1. Drone Rescue of U.S. Soldiers in Iran
-
- American soldiers being shot down or stranded in Iran
- A rescue mission using drones, possibly highlighting advanced military technology
- The event is historic:
- A first-of-its-kind use of drones in rescue operations, built in Texas
- Or a significant geopolitical or military milestone
2. Minnesota Democrats & Private Investigators
-
- Allegations that Minnesota Democratic figures (or groups) hired private investigators
- The purpose: allegedly targeting fraud whistleblowers
- Descriptions of fraud allegations (possibly in government programs or funding)
- Claims of retaliation against whistleblowers
- Political framing or criticism of one party’s actions
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome its Verdict with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
It's also the Ben Ferguson Podcast. We're doing a dual
podcast because I'm on family vacation and we're still working
at one in the morning to give you all the
news out there. They're also getting a hard time before
the show started, saying that Center, you look much better
than I look tonight.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
That's what they keep telling me.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I just want to know if we have an official
statement from you on that real quick before we get
going here. Is this true? You were saying that you
look better at one am than I do.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Well, that's not me saying that. That's the entire production team.
And to be fair, we do primarily a radio and
audio show. So in radio and audio we both look gorgeous,
or to quote Saturday Night Live Ben r R look marbelous.
For me, I rather look good than Field good.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Model it.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I tell you, you know what, at least you know once
in the career of Verdict that you definitely they say.
It may just be the shot looks better, the studio
looks better. You know, I'm in a hotel room with
an ac behind me. This is what you get. But
We do have a pack show for you, and we
have a lot to talk about politically, including just an
incredible story that's coming from a company in Texas that
(01:14):
we're going to get into and it's just amazing.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
So welcome to the twenty first century. We had this week,
we had tragically two US servicemen in an Apache helicopter
shot down by Iran. They were shot down, they fell
in the water, and we had, for the very first
time in the history of the United States and the
history of the world and warfare, we had them rescued
(01:40):
not by a ship, not by sailors, but by a
drone ship, a drone ship with no pilots, no sailors,
that came and rescued them. That ship is manufactured by Saronic,
a company based in Austin, Texas. We're going to break
that down for you. We're also going to talk about
the stunning news that broke that that the governor of Minnesota,
(02:04):
Tim Waltz, that that that towering mountain of masculinity rivaled
only by James cal Rico.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
It turns out he hired private investigators to go after
government employees who whistled blue on. Is that the right
past tense whistle blue whistle blow like uh, whistleblowers who
blew the whistle? There we go, okay, that.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
That that much is better true.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
On the fraud in the state, and and and being
a paragon of integrity, being like like most Democrats, concerned
about not robbing the taxpayers. Instead of going after the fraud,
he went after and persecuted the government employees who were
pointing out the fraud.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
We're gonna give you the facts on that.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Also, Yeah, it's a really really interesting story there.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Let me also talk to you about a really neat
organization and one that I want you to know about
and hopefully you'll get involved in, and is Americans United
for Life. There was obvious a massive victory that happened
in this country with the overturning of Roe v. Wade,
But what it really meant was the issue of abortion
would go back to the states, and that is where
(03:10):
the real fight has actually begun. Now, over the past
fifty years, Americans United for Life has filed more than
two hundred legal briefs and also helped create at least
four hundred pro life bills in over forty states by
writing model legislation. They are consulting with state legislators and
defending their own laws and other pro life statues in court. Now,
(03:34):
Aul's dual front approach of writing and defending legislation has
proved an effective one that could become even more impactful
as pro life state legislators moved to enact protections for
preborn babies and their mothers. Now that the legality of
abortion has returned to the states, that is where you
(03:55):
come in. You and I had the opportunity to overturn
pro abortion laws and advance pro life legislation that attacks
the most vulnerable in our society, from the womb to
the tomb. Together, we can shape the future of our
nation through life affirming legislation in every state. Now, a
(04:16):
gift of just twenty five dollars helps hold abortion providers
accountable and helps protect women and unborn children across this country.
And now through a match, your gift is doubled. Donate
securely at AUL dot org slash verdict. That's a UL
(04:39):
dot org slash verdict sponsored by Americans United for Life.
All right, So, Centata, let's get into this first story
and you said it best.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Welcome to Just Technology.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
In twenty twenty six, for the first time in history,
you had a drone boat that saved the lives of
two Americans that were shut down by Iran. There's no pilot, like,
no one on board. This is a boat just like
a drone in the sky that is controlled by you know,
a joystick, and it was able to go extremely fast,
(05:16):
get these guys and get out before the enemy could
touch them.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
This is unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
And the best part is this technology is coming out
of the United States American In fact, it's coming out
of Texas well.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
It's not even directly controlled by a joystick. It's actually
AI that controls this. And this is a company based
in Austin. I've been to their factory. I've seen their factory.
It's amazing that they're building these ships. And the ships
are and they have all sorts of different sizes. They
have bigger ones, they have smaller ones. They're going to
have drone ships that are are over one hundred and
(05:50):
fifty feet long that are big ships. But they also
have smaller military vessels. And then they have really small drones.
And these drones can do all sorts of things. They're
all boats, but they could do surveillance, they can do espionage,
they can do military combat, they could be armed with weaponry.
They can transport supplies. If you're trying to say resupply
(06:14):
soldiers that are in a form forward combat position, they
can resupply them. So this is all coming out of Austin, Texas.
It's amazing technology. And what precipitated it is that that earlier,
earlier today, an armed Iranian shah Head drone struck a
US Apache helicopter and it went down in the sea
(06:37):
off the coast of Aman on Monday. US Central Command
reported that the helicopter was on patrol when it was
struck by the drone, but the two pilots who were
aboard the Apache helicopter were safely rescued with it about
two hours of the strike. And and it's worth here
we're going to play the Fox News report that covered it.
(06:59):
And for those of you who are watching this on YouTube,
you could watch the video of this drone ship that
was responsible for rescuing our soldiers in combat.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Give a listen, give watch Deron's under attack.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Trump ordered Sentcom to launch self defense strikes after an
enemy drone took down an Apache helicopter patrolling the straight
The two pilots were rescued out of the water by
an unmanned sea drone operated by Task Force fifty nine
in Bahrain.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
The drones Texas made.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
It's twenty four feet long and can travel one thousand
miles and hit speeds of thirty five knots, and it's
the first sea drone rescue in combat history. Trump was
on the phone with the press when he gave the order.
Podas said, this is a retaliation for the helicopter hit,
and it's important that our response is strong and powerful.
(07:50):
Sentcom called our response proportional. But sources say we're taking
out Iranian air defenses, radar systems all along the Straight
and we're not finished tech. I know it doesn't seem
like it, but we're still in a ceasefire. And the
President continues to say we're close to a.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Deal where in the final throes of what will be
a very very good deal that will not allow in
any way, shape or form, nuclear weapons, etc.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
And then straight will open up right away.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
It'll open up immediately upon signing, which could be a
two or three days.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
Trump's made the terms clear. The uranium must be turned
over and destroyed. Enrichmond must stop for two decades at least,
all nuclear sites must be completely dismantled, and the United
States is able to conduct snap inspections whenever the heck
we want.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
You listen that report and it goes back to the
bigger issue in the war in what we're trying to
accomplish their senator, But you go back to just the
beginning of it.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Thirty five knots. That's about forty miles an hour in
rough seas.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
That's incredibly fast, especially if you're twenty five foot boat.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
As they described here.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
This technology allows these boats to go faster than what
most like if you're a human riding in a boat
and heavy seas and rough seas, going at that speed
is going to be very risky to you. This takes
that away as well, which again talks about how the
speed they were able to actually get to these two
pilots that have been shot down.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yeah, and look, it's a manifestation of the new age
of warfare where where these drone ships are not massively expensive.
You look at aircraft carriers and expensive ships that can
cost hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars that
are powered with nuclear reactors. That's been how we've approached
(09:39):
naval power for seventy years, and now we have a
scenario where these drones are not terribly expensive to be built.
They can be built at scale and you can deploy
one of them, or ten of them, or a thousand
of them, or ten thousand of them, and the ability
and with AI you can control Look, ten thousand in
(10:02):
a normal world, you'd have to have ten thousand captains
piloting them. You could have AI and you can assign
You could assign, for example, ten thousand drone ships patrol
this area. AI can direct them, but they're searching and
they'll engage in espionage and gain engage in reporting on
what they find. You can train them to protect protect
(10:26):
a particular ship, protect something that's going on, protect a
port or harbor. They can do that. You can assign
them go intercept this vessel. And if they're armed with
ordnance that they can fire torpedoes, they.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
Could have explosives.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
And because the ships themselves are not super expensive, it
also means that if you lose one ship or ten
or one hundred, it's not the end of the world.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
It's not that is risks.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, and it's look we're saying the same thing with
aerial drones where we're headed very quick to a world
and some of this we're actually getting some foreshadowing of
this with the war in Ukraine where the battle between
Ukraine and Russia, much of it is involving drones and
the ability to have thousands or tens of thousands of
drones and instead of one big, really expensive thing, lots
(11:17):
and lots of smaller, less expensive things which can overwhelm
the previous technology. And I got to say that having
been to the factory. Look, these guys are a startup
at Austin, Texas. I know, I know the CEO, I
know the lead funders, and they're you know, young techies
who are entrepreneurial.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Who have a vision and and and.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Their desire to scale this. It is very cool. This
is the first drone rescue at sea in combat in
the history of the world. And you know what, this
is not going to be the last. We're going to
see a lot more. By the way, there are civilian
applications of this that.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
That have nothing to do with combat.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Look, look, the Coastguard, I would just say, I literally
was talking the Coastguard as we were on FAMI vacation
and one of the guys I saw and you know,
just saying things. But one of the things that was
cool they were talking about is technology. They said a
lot of times the helicopters when there's the worst weather
and boats get in trouble, they can be commercial vessels,
(12:20):
they can be recreational, they can be commercial fishing boats
when things get really bad with weather. Unfortunately, sometimes the
weather's too bad to go out right at that moment in.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
A helicopter because it's so bad.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
But if you have drones that you can risk no
life going out there, it changes the entire way that
it works. And there's some of that are afraid, like, hey,
well that's gonna take jobs and in a way human beings.
But if you can't be there in that moment and
you can send out a drone that could quite possibly
save your life, that a normal. If it's if it's
(12:53):
if it's you know, man controlled, you just can't take
that risk and you come back it's too rough. You
can throw drones out there and saved countless lives in
that scenario. This is technology that is life changing.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Yeah, and I will say, Ben, have you ever met
Coast Guard swimmers?
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Yes, they're unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Yeah, yeah, I mean they're kind of they're the equivalent
of Navy seals or Delta Force green berets. They're the
most badass coasters. Yeah, and I met met a number
of them, particularly in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. So
Hurricane Harvey was a twenty seventeen was at the time
(13:34):
the second most costly natural disaster in American history, did
massive damage all the way down from Corpus Christi all
the way up hundreds of miles up the Texas coast
to the border right with Louisiana, and it just was
devastating damage. And the coasts that these swimmers would go
out and these guys you meet them, and they're like
(13:57):
twenty year old guys, and it sorts sort of imagine
like g I. Joe combined with a California surfer dude.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
So they're guys.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
They have these, you know, enormous chests because they're like
massive swimmers, and so imagine Michael Phelps with these like
long ass arms and like massive swimmers, but with sort
of bleach blonde hair and they've got like shades hanging
from their head and they're like, yeah, Brook, like it's
it's it's they're not.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Like guys that that you also met that save people's
lives and the flooding that happened in Texas not that.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Yes, yes, look last summer fourth of July. But these swimmers,
they will get on helicopters in the middle of a
hurricane where you've got waves in the ocean that are
ten twenty feet high that are terrify, and these guys
will jump out of a helicopter into the crashing waves
and go rescue someone. And it is there's a fearlessness
(14:59):
to not only jumping in crashing twenty foot waves, which
which most of us, if we're in those waves, are
going to die. Yeah, but they'll don't jump in when
there are people in harm's way, and they'll go grab them.
To be clear, if you or I were in twenty
foot waves and drowning, someone came, we grab on them
and pull on and you're terrified, Like they know they're
gonna go rescue someone who's freaking out, who's gonna not intentionally,
(15:22):
but it's going to effectively try to pull them under, and.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
They're just they're really cool. But you're right, there.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Are times where the weather is so bad you can't
send the chopper in, and and and the ability to
send a drone in to have something to rescue, Say,
you know someone that's out, you know, just just on
a boat and gets in trouble.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
That is game changing.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
And that's coming out of Tech Texas and all of
the new tech that is based in Texas.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, it really is an incredible story. Every once in
a while you get a feel good story like this,
and we should celebrate it. It also is a reminder,
I think of whine's so important to make sure that
we're adequately funding technology. You've talked about this, and I've
talked about this a lot.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Center.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
This is a perfect example of us winning the war
on AI to make sure that our adversary, China is
not leading the way on AI. If this is AI controlled,
this goes and this is one of those examples. I
do think we should highlight it for a second. This
is why America has to win the AI race. You
have less us and you've been warning on this issue,
(16:27):
and I think we should just take them out. Remind
people if we aren't in charge of this, our adversary
would be and that's a scary world as well.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
And by the way, If China masters this technology before
we do, that is a generation skipping advance in technology.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
And if they have the ability to.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Send a thousand or ten thousand or one hundred thousand
AI controlled drones at one of.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
Our aircraft carriers, there's a real risk that.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
You know, the weapons we have to take say surface,
surface to surface missiles or bombs we have, you know
those Our aircraft carriers are incredibly expensive and powerful tools,
but they were made to take out a limited number
of ordinance and not just massive drone assaults. We're shifting
(17:17):
to a new technology where look, if we're in a
conflict with a smaller rival, that's less dangerous. Although you
know what in times even terrorists and smaller rivals, we're
going to see. We're going to see more and more
military attacks using drones. We're going to see things. We're
going to see assassinations, We're going to see people killed
(17:40):
using drones. That is, unfortunately, where the future is heading.
One of the things the US military is investing in
heavily with American technology is counter drone technology. How do
you take out how do you take out drones that
are attacking you? And some of what is working is
lower cost ordinance that that that you can't fire a
(18:01):
patriot missile at every drone coming in. It just the
cost differential. They can swarm you. So you know, is
at another Texas company where they're building basically the equivalent
of a really big, badass machine gun that is power
that is firing like fifty cow rounds, but is firing
(18:24):
them with AI where they could target hundreds or thousands
of drones. But the cost of a round is not
very expensive. So instead of spending an entire patriot missile
or something that you have limited supply of, we have
essentially unlimited supply of rounds and so but using those
(18:44):
robot powered with AI to take out takeout attacks in scale.
More and more of that is coming in. There are
different ways to take out drones. You've got ordinance, you've
got laser and microwave, and we're exploring all sorts of
different technolologies to take out a hostile drone. But if
we lose this race, we would be at a serious
(19:06):
military disadvantage to China. We can't let that happen, and
I don't think we're going to.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
All right, I want to move on to this other
incredible story center coming out of Minnesota, and in life,
especially in government work, you're told that if you're a
whistleblower that you have protections and that if you're a whistleblower,
you should not be afraid for your job or that
someone's going to come after you, certainly the government that
you work for. Well, apparently that's not the case in Minnesota.
(19:35):
And if you want to know how the Somali fraud
got so bad, it might actually be because the governor
was coming after the whistleblower, not those that were committing
the crimes in Minnesota with his new shocking report.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Well, that is inevitably number one the law federal law
and typically state law that protects whistleblowers, that gives you
legal protection because you want whistleblowers to call attention to fraud.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
But number two, if a government official goes after the whistleblowers,
attacks the whistleblowers, refuses to follow the law and whistleblowers,
that is powerful indication of a guilty mind that you're
covering something up. It's sort of like if if someone
is is murdered in Central Park and and you catch
(20:24):
a person burning their clothes from that night and destroying
the murder weapon. Yeah, that is powerful, powerful evidence that
they're the murderer. That that that that that that it
is typically the guilty who destroys evidence, who tries to
cover it up.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
That that that that if you're.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Not guilty, you have far less motivation, far less likelihood
to try to silence whistleblowers.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
To try to destroy evidence.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
So here's the story that broke in the Daily Caller.
The headline is Tim Walls's staff hired private investigators to
silence fraud whistleblowers. Committee report finds senior minisot to state
officials allegedly hired outside investigators to silence whistleblowers in an
attempt to cover up widespread state social services fraud. A
(21:09):
House committee report released Monday found The two hundred page
staff report by the House Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform found that Democrat Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz's state's administration
intimidated and retaliated against state employees who raised concerns about fraud,
solicitings private investigators investigators to reveal employees' personal details. Report
(21:36):
titled the Cost of Doing Nothing, How Tim Waltson Keith
Ellison fueled Minnesota's fraud explosion exposed that senior state officials
as high as allegedly Governor Waltz, were aware of widespread
fraud for years and neglected to respond to reports. A
Minnesota Department of Education official who contacted the FBI told
(21:58):
federal investigators she was pressured quote at every turn by
her superiors to stop raising fraud concerns and was quote
hand slapped when she continued to investigate. According to the report,
the official also reported that she was warned by state
administrators to quote stop digging into things, as it would
(22:21):
appear that she was quote.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Targeting certain groups.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
This is DEI and fraud all coming together along with
corruption to elect Democrats. The article continues. Dozens of other
whistleblowers reported dozens that they were told to stay silent
about fraud concerns by the Minnesota Department of Human Services
because they would be labeled quote racist or Islamophobic. DHS
(22:50):
also told state employees that raising fraud concerns would harm
the state.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
The report said.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Whistleblowers reported the DHS conducted arbitrary and vs instigations to
photograph their cars and houses, monitor their phones and computers,
and asked employees where their kids attended school. Now that
it's going to get worse, then temporary Commissioner Sharene Gandhi.
(23:18):
By the way, I'm going to give you some foreshadowing
that that miss Gandhi did not behave like Gandhi. Instead,
she confirmed and a testimony copied in the report, that
the State Department used outside entities to conduct these investigations
(23:39):
of employees, but could not confirm whether independent law firms
were used. Gandhi also confirmed in her testimony that DHS
management would regularly meet and quote check in on employees
who had reported fraud concerns. Gandhi continued to conduct these
check ins on DHS whistleblower Fay Bernstein quote a year
(24:02):
or two after her investigatory leave. So they hunted them
down and they stayed harassing them. Bernstein alleged that Gandhi
quote shamed her in a meeting after she raised concerns
about fraud and quote excluded her from further meetings on
the topic. Whistleblowers also alleged that former state Commissioner Jody
Harpstead held a division wide meeting and told attendees that quote,
(24:26):
employees would be punished if they reported concerns about fraud
and DHS programs. According to the report, DHS employee Emmanuel Nuala
told colleagues that he quote did intelligence research within the
army and appears to have threatened to provide IP addresses
(24:48):
to former colleagues in order to find the locations of
whistleblower's email addresses, an email obtained through a public data request.
Now it's about to get even worse. The report also
alleged that DHS d anonymized an internal fraud hotline for
(25:14):
employees in an attempt to intimidate fraud reporters. After whistleblowers
later created an anonymous external email to report fraud, DHS blocked.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
The email address.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
Whistleblowers reported that their fraud hotline tips were sent to
human resources and used against them. The hotline was originally anonymous,
but was de anonymized under Gandhi's tenure as deputy Commissioner
of HR. Governor Waltz appointed Gandhi's commissioner of DHS in
(25:49):
February twenty twenty six, but removed her in May before
her confirmation hearing amid scrutiny of her response to fraud allegations.
This is anyone who claims Gosh, the elected officials of Minnesota.
They were victims, they didn't know they wanted to go
after the fraud, which, by the way, both Waltz and
(26:12):
Ellison keep saying, Oh, we wanted to go after the fraud,
we wanted to prosecute it. This demonstrates, I think powerfully
they are lying. Not only did they not want to
go after the fraud, they were doing everything they could
to silence the whistleblowers and prevent anyone from knowing about
the fraud.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Yeah, and this goes back to the other question of accountability.
If everything that we just mentioned turns out to be true,
there's obviously now an open investigation into this. If you
do these things, are you breaking the law? And if
it goes all the way the governor is he breaking
the law? And the peuple below him are they breaking
(26:51):
the law? And is there any accountability for this or
is this just well walt isn't running for reelection, so
it doesn't really matter anymore and we'll just move on
and yeah, we may continue to do things like this
in the future without accountability.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Listen, the Department of Justice has created an entire new
division focused going after fraud, and I hope everyone who
made these decisions faces accountability if they committed criminal violations,
that they are prosecuted.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
I am hopeful.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
I can tell you I'm urging the Department of Justice
hold them accountable. To the way our constitutional system works.
It's not the legislature. Look, I'm in the Senate. I
can't prosecute anybody. I don't have executive authority. I have
legislative authority. I can write legislation, which I have, but
I can't the power to bring an indictment, the power
to go before a grand jury, to get an indictment,
(27:41):
to prosecute. That is exclusively within the executive branch, within
principally the US Department of Justice at the federal level.
And so I can tell you this, I am urging
the Attorney General and DOJ prosecute every single person who
committed criminal acts, who covered up this fraud, who benefited
from it, who knew what they were doing. And this
(28:03):
is this is a real smoking gun.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
And at the age I go back to Ellison there
we know his name.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Well, if he's involved in this and is using and
weaponizing the government to go after those that were not
committing the fraud, those that were trying to whistle blow
on the fraud fraud and they are harassed. Is there
any lane for the people that were being harassed to
somehow have like, you know, restitution for what they went through.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
If you're being.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Harassed for two years after you put in a tip,
that's got to put a lot of stress on your life.
I'm assuming it puts stress in your career. I'm assuming
it could have affected a lot of people getting promotions
that they deserved.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Look, and I would assume we're going to see civil
litigation of people fire filing lawsuits and seeking compensation for this,
and that litigation could well be successful. In terms of
criminal prosecution, this would not surprise me. I don't know
sitting here. Uh if if Minnesota law makes doing this
(29:04):
a criminal violation in Minnesota. Now, of course, the federal
government can't prosecute violations of Minnesota law. It would take
a a Minnesota district attorney, uh to bring that case.
And and I got to admit, I'm very skeptical that
that that there are any prosecutors in Minnesota willing to
hold the corrupt Democrats in charge of that state accountable.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
If they're not, then there's not really a mechanism to
enforce Minnesota law, which means you would be left with
with federal law. And given that these are federal funds
that were effectively being stolen and fund funneled to Somali
fund funneled to Somalian fraudsters being sent, among other places,
to al Shabab.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
And we before h.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
On this podcast that the single largest funder of al
shaba law, which is the Jota Islamic rorist group that
is in Somalia. They're number one funder, was the taxpayers
of Minnesota. And those are also federal taxpayer money. So look,
I expect the Department of Justice. They've already prosecuted a
number of the fraudsters at the lower level, but I
(30:10):
hope they go right up the ladder of accountability and
any politicians that are responsible. And to be clear, this
happened because it was in politicians' political interest for this
to happen, because they were getting money from campaign donations
and they were getting votes from allowing Somalian fraudsters to
(30:32):
rob the taxpayers of Minnesota and the American taxpayers. And
look that this has happened also in other states. It's
happened in Maine under the Democrat governor there. It's happened
in California, It's happened in Illinois. It's happened, I think,
all over the country, but predominantly in Democrat states where
(30:52):
there are Democrat politicians who were benefiting from turning the
other way to fraud. And I think every wan who
committed a criminal act should face prosecution and real consequences.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Yeah, this is the story we're gonna follow. I can
promise you that.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
So don't forget Senor Cruise and I do this podcast
three days a week. You can hit that subscriber auto
download button there. Also, if you're listening on the Ben
Ferguson podcast, you know I do the show every day,
even on family vacation. We're doing the show here and center.
Thanks for thanks for doing a joint pod with me.
Get a little more time with a family. We will
see you back here.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
And look, Bet Ben, I, I for one just want
to congratulate you on doing the podcast while not wearing
pants like like that. You're on vacation, and you know
it's good to bring that form. We only shoot from
the way stops.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
I'm so exhausted right now. I don't even have it
in me to fight you on this. I'm just gonna
go with that narrative. That is how tired the boys
have warned me out on this family vacation. I'm like, sure,
I'll go with anything right now.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Don't forget.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
We do the show like I said, Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
and you can watch it on YouTube as well and
the Center. I will see you back here on Friday
morning on Verdict with Ted Cruz, Down with It, whatever
your podcast, I'll see you tomorrow in the Ben Ferguson
podcasts as well
Welcome its Verdict with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
It's also the Ben Ferguson Podcast. We're doing a dual
podcast because I'm on family vacation and we're still working
at one in the morning to give you all the
news out there. They're also getting a hard time before
the show started, saying that Center, you look much better
than I look tonight.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
That's what they keep telling me.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I just want to know if we have an official
statement from you on that real quick before we get
going here. Is this true? You were saying that you
look better at one am than I do.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Well, that's not me saying that. That's the entire production team.
And to be fair, we do primarily a radio and
audio show. So in radio and audio we both look gorgeous,
or to quote Saturday Night Live Ben r R look marbelous.
For me, I rather look good than Field good.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Model it.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I tell you, you know what, at least you know once
in the career of Verdict that you definitely they say.
It may just be the shot looks better, the studio
looks better. You know, I'm in a hotel room with
an ac behind me. This is what you get. But
We do have a pack show for you, and we
have a lot to talk about politically, including just an
incredible story that's coming from a company in Texas that
(01:14):
we're going to get into and it's just amazing.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
So welcome to the twenty first century. We had this week,
we had tragically two US servicemen in an Apache helicopter
shot down by Iran. They were shot down, they fell
in the water, and we had, for the very first
time in the history of the United States and the
history of the world and warfare, we had them rescued
(01:40):
not by a ship, not by sailors, but by a
drone ship, a drone ship with no pilots, no sailors,
that came and rescued them. That ship is manufactured by Saronic,
a company based in Austin, Texas. We're going to break
that down for you. We're also going to talk about
the stunning news that broke that that the governor of Minnesota,
(02:04):
Tim Waltz, that that that towering mountain of masculinity rivaled
only by James cal Rico.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
It turns out he hired private investigators to go after
government employees who whistled blue on. Is that the right
past tense whistle blue whistle blow like uh, whistleblowers who
blew the whistle? There we go, okay, that.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
That that much is better true.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
On the fraud in the state, and and and being
a paragon of integrity, being like like most Democrats, concerned
about not robbing the taxpayers. Instead of going after the fraud,
he went after and persecuted the government employees who were
pointing out the fraud.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
We're gonna give you the facts on that.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Also, Yeah, it's a really really interesting story there.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Let me also talk to you about a really neat
organization and one that I want you to know about
and hopefully you'll get involved in, and is Americans United
for Life. There was obvious a massive victory that happened
in this country with the overturning of Roe v. Wade,
But what it really meant was the issue of abortion
would go back to the states, and that is where
(03:10):
the real fight has actually begun. Now, over the past
fifty years, Americans United for Life has filed more than
two hundred legal briefs and also helped create at least
four hundred pro life bills in over forty states by
writing model legislation. They are consulting with state legislators and
defending their own laws and other pro life statues in court. Now,
(03:34):
Aul's dual front approach of writing and defending legislation has
proved an effective one that could become even more impactful
as pro life state legislators moved to enact protections for
preborn babies and their mothers. Now that the legality of
abortion has returned to the states, that is where you
(03:55):
come in. You and I had the opportunity to overturn
pro abortion laws and advance pro life legislation that attacks
the most vulnerable in our society, from the womb to
the tomb. Together, we can shape the future of our
nation through life affirming legislation in every state. Now, a
(04:16):
gift of just twenty five dollars helps hold abortion providers
accountable and helps protect women and unborn children across this country.
And now through a match, your gift is doubled. Donate
securely at AUL dot org slash verdict. That's a UL
(04:39):
dot org slash verdict sponsored by Americans United for Life.
All right, So, Centata, let's get into this first story
and you said it best.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Welcome to Just Technology.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
In twenty twenty six, for the first time in history,
you had a drone boat that saved the lives of
two Americans that were shut down by Iran. There's no pilot, like,
no one on board. This is a boat just like
a drone in the sky that is controlled by you know,
a joystick, and it was able to go extremely fast,
(05:16):
get these guys and get out before the enemy could
touch them.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
This is unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
And the best part is this technology is coming out
of the United States American In fact, it's coming out
of Texas well.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
It's not even directly controlled by a joystick. It's actually
AI that controls this. And this is a company based
in Austin. I've been to their factory. I've seen their factory.
It's amazing that they're building these ships. And the ships
are and they have all sorts of different sizes. They
have bigger ones, they have smaller ones. They're going to
have drone ships that are are over one hundred and
(05:50):
fifty feet long that are big ships. But they also
have smaller military vessels. And then they have really small drones.
And these drones can do all sorts of things. They're
all boats, but they could do surveillance, they can do espionage,
they can do military combat, they could be armed with weaponry.
They can transport supplies. If you're trying to say resupply
(06:14):
soldiers that are in a form forward combat position, they
can resupply them. So this is all coming out of Austin, Texas.
It's amazing technology. And what precipitated it is that that earlier,
earlier today, an armed Iranian shah Head drone struck a
US Apache helicopter and it went down in the sea
(06:37):
off the coast of Aman on Monday. US Central Command
reported that the helicopter was on patrol when it was
struck by the drone, but the two pilots who were
aboard the Apache helicopter were safely rescued with it about
two hours of the strike. And and it's worth here
we're going to play the Fox News report that covered it.
(06:59):
And for those of you who are watching this on YouTube,
you could watch the video of this drone ship that
was responsible for rescuing our soldiers in combat.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Give a listen, give watch Deron's under attack.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Trump ordered Sentcom to launch self defense strikes after an
enemy drone took down an Apache helicopter patrolling the straight
The two pilots were rescued out of the water by
an unmanned sea drone operated by Task Force fifty nine
in Bahrain.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
The drones Texas made.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
It's twenty four feet long and can travel one thousand
miles and hit speeds of thirty five knots, and it's
the first sea drone rescue in combat history. Trump was
on the phone with the press when he gave the order.
Podas said, this is a retaliation for the helicopter hit,
and it's important that our response is strong and powerful.
(07:50):
Sentcom called our response proportional. But sources say we're taking
out Iranian air defenses, radar systems all along the Straight
and we're not finished tech. I know it doesn't seem
like it, but we're still in a ceasefire. And the
President continues to say we're close to a.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Deal where in the final throes of what will be
a very very good deal that will not allow in
any way, shape or form, nuclear weapons, etc.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
And then straight will open up right away.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
It'll open up immediately upon signing, which could be a
two or three days.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
Trump's made the terms clear. The uranium must be turned
over and destroyed. Enrichmond must stop for two decades at least,
all nuclear sites must be completely dismantled, and the United
States is able to conduct snap inspections whenever the heck
we want.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
You listen that report and it goes back to the
bigger issue in the war in what we're trying to
accomplish their senator, But you go back to just the
beginning of it.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Thirty five knots. That's about forty miles an hour in
rough seas.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
That's incredibly fast, especially if you're twenty five foot boat.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
As they described here.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
This technology allows these boats to go faster than what
most like if you're a human riding in a boat
and heavy seas and rough seas, going at that speed
is going to be very risky to you. This takes
that away as well, which again talks about how the
speed they were able to actually get to these two
pilots that have been shot down.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yeah, and look, it's a manifestation of the new age
of warfare where where these drone ships are not massively expensive.
You look at aircraft carriers and expensive ships that can
cost hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars that
are powered with nuclear reactors. That's been how we've approached
(09:39):
naval power for seventy years, and now we have a
scenario where these drones are not terribly expensive to be built.
They can be built at scale and you can deploy
one of them, or ten of them, or a thousand
of them, or ten thousand of them, and the ability
and with AI you can control Look, ten thousand in
(10:02):
a normal world, you'd have to have ten thousand captains
piloting them. You could have AI and you can assign
You could assign, for example, ten thousand drone ships patrol
this area. AI can direct them, but they're searching and
they'll engage in espionage and gain engage in reporting on
what they find. You can train them to protect protect
(10:26):
a particular ship, protect something that's going on, protect a
port or harbor. They can do that. You can assign
them go intercept this vessel. And if they're armed with
ordnance that they can fire torpedoes, they.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
Could have explosives.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
And because the ships themselves are not super expensive, it
also means that if you lose one ship or ten
or one hundred, it's not the end of the world.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
It's not that is risks.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, and it's look we're saying the same thing with
aerial drones where we're headed very quick to a world
and some of this we're actually getting some foreshadowing of
this with the war in Ukraine where the battle between
Ukraine and Russia, much of it is involving drones and
the ability to have thousands or tens of thousands of
drones and instead of one big, really expensive thing, lots
(11:17):
and lots of smaller, less expensive things which can overwhelm
the previous technology. And I got to say that having
been to the factory. Look, these guys are a startup
at Austin, Texas. I know, I know the CEO, I
know the lead funders, and they're you know, young techies
who are entrepreneurial.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Who have a vision and and and.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Their desire to scale this. It is very cool. This
is the first drone rescue at sea in combat in
the history of the world. And you know what, this
is not going to be the last. We're going to
see a lot more. By the way, there are civilian
applications of this that.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
That have nothing to do with combat.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Look, look, the Coastguard, I would just say, I literally
was talking the Coastguard as we were on FAMI vacation
and one of the guys I saw and you know,
just saying things. But one of the things that was
cool they were talking about is technology. They said a
lot of times the helicopters when there's the worst weather
and boats get in trouble, they can be commercial vessels,
(12:20):
they can be recreational, they can be commercial fishing boats
when things get really bad with weather. Unfortunately, sometimes the
weather's too bad to go out right at that moment in.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
A helicopter because it's so bad.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
But if you have drones that you can risk no
life going out there, it changes the entire way that
it works. And there's some of that are afraid, like, hey,
well that's gonna take jobs and in a way human beings.
But if you can't be there in that moment and
you can send out a drone that could quite possibly
save your life, that a normal. If it's if it's
(12:53):
if it's you know, man controlled, you just can't take
that risk and you come back it's too rough. You
can throw drones out there and saved countless lives in
that scenario. This is technology that is life changing.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Yeah, and I will say, Ben, have you ever met
Coast Guard swimmers?
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Yes, they're unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Yeah, yeah, I mean they're kind of they're the equivalent
of Navy seals or Delta Force green berets. They're the
most badass coasters. Yeah, and I met met a number
of them, particularly in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. So
Hurricane Harvey was a twenty seventeen was at the time
(13:34):
the second most costly natural disaster in American history, did
massive damage all the way down from Corpus Christi all
the way up hundreds of miles up the Texas coast
to the border right with Louisiana, and it just was
devastating damage. And the coasts that these swimmers would go
out and these guys you meet them, and they're like
(13:57):
twenty year old guys, and it sorts sort of imagine
like g I. Joe combined with a California surfer dude.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
So they're guys.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
They have these, you know, enormous chests because they're like
massive swimmers, and so imagine Michael Phelps with these like
long ass arms and like massive swimmers, but with sort
of bleach blonde hair and they've got like shades hanging
from their head and they're like, yeah, Brook, like it's
it's it's they're not.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Like guys that that you also met that save people's
lives and the flooding that happened in Texas not that.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Yes, yes, look last summer fourth of July. But these swimmers,
they will get on helicopters in the middle of a
hurricane where you've got waves in the ocean that are
ten twenty feet high that are terrify, and these guys
will jump out of a helicopter into the crashing waves
and go rescue someone. And it is there's a fearlessness
(14:59):
to not only jumping in crashing twenty foot waves, which
which most of us, if we're in those waves, are
going to die. Yeah, but they'll don't jump in when
there are people in harm's way, and they'll go grab them.
To be clear, if you or I were in twenty
foot waves and drowning, someone came, we grab on them
and pull on and you're terrified, Like they know they're
gonna go rescue someone who's freaking out, who's gonna not intentionally,
(15:22):
but it's going to effectively try to pull them under, and.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
They're just they're really cool. But you're right, there.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Are times where the weather is so bad you can't
send the chopper in, and and and the ability to
send a drone in to have something to rescue, Say,
you know someone that's out, you know, just just on
a boat and gets in trouble.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
That is game changing.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
And that's coming out of Tech Texas and all of
the new tech that is based in Texas.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, it really is an incredible story. Every once in
a while you get a feel good story like this,
and we should celebrate it. It also is a reminder,
I think of whine's so important to make sure that
we're adequately funding technology. You've talked about this, and I've
talked about this a lot.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Center.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
This is a perfect example of us winning the war
on AI to make sure that our adversary, China is
not leading the way on AI. If this is AI controlled,
this goes and this is one of those examples. I
do think we should highlight it for a second. This
is why America has to win the AI race. You
have less us and you've been warning on this issue,
(16:27):
and I think we should just take them out. Remind
people if we aren't in charge of this, our adversary
would be and that's a scary world as well.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
And by the way, If China masters this technology before
we do, that is a generation skipping advance in technology.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
And if they have the ability to.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Send a thousand or ten thousand or one hundred thousand
AI controlled drones at one of.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
Our aircraft carriers, there's a real risk that.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
You know, the weapons we have to take say surface,
surface to surface missiles or bombs we have, you know
those Our aircraft carriers are incredibly expensive and powerful tools,
but they were made to take out a limited number
of ordinance and not just massive drone assaults. We're shifting
(17:17):
to a new technology where look, if we're in a
conflict with a smaller rival, that's less dangerous. Although you
know what in times even terrorists and smaller rivals, we're
going to see. We're going to see more and more
military attacks using drones. We're going to see things. We're
going to see assassinations, We're going to see people killed
(17:40):
using drones. That is, unfortunately, where the future is heading.
One of the things the US military is investing in
heavily with American technology is counter drone technology. How do
you take out how do you take out drones that
are attacking you? And some of what is working is
lower cost ordinance that that that you can't fire a
(18:01):
patriot missile at every drone coming in. It just the
cost differential. They can swarm you. So you know, is
at another Texas company where they're building basically the equivalent
of a really big, badass machine gun that is power
that is firing like fifty cow rounds, but is firing
(18:24):
them with AI where they could target hundreds or thousands
of drones. But the cost of a round is not
very expensive. So instead of spending an entire patriot missile
or something that you have limited supply of, we have
essentially unlimited supply of rounds and so but using those
(18:44):
robot powered with AI to take out takeout attacks in scale.
More and more of that is coming in. There are
different ways to take out drones. You've got ordinance, you've
got laser and microwave, and we're exploring all sorts of
different technolologies to take out a hostile drone. But if
we lose this race, we would be at a serious
(19:06):
military disadvantage to China. We can't let that happen, and
I don't think we're going to.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
All right, I want to move on to this other
incredible story center coming out of Minnesota, and in life,
especially in government work, you're told that if you're a
whistleblower that you have protections and that if you're a whistleblower,
you should not be afraid for your job or that
someone's going to come after you, certainly the government that
you work for. Well, apparently that's not the case in Minnesota.
(19:35):
And if you want to know how the Somali fraud
got so bad, it might actually be because the governor
was coming after the whistleblower, not those that were committing
the crimes in Minnesota with his new shocking report.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Well, that is inevitably number one the law federal law
and typically state law that protects whistleblowers, that gives you
legal protection because you want whistleblowers to call attention to fraud.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
But number two, if a government official goes after the whistleblowers,
attacks the whistleblowers, refuses to follow the law and whistleblowers,
that is powerful indication of a guilty mind that you're
covering something up. It's sort of like if if someone
is is murdered in Central Park and and you catch
(20:24):
a person burning their clothes from that night and destroying
the murder weapon. Yeah, that is powerful, powerful evidence that
they're the murderer. That that that that that that it
is typically the guilty who destroys evidence, who tries to
cover it up.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
That that that that if you're.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Not guilty, you have far less motivation, far less likelihood
to try to silence whistleblowers.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
To try to destroy evidence.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
So here's the story that broke in the Daily Caller.
The headline is Tim Walls's staff hired private investigators to
silence fraud whistleblowers. Committee report finds senior minisot to state
officials allegedly hired outside investigators to silence whistleblowers in an
attempt to cover up widespread state social services fraud. A
(21:09):
House committee report released Monday found The two hundred page
staff report by the House Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform found that Democrat Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz's state's administration
intimidated and retaliated against state employees who raised concerns about fraud,
solicitings private investigators investigators to reveal employees' personal details. Report
(21:36):
titled the Cost of Doing Nothing, How Tim Waltson Keith
Ellison fueled Minnesota's fraud explosion exposed that senior state officials
as high as allegedly Governor Waltz, were aware of widespread
fraud for years and neglected to respond to reports. A
Minnesota Department of Education official who contacted the FBI told
(21:58):
federal investigators she was pressured quote at every turn by
her superiors to stop raising fraud concerns and was quote
hand slapped when she continued to investigate. According to the report,
the official also reported that she was warned by state
administrators to quote stop digging into things, as it would
(22:21):
appear that she was quote.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Targeting certain groups.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
This is DEI and fraud all coming together along with
corruption to elect Democrats. The article continues. Dozens of other
whistleblowers reported dozens that they were told to stay silent
about fraud concerns by the Minnesota Department of Human Services
because they would be labeled quote racist or Islamophobic. DHS
(22:50):
also told state employees that raising fraud concerns would harm
the state.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
The report said.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Whistleblowers reported the DHS conducted arbitrary and vs instigations to
photograph their cars and houses, monitor their phones and computers,
and asked employees where their kids attended school. Now that
it's going to get worse, then temporary Commissioner Sharene Gandhi.
(23:18):
By the way, I'm going to give you some foreshadowing
that that miss Gandhi did not behave like Gandhi. Instead,
she confirmed and a testimony copied in the report, that
the State Department used outside entities to conduct these investigations
(23:39):
of employees, but could not confirm whether independent law firms
were used. Gandhi also confirmed in her testimony that DHS
management would regularly meet and quote check in on employees
who had reported fraud concerns. Gandhi continued to conduct these
check ins on DHS whistleblower Fay Bernstein quote a year
(24:02):
or two after her investigatory leave. So they hunted them
down and they stayed harassing them. Bernstein alleged that Gandhi
quote shamed her in a meeting after she raised concerns
about fraud and quote excluded her from further meetings on
the topic. Whistleblowers also alleged that former state Commissioner Jody
Harpstead held a division wide meeting and told attendees that quote,
(24:26):
employees would be punished if they reported concerns about fraud
and DHS programs. According to the report, DHS employee Emmanuel Nuala
told colleagues that he quote did intelligence research within the
army and appears to have threatened to provide IP addresses
(24:48):
to former colleagues in order to find the locations of
whistleblower's email addresses, an email obtained through a public data request.
Now it's about to get even worse. The report also
alleged that DHS d anonymized an internal fraud hotline for
(25:14):
employees in an attempt to intimidate fraud reporters. After whistleblowers
later created an anonymous external email to report fraud, DHS blocked.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
The email address.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
Whistleblowers reported that their fraud hotline tips were sent to
human resources and used against them. The hotline was originally anonymous,
but was de anonymized under Gandhi's tenure as deputy Commissioner
of HR. Governor Waltz appointed Gandhi's commissioner of DHS in
(25:49):
February twenty twenty six, but removed her in May before
her confirmation hearing amid scrutiny of her response to fraud allegations.
This is anyone who claims Gosh, the elected officials of Minnesota.
They were victims, they didn't know they wanted to go
after the fraud, which, by the way, both Waltz and
(26:12):
Ellison keep saying, Oh, we wanted to go after the fraud,
we wanted to prosecute it. This demonstrates, I think powerfully
they are lying. Not only did they not want to
go after the fraud, they were doing everything they could
to silence the whistleblowers and prevent anyone from knowing about
the fraud.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Yeah, and this goes back to the other question of accountability.
If everything that we just mentioned turns out to be true,
there's obviously now an open investigation into this. If you
do these things, are you breaking the law? And if
it goes all the way the governor is he breaking
the law? And the peuple below him are they breaking
(26:51):
the law? And is there any accountability for this or
is this just well walt isn't running for reelection, so
it doesn't really matter anymore and we'll just move on
and yeah, we may continue to do things like this
in the future without accountability.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Listen, the Department of Justice has created an entire new
division focused going after fraud, and I hope everyone who
made these decisions faces accountability if they committed criminal violations,
that they are prosecuted.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
I am hopeful.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
I can tell you I'm urging the Department of Justice
hold them accountable. To the way our constitutional system works.
It's not the legislature. Look, I'm in the Senate. I
can't prosecute anybody. I don't have executive authority. I have
legislative authority. I can write legislation, which I have, but
I can't the power to bring an indictment, the power
to go before a grand jury, to get an indictment,
(27:41):
to prosecute. That is exclusively within the executive branch, within
principally the US Department of Justice at the federal level.
And so I can tell you this, I am urging
the Attorney General and DOJ prosecute every single person who
committed criminal acts, who covered up this fraud, who benefited
from it, who knew what they were doing. And this
(28:03):
is this is a real smoking gun.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
And at the age I go back to Ellison there
we know his name.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Well, if he's involved in this and is using and
weaponizing the government to go after those that were not
committing the fraud, those that were trying to whistle blow
on the fraud fraud and they are harassed. Is there
any lane for the people that were being harassed to
somehow have like, you know, restitution for what they went through.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
If you're being.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Harassed for two years after you put in a tip,
that's got to put a lot of stress on your life.
I'm assuming it puts stress in your career. I'm assuming
it could have affected a lot of people getting promotions
that they deserved.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Look, and I would assume we're going to see civil
litigation of people fire filing lawsuits and seeking compensation for this,
and that litigation could well be successful. In terms of
criminal prosecution, this would not surprise me. I don't know
sitting here. Uh if if Minnesota law makes doing this
(29:04):
a criminal violation in Minnesota. Now, of course, the federal
government can't prosecute violations of Minnesota law. It would take
a a Minnesota district attorney, uh to bring that case.
And and I got to admit, I'm very skeptical that
that that there are any prosecutors in Minnesota willing to
hold the corrupt Democrats in charge of that state accountable.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
If they're not, then there's not really a mechanism to
enforce Minnesota law, which means you would be left with
with federal law. And given that these are federal funds
that were effectively being stolen and fund funneled to Somali
fund funneled to Somalian fraudsters being sent, among other places,
to al Shabab.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
And we before h.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
On this podcast that the single largest funder of al
shaba law, which is the Jota Islamic rorist group that
is in Somalia. They're number one funder, was the taxpayers
of Minnesota. And those are also federal taxpayer money. So look,
I expect the Department of Justice. They've already prosecuted a
number of the fraudsters at the lower level, but I
(30:10):
hope they go right up the ladder of accountability and
any politicians that are responsible. And to be clear, this
happened because it was in politicians' political interest for this
to happen, because they were getting money from campaign donations
and they were getting votes from allowing Somalian fraudsters to
(30:32):
rob the taxpayers of Minnesota and the American taxpayers. And
look that this has happened also in other states. It's
happened in Maine under the Democrat governor there. It's happened
in California, It's happened in Illinois. It's happened, I think,
all over the country, but predominantly in Democrat states where
(30:52):
there are Democrat politicians who were benefiting from turning the
other way to fraud. And I think every wan who
committed a criminal act should face prosecution and real consequences.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Yeah, this is the story we're gonna follow. I can
promise you that.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
So don't forget Senor Cruise and I do this podcast
three days a week. You can hit that subscriber auto
download button there. Also, if you're listening on the Ben
Ferguson podcast, you know I do the show every day,
even on family vacation. We're doing the show here and center.
Thanks for thanks for doing a joint pod with me.
Get a little more time with a family. We will
see you back here.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
And look, Bet Ben, I, I for one just want
to congratulate you on doing the podcast while not wearing
pants like like that. You're on vacation, and you know
it's good to bring that form. We only shoot from
the way stops.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
I'm so exhausted right now. I don't even have it
in me to fight you on this. I'm just gonna
go with that narrative. That is how tired the boys
have warned me out on this family vacation. I'm like, sure,
I'll go with anything right now.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Don't forget.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
We do the show like I said, Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
and you can watch it on YouTube as well and
the Center. I will see you back here on Friday
morning on Verdict with Ted Cruz, Down with It, whatever
your podcast, I'll see you tomorrow in the Ben Ferguson
podcasts as well
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