealed government files pertaining to major historical assassinations, and the controversial pardons issued by President Joe Biden to his family members. This comprehensive discussion offers listeners an in-depth analysis of these issues, highlighting their implications for national security, governmental transparency, and legal accountability.

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1. Trump's Offensive on Illegal Immigration

Deployment of Troops and Policy Shifts

Ben Ferguson opens the discussion by outlining President Trump's decisive actions against illegal immigration. Within just three days of his administration, Trump has:

• Deployed Over 1,500 Active-Duty Troops to reinforce the U.S.-Mexico border.
• Mandated Immediate Deportations for individuals caught crossing illegally, abolishing the previous "catch and release" policy under the Biden administration.
• Authorized the Defense Department to Utilize Military Aircraft in supporting Customs and Border Patrol operations.

Impact and Outcomes

These measures have led to a significant uptick in arrests, particularly targeting individuals with violent criminal backgrounds. In a mere 33-hour window, ICE has apprehended over 460 illegal immigrants, emphasizing the administration's focus on enhancing national security and public safety.

Notable Arrests and Statements

Among those detained:

• A Haitian migrant with 17 prior convictions became emblematic of the new crackdown. Recorded at [03:10], he declared:

  "I'm not going back to Haiti... Yo, Biden forever, bro. Thank Obama for everything that he did for me, bro."
  (Timestamp: 03:10)

• Additional arrests included a Honduran individual convicted of rape at gunpoint and a Guatemalan MS-13 gang member involved in armed crimes.

ICE Operations and Sanctuary Jurisdictions

Ferguson highlights ICE's intensified efforts in sanctuary cities, where previously, certain jurisdictions protected illegal immigrants from federal deportation orders. According to [04:40], ICE Officer comments:

"So our main target was released by sanctuary jurisdictions, not honoring detainer... he's going to go today, too."
(Timestamp: 04:40)

This shift marks a significant departure from past policies, ensuring that individuals with criminal histories face swift deportation.

Expert Insights

Border Czar Tom Homan is quoted at [05:00]:

"When we find the bad guy, he's probably with others, others that are in the United States illegally. They may not be a criminal priority, but we're not walking away from them."
(Timestamp: 05:00)

Ferguson underscores the administration's relentless pursuit, stating:

"In just a 33 hour period under the Trump administration... are going out there and grabbing and arresting now more than 460 illegal immigrants... Trump's clearly winning."
(Timestamp: 05:14)

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2. Release of Historical Assassination Files

Executive Order and Transparency

Ferguson transitions to President Trump's commitment to governmental transparency, particularly concerning the assassinations of key historical figures. Trump has ordered the declassification and release of previously sealed files related to the assassinations of:

• President John F. Kennedy (JFK)
• Senator Robert F. Kennedy (RFK)
• Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK)

Details of the Executive Order

Signed in the Oval Office, Trump emphasized the overdue nature of this transparency:

"A lot of people are waiting for this for a long... For years, for decades. And everything will be revealed."
(Timestamp: 07:59)

The order mandates:

• 15 Days for the Justice Department and Office of the Director of National Intelligence to plan the full release of JFK assassination files.
• 45 Days for RFK and MLK assassination records.

Historical Context and Implications

Ferguson provides background on JFK's assassination in 1963, highlighting the lingering questions surrounding Lee Harvey Oswald's motives and potential conspiracies. The release aims to address decades-old speculations and provide a comprehensive account to the American public.

Trump's rationale centers on his administration's principle of transparency, echoing his broader campaign promises to unveil government-held secrets.

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3. Biden's Pardons: Legal and Political Ramifications

Critique of Biden's Pardon Decisions

Shifting focus, Ferguson criticizes President Joe Biden's recent pardons extended to his family members. Trump, in a sit-down interview with Sean Hannity, expressed regret over Biden's decision, highlighting that it "opened Pandora's box."

Trump's Stance on Pardon Powers

Donald Trump clarified his position on pardons:

"He heard that I was going to do, I didn't want to do it... I said, I'm not going to pardon anybody. We didn't do anything wrong..."
(Timestamp: 10:20)

He contrasted his approach with Biden's by asserting that he refrained from issuing broad pardons, particularly not to himself.

Constitutional Implications and Legal Analyst Insights

Senator Ted Cruz elaborates on the legal consequences of Biden's pardons:

"By the way, one of the results of all these pardons is that Congress can now subpoena the members of the Biden family and force them to answer questions under oath. And they don't have a Fifth Amendment right to decline to answer."
(Timestamp: 11:45)

A legal analyst explains:

"The Fifth Amendment says that you can't be forced to testify against yourself... If you refuse to answer, you can be held in contempt and put in jail."
(Timestamp: 12:05)

This means pardoned individuals, no longer under criminal jeopardy, cannot invoke the Fifth Amendment to avoid testimony before Congress. Non-compliance could lead to legal penalties, including contempt charges.

Potential Consequences for High-Profile Figures

Ferguson speculates on the broader impact, mentioning figures like Dr. Anthony Fauci:

"They don't have a Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer questions under oath... I think DOJ would prosecute him."
(Timestamp: 12:51)

He cautions:

"If your last name is Biden and you got a pardon, well, you may be careful what you wish for."
(Timestamp: 13:06)

This underscores the potential for increased accountability and legal scrutiny of pardoned individuals.

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Conclusion

In this episode, Ben Ferguson and Senator Ted Cruz present a robust analysis of current political strategies and their ramifications. President Trump's assertive actions on illegal immigration and commitment to transparency are juxtaposed against President Biden's controversial pardons, highlighting a stark contrast in governance approaches. The discussions emphasize the ongoing battle over policy enforcement, governmental openness, and the intricate balance between executive powers and legislative oversight. Listeners are left with a nuanced understanding of these critical issues shaping the nation's future.

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Notable Quotes:

• Haitian Migrant:
  "I'm not going back to Haiti... Yo, Biden forever, bro. Thank Obama for everything that he did for me, bro."
  (03:10)

• ICE Officer on Collateral Arrests:
  "So our main target was released by sanctuary jurisdictions, not honoring detainer... he's going to go today, too."
  (04:40)

• Tom Homan:
  "When we find the bad guy, he's probably with others, others that are in the United States illegally. They may not be a criminal priority, but we're not walking away from them."
  (05:00)

• Donald Trump on JFK Assassination Files:
  "A lot of people are waiting for this for a long... For years, for decades. And everything will be revealed."
  (07:59)

• Legal Analyst on Pardons:
  "The Fifth Amendment says that you can't be forced to testify against yourself... If you refuse to answer, you can be held in contempt and put in jail."
  (12:05)

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For more in-depth discussions and updates, subscribe to "Verdict with Ted Cruz" and the "Ben Ferguson Podcast." Stay informed on the political debates shaping our nation.

Transcript

[Haitian Migrant]

I'm not going back to Haiti.

[ICE Officer]

This Salvadoran illegal alien charged locally with rape released by sanctuary jurisdiction relating to.

[News Anchor]

The assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. That's a big one, huh?

[Ben Ferguson]

You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.

Good morning, it's Ben Ferguson. Nice to have you with us. And here are the big stories that we're covering today on the 47 Morning Update. First up, game on. Donald Trump goes to war with violent criminal illegal immigrants. And some of them are speaking to the media when they're getting arrested. And my, oh my, are they not happy. I'll have that for you in a moment. Also, Donald Trump ordered the release of some, well, extremely well kept secrets of the US Government when it comes to the assassination of jfk, RFK and Martin Luther King. We'll have that for you as well. And, and finally, Biden's pardons to all of his family members have now apparently opened up Pandora's box. That's right, because those family members now may be forced to come before Congress to testify and they'll no longer be able to plead the Fifth. How is that possible? I'll explain that to you as well. It's the 47 Morning Update and it starts right now. Day three of the Trump administration is in the books. And if there's any takeaway, it's game on, especially when it comes to illegal immigrants. What has the president done? Well, he announced a new deployment of more than 1,500 active duty troops to assist in securing the US Mexico border. We also found out that he ordered the Border Patrol to begin immediately deporting anyone caught crossing into America illegally without a hearing, ending the insane Biden policy of catch and release. That will no longer happen. And on top of that, Donald Trump ordered the Defense Department to commit to using military aircraft to assist Customs and Border Patrol in deportation operations. What we're now finding out just how many illegal immigrants the Biden Harris administration could have arrested that were violent criminals and chose not to, and how easy it is to round them up. Under Trump, ICE has arrested at least 460 illegal immigrants accused of violent crimes in the last 33 hours. One of those that they arrested has now become famous. The face of what we're trying to get rid of in this country. Immigration and Custom Enforcement arrest a Haitian migrant with 17 prior convictions in America that the Democratic Party was protecting. Another target was a Honduran migrant who had been previously convicted of forcibly raping a woman. At gunpoint. Ice, nationwide raids are happening. Deportations are being delivered. Now that man, that Haitian man, when he was in the back of the squad car, decided he wanted to yell at the media. Take a listen to what he had to say.

[Haitian Migrant]

I'm not going back to Haiti.

[ICE Officer]

One of those threats is this illegal alien from Haiti. Ice says he's a gang member with 17 criminal convictions in recent years.

[Haitian Migrant]

Trump, you feel me? Yo, Biden forever, bro. Thank Obama for everything that he did for me, bro.

[Ben Ferguson]

Think Biden for everything. And Obama they did for me. And f Trump. I'm not going back to Haiti. Now that's just one criminal illegal out of the more than 460 that have been picked up already. And that's not all that was caught on camera. Keep listening.

[ICE Officer]

IceBoston quickly takes down its next targets, including this illegal alien from Brazil who has an Interpol red notice for armed robbery. This Salvadoran illegal alien charged locally with rape and released by a sanctuary jurisdiction. And this Dominican illegal alien charged with assault with a deadly weapon and heroin trafficking. Officers also arrested this Guatemalan MS.13 gang member facing gun charges. ICE says he was released from local custody just the day before their detainer request was ignored because of sanctuary policies. And in a sign of shifting priorities with the new Trump administration, this man, who was in the same apartment as the target, was also arrested after ICE determined he's also in the US Illegally. This is what ICE calls collateral. So you guys got your main target just now, but you got somebody else. What just happened?

So our main target was released by sanctuary jurisdictions, not honoring detainer. That person was released back into the community. And when we went to go find him, he's with somebody else who was previously removed from the United States. So he's going to go today, too.

And that is exactly what border czar Tom Homan has warned would happen.

[Tom Homan]

When we find the bad guy, he's probably with others, others that are in the United States illegally. They may not be a criminal priority, but we're not walking away from them.

[ICE Officer]

IceBoston says they will continue to go into sanctuary jurisdictions and do their job.

[Ben Ferguson]

They are going to continue, as you just heard him say, going into these jurisdictions that have declared themselves sanctuary cities. And they're going to do their job. In just a 33 hour period under the Trump administration, all of these men and women that have been dying to do their jobs for the last four years who have not been able to do their jobs, are going out there and grabbing and arresting now more than 460 illegal immigrants, those with violent criminal histories are their main targets. We're also being told right now that agents arrested nationals from a slew of countries, including today Afghanistan, Angola, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela. That according to the latest reports, arrests took place across the US in different states, including Illinois, Utah, California, Minnesota, New York, Florida and Maryland. ICE also issued more than 420 detainers. Request ICE be notified when a national is released from custody. The report continues. Those nationals were arrested for violent crimes like sexual assault, kidnapping, homicide, battery and robbery. Donald Trump paying off and going to war with the illegal immigrant. Criminals first and he's clearly winning.

Now. Story number two.

Donald Trump made several campaign promises and one of them was that we were going to tell more about what our government has done in the past on major historical events and moments, especially moments which the government has been hell bent to keep secret from you, the American people. And he paid off on that promise by ordering the release of the long secret final files on JFK's assassination, RFK's assassination, and Martin Luther King assassinations. Today, President Trump ordering the declassification release of these long secret files, saying it is right for the American people to know, quote, everything will be revealed. Trump said in the Oval Office as he signed the executive order. Here's exactly what all he had to say. Take a listen.

[Donald Trump]

Okay.

[News Anchor]

Lastly, sir, we have an executive order ordering the declassification of files relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. That's a big one, huh?

[Donald Trump]

A lot of people are waiting for this for a long. For years, for decades. And everything will be revealed. Okay, Give that to RFK Jr.

[News Anchor]

Yes, s. Okay.

[Ben Ferguson]

The pen Donald Trump used to sign this, he then handed to his assistant and said, make sure we give that to RFK Jr. The order says the release of these records is long overdue. And it now requires a Justice Department, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to rapidly prepare for the release of the files. Officials will now have 15 days to present a plan to the President for the full and complete release of records on the JFK assassination and 45 days to do so for the RFK and Martin Luther King cases as well. President Kennedy, as you may remember, was assassinated in November of 1963 in Dallas. The prime suspect was Lee Harvey Oswald and he was murdered two days later by a nightclub owner by the name of Jack Ruby, spurring lasting debate about whether Oswald was part of or a patsy in a shadowy conspiracy. Oswald, a Marine Corps veteran, defected to the Soviet Union four years before the assassination and later returned to the US in late September of 63, Oswald both visited the Cuban consulate in Mexico City and contacted the Soviet embassy there. This is part of why there are so many questions surrounding the assassination. And apparently now we may have to wait a few days, but we're going to hear the entire story because Donald Trump said, I am in favor of transparency in our government, even on issues like this.

And lastly, story number three, what Donald.

Trump said in a sit down interview with Sean Hannity is now making waves after the fact because Donald Trump made it pretty clear that he didn't believe he needed a preemptive pardon and was never going to give himself a preemptive pardon. So why did Joe Biden give so many out to his family members? Well, then he said he also made a big mistake, referring to President Joe Biden. Take a listen again carefully to the way that Donald Trump describes it.

[Donald Trump]

He heard that I was going to do, I didn't want to do it. I was given the option. They said, sir, would you like to pardon everybody, including yourself? I said, I'm not going to pardon anybody. We didn't do anything wrong. And we had people that suffered. They were incredible patriots. We had people that suffered. You had Bannon put in jail, you had Peter Navarro put in jail. You had people that suffered. And far worse than that, they've lost their fortunes, they've lost their whatever, their nest egg, paying it to lawyers. And those people. And people said, you know what? And they don't even, they wouldn't have even taken most of those people. They wouldn't have even taken a pardon. This guy went around giving everybody pardons. And you know, the funny thing, maybe the sad thing is he didn't give himself a pardon.

[Ben Ferguson]

He didn't give himself a pardon. So I asked Senator Cruz about this and it was very interesting because he's now saying that those that got pardons aren't actually out of the woods yet, especially if Congress asked them to come testify because they will not be able to not answer those questions. And if they still choose to not answer those questions because they won't have the ability to plead the fifth since they've been given a full pardon and don't have to worry about being prosecuted, they could be held in contempt of Congress. Take a listen.

[Legal Analyst]

By the way, one of the results of all these pardons is that Congress can now subpoena the members of the Biden family and force them to answer questions under oath. And they don't have a Fifth Amendment right to decline to answer.

[Ben Ferguson]

Real. Okay, so a lot of people didn't know that, including me. So explain that a little bit for everybody, because that is. That is big news.

[Legal Analyst]

So the Fifth Amendment says that you can't be forced to testify against yourself. Now, that only applies if you have criminal jeopardy. If you can be prosecuted once you've been pardoned, you have no criminal jeopardy, which means you don't have the right to say, I'm not going to answer that because I might incriminate myself in a crime. Because if it's a federal crime, you can't be prosecuted for it. Which means if you refuse to answer, you can be held in contempt and put in jail. And so it. It has changed. I will.

[Ben Ferguson]

There's a. There's a very. There's a very real chance that members of the Biden crime family that were pardoned could be asked to come and testify in Congress, and they would be forced to answer the questions for the reasons you just stated.

[Legal Analyst]

Yep.

[Ben Ferguson]

And if they don't, by the way.

[Legal Analyst]

Same is true about Fauci, that, you know, Biden pardoned Fauci. That means Fauci doesn't have a Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer questions under oath. I certainly hope that he's forced to answer those questions. And I gotta say, so, hold on, hypothetical.

[Ben Ferguson]

You get Fauci in front of you, you start asking him questions, and he just refuses to answer those questions. Is that in contempt of Congress at that point?

[Legal Analyst]

Well, Congress has to vote to hold him in contempt for refusing to answer those questions, and then the Department of Justice has to prosecute him. I gotta say, I think if Congress voted to hold him in contempt, I think DOJ would prosecute him. And by the way, to be clear, the Biden Department of Justice. Trump mentioned putting Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro in prison. They did that because they held them in contempt of Congress. And that was even aside from pleading the Fifth there. They just refused to testify. And they argued, they asserted executive privilege, and DOJ prosecuted them after Congress, after the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress.

[Ben Ferguson]

The moral of the story is if your last name is Biden and you got a pardon, well, you may be careful what you wish for. And as for the former president, you may think you're riding off in the sunset, and it may not be as simple as that.

Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now. And for more in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson Podcast, and we will see you back here tomorrow.