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Charlie Kirk Assassination
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The central focus is the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
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It highlights how some individuals on social media and in academic or professional positions were accused of celebrating his death.
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Commentary draws sharp contrasts between free speech protections and the consequences of hateful or violent speech.
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First Amendment & Consequences
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The speakers emphasize that while the U.S. Constitution protects free speech from government prosecution, it does not shield individuals from personal or professional consequences.
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They compare celebratory speech about Kirk’s murder to other forms of offensive expression that might justifiably lead to disciplinary or employment consequences.
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Text Messages Between the Assassin and Partner
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We talk about the text exchanges between the shooter and a transgender partner.
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These messages are described as both incriminating (a clear confession) and disturbing, while also criticizing mainstream media outlets like ABC News for framing them in a more “romanticized” or “touching” light.
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Criticism of Media Coverage
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Strong criticism is directed at outlets like CNN, MSNBC, and ABC News for allegedly downplaying or misrepresenting the motives of the assassin.
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The speakers argue that the media deliberately avoids framing the crime as left-wing political violence tied to Antifa or transgender activism.
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Antifa and Terrorism Designation
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The latter portion shifts to broader political implications, particularly Senator Ted Cruz urging the FBI and Trump administration to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization.
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It discusses legislation (the “Stop Funders Act”) aimed at following the financial networks behind left-wing protest groups, riots, and activist organizations.
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It links Antifa and Black Lives Matter funding to foreign and domestic wealthy donors (e.g., George Soros).
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz. We can review
Ben Ferguson with you. And these are the stories that
you may have missed that we talked about this week.
First up media and social media. Why are they not
coming out condemning those who are celebrating the death of
Charlie Kirk. In fact, they're allowing it to happen. So
what does this say about America? We're going to break
(00:21):
that down. Also, we have the text messages now from
the assassin to his roommate, transcendered lover what was said
in there? That's so revealing that in a moment. And
finally Cashptel and Senator Cruz on naming Antifa a terrorist
organization and what this means moving forward. It's the weekend
(00:41):
review and it starts right now. I go back to
this how many I mean, we watched one of our
own be assassinated. Did any cities get burned down?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
No? Not.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
There any police officers that were attacked.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
No.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Was there any assaults on people because of it that
were angry?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
No?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
And yet they're mad.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I love this headline from the Daily Beast, which, if
you don't know what that is, a hardcore liberal propaganda
machine that has an incredible amount of influence in the left.
Their headline yesterday ten oh five am, keyboard Warriors, grieving
this week's assassination of self annoented champion of quote unquote
free speech, Charlie Kirk, have launched an online campaign to
(01:24):
get anyone who criticizes him fired from their jobs.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Their subheadline is.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Free speech crazed Maga Karen's go full cancel culture on
Kirk critics. No, let's be clear about the people we
are exposing.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
It's people.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
They weren't criticizing Chari Kirk. They were celebrating the assassination
of Charlie Kirk in our major positions of power at
universities and at other jobs, or things like we mentioned
earlier where they refuse to put up to print out
a piece of paper for goodness.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Six.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Yeah, but ben, let me make two to stayctions that
are important because it's easy to get these confused. Number One,
let's talk free speech. Yes, in the United States, the
First Amendment gives you the right to speech, to speak
and not to be criminally prosecuted for it, so you
can say the most horrible, hateful things. You do have
a First Amendment right to say unbelievably horrible, hateful things.
(02:20):
You can say that you are celebrating the murder of
Charlie Kirk or anyone else. In the First Amendment will
protect your ability to do so, which means the government
cannot come prosecute you and put you in jail for
saying that. The First Amendment does not mean that you
are immune from the consequences of your speech. And if
you say things that are horrible and hateful, it is
(02:44):
not uncommon for someone to be terminated. So, for example,
at a university, if a student goes and decides to
dress in a white robe as a clansman and burn
across and say that we should African American students, I
guarantee you that student will be expelled from school. Now,
(03:06):
you can't prosecute him. He as a First Amendment right
to do that. So that is not a criminal offense
to do that, correct, But the university should absolutely expel
him because of just how noxious those views are. The
same is true here when you have teachers that are
celebrating cold blooded murder. There are consequences for that, but
(03:28):
that's a distinction.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
I'll point out.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Also, the president of the Oxford Union who debated Charlie
Kirk and is this vicious leftist. He put out a
tweet celebrating lets effing go, he said when Charlie Kirk
was shot. This is a guy who literally had one
on one debated against Charlie Kirk. And he is the
incoming president of the Oxford Union, which pretentiously describes itself
(03:54):
as the world's greatest debating society. Look, in my view,
this individual ought to be expelled from Oxford for the
same reason you would expel him if he were a
klansman burning across and saying, let's murder black students. Now,
the United Kingdom does not have the same First Amendment
(04:15):
that applies to it the way the United States does so. Actually,
in England, if he said that, he might well be
criminally prosecuted. I don't agree with criminally prosecuting speech. But
the First Amendment does not give you a get out
of jail free pass. Look, I promise you, any one
of you in your jobs, if you go in and
tell your boss go screw yourself.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Yeah, you're gonna get fired.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
You will get fired. You have a first mount right
to say so, but he also has a right to
terminate you. But let me say secondly on this both sides,
is the media really wants to say, gosh, political violence,
it's a problem that just occurs everywhere. No right now
is it is heavily concentrated on the left, and the
left has normalized political violence. We saw two separate assassination
(05:00):
attempts of Donald Trump. We saw this tragically successful assassination
of Charlie kirk Over, and we saw for a year
Antifa and Black Lives Matter riots. And I want to
read you some polling results that were done last year,
and people were asked, would it be justified to murder
(05:23):
Elon Musk? And would it be justified to murder Donald Trump?
And those who were self described left of center, fifty
point two percent said it would be justified to murder
Elon Musk, and fifty six percent said it would be
justified to murder Donald Trump. That is. And and by
(05:46):
the way, the right of center numbers were fourteen point
three percent and twenty point three percent, So I wish
all those numbers were zero. But this is a problem
on the left. This is a problem when you define
you're a as Hitler, Nazi, evil fascist, that is a
permission structure to then say violence is an appropriate response,
(06:09):
and we need to see Democrats having the courage to
say enough is enough. Look. Bill Maher did a great
job where he's in his monologue. He said, let's be clear,
Donald Trump is not Hitler.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Stop saying that. Stop saying it.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Exactly well, and I think now they're realizing that using
the words fascist and Hitler and these types of things
has dissensitized people and advocated and allowed for this type
of violence to become reality. Where the big question people
were asking is what's next. I do want to say.
One thing that I think I've found incredibly comforting is
(06:47):
seeing how many young people are at colleges this weekend
over college football. We're putting up signs saying that they
are Charlie Kirk. The number of people that are following
him now on Instagram exploded by I'm not I don't
think I'm wrong. I think it's millions of people now
who are Then I think it is likely that more
people have listened to Charlie Kirk speak in the last
(07:09):
week than did in the entirety of his life.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah, and that that's the silver lining.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
His Christian testimony has become so powerful. I will say
his wife, Erica. The speech she gave this week reduced
me to tears. It was beautiful. God's anointing was upon
her as she did that. And a lot of people
who had never clicked on and watched Charlie Kirk say
anything this week did so and said, Hey, who is
this guy that touched so many people? I think a
(07:39):
lot of people chose to open their Bible and start
reading their Bible. A lot of people chose to go
to church. That is a great thing. That is something
I hope and believe we're going to see a lot
more of. And let me say in subsequent podcast, we're
going to talk about what's coming next. And here's one
of the most important things that that I am urging
the President, the Department of Justice, the FBI to do,
(08:00):
which is follow the money. Follow the money of everyone
that is pushing this leftist hatred that is pushing this violence.
There is real money that is going into these riots
on campus, that is going into funding ANTIFA, that is
going into funding Black Lives Matter, And we need to
this is not just one isolated lunatic in Utah. We
need to follow the money behind the radicalization that is
(08:22):
leading to people being so twisted and engaging in these
horrific acts of violence.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
you can go back and listen to the full podcast
from earlier this week. Now onto story number two, I
want to move to the text messages that have come out,
and it's very interesting to see all of the evidence
that is now we are seeing the transparency of these
text messages that were between the shooter and his transgendered boyfriend.
(08:54):
And I also want to say, there's some people that
are saying, oh, you're taking this hook line and sinker.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
I don't know if they plan the text messages.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I don't know if this is him trying to protect
the roommate and act like the roommate knew nothing about it.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
I'm sure they'll get to the bottom of that.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
But what was shocking about this is how the media
decided to play it and romanticize their relationship through the
text messages and the weirdest, creepiest way I've ever seen
the mainstream media do this.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Yeah, look, I'm sorry to do this, but I'm going
to read you these text messages because they're horrifying. But
it makes clear there is no doubt that this murderer
is guilty. And by the way, there is a reason
I won't say the murderer's name, because anyone who engages
in a mass murder and horrific crime like this, part
of the reason they do this is they want to
be famous. I don't repeat these bastards name. I will
(09:46):
call him the murderer or the assassin or the defendant,
but I will not say his name. But the murderer
and his boyfriend we're exchanging, exchanging texts, and the murderer
left under a keyboard in their apartment a note saying
that he had the opportunity to kill Charlie Kirk and
he took it. And his boyfriend, who is a man
(10:11):
who is transgender and transitioning to be a woman, responded,
what with like a whole bunch of question marks? And
you're joking, right, And here's the exchange. The murderer says,
I'm still okay, my love, but I'm stuck in orum
for a little while. Longer shouldn't be long until I
can come home, But I got to grab my rifle still.
(10:32):
To be honest, I had hoped to keep this secret
till I died of old age. I'm sorry to involve you, boyfriend.
You weren't the one who did it, right for question marks, murderer,
I am, I'm sorry, boyfriend. I thought they caught the
person murderer. No, they grabbed some crazy old dude, then
(10:56):
interrogated someone in similar clothing. I plan to grab my
rifle from the drop point shortly after, but most of
that side of town got locked down. It's quiet, almost
enough to get out, but there's one vehicle lingering, Boyfriend.
Why murderer? Why did I do it? Boyfriend? Yeah, murderer.
(11:20):
I've had enough of his hatred. Some hate can't be
negotiated out. If I'm able to grab my rifle unseen,
I will have left no evidence. Going to attempt to
retrieve it again. Hopefully they have moved on. I haven't
seen anything about them finding it, Boyfriend. How long have
you been planning this, murderer, a bit over a week.
(11:43):
I believe I can get close to it, but there
is a squad car parked by it. I think they
already swept the spot, but I don't want to chance it.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Murderer.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
I wish I had circled back and grabbed it as
soon as I got to my vehicle. I'm worried what
my old man would do if I didn't bring back
Grandpa's rifle. I don't know if it had a serial number,
but it wouldn't trace to me. I worry about Prince.
I had to leave it in the book bush where
I changed outfits. Didn't have the ability or time to
(12:15):
bring it with I might have to abandon it and
hope they don't find prints. How the f will I
explain losing it to my old man. Only thing I
left was the rifle wrapped in a towel. Remember how
I was engraving bullets. The effing messages are mostly a
big meme. If I see notices bulg'es uwu on Fox News,
(12:41):
I might have a stroke. All right, I'm going to
have to leave it. That really effing sucks. Those are
the text exchanges now, number one. Reading those text exchanges,
it is one hundred percent clear. It's not ninety nine percent,
it's not ninety eight percent. It's one hundred percent clear.
This defend is the murderer. He is the assassin. He
(13:03):
is confessing to his boyfriend, I did it. He is
confessing details of the crime that only the murderer would
would know. He will be convicted. He was charged today,
he will be convicted. But he is guilty today. Based
on that evidence, it is one hundred percent certain he
is guilty, and his motive is clear. You know, Caitlin
(13:24):
Collins and and CNN and MSNBC they say, we don't
know the motive. Maybe he just disliked tall people. Maybe
he was just you know, firing his gun and celebration
and it accidentally hit the throne.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
A certainly somebody that was there excited just to see
Charlie Kirk, and it went off randomly.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Like the level of him. By the way, an idiot
commentator at MSNBC said, maybe it was a supporter of
Charlie Kirk firing his gun and celebration. Now thankfully that
commentator got fired for that idiocy. But the motive is
absolutely clear. He hated Charlie Kirk. He's a left wing
antifa activist, he's a transgender activist. He is sleeping with
(14:06):
a transgender man who is transitioning to be a woman.
And so the motive is that there's no ambiguity. But
CNN hates that motive. They cannot admit that's what happened.
Oh my goodness, that would undermine their entire political agenda.
So they desperately have to say the motive is unclear.
By the way, Caitlyn Collins said repeatedly, well, law enforcement
(14:27):
hasn't laid out the motive. Yes, they have. They repeatedly
laid out the motive. They said, it's a left wing
activist who's radicalized. The bullets had carved on the mantifa
and transgender messages. I mean, this is not subtle. He
was not hiding his motive. But I have to say,
as repulsive as CNN's reaction was, ABC's was worse. I
(14:48):
want you to listen.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Way worse, way worse. Like you can't overstate it.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Okay, I want you to listen to ABC News's reaction
to this text exchange between the murder and his transgender boyfriend. Here,
give a listen.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
You have scene an alleged murder with such specific text
messages about the alleged murder weapon, where it was hidden,
how it was placed, what was on it. But also
it was very touching in a way that I think
many of us didn't expect, a very intimate portrait into
this relationship between the suspect's roommate and the suspect himself,
(15:26):
with him repeatedly calling his roommate who was transitioning, calling
him my love and I want to protect you, my love.
So it was this duality of someone who, the attorney said,
not only jeopardized the life of Charlie Kirk and the crowd,
but was doing it in front of children, which is
one of the aggravating circumstances of this case. And on
the other hand, he was speaking so lovingly about his partner,
(15:47):
so very interesting, as Pierre said, riveting press conference, David.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
I love how they say it's a riveting press conference center.
It's riveting and just you know, he referred to him
as my love, and this is just so sweet and sincere.
It's like, what in the world are you guys doing
over there at ABC News with your special report, live.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
Coverage, touching and loving? Oh these text messages. I've murdered
this person for you. Oh my love, Oh my love. Peter, patter, pitter, patter.
That is repulsive. It is repulsive that ABC News is
gushing over this psychopathic murderer and ABC News, oh they're
(16:27):
touching in sweet text messages. He is confessing to a
deliberate murder because he hates what somebody is saying. He
murdered a husband, he murdered a father of two little kids,
one boy, one girl, and and ABC News thinks it's
so sweet that he confessed to his transgender boyfriend, which
(16:47):
of course they call his roommate, even though he's calling
him my love, Like there's no ambiguity when you call
someone my love what exactly the relationship is? But ABC
News can not admit to them it is sweet and beautiful,
This radical leftist murdering Charlie Kirk, I got. I got
(17:09):
a message for you guys. It's it's not sweet and
it's not beautiful.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Yeah, by the way, side note on this, I don't
know if you knew this, but ten minutes after that,
like the internet exploded over it. They he went back
on and doubled down on it and basically did the
same thing again. Like, I'm not backing down from this.
I think it's genuine and sweet and sincere in a
love story.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
You know what a romantic Romeo and Juliet story. You know,
psycho leftist murderer killing people because he's filled with hate.
I can't think of anything more beautiful than that. Certain
certainly ABC News is very persuasive.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
In that regard.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Yeah, it'll be the face of the network before you
know it.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
God help us. Did he really double down? Did he
really go back on air and do it again?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Yeah? Yes.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Do you want to hear it, because I've got it
if you want to hear So this is yes, this
is this is Mattman.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
I haven't heard this, so play it for us.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
So this is ten minutes after he said on ABC
News Live. It's heartbreaking on so many levels. Obviously, Charlie
Kirk was murdered brutally in front of a crowd of thousands.
On the other hand, there is this duality of every
portrait of a of a again his exact words of
a very like this is like love story.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Yeah, touching.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
So this is this is ten minutes later after the internet.
And I have no doubt that he knew that there
was a problem, right, so he knew percent here he
is ten minutes later.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
It is It's heartbreaking on so many levels, Kira. Obviously,
Charlie Kirk was murdered brutally in front of a crowd
of thousands of people who watched him being shot through
the neck and then essentially bleed out in front of them.
And I think one of the things that the attorney
here made a very fine point about is that a
lot of these charges seven charges were aggravated because children
(18:52):
were present, children witnessed this, children were put in harm's
way and that was something that obviously is aggravating here.
And that's what one of the reasons at this suspect,
in addition to the alleged murder being political in nature,
is facing the death penalty. They're going for the death penalty.
And on the other hand, there is this duality of
a very a portrait of a very human person, a
(19:13):
very human experience from this entire family, as you mentioned it,
the mother who essentially discovered that it was her son
who had done this, the kid who had got a
thirty four out of thirty six on the acts, who
had a four point zero, who got a full ride
to college here that that kid was the one who
allegedly perpetrated. She saw those pictures and said identify them essentially,
(19:35):
and then those text messages. And I don't think I've
ever experienced a press conference in which we've read text
messages that are aso fulsome so robust, so apparently allegedly
self incriminating, and yet on the other hand, so touching
right with the suspect reaching out to his roommate, who
is allegedly his boyfriend, who we understand, you know, identified
(19:55):
as male at birth now identifies as female, and the
anology he used he was trying to protect him. He
kept calling him my love, my my reason for doing
this is to protect you, you know, but also asking
him to delete the messages and not speak to law enforcement.
So there's this this heartbreaking duality that we're seeing very
tragically playing out.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
If that's not doubling down, I don't know what.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Is fullsome touching loving it is.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
I am breaking.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
Look, I don't know who this particular reporter is, but
but I will say it's it says something that this
speaks to him in such a touching, moving way. I
see depraved maniacs who just committed cold blood and murder
and and and his boyfriend. His boyfriend is like not
not saying, dear God, what the hell did you do? Yeah,
(20:47):
he's just like, oh, oh, it was you, okay, you know,
And he didn't. The boyfriend never said there is anything
wrong with murdering Charlie Kirk. He was perfectly fine with it.
There ain't not nothing touch about these two psychopaths reveling
in their cold blooded murder, and for ABC to think
it is that really tells you how messed up ABC is.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
As before, if you want to hear the rest of
this conversation on this topic, you can go back and
dow the podcast from earlier this week to hear the
entire thing. I want to get back to the big
story number three of the week you may have missed, Senator,
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
(21:31):
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 4 (21:40):
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 organist. Here's the exchange
(22:01):
cash that I had. Give a listen. I want to
encourage you in the course of this investigation. Absolutely go
after anyone who aided 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,
(22:26):
significant money that is spreading dissension, that is spreading violence. Antifa.
Do you believe Antifa is a terrorist organization?
Speaker 5 (22:38):
I believe Antifa is associated with a lot of violence
in this country. As to its designation, I'll leave that
today appropriate authorities.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
So I would encourage the administration to designate Antifa as
a terrorist organization, to go systematically after Antifa that committed
acts of violence all over the country, and the shell
casings have multiple references to slogan that Antifa has popularized.
I believe there is considerable money funding it. I would
(23:05):
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
(23:25):
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
(23:49):
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
(24:12):
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 5 (24:25):
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 4 (24:44):
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 (24:51):
Now, you look at what you just said there in
the back and forth, Centator, and this turned very quickly
into a new policy from the trum iministration as well.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
That is the best news coming out of.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
This, absolutely so. 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
(25:27):
the group 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 in coordance with the highest legal standards and practices.
The announcement comes just days after Trump said he would
one hundred percent consider the designation. Speaking to reporters in
(25:52):
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 of the Ice and Border Patrol.
They're professional agitators. They should be put in jail. What
(26:14):
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 First Amendment protects it. Conduct is
not protected. When you engage in violence, it is not protected.
(26:38):
What antifa is doing. Engaging in violence, engaging in harassment,
engaging in threats. That is not protected. And so what
I urge cash Bettel follow the money, go after the money.
And look, I 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
(26:59):
cut communists 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 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
(27:22):
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 the money
is how you get the people writing checks that are
(27:42):
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, pressed for years for
(28:03):
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 (28:20):
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 some right when the left is
losing 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
(28:41):
political organization and a terrorist organization, and Antifa has all
the markings as you described to have a terrorist organization
going all the way back to twenty sixteen when you're
first we're calling for this.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
If you engage in violence, it is not speech. Violence
is not speech. And by the way, anyone 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
how to protect speech and we how to prosecute violence
(29:14):
that put the violent criminals in jail.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Center,
Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to down
with my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast
every other day. You're not listening to Verdict or each
day when you listen to Verdict. Afterwards, I'd love to
have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson
podcasts and we will see you back here on Monday morning.
Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz. We can review
Ben Ferguson with you. And these are the stories that
you may have missed that we talked about this week.
First up media and social media. Why are they not
coming out condemning those who are celebrating the death of
Charlie Kirk. In fact, they're allowing it to happen. So
what does this say about America? We're going to break
(00:21):
that down. Also, we have the text messages now from
the assassin to his roommate, transcendered lover what was said
in there? That's so revealing that in a moment. And
finally Cashptel and Senator Cruz on naming Antifa a terrorist
organization and what this means moving forward. It's the weekend
(00:41):
review and it starts right now. I go back to
this how many I mean, we watched one of our
own be assassinated. Did any cities get burned down?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
No? Not.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
There any police officers that were attacked.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
No.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Was there any assaults on people because of it that
were angry?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
No?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
And yet they're mad.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I love this headline from the Daily Beast, which, if
you don't know what that is, a hardcore liberal propaganda
machine that has an incredible amount of influence in the left.
Their headline yesterday ten oh five am, keyboard Warriors, grieving
this week's assassination of self annoented champion of quote unquote
free speech, Charlie Kirk, have launched an online campaign to
(01:24):
get anyone who criticizes him fired from their jobs.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Their subheadline is.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Free speech crazed Maga Karen's go full cancel culture on
Kirk critics. No, let's be clear about the people we
are exposing.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
It's people.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
They weren't criticizing Chari Kirk. They were celebrating the assassination
of Charlie Kirk in our major positions of power at
universities and at other jobs, or things like we mentioned
earlier where they refuse to put up to print out
a piece of paper for goodness.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Six.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Yeah, but ben, let me make two to stayctions that
are important because it's easy to get these confused. Number One,
let's talk free speech. Yes, in the United States, the
First Amendment gives you the right to speech, to speak
and not to be criminally prosecuted for it, so you
can say the most horrible, hateful things. You do have
a First Amendment right to say unbelievably horrible, hateful things.
(02:20):
You can say that you are celebrating the murder of
Charlie Kirk or anyone else. In the First Amendment will
protect your ability to do so, which means the government
cannot come prosecute you and put you in jail for
saying that. The First Amendment does not mean that you
are immune from the consequences of your speech. And if
you say things that are horrible and hateful, it is
(02:44):
not uncommon for someone to be terminated. So, for example,
at a university, if a student goes and decides to
dress in a white robe as a clansman and burn
across and say that we should African American students, I
guarantee you that student will be expelled from school. Now,
(03:06):
you can't prosecute him. He as a First Amendment right
to do that. So that is not a criminal offense
to do that, correct, But the university should absolutely expel
him because of just how noxious those views are. The
same is true here when you have teachers that are
celebrating cold blooded murder. There are consequences for that, but
(03:28):
that's a distinction.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
I'll point out.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Also, the president of the Oxford Union who debated Charlie
Kirk and is this vicious leftist. He put out a
tweet celebrating lets effing go, he said when Charlie Kirk
was shot. This is a guy who literally had one
on one debated against Charlie Kirk. And he is the
incoming president of the Oxford Union, which pretentiously describes itself
(03:54):
as the world's greatest debating society. Look, in my view,
this individual ought to be expelled from Oxford for the
same reason you would expel him if he were a
klansman burning across and saying, let's murder black students. Now,
the United Kingdom does not have the same First Amendment
(04:15):
that applies to it the way the United States does so. Actually,
in England, if he said that, he might well be
criminally prosecuted. I don't agree with criminally prosecuting speech. But
the First Amendment does not give you a get out
of jail free pass. Look, I promise you, any one
of you in your jobs, if you go in and
tell your boss go screw yourself.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Yeah, you're gonna get fired.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
You will get fired. You have a first mount right
to say so, but he also has a right to
terminate you. But let me say secondly on this both sides,
is the media really wants to say, gosh, political violence,
it's a problem that just occurs everywhere. No right now
is it is heavily concentrated on the left, and the
left has normalized political violence. We saw two separate assassination
(05:00):
attempts of Donald Trump. We saw this tragically successful assassination
of Charlie kirk Over, and we saw for a year
Antifa and Black Lives Matter riots. And I want to
read you some polling results that were done last year,
and people were asked, would it be justified to murder
(05:23):
Elon Musk? And would it be justified to murder Donald Trump?
And those who were self described left of center, fifty
point two percent said it would be justified to murder
Elon Musk, and fifty six percent said it would be
justified to murder Donald Trump. That is. And and by
(05:46):
the way, the right of center numbers were fourteen point
three percent and twenty point three percent, So I wish
all those numbers were zero. But this is a problem
on the left. This is a problem when you define
you're a as Hitler, Nazi, evil fascist, that is a
permission structure to then say violence is an appropriate response,
(06:09):
and we need to see Democrats having the courage to
say enough is enough. Look. Bill Maher did a great
job where he's in his monologue. He said, let's be clear,
Donald Trump is not Hitler.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Stop saying that. Stop saying it.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Exactly well, and I think now they're realizing that using
the words fascist and Hitler and these types of things
has dissensitized people and advocated and allowed for this type
of violence to become reality. Where the big question people
were asking is what's next. I do want to say.
One thing that I think I've found incredibly comforting is
(06:47):
seeing how many young people are at colleges this weekend
over college football. We're putting up signs saying that they
are Charlie Kirk. The number of people that are following
him now on Instagram exploded by I'm not I don't
think I'm wrong. I think it's millions of people now
who are Then I think it is likely that more
people have listened to Charlie Kirk speak in the last
(07:09):
week than did in the entirety of his life.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah, and that that's the silver lining.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
His Christian testimony has become so powerful. I will say
his wife, Erica. The speech she gave this week reduced
me to tears. It was beautiful. God's anointing was upon
her as she did that. And a lot of people
who had never clicked on and watched Charlie Kirk say
anything this week did so and said, Hey, who is
this guy that touched so many people? I think a
(07:39):
lot of people chose to open their Bible and start
reading their Bible. A lot of people chose to go
to church. That is a great thing. That is something
I hope and believe we're going to see a lot
more of. And let me say in subsequent podcast, we're
going to talk about what's coming next. And here's one
of the most important things that that I am urging
the President, the Department of Justice, the FBI to do,
(08:00):
which is follow the money. Follow the money of everyone
that is pushing this leftist hatred that is pushing this violence.
There is real money that is going into these riots
on campus, that is going into funding ANTIFA, that is
going into funding Black Lives Matter, And we need to
this is not just one isolated lunatic in Utah. We
need to follow the money behind the radicalization that is
(08:22):
leading to people being so twisted and engaging in these
horrific acts of violence.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
you can go back and listen to the full podcast
from earlier this week. Now onto story number two, I
want to move to the text messages that have come out,
and it's very interesting to see all of the evidence
that is now we are seeing the transparency of these
text messages that were between the shooter and his transgendered boyfriend.
(08:54):
And I also want to say, there's some people that
are saying, oh, you're taking this hook line and sinker.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
I don't know if they plan the text messages.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I don't know if this is him trying to protect
the roommate and act like the roommate knew nothing about it.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
I'm sure they'll get to the bottom of that.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
But what was shocking about this is how the media
decided to play it and romanticize their relationship through the
text messages and the weirdest, creepiest way I've ever seen
the mainstream media do this.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Yeah, look, I'm sorry to do this, but I'm going
to read you these text messages because they're horrifying. But
it makes clear there is no doubt that this murderer
is guilty. And by the way, there is a reason
I won't say the murderer's name, because anyone who engages
in a mass murder and horrific crime like this, part
of the reason they do this is they want to
be famous. I don't repeat these bastards name. I will
(09:46):
call him the murderer or the assassin or the defendant,
but I will not say his name. But the murderer
and his boyfriend we're exchanging, exchanging texts, and the murderer
left under a keyboard in their apartment a note saying
that he had the opportunity to kill Charlie Kirk and
he took it. And his boyfriend, who is a man
(10:11):
who is transgender and transitioning to be a woman, responded,
what with like a whole bunch of question marks? And
you're joking, right, And here's the exchange. The murderer says,
I'm still okay, my love, but I'm stuck in orum
for a little while. Longer shouldn't be long until I
can come home, But I got to grab my rifle still.
(10:32):
To be honest, I had hoped to keep this secret
till I died of old age. I'm sorry to involve you, boyfriend.
You weren't the one who did it, right for question marks, murderer,
I am, I'm sorry, boyfriend. I thought they caught the
person murderer. No, they grabbed some crazy old dude, then
(10:56):
interrogated someone in similar clothing. I plan to grab my
rifle from the drop point shortly after, but most of
that side of town got locked down. It's quiet, almost
enough to get out, but there's one vehicle lingering, Boyfriend.
Why murderer? Why did I do it? Boyfriend? Yeah, murderer.
(11:20):
I've had enough of his hatred. Some hate can't be
negotiated out. If I'm able to grab my rifle unseen,
I will have left no evidence. Going to attempt to
retrieve it again. Hopefully they have moved on. I haven't
seen anything about them finding it, Boyfriend. How long have
you been planning this, murderer, a bit over a week.
(11:43):
I believe I can get close to it, but there
is a squad car parked by it. I think they
already swept the spot, but I don't want to chance it.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Murderer.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
I wish I had circled back and grabbed it as
soon as I got to my vehicle. I'm worried what
my old man would do if I didn't bring back
Grandpa's rifle. I don't know if it had a serial number,
but it wouldn't trace to me. I worry about Prince.
I had to leave it in the book bush where
I changed outfits. Didn't have the ability or time to
(12:15):
bring it with I might have to abandon it and
hope they don't find prints. How the f will I
explain losing it to my old man. Only thing I
left was the rifle wrapped in a towel. Remember how
I was engraving bullets. The effing messages are mostly a
big meme. If I see notices bulg'es uwu on Fox News,
(12:41):
I might have a stroke. All right, I'm going to
have to leave it. That really effing sucks. Those are
the text exchanges now, number one. Reading those text exchanges,
it is one hundred percent clear. It's not ninety nine percent,
it's not ninety eight percent. It's one hundred percent clear.
This defend is the murderer. He is the assassin. He
(13:03):
is confessing to his boyfriend, I did it. He is
confessing details of the crime that only the murderer would
would know. He will be convicted. He was charged today,
he will be convicted. But he is guilty today. Based
on that evidence, it is one hundred percent certain he
is guilty, and his motive is clear. You know, Caitlin
(13:24):
Collins and and CNN and MSNBC they say, we don't
know the motive. Maybe he just disliked tall people. Maybe
he was just you know, firing his gun and celebration
and it accidentally hit the throne.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
A certainly somebody that was there excited just to see
Charlie Kirk, and it went off randomly.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Like the level of him. By the way, an idiot
commentator at MSNBC said, maybe it was a supporter of
Charlie Kirk firing his gun and celebration. Now thankfully that
commentator got fired for that idiocy. But the motive is
absolutely clear. He hated Charlie Kirk. He's a left wing
antifa activist, he's a transgender activist. He is sleeping with
(14:06):
a transgender man who is transitioning to be a woman.
And so the motive is that there's no ambiguity. But
CNN hates that motive. They cannot admit that's what happened.
Oh my goodness, that would undermine their entire political agenda.
So they desperately have to say the motive is unclear.
By the way, Caitlyn Collins said repeatedly, well, law enforcement
(14:27):
hasn't laid out the motive. Yes, they have. They repeatedly
laid out the motive. They said, it's a left wing
activist who's radicalized. The bullets had carved on the mantifa
and transgender messages. I mean, this is not subtle. He
was not hiding his motive. But I have to say,
as repulsive as CNN's reaction was, ABC's was worse. I
(14:48):
want you to listen.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Way worse, way worse. Like you can't overstate it.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Okay, I want you to listen to ABC News's reaction
to this text exchange between the murder and his transgender boyfriend. Here,
give a listen.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
You have scene an alleged murder with such specific text
messages about the alleged murder weapon, where it was hidden,
how it was placed, what was on it. But also
it was very touching in a way that I think
many of us didn't expect, a very intimate portrait into
this relationship between the suspect's roommate and the suspect himself,
(15:26):
with him repeatedly calling his roommate who was transitioning, calling
him my love and I want to protect you, my love.
So it was this duality of someone who, the attorney said,
not only jeopardized the life of Charlie Kirk and the crowd,
but was doing it in front of children, which is
one of the aggravating circumstances of this case. And on
the other hand, he was speaking so lovingly about his partner,
(15:47):
so very interesting, as Pierre said, riveting press conference, David.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
I love how they say it's a riveting press conference center.
It's riveting and just you know, he referred to him
as my love, and this is just so sweet and sincere.
It's like, what in the world are you guys doing
over there at ABC News with your special report, live.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
Coverage, touching and loving? Oh these text messages. I've murdered
this person for you. Oh my love, Oh my love. Peter, patter, pitter, patter.
That is repulsive. It is repulsive that ABC News is
gushing over this psychopathic murderer and ABC News, oh they're
(16:27):
touching in sweet text messages. He is confessing to a
deliberate murder because he hates what somebody is saying. He
murdered a husband, he murdered a father of two little kids,
one boy, one girl, and and ABC News thinks it's
so sweet that he confessed to his transgender boyfriend, which
(16:47):
of course they call his roommate, even though he's calling
him my love, Like there's no ambiguity when you call
someone my love what exactly the relationship is? But ABC
News can not admit to them it is sweet and beautiful,
This radical leftist murdering Charlie Kirk, I got. I got
(17:09):
a message for you guys. It's it's not sweet and
it's not beautiful.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Yeah, by the way, side note on this, I don't
know if you knew this, but ten minutes after that,
like the internet exploded over it. They he went back
on and doubled down on it and basically did the
same thing again. Like, I'm not backing down from this.
I think it's genuine and sweet and sincere in a
love story.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
You know what a romantic Romeo and Juliet story. You know,
psycho leftist murderer killing people because he's filled with hate.
I can't think of anything more beautiful than that. Certain
certainly ABC News is very persuasive.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
In that regard.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Yeah, it'll be the face of the network before you
know it.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
God help us. Did he really double down? Did he
really go back on air and do it again?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Yeah? Yes.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Do you want to hear it, because I've got it
if you want to hear So this is yes, this
is this is Mattman.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
I haven't heard this, so play it for us.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
So this is ten minutes after he said on ABC
News Live. It's heartbreaking on so many levels. Obviously, Charlie
Kirk was murdered brutally in front of a crowd of thousands.
On the other hand, there is this duality of every
portrait of a of a again his exact words of
a very like this is like love story.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Yeah, touching.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
So this is this is ten minutes later after the internet.
And I have no doubt that he knew that there
was a problem, right, so he knew percent here he
is ten minutes later.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
It is It's heartbreaking on so many levels, Kira. Obviously,
Charlie Kirk was murdered brutally in front of a crowd
of thousands of people who watched him being shot through
the neck and then essentially bleed out in front of them.
And I think one of the things that the attorney
here made a very fine point about is that a
lot of these charges seven charges were aggravated because children
(18:52):
were present, children witnessed this, children were put in harm's
way and that was something that obviously is aggravating here.
And that's what one of the reasons at this suspect,
in addition to the alleged murder being political in nature,
is facing the death penalty. They're going for the death penalty.
And on the other hand, there is this duality of
a very a portrait of a very human person, a
(19:13):
very human experience from this entire family, as you mentioned it,
the mother who essentially discovered that it was her son
who had done this, the kid who had got a
thirty four out of thirty six on the acts, who
had a four point zero, who got a full ride
to college here that that kid was the one who
allegedly perpetrated. She saw those pictures and said identify them essentially,
(19:35):
and then those text messages. And I don't think I've
ever experienced a press conference in which we've read text
messages that are aso fulsome so robust, so apparently allegedly
self incriminating, and yet on the other hand, so touching
right with the suspect reaching out to his roommate, who
is allegedly his boyfriend, who we understand, you know, identified
(19:55):
as male at birth now identifies as female, and the
anology he used he was trying to protect him. He
kept calling him my love, my my reason for doing
this is to protect you, you know, but also asking
him to delete the messages and not speak to law enforcement.
So there's this this heartbreaking duality that we're seeing very
tragically playing out.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
If that's not doubling down, I don't know what.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Is fullsome touching loving it is.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
I am breaking.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
Look, I don't know who this particular reporter is, but
but I will say it's it says something that this
speaks to him in such a touching, moving way. I
see depraved maniacs who just committed cold blood and murder
and and and his boyfriend. His boyfriend is like not
not saying, dear God, what the hell did you do? Yeah,
(20:47):
he's just like, oh, oh, it was you, okay, you know,
And he didn't. The boyfriend never said there is anything
wrong with murdering Charlie Kirk. He was perfectly fine with it.
There ain't not nothing touch about these two psychopaths reveling
in their cold blooded murder, and for ABC to think
it is that really tells you how messed up ABC is.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
As before, if you want to hear the rest of
this conversation on this topic, you can go back and
dow the podcast from earlier this week to hear the
entire thing. I want to get back to the big
story number three of the week you may have missed, Senator,
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
(21:31):
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 4 (21:40):
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 organist. Here's the exchange
(22:01):
cash that I had. Give a listen. I want to
encourage you in the course of this investigation. Absolutely go
after anyone who aided 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,
(22:26):
significant money that is spreading dissension, that is spreading violence. Antifa.
Do you believe Antifa is a terrorist organization?
Speaker 5 (22:38):
I believe Antifa is associated with a lot of violence
in this country. As to its designation, I'll leave that
today appropriate authorities.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
So I would encourage the administration to designate Antifa as
a terrorist organization, to go systematically after Antifa that committed
acts of violence all over the country, and the shell
casings have multiple references to slogan that Antifa has popularized.
I believe there is considerable money funding it. I would
(23:05):
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
(23:25):
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
(23:49):
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
(24:12):
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 5 (24:25):
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 4 (24:44):
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 (24:51):
Now, you look at what you just said there in
the back and forth, Centator, and this turned very quickly
into a new policy from the trum iministration as well.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
That is the best news coming out of.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
This, absolutely so. 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
(25:27):
the group 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 in coordance with the highest legal standards and practices.
The announcement comes just days after Trump said he would
one hundred percent consider the designation. Speaking to reporters in
(25:52):
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 of the Ice and Border Patrol.
They're professional agitators. They should be put in jail. What
(26:14):
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 First Amendment protects it. Conduct is
not protected. When you engage in violence, it is not protected.
(26:38):
What antifa is doing. Engaging in violence, engaging in harassment,
engaging in threats. That is not protected. And so what
I urge cash Bettel follow the money, go after the money.
And look, I 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
(26:59):
cut communists 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 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
(27:22):
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 the money
is how you get the people writing checks that are
(27:42):
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, pressed for years for
(28:03):
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 (28:20):
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 some right when the left is
losing 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
(28:41):
political organization and a terrorist organization, and Antifa has all
the markings as you described to have a terrorist organization
going all the way back to twenty sixteen when you're
first we're calling for this.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
If you engage in violence, it is not speech. Violence
is not speech. And by the way, anyone 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
how to protect speech and we how to prosecute violence
(29:14):
that put the violent criminals in jail.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Center,
Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to down
with my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast
every other day. You're not listening to Verdict or each
day when you listen to Verdict. Afterwards, I'd love to
have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson
podcasts and we will see you back here on Monday morning.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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