June 7, 2024 • 44 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson
with you, Senator, it's an international pod tonight, as you're
across the pond.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Well, that's right. This is our very first podcast that
I have done from Paris, France. I am in Paris
right now. I flew yesterday to Normandy to be here
for the eightieth anniversary of D Day. I was at
the celebration all day. I've got meetings the next couple
(00:31):
of days here.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And it was really an incredible time celebrating what was
what was an historic landmark, a milestone that that changed
the course of history. And the heroism, the courage that
was shown by by by those American gis that that
that that that landed on the coast of France, and
(00:53):
and that that that invaded the continent to take take
back the continent from the Nazis. It was incredibly dangerous,
incredibly difficult, incredibly inspiring, and it changed the course of history.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, it is truly incredible. And there's also the politics
that are now coming out with the Biden campaign as well.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
They're now trying to use D Day to advocate for
funding with Ukraine that had to be shocking to you.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, it's not surprising because everything they do is political.
That that that's how that that's how they approach. Unfortunately,
day to day life is it's all politics all the time.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
But but I got to tell you that nothing can
really diminish the experience of being here. It truly is extraordinary, uh,
being with being with heroes, and and and and there
were hundreds of World War Two veterans who came back
for the eightieth anniversary of D Day. And these these
(01:56):
guys are all you know, in their late nineties or
in their hundreds. You know, if they were eighteen years
old eighty years ago than they're ninety eight today. Now
there's several of them that were even seventeen and sixteen
and lied about their ages. So there are a couple
that are younger, that are ninety six and ninety seven.
But I visited today with with with one World War
(02:18):
Two veteran. There was one hundred and four. And these
guys are incredible euros And when you look at what
they did, it was truly incredible. June fourth, nineteen forty four,
Operation Overlord, which was the code name for the Allied
invasion of Normandy France. More than one hundred and fifty
(02:39):
thousand troops landed at D Day, and when they landed,
they they landed into German machine gun fire. You had soldiers, had,
you had barriers they'd put on the beach. And more
than twenty nine thousand US servicemen members were either killed
(03:01):
or injured during the norm of the operation, including more
than six thousand on the very first day of the landing.
And it is when you look at today. I stood
at Omaha Beach and looked out and you imagine coming
across that sand and coming into just machine gun fire.
(03:25):
The bravery that was demonstrated on that day was just breathmaking.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
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(05:24):
against the radicals at Planned Parenthood. This adieth anniversary, and
you mentioned hundreds came over, and there's so many veterans
groups that just do amazing work fundraising and helping these veterans,
these heroes war to even get to Normandy to D Day,
(05:46):
and the way that they do it and the way
that they give them such honor and respect from the
moment that they get to the airport in the US
until the moment this trip is over when they get
back home. But this is a very significant year because
it is the eightieth anniversary, and if you just do
the math, a lot of these veterans that you got
to be with literally today this will probably be their
(06:08):
last time to go to Normandy, just because of age.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Well, that's right. And I had the opportunity to go
to the seventy fifth anniversary five years ago and I
didn't go. I had a scheduling conflict and I had
something else I had to do, and I have regretted
it every day since then. I should have fixed the
scheduling conflict. That I was mad at myself that I
didn't just just push aside the scheduling conflict and go
(06:35):
for the seventy fifth. So for the eightieth anniversary, you're right,
there's a very good chance that the next one that
happens that we're not going to have World War Two
veterans still with us, or if we do, it's going
to be very very few. And actually the news broke
(06:55):
today the one of the World War two veterans who
was one hundred and two actually died traveling to France
to come to this and and it's just, you know,
they're they're at the age now where they all understand
that this is the you know, the the the the
end of their passage. But but it was incredible. I
(07:16):
spent a lot of the day shaking hands with with
with these men, thanking them. And you know, it's interesting
then that there's a consistency in that, one after the
other after the other. When you thank them for their bravery, bravery,
they'll say, look, I I just did my job. If
(07:42):
you call them a hero, they'll argue with you. They'll say,
I wasn't a hero. Uh. The the heroes are buried
behind us. And and I got to say, when you
you stand in the cemetery and you just see the
line after line of white crosses and white stars of David,
(08:06):
of servicemen and women, when you walk through that cemetery
and you read name after name after name, and they're
all so young. They're all eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty one
years old, and so many of them they came off
and amphibious ship and were shot and killed right on
(08:29):
the beach. And it's incredible.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
You know, my grandfather fought in War two and he
talked about when they all just went and signed up,
and the story that he wanted his grandsons to know
was how many young men signed up And you mentioned
their age. Many of them lied about their age to
serve their country. They were seventeen and even sixteen, and
(08:55):
they lied. And the people, some of the people, he said,
knew they were lying, and they went with it everyway
because it went with it anyway, because everybody was new
that this was a moment in history that you had
to stand up and fight the Nazis or the world
could fall.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah, including George Herbert Walker Bush, who, if I remember correctly,
was seventeen when when he signed up to go fight
in World War two. I mean, and that was you know,
you had had young Americans stepping forward saying We're going
to defend the world from tyranny and you know, particularly
(09:34):
after Pearl Harbor and the attack on Pearl Harbor, when
America was thrust into the war, you had just just
ordinary people who did extraordinary things. And imagine how different
the course of history would have been if the Nazis
(09:56):
had prevailed. Yeah, Adolf Hitler lived his life as the
dictator of Europe. The Nazis were unmitigated evil. We now
know and many didn't know at the time about the
concentration camps where they murdered over six million Jews. It
was there are wars where both sides are in the
(10:20):
right and both sides are in the wrong. World War
two is not one of us the Nazis. The world
would have been fundamentally different had the Allies not prevailed.
And D Day, look, Dinna was not guaranteed to be
a success. It was one of the most difficult military
(10:41):
assaults ever planned, ever executed. And when you look at
when you look at the cliffs they climbed, when you
looked at look at the elevation they had to scale,
and you imagine doing it with hand grenades and machine
gun fire coming down at you, not to mention uh,
(11:04):
incoming fire from from airplanes and and I mean it
is extraordinary.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
My grandfather and my grandfather told me about D Day.
He said, it was a day that we all knew
that many of our friends were going to die, and
that was accepted. It was just how many were going
to die?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Well, look and if you were, if you were in
the first wave of the boats, almost all of those
soldiers died. Uh and it h there there was The
stakes were enormous. And what our country did without America
in that war. Germany wins and and we came in
(11:54):
and it was a moment that changed the course of history.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Sinner. I want to talk about just the reaction first
to Americans in France and and being at this ceremony,
how how are you and and the rest of the
people that are there, especially the veterans, how are they
received by the people in France? And then I want
(12:21):
to talk about just you, even the logistics and getting
to this event and how all this came about.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Well, look, the veterans are embraced and people are applauding
and saying thank you, and I mean there's just an
enormous amount of love and and look President McCrone was there,
and and he was he was very gracious and and
and he said quite rightly that that that the the
(12:52):
American invasion at the day, and it was all the Allies,
but it was the Americans leading it. Uh that that
that that it liberated Frankis that that that France had
been honkerd by Thenazis and and it's uh, the reaction
in seeing these these heroes, most of them now are
(13:14):
in wheelchairs and they just have a line of people
coming up saying thank you and wanting to take pictures
with them and shake their hands, and they're just, uh,
you know, there's an enormous amount of appreciation when.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
When when you got this obviously the invite to go,
how does this work? Who all got to go on
this trip to obviously honor our men and women that
gave the ultimate sacrifice or young boys. But you're going
to honor uh and represent the United States of America.
What do the logistics even look like?
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Well? Sure, so this is what's called a codel, which
is a congressional delegation and and and it's official travel
by members of Congress. And there are lots of codels
that this is part of the job that you travel,
You travel to other countries and you meet with military leaders,
you meet with foreign leaders that that is a very
(14:08):
important part of doing the job. I'm going to send
it foreign Relations Committee, and so traveling to other countries,
meeting with other leaders, understanding that this situation is very important.
This codell. Typically codels are organized by one or two senators.
This codell was organized by Richard Blomenthal, the Democrats from Connecticut,
(14:30):
and John Boseman, a Republican from Arkansas. And this was
a big codell. This was larger than normal. Often codels
are in the Senate or three or four or five
senators is a typical codell. This one, I think the
council was nineteen, so you had a lot of Senators
that came, and then there were a bunch of House
(14:51):
members that came. I actually don't know how many House members,
but I'd say twenty or thirty. It was a big
group of House members that were here. And so the
the logistically, the way this one worked is that we
met at the Capitol and then we went over to
Andrew's Air Force Base and we flew from Andrews Air
Force Base to France on Air Force planes. So it's
(15:15):
what's called mill Air Military air and so the Air
Force maintains a number of planes that are used for
official travel. And so we left on Wednesday late afternoons.
We flew all night. We tried to sleep on the
plane as much as we could, although you know, according
(15:38):
to my are a ring tracker, I've had a total
of fifty one minute sleep last night.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
So I've got to know you and I sleep as
well on planes. I can't do it no matter what,
even overseas. I've never been able to sleep on planes.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Yeah, it's just hard to sleep in an airplane. Plane.
I got fifty one minutes that I've passed out, but
it just I find it really tough to sleep in
an airplane plane seats. But so we landed. We landed
early in the morning today, so today is Thursday. We
landed early in the morning at about six thirty in
(16:17):
the morning, and we all uh disembarked the plane and
changed clothes, so you know, I mean we traveled in
jeans and traveling clothes, but then we changed to put
on put on a suit and put on business business attire. Uh,
And then we all got in buses to head to
the ceremony. And there were there were two ceremonies today.
(16:40):
There was one the American ceremony, uh. And that's that
the American Cemetery, and that both Joe Biden and Macron
both spoke there and and that had a lot of
time honoring uh the World War Two veterans who were there.
And then after that there was an international ceremony uh
(17:03):
that featured a number of heads of state and and
Justin Trudeau from Canada was there, and Prince Terry from
the UK was there and and and it was that
was predominantly driven by the French. So the international event
was was very different from the American event. I attended both.
(17:27):
And then after the events, Uh, now we're we're up
in Normandy and and the rest of the trip is
in Paris. So we uh we got on Blackhawk helicopters
and went from Normandy to Paris. And how long is
that fly?
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Out of curiosity? How long is that? And and and
and and taking off from Normandy in a Blackhawk, that
to me just seems really I don't know, touching historically.
I mean you're taking the same flight that that many
people were, you know, coming in and parachuting in.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Yeah. No, it was really head cool, like there's no
other way like as the helicopters taking off, and you're
like looking at the beach and you're envisioning. When you're
looking at the beach, you're envisioning just one hundred and
fifty thousand gis landing on that beach. You're envisioning the
smoke and the screens and the blood and the machine guns,
(18:23):
and you're envisioning the ships as far as the eye
can see, and the paratroopers raining down from on high
and it was just kind of amazing. And for a
chunk of it, we flew along the coast before we
cut in to go to Paris, and so it was
really you're flying over the French countryside and seeing the
countryside and seeing the coast. That was very cool.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
And it.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Ended up. I mean, it's now what time is it now?
It is eleven oh eight pm. So this has been
a very long day. We landed at Frances six point
thirty in the morning and just got to the hotel
room at eleven o'clock at night, so it has been
a full day, but it was And then tomorrow I'm
(19:09):
up early and a meeting with with the US embassy
and doing the briefing with military briefing, and we've got
a whole series of of meetings on issues impacting France
and Europe that that that that I'll be attending. And
then also on Saturday, we're going to go back to
Normandy and do a tour of the battlefield and have
(19:30):
an historical tour, which I'm really looking forward to as well.
Today was the ceremony itself, but I'm looking forward to
to to getting into some of the some of the
real details of how how the invasion unfolded and what happened.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I was watching Biden on on TV and and there
was two faces that I noticed sitting there close to
the front, two men that you got to meet today,
and and and there's certain people and and moments where
you meet a person in the context of some of
their greatest work and it excites you.
Speaker 6 (20:06):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Two of those people you met today with Steven Spielberg
and Tom Hanks, these are, as you described them, two
master storytellers who've done a beautiful job chronicling the incredible
heroism of the Greatest Generation. I could not agree with
you more. What was it like to be there in
Normandy with them and all that they have done to
really raise awareness of the Greatest Generation and the Ultimate Sacrifice.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Yeah, that was really cool. Like I had not met
either one of them before, and they were both just
kind of standing around before the ceremony started. They were
talking to various people and and so I came up
and introduced myself. I a conversation with both of them.
With Spielberg, it was, you know, I said, you know,
I told he's an amazing movie maker, and I love
(20:54):
you know this, I love movies. I'm a diehard movie buff,
and I just, you know, telling story as is incredibly important.
And I actually I relate a story to him. So
Saving Private Ryan, my uncle was a Vietnam vest and
he worked for years as a counselor at the VA
(21:14):
dealing with veterans who had mental health issues. And my
uncle told me that when Saving Private Ryan came out,
you know, the first twenty thirty minutes of it, where
they're landing, I mean, it's as intense a war scene
as I think there's ever been in a movie. And
what I told Spielberg is, I said, my uncle told
(21:36):
me that he had a lot of vets coming in
were really triggered by that scene, and what they told
him is that it got the sounds right. And they
said it was the first war movie that got the
sounds of combat exactly right, and it was bringing bet
back like being back in in combat. So he was
(22:00):
a therapist helping them work through that, and it was interesting.
Spielbert was telling me. He said, look, they went to
great lengths, you know, they they took all the different
weapons and they fired them and had the microphones to
to number one record the sounds of them. But they
also he said, fired them into in decide to beat
(22:23):
to get the like sound of them hitting a body
and breaking bone and flesh. But and I took my
uncle said also the sounds of bricichet and water with
the bullets. That that in particular was an aspect that
was really hope. You know. I also talked to him
(22:44):
about Schindler's List, which was another incredible movie, And I
was talking to you about how moved I was by
the scene at the end where you know, Oscar Schindler's
is sitting there after having saved so many people from
concentration camp, saying, you know, he looks at his gold
watch and says, you know, my god, I could have
saved three people with that. How do I have a
(23:06):
watch and three people are dead like that. The guilt
he felt that as much as he did, he could
have done more. And it was that was at nique
conversation to have with Spielberg.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
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want to talk about the speech and and and I
was watching and.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Actually before before that let's not skip a Tom Hanks.
So Hanks was there too, and so I got chatted
with him too. Now, interestingly enough, Tom Hanks is actually
pretty tall, which I yeah, Uh, it's when I met him.
He's I don't know, maybe he's sixty two or six three.
He was at least on five to eleven. He was
(25:45):
at least three inches tallar I am, which which I
didn't expect. Uh. And he's kind of skinny. He was
tall and kind of skinny, which is not. Yeah, he's
taller than he appears in movies that he was very
charting and and and we chatted a little bit and
and uh and you know he said, uh, you know
(26:08):
he said he said something along the lines of, you know,
you know, I'm not going to vote for you. And
I kind of laughed and said, well, you're not going
to vote for me yet. You know, I'm suffered enough.
I haven't given up on I'm convincing of that. But
it was, you know, he did it in a way
that was not of not just looked both Philberg and
(26:29):
Hanks or democrats. They're very vocal Democrats. But you know
that's we were not there talking politics that day where
I mean and you look at whether it's Saving Private
Ryan or you, or or it is Band of Brothers
and The Pacific, both of which are just incredible series.
I've watched both of them, and they do such a
powerful job of recounting World War Two, both in Europe
(26:53):
and and and the Pacific, and and you know the
heart that each of them has for telling those stories.
And I was talking with Stilbert more than Hanks, but
I was talking about how important it was to tell
the stories of these veterans. You know, we're losing them
every day, we're losing them. We're coming to the end
that when we're going to have them with us and
(27:15):
telling their stories so they're not forgotten, I think is
really really really important.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yeah, it's vitally important. I want to go to the
president's speech. Lloyd Austin spoke and then the President spoke
and and I actually played some of that on my show,
and I said this at the beginning. I said, I
always root for the President of the United States of
America on moments like this, on today's like this to
(27:40):
have an amazing speech. And I root for the president always,
my president always when it comes to national security issues,
especially and when it comes to honoring our men and
women in uniform. And the President gave a speech, and
I was why it. With the best of intentions, I
(28:03):
wanted to root for this speech, but there were some
moments in that speech that caught me a little bit
by surprise, and I wanted to know your thoughts on this.
There was a couple points where Biden tried to invoke Ukraine,
and he also said this, which the media even picked
(28:24):
up on. Here's what he had to say during the
speech about democracy in America.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Now, the question for us is in our our trial,
will we do ours? We're living at a time when
democracy had more risk across the world than a point
since the end of World War II, since these beaches
were stormed in nineteen forty four. Now we have to
ask ourselves, will we stand against tyranny, against evil, against
(28:53):
crushing brutality of the iron fist, when we stand for freedom,
when we defend democracy, we stand together? My answer is yes,
all we can be yes.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
That was an interesting point for me because he said
democracy is more at risk now than at any point since
World War Two. He talked about it on a domestic side,
which was implying I think Donald Trump is a threat
to democracy, and then he implied it with obviously Russia
and Ukraine, and I wanted your reaction to that.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
You know, I'm going to say, this is an interesting
example of having a different reaction to something when you're
physically there versus watching it on TV here or watching
it on Twitter. Look, I know, on the way after
the speech, like looking at Twitter and people's reactions, I
(29:44):
know people are upset that they viewed Biden as politicizing here.
I got to say, it didn't feel that political being
there in person, and maybe it's because frankly, you're paying
attention to the veteran and the heroes you're in front of,
and it's so dominated things that you know what Biden said,
(30:06):
he barely paid attention to it, like it was not
it wasn't the dominant events of the day. And you know,
it was fine, he said, Okay, you know what was
actually stood out much more to me than anything Biden said.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Who was that was?
Speaker 2 (30:21):
But prone did something that was really cool, which is
he awarded the French Legion of Honor too. It was
about eight or ten American gis and and he, you know,
he and each of them, they were almost all the wheelchairs.
Each of them would stand for it, and they're teetering
(30:44):
and they'd have someone helping them, but they wanted to
stand and he would pin on their chest the French
legion of Honor that I wasn't expecting, and that was
just powerful. That was just like he was literally and
then it was funny. Macrow would lean in and he
would kiss them on both cheeks as the French way.
You could kind of see these old dudes be like, hey,
why is this frenchy KidSing? But you know it's your
(31:07):
big awarded, the French legion of honor. That's a pretty
damn big deal. And you think about it for someone
who was nineteen and and was right there, I mean, understand,
we're doing this like right next to the beaches where
they saw their friends die, right next to the beaches
where I'm going to have to assume that was the
(31:28):
most hellish day they've ever experienced. There was certainly one
of them, although those that continue to fight in the
war there may have been others that rivaled it. But
you know, you think about it, imagine being one hundred
years old and the president of France thanking you and
for liberating France. And pinning the legion of honor on
(31:50):
your chest. It was I look, most of us had
tears in our eyes during this.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
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for twenty percent off your first order. Anthony Blincoln came
out afterwards. He did an interview from Normandy with the
(33:26):
backdrop behind him of many of the heroes and the
crosses of those tombstones of somebody that lost their lives.
He had this to say, marking the eightieth anniversary of
D Day, and I want to get your reaction.
Speaker 5 (33:41):
And joining us now from Normandy, the United States Secretary
of State, Anthony Blincoln, thank you very much for joining
us here on morning.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
Joe.
Speaker 5 (33:50):
What should our allies and enemies take away from the
President's speech this morning in Normandy?
Speaker 6 (33:59):
The same result, all that the extraordinary men and women
that were celebrating today showed, then he's showing now because
they did what they did. We're here today and we
not only have responsibility to honor what they did. But
the real way to honor it is to make sure
that we're good in our time, in our moment, in
(34:19):
standing up to the challenges that we face. And one
of those we see now is aggression from Russia, not
only against Ukraine, but against the very principles at the
heart of the international system that were put in place
after World War Two to try to make sure that
we didn't have another World war, that we maintained peace
and security. And presidents determined to make sure we're standing
up today just as they stood up eighty years ago.
Speaker 5 (34:43):
And the President talked about Ukraine as one of the
current challenges that exemplify the fight against dark forces that
never fade, and he made another, yet another commitment. He
reinforced the commitment to Ukraine. And by the way, if
I may, we're watching live pictures right now of President
(35:06):
Biden and the First Lady walking through the cemetery in Normandy, France.
And as we look at these pictures which really symbolize
the losses eighty years ago on d Day, and talk
about the losses that Ukraine is incurring right now from
(35:27):
the same type of aggression. The President did say that
the support for Ukraine would continue, that we will be
there for Ukraine. How does that parallel with some of
the reticents we have seen in Washington that actually delayed
the much needed aid Ukraine needed to push back against
(35:51):
Russian aggression.
Speaker 6 (35:54):
Well, you don't make it that age should have gotten
there a long time ago. But I'm glad it's there
now and it's making a difference every single day. We're
pushing it out to the front lines, making sure the
Ukrainians who need it against this Russian aggression have it
and can use it. But you know, there's a really
powerful parallel too between what we're commemorating today and what
we're doing now. Back then, it wasn't just the United
States here in Normandy. Twelve countries came together, one hundred
(36:18):
and sixty thousand men coming to this beach, coming to
start the final fight that ultimately, eleven months later, led
to victory in World War Two.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
In Ukraine, we have more than.
Speaker 6 (36:27):
Fifty countries standing up, standing together making sure that Ukraine
has what it needs to defend itself and to push
back this aggression. And that's the power of our alliances.
And that's the biggest difference maker we have in the world.
Our adversaries are competitors. They don't have the same kind
of voluntary alliances. Yeah, sometimes they course countries into helping them,
or maybe they pay them off. Here we have country
after country that volunteers to stand together, stand together in
(36:50):
defensive principles that we share and no need defending. We're
seeing that in Ukraine. We saw that eighty years ago
here in Normandy.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
You listen to that. It was very clear that NBC
was wanting to make that and and B. Lincoln wanted
to make that connection. And this deals with the reality
of Foreign policy Center. He said, it is exact quote,
there's a really powerful parallel between D Day and the
Ukraine War.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Yeah, no, there's no. That's Look, this White House does
all politics all the time. It's what they do. They spin, spin, spin,
and the two are fundamentally different. You know. I wish
they would treat a solemn commemoration like this for what
(37:41):
it is, a solemn commemoration, and not treated as another
day in politics. Now, I will say President Zolensky was there,
He was at the events, and so that did add
some of the focus to it. And actually, I think
tomorrow we're maybe sitting down a meeting with President's Elynky
and listen, I agree that we want Russia to loose,
(38:04):
that Russia is our enemy. Now, Vladimir Putin is not
Adolf Hitler. He's our enemy, but he doesn't have concentration
cancer where he's murdering six million people right now. He
is our enemy and he does not wish us well.
And so I think Vladimir Putin is a KG because
(38:25):
it's an America's interest for Russia to lose. But and
we've talked about this at great length on the pods,
it is Joe Biden's fault and Tony Lincoln's fault. The
Ukraine War happened in the first place. Joe Biden gave
multi billion dollar gifts, says Vladimir Putin when he weighs
sanctions on the North String two pipeline sanctions that I authored.
(38:49):
I wrote the legislation, wrote them into law, and Putin
stopped building that pipeline the day President Trump signed my
sanctioned legislation in the law. If Biden had not weighed
those sanctions, the war in Ukraine would not have happened.
If Donald Trump were still in the White House. The
war in Ukraine would not have happened. It's Joe Biden's
(39:10):
weakness that caused the war in Ukraine. And by the way,
as much as Biden and Blincoln want to see themselves
as Churchill and Sdr, if there isn't, If there is
a World War two analogy, then Biden is Neville Chamberlain.
He is the one who is weak. He is the appeaser.
He is the one who gave billions to Russia. He
(39:32):
is the one who gives billions to Iran. He's the
one that constantly shows weakness to our enemies, which is
why we went from peace and prosperity what he inherited
three and a half years ago, to two simultaneous wars
playing out across the face of the globe. And look,
I'm glad. Biden says he stands for freedom against tyranny.
(39:56):
He can't seem to figure that out in Israel because
he blocking weapons going to Israel and at the same
time blowing money to a ran that goes to Hamas.
And so when it comes to freedom and tyranny, he
manages to be on the wrong side of that an
awful lot.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Yeah, no doubt about it. I'm really thankful that you
got to be there and we got to talk about
this and honor our our, our amazing brave men who
went and fought, and the women that were involved as well.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
By the way, you know who I met. I met
the original.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Rosie the Riveter No way, no way.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
That was really cool. She she's like one hundred years old,
but she was the original Rosie the Riveter in in
in those ads, you know, drumming up support for the military,
and that was very cool.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
That's incredible. Well, what what a trip.
Speaker 4 (40:53):
You know.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
My first question on the next pod is going to
be about your meeting with with Ukraine's Zelenski, So I'm
giving your heads up. That's what everybody listening is going
to be like, how did that go and what was said?
So I have a feeling we'll have that for you
coming up on the next pod. I'm glad, what a
great day in history, What an amazing day to remember
(41:14):
and to honor those and I really am glad that
we got to talk to you about it live from France.
It's incredible.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
I want to close out with with actually a really
cool thing. So at the International Ceremony, they had the
International Ceremony of it, and there was a lot of
a lot of music. They had young people singing, but
that they had a military choir singing gory, gory, what
(41:44):
a hell of a way to die, which is the
formal name of it is Blood on the Risers, which
is the America song by American paratroopers, and it's look,
it's a gory song that they sung about what was happening.
And it was amazing singing and singing it. So I
want to close it by playing I just videoed on
my iPhone the last two stanzas of it, and I
(42:06):
want to close the pod by playing that because I
got to say, in some ways it was dark, but
in some ways it was beautiful. These are nineteen year
old boys singing that they know they may be about
to die, but they're going willingly into it. And so
let's close. You know, Ben's wright, Subscribe to the pod,
give us a five star review, sent it to all
(42:28):
your friends. All that's true, But listen to this and
just think about this is a military band, military choir
in France singing this. But imagine the nineteen year old
gis getting ready to get on the plane and knowing
that they're going to be jumping out really close to
(42:48):
the ground with massive machine gun fire, and they may
not live another hour. And knowing what they were facing,
they'd they get it with with eyes opened and in
a heart full of love for America?
Speaker 7 (43:06):
Is everybody had to try?
Speaker 4 (43:08):
A sad looking out o here of Favid answer yes, and.
Speaker 7 (43:12):
And the story he tatory, I see us, It's time
decline and hook.
Speaker 4 (43:18):
And he had cology. Oh holy, what the hell?
Speaker 2 (43:25):
A way to die?
Speaker 4 (43:27):
Gory ory one a hell the way to die? Carry on,
hell the way to die. He hates COLOGI, No, it's lone,
be found in lone.
Speaker 7 (43:43):
You waited, follow the shot, you sl you have the cold,
you have the awful troll, the sit THRONI his missleves till.
Speaker 4 (43:56):
Oh rot trod.
Speaker 7 (43:58):
Is that.
Speaker 4 (44:01):
Cos O recall me? Will recalled re water the light die,
Oh recalled Rene. He had cons
Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson
with you, Senator, it's an international pod tonight, as you're
across the pond.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Well, that's right. This is our very first podcast that
I have done from Paris, France. I am in Paris
right now. I flew yesterday to Normandy to be here
for the eightieth anniversary of D Day. I was at
the celebration all day. I've got meetings the next couple
(00:31):
of days here.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And it was really an incredible time celebrating what was
what was an historic landmark, a milestone that that changed
the course of history. And the heroism, the courage that
was shown by by by those American gis that that
that that that landed on the coast of France, and
(00:53):
and that that that invaded the continent to take take
back the continent from the Nazis. It was incredibly dangerous,
incredibly difficult, incredibly inspiring, and it changed the course of history.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, it is truly incredible. And there's also the politics
that are now coming out with the Biden campaign as well.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
They're now trying to use D Day to advocate for
funding with Ukraine that had to be shocking to you.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, it's not surprising because everything they do is political.
That that that's how that that's how they approach. Unfortunately,
day to day life is it's all politics all the time.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
But but I got to tell you that nothing can
really diminish the experience of being here. It truly is extraordinary, uh,
being with being with heroes, and and and and there
were hundreds of World War Two veterans who came back
for the eightieth anniversary of D Day. And these these
(01:56):
guys are all you know, in their late nineties or
in their hundreds. You know, if they were eighteen years
old eighty years ago than they're ninety eight today. Now
there's several of them that were even seventeen and sixteen
and lied about their ages. So there are a couple
that are younger, that are ninety six and ninety seven.
But I visited today with with with one World War
(02:18):
Two veteran. There was one hundred and four. And these
guys are incredible euros And when you look at what
they did, it was truly incredible. June fourth, nineteen forty four,
Operation Overlord, which was the code name for the Allied
invasion of Normandy France. More than one hundred and fifty
(02:39):
thousand troops landed at D Day, and when they landed,
they they landed into German machine gun fire. You had soldiers, had,
you had barriers they'd put on the beach. And more
than twenty nine thousand US servicemen members were either killed
(03:01):
or injured during the norm of the operation, including more
than six thousand on the very first day of the landing.
And it is when you look at today. I stood
at Omaha Beach and looked out and you imagine coming
across that sand and coming into just machine gun fire.
(03:25):
The bravery that was demonstrated on that day was just breathmaking.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
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against the radicals at Planned Parenthood. This adieth anniversary, and
you mentioned hundreds came over, and there's so many veterans
groups that just do amazing work fundraising and helping these veterans,
these heroes war to even get to Normandy to D Day,
(05:46):
and the way that they do it and the way
that they give them such honor and respect from the
moment that they get to the airport in the US
until the moment this trip is over when they get
back home. But this is a very significant year because
it is the eightieth anniversary, and if you just do
the math, a lot of these veterans that you got
to be with literally today this will probably be their
(06:08):
last time to go to Normandy, just because of age.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Well, that's right. And I had the opportunity to go
to the seventy fifth anniversary five years ago and I
didn't go. I had a scheduling conflict and I had
something else I had to do, and I have regretted
it every day since then. I should have fixed the
scheduling conflict. That I was mad at myself that I
didn't just just push aside the scheduling conflict and go
(06:35):
for the seventy fifth. So for the eightieth anniversary, you're right,
there's a very good chance that the next one that
happens that we're not going to have World War Two
veterans still with us, or if we do, it's going
to be very very few. And actually the news broke
(06:55):
today the one of the World War two veterans who
was one hundred and two actually died traveling to France
to come to this and and it's just, you know,
they're they're at the age now where they all understand
that this is the you know, the the the the
end of their passage. But but it was incredible. I
(07:16):
spent a lot of the day shaking hands with with
with these men, thanking them. And you know, it's interesting
then that there's a consistency in that, one after the
other after the other. When you thank them for their bravery, bravery,
they'll say, look, I I just did my job. If
(07:42):
you call them a hero, they'll argue with you. They'll say,
I wasn't a hero. Uh. The the heroes are buried
behind us. And and I got to say, when you
you stand in the cemetery and you just see the
line after line of white crosses and white stars of David,
(08:06):
of servicemen and women, when you walk through that cemetery
and you read name after name after name, and they're
all so young. They're all eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty one
years old, and so many of them they came off
and amphibious ship and were shot and killed right on
(08:29):
the beach. And it's incredible.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
You know, my grandfather fought in War two and he
talked about when they all just went and signed up,
and the story that he wanted his grandsons to know
was how many young men signed up And you mentioned
their age. Many of them lied about their age to
serve their country. They were seventeen and even sixteen, and
(08:55):
they lied. And the people, some of the people, he said,
knew they were lying, and they went with it everyway
because it went with it anyway, because everybody was new
that this was a moment in history that you had
to stand up and fight the Nazis or the world
could fall.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah, including George Herbert Walker Bush, who, if I remember correctly,
was seventeen when when he signed up to go fight
in World War two. I mean, and that was you know,
you had had young Americans stepping forward saying We're going
to defend the world from tyranny and you know, particularly
(09:34):
after Pearl Harbor and the attack on Pearl Harbor, when
America was thrust into the war, you had just just
ordinary people who did extraordinary things. And imagine how different
the course of history would have been if the Nazis
(09:56):
had prevailed. Yeah, Adolf Hitler lived his life as the
dictator of Europe. The Nazis were unmitigated evil. We now
know and many didn't know at the time about the
concentration camps where they murdered over six million Jews. It
was there are wars where both sides are in the
(10:20):
right and both sides are in the wrong. World War
two is not one of us the Nazis. The world
would have been fundamentally different had the Allies not prevailed.
And D Day, look, Dinna was not guaranteed to be
a success. It was one of the most difficult military
(10:41):
assaults ever planned, ever executed. And when you look at
when you look at the cliffs they climbed, when you
looked at look at the elevation they had to scale,
and you imagine doing it with hand grenades and machine
gun fire coming down at you, not to mention uh,
(11:04):
incoming fire from from airplanes and and I mean it
is extraordinary.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
My grandfather and my grandfather told me about D Day.
He said, it was a day that we all knew
that many of our friends were going to die, and
that was accepted. It was just how many were going
to die?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Well, look and if you were, if you were in
the first wave of the boats, almost all of those
soldiers died. Uh and it h there there was The
stakes were enormous. And what our country did without America
in that war. Germany wins and and we came in
(11:54):
and it was a moment that changed the course of history.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Sinner. I want to talk about just the reaction first
to Americans in France and and being at this ceremony,
how how are you and and the rest of the
people that are there, especially the veterans, how are they
received by the people in France? And then I want
(12:21):
to talk about just you, even the logistics and getting
to this event and how all this came about.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Well, look, the veterans are embraced and people are applauding
and saying thank you, and I mean there's just an
enormous amount of love and and look President McCrone was there,
and and he was he was very gracious and and
and he said quite rightly that that that the the
(12:52):
American invasion at the day, and it was all the Allies,
but it was the Americans leading it. Uh that that
that that it liberated Frankis that that that France had
been honkerd by Thenazis and and it's uh, the reaction
in seeing these these heroes, most of them now are
(13:14):
in wheelchairs and they just have a line of people
coming up saying thank you and wanting to take pictures
with them and shake their hands, and they're just, uh,
you know, there's an enormous amount of appreciation when.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
When when you got this obviously the invite to go,
how does this work? Who all got to go on
this trip to obviously honor our men and women that
gave the ultimate sacrifice or young boys. But you're going
to honor uh and represent the United States of America.
What do the logistics even look like?
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Well? Sure, so this is what's called a codel, which
is a congressional delegation and and and it's official travel
by members of Congress. And there are lots of codels
that this is part of the job that you travel,
You travel to other countries and you meet with military leaders,
you meet with foreign leaders that that is a very
(14:08):
important part of doing the job. I'm going to send
it foreign Relations Committee, and so traveling to other countries,
meeting with other leaders, understanding that this situation is very important.
This codell. Typically codels are organized by one or two senators.
This codell was organized by Richard Blomenthal, the Democrats from Connecticut,
(14:30):
and John Boseman, a Republican from Arkansas. And this was
a big codell. This was larger than normal. Often codels
are in the Senate or three or four or five
senators is a typical codell. This one, I think the
council was nineteen, so you had a lot of Senators
that came, and then there were a bunch of House
(14:51):
members that came. I actually don't know how many House members,
but I'd say twenty or thirty. It was a big
group of House members that were here. And so the
the logistically, the way this one worked is that we
met at the Capitol and then we went over to
Andrew's Air Force Base and we flew from Andrews Air
Force Base to France on Air Force planes. So it's
(15:15):
what's called mill Air Military air and so the Air
Force maintains a number of planes that are used for
official travel. And so we left on Wednesday late afternoons.
We flew all night. We tried to sleep on the
plane as much as we could, although you know, according
(15:38):
to my are a ring tracker, I've had a total
of fifty one minute sleep last night.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
So I've got to know you and I sleep as
well on planes. I can't do it no matter what,
even overseas. I've never been able to sleep on planes.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Yeah, it's just hard to sleep in an airplane. Plane.
I got fifty one minutes that I've passed out, but
it just I find it really tough to sleep in
an airplane plane seats. But so we landed. We landed
early in the morning today, so today is Thursday. We
landed early in the morning at about six thirty in
(16:17):
the morning, and we all uh disembarked the plane and
changed clothes, so you know, I mean we traveled in
jeans and traveling clothes, but then we changed to put
on put on a suit and put on business business attire. Uh,
And then we all got in buses to head to
the ceremony. And there were there were two ceremonies today.
(16:40):
There was one the American ceremony, uh. And that's that
the American Cemetery, and that both Joe Biden and Macron
both spoke there and and that had a lot of
time honoring uh the World War Two veterans who were there.
And then after that there was an international ceremony uh
(17:03):
that featured a number of heads of state and and
Justin Trudeau from Canada was there, and Prince Terry from
the UK was there and and and it was that
was predominantly driven by the French. So the international event
was was very different from the American event. I attended both.
(17:27):
And then after the events, Uh, now we're we're up
in Normandy and and the rest of the trip is
in Paris. So we uh we got on Blackhawk helicopters
and went from Normandy to Paris. And how long is
that fly?
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Out of curiosity? How long is that? And and and
and and taking off from Normandy in a Blackhawk, that
to me just seems really I don't know, touching historically.
I mean you're taking the same flight that that many
people were, you know, coming in and parachuting in.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Yeah. No, it was really head cool, like there's no
other way like as the helicopters taking off, and you're
like looking at the beach and you're envisioning. When you're
looking at the beach, you're envisioning just one hundred and
fifty thousand gis landing on that beach. You're envisioning the
smoke and the screens and the blood and the machine guns,
(18:23):
and you're envisioning the ships as far as the eye
can see, and the paratroopers raining down from on high
and it was just kind of amazing. And for a
chunk of it, we flew along the coast before we
cut in to go to Paris, and so it was
really you're flying over the French countryside and seeing the
countryside and seeing the coast. That was very cool.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
And it.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Ended up. I mean, it's now what time is it now?
It is eleven oh eight pm. So this has been
a very long day. We landed at Frances six point
thirty in the morning and just got to the hotel
room at eleven o'clock at night, so it has been
a full day, but it was And then tomorrow I'm
(19:09):
up early and a meeting with with the US embassy
and doing the briefing with military briefing, and we've got
a whole series of of meetings on issues impacting France
and Europe that that that that I'll be attending. And
then also on Saturday, we're going to go back to
Normandy and do a tour of the battlefield and have
(19:30):
an historical tour, which I'm really looking forward to as well.
Today was the ceremony itself, but I'm looking forward to
to to getting into some of the some of the
real details of how how the invasion unfolded and what happened.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I was watching Biden on on TV and and there
was two faces that I noticed sitting there close to
the front, two men that you got to meet today,
and and and there's certain people and and moments where
you meet a person in the context of some of
their greatest work and it excites you.
Speaker 6 (20:06):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Two of those people you met today with Steven Spielberg
and Tom Hanks, these are, as you described them, two
master storytellers who've done a beautiful job chronicling the incredible
heroism of the Greatest Generation. I could not agree with
you more. What was it like to be there in
Normandy with them and all that they have done to
really raise awareness of the Greatest Generation and the Ultimate Sacrifice.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Yeah, that was really cool. Like I had not met
either one of them before, and they were both just
kind of standing around before the ceremony started. They were
talking to various people and and so I came up
and introduced myself. I a conversation with both of them.
With Spielberg, it was, you know, I said, you know,
I told he's an amazing movie maker, and I love
(20:54):
you know this, I love movies. I'm a diehard movie buff,
and I just, you know, telling story as is incredibly important.
And I actually I relate a story to him. So
Saving Private Ryan, my uncle was a Vietnam vest and
he worked for years as a counselor at the VA
(21:14):
dealing with veterans who had mental health issues. And my
uncle told me that when Saving Private Ryan came out,
you know, the first twenty thirty minutes of it, where
they're landing, I mean, it's as intense a war scene
as I think there's ever been in a movie. And
what I told Spielberg is, I said, my uncle told
(21:36):
me that he had a lot of vets coming in
were really triggered by that scene, and what they told
him is that it got the sounds right. And they
said it was the first war movie that got the
sounds of combat exactly right, and it was bringing bet
back like being back in in combat. So he was
(22:00):
a therapist helping them work through that, and it was interesting.
Spielbert was telling me. He said, look, they went to
great lengths, you know, they they took all the different
weapons and they fired them and had the microphones to
to number one record the sounds of them. But they
also he said, fired them into in decide to beat
(22:23):
to get the like sound of them hitting a body
and breaking bone and flesh. But and I took my
uncle said also the sounds of bricichet and water with
the bullets. That that in particular was an aspect that
was really hope. You know. I also talked to him
(22:44):
about Schindler's List, which was another incredible movie, And I
was talking to you about how moved I was by
the scene at the end where you know, Oscar Schindler's
is sitting there after having saved so many people from
concentration camp, saying, you know, he looks at his gold
watch and says, you know, my god, I could have
saved three people with that. How do I have a
(23:06):
watch and three people are dead like that. The guilt
he felt that as much as he did, he could
have done more. And it was that was at nique
conversation to have with Spielberg.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
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want to talk about the speech and and and I
was watching and.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Actually before before that let's not skip a Tom Hanks.
So Hanks was there too, and so I got chatted
with him too. Now, interestingly enough, Tom Hanks is actually
pretty tall, which I yeah, Uh, it's when I met him.
He's I don't know, maybe he's sixty two or six three.
He was at least on five to eleven. He was
(25:45):
at least three inches tallar I am, which which I
didn't expect. Uh. And he's kind of skinny. He was
tall and kind of skinny, which is not. Yeah, he's
taller than he appears in movies that he was very
charting and and and we chatted a little bit and
and uh and you know he said, uh, you know
(26:08):
he said he said something along the lines of, you know,
you know, I'm not going to vote for you. And
I kind of laughed and said, well, you're not going
to vote for me yet. You know, I'm suffered enough.
I haven't given up on I'm convincing of that. But
it was, you know, he did it in a way
that was not of not just looked both Philberg and
(26:29):
Hanks or democrats. They're very vocal Democrats. But you know
that's we were not there talking politics that day where
I mean and you look at whether it's Saving Private
Ryan or you, or or it is Band of Brothers
and The Pacific, both of which are just incredible series.
I've watched both of them, and they do such a
powerful job of recounting World War Two, both in Europe
(26:53):
and and and the Pacific, and and you know the
heart that each of them has for telling those stories.
And I was talking with Stilbert more than Hanks, but
I was talking about how important it was to tell
the stories of these veterans. You know, we're losing them
every day, we're losing them. We're coming to the end
that when we're going to have them with us and
(27:15):
telling their stories so they're not forgotten, I think is
really really really important.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yeah, it's vitally important. I want to go to the
president's speech. Lloyd Austin spoke and then the President spoke
and and I actually played some of that on my show,
and I said this at the beginning. I said, I
always root for the President of the United States of
America on moments like this, on today's like this to
(27:40):
have an amazing speech. And I root for the president always,
my president always when it comes to national security issues,
especially and when it comes to honoring our men and
women in uniform. And the President gave a speech, and
I was why it. With the best of intentions, I
(28:03):
wanted to root for this speech, but there were some
moments in that speech that caught me a little bit
by surprise, and I wanted to know your thoughts on this.
There was a couple points where Biden tried to invoke Ukraine,
and he also said this, which the media even picked
(28:24):
up on. Here's what he had to say during the
speech about democracy in America.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Now, the question for us is in our our trial,
will we do ours? We're living at a time when
democracy had more risk across the world than a point
since the end of World War II, since these beaches
were stormed in nineteen forty four. Now we have to
ask ourselves, will we stand against tyranny, against evil, against
(28:53):
crushing brutality of the iron fist, when we stand for freedom,
when we defend democracy, we stand together? My answer is yes,
all we can be yes.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
That was an interesting point for me because he said
democracy is more at risk now than at any point since
World War Two. He talked about it on a domestic side,
which was implying I think Donald Trump is a threat
to democracy, and then he implied it with obviously Russia
and Ukraine, and I wanted your reaction to that.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
You know, I'm going to say, this is an interesting
example of having a different reaction to something when you're
physically there versus watching it on TV here or watching
it on Twitter. Look, I know, on the way after
the speech, like looking at Twitter and people's reactions, I
(29:44):
know people are upset that they viewed Biden as politicizing here.
I got to say, it didn't feel that political being
there in person, and maybe it's because frankly, you're paying
attention to the veteran and the heroes you're in front of,
and it's so dominated things that you know what Biden said,
(30:06):
he barely paid attention to it, like it was not
it wasn't the dominant events of the day. And you know,
it was fine, he said, Okay, you know what was
actually stood out much more to me than anything Biden said.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Who was that was?
Speaker 2 (30:21):
But prone did something that was really cool, which is
he awarded the French Legion of Honor too. It was
about eight or ten American gis and and he, you know,
he and each of them, they were almost all the wheelchairs.
Each of them would stand for it, and they're teetering
(30:44):
and they'd have someone helping them, but they wanted to
stand and he would pin on their chest the French
legion of Honor that I wasn't expecting, and that was
just powerful. That was just like he was literally and
then it was funny. Macrow would lean in and he
would kiss them on both cheeks as the French way.
You could kind of see these old dudes be like, hey,
why is this frenchy KidSing? But you know it's your
(31:07):
big awarded, the French legion of honor. That's a pretty
damn big deal. And you think about it for someone
who was nineteen and and was right there, I mean, understand,
we're doing this like right next to the beaches where
they saw their friends die, right next to the beaches
where I'm going to have to assume that was the
(31:28):
most hellish day they've ever experienced. There was certainly one
of them, although those that continue to fight in the
war there may have been others that rivaled it. But
you know, you think about it, imagine being one hundred
years old and the president of France thanking you and
for liberating France. And pinning the legion of honor on
(31:50):
your chest. It was I look, most of us had
tears in our eyes during this.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
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out afterwards. He did an interview from Normandy with the
(33:26):
backdrop behind him of many of the heroes and the
crosses of those tombstones of somebody that lost their lives.
He had this to say, marking the eightieth anniversary of
D Day, and I want to get your reaction.
Speaker 5 (33:41):
And joining us now from Normandy, the United States Secretary
of State, Anthony Blincoln, thank you very much for joining
us here on morning.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
Joe.
Speaker 5 (33:50):
What should our allies and enemies take away from the
President's speech this morning in Normandy?
Speaker 6 (33:59):
The same result, all that the extraordinary men and women
that were celebrating today showed, then he's showing now because
they did what they did. We're here today and we
not only have responsibility to honor what they did. But
the real way to honor it is to make sure
that we're good in our time, in our moment, in
(34:19):
standing up to the challenges that we face. And one
of those we see now is aggression from Russia, not
only against Ukraine, but against the very principles at the
heart of the international system that were put in place
after World War Two to try to make sure that
we didn't have another World war, that we maintained peace
and security. And presidents determined to make sure we're standing
up today just as they stood up eighty years ago.
Speaker 5 (34:43):
And the President talked about Ukraine as one of the
current challenges that exemplify the fight against dark forces that
never fade, and he made another, yet another commitment. He
reinforced the commitment to Ukraine. And by the way, if
I may, we're watching live pictures right now of President
(35:06):
Biden and the First Lady walking through the cemetery in Normandy, France.
And as we look at these pictures which really symbolize
the losses eighty years ago on d Day, and talk
about the losses that Ukraine is incurring right now from
(35:27):
the same type of aggression. The President did say that
the support for Ukraine would continue, that we will be
there for Ukraine. How does that parallel with some of
the reticents we have seen in Washington that actually delayed
the much needed aid Ukraine needed to push back against
(35:51):
Russian aggression.
Speaker 6 (35:54):
Well, you don't make it that age should have gotten
there a long time ago. But I'm glad it's there
now and it's making a difference every single day. We're
pushing it out to the front lines, making sure the
Ukrainians who need it against this Russian aggression have it
and can use it. But you know, there's a really
powerful parallel too between what we're commemorating today and what
we're doing now. Back then, it wasn't just the United
States here in Normandy. Twelve countries came together, one hundred
(36:18):
and sixty thousand men coming to this beach, coming to
start the final fight that ultimately, eleven months later, led
to victory in World War Two.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
In Ukraine, we have more than.
Speaker 6 (36:27):
Fifty countries standing up, standing together making sure that Ukraine
has what it needs to defend itself and to push
back this aggression. And that's the power of our alliances.
And that's the biggest difference maker we have in the world.
Our adversaries are competitors. They don't have the same kind
of voluntary alliances. Yeah, sometimes they course countries into helping them,
or maybe they pay them off. Here we have country
after country that volunteers to stand together, stand together in
(36:50):
defensive principles that we share and no need defending. We're
seeing that in Ukraine. We saw that eighty years ago
here in Normandy.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
You listen to that. It was very clear that NBC
was wanting to make that and and B. Lincoln wanted
to make that connection. And this deals with the reality
of Foreign policy Center. He said, it is exact quote,
there's a really powerful parallel between D Day and the
Ukraine War.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Yeah, no, there's no. That's Look, this White House does
all politics all the time. It's what they do. They spin, spin, spin,
and the two are fundamentally different. You know. I wish
they would treat a solemn commemoration like this for what
(37:41):
it is, a solemn commemoration, and not treated as another
day in politics. Now, I will say President Zolensky was there,
He was at the events, and so that did add
some of the focus to it. And actually, I think
tomorrow we're maybe sitting down a meeting with President's Elynky
and listen, I agree that we want Russia to loose,
(38:04):
that Russia is our enemy. Now, Vladimir Putin is not
Adolf Hitler. He's our enemy, but he doesn't have concentration
cancer where he's murdering six million people right now. He
is our enemy and he does not wish us well.
And so I think Vladimir Putin is a KG because
(38:25):
it's an America's interest for Russia to lose. But and
we've talked about this at great length on the pods,
it is Joe Biden's fault and Tony Lincoln's fault. The
Ukraine War happened in the first place. Joe Biden gave
multi billion dollar gifts, says Vladimir Putin when he weighs
sanctions on the North String two pipeline sanctions that I authored.
(38:49):
I wrote the legislation, wrote them into law, and Putin
stopped building that pipeline the day President Trump signed my
sanctioned legislation in the law. If Biden had not weighed
those sanctions, the war in Ukraine would not have happened.
If Donald Trump were still in the White House. The
war in Ukraine would not have happened. It's Joe Biden's
(39:10):
weakness that caused the war in Ukraine. And by the way,
as much as Biden and Blincoln want to see themselves
as Churchill and Sdr, if there isn't, If there is
a World War two analogy, then Biden is Neville Chamberlain.
He is the one who is weak. He is the appeaser.
He is the one who gave billions to Russia. He
(39:32):
is the one who gives billions to Iran. He's the
one that constantly shows weakness to our enemies, which is
why we went from peace and prosperity what he inherited
three and a half years ago, to two simultaneous wars
playing out across the face of the globe. And look,
I'm glad. Biden says he stands for freedom against tyranny.
(39:56):
He can't seem to figure that out in Israel because
he blocking weapons going to Israel and at the same
time blowing money to a ran that goes to Hamas.
And so when it comes to freedom and tyranny, he
manages to be on the wrong side of that an
awful lot.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Yeah, no doubt about it. I'm really thankful that you
got to be there and we got to talk about
this and honor our our, our amazing brave men who
went and fought, and the women that were involved as well.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
By the way, you know who I met. I met
the original.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Rosie the Riveter No way, no way.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
That was really cool. She she's like one hundred years old,
but she was the original Rosie the Riveter in in
in those ads, you know, drumming up support for the military,
and that was very cool.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
That's incredible. Well, what what a trip.
Speaker 4 (40:53):
You know.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
My first question on the next pod is going to
be about your meeting with with Ukraine's Zelenski, So I'm
giving your heads up. That's what everybody listening is going
to be like, how did that go and what was said?
So I have a feeling we'll have that for you
coming up on the next pod. I'm glad, what a
great day in history, What an amazing day to remember
(41:14):
and to honor those and I really am glad that
we got to talk to you about it live from France.
It's incredible.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
I want to close out with with actually a really
cool thing. So at the International Ceremony, they had the
International Ceremony of it, and there was a lot of
a lot of music. They had young people singing, but
that they had a military choir singing gory, gory, what
(41:44):
a hell of a way to die, which is the
formal name of it is Blood on the Risers, which
is the America song by American paratroopers, and it's look,
it's a gory song that they sung about what was happening.
And it was amazing singing and singing it. So I
want to close it by playing I just videoed on
my iPhone the last two stanzas of it, and I
(42:06):
want to close the pod by playing that because I
got to say, in some ways it was dark, but
in some ways it was beautiful. These are nineteen year
old boys singing that they know they may be about
to die, but they're going willingly into it. And so
let's close. You know, Ben's wright, Subscribe to the pod,
give us a five star review, sent it to all
(42:28):
your friends. All that's true, But listen to this and
just think about this is a military band, military choir
in France singing this. But imagine the nineteen year old
gis getting ready to get on the plane and knowing
that they're going to be jumping out really close to
(42:48):
the ground with massive machine gun fire, and they may
not live another hour. And knowing what they were facing,
they'd they get it with with eyes opened and in
a heart full of love for America?
Speaker 7 (43:06):
Is everybody had to try?
Speaker 4 (43:08):
A sad looking out o here of Favid answer yes, and.
Speaker 7 (43:12):
And the story he tatory, I see us, It's time
decline and hook.
Speaker 4 (43:18):
And he had cology. Oh holy, what the hell?
Speaker 2 (43:25):
A way to die?
Speaker 4 (43:27):
Gory ory one a hell the way to die? Carry on,
hell the way to die. He hates COLOGI, No, it's lone,
be found in lone.
Speaker 7 (43:43):
You waited, follow the shot, you sl you have the cold,
you have the awful troll, the sit THRONI his missleves till.
Speaker 4 (43:56):
Oh rot trod.
Speaker 7 (43:58):
Is that.
Speaker 4 (44:01):
Cos O recall me? Will recalled re water the light die,
Oh recalled Rene. He had cons
Host
Ben Ferguson
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