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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
It is a Verdict with Ted Cruz, Weekend Review, Ben
Ferguson with you, and these are the big stories that
you may have missed that we talked about this week.
Number one, there was a two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars plus bankwire transfer that came from Beijing. Where did
it go to the home address of Joe Biden in
(00:23):
the summer of twenty nineteen while he was running for president.
Now you could argue that maybe Hunter Biden lived there
at the time. The only problem is he didn't, and
we have the proof of where he was living. That
is a huge story you don't want to miss. Number
two this weekend also deals with a problem with a
Biden administration and a wide open border. Now Democratic mayors
(00:47):
are flipping on their own party, yet they're still not
willing to say Joe Biden needs to secure the border.
We'll dive into politics of that. And finally, at GOP
debate took place this past week. In the highlights of
what really mattered and what went on, we're going to
break it down for you, specifically with China and the
fetnyl crisis. It is the weekend Review with Ted Cruz
(01:10):
and it starts right now. There is new reporting out
that Hunter Biden received wired transfers for a quarter of
a million dollars originating in Beijing, for more than more
than two hundred and fifty from Chinese business partners during
the summer of two thy and nineteen. These wires were
(01:31):
listed that were listed had the home address of the
President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, as
the beneficiary address for the funds that were being transferred.
This is a direct link from money from Beijing now
to the President of the United States of America in
the sum of at least two hundred and fifty thousand
(01:53):
and counting.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Well, look, that's exactly right. Let me walk you through
a little bit of this timeline. VID named Jonathan Lee
and Hunter Biden developed a business relationship while Joe Biden
was Vice president. On July twenty sixth, twenty nineteen, Hunter
Biden received a ten thousand dollars wire from Wang Jin.
(02:15):
On October second, twenty nineteen, Hunter Biden received a two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars wire from Jonathan Lee and
Tan Ling. Both wires originated in Beijing and listed as
the beneficiary address Joe Biden's Wilmington, Delaware home. Nearly three
(02:39):
months later, on October thirteenth, twenty nineteen, Hunter Biden's attorney,
guy named George Messiris, stated that Hunter Biden received no
money from BHR and did not disclose any payments from
Jonathan Lee. I mean, it's easy to forget quarter million dollars.
Everyone loses that. Beyond that, evidence show that Joe Biden
(03:01):
developed a familiar relationship with Jonathan Lee during his vice
presidency and prior to these payments to Hunter Biden. Devin Archer,
who was a business associate of the Bidens, described how
Joe Biden, not Hunter, Joe Daddy, met with Jonathan Lee
in Beijing, China, had a phone call with him, and
(03:23):
later wrote college recommendation letters for his children. So understand
the guy who's wiring a quarter million dollars to Hunter
Biden to Joe Biden's home address, Joe Biden wrote college
recommendation letters for his kids, and in fact, in December
twenty thirteen, during a vice presidential trip to Beijing, reports
(03:45):
indicate that quote Hunter. Shortly after arriving in Beijing on
December fourth, Help arranged for Lee to shake hands with
his father in the lobby of the American delegation's hotel.
You all of this is happening, This wire is happening
simultaneously to Joe Biden announcing his campaign for president of
(04:07):
the United States. But nevertheless, on October twenty second, twenty twenty,
here's what Joe Biden said, quote, my son has not
made money in terms of thing about what are you
talking about China? The only guy who made money in
China is Trump. So what he said his son has
(04:29):
not made money from China. It was a flat out lie.
Not only had he made money, he'd made a quarter
million dollars from a guy Joe Biden had met, from
a guy who Joe Biden had written recommendation letters for
his kids, and that quarter million dollars was wired to
Joe Biden's home address.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I still am taken aback, and rarely does this happen
center at just the the and I don't think it's
in common. It's just the brazenness of the crime that
were committed by the Bidens. They didn't get And this
is twenty nineteen, this is not that long ago.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
He's running for president, right, He's.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Running for president of the United States of America, and
they're wiring these funds from Beijing to the home address
of the President of the United States, and now president
it's America. While he's trying to become the president. It's America.
It's almost like they're like, hey, get the money in here, quick,
move it through quickly. We got to get this We
(05:29):
gotta get this money in here fast before he becomes
the president.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
And so send it on.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Where do you want me to say, We're not even
gonna funnel the money this time, We're not even gonna
put it in the llcas and move the bank accounts around.
Just send it directly the home address of the president,
all right.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
And this is an example where the corporate media will
be utterly compliant. So the only one who will even
bother to ask a question of Joe Biden at a
press conference or or of kareein John Pierre will be
Fox because the rest of the corporate media, it will
roll over and be compliant. But here's a basic question,
mister president, did you ever meet Jonathan Lee's kids?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
How about that? Let's start with that.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
You wrote recommendation letters for him, do you ever meet him?
You know anything about him? And If the answers no, well,
why the hell did you write recommendations letters for them?
What did Jonathan Lee do to get you? You were
the vice president of the United States to write a
recommendation letter for his kids if you ever met the kids.
(06:31):
I don't know if he met him, but I would
be shocked if he did. If you never met the kids,
So you're willing to write a recommendation letter for someone
you never met. Presumably you owe something to daddy if
you're writing a recommendation letter to the kids. So the
question is what do you owe, what did daddy do?
And does it have anything to do with the fact
(06:51):
that daddy sent a quarter million dollars wired it to
your son at your home address while you were running
for president of the United States. Remember the Democrat talking
point and the corporate media talking point is, yeah, Hunter's corrupt.
He let's throw him overboard. We've given up on Hunter.
But Joe had nothing to do with it. Well, you
know what, Hunter didn't write recommendations letters for the kids
(07:13):
of Jonathan Lee. Joe did. So what did Joe get
in exchange for a recommendation letter? By the way, you
and I are both parents, do either of us have
recommendation letters from the Vice President of the United States
for our kids. No, like, that's pretty damn serious. And
(07:35):
it's remarkable the media they will not even ask these questions.
They do not care.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Well, it's not just that you.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I'm sure could ask ten hundred times more than I
do for recommendations for different things. And the more that
you build something, the more cautious and careful you are,
because you don't want to give your name to somebody
that could come back to haunt you one day when
a press like, hey, Senator Cruz, did you actually write
(08:02):
over a letter of recommendation for someone that you didn't
know and now they've been arrested for drugs or for
this crime or that or embezzlement.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
You protect your good name.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
In West you're Joe Biden, where it seems to be
that you can just buy a letter of recommendation from
the Vice president if the dollar amount is enough to
your family.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
So look, I'm fifty two years old, I've been in
the Senate eleven years. My guess is maybe I've written
in the whole course of my life, let's say, one
hundred recommendation letters. That's probably high, but I'm gonna overestimate it.
Those one hundred have been almost exclusively people who are
either good personal friends of mine or people who worked
(08:45):
for me. If so someone was a staff assistant, if
someone was an employee in the office and they worked
and they did a good job, I'll draft a letter
of recommendation. It'll vary if I know them well. Some
letters are recommendation. I lean in closely because if I
know them well and I work with them, I'll say
something nicely about them. If they were a good kid
and they worked in the office and they could do
good work, I'll write a more generic letter, and I'll
(09:06):
often have staff draft it and try to reflect. You know.
You know, Young Ben did a nice job on a
memo on national security and he pointed out maybe we
should not have Iranian agents working for the federal government,
and I agreed with that. That was nicely done. Yeah,
mind you that means Young Ben couldn't get hired in
the Biden administration. But in a sane world, young Ben
(09:28):
had some wisdom that was impressive, and so you should
hire him at Old Miss because he also has a
wicked serve and and knows he to play tennis like
that's a letter I might write. But I can tell
you right now, I have never written a letter of
recommendation for a Chinese national. And I'm sure as hell
haven't written a letter recommendation for the children of a
(09:50):
Chinese national I've never met. And I'm sure as hell
as hell, as hell as hell have never written a
letter recommendation for the children of a Chinese national who
I've never at the children, And that the dad has
given a quarter million dollars to my son and sent
it to my home address, Like holy crap. Yeah, that
this is not like there's sort of a realm of reasonableness.
(10:13):
And look, sometimes you have someone who was an intern
and shook your hand and you say, young Ben is
a nice young man, and it's kind of a courtesy,
and you don't really know. Young Ben may not be
a nice young man. He may be a total jerk,
but you're trying to be nice, and so you write
a letter because young Ben seem fine. This is qualitatively different.
(10:36):
I don't know anyone in politics who's ever done this
like what Joe Biden is doing. Like people listening might think, oh,
I don't know the political world, this is commonplace. No, no,
it's not people don't do this like a quarter million dollars.
You don't get sent to you. You don't get sent
(10:56):
to you from Chinese nationals. You don't get sent to
you from Chinese nationals. Well you're running for president, don't
get sent to you from Chinese nationals in exchange for
who the hell knows what I mean this is. And
it's worth underscoring this is not Hunter, this is Joe, Joe, Joe.
(11:17):
This money was wired to Joe's home address.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
you can go back and listen to the full podcast
from earlier this week. Now onto story number two. There's
a civil war in the Democratic Party right now over
the immigration issue. We're seeing, you know, Mayor Adams come out,
the Governor of New York come out, and it's hard
to just overlook what's happening at the border. There was
(11:43):
an interesting Fox report that I think put in perspective
for people, and I wanted to make sure we played
it in the video pod. And many people are listening
to this right now. They're listening on audio only. You
can go watch the video that we're about to do
on YouTube all right, because we're doing this one with
video and audio. Go look at it because this is
something that should go viral and we should see Yep,
take a look at this.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
I can tell you that early this morning in Eagle Pass,
we witnessed one of the largest mass illegal crossings we
have ever seen in the last two and a half
years of covering our southern border.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
We'll get right to this video. Take a look at
this stunning footage.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Border patrol sources telling us just after midnight about two thousand,
five hundred migrants crossed illegally into Eagle Pass.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
You can see this lengthy.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Line of them stretching from shore to shore in the river.
This video perspective coming from the Mexican side of the
river in Piedrous and Negros. One of our contacts over
there shooting this video as they essentially bum rushed Eagle Pass.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Last night, you.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Saw that there was another video also in viral, and
that was a train coming towards America filled with people.
And it's like the cartails that figured out, hey, they're
not gonna stop us. In fact, the more that we
send the more likely it is to be successful. We
can just bum rush the border and this administration will
not stop us.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Yeah, let's put these these numbers in context. So we've
discussed on the pod before. Mayor Adams in New York
has said that New York is City isn't a crisis.
They've had one hundred and ten thousand illegal immigrants. He
says that one hundred and ten thousand illegal immigrants is
destroying New York City. I want to focus on Eagle
Pass where where If you watch that video you just
(13:17):
saw the people crossing. Eagle Pass is a small town
on the southern border on the Rio Grande River. It
has a population of about twenty eight thousand people, so
it's a little town. On one single day last week,
more than four thousand illegal immigrants came into Eagle Pass
on one day. Now four thousand people in town of
(13:39):
twenty eight thousand people is about fourteen percent of the population.
About fourteen percent of the population of the city came
illegally into Eagle Pass on one day. What would that
be in New York City? New York City has a
population of about nine million people. If fourteen percent of
New York City came into New York on one day,
that would be one million, two hundred and sixty thousand
(14:02):
people invading New York on a single day. Mayor Adams says,
one hundred and ten thousand people over two and a
half years is a crisis destroying the city. Well, how
would he feel about one million, two hundred and sixty
thousand people entering the city on a single day. That's
what Eagle Pass saw on one day last week. And
you know what they saw thousands more the next day
(14:25):
and the next day, and the next day and the
next day. And these Democrats do not give a damn.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Border Patrol Union put out a very interesting tweet and
this is what they said as they put this out,
It said, from September first through the twentieth, the Biden
administration or the release of more than one hundred thousand.
This to order the release of one hundred thousand legal
border crashers, enough to double the population, says like Yuma Arizona,
think about what Biden is doing to this country with
(14:51):
his out of control border policies.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
How many millions more?
Speaker 2 (14:55):
That's not like exaggeration when they say patrol Unions saying
how many millions more, that's a very accurate hit because
there are millions.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Look, they're at seven and a half million, and Joe Biden,
Kamala Harris and Chuck Schumer and Alejandro Mayorcis and every
Senate Democrat and just about every Congressional Democrat. They want
seven and a half million, to go to ten million,
to go to twelve million, to go to fifteen million.
They want as many as possible. And by the way,
if you don't believe me that they want as many
(15:26):
as possible, take a look at the Governor of New York,
Governor Hokeel back in twenty twenty one, so just two
years ago, where she is explicitly inviting as many as
possible to come to New York.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Take a look.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
So our message the world is, send us your people,
send us those who need the cloak of comfort that
we can demonstrate as New Yorkers with big hearts and
open arms, and we'll provide a safe haven, particularly for
these Afghan refugees.
Speaker 6 (15:55):
We're so proud that are here.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
We have already seventy five hundred Afghans living here, all
read read, and we expect to have another eighteen hundred more.
And we send a message from day one, we'll take
as many as you want to have us have come
to New York State because it's a huge point of
pride for us, and we'll support them to build a
whole new life.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Open arms and big hearts.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
In twenty twenty one, and she also said, we'll take
as many as you want to have come to New York.
Please come. So that is the approved talking point of
left wingers. Now fast forward to twenty twenty three, same governor.
Here's what she says this year.
Speaker 6 (16:33):
It certainly will because about forty one percent of the
people in our shelters today are from Venezuela. They are
lily from around the world, West Africa, South and Central America.
They're coming from all over. But we have to let
the word out that when you come to New York,
we're not going to have more hotel rooms. We don't
have capacity. So we have to also message properly that
(16:55):
we're at our limit. If you're going to leave your country,
go somewhere else with The smarter thing is to apply
for asylum before you leave your country, and then you'll
have a different experience when you arrive.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
You're gonna leave your country center go somewhere else. Down
that we're at our limit.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
We're at our limit.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
We have no more hotel rooms for you.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
And by the way, look at the numbers. So in
twenty twenty one, she was saying, we have seventy five
hundred Afghans and we expect another eighteen hundred more. Okay,
so if they're talking seven eight nine thousand, that we're good.
One hundred and ten thousand, Oh crap, we're at our limit.
We said eighteen hundred, We didn't say one hundred and
ten thousand. Well what do you think about seven and
(17:34):
a half million? The utter hypocrisy, and mind you you know,
you know what name she didn't say, Joe Biden. Yeah,
she didn't say Kamala Harris, she didn't say Chuck Schumer.
If New York is at its limit, doesn't New York
State have two US Senators? Yeah, isn't one of them
the Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, who.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Could do something on this, actually legislation or introduced legislation.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
And not only does he not introduce legislation, he votes
against anything to secure the border. He demonizes any effort
to secure the border. He embraces the open borders that
are destroying New York City, and even the Democrats who
are calling it out, they don't dare call out their
fellow Democrats. Instead, they blame as I love, you know,
(18:19):
Mayor Adams who said some madman in Texas, Greg Abbott.
I'm still I'm still offended that he wasn't talking about me,
But hah. The hypocrisy is massive because New York's Democrat
governor is not saying stop secure the border, stop the invasion.
She's saying, please don't send them new York, send them
to Red States. Make other people deal with them so
(18:42):
I can continue to virtue signal. By the way, did
you notice also in that press interview it was a
little Stepford wives that that that that that both she
and the woman interviewing her are wearing the exact same
white suit. It was just kind of a little freaky look.
And I'm not sure what was going on there.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Everybody asked me about it. You really beliethers bias the media,
and I'm like, ye, yes, I really do. Like I
love when I'm traveling, you get it to all the time.
People come up and they kind of want to antagonize, like,
there's not bias media. If you were a decent person
in the media when she said go somewhere else, any
journalist the initial response would been, will governor where else where?
What is this somewhere else? Is that another state? Are
(19:19):
you telling me to go to another country? There was
no follow up there.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
On at all.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
No, no, no, because there's no response that go somewhere else?
What they mean? And actually the Biden White House said
that go to Texas. Send them all to Texas because
they hate Texas and they figure if they invade Texas
with enough people, they'll flip it blue. And you know what,
if the cities are bankrupted, and if people die, and
if children are assaulted, and if they're drug overdoses, all
(19:46):
of that is an acceptable price for their partisan political objective.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
As before, if you want to hear the rest of
this conversation on this topic, you can go back and
down the podcasts from earlier this week to hear the
entire thing. I want to get back to the big
story number three of the week. You may have missed, Senator,
I also want to talk about China and fetanyl for
a moment. You've talked a lot about fetanyl and the
(20:11):
issue at the border. This did seem to be something
that Republicans agreed on that we have a big problem.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
The issue is how do you fight back.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Nikki Haley said, time to go to war economically with China,
as she described it, until they stop sending all the
fetanel into this country that's killing Americans.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
She described it as they're at war with us.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
They're taking our stealing our intellectual property, They're stealing everything
then get their hands on from us. They're setting up
spy bases in Cuba. They've done countless things that compromises countries,
Spy balloons over this country as well. And this president
clearly seems to be compromised and cannot stand up to China.
I think we can all agree on that, but there
(20:50):
did seem to be a sense on stage that hey,
it's time to go on offense and to stop letting
China run all over us.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Well look, you know, it's interesting, said a minute ago
in your question, you said this president Joe Biden has
compromised on China.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
It was interesting.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
There was not a word said to night about Biden's corruption,
about the and there was very little said about Biden's record.
There was very little said. What I found curious, and
it's why I think most of the candidates.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Did not have a great night tonight.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
There was very little said about why they were the
best candidate to beat Donald Trump. And in the primary,
that's the only question is who can win the primary,
And there was very little said about why they were
the best candidate to beat Joe Biden. And at the
end of the day, that's what Republican primary voters are
looking for. And it was it was odd. When it
(21:47):
came to Trump, most of the candidates seemed to forget
that he existed, and when it came to Joe Biden,
by and large, most of the candidates for god, he existed.
And tin to prosecute a case, you're trying to make
the case that I'm the guy or I'm the gal
to take us to victory. And on China, look, there
(22:11):
was some rhetoric China's bad, China's bad, China's bad. But
what we didn't hear from anybody was a systematic, comprehensive
plan to how do we beat China. And I believe
I've talked about this a lot, that we need the
sword of systematic plan that Reagan had to win the
Cold War, a plan that takes on that that combats
(22:32):
China's lies, its murder, it's torture, its genocide, it's espionage,
its theft, its propaganda that goes after China, and there
was very little said about how specifically we do that.
There was some general rhetoric China bad, but not a
whole lot of substance. So therefore, what.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
I was shocked to buy what you just mentioned, and
let's dive into this for a moment. I think it
was a huge mistake to not bring up the big
breaking news that you and I broke on this podcast
yesterday in a.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Quarter million dollars sent to Joe Biden's house.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yeah, from Beijing, and no one mentioned it.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
On top of the fact that it broke after we
did that show that based on the plea deal agreement
that was given by David Weiss, it said in that
plea agreement that during the time that payment was made,
the residence for Hunter Biden was in California. That's in
the plea agreement that came out as kind of like, hey,
(23:31):
if you think that he was living in this house
that's the same residence of the President of the United
States America, you know, in Delaware, you're wrong. The plea
agreement said during the time, and it also came out
afterwards Center that in his own book that Hunter Biden wrote.
He also said in his book that he was living
in California at the time that wire transfer would have
(23:52):
come through. So there's even a bigger problem there, and
no one said anything about it on stage.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
That was a huge mistake, I think for all of them.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Well, if you think about any moment, and this was
a long debate. This was a two hour debate. And
by the way, I got to say, there's something weird
about the debate at the Reagan Library. So in twenty sixteen,
we had a debate at the Reagan Library right on
the stage where they were, and the twenty sixteen debate
that was the CNN debate, and it went three hours.
It was the longest debate of the entire cycle. And
(24:24):
I remember, I don't know if this was true tonight,
but in twenty sixteen, the Reagan Library did not have
air conditioning that was made to survive the cleague lights
of a television debate, and so it was hot.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
And that many warm bodies in the room.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
People don't realize as rooms get hot when you have
that many people in there.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
There was a whole audience of people that there are
bright lights. I remember by the third hour, we were
drenched in sweat and I was standing there. I was
actually standing, Mike Huckabee was next to me, Marco Rubio
was next to me. Actually, Marco, to his credit, had
a hankchief, which which he let both Huckabye and me
use because we were both sweating like crazy and it
(25:05):
was by hour three. It was unpleasant. Now, the good
news is I think there were six people in the
entire world that stayed up to watch the third hour
of that debate, so it didn't matter that we all
looked like we were drowning in our own sweat. I
couldn't tell if they had the same issue this time,
but I will say in two hours it was striking
(25:27):
that there was not really an effective case made. Here's
how we beat Joe Biden, and that matters a lot.
Nor was there an effective case. You know, Dana Prino
tried to get to it when she said, Okay, write
down on your piece of paper who you're going to
vote off the island. And by the way, I will
credit the candidates for all of them saying no, we're
not playing that kind of BS game. That was the
(25:49):
right response for them to say no. But even though
you don't write on a card. You're not playing Jeopardy.
There wasn't really anyone making the case other than the Santis,
which is why I think he won tonight. There wasn't
really anyone making the case. I'm the right standard bearer
to win the primary, and I'm the right standard bearer
(26:10):
to win the general, and here's how and why.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, there was also a lot of misses.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
People said, at least in response online, that this debate
was on Univision and they didn't feel like the candidates
did a good enough job reaching out to Hispanic voters.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Your reaction to that as well.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Look, I think they did almost nothing. I mean to
Hispanic voters. Listen, the Hispanic community. Our community is fundamentally conservative.
It is culturally conservative. You look at the values that
resonate in the Hispanic community.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Family oriented, very family oriented.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Family faith, patriotism, hard work, the American dream. Those are
values that are fundamentally conservative. You didn't see anyone saying,
you know what, you want to talk about the Hispanic community.
The Hispanic community in South Texas and in californ Horn
in Arizona's getting hammered by seven point six million illegal
immigrants by the way every candidate tonight got the number wrong.
(27:07):
They all said six million. Your numbers or are a
million and a half off. It's up to seven point six.
The candidates should get their numbers right. But they didn't
talk about the misery that is being imposed on the
Hispanic community by this crisis of illegal immigration. They didn't
talk about Hispanic families that are getting hammered by rising inflation.
(27:27):
They didn't talk about Hispanic families that are getting hammered
by rising crime rates. They didn't talk extensively about the
Democrat efforts to defund the police and George Soros prosecutors.
They had some of that actually, their discussion of crime.
There was some decent moments, But the point you just
made men, nobody connected it to the Hispanic community. No
(27:50):
one connected it to the African American community. And that's
a point that I think is important to make that
I hope in subsequent debates we get people making more clearly.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Lastly, Center, there was another moment, and it's a viral moment.
I understand, and you can explain this.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
You want a moment.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Every candidate wants a moment when they're on stage, and
they want to have these big moments that are talked about.
Nikki Haley tried to land one against the deck, and
this is what it sounded like.
Speaker 6 (28:20):
Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit
dumber for what you say.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
I don't think that landed the way she was hoping.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
It didn't come across to me as I was watching
it is this, you know, big moment. I get that
what she was trying to accomplish. Was that a mistake?
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Yeah, it was a mistake. That moment was harsh and
it seemed too harsh. Look, look, Haley's a talented candidate.
She's a talented communicator. She's one of the best communicators
on that stage. She had a really good night in
the first debate. This one was not nearly as good.
That shot was mean spirited, It wasn't substantive in a debate.
(28:58):
I think you're almost always better disagreeing with someone on
substance rather than just sort of one line at hominem attacks.
And by the way, look, you can disagree with Vivek
because you could say that he doesn't have the experience
to be president. You can disagree with him on policy,
but the guy's not dumb. He's a smart guy. So
(29:18):
the claim every time I listen to you, I feel
dumber like that, that is a pretty condescending comment that
going back to my point before, in a debate, you
want truth and authenticity, You want the words coming out
of your mouth for people to say, yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah,
I agree with that, And I don't think very many
people agreed with that, and so it diminished her more
(29:41):
than it diminished Vivek. Now, I do think the other
candidates on that stage are pretty chippy towards Vivek because
he was pretty condescending and nasty to them in debate
number one, and he made him shine. But there's some
grudges that were playing out tonight. I'll also point out
there that there were moments when when Nicki Haley and
Tim Scott were going at each other and they were
just yelling at each other, back and forth and back
(30:03):
and forth, and it was kind of a South Carolina
pissing fight, and my take on it, that didn't really
help either one of them. It was too parochial. I
don't know that a whole lot of people care about
the internecine fights in South Carolina, and I think the
(30:24):
effect of it is that both of them seemed to
be taking their eye off the ball, that the objective
is first to win the primary and then to beat
Joe Biden in the general, and I think that back
and forth bickering didn't help either one of them in
that respect.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with center
Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to down
with my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast
every other day you're not listening to Verdict or each
day when you listen to Verdict. Afterwards, I'd love to
have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson podcasts,
and we will see you back here on Monday morning.
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
It is a Verdict with Ted Cruz, Weekend Review, Ben
Ferguson with you, and these are the big stories that
you may have missed that we talked about this week.
Number one, there was a two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars plus bankwire transfer that came from Beijing. Where did
it go to the home address of Joe Biden in
(00:23):
the summer of twenty nineteen while he was running for president.
Now you could argue that maybe Hunter Biden lived there
at the time. The only problem is he didn't, and
we have the proof of where he was living. That
is a huge story you don't want to miss. Number
two this weekend also deals with a problem with a
Biden administration and a wide open border. Now Democratic mayors
(00:47):
are flipping on their own party, yet they're still not
willing to say Joe Biden needs to secure the border.
We'll dive into politics of that. And finally, at GOP
debate took place this past week. In the highlights of
what really mattered and what went on, we're going to
break it down for you, specifically with China and the
fetnyl crisis. It is the weekend Review with Ted Cruz
(01:10):
and it starts right now. There is new reporting out
that Hunter Biden received wired transfers for a quarter of
a million dollars originating in Beijing, for more than more
than two hundred and fifty from Chinese business partners during
the summer of two thy and nineteen. These wires were
(01:31):
listed that were listed had the home address of the
President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, as
the beneficiary address for the funds that were being transferred.
This is a direct link from money from Beijing now
to the President of the United States of America in
the sum of at least two hundred and fifty thousand
(01:53):
and counting.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Well, look, that's exactly right. Let me walk you through
a little bit of this timeline. VID named Jonathan Lee
and Hunter Biden developed a business relationship while Joe Biden
was Vice president. On July twenty sixth, twenty nineteen, Hunter
Biden received a ten thousand dollars wire from Wang Jin.
(02:15):
On October second, twenty nineteen, Hunter Biden received a two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars wire from Jonathan Lee and
Tan Ling. Both wires originated in Beijing and listed as
the beneficiary address Joe Biden's Wilmington, Delaware home. Nearly three
(02:39):
months later, on October thirteenth, twenty nineteen, Hunter Biden's attorney,
guy named George Messiris, stated that Hunter Biden received no
money from BHR and did not disclose any payments from
Jonathan Lee. I mean, it's easy to forget quarter million dollars.
Everyone loses that. Beyond that, evidence show that Joe Biden
(03:01):
developed a familiar relationship with Jonathan Lee during his vice
presidency and prior to these payments to Hunter Biden. Devin Archer,
who was a business associate of the Bidens, described how
Joe Biden, not Hunter, Joe Daddy, met with Jonathan Lee
in Beijing, China, had a phone call with him, and
(03:23):
later wrote college recommendation letters for his children. So understand
the guy who's wiring a quarter million dollars to Hunter
Biden to Joe Biden's home address, Joe Biden wrote college
recommendation letters for his kids, and in fact, in December
twenty thirteen, during a vice presidential trip to Beijing, reports
(03:45):
indicate that quote Hunter. Shortly after arriving in Beijing on
December fourth, Help arranged for Lee to shake hands with
his father in the lobby of the American delegation's hotel.
You all of this is happening, This wire is happening
simultaneously to Joe Biden announcing his campaign for president of
(04:07):
the United States. But nevertheless, on October twenty second, twenty twenty,
here's what Joe Biden said, quote, my son has not
made money in terms of thing about what are you
talking about China? The only guy who made money in
China is Trump. So what he said his son has
(04:29):
not made money from China. It was a flat out lie.
Not only had he made money, he'd made a quarter
million dollars from a guy Joe Biden had met, from
a guy who Joe Biden had written recommendation letters for
his kids, and that quarter million dollars was wired to
Joe Biden's home address.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I still am taken aback, and rarely does this happen
center at just the the and I don't think it's
in common. It's just the brazenness of the crime that
were committed by the Bidens. They didn't get And this
is twenty nineteen, this is not that long ago.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
He's running for president, right, He's.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Running for president of the United States of America, and
they're wiring these funds from Beijing to the home address
of the President of the United States, and now president
it's America. While he's trying to become the president. It's America.
It's almost like they're like, hey, get the money in here, quick,
move it through quickly. We got to get this We
(05:29):
gotta get this money in here fast before he becomes
the president.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
And so send it on.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Where do you want me to say, We're not even
gonna funnel the money this time, We're not even gonna
put it in the llcas and move the bank accounts around.
Just send it directly the home address of the president,
all right.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
And this is an example where the corporate media will
be utterly compliant. So the only one who will even
bother to ask a question of Joe Biden at a
press conference or or of kareein John Pierre will be
Fox because the rest of the corporate media, it will
roll over and be compliant. But here's a basic question,
mister president, did you ever meet Jonathan Lee's kids?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
How about that? Let's start with that.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
You wrote recommendation letters for him, do you ever meet him?
You know anything about him? And If the answers no, well,
why the hell did you write recommendations letters for them?
What did Jonathan Lee do to get you? You were
the vice president of the United States to write a
recommendation letter for his kids if you ever met the kids.
(06:31):
I don't know if he met him, but I would
be shocked if he did. If you never met the kids,
So you're willing to write a recommendation letter for someone
you never met. Presumably you owe something to daddy if
you're writing a recommendation letter to the kids. So the
question is what do you owe, what did daddy do?
And does it have anything to do with the fact
(06:51):
that daddy sent a quarter million dollars wired it to
your son at your home address while you were running
for president of the United States. Remember the Democrat talking
point and the corporate media talking point is, yeah, Hunter's corrupt.
He let's throw him overboard. We've given up on Hunter.
But Joe had nothing to do with it. Well, you
know what, Hunter didn't write recommendations letters for the kids
(07:13):
of Jonathan Lee. Joe did. So what did Joe get
in exchange for a recommendation letter? By the way, you
and I are both parents, do either of us have
recommendation letters from the Vice President of the United States
for our kids. No, like, that's pretty damn serious. And
(07:35):
it's remarkable the media they will not even ask these questions.
They do not care.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Well, it's not just that you.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I'm sure could ask ten hundred times more than I
do for recommendations for different things. And the more that
you build something, the more cautious and careful you are,
because you don't want to give your name to somebody
that could come back to haunt you one day when
a press like, hey, Senator Cruz, did you actually write
(08:02):
over a letter of recommendation for someone that you didn't
know and now they've been arrested for drugs or for
this crime or that or embezzlement.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
You protect your good name.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
In West you're Joe Biden, where it seems to be
that you can just buy a letter of recommendation from
the Vice president if the dollar amount is enough to
your family.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
So look, I'm fifty two years old, I've been in
the Senate eleven years. My guess is maybe I've written
in the whole course of my life, let's say, one
hundred recommendation letters. That's probably high, but I'm gonna overestimate it.
Those one hundred have been almost exclusively people who are
either good personal friends of mine or people who worked
(08:45):
for me. If so someone was a staff assistant, if
someone was an employee in the office and they worked
and they did a good job, I'll draft a letter
of recommendation. It'll vary if I know them well. Some
letters are recommendation. I lean in closely because if I
know them well and I work with them, I'll say
something nicely about them. If they were a good kid
and they worked in the office and they could do
good work, I'll write a more generic letter, and I'll
(09:06):
often have staff draft it and try to reflect. You know.
You know, Young Ben did a nice job on a
memo on national security and he pointed out maybe we
should not have Iranian agents working for the federal government,
and I agreed with that. That was nicely done. Yeah,
mind you that means Young Ben couldn't get hired in
the Biden administration. But in a sane world, young Ben
(09:28):
had some wisdom that was impressive, and so you should
hire him at Old Miss because he also has a
wicked serve and and knows he to play tennis like
that's a letter I might write. But I can tell
you right now, I have never written a letter of
recommendation for a Chinese national. And I'm sure as hell
haven't written a letter recommendation for the children of a
(09:50):
Chinese national I've never met. And I'm sure as hell
as hell, as hell as hell have never written a
letter recommendation for the children of a Chinese national who
I've never at the children, And that the dad has
given a quarter million dollars to my son and sent
it to my home address, Like holy crap. Yeah, that
this is not like there's sort of a realm of reasonableness.
(10:13):
And look, sometimes you have someone who was an intern
and shook your hand and you say, young Ben is
a nice young man, and it's kind of a courtesy,
and you don't really know. Young Ben may not be
a nice young man. He may be a total jerk,
but you're trying to be nice, and so you write
a letter because young Ben seem fine. This is qualitatively different.
(10:36):
I don't know anyone in politics who's ever done this
like what Joe Biden is doing. Like people listening might think, oh,
I don't know the political world, this is commonplace. No, no,
it's not people don't do this like a quarter million dollars.
You don't get sent to you. You don't get sent
(10:56):
to you from Chinese nationals. You don't get sent to
you from Chinese nationals. Well you're running for president, don't
get sent to you from Chinese nationals in exchange for
who the hell knows what I mean this is. And
it's worth underscoring this is not Hunter, this is Joe, Joe, Joe.
(11:17):
This money was wired to Joe's home address.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
you can go back and listen to the full podcast
from earlier this week. Now onto story number two. There's
a civil war in the Democratic Party right now over
the immigration issue. We're seeing, you know, Mayor Adams come out,
the Governor of New York come out, and it's hard
to just overlook what's happening at the border. There was
(11:43):
an interesting Fox report that I think put in perspective
for people, and I wanted to make sure we played
it in the video pod. And many people are listening
to this right now. They're listening on audio only. You
can go watch the video that we're about to do
on YouTube all right, because we're doing this one with
video and audio. Go look at it because this is
something that should go viral and we should see Yep,
take a look at this.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
I can tell you that early this morning in Eagle Pass,
we witnessed one of the largest mass illegal crossings we
have ever seen in the last two and a half
years of covering our southern border.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
We'll get right to this video. Take a look at
this stunning footage.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Border patrol sources telling us just after midnight about two thousand,
five hundred migrants crossed illegally into Eagle Pass.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
You can see this lengthy.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Line of them stretching from shore to shore in the river.
This video perspective coming from the Mexican side of the
river in Piedrous and Negros. One of our contacts over
there shooting this video as they essentially bum rushed Eagle Pass.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Last night, you.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Saw that there was another video also in viral, and
that was a train coming towards America filled with people.
And it's like the cartails that figured out, hey, they're
not gonna stop us. In fact, the more that we
send the more likely it is to be successful. We
can just bum rush the border and this administration will
not stop us.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Yeah, let's put these these numbers in context. So we've
discussed on the pod before. Mayor Adams in New York
has said that New York is City isn't a crisis.
They've had one hundred and ten thousand illegal immigrants. He
says that one hundred and ten thousand illegal immigrants is
destroying New York City. I want to focus on Eagle
Pass where where If you watch that video you just
(13:17):
saw the people crossing. Eagle Pass is a small town
on the southern border on the Rio Grande River. It
has a population of about twenty eight thousand people, so
it's a little town. On one single day last week,
more than four thousand illegal immigrants came into Eagle Pass
on one day. Now four thousand people in town of
(13:39):
twenty eight thousand people is about fourteen percent of the population.
About fourteen percent of the population of the city came
illegally into Eagle Pass on one day. What would that
be in New York City? New York City has a
population of about nine million people. If fourteen percent of
New York City came into New York on one day,
that would be one million, two hundred and sixty thousand
(14:02):
people invading New York on a single day. Mayor Adams says,
one hundred and ten thousand people over two and a
half years is a crisis destroying the city. Well, how
would he feel about one million, two hundred and sixty
thousand people entering the city on a single day. That's
what Eagle Pass saw on one day last week. And
you know what they saw thousands more the next day
(14:25):
and the next day, and the next day and the
next day. And these Democrats do not give a damn.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Border Patrol Union put out a very interesting tweet and
this is what they said as they put this out,
It said, from September first through the twentieth, the Biden
administration or the release of more than one hundred thousand.
This to order the release of one hundred thousand legal
border crashers, enough to double the population, says like Yuma Arizona,
think about what Biden is doing to this country with
(14:51):
his out of control border policies.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
How many millions more?
Speaker 2 (14:55):
That's not like exaggeration when they say patrol Unions saying
how many millions more, that's a very accurate hit because
there are millions.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Look, they're at seven and a half million, and Joe Biden,
Kamala Harris and Chuck Schumer and Alejandro Mayorcis and every
Senate Democrat and just about every Congressional Democrat. They want
seven and a half million, to go to ten million,
to go to twelve million, to go to fifteen million.
They want as many as possible. And by the way,
if you don't believe me that they want as many
(15:26):
as possible, take a look at the Governor of New York,
Governor Hokeel back in twenty twenty one, so just two
years ago, where she is explicitly inviting as many as
possible to come to New York.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Take a look.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
So our message the world is, send us your people,
send us those who need the cloak of comfort that
we can demonstrate as New Yorkers with big hearts and
open arms, and we'll provide a safe haven, particularly for
these Afghan refugees.
Speaker 6 (15:55):
We're so proud that are here.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
We have already seventy five hundred Afghans living here, all
read read, and we expect to have another eighteen hundred more.
And we send a message from day one, we'll take
as many as you want to have us have come
to New York State because it's a huge point of
pride for us, and we'll support them to build a
whole new life.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Open arms and big hearts.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
In twenty twenty one, and she also said, we'll take
as many as you want to have come to New York.
Please come. So that is the approved talking point of
left wingers. Now fast forward to twenty twenty three, same governor.
Here's what she says this year.
Speaker 6 (16:33):
It certainly will because about forty one percent of the
people in our shelters today are from Venezuela. They are
lily from around the world, West Africa, South and Central America.
They're coming from all over. But we have to let
the word out that when you come to New York,
we're not going to have more hotel rooms. We don't
have capacity. So we have to also message properly that
(16:55):
we're at our limit. If you're going to leave your country,
go somewhere else with The smarter thing is to apply
for asylum before you leave your country, and then you'll
have a different experience when you arrive.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
You're gonna leave your country center go somewhere else. Down
that we're at our limit.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
We're at our limit.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
We have no more hotel rooms for you.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
And by the way, look at the numbers. So in
twenty twenty one, she was saying, we have seventy five
hundred Afghans and we expect another eighteen hundred more. Okay,
so if they're talking seven eight nine thousand, that we're good.
One hundred and ten thousand, Oh crap, we're at our limit.
We said eighteen hundred, We didn't say one hundred and
ten thousand. Well what do you think about seven and
(17:34):
a half million? The utter hypocrisy, and mind you you know,
you know what name she didn't say, Joe Biden. Yeah,
she didn't say Kamala Harris, she didn't say Chuck Schumer.
If New York is at its limit, doesn't New York
State have two US Senators? Yeah, isn't one of them
the Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, who.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Could do something on this, actually legislation or introduced legislation.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
And not only does he not introduce legislation, he votes
against anything to secure the border. He demonizes any effort
to secure the border. He embraces the open borders that
are destroying New York City, and even the Democrats who
are calling it out, they don't dare call out their
fellow Democrats. Instead, they blame as I love, you know,
(18:19):
Mayor Adams who said some madman in Texas, Greg Abbott.
I'm still I'm still offended that he wasn't talking about me,
But hah. The hypocrisy is massive because New York's Democrat
governor is not saying stop secure the border, stop the invasion.
She's saying, please don't send them new York, send them
to Red States. Make other people deal with them so
(18:42):
I can continue to virtue signal. By the way, did
you notice also in that press interview it was a
little Stepford wives that that that that that both she
and the woman interviewing her are wearing the exact same
white suit. It was just kind of a little freaky look.
And I'm not sure what was going on there.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Everybody asked me about it. You really beliethers bias the media,
and I'm like, ye, yes, I really do. Like I
love when I'm traveling, you get it to all the time.
People come up and they kind of want to antagonize, like,
there's not bias media. If you were a decent person
in the media when she said go somewhere else, any
journalist the initial response would been, will governor where else where?
What is this somewhere else? Is that another state? Are
(19:19):
you telling me to go to another country? There was
no follow up there.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
On at all.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
No, no, no, because there's no response that go somewhere else?
What they mean? And actually the Biden White House said
that go to Texas. Send them all to Texas because
they hate Texas and they figure if they invade Texas
with enough people, they'll flip it blue. And you know what,
if the cities are bankrupted, and if people die, and
if children are assaulted, and if they're drug overdoses, all
(19:46):
of that is an acceptable price for their partisan political objective.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
As before, if you want to hear the rest of
this conversation on this topic, you can go back and
down the podcasts from earlier this week to hear the
entire thing. I want to get back to the big
story number three of the week. You may have missed, Senator,
I also want to talk about China and fetanyl for
a moment. You've talked a lot about fetanyl and the
(20:11):
issue at the border. This did seem to be something
that Republicans agreed on that we have a big problem.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
The issue is how do you fight back.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Nikki Haley said, time to go to war economically with China,
as she described it, until they stop sending all the
fetanel into this country that's killing Americans.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
She described it as they're at war with us.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
They're taking our stealing our intellectual property, They're stealing everything
then get their hands on from us. They're setting up
spy bases in Cuba. They've done countless things that compromises countries,
Spy balloons over this country as well. And this president
clearly seems to be compromised and cannot stand up to China.
I think we can all agree on that, but there
(20:50):
did seem to be a sense on stage that hey,
it's time to go on offense and to stop letting
China run all over us.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Well look, you know, it's interesting, said a minute ago
in your question, you said this president Joe Biden has
compromised on China.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
It was interesting.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
There was not a word said to night about Biden's corruption,
about the and there was very little said about Biden's record.
There was very little said. What I found curious, and
it's why I think most of the candidates.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Did not have a great night tonight.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
There was very little said about why they were the
best candidate to beat Donald Trump. And in the primary,
that's the only question is who can win the primary,
And there was very little said about why they were
the best candidate to beat Joe Biden. And at the
end of the day, that's what Republican primary voters are
looking for. And it was it was odd. When it
(21:47):
came to Trump, most of the candidates seemed to forget
that he existed, and when it came to Joe Biden,
by and large, most of the candidates for god, he existed.
And tin to prosecute a case, you're trying to make
the case that I'm the guy or I'm the gal
to take us to victory. And on China, look, there
(22:11):
was some rhetoric China's bad, China's bad, China's bad. But
what we didn't hear from anybody was a systematic, comprehensive
plan to how do we beat China. And I believe
I've talked about this a lot, that we need the
sword of systematic plan that Reagan had to win the
Cold War, a plan that takes on that that combats
(22:32):
China's lies, its murder, it's torture, its genocide, it's espionage,
its theft, its propaganda that goes after China, and there
was very little said about how specifically we do that.
There was some general rhetoric China bad, but not a
whole lot of substance. So therefore, what.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
I was shocked to buy what you just mentioned, and
let's dive into this for a moment. I think it
was a huge mistake to not bring up the big
breaking news that you and I broke on this podcast
yesterday in a.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Quarter million dollars sent to Joe Biden's house.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yeah, from Beijing, and no one mentioned it.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
On top of the fact that it broke after we
did that show that based on the plea deal agreement
that was given by David Weiss, it said in that
plea agreement that during the time that payment was made,
the residence for Hunter Biden was in California. That's in
the plea agreement that came out as kind of like, hey,
(23:31):
if you think that he was living in this house
that's the same residence of the President of the United
States America, you know, in Delaware, you're wrong. The plea
agreement said during the time, and it also came out
afterwards Center that in his own book that Hunter Biden wrote.
He also said in his book that he was living
in California at the time that wire transfer would have
(23:52):
come through. So there's even a bigger problem there, and
no one said anything about it on stage.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
That was a huge mistake, I think for all of them.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Well, if you think about any moment, and this was
a long debate. This was a two hour debate. And
by the way, I got to say, there's something weird
about the debate at the Reagan Library. So in twenty sixteen,
we had a debate at the Reagan Library right on
the stage where they were, and the twenty sixteen debate
that was the CNN debate, and it went three hours.
It was the longest debate of the entire cycle. And
(24:24):
I remember, I don't know if this was true tonight,
but in twenty sixteen, the Reagan Library did not have
air conditioning that was made to survive the cleague lights
of a television debate, and so it was hot.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
And that many warm bodies in the room.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
People don't realize as rooms get hot when you have
that many people in there.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
There was a whole audience of people that there are
bright lights. I remember by the third hour, we were
drenched in sweat and I was standing there. I was
actually standing, Mike Huckabee was next to me, Marco Rubio
was next to me. Actually, Marco, to his credit, had
a hankchief, which which he let both Huckabye and me
use because we were both sweating like crazy and it
(25:05):
was by hour three. It was unpleasant. Now, the good
news is I think there were six people in the
entire world that stayed up to watch the third hour
of that debate, so it didn't matter that we all
looked like we were drowning in our own sweat. I
couldn't tell if they had the same issue this time,
but I will say in two hours it was striking
(25:27):
that there was not really an effective case made. Here's
how we beat Joe Biden, and that matters a lot.
Nor was there an effective case. You know, Dana Prino
tried to get to it when she said, Okay, write
down on your piece of paper who you're going to
vote off the island. And by the way, I will
credit the candidates for all of them saying no, we're
not playing that kind of BS game. That was the
(25:49):
right response for them to say no. But even though
you don't write on a card. You're not playing Jeopardy.
There wasn't really anyone making the case other than the Santis,
which is why I think he won tonight. There wasn't
really anyone making the case. I'm the right standard bearer
to win the primary, and I'm the right standard bearer
(26:10):
to win the general, and here's how and why.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, there was also a lot of misses.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
People said, at least in response online, that this debate
was on Univision and they didn't feel like the candidates
did a good enough job reaching out to Hispanic voters.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Your reaction to that as well.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Look, I think they did almost nothing. I mean to
Hispanic voters. Listen, the Hispanic community. Our community is fundamentally conservative.
It is culturally conservative. You look at the values that
resonate in the Hispanic community.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Family oriented, very family oriented.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Family faith, patriotism, hard work, the American dream. Those are
values that are fundamentally conservative. You didn't see anyone saying,
you know what, you want to talk about the Hispanic community.
The Hispanic community in South Texas and in californ Horn
in Arizona's getting hammered by seven point six million illegal
immigrants by the way every candidate tonight got the number wrong.
(27:07):
They all said six million. Your numbers or are a
million and a half off. It's up to seven point six.
The candidates should get their numbers right. But they didn't
talk about the misery that is being imposed on the
Hispanic community by this crisis of illegal immigration. They didn't
talk about Hispanic families that are getting hammered by rising inflation.
(27:27):
They didn't talk about Hispanic families that are getting hammered
by rising crime rates. They didn't talk extensively about the
Democrat efforts to defund the police and George Soros prosecutors.
They had some of that actually, their discussion of crime.
There was some decent moments, But the point you just
made men, nobody connected it to the Hispanic community. No
(27:50):
one connected it to the African American community. And that's
a point that I think is important to make that
I hope in subsequent debates we get people making more clearly.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Lastly, Center, there was another moment, and it's a viral moment.
I understand, and you can explain this.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
You want a moment.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Every candidate wants a moment when they're on stage, and
they want to have these big moments that are talked about.
Nikki Haley tried to land one against the deck, and
this is what it sounded like.
Speaker 6 (28:20):
Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit
dumber for what you say.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
I don't think that landed the way she was hoping.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
It didn't come across to me as I was watching
it is this, you know, big moment. I get that
what she was trying to accomplish. Was that a mistake?
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Yeah, it was a mistake. That moment was harsh and
it seemed too harsh. Look, look, Haley's a talented candidate.
She's a talented communicator. She's one of the best communicators
on that stage. She had a really good night in
the first debate. This one was not nearly as good.
That shot was mean spirited, It wasn't substantive in a debate.
(28:58):
I think you're almost always better disagreeing with someone on
substance rather than just sort of one line at hominem attacks.
And by the way, look, you can disagree with Vivek
because you could say that he doesn't have the experience
to be president. You can disagree with him on policy,
but the guy's not dumb. He's a smart guy. So
(29:18):
the claim every time I listen to you, I feel
dumber like that, that is a pretty condescending comment that
going back to my point before, in a debate, you
want truth and authenticity, You want the words coming out
of your mouth for people to say, yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah,
I agree with that, And I don't think very many
people agreed with that, and so it diminished her more
(29:41):
than it diminished Vivek. Now, I do think the other
candidates on that stage are pretty chippy towards Vivek because
he was pretty condescending and nasty to them in debate
number one, and he made him shine. But there's some
grudges that were playing out tonight. I'll also point out
there that there were moments when when Nicki Haley and
Tim Scott were going at each other and they were
just yelling at each other, back and forth and back
(30:03):
and forth, and it was kind of a South Carolina
pissing fight, and my take on it, that didn't really
help either one of them. It was too parochial. I
don't know that a whole lot of people care about
the internecine fights in South Carolina, and I think the
(30:24):
effect of it is that both of them seemed to
be taking their eye off the ball, that the objective
is first to win the primary and then to beat
Joe Biden in the general, and I think that back
and forth bickering didn't help either one of them in
that respect.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with center
Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to down
with my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast
every other day you're not listening to Verdict or each
day when you listen to Verdict. Afterwards, I'd love to
have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson podcasts,
and we will see you back here on Monday morning.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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