1. Immigration and Housing
- Mass immigration under President Biden increased rental demand and housing prices.
- Trump’s deportations and border enforcement are lowering rents and home prices.
- Median age of first-time homebuyers is rising above 40 (highest since WWI).
- Wharton study: “Every 1% population increase → rents up 1%.”
- Recent rent declines (−1.1% YoY, −5.2% vs. 2022 peak).
Tax Policy Changes (2026)
- Highlights upcoming measures:
- No tax on tips
- No tax on overtime
- No tax on Social Security for seniors
- Suggests millions will receive IRS refunds starting January.
HUD Report
- HUD finds that immigration significantly drove up housing demand and prices, especially for low-income Americans without assistance.
2. DOJ/FBI and Mar-a-Lago Raid
- Newly released emails show FBI doubted probable cause for the 2022 raid but proceeded under pressure from Biden DOJ.
- There were political motives behind the raid, calling it “abuse of power.”
- Lack of whistleblowers and calls for congressional hearings.
3. Last 3 BIG WINS of this past year
Space
- Announces $10 billion investment in NASA and commercial space through the Working Families tax cut.
- Goal: U.S. lunar landing by 2028 (ahead of China’s 2030 target).
- Emphasizes jobs (50,000+ in Texas), national security, and inspiration for youth.
Automotive Policy
- CAFE standards were “zeroed out” to reduce car costs and improve safety.
- Biden-era fuel economy rules are an attempt to ban internal combustion engines.
Online Safety – “Take It Down Act”
- Makes posting non-consensual intimate imagery (including AI deepfakes) a felony.
- Grants victims a statutory right to demand immediate removal from platforms.
- Bipartisan passage and signing in the Rose Garden with First Lady Melania Trump.
Please Hit Subscribe to this podcast Right Now. Also Please Subscribe to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson and The Ben Ferguson Show Podcast Wherever You get You're Podcasts. And don't forget to follow the show on Social Media so you never miss a moment! Thanks for Listening
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruz/
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome. In his verdict with Ted Cruz, the Week in Review,
Ben Ferguson with you, and these are the stories that
you may have missed that we talked about this week.
First up, deportations. They're happening at record pace. More than
two million illegal immigrants have been deported from this country
this year and it's having a major effect now on
rental prices of homes and housing prices. So what could
(00:24):
happen going into twenty twenty six. It could be very
big news for you if you're looking to rent or
buy a new home. We'll have that for you in
a moment. Also, we found out in writing that there
was no cause to raid Donald Trump's home at mar Lago,
So how did the FBI get away with doing it
and who actually ordered it knowing that those in the
(00:47):
field were saying there is no probable cause. And finally,
three big wins in the last year that affect all Americans.
We go through those wins and what it means for you.
It's the weekend, Rey, and it starts right now. Finally,
I want to move to another shocking, breaking news story,
and that is if you get rid of people in
(01:08):
this country, they're here illegally, then you don't have to
compete for them. Center for Housing, we have seen the
medium age of first time home buyers. The number skyrocket
to forty plus years old, depending on where you live.
It's the highest we've seen in certainly in my lifetime,
and the highest we've seen since World War One. I
think if I looked at the data correctly, that was
(01:30):
something that should be very eye opening. Rental prices have
also skyrocketed, because well, you're competing when it comes to
renting a home, especially those entry level homes. With tens
of millions of illegal immigrants, we are now finally seeing
Donald Trump's deportations and the shutting down the southern border
completely turning into guess what, lower rent and lower home
(01:53):
prices for Americans.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, and look, this is at the end of the day,
very simple economics. And in economics one oh one you
learn that prices. Prices are determined by two factors, supply
and demand and their their graft, and where they intersect
is where the price is. So supply, it's pretty simple
to understand the more of something there is, the lower
(02:18):
the price is. If there are a whole bunch of houses,
the price of housing goes down. If there are a
whole bunch of bananas, the price of bananas go down.
But the other thing that determines price is demand. If
there are a ton of people that want to buy
houses or bananas, the price goes up. And so those
two counterbalance each other. And actually rising prices typically are
(02:42):
a market signal that we need more supply. And so
if banana prices skyrocket because suddenly people decide they really
really like bananas, you know what's gonna happen. People are
going to plant more bananas and grow more bananas to
meet the demand, and the price will fall.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Well, what did Joe Biden do.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Joe Biden imported allowed more than twelve million illegal aliens
to come into this country. Now, when they came into
this country, most of those illegal aliens didn't live in
a tenth They didn't sleep on a park bench. They
went and rented an apartment, or they rented a house,
or they bought a house. And you bring in twelve
million people, that's twelve million people that are trying to
(03:19):
rent and when demand goes up a lot, you end
up having prices go up. Now, now here's what Scott
Besson reported. Scott Besson said that last month, apartment rents
fell one point one percent compared to the same time
last year, and they dropped five point two percent compared
(03:40):
to the same time period in twenty twenty two, when
rent had peaked under Joe Biden and Besson did an
interview on Fox Business Channel where he said rents are
down and the story the Biden administration doesn't want to
talk about the mass, unfettered immigration that pushed up rents,
especially for working Americans, and he continued to say, there's
(04:04):
a recent study out from the Wharton School that shows
every one percent increase in population, rents went up one percent.
So President Trump, by enforcing the border and sending home
more than two million illegals, we're now seeing rents coming
down substantially. I think that will continue for the rest
(04:24):
of the year. We brought down interest rates and so
we brought mortgage rates down, and I think everything else
will follow that. That is a major victory. And by
the way, it's exactly what President Trump said on the
campaign trail, which is that if we deport the illegal
aliens that Joe Biden's open borders brought into this country,
the result is going to be rents are going to
(04:44):
come down and housing is going to be more affordable.
We now have the data backing that up. You know.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Messaging, I think center is going to be so important
going into the midterms. And one of the things I
do think we have not messaged well enough on our
side is what is about to happen twenty twenty six.
And there are laws that were passing twenty twenty five
that are enacted in twenty twenty six. You combine what
you just said about home prices and what the Treasury
(05:11):
Secretary was talking about there with something that's going to
have a huge impact on our economy. No tax on
tips is coming in this new year. No tax on
overtime is coming this year, and no tax on Social
Security for seniors is coming. Those are three massive victories
that I think many Americans have actually kind of forgotten
(05:31):
about that are going to be implemented this year. That's
going to have a very big impact on our economy,
but also affordability and living.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Now, that's exactly right, and I got to say, by
the way, for people that make substantial tipped wages or overtime,
millions of Americans are going to be entitled to a
refund from the IRS starting in January, starting in just
a couple of weeks, they'll be entitled to a refund
because of those tax cuts, because of the work family
(06:00):
tax cut. And look, the latest mantra of both Democrats
in the media, because in many instances they're one and
the same, is affordability. Now affordability, I am certain that
that came from a focus group the Democrats put on
that that was a word they could blame and blame
on Trump. Affordability about twelve minutes ago, used to be
(06:23):
called two things. Jobs and inflation. That's how we used
to talk about it. Jobs were seeing economic growth and
that is coming from the historic tax cut we pass
and it's coming from President Trump's incredible leadership cutting job
killing regulation. And then inflation. We are seeing inflation coming down,
and this is interesting. The HUD Department Housing and Urban
(06:48):
Development Department published this month a report an investigation that
concluded Biden's importing of millions of migrants drove up prices
for America who are low income but who do not
receive public assistance. And here's what the report concluded. Quote
one key cause of elevated worst case needs is immigration
(07:11):
between twenty twenty one and twenty twenty four, the foreign
born population of the United States increased more than six million,
the largest such increase over such a short period in
American history. This immigration driven increase in households has contributed
to a significant increase in housing demand, thus driving up
(07:31):
housing prices. In fact, in some markets, immigration is accounted
for nearly all of the increase in housing demand in
recent years. That is hurting affordability.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
All, nearly all.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
What else do you need to know?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, that's Democrat policies killed jobs and drove up inflation.
And right now, under common sense conservative policies, we're seeing
jobs come back and we're making progress turn around and
driving down the Biden inflation that hurt so many Americans.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
you can go back and listen to the full podcast
from earlier this week.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Now onto story number two.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
New files are revealing that the Department of Justice and
the FBI quote did not have cause to raid mar Lago.
Hold on a second, you're telling me the people in
charge of Government Center under the Biden regime knew that
they were going after Donald Trump for political reasons. And
not because they thought he broke a law. Can't I
could not imagine this.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
You know, it really is astonishing.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
So the Department of Justice and FBI handed documents over
to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
And here's what Fox News has reported about those documents.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
FBI doubted probable cause for mar A Lago raid, but
pushed forward amid pressure from Biden doj emails reveal quote
very little has been developed related to who might be
culpable for mishandling the documents. An FBI official wrote, the
FBI did not believe it had probable cause to raid
President Donald Trump's mar A Laga home in twenty twenty two,
(09:05):
but move forward amid pressure from the Biden Justice Department,
with an official saying he didn't quote give a damn
about the optics of the search. Newly declassified documents reveal
and you have emails between the FBI and the Justice
Department in the months leading up to the August twenty
twenty two rate of mar A Lago, and FBI officials
(09:27):
explicitly expressed concern about a lack of probable cause to
execute the search warrant on the president's residents. Quote very
little has been developed related to who might be culpable
for mishandling the documents. This is written by an FBI
agent serving as the assistant Special Agent in charge to
another FBI official quote from the interviews. The Washington Field
(09:49):
Office has gathered information suggesting that there may be additional boxes,
presumably of the same type as we're sent back to
Nara in January at mar a Lago. The Washington Field
Office has been drafted a search warrant AFFIDAVID related to
those potential boxes, but has some concerns that the information
is single source, has not been corroborated, and.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
May be dated.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Dojcs opines, however, that the search warrant meets the probable
cause standard quote. Even as we continue down a path
towards a search warrant, the Washington Field Office believes that
a reasonable conversation with the former President's attorney stating that
the FBI and DOJ are reading a search warrant and
developed information there may be more documents at mar Lago
(10:31):
ought not to be discounted. At a minimum, Even if
the former president's attorney is correct and the documents were
all declassified or believed to be disc classified, it can
be reasonably argued that the documents remain sensitive and should
be properly secured until the matter of classification is sorted out.
This conversation could easily be accomplished at the same time
(10:52):
that the Washington Field Office presses forward with the investigation
and continues building out the search warrant. Weeks later, an
FBIA agent rights in a new email, quote, this is stunning.
We haven't generated any new facts, but keep being given
draft after draft after draft. Absent a witness coming forward
with recent information about classified on site. At what point
(11:16):
is it fair to table this? The agent rights it
is time consuming for the team and not productive if
there are no new facts supporting probable cause. Another email
revealed that the Washing Washington the FBI's Washington Field Office
quote did not believe and has articulated a DOJCS that
(11:38):
we have established probable cause for the search warrant for
classified records at mar A Lago.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Let me read that again.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
The FBI Washington Field off is this is in writing quote,
did not believe and has articulated to the DOJCS that
we have established probable cause for the search warrant for
classified weapons of classified records at Mara a Lago and
the response quote do joz opine that they do have
(12:06):
probable cause requesting a wide scope including residents, office storage space,
and the FBI also said a raid would be quote
counterproductive and suggested quote alternative, less intrusive, and likely quicker
options for resolution to reclaim any potential classified records.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
This is stunning it because I can't. I don't think
you can.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
You can overstate how stunning this is that the Field
Office they're saying this is stupid. This is abuse of
power in essence, and they're to the point where they're
putting it in writing.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
And by the way, what it means if you don't
have probable cause for a search warrant, but you nonetheless
engage in the search, the search is illegal without probable cause.
You don't have a basis for the search that is justified.
And if the FBI is saying it would be illegal
to search President Trump's home, apparently the Biden Department of Justice,
(13:06):
they were so partisan. Their objective was not to actually
prosecute a crime.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Their objective was.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
To stop the American people from voting for Donald Trump.
They were acting as political operatives, and so their view
as one of the officials said, they don't give a
damn about the optics. The optics they wanted was President
Trump in a mug shot. They got that optic, but
it backfired on them, backfired bigly. As President Trump might
have said in the first term. But this was a
(13:35):
political persecution. And what's stunning is they knew it.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
At the time.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Well, let's go to accountability. And this is where some
of people listening and watching this on Facebook or on
YouTube are gonna want to ask the question that I'm
going to ask you now it's qlear abuse of power.
Where's the accountability? Because at this point, it's like, we
know they did it, We've got the information, we know
(14:03):
that they were breaking the law or the rules, and
no one seems to be held accountable for this. So
in the rest of my lifetime, I have a feeling
there's going to be a Democrat that's going to get
back in the White House. What then, why would there
be an incentive for them not to abuse their power
and go after any other conservatives in the same way.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
So there wouldn't be an incentive.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
And look, who knows, it may not be a Democrat
in the White House. It may the Democrat Party may
have radicalized so much that maybe the next nominee will
be a member of the Turtle Turtle Island Liberation Front.
I mean, that's that's how extreme these guys are getting. Look,
there has to be accountability, there has to be people
who engage in the abuse of power need to be fired.
Now the Trump Department of Justice and FBI have fired
(14:44):
a number of people. That's that's moving in the right direction.
But anyone who knew they were participating in an abuse
of justice and abuse of power, and anyone who knew
that it was illegal, let me ask, why was there
not anyone who stood up and said this is not
right at the Department of Justice to abuse our power.
(15:04):
Why were there no whistleblowers?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Why was there.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
No no pushback from within d OJ?
Speaker 1 (15:13):
You know if she ask you that question. There's a
lot of appointees, so that and I want to get
in the weeds here on this because I do think
it's important to paint the picture. When I was in
the Bush administration, there are political appointees and there's non political.
There's lifers, there's people that stay in certain positions at
the DOJ, for example, at the FBI, they don't change
based on the election or who is in the White
(15:34):
House or who's in charge of the House or the
Senator of Congress in general, that those individuals are the
ones that you would hope would stand up here. The
problem seems to be that there's either massive fear when
the Democrats were in charge that their careers would be
over a or B that they just put in so
many of their liberal friends that the entire DOJ leadership
(15:58):
and those below them that were the me the non
political appointees were actually incredibly partisan. I go back to
you know, Peter Struck and Lisa Page or whatever the
hell their names were. That's I mean, there's two examples
of quote non political people that were absolutely political.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
There are far too many extreme partisans who burrowed into
both agencies, the FBI and the Department of Justice. As
you know, a book I wrote a few years ago
was called Justice Corrupted, How the Left has weaponized our
legal system, and I detailed This was written at the
beginning of the Biden administration, so I did not cover
(16:36):
the prosecutions of Trump or the Marlago ray because it
hadn't happened.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
By the way, how right were you on writing that book,
I mean knowing what happened afterwards.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Good Grief, And the book starts chapter one is actually
about Watergate.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
It's about Nixon. And I am not a Richard Nixon fan.
I think he was.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
He was corrupt and dishonest, and he abused power. But
if you look at one of the things Nixon tried
to do is get the Department of Justice and the
FBI to go after his political enemies. But at the
time DOJ and the FBI and the I R S.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
They all resisted.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
They pushed back and said, no, that's an abuse of
our power. We're not going to do that. And what
Richard Nixon tried to do, Joe Biden succeeded in doing
why because nobody, not a political not not not careers,
nobody pushed back effectively and stopped it.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
And and and.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
We saw that started with Barack Obama. Barack Obama weaponized.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
The Department of Justice, the FBI, the I R S.
And then when Trump became president and those partisans.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Flicker about it. I do want people to understand that
he was he was very smart about it. Compared to this,
the blaze and abuse of power by the Biden administration
but there were and I want to remind just a
couple a couple examples of the abuse of power under
Barack Obama. Give us a couple of those highlights if
you will remember what they did do and how this
already a long time ago, and and the reason why
(18:01):
is center there were a lot of people that got
into the dj yeah, and the FBI then that were
lower in rank, who are now running the damn place.
When if you fast forward to the Biden years.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, you look at I mean, one of one of
the classic examples of lowest learner at the i R
S and and and the i R S deliberately targeted
conservative groups. It targeted tea party groups, It went after
them and persecuted them, and and and the search words
they were among among things they were looking for as
any group dedicated to the Constitution of the Bill of Rights. Yeah,
(18:33):
and mind you, they didn't mean the ACLU, they didn't
mean leftist groups that they meant anyone that was conservative,
any pro Israel groups they targeted.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
I mean, it was an.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Ideological purge, and it was an ideological purge that the
political officials did everything they could to cover up. And
and ultimately, you know, you look at Eric Holder, who
was Attorney General, described himself as Barack Obama's wingman, and
he ended up being held in contempt of Congress, which
(19:03):
was stunning. But it began during the Obama administration. When
Trump became president, many of those partisans they burrowed into
senior career positions at the agency, and for four years
the first Trump term, they waged war on Donald Trump
from within the agency, trying to overturn the duly elected president,
(19:25):
trying to overturn an election. And then when Biden got
into power, they came out in the open, and they
were brazen. And part of the reason Biden was so
much worse than Obama is they saw there were no
consequences when it happened under Obama, that it worked, that
they were able to weaponize the system, and I suspect
many good people just left the agencies and those many
(19:48):
of those who remained were either they were afraid or
they were.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Willing to go along with it.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
But it's why one of the most important obligations responsibilities
that the Trump dj and the Trump FBI have is
to restore integrity to those agencies, to go after criminals
and bad guys like terrorists planning to set off bombs
in Los Angeles rather than using it to target political opponents.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
What will accountability look like specifically on these emails and
the people there? And will Congress get involved in this
now seeing this letter Grassly, etc.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Yeah, Look, I would certainly expect we'll see hearings in Congress.
I'd like to see the Senate Judiciary Committee hold hearings
on this and engage in oversight. This was released by
Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, so that's beneficial.
And you know, look, I want to commend the Trump
Justice Department for handing these emails over. Part of the
reason that the Biden DOJ wrote these is because they
(20:48):
thought no one would ever know that. They thought Biden
was going to be re elected or Kamala Harris was
going to be elected, and so this would remain hidden forever.
What change the rules is you have an Attorney General
and a new FBI director who decided we're gonna give
this to We're going to show the American people exactly
what was going on.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
That was the right thing to do. As before.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
If you want to hear the rest of this conversation
on this topic, You can go back and dow the
podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing.
I want to get back to the big story, number
three of the week.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
You may have missed.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Center as we're doing our year review. I love getting
to say this one. We had a big win on
the issue of space. We're not talking about you finding
aliens or anything, but we do have an update on
space that's near and dear to your heart with NASA
and Houston of course talk about the big victory there.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Well.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
In the Working Families tax cut, we invested ten billion
dollars in NASA and commercial space, and in particular in
going back to the Moon. And again because that falls
within the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committee, I wrote this provision.
And we are in a race to go back to
the Moon. We're in a race with China. China has
said publicly they are going to go to the Moon by
(22:00):
twenty thirty and they're trying to get back there. And
it's also a race not just to get there, but
to also to build sustained human habitation on the surface
of the Moon, to begin mining on the surface of
the Moon. That's the next challenge that we're moving towards
China is moving full speed ahead. And we did major
investments to say America is going to beat China back
(22:23):
to the Moon. We are going to have sustained human
habitation on the lunar surface or insist lunar orbit. And
that investment, it is in the bill. It is critically important.
And the objective is for us to land on the
Moon by twenty twenty eight, two years before China, with
President Trump still in the Oval office. And that investment
(22:43):
will make it. And I'll tell you this is a
point I made.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
If we lose.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
If we were to lose the race to the Moon,
I think the impact of seeing the Chinese on the
Moon before we could get there, I think it would
be a bigger blow to the country than Sputnik was
Sputnik when the Russians launched the first satellite, Sputnik around
the Earth, it was a massive blow. It started the
space race, and I think losing the Moon to China
(23:10):
would be orders of magnitude worse. That investment is in there.
It matters, and it matters also enormously. They're over fifty
thousand high paying jobs in Texas that are directly connected
to space, so it's big for jobs, jobs in the
economy as well.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Selfishly, I just think it would be so cool for kids'
minds to be blown to see NHD people walking on
the moon. Just the wonder and the inspiration that would
come from that for an entire generation, you know, with
everything that's yeseah and technology driven, Like just to have
a moment of pause where we're like, we went to
(23:47):
the moon and you can see an HD. I can't
imagine what that does for kids that are dreamers for
their futures and their education as well.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Look, I spend a lot of time at Johnson's Space Center.
I spend a lot of time with NASA, and like
the inspiration that astronauts provide.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Now do you know the connection that Rice University has
to us going to the moon.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
The first time?
Speaker 1 (24:08):
No?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
I do not.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
So it was at Rice University at the at the
Rice Stadium.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
You've been to that that football stadium?
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Uh, that that JFK gave the speech where he committed
we will go to the moon within a decade and
and and in fact what he said he said, Uh
why does Rice play the University of Texas? They do
so not because it is easy, but because it is hard,
(24:37):
and that was that was his explanation for why.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Are we going to the moon. We're going to the
Moon for.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
The same reason Rice plays ut not because it easy,
because it's it's hard, and it inspired millions of kids.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
We're going to do that again.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
But it's also critical listen there there there are major
economic benefits. I've predicted for a long time. The first
trillionaire is going to be made in Spain. That may
well be elon Musk He's already halfway there.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
I think the.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Mining that we're going to see on the Moon and
ultimately on Mars is going to generate enormous economic activity.
And it also matters from national security and from a
military perspective. Controlling what is quite literally the high ground
is really important for keeping America safe.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Cafe standards. I want to make sure we get this
in there before the end of the show. Let's talk about
that victory as well.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Another provision I wrote in the bill, we zeroed out
cafe standards. Now, what are the cafe standards?
Speaker 3 (25:32):
There? The rules the Biden administration put in.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Place to drive up the cost of your car and
drive up the cost of your truck, and what they
did is they jacked up the mileage it had to
get to what were unsustainable levels. And they were doing
that because they wanted to ban the internal combustion engine.
They wanted to make it impossible for you to buy
a gasoline car. They wanted to force you to buy
an electric vehicle.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Now, Alouise, let's be clear.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
It also put you and your family at risk. Yeah,
because of having to be forced to make the cars lighter.
They had to get rid of the steel in cars
that made them so safe, like tanks. And that's the
reason why everything's now in plastic and the bumpers and
you've had a small wreck. You see how things just shatter.
It's because they're trying to meet those standards.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Look, my first car was a nineteen seventy eight Ford Fairmont.
It was my grandfather's car that.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
He gave it to me. It was we called it
the green Bomb.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
When you were younger, I knew it. That was confirmation, right.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Right, are you kidding? That was the coolest car. We
called it the green Bomb, and it was a tank.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
And if you got a sixteen year old boy, all
sixteen year old boys are idiots. And for the teenagers, listening.
I apologize, but I was there. I was an idiot,
and I promise you when you get older you understand
it's just part of life growing up. And like putting
your kids in a car that is big enough that
if they hit something like an idiot, that they're not
going to be badly hurt or killed. That matters. We
(26:55):
zeroed it out. The effect of that is going to
be the lower the cost of you getting a car
or a truck lowered by thousands of dollars. That's another
victory that is in the bill. And it also is
going to save life, just as you said, because you'll
be able to make cars that are safer with more
steel and less plastic.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Yeah, it really is incredible. Finally, one last thing I
do want to hit, and it's important one to end
the show. Take it down act something that you worked
so hard on and became reality as well this year,
and it keeps kids safe.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Yeah, it's a great victory.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Look that there is a growing problem with what's called
non consensual intimate imagery, and we're talking both real world
so called revenge porn, where you have boyfriend or girlfriend,
they have an intimate relationship, they take explicit pictures or
videos of each other and then they have a breakup
and they get one of them is ticked off and decides,
all right, I'm going to stick it to you and
I'm going to release this to the world. And it
(27:48):
is a grotesque violation of privacy. Nobody has a right
to do that to somebody else. There is, secondly, a
more recent aspect of that, which is deep fakes, and
people are using AI to create deep fakes where they
take pictures of real people and they use AI to
(28:09):
make it appear that they're naked or in explicit and
sexual situations. More than ninety five percent of the victims
of this are women or teenage girls. And so I
drafted a bill that's called to Take It Down Act.
That number one makes it a crime, makes it a
felony to post non consensual intimate imagery, either real pictures
(28:31):
or fake pictures. And secondly, it gives you the right,
if God forbid, you're the victim of this, any tech
platform that is displaying that content, you have a federal
statutory right to demand they take it down and they
have to take it down immediately. And we pass that
through the Senate, We pass that through the House. The
First Lady Milania Trump was a big champion. She joined
(28:54):
with me and I was in the Rose Garden right
next to the President and right next to the First
Lady when he's sign that legislation protecting kids, protecting teenage girls,
teenage boys, women, protecting everyone, and also standing up to
the abuse of AI, creating deep fakes and victimizing people.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with senter
Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to deal
with my podcast and you can listen to my podcasts
every other day you're not listening to Verdict or each
day when you listen to Verdict. Afterwards, I'd love to
have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson podcasts,
and we will see you back here on Monday morning.
Welcome. In his verdict with Ted Cruz, the Week in Review,
Ben Ferguson with you, and these are the stories that
you may have missed that we talked about this week.
First up, deportations. They're happening at record pace. More than
two million illegal immigrants have been deported from this country
this year and it's having a major effect now on
rental prices of homes and housing prices. So what could
(00:24):
happen going into twenty twenty six. It could be very
big news for you if you're looking to rent or
buy a new home. We'll have that for you in
a moment. Also, we found out in writing that there
was no cause to raid Donald Trump's home at mar Lago,
So how did the FBI get away with doing it
and who actually ordered it knowing that those in the
(00:47):
field were saying there is no probable cause. And finally,
three big wins in the last year that affect all Americans.
We go through those wins and what it means for you.
It's the weekend, Rey, and it starts right now. Finally,
I want to move to another shocking, breaking news story,
and that is if you get rid of people in
(01:08):
this country, they're here illegally, then you don't have to
compete for them. Center for Housing, we have seen the
medium age of first time home buyers. The number skyrocket
to forty plus years old, depending on where you live.
It's the highest we've seen in certainly in my lifetime,
and the highest we've seen since World War One. I
think if I looked at the data correctly, that was
(01:30):
something that should be very eye opening. Rental prices have
also skyrocketed, because well, you're competing when it comes to
renting a home, especially those entry level homes. With tens
of millions of illegal immigrants, we are now finally seeing
Donald Trump's deportations and the shutting down the southern border
completely turning into guess what, lower rent and lower home
(01:53):
prices for Americans.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, and look, this is at the end of the day,
very simple economics. And in economics one oh one you
learn that prices. Prices are determined by two factors, supply
and demand and their their graft, and where they intersect
is where the price is. So supply, it's pretty simple
to understand the more of something there is, the lower
(02:18):
the price is. If there are a whole bunch of houses,
the price of housing goes down. If there are a
whole bunch of bananas, the price of bananas go down.
But the other thing that determines price is demand. If
there are a ton of people that want to buy
houses or bananas, the price goes up. And so those
two counterbalance each other. And actually rising prices typically are
(02:42):
a market signal that we need more supply. And so
if banana prices skyrocket because suddenly people decide they really
really like bananas, you know what's gonna happen. People are
going to plant more bananas and grow more bananas to
meet the demand, and the price will fall.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Well, what did Joe Biden do.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Joe Biden imported allowed more than twelve million illegal aliens
to come into this country. Now, when they came into
this country, most of those illegal aliens didn't live in
a tenth They didn't sleep on a park bench. They
went and rented an apartment, or they rented a house,
or they bought a house. And you bring in twelve
million people, that's twelve million people that are trying to
(03:19):
rent and when demand goes up a lot, you end
up having prices go up. Now, now here's what Scott
Besson reported. Scott Besson said that last month, apartment rents
fell one point one percent compared to the same time
last year, and they dropped five point two percent compared
(03:40):
to the same time period in twenty twenty two, when
rent had peaked under Joe Biden and Besson did an
interview on Fox Business Channel where he said rents are
down and the story the Biden administration doesn't want to
talk about the mass, unfettered immigration that pushed up rents,
especially for working Americans, and he continued to say, there's
(04:04):
a recent study out from the Wharton School that shows
every one percent increase in population, rents went up one percent.
So President Trump, by enforcing the border and sending home
more than two million illegals, we're now seeing rents coming
down substantially. I think that will continue for the rest
(04:24):
of the year. We brought down interest rates and so
we brought mortgage rates down, and I think everything else
will follow that. That is a major victory. And by
the way, it's exactly what President Trump said on the
campaign trail, which is that if we deport the illegal
aliens that Joe Biden's open borders brought into this country,
the result is going to be rents are going to
(04:44):
come down and housing is going to be more affordable.
We now have the data backing that up. You know.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Messaging, I think center is going to be so important
going into the midterms. And one of the things I
do think we have not messaged well enough on our
side is what is about to happen twenty twenty six.
And there are laws that were passing twenty twenty five
that are enacted in twenty twenty six. You combine what
you just said about home prices and what the Treasury
(05:11):
Secretary was talking about there with something that's going to
have a huge impact on our economy. No tax on
tips is coming in this new year. No tax on
overtime is coming this year, and no tax on Social
Security for seniors is coming. Those are three massive victories
that I think many Americans have actually kind of forgotten
(05:31):
about that are going to be implemented this year. That's
going to have a very big impact on our economy,
but also affordability and living.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Now, that's exactly right, and I got to say, by
the way, for people that make substantial tipped wages or overtime,
millions of Americans are going to be entitled to a
refund from the IRS starting in January, starting in just
a couple of weeks, they'll be entitled to a refund
because of those tax cuts, because of the work family
(06:00):
tax cut. And look, the latest mantra of both Democrats
in the media, because in many instances they're one and
the same, is affordability. Now affordability, I am certain that
that came from a focus group the Democrats put on
that that was a word they could blame and blame
on Trump. Affordability about twelve minutes ago, used to be
(06:23):
called two things. Jobs and inflation. That's how we used
to talk about it. Jobs were seeing economic growth and
that is coming from the historic tax cut we pass
and it's coming from President Trump's incredible leadership cutting job
killing regulation. And then inflation. We are seeing inflation coming down,
and this is interesting. The HUD Department Housing and Urban
(06:48):
Development Department published this month a report an investigation that
concluded Biden's importing of millions of migrants drove up prices
for America who are low income but who do not
receive public assistance. And here's what the report concluded. Quote
one key cause of elevated worst case needs is immigration
(07:11):
between twenty twenty one and twenty twenty four, the foreign
born population of the United States increased more than six million,
the largest such increase over such a short period in
American history. This immigration driven increase in households has contributed
to a significant increase in housing demand, thus driving up
(07:31):
housing prices. In fact, in some markets, immigration is accounted
for nearly all of the increase in housing demand in
recent years. That is hurting affordability.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
All, nearly all.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
What else do you need to know?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, that's Democrat policies killed jobs and drove up inflation.
And right now, under common sense conservative policies, we're seeing
jobs come back and we're making progress turn around and
driving down the Biden inflation that hurt so many Americans.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
you can go back and listen to the full podcast
from earlier this week.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Now onto story number two.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
New files are revealing that the Department of Justice and
the FBI quote did not have cause to raid mar Lago.
Hold on a second, you're telling me the people in
charge of Government Center under the Biden regime knew that
they were going after Donald Trump for political reasons. And
not because they thought he broke a law. Can't I
could not imagine this.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
You know, it really is astonishing.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
So the Department of Justice and FBI handed documents over
to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
And here's what Fox News has reported about those documents.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
FBI doubted probable cause for mar A Lago raid, but
pushed forward amid pressure from Biden doj emails reveal quote
very little has been developed related to who might be
culpable for mishandling the documents. An FBI official wrote, the
FBI did not believe it had probable cause to raid
President Donald Trump's mar A Laga home in twenty twenty two,
(09:05):
but move forward amid pressure from the Biden Justice Department,
with an official saying he didn't quote give a damn
about the optics of the search. Newly declassified documents reveal
and you have emails between the FBI and the Justice
Department in the months leading up to the August twenty
twenty two rate of mar A Lago, and FBI officials
(09:27):
explicitly expressed concern about a lack of probable cause to
execute the search warrant on the president's residents. Quote very
little has been developed related to who might be culpable
for mishandling the documents. This is written by an FBI
agent serving as the assistant Special Agent in charge to
another FBI official quote from the interviews. The Washington Field
(09:49):
Office has gathered information suggesting that there may be additional boxes,
presumably of the same type as we're sent back to
Nara in January at mar a Lago. The Washington Field
Office has been drafted a search warrant AFFIDAVID related to
those potential boxes, but has some concerns that the information
is single source, has not been corroborated, and.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
May be dated.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Dojcs opines, however, that the search warrant meets the probable
cause standard quote. Even as we continue down a path
towards a search warrant, the Washington Field Office believes that
a reasonable conversation with the former President's attorney stating that
the FBI and DOJ are reading a search warrant and
developed information there may be more documents at mar Lago
(10:31):
ought not to be discounted. At a minimum, Even if
the former president's attorney is correct and the documents were
all declassified or believed to be disc classified, it can
be reasonably argued that the documents remain sensitive and should
be properly secured until the matter of classification is sorted out.
This conversation could easily be accomplished at the same time
(10:52):
that the Washington Field Office presses forward with the investigation
and continues building out the search warrant. Weeks later, an
FBIA agent rights in a new email, quote, this is stunning.
We haven't generated any new facts, but keep being given
draft after draft after draft. Absent a witness coming forward
with recent information about classified on site. At what point
(11:16):
is it fair to table this? The agent rights it
is time consuming for the team and not productive if
there are no new facts supporting probable cause. Another email
revealed that the Washing Washington the FBI's Washington Field Office
quote did not believe and has articulated a DOJCS that
(11:38):
we have established probable cause for the search warrant for
classified records at mar A Lago.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Let me read that again.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
The FBI Washington Field off is this is in writing quote,
did not believe and has articulated to the DOJCS that
we have established probable cause for the search warrant for
classified weapons of classified records at Mara a Lago and
the response quote do joz opine that they do have
(12:06):
probable cause requesting a wide scope including residents, office storage space,
and the FBI also said a raid would be quote
counterproductive and suggested quote alternative, less intrusive, and likely quicker
options for resolution to reclaim any potential classified records.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
This is stunning it because I can't. I don't think
you can.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
You can overstate how stunning this is that the Field
Office they're saying this is stupid. This is abuse of
power in essence, and they're to the point where they're
putting it in writing.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
And by the way, what it means if you don't
have probable cause for a search warrant, but you nonetheless
engage in the search, the search is illegal without probable cause.
You don't have a basis for the search that is justified.
And if the FBI is saying it would be illegal
to search President Trump's home, apparently the Biden Department of Justice,
(13:06):
they were so partisan. Their objective was not to actually
prosecute a crime.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Their objective was.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
To stop the American people from voting for Donald Trump.
They were acting as political operatives, and so their view
as one of the officials said, they don't give a
damn about the optics. The optics they wanted was President
Trump in a mug shot. They got that optic, but
it backfired on them, backfired bigly. As President Trump might
have said in the first term. But this was a
(13:35):
political persecution. And what's stunning is they knew it.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
At the time.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Well, let's go to accountability. And this is where some
of people listening and watching this on Facebook or on
YouTube are gonna want to ask the question that I'm
going to ask you now it's qlear abuse of power.
Where's the accountability? Because at this point, it's like, we
know they did it, We've got the information, we know
(14:03):
that they were breaking the law or the rules, and
no one seems to be held accountable for this. So
in the rest of my lifetime, I have a feeling
there's going to be a Democrat that's going to get
back in the White House. What then, why would there
be an incentive for them not to abuse their power
and go after any other conservatives in the same way.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
So there wouldn't be an incentive.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
And look, who knows, it may not be a Democrat
in the White House. It may the Democrat Party may
have radicalized so much that maybe the next nominee will
be a member of the Turtle Turtle Island Liberation Front.
I mean, that's that's how extreme these guys are getting. Look,
there has to be accountability, there has to be people
who engage in the abuse of power need to be fired.
Now the Trump Department of Justice and FBI have fired
(14:44):
a number of people. That's that's moving in the right direction.
But anyone who knew they were participating in an abuse
of justice and abuse of power, and anyone who knew
that it was illegal, let me ask, why was there
not anyone who stood up and said this is not
right at the Department of Justice to abuse our power.
(15:04):
Why were there no whistleblowers?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Why was there.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
No no pushback from within d OJ?
Speaker 1 (15:13):
You know if she ask you that question. There's a
lot of appointees, so that and I want to get
in the weeds here on this because I do think
it's important to paint the picture. When I was in
the Bush administration, there are political appointees and there's non political.
There's lifers, there's people that stay in certain positions at
the DOJ, for example, at the FBI, they don't change
based on the election or who is in the White
(15:34):
House or who's in charge of the House or the
Senator of Congress in general, that those individuals are the
ones that you would hope would stand up here. The
problem seems to be that there's either massive fear when
the Democrats were in charge that their careers would be
over a or B that they just put in so
many of their liberal friends that the entire DOJ leadership
(15:58):
and those below them that were the me the non
political appointees were actually incredibly partisan. I go back to
you know, Peter Struck and Lisa Page or whatever the
hell their names were. That's I mean, there's two examples
of quote non political people that were absolutely political.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
There are far too many extreme partisans who burrowed into
both agencies, the FBI and the Department of Justice. As
you know, a book I wrote a few years ago
was called Justice Corrupted, How the Left has weaponized our
legal system, and I detailed This was written at the
beginning of the Biden administration, so I did not cover
(16:36):
the prosecutions of Trump or the Marlago ray because it
hadn't happened.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
By the way, how right were you on writing that book,
I mean knowing what happened afterwards.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Good Grief, And the book starts chapter one is actually
about Watergate.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
It's about Nixon. And I am not a Richard Nixon fan.
I think he was.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
He was corrupt and dishonest, and he abused power. But
if you look at one of the things Nixon tried
to do is get the Department of Justice and the
FBI to go after his political enemies. But at the
time DOJ and the FBI and the I R S.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
They all resisted.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
They pushed back and said, no, that's an abuse of
our power. We're not going to do that. And what
Richard Nixon tried to do, Joe Biden succeeded in doing
why because nobody, not a political not not not careers,
nobody pushed back effectively and stopped it.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
And and and.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
We saw that started with Barack Obama. Barack Obama weaponized.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
The Department of Justice, the FBI, the I R S.
And then when Trump became president and those partisans.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Flicker about it. I do want people to understand that
he was he was very smart about it. Compared to this,
the blaze and abuse of power by the Biden administration
but there were and I want to remind just a
couple a couple examples of the abuse of power under
Barack Obama. Give us a couple of those highlights if
you will remember what they did do and how this
already a long time ago, and and the reason why
(18:01):
is center there were a lot of people that got
into the dj yeah, and the FBI then that were
lower in rank, who are now running the damn place.
When if you fast forward to the Biden years.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, you look at I mean, one of one of
the classic examples of lowest learner at the i R
S and and and the i R S deliberately targeted
conservative groups. It targeted tea party groups, It went after
them and persecuted them, and and and the search words
they were among among things they were looking for as
any group dedicated to the Constitution of the Bill of Rights. Yeah,
(18:33):
and mind you, they didn't mean the ACLU, they didn't
mean leftist groups that they meant anyone that was conservative,
any pro Israel groups they targeted.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
I mean, it was an.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Ideological purge, and it was an ideological purge that the
political officials did everything they could to cover up. And
and ultimately, you know, you look at Eric Holder, who
was Attorney General, described himself as Barack Obama's wingman, and
he ended up being held in contempt of Congress, which
(19:03):
was stunning. But it began during the Obama administration. When
Trump became president, many of those partisans they burrowed into
senior career positions at the agency, and for four years
the first Trump term, they waged war on Donald Trump
from within the agency, trying to overturn the duly elected president,
(19:25):
trying to overturn an election. And then when Biden got
into power, they came out in the open, and they
were brazen. And part of the reason Biden was so
much worse than Obama is they saw there were no
consequences when it happened under Obama, that it worked, that
they were able to weaponize the system, and I suspect
many good people just left the agencies and those many
(19:48):
of those who remained were either they were afraid or
they were.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Willing to go along with it.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
But it's why one of the most important obligations responsibilities
that the Trump dj and the Trump FBI have is
to restore integrity to those agencies, to go after criminals
and bad guys like terrorists planning to set off bombs
in Los Angeles rather than using it to target political opponents.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
What will accountability look like specifically on these emails and
the people there? And will Congress get involved in this
now seeing this letter Grassly, etc.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Yeah, Look, I would certainly expect we'll see hearings in Congress.
I'd like to see the Senate Judiciary Committee hold hearings
on this and engage in oversight. This was released by
Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, so that's beneficial.
And you know, look, I want to commend the Trump
Justice Department for handing these emails over. Part of the
reason that the Biden DOJ wrote these is because they
(20:48):
thought no one would ever know that. They thought Biden
was going to be re elected or Kamala Harris was
going to be elected, and so this would remain hidden forever.
What change the rules is you have an Attorney General
and a new FBI director who decided we're gonna give
this to We're going to show the American people exactly
what was going on.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
That was the right thing to do. As before.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
If you want to hear the rest of this conversation
on this topic, You can go back and dow the
podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing.
I want to get back to the big story, number
three of the week.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
You may have missed.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Center as we're doing our year review. I love getting
to say this one. We had a big win on
the issue of space. We're not talking about you finding
aliens or anything, but we do have an update on
space that's near and dear to your heart with NASA
and Houston of course talk about the big victory there.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Well.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
In the Working Families tax cut, we invested ten billion
dollars in NASA and commercial space, and in particular in
going back to the Moon. And again because that falls
within the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committee, I wrote this provision.
And we are in a race to go back to
the Moon. We're in a race with China. China has
said publicly they are going to go to the Moon by
(22:00):
twenty thirty and they're trying to get back there. And
it's also a race not just to get there, but
to also to build sustained human habitation on the surface
of the Moon, to begin mining on the surface of
the Moon. That's the next challenge that we're moving towards
China is moving full speed ahead. And we did major
investments to say America is going to beat China back
(22:23):
to the Moon. We are going to have sustained human
habitation on the lunar surface or insist lunar orbit. And
that investment, it is in the bill. It is critically important.
And the objective is for us to land on the
Moon by twenty twenty eight, two years before China, with
President Trump still in the Oval office. And that investment
(22:43):
will make it. And I'll tell you this is a
point I made.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
If we lose.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
If we were to lose the race to the Moon,
I think the impact of seeing the Chinese on the
Moon before we could get there, I think it would
be a bigger blow to the country than Sputnik was
Sputnik when the Russians launched the first satellite, Sputnik around
the Earth, it was a massive blow. It started the
space race, and I think losing the Moon to China
(23:10):
would be orders of magnitude worse. That investment is in there.
It matters, and it matters also enormously. They're over fifty
thousand high paying jobs in Texas that are directly connected
to space, so it's big for jobs, jobs in the
economy as well.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Selfishly, I just think it would be so cool for kids'
minds to be blown to see NHD people walking on
the moon. Just the wonder and the inspiration that would
come from that for an entire generation, you know, with
everything that's yeseah and technology driven, Like just to have
a moment of pause where we're like, we went to
(23:47):
the moon and you can see an HD. I can't
imagine what that does for kids that are dreamers for
their futures and their education as well.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Look, I spend a lot of time at Johnson's Space Center.
I spend a lot of time with NASA, and like
the inspiration that astronauts provide.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Now do you know the connection that Rice University has
to us going to the moon.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
The first time?
Speaker 1 (24:08):
No?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
I do not.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
So it was at Rice University at the at the
Rice Stadium.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
You've been to that that football stadium?
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Uh, that that JFK gave the speech where he committed
we will go to the moon within a decade and
and and in fact what he said he said, Uh
why does Rice play the University of Texas? They do
so not because it is easy, but because it is hard,
(24:37):
and that was that was his explanation for why.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Are we going to the moon. We're going to the
Moon for.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
The same reason Rice plays ut not because it easy,
because it's it's hard, and it inspired millions of kids.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
We're going to do that again.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
But it's also critical listen there there there are major
economic benefits. I've predicted for a long time. The first
trillionaire is going to be made in Spain. That may
well be elon Musk He's already halfway there.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
I think the.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Mining that we're going to see on the Moon and
ultimately on Mars is going to generate enormous economic activity.
And it also matters from national security and from a
military perspective. Controlling what is quite literally the high ground
is really important for keeping America safe.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Cafe standards. I want to make sure we get this
in there before the end of the show. Let's talk about
that victory as well.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Another provision I wrote in the bill, we zeroed out
cafe standards. Now, what are the cafe standards?
Speaker 3 (25:32):
There? The rules the Biden administration put in.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Place to drive up the cost of your car and
drive up the cost of your truck, and what they
did is they jacked up the mileage it had to
get to what were unsustainable levels. And they were doing
that because they wanted to ban the internal combustion engine.
They wanted to make it impossible for you to buy
a gasoline car. They wanted to force you to buy
an electric vehicle.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Now, Alouise, let's be clear.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
It also put you and your family at risk. Yeah,
because of having to be forced to make the cars lighter.
They had to get rid of the steel in cars
that made them so safe, like tanks. And that's the
reason why everything's now in plastic and the bumpers and
you've had a small wreck. You see how things just shatter.
It's because they're trying to meet those standards.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Look, my first car was a nineteen seventy eight Ford Fairmont.
It was my grandfather's car that.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
He gave it to me. It was we called it
the green Bomb.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
When you were younger, I knew it. That was confirmation, right.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Right, are you kidding? That was the coolest car. We
called it the green Bomb, and it was a tank.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
And if you got a sixteen year old boy, all
sixteen year old boys are idiots. And for the teenagers, listening.
I apologize, but I was there. I was an idiot,
and I promise you when you get older you understand
it's just part of life growing up. And like putting
your kids in a car that is big enough that
if they hit something like an idiot, that they're not
going to be badly hurt or killed. That matters. We
(26:55):
zeroed it out. The effect of that is going to
be the lower the cost of you getting a car
or a truck lowered by thousands of dollars. That's another
victory that is in the bill. And it also is
going to save life, just as you said, because you'll
be able to make cars that are safer with more
steel and less plastic.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Yeah, it really is incredible. Finally, one last thing I
do want to hit, and it's important one to end
the show. Take it down act something that you worked
so hard on and became reality as well this year,
and it keeps kids safe.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Yeah, it's a great victory.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Look that there is a growing problem with what's called
non consensual intimate imagery, and we're talking both real world
so called revenge porn, where you have boyfriend or girlfriend,
they have an intimate relationship, they take explicit pictures or
videos of each other and then they have a breakup
and they get one of them is ticked off and decides,
all right, I'm going to stick it to you and
I'm going to release this to the world. And it
(27:48):
is a grotesque violation of privacy. Nobody has a right
to do that to somebody else. There is, secondly, a
more recent aspect of that, which is deep fakes, and
people are using AI to create deep fakes where they
take pictures of real people and they use AI to
(28:09):
make it appear that they're naked or in explicit and
sexual situations. More than ninety five percent of the victims
of this are women or teenage girls. And so I
drafted a bill that's called to Take It Down Act.
That number one makes it a crime, makes it a
felony to post non consensual intimate imagery, either real pictures
(28:31):
or fake pictures. And secondly, it gives you the right,
if God forbid, you're the victim of this, any tech
platform that is displaying that content, you have a federal
statutory right to demand they take it down and they
have to take it down immediately. And we pass that
through the Senate, We pass that through the House. The
First Lady Milania Trump was a big champion. She joined
(28:54):
with me and I was in the Rose Garden right
next to the President and right next to the First
Lady when he's sign that legislation protecting kids, protecting teenage girls,
teenage boys, women, protecting everyone, and also standing up to
the abuse of AI, creating deep fakes and victimizing people.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with senter
Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to deal
with my podcast and you can listen to my podcasts
every other day you're not listening to Verdict or each
day when you listen to Verdict. Afterwards, I'd love to
have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson podcasts,
and we will see you back here on Monday morning.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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