Who Elected Comrade Mamdani, How to Test Negative for Stupid & a Pilgrimage to Israel Week In Review
November 8, 2025 • 39 mins
🗳️ U.S. Election Analysis
- The speakers describe the recent election as a “disaster” for conservatives, with high turnout among left-wing voters, particularly young women.
- Zohran Mamdani, referred to repeatedly as “Comrade Mandani,” is portrayed as a symbol of far-left politics, with accusations of communism and ties to wealthy donors like Alex Soros.
- Detailed demographic breakdowns are given for voter support in New York, New Jersey, and Virginia, highlighting gender gaps and educational differences.
- Young women (ages 18–29) overwhelmingly supported Democratic candidates.
- Voters with advanced or bachelor’s degrees leaned toward Mamdani, while those with less education favored Cuomo.
- Newer residents of NYC (less than 5 years) were more likely to vote for Mamdani than native New Yorkers.
📚 Book Promotion & Personal Stories
- Senator John Kennedy promotes his book “How to Test Negative for Stupid and Why Washington Never Will.”
- He shares personal anecdotes about his upbringing, legal career, and entry into politics.
- The tone is humorous and self-deprecating, with jokes about Washington, Chuck Schumer, and political bumper stickers.
🇮🇱 Trip to Israel & War Commentary
- Ben recounts a visit to Israel, including meetings with victims of Hezbollah rocket attacks and families of children killed while playing soccer.
- Descriptions of psychological warfare, hostage situations, and military operations (like the “pager attack” targeting Hezbollah leaders) are included.
- The trip is framed as both a spiritual pilgrimage and a political mission, with references to Christian faith and biblical sites.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome in his verdic with Ted Cruz, we can review
Ben Ferguson with you. And here's some big stories that
you may have missed that we talked about this week.
First up, the polling numbers are out and we now
know a lot more about who voted for communism in
New York City. What does it mean for the rest
of the country. We'll break it down for you. Also,
Senator Kennedy joined us to talk about his new book.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Who did he write it for and what was the goal?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
And finally, I just got back from Israel with an
incredible trip, and we'll give you those highlights. It's the
weekend review and it starts right now. All right, So
let's break down the election. It was a quote disaster.
The media was just thrilled of what happened on election night.
Mandani is the one though, that I want to really
(00:47):
focus on for a second. He is a communist, He's
a proud communist. He went back to his core beliefs
in his victory speech, basically yelling at Donald Trump and
saying we are at communist city. The red apple literally
now is red apple of communism.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Breaking this down, this seems to be.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
A point where Democrats are actually almost doubling down on
this type of extremism in the party. I think this
is actually going to grow between now and the midterms.
And I want your reaction to what we learned.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Well, Comrade Mundami is the face of the Democrat Party now.
And I got to say the election results this week,
they were a disaster, that they were an absolute blowout.
What is striking as several things. Number one, turnout was
exceptionally high among the left wing base, and that's a
real warning sign for next year for the midterms. The
(01:39):
left showed up in massive numbers. They're pissed, they hate
Donald Trump, and that anger is dangerous, that anger is motivating.
And too many folks on the right, too many kind
of in the common sense middle stayed home. And I
will tell you if you look historically. All right, let's
(02:00):
go back to two thousand and eight. Two thousand and eight,
Barack Obama's elected. As a result, a lot of folks
on the right, you and me included, were really unhappy.
We didn't like Barack Obama's policies. We were pissed off.
Twenty ten was a massive title wave year. It was
the Tea party wave and It was in large part
because those on the right were particularly energized and angry.
(02:22):
Fast forward to twenty twelve, twenty twelve, Barack Obama's re
elected president and the reaction again. Twenty fourteen was another
wave election, a huge election. We won nine Senate seats,
We retired Harry Reid as majority leader. We won the
biggest majority in the House since nineteen twenty eight And
it was because, again, those on the right were angry,
They were energized, they were contributing money, they volunteered, and
(02:44):
those on the left were complacent. By the way. Fast
forward to twenty eighteen. Donald Trump had just been elected
in twenty sixteen. Twenty eighteen was a very good Democrat year.
We lost a bunch of seats. Why because the left
was really energized and folks on the right were a
little bit placement. This week's election day suggests that we're
in real danger of that happening again in twenty twenty
(03:06):
six that the left, I'll tell you on fundraising, the
left is out raising the right anywhere between three to
one and four to one. That is really really dangerous.
And the turnout, the turnout in Virginia, the left showed
up in much bigger numbers. The turnout in New Jersey,
the left showed up in much bigger numbers. The turnout
in New York City, the left turned out in much
bigger numbers. Now, Ben, I'll tell you one of the
(03:27):
most interesting do you know what demographic was dominated by
the radical left wing on election day?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
This is shocking because you and I we geek out
on the political stuff and dat after elections, young people
in the Democratic Party were really ready to go vote.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Yeah, but let me be more precise, young women, and
let me give you some stats. In New York City,
among young women eighteen to twenty nine, eighty one percent,
eighty one percent voted for Comrade Mandani. In New Jersey
eighteen to twenty nine, Wow, In New Jersey, among young women,
(04:09):
eighty percent voted for Mikey Cheryl the Democrat in New Jersey.
Of young women in Virginia, seventy eight percent of young
women voted for Abigail Spanberger. It was dominant. And by
the way, to give you a comparison, because yes, young
people went left, but there was there was a big
gender gap. So young women in New York eighty one
(04:33):
percent for Mondamie. Young men sixty four percent for Mondammie,
so almost a twenty point gender gap. How about New
Jersey young women eighty percent for Mikey Cheryl fifty four
percent of young men, so a twenty five twenty six
percent gender gap in New Jersey. How about Virginia seventy
(04:56):
eight percent for Span Burger of young women, just fifty
six percent of young men in Virginia. So we saw
that this was a race where the single most overwhelming
demographic was young women, which was so overwhelmingly lopsided that
it helped drive the results on election day.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
When you think about this, and then it goes back to, Okay,
what was the messaging that was connecting with young women
to have them come out in these numbers or was
it not so much of a message? And this is
part of the breakdown of trying to figure out what
you learned from election to make sure before the midterms
we can either we can course correct it. Or was
it just that the left and women in the Democratic
(05:41):
Party were so motivated compared to conservative women. I call
it the Trump sump. You feel like your party's in power,
you feel like they're doing the things that you asked
them to do. In places Donald Trump is putting in complacency,
but you feel comfortable because you're like, we just want
an election.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, things are great. Donald Trump's doing what he said
he was going to do.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
So when you look at it, was it issue base
based on data that we've seen, or was it more
just the other side was so angry that Donald Trump
won and they wanted to win so badly to send
a middle finger to the president that they showed up
in these record numbers and they voted for their candidate.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah, we don't have that data yet. There will be
time to break that out, but we don't have it
right now. But I'll give you another aspect. In New
York City, so there was a massive difference based on
whether you were a longtime New Yorker or you were
new to the city. So if you're a New York
voter and you had been in New York City, you
(06:35):
lived in New York City less than five years, what
percent of the people who lived in New York City
less than five years do you think voted for Comrade
Mundani got to be overwhelmingly high, eighty three percent. All right,
how about five to ten years, what do you think
five to ten years.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I would say it's probably still fairly high, but not
as high as that first.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Group seventy six percent. Okay, let's go ten years or more,
but not born in New York City. What do you
think the percentage.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Is above fifty percent?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Fifty four? So it drops from seventy six five to
ten years to fifty four. How about I was born
in New York City, which, by the way, is forty
seven percent of the voters were born in New York City.
What do you think what percent of the vote do
you think Mondanni got a people born in New York City.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I'm going to guess below fifty percent, thirty four percent.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Couloma got forty five percent. So Cuomo beat Mondanni by
eleven points among people born in New York, but among
people who lived in New York less than five years,
Mondanni beat him eighty three percent to fifteen percent, So
it is overwhelmingly Look, yeah, h clear was.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
A cuil rowling cry from Mandanni, and he did this
in his campaigning. He did it, by the way, in
his victory speech. He said that New York City is
a city of immigrants. In other words, if you came
here recently, I'm your guy. That the establishment, the old school,
the American citizen, You're not a priority in New York
City anymore. This reminds me an awful lot of what
(08:12):
we were talking about ten years ago in major cities
in the UK. We are seeing a lot of those
same type of results now in New York City.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Yeah, and by the way, there's also a significant educational differential.
All right, So if you're in New York and you
had an advanced degree, what percent of the vote do
you think Mandani.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Got advanced degree? I would say maybe around fifty percent
or below.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Fifty seven percent. Advanced degree fifty seven percent. How about
bachelor's degree?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Oh gosh, I'm going to go maybe even lower.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Fifty seven percent. So advanced in bachelor's both tied a
fifty seven. How about associates degree?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I would say I would say.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Higher forty five percent. By the way, Cuomo got forty
eight So if you had an associates to degree, Mandanni lost.
How about some college so you don't have an associate's.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Degree, Mandannie, I would my gut is it way to
go even higher? But you're saying I'm wrong.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
You're wrong some college Mandanni forty percent. Cuomo forty eight percent.
How about high school graduate.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
See I would have thought high school graduated seventy plus
percent for Mondanni.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Nope, you're telling me that's wrong.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
This is Mandanni.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
This is breaking the normal model game of.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
High school graduates. Mandanni got thirty nine percent, Cuoma got
forty seven percent, and finally no high school degree, so
didn't even graduate high school.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I mean clearly based on the trend.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Now, the majority vote against Mandani that didn't have a
high school degree.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
So no high school degree forty percent voted from Mandani,
forty nine percent for Cuoma. So Cuomo beat Mandanni by
nine points. So who elected comrade Mandani. It is the
smarty pants, college educated advanced degrees. It is the rich
who elected Mondani. By the way, working class, look, if
(10:03):
you got a ged, if you've got a high school degree,
They're like, we don't want a socialist. These people are nuts.
And it is the rich New Yorkers who Look, I'm
not an armchair psychologist.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
But that is the elect This is the Sorouses.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
It is the Sorosys. By the way, the same comrade
Mondonne who said we should have no billionaires also happily
tweeted out a picture. Actually, Alex Soros tweeted out a
picture so proud to be a New Yorker. The American
dream continues. Congrats Mayor with a picture of the two
of them together. This is the same guy who said
(10:45):
no billionaire as well, except for the billionaires that funded
the communist takeover of New York City.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
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
know you got to run center soon, but I want
to ask you one other thing you want, And it
goes back to the book. When you write this book
and you sit down to do it, who did you
(11:12):
envision reading it? Is there some bigger purpose where you're like,
I want to write this for the future generation?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Was part of it?
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Just I wanted to just tell my story and how
I got to where I am today.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
What was it?
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Here's what I did. I sat down with a handheld
dictaphone at my kitchen table, and I started dictating, and
I dictated. I dictated I don't know how many hours,
hundreds of hours, and then I had it transcribed, and
then I put it together and then I had an
editor come in who looked at it and rearranged it,
and then I just started editing. And I was speaking
(11:44):
to the same person that Ted and I both speak
to when we do interviews, the average America. And I
tried to speak plainly. I don't try to muddy the
water to make it look deep. The American people don't
have time for that. And I wanted him to understand
that if you get mad, I can't help it. I
(12:06):
have the right to remain silent, but God did not
give me the ability. And some people are gonna like
it and some don't. But that's what the American people
expect from their politicians today. And it's one of the
reasons that that Senator Schumer, who Ted and I both know,
he's right now. He's got thirty percent approval rating, he's
(12:29):
got a sixty percent disapproval rating. The other ten percent
won't pause their video game to answer the poster's call.
And Chuck is polling, he's pulling right up there with
clubbing baby Seals. That's what I mean.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
But to be fair, he's still above chlamydia.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
He's still he's still both. It's large, it's close, but
because Chuck's been here so long. Ted, you know he's
been here so long. He sounds like Washington.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
So I will say, it's interesting you and I have
a very similar process. It sounds like for writing a book,
because that's that's very much the books I've written, and
some of it is it maybe being a lawyer and
having written briefs that that that process of recording and
telling stories. In my books, I just try to tell
stories because that's how people came.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
I've read a couple of books. There's a differ between
you and me, though I've written one book. Ted's written
about a squillion. Okay, but but it's hard. I mean,
it is a painful process.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
You know, all right, you're a kid. When does the
idea of being a lawyer? What was it that made
you say, hey, I can do that. I want to
do that.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
My dad was from a depression family in Oklahoma. He
got a degree, works the way through college and patrol
im engineering came to losing end of the work in
the wall fields married my mom. I have three brothers.
From day one, they drilled into us education education, education,
and it wasn't where you're going to go to college
(14:00):
or when you're going to go to college was where right,
and that was drilled in from day one. And I
enjoyed college. But I started thinking about law school then.
But but I stalled and restalled it as long as
I could. I mean, I spent four years in college,
and then I went three years in law school, and
then a clerk for a federal judge. And I tried
(14:22):
to get a Supreme Court clerkship. I didn't, you did,
uh uh? And then I said, well, I'm not ready
for the real world. I'm going back to school. I
went back and got another law of grid ye. And
then finally I had, you know, I had to. I
was out of money, you know, and I wanted to
eat and live indoors, so I didn't want to live
in a refrigerator box behind an outback. So I had
(14:44):
to go to work for a living.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
And Ben, I know something that I know you don't know.
I know the name of his old law partner.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Who is that?
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Who's that?
Speaker 3 (14:51):
So he would practice his name obviously as John Kennedy
and his partner with Jose Kenseko, and he'd walk in it.
He'd be John Kennedy and Jose Story. That's they would double.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Take one of my best friends. I was in a
for Louisiana, a big offer six trading halliers, and one
of my good friends was jose Knseka And we'd go
to meetings. I'd say, I'm John Kenny, this is jose Kensekh.
We're here to see so and so, and they said,
they would say, you're here to see securities.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Story.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
All right, So when did you get when did you
get the idea in your head you wanted to run
for office? Was this something like as a kid, you
always want to live.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
I always thought about it, but I was practicing all
earning a good living. Louisiana politics was rough, I mean
it was rough. He was under Governor Edwin the Edwards.
I wasn't part of his clique.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Who has my favorite political bumper sticker?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Ever? Yep?
Speaker 3 (15:47):
And you know exactly where I'm going?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Do you know?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Do you know this? Ben? I don't know.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
If you know this, I do not.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
So Edwin Edwards is running for governor against David Duke. Now,
David Duke was the former Grand Grand Wizard of the KKK.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Yeah grand words.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
But Edwin Edwards was as corrupt, He was as crooked
as the dog's hind legs. See, I'm trying to do
this to keep up with John pretty good ted and
and everyone knew he was corrupt, and so Edwin Edwards
bumper sticker said vote for the crook, it matters. And
if you're running against a kleansman, that was a winning slogan.
And then you know what, he was indicted and convicted
(16:24):
of embezzlement or fraud.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
When the economy was doing well, Abusian, I mean, this
was having a colorful governor was all fun and games.
He was. He was a big he's very promiscuous. He
used to say, uh, I give they make How did
he put it? When I give blood? They usually to
make Viagara? That was at I always thought that was
(16:49):
a pretty good and and there's a bump that's.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
The line they would have used about strom Thurmon too.
You and I didn't serve with strom Thurman, but by
all accounts, that would have described him accurately.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
And he was running for governor. I think it's the
third time, and he was way ahead of the polls.
He was running against incumbent and the press asking us,
they said, you're gonna win this race, and he said, well,
I put it this way. The only way I could
lose this race, and the last week is if I'm
caught in bed with a live girl or a dead boy.
(17:20):
And I thought that was pretty clever. But eventually his
past caught up to him and we elected a reform
governor named Buddy Romer, and I'd supported him. He asked
me to leave my practice come to Baton Rouge, and
I liked it. I was his legal counsel and I stayed.
And then I ran for office and got elected, and
I ran for the Senate three times. Took me three
(17:43):
times to get here, and I thought they left me
for dead for a few times. Politically, I switched parties
because the Democrat I couldn't. I just couldn't be a
Democrat anymore. And they all got mad at me, and
they tried to hurt me. But the mistake they made,
they're gonna let me live. They never should have letting
(18:04):
me live it. So I wanted on the third time,
and here we are. We're having fun, all right.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Biggest surprises when you get to the Senate. Biggest surprise
upside and biggest surprise downside.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Biggest surprise upside. You probably saw this. I came in
wanting to gallop you can't gallop in the Senate. You
have to inch along, and at first that frustrated me.
It still does, but it's not altogether bad because after
a while you realize the senator's job is not just
(18:36):
to advance good ideas, it's to kill bad ideas, and
sometimes killing the bad ideas is more important than advancing
the good ideas. That has been my biggest transformation in
the Senate. But it's frustrating Senator McConnell, who's your friend
(18:57):
and mine. But Mitch was the arding leader, and I
wouldn't used to taking orders from another politician. And Mitch
and I butted heads a few times. She butted heads
with you. Oh, Mitch liked to run it from the
top down, and I thought, I remember you and I talked.
(19:17):
When we passed President Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
We passed it through reconciliation, and Ted was an advocate
of doing a second bill, yep, And it just took
a majority vote no Democrats, and I'm backed him and
Mitch wouldn't do it, and we left so much good
(19:39):
policy on the take.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
It remains the most politically indefensible decision I've ever.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Seen, and I hope we don't do it under Trump's
second term.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Actually, John brought that up at lunch today, made that argument,
and it's clearly. Look, it is our best avenue to
win victories, and we should be focused on winning the
Now that man said, we got a lot done in
that one big bore.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Sure, but we get a second bite.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
At the act exactly, and a third if we want.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
It, and why not take it? Ye, why not take it?
And we don't have to get we don't have to
get Democratic votes. Yep, Because I'm I'm I'm you know,
I think I want to think the best of people,
but I just think it's gonna be hard to negotiate
anything with the Democrats from here on now.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
They just hate Trump. They're they're so extreme right now.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
I'm just blinded by by their their passion.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Senator, I'm gonna. I'm afraid of hitman from Louisiana. Your
staff's telling me we're supposed to wrap with you a
few minutes ago. So I want to hold up the
book again.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Sons, all right, so let me tell everyone again. Book
is How to Test Negative for Stupid and Why Washington
Never Will It is by John Kennedy, not John F. Kennedy,
But John Kennedy, the great United States Senator. The book
is funny, it is interesting. It gives you stories behind
the scenes of what's going on in the US Senate
(20:59):
John Kenny he rats out all his colleagues. He makes
them embarrassed. He makes them curl up, curl up. Chuck
Schumer curled up in a ball in the closet and
cried like a little girl. When when when John Kennedy
wrote this book. So you need to go to Amazon
and buy it. And I will say as I said before,
John Kennedy is easily one of my favorite colleagues. He
(21:21):
is by monny as hell, and he is smart as hell.
A lot of people don't realize this man is dangerous
and has you know he's an Oxford educated lawyer and
and with a Southern accent, particularly Yankees, underestimated and be like,
all right, he's got a Southern accent. He can't be
all that bright.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
You can't accuse me of being self aware, not being
self aware. I'm fully aware that my voice scares small children,
it sets off carl arms. But it's my voice. But
thank you for having me ed, Thank you, Ben, And.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
I'm gonna close. I'm gonna close with my favorite kennedyism,
which was in a Judiciary committee hearing. John Kennedy leaned
forward into the microphone and he said, Christmas tree ornaments
and Jeffrey Epstein, two things you know didn't hang themselves.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
I was sitting there going, wait, this is at an
open hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Did he really
say that it was?
Speaker 4 (22:21):
I did? It was true. I'd read that joke somewhere.
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
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.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
You may have missed.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
So, Ben, have you been to Israel before? Is this
first trip?
Speaker 2 (22:45):
This is my pilgrimage very first time ever.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Well, it is amazing. I've been a number of times
to Israel and it is a breathtaking place. It is
a place all of history converges on. It is the
birthplace of Christianity, is the birthplace of Judaism. In Israel
and Jerusalem, you walk down roads the city of David,
(23:08):
which is this underground archaeological excavation under Jerusalem. You walk
down the road from from the Pool of Shiloh to
the old Temple where Jesus most certainly walked, and you
walk along it and there are platforms that a street
(23:28):
preacher and itinerant preacher would stand and preach on it.
And you stand. I've stood on those platforms, and it
takes your breath away that Jesus Christ almost certainly stood
on this particular piece of stone addressing the crowd of
the Israelites who were there in Jerusalem. The Sea of Galilee.
(23:51):
You look at you imagine Jesus walking up to Peter,
walking up to fishermen and saying, follow me, and let
me make you fishers of men and not just fishermen.
And it is. It's a beautiful place. It is a
profound place. So tell me when did you arrive and
what have you done on the ground at Israel.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
So arrived on on Monday after delayed flight missed missed
a flight because of actually the shutdown is what we're
told with And then we had a time out with
with with the with the air traffic controllers and also
the crew on the plane. So we sat on the
tarmac for about five hours in Houston and then they
said you got to goetut the plane.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
We've lost our crew because of the rules. Uh.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
And this is a TSA And it was at the
very beginning of kind of the bread part of a broader.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Group or like what what's the reason for going to Israel.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Yeah, so I was asked to come over from the
Israeli government and also came with the CEO of i
f c J, the International Fellowship of Christian Jews.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
There is a a Christian leadership conference happening here as
well at the same time that is UH. It is
one that's been postponed because of the war. And so
I was asked to speak at that.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
This is a conference where BB is speaking, where you
have the Mayor of Jerusalem is speaking, you have the
US ambassador Mi Kacabee as well, and it is bringing
Christians together.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Back to the Holy Land.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
But then what also has happens They've set up these
incredible moments and tours where I've been able to meet
with some of the victims of the war and go
and see where the war is hanging placed. So yesterday
We actually went to the border with Syria and with
Lebanon and went literally to where we could see Hesblah
looking at us.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
And we met with the parents of the kids who
were killed on the soccer field. Tell us about that.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yeah, so last night I have and I will try
not to get emotional, but it's hard not to. I
was asked to come and to meet with the families,
some of the families who children. There was twelve children
that were killed while playing soccer on a soccer field.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
It made international news. We covered it on this show.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
And they asked me if I would meet with the
families and hear the family stories. And I was there
and the parents were talking of This was one of
the little girls you can see who died, and her
mother was the first one to speak, and she was
the age of the kids wanted to tell the story.
They were all different ages. They were very young to
(26:17):
a seventeen year old if I remember correctly. Some of
it was through translation, but you can kind of see
the different ages here. Some of them are obviously most
were younger, but you can see there someone's a little
bit older and junior high. You can see that's one
of the oldest kids there and and that was you know,
it's it's incredible. But we sat there and we were
hearing their stories, these kids, and at the very end,
(26:38):
they said they'd like to present me with things. I
didn't know they were going to do this, and I
put the picture of on social media, but the mother
of this young girl said that they wanted to give
me something. And I didn't see the ball before they
brought it out. But these pictures on this ball, so
people understand their stickers, they're handmade. And they said they
(26:58):
wanted to say thank you for standing up for their
kids and for telling their story to the world, because
they they want people to understand what it's like to
live in Israel and and what was taken from them.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Uh from By the way, these were children that were
doing nothing. They were they were playing on a soccer field.
There were being kids and suddenly Hesbala rocket came over
and killed them all.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yeah, and and it was a the way that they
described it was they didn't care who they killed. There
was there was a lot of media spend that well,
this this soccer field maybe wasn't directly target Hesbla doesn't
care who they killed.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
They just want to kill Jews.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Northern Israel, Southern Israel. Where the where's the kvotes You went.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
To tip the tip of northern on the opposite side
of where the attack happened. The initial attack hap in
October the Okay border with Lebedon and and Hesbelah. So
if you're looking at the map, this would be in
Syria Hesbla at the at the northern point. And they
started us there because they said they wanted us to
understand that.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
The goal, by the way, for folks from both sides.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
For folks at home to understand. So Israel is a
very small nation. It's about the size of the state
of New Jersey. Where October seventh happened was in the
southern part of Israel. It's right by the Gaza Strip.
The Gaza Strip is along the Mediterranean in the southern part,
and Hamas, which is the terrorist major terrorist organization in
the Gaza Strip, entered into southern Israel and murdered over
(28:25):
twelve hundred Israelis, raped women and little girls, took over
two hundred Israelis hostage. It was also one of the
worst American terrorist attacks ever, as we saw dozens of
Americans murdered, dozens of Americans taken hostage. Now northern Israel,
which is up by Lebanon and Syria, what you have
up there is hesbel A. Hesbel As a different terrorist organization.
(28:49):
Both Hesbela and Hamas their patron is Iran, and Iran
funds over ninety percent of Hamasa's budget. Iran funds over
ninety percent of Hesbela's budget. When October seventh first erupted,
Israel quite rightly declared we are going to utterly destroy Hamas.
There was an interesting period that extended for weeks and
(29:10):
then even a couple of months where it wasn't clear
if Hamas would be or rather Hesbela would be drawn
into this. Hamas was the restaurant on October seventh, and
Hesbela had the opportunity just to shut up and not engage,
and then Hesbela pretty quickly decided, nope, we want to
raise our hand, we want to engage, and began just
(29:31):
just firing rockets, a massive barrage of rockston in northern Israel,
thousands and the kids percent.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
I was told yesterday by the US government about sixty
percent of all the rockets on hand that Hesbla had
in their Arsenal were shot during this war.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Repeat that, that's a powerful statement.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Sixty percent.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
And as we had our briefing from the Israeli government,
we actually went to this neighborhood, this kibbutz, and in
this neighborhood, their sin for being targeted by Hesbla was
it that they farm pink lady apples that we eat
in the United States of America.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
And by the way, much of northern Israel was evacuated
because the rocket attacks were so intense that the Israelis
couldn't live there anymore, because you couldn't go into your
own home without risk of rock blowing it up. And
so the amazing thing is Hesbela literally volunteered and said, hey,
we want to be part of this. And then the
Israelis carried out the Pager Attack, which remains one of
(30:34):
the most extraordinardaried military and intelligence operations I think the
world has ever seen. Where I mean, I've joked, but
this is not a joke. If you wrote the Pager
Attack as a script to a movie, nobody in Hollywood
would buy it. If you wrote it as a Jason
Bourne movie, they said, this is ridiculous. You're telling me
(30:55):
Israel creates a shell company in Hong Kong, builds pass
years in advance, makes them heavy duty, kind of serious,
hardcore pagers and in beds where the battery would be
a tiny little explosive. Then gets this shell company in
Hong Kong to sell the pagers to Hesbela, Like, how
(31:17):
the hell do you do that? I don't know how
you sell pagers to Hesbela, but the Masad does. Israel does,
sells them to Hesbela, and then this remains the single
most targeted military and intelligence attack I think in history,
because it was Hesbela leadership that decided, Okay, who is
it that gets these pagers? I'm going to give it
(31:41):
to every crazy ass terrorist we have in lemanon the
people that I want to be able to page and say, hey,
would you go blow up a bus, would you go
blow up at a mall? Would you go murder children?
Take this pager? And then Israel, in a simultaneous moment,
detonated all the pagers and took out every person that
(32:02):
was injured, every person that was killed, with very minor
exceptions of someone who was really close to a terrorist.
They were personally selected by the leaders of Hesbela. Hesbela
decided which terrorists died. And by the way, within a
day or two there was a second operation where Hesbela
was using walkie talkies.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Those blew up and I say traded yeah as well. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
By the end of it, I think every Hesbela terrorists,
every Hamas terrorists, every Iran ir GC terrorists, like every
time a phone rang, they jumped. It was extraordinary and
it was a response to so what Hesbela literally volunteered
and said, we want to be decimated as bad as
as Hamas, and Israel said, well, happy to oblige.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yeah, and you go back to this neighborhood. And as
we went into this neighborhood which the people have a
lot of them have still not returned. Some of the
farmers are coming there to farm. But Hesbela knew the
houses that they were blowing up in this neighborhood were farmers.
They knew that they were families, and what they did
(33:12):
was to justify their attacks. Early on was when the
people had fled, the Israeli military would take back in
to the husband of the home to go get some
of their belongings before they would flee again. And they
justified the military walking in the house is the reason
to blow the house up. And so I met with
a farmer who had three children the exact same age
(33:33):
as my kids. Wow, and he was showing us his neighborhood,
and he was talking about how I had to come
back to tend the fields because this is my home.
And I was literally under rocket barrage and would come
to work knowing that Hesbelah was targeting the houses. And
so finally after a few days that the homeowners said
to the military, don't go back into my house, because
(33:56):
as soon as you go in there, they blow up
my home and everything is destroy We went into a home.
The books of the children were still there, the stove
was still there the way it was at that morning.
The one of the homeowners offered me a piece of
a broken pot of their home and a burner of
the stove and said take it back, and a piece
(34:17):
of their tile in their children's bathroom. I'll put it
on my desk for the rest of my life. But
to hear them talk about the brutality of Hesbla, knowing
that you're blowing up a farmer's home who has never
bothered you in your entire life for sport. It was
just for sport at that point. It was even killing
a person they knew that they were Yeah, just pure
(34:41):
sport and hatred, Like we're going to blow up your
neighborhood because you are Jewish. We know you're not there,
we know you have fled, but we want you to
come back to destruction in ruins.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
And so you've been in northern Israel, in Tel Aviv?
Have you been in Jerusalem? Where else have you been
been in?
Speaker 2 (35:00):
So?
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Been in Tel Aviv as well, which is an incredible city.
I didn't realize how much it's like New York.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
City or a maze. Yeah, it's a very modern nightlife city.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
But one other thing I want to mention about this
trip so far is I met with the mother of
one of the hostages that was taken that became unfortunately,
she became famous. If you remember the videos that came out,
there is a girl that's been separated from her boyfriend.
She is in between two terrafts on a motorcycle and
she's reaching out and screaming for her boyfriend who is
(35:33):
being held with his arms and minds back by two
terrats and they're separating them and that video just went
viral early on in the moments after he was held
underground for two years without seeing sunlight and was starved.
He was returned. They just re reunited. You may have
seen that video of them in the hospital finally getting
(35:53):
to see each other again and hugging and falling backwards
as a hug on the hospital bed, and the mother
was telling the story of her son and the trauma,
the way that they were mentally tortured and lied to,
that there was destruction of all of Israel been destroyed,
that the that there were told that their loved ones
had been killed, their family members had been murdered, that
(36:15):
no one had survived, that they were going to die,
that they were going to dig their own grapes. Some
of them did to to see the torment. And I
think that's one of the things I will forever remember
from this trip, and I'm grateful for it. Is when
we talk about what this is like, the psychological warfare
center and the evil of Hamas and Hezbelah has no ends,
(36:38):
whether it's blowing up farmers' homes for sport, whether it
is killing children, is that the soccer ball and seeing
these kids who were their only crime was being Jewish
and playing sports.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
That's it look soci chill.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Civilians are the embodiment of evil, and sadly we live
in a world where evil is plentiful.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
It's incredible.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
So today I'm going to be leaving with the government
and going down to the side of the attack at
the festival, and I'm going to be meeting with some
of the hostages there. I'm going to hopefully tell those
stories as well in one of our next episodes, because
it's just telling their stories and letting people understand what
happened that day, and going to go to the kibbutz
that were attacked there and tour the homes of the
(37:23):
children that were murdered in their cribs. I'm going to
meet with the families of the elderly that were killed,
including Holocaust survivors. I met with some Holocaust survivors that
we had to are homeless in essence and had to
move to Jerusalem to survive the war. I met with
them as well. Incredible stories. So we'll have more of that,
I promise you coming up in other episodes. But I
want to say to everyone that is listening, if you
(37:45):
are a person of faith, the pilgrimage to come here
and to see, I think the hope of our faith
in Christianity, to walk where Jesus walked, to walk where
he carried the cross.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
I did that the first day I was here. Uh.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
And to be able to just see the Sea of
Galilee and witness where so much of our biblical eighty
percent of the biblical history.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
And in the in the Bible with Jesus, I got
to witness from sending him one.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
Place one It's amazing to see.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
And it spread to the war.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
Where they believe Jesus was crucified, where they believe it
was buried, and and and and where he rose again
in heaven.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
I got to go to the tom Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Yeah, I mean standing in the tomb, I look as
a believer, it takes your breath away.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
The the the as I described it to family in
a text, I said, the level of feeling, I would
say the Holy Spirit in these places is something I've
never felt before.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
The second closest I've ever spelt to that type of
spiritual gathering of Christians was honestly, at Charlie Kirk's memorial
and and.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
And it was incredible.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Two of the biggest spiritual moments in my life have
happened in the last sixty days, both in a weird
way around tragedy, which also is why I think it's
incredible when you're a Christian that you know that.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
God is still a God of hope.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Amen as always, thank you for listening to Verdict with
Senator Ted Cruz ben Ferguson with you don't forget to
deal 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 in his verdic with Ted Cruz, we can review
Ben Ferguson with you. And here's some big stories that
you may have missed that we talked about this week.
First up, the polling numbers are out and we now
know a lot more about who voted for communism in
New York City. What does it mean for the rest
of the country. We'll break it down for you. Also,
Senator Kennedy joined us to talk about his new book.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Who did he write it for and what was the goal?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
And finally, I just got back from Israel with an
incredible trip, and we'll give you those highlights. It's the
weekend review and it starts right now. All right, So
let's break down the election. It was a quote disaster.
The media was just thrilled of what happened on election night.
Mandani is the one though, that I want to really
(00:47):
focus on for a second. He is a communist, He's
a proud communist. He went back to his core beliefs
in his victory speech, basically yelling at Donald Trump and
saying we are at communist city. The red apple literally
now is red apple of communism.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Breaking this down, this seems to be.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
A point where Democrats are actually almost doubling down on
this type of extremism in the party. I think this
is actually going to grow between now and the midterms.
And I want your reaction to what we learned.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Well, Comrade Mundami is the face of the Democrat Party now.
And I got to say the election results this week,
they were a disaster, that they were an absolute blowout.
What is striking as several things. Number one, turnout was
exceptionally high among the left wing base, and that's a
real warning sign for next year for the midterms. The
(01:39):
left showed up in massive numbers. They're pissed, they hate
Donald Trump, and that anger is dangerous, that anger is motivating.
And too many folks on the right, too many kind
of in the common sense middle stayed home. And I
will tell you if you look historically. All right, let's
(02:00):
go back to two thousand and eight. Two thousand and eight,
Barack Obama's elected. As a result, a lot of folks
on the right, you and me included, were really unhappy.
We didn't like Barack Obama's policies. We were pissed off.
Twenty ten was a massive title wave year. It was
the Tea party wave and It was in large part
because those on the right were particularly energized and angry.
(02:22):
Fast forward to twenty twelve, twenty twelve, Barack Obama's re
elected president and the reaction again. Twenty fourteen was another
wave election, a huge election. We won nine Senate seats,
We retired Harry Reid as majority leader. We won the
biggest majority in the House since nineteen twenty eight And
it was because, again, those on the right were angry,
They were energized, they were contributing money, they volunteered, and
(02:44):
those on the left were complacent. By the way. Fast
forward to twenty eighteen. Donald Trump had just been elected
in twenty sixteen. Twenty eighteen was a very good Democrat year.
We lost a bunch of seats. Why because the left
was really energized and folks on the right were a
little bit placement. This week's election day suggests that we're
in real danger of that happening again in twenty twenty
(03:06):
six that the left, I'll tell you on fundraising, the
left is out raising the right anywhere between three to
one and four to one. That is really really dangerous.
And the turnout, the turnout in Virginia, the left showed
up in much bigger numbers. The turnout in New Jersey,
the left showed up in much bigger numbers. The turnout
in New York City, the left turned out in much
bigger numbers. Now, Ben, I'll tell you one of the
(03:27):
most interesting do you know what demographic was dominated by
the radical left wing on election day?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
This is shocking because you and I we geek out
on the political stuff and dat after elections, young people
in the Democratic Party were really ready to go vote.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Yeah, but let me be more precise, young women, and
let me give you some stats. In New York City,
among young women eighteen to twenty nine, eighty one percent,
eighty one percent voted for Comrade Mandani. In New Jersey
eighteen to twenty nine, Wow, In New Jersey, among young women,
(04:09):
eighty percent voted for Mikey Cheryl the Democrat in New Jersey.
Of young women in Virginia, seventy eight percent of young
women voted for Abigail Spanberger. It was dominant. And by
the way, to give you a comparison, because yes, young
people went left, but there was there was a big
gender gap. So young women in New York eighty one
(04:33):
percent for Mondamie. Young men sixty four percent for Mondammie,
so almost a twenty point gender gap. How about New
Jersey young women eighty percent for Mikey Cheryl fifty four
percent of young men, so a twenty five twenty six
percent gender gap in New Jersey. How about Virginia seventy
(04:56):
eight percent for Span Burger of young women, just fifty
six percent of young men in Virginia. So we saw
that this was a race where the single most overwhelming
demographic was young women, which was so overwhelmingly lopsided that
it helped drive the results on election day.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
When you think about this, and then it goes back to, Okay,
what was the messaging that was connecting with young women
to have them come out in these numbers or was
it not so much of a message? And this is
part of the breakdown of trying to figure out what
you learned from election to make sure before the midterms
we can either we can course correct it. Or was
it just that the left and women in the Democratic
(05:41):
Party were so motivated compared to conservative women. I call
it the Trump sump. You feel like your party's in power,
you feel like they're doing the things that you asked
them to do. In places Donald Trump is putting in complacency,
but you feel comfortable because you're like, we just want
an election.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, things are great. Donald Trump's doing what he said
he was going to do.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
So when you look at it, was it issue base
based on data that we've seen, or was it more
just the other side was so angry that Donald Trump
won and they wanted to win so badly to send
a middle finger to the president that they showed up
in these record numbers and they voted for their candidate.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah, we don't have that data yet. There will be
time to break that out, but we don't have it
right now. But I'll give you another aspect. In New
York City, so there was a massive difference based on
whether you were a longtime New Yorker or you were
new to the city. So if you're a New York
voter and you had been in New York City, you
(06:35):
lived in New York City less than five years, what
percent of the people who lived in New York City
less than five years do you think voted for Comrade
Mundani got to be overwhelmingly high, eighty three percent. All right,
how about five to ten years, what do you think
five to ten years.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I would say it's probably still fairly high, but not
as high as that first.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Group seventy six percent. Okay, let's go ten years or more,
but not born in New York City. What do you
think the percentage.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Is above fifty percent?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Fifty four? So it drops from seventy six five to
ten years to fifty four. How about I was born
in New York City, which, by the way, is forty
seven percent of the voters were born in New York City.
What do you think what percent of the vote do
you think Mondanni got a people born in New York City.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I'm going to guess below fifty percent, thirty four percent.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Couloma got forty five percent. So Cuomo beat Mondanni by
eleven points among people born in New York, but among
people who lived in New York less than five years,
Mondanni beat him eighty three percent to fifteen percent, So
it is overwhelmingly Look, yeah, h clear was.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
A cuil rowling cry from Mandanni, and he did this
in his campaigning. He did it, by the way, in
his victory speech. He said that New York City is
a city of immigrants. In other words, if you came
here recently, I'm your guy. That the establishment, the old school,
the American citizen, You're not a priority in New York
City anymore. This reminds me an awful lot of what
(08:12):
we were talking about ten years ago in major cities
in the UK. We are seeing a lot of those
same type of results now in New York City.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Yeah, and by the way, there's also a significant educational differential.
All right, So if you're in New York and you
had an advanced degree, what percent of the vote do
you think Mandani.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Got advanced degree? I would say maybe around fifty percent
or below.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Fifty seven percent. Advanced degree fifty seven percent. How about
bachelor's degree?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Oh gosh, I'm going to go maybe even lower.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Fifty seven percent. So advanced in bachelor's both tied a
fifty seven. How about associates degree?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I would say I would say.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Higher forty five percent. By the way, Cuomo got forty
eight So if you had an associates to degree, Mandanni lost.
How about some college so you don't have an associate's.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Degree, Mandannie, I would my gut is it way to
go even higher? But you're saying I'm wrong.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
You're wrong some college Mandanni forty percent. Cuomo forty eight percent.
How about high school graduate.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
See I would have thought high school graduated seventy plus
percent for Mondanni.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Nope, you're telling me that's wrong.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
This is Mandanni.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
This is breaking the normal model game of.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
High school graduates. Mandanni got thirty nine percent, Cuoma got
forty seven percent, and finally no high school degree, so
didn't even graduate high school.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I mean clearly based on the trend.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Now, the majority vote against Mandani that didn't have a
high school degree.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
So no high school degree forty percent voted from Mandani,
forty nine percent for Cuoma. So Cuomo beat Mandanni by
nine points. So who elected comrade Mandani. It is the
smarty pants, college educated advanced degrees. It is the rich
who elected Mondani. By the way, working class, look, if
(10:03):
you got a ged, if you've got a high school degree,
They're like, we don't want a socialist. These people are nuts.
And it is the rich New Yorkers who Look, I'm
not an armchair psychologist.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
But that is the elect This is the Sorouses.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
It is the Sorosys. By the way, the same comrade
Mondonne who said we should have no billionaires also happily
tweeted out a picture. Actually, Alex Soros tweeted out a
picture so proud to be a New Yorker. The American
dream continues. Congrats Mayor with a picture of the two
of them together. This is the same guy who said
(10:45):
no billionaire as well, except for the billionaires that funded
the communist takeover of New York City.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
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
know you got to run center soon, but I want
to ask you one other thing you want, And it
goes back to the book. When you write this book
and you sit down to do it, who did you
(11:12):
envision reading it? Is there some bigger purpose where you're like,
I want to write this for the future generation?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Was part of it?
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Just I wanted to just tell my story and how
I got to where I am today.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
What was it?
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Here's what I did. I sat down with a handheld
dictaphone at my kitchen table, and I started dictating, and
I dictated. I dictated I don't know how many hours,
hundreds of hours, and then I had it transcribed, and
then I put it together and then I had an
editor come in who looked at it and rearranged it,
and then I just started editing. And I was speaking
(11:44):
to the same person that Ted and I both speak
to when we do interviews, the average America. And I
tried to speak plainly. I don't try to muddy the
water to make it look deep. The American people don't
have time for that. And I wanted him to understand
that if you get mad, I can't help it. I
(12:06):
have the right to remain silent, but God did not
give me the ability. And some people are gonna like
it and some don't. But that's what the American people
expect from their politicians today. And it's one of the
reasons that that Senator Schumer, who Ted and I both know,
he's right now. He's got thirty percent approval rating, he's
(12:29):
got a sixty percent disapproval rating. The other ten percent
won't pause their video game to answer the poster's call.
And Chuck is polling, he's pulling right up there with
clubbing baby Seals. That's what I mean.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
But to be fair, he's still above chlamydia.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
He's still he's still both. It's large, it's close, but
because Chuck's been here so long. Ted, you know he's
been here so long. He sounds like Washington.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
So I will say, it's interesting you and I have
a very similar process. It sounds like for writing a book,
because that's that's very much the books I've written, and
some of it is it maybe being a lawyer and
having written briefs that that that process of recording and
telling stories. In my books, I just try to tell
stories because that's how people came.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
I've read a couple of books. There's a differ between
you and me, though I've written one book. Ted's written
about a squillion. Okay, but but it's hard. I mean,
it is a painful process.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
You know, all right, you're a kid. When does the
idea of being a lawyer? What was it that made
you say, hey, I can do that. I want to
do that.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
My dad was from a depression family in Oklahoma. He
got a degree, works the way through college and patrol
im engineering came to losing end of the work in
the wall fields married my mom. I have three brothers.
From day one, they drilled into us education education, education,
and it wasn't where you're going to go to college
(14:00):
or when you're going to go to college was where right,
and that was drilled in from day one. And I
enjoyed college. But I started thinking about law school then.
But but I stalled and restalled it as long as
I could. I mean, I spent four years in college,
and then I went three years in law school, and
then a clerk for a federal judge. And I tried
(14:22):
to get a Supreme Court clerkship. I didn't, you did,
uh uh? And then I said, well, I'm not ready
for the real world. I'm going back to school. I
went back and got another law of grid ye. And
then finally I had, you know, I had to. I
was out of money, you know, and I wanted to
eat and live indoors, so I didn't want to live
in a refrigerator box behind an outback. So I had
(14:44):
to go to work for a living.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
And Ben, I know something that I know you don't know.
I know the name of his old law partner.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Who is that?
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Who's that?
Speaker 3 (14:51):
So he would practice his name obviously as John Kennedy
and his partner with Jose Kenseko, and he'd walk in it.
He'd be John Kennedy and Jose Story. That's they would double.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Take one of my best friends. I was in a
for Louisiana, a big offer six trading halliers, and one
of my good friends was jose Knseka And we'd go
to meetings. I'd say, I'm John Kenny, this is jose Kensekh.
We're here to see so and so, and they said,
they would say, you're here to see securities.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Story.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
All right, So when did you get when did you
get the idea in your head you wanted to run
for office? Was this something like as a kid, you
always want to live.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
I always thought about it, but I was practicing all
earning a good living. Louisiana politics was rough, I mean
it was rough. He was under Governor Edwin the Edwards.
I wasn't part of his clique.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Who has my favorite political bumper sticker?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Ever? Yep?
Speaker 3 (15:47):
And you know exactly where I'm going?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Do you know?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Do you know this? Ben? I don't know.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
If you know this, I do not.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
So Edwin Edwards is running for governor against David Duke. Now,
David Duke was the former Grand Grand Wizard of the KKK.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Yeah grand words.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
But Edwin Edwards was as corrupt, He was as crooked
as the dog's hind legs. See, I'm trying to do
this to keep up with John pretty good ted and
and everyone knew he was corrupt, and so Edwin Edwards
bumper sticker said vote for the crook, it matters. And
if you're running against a kleansman, that was a winning slogan.
And then you know what, he was indicted and convicted
(16:24):
of embezzlement or fraud.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
When the economy was doing well, Abusian, I mean, this
was having a colorful governor was all fun and games.
He was. He was a big he's very promiscuous. He
used to say, uh, I give they make How did
he put it? When I give blood? They usually to
make Viagara? That was at I always thought that was
(16:49):
a pretty good and and there's a bump that's.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
The line they would have used about strom Thurmon too.
You and I didn't serve with strom Thurman, but by
all accounts, that would have described him accurately.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
And he was running for governor. I think it's the
third time, and he was way ahead of the polls.
He was running against incumbent and the press asking us,
they said, you're gonna win this race, and he said, well,
I put it this way. The only way I could
lose this race, and the last week is if I'm
caught in bed with a live girl or a dead boy.
(17:20):
And I thought that was pretty clever. But eventually his
past caught up to him and we elected a reform
governor named Buddy Romer, and I'd supported him. He asked
me to leave my practice come to Baton Rouge, and
I liked it. I was his legal counsel and I stayed.
And then I ran for office and got elected, and
I ran for the Senate three times. Took me three
(17:43):
times to get here, and I thought they left me
for dead for a few times. Politically, I switched parties
because the Democrat I couldn't. I just couldn't be a
Democrat anymore. And they all got mad at me, and
they tried to hurt me. But the mistake they made,
they're gonna let me live. They never should have letting
(18:04):
me live it. So I wanted on the third time,
and here we are. We're having fun, all right.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Biggest surprises when you get to the Senate. Biggest surprise
upside and biggest surprise downside.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Biggest surprise upside. You probably saw this. I came in
wanting to gallop you can't gallop in the Senate. You
have to inch along, and at first that frustrated me.
It still does, but it's not altogether bad because after
a while you realize the senator's job is not just
(18:36):
to advance good ideas, it's to kill bad ideas, and
sometimes killing the bad ideas is more important than advancing
the good ideas. That has been my biggest transformation in
the Senate. But it's frustrating Senator McConnell, who's your friend
(18:57):
and mine. But Mitch was the arding leader, and I
wouldn't used to taking orders from another politician. And Mitch
and I butted heads a few times. She butted heads
with you. Oh, Mitch liked to run it from the
top down, and I thought, I remember you and I talked.
(19:17):
When we passed President Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
We passed it through reconciliation, and Ted was an advocate
of doing a second bill, yep, And it just took
a majority vote no Democrats, and I'm backed him and
Mitch wouldn't do it, and we left so much good
(19:39):
policy on the take.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
It remains the most politically indefensible decision I've ever.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Seen, and I hope we don't do it under Trump's
second term.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Actually, John brought that up at lunch today, made that argument,
and it's clearly. Look, it is our best avenue to
win victories, and we should be focused on winning the
Now that man said, we got a lot done in
that one big bore.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Sure, but we get a second bite.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
At the act exactly, and a third if we want.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
It, and why not take it? Ye, why not take it?
And we don't have to get we don't have to
get Democratic votes. Yep, Because I'm I'm I'm you know,
I think I want to think the best of people,
but I just think it's gonna be hard to negotiate
anything with the Democrats from here on now.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
They just hate Trump. They're they're so extreme right now.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
I'm just blinded by by their their passion.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Senator, I'm gonna. I'm afraid of hitman from Louisiana. Your
staff's telling me we're supposed to wrap with you a
few minutes ago. So I want to hold up the
book again.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Sons, all right, so let me tell everyone again. Book
is How to Test Negative for Stupid and Why Washington
Never Will It is by John Kennedy, not John F. Kennedy,
But John Kennedy, the great United States Senator. The book
is funny, it is interesting. It gives you stories behind
the scenes of what's going on in the US Senate
(20:59):
John Kenny he rats out all his colleagues. He makes
them embarrassed. He makes them curl up, curl up. Chuck
Schumer curled up in a ball in the closet and
cried like a little girl. When when when John Kennedy
wrote this book. So you need to go to Amazon
and buy it. And I will say as I said before,
John Kennedy is easily one of my favorite colleagues. He
(21:21):
is by monny as hell, and he is smart as hell.
A lot of people don't realize this man is dangerous
and has you know he's an Oxford educated lawyer and
and with a Southern accent, particularly Yankees, underestimated and be like,
all right, he's got a Southern accent. He can't be
all that bright.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
You can't accuse me of being self aware, not being
self aware. I'm fully aware that my voice scares small children,
it sets off carl arms. But it's my voice. But
thank you for having me ed, Thank you, Ben, And.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
I'm gonna close. I'm gonna close with my favorite kennedyism,
which was in a Judiciary committee hearing. John Kennedy leaned
forward into the microphone and he said, Christmas tree ornaments
and Jeffrey Epstein, two things you know didn't hang themselves.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
I was sitting there going, wait, this is at an
open hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Did he really
say that it was?
Speaker 4 (22:21):
I did? It was true. I'd read that joke somewhere.
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
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.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
You may have missed.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
So, Ben, have you been to Israel before? Is this
first trip?
Speaker 2 (22:45):
This is my pilgrimage very first time ever.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Well, it is amazing. I've been a number of times
to Israel and it is a breathtaking place. It is
a place all of history converges on. It is the
birthplace of Christianity, is the birthplace of Judaism. In Israel
and Jerusalem, you walk down roads the city of David,
(23:08):
which is this underground archaeological excavation under Jerusalem. You walk
down the road from from the Pool of Shiloh to
the old Temple where Jesus most certainly walked, and you
walk along it and there are platforms that a street
(23:28):
preacher and itinerant preacher would stand and preach on it.
And you stand. I've stood on those platforms, and it
takes your breath away that Jesus Christ almost certainly stood
on this particular piece of stone addressing the crowd of
the Israelites who were there in Jerusalem. The Sea of Galilee.
(23:51):
You look at you imagine Jesus walking up to Peter,
walking up to fishermen and saying, follow me, and let
me make you fishers of men and not just fishermen.
And it is. It's a beautiful place. It is a
profound place. So tell me when did you arrive and
what have you done on the ground at Israel.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
So arrived on on Monday after delayed flight missed missed
a flight because of actually the shutdown is what we're
told with And then we had a time out with
with with the with the air traffic controllers and also
the crew on the plane. So we sat on the
tarmac for about five hours in Houston and then they
said you got to goetut the plane.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
We've lost our crew because of the rules. Uh.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
And this is a TSA And it was at the
very beginning of kind of the bread part of a broader.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Group or like what what's the reason for going to Israel.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Yeah, so I was asked to come over from the
Israeli government and also came with the CEO of i
f c J, the International Fellowship of Christian Jews.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
There is a a Christian leadership conference happening here as
well at the same time that is UH. It is
one that's been postponed because of the war. And so
I was asked to speak at that.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
This is a conference where BB is speaking, where you
have the Mayor of Jerusalem is speaking, you have the
US ambassador Mi Kacabee as well, and it is bringing
Christians together.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Back to the Holy Land.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
But then what also has happens They've set up these
incredible moments and tours where I've been able to meet
with some of the victims of the war and go
and see where the war is hanging placed. So yesterday
We actually went to the border with Syria and with
Lebanon and went literally to where we could see Hesblah
looking at us.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
And we met with the parents of the kids who
were killed on the soccer field. Tell us about that.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yeah, so last night I have and I will try
not to get emotional, but it's hard not to. I
was asked to come and to meet with the families,
some of the families who children. There was twelve children
that were killed while playing soccer on a soccer field.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
It made international news. We covered it on this show.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
And they asked me if I would meet with the
families and hear the family stories. And I was there
and the parents were talking of This was one of
the little girls you can see who died, and her
mother was the first one to speak, and she was
the age of the kids wanted to tell the story.
They were all different ages. They were very young to
(26:17):
a seventeen year old if I remember correctly. Some of
it was through translation, but you can kind of see
the different ages here. Some of them are obviously most
were younger, but you can see there someone's a little
bit older and junior high. You can see that's one
of the oldest kids there and and that was you know,
it's it's incredible. But we sat there and we were
hearing their stories, these kids, and at the very end,
(26:38):
they said they'd like to present me with things. I
didn't know they were going to do this, and I
put the picture of on social media, but the mother
of this young girl said that they wanted to give
me something. And I didn't see the ball before they
brought it out. But these pictures on this ball, so
people understand their stickers, they're handmade. And they said they
(26:58):
wanted to say thank you for standing up for their
kids and for telling their story to the world, because
they they want people to understand what it's like to
live in Israel and and what was taken from them.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Uh from By the way, these were children that were
doing nothing. They were they were playing on a soccer field.
There were being kids and suddenly Hesbala rocket came over
and killed them all.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yeah, and and it was a the way that they
described it was they didn't care who they killed. There
was there was a lot of media spend that well,
this this soccer field maybe wasn't directly target Hesbla doesn't
care who they killed.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
They just want to kill Jews.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Northern Israel, Southern Israel. Where the where's the kvotes You went.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
To tip the tip of northern on the opposite side
of where the attack happened. The initial attack hap in
October the Okay border with Lebedon and and Hesbelah. So
if you're looking at the map, this would be in
Syria Hesbla at the at the northern point. And they
started us there because they said they wanted us to
understand that.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
The goal, by the way, for folks from both sides.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
For folks at home to understand. So Israel is a
very small nation. It's about the size of the state
of New Jersey. Where October seventh happened was in the
southern part of Israel. It's right by the Gaza Strip.
The Gaza Strip is along the Mediterranean in the southern part,
and Hamas, which is the terrorist major terrorist organization in
the Gaza Strip, entered into southern Israel and murdered over
(28:25):
twelve hundred Israelis, raped women and little girls, took over
two hundred Israelis hostage. It was also one of the
worst American terrorist attacks ever, as we saw dozens of
Americans murdered, dozens of Americans taken hostage. Now northern Israel,
which is up by Lebanon and Syria, what you have
up there is hesbel A. Hesbel As a different terrorist organization.
(28:49):
Both Hesbela and Hamas their patron is Iran, and Iran
funds over ninety percent of Hamasa's budget. Iran funds over
ninety percent of Hesbela's budget. When October seventh first erupted,
Israel quite rightly declared we are going to utterly destroy Hamas.
There was an interesting period that extended for weeks and
(29:10):
then even a couple of months where it wasn't clear
if Hamas would be or rather Hesbela would be drawn
into this. Hamas was the restaurant on October seventh, and
Hesbela had the opportunity just to shut up and not engage,
and then Hesbela pretty quickly decided, nope, we want to
raise our hand, we want to engage, and began just
(29:31):
just firing rockets, a massive barrage of rockston in northern Israel,
thousands and the kids percent.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
I was told yesterday by the US government about sixty
percent of all the rockets on hand that Hesbla had
in their Arsenal were shot during this war.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Repeat that, that's a powerful statement.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Sixty percent.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
And as we had our briefing from the Israeli government,
we actually went to this neighborhood, this kibbutz, and in
this neighborhood, their sin for being targeted by Hesbla was
it that they farm pink lady apples that we eat
in the United States of America.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
And by the way, much of northern Israel was evacuated
because the rocket attacks were so intense that the Israelis
couldn't live there anymore, because you couldn't go into your
own home without risk of rock blowing it up. And
so the amazing thing is Hesbela literally volunteered and said, hey,
we want to be part of this. And then the
Israelis carried out the Pager Attack, which remains one of
(30:34):
the most extraordinardaried military and intelligence operations I think the
world has ever seen. Where I mean, I've joked, but
this is not a joke. If you wrote the Pager
Attack as a script to a movie, nobody in Hollywood
would buy it. If you wrote it as a Jason
Bourne movie, they said, this is ridiculous. You're telling me
(30:55):
Israel creates a shell company in Hong Kong, builds pass
years in advance, makes them heavy duty, kind of serious,
hardcore pagers and in beds where the battery would be
a tiny little explosive. Then gets this shell company in
Hong Kong to sell the pagers to Hesbela, Like, how
(31:17):
the hell do you do that? I don't know how
you sell pagers to Hesbela, but the Masad does. Israel does,
sells them to Hesbela, and then this remains the single
most targeted military and intelligence attack I think in history,
because it was Hesbela leadership that decided, Okay, who is
it that gets these pagers? I'm going to give it
(31:41):
to every crazy ass terrorist we have in lemanon the
people that I want to be able to page and say, hey,
would you go blow up a bus, would you go
blow up at a mall? Would you go murder children?
Take this pager? And then Israel, in a simultaneous moment,
detonated all the pagers and took out every person that
(32:02):
was injured, every person that was killed, with very minor
exceptions of someone who was really close to a terrorist.
They were personally selected by the leaders of Hesbela. Hesbela
decided which terrorists died. And by the way, within a
day or two there was a second operation where Hesbela
was using walkie talkies.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Those blew up and I say traded yeah as well. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
By the end of it, I think every Hesbela terrorists,
every Hamas terrorists, every Iran ir GC terrorists, like every
time a phone rang, they jumped. It was extraordinary and
it was a response to so what Hesbela literally volunteered
and said, we want to be decimated as bad as
as Hamas, and Israel said, well, happy to oblige.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yeah, and you go back to this neighborhood. And as
we went into this neighborhood which the people have a
lot of them have still not returned. Some of the
farmers are coming there to farm. But Hesbela knew the
houses that they were blowing up in this neighborhood were farmers.
They knew that they were families, and what they did
(33:12):
was to justify their attacks. Early on was when the
people had fled, the Israeli military would take back in
to the husband of the home to go get some
of their belongings before they would flee again. And they
justified the military walking in the house is the reason
to blow the house up. And so I met with
a farmer who had three children the exact same age
(33:33):
as my kids. Wow, and he was showing us his neighborhood,
and he was talking about how I had to come
back to tend the fields because this is my home.
And I was literally under rocket barrage and would come
to work knowing that Hesbelah was targeting the houses. And
so finally after a few days that the homeowners said
to the military, don't go back into my house, because
(33:56):
as soon as you go in there, they blow up
my home and everything is destroy We went into a home.
The books of the children were still there, the stove
was still there the way it was at that morning.
The one of the homeowners offered me a piece of
a broken pot of their home and a burner of
the stove and said take it back, and a piece
(34:17):
of their tile in their children's bathroom. I'll put it
on my desk for the rest of my life. But
to hear them talk about the brutality of Hesbla, knowing
that you're blowing up a farmer's home who has never
bothered you in your entire life for sport. It was
just for sport at that point. It was even killing
a person they knew that they were Yeah, just pure
(34:41):
sport and hatred, Like we're going to blow up your
neighborhood because you are Jewish. We know you're not there,
we know you have fled, but we want you to
come back to destruction in ruins.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
And so you've been in northern Israel, in Tel Aviv?
Have you been in Jerusalem? Where else have you been
been in?
Speaker 2 (35:00):
So?
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Been in Tel Aviv as well, which is an incredible city.
I didn't realize how much it's like New York.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
City or a maze. Yeah, it's a very modern nightlife city.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
But one other thing I want to mention about this
trip so far is I met with the mother of
one of the hostages that was taken that became unfortunately,
she became famous. If you remember the videos that came out,
there is a girl that's been separated from her boyfriend.
She is in between two terrafts on a motorcycle and
she's reaching out and screaming for her boyfriend who is
(35:33):
being held with his arms and minds back by two
terrats and they're separating them and that video just went
viral early on in the moments after he was held
underground for two years without seeing sunlight and was starved.
He was returned. They just re reunited. You may have
seen that video of them in the hospital finally getting
(35:53):
to see each other again and hugging and falling backwards
as a hug on the hospital bed, and the mother
was telling the story of her son and the trauma,
the way that they were mentally tortured and lied to,
that there was destruction of all of Israel been destroyed,
that the that there were told that their loved ones
had been killed, their family members had been murdered, that
(36:15):
no one had survived, that they were going to die,
that they were going to dig their own grapes. Some
of them did to to see the torment. And I
think that's one of the things I will forever remember
from this trip, and I'm grateful for it. Is when
we talk about what this is like, the psychological warfare
center and the evil of Hamas and Hezbelah has no ends,
(36:38):
whether it's blowing up farmers' homes for sport, whether it
is killing children, is that the soccer ball and seeing
these kids who were their only crime was being Jewish
and playing sports.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
That's it look soci chill.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Civilians are the embodiment of evil, and sadly we live
in a world where evil is plentiful.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
It's incredible.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
So today I'm going to be leaving with the government
and going down to the side of the attack at
the festival, and I'm going to be meeting with some
of the hostages there. I'm going to hopefully tell those
stories as well in one of our next episodes, because
it's just telling their stories and letting people understand what
happened that day, and going to go to the kibbutz
that were attacked there and tour the homes of the
(37:23):
children that were murdered in their cribs. I'm going to
meet with the families of the elderly that were killed,
including Holocaust survivors. I met with some Holocaust survivors that
we had to are homeless in essence and had to
move to Jerusalem to survive the war. I met with
them as well. Incredible stories. So we'll have more of that,
I promise you coming up in other episodes. But I
want to say to everyone that is listening, if you
(37:45):
are a person of faith, the pilgrimage to come here
and to see, I think the hope of our faith
in Christianity, to walk where Jesus walked, to walk where
he carried the cross.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
I did that the first day I was here. Uh.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
And to be able to just see the Sea of
Galilee and witness where so much of our biblical eighty
percent of the biblical history.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
And in the in the Bible with Jesus, I got
to witness from sending him one.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
Place one It's amazing to see.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
And it spread to the war.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
Where they believe Jesus was crucified, where they believe it
was buried, and and and and where he rose again
in heaven.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
I got to go to the tom Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Yeah, I mean standing in the tomb, I look as
a believer, it takes your breath away.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
The the the as I described it to family in
a text, I said, the level of feeling, I would
say the Holy Spirit in these places is something I've
never felt before.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
The second closest I've ever spelt to that type of
spiritual gathering of Christians was honestly, at Charlie Kirk's memorial
and and.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
And it was incredible.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Two of the biggest spiritual moments in my life have
happened in the last sixty days, both in a weird
way around tragedy, which also is why I think it's
incredible when you're a Christian that you know that.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
God is still a God of hope.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Amen as always, thank you for listening to Verdict with
Senator Ted Cruz ben Ferguson with you don't forget to
deal 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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