-
Pipe Bomber Arrest (Main News Story)
- After nearly five years, the FBI arrested Brian J. Cole Jr., accused of planting pipe bombs near the DNC and RNC headquarters on January 5, 2021.
- The discussion criticizes the Biden administration for delaying the investigation despite having evidence early on.
- Quotes from Pam Bondi and Dan Bongino emphasize that the arrest was achieved through renewed focus under the Trump administration, not new tips.
- Raises questions about accountability for prior DOJ and FBI leadership.
-
Three Major White House Events
- Monday: Signing of the Medals Act, authored by Cruz, which triples the monthly stipend for Medal of Honor recipients from $1,400 to $5,600.
- Tuesday: Launch of Trump Accounts, a financial initiative aimed at creating investment accounts for every child in America, seeded with $1,000 and allowing contributions up to $5,000 annually. Michael and Susan Dell pledged $6.25 billion to support this program.
- Wednesday: Announcement of rolling back CAFE standards and EV mandates to reduce car prices and improve safety. The policy aims to lower costs, increase consumer choice, and restore steel in car manufacturing for safety.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome in his verdicous center, Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you,
and it's so nice to have you with us. If
you're listening on a radio station around the country, Welcome.
We do this show as a reminder as a podcast
as well, so you can grab that podcast three days
a week Monday, Wednesday and Friday, especially if you're listening
to us on radio stations across the country.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Center.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
We have got a lot to talk about in this show,
including a major breakthrough in the pipe bomb case in DC.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well after nearly five years, the pipe Bomber, the alleged
pipe bomber who planted pipe bombs at the DNC and
the RNC on January fifth, twenty twenty one, has been arrested.
The FBI announced they've arrested The Department of Justice announced
they've arrested him. His name is Brian J. Cole Junior,
(00:48):
thirty years old of Woodridge, Virginia. He was arrested. The
FBI laid out considerable evidence they have. It raises the
immediate question, why the heck did this take five years
to find this guy? Because the evidence they had it
sounds like they've had for a long long time. Which
obviously begs the question what was the Biden Department of
Justice doing that they were not arresting this guy. We're
(01:11):
gonna break all that down for you. We're also going
to talk about three major events I had this week
at the White House. Monday, I was at the White
House where the President signed a bill, the Metal Act,
that I authored into law. Tuesday, I was at the
White House where the President and I both were joined
with Michael Dell, who gave six and a quarter billion
(01:32):
dollars to kids of America to put into Trump accounts.
It was incredible generosity. And then Wednesday, I was at
the White House with the President as he was announcing
that he was zeroing out cafe standards, again legislation that
I authored. We're going to tell you about all three
of those. The cafe standards are going to make cars
(01:53):
and trucks cheaper for you and also save lives and
make you safe. For all of that we're covering in
today's podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, it's really in credible what the President did for
Americans this week. Let me take a moment and tell
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Speaker 2 (03:23):
So center, let's go to this.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
It really is shocking that it took this long to
find someone that planted pipe bombs in Washington, d C.
It is very important that people understand this did not
happen because of a new tip that came into the
FBI or into law enforcement anywhere. This was just going
back and looking at the evidence they already had and
(03:46):
doing real police work to figure it out. It is
shocking that the prior administration did not apparently think this
was an important enough issue, and this administration did. And
now we know who did it.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
The deal announced that during twenty nineteen and twenty twenty,
Cole purchased multiple components consisted with those used to manufacture
the pipe bombs at several retailers in northern Virginia, so
they have his purchase history, and at approximately one pm
on January sixth, multiple law enforcement agencies received notice of
(04:20):
the pipe bombs. At about one point fifteen pm, the
second pipe bomb was reported, the first one at the RNC,
the second one at the DNC. Video surveillance determined that
this same individual placed the devices the evening of January fifth.
On January fifth, about seven to ten pm, Cole's Nissan
(04:41):
CenTra was observed driving past a license plate reader at
the South Capitol Street exit from I thirty five South,
which is less than a half mile from the location
where the pipe bombs were. Cell Phone records further show
that Cole's cell phone communicated with cell towers in the
area of the RNC and DNC I mean seven thirty
nine pm and eight twenty four pm. This evidence, there's
(05:05):
no reason to think that this evidence wasn't in the
possession of the FBI four and a half years ago,
and it is infuriating. It. It raises a real question,
what the hell was the Biden DOJ doing. Well, I'll
tell you what they were doing. They were chasing down
every little old lady who stood on the National Mall
and sang God bless America. And they were persecuting them
(05:28):
and trying to go after their political enemies instead of
actually going after a violent criminal who planted pipe bombs
that could have killed or injured a whole lot of people.
You and I on this podcast repeatedly called on the
Department of Justice go and find and prosecute the pipe bomber. Now, look,
at this point, we don't know full details about this individual,
(05:51):
but he certainly does not appear to be a Trump supporter,
which is of course what every report, what every media
outlet blamed it on Trump supporters these pipe bombs, and
based on the early information, there are no indications that
he was a Trump supporter.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
In fact, the early information is and if it holds
to be true, is it complete opposite of that that
this was a radical leftist.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, Now now it's still early, and so what we
We'll find out more facts in the days going forward,
But I want you to listen to Pam Bondi when
she was announcing the arrest.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Early this morning. Brian Cole Junior was arrested and charged
with placing the pipe bombs at the RNC and the
DNC on January fifth, twenty twenty one. He has been
charged with violating eighteen USC. Eight forty four, which is
use of an explosive device. This investigation is ongoing as
(06:50):
we speak, search warrants are being executed, and there could
be more charges to come. Today's arrest happened because the
Trump administry has made this case a priority. The total
lack of movement on this case, this cold case languished
(07:10):
for four years until Director Patel and Deputy Director Bongino
came to the FBI. The FBI, along with US Attorney
Piro and all of our prosecutors have worked tirelessly for
months sifting through evidence that had been sitting at the
(07:33):
FBI with the Biden administration.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
For four long years.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Let me be clear, there was no new tip, There
was no new witness, just good diligent police work and
prosecutorial work.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
You listen to Pambonni there, Senator, and it is clear
she's angry, and Americans should be angry.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
There was nothing new here.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
They just took what they had and did their job well.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
And I'll tell you Merrick Garland needs to be held
accountable and answer the question why, if they had this evidence,
this individual wasn't arrested and wasn't prosecuted. Chris Ray, the
former director of the FBI, needs to answer that same question,
because it certainly appears that the Biden dooj did not
want to find this individual. It was not a priority,
(08:24):
and when they were asked about it before, they would
just throw up their hands and say we're doing the
best we can. It turns out when you actually have
an Attorney general who is focused on going after the
bad guys. That's exactly what you do, Senator.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
I want to also just go back to echoing the
part that you mentioned there about Pam Bondy and she's angry.
Dan Bongino came out saying very much the same thing,
and I want to play it for everybody because when
he came out, not only was he saying, hey, I
want to say thank you to everybody on this team
because this was teamwork, but this was also a moment
(08:57):
where we just decided to do our jobs. And when
you let law enforcement do their jobs, these are the
types of results that you get. Take a list in
to bon Gino in his own words, folks, this is.
Speaker 5 (09:07):
What it's like when you work for a president who
tells you to go get the bad guys and stop
focusing on other extraneous things not related to law enforcement.
This is what happens. We had a great team. I
know it's said a lot in this business. It was
a team effort. Becomes cliche, but cliches are useful for
a reason because they matter, and this was a team effort.
The Director and the Attorney General emphasized that it was
(09:28):
not a new public tip. This came from. This was
our internal work at the FBI, and I want to
just really express my sincere gratitude to this Attorney General
and this president for allowing us the latitude. I spoke
with Mss Bondi very early when we maybe day two,
and I said, we're going to get this guy, and
(09:49):
she said, as you are, and we did. I want
also thank you, not here but Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche,
who we deal with often as well, who could not
have been more supportive whatever process we need. Judge Janine
Todd and an Attorney General Bondi, they were there. All
you had to do. They were a phone call away,
and their team was amazing. We actually never had to
(10:10):
make that phone call because they were always responsive. Thank you, Judge,
as while you were amazing folks, You're not going to
walk into our capital city, put down two explosive devices
and walk off in the sunset. Not going to happen.
We were going to track this person to the end
of the earth. There was no way he was getting away. Well,
(10:31):
we didn't have to track him to the end of
the earth. That wound up in Woodbridge, Virginia. I want
to thank the team. They were amazing. They never let
this go again. Attorney General Bondi, for your incredible support,
Director Patel Judge. I know they're giving me a lot
of unnecessary credit, but make no mistake, they were intimately
involved in this and were there for all of those
(10:53):
supportive mechanisms, and I deeply appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
You listen there to not only the way that Pambondi
talked about it, but also Dan Bonino, and they are
echoing the same thing. I think there's two points here
that I want to get you to expand on. Number One,
this is just letting law enforcement do their job and
not do political operative jobs, which is what they clearly
were being told to do after January sixth. Go find
(11:18):
the grandmothers, Go find anybody was there, find anybody that
was associated with anything in and around the Capitol, and
then go hunt them down. Forget the actual terrorist, a
guy making pipe bombs. But also there's a team work
here that I have not seen in a very long
time in law enforcement. It's not conservative, it's just law
enforcement working together. I love hearing that. It makes me
(11:40):
feel as an American that they're on my side trying
to keep me safe.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Well, this is law enforcement actually doing their jobs targeting
violent criminals. This is the Department of Justice and the FBI.
And if you look this past year under President Trump,
DOJ and the FBI, they've been going after murderers and
rapists and child molesters. They've been going after gang and
illegal aliens and human traffickers. They've been going after narco traffickers.
(12:04):
I got to say, if you're down in Venezuela and
anyone asks you to drive a speedboat with some drugs
in the back, you know you may just call in
sick that day because it doesn't turn out too It's
a fishing boat.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Senator, Come on, now, don't you know you need seven
engines and a whole lot of cocaine to do good
fish heating.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Come on, it is. They are systematically focused on violent criminals, including,
as Dan Bongino just said, someone who planted two pipe
bombs in the middle of Washington, d C. That's what
law enforcement is supposed to do. It's not supposed to
do what it did under Biden, which is be a
political arm to target and prosecute and persecute your political opponents.
(12:45):
And and look Pambondi and cash Battel and Dan Bongino
all came in with a mission of restoring integrity to
the Department of Justice and the FBI. I think today
was an important step in that journey.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
You know, there's a lot of good men and women
that work of the FBI, and I think this is
a perfect moment center where we should just highlight this.
There are a lot of people that just want to
do law enforcement. And what I do think you're now
witnessing is the good men and women in uniform in
multiple levels, whether it's local or state, whether it's dealing
(13:18):
with illegal.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
That's right, But listen, there were also too many people
who were politicized and who were obstructing justice, who were
standing in the way. He know what, there are people
who were at the FBI, who were at DOJ who
knew of this evidence and they didn't act, And I
think we have every right to get answers to why
(13:40):
didn't they act and was there a political or partisan agenda?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
That was my question is there's good men and women
that are now clearly getting to do their job. There's
clearly was leadership and those that didn't want this job
to be done. That's literally the question I was about
to ask you, what is it howount ability look like
now for those that may still be there that obviously
knew they had this information and they said on it
(14:07):
or deliberately said don't go find this.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Person, well look, i'll tell you. One of the very
first steps is they need to be brought in before
Congress to answer questions under oath and answer questions under
oath about why they didn't act on this evidence. Did
they have it, when did they have it, and why
didn't they act? And and I think that.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Direct step to ask that's what I want to know.
I want to know if this was a straight up
directive of hey, leave this alone.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
And by the way, the current DOJ and FBI, if
they were directed not to act, and it is in writing,
the current DOJ and FBI have that email or that memorandum,
and I expect the DOJ and FBI to provide those
to Congress, provide those to the public. What I've urged
Pambondi and Cash Bettel and Dan Bongino is radical transparency
(14:55):
is the best cure for the politicization and the corruption
we saw DOJ and the FBI under Joe Biden.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yeah, it's going to be very interesting to see what
we get out of this. What I also say is
this is exactly what I voted for. I wanted law
enforcement to actually be winning again and do their job
and not be politicized and not be weaponized for political reasons.
I think there's so many Americans and I don't care
if you're a Republican or a Democrat. You should sleep
better knowing this makes all us safer. Yeah, we're all safer.
(15:25):
Like this was a pipe bom at the Republican and
Democratic Convention. You know, buildings, there's people that could have
been there that could have been killed of every party, every.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Marketing criminals, locking up criminals, protects our families. It keeps
ourselves and our children safer. That is a very good thing.
That is the President delivering on his promises.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
All right, So Center on Monday, I just want to
make this very clear. You were at the White House.
I didn't get invitedn't, But I thought Tuesday I'd clear
my schedule. No, No, Tuesday didn't invited. And then I'm like, well,
surely he's saving it for Wednesday because Wednesday is going
to be a better day. I'm still waiting. I'm three
days Center, you're there, three days. I was sitting here
(16:08):
just waiting for Hey, Ben, you should come with me
over here to the White House. You've been there before.
It's a great place. We're going to celebrate America's work.
Monday Tuesday went like, how many days if you go
five days in a row do I get the invite?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
I just got to know, Well, look, I'm confident you
were playing golf, and that's okay, that's that that that
that's good for you to do, and and and you
only have you you only have another couple of months
that you can still beat your young sons and they're
still going to be able to just whip you up
and down the golf course.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
But look this this was a busy week. This was
a busy week. I had three different events at the
White House, one on Monday, one on Tuesday, one on Wednesday.
Each was a different major announcement. So it was a
very productive week. Monday, it started out with the President
signing into law the Medals Act. The Medals Act is
a bill that I wrote that deals with Medal of
Honor recipients. Medal of Honor recipients are those service servicemen
(16:58):
who who have distinguished themselves with exceptional valor. They're only
sixty one living Medal of Honor recipients. The vast majority
of Medal Honor recipients they received the medal posthumously. In
most of the instances, they lose their lives demonstrating extraordinary
(17:19):
heroism and bravery. Under existing law, Medal of Honor recipients
receive a monthly stipend of one four hundred dollars a month.
That's not very much money. What the Medals Act did
is essentially triple that amount. So it increased it from
one thousand, four hundred dollars a month to five thousand,
(17:41):
six hundred dollars a month. And so I authored that
legislation in the Senate. It passed the Senate unanimously, it
passed the House unanimously, and then on Monday, the President
signed it in the law. We were joined by three
Medal of Honor recipients who were there. And I'll tell
you one of the reasons it it's so meaningful a
(18:02):
to to say thank you, thank you to these incredible
real life heroes.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
But b many of these Medal of Honor recipients take
their time, they go around talking to schools, they go
around talking uh, talking to sebastatherings. They inspire people, and
that takes a lot of time, and this stipend gives
gives them an ability to have some basic monicum of income.
And so it was really glad to see. It took
(18:30):
about two years to get this done, to build the
bipartisan support to move it through Congress. The President has
signed it, and and we're now giving those Medal of
Honor recipients the respect that they are due.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I got to say when you said it was unanimous,
we haven't said that word on this show in years.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
That is really cool.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
It does give me just a little bit of hope
that people realize that when you sacrifice the way these
recipients do, you deserve to be taken care of afterwards
as well well.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
And and when when I passed it on the floor
of the Senate, several of the Medal Honor recipients had
come come to the Senate and they were sitting in
the gallery watching it. And and afterwards we were down
at the bottom of the Senate steps and a group
of of eighth graders, eighth grade kids came by. I
think they were from Michigan, if I remember correctly. And
(19:19):
they spotted me, and some of them recognized me, and
so they came up and wanted to take pictures and
talk and and I told them, look, I'm happy to
chat with you, but I said, I want to introduce
you to these two gentlemen I'm standing with because both
of them earned the Medal of Honor by risking their lives,
nearly dying and saving the lives of their fellow servicemen
(19:42):
and women. And I will tell you, Ben, the look
of wonderment in these little boy and little girl's faces
as they listened to these these heroes tell their story.
It gave a great opportunity for me just to step
back and recede and watch that moment inspiration right there
at the base of the steps of the Senate.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
That's incredible. And that was just Monday. So Tuesday, you
have this big victory on Monday. That's bipartisan. What a
great way to start the week. You rarely get to
do that in your whole career. Tuesday you're back of
the White House.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
What happened then, So Tuesday was a massive announcement. We've
talked before about the Trump Accounts. The Trump Accounts is
legislation that I authored. It was part of the one
Big Beautiful Bill.
Speaker 5 (20:26):
Man.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
I want to remind people what I do. Want to
brag on you for a second. This could have been
taken out of the Big Beautiful Bill. You felt so
strongly about it center. You did not let this get
kicked out. You didn't let it go. You fought tooth
and nail, and it was a hard fight. I want
to also make that very clear. This was not an
easy fight because you felt like this could be so
(20:47):
transformative in one generation, to building well for all Americans
and giving kids an incredible opportunity to grow and to
invest early on. There's so many things. I hope you
go back from investing. I talked to one banker about
this week. He said, you know, the number one reason
why people don't invest when they're younger, or when they
don't feel like they make a lot of minds. They're
(21:07):
embarrassed to go in and open an account with a
small amount of money, so they just don't do it.
And he said, we believe. He said, I'm almost into
my banking career. This could transform an entire nation and
a generation into not being afraid to open account but
embracing it, watching it grow having ownership of it and
seeing the power of compound interests. And I haven't seen
(21:29):
bankers get giddy very often. This banker was genuinely giddy
for the future, Countess.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
And I'll tell you, Ben, it's not just compound interest,
it's compound growth. Because these accounts will be invested in
the S and P. Five hundred, they're invested in the
stock market. Every kid in America is going to become
an owner of the biggest employers in America. That's transformative.
That's making a whole new generation of capitalists.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
You know.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
At the White House on Tuesday, I told President Trump,
I said, all of your credits. Your critics will never
give you credit. There is a good argument that you
have done more for kids in America than any president
in our lifetime. Why is that because he number one
signed the School Choice Provision, which which I had the
great honor of writing and putting in the one big,
(22:14):
beautiful bill that will unleash tens of billions of dollars
in scholarships for kids in K through twelve education all
across the country. And number two, he signed it a law.
The Trump accounts and that impact together, I think you
could say there's never been a president that has impacted
kids more. Here's how I explained it at the press
(22:34):
conference with the President. Starting on July fourth, every child
in America will have a personal investment account opened for them.
Newborn children will have it seated with one thousand dollars.
Parents and family and employers can contribute up to five
thousand a year and a tax advantaged account. That money
will be invested in the S and P five hundred
and the stock market broad based Equity Index account. Two
(22:59):
massive benefits that change this country. Number One, every child
in America will experience the benefits of compound growth. Take
a little girl born next year. She's born next year,
she has the account opened for her. One thousand dollars
is automatically seated. Her parents or family or an employer
puts five thousand a year each year into that account.
(23:21):
If you assume the historic rate of growth of the
S and P five hundred, which is seven percent a year,
by the time that little girl is eighteen, she will
have one hundred and seventy thousand dollars in that account.
And if she keeps saving, by the time that little
girl is thirty five, she will have seven hundred thousand
(23:41):
dollars in that account. That is game changing. And we're
not talking the children of Michael and Susan Dell, the
children of Donald Trump, the children of people of great success.
We're talking the kids of a single mom waiting tables,
who could have seven hundred thousand dollars saved by the
time she's thirty five, to get an education, to start
a business, to buy a house. That changes their whole lives.
(24:03):
But the second benefit, and what I'm really excited about,
is we are creating a new generation of capitalists. Every
child in America is going to be an owner of
the biggest employers in this country. We've all seen the
sad statistics of how many kids are losing faith in capitalism. Well,
ten years from now, a little boy is going to
(24:25):
pull out his phone and he's going to look at
his app and he's going to see his Trump account,
And instead of thinking of big, bad, scary corporations, that
little boy is going to say, I own fifty bucks
of Apple, I own one hundred bucks of Dell, I
own seventy five bucks of McDonald's. And every child is
an owner of the biggest employers in this country. That
(24:46):
will transform this country. Mister President, thank you for signing it.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
You know you just said something there at that speech
the White House Center that I also think is incredible,
the private sector getting in on this in wanting to
see these accounts. Michael Dell his wife there, they gave
an incredible amount of money because they want kids to succeed.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Well, Michael and Susan Dell made an historic announcement. And
the way I wrote the legislation creating the Trump accounts,
it's designed to allow people, philanthropy to charity to give
into the accounts. And what Michael and Susan Dell announced
at the White House on Tuesday is they were personally
giving out of their own resources, six and a quarter
(25:29):
billion dollars. And what they're doing in particular is they're
giving two hundred and fifty dollars for the two hundred
and fiftieth anniversary of America to every child in America
under age ten who lives in a zip code where
the median income is one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
or less. And so it is a massive gift. And
(25:50):
I think Michael and Susan are just the first. I
think you're going to see many other companies, many other
individuals giving and giving early, allowing kids to begin to
accumulating assets and get them to grow. That is powerful
and it is an accelerant. Mark my words, Ben in it.
Within a decade we will have over a trillion dollars
(26:10):
invested in these Trump accounts and it's going to totally
transform the future of our kids. It's a big, big deal.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
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learn more center. On Wednesday, you were at the White
House for a really cool moment, and that was President
(27:21):
Trump saying I want government to get out of your
way and stop making things so expensive for you, specifically cars.
Having a reset of cafe standards that were out of control.
That is going to lower the costs of cars for
many Americans. We're also getting rid of the obsession with
a mandate for ev vehicles, which the Democrats were hell
bent on, and this is going to again make cars
(27:43):
more to affordable for Americans. Everyone should be excited about that.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Well, that's exactly right. After spending Monday at the White
House with the President while he was signing my legislation
tripling the monthly stipend for Medal of Honor recipients. After
spending Tuesday at the White House with the President and
Michaelson and Susan Dell giving six and a quarter billion
dollars to the Kids of America for Trump accounts, on Wednesday,
I joined the President again, this time with the CEOs
(28:09):
of the major auto companies in the United States. As
the President was implementing legislation and provision again that I
wrote zeroing out the Cafe standards. The Cafe standards were
the federal mileage requirements that the Biden administration used to
jack them up so high that at number one, made
(28:29):
cars much much more expensive. But number two, it was
part of their effort to eliminate the internal combustion engine
to force everyone to buy an electric car, whether they
wanted or not. And as part of the One Big,
Beautiful Bill, we zeroed that out entirely. I wrote that provision,
and on Wednesday, the President was implementing it. Here I
(28:50):
want you to give a listen to the President describing
the historic steps he took on Wednesday.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
From day one, I've been taking action to make buying
a car more affordable. I signed an executive order to
end the unfair expensive electric vehicle mandate. As you know,
where you had to have an electric car within a
very short period of time, even though there was no
way of charging them, and lots of other things. It
would have cost five trillion dollars to build the charging plants,
(29:16):
and as you know, in certain parts of the Midwest
they spent to build nine chargers. They spent eight billion dollars,
So that wasn't working out too well. That was done
before me. By the way, I wouldn't have let it
go forward. We're canceling the EPA is observed tailpipe emission standards.
One of the most important things that I've never had
(29:37):
a group of people come to me more more powerfully
and really just devastated that they had to do it.
It was killing them. Then the automobile manufacturers the tailpipe
emission standards, and I can tell you your people at
Ford were coming to me all the time and they
were saying, like, please, it doesn't do any thing, that
(30:00):
it's killing us, and it's driving the course through the roof.
And we revoked Biden's emissions waiver for California so that
California communists could not regulate the automobile industry and ruin
the entire nation of automobiles. And they were doing that too.
But we have that now under control, also with your governor,
(30:21):
who's got much more than he can control. Now under
the new rules being issued today by Secretary Duffy, the
Department of Transportation will rescind the Biden fuel economy prices.
And I hate to say that, because they were really
not economy. They were really they were anti economy. They
were horrible what they were doing to the costs and
(30:44):
actually making the car much worse. But these policies forced
automakers to build cars using expensive technologies that drove up costs,
drove up prices, and made the car much worse. The
action is expected to save the typical consumer at least
one thousand dollars off the price of a new car,
and we think substantially more than that.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Senator, you hear him talk about this. This is exactly
what I think so many Americans voted for. It's government
actually not mandating things. It's government getting out of the
way of insane regulations to make your life easier. Just
give me a little bit of my freedom back. Let
the private sector do what the private sector does. Stop
(31:26):
putting all this government agenda on top of me, and
let me do what I want to do. If I
want to buy an EVA, I'll buy an EV. But
don't force me to do something. And don't make these
standards so insane that you raise a cary the cost
of cars a point where I can't even afford a
new one.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
It's your choice. It should be your choice. If you
decide you want to go buy a Tesla. Tesla's are
amazing automobiles. You can go do that. But if you
decide you want to drive your F one fifty, that
ought to be your choice too. And this legislation and
what the President did this week benefited consumers. Lowered prices
made cars and trucks a lot cheaper. It also made
(32:01):
them safer, It saved lives. It also helped produce jobs.
Thousands and thousands of jobs. Is billions of dollars of
being invested by car manufacturers in the United States. We're
bringing blue collar jobs back to America. Ben, Here's how.
Here's how I explained that in the Oval Office, standing
next to the President. Give a listen.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Anybody else want to say a few words? Oh dead,
I've did generally I'm easy to miss.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Go ahead, Well, this President, I want to congratulate you
on behalf everyone here for the leadership that you're showing.
And this is a victory today for consumers. This is
a victory for affordability. Your critics like to say the
word affordability. Under Joe Biden, the Democrats, they put mandate
after mandate after mandate on cars and trucks, and they
drove the price up thousands and thousands of dollars. And
(32:53):
with the actions you're taking today, and you put on
top of that the one big beautiful bill. You know,
most of the senators here on the Senate Commerce can
and on the Commerce Committee, we worked together to zero
out the cafe standards. We wrote that into the law,
that the cafe standards went to zero. What does that mean.
It means you can now, as a consumer, buy the
car you want. It also means people's lives will be
(33:15):
safer because what these regulations did is they forced cars
to be more expensive and made a plastic instead of
steel because you had to make them lighter to comply
with these standards. So you'd get in a wreck and
people would die. The results of what you're doing, you're
literally saving people's lives and you're making it where families
can afford to get a new car. These actions will
(33:36):
drop the cost of cars and trucks thousands of dollars.
That's makes a real difference. And I'll make one final point.
You know about half the members here are car dealers.
And I will say, my good friend Roger Williams out
in the lobby, he tried to sell me a car
which didn't surprise me. But I just just want to
give props to Mike Kelly. He showed he was savvier
because he tried to sell you a car and you
(33:57):
can work one nicer car than I can. Well done,
Mike Roger, you just went to the wrong customer.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
I was one hundred dollars chief.
Speaker 6 (34:05):
The thing that Tenji said, it's to plastic instead of
still think of that and people died because of that.
The plastic was plastic in an auto accident that it
broke up and people were shattered because of that crazy deal.
But it's a really good point.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Good and was President. I'll tell you the Senate Commerce
Committee on January fourteenth, we're going to have a hearing
with all the big three there in Tesla, and the
entire hearing is going to focus on how your leadership
has reduced the burdens on car makers. That's lowering costs,
that's getting consumers more choices, and it's producing more jobs
in America, and it's highlighted. That's a real record of success.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Not only is it a record of success, but as
you mentioned there and highlighted and the President agreed with you,
it's an issue of safety.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Senator yeah, yeah, no, I mean it's these cafe standards
were making cars much much more dangerous. And we'll never
know who, but there are people who will live now
because of this change, because they'll be able to be
in safer cars. Some of it is they may be
able to afford a new car now because as this
(35:12):
drives down the price of new cars and new trucks,
they may sell their old used car and buy a
new car because it makes it more affordable. New cars
typically have more safety features and enhance their safety. But secondly,
if you're not having to make these cars and remove
all the steel, you're much more likely to survive an
accident if you're in a car that has some weight,
(35:33):
has some steel, and doesn't just crumple up like a
beer can.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Yeah, it's a big victory at the White House for
everybody in America. Three days in a row. By the way,
we do the show three days in a row. So
don't forget. Download Vertic with Tech Cruise wherever you get
your podcasts to not miss a single episode. It's always free.
You can always tell Siria Alexa play Vertic with Tech Cruise.
It will do it for you automatically. And the Center
(36:01):
and I will see you back here on the podcast
this week, and all you listen on the radio, thanks
for joining us as well, and we'll see you back
here this week.
Welcome in his verdicous center, Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you,
and it's so nice to have you with us. If
you're listening on a radio station around the country, Welcome.
We do this show as a reminder as a podcast
as well, so you can grab that podcast three days
a week Monday, Wednesday and Friday, especially if you're listening
to us on radio stations across the country.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Center.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
We have got a lot to talk about in this show,
including a major breakthrough in the pipe bomb case in DC.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well after nearly five years, the pipe Bomber, the alleged
pipe bomber who planted pipe bombs at the DNC and
the RNC on January fifth, twenty twenty one, has been arrested.
The FBI announced they've arrested The Department of Justice announced
they've arrested him. His name is Brian J. Cole Junior,
(00:48):
thirty years old of Woodridge, Virginia. He was arrested. The
FBI laid out considerable evidence they have. It raises the
immediate question, why the heck did this take five years
to find this guy? Because the evidence they had it
sounds like they've had for a long long time. Which
obviously begs the question what was the Biden Department of
Justice doing that they were not arresting this guy. We're
(01:11):
gonna break all that down for you. We're also going
to talk about three major events I had this week
at the White House. Monday, I was at the White
House where the President signed a bill, the Metal Act,
that I authored into law. Tuesday, I was at the
White House where the President and I both were joined
with Michael Dell, who gave six and a quarter billion
(01:32):
dollars to kids of America to put into Trump accounts.
It was incredible generosity. And then Wednesday, I was at
the White House with the President as he was announcing
that he was zeroing out cafe standards, again legislation that
I authored. We're going to tell you about all three
of those. The cafe standards are going to make cars
(01:53):
and trucks cheaper for you and also save lives and
make you safe. For all of that we're covering in
today's podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, it's really in credible what the President did for
Americans this week. Let me take a moment and tell
you real quick about an amazing adventure that we're going
to be going on. And I want to invite you
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Invasion can chase Paris and Champagne Country fifty seven fifty
(02:42):
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Just dial Pound two point fifty and say the keyword
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(03:03):
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shah Ze Lese.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
So center, let's go to this.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
It really is shocking that it took this long to
find someone that planted pipe bombs in Washington, d C.
It is very important that people understand this did not
happen because of a new tip that came into the
FBI or into law enforcement anywhere. This was just going
back and looking at the evidence they already had and
(03:46):
doing real police work to figure it out. It is
shocking that the prior administration did not apparently think this
was an important enough issue, and this administration did. And
now we know who did it.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
The deal announced that during twenty nineteen and twenty twenty,
Cole purchased multiple components consisted with those used to manufacture
the pipe bombs at several retailers in northern Virginia, so
they have his purchase history, and at approximately one pm
on January sixth, multiple law enforcement agencies received notice of
(04:20):
the pipe bombs. At about one point fifteen pm, the
second pipe bomb was reported, the first one at the RNC,
the second one at the DNC. Video surveillance determined that
this same individual placed the devices the evening of January fifth.
On January fifth, about seven to ten pm, Cole's Nissan
(04:41):
CenTra was observed driving past a license plate reader at
the South Capitol Street exit from I thirty five South,
which is less than a half mile from the location
where the pipe bombs were. Cell Phone records further show
that Cole's cell phone communicated with cell towers in the
area of the RNC and DNC I mean seven thirty
nine pm and eight twenty four pm. This evidence, there's
(05:05):
no reason to think that this evidence wasn't in the
possession of the FBI four and a half years ago,
and it is infuriating. It. It raises a real question,
what the hell was the Biden DOJ doing. Well, I'll
tell you what they were doing. They were chasing down
every little old lady who stood on the National Mall
and sang God bless America. And they were persecuting them
(05:28):
and trying to go after their political enemies instead of
actually going after a violent criminal who planted pipe bombs
that could have killed or injured a whole lot of people.
You and I on this podcast repeatedly called on the
Department of Justice go and find and prosecute the pipe bomber. Now, look,
at this point, we don't know full details about this individual,
(05:51):
but he certainly does not appear to be a Trump supporter,
which is of course what every report, what every media
outlet blamed it on Trump supporters these pipe bombs, and
based on the early information, there are no indications that
he was a Trump supporter.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
In fact, the early information is and if it holds
to be true, is it complete opposite of that that
this was a radical leftist.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, Now now it's still early, and so what we
We'll find out more facts in the days going forward,
But I want you to listen to Pam Bondi when
she was announcing the arrest.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Early this morning. Brian Cole Junior was arrested and charged
with placing the pipe bombs at the RNC and the
DNC on January fifth, twenty twenty one. He has been
charged with violating eighteen USC. Eight forty four, which is
use of an explosive device. This investigation is ongoing as
(06:50):
we speak, search warrants are being executed, and there could
be more charges to come. Today's arrest happened because the
Trump administry has made this case a priority. The total
lack of movement on this case, this cold case languished
(07:10):
for four years until Director Patel and Deputy Director Bongino
came to the FBI. The FBI, along with US Attorney
Piro and all of our prosecutors have worked tirelessly for
months sifting through evidence that had been sitting at the
(07:33):
FBI with the Biden administration.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
For four long years.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Let me be clear, there was no new tip, There
was no new witness, just good diligent police work and
prosecutorial work.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
You listen to Pambonni there, Senator, and it is clear
she's angry, and Americans should be angry.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
There was nothing new here.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
They just took what they had and did their job well.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
And I'll tell you Merrick Garland needs to be held
accountable and answer the question why, if they had this evidence,
this individual wasn't arrested and wasn't prosecuted. Chris Ray, the
former director of the FBI, needs to answer that same question,
because it certainly appears that the Biden dooj did not
want to find this individual. It was not a priority,
(08:24):
and when they were asked about it before, they would
just throw up their hands and say we're doing the
best we can. It turns out when you actually have
an Attorney general who is focused on going after the
bad guys. That's exactly what you do, Senator.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
I want to also just go back to echoing the
part that you mentioned there about Pam Bondy and she's angry.
Dan Bongino came out saying very much the same thing,
and I want to play it for everybody because when
he came out, not only was he saying, hey, I
want to say thank you to everybody on this team
because this was teamwork, but this was also a moment
(08:57):
where we just decided to do our jobs. And when
you let law enforcement do their jobs, these are the
types of results that you get. Take a list in
to bon Gino in his own words, folks, this is.
Speaker 5 (09:07):
What it's like when you work for a president who
tells you to go get the bad guys and stop
focusing on other extraneous things not related to law enforcement.
This is what happens. We had a great team. I
know it's said a lot in this business. It was
a team effort. Becomes cliche, but cliches are useful for
a reason because they matter, and this was a team effort.
The Director and the Attorney General emphasized that it was
(09:28):
not a new public tip. This came from. This was
our internal work at the FBI, and I want to
just really express my sincere gratitude to this Attorney General
and this president for allowing us the latitude. I spoke
with Mss Bondi very early when we maybe day two,
and I said, we're going to get this guy, and
(09:49):
she said, as you are, and we did. I want
also thank you, not here but Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche,
who we deal with often as well, who could not
have been more supportive whatever process we need. Judge Janine
Todd and an Attorney General Bondi, they were there. All
you had to do. They were a phone call away,
and their team was amazing. We actually never had to
(10:10):
make that phone call because they were always responsive. Thank you, Judge,
as while you were amazing folks, You're not going to
walk into our capital city, put down two explosive devices
and walk off in the sunset. Not going to happen.
We were going to track this person to the end
of the earth. There was no way he was getting away. Well,
(10:31):
we didn't have to track him to the end of
the earth. That wound up in Woodbridge, Virginia. I want
to thank the team. They were amazing. They never let
this go again. Attorney General Bondi, for your incredible support,
Director Patel Judge. I know they're giving me a lot
of unnecessary credit, but make no mistake, they were intimately
involved in this and were there for all of those
(10:53):
supportive mechanisms, and I deeply appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
You listen there to not only the way that Pambondi
talked about it, but also Dan Bonino, and they are
echoing the same thing. I think there's two points here
that I want to get you to expand on. Number One,
this is just letting law enforcement do their job and
not do political operative jobs, which is what they clearly
were being told to do after January sixth. Go find
(11:18):
the grandmothers, Go find anybody was there, find anybody that
was associated with anything in and around the Capitol, and
then go hunt them down. Forget the actual terrorist, a
guy making pipe bombs. But also there's a team work
here that I have not seen in a very long
time in law enforcement. It's not conservative, it's just law
enforcement working together. I love hearing that. It makes me
(11:40):
feel as an American that they're on my side trying
to keep me safe.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Well, this is law enforcement actually doing their jobs targeting
violent criminals. This is the Department of Justice and the FBI.
And if you look this past year under President Trump,
DOJ and the FBI, they've been going after murderers and
rapists and child molesters. They've been going after gang and
illegal aliens and human traffickers. They've been going after narco traffickers.
(12:04):
I got to say, if you're down in Venezuela and
anyone asks you to drive a speedboat with some drugs
in the back, you know you may just call in
sick that day because it doesn't turn out too It's
a fishing boat.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Senator, Come on, now, don't you know you need seven
engines and a whole lot of cocaine to do good
fish heating.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Come on, it is. They are systematically focused on violent criminals, including,
as Dan Bongino just said, someone who planted two pipe
bombs in the middle of Washington, d C. That's what
law enforcement is supposed to do. It's not supposed to
do what it did under Biden, which is be a
political arm to target and prosecute and persecute your political opponents.
(12:45):
And and look Pambondi and cash Battel and Dan Bongino
all came in with a mission of restoring integrity to
the Department of Justice and the FBI. I think today
was an important step in that journey.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
You know, there's a lot of good men and women
that work of the FBI, and I think this is
a perfect moment center where we should just highlight this.
There are a lot of people that just want to
do law enforcement. And what I do think you're now
witnessing is the good men and women in uniform in
multiple levels, whether it's local or state, whether it's dealing
(13:18):
with illegal.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
That's right, But listen, there were also too many people
who were politicized and who were obstructing justice, who were
standing in the way. He know what, there are people
who were at the FBI, who were at DOJ who
knew of this evidence and they didn't act, And I
think we have every right to get answers to why
(13:40):
didn't they act and was there a political or partisan agenda?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
That was my question is there's good men and women
that are now clearly getting to do their job. There's
clearly was leadership and those that didn't want this job
to be done. That's literally the question I was about
to ask you, what is it howount ability look like
now for those that may still be there that obviously
knew they had this information and they said on it
(14:07):
or deliberately said don't go find this.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Person, well look, i'll tell you. One of the very
first steps is they need to be brought in before
Congress to answer questions under oath and answer questions under
oath about why they didn't act on this evidence. Did
they have it, when did they have it, and why
didn't they act? And and I think that.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Direct step to ask that's what I want to know.
I want to know if this was a straight up
directive of hey, leave this alone.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
And by the way, the current DOJ and FBI, if
they were directed not to act, and it is in writing,
the current DOJ and FBI have that email or that memorandum,
and I expect the DOJ and FBI to provide those
to Congress, provide those to the public. What I've urged
Pambondi and Cash Bettel and Dan Bongino is radical transparency
(14:55):
is the best cure for the politicization and the corruption
we saw DOJ and the FBI under Joe Biden.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yeah, it's going to be very interesting to see what
we get out of this. What I also say is
this is exactly what I voted for. I wanted law
enforcement to actually be winning again and do their job
and not be politicized and not be weaponized for political reasons.
I think there's so many Americans and I don't care
if you're a Republican or a Democrat. You should sleep
better knowing this makes all us safer. Yeah, we're all safer.
(15:25):
Like this was a pipe bom at the Republican and
Democratic Convention. You know, buildings, there's people that could have
been there that could have been killed of every party, every.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Marketing criminals, locking up criminals, protects our families. It keeps
ourselves and our children safer. That is a very good thing.
That is the President delivering on his promises.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
All right, So Center on Monday, I just want to
make this very clear. You were at the White House.
I didn't get invitedn't, But I thought Tuesday I'd clear
my schedule. No, No, Tuesday didn't invited. And then I'm like, well,
surely he's saving it for Wednesday because Wednesday is going
to be a better day. I'm still waiting. I'm three
days Center, you're there, three days. I was sitting here
(16:08):
just waiting for Hey, Ben, you should come with me
over here to the White House. You've been there before.
It's a great place. We're going to celebrate America's work.
Monday Tuesday went like, how many days if you go
five days in a row do I get the invite?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
I just got to know, Well, look, I'm confident you
were playing golf, and that's okay, that's that that that
that's good for you to do, and and and you
only have you you only have another couple of months
that you can still beat your young sons and they're
still going to be able to just whip you up
and down the golf course.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
But look this this was a busy week. This was
a busy week. I had three different events at the
White House, one on Monday, one on Tuesday, one on Wednesday.
Each was a different major announcement. So it was a
very productive week. Monday, it started out with the President
signing into law the Medals Act. The Medals Act is
a bill that I wrote that deals with Medal of
Honor recipients. Medal of Honor recipients are those service servicemen
(16:58):
who who have distinguished themselves with exceptional valor. They're only
sixty one living Medal of Honor recipients. The vast majority
of Medal Honor recipients they received the medal posthumously. In
most of the instances, they lose their lives demonstrating extraordinary
(17:19):
heroism and bravery. Under existing law, Medal of Honor recipients
receive a monthly stipend of one four hundred dollars a month.
That's not very much money. What the Medals Act did
is essentially triple that amount. So it increased it from
one thousand, four hundred dollars a month to five thousand,
(17:41):
six hundred dollars a month. And so I authored that
legislation in the Senate. It passed the Senate unanimously, it
passed the House unanimously, and then on Monday, the President
signed it in the law. We were joined by three
Medal of Honor recipients who were there. And I'll tell
you one of the reasons it it's so meaningful a
(18:02):
to to say thank you, thank you to these incredible
real life heroes.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
But b many of these Medal of Honor recipients take
their time, they go around talking to schools, they go
around talking uh, talking to sebastatherings. They inspire people, and
that takes a lot of time, and this stipend gives
gives them an ability to have some basic monicum of income.
And so it was really glad to see. It took
(18:30):
about two years to get this done, to build the
bipartisan support to move it through Congress. The President has
signed it, and and we're now giving those Medal of
Honor recipients the respect that they are due.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I got to say when you said it was unanimous,
we haven't said that word on this show in years.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
That is really cool.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
It does give me just a little bit of hope
that people realize that when you sacrifice the way these
recipients do, you deserve to be taken care of afterwards
as well well.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
And and when when I passed it on the floor
of the Senate, several of the Medal Honor recipients had
come come to the Senate and they were sitting in
the gallery watching it. And and afterwards we were down
at the bottom of the Senate steps and a group
of of eighth graders, eighth grade kids came by. I
think they were from Michigan, if I remember correctly. And
(19:19):
they spotted me, and some of them recognized me, and
so they came up and wanted to take pictures and
talk and and I told them, look, I'm happy to
chat with you, but I said, I want to introduce
you to these two gentlemen I'm standing with because both
of them earned the Medal of Honor by risking their lives,
nearly dying and saving the lives of their fellow servicemen
(19:42):
and women. And I will tell you, Ben, the look
of wonderment in these little boy and little girl's faces
as they listened to these these heroes tell their story.
It gave a great opportunity for me just to step
back and recede and watch that moment inspiration right there
at the base of the steps of the Senate.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
That's incredible. And that was just Monday. So Tuesday, you
have this big victory on Monday. That's bipartisan. What a
great way to start the week. You rarely get to
do that in your whole career. Tuesday you're back of
the White House.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
What happened then, So Tuesday was a massive announcement. We've
talked before about the Trump Accounts. The Trump Accounts is
legislation that I authored. It was part of the one
Big Beautiful Bill.
Speaker 5 (20:26):
Man.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
I want to remind people what I do. Want to
brag on you for a second. This could have been
taken out of the Big Beautiful Bill. You felt so
strongly about it center. You did not let this get
kicked out. You didn't let it go. You fought tooth
and nail, and it was a hard fight. I want
to also make that very clear. This was not an
easy fight because you felt like this could be so
(20:47):
transformative in one generation, to building well for all Americans
and giving kids an incredible opportunity to grow and to
invest early on. There's so many things. I hope you
go back from investing. I talked to one banker about
this week. He said, you know, the number one reason
why people don't invest when they're younger, or when they
don't feel like they make a lot of minds. They're
(21:07):
embarrassed to go in and open an account with a
small amount of money, so they just don't do it.
And he said, we believe. He said, I'm almost into
my banking career. This could transform an entire nation and
a generation into not being afraid to open account but
embracing it, watching it grow having ownership of it and
seeing the power of compound interests. And I haven't seen
(21:29):
bankers get giddy very often. This banker was genuinely giddy
for the future, Countess.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
And I'll tell you, Ben, it's not just compound interest,
it's compound growth. Because these accounts will be invested in
the S and P. Five hundred, they're invested in the
stock market. Every kid in America is going to become
an owner of the biggest employers in America. That's transformative.
That's making a whole new generation of capitalists.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
You know.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
At the White House on Tuesday, I told President Trump,
I said, all of your credits. Your critics will never
give you credit. There is a good argument that you
have done more for kids in America than any president
in our lifetime. Why is that because he number one
signed the School Choice Provision, which which I had the
great honor of writing and putting in the one big,
(22:14):
beautiful bill that will unleash tens of billions of dollars
in scholarships for kids in K through twelve education all
across the country. And number two, he signed it a law.
The Trump accounts and that impact together, I think you
could say there's never been a president that has impacted
kids more. Here's how I explained it at the press
(22:34):
conference with the President. Starting on July fourth, every child
in America will have a personal investment account opened for them.
Newborn children will have it seated with one thousand dollars.
Parents and family and employers can contribute up to five
thousand a year and a tax advantaged account. That money
will be invested in the S and P five hundred
and the stock market broad based Equity Index account. Two
(22:59):
massive benefits that change this country. Number One, every child
in America will experience the benefits of compound growth. Take
a little girl born next year. She's born next year,
she has the account opened for her. One thousand dollars
is automatically seated. Her parents or family or an employer
puts five thousand a year each year into that account.
(23:21):
If you assume the historic rate of growth of the
S and P five hundred, which is seven percent a year,
by the time that little girl is eighteen, she will
have one hundred and seventy thousand dollars in that account.
And if she keeps saving, by the time that little
girl is thirty five, she will have seven hundred thousand
(23:41):
dollars in that account. That is game changing. And we're
not talking the children of Michael and Susan Dell, the
children of Donald Trump, the children of people of great success.
We're talking the kids of a single mom waiting tables,
who could have seven hundred thousand dollars saved by the
time she's thirty five, to get an education, to start
a business, to buy a house. That changes their whole lives.
(24:03):
But the second benefit, and what I'm really excited about,
is we are creating a new generation of capitalists. Every
child in America is going to be an owner of
the biggest employers in this country. We've all seen the
sad statistics of how many kids are losing faith in capitalism. Well,
ten years from now, a little boy is going to
(24:25):
pull out his phone and he's going to look at
his app and he's going to see his Trump account,
And instead of thinking of big, bad, scary corporations, that
little boy is going to say, I own fifty bucks
of Apple, I own one hundred bucks of Dell, I
own seventy five bucks of McDonald's. And every child is
an owner of the biggest employers in this country. That
(24:46):
will transform this country. Mister President, thank you for signing it.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
You know you just said something there at that speech
the White House Center that I also think is incredible,
the private sector getting in on this in wanting to
see these accounts. Michael Dell his wife there, they gave
an incredible amount of money because they want kids to succeed.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Well, Michael and Susan Dell made an historic announcement. And
the way I wrote the legislation creating the Trump accounts,
it's designed to allow people, philanthropy to charity to give
into the accounts. And what Michael and Susan Dell announced
at the White House on Tuesday is they were personally
giving out of their own resources, six and a quarter
(25:29):
billion dollars. And what they're doing in particular is they're
giving two hundred and fifty dollars for the two hundred
and fiftieth anniversary of America to every child in America
under age ten who lives in a zip code where
the median income is one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
or less. And so it is a massive gift. And
(25:50):
I think Michael and Susan are just the first. I
think you're going to see many other companies, many other
individuals giving and giving early, allowing kids to begin to
accumulating assets and get them to grow. That is powerful
and it is an accelerant. Mark my words, Ben in it.
Within a decade we will have over a trillion dollars
(26:10):
invested in these Trump accounts and it's going to totally
transform the future of our kids. It's a big, big deal.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
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(26:37):
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(26:57):
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life and change the world. That's compassion dot com to
learn more center. On Wednesday, you were at the White
House for a really cool moment, and that was President
(27:21):
Trump saying I want government to get out of your
way and stop making things so expensive for you, specifically cars.
Having a reset of cafe standards that were out of control.
That is going to lower the costs of cars for
many Americans. We're also getting rid of the obsession with
a mandate for ev vehicles, which the Democrats were hell
bent on, and this is going to again make cars
(27:43):
more to affordable for Americans. Everyone should be excited about that.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Well, that's exactly right. After spending Monday at the White
House with the President while he was signing my legislation
tripling the monthly stipend for Medal of Honor recipients. After
spending Tuesday at the White House with the President and
Michaelson and Susan Dell giving six and a quarter billion
dollars to the Kids of America for Trump accounts, on Wednesday,
I joined the President again, this time with the CEOs
(28:09):
of the major auto companies in the United States. As
the President was implementing legislation and provision again that I
wrote zeroing out the Cafe standards. The Cafe standards were
the federal mileage requirements that the Biden administration used to
jack them up so high that at number one, made
(28:29):
cars much much more expensive. But number two, it was
part of their effort to eliminate the internal combustion engine
to force everyone to buy an electric car, whether they
wanted or not. And as part of the One Big,
Beautiful Bill, we zeroed that out entirely. I wrote that provision,
and on Wednesday, the President was implementing it. Here I
(28:50):
want you to give a listen to the President describing
the historic steps he took on Wednesday.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
From day one, I've been taking action to make buying
a car more affordable. I signed an executive order to
end the unfair expensive electric vehicle mandate. As you know,
where you had to have an electric car within a
very short period of time, even though there was no
way of charging them, and lots of other things. It
would have cost five trillion dollars to build the charging plants,
(29:16):
and as you know, in certain parts of the Midwest
they spent to build nine chargers. They spent eight billion dollars,
So that wasn't working out too well. That was done
before me. By the way, I wouldn't have let it
go forward. We're canceling the EPA is observed tailpipe emission standards.
One of the most important things that I've never had
(29:37):
a group of people come to me more more powerfully
and really just devastated that they had to do it.
It was killing them. Then the automobile manufacturers the tailpipe
emission standards, and I can tell you your people at
Ford were coming to me all the time and they
were saying, like, please, it doesn't do any thing, that
(30:00):
it's killing us, and it's driving the course through the roof.
And we revoked Biden's emissions waiver for California so that
California communists could not regulate the automobile industry and ruin
the entire nation of automobiles. And they were doing that too.
But we have that now under control, also with your governor,
(30:21):
who's got much more than he can control. Now under
the new rules being issued today by Secretary Duffy, the
Department of Transportation will rescind the Biden fuel economy prices.
And I hate to say that, because they were really
not economy. They were really they were anti economy. They
were horrible what they were doing to the costs and
(30:44):
actually making the car much worse. But these policies forced
automakers to build cars using expensive technologies that drove up costs,
drove up prices, and made the car much worse. The
action is expected to save the typical consumer at least
one thousand dollars off the price of a new car,
and we think substantially more than that.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Senator, you hear him talk about this. This is exactly
what I think so many Americans voted for. It's government
actually not mandating things. It's government getting out of the
way of insane regulations to make your life easier. Just
give me a little bit of my freedom back. Let
the private sector do what the private sector does. Stop
(31:26):
putting all this government agenda on top of me, and
let me do what I want to do. If I
want to buy an EVA, I'll buy an EV. But
don't force me to do something. And don't make these
standards so insane that you raise a cary the cost
of cars a point where I can't even afford a
new one.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
It's your choice. It should be your choice. If you
decide you want to go buy a Tesla. Tesla's are
amazing automobiles. You can go do that. But if you
decide you want to drive your F one fifty, that
ought to be your choice too. And this legislation and
what the President did this week benefited consumers. Lowered prices
made cars and trucks a lot cheaper. It also made
(32:01):
them safer, It saved lives. It also helped produce jobs.
Thousands and thousands of jobs. Is billions of dollars of
being invested by car manufacturers in the United States. We're
bringing blue collar jobs back to America. Ben, Here's how.
Here's how I explained that in the Oval Office, standing
next to the President. Give a listen.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Anybody else want to say a few words? Oh dead,
I've did generally I'm easy to miss.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Go ahead, Well, this President, I want to congratulate you
on behalf everyone here for the leadership that you're showing.
And this is a victory today for consumers. This is
a victory for affordability. Your critics like to say the
word affordability. Under Joe Biden, the Democrats, they put mandate
after mandate after mandate on cars and trucks, and they
drove the price up thousands and thousands of dollars. And
(32:53):
with the actions you're taking today, and you put on
top of that the one big beautiful bill. You know,
most of the senators here on the Senate Commerce can
and on the Commerce Committee, we worked together to zero
out the cafe standards. We wrote that into the law,
that the cafe standards went to zero. What does that mean.
It means you can now, as a consumer, buy the
car you want. It also means people's lives will be
(33:15):
safer because what these regulations did is they forced cars
to be more expensive and made a plastic instead of
steel because you had to make them lighter to comply
with these standards. So you'd get in a wreck and
people would die. The results of what you're doing, you're
literally saving people's lives and you're making it where families
can afford to get a new car. These actions will
(33:36):
drop the cost of cars and trucks thousands of dollars.
That's makes a real difference. And I'll make one final point.
You know about half the members here are car dealers.
And I will say, my good friend Roger Williams out
in the lobby, he tried to sell me a car
which didn't surprise me. But I just just want to
give props to Mike Kelly. He showed he was savvier
because he tried to sell you a car and you
(33:57):
can work one nicer car than I can. Well done,
Mike Roger, you just went to the wrong customer.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
I was one hundred dollars chief.
Speaker 6 (34:05):
The thing that Tenji said, it's to plastic instead of
still think of that and people died because of that.
The plastic was plastic in an auto accident that it
broke up and people were shattered because of that crazy deal.
But it's a really good point.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Good and was President. I'll tell you the Senate Commerce
Committee on January fourteenth, we're going to have a hearing
with all the big three there in Tesla, and the
entire hearing is going to focus on how your leadership
has reduced the burdens on car makers. That's lowering costs,
that's getting consumers more choices, and it's producing more jobs
in America, and it's highlighted. That's a real record of success.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Not only is it a record of success, but as
you mentioned there and highlighted and the President agreed with you,
it's an issue of safety.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Senator yeah, yeah, no, I mean it's these cafe standards
were making cars much much more dangerous. And we'll never
know who, but there are people who will live now
because of this change, because they'll be able to be
in safer cars. Some of it is they may be
able to afford a new car now because as this
(35:12):
drives down the price of new cars and new trucks,
they may sell their old used car and buy a
new car because it makes it more affordable. New cars
typically have more safety features and enhance their safety. But secondly,
if you're not having to make these cars and remove
all the steel, you're much more likely to survive an
accident if you're in a car that has some weight,
(35:33):
has some steel, and doesn't just crumple up like a
beer can.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Yeah, it's a big victory at the White House for
everybody in America. Three days in a row. By the way,
we do the show three days in a row. So
don't forget. Download Vertic with Tech Cruise wherever you get
your podcasts to not miss a single episode. It's always free.
You can always tell Siria Alexa play Vertic with Tech Cruise.
It will do it for you automatically. And the Center
(36:01):
and I will see you back here on the podcast
this week, and all you listen on the radio, thanks
for joining us as well, and we'll see you back
here this week.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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