🔥 1. Hunter Biden’s Interview and Political Commentary
- The episode opens with a critical discussion of a recent, controversial interview with Hunter Biden, in which he allegedly expresses anger at Democratic elites and hints at a potential presidential run.
- Cruz and Ferguson mock the interview, describing it as a “meltdown” and using it to criticize the Democratic Party, portraying Hunter as emblematic of its perceived dysfunction.
- They highlight Hunter’s comments about George Clooney, David Axelrod, and Nancy Pelosi, and his inflammatory remarks about immigration and foreign policy, including a hypothetical threat to invade El Salvador.
💰 2. The Stop Funders Act
- Cruz introduces new legislation called the Stop Funders Act, aimed at targeting individuals and organizations that financially support violent riots.
- The bill proposes adding “rioting” as a predicate crime under the RICO Act, allowing prosecutors to pursue those funding organized violence, including protests linked to Antifa, BLM, and pro-illegal immigration movements.
- Cruz argues that many of these protests are not spontaneous but are funded by domestic and foreign entities, and that cutting off financial support is key to stopping them.
🚁 3. Drone Threats and National Security
- The final segment focuses on the growing threat of drones used by criminal cartels and terrorists.
- Cruz cites examples such as drones scouting a Trump rally and smuggling contraband into prisons, arguing that U.S. law enforcement lacks the authority and tools to counter these threats effectively.
- He calls for bipartisan legislation to expand drone mitigation powers for federal and local agencies, warning of potential future attacks involving drones.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome in his verdict with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
with you. It's nice to have you along with us today,
and Senator, you've run for president before, and Hunter Biden
may be calling you because apparently he's saying about running
for president as well in this new interview, on top
of the fact he's very angry with rich Democrats and
helped his dad get elected the first time.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I gotta say, we've seen bad interviews, but wow, but
like Hunter Biden utterly and completely melted down. There's an
old line that a gaff in Washington is when a
politician actually says something they believe. Well, Hunter Biden, let loose.
He is the ID of the Democrat Party. He's announced
(00:42):
apparently he's launching a campaign for president. I actually think
he'd be a fantastic representative of today's Democrat party. He
embodies everything today's Democrats stand for. We're gonna break down
this train wreck of an interview, and actually that's not
fair to train wrecks because they're usually more discipline, more orderly,
and result in less chaos than this interview. We're also
(01:06):
going to talk about legislation that I've introduced this week
called the Stop Funders Act to go after the people
who are writing the checks that are funding these pro
illegal immigrant riots, that are funding anti Semitic riots, that
are funding Antifa riots, that are funding Black Lives Matter riots.
We're going to talk about following the money. And finally,
(01:26):
we're going to talk about a growing national security threat
and law enforcement threat, which is drones. We're seeing criminal
cartels using drones, We're seeing terrorists using drones, and right now,
the current legal system, the federal government is not prepared
to keep us safe.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
We're going to talk.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
About the threat of drone warfare, the next generation of
threats our families and our country are facing.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Yeah, it's a really important issue. We're going to deal
with that in a second.
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All right, so, Senator, let's just start with this interview.
It was a three hour interview. Once a crackhead, always
a crackhead, was the takeaway for me and Hunter.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Biden loves to use the F bomb. That's two. That's
takeaway number two.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
He's really angry though at the Democratic Machine for turning
on Daddy.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
That got him really fired up.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I gotta say one of the consequences of this interview, Uh,
it's actually had a real impact on the Verdict podcast
because it's forced us to increase our compensation for Diaz,
our producer, because the amount of time that he's had
to put in just to bleeping the F bombs. Yes,
I mean it really is throwing it that there were
(04:35):
overtime limits. We're gonna play this and and and and
let me say thank you to Diaz for hitting bleep
bleep bleep. You got to be really fast on this.
Give a listen to to Hunter Biden's careful, nuanced assessment
of George Clooney, of David Axelrod, of the graybeard eminences
(04:55):
in the Democrat Party. Here, give a listen.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
I don't have to be nice number one. I agree
with Quentin Guarantino. George Clooney is not an actor. He
is a like I don't know what he is. You
what do you have to do with anything? Why do
I have to listen to you? What right do you
have to step on a man who's given fifty two
years of his life to the services of this country
and decide that you, George Clooney, are going to take
(05:19):
out basically a full page ad in the New York
Times to undermine the president at a time in which,
by the way, what do people care about the most?
Why do you think that the Republicans have an advantage
over us because they're unified, they won't go along with anything.
I wasn't asking anybody to go along with anything. I
was asking people to go along with this. The most
successful administration in my lifetime.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
I mean, Senator, it was successful. Hunter Biden said so.
And he wasn't ask anybody to go along with anything
unless you were sending money from Ukraine, or from Russia,
or from China outside of that, or buying some of
his artwork.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
I mean, this was just a straight shooting guy, right.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Look, it was the most successful administration of his lifetime.
New To be clear, Hunter has a memory of about
four seconds, so in the last four seconds that he
can remember, it was the most successful he can remember
because he's blocked out the current administration. You look at listen,
even Democrats are not making arguments that Joe Biden was
(06:18):
a successful administration. It was a train wreck. Joe Biden
gave us a new Trump presidency, he gave us a
Republican sanity, gave us a Republican House. And it's because
every policy that the Democrats adopted was a disaster. Open borders,
twelve million people invading this country. The American people didn't
like the victims of crime. The American people didn't like
(06:38):
the disastrous War on American energy, that drove inflation, drove
up the cost for working people across the country. The
American people didn't like. And as bad as all the
domestic policy was, the foreign policy was even worse. Every
friend of America Joe Biden, the Democrats abandoned every enemy
of America Joe Biden. The Democrats showed weakness and appeasement.
(07:00):
So Biden, the Democrats inherited peace and prosperity, and we
were given instead two wars. We were given the war
in Ukraine and the absolute disaster of October seventh. Why
because Joe Biden the Democrats gave a hundred billion dollars
to Iran that they used to fund the death squads
on October seventh. That is the legacy of the Biden presidency.
(07:21):
There is not a single Democrat in the Congress that
I know of that is defending the Biden presidency. But
to Joe Biden and to Hunter Biden, the problem is
George Clooney, That clearly is the problem. But I got
to say, Hunter went further than that, and I want
to listen to I want you to listen to what
he had to say about Al Salvador, because he's really
(07:44):
really mad that President Trump is deporting violent criminal, illegal
alien Venezuelan gang members listen to Hunter Biden's solution to
stop this.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
But these guys think that we need to run away
from all values in.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Order for us to leave.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
I say you, how are we getting those people back
from fucking El Salvador? Because I'll tell you what, if
I became president in two years from now, or four
years from now or three years from now, I would
pick up the phone and call the president of El
Salvador and say you either send them back or I'm
going to find.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
In Vaine is a crime. What they're doing.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
He's a dictator, thug Well Kelly or Trump.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Both Biden twenty twenty eight campaign right there slogan, I'll
invade El Salvador and anybody else that makes me blanket angry.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Right.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
So to be clear, you're doing some math there because
you said it's Biden twenty twenty eight, and Hunter was
clear he said if I became president in two.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
Years or four years or three years.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Apparently he doesn't know when the presidential election was. Maybe
it's twenty seven, maybe it's twenty eight, maybe it's twenty nine,
maybe it's forty two.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
You know, man.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Speaking at Bernie's at the White House when he was there,
does it really matter what election year it is?
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Right?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
I do like that he broke the news that apparently
Hunter is running it is one hundred and twenty eight.
You're right, that's at least what they'll print on the
bumper stickers. And by the way, does anyone better represent
the mess that is today's Democrat Party? The corruption, the anger.
(09:21):
Listen to what he just said. If he were president,
he would invade El Salvador. He would send the military
to invade l Salvador to what end, to bring back
criminal illegal aliens, to bring back murderers and rapists and
child molesters who are MS thirteen gang members, because he
(09:43):
would send the army to say, you know what, we
don't have enough criminals and murderers and rapists. I'm going
to send the army to bring us some more. That
is today's Democrat Party.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
But holy cow, yeah, it makes sense.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I'm kind of digging the honesty here, right, and this
is coming from the same Now, let's also be clear,
Joe Biden said Hunter Biden was the smartest man he knew.
So this is the guy that's like wat's this, here's
foreign policy. If you want to know who was running
the White House. What does worry me is how much
Hunter Biden was around the White House, content.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Around emails. He was plugged in. If there was any
foreign despot, if there were any any enemy of America,
Hunter Biden was plugged in. Why because he would then
shake down people for tens of millions of dollars. This guy, Look,
we are watching one of the great businessmen of modern times,
because he has figured out he could sell access to
(10:38):
Daddy and favors from Daddy and make tens of millions
of dollars. And look you listen to his answer just
a minute ago where he said, if he were president,
he would send in the military to invade El Salvador
to bring back illegal immigrants. You might think this guy
loves illegal immigrants. He just has a warm spot. He
has a heart for immigrants. He thinks they're wonderful, incredible people.
(11:00):
Well not so much. Listen to this clip where he
describes what he really thinks of the illegal immigrants that
Daddy led into this country.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
People are really upset about illegal immigration. You how do
you think your hotel room gets cleaned? How do you
think you have food on your table? Who do you
think washes your dishes? Who do you think does your
fucking garden. I would pick up the phone and call
the President of Salvador and say you either send them
back or I'm going to invade. It's a facking crime
(11:31):
what they're doing. He is a fucking dictator.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Well, look you that is what Hunter thinks of immigrants.
They clean hotels, they clean your dishes. It reminds me
of that wack adoodle Democrat Congresswan from Vermont who said
if we don't let any illegal illegal immigrants, who's going
to wipe your ass? I mean, it is a level
(11:56):
of contempt and condous.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Says what I want, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yet? Look look they they look down on the illegals
that they allowed to flood into this country, but they
think they're dumb enough that they will end up voting
for Democrats ultimately, So it's all about political power. But
this is the condescension and contempt, and Hunter is not unique.
He is today's Democrat party that they have. Everything is
(12:24):
politics and partisan politics. They are willing to endanger your
family and my family if they believe it will elect
more Democrats.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
The takeaway from this interview was for me two big themes.
Number One, it is scary who had access to this
White House and influence over the president, especially when he
was in such a cognitive decline. That terrifies me that
Hunter Biden was around and flying on Air Force one
and involved in meetings and was read in and was
(12:56):
on all the email chains that we've witnessed recently.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
That number one.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
But number two, it also tells you I think about
just the disarray of the Democratic Party and the fact
that they turned so quickly on Joe when they saw
the debate. And now he's like, well, I want to
burn it all down, and everybody that didn't stand with
my dad, how dare you? And I may even come
back and president. Like, there's a derangement aspect of the
(13:22):
Biden family at this moment.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
And listen, I don't fault Hunter for defending his dad.
I actually support familiar loyalty. But he is lashing out
in a way that is unhinged and unconnected to reality.
He's mad at George Clooney, he's mad at David Axelrod,
he's mad at the Democrats, and one exchange, he explains
he actually broke some news, he said, the person who
(13:47):
was responsible for his father being pulled from the ticket.
And it turns out, according to Hunter, it was Nancy
Pelosi here give a listener.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Yeah, And you would have the speaker of emeritus that
would say, well, you know, I'm going to leave it
up to but I don't know. And and and they'd
already made a decision. They clearly made a decision. And
when I say they, I mean the speaker. And you know,
(14:15):
I heard Alexander Pelosi say something call my mo, like
put your big girl pants on to my mom or something,
and I kind of want to feel like saying, who
the heck do you think you are. I would never
speak about your mom that way. I would never speak
about your father that way. I would never insult your
parents that way.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
He would never, but he's really mad about it right now.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
He would never, except for the moment that he is.
All right, Let's shift to the next topic, which is
violence in America. Look, the last five years, we've seen
a pattern of riot after riot after riot. We saw
in twenty twenty the Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots.
(14:59):
We saw s all across this country lit on fire.
We saw police cars firebombed, we saw stores looted, we
saw people murdered. We saw following October seventh, anti Semitic
riots and hostile protests on college campuses all across this country,
especially in bright blue liberal states. And now this year
(15:25):
we've seen violent protests, typically in Democrat cities, started in
Los Angeles, spread across the country in favor of illegal immigrants,
in favor of Venezuelan gang members, opposing deportation, saying we
want as many criminal illegal aliens in this country. There
(15:45):
is a pattern behind all of these, which is these
are not organic. These are not just people who got
pissed off and decided I'm going to go protest. There
is money behind these. Checks are being written that are
funding them. And so I introduced legislation this week called
the Stop Funders Act. And what the Stop Funders Act
(16:06):
does is very simple. It adds to the list of
predicate crimes for RICO rioting. Now what does that mean.
RICO is legislation that is used to go after racketeering,
and it's very powerful legislation that prosecutors have used to
go after the mob. And it goes after a criminal enterprise,
(16:26):
a criminal organization. Right now, rioting is not one of
the predicate crimes. But in this instance, if you want
to go after for five years, we have seen these
violent riots. And look, I'm not the only person in
the country who noticed that the anti Semitic riots on
college campuses, that many of the protesters had matching tents. Yeah,
(16:51):
there are clearly checks being written. Some of them I
believe are from foreign nations like Cutter or Ran, but
others are from radical left wing organizations. And during the
Biden administration, you and I on this podcast repeatedly called
on the Department of Justice to follow the money. With
(17:12):
Pambondi and Cash Bettel, I've told both of them, follow
the money, prosecute the people who are writing checks, not
just the thugs who are on the street, who are
attacking police officers, who are attacking innocent people, but the
people who are paying for it all. And and going
after the money is the best way to stop these
(17:33):
violent riots. And if we don't, they will continue, because
understand the radical left wants them to continue.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, this is one of those where as you mentioned,
follow the money, it's very quarly well organized. We're seeing
this even over the last two weeks when they've gone
after the President of the United States of America. And
we see all these you know, protests that they try
to act like they're spontaneous. No, they're paid for, they're funded,
they're well organized. Senator, every every one can see it.
(18:01):
And so the question people, I'm sure are going to say, well,
hold on a second, if I want to spend my
money to support a protest, why should I be held
accountable for that if they decide to get angry or
violent on their own.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
How do you separate those two things.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Well, you have to demonstrate under RICO that you're part
of a criminal enterprise and the predicate act. Rioting is
different from protesting. Peaceful protest is protected by the Constitution,
but rioting is not. When you're using violence, when you're
using weapons, when you're intimidating, when you're threatening, when you're hurting,
when you're murdering people, and many of these riots have
(18:39):
involved people being killed. That is fundamentally different. And I'll
use it example when we've talked about occasionally on this podcast.
Last year, for a period of about nine months, Heidi
and I had every Saturday morning pro Haamas protesters at
our house. Yeah, they would show up at seven am.
(19:01):
They would leave it eight When they showed up, they
would scream, they would bang cowbells, they would blow missiles up, whistles.
Rather they thankfully they did not blow missiles, but they
whistles intense. Yeah, that that that would have been different.
They would scream, curse words. They cursed as much as
Hunter Biden did. They dropped f bombs over and over
(19:23):
and over again. Look, we have teenage daughters. There are
a few things that can tick teenagers off more than
waking them up at seven am on a Saturday. Teenagers
like to sleep in, certainly my girls do. Yeah, And
it was week after week after week. Now what was striking.
This was a job. It was clearly paid for. They
(19:44):
showed up at seven am, they left at eight am.
That was what they were paid for. One hour boom,
they were done and then after nine months spent. It
just stopped and it didn't trickle off. It didn't occur
only occasionally. It was the instant the money was over,
it was done.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
And in other words, these weren't actual protesters. These were
paid agitators.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Yeah. Look, this is apparently the living they have as
they go to places where people pay them to scream
and yell and be obnoxious. And in the case of
the riots, you have people who are criminals who will
engage in violence. But the real driver behind this is
the money. It's the funders, and we need to go
(20:29):
after and cut off the money.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
So if you cut off this money, how long does
it take for this to become a thing where people
are then afraid to fund these types of things, these
extremist riots. And how fast could these rico laws be
used if this becomes reality.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Yeah, it doesn't take long. Look, one or two people
writing checks gets prosecuted, gets put in jail, and people
will be very reluctant. It's much like funding terrorism. Look,
you and I and normal people don't write checks to
hamas because if you write checks to hamas, they will
prosecute you and put you in jail. And so there
(21:05):
is a high threshold. The Department of Justice has brought
a lot of cases for people funding terrorist organizations. These
violent riots, they're not organic, they're not just occurring. If
you look at it. The college campuses where they've arrested people,
they typically find about half the people there are not
students and not affiliated with the university. They've showed up
(21:28):
because their business is rent a riot and listen, I'm
interested in the thugs who are engaging in violence, but
I'm more interested in the people who are sitting there
funding this and saying we're going to tear down our country.
We're going to tear down our universities. We are going
to promote radical hatred, hatred of Jews, hatred of America,
(21:50):
hatred of our constitution. And the key is going after
the money. By the way, it speaks volumes in the
entire Joe Biden presidency, they did not indict anybody for
funding these protests. They did not prosecute anybody for funding
these protests. And the reason Ben is the same people
(22:14):
writing checks and funding these protests are the same people
writing checks and funding Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and
the Democrats. And they're not going to go after their
donors because their donors are paying the bills. And by
the way, these are also the people that funded Mondani's
campaign in New York, who's an open Marxist. He's not
a socialist, he's not a leftist, he is a communist.
(22:37):
And that is who is funding this. As people who
support destroying this country, we need serious, focused law enforcement
and all the tools to go after the people who
are paying to undermine this country.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Yeah, it's a great point.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
What are the chances you think that's becoming a reality,
by the way, for people that are excited.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
I don't know. Right now, we have no Democrats supporting it.
We have another we have seven Republicans who are supporting it.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
We have no Dea. I wonder why, right, no Democrats.
I wonder why.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
It's because these are their donors, these are the people
that fund their campaigns. My hope is I'm going to
press for us to have a vote. I want to
put the Democrats on record. My guess is most not
all the Democrats will vote no. I don't want to
go after the funders of these riots because they won't
say this, but because we the Democrats support the riots.
But let's put them on record. Let's have them take
(23:27):
a position, because this ought to be a simple, common
sense position. And my suspicion is every Democrat will vote no.
But if they do, that will be highly, highly revealing.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
I want to move to something else, and this is
about securing our skies, law enforcement and drones and public
safety or something. I think a lot of people are
paying attention to, especially since we really exposed this on Verdict,
where we were talking about how the cartels have got
an amazing ability to use drones. Now they are heavily
(24:01):
advanced and and and have advanced invested in this technology
for drones to be able to see what we're doing
on our side of the border, see when border patrol
agans are on going one direction or the others, they
can get people across, drugs across.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
It's incredible.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
There's also another national security standpoint on drones as well.
We've witnessed what drones have becoming this war with Russia
and Ukraine, and it terrifies me what we're seeing now
with drone technology and how drones are changing warfare. UH
and unfortunately you're seeing it have a massive impact on
(24:35):
the number of casualis between Russia and Ukraine.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
You combine those.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Two things, the cartels, the drugs, the human trafficking, sex trafficking,
child trafficking, the fetanyl and uh, the war aspect of this,
and there's a nefarious individual's isis how kind of the
list goes on and on. You guys are looking at
this from an issue of we got to secure our
skies with this new legislation that you're advocating for.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Talk about that, well, war often foreshadows the next threats
we will face, the next threats we will face from terrorism,
the next threats we will face from criminal attacks, and
you're right the war in Ukraine right now. If you
look at how drones are being used, it illustrates the
profound threat. We had a hearing this week in the
Senate Judiciary Committee. I raised some questions on this. I
(25:23):
laid this out. Give a listen to what I had
to say in the Judiciary Committee hearing this week. In
twenty twenty four, Thomas Crooks flew a drone over a
Trump rally site for eleven minutes, scouting the grounds before
his attempted assassination of President Trump.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
That same year, drones.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Hovered over Naval Air Station Fort Worth for more than
two hours unintercepted. At our southern border, cartels now operate
drone fleet, smuggling fentanyl, coordinating illegal crossings, and jamming US surveillance.
They form specialized drone units. They've dropped bombs, They've deployed jammers.
(26:13):
Drones right now are outpacing our law enforcement at every turn.
In our prisons, drones drop weapons, phones, and fentanyl, arming
inmates and fueling the deadliest drug epidemic in American history.
(26:33):
And here's the most damning part. Cartels right now have
more drone capability than American law enforcement. Let me repeat
that cartels today have more drone capability than American law enforcement.
(26:53):
Mister Hardy, you work at the intersection of law and
policy regarding drones at the DOJ. Is it true that
only a handful of federal agents under narrow legal authority
can intercept or disable a drone?
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Thank you, Senator.
Speaker 5 (27:10):
That is generally true under the twenty eighteen Act that
gives DHS and DHS a DJ authority to conduct detection
and mitigration operation.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
That shocking, Centator, that's it, Like you want to talk
about being behind me the eight ball like good grief.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Yes, And it's not just that. The hearing we also
got into the fact that federal law enforcement is highly
limited and actually stayed in. Local law enforcement is even
more limited. So understand the threat we're going to face.
We are going to see a major terrorist attack carried
out by drones. We are going to see people killed
(27:50):
via drones. We may see a drone flown into a
commercial airline. We are going to see I believe political
leaders assassinated using drones. The threats are massive, and right now,
the authority of law enforcements take out a drone. If
there's a drone that is over a sports stadium for
(28:13):
a football game, a baseball game, a World Cup game,
right now there is extremely limited, almost no authority to
take out that drone, even moments before it detonates a bomb,
or distributes a bioweapon, or engages in some other act
of terrorism.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
This is the most scary.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
I think part about red tape with government is if
you see a threat and it's there, it's almost like
you have to hope that law enforcement would just say
I'll deal with one of the consequences later because I
know I'm doing the right thing, and you worry that
people are like, well, hold on a second, you can't
do that. You don't have the authority, and then the
worst case scenario happens.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Look, and this hearing is driving we need legislation that
gives law enforcement the authority to protect us, to take
out drones, to take out drones that are a threat
to airplanes. I am very concerned about an aviation accident
of a drone getting in the way of a commercial aircraft.
We need authority to take out drones that pose a
(29:15):
threat to civilians, pose a threat to sports gatherings, pose
a threat. As I laid out the assassination attempt on
Donald Trump, the assassin who shot President Trump used a
drone initially to scout it out. This is coming and
it is dangerous, and I think we have a responsibility
(29:38):
to act and to act. There's a long phenomenon that
when it comes to warfare, generals far too often fight
the last war rather than the next war. If you
look at the war in Ukraine, it gives us a
window into the future because drones allow for asymmetric attacks
for those who lack power to use a four hundred
(30:02):
dollars drone to take out a multimillion dollar tank or
a multimillion dollar fighter jet. That asymmetry is dangerous and
I think we need real leadership, real leadership on the
part of the Trump administration, real leadership on the part
of Congress to enhance our ability to stop dangerous drones
(30:22):
and to recognize this is the next frontier for warfare,
for terrorism, and for threats of violence against civilians across
this country.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Final question on this, do you believe this is at
least one of those issues where you can get bipartisan support,
that this won't be Republican to v Democrat and make
this so hard to do.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
Our Democrats on board with us because it's a national
security issue.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
So I hope. So I don't know yet if Democrats
will be willing to work together.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
It should be.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
I mean, this ought to be a level of common
sense that people would recognize. This threat is not a
part of threat. It's not a right wing threat or
a left wing threat. It's a vulnerability we have as
a society. And so I'm certainly going to try to
get Democrats and Republicans to come together, but I will
say it as early so we don't know for sure,
but this ought to be an issue that brings us
all together.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Yeah, it's a great point. Don't forget we did this
show Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Hit that subscribe or auto
download button wherever you get your podcasts so that you
don't miss a single episode of VERTICU with Ted Cruz
and the Centaer.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
I will see you back here on Friday morning.
Welcome in his verdict with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
with you. It's nice to have you along with us today,
and Senator, you've run for president before, and Hunter Biden
may be calling you because apparently he's saying about running
for president as well in this new interview, on top
of the fact he's very angry with rich Democrats and
helped his dad get elected the first time.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I gotta say, we've seen bad interviews, but wow, but
like Hunter Biden utterly and completely melted down. There's an
old line that a gaff in Washington is when a
politician actually says something they believe. Well, Hunter Biden, let loose.
He is the ID of the Democrat Party. He's announced
(00:42):
apparently he's launching a campaign for president. I actually think
he'd be a fantastic representative of today's Democrat party. He
embodies everything today's Democrats stand for. We're gonna break down
this train wreck of an interview, and actually that's not
fair to train wrecks because they're usually more discipline, more orderly,
and result in less chaos than this interview. We're also
(01:06):
going to talk about legislation that I've introduced this week
called the Stop Funders Act to go after the people
who are writing the checks that are funding these pro
illegal immigrant riots, that are funding anti Semitic riots, that
are funding Antifa riots, that are funding Black Lives Matter riots.
We're going to talk about following the money. And finally,
(01:26):
we're going to talk about a growing national security threat
and law enforcement threat, which is drones. We're seeing criminal
cartels using drones, We're seeing terrorists using drones, and right now,
the current legal system, the federal government is not prepared
to keep us safe.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
We're going to talk.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
About the threat of drone warfare, the next generation of
threats our families and our country are facing.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Yeah, it's a really important issue. We're going to deal
with that in a second.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
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All right, so, Senator, let's just start with this interview.
It was a three hour interview. Once a crackhead, always
a crackhead, was the takeaway for me and Hunter.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Biden loves to use the F bomb. That's two. That's
takeaway number two.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
He's really angry though at the Democratic Machine for turning
on Daddy.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
That got him really fired up.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I gotta say one of the consequences of this interview, Uh,
it's actually had a real impact on the Verdict podcast
because it's forced us to increase our compensation for Diaz,
our producer, because the amount of time that he's had
to put in just to bleeping the F bombs. Yes,
I mean it really is throwing it that there were
(04:35):
overtime limits. We're gonna play this and and and and
let me say thank you to Diaz for hitting bleep
bleep bleep. You got to be really fast on this.
Give a listen to to Hunter Biden's careful, nuanced assessment
of George Clooney, of David Axelrod, of the graybeard eminences
(04:55):
in the Democrat Party. Here, give a listen.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
I don't have to be nice number one. I agree
with Quentin Guarantino. George Clooney is not an actor. He
is a like I don't know what he is. You
what do you have to do with anything? Why do
I have to listen to you? What right do you
have to step on a man who's given fifty two
years of his life to the services of this country
and decide that you, George Clooney, are going to take
(05:19):
out basically a full page ad in the New York
Times to undermine the president at a time in which,
by the way, what do people care about the most?
Why do you think that the Republicans have an advantage
over us because they're unified, they won't go along with anything.
I wasn't asking anybody to go along with anything. I
was asking people to go along with this. The most
successful administration in my lifetime.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
I mean, Senator, it was successful. Hunter Biden said so.
And he wasn't ask anybody to go along with anything
unless you were sending money from Ukraine, or from Russia,
or from China outside of that, or buying some of
his artwork.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
I mean, this was just a straight shooting guy, right.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Look, it was the most successful administration of his lifetime.
New To be clear, Hunter has a memory of about
four seconds, so in the last four seconds that he
can remember, it was the most successful he can remember
because he's blocked out the current administration. You look at listen,
even Democrats are not making arguments that Joe Biden was
(06:18):
a successful administration. It was a train wreck. Joe Biden
gave us a new Trump presidency, he gave us a
Republican sanity, gave us a Republican House. And it's because
every policy that the Democrats adopted was a disaster. Open borders,
twelve million people invading this country. The American people didn't
like the victims of crime. The American people didn't like
(06:38):
the disastrous War on American energy, that drove inflation, drove
up the cost for working people across the country. The
American people didn't like. And as bad as all the
domestic policy was, the foreign policy was even worse. Every
friend of America Joe Biden, the Democrats abandoned every enemy
of America Joe Biden. The Democrats showed weakness and appeasement.
(07:00):
So Biden, the Democrats inherited peace and prosperity, and we
were given instead two wars. We were given the war
in Ukraine and the absolute disaster of October seventh. Why
because Joe Biden the Democrats gave a hundred billion dollars
to Iran that they used to fund the death squads
on October seventh. That is the legacy of the Biden presidency.
(07:21):
There is not a single Democrat in the Congress that
I know of that is defending the Biden presidency. But
to Joe Biden and to Hunter Biden, the problem is
George Clooney, That clearly is the problem. But I got
to say, Hunter went further than that, and I want
to listen to I want you to listen to what
he had to say about Al Salvador, because he's really
(07:44):
really mad that President Trump is deporting violent criminal, illegal
alien Venezuelan gang members listen to Hunter Biden's solution to
stop this.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
But these guys think that we need to run away
from all values in.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Order for us to leave.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
I say you, how are we getting those people back
from fucking El Salvador? Because I'll tell you what, if
I became president in two years from now, or four
years from now or three years from now, I would
pick up the phone and call the president of El
Salvador and say you either send them back or I'm
going to find.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
In Vaine is a crime. What they're doing.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
He's a dictator, thug Well Kelly or Trump.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Both Biden twenty twenty eight campaign right there slogan, I'll
invade El Salvador and anybody else that makes me blanket angry.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Right.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
So to be clear, you're doing some math there because
you said it's Biden twenty twenty eight, and Hunter was
clear he said if I became president in two.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
Years or four years or three years.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Apparently he doesn't know when the presidential election was. Maybe
it's twenty seven, maybe it's twenty eight, maybe it's twenty nine,
maybe it's forty two.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
You know, man.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Speaking at Bernie's at the White House when he was there,
does it really matter what election year it is?
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Right?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
I do like that he broke the news that apparently
Hunter is running it is one hundred and twenty eight.
You're right, that's at least what they'll print on the
bumper stickers. And by the way, does anyone better represent
the mess that is today's Democrat Party? The corruption, the anger.
(09:21):
Listen to what he just said. If he were president,
he would invade El Salvador. He would send the military
to invade l Salvador to what end, to bring back
criminal illegal aliens, to bring back murderers and rapists and
child molesters who are MS thirteen gang members, because he
(09:43):
would send the army to say, you know what, we
don't have enough criminals and murderers and rapists. I'm going
to send the army to bring us some more. That
is today's Democrat Party.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
But holy cow, yeah, it makes sense.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I'm kind of digging the honesty here, right, and this
is coming from the same Now, let's also be clear,
Joe Biden said Hunter Biden was the smartest man he knew.
So this is the guy that's like wat's this, here's
foreign policy. If you want to know who was running
the White House. What does worry me is how much
Hunter Biden was around the White House, content.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Around emails. He was plugged in. If there was any
foreign despot, if there were any any enemy of America,
Hunter Biden was plugged in. Why because he would then
shake down people for tens of millions of dollars. This guy, Look,
we are watching one of the great businessmen of modern times,
because he has figured out he could sell access to
(10:38):
Daddy and favors from Daddy and make tens of millions
of dollars. And look you listen to his answer just
a minute ago where he said, if he were president,
he would send in the military to invade El Salvador
to bring back illegal immigrants. You might think this guy
loves illegal immigrants. He just has a warm spot. He
has a heart for immigrants. He thinks they're wonderful, incredible people.
(11:00):
Well not so much. Listen to this clip where he
describes what he really thinks of the illegal immigrants that
Daddy led into this country.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
People are really upset about illegal immigration. You how do
you think your hotel room gets cleaned? How do you
think you have food on your table? Who do you
think washes your dishes? Who do you think does your
fucking garden. I would pick up the phone and call
the President of Salvador and say you either send them
back or I'm going to invade. It's a facking crime
(11:31):
what they're doing. He is a fucking dictator.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Well, look you that is what Hunter thinks of immigrants.
They clean hotels, they clean your dishes. It reminds me
of that wack adoodle Democrat Congresswan from Vermont who said
if we don't let any illegal illegal immigrants, who's going
to wipe your ass? I mean, it is a level
(11:56):
of contempt and condous.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Says what I want, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yet? Look look they they look down on the illegals
that they allowed to flood into this country, but they
think they're dumb enough that they will end up voting
for Democrats ultimately, So it's all about political power. But
this is the condescension and contempt, and Hunter is not unique.
He is today's Democrat party that they have. Everything is
(12:24):
politics and partisan politics. They are willing to endanger your
family and my family if they believe it will elect
more Democrats.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
The takeaway from this interview was for me two big themes.
Number One, it is scary who had access to this
White House and influence over the president, especially when he
was in such a cognitive decline. That terrifies me that
Hunter Biden was around and flying on Air Force one
and involved in meetings and was read in and was
(12:56):
on all the email chains that we've witnessed recently.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
That number one.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
But number two, it also tells you I think about
just the disarray of the Democratic Party and the fact
that they turned so quickly on Joe when they saw
the debate. And now he's like, well, I want to
burn it all down, and everybody that didn't stand with
my dad, how dare you? And I may even come
back and president. Like, there's a derangement aspect of the
(13:22):
Biden family at this moment.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
And listen, I don't fault Hunter for defending his dad.
I actually support familiar loyalty. But he is lashing out
in a way that is unhinged and unconnected to reality.
He's mad at George Clooney, he's mad at David Axelrod,
he's mad at the Democrats, and one exchange, he explains
he actually broke some news, he said, the person who
(13:47):
was responsible for his father being pulled from the ticket.
And it turns out, according to Hunter, it was Nancy
Pelosi here give a listener.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Yeah, And you would have the speaker of emeritus that
would say, well, you know, I'm going to leave it
up to but I don't know. And and and they'd
already made a decision. They clearly made a decision. And
when I say they, I mean the speaker. And you know,
(14:15):
I heard Alexander Pelosi say something call my mo, like
put your big girl pants on to my mom or something,
and I kind of want to feel like saying, who
the heck do you think you are. I would never
speak about your mom that way. I would never speak
about your father that way. I would never insult your
parents that way.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
He would never, but he's really mad about it right now.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
He would never, except for the moment that he is.
All right, Let's shift to the next topic, which is
violence in America. Look, the last five years, we've seen
a pattern of riot after riot after riot. We saw
in twenty twenty the Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots.
(14:59):
We saw s all across this country lit on fire.
We saw police cars firebombed, we saw stores looted, we
saw people murdered. We saw following October seventh, anti Semitic
riots and hostile protests on college campuses all across this country,
especially in bright blue liberal states. And now this year
(15:25):
we've seen violent protests, typically in Democrat cities, started in
Los Angeles, spread across the country in favor of illegal immigrants,
in favor of Venezuelan gang members, opposing deportation, saying we
want as many criminal illegal aliens in this country. There
(15:45):
is a pattern behind all of these, which is these
are not organic. These are not just people who got
pissed off and decided I'm going to go protest. There
is money behind these. Checks are being written that are
funding them. And so I introduced legislation this week called
the Stop Funders Act. And what the Stop Funders Act
(16:06):
does is very simple. It adds to the list of
predicate crimes for RICO rioting. Now what does that mean.
RICO is legislation that is used to go after racketeering,
and it's very powerful legislation that prosecutors have used to
go after the mob. And it goes after a criminal enterprise,
(16:26):
a criminal organization. Right now, rioting is not one of
the predicate crimes. But in this instance, if you want
to go after for five years, we have seen these
violent riots. And look, I'm not the only person in
the country who noticed that the anti Semitic riots on
college campuses, that many of the protesters had matching tents. Yeah,
(16:51):
there are clearly checks being written. Some of them I
believe are from foreign nations like Cutter or Ran, but
others are from radical left wing organizations. And during the
Biden administration, you and I on this podcast repeatedly called
on the Department of Justice to follow the money. With
(17:12):
Pambondi and Cash Bettel, I've told both of them, follow
the money, prosecute the people who are writing checks, not
just the thugs who are on the street, who are
attacking police officers, who are attacking innocent people, but the
people who are paying for it all. And and going
after the money is the best way to stop these
(17:33):
violent riots. And if we don't, they will continue, because
understand the radical left wants them to continue.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, this is one of those where as you mentioned,
follow the money, it's very quarly well organized. We're seeing
this even over the last two weeks when they've gone
after the President of the United States of America. And
we see all these you know, protests that they try
to act like they're spontaneous. No, they're paid for, they're funded,
they're well organized. Senator, every every one can see it.
(18:01):
And so the question people, I'm sure are going to say, well,
hold on a second, if I want to spend my
money to support a protest, why should I be held
accountable for that if they decide to get angry or
violent on their own.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
How do you separate those two things.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Well, you have to demonstrate under RICO that you're part
of a criminal enterprise and the predicate act. Rioting is
different from protesting. Peaceful protest is protected by the Constitution,
but rioting is not. When you're using violence, when you're
using weapons, when you're intimidating, when you're threatening, when you're hurting,
when you're murdering people, and many of these riots have
(18:39):
involved people being killed. That is fundamentally different. And I'll
use it example when we've talked about occasionally on this podcast.
Last year, for a period of about nine months, Heidi
and I had every Saturday morning pro Haamas protesters at
our house. Yeah, they would show up at seven am.
(19:01):
They would leave it eight When they showed up, they
would scream, they would bang cowbells, they would blow missiles up, whistles.
Rather they thankfully they did not blow missiles, but they
whistles intense. Yeah, that that that would have been different.
They would scream, curse words. They cursed as much as
Hunter Biden did. They dropped f bombs over and over
(19:23):
and over again. Look, we have teenage daughters. There are
a few things that can tick teenagers off more than
waking them up at seven am on a Saturday. Teenagers
like to sleep in, certainly my girls do. Yeah, And
it was week after week after week. Now what was striking.
This was a job. It was clearly paid for. They
(19:44):
showed up at seven am, they left at eight am.
That was what they were paid for. One hour boom,
they were done and then after nine months spent. It
just stopped and it didn't trickle off. It didn't occur
only occasionally. It was the instant the money was over,
it was done.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
And in other words, these weren't actual protesters. These were
paid agitators.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Yeah. Look, this is apparently the living they have as
they go to places where people pay them to scream
and yell and be obnoxious. And in the case of
the riots, you have people who are criminals who will
engage in violence. But the real driver behind this is
the money. It's the funders, and we need to go
(20:29):
after and cut off the money.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
So if you cut off this money, how long does
it take for this to become a thing where people
are then afraid to fund these types of things, these
extremist riots. And how fast could these rico laws be
used if this becomes reality.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Yeah, it doesn't take long. Look, one or two people
writing checks gets prosecuted, gets put in jail, and people
will be very reluctant. It's much like funding terrorism. Look,
you and I and normal people don't write checks to
hamas because if you write checks to hamas, they will
prosecute you and put you in jail. And so there
(21:05):
is a high threshold. The Department of Justice has brought
a lot of cases for people funding terrorist organizations. These
violent riots, they're not organic, they're not just occurring. If
you look at it. The college campuses where they've arrested people,
they typically find about half the people there are not
students and not affiliated with the university. They've showed up
(21:28):
because their business is rent a riot and listen, I'm
interested in the thugs who are engaging in violence, but
I'm more interested in the people who are sitting there
funding this and saying we're going to tear down our country.
We're going to tear down our universities. We are going
to promote radical hatred, hatred of Jews, hatred of America,
(21:50):
hatred of our constitution. And the key is going after
the money. By the way, it speaks volumes in the
entire Joe Biden presidency, they did not indict anybody for
funding these protests. They did not prosecute anybody for funding
these protests. And the reason Ben is the same people
(22:14):
writing checks and funding these protests are the same people
writing checks and funding Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and
the Democrats. And they're not going to go after their
donors because their donors are paying the bills. And by
the way, these are also the people that funded Mondani's
campaign in New York, who's an open Marxist. He's not
a socialist, he's not a leftist, he is a communist.
(22:37):
And that is who is funding this. As people who
support destroying this country, we need serious, focused law enforcement
and all the tools to go after the people who
are paying to undermine this country.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Yeah, it's a great point.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
What are the chances you think that's becoming a reality,
by the way, for people that are excited.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
I don't know. Right now, we have no Democrats supporting it.
We have another we have seven Republicans who are supporting it.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
We have no Dea. I wonder why, right, no Democrats.
I wonder why.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
It's because these are their donors, these are the people
that fund their campaigns. My hope is I'm going to
press for us to have a vote. I want to
put the Democrats on record. My guess is most not
all the Democrats will vote no. I don't want to
go after the funders of these riots because they won't
say this, but because we the Democrats support the riots.
But let's put them on record. Let's have them take
(23:27):
a position, because this ought to be a simple, common
sense position. And my suspicion is every Democrat will vote no.
But if they do, that will be highly, highly revealing.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
I want to move to something else, and this is
about securing our skies, law enforcement and drones and public
safety or something. I think a lot of people are
paying attention to, especially since we really exposed this on Verdict,
where we were talking about how the cartels have got
an amazing ability to use drones. Now they are heavily
(24:01):
advanced and and and have advanced invested in this technology
for drones to be able to see what we're doing
on our side of the border, see when border patrol
agans are on going one direction or the others, they
can get people across, drugs across.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
It's incredible.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
There's also another national security standpoint on drones as well.
We've witnessed what drones have becoming this war with Russia
and Ukraine, and it terrifies me what we're seeing now
with drone technology and how drones are changing warfare. UH
and unfortunately you're seeing it have a massive impact on
(24:35):
the number of casualis between Russia and Ukraine.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
You combine those.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Two things, the cartels, the drugs, the human trafficking, sex trafficking,
child trafficking, the fetanyl and uh, the war aspect of this,
and there's a nefarious individual's isis how kind of the
list goes on and on. You guys are looking at
this from an issue of we got to secure our
skies with this new legislation that you're advocating for.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Talk about that, well, war often foreshadows the next threats
we will face, the next threats we will face from terrorism,
the next threats we will face from criminal attacks, and
you're right the war in Ukraine right now. If you
look at how drones are being used, it illustrates the
profound threat. We had a hearing this week in the
Senate Judiciary Committee. I raised some questions on this. I
(25:23):
laid this out. Give a listen to what I had
to say in the Judiciary Committee hearing this week. In
twenty twenty four, Thomas Crooks flew a drone over a
Trump rally site for eleven minutes, scouting the grounds before
his attempted assassination of President Trump.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
That same year, drones.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Hovered over Naval Air Station Fort Worth for more than
two hours unintercepted. At our southern border, cartels now operate
drone fleet, smuggling fentanyl, coordinating illegal crossings, and jamming US surveillance.
They form specialized drone units. They've dropped bombs, They've deployed jammers.
(26:13):
Drones right now are outpacing our law enforcement at every turn.
In our prisons, drones drop weapons, phones, and fentanyl, arming
inmates and fueling the deadliest drug epidemic in American history.
(26:33):
And here's the most damning part. Cartels right now have
more drone capability than American law enforcement. Let me repeat
that cartels today have more drone capability than American law enforcement.
(26:53):
Mister Hardy, you work at the intersection of law and
policy regarding drones at the DOJ. Is it true that
only a handful of federal agents under narrow legal authority
can intercept or disable a drone?
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Thank you, Senator.
Speaker 5 (27:10):
That is generally true under the twenty eighteen Act that
gives DHS and DHS a DJ authority to conduct detection
and mitigration operation.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
That shocking, Centator, that's it, Like you want to talk
about being behind me the eight ball like good grief.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Yes, And it's not just that. The hearing we also
got into the fact that federal law enforcement is highly
limited and actually stayed in. Local law enforcement is even
more limited. So understand the threat we're going to face.
We are going to see a major terrorist attack carried
out by drones. We are going to see people killed
(27:50):
via drones. We may see a drone flown into a
commercial airline. We are going to see I believe political
leaders assassinated using drones. The threats are massive, and right now,
the authority of law enforcements take out a drone. If
there's a drone that is over a sports stadium for
(28:13):
a football game, a baseball game, a World Cup game,
right now there is extremely limited, almost no authority to
take out that drone, even moments before it detonates a bomb,
or distributes a bioweapon, or engages in some other act
of terrorism.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
This is the most scary.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
I think part about red tape with government is if
you see a threat and it's there, it's almost like
you have to hope that law enforcement would just say
I'll deal with one of the consequences later because I
know I'm doing the right thing, and you worry that
people are like, well, hold on a second, you can't
do that. You don't have the authority, and then the
worst case scenario happens.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Look, and this hearing is driving we need legislation that
gives law enforcement the authority to protect us, to take
out drones, to take out drones that are a threat
to airplanes. I am very concerned about an aviation accident
of a drone getting in the way of a commercial aircraft.
We need authority to take out drones that pose a
(29:15):
threat to civilians, pose a threat to sports gatherings, pose
a threat. As I laid out the assassination attempt on
Donald Trump, the assassin who shot President Trump used a
drone initially to scout it out. This is coming and
it is dangerous, and I think we have a responsibility
(29:38):
to act and to act. There's a long phenomenon that
when it comes to warfare, generals far too often fight
the last war rather than the next war. If you
look at the war in Ukraine, it gives us a
window into the future because drones allow for asymmetric attacks
for those who lack power to use a four hundred
(30:02):
dollars drone to take out a multimillion dollar tank or
a multimillion dollar fighter jet. That asymmetry is dangerous and
I think we need real leadership, real leadership on the
part of the Trump administration, real leadership on the part
of Congress to enhance our ability to stop dangerous drones
(30:22):
and to recognize this is the next frontier for warfare,
for terrorism, and for threats of violence against civilians across
this country.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Final question on this, do you believe this is at
least one of those issues where you can get bipartisan support,
that this won't be Republican to v Democrat and make
this so hard to do.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
Our Democrats on board with us because it's a national
security issue.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
So I hope. So I don't know yet if Democrats
will be willing to work together.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
It should be.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
I mean, this ought to be a level of common
sense that people would recognize. This threat is not a
part of threat. It's not a right wing threat or
a left wing threat. It's a vulnerability we have as
a society. And so I'm certainly going to try to
get Democrats and Republicans to come together, but I will
say it as early so we don't know for sure,
but this ought to be an issue that brings us
all together.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Yeah, it's a great point. Don't forget we did this
show Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Hit that subscribe or auto
download button wherever you get your podcasts so that you
don't miss a single episode of VERTICU with Ted Cruz
and the Centaer.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
I will see you back here on Friday morning.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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