August 27, 2025 • 37 mins
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Cruz’s Visit to El Salvador
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Cruz is in El Salvador meeting with President Nayib Bukele, government officials, U.S. military, and embassy staff.
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He describes dramatic changes in safety under Bukele’s leadership—highlighting the crackdown on gangs, mass arrests of MS-13 members, and construction of a mega-prison.
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Cruz emphasizes the murder rate dropping from the highest in the world (100 per 100,000 in 2015) to 1.9 per 100,000 in 2024, a 98% decrease.
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He contrasts Bukele’s tough-on-crime approach with U.S. cities that, in his view, are paralyzed by progressive policies.
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Cruz stresses that security improvements are also prompting reverse migration: Salvadorans in the U.S. are reportedly returning home.
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MS-13 and U.S. Politics
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They discuss Kamar Abrego Garcia, an MS-13 member from Maryland involved in human trafficking and domestic abuse, who is facing deportation.
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Cruz criticizes Democrats, particularly Senator Chris Van Hollen, for being sympathetic to such individuals instead of supporting law and order.
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This segment is framed as an example of Democrats prioritizing criminals over public safety.
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Cracker Barrel & “Go Woke, Go Broke”
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Cruz and Ferguson mock Cracker Barrel’s recent rebranding decisions, claiming the company abandoned its traditional customer base for “woke” marketing strategies.
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They compare the backlash to similar situations with Bud Light and Target, noting plummeting stock prices and customer revolt.
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Cruz highlights investor warnings that leadership ignored, framing the reversal as a victory for conservative consumer pushback.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It is Verdict with center Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you.
Usually I'm the one that's out of town, far far away. Tonight,
as we do the show, you're in another country center
and you're on a codel through Latin America.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Well, that's exactly right. As you and I are talking,
it is late Tuesday night, and I am in El Salvador.
I've spent the entire day in El Salvador, meeting with
senior government officials, meeting with the President of El Salvador.
I'm going to walk you through exactly what I heard,
what I saw, what is happening on the ground. We're
also going to talk about You're in my favorite Maryland man,
(00:38):
the MS thirteen gangbanger, who the Democrats have decided to
make the poster child for their entire party, and he
has once again been arrested by Ice and is facing deportation.
We're in the lay out the facts of what's happening there.
And finally, Cracker Barrel. Cracker Barrel, after deciding they hate
their customers, after deciding they hate everything their company was
founded upon, they utterly and completely surrendered. They threw in
(01:02):
the cracker They threw in the barrel. We're going to
break down the absolute mess that was behind that, and
I'll give you the punchline early, Go woke, go broke.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Go broke.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
And the best part about this story is this controversy
they were warned about a long time ago, and we've
got a new time on on it. It wasn't just
over the last week and a half. All right, Let's
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(03:15):
So centater let's talk about why you are where you
are right now in El Salvador. Explain quickly what a
codell is, what it means, and then why you chose
to do this in Latin America.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Well, a codell is very simple. That is an abbreviation
for congressional delegation, and that is official travel as part
of your job serving in Congress or in my case,
serving in the Senate. And I've done a number of
codells to different parts of the world. You do it
because you need to go and meet with foreign leaders.
You need to understand the challenges in different countries as
(03:47):
they impact the United States. And so I am right
now this week on a codell throughout Latin America, and
it started today in El Salvador And the reason I
started in El Salvador is because it's a country that
is impacting the United States profoundly. It is impacting the
United States because in the last several years, particularly in
the Biden administration, we saw a massive influx of illegal
(04:10):
immigration from El Salvador that impacted Texas in the whole country.
And then we've seen El Salvador turn itself around. President
bu Kelly, the president here who was elected with overwhelming support,
re elected with massive support. The success he has had
turning crime around, targeting the cartels, targeting the gangs is extraordinary.
(04:34):
And I spent quite a bit of time this evening
with President Bukelly with his senior team, and that has
made El Salvador safer. But it's also made America safer.
So that's why I'm here. Now. Let me tell you
how CODELL begins. So I started the day early this
morning in Houston in my home. I got up, went
(04:54):
to the airport, and I flew down to El Salvador.
I got off the plane, and I have a team
for my office is with me, of my national security
and foreign policy team. We started by going to a
military base that that that the United States Navy has
right by the airport, UH. And I met with a
number of American sailors who are there. They're engaged UH
(05:16):
significantly in drug interdiction and and counter terrorism efforts and
and and it's an air base where where they can
they can support they can support planes, they can support
drones and and and they can support all sorts of
air missions UH, fighting terrorism and fighting cartels, and and
(05:38):
so I met with the leadership there of the base
and and I met with There were a number of
sailors from Texas, and so I started by having lunch
with them, uh, asking them about how it was living
in El Salvador, what what their backgrounds were, and they
were from multiple places throughout throughout Texas. What is interesting, ben,
(06:02):
I asked each of those sailors. I said, okay, you
guys have lived it varied anywhere from from a few
weeks to two years. Down in El Salvador, I said, okay,
how have things changed and what kind of job is
President Boukelly doing. Every single American sailor I spoke with said,
it's extraordinary, Like this country has changed. It is safe.
(06:26):
It used to be incredibly dangerous. It is now safe.
People are willing to walk the streets. They said. People
would not walk the streets at night. It was not safe.
You would not go out after dark because you would
be assaulted, you'd be kidnapped, you'd be murdered. And it
is now become incredibly safe. That that was the assessment
(06:46):
of our sailors. I then went to the US Embassy
and I met with with our country team.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
There.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
I had a classified briefing in a skiff where they
walked through everything that's happening in El Salvador. And then
I met with a number of US Marines. They were
all young men that they had been in the country
anywhere from actually one fellow was there literally a day wow,
and it ranged this was his second day in country,
(07:17):
and it ranged from I think that the marine had
been there. The longest was nine months. And I asked
them the same questions about a dozen Marines, and so
I went and talked with them, and I said, okay,
what do you think of the country? Every one of
them said, this is an incredible place. We love it
down here. But I also asked, okay, what kind of
job is the current administration doing? And again they raved
(07:40):
about it. It was one of the interesting things been
every single person I asked on this trip, I asked,
how is President bou Kelly doing. I did not find
a single person, a single Salvadoran, a single American. And
I met, as I said, I talked with a number
of especially American servicemen and women. I didn't find a
single one who had anything negatives say. That is rare,
(08:03):
and there's a reason for that. After meeting with the Marines,
after meeting with our country team at the embassy. I
went and sat down with the Justice Minister and I
got to say the Justice Minister, that presentation been their
very few presentations I've been in in my entire time
in the Senate that have been more impressive real because
(08:24):
the Justice, Yes, the Justice Minister laid out what they've done.
In twenty fifteen, do you know that El Salvador was
the murder capital of the world.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, it was a and I'm pretty sure if I
remember correctly, the State Department put it out there in
essence as they do not travel zone for Americans.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
In fact, in twenty fifteen, here are the data. The
murder rate in El Salvador was one hundred people per
one hundred thousand. That meant one out of one thousand
people in the country was murdered. That was the single
highest murder rate of any country on the planet. President
(09:04):
bu Kelly came in, and he came in and began
going after the cartels and he began arresting. He arrested
over eighty thousand gang members. He went after MS thirteen
and he locked them up. He built a gigantic prison,
the Seacot Prison, that houses up to forty thousand people.
It was designed to house gang members. One of the
(09:27):
things that Justice Minister said, he said, look, in the
United States MS thirteen. To become a member of MS thirteen,
you know, you know what you have to do.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
If I remember correctly, you've actually got to kill somebody.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
That's exactly right. That is the test for membership is
you have to murder someone. So here's what the Justice
Minister told me that I did not know. Do you
know what the requirement was to become a member of
MS thirteen and.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
L Salvador, I'm assuming it's worse.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
You had to murder ten people?
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Ten, So you showed ten people?
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Well, and that explains the murder rate.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
If you've killed nine. If you killed nine, you're not
in yet. You're not bad enough. You only killed nine,
You're still an amateur. And it was it was fascinating,
like listening to the job. Describe it. He described how
the old government of El Salvador, the leftist, they made
a decision to essentially hand government over to the cartels,
(10:25):
to disempower the police, to disempower the judiciary, to disempower
the government from enforcing law and order. And he said, look,
there was a government, and the government was the gangs.
The gangs were in charge, the gangs in post taxes.
The gangs had an army, the gangs had had a
justice system. They were running the country and and and
(10:46):
it was the murder rate was so bad that nobody
went out at night. I was listening to I was
talking to American personnel who lived there, and they said,
if they had, say a Salvadoran employed who was working
for them, they would insist on going home about four pm.
Why because they would not drive after dark, because if
(11:08):
they did, they might be kidnapped, they might be assaulted,
they might be murdered. So you would not drive after dark.
So Bikelly came in and they said, we're not going
to let the gangs be the government of l Salvador.
We are going to be the government, and we're going
to go after them. And they went in and what's
fascinating is they said the prior government had a list
(11:29):
of most of the gang members. They'd arrest them. They
knew who the gang members were, they'd let them go,
they'd arrest them again, they'd let them go again. They'd
arrest them again, they'd let them go again. So they
had a comprehensive list. What it took was a simple decision,
We're done. We are not letting gang members recavoc murder
our citizens, caused terror throughout the country. And so they
(11:52):
went and began arresting gang members. They began arresting gang
leaders and putting them in jail, taking them off the street.
Now Here is what is amazing, ben The murder rate
went from the worst murder rate on planet Earth to
becoming one of the safest countries in the world. It
(12:15):
went from one hundred murders per one hundred thousand people
to last year in twenty twenty four, it was one
point nine murders per one hundred thousand people. It was
a ninety eight percent decrease in murders. It is stunning. Yeah,
and that's why President Bucala got re elected with over
(12:38):
eighty percent of the vote. Because when you take people
from a mad max in thunderdome dystopian hellscape where you're
terrified to be out at night, you do not leave
your house because you and your family are risking death,
to a place where this evening I was in the
capital city and people were walking on the streets and
they're safe and they're not afraid. It turns out locking
(13:02):
up the criminals getting him off the street that works.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
All of you know that I am a pro Second
Amendment guy. I've shared on numerous occasions how caring my
firearms saved my life from a gang related attack. But
for those of you out there with family members who
may not be comfortable having a gun by their side,
you still want them to be able to protect themselves
and others in times of danger. And that's where the
Burno launcher comes in. Berna is a handheld pistol that
(13:27):
fires both kinetic rounds and chemical irritants to separate you
from an attacker. And I'm here with Josh Cherrard from
Berna to share the true story of how an avid
hiker uses burned to stop an attacking mountain lion. Josh
tell us what happened.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
Yeah, you know, Jason is an avid hiker deciding to
take his family out on a hiker he's done several times,
super easy, high but super fun, all armed with his Berna.
You know, this is one of those things where he
didn't expect to see anything, and all of a sudden,
on this hike, this mountain lion appears out of no work.
Of course, He's sin his family on down the trail,
watches the line for a few minutes, realizing it's not
(14:05):
going away, so uses his burner, fires a few rounds
to scare it off. Continues down the trail, but unfortunately
this mountain line appears again, at which point he realized
he was going to have to up his aggression with
that burner. Fire's four rounds was able to strike the
mountain lion all four times at chest and torso, at
which point that mountain lion airs off, never to be
(14:25):
seen again. These guys make it down the trail, back
to their car and back to home safely. Fortunately, this
is all it took to make sure and get this
family back home safe off a hike that could have
taken an obvious turn for the worst.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
And I'm going to guess that burner has been used
to stop other types of animal attacks as well.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
Absolutely, we get stories all the time of users with
whether it be dogs or other wildlife. We even have
an ecological park whose security carries burna four bears out
in the smoky mountains out there. That's been effective there
as well, So once again, not just a tool for people,
but very effective against animals as well.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
It's really incredible.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
If you want to get more information on how you
and your family member can protect themselves with the Burner launcher,
go to Berna dot com. That's by r NA dot com.
Again by RNA dot com, Burner dot com.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
You know, this also reminds me so much.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Of the conversation that I think we're trying to have
right now in this country. In so many of these
dangerous cities. It just takes the willpower and the leadership,
whether it's New York, whether it's Memphis or Detroit, or
Saint Louis or New Orleans, Baltimore. The list goes on
and on, California, San Francisco, right in La those types
of areas where we've seen the criminals take over.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
We've seen the gangs takeover.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
We've seen cartels that have clearly got their tentacles into
so many of these cities and are making countless dollars
off the drug trade, the human trafficking, the sex trafficking,
the child trafficking. The list goes on on. It just
takes somebody willing to say enough, that's what the President's doing.
In Washington, d C. We're witnessing it and have instant effects.
It's a lot like what you're talking about right now
(16:10):
where you are.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Yeah, it is a political choice, and that's what everyone
here was emphasizing. It was a choice before we're going
to allow the gangs to run this country and we
don't care if people are murdered, We're not going to
do anything about it. It was a choice to end it,
and it was a choice that was dramatic in terms
of the effects. You know, when I was sitting with
a Justice minister, he pulled up on the computer that
(16:34):
they have in very detailed statistics. So in twenty eighteen,
right before Bukelly came into office, there were across the
country roughly two thousand, three hundred murders. Do you know
how many murders there have been this year? How many fifty?
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (16:55):
It went from you to talk about a legacy by
the way hundred Yeah, I mean, just think about a
leader legacy.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Yeah, you're literally saving lives through this policy.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
And so the Justice minister pulled up on the computer
they have all across the country. He had every single
police officer in the country on this computer. You could
see the cars, you could see the foot patrols. He
could click on them and you would get the names
of this his officer so and so, officer so and
so in every city across the country where they were.
(17:27):
He could actually click on them and connect with them.
He could call them on their cell phone. He could
video stream with them on their cell phones. He also
had a record of every person that had been arrested
that day. There were four people who were arrested today
and he had you could click on them and at
four thirty two pm. I'm making that up. I don't
remember the time, but you know, one guy was arrested
(17:49):
for theft or whatever whatever it was, and you could
click on it. You could see their arrest report. You
could actually see the mugshot. I saw the mugshot of
a guy was arrested today. And he had real time
data literally all across the country. And they're developing AI
systems to go and target it, and where they see
crime is greater, they go and devote the resources and
(18:10):
they get the criminals off the street. Well, I got
to say, having met with the Justice Minister, then then
I went to the Presidential office and I met with
President Bukelly, and I get to say President Bukelly is
one of the most impressive leaders I've ever met. He's young,
he's charismatic, and his record of success is extraordinary. His
(18:36):
country is fundamentally different. I shared with him. I shared
with him the story that every person I had met
in the country today, I asked, Hey, what do you
think of the president? All of them, everyone, every Salvador,
and every American said he's doing a phenomenal job. I
laughed and said, you know what, I don't know if
a politician in America that would be true. It's certainly
(18:57):
not true of me. If you ask a guy on
the street, there's some people who like this job I'm doing.
There are other people who would tell you what a terrible,
horrible human being I am that that that's a little
bit of the price of politics, It says something. But
you know what, when you go from the worst murder
capital on the planet to one of the safest countries
in the world, turns out people really appreciate that well.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
And when you're living in that type of fear in hell,
it's not political. It's about your family and safety. And
it sounds like people are judging him based on that,
not on like, look, you you interact with someone that's conserved,
they're going to love you. Liberals automatically hate you. That's
that's like a fifty to fifty split right away when
you wake up every morning. It would be nice, by
the way, if while President Trump is doing what he's
(19:41):
doing in DC, if people in DC would look at
this as a safety issue.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Now's a political issue.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Maybe they could take that away from from what you're
witnessing down there right now.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Well and listen, President mc kelly expressed real frustration because
the Biden administration did everything they could to undermine him,
to attack the government of L. Salvador, and I was
laughing with President m kelly, saying, you know, it is bizarre.
I think the policy of America ought to be that
we treat our friends well, we are good friends to
(20:11):
our friends, and we stand up to our enemies. And
under Biden, the policy seemed to be that we treat
our friends like crap, and we give in and show
weakness and appeasement to our enemies. And I got to say,
I think President m kelly he agreed with that. The
Biden administration puts sanctions on government officials in L. Salvador.
(20:33):
They undermined it. They attacked it, and they did everything
they could to drive l Salvador away. By the way,
when they're locking up these MS thirteen gang members, these leaders,
they're making America safer, and yet the Biden administration undermined him.
And one of the things President m kelly was very
grateful about is President Trump is exactly the opposite. He
and President Trump are quite close. You remember, not too
(20:56):
long ago he was in DC in the Oval Office
with President Trump. They've worked together very very closely. And
the difference in what he was emphasizing. He said, this
is a choice. It is a choice, and we talked
about DC. We actually analogized it. Look, the President in
d C said we're gonna we're gonna put federal law
enforcement officials on the ground. We're going to arrest murders.
(21:17):
We're going to arrest criminals and keep people safe. And
the results have been dramatic. Violent crime has dropped significantly
in DC because of the simple act of saying we're
going to arrest violent criminals. That's a choice, I'll tell you.
President bmu kelly brought up San Francisco. He brought up
when when she from China came to San Francisco and
he said it was amazing. Suddenly all the homeless people
(21:38):
and drug addicts, they removed them all from the streets.
And I was laughing. And this is what you and
I talked about just two days ago on the podcast.
Gavin Newsom, when he was able to clean up San Francisco,
he told every resident of San Francisco, you don't matter
to me. Let's assume Ben, this is a little bit
(21:58):
of a stretch, but you're let's assume you're a lefty,
granola crunching Marxist in San Francisco, and you've been told
over and over again, there's nothing we can do about homelessness.
So there were nothing we can do about heroin addict
shooting up on the street, There's nothing we can do
about people defecating on the streets. And then suddenly the
(22:21):
leader of communist China shows up and Gavin Newsom cleans
everything and it's sparkling, spick and span. And how even
if you were the most left wing democrat on earth,
how do you not stop and say, wait a second.
You told me you couldn't fix this, and then in
twenty four hours you fixed it. What that means is
you could have fixed it a week ago, a month ago,
(22:42):
a year ago, and you didn't because my kids don't
matter to you as much as the leader of China.
And that's what Kelly brought up. And he and I
were both agreeing, you can fix this problem if you
choose to fix this problem. And I gotta say bo
Kelly's results, and we talked about I did a press
conference this evening where of course the reporters were attacking
(23:05):
Bukelly because they don't like his results. And I said, listen,
when you have a ninety eight percent reduction in the
murder rates, the results speak for themselves. And I said,
there's an analogy to President Trump in the United States,
where when he got sworn in, we have a ninety
nine percent reduction in the rate of illegal boarding crossing
border crossings that happened immediately. And I did point out
(23:28):
to bu Kelly when I said that. I said, look,
you're at ninety eight. President Trump's at ninety nine. I'm
not trying to wane op you. And I said, to
be fair, I said, to be fair, your status murder
So that's like incredibly acute. But if we're arguing between
ninety eight ninety nine. That is incredible success for both
our nations.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
This, by the way, brings me to subject number two,
and you talk about how the left is just hell
bent on crime and making sure that crime stay is high.
They're fighting law in order everywhere they can. They still
haven't even learned of how bad it makes them look
to support an illegal alien criminal who has become the
(24:11):
poster child of the Democratic Party. And let's talk about
the update to this Kamarabrego Garcia story.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Well, this is the Maryland man who the Democrats have
decided is who they stand for. And he's an MS
thirteen gangbanger. And he was arrested, he was deported Dell Salvatory,
he was brought back. He's been charged with human trafficking.
He's also been alleged to have physically assaulted and beaten
(24:41):
his wife. You and I on this podcast read through
the indictment and the human trafficking, the crimes that he'd
been involved with MS thirteen for a decade. And yet
Democrat senators, including Chris van Holland, the Democrat from Maryland
who's my colleague, flew down to El Salvador and did
(25:01):
something very different than what I did. I sat down
with mckelly and wanted to talk about his incredible success
making the country safer and protecting innocent families. Chris Van
Holland wanted to go to the prison where where Abrego
Garcia was and sit down and have Margherita's with him
and be like, Oh, it's terrible that they're locking up
gang members. And you know what, you know what Americans want. Apparently,
(25:22):
what what Van Holland thinks Marylanders want is more illegal
immigrants and more gang members. And and so what what
happened is I arrested Bregor Garcia and then they're in
the process of deporting him yet again, and and and
the Democrats are once again circling around him because apparently
(25:44):
they believe that's what Americans want. And I want you
to listen to to this clip of of what happened
when when what concerning his arrest. Give a listen.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
I think MS President today, I'm as thirteen baker and
human trafficker Kilmar Abregio Garcia turned himself into ice in Baltimore.
Give any comment on this and why the Democrats so
emotionally attached this man who beats his wife and is
part of a terrorist organization.
Speaker 6 (26:13):
Because they think he's going to be good for VOTs,
and I think he's very bad for votes. These people
are deranged. He's not good for votes. He beat the
hell out of his wife.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
His wife is.
Speaker 6 (26:25):
Afraid to even talk about him. She's been mauled by
this animal. And you know, through a system of liberal courts,
you know, he's doing things. But now we have that
under control, and Pam has got that very much under Conville.
You want to comment on it.
Speaker 7 (26:42):
No, no, we've got him under control. He will no
longer terrorize our country. He's currently charged with human smuggling
and concluding children. The guy needs to be in prison.
He doesn't need to be on the streets like all
these liberals want him to be. And as part of
this operation here in d we've also taken off MS
MS thirteen members. We've taken I think just last night
(27:05):
we got a TDA guide off our streets right here,
right around from where we all work. Another TDA member
gone because of this project. So we're going to keep
America safe from all of these foreign terrorist organizations, including
a breako Garcia.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
You know, one of the funniest things, Pam Bondi when
she's talking about it, she said, you know, in DC,
we got an MS and she starts to say MSNBC,
and she's like an MS in thirteen. Yeah, and like
an MSNBC reporter at MSNBC commentator off the street who
To be honest, there may not be a massive difference
(27:42):
because on MSNBC, what are they doing. They're defending MS thirteen.
But I just thought that was a really amusing Freudian slip.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Yeah, now, you can't make it up. It's one of
those that makes me laugh.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
You look at this story, and I got to say,
I really like our chances right now going into a
midterm if Democrats cannot get it together, even their national
I don't know, convention, whatever the hell you call it.
They're obsessed over words and language. They're obsessed with defending
criminals and illegal alien criminals. They're learning nothing, and they're
(28:15):
certainly not listening to the American people and what they're
saying either, which is the most important thing.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Yeah. Well, look, we saw an illustration of this with
Cracker Barrel. Cracker Barrel is a terrific institution, particularly in
the South, and their woke leadership decided that everything the
company was built on they didn't like, and in particular,
they didn't like the customers. You know, their customers they
thought were not nearly as enlightened as they should be,
they were not nearly as woke as they should be.
(28:44):
And the whole thing was very reminiscent of bud Light.
You know, bud Light. You had a marketing executive who said,
you know, the people who buy bud Light, we don't
like them. We need to have you know, a bunch
of woke transgender activists drinking our beer instead. It was
reminiscent of what happened with Target, where they decided to market,
(29:06):
you know, to market to transgender toddlers and do it
prominently pushing, pushing bathing suits for two year old boys
to tuck their genitals, to hide them away, to pretend
they're not boys. That was Target thinking, this is really
what America wants, because you know, if you're the parent
of a two year old, clearly you want your son
(29:28):
to believe he's a daughter when he's two. This is
a phenomenon of business leaders who buy into an ideology
that is wildly unpopular and ultimately directly antithetical to their customers.
And so Cracker Barrel had a logo, had a logo
of you know, an old old guy sitting on a
(29:50):
chair next to a giant barrel. And they decided, okay,
let's get rid of the cracker, let's get rid of
the barrel, let's get rid of it all, and we'll
just have anodyne words because we're really embarrassed that that
that were for anything nostalgic, anything that that that that
is Americana. And the pushback has been phenomenal. There's stock
prices tank just like bud Light, just like Target, and
(30:13):
and just today they announced never mind, Okay, yeah, this
has not worked well. The beatings are really hurting, so
we're going to stop.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
But but it is it is striking that that it
took the reaction of the market for them to figure
it out. I want to say though, it is a great,
great victory for common sense that Cracker Barrel finally gave
in and said, you know what, we're going to stop
being woke because we'd like to actually have one or
two customers when this is all said and done.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
The the I think the frustration of conservatives now voting
with our dollars, and that is what ultimately this came
down to a Cracker brought. This was a bunch of
Americans that said, Okay, you despise us, you despise you
know who we are as a customer base. You're basically
telling us you don't want us anymore. Watch this, And
(31:09):
that is exactly how they got this point very quickly.
And look, I also think when you have people like
you and the President who are willing to speak out
on this and say you guys are being stupid, they
realize how quickly others are like yeah, us too, like
we're gonna you know what, We're going to say that
we think this is ridiculous, and we're starting to finally,
I think see the pendulum swing back the other way,
(31:31):
which is really really cool.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
I was gratified because yesterday President Trump publicly called out
Cracker Barrel and said, look, you need to just go
back to your old logo, like give this up in
the rebranding and accept that you were wrong. And I'll
tell you. I jumped in on Twitter. I retweeted him,
I said this is absolutely right, and the two of
us were very vocal saying go back to where you
were in Twenty four hours later they did so that
(31:55):
that was gratifying. It's not always that people listen, they
listen to common sense. In this case, they did, and
it's worth noting it isn't just in the last week
that people noticed that what Cracker Barrel was doing was nuts.
Almost a year ago November of last year, a big
(32:17):
investor in Cracker Barrel Guy named Sardar big Laurie. He
owns approximately five percent of the restaurant chainstock. He wrote
to his fellow shareholders that the Cracker Barrel transformation was
a quote mistake of misguided executives falling into a textbook
trap of overspending on cosmetic remodeling. And he continued the
(32:41):
day Cracker Barrel opened, it was already old, its theme
derived from the nineteen twenties, and he wrote, I am
concerned that not only will the remodel not work, but
it could actually damage the brand further. These decisions are
taking us down the same path I believe as Ruby Tuesday,
(33:02):
Red Lobster, Tgi Fridays and the like. Let me make
my position clear. The company's seven hundred million dollars remodel
plan will not work. And he called at a letter
to the shareholders in October twenty twenty four the board's
transformation plan quote obvious folly. And yet the corporate leadership
(33:26):
ignored the shareholder own five percent of the company, and
they charged down that road anyway, and they vaporized roughly
fifteen percent of the market cap of the company because
that they were more interested in listening to woke marketing executives.
And by the way, the entire marketing world, much of
that is a scam of left wing, woke people who
(33:50):
despise their customers. And let me say, if you're in
corporate America, don't listen to marketing executives that don't understand
and don't like your customers. But in this instance, Cracker
Barrel should have listened to its investor and not these
marketing execs, and it paid the price. But the good
news is they finally, finally, finally listened and reversed and said,
(34:10):
you know what, the principles we were founded on, the
principles America was founded on. Those principles are pretty good.
We're going to get back to them.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, it's incredible. All right, final question for you. You've got
day one in the books that Codell you're going to
be down there and also doing more we're going to
be able to talk about that coming up on the
next episode of Verdict.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
That's right. This is a multi day trip and we're
traveling to two other countries throughout Latin America, and the
focus is really on meeting with heads of state, meeting
with leaders in each of these countries where the issues
directly impact the United States, directly impact Texas, they impact
our national security, they impact our economy. By the way,
(34:51):
I had dinner tonight with the Economy Minister here in
El Salvador. They're very focused on American investment on energy,
on technology, on pharmacyceuticals, on creating jobs, and by the way,
to give a sense of how much these changes matter,
I'm going to give you two stats to wrap up with.
The Justice Minister told me they've had over ten thousand
(35:14):
applications for people who want to be police officers. Suddenly,
people are eager to be police officers because it's making
a difference because as they're making their community safe. Previously,
when the gangs were running the country, they had in
one year over three hundred police officers murdered. Being a
police officer was literally taking your life and your family's
(35:34):
life in danger. Now people are lining up to be
police officers because they see the difference. But here's something else.
It used to be that the people of El Salvador
were fleeing this country because, look, you were risking being murdered,
your kids were risking being murdered. You wanted to get out.
Now we are seeing reverse migration. They're roughly six million
(35:54):
Salvadorans in El Salvador. They are about three million Salvadorans
in the United States. President Beccaulay told me roughly half
of those Salvadorans in America, about one and a half million,
have said they want to come back to El Salvador.
They're seeing reverse migration because suddenly people are saying, wait,
I fled my country because I was terrified for my
(36:14):
safety and my family. Now the country's safe, I want
to come back. I love love the beach and the
mountains and the people and the culture. That is changing
this country. And it ought to be an encouragement to
any other leader, to any mayor, to anyone facing crime
and challenges. When you fix these problems, it doesn't just
(36:36):
keep people safe, which it does, but it has economic benefits.
It literally transforms your community. That's inspirational and as I said,
this is the beginning of a multi day trip throughout
Latin America. So in two days we'll report on the
rest of the trip.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
It's going to be awesome. Don't forget.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
We do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. So hit
that subscriber auto download button and the center and I
will see you back here in a couple of days.
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It is Verdict with center Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you.
Usually I'm the one that's out of town, far far away. Tonight,
as we do the show, you're in another country center
and you're on a codel through Latin America.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Well, that's exactly right. As you and I are talking,
it is late Tuesday night, and I am in El Salvador.
I've spent the entire day in El Salvador, meeting with
senior government officials, meeting with the President of El Salvador.
I'm going to walk you through exactly what I heard,
what I saw, what is happening on the ground. We're
also going to talk about You're in my favorite Maryland man,
(00:38):
the MS thirteen gangbanger, who the Democrats have decided to
make the poster child for their entire party, and he
has once again been arrested by Ice and is facing deportation.
We're in the lay out the facts of what's happening there.
And finally, Cracker Barrel. Cracker Barrel, after deciding they hate
their customers, after deciding they hate everything their company was
founded upon, they utterly and completely surrendered. They threw in
(01:02):
the cracker They threw in the barrel. We're going to
break down the absolute mess that was behind that, and
I'll give you the punchline early, Go woke, go broke.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Go broke.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
And the best part about this story is this controversy
they were warned about a long time ago, and we've
got a new time on on it. It wasn't just
over the last week and a half. All right, Let's
talk real quick about how you.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
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(03:15):
So centater let's talk about why you are where you
are right now in El Salvador. Explain quickly what a
codell is, what it means, and then why you chose
to do this in Latin America.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Well, a codell is very simple. That is an abbreviation
for congressional delegation, and that is official travel as part
of your job serving in Congress or in my case,
serving in the Senate. And I've done a number of
codells to different parts of the world. You do it
because you need to go and meet with foreign leaders.
You need to understand the challenges in different countries as
(03:47):
they impact the United States. And so I am right
now this week on a codell throughout Latin America, and
it started today in El Salvador And the reason I
started in El Salvador is because it's a country that
is impacting the United States profoundly. It is impacting the
United States because in the last several years, particularly in
the Biden administration, we saw a massive influx of illegal
(04:10):
immigration from El Salvador that impacted Texas in the whole country.
And then we've seen El Salvador turn itself around. President
bu Kelly, the president here who was elected with overwhelming support,
re elected with massive support. The success he has had
turning crime around, targeting the cartels, targeting the gangs is extraordinary.
(04:34):
And I spent quite a bit of time this evening
with President Bukelly with his senior team, and that has
made El Salvador safer. But it's also made America safer.
So that's why I'm here. Now. Let me tell you
how CODELL begins. So I started the day early this
morning in Houston in my home. I got up, went
(04:54):
to the airport, and I flew down to El Salvador.
I got off the plane, and I have a team
for my office is with me, of my national security
and foreign policy team. We started by going to a
military base that that that the United States Navy has
right by the airport, UH. And I met with a
number of American sailors who are there. They're engaged UH
(05:16):
significantly in drug interdiction and and counter terrorism efforts and
and and it's an air base where where they can
they can support they can support planes, they can support
drones and and and they can support all sorts of
air missions UH, fighting terrorism and fighting cartels, and and
(05:38):
so I met with the leadership there of the base
and and I met with There were a number of
sailors from Texas, and so I started by having lunch
with them, uh, asking them about how it was living
in El Salvador, what what their backgrounds were, and they
were from multiple places throughout throughout Texas. What is interesting, ben,
(06:02):
I asked each of those sailors. I said, okay, you
guys have lived it varied anywhere from from a few
weeks to two years. Down in El Salvador, I said, okay,
how have things changed and what kind of job is
President Boukelly doing. Every single American sailor I spoke with said,
it's extraordinary, Like this country has changed. It is safe.
(06:26):
It used to be incredibly dangerous. It is now safe.
People are willing to walk the streets. They said. People
would not walk the streets at night. It was not safe.
You would not go out after dark because you would
be assaulted, you'd be kidnapped, you'd be murdered. And it
is now become incredibly safe. That that was the assessment
(06:46):
of our sailors. I then went to the US Embassy
and I met with with our country team.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
There.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
I had a classified briefing in a skiff where they
walked through everything that's happening in El Salvador. And then
I met with a number of US Marines. They were
all young men that they had been in the country
anywhere from actually one fellow was there literally a day wow,
and it ranged this was his second day in country,
(07:17):
and it ranged from I think that the marine had
been there. The longest was nine months. And I asked
them the same questions about a dozen Marines, and so
I went and talked with them, and I said, okay,
what do you think of the country? Every one of
them said, this is an incredible place. We love it
down here. But I also asked, okay, what kind of
job is the current administration doing? And again they raved
(07:40):
about it. It was one of the interesting things been
every single person I asked on this trip, I asked,
how is President bou Kelly doing. I did not find
a single person, a single Salvadoran, a single American. And
I met, as I said, I talked with a number
of especially American servicemen and women. I didn't find a
single one who had anything negatives say. That is rare,
(08:03):
and there's a reason for that. After meeting with the Marines,
after meeting with our country team at the embassy. I
went and sat down with the Justice Minister and I
got to say the Justice Minister, that presentation been their
very few presentations I've been in in my entire time
in the Senate that have been more impressive real because
(08:24):
the Justice, Yes, the Justice Minister laid out what they've done.
In twenty fifteen, do you know that El Salvador was
the murder capital of the world.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, it was a and I'm pretty sure if I
remember correctly, the State Department put it out there in
essence as they do not travel zone for Americans.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
In fact, in twenty fifteen, here are the data. The
murder rate in El Salvador was one hundred people per
one hundred thousand. That meant one out of one thousand
people in the country was murdered. That was the single
highest murder rate of any country on the planet. President
(09:04):
bu Kelly came in, and he came in and began
going after the cartels and he began arresting. He arrested
over eighty thousand gang members. He went after MS thirteen
and he locked them up. He built a gigantic prison,
the Seacot Prison, that houses up to forty thousand people.
It was designed to house gang members. One of the
(09:27):
things that Justice Minister said, he said, look, in the
United States MS thirteen. To become a member of MS thirteen,
you know, you know what you have to do.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
If I remember correctly, you've actually got to kill somebody.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
That's exactly right. That is the test for membership is
you have to murder someone. So here's what the Justice
Minister told me that I did not know. Do you
know what the requirement was to become a member of
MS thirteen and.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
L Salvador, I'm assuming it's worse.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
You had to murder ten people?
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Ten, So you showed ten people?
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Well, and that explains the murder rate.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
If you've killed nine. If you killed nine, you're not
in yet. You're not bad enough. You only killed nine,
You're still an amateur. And it was it was fascinating,
like listening to the job. Describe it. He described how
the old government of El Salvador, the leftist, they made
a decision to essentially hand government over to the cartels,
(10:25):
to disempower the police, to disempower the judiciary, to disempower
the government from enforcing law and order. And he said, look,
there was a government, and the government was the gangs.
The gangs were in charge, the gangs in post taxes.
The gangs had an army, the gangs had had a
justice system. They were running the country and and and
(10:46):
it was the murder rate was so bad that nobody
went out at night. I was listening to I was
talking to American personnel who lived there, and they said,
if they had, say a Salvadoran employed who was working
for them, they would insist on going home about four pm.
Why because they would not drive after dark, because if
(11:08):
they did, they might be kidnapped, they might be assaulted,
they might be murdered. So you would not drive after dark.
So Bikelly came in and they said, we're not going
to let the gangs be the government of l Salvador.
We are going to be the government, and we're going
to go after them. And they went in and what's
fascinating is they said the prior government had a list
(11:29):
of most of the gang members. They'd arrest them. They
knew who the gang members were, they'd let them go,
they'd arrest them again, they'd let them go again. They'd
arrest them again, they'd let them go again. So they
had a comprehensive list. What it took was a simple decision,
We're done. We are not letting gang members recavoc murder
our citizens, caused terror throughout the country. And so they
(11:52):
went and began arresting gang members. They began arresting gang
leaders and putting them in jail, taking them off the street.
Now Here is what is amazing, ben The murder rate
went from the worst murder rate on planet Earth to
becoming one of the safest countries in the world. It
(12:15):
went from one hundred murders per one hundred thousand people
to last year in twenty twenty four, it was one
point nine murders per one hundred thousand people. It was
a ninety eight percent decrease in murders. It is stunning. Yeah,
and that's why President Bucala got re elected with over
(12:38):
eighty percent of the vote. Because when you take people
from a mad max in thunderdome dystopian hellscape where you're
terrified to be out at night, you do not leave
your house because you and your family are risking death,
to a place where this evening I was in the
capital city and people were walking on the streets and
they're safe and they're not afraid. It turns out locking
(13:02):
up the criminals getting him off the street that works.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
All of you know that I am a pro Second
Amendment guy. I've shared on numerous occasions how caring my
firearms saved my life from a gang related attack. But
for those of you out there with family members who
may not be comfortable having a gun by their side,
you still want them to be able to protect themselves
and others in times of danger. And that's where the
Burno launcher comes in. Berna is a handheld pistol that
(13:27):
fires both kinetic rounds and chemical irritants to separate you
from an attacker. And I'm here with Josh Cherrard from
Berna to share the true story of how an avid
hiker uses burned to stop an attacking mountain lion. Josh
tell us what happened.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
Yeah, you know, Jason is an avid hiker deciding to
take his family out on a hiker he's done several times,
super easy, high but super fun, all armed with his Berna.
You know, this is one of those things where he
didn't expect to see anything, and all of a sudden,
on this hike, this mountain lion appears out of no work.
Of course, He's sin his family on down the trail,
watches the line for a few minutes, realizing it's not
(14:05):
going away, so uses his burner, fires a few rounds
to scare it off. Continues down the trail, but unfortunately
this mountain line appears again, at which point he realized
he was going to have to up his aggression with
that burner. Fire's four rounds was able to strike the
mountain lion all four times at chest and torso, at
which point that mountain lion airs off, never to be
(14:25):
seen again. These guys make it down the trail, back
to their car and back to home safely. Fortunately, this
is all it took to make sure and get this
family back home safe off a hike that could have
taken an obvious turn for the worst.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
And I'm going to guess that burner has been used
to stop other types of animal attacks as well.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
Absolutely, we get stories all the time of users with
whether it be dogs or other wildlife. We even have
an ecological park whose security carries burna four bears out
in the smoky mountains out there. That's been effective there
as well, So once again, not just a tool for people,
but very effective against animals as well.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
It's really incredible.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
If you want to get more information on how you
and your family member can protect themselves with the Burner launcher,
go to Berna dot com. That's by r NA dot com.
Again by RNA dot com, Burner dot com.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
You know, this also reminds me so much.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Of the conversation that I think we're trying to have
right now in this country. In so many of these
dangerous cities. It just takes the willpower and the leadership,
whether it's New York, whether it's Memphis or Detroit, or
Saint Louis or New Orleans, Baltimore. The list goes on
and on, California, San Francisco, right in La those types
of areas where we've seen the criminals take over.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
We've seen the gangs takeover.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
We've seen cartels that have clearly got their tentacles into
so many of these cities and are making countless dollars
off the drug trade, the human trafficking, the sex trafficking,
the child trafficking. The list goes on on. It just
takes somebody willing to say enough, that's what the President's doing.
In Washington, d C. We're witnessing it and have instant effects.
It's a lot like what you're talking about right now
(16:10):
where you are.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Yeah, it is a political choice, and that's what everyone
here was emphasizing. It was a choice before we're going
to allow the gangs to run this country and we
don't care if people are murdered, We're not going to
do anything about it. It was a choice to end it,
and it was a choice that was dramatic in terms
of the effects. You know, when I was sitting with
a Justice minister, he pulled up on the computer that
(16:34):
they have in very detailed statistics. So in twenty eighteen,
right before Bukelly came into office, there were across the
country roughly two thousand, three hundred murders. Do you know
how many murders there have been this year? How many fifty?
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (16:55):
It went from you to talk about a legacy by
the way hundred Yeah, I mean, just think about a
leader legacy.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Yeah, you're literally saving lives through this policy.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
And so the Justice minister pulled up on the computer
they have all across the country. He had every single
police officer in the country on this computer. You could
see the cars, you could see the foot patrols. He
could click on them and you would get the names
of this his officer so and so, officer so and
so in every city across the country where they were.
(17:27):
He could actually click on them and connect with them.
He could call them on their cell phone. He could
video stream with them on their cell phones. He also
had a record of every person that had been arrested
that day. There were four people who were arrested today
and he had you could click on them and at
four thirty two pm. I'm making that up. I don't
remember the time, but you know, one guy was arrested
(17:49):
for theft or whatever whatever it was, and you could
click on it. You could see their arrest report. You
could actually see the mugshot. I saw the mugshot of
a guy was arrested today. And he had real time
data literally all across the country. And they're developing AI
systems to go and target it, and where they see
crime is greater, they go and devote the resources and
(18:10):
they get the criminals off the street. Well, I got
to say, having met with the Justice Minister, then then
I went to the Presidential office and I met with
President Bukelly, and I get to say President Bukelly is
one of the most impressive leaders I've ever met. He's young,
he's charismatic, and his record of success is extraordinary. His
(18:36):
country is fundamentally different. I shared with him. I shared
with him the story that every person I had met
in the country today, I asked, Hey, what do you
think of the president? All of them, everyone, every Salvador,
and every American said he's doing a phenomenal job. I
laughed and said, you know what, I don't know if
a politician in America that would be true. It's certainly
(18:57):
not true of me. If you ask a guy on
the street, there's some people who like this job I'm doing.
There are other people who would tell you what a terrible,
horrible human being I am that that that's a little
bit of the price of politics, It says something. But
you know what, when you go from the worst murder
capital on the planet to one of the safest countries
in the world, turns out people really appreciate that well.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
And when you're living in that type of fear in hell,
it's not political. It's about your family and safety. And
it sounds like people are judging him based on that,
not on like, look, you you interact with someone that's conserved,
they're going to love you. Liberals automatically hate you. That's
that's like a fifty to fifty split right away when
you wake up every morning. It would be nice, by
the way, if while President Trump is doing what he's
(19:41):
doing in DC, if people in DC would look at
this as a safety issue.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Now's a political issue.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Maybe they could take that away from from what you're
witnessing down there right now.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Well and listen, President mc kelly expressed real frustration because
the Biden administration did everything they could to undermine him,
to attack the government of L. Salvador, and I was
laughing with President m kelly, saying, you know, it is bizarre.
I think the policy of America ought to be that
we treat our friends well, we are good friends to
(20:11):
our friends, and we stand up to our enemies. And
under Biden, the policy seemed to be that we treat
our friends like crap, and we give in and show
weakness and appeasement to our enemies. And I got to say,
I think President m kelly he agreed with that. The
Biden administration puts sanctions on government officials in L. Salvador.
(20:33):
They undermined it. They attacked it, and they did everything
they could to drive l Salvador away. By the way,
when they're locking up these MS thirteen gang members, these leaders,
they're making America safer, and yet the Biden administration undermined him.
And one of the things President m kelly was very
grateful about is President Trump is exactly the opposite. He
and President Trump are quite close. You remember, not too
(20:56):
long ago he was in DC in the Oval Office
with President Trump. They've worked together very very closely. And
the difference in what he was emphasizing. He said, this
is a choice. It is a choice, and we talked
about DC. We actually analogized it. Look, the President in
d C said we're gonna we're gonna put federal law
enforcement officials on the ground. We're going to arrest murders.
(21:17):
We're going to arrest criminals and keep people safe. And
the results have been dramatic. Violent crime has dropped significantly
in DC because of the simple act of saying we're
going to arrest violent criminals. That's a choice, I'll tell you.
President bmu kelly brought up San Francisco. He brought up
when when she from China came to San Francisco and
he said it was amazing. Suddenly all the homeless people
(21:38):
and drug addicts, they removed them all from the streets.
And I was laughing. And this is what you and
I talked about just two days ago on the podcast.
Gavin Newsom, when he was able to clean up San Francisco,
he told every resident of San Francisco, you don't matter
to me. Let's assume Ben, this is a little bit
(21:58):
of a stretch, but you're let's assume you're a lefty,
granola crunching Marxist in San Francisco, and you've been told
over and over again, there's nothing we can do about homelessness.
So there were nothing we can do about heroin addict
shooting up on the street, There's nothing we can do
about people defecating on the streets. And then suddenly the
(22:21):
leader of communist China shows up and Gavin Newsom cleans
everything and it's sparkling, spick and span. And how even
if you were the most left wing democrat on earth,
how do you not stop and say, wait a second.
You told me you couldn't fix this, and then in
twenty four hours you fixed it. What that means is
you could have fixed it a week ago, a month ago,
(22:42):
a year ago, and you didn't because my kids don't
matter to you as much as the leader of China.
And that's what Kelly brought up. And he and I
were both agreeing, you can fix this problem if you
choose to fix this problem. And I gotta say bo
Kelly's results, and we talked about I did a press
conference this evening where of course the reporters were attacking
(23:05):
Bukelly because they don't like his results. And I said, listen,
when you have a ninety eight percent reduction in the
murder rates, the results speak for themselves. And I said,
there's an analogy to President Trump in the United States,
where when he got sworn in, we have a ninety
nine percent reduction in the rate of illegal boarding crossing
border crossings that happened immediately. And I did point out
(23:28):
to bu Kelly when I said that. I said, look,
you're at ninety eight. President Trump's at ninety nine. I'm
not trying to wane op you. And I said, to
be fair, I said, to be fair, your status murder
So that's like incredibly acute. But if we're arguing between
ninety eight ninety nine. That is incredible success for both
our nations.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
This, by the way, brings me to subject number two,
and you talk about how the left is just hell
bent on crime and making sure that crime stay is high.
They're fighting law in order everywhere they can. They still
haven't even learned of how bad it makes them look
to support an illegal alien criminal who has become the
(24:11):
poster child of the Democratic Party. And let's talk about
the update to this Kamarabrego Garcia story.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Well, this is the Maryland man who the Democrats have
decided is who they stand for. And he's an MS
thirteen gangbanger. And he was arrested, he was deported Dell Salvatory,
he was brought back. He's been charged with human trafficking.
He's also been alleged to have physically assaulted and beaten
(24:41):
his wife. You and I on this podcast read through
the indictment and the human trafficking, the crimes that he'd
been involved with MS thirteen for a decade. And yet
Democrat senators, including Chris van Holland, the Democrat from Maryland
who's my colleague, flew down to El Salvador and did
(25:01):
something very different than what I did. I sat down
with mckelly and wanted to talk about his incredible success
making the country safer and protecting innocent families. Chris Van
Holland wanted to go to the prison where where Abrego
Garcia was and sit down and have Margherita's with him
and be like, Oh, it's terrible that they're locking up
gang members. And you know what, you know what Americans want. Apparently,
(25:22):
what what Van Holland thinks Marylanders want is more illegal
immigrants and more gang members. And and so what what
happened is I arrested Bregor Garcia and then they're in
the process of deporting him yet again, and and and
the Democrats are once again circling around him because apparently
(25:44):
they believe that's what Americans want. And I want you
to listen to to this clip of of what happened
when when what concerning his arrest. Give a listen.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
I think MS President today, I'm as thirteen baker and
human trafficker Kilmar Abregio Garcia turned himself into ice in Baltimore.
Give any comment on this and why the Democrats so
emotionally attached this man who beats his wife and is
part of a terrorist organization.
Speaker 6 (26:13):
Because they think he's going to be good for VOTs,
and I think he's very bad for votes. These people
are deranged. He's not good for votes. He beat the
hell out of his wife.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
His wife is.
Speaker 6 (26:25):
Afraid to even talk about him. She's been mauled by
this animal. And you know, through a system of liberal courts,
you know, he's doing things. But now we have that
under control, and Pam has got that very much under Conville.
You want to comment on it.
Speaker 7 (26:42):
No, no, we've got him under control. He will no
longer terrorize our country. He's currently charged with human smuggling
and concluding children. The guy needs to be in prison.
He doesn't need to be on the streets like all
these liberals want him to be. And as part of
this operation here in d we've also taken off MS
MS thirteen members. We've taken I think just last night
(27:05):
we got a TDA guide off our streets right here,
right around from where we all work. Another TDA member
gone because of this project. So we're going to keep
America safe from all of these foreign terrorist organizations, including
a breako Garcia.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
You know, one of the funniest things, Pam Bondi when
she's talking about it, she said, you know, in DC,
we got an MS and she starts to say MSNBC,
and she's like an MS in thirteen. Yeah, and like
an MSNBC reporter at MSNBC commentator off the street who
To be honest, there may not be a massive difference
(27:42):
because on MSNBC, what are they doing. They're defending MS thirteen.
But I just thought that was a really amusing Freudian slip.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Yeah, now, you can't make it up. It's one of
those that makes me laugh.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
You look at this story, and I got to say,
I really like our chances right now going into a
midterm if Democrats cannot get it together, even their national
I don't know, convention, whatever the hell you call it.
They're obsessed over words and language. They're obsessed with defending
criminals and illegal alien criminals. They're learning nothing, and they're
(28:15):
certainly not listening to the American people and what they're
saying either, which is the most important thing.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Yeah. Well, look, we saw an illustration of this with
Cracker Barrel. Cracker Barrel is a terrific institution, particularly in
the South, and their woke leadership decided that everything the
company was built on they didn't like, and in particular,
they didn't like the customers. You know, their customers they
thought were not nearly as enlightened as they should be,
they were not nearly as woke as they should be.
(28:44):
And the whole thing was very reminiscent of bud Light.
You know, bud Light. You had a marketing executive who said,
you know, the people who buy bud Light, we don't
like them. We need to have you know, a bunch
of woke transgender activists drinking our beer instead. It was
reminiscent of what happened with Target, where they decided to market,
(29:06):
you know, to market to transgender toddlers and do it
prominently pushing, pushing bathing suits for two year old boys
to tuck their genitals, to hide them away, to pretend
they're not boys. That was Target thinking, this is really
what America wants, because you know, if you're the parent
of a two year old, clearly you want your son
(29:28):
to believe he's a daughter when he's two. This is
a phenomenon of business leaders who buy into an ideology
that is wildly unpopular and ultimately directly antithetical to their customers.
And so Cracker Barrel had a logo, had a logo
of you know, an old old guy sitting on a
(29:50):
chair next to a giant barrel. And they decided, okay,
let's get rid of the cracker, let's get rid of
the barrel, let's get rid of it all, and we'll
just have anodyne words because we're really embarrassed that that
that were for anything nostalgic, anything that that that that
is Americana. And the pushback has been phenomenal. There's stock
prices tank just like bud Light, just like Target, and
(30:13):
and just today they announced never mind, Okay, yeah, this
has not worked well. The beatings are really hurting, so
we're going to stop.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
But but it is it is striking that that it
took the reaction of the market for them to figure
it out. I want to say though, it is a great,
great victory for common sense that Cracker Barrel finally gave
in and said, you know what, we're going to stop
being woke because we'd like to actually have one or
two customers when this is all said and done.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
The the I think the frustration of conservatives now voting
with our dollars, and that is what ultimately this came
down to a Cracker brought. This was a bunch of
Americans that said, Okay, you despise us, you despise you
know who we are as a customer base. You're basically
telling us you don't want us anymore. Watch this, And
(31:09):
that is exactly how they got this point very quickly.
And look, I also think when you have people like
you and the President who are willing to speak out
on this and say you guys are being stupid, they
realize how quickly others are like yeah, us too, like
we're gonna you know what, We're going to say that
we think this is ridiculous, and we're starting to finally,
I think see the pendulum swing back the other way,
(31:31):
which is really really cool.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
I was gratified because yesterday President Trump publicly called out
Cracker Barrel and said, look, you need to just go
back to your old logo, like give this up in
the rebranding and accept that you were wrong. And I'll
tell you. I jumped in on Twitter. I retweeted him,
I said this is absolutely right, and the two of
us were very vocal saying go back to where you
were in Twenty four hours later they did so that
(31:55):
that was gratifying. It's not always that people listen, they
listen to common sense. In this case, they did, and
it's worth noting it isn't just in the last week
that people noticed that what Cracker Barrel was doing was nuts.
Almost a year ago November of last year, a big
(32:17):
investor in Cracker Barrel Guy named Sardar big Laurie. He
owns approximately five percent of the restaurant chainstock. He wrote
to his fellow shareholders that the Cracker Barrel transformation was
a quote mistake of misguided executives falling into a textbook
trap of overspending on cosmetic remodeling. And he continued the
(32:41):
day Cracker Barrel opened, it was already old, its theme
derived from the nineteen twenties, and he wrote, I am
concerned that not only will the remodel not work, but
it could actually damage the brand further. These decisions are
taking us down the same path I believe as Ruby Tuesday,
(33:02):
Red Lobster, Tgi Fridays and the like. Let me make
my position clear. The company's seven hundred million dollars remodel
plan will not work. And he called at a letter
to the shareholders in October twenty twenty four the board's
transformation plan quote obvious folly. And yet the corporate leadership
(33:26):
ignored the shareholder own five percent of the company, and
they charged down that road anyway, and they vaporized roughly
fifteen percent of the market cap of the company because
that they were more interested in listening to woke marketing executives.
And by the way, the entire marketing world, much of
that is a scam of left wing, woke people who
(33:50):
despise their customers. And let me say, if you're in
corporate America, don't listen to marketing executives that don't understand
and don't like your customers. But in this instance, Cracker
Barrel should have listened to its investor and not these
marketing execs, and it paid the price. But the good
news is they finally, finally, finally listened and reversed and said,
(34:10):
you know what, the principles we were founded on, the
principles America was founded on. Those principles are pretty good.
We're going to get back to them.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, it's incredible. All right, final question for you. You've got
day one in the books that Codell you're going to
be down there and also doing more we're going to
be able to talk about that coming up on the
next episode of Verdict.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
That's right. This is a multi day trip and we're
traveling to two other countries throughout Latin America, and the
focus is really on meeting with heads of state, meeting
with leaders in each of these countries where the issues
directly impact the United States, directly impact Texas, they impact
our national security, they impact our economy. By the way,
(34:51):
I had dinner tonight with the Economy Minister here in
El Salvador. They're very focused on American investment on energy,
on technology, on pharmacyceuticals, on creating jobs, and by the way,
to give a sense of how much these changes matter,
I'm going to give you two stats to wrap up with.
The Justice Minister told me they've had over ten thousand
(35:14):
applications for people who want to be police officers. Suddenly,
people are eager to be police officers because it's making
a difference because as they're making their community safe. Previously,
when the gangs were running the country, they had in
one year over three hundred police officers murdered. Being a
police officer was literally taking your life and your family's
(35:34):
life in danger. Now people are lining up to be
police officers because they see the difference. But here's something else.
It used to be that the people of El Salvador
were fleeing this country because, look, you were risking being murdered,
your kids were risking being murdered. You wanted to get out.
Now we are seeing reverse migration. They're roughly six million
(35:54):
Salvadorans in El Salvador. They are about three million Salvadorans
in the United States. President Beccaulay told me roughly half
of those Salvadorans in America, about one and a half million,
have said they want to come back to El Salvador.
They're seeing reverse migration because suddenly people are saying, wait,
I fled my country because I was terrified for my
(36:14):
safety and my family. Now the country's safe, I want
to come back. I love love the beach and the
mountains and the people and the culture. That is changing
this country. And it ought to be an encouragement to
any other leader, to any mayor, to anyone facing crime
and challenges. When you fix these problems, it doesn't just
(36:36):
keep people safe, which it does, but it has economic benefits.
It literally transforms your community. That's inspirational and as I said,
this is the beginning of a multi day trip throughout
Latin America. So in two days we'll report on the
rest of the trip.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
It's going to be awesome. Don't forget.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
We do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. So hit
that subscriber auto download button and the center and I
will see you back here in a couple of days.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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