September 3, 2025 • 37 mins
1. Venezuelan Narco-Terrorist Strike
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The hosts discuss a U.S. military strike ordered by former President Trump against a Venezuelan drug-smuggling boat.
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They describe it as decisive action against narcoterrorists, with 11 alleged gang members killed.
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The narrative frames Trump as strong and proactive compared to Biden, who they accuse of weakness on border security and cartels.
2. U.S.–Mexico Relations & Cartels
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Cruz recounts recent meetings with Mexican officials, pressing them to cooperate with the U.S. against cartels.
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He argues Mexican cartels should be designated as terrorist organizations, drawing comparisons to Middle Eastern terror groups.
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The conversation emphasizes deterrence through unpredictable and overwhelming force.
3. Domestic Crime in Washington, D.C.
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Cruz introduces the Clean DC Act, aiming to repeal a 2022 D.C. law that reduced penalties for violent crimes.
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The podcast presents crime statistics in D.C. (murder rates, carjackings, assaults) and blames Democratic leadership for rising violence.
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It positions Trump’s stance on law and order as both domestic and international.
4. “Trump Is Alive” Segment
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Responds to a viral social media rumor that Trump had died after a couple of days out of the public eye.
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Hosts ridicule Democrats and media figures who speculated about or even welcomed the rumor.
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Trump himself dismisses it in an interview, calling it fake news.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome in is Verdict with Center Ted Cruz Ben ferguson
with you Center. I got to say, there are certain
days where it's just really extra fun to be an
American and watching us take on the cartels and watching
us blow up a boat filled with drugs after the
President warned, you don't want to keep doing this by Venezuela,
and they did it anyway, God bless America. This is
(00:23):
Trump doctor in FAFO one oh one.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Well, let me say it is a bad time to
be a narco terrorist. It is a bad time to
be an enemy of America. And we saw President Trump
take out a boat off the waters of Venezuela. Eleven
trend'errogua gang members were aboard that boat. It was carrying narcotics.
We're going to break that down. We're going to talk
about what that had, what the impact is going to
be on Venezuela, on Mexico, on narco terrorism around the world.
(00:52):
This follows on with with with the last podcast we
did and my trip recently to Mexico calling on Mexico
to team up with US in fighting narco terrorism. What
happened in Venezuela shows one way or another, we are
going to defend the United States of America. We're also
going to talk about legislation that I introduced this week,
legislation to protect DC. The crime wave we've seen in DC,
(01:17):
the murder wave we've seen in d C. President Trump
has acted decisively to combat that crime. But a major
cause of that crime is an ordinance that DC passed
in twenty twenty two lessening the penalties for violent crime.
I filed legislation to repeal that twenty twenty two law.
We're going to talk about that as well. And finally,
(01:38):
breaking news, Donald J. Trump is alive. That news causes
great pain, great hysteria, great mourning for Democrats, for the
left wing media, all of whom we're celebrating his death.
We're going to talk about just how ridiculous Democrats in
(02:00):
the media were in the last few days as they
were eager to put President Trump in the cemetery, and
how sad that is to see people openly rooting for
the death of the president.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah. If you thought the Democratic Party could be mess
more soulless, well here's another example of it. You can't
make it up, all right. I want to tell you
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(04:22):
the best cup of coffee of your life. All right,
So I gotta ask you, Senator. I was actually asked
this question today, and they said, hold on a second.
Senator Cruz goes out to Latin America. He's dealing with
and talking about the gangs, he's talking about cartels, he's warning,
don't mess with America. And then all of a sudden,
we see President Trump take out this boat and send
(04:44):
it out to the world. And they're asking me about
the timing. Are you just this good or did you
know something that we didn't know?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, I'll confess we really are that good. Or look,
put it more simply, put it more simply. I know
Donald Trump, I know who he is. My message to
the Mexican government this past week was I think there
is a zero percent chance, not a five percent chance,
not a ten percent chance, a zero percent chance that
(05:14):
four years will pass without President Trump acting decisively to
take out the Mexican drug cartels. And the choice that
I think the Mexican government has is do they they
want the US to do so unilatterly or do they
want to work with us? Do they want to be
our partners? And I told them, listen, we would much
(05:35):
rather work with you. It's a much better situation that
we work collaboratively. But I got to say, they got
fairly worked up. They said, no, no, no, you have to
you have to respect our sovereignty. I said, listen, if
these were just local thugs, if these were pickpockets that
were robbing people in the streets in Mexico City, it
wouldn't be our problem. But these Mexican cartels are murdering Americans,
(05:56):
and so the Commander in Chief has an obligation to
act against them. And I have to say, what just
happened is a powerful illustration of it. Now, what happened
in Venezuela video was put out showing the US military
taking out a drug boat and taking it out. In
the video shows the boat going along and then boomed
the explosion. Eleven suspected trend of Ragua Narco terrorists were
(06:21):
on board the boat. Here's what Fox News has reported.
President Donald Trump shared dramatic video Tuesday of a US
military strike that blew apart a Venezuelan drug boat in
the Southern Caribbean, leaving nearly a dozen suspected trender Ragua
Narco terrorists. Did quote, over the last few minutes, we
literally shot out a boat, a drug carrying boat, Trump
(06:44):
said during a news conference in the Oval Office. A
lot of drugs in that boat, and you'll be seeing that,
and you'll be reading about that. It just happened moments ago.
The strike resulted in an eleven terrorist killed in action.
Trump wrote in a social media post use the US
forces were harmed in the strike. Please let this serve
as a notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs
(07:08):
into the United States of America. Beware, beware. As all caps.
Thank you for your attention to the matter. And it
looks like nine exclamation marks. Now, I got to say
nine exclamation marks for eleven terrorists who blew up. That's
a really powerful message. I got to say. If you
are a narcer terrorist right now, if you're MS thirteen,
(07:29):
if you're trying to row Ragua, if you're any of
the of the cartels that are bringing drugs into this country,
you got to be looking around. You gotta be looking up,
going is there a drone up in the sky right now?
Are they going to take me out next? And that's
the kind of decisive leadership that we see in this
commander in chief that in four years, ask yourself, why
did Joe Biden not do anything to stop the narcer
(07:54):
terrorist who were murdering Americans who were flooding drugs into
this country were producing a massive death toll. More than
one hundred thousand people died last year of drug overdoses.
Seventy percent of that was fetanol. What did Joe Biden do, Well,
it's actually worse than that. Not only to do nothing, Ben,
(08:14):
he was actively opening our border and releasing the terrorists
and the smugglers and the human traffickers and the drug
traffickers who were engaged in this assault on the US,
and and and so I this is it was rather
powerful to remind people.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Let's also just remind people of what you just said
and how real that was. They actually sent to Texas
forkliffs that lifted up the bob wire barriers that were
put down, yeah, to let illegal immigrants into these They
sued Texas like, if.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
There's any yes, so Texas is fighting to keep out
human traffickers and drug traffickers. And the Biden administration, instead
of saying thank you, Texas, let's secure our border, they
went and sued Texas and said, damn it, no, we
need more human traffickers and drug traffickers in America. They
didn't say that, but that's effectively what they.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Said, yeah, no, it's exactly the message that they sent.
I also think one of the interestings about this video,
and if you haven't seen it, it's everywhere on the internet.
I'm sure it's center on your Twitter as well. Go
there and look at it. But it was also and
I think this is part of the message.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
And by the way, for folks that are watching the video,
for folks who are watching this on YouTube or rumble,
we're playing the video right now. So if you're watching
this visually, you can get this as an audio pod,
but you can also watch it visually, so you can
watch the videos we're talking about it.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah, And I think as you talk about it or
see this video, one of the things that I think
is very interesting about the messaging. This boat had no
idea this was about to happen. It wasn't flying through
the water, it wasn't zigzagging, it didn't know it was
under a temp. It was just out there doing its thing,
and then it just got blown up. The psychological message
(10:00):
that's gonna have to send to anybody else thinking about
getting in a boat tonight, tonight, this morning, tomorrow is
you don't know when you're gonna die, But we know
where you are, and you will not be able to
a outrun us because you won't even know where there.
That is a powerful message and I think that's part
of what the President was trying to accomplish.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Amen. You know, Carlo Samanez from Florida said that the
vessel belonged to the Cartel of the Suns and what
he said on X was this is going swimmingly. We
continue and and and the uncertainty of it. It reminds
me of a couple of things. It reminds me, number
number one, of of the Iranian IRGC, the terrorists who
(10:45):
one after the other were taken out were taken out.
We're taken out, and they didn't know what hit them,
and it made them incredibly uncertain. It made them incredibly uncertain.
When Israel we were joking like the IRGC, when the
Iatola would appoint someone as the head of the IRGC,
and Israel would take them out, and then they named
somebody else the head of the RGC. The next day,
Israel would take them out and by like the third
(11:07):
or fourth time, like if the Iotola called you and said, hey, Ben,
you want to be the head of the RGC, what
would you.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Say no, no, hell no, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
A new number who do just don't speak English, Like literally,
you got that job and your life expectancy was about
twenty four hours. You'd point no, no, no, I think he'd
make a much better head of the RGC. The guy
next to me, let's kill him. And the other example
it reminded me of again in the Middle East was
Hesbla and Israel when they carried out the pager operation
(11:41):
where these pagers that Hesbela gave to their senior terrorists
exploded and killed terrorists, wounded terrorists, and then like I
think it was forty eight hours later, they had a
second operation with walkie talkies, and the walkie talkies exploded.
And after forty eight hours of all of these exploding,
for a second, you're Hesblo terrorist and the phone rings
(12:03):
and you've got to be like whoa, whoa, what what
the hell? Like the interium effect of knowing any moment
could be your last. You don't realize it's coming. It
could come from a drone strike in the air, it
could come from a pager exploding. That is a powerful deterrent.
And this ship just cruising along. I guarantee you the
(12:23):
next drug runner that is cruising along in a boat
is going to look up and wondering, wonder, okay, is
there a missile about to explode me into the smithereens.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Let's also talk about the message that was sent not
just to the terrorists, the Narco terrorists, but also to
the message I just sent to Mexico and yeah, to
the leader in Venezuel Maduro, who's got a big bounty
on his head. Last I checked, I think it's fifty
million dollars.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yep, fifty million. So this week Marco Rubio, the Secretary
of State, is traveling to Mexico City, and it's right
after I just came from ex City. I conveyed the
government accept our offer, work with our military take out
the cartels. Claudia Scheinbaum, the President of Mexico, said no,
we reject your offer. Here's what Marco said said on
(13:13):
Twitter today. He said, quote, the President has been very
clear that he's going to use the full power of America,
in the full might of the United States, to take
honor eradicate these drug cartels, no matter where they're operating
from and no matter how long they've been able to
act with impunity. Those days are over, and he went
on to say TDA is a designated foreign terrorist organization
(13:39):
operating under the control of Nicholas Maduro, responsible for mass murder,
drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror
across the United States and the Western hemisphere. Now that
is exactly true of the Mexican drug cartels as well,
every word he said. And so for Maduro, you're right,
there's a fifty million dollar bounty. If you're a Maduro,
(14:00):
you've got to feel really nervous right now that there
is some ambitious general, or maybe not a general, maybe
just a colonel or major in your army who says,
you know what, fifty million dollars sounds pretty good. I
sure would like to live a life of leisure on
an island. Maduro's got to be incredibly nervous. But the cartels,
if the Mexican cartel leaders have to understand they are next.
(14:24):
And if you are a government official in Mexico, you
got to make a choice. Now, by the way, Ben,
it's possible the Mexican government may make the decision. You
know what. We understand that Trump is going to take
out the cartels, But we just can't take the heat
domestically for domestic political reasons of being part of that.
So we would rather be oblivious and not be a
(14:46):
part of it. So we can just yell damn Yankee imperialist,
which is what they would yell if they didn't participate,
because they may decide that's better domestic politics. Well, if
they decide that, that's fine, I understand. That I tried
to convey to them is listen, you're a friend and
ally we would like to cooperate, which with you. The
analogy I used was Columbia with Planned Columbia, where we
(15:10):
worked with the Colombian government. We took out the cartels
in Columbia. This was under George W. Bush. That's the example.
That is the preferable example. But if the Mexican government
is going to bury their head in the sand like
an Ostrich, that does not relieve the commander in chief
of the obligation of protecting Americans. And I think this
week off the shores of Venezuela demonstrated he will act
(15:33):
decisively to protect this country.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
If you've ever listened to the show before, you know
I'm a big advocate for the Second Amendment, and I've
shared on numerous occasions how carrying a firearm literally saved
my life from a gang related attack. But many of
you out there may not feel comfortable carrying a firearm.
Maybe you have a loved one that's just not comfortable.
They need a way to protect themselves. And that's why
I want you to know about Berno launchers. I have them,
(15:57):
and I've given them to many family members. Burn is
a hand and help pistol that fires both kinetic rounds
and chemical irritants to separate you from an attacker. And
I'm here with Josh Cherrard from Bernard to tell us
how carrying a bernat when taking a ride share could
be a really good idea. Josh, what does your team
learn about safety and ride sharing?
Speaker 4 (16:19):
So recently a story has broke about ride share in
fluting Burnet and Lift about the fact that they haven't
been reporting nearly as many attacks between drivers and riders
as previously believed, and unfortunately, some of these are as
serious as sexual assaults, major assaults that are putting people
in the hospital. So what we know is that there
has to be something done in order to improve the
(16:41):
safety from drivers and riders on both ends and Unfortunately,
Uber doesn't allow guns to be carried by riders in
their cars. So we're looking at trying to find better
ways to improve that safety so that when you're riding
in a ride share you understand that you're going to
get from point A to point B and be able
to do it safely.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
And unfortunately a lot of the ride share policies out
there are not allowing writers to carry weapons inside the vehicle.
But a burna is something you can use.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Absolutely. There's explicitly stated in their policies that they do
not allow writers to carry firearms in their cars. However,
those policies say nothing about their lesslie the weapon like
burner launchers, which means that burna is a great solution
for making sure that you can stay safe in these
right shaars.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Look, I got one, I carry one, my wife has
one as well many family members And if you want
more information on how you and your family member can
protect yourselves with a burner launcher, go to Burnaby RNA
dot com. Again, that's burner by RNA dot com Berna
dot com. Right now, Sana, I want to ask you
(17:46):
one final question on this, and that is how quickly
do you think this could ratchet up. I don't believe
this is a one and done. I think this is
the beginning, not the end. I don't believe that President
Trump is bluffing. I don't believe the Secretary of State
in going down to Mexico is a bluff either. The
President has made it clear, whether it's hitting a terrace
(18:08):
on a tarmac in Iraq, whether it's going after ran
nuclear sites, whether it's going after ISIS and wiping them
out or Arkaida, it doesn't matter. And when he said
I'm going to name you terrorists organizations, declare that that's
what you are. That was the beginning. Today was the
beginning of the action. Do you have any reason to
(18:28):
believe that this is not going to be something that
we're going to be talking about for days and weeks ahead.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
No, I think we're going to see this over and
over again. I want to play the clip from when
President Trump described the action in Venezuela. Give a listen
to the President talking about it.
Speaker 5 (18:43):
When you come out, and when you leave the room,
you'll see that we just over the last few minutes
literally shot out a boat, a drug carrying boat, A
lot of drugs in that boat, and you'll be seeing
that and you'll be reading about that just and moments ago.
And our great General, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
(19:06):
who has been so incredible, including what took place in
Iran knocking out potential nuclear power for a long time
to come. I think within a month they would have
had it. We didn't do what we did, but he
gave us a little bit of a briefing and you'll see,
and there's more where that came from. We have a
(19:29):
lot of drugs pouring into our country, coming in for
a long time, and we just these came out of
Venezuela and coming out very heavily from Venezuela. A lot
of things are coming out of Venezuela. So we took
it out and you'll get to see that after this
meeting is over.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
I mean, the President there just seems so calm and collected, like, hey,
I warned you, I told you. Now it's happening. This
is an FAFO moment.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yet again, well, as the President said, there's more where
that came from. I think those were words that were
freighted with import and this really does key into my
meeting last week with the governments of El Salvador and Panama,
but especially Mexico. I described how when I met with
the Mexican Defense Minister, he began the meeting by arguing,
(20:18):
at considerable length, the cartels are not terrorist organizations. And
I got to say, I found that a very odd
thing for him to argue, and obviously I disagreed, and
just as an objective matter, whether he thinks they're terrorist
organizations or not, the United States has designated them as
terrorist organizations, and he said they're not terrorist organizations because
(20:38):
terrorist organizations have a political agenda and they spread fear
and terrify the civilian population. Now, by the way, the
cartels murder thousands, they kidnapped thousands, they intimidate, they spread fear.
By any rational definition, they're a terrorist organization. Now, they're
not motivated by politics. They're not the IRA trying to
(20:59):
free Ireland. There not the PLO trying to overturn or
Hamas trying to overturn the Israeli government. So it's not
political motivations. But it is money and power and control
that motivate them. But their means is terrorism. The way
they exercise power is through murder and rampant violence and
(21:21):
narcotics and and and through spreading fear and terror, and
their consequence is designating the cartels as terrorist organizations is
not just a paperwork notation. Okay, which box do you
check on the paper? It means that we have an authorization. Look,
we take out terrorists all over the world. And being
(21:42):
a terrorist organization means you are now a target. It
means if you're a terrorist organization, look in the sky
because there could be a drone about to light you
up any second. And I want to take a minute
to step back, because when it comes to foreign policy
right now, the bade this country is often simplified to
(22:03):
the point of absurd. Many people put foreign policy as
a bipolar situation. You are either an interventionist, in which
case you want to invade every country on Earth you
always want to send the Marines, or you're an isolationist
and you want to do nothing and withdrawal from the
world and never engage. And I have long believed both
(22:23):
of those polls are wrong. I think the vast majority
of the American people disagree with the interventionists and disagree
with the isolationists. And yet almost all of foreign policy
in politics, in the media is treated as if those
are the only two choices. I have long considered myself
a third point on the triangle. I consider myself a
(22:44):
non interventionist hawk. And here's the point I want to make.
I think Donald Trump is as well. I agree with
President Trump's foreign policy. America First is not interventionist, but
it is not isolationists. And there are whole bunch of
people in politics on Twitter it is. It seems there's
an army devoted to claiming America First is isolationists. And
(23:06):
let me just say the facts are to the contrary.
Donald Trump is not an isolationist, despite every effort Tucker
Carlson tries to make, and Tucker every day goes on
and on and on about Trump is an isolationist, and
he just ignores reality. Because look, in the first term
Donald Trump, when he came into office, Isis had a
caliphate the size of the state of Indiana. Trump came
(23:30):
in obliterated ISIS, destroyed their caliphate, took them out entirely.
Donald Trump took out General Solomoni, he took out Al Bagdatti.
Those are not the actions of an isolationists. The second term,
Trump began by bombing the hell out of the Huthis
who were attacking US shipping vessels and other shipping vessels
(23:50):
in the Suez Canal. That's not the act of an isolationist.
He then launched an incredibly important, a critical bombing ron
on the Iranian nuclear facilities that most definitely was not
the actions of an isolationists. And right now today taking
out these narcer terrorists in Venezuela, that is not the
act of an isolationists. Now understand the fact that President
(24:14):
Trump is willing to act and act militarily to take
out our enemies does not mean that he's an interventionist.
Notice that Trump hasn't invaded any countries. I don't believe
he's going to send the Marines into Iran. I don't
believe he's going to send the Marines into Venezuela or Mexico.
And by the way, I would oppose it if he did.
I don't agree with doing that. But there is a
(24:37):
big difference between targeted use of force against enemies of
America and trying to invade other countries and turn them
into democracies. And there's another point I want to make.
Many on the left, many democrats, many in the media,
and also many isolationists on the right believe that when
(24:58):
you withdraw from the world, that's how you have I
want to make the case that's exactly backwards. Look, Joe
Biden was the weakest, most impotent commander in chief we
have seen since Jimmy Carter. And that weakness, just like
Jimmy Carter, it encouraged the radicals in Iran to foment
(25:18):
a revolution, to take over the embassy, to take Americans
hostage for four hundred and forty four days. The same
was true under Joe Biden. The war in Ukraine was
caused because Putin was emboldened. October seventh was caused because
Iran and Hamas and Hesbela were emboldened. If you want
to avoid war, I believe, as Ronald Reagan put it
(25:40):
in peace through strength, I believe as President Trump puts
it in America first. And the way you avoid war
is being strong enough that nobody in their right mind
wants to mess with you. That's how you avoid war.
And I got to say this action taking out the terrorist,
it's a step in the right direction, all.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Right, center to bring it back home to something. And
you talk about cleaning things up, that's what President Trump
is city's going to do with the terrorists and those
that are bringing drugs in this country, but he's also
doing big things in different cities. And now you have
introduced the Clean DC Act. Explain to us what this is.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Well, the principle is very much the same as we
were talking about in foreign policy with the terrorists, which is,
when you react with weakness, the result is domestically, you
get more and more crime. When you react with weakness abroad,
the result is internationally you get more and more terrorism
and more and more enemies attacking. The converse is true
(26:41):
when you react with strength with regard to crime. When
you lock up murderers and rapists and child molesters, you
get fewer violent crimes number one because of deterrence. Number two,
because of prevention, you get the bad guys off the street.
In DC, the murder rate has consistently been one of
the highest in the entire country. Among large cities, is
twenty seven homicides per one hundred thousand residents each year.
(27:04):
That is higher than Bogota, Columbia, d C. Not only that,
but if you look at at vehicle theft, vehicle theft
is eight hundred and forty two per one hundred thousand residents,
which is three times the national average, and carjackings have
tripled in recent years. I'll tell you actually, one time
I was filming several years ago, I was filming Verdict.
(27:25):
It was a little past midnight, and we had our
truck parked on the street. I was in the studio
filming it. The truck was broken into and my briefcase
was stolen on the streets of d C. If you
look at d C, which is our nation's capital, you've
got elected representatives and staff from all fifty states, from
all over the country. We had earlier this year we
(27:45):
had a staffer from the White House from DOGE who
was violently assaulted in d C, beaten up by ten
juvenile offenders. Had we hadn't in recent years. We had
a staffer for Rand Paul who was stabbed in the
middle of the afternoon on DC Street. We had a
former official in the first Trump administration who was shot
(28:06):
and killed at five o'clock in the afternoon, parked in
his car on a d C street. The violence is
out of control, and it was made worse by a
twenty twenty two law. Twenty twenty two law in the
wake of the George Floyd killing in the Black Lives
Matter protest, when anti police fervor was driving the left crazy,
(28:27):
the DC City Council and the DC Mayor came in
and they passed a law that lessened the penalties for
violent crimes almost entirely across the board. They lessened the
penalty for murder, they lessened the penalty for carjacking, they
lessened the penalty for violent assault. And the effect, understandably
was those crimes all increased. If you lessen the penalty
(28:47):
for violent crime, the crimes increased. And this is the
thing that the left doesn't understand. We saw a Democrat Congressman,
Henry Quaar from Texas who was carjacked in his car
at about eight or nine o'clock at night. He was
coming home with his dinner and he was carjacked outside
an apartment building that, if I remember correctly, five other
(29:08):
congressmen lived in. That's how bad it was. Now, I
will tell you in the past Congress. Congress took up
legislation to reverse that twenty twenty two law. It passed
the House, and it passed the Senate, and then Joe
Biden vetoed it Joe Biden decided, all right, we're not
going to let this go into effect. Well, I've introduced
again legislation that is called the Clean DC Act. And
(29:31):
the Clean DC Act is very simple. It is designed
to repeal the twenty twenty two law lessening the penalty
for violent crimes, and the Clean d C Act we're
pushing for a vote. I think the House may vote
on it as soon as the next week or two.
I'll tell you the Clean DC Act. It's supported by
(29:52):
the DC Police Union, it's supported by the Fraternal Order
of the Police, and it's a good opportunity. I think
every member of Congress, every day Democrat, every House member,
needs to decide, Okay, where do you stand? Do you
stand with the violent criminals? Do you stand with the murderers,
do you stand with a rapist? Will you do you
stand with the carjackers? Or do you stand with the
(30:13):
citizens of America? That ought to be an easy vote,
although sadly I'm going to predict I think an awful
lot of Democrats are going to vote with criminals.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah, it really does tell you where the Democrats mindset
is right now, where they can't even agree that criminals
should be held accountable, and it also just amazing tells
you about how sinister they are, which brings us to
our final story. The idea that because the president wasn't
seen like twenty four to seven, totally different than Joe
Biden when he was president, by the way, but somehow
(30:43):
he was dead was a trend on social media and
Democrats were celebrating it.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
Now.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
It really was bizarre. The left was losing their mind
because a couple of days President Trump hadn't done a
public event, and so suddenly the left, they were so excited,
they were so excited that, oh, this means Trump is
really sick. He's in the hospital, he's at a stroke,
he's dead. You know, Andrew Yang, you remember the Democratic
(31:11):
ran for president. He tweeted out, quote, I would be
pumped to have a president whose physical vitality or mental
fitness wasn't an ongoing issue or concern. It's like, what
where the hell were the Democrats during the last four
years of Joe Biden. The man was almost publicly in
a coma for four years. He was drooling and coloring
(31:34):
with crayons, and the Democrats are like, nothing to see here, No, no, no,
it's perfectly fine. Yes, we have a White House staffer
we dress as a giant Easter bunny to lead him away,
to keep him out of trouble. But there's nothing to
see here, and I got to say so. So today
President Trump was asked about this by Peter Doucy, and
in fact, Peter Deucy asked about the stories that he'd
(31:55):
been dead. Listen to the exchange between Peter Doucy and
President Trump about a big viral social media trend over
the weekend. How did you find out over the weekend
that you were dead?
Speaker 4 (32:08):
Do you see that?
Speaker 2 (32:09):
No, people didn't see him a couple of days, one
point three million user engagements as of Saturday morning about
your demides.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
Really, I didn't see that, you know, I have heard
it's sort of crazy. But last week I did numerous
news conferences, all successful. They went very well, like this
is going very well, And then I didn't do any
for two days, and they said there must be something
wrong with him. Biden wouldn't do him for months. You
wouldn't see him, and nobody ever said there was ever
(32:37):
anything wrong with him, and we know he wasn't in
the greatest of shape. No, I heard that. I get
reports now you knew. I did an interview that lasted
for about an hour and a half with somebody and everybody,
So that was on one of your competitors. I did
numerous shows and also did a number of truths, long
truth so I think, pretty poignant truth. Very active over
(33:00):
the weekend. They also went out to visit some people
at the at the club that I own pretty nearby
on the Potomac River. And now I've been very active
actually over the weekend. I didn't hear that one. That's
pretty serious. Well, it's fake news, you know, it's just
so it's so fake. That's why the media has so
little credibility. I knew they you were saying, like, is
(33:24):
he okay, how's he feeling? What's wrong? I said, I
just left. And it's also sort of a longer weekend.
You know, it's Labor Day weekend, so I would say
a lot of people. No, I was very active this
Labor Day. I had heard that, but I didn't hear
to that extent.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
I love how the president just trolls the media on
this one, like, yeah, you guys are a bunch of scumbags,
and I'm not surprised that this is what you did.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
No, Look, it was absurd. I mean, this president. You
can disagree with them on substance, you can disagree with
him on style, but the man has enormous energy. I mean,
if you look at the first seven months of this administration,
I think they're There's been no administration in a lifetime
that has had more velocity and volume and action, and
it has been incredible. And this president he is going
(34:09):
This weekend, actually, President Trump called me. I talked to
him this weekend. He was in great spirits. We were
talking to.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Tim while he was dead but alive. Oh yes, breaking
ye yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
And oddly enough, I didn't have a Ouiji board. I
didn't have to do a seance, and he was kind
of and it was we were not talking about are
u R right? He was key called me on an
issue that he and I had been working on. So
we had a substance of conversation. You know, Today the
President announced that there was going to be a White
House address at two o'clock, and I got to say,
Twitter went crazy with anticipation, and I think people expected
(34:41):
them to announce. Okay, President Trump is dead. He's entered
a permanent vegetative state. He's resigning like like like the
left was, they were beside themselves, but particularly egregious. I
want you to listen to Tim Waltz. Tim Waltz is
the governor of Minnesota. He's a weird dude, and you'll remember,
(35:01):
for like twelve seconds he was Kamala Harris's vice presidential nominee.
Give a listen to what Tim Waltz had to say
about President Trump and his hopes that the president was dead.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
And get up in the morning and you doom scroll
through things. And although I will say this, the last
few days you woke up thinking there might be news,
just saying, just saying there will be news sometime, just
so you know there will be news.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
I mean, that's sick. And that's the guy who ran
for vice president of the Democratic Party.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Let me say that is sick. And I have never
wished death upon Joe Biden or Barack Obama or Hillary
Clinton or any of the Democrat leaders the president of
the United States, whether you agree with them or not.
What the hell is wrong with these people where they
say they wake up every day hoping, please please please
let me see that he is dead. You know, there
(35:54):
used to be a notion. Listen when Barack Obama was president,
I disagreed with all lot of the policies that he implemented.
I think they did a lot of damage, a lot
of harm to this country. But I wish success on him.
I wanted America to succeed. You know, we talked about
earlier this year President Trump State of the Union address.
I've been to thirteen State of the Union addresses. Every
(36:16):
single one begins the same way with the sergeant at
arm calling out the President of the United States. And
twelve of the thirteen i've been to. Every House member
and senator stands and applauds. And that's true, whether it's
a Democrat or Republican, whether it's your party of the
other party, you respect the office. And so when Barack
Obama walked onto the floor of the House, I stood
(36:39):
and applauded for him. When Joe Biden walked on the
floor of the House, I stood and applauded for him.
This year, when Trump walked under the floor, every single
Democrat I saw states sitting and would not applaud. And
there's something really wrong when you were openly cheering for
the President of the United States to die and the
(36:59):
people people laughing, and I suspect there were reporters there
and there were also leftist activists. The people laughing and cheering,
there's something just fundamentally wrong about that.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Yeah, it really is. Don't forget. We do this show Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday. We're gonna keep you update on all the
biggest breaking news and the stories the media refuses to cover.
So hit that subscriber auto download button wherever you are
on social media, and wherever you are share I stay
on social media and download it. Wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also tell Siri or Alexa play Verdic with
(37:32):
tech Cruise and it will do it for you just
that easily. And the Senate and I will see you
back here in a couple of days
Welcome in is Verdict with Center Ted Cruz Ben ferguson
with you Center. I got to say, there are certain
days where it's just really extra fun to be an
American and watching us take on the cartels and watching
us blow up a boat filled with drugs after the
President warned, you don't want to keep doing this by Venezuela,
and they did it anyway, God bless America. This is
(00:23):
Trump doctor in FAFO one oh one.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Well, let me say it is a bad time to
be a narco terrorist. It is a bad time to
be an enemy of America. And we saw President Trump
take out a boat off the waters of Venezuela. Eleven
trend'errogua gang members were aboard that boat. It was carrying narcotics.
We're going to break that down. We're going to talk
about what that had, what the impact is going to
be on Venezuela, on Mexico, on narco terrorism around the world.
(00:52):
This follows on with with with the last podcast we
did and my trip recently to Mexico calling on Mexico
to team up with US in fighting narco terrorism. What
happened in Venezuela shows one way or another, we are
going to defend the United States of America. We're also
going to talk about legislation that I introduced this week,
legislation to protect DC. The crime wave we've seen in DC,
(01:17):
the murder wave we've seen in d C. President Trump
has acted decisively to combat that crime. But a major
cause of that crime is an ordinance that DC passed
in twenty twenty two lessening the penalties for violent crime.
I filed legislation to repeal that twenty twenty two law.
We're going to talk about that as well. And finally,
(01:38):
breaking news, Donald J. Trump is alive. That news causes
great pain, great hysteria, great mourning for Democrats, for the
left wing media, all of whom we're celebrating his death.
We're going to talk about just how ridiculous Democrats in
(02:00):
the media were in the last few days as they
were eager to put President Trump in the cemetery, and
how sad that is to see people openly rooting for
the death of the president.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah. If you thought the Democratic Party could be mess
more soulless, well here's another example of it. You can't
make it up, all right. I want to tell you
real quick about a really cool note I got. I
got a note from someone that was seventy seven years
old and it was a lady and she said, mister Ferguson,
I listened to Verdict each and every day you do
(02:33):
your podcasts. My grandson turned me on to the show.
I've never bought anything off of radio advertising, but I
decided to buy Crockett Coffee because I love coffee, and
I decided why not. You are right, it is amazing.
Just want to say thank you from a senior citizen
(02:53):
who is now waking up drinking the same coffee you
guys drink. Godspeed. That is the best maybe email I've
gotten this year. And if you haven't tried Crockett Coffee,
you got to. It is small batch coffee, perfected on
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this is small batch, so they do it and they
(03:14):
roast it in small batches so that you get premium
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Buck Sex and Klay Travis, they actually started this company
because they understood that in the coffee business there are
a lot of like woke sellout cups of coffee that
you can buy and they said, look, we're never gonna
(03:35):
sell out. You can choose between fresh ground, hole bean
or k cup.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
You choose.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And if you're even interested in the mushroom coffee and
the positive benefits that come with enjoying that each day,
Crockett Coffee is now producing that as well, and it's amazing.
Now they keep it simple dark roast, mild roast or
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A portion of every purchase goes support the Tunnel to
(04:01):
Towers Foundation because the people at Crockett Coffee pledge to
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(04:22):
the best cup of coffee of your life. All right,
So I gotta ask you, Senator. I was actually asked
this question today, and they said, hold on a second.
Senator Cruz goes out to Latin America. He's dealing with
and talking about the gangs, he's talking about cartels, he's warning,
don't mess with America. And then all of a sudden,
we see President Trump take out this boat and send
(04:44):
it out to the world. And they're asking me about
the timing. Are you just this good or did you
know something that we didn't know?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, I'll confess we really are that good. Or look,
put it more simply, put it more simply. I know
Donald Trump, I know who he is. My message to
the Mexican government this past week was I think there
is a zero percent chance, not a five percent chance,
not a ten percent chance, a zero percent chance that
(05:14):
four years will pass without President Trump acting decisively to
take out the Mexican drug cartels. And the choice that
I think the Mexican government has is do they they
want the US to do so unilatterly or do they
want to work with us? Do they want to be
our partners? And I told them, listen, we would much
(05:35):
rather work with you. It's a much better situation that
we work collaboratively. But I got to say, they got
fairly worked up. They said, no, no, no, you have to
you have to respect our sovereignty. I said, listen, if
these were just local thugs, if these were pickpockets that
were robbing people in the streets in Mexico City, it
wouldn't be our problem. But these Mexican cartels are murdering Americans,
(05:56):
and so the Commander in Chief has an obligation to
act against them. And I have to say, what just
happened is a powerful illustration of it. Now, what happened
in Venezuela video was put out showing the US military
taking out a drug boat and taking it out. In
the video shows the boat going along and then boomed
the explosion. Eleven suspected trend of Ragua Narco terrorists were
(06:21):
on board the boat. Here's what Fox News has reported.
President Donald Trump shared dramatic video Tuesday of a US
military strike that blew apart a Venezuelan drug boat in
the Southern Caribbean, leaving nearly a dozen suspected trender Ragua
Narco terrorists. Did quote, over the last few minutes, we
literally shot out a boat, a drug carrying boat, Trump
(06:44):
said during a news conference in the Oval Office. A
lot of drugs in that boat, and you'll be seeing that,
and you'll be reading about that. It just happened moments ago.
The strike resulted in an eleven terrorist killed in action.
Trump wrote in a social media post use the US
forces were harmed in the strike. Please let this serve
as a notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs
(07:08):
into the United States of America. Beware, beware. As all caps.
Thank you for your attention to the matter. And it
looks like nine exclamation marks. Now, I got to say
nine exclamation marks for eleven terrorists who blew up. That's
a really powerful message. I got to say. If you
are a narcer terrorist right now, if you're MS thirteen,
(07:29):
if you're trying to row Ragua, if you're any of
the of the cartels that are bringing drugs into this country,
you got to be looking around. You gotta be looking up,
going is there a drone up in the sky right now?
Are they going to take me out next? And that's
the kind of decisive leadership that we see in this
commander in chief that in four years, ask yourself, why
did Joe Biden not do anything to stop the narcer
(07:54):
terrorist who were murdering Americans who were flooding drugs into
this country were producing a massive death toll. More than
one hundred thousand people died last year of drug overdoses.
Seventy percent of that was fetanol. What did Joe Biden do, Well,
it's actually worse than that. Not only to do nothing, Ben,
(08:14):
he was actively opening our border and releasing the terrorists
and the smugglers and the human traffickers and the drug
traffickers who were engaged in this assault on the US,
and and and so I this is it was rather
powerful to remind people.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Let's also just remind people of what you just said
and how real that was. They actually sent to Texas
forkliffs that lifted up the bob wire barriers that were
put down, yeah, to let illegal immigrants into these They
sued Texas like, if.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
There's any yes, so Texas is fighting to keep out
human traffickers and drug traffickers. And the Biden administration, instead
of saying thank you, Texas, let's secure our border, they
went and sued Texas and said, damn it, no, we
need more human traffickers and drug traffickers in America. They
didn't say that, but that's effectively what they.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Said, yeah, no, it's exactly the message that they sent.
I also think one of the interestings about this video,
and if you haven't seen it, it's everywhere on the internet.
I'm sure it's center on your Twitter as well. Go
there and look at it. But it was also and
I think this is part of the message.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
And by the way, for folks that are watching the video,
for folks who are watching this on YouTube or rumble,
we're playing the video right now. So if you're watching
this visually, you can get this as an audio pod,
but you can also watch it visually, so you can
watch the videos we're talking about it.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah, And I think as you talk about it or
see this video, one of the things that I think
is very interesting about the messaging. This boat had no
idea this was about to happen. It wasn't flying through
the water, it wasn't zigzagging, it didn't know it was
under a temp. It was just out there doing its thing,
and then it just got blown up. The psychological message
(10:00):
that's gonna have to send to anybody else thinking about
getting in a boat tonight, tonight, this morning, tomorrow is
you don't know when you're gonna die, But we know
where you are, and you will not be able to
a outrun us because you won't even know where there.
That is a powerful message and I think that's part
of what the President was trying to accomplish.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Amen. You know, Carlo Samanez from Florida said that the
vessel belonged to the Cartel of the Suns and what
he said on X was this is going swimmingly. We
continue and and and the uncertainty of it. It reminds
me of a couple of things. It reminds me, number
number one, of of the Iranian IRGC, the terrorists who
(10:45):
one after the other were taken out were taken out.
We're taken out, and they didn't know what hit them,
and it made them incredibly uncertain. It made them incredibly uncertain.
When Israel we were joking like the IRGC, when the
Iatola would appoint someone as the head of the IRGC,
and Israel would take them out, and then they named
somebody else the head of the RGC. The next day,
Israel would take them out and by like the third
(11:07):
or fourth time, like if the Iotola called you and said, hey, Ben,
you want to be the head of the RGC, what
would you.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Say no, no, hell no, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
A new number who do just don't speak English, Like literally,
you got that job and your life expectancy was about
twenty four hours. You'd point no, no, no, I think he'd
make a much better head of the RGC. The guy
next to me, let's kill him. And the other example
it reminded me of again in the Middle East was
Hesbla and Israel when they carried out the pager operation
(11:41):
where these pagers that Hesbela gave to their senior terrorists
exploded and killed terrorists, wounded terrorists, and then like I
think it was forty eight hours later, they had a
second operation with walkie talkies, and the walkie talkies exploded.
And after forty eight hours of all of these exploding,
for a second, you're Hesblo terrorist and the phone rings
(12:03):
and you've got to be like whoa, whoa, what what
the hell? Like the interium effect of knowing any moment
could be your last. You don't realize it's coming. It
could come from a drone strike in the air, it
could come from a pager exploding. That is a powerful deterrent.
And this ship just cruising along. I guarantee you the
(12:23):
next drug runner that is cruising along in a boat
is going to look up and wondering, wonder, okay, is
there a missile about to explode me into the smithereens.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Let's also talk about the message that was sent not
just to the terrorists, the Narco terrorists, but also to
the message I just sent to Mexico and yeah, to
the leader in Venezuel Maduro, who's got a big bounty
on his head. Last I checked, I think it's fifty
million dollars.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yep, fifty million. So this week Marco Rubio, the Secretary
of State, is traveling to Mexico City, and it's right
after I just came from ex City. I conveyed the
government accept our offer, work with our military take out
the cartels. Claudia Scheinbaum, the President of Mexico, said no,
we reject your offer. Here's what Marco said said on
(13:13):
Twitter today. He said, quote, the President has been very
clear that he's going to use the full power of America,
in the full might of the United States, to take
honor eradicate these drug cartels, no matter where they're operating
from and no matter how long they've been able to
act with impunity. Those days are over, and he went
on to say TDA is a designated foreign terrorist organization
(13:39):
operating under the control of Nicholas Maduro, responsible for mass murder,
drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror
across the United States and the Western hemisphere. Now that
is exactly true of the Mexican drug cartels as well,
every word he said. And so for Maduro, you're right,
there's a fifty million dollar bounty. If you're a Maduro,
(14:00):
you've got to feel really nervous right now that there
is some ambitious general, or maybe not a general, maybe
just a colonel or major in your army who says,
you know what, fifty million dollars sounds pretty good. I
sure would like to live a life of leisure on
an island. Maduro's got to be incredibly nervous. But the cartels,
if the Mexican cartel leaders have to understand they are next.
(14:24):
And if you are a government official in Mexico, you
got to make a choice. Now, by the way, Ben,
it's possible the Mexican government may make the decision. You
know what. We understand that Trump is going to take
out the cartels, But we just can't take the heat
domestically for domestic political reasons of being part of that.
So we would rather be oblivious and not be a
(14:46):
part of it. So we can just yell damn Yankee imperialist,
which is what they would yell if they didn't participate,
because they may decide that's better domestic politics. Well, if
they decide that, that's fine, I understand. That I tried
to convey to them is listen, you're a friend and
ally we would like to cooperate, which with you. The
analogy I used was Columbia with Planned Columbia, where we
(15:10):
worked with the Colombian government. We took out the cartels
in Columbia. This was under George W. Bush. That's the example.
That is the preferable example. But if the Mexican government
is going to bury their head in the sand like
an Ostrich, that does not relieve the commander in chief
of the obligation of protecting Americans. And I think this
week off the shores of Venezuela demonstrated he will act
(15:33):
decisively to protect this country.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
If you've ever listened to the show before, you know
I'm a big advocate for the Second Amendment, and I've
shared on numerous occasions how carrying a firearm literally saved
my life from a gang related attack. But many of
you out there may not feel comfortable carrying a firearm.
Maybe you have a loved one that's just not comfortable.
They need a way to protect themselves. And that's why
I want you to know about Berno launchers. I have them,
(15:57):
and I've given them to many family members. Burn is
a hand and help pistol that fires both kinetic rounds
and chemical irritants to separate you from an attacker. And
I'm here with Josh Cherrard from Bernard to tell us
how carrying a bernat when taking a ride share could
be a really good idea. Josh, what does your team
learn about safety and ride sharing?
Speaker 4 (16:19):
So recently a story has broke about ride share in
fluting Burnet and Lift about the fact that they haven't
been reporting nearly as many attacks between drivers and riders
as previously believed, and unfortunately, some of these are as
serious as sexual assaults, major assaults that are putting people
in the hospital. So what we know is that there
has to be something done in order to improve the
(16:41):
safety from drivers and riders on both ends and Unfortunately,
Uber doesn't allow guns to be carried by riders in
their cars. So we're looking at trying to find better
ways to improve that safety so that when you're riding
in a ride share you understand that you're going to
get from point A to point B and be able
to do it safely.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
And unfortunately a lot of the ride share policies out
there are not allowing writers to carry weapons inside the vehicle.
But a burna is something you can use.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Absolutely. There's explicitly stated in their policies that they do
not allow writers to carry firearms in their cars. However,
those policies say nothing about their lesslie the weapon like
burner launchers, which means that burna is a great solution
for making sure that you can stay safe in these
right shaars.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Look, I got one, I carry one, my wife has
one as well many family members And if you want
more information on how you and your family member can
protect yourselves with a burner launcher, go to Burnaby RNA
dot com. Again, that's burner by RNA dot com Berna
dot com. Right now, Sana, I want to ask you
(17:46):
one final question on this, and that is how quickly
do you think this could ratchet up. I don't believe
this is a one and done. I think this is
the beginning, not the end. I don't believe that President
Trump is bluffing. I don't believe the Secretary of State
in going down to Mexico is a bluff either. The
President has made it clear, whether it's hitting a terrace
(18:08):
on a tarmac in Iraq, whether it's going after ran
nuclear sites, whether it's going after ISIS and wiping them
out or Arkaida, it doesn't matter. And when he said
I'm going to name you terrorists organizations, declare that that's
what you are. That was the beginning. Today was the
beginning of the action. Do you have any reason to
(18:28):
believe that this is not going to be something that
we're going to be talking about for days and weeks ahead.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
No, I think we're going to see this over and
over again. I want to play the clip from when
President Trump described the action in Venezuela. Give a listen
to the President talking about it.
Speaker 5 (18:43):
When you come out, and when you leave the room,
you'll see that we just over the last few minutes
literally shot out a boat, a drug carrying boat, A
lot of drugs in that boat, and you'll be seeing
that and you'll be reading about that just and moments ago.
And our great General, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
(19:06):
who has been so incredible, including what took place in
Iran knocking out potential nuclear power for a long time
to come. I think within a month they would have
had it. We didn't do what we did, but he
gave us a little bit of a briefing and you'll see,
and there's more where that came from. We have a
(19:29):
lot of drugs pouring into our country, coming in for
a long time, and we just these came out of
Venezuela and coming out very heavily from Venezuela. A lot
of things are coming out of Venezuela. So we took
it out and you'll get to see that after this
meeting is over.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
I mean, the President there just seems so calm and collected, like, hey,
I warned you, I told you. Now it's happening. This
is an FAFO moment.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yet again, well, as the President said, there's more where
that came from. I think those were words that were
freighted with import and this really does key into my
meeting last week with the governments of El Salvador and Panama,
but especially Mexico. I described how when I met with
the Mexican Defense Minister, he began the meeting by arguing,
(20:18):
at considerable length, the cartels are not terrorist organizations. And
I got to say, I found that a very odd
thing for him to argue, and obviously I disagreed, and
just as an objective matter, whether he thinks they're terrorist
organizations or not, the United States has designated them as
terrorist organizations, and he said they're not terrorist organizations because
(20:38):
terrorist organizations have a political agenda and they spread fear
and terrify the civilian population. Now, by the way, the
cartels murder thousands, they kidnapped thousands, they intimidate, they spread fear.
By any rational definition, they're a terrorist organization. Now, they're
not motivated by politics. They're not the IRA trying to
(20:59):
free Ireland. There not the PLO trying to overturn or
Hamas trying to overturn the Israeli government. So it's not
political motivations. But it is money and power and control
that motivate them. But their means is terrorism. The way
they exercise power is through murder and rampant violence and
(21:21):
narcotics and and and through spreading fear and terror, and
their consequence is designating the cartels as terrorist organizations is
not just a paperwork notation. Okay, which box do you
check on the paper? It means that we have an authorization. Look,
we take out terrorists all over the world. And being
(21:42):
a terrorist organization means you are now a target. It
means if you're a terrorist organization, look in the sky
because there could be a drone about to light you
up any second. And I want to take a minute
to step back, because when it comes to foreign policy
right now, the bade this country is often simplified to
(22:03):
the point of absurd. Many people put foreign policy as
a bipolar situation. You are either an interventionist, in which
case you want to invade every country on Earth you
always want to send the Marines, or you're an isolationist
and you want to do nothing and withdrawal from the
world and never engage. And I have long believed both
(22:23):
of those polls are wrong. I think the vast majority
of the American people disagree with the interventionists and disagree
with the isolationists. And yet almost all of foreign policy
in politics, in the media is treated as if those
are the only two choices. I have long considered myself
a third point on the triangle. I consider myself a
(22:44):
non interventionist hawk. And here's the point I want to make.
I think Donald Trump is as well. I agree with
President Trump's foreign policy. America First is not interventionist, but
it is not isolationists. And there are whole bunch of
people in politics on Twitter it is. It seems there's
an army devoted to claiming America First is isolationists. And
(23:06):
let me just say the facts are to the contrary.
Donald Trump is not an isolationist, despite every effort Tucker
Carlson tries to make, and Tucker every day goes on
and on and on about Trump is an isolationist, and
he just ignores reality. Because look, in the first term
Donald Trump, when he came into office, Isis had a
caliphate the size of the state of Indiana. Trump came
(23:30):
in obliterated ISIS, destroyed their caliphate, took them out entirely.
Donald Trump took out General Solomoni, he took out Al Bagdatti.
Those are not the actions of an isolationists. The second term,
Trump began by bombing the hell out of the Huthis
who were attacking US shipping vessels and other shipping vessels
(23:50):
in the Suez Canal. That's not the act of an isolationist.
He then launched an incredibly important, a critical bombing ron
on the Iranian nuclear facilities that most definitely was not
the actions of an isolationists. And right now today taking
out these narcer terrorists in Venezuela, that is not the
act of an isolationists. Now understand the fact that President
(24:14):
Trump is willing to act and act militarily to take
out our enemies does not mean that he's an interventionist.
Notice that Trump hasn't invaded any countries. I don't believe
he's going to send the Marines into Iran. I don't
believe he's going to send the Marines into Venezuela or Mexico.
And by the way, I would oppose it if he did.
I don't agree with doing that. But there is a
(24:37):
big difference between targeted use of force against enemies of
America and trying to invade other countries and turn them
into democracies. And there's another point I want to make.
Many on the left, many democrats, many in the media,
and also many isolationists on the right believe that when
(24:58):
you withdraw from the world, that's how you have I
want to make the case that's exactly backwards. Look, Joe
Biden was the weakest, most impotent commander in chief we
have seen since Jimmy Carter. And that weakness, just like
Jimmy Carter, it encouraged the radicals in Iran to foment
(25:18):
a revolution, to take over the embassy, to take Americans
hostage for four hundred and forty four days. The same
was true under Joe Biden. The war in Ukraine was
caused because Putin was emboldened. October seventh was caused because
Iran and Hamas and Hesbela were emboldened. If you want
to avoid war, I believe, as Ronald Reagan put it
(25:40):
in peace through strength, I believe as President Trump puts
it in America first. And the way you avoid war
is being strong enough that nobody in their right mind
wants to mess with you. That's how you avoid war.
And I got to say this action taking out the terrorist,
it's a step in the right direction, all.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Right, center to bring it back home to something. And
you talk about cleaning things up, that's what President Trump
is city's going to do with the terrorists and those
that are bringing drugs in this country, but he's also
doing big things in different cities. And now you have
introduced the Clean DC Act. Explain to us what this is.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Well, the principle is very much the same as we
were talking about in foreign policy with the terrorists, which is,
when you react with weakness, the result is domestically, you
get more and more crime. When you react with weakness abroad,
the result is internationally you get more and more terrorism
and more and more enemies attacking. The converse is true
(26:41):
when you react with strength with regard to crime. When
you lock up murderers and rapists and child molesters, you
get fewer violent crimes number one because of deterrence. Number two,
because of prevention, you get the bad guys off the street.
In DC, the murder rate has consistently been one of
the highest in the entire country. Among large cities, is
twenty seven homicides per one hundred thousand residents each year.
(27:04):
That is higher than Bogota, Columbia, d C. Not only that,
but if you look at at vehicle theft, vehicle theft
is eight hundred and forty two per one hundred thousand residents,
which is three times the national average, and carjackings have
tripled in recent years. I'll tell you actually, one time
I was filming several years ago, I was filming Verdict.
(27:25):
It was a little past midnight, and we had our
truck parked on the street. I was in the studio
filming it. The truck was broken into and my briefcase
was stolen on the streets of d C. If you
look at d C, which is our nation's capital, you've
got elected representatives and staff from all fifty states, from
all over the country. We had earlier this year we
(27:45):
had a staffer from the White House from DOGE who
was violently assaulted in d C, beaten up by ten
juvenile offenders. Had we hadn't in recent years. We had
a staffer for Rand Paul who was stabbed in the
middle of the afternoon on DC Street. We had a
former official in the first Trump administration who was shot
(28:06):
and killed at five o'clock in the afternoon, parked in
his car on a d C street. The violence is
out of control, and it was made worse by a
twenty twenty two law. Twenty twenty two law in the
wake of the George Floyd killing in the Black Lives
Matter protest, when anti police fervor was driving the left crazy,
(28:27):
the DC City Council and the DC Mayor came in
and they passed a law that lessened the penalties for
violent crimes almost entirely across the board. They lessened the
penalty for murder, they lessened the penalty for carjacking, they
lessened the penalty for violent assault. And the effect, understandably
was those crimes all increased. If you lessen the penalty
(28:47):
for violent crime, the crimes increased. And this is the
thing that the left doesn't understand. We saw a Democrat Congressman,
Henry Quaar from Texas who was carjacked in his car
at about eight or nine o'clock at night. He was
coming home with his dinner and he was carjacked outside
an apartment building that, if I remember correctly, five other
(29:08):
congressmen lived in. That's how bad it was. Now, I
will tell you in the past Congress. Congress took up
legislation to reverse that twenty twenty two law. It passed
the House, and it passed the Senate, and then Joe
Biden vetoed it Joe Biden decided, all right, we're not
going to let this go into effect. Well, I've introduced
again legislation that is called the Clean DC Act. And
(29:31):
the Clean DC Act is very simple. It is designed
to repeal the twenty twenty two law lessening the penalty
for violent crimes, and the Clean d C Act we're
pushing for a vote. I think the House may vote
on it as soon as the next week or two.
I'll tell you the Clean DC Act. It's supported by
(29:52):
the DC Police Union, it's supported by the Fraternal Order
of the Police, and it's a good opportunity. I think
every member of Congress, every day Democrat, every House member,
needs to decide, Okay, where do you stand? Do you
stand with the violent criminals? Do you stand with the murderers,
do you stand with a rapist? Will you do you
stand with the carjackers? Or do you stand with the
(30:13):
citizens of America? That ought to be an easy vote,
although sadly I'm going to predict I think an awful
lot of Democrats are going to vote with criminals.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah, it really does tell you where the Democrats mindset
is right now, where they can't even agree that criminals
should be held accountable, and it also just amazing tells
you about how sinister they are, which brings us to
our final story. The idea that because the president wasn't
seen like twenty four to seven, totally different than Joe
Biden when he was president, by the way, but somehow
(30:43):
he was dead was a trend on social media and
Democrats were celebrating it.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
Now.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
It really was bizarre. The left was losing their mind
because a couple of days President Trump hadn't done a
public event, and so suddenly the left, they were so excited,
they were so excited that, oh, this means Trump is
really sick. He's in the hospital, he's at a stroke,
he's dead. You know, Andrew Yang, you remember the Democratic
(31:11):
ran for president. He tweeted out, quote, I would be
pumped to have a president whose physical vitality or mental
fitness wasn't an ongoing issue or concern. It's like, what
where the hell were the Democrats during the last four
years of Joe Biden. The man was almost publicly in
a coma for four years. He was drooling and coloring
(31:34):
with crayons, and the Democrats are like, nothing to see here, No, no, no,
it's perfectly fine. Yes, we have a White House staffer
we dress as a giant Easter bunny to lead him away,
to keep him out of trouble. But there's nothing to
see here, and I got to say so. So today
President Trump was asked about this by Peter Doucy, and
in fact, Peter Deucy asked about the stories that he'd
(31:55):
been dead. Listen to the exchange between Peter Doucy and
President Trump about a big viral social media trend over
the weekend. How did you find out over the weekend
that you were dead?
Speaker 4 (32:08):
Do you see that?
Speaker 2 (32:09):
No, people didn't see him a couple of days, one
point three million user engagements as of Saturday morning about
your demides.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
Really, I didn't see that, you know, I have heard
it's sort of crazy. But last week I did numerous
news conferences, all successful. They went very well, like this
is going very well, And then I didn't do any
for two days, and they said there must be something
wrong with him. Biden wouldn't do him for months. You
wouldn't see him, and nobody ever said there was ever
(32:37):
anything wrong with him, and we know he wasn't in
the greatest of shape. No, I heard that. I get
reports now you knew. I did an interview that lasted
for about an hour and a half with somebody and everybody,
So that was on one of your competitors. I did
numerous shows and also did a number of truths, long
truth so I think, pretty poignant truth. Very active over
(33:00):
the weekend. They also went out to visit some people
at the at the club that I own pretty nearby
on the Potomac River. And now I've been very active
actually over the weekend. I didn't hear that one. That's
pretty serious. Well, it's fake news, you know, it's just
so it's so fake. That's why the media has so
little credibility. I knew they you were saying, like, is
(33:24):
he okay, how's he feeling? What's wrong? I said, I
just left. And it's also sort of a longer weekend.
You know, it's Labor Day weekend, so I would say
a lot of people. No, I was very active this
Labor Day. I had heard that, but I didn't hear
to that extent.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
I love how the president just trolls the media on
this one, like, yeah, you guys are a bunch of scumbags,
and I'm not surprised that this is what you did.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
No, Look, it was absurd. I mean, this president. You
can disagree with them on substance, you can disagree with
him on style, but the man has enormous energy. I mean,
if you look at the first seven months of this administration,
I think they're There's been no administration in a lifetime
that has had more velocity and volume and action, and
it has been incredible. And this president he is going
(34:09):
This weekend, actually, President Trump called me. I talked to
him this weekend. He was in great spirits. We were
talking to.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Tim while he was dead but alive. Oh yes, breaking
ye yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
And oddly enough, I didn't have a Ouiji board. I
didn't have to do a seance, and he was kind
of and it was we were not talking about are
u R right? He was key called me on an
issue that he and I had been working on. So
we had a substance of conversation. You know, Today the
President announced that there was going to be a White
House address at two o'clock, and I got to say,
Twitter went crazy with anticipation, and I think people expected
(34:41):
them to announce. Okay, President Trump is dead. He's entered
a permanent vegetative state. He's resigning like like like the
left was, they were beside themselves, but particularly egregious. I
want you to listen to Tim Waltz. Tim Waltz is
the governor of Minnesota. He's a weird dude, and you'll remember,
(35:01):
for like twelve seconds he was Kamala Harris's vice presidential nominee.
Give a listen to what Tim Waltz had to say
about President Trump and his hopes that the president was dead.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
And get up in the morning and you doom scroll
through things. And although I will say this, the last
few days you woke up thinking there might be news,
just saying, just saying there will be news sometime, just
so you know there will be news.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
I mean, that's sick. And that's the guy who ran
for vice president of the Democratic Party.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Let me say that is sick. And I have never
wished death upon Joe Biden or Barack Obama or Hillary
Clinton or any of the Democrat leaders the president of
the United States, whether you agree with them or not.
What the hell is wrong with these people where they
say they wake up every day hoping, please please please
let me see that he is dead. You know, there
(35:54):
used to be a notion. Listen when Barack Obama was president,
I disagreed with all lot of the policies that he implemented.
I think they did a lot of damage, a lot
of harm to this country. But I wish success on him.
I wanted America to succeed. You know, we talked about
earlier this year President Trump State of the Union address.
I've been to thirteen State of the Union addresses. Every
(36:16):
single one begins the same way with the sergeant at
arm calling out the President of the United States. And
twelve of the thirteen i've been to. Every House member
and senator stands and applauds. And that's true, whether it's
a Democrat or Republican, whether it's your party of the
other party, you respect the office. And so when Barack
Obama walked onto the floor of the House, I stood
(36:39):
and applauded for him. When Joe Biden walked on the
floor of the House, I stood and applauded for him.
This year, when Trump walked under the floor, every single
Democrat I saw states sitting and would not applaud. And
there's something really wrong when you were openly cheering for
the President of the United States to die and the
(36:59):
people people laughing, and I suspect there were reporters there
and there were also leftist activists. The people laughing and cheering,
there's something just fundamentally wrong about that.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Yeah, it really is. Don't forget. We do this show Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday. We're gonna keep you update on all the
biggest breaking news and the stories the media refuses to cover.
So hit that subscriber auto download button wherever you are
on social media, and wherever you are share I stay
on social media and download it. Wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also tell Siri or Alexa play Verdic with
(37:32):
tech Cruise and it will do it for you just
that easily. And the Senate and I will see you
back here in a couple of days
Host
Ben Ferguson
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