1. Allegations of George Soros Funding Anti-Trump “No Kings” Rallies
- Ben and Sen Cruz explain that recent anti-Trump rallies, branded as “No Kings,” were not grassroots movements but were funded by George Soros through his Open Society Foundations.
- They cite financial connections between Soros and progressive organizations like Indivisible, which allegedly helped organize the rallies.
- The podcast criticizes the rallies as being “AstroTurf” (fake grassroots), lacking diversity, and driven by radical left-wing ideology.
- Cruz introduces the “Stop Funders Act”, a proposed bill that would add rioting as a predicate act under the RICO Act, allowing prosecutors to target those who fund violent protests.
2. Mass Killing of Christians in Nigeria
- Cruz highlights the mass murder of over 50,000 Christians in Nigeria since 2009, allegedly by extremist groups like Boko Haram and ISIS in West Africa.
- He accuses the Nigerian government of either ignoring or enabling the violence, citing reports from the U.S. State Department and other sources.
- Cruz has introduced legislation to designate Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” and to impose sanctions on Nigerian officials complicit in the violence.
- The podcast criticizes mainstream media for ignoring the crisis, and includes supportive comment
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It is Verdict with Center, Ted Kruz, Ben Ferguson with
you and Senator. We had a really big day of
rallies around the country over the weekend. Apparently Democrats are
just writ in big old checks right now to go
back to their old school organizing for these outrage rallies
at a king by the name of Donald Trump, who's
been in office many less years than any of the
(00:22):
Democrats that they're out there complaining about him being in office.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Well, this weekend we saw protests all across the country
that was angry white women go march. It was boomers unleashed,
and it was an expression of rage. What we're going
to talk about here is follow the money who's paying
for this? That not only was this an expression of rage,
but it was an expressive expression of rage that was
(00:46):
AstroTurf that was bought and paid for. And we're going
to follow the money to George Soros and his network
and an entire interconnected network of radical left wing groups
that we're funding these tests. We're also going to talk
about a tragedy that has been unfolding in recent years
in the country of Nigeria, where more than fifty thousand
(01:07):
Christians have been killed. The mass murder of Christians in
Nigeria has been ongoing. It is targeted, it is systematic.
Boko Haram and other jihadis are targeting Christians, are targeting churches,
are targeting schools. We're going to lay out the facts
of what's going on the Government of Nigeria is pressing
back and saying nothing to see here, nothing to see here.
(01:30):
We're going to give you the facts and we're going
to talk about legislation I've introduced to hold the government
of Nigeria accountable and to pressure them to finally, finally,
finally stop the mass murder of Christians.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Amen to that.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Whant I take a moment and talk to you real
quick about my good friends over at Berna. Being able
to protect my family is so important to me, and
it's one of the things that I want you to
know about how you can help protect your family as
well from those that may be trying to do you harm. Now,
for weeks, I've been joined by Josh from Burna to
share stories of how people just like you and me
(02:05):
have used their Burno launcher protect themselves and their families. Now,
Burna is a handheld pistol that fires both connect grounds
and chemical irritants to separate you from an attacker. Josh
just back today to share a true story of how
a man was able to stop two pit bulls from
harming him and his daughter using the Berna SD.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Josh tell us the story.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
You know this story is great because I guarantee many
people have been in a very similar situation. So Kyle,
an Illinois resident, was walking his young daughter home from
a playdate just down the street from their house when
he noticed two unleashed pit bulls running down an alley
aggressively charging right at them. He quickly lifted his daughter
over a fence of a yard to put her in
(02:47):
a safe place, and drew the Burna SD that he
was actually carrying on him, and using a combination of
kinetic and our Max fridge styles, Kyle fired five rounds
of the two pitbules, striking both the ground in front
of them, but also the dog themselves. The dogs stopped
in their tracks. The rounds had an immediate effect, and
both dogs quickly ran the other way. The entire incident
(03:09):
was also captured on home surveillance video, allowing everyone to
watch exactly how Berna kept Kyle and his daughter out
of harm's way.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Now, look, obviously the burner worked great in this case,
But why wouldn't someone choose to use a gun in
this case instead of a burna?
Speaker 1 (03:23):
So many people ask me that type of question.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
You know, it's same I get to ask that all
the time. And here we have a couple different reasons. One,
he may not be in an area where he could
carry a gun. Depending on the laws of your state,
it may limit where you can and can't carry a gun.
And two, look, nobody wants to kill these dogs, right,
nobody wants to kill anybody but dogs either. If we
can use a lower level of force to affect a
safe getaway for us and everyone else, man, that's the
(03:47):
way to do it. And that's exactly what happened here.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
If you want to be able to protect your family
and you want to have something like this, a left
lethal option, you need to check out Berna. You can
go right now to burna b y r ina dot com. Again,
that's burnap B why rna dot com. You'll understand after
you see the videos exactly why I carry this in
every car.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
We have burnup b why RNA dot com? All Right, senator.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So let's get into this day of I call it rage,
this anti American day, this no king's day. There was
something that hit online and it just made me smile
because it said, all right, so let me get this straight.
There's no kings referring to Donald Trump. Chuck Grassley's been
in office fifty plus years, Chuck Schumer forty four plus years,
(04:33):
Mitch McConnell forty plus years, Anti Pelosi thirty eight years,
Maxine Waters thirty seven years, Bernie Sanders thirty four years.
Trump's been in office total of four years at nine
and a half months. But somehow they're saying Donald Trump
is the king. When you look at the numbers there,
and that's like some bipartus numbers. It's pretty darn funny.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Well it is.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
And there was this little minor detail of an election
that occurred in November in which the American people overwhelmingly
voted to reelect Donald Trump ump very quickly, Look, you're
trying to engage in reason, ben reason is not welcome
on the radical left anymore.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Then I forgot about that memory.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
This is emoting, this is rage, this is orange man bad.
There's nothing more beyond that. And by the way, this
is also voters bad, you know, the irony of no
Kings that they're suggesting that they're somehow fans of democracy.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Understand.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
These are the same radical left wing democrats that indicted
Donald Trump not once, not twice, not three times, but
four times in an effort to stop the voters from
re electing him. These are the same left wing radicals
who then went to left wing judges and in multiple jurisdictions,
including Colorado, Illinois, Maine, they're left wing radicals ruled they
(05:50):
would remove Donald Trump's name from the ballot because nothing
says you are a defender of democracy like making it
impossible for the voters to vote for your opponent. Now, thankfully,
the US Supreme Court came in unanimously nine zero and said, no, no, no, sorry,
you don't get to rig an election by removing your opponent,
(06:10):
the Republican nominee for president, from the ballot. And wonder
of wonders, with Trump on the ballot, the voters voted
for him. That this is actually, you know, in some ways,
the left had some truth in advertising. They just had
one too many words that they call this the No
King's rally. What they really want to want to protest
(06:30):
is the king's rally. Look, when Joe Biden was president,
they wanted him to have unlimited power. And by the way,
once they realized that Joe Biden had been legally dead
for three years and that he was not going to
be a formidable candidate in November, they promptly defenestrated him,
threw him out a window, grabbed Kamala Harris and congratulations,
you're the Democrat nominee. And you know what detail, They
(06:51):
skipped the whole voting thing, Like the Democrat primary voters
didn't get to vote at all. They basically tried to
make her a queen. You know, when you coroinate someone,
when you put a crown on someone and say, don't
bother with the little voting stuff. We've decided you get
to run. That is kind of right at the heart
of monarchy. So this their messaging is incoherent, but at
(07:14):
the end of the day, there is no messaging other
than a primal scream they hate Trump. And look, it's
a good thing they did these rallies because you know,
prior to Saturday, I didn't know they hated Trump. I
really I had missed that the last ten months, and
so it really took seeing a bunch of seventy five
year old white liberal women screaming outside and dyeing their
(07:39):
hair pink. You know, without that, we would have had
no idea that the far left did not like President Trump.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
You know, one thing that was interesting about these rallies
is the way that the media covered it. It was
before the rallies happened, they were already making these things
a success and say, yeah, we're expecting millions to gather
across the country. Then as it was happening, I was
flipping the channels in between watching what's really important, and
(08:06):
that was college football over the weekend. During during a
couple of moments, I checked over to see how they
were covering, and it was like millions gather. I'm sorry, Center,
I did not see millions as in plural, anywhere close
to that. Yeah, there were some bigger crowds for sure,
New York City for example, Chicago.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
It was not millions.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
And yet they already act like this was just some amazing,
unpresced success. Meanwhile, the average American was watching football on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Well, and I do have to express my condolences. I'm
very sorry about old miss and George, I knew.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
You were waiting for this show to I didn't talk
about that.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Look, I knew that that that that hurt. But look,
you can you can gain solace because even though Old
Miss lost to Georgia, an Old Miss Royalty prevailed because
Arch Manning and the Longhorns won. Although I got admit
it was an glee game.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
At least there's some intellectual honesty.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
And the Aggies keep on winning. And I was I
was sad that the Tech finally lost. There's still a
heck of a team. But but, but but I'm very
sorry about Ole Miss.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
The grin right now in your face.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Is this unbelievably telling, unbelievably telling of your thoughts and prayers,
Now that you got that moment out of the way, Yeah,
I'm glad that was his moment. He's been waiting all
week and he was silent. He didn't text me on Saturday.
I want the audience to understand that he was waiting
for the show to bring that up. So let's talk
about the money here for a second. This is clearly.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
By the way, I will say what One of my
closest friends, Gray, as you know, played played football at
Arkansas Yeah, Arkansas came within inches of beating the Aggies,
and my phone would have lit up the grief he
would have given me. Uh And to be fair, Arkansas
almost did beat the Aggies.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
I mean it.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
You know.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
The A and m Arkansas game reminded me a little
bit of the A and M Notre Dame game, where
neither side bothered to bring defense.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
They just scored like crazy.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
And whoever had the ball last one?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah it was it was. It was aired out football
one oh one. So you look at the money here,
and I wasn't concerned. I did TV over the weekend
on No Kings, and they asked me like, you know, well,
this seems to be momentum. Like, it's not momentum if
you're paying for it. This isn't authentic or organic. It
is bought and paid for. If I gotten by a
(10:25):
bunch of ads this weekend to play for whatever my
thing is, you know that I want to advocate for it.
Does that mean there's actual authentic momentum behind it? Or
does that just mean that I paid for something like this?
To me is paid to play politics. I'm not concerned
about quote momentum. I do think, however, those that were
organizing and paying for this No King's rally, are holding
(10:47):
America hostage with the government shutdown. If there's any takeaway
for me, it's that that Democrats could not open the
government back up until after the No Kings rally took place.
Now this week they may actually be able to do
their damn job well.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
And this past week I went on Fox News and said,
there's clear evidence that George Soros and his network is
paying for these No Kings rallies. And I have to say,
lefty activists on Twitter went crazy and said, there's no
evidence of that. What's cruse talking about. Well, you know,
fortunately we brought the receipts. So so let me let
me walk through. And in fact, if you want to
read it, Fox News has has a story entitled quote
(11:25):
Soros Foundation's helping fund anti Trump No King's protests nationwide.
So and and and and here here are the facts.
In two thousand and three, the Open Society Foundation, which
was founded by George Soros, UH issued a two year
grant of three million dollars to Indivisible. The grant was
(11:50):
quote to support the grantees social welfare activities. According to
the Open Society Foundation's website. What is individual able doing
it is quote managing data and communication with participants, I e.
AstroTurf for the No King's protests that will be taking
place in Washington and across the country. According to the
(12:14):
Open Society Foundation's website, George Soros has given away How
much do you think George Soros has given to the
Open Society Foundations?
Speaker 2 (12:25):
I mean, it's sorrows, It's gonna be millions. It could
easily be tens of.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Millions, more than thirty two billion dollars. Wow, okay, more
than thirty two billion with a B golly, And and
if you look at that that they in turn are
funding Indivisible and Indivisible U is organizing or help or
(12:51):
helping organize the No Kings Foundations. By the way, the
Left has these these inner woven dark money organization. So,
for example, in twenty seventeen, Visible received a three hundred
and fifty thousand dollars grant from the Tides Foundation. From
Tides Advocacy, which is a group affiliated with the Tides Network.
(13:11):
The Tides Foundation, which is also affiliated with the Tides Network,
has been funding anti Israel campus riots. The grant report
for twenty twenty four for the Open Siety Foundation was
not not available, but Soros's Foundation of awarded grants to
(13:32):
Indivisible every single year since since individual was created in
twenty seventeen. In total, the Open Society Foundations have awarded
seven point sixty one million in grants to the group
behind the No King's protest. So seven point sixty one million,
that's where the money's coming from. So if you're surprised
(13:53):
there's a lot of organizing, Well, it turns out that
deranged Trump, hating America hating radical socialist, Marxist, anarchist, a
police abolishing nutcase billionaires can fund what looks like an
awful lot of action. I got to say, given all
(14:13):
that cash, what is striking to me, Ben is how
lame the result was. Like, like I got to say,
to be honest, I didn't spend a whole lot of
time watching footage of it. But the footage I saw,
you know what was missing any black people, any Hispanic people.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Maybe every video like non minorities welcome, right? Could that
be it?
Speaker 4 (14:36):
Look?
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Look every video I saw it was a bunch of
old white liberals. It was like, you know, it was
like a a Patagonia convention with lots of prune juice.
I mean, it was really the numbers were underwhelming. You
knew the numbers were underwhelming when you started to see
(14:59):
on Twitter are people sending fake videos of protests in
prior years and claiming, oh, this is the no Kings turnout.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, and that did happen a lot, by the way.
I mean, you're not joking when you say that. I
saw quite a few of those and it just made
you laugh.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Yeah, there's a video of a big protest in Boston
years ago that has been tweeted around like crazy, and
they say, oh, this was no Kings in Boston. It's like, no, Well,
why are you sending around a fake video? Because even
when you have millions of dollars from George Soros, apparently
the people motivated by the way, this is very much
the same pattern.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
As you know.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
They did a dry run for this with the protests
in d C against President Trump sending in the National Guard.
And again, those protests were a bunch of white liberals.
There were very few in the video. I saw very
few African Americans who and the high crime areas in
d C are predominantly African American, and it was really striking.
(15:57):
You see these sort of wealthy liberal many that government
bureaucrats who are saying, no, no, get the National Guard
out of DC. And then if camera crews that would
go into high crime areas in d C, you'd look
at the people living there, predominantly African American, facing gang
bangers and drive by shootings and facing being afraid to
(16:17):
go out at night. And there's interview after interview with
DC residents who are like, Okay, I feel a lot safer.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
This is great.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
But by the way, your hometown of Memphis, you got
the same interviews where people are saying, you know, for
the first time in a long time, I feel safe
to go outside. I can go outside with my kids.
I'm not afraid of my kids getting shot or attacked
or even Bill.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Street, which is the famous street in Memphis, you know
where you can go listen to a live music and
it's downtown by the Facts Forum, I know, people have
not gone down there five six, seven, eight, nine, ten years.
They're now going down there because they've it's been so
unsafe and the National Guard's there, and now citizens of
Memphis are actually getting to go enjoy their own city again,
which is exactly what we've seen in Washington, d C.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Yeah, and it's amazing that the bosition of the Democrat
Party as they are against law and order. Apparently having
law and order means you have a king. That they
are against criminals being arrested. Apparently that's the act of
a king. That they are against violent criminals being incarcerated,
taken off the streets, and they are against our families
(17:19):
being protected. You know, I got to say, people who
are not political radicals find all of that common sense
that that's not a particularly right wing proposition that that
that violent criminals. You know, I'll tell a story Ben,
when I was a brand new baby lawyer back in
I think nineteen ninety seven, I just finished clerking for
(17:42):
Chief Justice Renquist. I just started practicing law at a little
law firm in DC, and there was a show on
PBS that was called Debates, Debates, and it was it
was a three on three debate for an hour, and
they would they would take a particular topic and get
three conservatives, three liberals, and you debate for an hour.
(18:03):
And it was it was produced by a guy named
Warren Steibel, who was also the producer of Firing Line
with Bill Buckley, and I got a call from someone
from a friend of mine who said, Hey, they're looking
for someone to go on the show. Do you want
to do this? And it ended up being the first
TV show I ever went on, you know, right at
the start of my legal career, and the topic was
(18:26):
should we release should we grant amnesty? To quote America's
political prisoners, and by that they meant cop killers and
other radical left wingers who were incarcerated. But they claimed
they were political prisoners because they had an ideology and
they were having a hard time finding conservatives to debate
the conservative side of it. And I remember I got
(18:47):
the phone call ask if I would do it, and
I started laughing and I said, okay, so let me
get this straight. You want me to defend the proposition
that violent criminals should be punished. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I
feel good with that. I'm quite comfortable with that proposition.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Way to load the deck against me, right.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
You know.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
And look, to be clear, I don't care if they're
left wing or right wing or they don't have any
wings at all. If you commit acts of violence, you
should be arrested, you should be prosecuted, You should go
to jail and listen the question we asked at the
start of this show about following the money. Regular listeners
of the pod will know that is something that I'm
pressing both Pambondi and the Department of Justice and cash
(19:29):
PTEL and the FBI to do not just the money
behind the No Kings rallies, but also the money behind
the anti Semitic protest on college campuses, the money behind
the Black Lives Matter at Antifa riots all over the country,
the money behind the open border riots in Los Angeles
and other cities earlier this year. I think it is
likely all the same money. It is the same collection
(19:52):
of radicals. We are a combination of extreme leftists, Marxists,
jihadist anarchists, and I think George Soros is the granddaddy
of them all. But I've introduced legislation, and the legislation
is called the Stop Thunders Act. And what the Stop
Thunders Act would do is very simple. It simply adds
(20:15):
rioting to the list of predicate acts under RICO.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Now, what is RICO.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
RICO is the Rocketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act, and
it is a tool that prosecutors use to go after
organized crime and is a very powerful prosecutorial tool. And
the value of RICO is that what you can do
is under RICO you can prove an organization. This is
used often for something like the mafia or say a
(20:42):
drug cartel, where you prove the existence of an organization
and that you're part of the organization, and then you
have to prove that you committed predicate acts and you
can be prosecuted under RICO and serve long jail time. Well,
the way the left right now is funding rioting as
they do do it through multiple different organizations that are
(21:03):
deliberately ignorant of what each other is doing, and I
think they're doing it to avoid accountability and liability. The
Stop Funders Act by adding rioting to the list of
predicate acts for RICO, would give prosecutors a heck of
a tool that if you're cutting the check that is
going to funding the rioting and rioters are engaged in
(21:24):
acts of violence. Rioters are on campus, assaulting Jewish students
in a public street, looting a store, firebombing a police car,
murdering someone, assaulting someone, that you the person who wrote
the check and funded the entire effort. You the one
who say on the college campuses paid for all of
(21:44):
the tents that look exactly the same. They all match.
You would face liability just like you would if you
were the one writing the check and funding the mafia
family or funding the drug cartel. And so I'm urging
Congress take up my stop funderzact pass it, and DOJ
needs to go after the money. If we cut off
(22:05):
the money with no checks, there would be no no
King's protests, not because people are prevented from speaking, but
because this sort of demonstration is not real and organic.
It is driven by a handful of left wing billionaires
who are using their money to buy the appearance of
(22:29):
something much broader.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Final question on this, how hard or how easy should
it be or will it be to get this pass
with Republican leadership. It doesn't seem like this would be
a hard thing to convince people to say, yeah, we
need to follow the money.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
So look, I think it is easy to get Republican votes.
I think all or virtually all Republicans would vote for it.
The challenge to passing in the law will be the
Senate filibuster rule, which means to pass it we need
sixty votes in the Senate, which would mean we would
need at least seven Democrats fifty three Republicans. It's the
same challenge we have in the middle of the shutdown.
(23:03):
We need sixty votes. We need at least seven Democrats
to reopen the government, and right now the Democrats are
just no, no, hell no to everything. So I think
it is entirely possible and maybe even likely that if
we bring it up for a vote in the Senate
Judiciary Committee, that every Senate Democrat would vote no on
the committee. Now, if that happens, it would still be
(23:25):
voted out of committee, because if the Republicans all voted together,
we have a majority on the committee, and so if
we voted out of committee, it would go to the floor.
And what I'm merging Republican leadership to do is put
it up for a vote on the floor and listen.
If the Democrats all want to vote no, they can.
That prevents it from being passed. But I got to say,
that is a terrible vote. If you are voting against
(23:46):
liability for violent rioting, that is not a vote that
that is not a vote that any Democrat running in
a purple state wants to defend to his or her
constituents and so I think. I think either we take
it up and they decide to support it and we
pass it, or we take it up and they vote
party line against it, in which case those are terrible
(24:07):
votes and you campaign against them.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
And I want to move now center to something that
you've been spearheading and leading on. It's certainly not getting
attention to the media, but you're wanting to hold Nigeria
accountable for the fifty thousand. Let me see that number again,
fifty thousand Christians that have been killed. There, explain why
this story is so important and what you're trying to do,
(24:32):
and also why is no one covering this?
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Does this been described to me?
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Look, it is truly horrific. The numbers are stunning. The
numbers are staggering. Here are the top line numbers of
what we're seeing. We have seen over fifty thousand Christians killed.
We have seen over eighteen thousand churches and at least
(24:56):
two thousand schools burned. And the response to this, the
Nigerian government is fighting back ferociously saying this is not happening,
this is not true.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
There's a battle.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
The Nigerian government officials are getting very angry that I'm
calling them out. I want to read to you from
the executive Summary of the US State Departments twenty twenty
four Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Nigeria, and
here's what it says.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Quote.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
Significant human rights issues included credible reports of arbitrary and
unlawful killings, disappearances, torture or cruel inhuman or degrading treatment
or punishment, arbitrary arrested attention, serious abuses in a conflict,
serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including
(25:50):
violence or threats of violence against journalists, violence or threats
against labor activists or union members, and significant presence of
any of the worst forms of child labor. Non state
actors committed arbitrary and unlawful killings, disappearances, physical abuse, and
other mistreatments. Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West
(26:11):
Africa continued attacks on civilians, military, police, humanitarian and religious targets,
unlawfully recruited and forcibly conscripted child soldiers, and carried out
scores of attacks on population centers in the North East regions.
(26:31):
Abductions by Bokohram and the Islamic State in West Africa continued.
Both groups subjected many women and girls to gender based violence,
including forced marriage, sexual slavery, and rape. This is what's
going on in Nigeria right now, and it is going
(26:54):
on far too often with the acquiescence of the elected
government officials, far too often, and in some instances, you
have provinces in Nigeria that have on the books blasphemy
law and Sharia law, and they will prosecute Christians for blasphemy,
(27:18):
they will plot prosecute Christians for violating Sharia law, in
which case the government becomes a tool of the persecution
of Christians.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
And look it is.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
It is devastating. It is the most Christians being murdered
anywhere on the face of the planet is happening in Nigeria.
And so I introduce legislation to require the Secretary of
State to designate Nigeria as a country of particular concern
(27:52):
and to impose sanctions, including in particular sanctioning the individual
government officials. So, if you're a local effe and you're
enforcing blasphemy laws and Sharia laws and you're persecuting Christians,
or you're turning the other way and turning a blind
eye to Christians being murdered, at in mass numbers. The
(28:14):
result of my legislation would be each of those individual
government officials would face sanctions. And I got to say,
the Nigerian government has been pushing back ferociously. For example,
the Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs ol
Ok said the Cruise bill is quote a deliberate attempt
(28:34):
to damage the Nigerian image, and he insists Nigeria is
a very tolerant country, well other than murdering fifty thousand Christians.
Very tolerant other than that. Likewise, the Minister of Information
and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris rejected the suggestion that quote
any Nigerian officials will willingly deliberately indulge in the act
(28:58):
of siding with violent extremists to target at any particular
religion in the country. Likewise, Presidential spokesperson baya on Anungo
demanded that Cruz stop his quote malicious and contrived lies
against quote my country. And finally, Senate President God's Will
(29:22):
Akpabillo cautioned against framing the crisis quote along religious lines
since quote terrorists and bandits target Nigerians indiscriminately regardless of faith.
Now listen, it is certainly true that Bukoharram and other
religious radicals in Nigeria are killing Muslims as well. They're
(29:44):
killing both, but they are systematically targeting Christians for mass murder.
When you've got fifty thousand Christians being murdered, that is
not accidental, that is not random. And the over eighteen
thousand churches and the over two thousand schools, they're singling
out and targeting Christian churches and Christian schools and burning
them to the ground. And the government of Nigeria is
(30:08):
not acting with any vigor at all to defend and
to defend the Christians or just to keep them alive.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Yeah, to keep them alive.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
And so now obviously this is about letting it shining
a light on this, and then you go back to
the policy aspect of this, what happens next And for
people specifically that are listening, what do they need to
be doing and advocating for to make sure that we
can move this forward.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
Look, the next step needs to be that I'm pushing
for the Congress to pass my legislation. I'm on the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, so I'm pressing for the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee to take it up that would designate
Nigeria as a country of particular concern. Now, I would
note the Trump administration can do so on its own,
(30:56):
and this is often the case in foreign policy areas,
where all introduce legislation and I'll push for action. So,
for example, I've introduced legislation to designate the Muslim Brotherhood
is a terrorist organization. I've done so repeatedly in multiple congresses.
I think it is unequivocally a terrorist organization. In fact,
Hamas is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas is
(31:17):
the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine, is what they call themselves,
and that has not yet happened. But I would like
to see Congress pass my legislation. But the most likely
way we'll get the Muslim Brotherhood designated is that I
will succeed in convincing President Trump and the Trump administration
to do so. And I've been making that case vigorously.
(31:38):
With respect to Nigeria, the same thing is true. I'm
going to try to pass the legislation, but I'm also
very much making the case to the Trump administration. They
have the authority to do it now. And look, I
want to point out you asked what people can do
speak out highlight fifty thousand Christians massacred since two thousand
and nine, the single greatest mass slaughter of Christians anywhere
(31:59):
in the world world. And look here's how Fox News
put it.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Quote.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
A diplomatic battle is being waged between leading Republican Senator
Ted Cruz and Nigerian government officials. The Texas senators has
warned he will hold them accountable for the reported mass
slaughter of tens of thousands of Christians in Nigeria. The
official say Cruz is lying, with one claiming that despite
even the Pope publicly calling out the killings, there is
(32:25):
religious harmony in the country. But you know what, maybe
you don't believe me, maybe you don't believe the Pope.
So if the Pope and I are both wrong, how
about this, maybe maybe you'll believe Bill Maher. You have
a listen to what Bill Maher had to say on
this topic.
Speaker 5 (32:43):
If you don't know what's going on in Nigeria, your
media sources suck. You are in a bubble. And again,
I'm not a Christian, but they are systematically killing the
Christians in Nigeria. They've killed over one hundred thousand since
two thousand and nine they've burned eighty thousand churches.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
This is so much.
Speaker 5 (33:02):
More These are their Islamis vocoha ram. This is so
much more of a genocide attempt than what is going
on in Gaza. They are literally attempting to wipe out
the Christian population of an entire country.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Where are the kids protesting this?
Speaker 4 (33:16):
Yeah? Thank you?
Speaker 1 (33:19):
All will talk about it, so thank you.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
Absolutely, it's Africa, That's what.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
No one's talking about it and they should be.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
You can't read about it on mainstream media. It's sad,
So thank you for bringing Vicker.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
The Jews aren't involved, that's why it's.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
The Christians and the Muslims two players.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
He is exactly right, and I appreciate Bill Maher calling
it out and shining a light on it. He's right
that that that the corporate media does not want to
cover it. And by the way, on that same show,
someone you know well, Van Jones from CNN. He was
on that show, and Van Jones is a very left
(33:56):
wing guy and he's on CNN regularly. But but he
commented and and he chimed in agreeing with Bill Maher.
Here give a listen to Van Jones talking about the
slaughter of Christians in Nigeria.
Speaker 5 (34:08):
You're talking about young people. A lot of them seem
to know one thing. White people did some very bad
things in this world, and they certainly did. But there
are other things to.
Speaker 6 (34:15):
Know, yes, and including the fact that in Sudan right now,
which nobody is talking about, you have Arab militia murdering
people by the wheelbarrow. Including the fact that Africa right
now is being overrun by Islamis terravists, including Boko rob
with no conversation about that at all.
Speaker 5 (34:31):
I did it last week Nigeria. I mean this is
an actual planned genocide. Yes, I mean they really want
to kill all the Christians in that country and they
are systematically doing it.
Speaker 6 (34:42):
And the fact that there's almost no response from the
global left and no attention from mainstream media is a
crime against African people, black people, and human rights. I
agree with that one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
It turns out.
Speaker 6 (34:54):
That there's a double standard for Jews.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
That is true, use no news.
Speaker 6 (35:01):
As long as you can put the put the Jewish
state in the conversation, it's gonna be a big conversation.
If you can't, you get no attention at all. This
is a big problem. It is a big problem. I
mean you hear Van Jones saying it. Yep, he is correct.
It is a huge problem.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
No Jews, no news like I mean, it's it's it's
amazing that this is happening.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Look, we see the protests on college campuses. We see
these angry leftists who are completely enraged about Gaza. The
instant President Trump negotiates a peace deal, they go away.
Now Hamas is executing Palestinians on the street, lighting up
Palestinians on their knees, shooting him in the back of
the head, and not a peep. These leftist radicals, they
(35:42):
are perfectly fine with Palestinians being systematically murdered as long
as it's Palestinians. As long as Hamas doing the murder.
You don't see a protest. You don't see and he
calls a genocide. Their protest is about one thing, which
is they hate Israel and they hate Jews. And I
to say, where is ABC, where is CBS, Where is
(36:03):
an NBC? Where's CNN and MSNBC? Where's the New York Times?
Where's the Washington Post? About the mass murder of over
fifty thousand Christians in Nigeria? You know what, if you
want to find out things like that, you got to
listen to Verdict, You got to listen to the podcast.
You got to go and work. But I will say
there are not many issues that bring together me, the Pope,
(36:29):
Bill Maher and Ven Jones.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Amen to that.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Amen to that.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
Man.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Make sure you take this podcast, share it with your
family and friends, put it up on social media. If
you get that little forward button, you can put it
on wherever you're on social media. It's actually really easy
and it helps other people hear this. Also, if you
missed our episode on Friday with Donald Trump's' son Eric Trump,
go back and grab that. It was a really interesting episode.
I want to make sure you guys, if you miss
(36:54):
it on Friday, you can grab that as well. And
then Senat and I will see you back here on
Wednesday morning.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
Yeah,
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It is Verdict with Center, Ted Kruz, Ben Ferguson with
you and Senator. We had a really big day of
rallies around the country over the weekend. Apparently Democrats are
just writ in big old checks right now to go
back to their old school organizing for these outrage rallies
at a king by the name of Donald Trump, who's
been in office many less years than any of the
(00:22):
Democrats that they're out there complaining about him being in office.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Well, this weekend we saw protests all across the country
that was angry white women go march. It was boomers unleashed,
and it was an expression of rage. What we're going
to talk about here is follow the money who's paying
for this? That not only was this an expression of rage,
but it was an expressive expression of rage that was
(00:46):
AstroTurf that was bought and paid for. And we're going
to follow the money to George Soros and his network
and an entire interconnected network of radical left wing groups
that we're funding these tests. We're also going to talk
about a tragedy that has been unfolding in recent years
in the country of Nigeria, where more than fifty thousand
(01:07):
Christians have been killed. The mass murder of Christians in
Nigeria has been ongoing. It is targeted, it is systematic.
Boko Haram and other jihadis are targeting Christians, are targeting churches,
are targeting schools. We're going to lay out the facts
of what's going on the Government of Nigeria is pressing
back and saying nothing to see here, nothing to see here.
(01:30):
We're going to give you the facts and we're going
to talk about legislation I've introduced to hold the government
of Nigeria accountable and to pressure them to finally, finally,
finally stop the mass murder of Christians.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Amen to that.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Whant I take a moment and talk to you real
quick about my good friends over at Berna. Being able
to protect my family is so important to me, and
it's one of the things that I want you to
know about how you can help protect your family as
well from those that may be trying to do you harm. Now,
for weeks, I've been joined by Josh from Burna to
share stories of how people just like you and me
(02:05):
have used their Burno launcher protect themselves and their families. Now,
Burna is a handheld pistol that fires both connect grounds
and chemical irritants to separate you from an attacker. Josh
just back today to share a true story of how
a man was able to stop two pit bulls from
harming him and his daughter using the Berna SD.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Josh tell us the story.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
You know this story is great because I guarantee many
people have been in a very similar situation. So Kyle,
an Illinois resident, was walking his young daughter home from
a playdate just down the street from their house when
he noticed two unleashed pit bulls running down an alley
aggressively charging right at them. He quickly lifted his daughter
over a fence of a yard to put her in
(02:47):
a safe place, and drew the Burna SD that he
was actually carrying on him, and using a combination of
kinetic and our Max fridge styles, Kyle fired five rounds
of the two pitbules, striking both the ground in front
of them, but also the dog themselves. The dogs stopped
in their tracks. The rounds had an immediate effect, and
both dogs quickly ran the other way. The entire incident
(03:09):
was also captured on home surveillance video, allowing everyone to
watch exactly how Berna kept Kyle and his daughter out
of harm's way.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Now, look, obviously the burner worked great in this case,
But why wouldn't someone choose to use a gun in
this case instead of a burna?
Speaker 1 (03:23):
So many people ask me that type of question.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
You know, it's same I get to ask that all
the time. And here we have a couple different reasons. One,
he may not be in an area where he could
carry a gun. Depending on the laws of your state,
it may limit where you can and can't carry a gun.
And two, look, nobody wants to kill these dogs, right,
nobody wants to kill anybody but dogs either. If we
can use a lower level of force to affect a
safe getaway for us and everyone else, man, that's the
(03:47):
way to do it. And that's exactly what happened here.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
If you want to be able to protect your family
and you want to have something like this, a left
lethal option, you need to check out Berna. You can
go right now to burna b y r ina dot com. Again,
that's burnap B why rna dot com. You'll understand after
you see the videos exactly why I carry this in
every car.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
We have burnup b why RNA dot com? All Right, senator.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So let's get into this day of I call it rage,
this anti American day, this no king's day. There was
something that hit online and it just made me smile
because it said, all right, so let me get this straight.
There's no kings referring to Donald Trump. Chuck Grassley's been
in office fifty plus years, Chuck Schumer forty four plus years,
(04:33):
Mitch McConnell forty plus years, Anti Pelosi thirty eight years,
Maxine Waters thirty seven years, Bernie Sanders thirty four years.
Trump's been in office total of four years at nine
and a half months. But somehow they're saying Donald Trump
is the king. When you look at the numbers there,
and that's like some bipartus numbers. It's pretty darn funny.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Well it is.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
And there was this little minor detail of an election
that occurred in November in which the American people overwhelmingly
voted to reelect Donald Trump ump very quickly, Look, you're
trying to engage in reason, ben reason is not welcome
on the radical left anymore.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Then I forgot about that memory.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
This is emoting, this is rage, this is orange man bad.
There's nothing more beyond that. And by the way, this
is also voters bad, you know, the irony of no
Kings that they're suggesting that they're somehow fans of democracy.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Understand.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
These are the same radical left wing democrats that indicted
Donald Trump not once, not twice, not three times, but
four times in an effort to stop the voters from
re electing him. These are the same left wing radicals
who then went to left wing judges and in multiple jurisdictions,
including Colorado, Illinois, Maine, they're left wing radicals ruled they
(05:50):
would remove Donald Trump's name from the ballot because nothing
says you are a defender of democracy like making it
impossible for the voters to vote for your opponent. Now, thankfully,
the US Supreme Court came in unanimously nine zero and said, no, no, no, sorry,
you don't get to rig an election by removing your opponent,
(06:10):
the Republican nominee for president, from the ballot. And wonder
of wonders, with Trump on the ballot, the voters voted
for him. That this is actually, you know, in some ways,
the left had some truth in advertising. They just had
one too many words that they call this the No
King's rally. What they really want to want to protest
(06:30):
is the king's rally. Look, when Joe Biden was president,
they wanted him to have unlimited power. And by the way,
once they realized that Joe Biden had been legally dead
for three years and that he was not going to
be a formidable candidate in November, they promptly defenestrated him,
threw him out a window, grabbed Kamala Harris and congratulations,
you're the Democrat nominee. And you know what detail, They
(06:51):
skipped the whole voting thing, Like the Democrat primary voters
didn't get to vote at all. They basically tried to
make her a queen. You know, when you coroinate someone,
when you put a crown on someone and say, don't
bother with the little voting stuff. We've decided you get
to run. That is kind of right at the heart
of monarchy. So this their messaging is incoherent, but at
(07:14):
the end of the day, there is no messaging other
than a primal scream they hate Trump. And look, it's
a good thing they did these rallies because you know,
prior to Saturday, I didn't know they hated Trump. I
really I had missed that the last ten months, and
so it really took seeing a bunch of seventy five
year old white liberal women screaming outside and dyeing their
(07:39):
hair pink. You know, without that, we would have had
no idea that the far left did not like President Trump.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
You know, one thing that was interesting about these rallies
is the way that the media covered it. It was
before the rallies happened, they were already making these things
a success and say, yeah, we're expecting millions to gather
across the country. Then as it was happening, I was
flipping the channels in between watching what's really important, and
(08:06):
that was college football over the weekend. During during a
couple of moments, I checked over to see how they
were covering, and it was like millions gather. I'm sorry, Center,
I did not see millions as in plural, anywhere close
to that. Yeah, there were some bigger crowds for sure,
New York City for example, Chicago.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
It was not millions.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
And yet they already act like this was just some amazing,
unpresced success. Meanwhile, the average American was watching football on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Well, and I do have to express my condolences. I'm
very sorry about old miss and George, I knew.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
You were waiting for this show to I didn't talk
about that.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Look, I knew that that that that hurt. But look,
you can you can gain solace because even though Old
Miss lost to Georgia, an Old Miss Royalty prevailed because
Arch Manning and the Longhorns won. Although I got admit
it was an glee game.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
At least there's some intellectual honesty.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
And the Aggies keep on winning. And I was I
was sad that the Tech finally lost. There's still a
heck of a team. But but, but but I'm very
sorry about Ole Miss.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
The grin right now in your face.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Is this unbelievably telling, unbelievably telling of your thoughts and prayers,
Now that you got that moment out of the way, Yeah,
I'm glad that was his moment. He's been waiting all
week and he was silent. He didn't text me on Saturday.
I want the audience to understand that he was waiting
for the show to bring that up. So let's talk
about the money here for a second. This is clearly.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
By the way, I will say what One of my
closest friends, Gray, as you know, played played football at
Arkansas Yeah, Arkansas came within inches of beating the Aggies,
and my phone would have lit up the grief he
would have given me. Uh And to be fair, Arkansas
almost did beat the Aggies.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
I mean it.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
You know.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
The A and m Arkansas game reminded me a little
bit of the A and M Notre Dame game, where
neither side bothered to bring defense.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
They just scored like crazy.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
And whoever had the ball last one?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah it was it was. It was aired out football
one oh one. So you look at the money here,
and I wasn't concerned. I did TV over the weekend
on No Kings, and they asked me like, you know, well,
this seems to be momentum. Like, it's not momentum if
you're paying for it. This isn't authentic or organic. It
is bought and paid for. If I gotten by a
(10:25):
bunch of ads this weekend to play for whatever my
thing is, you know that I want to advocate for it.
Does that mean there's actual authentic momentum behind it? Or
does that just mean that I paid for something like this?
To me is paid to play politics. I'm not concerned
about quote momentum. I do think, however, those that were
organizing and paying for this No King's rally, are holding
(10:47):
America hostage with the government shutdown. If there's any takeaway
for me, it's that that Democrats could not open the
government back up until after the No Kings rally took place.
Now this week they may actually be able to do
their damn job well.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
And this past week I went on Fox News and said,
there's clear evidence that George Soros and his network is
paying for these No Kings rallies. And I have to say,
lefty activists on Twitter went crazy and said, there's no
evidence of that. What's cruse talking about. Well, you know,
fortunately we brought the receipts. So so let me let
me walk through. And in fact, if you want to
read it, Fox News has has a story entitled quote
(11:25):
Soros Foundation's helping fund anti Trump No King's protests nationwide.
So and and and and here here are the facts.
In two thousand and three, the Open Society Foundation, which
was founded by George Soros, UH issued a two year
grant of three million dollars to Indivisible. The grant was
(11:50):
quote to support the grantees social welfare activities. According to
the Open Society Foundation's website. What is individual able doing
it is quote managing data and communication with participants, I e.
AstroTurf for the No King's protests that will be taking
place in Washington and across the country. According to the
(12:14):
Open Society Foundation's website, George Soros has given away How
much do you think George Soros has given to the
Open Society Foundations?
Speaker 2 (12:25):
I mean, it's sorrows, It's gonna be millions. It could
easily be tens of.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Millions, more than thirty two billion dollars. Wow, okay, more
than thirty two billion with a B golly, And and
if you look at that that they in turn are
funding Indivisible and Indivisible U is organizing or help or
(12:51):
helping organize the No Kings Foundations. By the way, the
Left has these these inner woven dark money organization. So,
for example, in twenty seventeen, Visible received a three hundred
and fifty thousand dollars grant from the Tides Foundation. From
Tides Advocacy, which is a group affiliated with the Tides Network.
(13:11):
The Tides Foundation, which is also affiliated with the Tides Network,
has been funding anti Israel campus riots. The grant report
for twenty twenty four for the Open Siety Foundation was
not not available, but Soros's Foundation of awarded grants to
(13:32):
Indivisible every single year since since individual was created in
twenty seventeen. In total, the Open Society Foundations have awarded
seven point sixty one million in grants to the group
behind the No King's protest. So seven point sixty one million,
that's where the money's coming from. So if you're surprised
(13:53):
there's a lot of organizing, Well, it turns out that
deranged Trump, hating America hating radical socialist, Marxist, anarchist, a
police abolishing nutcase billionaires can fund what looks like an
awful lot of action. I got to say, given all
(14:13):
that cash, what is striking to me, Ben is how
lame the result was. Like, like I got to say,
to be honest, I didn't spend a whole lot of
time watching footage of it. But the footage I saw,
you know what was missing any black people, any Hispanic people.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Maybe every video like non minorities welcome, right? Could that
be it?
Speaker 4 (14:36):
Look?
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Look every video I saw it was a bunch of
old white liberals. It was like, you know, it was
like a a Patagonia convention with lots of prune juice.
I mean, it was really the numbers were underwhelming. You
knew the numbers were underwhelming when you started to see
(14:59):
on Twitter are people sending fake videos of protests in
prior years and claiming, oh, this is the no Kings turnout.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, and that did happen a lot, by the way.
I mean, you're not joking when you say that. I
saw quite a few of those and it just made
you laugh.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Yeah, there's a video of a big protest in Boston
years ago that has been tweeted around like crazy, and
they say, oh, this was no Kings in Boston. It's like, no, Well,
why are you sending around a fake video? Because even
when you have millions of dollars from George Soros, apparently
the people motivated by the way, this is very much
the same pattern.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
As you know.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
They did a dry run for this with the protests
in d C against President Trump sending in the National Guard.
And again, those protests were a bunch of white liberals.
There were very few in the video. I saw very
few African Americans who and the high crime areas in
d C are predominantly African American, and it was really striking.
(15:57):
You see these sort of wealthy liberal many that government
bureaucrats who are saying, no, no, get the National Guard
out of DC. And then if camera crews that would
go into high crime areas in d C, you'd look
at the people living there, predominantly African American, facing gang
bangers and drive by shootings and facing being afraid to
(16:17):
go out at night. And there's interview after interview with
DC residents who are like, Okay, I feel a lot safer.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
This is great.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
But by the way, your hometown of Memphis, you got
the same interviews where people are saying, you know, for
the first time in a long time, I feel safe
to go outside. I can go outside with my kids.
I'm not afraid of my kids getting shot or attacked
or even Bill.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Street, which is the famous street in Memphis, you know
where you can go listen to a live music and
it's downtown by the Facts Forum, I know, people have
not gone down there five six, seven, eight, nine, ten years.
They're now going down there because they've it's been so
unsafe and the National Guard's there, and now citizens of
Memphis are actually getting to go enjoy their own city again,
which is exactly what we've seen in Washington, d C.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Yeah, and it's amazing that the bosition of the Democrat
Party as they are against law and order. Apparently having
law and order means you have a king. That they
are against criminals being arrested. Apparently that's the act of
a king. That they are against violent criminals being incarcerated,
taken off the streets, and they are against our families
(17:19):
being protected. You know, I got to say, people who
are not political radicals find all of that common sense
that that's not a particularly right wing proposition that that
that violent criminals. You know, I'll tell a story Ben,
when I was a brand new baby lawyer back in
I think nineteen ninety seven, I just finished clerking for
(17:42):
Chief Justice Renquist. I just started practicing law at a little
law firm in DC, and there was a show on
PBS that was called Debates, Debates, and it was it
was a three on three debate for an hour, and
they would they would take a particular topic and get
three conservatives, three liberals, and you debate for an hour.
(18:03):
And it was it was produced by a guy named
Warren Steibel, who was also the producer of Firing Line
with Bill Buckley, and I got a call from someone
from a friend of mine who said, Hey, they're looking
for someone to go on the show. Do you want
to do this? And it ended up being the first
TV show I ever went on, you know, right at
the start of my legal career, and the topic was
(18:26):
should we release should we grant amnesty? To quote America's
political prisoners, and by that they meant cop killers and
other radical left wingers who were incarcerated. But they claimed
they were political prisoners because they had an ideology and
they were having a hard time finding conservatives to debate
the conservative side of it. And I remember I got
(18:47):
the phone call ask if I would do it, and
I started laughing and I said, okay, so let me
get this straight. You want me to defend the proposition
that violent criminals should be punished. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I
feel good with that. I'm quite comfortable with that proposition.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Way to load the deck against me, right.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
You know.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
And look, to be clear, I don't care if they're
left wing or right wing or they don't have any
wings at all. If you commit acts of violence, you
should be arrested, you should be prosecuted, You should go
to jail and listen the question we asked at the
start of this show about following the money. Regular listeners
of the pod will know that is something that I'm
pressing both Pambondi and the Department of Justice and cash
(19:29):
PTEL and the FBI to do not just the money
behind the No Kings rallies, but also the money behind
the anti Semitic protest on college campuses, the money behind
the Black Lives Matter at Antifa riots all over the country,
the money behind the open border riots in Los Angeles
and other cities earlier this year. I think it is
likely all the same money. It is the same collection
(19:52):
of radicals. We are a combination of extreme leftists, Marxists,
jihadist anarchists, and I think George Soros is the granddaddy
of them all. But I've introduced legislation, and the legislation
is called the Stop Thunders Act. And what the Stop
Thunders Act would do is very simple. It simply adds
(20:15):
rioting to the list of predicate acts under RICO.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Now, what is RICO.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
RICO is the Rocketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act, and
it is a tool that prosecutors use to go after
organized crime and is a very powerful prosecutorial tool. And
the value of RICO is that what you can do
is under RICO you can prove an organization. This is
used often for something like the mafia or say a
(20:42):
drug cartel, where you prove the existence of an organization
and that you're part of the organization, and then you
have to prove that you committed predicate acts and you
can be prosecuted under RICO and serve long jail time. Well,
the way the left right now is funding rioting as
they do do it through multiple different organizations that are
(21:03):
deliberately ignorant of what each other is doing, and I
think they're doing it to avoid accountability and liability. The
Stop Funders Act by adding rioting to the list of
predicate acts for RICO, would give prosecutors a heck of
a tool that if you're cutting the check that is
going to funding the rioting and rioters are engaged in
(21:24):
acts of violence. Rioters are on campus, assaulting Jewish students
in a public street, looting a store, firebombing a police car,
murdering someone, assaulting someone, that you the person who wrote
the check and funded the entire effort. You the one
who say on the college campuses paid for all of
(21:44):
the tents that look exactly the same. They all match.
You would face liability just like you would if you
were the one writing the check and funding the mafia
family or funding the drug cartel. And so I'm urging
Congress take up my stop funderzact pass it, and DOJ
needs to go after the money. If we cut off
(22:05):
the money with no checks, there would be no no
King's protests, not because people are prevented from speaking, but
because this sort of demonstration is not real and organic.
It is driven by a handful of left wing billionaires
who are using their money to buy the appearance of
(22:29):
something much broader.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Final question on this, how hard or how easy should
it be or will it be to get this pass
with Republican leadership. It doesn't seem like this would be
a hard thing to convince people to say, yeah, we
need to follow the money.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
So look, I think it is easy to get Republican votes.
I think all or virtually all Republicans would vote for it.
The challenge to passing in the law will be the
Senate filibuster rule, which means to pass it we need
sixty votes in the Senate, which would mean we would
need at least seven Democrats fifty three Republicans. It's the
same challenge we have in the middle of the shutdown.
(23:03):
We need sixty votes. We need at least seven Democrats
to reopen the government, and right now the Democrats are
just no, no, hell no to everything. So I think
it is entirely possible and maybe even likely that if
we bring it up for a vote in the Senate
Judiciary Committee, that every Senate Democrat would vote no on
the committee. Now, if that happens, it would still be
(23:25):
voted out of committee, because if the Republicans all voted together,
we have a majority on the committee, and so if
we voted out of committee, it would go to the floor.
And what I'm merging Republican leadership to do is put
it up for a vote on the floor and listen.
If the Democrats all want to vote no, they can.
That prevents it from being passed. But I got to say,
that is a terrible vote. If you are voting against
(23:46):
liability for violent rioting, that is not a vote that
that is not a vote that any Democrat running in
a purple state wants to defend to his or her
constituents and so I think. I think either we take
it up and they decide to support it and we
pass it, or we take it up and they vote
party line against it, in which case those are terrible
(24:07):
votes and you campaign against them.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
And I want to move now center to something that
you've been spearheading and leading on. It's certainly not getting
attention to the media, but you're wanting to hold Nigeria
accountable for the fifty thousand. Let me see that number again,
fifty thousand Christians that have been killed. There, explain why
this story is so important and what you're trying to do,
(24:32):
and also why is no one covering this?
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Does this been described to me?
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Look, it is truly horrific. The numbers are stunning. The
numbers are staggering. Here are the top line numbers of
what we're seeing. We have seen over fifty thousand Christians killed.
We have seen over eighteen thousand churches and at least
(24:56):
two thousand schools burned. And the response to this, the
Nigerian government is fighting back ferociously saying this is not happening,
this is not true.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
There's a battle.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
The Nigerian government officials are getting very angry that I'm
calling them out. I want to read to you from
the executive Summary of the US State Departments twenty twenty
four Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Nigeria, and
here's what it says.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Quote.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
Significant human rights issues included credible reports of arbitrary and
unlawful killings, disappearances, torture or cruel inhuman or degrading treatment
or punishment, arbitrary arrested attention, serious abuses in a conflict,
serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including
(25:50):
violence or threats of violence against journalists, violence or threats
against labor activists or union members, and significant presence of
any of the worst forms of child labor. Non state
actors committed arbitrary and unlawful killings, disappearances, physical abuse, and
other mistreatments. Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West
(26:11):
Africa continued attacks on civilians, military, police, humanitarian and religious targets,
unlawfully recruited and forcibly conscripted child soldiers, and carried out
scores of attacks on population centers in the North East regions.
(26:31):
Abductions by Bokohram and the Islamic State in West Africa continued.
Both groups subjected many women and girls to gender based violence,
including forced marriage, sexual slavery, and rape. This is what's
going on in Nigeria right now, and it is going
(26:54):
on far too often with the acquiescence of the elected
government officials, far too often, and in some instances, you
have provinces in Nigeria that have on the books blasphemy
law and Sharia law, and they will prosecute Christians for blasphemy,
(27:18):
they will plot prosecute Christians for violating Sharia law, in
which case the government becomes a tool of the persecution
of Christians.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
And look it is.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
It is devastating. It is the most Christians being murdered
anywhere on the face of the planet is happening in Nigeria.
And so I introduce legislation to require the Secretary of
State to designate Nigeria as a country of particular concern
(27:52):
and to impose sanctions, including in particular sanctioning the individual
government officials. So, if you're a local effe and you're
enforcing blasphemy laws and Sharia laws and you're persecuting Christians,
or you're turning the other way and turning a blind
eye to Christians being murdered, at in mass numbers. The
(28:14):
result of my legislation would be each of those individual
government officials would face sanctions. And I got to say,
the Nigerian government has been pushing back ferociously. For example,
the Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs ol
Ok said the Cruise bill is quote a deliberate attempt
(28:34):
to damage the Nigerian image, and he insists Nigeria is
a very tolerant country, well other than murdering fifty thousand Christians.
Very tolerant other than that. Likewise, the Minister of Information
and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris rejected the suggestion that quote
any Nigerian officials will willingly deliberately indulge in the act
(28:58):
of siding with violent extremists to target at any particular
religion in the country. Likewise, Presidential spokesperson baya on Anungo
demanded that Cruz stop his quote malicious and contrived lies
against quote my country. And finally, Senate President God's Will
(29:22):
Akpabillo cautioned against framing the crisis quote along religious lines
since quote terrorists and bandits target Nigerians indiscriminately regardless of faith.
Now listen, it is certainly true that Bukoharram and other
religious radicals in Nigeria are killing Muslims as well. They're
(29:44):
killing both, but they are systematically targeting Christians for mass murder.
When you've got fifty thousand Christians being murdered, that is
not accidental, that is not random. And the over eighteen
thousand churches and the over two thousand schools, they're singling
out and targeting Christian churches and Christian schools and burning
them to the ground. And the government of Nigeria is
(30:08):
not acting with any vigor at all to defend and
to defend the Christians or just to keep them alive.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Yeah, to keep them alive.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
And so now obviously this is about letting it shining
a light on this, and then you go back to
the policy aspect of this, what happens next And for
people specifically that are listening, what do they need to
be doing and advocating for to make sure that we
can move this forward.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
Look, the next step needs to be that I'm pushing
for the Congress to pass my legislation. I'm on the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, so I'm pressing for the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee to take it up that would designate
Nigeria as a country of particular concern. Now, I would
note the Trump administration can do so on its own,
(30:56):
and this is often the case in foreign policy areas,
where all introduce legislation and I'll push for action. So,
for example, I've introduced legislation to designate the Muslim Brotherhood
is a terrorist organization. I've done so repeatedly in multiple congresses.
I think it is unequivocally a terrorist organization. In fact,
Hamas is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas is
(31:17):
the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine, is what they call themselves,
and that has not yet happened. But I would like
to see Congress pass my legislation. But the most likely
way we'll get the Muslim Brotherhood designated is that I
will succeed in convincing President Trump and the Trump administration
to do so. And I've been making that case vigorously.
(31:38):
With respect to Nigeria, the same thing is true. I'm
going to try to pass the legislation, but I'm also
very much making the case to the Trump administration. They
have the authority to do it now. And look, I
want to point out you asked what people can do
speak out highlight fifty thousand Christians massacred since two thousand
and nine, the single greatest mass slaughter of Christians anywhere
(31:59):
in the world world. And look here's how Fox News
put it.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Quote.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
A diplomatic battle is being waged between leading Republican Senator
Ted Cruz and Nigerian government officials. The Texas senators has
warned he will hold them accountable for the reported mass
slaughter of tens of thousands of Christians in Nigeria. The
official say Cruz is lying, with one claiming that despite
even the Pope publicly calling out the killings, there is
(32:25):
religious harmony in the country. But you know what, maybe
you don't believe me, maybe you don't believe the Pope.
So if the Pope and I are both wrong, how
about this, maybe maybe you'll believe Bill Maher. You have
a listen to what Bill Maher had to say on
this topic.
Speaker 5 (32:43):
If you don't know what's going on in Nigeria, your
media sources suck. You are in a bubble. And again,
I'm not a Christian, but they are systematically killing the
Christians in Nigeria. They've killed over one hundred thousand since
two thousand and nine they've burned eighty thousand churches.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
This is so much.
Speaker 5 (33:02):
More These are their Islamis vocoha ram. This is so
much more of a genocide attempt than what is going
on in Gaza. They are literally attempting to wipe out
the Christian population of an entire country.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Where are the kids protesting this?
Speaker 4 (33:16):
Yeah? Thank you?
Speaker 1 (33:19):
All will talk about it, so thank you.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
Absolutely, it's Africa, That's what.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
No one's talking about it and they should be.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
You can't read about it on mainstream media. It's sad,
So thank you for bringing Vicker.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
The Jews aren't involved, that's why it's.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
The Christians and the Muslims two players.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
He is exactly right, and I appreciate Bill Maher calling
it out and shining a light on it. He's right
that that that the corporate media does not want to
cover it. And by the way, on that same show,
someone you know well, Van Jones from CNN. He was
on that show, and Van Jones is a very left
(33:56):
wing guy and he's on CNN regularly. But but he
commented and and he chimed in agreeing with Bill Maher.
Here give a listen to Van Jones talking about the
slaughter of Christians in Nigeria.
Speaker 5 (34:08):
You're talking about young people. A lot of them seem
to know one thing. White people did some very bad
things in this world, and they certainly did. But there
are other things to.
Speaker 6 (34:15):
Know, yes, and including the fact that in Sudan right now,
which nobody is talking about, you have Arab militia murdering
people by the wheelbarrow. Including the fact that Africa right
now is being overrun by Islamis terravists, including Boko rob
with no conversation about that at all.
Speaker 5 (34:31):
I did it last week Nigeria. I mean this is
an actual planned genocide. Yes, I mean they really want
to kill all the Christians in that country and they
are systematically doing it.
Speaker 6 (34:42):
And the fact that there's almost no response from the
global left and no attention from mainstream media is a
crime against African people, black people, and human rights. I
agree with that one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
It turns out.
Speaker 6 (34:54):
That there's a double standard for Jews.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
That is true, use no news.
Speaker 6 (35:01):
As long as you can put the put the Jewish
state in the conversation, it's gonna be a big conversation.
If you can't, you get no attention at all. This
is a big problem. It is a big problem. I
mean you hear Van Jones saying it. Yep, he is correct.
It is a huge problem.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
No Jews, no news like I mean, it's it's it's
amazing that this is happening.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Look, we see the protests on college campuses. We see
these angry leftists who are completely enraged about Gaza. The
instant President Trump negotiates a peace deal, they go away.
Now Hamas is executing Palestinians on the street, lighting up
Palestinians on their knees, shooting him in the back of
the head, and not a peep. These leftist radicals, they
(35:42):
are perfectly fine with Palestinians being systematically murdered as long
as it's Palestinians. As long as Hamas doing the murder.
You don't see a protest. You don't see and he
calls a genocide. Their protest is about one thing, which
is they hate Israel and they hate Jews. And I
to say, where is ABC, where is CBS, Where is
(36:03):
an NBC? Where's CNN and MSNBC? Where's the New York Times?
Where's the Washington Post? About the mass murder of over
fifty thousand Christians in Nigeria? You know what, if you
want to find out things like that, you got to
listen to Verdict, You got to listen to the podcast.
You got to go and work. But I will say
there are not many issues that bring together me, the Pope,
(36:29):
Bill Maher and Ven Jones.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Amen to that.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Amen to that.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
Man.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Make sure you take this podcast, share it with your
family and friends, put it up on social media. If
you get that little forward button, you can put it
on wherever you're on social media. It's actually really easy
and it helps other people hear this. Also, if you
missed our episode on Friday with Donald Trump's' son Eric Trump,
go back and grab that. It was a really interesting episode.
I want to make sure you guys, if you miss
(36:54):
it on Friday, you can grab that as well. And
then Senat and I will see you back here on
Wednesday morning.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
Yeah,
Host
Ben Ferguson
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