-
Horrific Murder in Washington, D.C.:
- A tragic double homicide near the Israeli embassy involving two Jewish victims, Sarah Milgram and Jerone Leshinsky, allegedly targeted due to antisemitic hatred.
- The suspect, Elias Rodriguez, is described as a radical leftist who shouted pro-Palestinian slogans during the attack.
- The discussion expands into the rise of antisemitism on college campuses and the broader societal implications.
-
No Tax on Tips Legislation:
- Senator Cruz celebrates the unanimous Senate passage (100–0) of his bill to eliminate federal taxes on tips.
- The bill, inspired by a conversation Donald Trump had with a waitress, is framed as a win for blue-collar workers and a bipartisan success.
-
Take It Down Act Signed into Law:
- President Trump signs into law the Take It Down Act, co-authored by Cruz and Senator Amy Klobuchar.
- The law criminalizes the distribution of non-consensual explicit images, including AI-generated deepfakes, and mandates tech platforms to remove such content upon request.
- The story of Elliston Barry, a teenage victim of deepfake abuse, is highlighted as a catalyst for the legislation.
-
The Last Rodeo Movie Preview:
- Actor Neil McDonough joins to promote his new faith-based, family-friendly film The Last Rodeo.
- The film tells the story of a retired bull rider who returns to the sport to save his grandson.
- McDonough discusses the film’s themes of faith, family, and perseverance, and shares behind-the-scenes stories, including casting his real-life wife and sustaining injuries during filming.
Please Hit Subscribe to this podcast Right Now. Also Please Subscribe to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson and the Ben Ferguson Show Podcast Wherever You get You're Podcasts. Thanks for Listening
#seanhannity #hannity #marklevin #levin #charliekirk #megynkelly #tucker #tuckercarlson #glennbeck #benshapiro #shapiro #trump #sexton #bucksexton#rushlimbaugh #limbaugh #whitehouse #senate #congress #thehouse #democrats #republicans #conservative #senator #congressman #congressmen #congresswoman #capitol #president #vicepresident #POTUS #presidentoftheunitedstatesofamerica #SCOTUS #Supremecourt #DonaldTrump #PresidentDonaldTrump #DT #TedCruz #Benferguson #Verdict #justicecorrupted #UnwokeHowtoDefeatCulturalMarxisminAmerica
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruz
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome in his verdict with Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you, Cenaer.
Always a pleasure to be with you, and we've got
one jam packed show for you tonight.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Well, there's an enormous amount going on. This week. We
saw the tragic murder of two people who worked in
the Israeli embassy, murdered by a radical left Palestinian racist.
It was the absolute manifestation of evil. We're going to
tell you what happened there and break down the evil
(00:29):
that we are seeing on college campuses, that we are
seeing spreading hate, hate for Jews and anti Semitism, hate
for Israel, hate for America, and the absolute utter evil
we saw unfold this week. We're also going to talk
about the remarkable fact that the United States Senate passed
my legislation No Taxes on Tips one hundred to nothing.
(00:53):
No Taxes on Tips is going to become the law
of the land. The Democrats actually supported no taxes on Tips.
We're gonna explain that to you, and next we're going
to talk about to Take it Down Act legislation I
authored that President Trump signed into law this week that
will protect women and teenage girls from revenge porn from
deep fake porn. It is critical legislation keeping all of
(01:17):
our kids safe and keeping all of us safe, and
it is now the law of the land.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Yeah, it really is. Plus, we've got something really cool.
Neil McDonald's going to join us, and there is a
new movie that is out right now.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
It is called The Last Rodeo.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
It is a faith based, family friendly movie that is
getting nationwide distribution. You may know Neil from Tulsa, King
and Yellowstone. He's going to join us as well to
talk about this new movie. And we're gonna have a
chance for you also to win free tickets as well
for Verdict listeners.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
That's really awesome as well.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
So Sentaer, let's talk about this first, just shocking attack
that happened in Washington, d C. Where this happened. I've
been to this area and been to this place several
times in my life. When you know where it happened,
I think it just takes your breath away. And then
to understand the hatred and the anti Semitism behind it.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, it was just a few blocks away from the Capitol.
It was by the d C Field Office, It was
by a Jewish museum and two people were murdered, Sarah
Milgram and Jerone Leshinsky. They were about to get engaged,
to be married, and they were murdered for one reason,
(02:28):
because they were Jewish. The person who killed them was
not a Palestinian. He was not someone from Gaza. No,
he was a left wing radical from Chicago. He was
his name is Elias Rodriguez, and he was a socialist.
He was a Marxist. And when he murdered them, he
(02:50):
murdered them screaming, free, free Palestine. This was the pure
manifestation of hate. And I will tell you he didn't
just shoot them once. He made certain to execute them.
As Sarah crawled away in agony after he shot her,
he followed her and he shot her again and again
(03:14):
and again from the back. He executed her in cold blood.
He fired at least twenty one nine millimeter bullets at them.
That's how many cartridge cases were found. And then he
just jogged off. Was it is pure unmitigated racist hate,
and it is the lies that that the left spreads.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
You know, this is one of those moments where you
realize just how bad anti Semitism has become, specifically in
this country, and a lot of it is among younger people,
and it is exploded on college campuses, and we see
that there are real consequences for this type of bigotry
and hatred towards people that are Jewish.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Well, and Ben, I'll tell you amazing story about the
two of them that I learned today. So earlier today,
I spoke at the Hudson Institute, and I spoke at
their Middle East Center about the Middle East and about
China's massive efforts to have greater influence in the Middle East.
And I was interviewed by Zeneb Rabua, who works at
(04:20):
the Hudson Institute and who was good friends with your
own and a number of the people who were at
my speech today, we're good friends with your own. In fact,
he might well have attended the speech. He was a
Middle East expert, and this was a speech in d
C to Middle East experts the day after he and
Sarah were murdered. Well, here's what Zeneb told me that
(04:42):
I did not know. I'm just going to read a
tweet she sent earlier today. The last time I spoke
with your own, he told me that it was thanks
to Ted Cruz that he met Sarah. They first crossed
paths at an event where the Senator was speaking. Today,
I had the privilege of sharing that story with Senator
(05:02):
Cruz himself. We spoke about China, Iran and the rise
of anti Semitism. He listened with warmth and paid a
moving tribute to Yourna and Sarah. They both admired him deeply.
I did not know yourne and Sarah, but I'm literally speechless.
I'm literally reduced to tears that this is a couple
(05:23):
who met at a speech I was given, fell in love,
we're about to get engaged, and were murdered by the
face of evil. And I will tell you this is
the face of evil we see on college campuses. You
know the phrase free, free Palestine. I'll tell you, Ben,
For a year, I woke up every Saturday morning seven
(05:44):
am to screams of free free Palestine in my front
yard because pro Haamas protesters arrived every morning seven am,
banging bells and drums, screaming, screaming expletives and chanting free,
free Palestine. And listen. This is the consequence of the
(06:04):
anti Semiticate. And I will tell you I want you
to listen to this interview on CNN. CNN interviewed one
of the witnesses to what happened here and listen to
just just the left wing twist of what passes for
our corporate media.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Give a listen as you go forward, as you go
forward with what you have seen. Can you give us
any sense because you said you look the shooter in
the eyes, can you give us any sense of what
you saw in him as he was sort of getting
help and people were tending to him, as if he
too was a victim of seeing this.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
Yeah, it would just be clear.
Speaker 6 (06:43):
I like heard out that part because we were in
a secure room when he initially walked in. I just
saw him screaming and then being handcuffed. But what I
saw in his eyes, I mean I went to Columbia
for grads.
Speaker 7 (06:54):
Go on.
Speaker 6 (06:54):
I saw the same thing in his eyes as I
saw in the eyes of all the protesters at Columbia.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
Nothing different between him and them.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
But they did not create this horrific shooting.
Speaker 5 (07:04):
They did not, you know, sort of they didn't shoot.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
They created.
Speaker 6 (07:09):
They gave permission. They gave the permission, and they have
called for this. They have called for intifada revolution, which
is the same thing he yelled last night.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Do you worry that there will be a come conflation though,
of the two, those people who are speaking their mind,
who really care about what is happening in Gaza, and
those people who are like this person who did this
horrific shooting, who intend to do harm a conflation.
Speaker 6 (07:35):
I mean, they are calling for intifada at Columbia University.
They call for intifada constantly. Now they're not quietly, they're loud.
They're loud.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
You can hear it. They make recordings of themselves. So
what's the difference. Are you afraid? Yes? What were you
all afraid? Everyone should be afraid?
Speaker 4 (07:50):
What are you doing to try to make yourself feel safer?
Speaker 6 (07:54):
Well, can't you just go on and live your life.
I'm a New Yorker, I remember nine to eleven. You
can't let them make you be afraid.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
You have to go on.
Speaker 6 (08:01):
You have to live your life and hopefully your government
does things to protect you.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
Last night, our government failed us.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
You know, this is what's wrong with CNN, this is
what's wrong with our corporate media that they want to
defend the anti Semitic protesters on campus. That witness who
saw the horrific murder, he's exactly right that when people
are channing we love Hamas, which is what they're channing
on many of these campuses when they're calling for intefada.
This is into fada. This is the murder they're calling for,
(08:29):
and CNN is being an apologist for them. And I
have to say, our prayers are very much with the
families of your own and Sarah, what happened to them
was utterly horrible and utterly evil.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Centa, I want to move on to a really exciting
issue and it's going to have a massive impact on
a lot of hard working Americans that are in the
service industry. This is something that you have championed and
it became reality in a historic vote on no taxes
on tips. What a simple idea, but it's going to
have a huge impact in this country.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Well, two things happened this week on no taxes on tips.
First of all, the House of Representatives passed the one big,
beautiful bill, the giant Reconciliation bill that extends the Trump
tax cuts, that secures the border, that rebuilds the military,
and included within it is my legislation on no taxes
on tips. So the House passed that this week. At
(09:24):
the same time, the Senate took up and passed as
a freestanding bill, my no Taxes on Tips legislation. And
let me tell you the backstory on this. So you remember,
during the presidential campaign, President Trump campaigned on no Taxes
on Tips and he rolled it out in Las Vegas.
And the week after he rolled it out, he came
(09:47):
and had lunch with all the Republican senators and he
told us the story of where the idea came from.
And he said, before his rally in Las Vegas, he
was sitting having lunch, and he said a waitress was
bringing him his lunch and and Trump said, and she
was beautiful. She was absolutely beautiful, which which we were
all cracking up laughing at. And and he said she
(10:09):
was she was expressing just how much burden it was
to to to pay taxes on her tips. And then
the taxes on tips had gone up under Joe Biden
and Kamala Harris. And Trump said, he just grabbed a
note pad of paper and he wrote on the notepad,
no Taxes on Tips. And he showed it to her, says,
what do you think of this? And she said great, fantastic.
(10:30):
So he said, well, I decided to to just announce
it at the rally. He said, sometimes I do that,
And so he went out to the rally thousands of
people in Las Vegas, and he said, when I'm when
I'm reelected, we will have no taxes on tips. And
he said and they went crazy. Everyone went crazy. So
he told us that story, and I got to say,
(10:50):
I thought it was It was brilliant. It was a
great idea. I strongly support that idea. And so he
announced it. He came up with it, and I said, well,
I'm going to draft the legislation to make it happen.
And so I sat down and wrote the legislation to
make it part of our tax laws, and I introduced
it the week after he announced it. Well, the week
I introduced it, two different Democrats, both senators from Nevada,
(11:14):
joined my bill. They co sponsored my bill. Actually, Jackie
Rose in one of the two Democrats from Nevada, she
told me that day she said, you know, twenty five
percent of the workers in the state of Nevada are
tipped workers. So they joined my bill. My bill is
the one the House put in one big, beautiful bill. Well,
what happened this week is Jackie Rose and the Democrat
(11:35):
decided to go to the floor of the House of
the Senate and seek unanimous consent to pass my bill. Now,
the way unanimous consent work, as you're asking, will any
senator object it? If no senator objects, then it passes.
And the way you do it is you run what's
called a hotline, which is you send a request to
(11:56):
every senator's office. Are you going to object to this?
And I think the Democrats expected that the Republicans would object.
I'm sitting there growing wait a seconds, It's my bill.
Why would I object to my own bill. Of course
I want to pass my bill. So I didn't object.
No other Republican objected, and astonishingly no Democrat objected either.
(12:17):
So Jackie came to the Senate floor and she said, hey,
I think this thing's going to pass. And I said,
we'll do it quickly. Get up and do it quickly.
Don't give a long speech, just stand up and ask
unanimous consent and get it done. Because I was worried
that some Democrat was going to turn on c Span
and see what we were doing and run down to
the Senate floor and object. Well, and it is very
(12:40):
unusual for somebody else to ask unanimous consent to pass
your bill. It's almost always you. You're almost always the
one doing it. But she went, she asked for consent,
nobody objected, and so No Tax on Tips passed the
United States Senate this week one hundred to nothing. Every
Republican voted for it, every Democrat voted for it. And
(13:01):
the good news about that is it means the chances
of no taxes on tips becoming federal law are now
very close to one hundred percent. It's in the Reconciliation bill.
It will either pass as part of one big, beautiful
bill or it will pass as a freestanding bill. Either way,
we're going to get that policy, which is a great
policy for American workers.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
So how often do you get one hundred and nothing
bills like this? I mean, that's the part that I
think is just so exciting.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
You know, it happens with some regularity in the Senate
in particular, you work to find a bill that people
agree with, and you go down and pass legislation, and
you can get legislation passed one hundred to nothing. I
have authored and passed into law one hundred and three
different pieces of legislation. And my guess is roughly half
(13:52):
of them or more were by unanimous consent. They passed
one hundred to nothing. Some of it is you work
out the objections in the process, and so when you
run the hotline, you may get four or five objectors,
and you go to them and say, hey, what's your
problem with the bill? What do you not like about it?
And if they have a particular concern, you try to
work through it all.
Speaker 8 (14:13):
Right.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Another bill that we will get past but we haven't yet,
is is my bill on AM radio for every vehicle. Look,
we're on AM radio right now. As you know, eight
car makers announced that they were going to pull AM
radio off of new cars and new trucks, and I
introduced legislation with Ed Markey, liberal Democrat from Massachusetts to
(14:35):
ensure that AM radio stays in new cars and trucks. Actually,
the day after Markey and I introduced the legislation, Ford
Motor Company reversed its decision and said we're not We're
going to go back to including AM radio. So I
went to the Senate floor and tried to pass it
by unanimous consent, and it failed because Ran Paul came
(14:56):
down and objected, and Ran Paul opposes me of every kind.
I oppose many mandates, but I think giving consumers the
choice of having AM radio is a good choice for consumers.
It's very inexpensive for car car makers, and so that
one will not pass by unanimous consents. So we'll have
to get floor time, which is harder to get. What
(15:17):
I will say on No Taxes on Tips is this
is a policy that really is the manifestation of how
the Republican Party today is a blue collar party. This
is a policy that is going to benefit waiters and waitresses.
It's going to benefit bartenders. It's going to benefit barbers
and hairstylists. It's going to benefit beauticians and people who
(15:38):
work at nail salons and taxicab drivers. It is impacting
the working men and women. And that's the base who
elected President Trump, and that's the base who elected me,
and and so it's really a great and astonishing victory.
I got to tell you, Ben, both Republicans and Democrats
were utterly flabbergasted to see No Taxes on Tips pass
(16:00):
unanimously in the Senate this week.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Center, let's talk about this other incredible moment that happened
this week at the White House. Donald Trump signed to
take it down act into law. It's something that you
championed and remind people what this law is intent and
why it is such an important reason of legislation to
protect not only young people and minors, but really anyone
from just evil and hateful revenge from an ex.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Well, this is legislation that I authored that President Trump
signed into law this week. Actually he signed it into
law in the Rose Garden and a big ceremony in
the Rose Garden. I've done a lot of bill signing
ceremonies in the Oval Office. This first time I've been
in the Rose Garden because you had victim groups and
victim advocates and people who have been victims of non
(16:46):
consensual explicit imagery. Now what is that? That's really two
different things. Number One, so called revenge porn. So if
you have a boyfriend and girlfriend and they're in a
relationship and they take explicit pictures or videos and then
they have a breakup and one or the other is
mad and they say, Okay, I'm going to stick it
to you. I'm going to put this out for the
(17:06):
whole world to see. And it is an utterly grotesque
violation of privacy. Nobody has the right to do that
to somebody else, and it's something we're seeing happening more
and more often. There's a second manifestation that is new,
and it has to deal with technology, which is more
and more we are seeing people use AI artificial intelligence
(17:27):
to create deep fakes and deep fakes where they appear
to be either a picture or a video of a
real person, but it's utterly fake. And so they make
and naked or explicit image of someone and put it out.
And the incidence of deep fakes last year increased three
thousand percent, and over ninety percent of the victims of
(17:50):
deep fake explicit imagery are women or teenage girls, and
so it is growing massively. And so the Take It
Down Act is legislation, and I introduce that makes it
a crime, a federal felony to post non consensual intimate images,
either real pictures or deep fakes. And secondly, it puts
(18:11):
a federal statutory obligation on tech platforms to take the
pictures down, to take the videos down, because the platforms
have been horrible responding to victims. They ignore victims, they
leave the images up, and so the victim ends up
being being victimized over and over and over again by
the images staying out there. And so the take It
(18:31):
Down at puts a legal obligation that when the victim
notifies them, hey that's me, that's an explicit image of me,
and you don't have my consent to put it up,
they have to take it down. This legislation I introduced
with Amy klovichar Democrat from Minnesota, and we passed it
through the Senate. We passed it unanimously. It was one
hundred and nothing. And then the House took it up
(18:53):
and passed it with an overwhelming bipartisan majority, and President
Trump signed it in the law. And give a listen
to what President Trump said this week in the Rose
Garden as he signed to Take It Down Act into law.
Speaker 7 (19:05):
Today. It's my honor to officially sign they Take It
Down Act into law. It's a big thing, very important,
so horrible what takes place. This will be the first
ever federal law to combat the distribution of explicit imaginary
posted without subjects consent, take horrible pictures, and I guess
(19:26):
sometimes even make up the pictures and they post it
without consent or anything else. And very importantly, this includes
for forgeries generated by artificial intelligence known as deep fakes.
We've all heard about deep fakes. I have all the time,
but I don't nobody does anything. I asked, Pam, can
you help me, Pam, She says, no, I'm too busy,
too busy doing other things. Don't worry. You'll survive, But
(19:48):
a lot of people don't survive. That's true and so horrible.
With the rise of AI image generation, countless women have
been harassed with deep fakes and other explicit images bitted
against their will. This is the wrong and it's just
so horribly wrong, and it's a very abusive situation, like
(20:09):
in some cases people have never seen before. And today
we're making it totally illegal.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Sinner.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
One of the things I just I love about this
legislation is the fact that not only is it bipartisan,
but you had the first Lady who really got involved
in this as well. It was important to her and
that made it I think even easier to bridge the gap.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Well we did. The first Lady became very active in
pushing this bill. She reached out out to me and
said she wanted to help get it over the finish line.
So last year we passed it out of the Senate
one hundred to nothing, and the House failed to take
it up last year, so it did not pass last year,
and so we got to this year to the new Congress.
(20:49):
I passed it through the Senate again one hundred to nothing.
And the real battle was to get it to rise
up the priority list of House leadership. And so when
the First Lady my office and said she wanted to help,
what I did is I invited her to come to
Capitol Hill for a roundtable where she could hear from
the victims. And also at that roundtable was the Speaker
(21:13):
of the House and Steve Scalise, the Majority Leader, and
Brett Guthrie, who's the committee chairman in the House. And
when the First Lady asked them, will you please pass
this into law, they committed to her they would. And
this was the day before the State of the Union address,
and you may remember the State of the Union address,
Milania was sitting with a teenage girl from Texas, Elliston Barry,
(21:38):
and President Trump told her story in the State of
the Union and called on Congress to pass this bill.
And I'll tell you it's actually it's a fascinating story
of how this bill came to pass because it originates
with one teenage girl in Texas, Elliston Barry. She's from
North Texas, from Aledo, Texas, and a year ago she
(21:58):
was fourteen, and she was in ninth grade and she
woke up one morning and her phone was blowing up
with texts from her friends because a classmate of hers
had taken a perfectly innocent picture of her from social
media and had used an app online that he had
found to create a deep fake and then sent what
(22:21):
appeared to be naked pictures of Elliston to all of
her ninth grade classmates. And so she was in tears. Listen,
it is hard to be a teenager. I'm the father
of two teenage girls. I know the pressure that is
on teenage girls. It's much harder to be a teenager
today than when you and I were teenager's band. And
this was just just horrific. Well, what happened is her mom, Anna, Look,
(22:44):
Elliston and Anna are are constituents, they're Texans. So Anna
picked up the phone and called my office and said, hey, look,
you're my senator, can you help my daughter? And my staff,
to their credit, they elevated this to me and they
told me what had happened. And Elliston and this is
happening more and more all over the country. And so
I said, look, let's draft legislation to fix this, to
(23:07):
address the problem. And so we did, and it was
it was because of Elliston that we drafted it. But
as I said, it's happening all over the country. Wellston
Elliston came to d C the day we announced the
bill last year for the press conference, and I sat
down and met with Elliston. I met with her mom
in my office and in the course of the meeting,
(23:28):
I asked, I said, hey, what happened to the pictures?
And her mom said, it's the most frustrating thing in
the world. She said, this happened nine months ago. She said,
I have been calling and emailing Snapchat over and over
and over again. They just Stone Wallace. We get no response.
Ben I turned to my staff, I said, I want
you to get the CEO of Snapchat on the phone today.
(23:51):
I want those pictures down today. They pulled them down
within two hours. Now it should not take a sitting
state making a phone call to get those pictures taken down.
And now, as a result of the legislation Trump has signed,
every victim has a statutory right to insist that it
be taken down as a matter of law automatically.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
In fact, Ellison Barry got to go on Fox News
Channel with our good friend Keally Mcananny and talk about
this moment.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
And here's what she had to say. Take a listen.
Speaker 9 (24:22):
You decided to go and talk to your local congressman,
you get connected with the senator, and then you manage
there you are standing behind the President of the United
States changing the laws for other young women like you.
Did you ever think this day would come?
Speaker 10 (24:35):
I never would have thought that this could ever be
my reality. My mom, she's really an amazing person, and
she's the one that's been pushing for this, and she's
the one that's encouraged me. So I wouldn't be able
to do this without her help and her support, and
she really just has encouraged me to the point where.
Speaker 5 (24:53):
I feel encouraged about this.
Speaker 10 (24:54):
So having the opportunity to speak about this and to
bring awareness really just means so much. Especially it's so
much growth seeing how scared I was at first and
seeing how confident I am able in this situation.
Speaker 9 (25:08):
Well, other young women now have recourse thanks to you,
Elliston Barry. So impressive. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
It's finally a happy ending to a really hard and
sad subject.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Well and Ben. At the signing ceremony, I was able
to introduce Elliston to the President. I introduced also Francesca Mani,
who was another fifteen year old girl who was in
New Jersey and the exact same thing happened to her
as happened to Elliston. And I also introduced Brandon Guffey.
Brandon guffy is a state rep from South Carolina and tragically,
(25:40):
his oldest son got what we thought was a direct
message from a cute girl and she convinced him to
send naked pictures to her. Well, it turned out it
was not a cute girl, it was a con man,
and the con man began extorting him and threatening I'm
going to send these naked pictures to your friends and family. Well,
(26:01):
Brandon's son, Gavin, killed himself, and we are seeing suicides
across the country. So I introduced Brandon his family the
President too. And this law is of victory for everyone
that is a target of this kind of exploitation.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
I got something really fun that we get to do.
And if you've got family, kids, grandkids, and you love
going to a great movie. There is one called The
Last Rodeo. It is starring a phenomenal actor, Neil McDonough.
It is in theaters tomorrow, and The Last Rodeo celebrates
the inspiring story of a veteran PBR champion who returns
(26:38):
to bull riding in his old age to save the
life of his grandson. It features real life PBR stars
as well.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Neil. I appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
A lot of people I know get excited because they
see you in things like Yellowstone and Tulsa King. You
just sort filming that today. But this movie Last, The
Last Rodeo. We're gonna give away some tickets in a moment,
so stay tuned for that. Every But you're really excited
about this film coming out.
Speaker 8 (27:04):
I'm so excited about it, and Ben, thanks for having
me on your show first and foremost. But this is
one of those shows that's kind of the culmination of
everything I've worked towards in my whole career to be
able to finally be the hero in the film kiss
the girl in the end. Of course, everyone knows that
I won't kiss anybody else, but I get to kiss
my actual real life wife who plays my wife in
the film. So that alone, for me is just I
(27:26):
finally have gotten to where I've always aspired and prayed
to be, and it feels so good to be in
this position.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
It's incredible. And we're gonna give away some tickets right now.
You can go to angel dot com slash verdict and
you can get two free tickets to the Last Rodeo
and go see it as it is in theaters again.
Angel dot com slash Verdict. Now get two free tickets
to the Last Rodeo. Talk about this film, Neil, and
what the message is, what people can expect.
Speaker 8 (27:54):
Well, it's you know, I think you just kind of
nailed it. There aren't many films out in the landscape
anymore where you can bring the whole family and not
the sacerny sweet types of films, the films that actually
have a bite to it that the whole family can
go to, kids, grandparents, anyone and learn from and know
that that you know, I have to cover years or eyes.
You're gonna have some great films. You can have great
(28:15):
action with the bull riding, but you're gonna have a
story about families and broken families and how are you
men to fractured family and for me, you do it
through faith, And when I went through all my difficult
things in life, it was always my faith that got
me through. Faith and my wife were may those those
two things have been my two greatest things in my life.
And now I get to write about both of them,
and starn and opposite my wife. So I'm just I'm
(28:39):
so excited about this film. It's hard to even put
it into words.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
As you talked about doing this with your wife, have you,
guys ever gotten to act before in movies or is
this the first time you're the lead and she's the
big My.
Speaker 8 (28:50):
Wife's ever actually before. When I wrote the film, like okay, honey,
so you know, I've always wanted to be the John
Wayne guy who you know, is the hero in the
end who has to kiss the girl in the end,
She's like yeah. I'm like, well, I'm finally going to
do it. She's like, okay, but I need to do
it with you because I won't kiss anybody else because
I'm not an actress. I'm like, well you are now,
And she did awesome. I'm so proud of her. You know,
(29:10):
she was a runway model, she was a supermodel, so
she understands the pressure of being in front of people
and delivering. So for her in front of a camera,
it was very natural and I'm just so happy. I'm
so happy for her now.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
When you wrote this, you also have real stars in
here as well that you that you mentioned a moment
ago PBR stars. What brought you the idea to even
write the script specifically with bull riding.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
I'm a big fan.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
I've gone to a lot of different rodeos, eight second Tour,
et cetera. It is a brutal sport. What inspired you
to use this as the backdrop?
Speaker 8 (29:43):
Well, Ben, I was doing another film at the time
called The Warrants, another Western that Ravee and I are producing.
And when I'm not around Revenge, she was home at
the time with the kids. When I'm not around my family,
I get really just downright kind of depressed the times,
and it's really hard. I don't like being on the road.
So but this one day I was driving home from
set in Arizona, and I got gut punched with his
(30:03):
thoughts that what whatever happened to me? If something happened
to Rebee, And then I pulled over to the side
of the road just kind of buckled, and then this
other idea came in my head, which it has to
be from God, because I didn't know a whole lot
about bull riding, and this idea came into my head
right rocking on a bull, or a grandfather who has
to save his grandson because he's dying of the same
(30:24):
brain tunor they killed his wife. This came out, and
I don't know where they came from, but it just did.
And then I sat in the side of the ten
freeway for two hours, voice dictating into my phone because
I'm dyslexic, so I'm not very good at writing, so
I always do all my writing through voice dictations, and
I sent it off to my writing partner and within
(30:44):
the week we had our first drafting. A week later,
reve and I raised the financing and Angel Studios came
on board, and here we are, almost two years later,
and it's just it's kind of miraculous, and it really is.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Well, you mentioned that there's a family friendly movie. You
don't have to worry. That's where the reasons why I
wanted to have you on how tough is it to
produce movies like this in the environment we're in now,
Because I know you had friends and people that you
could go to for financing, But saddling up to do
a pro bull riding movie and on top of having
all the pressure behind you of getting this out and
(31:18):
then getting it to the big screen, it's not an
easy task, especially in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 8 (31:24):
No, it's not. It's you know, it's a minor miracle
to pull any film off. But for this one, you know,
God led me the whole way in this one. I
wanted John abne to directed, the amazing John Abnitt and
one incredible director he is he killed it. I wanted
Michael T. Williamson and Christopher McDonald to play my two
guys in the film, and there two of my best
friends of life, and we went after you know, my
(31:45):
one of my best friends back home, Lim Griffin helped
us with the film, and then these other financiers came
to me and said, hey, we know what you're doing.
We really like what you're doing with your message and
Angel Studios, we like to help finance your next film.
So between those two parties, all of a sudden, we
had our budget, we had distribution, and everything just kind
of went according to plan, which was kind of miraculous. Yeah,
(32:08):
there's always pickups. There's there's always variables that you wouldn't
even think of. But we always knew that we weren't
doing something that was for his glory, not our own,
and everyone bought into it. So when you say Hollywood
doesn't want that stuff, I think that in their heart
of hearts, they actually do. And I think that this
(32:30):
film was a whole lot easier to make than other
films because it did have a faith backdrop. It was
a film that the whole family can go to, you know.
So I think I think the landscape is changing a
lot of it thanks to Angel Studios and you know,
our partnership with Angel and the films that we've been doing.
That you could make these smaller films and turn a
(32:51):
profit and that's great for everybody. And to be able
to put these movies out and have the support of
all the fans who go to the films and bite
ticket and pay it forward anything we do with Angels,
it's just it's so humbling that it's again it's hard
to I get so choked up just thinking about how
fortunate I am and blessed I am to be able
to sit here on a show like this and talk
(33:13):
about this amazing film that we have coming out.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Last question for you, there's a rumor that you actually
got injured while bull riding.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Is this true?
Speaker 8 (33:22):
Which time?
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Right?
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Okay? I I love when I get good intel.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (33:27):
I got busted up a lot.
Speaker 7 (33:29):
You know.
Speaker 8 (33:29):
We trained for months and months and months to make
sure I look as authentic as possible. And yeah, I
you know, busted up my wrists, my I busted a
few other things. But my shoulder popped out. That hurt
like the dickens. But I didn't tell anybody. I just
went around the corner and snapped it back in at
this barn, this door around the corner, and I popped
(33:50):
back in. I had like tears in my eyes, and
John's like yo, okay, I'm like yep, ready, let's roll.
And I didn't tell him the story for three months
later because if I had told him, he would have
shut it down and every would have it's gone crazy.
Like I'm just I'm a tough old dude, So I
just look. I kept it to myself. And a couple
other injuries that happened that hey, those are war wounds
that I consider as trophies and metals.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
I love it well. The movie is out, go see
it the Last Rodeo. It is in theaters, help keep
it in theaters. Support great movies that have been green
light for your family. You can also get two free
tickets to see The Last Rodeo and by going to
angel dot com slash verdict now you can get your
two free tickets to the Last Rodeo today and support.
(34:33):
I tell you with this all the time, Neil, when
you see a movie that is made for your family,
safe for your family, back it, support it, advocate for it,
put it up on social media, because unfortunately, we have
too much trash being made and not enough wholesome movies
like this. So I congrats on doing it, and I
hope everyone listening is gonna go check it out.
Speaker 5 (34:52):
I hope.
Speaker 8 (34:53):
So I know your viewers who are you are kind
of people that you know if they're out there supporting
it by backing it financially, going to cinema being there,
not wait until it comes out on DVDs or anything else.
It's telling Hollywood, it's exactly what you just said, Ben,
we need more of this or less of the other.
So thank you for putting that word up for me.
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Hey, man, be safe out there on the road. Always
a pleasure. We'll talk to you Aga in real soon.
It's a really fun show today. I hope you guys
enjoyed it. Don't forget this is exactly why we do
the show three days a week. Hit that subscriber auto
download button. You don't want to ever miss an interview
that we do, just like this one, and make sure
you share this podcast wherever you are.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
We would greatly appreciate that on social media.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
So if you're on X, if you're on Instagram, wherever
you are, share this podcast and the senat and I
will see you back here for the weekend review on
Saturday morning.
Welcome in his verdict with Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you, Cenaer.
Always a pleasure to be with you, and we've got
one jam packed show for you tonight.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Well, there's an enormous amount going on. This week. We
saw the tragic murder of two people who worked in
the Israeli embassy, murdered by a radical left Palestinian racist.
It was the absolute manifestation of evil. We're going to
tell you what happened there and break down the evil
(00:29):
that we are seeing on college campuses, that we are
seeing spreading hate, hate for Jews and anti Semitism, hate
for Israel, hate for America, and the absolute utter evil
we saw unfold this week. We're also going to talk
about the remarkable fact that the United States Senate passed
my legislation No Taxes on Tips one hundred to nothing.
(00:53):
No Taxes on Tips is going to become the law
of the land. The Democrats actually supported no taxes on Tips.
We're gonna explain that to you, and next we're going
to talk about to Take it Down Act legislation I
authored that President Trump signed into law this week that
will protect women and teenage girls from revenge porn from
deep fake porn. It is critical legislation keeping all of
(01:17):
our kids safe and keeping all of us safe, and
it is now the law of the land.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Yeah, it really is. Plus, we've got something really cool.
Neil McDonald's going to join us, and there is a
new movie that is out right now.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
It is called The Last Rodeo.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
It is a faith based, family friendly movie that is
getting nationwide distribution. You may know Neil from Tulsa, King
and Yellowstone. He's going to join us as well to
talk about this new movie. And we're gonna have a
chance for you also to win free tickets as well
for Verdict listeners.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
That's really awesome as well.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
So Sentaer, let's talk about this first, just shocking attack
that happened in Washington, d C. Where this happened. I've
been to this area and been to this place several
times in my life. When you know where it happened,
I think it just takes your breath away. And then
to understand the hatred and the anti Semitism behind it.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, it was just a few blocks away from the Capitol.
It was by the d C Field Office, It was
by a Jewish museum and two people were murdered, Sarah
Milgram and Jerone Leshinsky. They were about to get engaged,
to be married, and they were murdered for one reason,
(02:28):
because they were Jewish. The person who killed them was
not a Palestinian. He was not someone from Gaza. No,
he was a left wing radical from Chicago. He was
his name is Elias Rodriguez, and he was a socialist.
He was a Marxist. And when he murdered them, he
(02:50):
murdered them screaming, free, free Palestine. This was the pure
manifestation of hate. And I will tell you he didn't
just shoot them once. He made certain to execute them.
As Sarah crawled away in agony after he shot her,
he followed her and he shot her again and again
(03:14):
and again from the back. He executed her in cold blood.
He fired at least twenty one nine millimeter bullets at them.
That's how many cartridge cases were found. And then he
just jogged off. Was it is pure unmitigated racist hate,
and it is the lies that that the left spreads.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
You know, this is one of those moments where you
realize just how bad anti Semitism has become, specifically in
this country, and a lot of it is among younger people,
and it is exploded on college campuses, and we see
that there are real consequences for this type of bigotry
and hatred towards people that are Jewish.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Well, and Ben, I'll tell you amazing story about the
two of them that I learned today. So earlier today,
I spoke at the Hudson Institute, and I spoke at
their Middle East Center about the Middle East and about
China's massive efforts to have greater influence in the Middle East.
And I was interviewed by Zeneb Rabua, who works at
(04:20):
the Hudson Institute and who was good friends with your
own and a number of the people who were at
my speech today, we're good friends with your own. In fact,
he might well have attended the speech. He was a
Middle East expert, and this was a speech in d
C to Middle East experts the day after he and
Sarah were murdered. Well, here's what Zeneb told me that
(04:42):
I did not know. I'm just going to read a
tweet she sent earlier today. The last time I spoke
with your own, he told me that it was thanks
to Ted Cruz that he met Sarah. They first crossed
paths at an event where the Senator was speaking. Today,
I had the privilege of sharing that story with Senator
(05:02):
Cruz himself. We spoke about China, Iran and the rise
of anti Semitism. He listened with warmth and paid a
moving tribute to Yourna and Sarah. They both admired him deeply.
I did not know yourne and Sarah, but I'm literally speechless.
I'm literally reduced to tears that this is a couple
(05:23):
who met at a speech I was given, fell in love,
we're about to get engaged, and were murdered by the
face of evil. And I will tell you this is
the face of evil we see on college campuses. You
know the phrase free, free Palestine. I'll tell you, Ben,
For a year, I woke up every Saturday morning seven
(05:44):
am to screams of free free Palestine in my front
yard because pro Haamas protesters arrived every morning seven am,
banging bells and drums, screaming, screaming expletives and chanting free,
free Palestine. And listen. This is the consequence of the
(06:04):
anti Semiticate. And I will tell you I want you
to listen to this interview on CNN. CNN interviewed one
of the witnesses to what happened here and listen to
just just the left wing twist of what passes for
our corporate media.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Give a listen as you go forward, as you go
forward with what you have seen. Can you give us
any sense because you said you look the shooter in
the eyes, can you give us any sense of what
you saw in him as he was sort of getting
help and people were tending to him, as if he
too was a victim of seeing this.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
Yeah, it would just be clear.
Speaker 6 (06:43):
I like heard out that part because we were in
a secure room when he initially walked in. I just
saw him screaming and then being handcuffed. But what I
saw in his eyes, I mean I went to Columbia
for grads.
Speaker 7 (06:54):
Go on.
Speaker 6 (06:54):
I saw the same thing in his eyes as I
saw in the eyes of all the protesters at Columbia.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
Nothing different between him and them.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
But they did not create this horrific shooting.
Speaker 5 (07:04):
They did not, you know, sort of they didn't shoot.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
They created.
Speaker 6 (07:09):
They gave permission. They gave the permission, and they have
called for this. They have called for intifada revolution, which
is the same thing he yelled last night.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Do you worry that there will be a come conflation though,
of the two, those people who are speaking their mind,
who really care about what is happening in Gaza, and
those people who are like this person who did this
horrific shooting, who intend to do harm a conflation.
Speaker 6 (07:35):
I mean, they are calling for intifada at Columbia University.
They call for intifada constantly. Now they're not quietly, they're loud.
They're loud.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
You can hear it. They make recordings of themselves. So
what's the difference. Are you afraid? Yes? What were you
all afraid? Everyone should be afraid?
Speaker 4 (07:50):
What are you doing to try to make yourself feel safer?
Speaker 6 (07:54):
Well, can't you just go on and live your life.
I'm a New Yorker, I remember nine to eleven. You
can't let them make you be afraid.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
You have to go on.
Speaker 6 (08:01):
You have to live your life and hopefully your government
does things to protect you.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
Last night, our government failed us.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
You know, this is what's wrong with CNN, this is
what's wrong with our corporate media that they want to
defend the anti Semitic protesters on campus. That witness who
saw the horrific murder, he's exactly right that when people
are channing we love Hamas, which is what they're channing
on many of these campuses when they're calling for intefada.
This is into fada. This is the murder they're calling for,
(08:29):
and CNN is being an apologist for them. And I
have to say, our prayers are very much with the
families of your own and Sarah, what happened to them
was utterly horrible and utterly evil.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Centa, I want to move on to a really exciting
issue and it's going to have a massive impact on
a lot of hard working Americans that are in the
service industry. This is something that you have championed and
it became reality in a historic vote on no taxes
on tips. What a simple idea, but it's going to
have a huge impact in this country.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Well, two things happened this week on no taxes on tips.
First of all, the House of Representatives passed the one big,
beautiful bill, the giant Reconciliation bill that extends the Trump
tax cuts, that secures the border, that rebuilds the military,
and included within it is my legislation on no taxes
on tips. So the House passed that this week. At
(09:24):
the same time, the Senate took up and passed as
a freestanding bill, my no Taxes on Tips legislation. And
let me tell you the backstory on this. So you remember,
during the presidential campaign, President Trump campaigned on no Taxes
on Tips and he rolled it out in Las Vegas.
And the week after he rolled it out, he came
(09:47):
and had lunch with all the Republican senators and he
told us the story of where the idea came from.
And he said, before his rally in Las Vegas, he
was sitting having lunch, and he said a waitress was
bringing him his lunch and and Trump said, and she
was beautiful. She was absolutely beautiful, which which we were
all cracking up laughing at. And and he said she
(10:09):
was she was expressing just how much burden it was
to to to pay taxes on her tips. And then
the taxes on tips had gone up under Joe Biden
and Kamala Harris. And Trump said, he just grabbed a
note pad of paper and he wrote on the notepad,
no Taxes on Tips. And he showed it to her, says,
what do you think of this? And she said great, fantastic.
(10:30):
So he said, well, I decided to to just announce
it at the rally. He said, sometimes I do that,
And so he went out to the rally thousands of
people in Las Vegas, and he said, when I'm when
I'm reelected, we will have no taxes on tips. And
he said and they went crazy. Everyone went crazy. So
he told us that story, and I got to say,
(10:50):
I thought it was It was brilliant. It was a
great idea. I strongly support that idea. And so he
announced it. He came up with it, and I said, well,
I'm going to draft the legislation to make it happen.
And so I sat down and wrote the legislation to
make it part of our tax laws, and I introduced
it the week after he announced it. Well, the week
I introduced it, two different Democrats, both senators from Nevada,
(11:14):
joined my bill. They co sponsored my bill. Actually, Jackie
Rose in one of the two Democrats from Nevada, she
told me that day she said, you know, twenty five
percent of the workers in the state of Nevada are
tipped workers. So they joined my bill. My bill is
the one the House put in one big, beautiful bill. Well,
what happened this week is Jackie Rose and the Democrat
(11:35):
decided to go to the floor of the House of
the Senate and seek unanimous consent to pass my bill. Now,
the way unanimous consent work, as you're asking, will any
senator object it? If no senator objects, then it passes.
And the way you do it is you run what's
called a hotline, which is you send a request to
(11:56):
every senator's office. Are you going to object to this?
And I think the Democrats expected that the Republicans would object.
I'm sitting there growing wait a seconds, It's my bill.
Why would I object to my own bill. Of course
I want to pass my bill. So I didn't object.
No other Republican objected, and astonishingly no Democrat objected either.
(12:17):
So Jackie came to the Senate floor and she said, hey,
I think this thing's going to pass. And I said,
we'll do it quickly. Get up and do it quickly.
Don't give a long speech, just stand up and ask
unanimous consent and get it done. Because I was worried
that some Democrat was going to turn on c Span
and see what we were doing and run down to
the Senate floor and object. Well, and it is very
(12:40):
unusual for somebody else to ask unanimous consent to pass
your bill. It's almost always you. You're almost always the
one doing it. But she went, she asked for consent,
nobody objected, and so No Tax on Tips passed the
United States Senate this week one hundred to nothing. Every
Republican voted for it, every Democrat voted for it. And
(13:01):
the good news about that is it means the chances
of no taxes on tips becoming federal law are now
very close to one hundred percent. It's in the Reconciliation bill.
It will either pass as part of one big, beautiful
bill or it will pass as a freestanding bill. Either way,
we're going to get that policy, which is a great
policy for American workers.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
So how often do you get one hundred and nothing
bills like this? I mean, that's the part that I
think is just so exciting.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
You know, it happens with some regularity in the Senate
in particular, you work to find a bill that people
agree with, and you go down and pass legislation, and
you can get legislation passed one hundred to nothing. I
have authored and passed into law one hundred and three
different pieces of legislation. And my guess is roughly half
(13:52):
of them or more were by unanimous consent. They passed
one hundred to nothing. Some of it is you work
out the objections in the process, and so when you
run the hotline, you may get four or five objectors,
and you go to them and say, hey, what's your
problem with the bill? What do you not like about it?
And if they have a particular concern, you try to
work through it all.
Speaker 8 (14:13):
Right.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Another bill that we will get past but we haven't yet,
is is my bill on AM radio for every vehicle. Look,
we're on AM radio right now. As you know, eight
car makers announced that they were going to pull AM
radio off of new cars and new trucks, and I
introduced legislation with Ed Markey, liberal Democrat from Massachusetts to
(14:35):
ensure that AM radio stays in new cars and trucks. Actually,
the day after Markey and I introduced the legislation, Ford
Motor Company reversed its decision and said we're not We're
going to go back to including AM radio. So I
went to the Senate floor and tried to pass it
by unanimous consent, and it failed because Ran Paul came
(14:56):
down and objected, and Ran Paul opposes me of every kind.
I oppose many mandates, but I think giving consumers the
choice of having AM radio is a good choice for consumers.
It's very inexpensive for car car makers, and so that
one will not pass by unanimous consents. So we'll have
to get floor time, which is harder to get. What
(15:17):
I will say on No Taxes on Tips is this
is a policy that really is the manifestation of how
the Republican Party today is a blue collar party. This
is a policy that is going to benefit waiters and waitresses.
It's going to benefit bartenders. It's going to benefit barbers
and hairstylists. It's going to benefit beauticians and people who
(15:38):
work at nail salons and taxicab drivers. It is impacting
the working men and women. And that's the base who
elected President Trump, and that's the base who elected me,
and and so it's really a great and astonishing victory.
I got to tell you, Ben, both Republicans and Democrats
were utterly flabbergasted to see No Taxes on Tips pass
(16:00):
unanimously in the Senate this week.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Center, let's talk about this other incredible moment that happened
this week at the White House. Donald Trump signed to
take it down act into law. It's something that you
championed and remind people what this law is intent and
why it is such an important reason of legislation to
protect not only young people and minors, but really anyone
from just evil and hateful revenge from an ex.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Well, this is legislation that I authored that President Trump
signed into law this week. Actually he signed it into
law in the Rose Garden and a big ceremony in
the Rose Garden. I've done a lot of bill signing
ceremonies in the Oval Office. This first time I've been
in the Rose Garden because you had victim groups and
victim advocates and people who have been victims of non
(16:46):
consensual explicit imagery. Now what is that? That's really two
different things. Number One, so called revenge porn. So if
you have a boyfriend and girlfriend and they're in a
relationship and they take explicit pictures or videos and then
they have a breakup and one or the other is
mad and they say, Okay, I'm going to stick it
to you. I'm going to put this out for the
(17:06):
whole world to see. And it is an utterly grotesque
violation of privacy. Nobody has the right to do that
to somebody else, and it's something we're seeing happening more
and more often. There's a second manifestation that is new,
and it has to deal with technology, which is more
and more we are seeing people use AI artificial intelligence
(17:27):
to create deep fakes and deep fakes where they appear
to be either a picture or a video of a
real person, but it's utterly fake. And so they make
and naked or explicit image of someone and put it out.
And the incidence of deep fakes last year increased three
thousand percent, and over ninety percent of the victims of
(17:50):
deep fake explicit imagery are women or teenage girls, and
so it is growing massively. And so the Take It
Down Act is legislation, and I introduce that makes it
a crime, a federal felony to post non consensual intimate images,
either real pictures or deep fakes. And secondly, it puts
(18:11):
a federal statutory obligation on tech platforms to take the
pictures down, to take the videos down, because the platforms
have been horrible responding to victims. They ignore victims, they
leave the images up, and so the victim ends up
being being victimized over and over and over again by
the images staying out there. And so the take It
(18:31):
Down at puts a legal obligation that when the victim
notifies them, hey that's me, that's an explicit image of me,
and you don't have my consent to put it up,
they have to take it down. This legislation I introduced
with Amy klovichar Democrat from Minnesota, and we passed it
through the Senate. We passed it unanimously. It was one
hundred and nothing. And then the House took it up
(18:53):
and passed it with an overwhelming bipartisan majority, and President
Trump signed it in the law. And give a listen
to what President Trump said this week in the Rose
Garden as he signed to Take It Down Act into law.
Speaker 7 (19:05):
Today. It's my honor to officially sign they Take It
Down Act into law. It's a big thing, very important,
so horrible what takes place. This will be the first
ever federal law to combat the distribution of explicit imaginary
posted without subjects consent, take horrible pictures, and I guess
(19:26):
sometimes even make up the pictures and they post it
without consent or anything else. And very importantly, this includes
for forgeries generated by artificial intelligence known as deep fakes.
We've all heard about deep fakes. I have all the time,
but I don't nobody does anything. I asked, Pam, can
you help me, Pam, She says, no, I'm too busy,
too busy doing other things. Don't worry. You'll survive, But
(19:48):
a lot of people don't survive. That's true and so horrible.
With the rise of AI image generation, countless women have
been harassed with deep fakes and other explicit images bitted
against their will. This is the wrong and it's just
so horribly wrong, and it's a very abusive situation, like
(20:09):
in some cases people have never seen before. And today
we're making it totally illegal.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Sinner.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
One of the things I just I love about this
legislation is the fact that not only is it bipartisan,
but you had the first Lady who really got involved
in this as well. It was important to her and
that made it I think even easier to bridge the gap.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Well we did. The first Lady became very active in
pushing this bill. She reached out out to me and
said she wanted to help get it over the finish line.
So last year we passed it out of the Senate
one hundred to nothing, and the House failed to take
it up last year, so it did not pass last year,
and so we got to this year to the new Congress.
(20:49):
I passed it through the Senate again one hundred to nothing.
And the real battle was to get it to rise
up the priority list of House leadership. And so when
the First Lady my office and said she wanted to help,
what I did is I invited her to come to
Capitol Hill for a roundtable where she could hear from
the victims. And also at that roundtable was the Speaker
(21:13):
of the House and Steve Scalise, the Majority Leader, and
Brett Guthrie, who's the committee chairman in the House. And
when the First Lady asked them, will you please pass
this into law, they committed to her they would. And
this was the day before the State of the Union address,
and you may remember the State of the Union address,
Milania was sitting with a teenage girl from Texas, Elliston Barry,
(21:38):
and President Trump told her story in the State of
the Union and called on Congress to pass this bill.
And I'll tell you it's actually it's a fascinating story
of how this bill came to pass because it originates
with one teenage girl in Texas, Elliston Barry. She's from
North Texas, from Aledo, Texas, and a year ago she
(21:58):
was fourteen, and she was in ninth grade and she
woke up one morning and her phone was blowing up
with texts from her friends because a classmate of hers
had taken a perfectly innocent picture of her from social
media and had used an app online that he had
found to create a deep fake and then sent what
(22:21):
appeared to be naked pictures of Elliston to all of
her ninth grade classmates. And so she was in tears. Listen,
it is hard to be a teenager. I'm the father
of two teenage girls. I know the pressure that is
on teenage girls. It's much harder to be a teenager
today than when you and I were teenager's band. And
this was just just horrific. Well, what happened is her mom, Anna, Look,
(22:44):
Elliston and Anna are are constituents, they're Texans. So Anna
picked up the phone and called my office and said, hey, look,
you're my senator, can you help my daughter? And my staff,
to their credit, they elevated this to me and they
told me what had happened. And Elliston and this is
happening more and more all over the country. And so
I said, look, let's draft legislation to fix this, to
(23:07):
address the problem. And so we did, and it was
it was because of Elliston that we drafted it. But
as I said, it's happening all over the country. Wellston
Elliston came to d C the day we announced the
bill last year for the press conference, and I sat
down and met with Elliston. I met with her mom
in my office and in the course of the meeting,
(23:28):
I asked, I said, hey, what happened to the pictures?
And her mom said, it's the most frustrating thing in
the world. She said, this happened nine months ago. She said,
I have been calling and emailing Snapchat over and over
and over again. They just Stone Wallace. We get no response.
Ben I turned to my staff, I said, I want
you to get the CEO of Snapchat on the phone today.
(23:51):
I want those pictures down today. They pulled them down
within two hours. Now it should not take a sitting
state making a phone call to get those pictures taken down.
And now, as a result of the legislation Trump has signed,
every victim has a statutory right to insist that it
be taken down as a matter of law automatically.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
In fact, Ellison Barry got to go on Fox News
Channel with our good friend Keally Mcananny and talk about
this moment.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
And here's what she had to say. Take a listen.
Speaker 9 (24:22):
You decided to go and talk to your local congressman,
you get connected with the senator, and then you manage
there you are standing behind the President of the United
States changing the laws for other young women like you.
Did you ever think this day would come?
Speaker 10 (24:35):
I never would have thought that this could ever be
my reality. My mom, she's really an amazing person, and
she's the one that's been pushing for this, and she's
the one that's encouraged me. So I wouldn't be able
to do this without her help and her support, and
she really just has encouraged me to the point where.
Speaker 5 (24:53):
I feel encouraged about this.
Speaker 10 (24:54):
So having the opportunity to speak about this and to
bring awareness really just means so much. Especially it's so
much growth seeing how scared I was at first and
seeing how confident I am able in this situation.
Speaker 9 (25:08):
Well, other young women now have recourse thanks to you,
Elliston Barry. So impressive. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
It's finally a happy ending to a really hard and
sad subject.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Well and Ben. At the signing ceremony, I was able
to introduce Elliston to the President. I introduced also Francesca Mani,
who was another fifteen year old girl who was in
New Jersey and the exact same thing happened to her
as happened to Elliston. And I also introduced Brandon Guffey.
Brandon guffy is a state rep from South Carolina and tragically,
(25:40):
his oldest son got what we thought was a direct
message from a cute girl and she convinced him to
send naked pictures to her. Well, it turned out it
was not a cute girl, it was a con man,
and the con man began extorting him and threatening I'm
going to send these naked pictures to your friends and family. Well,
(26:01):
Brandon's son, Gavin, killed himself, and we are seeing suicides
across the country. So I introduced Brandon his family the
President too. And this law is of victory for everyone
that is a target of this kind of exploitation.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
I got something really fun that we get to do.
And if you've got family, kids, grandkids, and you love
going to a great movie. There is one called The
Last Rodeo. It is starring a phenomenal actor, Neil McDonough.
It is in theaters tomorrow, and The Last Rodeo celebrates
the inspiring story of a veteran PBR champion who returns
(26:38):
to bull riding in his old age to save the
life of his grandson. It features real life PBR stars
as well.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Neil. I appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
A lot of people I know get excited because they
see you in things like Yellowstone and Tulsa King. You
just sort filming that today. But this movie Last, The
Last Rodeo. We're gonna give away some tickets in a moment,
so stay tuned for that. Every But you're really excited
about this film coming out.
Speaker 8 (27:04):
I'm so excited about it, and Ben, thanks for having
me on your show first and foremost. But this is
one of those shows that's kind of the culmination of
everything I've worked towards in my whole career to be
able to finally be the hero in the film kiss
the girl in the end. Of course, everyone knows that
I won't kiss anybody else, but I get to kiss
my actual real life wife who plays my wife in
the film. So that alone, for me is just I
(27:26):
finally have gotten to where I've always aspired and prayed
to be, and it feels so good to be in
this position.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
It's incredible. And we're gonna give away some tickets right now.
You can go to angel dot com slash verdict and
you can get two free tickets to the Last Rodeo
and go see it as it is in theaters again.
Angel dot com slash Verdict. Now get two free tickets
to the Last Rodeo. Talk about this film, Neil, and
what the message is, what people can expect.
Speaker 8 (27:54):
Well, it's you know, I think you just kind of
nailed it. There aren't many films out in the landscape
anymore where you can bring the whole family and not
the sacerny sweet types of films, the films that actually
have a bite to it that the whole family can
go to, kids, grandparents, anyone and learn from and know
that that you know, I have to cover years or eyes.
You're gonna have some great films. You can have great
(28:15):
action with the bull riding, but you're gonna have a
story about families and broken families and how are you
men to fractured family and for me, you do it
through faith, And when I went through all my difficult
things in life, it was always my faith that got
me through. Faith and my wife were may those those
two things have been my two greatest things in my life.
And now I get to write about both of them,
and starn and opposite my wife. So I'm just I'm
(28:39):
so excited about this film. It's hard to even put
it into words.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
As you talked about doing this with your wife, have you,
guys ever gotten to act before in movies or is
this the first time you're the lead and she's the
big My.
Speaker 8 (28:50):
Wife's ever actually before. When I wrote the film, like okay, honey,
so you know, I've always wanted to be the John
Wayne guy who you know, is the hero in the
end who has to kiss the girl in the end,
She's like yeah. I'm like, well, I'm finally going to
do it. She's like, okay, but I need to do
it with you because I won't kiss anybody else because
I'm not an actress. I'm like, well you are now,
And she did awesome. I'm so proud of her. You know,
(29:10):
she was a runway model, she was a supermodel, so
she understands the pressure of being in front of people
and delivering. So for her in front of a camera,
it was very natural and I'm just so happy. I'm
so happy for her now.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
When you wrote this, you also have real stars in
here as well that you that you mentioned a moment
ago PBR stars. What brought you the idea to even
write the script specifically with bull riding.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
I'm a big fan.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
I've gone to a lot of different rodeos, eight second Tour,
et cetera. It is a brutal sport. What inspired you
to use this as the backdrop?
Speaker 8 (29:43):
Well, Ben, I was doing another film at the time
called The Warrants, another Western that Ravee and I are producing.
And when I'm not around Revenge, she was home at
the time with the kids. When I'm not around my family,
I get really just downright kind of depressed the times,
and it's really hard. I don't like being on the road.
So but this one day I was driving home from
set in Arizona, and I got gut punched with his
(30:03):
thoughts that what whatever happened to me? If something happened
to Rebee, And then I pulled over to the side
of the road just kind of buckled, and then this
other idea came in my head, which it has to
be from God, because I didn't know a whole lot
about bull riding, and this idea came into my head
right rocking on a bull, or a grandfather who has
to save his grandson because he's dying of the same
(30:24):
brain tunor they killed his wife. This came out, and
I don't know where they came from, but it just did.
And then I sat in the side of the ten
freeway for two hours, voice dictating into my phone because
I'm dyslexic, so I'm not very good at writing, so
I always do all my writing through voice dictations, and
I sent it off to my writing partner and within
(30:44):
the week we had our first drafting. A week later,
reve and I raised the financing and Angel Studios came
on board, and here we are, almost two years later,
and it's just it's kind of miraculous, and it really is.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Well, you mentioned that there's a family friendly movie. You
don't have to worry. That's where the reasons why I
wanted to have you on how tough is it to
produce movies like this in the environment we're in now,
Because I know you had friends and people that you
could go to for financing, But saddling up to do
a pro bull riding movie and on top of having
all the pressure behind you of getting this out and
(31:18):
then getting it to the big screen, it's not an
easy task, especially in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 8 (31:24):
No, it's not. It's you know, it's a minor miracle
to pull any film off. But for this one, you know,
God led me the whole way in this one. I
wanted John abne to directed, the amazing John Abnitt and
one incredible director he is he killed it. I wanted
Michael T. Williamson and Christopher McDonald to play my two
guys in the film, and there two of my best
friends of life, and we went after you know, my
(31:45):
one of my best friends back home, Lim Griffin helped
us with the film, and then these other financiers came
to me and said, hey, we know what you're doing.
We really like what you're doing with your message and
Angel Studios, we like to help finance your next film.
So between those two parties, all of a sudden, we
had our budget, we had distribution, and everything just kind
of went according to plan, which was kind of miraculous. Yeah,
(32:08):
there's always pickups. There's there's always variables that you wouldn't
even think of. But we always knew that we weren't
doing something that was for his glory, not our own,
and everyone bought into it. So when you say Hollywood
doesn't want that stuff, I think that in their heart
of hearts, they actually do. And I think that this
(32:30):
film was a whole lot easier to make than other
films because it did have a faith backdrop. It was
a film that the whole family can go to, you know.
So I think I think the landscape is changing a
lot of it thanks to Angel Studios and you know,
our partnership with Angel and the films that we've been doing.
That you could make these smaller films and turn a
(32:51):
profit and that's great for everybody. And to be able
to put these movies out and have the support of
all the fans who go to the films and bite
ticket and pay it forward anything we do with Angels,
it's just it's so humbling that it's again it's hard
to I get so choked up just thinking about how
fortunate I am and blessed I am to be able
to sit here on a show like this and talk
(33:13):
about this amazing film that we have coming out.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Last question for you, there's a rumor that you actually
got injured while bull riding.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Is this true?
Speaker 8 (33:22):
Which time?
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Right?
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Okay? I I love when I get good intel.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (33:27):
I got busted up a lot.
Speaker 7 (33:29):
You know.
Speaker 8 (33:29):
We trained for months and months and months to make
sure I look as authentic as possible. And yeah, I
you know, busted up my wrists, my I busted a
few other things. But my shoulder popped out. That hurt
like the dickens. But I didn't tell anybody. I just
went around the corner and snapped it back in at
this barn, this door around the corner, and I popped
(33:50):
back in. I had like tears in my eyes, and
John's like yo, okay, I'm like yep, ready, let's roll.
And I didn't tell him the story for three months
later because if I had told him, he would have
shut it down and every would have it's gone crazy.
Like I'm just I'm a tough old dude, So I
just look. I kept it to myself. And a couple
other injuries that happened that hey, those are war wounds
that I consider as trophies and metals.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
I love it well. The movie is out, go see
it the Last Rodeo. It is in theaters, help keep
it in theaters. Support great movies that have been green
light for your family. You can also get two free
tickets to see The Last Rodeo and by going to
angel dot com slash verdict now you can get your
two free tickets to the Last Rodeo today and support.
(34:33):
I tell you with this all the time, Neil, when
you see a movie that is made for your family,
safe for your family, back it, support it, advocate for it,
put it up on social media, because unfortunately, we have
too much trash being made and not enough wholesome movies
like this. So I congrats on doing it, and I
hope everyone listening is gonna go check it out.
Speaker 5 (34:52):
I hope.
Speaker 8 (34:53):
So I know your viewers who are you are kind
of people that you know if they're out there supporting
it by backing it financially, going to cinema being there,
not wait until it comes out on DVDs or anything else.
It's telling Hollywood, it's exactly what you just said, Ben,
we need more of this or less of the other.
So thank you for putting that word up for me.
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Hey, man, be safe out there on the road. Always
a pleasure. We'll talk to you Aga in real soon.
It's a really fun show today. I hope you guys
enjoyed it. Don't forget this is exactly why we do
the show three days a week. Hit that subscriber auto
download button. You don't want to ever miss an interview
that we do, just like this one, and make sure
you share this podcast wherever you are.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
We would greatly appreciate that on social media.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
So if you're on X, if you're on Instagram, wherever
you are, share this podcast and the senat and I
will see you back here for the weekend review on
Saturday morning.
Host
Ben Ferguson
Popular Podcasts
Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes present: Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial
Introducing… Aubrey O’Day Diddy’s former protege, television personality, platinum selling music artist, Danity Kane alum Aubrey O’Day joins veteran journalists Amy Robach and TJ Holmes to provide a unique perspective on the trial that has captivated the attention of the nation. Join them throughout the trial as they discuss, debate, and dissect every detail, every aspect of the proceedings. Aubrey will offer her opinions and expertise, as only she is qualified to do given her first-hand knowledge. From her days on Making the Band, as she emerged as the breakout star, the truth of the situation would be the opposite of the glitz and glamour. Listen throughout every minute of the trial, for this exclusive coverage. Amy Robach and TJ Holmes present Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial, an iHeartRadio podcast.
Betrayal: Season 4
Karoline Borega married a man of honor – a respected Colorado Springs Police officer. She knew there would be sacrifices to accommodate her husband’s career. But she had no idea that he was using his badge to fool everyone. This season, we expose a man who swore two sacred oaths—one to his badge, one to his bride—and broke them both. We follow Karoline as she questions everything she thought she knew about her partner of over 20 years. And make sure to check out Seasons 1-3 of Betrayal, along with Betrayal Weekly Season 1.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.