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Jimmy Kimmel’s Firing & FCC Involvement
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The hosts argue that Jimmy Kimmel was suspended/fired not just because of controversial remarks about Charlie Kirk’s assassination, but also because of poor ratings, declining revenue for ABC, and refusal to apologize.
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They dispute claims that it was “cancel culture,” instead framing it as a business decision coupled with consequences for spreading misinformation.
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The FCC’s possible involvement raises First Amendment concerns. While FCC Chair Brendan Carr suggested broadcasters must act in the “public interest” and hinted at consequences for Kimmel’s comments, Cruz and Ferguson strongly criticize the idea of government threats against speech. They warn that allowing the FCC to police political content would set a dangerous precedent, especially against conservatives in the future.
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Trump Designating ANTIFA a Terrorist Organization
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The second half of the discussion covers Senator Cruz questioning FBI Director Cash Betel about Antifa. Cruz urges following the money behind violent protests, pushing for the group’s designation as a terrorist organization.
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Shortly after, Trump announced Antifa would indeed be labeled a terrorist group. The hosts praise this move, calling Antifa a violent organization funded by radical donors (including foreign governments and wealthy left-leaning individuals).
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They stress a distinction between free speech (protected) and violent action (not protected).
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Please Hit Subscribe to this podcast Right Now. Also Please Subscribe to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson and The Ben Ferguson Show Podcast Wherever You get You're Podcasts. And don't forget to follow the show on Social Media so you never miss a moment! Thanks for Listening
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruz/
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome in his Verdicus Center. Teed Cruz ben Ferguson with you.
It's nice to have you with us wherever you're listening
around the country, and we've got a pack show for you,
including one of your best friends, Senator Jimmy Kimmel.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Get in the boot.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I mean, are you guys gonna have a lot more
time to play basketball now?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Look, Jimmy Kimmel has been canned. He has been suspended indefinitely.
I think that is a fantastic thing. I think Jimmy
Kimmel was putting out garbage for a long long time.
But we're going to break down because they're real questions
about why ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel and what the role
was of the SCC. The SCC threatened to revoke ABC's licenses.
(00:41):
We're going to break down the First Amendment implications of that.
We're also going to talk about a hearing that happened
this week. Cash Betel, the director of the FBI, testified
before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and I questioned Cash, and
I called on the Trump administration to designate Antifa as
a terrorist or it is, yeah, And in particular, what
(01:02):
I urge the FBI, and the DOJ to do is
follow the money, follow those who are putting money behind
violent protests, riots, acts of violence. And we're also going
to talk about how the fact that within twenty four
hours the Trump administration announced they were doing exactly that,
they were going to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization.
(01:25):
It's the right thing to do. It makes America safer.
We're going to explain all that to you.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, it's definitely a lot to discuss, and we're going
to talk about all of it coming up in a moment.
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all this went down so people understand the there's a
lot of misinformation. There's just a lot of lies out there.
Let's just be honest about it. There are a ton
of lies in this one. Jimmy Kimmel went after our
(03:56):
dear friend who was assassinated after him and basically implied
that he's responsible for his own assassination. And oh, by
the way, he was a Trump supporter referring to the assassin.
That is why he got in trouble because he lied.
It's not because of free speech, which some people have complicated.
(04:17):
In a free speech issue, he can say whatever the
hell he wants. It doesn't mean you're gonna keep your job.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Well, let's break this down to several things. Number one,
Jimmy Kimmel had become profoundly unfunny. That there was a time,
I don't't know, fifteen years ago, that he was a
talented comedian. He could be funny, you know. He started
hosting The Man Show with Adam Carolla, and they were
pretty funny back then, and that's how he got a
(04:46):
late night gig. I've been on Jimmy Kimmel. I've done
his show, I've done a show a couple of times.
He can be funny. But then Donald Trump got elected.
And when Donald Trump got elected, it broke late night comedy.
The host of late night comedy, they used to be
able to make fun on both sides. And by the way,
good comedy it ought to make fun of Republicans and Democrats.
(05:08):
It ought to just just laugh and have fun. But
Jimmy Kimmel, just like Stephen Colbert, his brain melted when
Donald Trump came into the White House, and it is
now unwatchable. I've grown up. I've grown up watching S
and L I've grown up watching late night comedy. I
like to laugh, and it is now I don't watch
(05:31):
it anymore. In fact, and I'm not unique. The vast
majority of America doesn't watch it anymore because Jimmy Kimmel
would stand up and just basically scream I hate Donald Trump.
And after a while it's like, yeah, we know, there's
no mystery about it. You're not hiding it. But how
about being a comedian, how about telling a joke? By
(05:52):
the way. You know, when I was first selected to
the Senate thirteen years ago, it was a regular part
of the job to go on late night comedy. And
so I've done Jay Leno, I've done Jimmy Kimmel, I've
done Stephen Colbert, I've done Fallaned. That was part of
the job. Today, none of them zero have any Republicans on.
(06:19):
They will not have them on. They just their entire
show is essentially an infomercial screaming that they hate Donald Trump.
On top of that, Kimmel's numbers had plummeted. So here
are some of the stats. According to Late Nighter in August,
Jimmy Kimmel lost eleven percent of his audience, down to
(06:40):
one point one zero four million viewers. To put that
in perspective, Jimmy Kimmel was getting fewer viewers than we
have Verdict listeners.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
So this podcast Congratulations by the way, that's like the
real deal right there.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Like he's on AB see in every television in America,
and Verdict was kicking his ass. Now now, by the way,
we will continue kicking his ass, and I want to
keep continue growing those numbers. But one point one zero
four million viewers. And by the way, in the eighteen
to forty nine demographic, which is the critical demographic for
(07:18):
selling stuff that advertiss care about, Kimmel was down fifteen percent.
Do you know how many viewers eighteen to forty ninety had.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I'm going to guess under four hundred thousand.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
One hundred and twenty nine thousand. Wow.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
So with it's sixteen a report, I think it was
sixteen million dollar year salary.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
By the way, for him, Yeah, he was getting paid
a crap ton of money. And to give that in perspective, Colbert,
who was fired, was losing paramount forty million dollars a year.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
ABC has not made their numbers public, so we don't
know what the numbers were. But Kimmel had lost even
more viewers than Colbert, So you have to assume he
was losing ABC even more money than Colbert was doing.
So he was a train wreck. He was a disaster.
He was unfunny, and he was also bitter and nasty,
(08:16):
and he lied about Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
All right, Sanata, I want to go back to what
you were saying a moment ago. And one of the
interesting things about Kimmel that I do want to break
down is so many on the left screaming this is
cancel culture. It is not cancel culture. He said something dumb.
I also think though, that ABC News was looking for
a reason to get out for what you just described,
(08:41):
which is you don't have anybody watching the revenues down.
The guy's making sixteen million dollars a year, and so
this was a perfect opportunity to say, hey, we can
get out of this with reason.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Here.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Page six is even saying they even asked him if
you gave some money and made a donation and apologized,
and apparently he was saying, I won't do it. That's
what they're reporting tonight as well, is that they're saying, hey,
you know, he's like, no, I'm not going to apologize
the Kirk family. So it gave them even an easier
ability to get rid of him and can this thing.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Early look, unquestionably, ABC was hemorrhaging money. This was a
smart business decision, but also what Jimmy Kimmel said was
reprehensible and I want you to listen to it. I
want you to if you're watching online, I want you
to watch. This is the monologue that got Jimmy Kimmel fired.
Give a listen.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
We hit some new lows over the weekend with the
Magga Gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered
Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and
do everything they can to score political points from and
in between the finger pointing, there was grieving. On Friday,
the White House flew the flags at half staff, which
got some criticism, but on a human level, you can
(09:52):
see how hard the president is taking this back.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Adult's got a latting your friend, Charlie Kirk asked sir personally,
how are you holding up over.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
The last day and a half served, I think very good.
And by the way, right there, you see all the trucks.
They just started construction of the new ball room for
the White House.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Which is something they've been trying to get.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
As you know, for about one hundred and fifty years,
and it's going to be a beauty. Yes, he's at the.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Fourth stage of grief construction.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Demolition construction.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
This is not how an adult grief's the murder of
somebody called a friend.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
This is how a four year old mourns a goldfish.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Okay, by the way, so people understand context. There the
reporting out of the White House, and you have talked
to you have said that the present was gutted over
the assassination of Charlie Kirk. It was pretty clear he
did not want to talk about it right then, and
as he was outside.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
It's not like reporters are a therapists.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Right, yeah, I mean it was obvious he didn't want
to go there at that moment, and so he.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
And let me say, Ben, the thing to understand about
Jimmy Kimmel what he just said there, there's a technical
term for that. It's called a lie. So he stood
up and said, the murderer of Charlie Kirk was a
Maga Republican.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
YEP.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
That is flat out false. That is a brazen lie.
And we talked about this our last podcast. If you
didn't listen to our last podcast, you should go back
and listen to it. I went on CNN with Caitlin
Collins and she fought me like crazy. We don't know
what the motive of this guy is. This murderer, this
assassin was a left wing radical. He was an Antifa activist.
(11:35):
He was a transgender activist. He was living with a
transgender man transitioning to be a woman. That transgender man
was his boyfriend. He wrote on the bullets Antifa and
transgender slogans. He hated Charlie Kirk. He admitted all of this.
It is unequivocal. This is a hardcore leftist and I
(11:56):
got to say it is amazing. The vast majority of
Democrats today believe Charlie Kirk's murderer was a maga Republican
because the media is corrupt and they are lying. When
I was on CNN with Caitlyn Collins, she refused to
acknowledge that because CNN is lying to their viewers, MSNBC
(12:18):
is lying to their viewers. And Jimmy Kimmel stood up
with his measley one point one million viewers and lied
to them. They said this murderer was a maga Republican. Now, ABC,
theoretically ABC News is a news organization. They should not
be in the business of lying to Americans, and Jimmy
Kimmel shamelessly lied to them because he has a political agenda.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Truth be damned, and I think it's top to bottom.
So people understand this, And I'll give you example. The
view on ABC is actually, I'm pretty sure if I
remember correctly, under the news division, Kimmel is under like
that in general, I think entertainment, but under their news.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
If you want to know how much is he entertained? Yeah,
right exactly.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
But if you want to know how much propaganda machine
ABC News is, this is just example. It's a small example,
but it's a powerful one. In twenty twenty five, the
viewers had one hundred and two liberal guests on and
not one single Republican guest.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
But by the way, to be clear, Ben, I've been
on the View multiple times, so I've written to date
four books. For my second book, they had me on.
For my third book, they had me on now, particularly
for the third book. We got into it. It was
a hell of a scrape. Whoopy Goldberg and the other
cackling hosts of the View insist.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
The nicest way it's ever been put.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
By the way, did I refrained myself. Look, i gotta
say I'm on good behavior because I went through like
nine different nouns, and I just went with hosts.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
I like it well done.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
But but Whoopy insisted, She said, violence is only a
right wing phenomenon. I said, well, what about the Antifa
and the Black Lives Matter riots all over the country
that burned cities across America. And she looked at me
befuddled and said, I don't know what a Antifa Black
Lives Matter riot is. You think about the millions of
(14:15):
housewives that watch that show, that are lied to every
single day. It went so badly for them that my
fourth book, Unwoke, How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America,
available on Amazon, by the way, when when it came out,
I reached out and said, hey, I'd like to go
in the view again, and they said no, thank you,
like like you picked her now, we cannot have. We
(14:40):
are in the business of lying to our viewers, and
when you come on, you make it really hard to
lie to our viewers because you actually bring up facts
and substance and and and we're just not good enough
to lie in the face of facts and substance. So
that's who they are.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
That's who they are.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
It's funny you mentioned Kaylen Collins in your interview just
just if you miss did it's up on social media.
I actually think that you should do more of these
because the number of viral clips. So now that came
out of you going on with caateon Collins and people
seeing your grand debate with her, which is an important one,
and calling her out for saying we don't know the
(15:17):
motive in the death of the assassination of Charlie Kirk
is one that now has just exploded. And afterwards, I'm like,
you know what, it may be worth it for you
to do this like every week because then you get
to call them out every week and they are held
accountable because otherwise they just go on TV and they
just lie.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Well, understand, Jimmy Kimmel was fired because number one, he's
not funny. Number two, he was losing ABC massive amounts
of money, and number three, he flat out lied an
incredibly important issue, which is who the murder of Charlie
Kirk was.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
But first I want to talk to you about something
that probably nine nine point nine percent of you have.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
It is a cell phone.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
You may not realize it, but if you're with Big Mobile,
you're giving big donations by default to liberal causes and organizations.
We're talking about organizations that are actually fighting for abortions
to take place at record numbers. That is what your
money is going to, including radical liberal causes, candidates and
(16:19):
organizations all at the same time. Now you say, well,
hold on, how's it happened, they get big donations.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
It's just that simple. And that is why more than a.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Decade ago, there is a group of people that got
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(16:49):
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(17:13):
for businessmen and women who are carrying around two phones.
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(17:34):
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(17:58):
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Speaker 2 (18:04):
Moobile dot com slash verdict.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
All right, so let's get to this issue center about
the FCC. They've gotten involved in this. This is I
want to be clear, I believe it's it's controversial. It
concerns me and you and I actually really haven't talked
about this much, so I genuinely want to know what
you think about this. I don't like people tipping the
scales and pushing too hard, and let me explain why,
(18:29):
because if we do it, they're gonna do it when
they get back in power. And we know the ebbs
and flows of politics. This is something I don't like it.
I don't want anyone getting censored. I do not want
it because it will happen to conservatives. Yes, and it
will happen ten times harder than what we're talking about
right now. And that's just my hot take on it.
But I think it's an important when this is literally
(18:50):
what I do for a living, I don't want one
cutting me down and what I do for a living
or free speech.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Yeah, you and I have not talked about this before
doing the podcast, but I'm not surprised that we're on
the same page. I want to play because a lot
of the media is very much focused on this, particularly
the left wing media. But Brendan Carr is the chairman
of the Federal Communications Commission. He did an interview with
Benny Johnson. Benny's a friend of ours. He's a great guy,
but he leaned in hard on Jimmy Kimmel, and he
(19:19):
threatened government retaliation for what Kimmel said. So I want
you to give a listen to this interview and then
we're going to talk about it.
Speaker 6 (19:28):
I think this is an isolated incident.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
I mean, you go back to Representative Swallwell, he had
a tweet out last week where he was saying that,
you know, emphasizing that Charlie Kirks killer was a straight
white male from a Republican family that voted for Donald Trump.
Speaker 6 (19:41):
In some quarters, there's a very concerted.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
Effort to try to lie to the American people about
the nature, as you indicate it, one of the most
significant newsworthy public interest acts that.
Speaker 6 (19:56):
We've seen in a long time.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
In what appears to be an action, appears to be
an action by Jimmy Kimmel to play into that narrative
that this was somehow a maga or Republican motivated person.
If that's what happened here with his conduct, that is
really really sick. And I've been very clear from the
(20:18):
moment that I have become chairman of the FCC, I
want to reinvigorate the public interest and what people don't
understand is that the broadcasters, and you've gotten this right,
are entirely different than people that use other forms of communication.
They have a license granted by us at the FCC,
and that comes with it an obligation to operate in
(20:39):
the public interest. And we can get into some ways
that we've been trying to reinvigorate the public interest and
some changes that we've seen. But frankly, when you see
stuff like this, I mean, look, we can do this
the easy way or the hard way.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
These companies can.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
Find ways to change conduct, to take action frankly on
Kimmel or you know there's gonna be additional work for
the FCC ahead.
Speaker 7 (21:01):
What kind of action would you see? At the very least,
would like to have an on air apology from Jimmy Kimmel,
to the Kirk family, to all of those who he
slandered because he did say that Charlie Kirk. He is
effectively saying that our movement did this, our movement killed Charlie,
that Charlie was deserving of this effectively, and we've seen
(21:24):
that rear its head. This happens quite regularly actually on
MSNBC and on other networks where they're trying to victim blame.
And what that does, mister Chairman, respectfully, is continues the
lie and continues the threat level to say effectively that
(21:45):
we have no share in this problem at all. On
the left. This is a clear cut case. What would
you like to see done at ABC?
Speaker 5 (21:54):
Well, look, I think what you said there strikes me
as a very reasonable minimal step that can be taken.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
I mean, obviously, look, there's calls for kim will be fired.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
I think you know, you could certainly see a path
forward for suspension over this. And again, you know, the
FCC is going to have remedies that we could look at.
Speaker 6 (22:14):
And again you know we may ultimately be called to
be a judge on that.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
No, no, no, no, no. Look, look, I like Brendan Carr.
He's a good guy. He's the chairman of the FCC.
I work closely with him. But what he said there
is dangerous as hell uh on.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
For people that are listening, because this is going to
be quote controversial. So I want to make sure we
explain it clearly. When you say no and it's dangerous,
explain and run this out the slippery slope that this
can open, so that people understand why we're saying it.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
So the Federal Communication Commission is in charge of granting
broadcast licenses, So ABC, NBCCBS they have licenses from the FCC.
It is true that understatute they're required to be in
the public interest. What he is saying is Jimmy Kimmel
was lying. That's true. He was lying, and he is
(23:10):
lying to the American people. Is not in the public interest.
And so he threatens explicitly, We're gonna cancel ABC's license.
We're gonna take him off the air, so ABC cannot
broadcast anymore. And I gotta say, he threatens it. He says,
we can do this the easy way, Oh, we can
do this the hard way.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
And I got to say, that's right out of Good Fellows.
That that that that that's right out of a mafioso
coming into a bar going nice bye, you have here.
It'd be a shame of something happened to it. And
I got to say, look, I understand, Jimmy Kimmel has
mocked me so many times I cannot count. The corporate media.
They are dishonest, they are liars. I hate what Jimmy
(23:54):
Kimmel said. I am thrilled that he was fired but
let me tell you, if the government gets in the
business of saying say what you the media have said,
We're going to ban you from the airwaves if you
don't say what we like. That will end up bad
(24:15):
for conservatives. It reminds me of you and I are
both fans of the Lord of the Rings Jarr R. Tolkien.
It reminds me of like the Ring of Power, and
it is so attractive. It's sort of like conservatives saying, wait, wait,
if we have government, we have power, we can ban
the media. Let me tell you what will happen going
down this road. There will come a time when a
(24:37):
Democrat wins again, wins the White House.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
They will get rid of every Democrats see me speak
it's a conservative. They'll get rid of every podcast so
get rid of it.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
They will silence us. They will use this power and
they will use it ruthlessly, and that is dangerous. And
by the way, in the Biden administration, they tried to
go after and revoke Fox license because they didn't like
and they say everything they say on Fox's hate speech.
I'm sure they say everything you and I say it's
(25:07):
hate speech, is misinformation. They've defined anything counter to the
leftist narrative as misinformation. Now, we just talked about Jimmy
Kimmel was lying. But you know what, it's interesting Brendan said, well, gosh,
they slandered They slandered Charlie Kirk and his family. You
(25:27):
know what, if they slandered him, there's already a remedy.
There's a remedy of defamation. ABC could be sued and
by the way, you get a defamation lawsuit, you could
pay millions of dollars. Let that process play out. I
think it is unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself
in the position of saying, we're going to decide what
(25:48):
speech we like and what we don't, and we're gonna
threaten to take you off air if we don't like
what you're saying. And it might feel good right now
to threaten Jimmy Kimmel, Yeah, but when it is used
to silence every conservative in America, we will regret it.
And so again, I like Brendan Carr, but we should
not be in this business. We should denounce it. It's fine
(26:10):
to say what Jimmy Kimmel said was deplorable, it was disgraceful,
and he should be off air. But we shouldn't be
threatening government power to force him off air. That's a
real mistake.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Senator.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
I want to get to something else that happened earlier
this week, and that was the questioning of the FBI Director,
Cash Battel. You had the opportunity to talk with Cash
on a number of different issues. Obviously one of them
that was in front of mine was the assassination of
our friend Charlie kirk Well.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Absolutely so this week Cash Battel, the Director of the FBI,
testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and I
took the opportunity to question on a number of topics,
but front and center to urge Cash Battel to follow
the money, and in particular to go after Antifa and
to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization. Here's the exchange
(27:02):
Cash that I had. Give a listen. I want to
encourage you, in the course of this investigation. Absolutely go
after anyone who ate it and abedded, but I want
to more broadly encourage you follow the money. The violence
we are seeing is not purely organic. There is I believe,
(27:27):
significant money that is spreading dissension, that is spreading violence. Antifa.
Do you believe Antifa is a terrorist organization.
Speaker 8 (27:39):
I believe Antifa is associated with a lot of violence
in this country. As to its designation, I'll leave that
to the appropriate authorities.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
So I would encourage the administration to designate Antifa as
a terrorist organization to go systematically after Antifa. They committed
acts of violence all over the country, and the shell
casings have multiple references to slogans that Antifa has popularized.
I believe there is considerable money funding it. I would
(28:06):
note that I've introduced legislation called the Stop Funders Act.
Stop Funders Act would add rioting to the list of
predicate offenses under RICO. I believe the money should be
fuck should be tracked and prosecuted under RICO. And both
the Antifa and Black Lives Matter riots of a couple
(28:26):
of years ago and the pro open border riots in
Los Angeles and other cities of this past year, I
believe there was significant money behind those riots. I'm not
the only person who noticed at the anti Semitic protest
and violent protests on college campuses that many of the
tents all matched, and so I would ask, would it
(28:49):
aid your ability to prosecute these matters? If Congress passed
into law the Stop Funders Act, and if rioting was
added to the list of predicate offenses for Rico. Yes,
talk to me about the efforts of the FBI to
go after the funders of the anti Semitic protests on
(29:12):
college campuses, the pro open border protests in cities, and
potential LGBT violence. Talk to me about the efforts to
go after the money of those who are funding and
promoting violence.
Speaker 8 (29:26):
As I've always said, Senator, money doesn't lie, and we've
been following the money. And so that's what we're doing,
issuing lawful process to organizations involved with criminal activity because
the money's got to come from somewhere and it has
to be funded somehow. So we have extensive investigations ongoing
into numerous organizations that are related to violent criminal activity.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Cutting off the money will make America much safer, and
that is the core job of the FBI. And I
thank you for doing your job.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Now you look at what you just said there in
the back and forth, Cenator, and this turned very quickly
into a new policy from the Trump administration as well.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
That is the best news coming out of this.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
So.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
This testimony was on Tuesday, The very next day, President
Trump announced he was doing what I was calling for,
which is designating Antifa as a terrorist organization. I'm going
to read to you from Fox News. President Donald Trump
on Wednesday announced he will designate Antifa, a left wing
activist group, a major terrorist organization. Trump described the group
(30:29):
as quote a sick, dangerous, radical left disaster in a
truth social announcement, The president added that he will be
strongly recommending that those funding Antifa be thoroughly investigated incordance
with the highest legal standards and practices. The announcement comes
just days after Trump said he would one hundred percent
(30:49):
consider the designation. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office Monday,
Trump accused Antiva participants of being quote professional agitators in
response to the administration's recent crackdown on illegal immigration. Quote
Antifa is terrible, the President said, these aren't protests. These
are crimes that they're doing. They're throwing bricks at cars
(31:10):
of the Ice and Border Patrol. They're professional agitators. They
should be put in jail. What they're doing in this
country is really subversive. And I will say this goes
right to the heart of a distinction that I've tried
to lay it out layout repeatedly, which is free speech
is protected. You can say things that are vile, that
are hateful, that are horrible, that we hate, and the
(31:31):
First Amendment protects it. Conduct is not protected when you
engage in violence, it is not protected. What Antifa is doing,
engaging in violence, engaging in harassment, engaging in threats. That
is not protected. And so what I urge cash betel,
follow the money, go after the money. And look, I
(31:54):
believe there's money that is coming from foreign nations. There's
money that's coming from Cutter, there's money that's coming from Iran,
there may be money coming from communist China. And there's
also money coming from the gazillionaire left wing funders of
the Democrat Party, people like George Soros at his entire organization,
that are funding these radical organizations. And it's one thing
(32:16):
to go and prosecute the individual criminals. We should do that, sure,
but if you want to solve the problem, it's why
I've introduced the legislation, the Stop Funders Act, because RICO
is an incredibly powerful tool to prosecute not just an
individual defendant, but a criminal organization, and criminal organizations are
usually structured with a hub and spokes, and so following
(32:39):
the money is how you get the people writing checks
that are sitting in their Manhattan penthouses funding the anti American,
anti Israel, communist jihadist agitators that are destroying this country.
And so I got to say I was really encouraged.
I've been pressing in the first Trump administration. I pressed
(33:01):
for years for the first Trump administration to designate Antifa
as a terrorist organization. There was a lot of openness
to that argument, but it never succeeded. They never did
it this time. When I pressed on Tuesday, the next day,
the President came out and said, We're going to do that.
That's exactly the right thing to do.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Yeah, it is big, it's going to be really important.
It's going to have a huge impact going forward. That
may be the best part of all. And of course,
you know you're doing something right when the left is
leasing their mind. They're saying, oh, this is the president
trying to silence political organizations. I'm sorry, they're not a
political organization terrorist organization. There's a big difference between a
(33:42):
political organization and a terrorist organization, and Antifa has all
the markings.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
As you described to.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Have a terrorist organization going all the way back to
twenty sixteen when your first we're calling for this.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
If you engage in violence, it is not speech. Violence
is not speech. And by the way, one who commits
violence should be prosecuted and go to jail. And that's
true whether you're left wing or right wing. I might
agree with what you're saying, but if you engage in violence,
that is not acceptable. Speech is different from violence. We
have to protect speech and we how to prosecute violence
(34:15):
that put the violent criminals in jail.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Amen to that.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Don't forget We do this show as a podcast three
days a week. Make sure you hit that subscribe or
auto download button. You can also tell Siri or Alexa
to play it. And we also are doing many of
our episodes now on YouTube as well, so you can
watch these episodes on YouTube. Hit the subscribe button there
so you don't miss a single episode. And join us
here on this radio station each and every weekend. It's
(34:40):
always a pleasure to have you with us, and as
we do this show, you've been listening to Verdict with
Tech Careers wherever you get your podcasts, stay with us
this week.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Ben Ferguson with you. We'll see you back here next weekend.
Welcome in his Verdicus Center. Teed Cruz ben Ferguson with you.
It's nice to have you with us wherever you're listening
around the country, and we've got a pack show for you,
including one of your best friends, Senator Jimmy Kimmel.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Get in the boot.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I mean, are you guys gonna have a lot more
time to play basketball now?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Look, Jimmy Kimmel has been canned. He has been suspended indefinitely.
I think that is a fantastic thing. I think Jimmy
Kimmel was putting out garbage for a long long time.
But we're going to break down because they're real questions
about why ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel and what the role
was of the SCC. The SCC threatened to revoke ABC's licenses.
(00:41):
We're going to break down the First Amendment implications of that.
We're also going to talk about a hearing that happened
this week. Cash Betel, the director of the FBI, testified
before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and I questioned Cash, and
I called on the Trump administration to designate Antifa as
a terrorist or it is, yeah, And in particular, what
(01:02):
I urge the FBI, and the DOJ to do is
follow the money, follow those who are putting money behind
violent protests, riots, acts of violence. And we're also going
to talk about how the fact that within twenty four
hours the Trump administration announced they were doing exactly that,
they were going to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization.
(01:25):
It's the right thing to do. It makes America safer.
We're going to explain all that to you.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, it's definitely a lot to discuss, and we're going
to talk about all of it coming up in a moment.
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trial all right now, Centaer, let's go back to how
all this went down so people understand the there's a
lot of misinformation. There's just a lot of lies out there.
Let's just be honest about it. There are a ton
of lies in this one. Jimmy Kimmel went after our
(03:56):
dear friend who was assassinated after him and basically implied
that he's responsible for his own assassination. And oh, by
the way, he was a Trump supporter referring to the assassin.
That is why he got in trouble because he lied.
It's not because of free speech, which some people have complicated.
(04:17):
In a free speech issue, he can say whatever the
hell he wants. It doesn't mean you're gonna keep your job.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Well, let's break this down to several things. Number one,
Jimmy Kimmel had become profoundly unfunny. That there was a time,
I don't't know, fifteen years ago, that he was a
talented comedian. He could be funny, you know. He started
hosting The Man Show with Adam Carolla, and they were
pretty funny back then, and that's how he got a
(04:46):
late night gig. I've been on Jimmy Kimmel. I've done
his show, I've done a show a couple of times.
He can be funny. But then Donald Trump got elected.
And when Donald Trump got elected, it broke late night comedy.
The host of late night comedy, they used to be
able to make fun on both sides. And by the way,
good comedy it ought to make fun of Republicans and Democrats.
(05:08):
It ought to just just laugh and have fun. But
Jimmy Kimmel, just like Stephen Colbert, his brain melted when
Donald Trump came into the White House, and it is
now unwatchable. I've grown up. I've grown up watching S
and L I've grown up watching late night comedy. I
like to laugh, and it is now I don't watch
(05:31):
it anymore. In fact, and I'm not unique. The vast
majority of America doesn't watch it anymore because Jimmy Kimmel
would stand up and just basically scream I hate Donald Trump.
And after a while it's like, yeah, we know, there's
no mystery about it. You're not hiding it. But how
about being a comedian, how about telling a joke? By
(05:52):
the way. You know, when I was first selected to
the Senate thirteen years ago, it was a regular part
of the job to go on late night comedy. And
so I've done Jay Leno, I've done Jimmy Kimmel, I've
done Stephen Colbert, I've done Fallaned. That was part of
the job. Today, none of them zero have any Republicans on.
(06:19):
They will not have them on. They just their entire
show is essentially an infomercial screaming that they hate Donald Trump.
On top of that, Kimmel's numbers had plummeted. So here
are some of the stats. According to Late Nighter in August,
Jimmy Kimmel lost eleven percent of his audience, down to
(06:40):
one point one zero four million viewers. To put that
in perspective, Jimmy Kimmel was getting fewer viewers than we
have Verdict listeners.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
So this podcast Congratulations by the way, that's like the
real deal right there.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Like he's on AB see in every television in America,
and Verdict was kicking his ass. Now now, by the way,
we will continue kicking his ass, and I want to
keep continue growing those numbers. But one point one zero
four million viewers. And by the way, in the eighteen
to forty nine demographic, which is the critical demographic for
(07:18):
selling stuff that advertiss care about, Kimmel was down fifteen percent.
Do you know how many viewers eighteen to forty ninety had.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I'm going to guess under four hundred thousand.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
One hundred and twenty nine thousand. Wow.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
So with it's sixteen a report, I think it was
sixteen million dollar year salary.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
By the way, for him, Yeah, he was getting paid
a crap ton of money. And to give that in perspective, Colbert,
who was fired, was losing paramount forty million dollars a year.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
ABC has not made their numbers public, so we don't
know what the numbers were. But Kimmel had lost even
more viewers than Colbert, So you have to assume he
was losing ABC even more money than Colbert was doing.
So he was a train wreck. He was a disaster.
He was unfunny, and he was also bitter and nasty,
(08:16):
and he lied about Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
All right, Sanata, I want to go back to what
you were saying a moment ago. And one of the
interesting things about Kimmel that I do want to break
down is so many on the left screaming this is
cancel culture. It is not cancel culture. He said something dumb.
I also think though, that ABC News was looking for
a reason to get out for what you just described,
(08:41):
which is you don't have anybody watching the revenues down.
The guy's making sixteen million dollars a year, and so
this was a perfect opportunity to say, hey, we can
get out of this with reason.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Here.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Page six is even saying they even asked him if
you gave some money and made a donation and apologized,
and apparently he was saying, I won't do it. That's
what they're reporting tonight as well, is that they're saying, hey,
you know, he's like, no, I'm not going to apologize
the Kirk family. So it gave them even an easier
ability to get rid of him and can this thing.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Early look, unquestionably, ABC was hemorrhaging money. This was a
smart business decision, but also what Jimmy Kimmel said was
reprehensible and I want you to listen to it. I
want you to if you're watching online, I want you
to watch. This is the monologue that got Jimmy Kimmel fired.
Give a listen.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
We hit some new lows over the weekend with the
Magga Gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered
Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and
do everything they can to score political points from and
in between the finger pointing, there was grieving. On Friday,
the White House flew the flags at half staff, which
got some criticism, but on a human level, you can
(09:52):
see how hard the president is taking this back.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Adult's got a latting your friend, Charlie Kirk asked sir personally,
how are you holding up over.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
The last day and a half served, I think very good.
And by the way, right there, you see all the trucks.
They just started construction of the new ball room for
the White House.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Which is something they've been trying to get.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
As you know, for about one hundred and fifty years,
and it's going to be a beauty. Yes, he's at the.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Fourth stage of grief construction.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Demolition construction.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
This is not how an adult grief's the murder of
somebody called a friend.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
This is how a four year old mourns a goldfish.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Okay, by the way, so people understand context. There the
reporting out of the White House, and you have talked
to you have said that the present was gutted over
the assassination of Charlie Kirk. It was pretty clear he
did not want to talk about it right then, and
as he was outside.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
It's not like reporters are a therapists.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Right, yeah, I mean it was obvious he didn't want
to go there at that moment, and so he.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
And let me say, Ben, the thing to understand about
Jimmy Kimmel what he just said there, there's a technical
term for that. It's called a lie. So he stood
up and said, the murderer of Charlie Kirk was a
Maga Republican.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
YEP.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
That is flat out false. That is a brazen lie.
And we talked about this our last podcast. If you
didn't listen to our last podcast, you should go back
and listen to it. I went on CNN with Caitlin
Collins and she fought me like crazy. We don't know
what the motive of this guy is. This murderer, this
assassin was a left wing radical. He was an Antifa activist.
(11:35):
He was a transgender activist. He was living with a
transgender man transitioning to be a woman. That transgender man
was his boyfriend. He wrote on the bullets Antifa and
transgender slogans. He hated Charlie Kirk. He admitted all of this.
It is unequivocal. This is a hardcore leftist and I
(11:56):
got to say it is amazing. The vast majority of
Democrats today believe Charlie Kirk's murderer was a maga Republican
because the media is corrupt and they are lying. When
I was on CNN with Caitlyn Collins, she refused to
acknowledge that because CNN is lying to their viewers, MSNBC
(12:18):
is lying to their viewers. And Jimmy Kimmel stood up
with his measley one point one million viewers and lied
to them. They said this murderer was a maga Republican. Now, ABC,
theoretically ABC News is a news organization. They should not
be in the business of lying to Americans, and Jimmy
Kimmel shamelessly lied to them because he has a political agenda.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Truth be damned, and I think it's top to bottom.
So people understand this, And I'll give you example. The
view on ABC is actually, I'm pretty sure if I
remember correctly, under the news division, Kimmel is under like
that in general, I think entertainment, but under their news.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
If you want to know how much is he entertained? Yeah,
right exactly.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
But if you want to know how much propaganda machine
ABC News is, this is just example. It's a small example,
but it's a powerful one. In twenty twenty five, the
viewers had one hundred and two liberal guests on and
not one single Republican guest.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
But by the way, to be clear, Ben, I've been
on the View multiple times, so I've written to date
four books. For my second book, they had me on.
For my third book, they had me on now, particularly
for the third book. We got into it. It was
a hell of a scrape. Whoopy Goldberg and the other
cackling hosts of the View insist.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
The nicest way it's ever been put.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
By the way, did I refrained myself. Look, i gotta
say I'm on good behavior because I went through like
nine different nouns, and I just went with hosts.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
I like it well done.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
But but Whoopy insisted, She said, violence is only a
right wing phenomenon. I said, well, what about the Antifa
and the Black Lives Matter riots all over the country
that burned cities across America. And she looked at me
befuddled and said, I don't know what a Antifa Black
Lives Matter riot is. You think about the millions of
(14:15):
housewives that watch that show, that are lied to every
single day. It went so badly for them that my
fourth book, Unwoke, How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America,
available on Amazon, by the way, when when it came out,
I reached out and said, hey, I'd like to go
in the view again, and they said no, thank you,
like like you picked her now, we cannot have. We
(14:40):
are in the business of lying to our viewers, and
when you come on, you make it really hard to
lie to our viewers because you actually bring up facts
and substance and and and we're just not good enough
to lie in the face of facts and substance. So
that's who they are.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
That's who they are.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
It's funny you mentioned Kaylen Collins in your interview just
just if you miss did it's up on social media.
I actually think that you should do more of these
because the number of viral clips. So now that came
out of you going on with caateon Collins and people
seeing your grand debate with her, which is an important one,
and calling her out for saying we don't know the
(15:17):
motive in the death of the assassination of Charlie Kirk
is one that now has just exploded. And afterwards, I'm like,
you know what, it may be worth it for you
to do this like every week because then you get
to call them out every week and they are held
accountable because otherwise they just go on TV and they
just lie.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Well, understand, Jimmy Kimmel was fired because number one, he's
not funny. Number two, he was losing ABC massive amounts
of money, and number three, he flat out lied an
incredibly important issue, which is who the murder of Charlie
Kirk was.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
But first I want to talk to you about something
that probably nine nine point nine percent of you have.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
It is a cell phone.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
You may not realize it, but if you're with Big Mobile,
you're giving big donations by default to liberal causes and organizations.
We're talking about organizations that are actually fighting for abortions
to take place at record numbers. That is what your
money is going to, including radical liberal causes, candidates and
(16:19):
organizations all at the same time. Now you say, well,
hold on, how's it happened, they get big donations.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
It's just that simple. And that is why more than a.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Decade ago, there is a group of people that got
together and said we've got to do something different. We
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(16:49):
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(17:58):
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Speaker 2 (18:04):
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Speaker 1 (18:06):
All right, so let's get to this issue center about
the FCC. They've gotten involved in this. This is I
want to be clear, I believe it's it's controversial. It
concerns me and you and I actually really haven't talked
about this much, so I genuinely want to know what
you think about this. I don't like people tipping the
scales and pushing too hard, and let me explain why,
(18:29):
because if we do it, they're gonna do it when
they get back in power. And we know the ebbs
and flows of politics. This is something I don't like it.
I don't want anyone getting censored. I do not want
it because it will happen to conservatives. Yes, and it
will happen ten times harder than what we're talking about
right now. And that's just my hot take on it.
But I think it's an important when this is literally
(18:50):
what I do for a living, I don't want one
cutting me down and what I do for a living
or free speech.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Yeah, you and I have not talked about this before
doing the podcast, but I'm not surprised that we're on
the same page. I want to play because a lot
of the media is very much focused on this, particularly
the left wing media. But Brendan Carr is the chairman
of the Federal Communications Commission. He did an interview with
Benny Johnson. Benny's a friend of ours. He's a great guy,
but he leaned in hard on Jimmy Kimmel, and he
(19:19):
threatened government retaliation for what Kimmel said. So I want
you to give a listen to this interview and then
we're going to talk about it.
Speaker 6 (19:28):
I think this is an isolated incident.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
I mean, you go back to Representative Swallwell, he had
a tweet out last week where he was saying that,
you know, emphasizing that Charlie Kirks killer was a straight
white male from a Republican family that voted for Donald Trump.
Speaker 6 (19:41):
In some quarters, there's a very concerted.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
Effort to try to lie to the American people about
the nature, as you indicate it, one of the most
significant newsworthy public interest acts that.
Speaker 6 (19:56):
We've seen in a long time.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
In what appears to be an action, appears to be
an action by Jimmy Kimmel to play into that narrative
that this was somehow a maga or Republican motivated person.
If that's what happened here with his conduct, that is
really really sick. And I've been very clear from the
(20:18):
moment that I have become chairman of the FCC, I
want to reinvigorate the public interest and what people don't
understand is that the broadcasters, and you've gotten this right,
are entirely different than people that use other forms of communication.
They have a license granted by us at the FCC,
and that comes with it an obligation to operate in
(20:39):
the public interest. And we can get into some ways
that we've been trying to reinvigorate the public interest and
some changes that we've seen. But frankly, when you see
stuff like this, I mean, look, we can do this
the easy way or the hard way.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
These companies can.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
Find ways to change conduct, to take action frankly on
Kimmel or you know there's gonna be additional work for
the FCC ahead.
Speaker 7 (21:01):
What kind of action would you see? At the very least,
would like to have an on air apology from Jimmy Kimmel,
to the Kirk family, to all of those who he
slandered because he did say that Charlie Kirk. He is
effectively saying that our movement did this, our movement killed Charlie,
that Charlie was deserving of this effectively, and we've seen
(21:24):
that rear its head. This happens quite regularly actually on
MSNBC and on other networks where they're trying to victim blame.
And what that does, mister Chairman, respectfully, is continues the
lie and continues the threat level to say effectively that
(21:45):
we have no share in this problem at all. On
the left. This is a clear cut case. What would
you like to see done at ABC?
Speaker 5 (21:54):
Well, look, I think what you said there strikes me
as a very reasonable minimal step that can be taken.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
I mean, obviously, look, there's calls for kim will be fired.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
I think you know, you could certainly see a path
forward for suspension over this. And again, you know, the
FCC is going to have remedies that we could look at.
Speaker 6 (22:14):
And again you know we may ultimately be called to
be a judge on that.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
No, no, no, no, no. Look, look, I like Brendan Carr.
He's a good guy. He's the chairman of the FCC.
I work closely with him. But what he said there
is dangerous as hell uh on.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
For people that are listening, because this is going to
be quote controversial. So I want to make sure we
explain it clearly. When you say no and it's dangerous,
explain and run this out the slippery slope that this
can open, so that people understand why we're saying it.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
So the Federal Communication Commission is in charge of granting
broadcast licenses, So ABC, NBCCBS they have licenses from the FCC.
It is true that understatute they're required to be in
the public interest. What he is saying is Jimmy Kimmel
was lying. That's true. He was lying, and he is
(23:10):
lying to the American people. Is not in the public interest.
And so he threatens explicitly, We're gonna cancel ABC's license.
We're gonna take him off the air, so ABC cannot
broadcast anymore. And I gotta say, he threatens it. He says,
we can do this the easy way, Oh, we can
do this the hard way.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
And I got to say, that's right out of Good Fellows.
That that that that that's right out of a mafioso
coming into a bar going nice bye, you have here.
It'd be a shame of something happened to it. And
I got to say, look, I understand, Jimmy Kimmel has
mocked me so many times I cannot count. The corporate media.
They are dishonest, they are liars. I hate what Jimmy
(23:54):
Kimmel said. I am thrilled that he was fired but
let me tell you, if the government gets in the
business of saying say what you the media have said,
We're going to ban you from the airwaves if you
don't say what we like. That will end up bad
(24:15):
for conservatives. It reminds me of you and I are
both fans of the Lord of the Rings Jarr R. Tolkien.
It reminds me of like the Ring of Power, and
it is so attractive. It's sort of like conservatives saying, wait, wait,
if we have government, we have power, we can ban
the media. Let me tell you what will happen going
down this road. There will come a time when a
(24:37):
Democrat wins again, wins the White House.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
They will get rid of every Democrats see me speak
it's a conservative. They'll get rid of every podcast so
get rid of it.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
They will silence us. They will use this power and
they will use it ruthlessly, and that is dangerous. And
by the way, in the Biden administration, they tried to
go after and revoke Fox license because they didn't like
and they say everything they say on Fox's hate speech.
I'm sure they say everything you and I say it's
(25:07):
hate speech, is misinformation. They've defined anything counter to the
leftist narrative as misinformation. Now, we just talked about Jimmy
Kimmel was lying. But you know what, it's interesting Brendan said, well, gosh,
they slandered They slandered Charlie Kirk and his family. You
(25:27):
know what, if they slandered him, there's already a remedy.
There's a remedy of defamation. ABC could be sued and
by the way, you get a defamation lawsuit, you could
pay millions of dollars. Let that process play out. I
think it is unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself
in the position of saying, we're going to decide what
(25:48):
speech we like and what we don't, and we're gonna
threaten to take you off air if we don't like
what you're saying. And it might feel good right now
to threaten Jimmy Kimmel, Yeah, but when it is used
to silence every conservative in America, we will regret it.
And so again, I like Brendan Carr, but we should
not be in this business. We should denounce it. It's fine
(26:10):
to say what Jimmy Kimmel said was deplorable, it was disgraceful,
and he should be off air. But we shouldn't be
threatening government power to force him off air. That's a
real mistake.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Senator.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
I want to get to something else that happened earlier
this week, and that was the questioning of the FBI Director,
Cash Battel. You had the opportunity to talk with Cash
on a number of different issues. Obviously one of them
that was in front of mine was the assassination of
our friend Charlie kirk Well.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Absolutely so this week Cash Battel, the Director of the FBI,
testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and I
took the opportunity to question on a number of topics,
but front and center to urge Cash Battel to follow
the money, and in particular to go after Antifa and
to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization. Here's the exchange
(27:02):
Cash that I had. Give a listen. I want to
encourage you, in the course of this investigation. Absolutely go
after anyone who ate it and abedded, but I want
to more broadly encourage you follow the money. The violence
we are seeing is not purely organic. There is I believe,
(27:27):
significant money that is spreading dissension, that is spreading violence. Antifa.
Do you believe Antifa is a terrorist organization.
Speaker 8 (27:39):
I believe Antifa is associated with a lot of violence
in this country. As to its designation, I'll leave that
to the appropriate authorities.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
So I would encourage the administration to designate Antifa as
a terrorist organization to go systematically after Antifa. They committed
acts of violence all over the country, and the shell
casings have multiple references to slogans that Antifa has popularized.
I believe there is considerable money funding it. I would
(28:06):
note that I've introduced legislation called the Stop Funders Act.
Stop Funders Act would add rioting to the list of
predicate offenses under RICO. I believe the money should be
fuck should be tracked and prosecuted under RICO. And both
the Antifa and Black Lives Matter riots of a couple
(28:26):
of years ago and the pro open border riots in
Los Angeles and other cities of this past year, I
believe there was significant money behind those riots. I'm not
the only person who noticed at the anti Semitic protest
and violent protests on college campuses that many of the
tents all matched, and so I would ask, would it
(28:49):
aid your ability to prosecute these matters? If Congress passed
into law the Stop Funders Act, and if rioting was
added to the list of predicate offenses for Rico. Yes,
talk to me about the efforts of the FBI to
go after the funders of the anti Semitic protests on
(29:12):
college campuses, the pro open border protests in cities, and
potential LGBT violence. Talk to me about the efforts to
go after the money of those who are funding and
promoting violence.
Speaker 8 (29:26):
As I've always said, Senator, money doesn't lie, and we've
been following the money. And so that's what we're doing,
issuing lawful process to organizations involved with criminal activity because
the money's got to come from somewhere and it has
to be funded somehow. So we have extensive investigations ongoing
into numerous organizations that are related to violent criminal activity.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Cutting off the money will make America much safer, and
that is the core job of the FBI. And I
thank you for doing your job.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Now you look at what you just said there in
the back and forth, Cenator, and this turned very quickly
into a new policy from the Trump administration as well.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
That is the best news coming out of this.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
So.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
This testimony was on Tuesday, The very next day, President
Trump announced he was doing what I was calling for,
which is designating Antifa as a terrorist organization. I'm going
to read to you from Fox News. President Donald Trump
on Wednesday announced he will designate Antifa, a left wing
activist group, a major terrorist organization. Trump described the group
(30:29):
as quote a sick, dangerous, radical left disaster in a
truth social announcement, The president added that he will be
strongly recommending that those funding Antifa be thoroughly investigated incordance
with the highest legal standards and practices. The announcement comes
just days after Trump said he would one hundred percent
(30:49):
consider the designation. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office Monday,
Trump accused Antiva participants of being quote professional agitators in
response to the administration's recent crackdown on illegal immigration. Quote
Antifa is terrible, the President said, these aren't protests. These
are crimes that they're doing. They're throwing bricks at cars
(31:10):
of the Ice and Border Patrol. They're professional agitators. They
should be put in jail. What they're doing in this
country is really subversive. And I will say this goes
right to the heart of a distinction that I've tried
to lay it out layout repeatedly, which is free speech
is protected. You can say things that are vile, that
are hateful, that are horrible, that we hate, and the
(31:31):
First Amendment protects it. Conduct is not protected when you
engage in violence, it is not protected. What Antifa is doing,
engaging in violence, engaging in harassment, engaging in threats. That
is not protected. And so what I urge cash betel,
follow the money, go after the money. And look, I
(31:54):
believe there's money that is coming from foreign nations. There's
money that's coming from Cutter, there's money that's coming from Iran,
there may be money coming from communist China. And there's
also money coming from the gazillionaire left wing funders of
the Democrat Party, people like George Soros at his entire organization,
that are funding these radical organizations. And it's one thing
(32:16):
to go and prosecute the individual criminals. We should do that, sure,
but if you want to solve the problem, it's why
I've introduced the legislation, the Stop Funders Act, because RICO
is an incredibly powerful tool to prosecute not just an
individual defendant, but a criminal organization, and criminal organizations are
usually structured with a hub and spokes, and so following
(32:39):
the money is how you get the people writing checks
that are sitting in their Manhattan penthouses funding the anti American,
anti Israel, communist jihadist agitators that are destroying this country.
And so I got to say I was really encouraged.
I've been pressing in the first Trump administration. I pressed
(33:01):
for years for the first Trump administration to designate Antifa
as a terrorist organization. There was a lot of openness
to that argument, but it never succeeded. They never did
it this time. When I pressed on Tuesday, the next day,
the President came out and said, We're going to do that.
That's exactly the right thing to do.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Yeah, it is big, it's going to be really important.
It's going to have a huge impact going forward. That
may be the best part of all. And of course,
you know you're doing something right when the left is
leasing their mind. They're saying, oh, this is the president
trying to silence political organizations. I'm sorry, they're not a
political organization terrorist organization. There's a big difference between a
(33:42):
political organization and a terrorist organization, and Antifa has all
the markings.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
As you described to.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Have a terrorist organization going all the way back to
twenty sixteen when your first we're calling for this.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
If you engage in violence, it is not speech. Violence
is not speech. And by the way, one who commits
violence should be prosecuted and go to jail. And that's
true whether you're left wing or right wing. I might
agree with what you're saying, but if you engage in violence,
that is not acceptable. Speech is different from violence. We
have to protect speech and we how to prosecute violence
(34:15):
that put the violent criminals in jail.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Amen to that.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Don't forget We do this show as a podcast three
days a week. Make sure you hit that subscribe or
auto download button. You can also tell Siri or Alexa
to play it. And we also are doing many of
our episodes now on YouTube as well, so you can
watch these episodes on YouTube. Hit the subscribe button there
so you don't miss a single episode. And join us
here on this radio station each and every weekend. It's
(34:40):
always a pleasure to have you with us, and as
we do this show, you've been listening to Verdict with
Tech Careers wherever you get your podcasts, stay with us
this week.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Ben Ferguson with you. We'll see you back here next weekend.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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