Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome. It is Verdict with Center. Ted Cruz ben Ferguson
with you, Senator. Nice to be with you as always.
And there is new intel coming out that the Biden
administration may be welcoming a whole lot of refugees from
Gaza as part of their new plan.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Well, that's exactly right. There's breaking news that the Biden
White House is considering allowing refugees to come from Gaza,
which would be an enormous national security thread. It makes
no sense at all. We're going to talk about that
and examine what they're talking about. We also now have
new data on the cities that the Biden administration is
flying illegal immigrants too all over the country. We've got
(00:38):
numbers and breakdown. We're going to get into that. And finally,
we're going to talk about a new bill that I've introduced.
It's a bipartisan bill designed to limit kids access to
social media, and in particular to stop young kids from
getting on social media and to protect kids from all
the negative influences that can be found on social media.
We're going to discuss that as well.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, I want to talk to you real quick about
what's happening in is right now. In a way that
you can help and have a significant impact. It's been
over six months since that first brutal attack by Hamas
on our brothers and sisters in Israel, and since then
the attacks on Israel have actually increased, with Iran and
its proxies launching that massive attack of hundreds of drones
(01:18):
and missiles. That is where your help is needed. The
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(02:28):
dot org, Support if CJ dot org center. Let's talk
about this plan. And I'm still trying to get my
head around what the play is here politically, except that
they're trying to signal to young people that are on
these college campuses, Hey, we're not in favor of Israel
by any means, stick with us. And then while all
(02:50):
that's going on, they signal that we're going to allow
a bunch of refugees to come to America.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Why.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Look, it is absolutely crazy. The White House has put
out a store. Here's the CBS headline, quote, white House
considers welcoming some Palestinians from war torn Gaza as refugees.
And what CBS reported is quote the Biden administration is
considering bringing certain Palestinians to the US's refugees, a move
that would offer a permanent safe haven to some of
(03:17):
those fleeing war torn Gaza, according to internal federal government
documents obtained by CBS News in recent weeks, the document
show senior US officials across several federal agencies have discussed
the practicality of different options to resettle Palestinians from Gaza
who have immediate family members who are American citizens or
(03:38):
permanent residents. One of those proposals involves using the decades
old United States Refugee Admissions program to welcome Palestinians with
US ties who have managed to escape Gaza and enter
neighboring Egypt. According to the interagency planning documents, top US
officials have also discussed getting additional Palestinians out of Gaza
(03:59):
and processing them as refugees if they have American relatives.
The document show the plan would require coordination with Egypt,
which is so far refused to welcome large numbers of
people from Gaza. So understand this, Egypt, which is a
direct neighbor of Gaza, is saying we don't want these
refugees here. And by the way, the reason the refugees
(04:21):
don't want the Egyptians don't want them there is they're
afraid of terrorism. They're afraid that there are too many
Hamas terrorists that are part of the so called refugees,
and they don't want them committing acts of terrorism and
violence in Egypt, and yet the Biden administration is saying, well, heck,
we'd love to have them here, like like this is
(04:45):
a level of insanity. In the wake of October seventh,
and the wake of this grotesque terror attack that murdered
twelve hundred Israelis, that murdered Americans, that raped women and
little girls, the reaction of the Biden w light house
is well, we need to welcome more of these folks
into America.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah, And the timing of this is incredibly questionable. You
look at what the crackdowns that were finally seeing on
college campuses right now, Senator, we're saying hundreds that have
been arrested, for example Columbia, other universities where this is
happening as well, And the timing seems to be in
essence perfect, like, hey, we're still with you guys. I
(05:24):
know you guys are kind of getting rid of your
encampments and you're getting arrested, but just know we really
are on your side.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Well, it really is remarkable how terrified that the so
called mainstream Democrats are of ticking off the radical left
in their party. The Democrat Party has a problem right now.
It has a hard anti Semitism problem. There is literally
a pro Haamas wing of the Democrat Party. And we've
(05:54):
talked about this before. It's not just the squad, it's
not just the radicals. Joe is terrified of them. Chuck
Schumer is terrified of them. Nancy Pelosi is terrified of them.
And they are really they're really setting the agendas. Why
Joe Biden has so so carefully avoided speaking out with
(06:16):
any clarity on the topic because he wants he wants
the votes of the anti Israel, the anti Semitic protesters.
He's trying to to to get support from them, and
he and the other Democrats view that as a major
portion of today's Democrat Party.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
What does the oversight look like and can they go
around Congress completely to allow refugees in from from guys
as specifically, how many could this be? How big could
this program get?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Well, we don't know the answers to that right now.
I will tell you in the Senate the chances of
their being meaningful oversight is is really quite low. The
The White House gave a statement to CBS on Tuesday
night that said the US has quote helped more than
eighteen hundred American citizens and their families leave Gaza, many
(07:10):
of whom have come to the United States at President
Biden's direction. We have also helped and will continue to
help some particularly vulnerable individuals, such as children with serious
health problems and children who are receiving treatment for cancer,
get out of harm's way and receive care at nearby
hospitals in the region. The statement went on to say
that the US quote categorically rejects any actions leading to
(07:31):
the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank,
or the redrawing of the borders of Gaza. The best
pass forward is to achieve a sustainable ceasefire through a
hostage deal that will stabilize the situation and pave the
way to a two state solution. So the White House, remember,
these are internal documents from the government where they're discussing plans. Hey,
(07:52):
how many refugees can we bring from Gaza to America?
And you've got US officials going back and forth on
different programs they can used to do that. It's not
clear who chose to leak those documents or what their
motivation was. The motivation could well be what you suggested
it could have been a political decision by the White
House to show some love to the pro Hamas wing
(08:16):
of the Democrat Party, and that may well have been
part of the motivation. But in terms of oversight, look,
the sad thing is in the Senate. As long as
Chuck Schumer is the majority leader, he has zero interest
on oversight on this question. The Democrats have zero interest
on oversight on this question. Remember, just a couple of
weeks ago, I forced a vote on the Senate floor
(08:37):
to block the Biden administration from giving additional billions of
dollars to Iran to the Ayahtola. And by the way,
Iran funds ninety percent of a MAAS. So it was
a very simple amendment, stop giving money that goes to
Hamas to kill Jews and to kill Americans. And every
(08:58):
single Democrat at but one voted no. That's where they
are so on bringing people from Gaza who could be terrorists,
who could endanger the safety of American citizens here. It
does not surprise me that's what this administration is talking
about doing, because it's clear that's where their sympathies and
their loyalties lie.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
And the rhetoric's going to be exactly what you described, Senator.
They're going to say, look, there's a lot of people
that are innocent, you should be compassionate and loving, and
those that need, you know, for humanitarian reasons. But seventy
two percent of Palatinians believe quote that Hamasa's decision to
launch the October seventh attack was correct, which goes back
(09:39):
to what you were saying a moment ago about other
countries in the regions, saying we don't want these refugees
here because we're afraid about terrorism. Well, if seventy two
percent of Palatinans believe that Hamas's decision to launch the
attack was the right decision, then we have a real
concern about who may be coming into this country.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Well, that's exactly right. And by the way, the polling
your sighting. That's the results of the latest polls by
the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, and it
was conducted in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip
between November twenty second and December second of two thousand
and three, and that period witnessed the October seventh launch.
(10:18):
So this was a little bit over a month after
October seventh, and I got to tell you those numbers
seventy two percent. The sample size of the poll was
twelve hundred and thirty one adults, of whom seven hundred
and fifty were interviewed face to face in the West
Bank and four hundred and eighty one in the Gaza
Strip in one hundred and twenty one randomly selected locations.
(10:41):
And so if you look at this, and we also
know in the Gaza Strip, residents were interviewed in twenty
four shelter locations, of which twenty belonged to UNRA, the
UN agency that Hamas terrorist worked for and for to
governmental institutions. A total of two hundred and fifty interviews
were covered in these shelters. Is another twenty one were
conducted in the homes of relatives and friends of displaced
(11:03):
people from the North and the numbers findings indicate that
a majority of respondents believe that Hamas's decision to carry
out the offensive is correct and believe that the attack
came in response to quote, settler attacks on the al
Asqua Mosque and West Bank residents and for the release
of Palestinian prisoners. Those numbers, and it goes on to
(11:27):
say the poll says it is worth noting that there
are significant differences between the attitudes of the residents of
the West Bank compared to the Gaza Strip in terms
of the correctness of Hamasa's decisions, as the attitude of
Gazans tend to show a greater degree of skepticism of
that decision. I'll tell you the videos I've watched of
October seventh, when Hamas terrorists are coming back to Gaza,
(11:49):
and they're coming back to Gaza and they're bringing Israeli hostages.
They're bringing women, they're bringing children that are beaten, that
are bleeding. Some of them have gunshot wounds, some of
them have have, you know, very very serious injuries. They're
dragging them out of the truck into the truck.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Some of them have have injuries that are consistent with
with with violent forcible rape. They're they're bleeding, uh from
from their bleeding from where they would being the victims
of those kinds of attacks. And the reactions ben of
Palestinians and gaza Is. You see hundreds of them cheering
(12:30):
in celebration as they are watching these hostages dragged out
clearly suffering serious abuse. And and we're not talking just
the Hamas terrorists. We're talking just in the town square
when they come back that the reaction is cheering. Who
the hell in their right mind would say, you know,
what we really need is the people committing these atrocities,
(12:53):
the people cheering on these atrocities. We need them here
in America. That sounds like a great idea.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
And then the other question I have for your final
question on this is we've seen this administration be incredibly
deceptive towards the American people, towards the taxpayers. We've seen
them fly flights at which we're going to talk about
in a minute, into random cities in America without giving
notice to those cities. I'm assuming if they want to
start importing people from Gaza, they would use the same
(13:22):
exact tactics as they've been using all over the country
in the middle of the night.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I think that is absolutely right. They would do it surreptitiously,
they would hide it. That's how they've handled this border invasion.
They lie about it. Alojandro Majorca still says our southern
border is secure. They're perfectly happy to lie about it.
And listen. From day one, the Biden administration has undermined
Israel and has sent money to people who hate us
(13:48):
and people who want to kill us. They've sent billions
of dollars to Iran, They've sent hundreds of millions of
dollars to Gaza that in turn has an almost almost
certainly flowed to Hamas. And they want to continue doing that.
That that is their commitment, and so I think I
think this threat is real. These people are zealous. These
(14:09):
are also people who look at the viciously anti Semitic
protests at Columbia and Yale and NYU and UCLA and say,
you know what, we're with those folks, and we need
more people like them.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
And it's really.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
I think this is really revealing a divide that is
frightening and scary, and it's not a divide that normal
people in their normal lives encounter. It is the radicals
who are more and more taking over the Democrat Party.
And Ben I want to dig a little bit more
into these poll results because they're deeply concerning. So the
(14:46):
results of the poll, as you noted's seventy two percent
of the public believe that Hamas's decisions to decision to
launch the October seventh attack was correct. A majority fifty
three percent believe that Israel's war objective is to destroy
the Gaza Strip and to kill or expel its residents,
and forty two percent believe it is to take revenge
on Hamas and the resistance and to destroy them. A
(15:09):
majority believes Israel will fail to achieve these goals. Eighty
five percent have not seen any videos showing atrocities committed
by Hamas against Israeli citizens. On October seventh and over,
only seven percent say Hamas committed atrocities against Israeli civilians.
Let me repeat that, because that is horrifying. They did
(15:31):
a poll of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in the
West Bank and only seven percent will admit that Hamas
committed atrocities against Israeli civilians. So they're truthers who are
denying October seventh even happen. Seventy percent seven zero percent
(15:51):
of West Bankers and half of Gazans expect Hamas to
emerge victorious. That is deeply frightening. And the Biden administration
is talking about wanting to bring to America a group
of people of whom ninety three percent of them deny
(16:12):
that Hamas committed atrocities against civilians, which is indisputable. They
filmed it and put out the videos. They're very proud
of it, and yet that this population is so radicalized
that they don't believe it's true.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
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Speaker 3 (18:13):
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That's Blackoutcoffee dot com slash verdict. Senator, I want to
pivot to something we just mentioned a moment ago, and
that was, there's real consensus and the polling data that
Biden's border policy and specifically when it comes to safety
and national security issues, is disastrous. But we're learning now
more about internal Department of Homeland Security data revealing the
(18:38):
forty five plus US cities that hundreds of thousands of
migrants have flown into via the Biden administration's per mass
parole program that they refused to disclose the public where
all of these illegal immigrants are being dropped off, and
you apparently have no right to know who they are
(18:59):
or even where they're coming from.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Well, that's exactly right, Ben, and we did a pod
on this topic when when the story first broke about
the Biden administration's program that wasn't just dealing with illegal
immigrants who crossed the border and stream across our southern border,
but actually was arranging flights to come in for illegal
immigrants to come into cities all across the country. And
at the time, the Biden administration's position was, we're not
(19:23):
going to tell you where they're coming. We can't tell
you because it's a national security risk, and so they
refused to tell us. Well, we now have data from
DHS that that covers an eight month period, so it
is from January through August of twenty twenty three, and
there are about two hundred thousand illegal immigrants who flew
into the US using the program. And we have the breakdown.
(19:47):
Let me give you the top fifteen cities and how
many came. The number one city the Biden administration flew
people illegal immigrants into was Miami, Florida ninety one, eight
hundred and twenty one. The number two city, Fort Lawerdale, Florida,
sixty thousand, four hundred and sixty one. The number three city,
New York City fourteen thousand, eight hundred and twenty seven.
(20:09):
Number four You're in my hometown Houston, Texas seven thousand,
nine hundred and twenty three. Number five Orlando, Florida six
thousand and forty three, Number six Los Angeles, California three thousand,
two hundred and seventy one. Number seven Tampa, Florida three thousand,
two hundred and thirty seven. Number eight Dallas, Texas two thousand,
two hundred and fifty six. Number nine San Francisco, California
(20:32):
two thousand and fifty two, Number ten Atlanta, Georgia one thousand,
seven hundred ninety six, Number eleven, Newark, New Jersey, one thousand,
four hundred ninety eight, Number twelve, Washington, d C. One thousand,
four hundred and seventy two, Number thirteen, Chicago, Illinois, four
hundred and ninety seven, Number fourteen, Las Vegas, Nevada, four
hundred eighty three, and number fifteen. Rounding out the top
(20:54):
fifteen Austin, Texas with one hundred and seventy one. And
so those are now what's striking. They're sending the vast
majority of the illegal immigrants in this program to Florida
and Texas. Florida is getting hammered. Just Miami and Fort
Lauderdale have over one hundred and fifty thousand that are
going there. And actually blue cities and blue states get
(21:17):
relatively few, so they're really hammering Florida and Texas. That's
one obvious conclusion of this. A second conclusion, Look, the
White House is trying to spend well, no, no, these
are not illegal immigrants because we're letting them in using
legal authorities. Well, I can tell you that that in litigation.
(21:40):
Here's what DHS wrote in response to a subpoena quote.
DHS said all individuals paroled into the United States are
by definition inadmissible, including those paroled under the CHNV processes,
which is what this program is. And to give you
a sense of the numbers on this program, CBP says
(22:05):
at least four hundred and four thousand illegal immigrants have
flown to the US using this program, and the breakdown
we know of one hundred and fifty four thousand Haitians,
ninety five thousand Venezuelans, eighty four thousand Cubans, and sixty
nine thousand Nicaraguans.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
This is again the reason why they were trying to
hide this. It's also the reason why they have not
been informing state we're talking about governors or local municipalities
of who they're bringing in, because they knew there would
probably be a lot of people that would say, no,
we don't want to deal with this, No, please don't
drop them off here.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Well, that's right, and it's interesting also, So the number
three city was New York City, and then the number
again was fourteen, eight hundred and twenty seven, so it
was a lot less than went to Miami or Fort Lauderdale.
What's interesting, though, is is we know that the mayor
of New York, a liberal Democrat who has declared at
a crisis, said it's an emergency, said illegal immigration is
destroying New York City. He has blamed what he called
(23:08):
that madman from Texas, and as we've talked about, I'm
actually disappointed that he's talking about Greg Abbott, not me.
I wonder what I have to do to qualify for
that insult from the mayor of New York City. But
Texas has sent to New York City roughly ten thousand
illegal immigrants. So if he's blaming that mad man, well,
(23:31):
Joe Biden has sent fourteen, eight hundred and twenty seven
and that's just using this one program that doesn't measure
the other thousands that Biden has sent that crossed the
border illegally on the southern border, and that Biden put
on a bus or a plane. But yet the Democrat
mayor of New York can't actually blame the person responsible,
which is Biden and for that matter, Chuck Schumer and
every other Democrat in Congress.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Will this change that moved the needle at all? Do
you think?
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Because we know where may Adams has now been saying,
and we know about even in places like Colorado where
they're having to get rid of people in law enforcement
for goodness sakes, and letting people go in New York
to cover for the cost that it is to take
care of all of these illegal immigrants. At least seeing
the disclosures and the number of people involved, could this
(24:16):
move the needle a little bit?
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Well, ask yourself this, how many of the home newspapers
where this data were reported actually covered it, How many
of them covered it on the front page, How many
of them had a headline. I feel confident that the
New York Times in New York City does not have
a headline Biden administration flew fourteen, eight hundred and twenty
seven illegal immigrants to New York City that I would
(24:40):
be surprised if you can read it anywhere in the
New York Times, and if you look at newspaper by newspaper.
I certainly haven't read it in the Chronicle and Houston,
Houston was number four. It may have been covered to
the Chronicle. I haven't searched it. But but you know,
the media doesn't want to cover these numbers. You know
that Democrats don't want to admit these numbers, and so
(25:00):
their plan is going to be the same as their
plan consistently has been, which is, ignore the crisis, pretend
it's not happened, count on the silence and complicity of
the media to cover this up. Because I got to say,
if you live in any of those fifteen cities, you
ought to be pissed off. And by the way, you know,
I gave the numbers of the biggest group that has
(25:21):
been flown in our Haitians, and it was at least
one hundred and fifty four thousand Haitians. We've talked about.
One of those Haitians was flown to Boston, Massachusetts, and
he was just recently arrested for raping a fifteen year
old girl who was severely mentally handicapped. And I got
to say, if you're the parents of that girl, and
(25:42):
the Biden administration literally flew the rapist from Haiti to
Boston and then released him where he attacked your daughter,
I can't imagine the frustration at the utter insanity of
that policy.
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(27:54):
get into something else. It's a very important piece of
legislation that you're working on, and I have actually seen
a little bit of this be talked about on social
There are some people that don't actually think they understand
the intent of what we're trying to accomplish when it
comes to protecting kids on social media. So explain why
(28:14):
this legislation is something that parents really need to know about.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Well, this is legislation I introduced this week, and it's
bipartisan legislation. I teamed up with Brian Shotts, who's a
Democrat from Hawaii, and the bill is called the Kids
Off Social Media Act, and it does several things Number one,
it prohibits children under thirteen from accessing social media. So kids,
there's no reason for an eight or nine year old
(28:40):
to be on TikTok or to be on social media.
And there are a lot of harmful things, I'll tell you. Listen,
you and I are both parents, and any parent who
is dealing with I'm dealing with teenagers. Your kids are
not teenagers yet, but but if you blink, they will be.
Any parent dealing with teenagers or adolescents out to deal
(29:00):
with phones and social media is one of the greatest
challenges because phones are really a portal for kids to
access all sorts of harmful content. And so this bill
says if you're under thirteen, you can't be on social media.
And then it says for kids younger than seventeen, big
tech companies are prohibited from using algorithmic boosting to send
(29:24):
messages to them. So we know right now, there's been
a lot of testimony in the Senate that big tech
companies send messages to our kids, to our teenagers that
are really harmful. They send messages that undermine their body image,
they send messages that encourage self harm, they send messaging
that increases suicidal ideation, they send messaging that increases increases
(29:48):
their feelings of depression and anxiety. They send messages encouraging
dangerous behavior. They send messaging pushing radical beliefs, things like
Prohamas beliefs. And so this bill says as if you're
under seventeen, big tech cannot target using algorithm boosting to
send messages that are addicting and that are harmful. And
(30:11):
then the bill also includes a separate bill that I
had introduced previously, and I introduced it with John Fetterman.
It was also bipartisan, and my separate bill was called
the Eyes on the Board Bill, and the Eyes on
the Board Bill, which is now part of this bill,
says that any school that receives federal funds has to
(30:32):
block social media on campus. And the basic idea is,
while our kids are in school, they ought to be
listening to teacher, They ought to be doing school work.
They don't need to be posting on Instagram while they're
in school. For older kids, they can do that when
they get home, but at school they ought to be
focused on the school work.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Yeah, they should be. And this is legislation that you
mention is bipartisan. Here what does it look like the
chances of this moving forward since it is a bipartisan
piece of legislation.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
So I'm actually quite optimistic. We are likely to have
a markup in the Senate Commerce Committee next week. I'm
the ranking member, the senior Republican on the Commerce Committee,
and I think it is very likely to pass the
Commerce Committee with overwhelming bipartisan support. I think there's a
good chance it'll pass unanimously, and I think there is
a good prospect of this bill being passed into law.
(31:23):
There are two other bills called Coosa and Kappa, that
are both dealing with things like online predators targeting kids,
and I think there's a real possibility of all three
of these bills being put together and brought to the
Senate floor, and I'm hopeful we can pass all three
of them.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
We'll keep you updated on it.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
It's so important, especially preventing children under thirteen from having
access these social media sites and also, as you mentioned,
programming those algorithms for teens younger than seventeen.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
This is really important.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Job well done, and we'll keep everybody updated on how
this looks moving forward.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Well, that's right, and you look, I'll say something also
as apparent. I mean, I mean, these are hard issues.
And one of the things I talk to a lot
of parents, I don't know a parent who disagrees on
this issue. And that's true, right or left, that's true
regardless of politics. We're all worried about our kids. I mean,
it's really it's hard to be a teenager right now.
The pressures on our kids. You and I didn't have
(32:17):
these kind of pressures when we were teenagers. It's really tough.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Is what is.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
All of the influences that are pounding our kids. And
it's hard to be a parent right now. And one
of the challenges because some people say, well, parents ought
to just restrict this. Look, it is a hard dynamic
when your kid when every student in their class is
on the social media platform, when that's how the kids communicate,
when that's how they schedule playdates, when that's how they interact.
(32:45):
No parent wants to socially ostracize their kids. And so
a lot of parents will talk to each other and say,
I wish they were all off of it, but I'm
not willing to have my kid the only one that's
not able to interact with their peers and have a
social life, and that's one of the reasons why, you know,
it's interesting in the Senate the folks that are coming
together and supporting this bill. So myself and Brian Shots
(33:08):
and we've all also got Katie Britt. We're all about
the same age. We're all in our forties or fifties,
we all have kids the same age. I have to
say the senators that they're in their seventies or eighties,
they don't quite get this issue in the same way
that if you're a parent, you're dealing with it.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
And so I'm.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Hopeful that that that we'll see some real bipartisan agreement
that we ought to enhance the tools parents have to
keep their kids safe.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Yeah, great point.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
We're going to keep you updated on this legislation as
it moves forward.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Don't forget.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
We do this show Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and a week
in review on Saturdays. Hit that subscribe, follow or auto
download button wherever you're listening to this podcast so you
do not miss a episode. Also, on those in between days,
download my podcast, The Ben Ferguson Podcasts, and I will
keep you updated on the latest breaking news that is
happening on those in between days and the Center and
(33:59):
I I will see you back here on Saturday for
a weekend review.
Welcome. It is Verdict with Center. Ted Cruz ben Ferguson
with you, Senator. Nice to be with you as always.
And there is new intel coming out that the Biden
administration may be welcoming a whole lot of refugees from
Gaza as part of their new plan.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Well, that's exactly right. There's breaking news that the Biden
White House is considering allowing refugees to come from Gaza,
which would be an enormous national security thread. It makes
no sense at all. We're going to talk about that
and examine what they're talking about. We also now have
new data on the cities that the Biden administration is
flying illegal immigrants too all over the country. We've got
(00:38):
numbers and breakdown. We're going to get into that. And finally,
we're going to talk about a new bill that I've introduced.
It's a bipartisan bill designed to limit kids access to
social media, and in particular to stop young kids from
getting on social media and to protect kids from all
the negative influences that can be found on social media.
We're going to discuss that as well.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, I want to talk to you real quick about
what's happening in is right now. In a way that
you can help and have a significant impact. It's been
over six months since that first brutal attack by Hamas
on our brothers and sisters in Israel, and since then
the attacks on Israel have actually increased, with Iran and
its proxies launching that massive attack of hundreds of drones
(01:18):
and missiles. That is where your help is needed. The
International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is on the ground
now addressing all the urgent needs, and that's why I'm
partnering with IFCJ and I want you to join me
because your life saving donation can help provide security needs
like placing actual bomb shelters in communities in Israel that
(01:42):
need it the most. When the sirens go off, people
have fifteen seconds or less to give to safety. IFCJ
has helped renovate as well as install nearly three thousand
bomb shelters to date. As Israel enter people live with
the harsh reality of care every day. Your support will
help address emergency security needs such as food and utility
(02:05):
equipment for bomb shelters, flag jackets, and other essentials for
the people of Israel. So if you want to help,
this is a way to help, and we're asking listeners
to get fifty dollars or any amount to help provide
life saving aid. All you have to do is visit
support if CJ dot org. That's one word, support IFCJ
(02:28):
dot org, Support if CJ dot org center. Let's talk
about this plan. And I'm still trying to get my
head around what the play is here politically, except that
they're trying to signal to young people that are on
these college campuses, Hey, we're not in favor of Israel
by any means, stick with us. And then while all
(02:50):
that's going on, they signal that we're going to allow
a bunch of refugees to come to America.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Why.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Look, it is absolutely crazy. The White House has put
out a store. Here's the CBS headline, quote, white House
considers welcoming some Palestinians from war torn Gaza as refugees.
And what CBS reported is quote the Biden administration is
considering bringing certain Palestinians to the US's refugees, a move
that would offer a permanent safe haven to some of
(03:17):
those fleeing war torn Gaza, according to internal federal government
documents obtained by CBS News in recent weeks, the document
show senior US officials across several federal agencies have discussed
the practicality of different options to resettle Palestinians from Gaza
who have immediate family members who are American citizens or
(03:38):
permanent residents. One of those proposals involves using the decades
old United States Refugee Admissions program to welcome Palestinians with
US ties who have managed to escape Gaza and enter
neighboring Egypt. According to the interagency planning documents, top US
officials have also discussed getting additional Palestinians out of Gaza
(03:59):
and processing them as refugees if they have American relatives.
The document show the plan would require coordination with Egypt,
which is so far refused to welcome large numbers of
people from Gaza. So understand this, Egypt, which is a
direct neighbor of Gaza, is saying we don't want these
refugees here. And by the way, the reason the refugees
(04:21):
don't want the Egyptians don't want them there is they're
afraid of terrorism. They're afraid that there are too many
Hamas terrorists that are part of the so called refugees,
and they don't want them committing acts of terrorism and
violence in Egypt, and yet the Biden administration is saying, well, heck,
we'd love to have them here, like like this is
(04:45):
a level of insanity. In the wake of October seventh,
and the wake of this grotesque terror attack that murdered
twelve hundred Israelis, that murdered Americans, that raped women and
little girls, the reaction of the Biden w light house
is well, we need to welcome more of these folks
into America.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah, And the timing of this is incredibly questionable. You
look at what the crackdowns that were finally seeing on
college campuses right now, Senator, we're saying hundreds that have
been arrested, for example Columbia, other universities where this is
happening as well, And the timing seems to be in
essence perfect, like, hey, we're still with you guys. I
(05:24):
know you guys are kind of getting rid of your
encampments and you're getting arrested, but just know we really
are on your side.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Well, it really is remarkable how terrified that the so
called mainstream Democrats are of ticking off the radical left
in their party. The Democrat Party has a problem right now.
It has a hard anti Semitism problem. There is literally
a pro Haamas wing of the Democrat Party. And we've
(05:54):
talked about this before. It's not just the squad, it's
not just the radicals. Joe is terrified of them. Chuck
Schumer is terrified of them. Nancy Pelosi is terrified of them.
And they are really they're really setting the agendas. Why
Joe Biden has so so carefully avoided speaking out with
(06:16):
any clarity on the topic because he wants he wants
the votes of the anti Israel, the anti Semitic protesters.
He's trying to to to get support from them, and
he and the other Democrats view that as a major
portion of today's Democrat Party.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
What does the oversight look like and can they go
around Congress completely to allow refugees in from from guys
as specifically, how many could this be? How big could
this program get?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Well, we don't know the answers to that right now.
I will tell you in the Senate the chances of
their being meaningful oversight is is really quite low. The
The White House gave a statement to CBS on Tuesday
night that said the US has quote helped more than
eighteen hundred American citizens and their families leave Gaza, many
(07:10):
of whom have come to the United States at President
Biden's direction. We have also helped and will continue to
help some particularly vulnerable individuals, such as children with serious
health problems and children who are receiving treatment for cancer,
get out of harm's way and receive care at nearby
hospitals in the region. The statement went on to say
that the US quote categorically rejects any actions leading to
(07:31):
the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank,
or the redrawing of the borders of Gaza. The best
pass forward is to achieve a sustainable ceasefire through a
hostage deal that will stabilize the situation and pave the
way to a two state solution. So the White House, remember,
these are internal documents from the government where they're discussing plans. Hey,
(07:52):
how many refugees can we bring from Gaza to America?
And you've got US officials going back and forth on
different programs they can used to do that. It's not
clear who chose to leak those documents or what their
motivation was. The motivation could well be what you suggested
it could have been a political decision by the White
House to show some love to the pro Hamas wing
(08:16):
of the Democrat Party, and that may well have been
part of the motivation. But in terms of oversight, look,
the sad thing is in the Senate. As long as
Chuck Schumer is the majority leader, he has zero interest
on oversight on this question. The Democrats have zero interest
on oversight on this question. Remember, just a couple of
weeks ago, I forced a vote on the Senate floor
(08:37):
to block the Biden administration from giving additional billions of
dollars to Iran to the Ayahtola. And by the way,
Iran funds ninety percent of a MAAS. So it was
a very simple amendment, stop giving money that goes to
Hamas to kill Jews and to kill Americans. And every
(08:58):
single Democrat at but one voted no. That's where they
are so on bringing people from Gaza who could be terrorists,
who could endanger the safety of American citizens here. It
does not surprise me that's what this administration is talking
about doing, because it's clear that's where their sympathies and
their loyalties lie.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
And the rhetoric's going to be exactly what you described, Senator.
They're going to say, look, there's a lot of people
that are innocent, you should be compassionate and loving, and
those that need, you know, for humanitarian reasons. But seventy
two percent of Palatinians believe quote that Hamasa's decision to
launch the October seventh attack was correct, which goes back
(09:39):
to what you were saying a moment ago about other
countries in the regions, saying we don't want these refugees
here because we're afraid about terrorism. Well, if seventy two
percent of Palatinans believe that Hamas's decision to launch the
attack was the right decision, then we have a real
concern about who may be coming into this country.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Well, that's exactly right. And by the way, the polling
your sighting. That's the results of the latest polls by
the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, and it
was conducted in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip
between November twenty second and December second of two thousand
and three, and that period witnessed the October seventh launch.
(10:18):
So this was a little bit over a month after
October seventh, and I got to tell you those numbers
seventy two percent. The sample size of the poll was
twelve hundred and thirty one adults, of whom seven hundred
and fifty were interviewed face to face in the West
Bank and four hundred and eighty one in the Gaza
Strip in one hundred and twenty one randomly selected locations.
(10:41):
And so if you look at this, and we also
know in the Gaza Strip, residents were interviewed in twenty
four shelter locations, of which twenty belonged to UNRA, the
UN agency that Hamas terrorist worked for and for to
governmental institutions. A total of two hundred and fifty interviews
were covered in these shelters. Is another twenty one were
conducted in the homes of relatives and friends of displaced
(11:03):
people from the North and the numbers findings indicate that
a majority of respondents believe that Hamas's decision to carry
out the offensive is correct and believe that the attack
came in response to quote, settler attacks on the al
Asqua Mosque and West Bank residents and for the release
of Palestinian prisoners. Those numbers, and it goes on to
(11:27):
say the poll says it is worth noting that there
are significant differences between the attitudes of the residents of
the West Bank compared to the Gaza Strip in terms
of the correctness of Hamasa's decisions, as the attitude of
Gazans tend to show a greater degree of skepticism of
that decision. I'll tell you the videos I've watched of
October seventh, when Hamas terrorists are coming back to Gaza,
(11:49):
and they're coming back to Gaza and they're bringing Israeli hostages.
They're bringing women, they're bringing children that are beaten, that
are bleeding. Some of them have gunshot wounds, some of
them have have, you know, very very serious injuries. They're
dragging them out of the truck into the truck.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Some of them have have injuries that are consistent with
with with violent forcible rape. They're they're bleeding, uh from
from their bleeding from where they would being the victims
of those kinds of attacks. And the reactions ben of
Palestinians and gaza Is. You see hundreds of them cheering
(12:30):
in celebration as they are watching these hostages dragged out
clearly suffering serious abuse. And and we're not talking just
the Hamas terrorists. We're talking just in the town square
when they come back that the reaction is cheering. Who
the hell in their right mind would say, you know,
what we really need is the people committing these atrocities,
(12:53):
the people cheering on these atrocities. We need them here
in America. That sounds like a great idea.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
And then the other question I have for your final
question on this is we've seen this administration be incredibly
deceptive towards the American people, towards the taxpayers. We've seen
them fly flights at which we're going to talk about
in a minute, into random cities in America without giving
notice to those cities. I'm assuming if they want to
start importing people from Gaza, they would use the same
(13:22):
exact tactics as they've been using all over the country
in the middle of the night.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I think that is absolutely right. They would do it surreptitiously,
they would hide it. That's how they've handled this border invasion.
They lie about it. Alojandro Majorca still says our southern
border is secure. They're perfectly happy to lie about it.
And listen. From day one, the Biden administration has undermined
Israel and has sent money to people who hate us
(13:48):
and people who want to kill us. They've sent billions
of dollars to Iran, They've sent hundreds of millions of
dollars to Gaza that in turn has an almost almost
certainly flowed to Hamas. And they want to continue doing that.
That that is their commitment, and so I think I
think this threat is real. These people are zealous. These
(14:09):
are also people who look at the viciously anti Semitic
protests at Columbia and Yale and NYU and UCLA and say,
you know what, we're with those folks, and we need
more people like them.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
And it's really.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
I think this is really revealing a divide that is
frightening and scary, and it's not a divide that normal
people in their normal lives encounter. It is the radicals
who are more and more taking over the Democrat Party.
And Ben I want to dig a little bit more
into these poll results because they're deeply concerning. So the
(14:46):
results of the poll, as you noted's seventy two percent
of the public believe that Hamas's decisions to decision to
launch the October seventh attack was correct. A majority fifty
three percent believe that Israel's war objective is to destroy
the Gaza Strip and to kill or expel its residents,
and forty two percent believe it is to take revenge
on Hamas and the resistance and to destroy them. A
(15:09):
majority believes Israel will fail to achieve these goals. Eighty
five percent have not seen any videos showing atrocities committed
by Hamas against Israeli citizens. On October seventh and over,
only seven percent say Hamas committed atrocities against Israeli civilians.
Let me repeat that, because that is horrifying. They did
(15:31):
a poll of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in the
West Bank and only seven percent will admit that Hamas
committed atrocities against Israeli civilians. So they're truthers who are
denying October seventh even happen. Seventy percent seven zero percent
(15:51):
of West Bankers and half of Gazans expect Hamas to
emerge victorious. That is deeply frightening. And the Biden administration
is talking about wanting to bring to America a group
of people of whom ninety three percent of them deny
(16:12):
that Hamas committed atrocities against civilians, which is indisputable. They
filmed it and put out the videos. They're very proud
of it, and yet that this population is so radicalized
that they don't believe it's true.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Yeah, great point there. I want to talk to you
real quick about your morning routine. If you are like me,
you start your morning off with coffee. The question is
how good is your coffee and is your coffee woke.
There's a lot of woke coffee companies out there, and
if you're like me, I say no more wokeness.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
I'm done with it.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
I'm not giving my money to companies that hate my
values and fight against me. Well, Blackout Coffee is the
coffee I'm drinking now every morning I'm on the radio
seven am. I've got to be up, I've got to
be awake, I've got to be alert, and I'm not
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(17:03):
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Speaker 3 (18:13):
Be awake, not woke.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
That's Blackoutcoffee dot com slash verdict. Senator, I want to
pivot to something we just mentioned a moment ago, and
that was, there's real consensus and the polling data that
Biden's border policy and specifically when it comes to safety
and national security issues, is disastrous. But we're learning now
more about internal Department of Homeland Security data revealing the
(18:38):
forty five plus US cities that hundreds of thousands of
migrants have flown into via the Biden administration's per mass
parole program that they refused to disclose the public where
all of these illegal immigrants are being dropped off, and
you apparently have no right to know who they are
(18:59):
or even where they're coming from.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Well, that's exactly right, Ben, and we did a pod
on this topic when when the story first broke about
the Biden administration's program that wasn't just dealing with illegal
immigrants who crossed the border and stream across our southern border,
but actually was arranging flights to come in for illegal
immigrants to come into cities all across the country. And
at the time, the Biden administration's position was, we're not
(19:23):
going to tell you where they're coming. We can't tell
you because it's a national security risk, and so they
refused to tell us. Well, we now have data from
DHS that that covers an eight month period, so it
is from January through August of twenty twenty three, and
there are about two hundred thousand illegal immigrants who flew
into the US using the program. And we have the breakdown.
(19:47):
Let me give you the top fifteen cities and how
many came. The number one city the Biden administration flew
people illegal immigrants into was Miami, Florida ninety one, eight
hundred and twenty one. The number two city, Fort Lawerdale, Florida,
sixty thousand, four hundred and sixty one. The number three city,
New York City fourteen thousand, eight hundred and twenty seven.
(20:09):
Number four You're in my hometown Houston, Texas seven thousand,
nine hundred and twenty three. Number five Orlando, Florida six
thousand and forty three, Number six Los Angeles, California three thousand,
two hundred and seventy one. Number seven Tampa, Florida three thousand,
two hundred and thirty seven. Number eight Dallas, Texas two thousand,
two hundred and fifty six. Number nine San Francisco, California
(20:32):
two thousand and fifty two, Number ten Atlanta, Georgia one thousand,
seven hundred ninety six, Number eleven, Newark, New Jersey, one thousand,
four hundred ninety eight, Number twelve, Washington, d C. One thousand,
four hundred and seventy two, Number thirteen, Chicago, Illinois, four
hundred and ninety seven, Number fourteen, Las Vegas, Nevada, four
hundred eighty three, and number fifteen. Rounding out the top
(20:54):
fifteen Austin, Texas with one hundred and seventy one. And
so those are now what's striking. They're sending the vast
majority of the illegal immigrants in this program to Florida
and Texas. Florida is getting hammered. Just Miami and Fort
Lauderdale have over one hundred and fifty thousand that are
going there. And actually blue cities and blue states get
(21:17):
relatively few, so they're really hammering Florida and Texas. That's
one obvious conclusion of this. A second conclusion, Look, the
White House is trying to spend well, no, no, these
are not illegal immigrants because we're letting them in using
legal authorities. Well, I can tell you that that in litigation.
(21:40):
Here's what DHS wrote in response to a subpoena quote.
DHS said all individuals paroled into the United States are
by definition inadmissible, including those paroled under the CHNV processes,
which is what this program is. And to give you
a sense of the numbers on this program, CBP says
(22:05):
at least four hundred and four thousand illegal immigrants have
flown to the US using this program, and the breakdown
we know of one hundred and fifty four thousand Haitians,
ninety five thousand Venezuelans, eighty four thousand Cubans, and sixty
nine thousand Nicaraguans.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
This is again the reason why they were trying to
hide this. It's also the reason why they have not
been informing state we're talking about governors or local municipalities
of who they're bringing in, because they knew there would
probably be a lot of people that would say, no,
we don't want to deal with this, No, please don't
drop them off here.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Well, that's right, and it's interesting also, So the number
three city was New York City, and then the number
again was fourteen, eight hundred and twenty seven, so it
was a lot less than went to Miami or Fort Lauderdale.
What's interesting, though, is is we know that the mayor
of New York, a liberal Democrat who has declared at
a crisis, said it's an emergency, said illegal immigration is
destroying New York City. He has blamed what he called
(23:08):
that madman from Texas, and as we've talked about, I'm
actually disappointed that he's talking about Greg Abbott, not me.
I wonder what I have to do to qualify for
that insult from the mayor of New York City. But
Texas has sent to New York City roughly ten thousand
illegal immigrants. So if he's blaming that mad man, well,
(23:31):
Joe Biden has sent fourteen, eight hundred and twenty seven
and that's just using this one program that doesn't measure
the other thousands that Biden has sent that crossed the
border illegally on the southern border, and that Biden put
on a bus or a plane. But yet the Democrat
mayor of New York can't actually blame the person responsible,
which is Biden and for that matter, Chuck Schumer and
every other Democrat in Congress.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Will this change that moved the needle at all? Do
you think?
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Because we know where may Adams has now been saying,
and we know about even in places like Colorado where
they're having to get rid of people in law enforcement
for goodness sakes, and letting people go in New York
to cover for the cost that it is to take
care of all of these illegal immigrants. At least seeing
the disclosures and the number of people involved, could this
(24:16):
move the needle a little bit?
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Well, ask yourself this, how many of the home newspapers
where this data were reported actually covered it, How many
of them covered it on the front page, How many
of them had a headline. I feel confident that the
New York Times in New York City does not have
a headline Biden administration flew fourteen, eight hundred and twenty
seven illegal immigrants to New York City that I would
(24:40):
be surprised if you can read it anywhere in the
New York Times, and if you look at newspaper by newspaper.
I certainly haven't read it in the Chronicle and Houston,
Houston was number four. It may have been covered to
the Chronicle. I haven't searched it. But but you know,
the media doesn't want to cover these numbers. You know
that Democrats don't want to admit these numbers, and so
(25:00):
their plan is going to be the same as their
plan consistently has been, which is, ignore the crisis, pretend
it's not happened, count on the silence and complicity of
the media to cover this up. Because I got to say,
if you live in any of those fifteen cities, you
ought to be pissed off. And by the way, you know,
I gave the numbers of the biggest group that has
(25:21):
been flown in our Haitians, and it was at least
one hundred and fifty four thousand Haitians. We've talked about.
One of those Haitians was flown to Boston, Massachusetts, and
he was just recently arrested for raping a fifteen year
old girl who was severely mentally handicapped. And I got
to say, if you're the parents of that girl, and
(25:42):
the Biden administration literally flew the rapist from Haiti to
Boston and then released him where he attacked your daughter,
I can't imagine the frustration at the utter insanity of
that policy.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
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to give up having a blast by playing sports. I
(26:22):
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(27:54):
get into something else. It's a very important piece of
legislation that you're working on, and I have actually seen
a little bit of this be talked about on social
There are some people that don't actually think they understand
the intent of what we're trying to accomplish when it
comes to protecting kids on social media. So explain why
(28:14):
this legislation is something that parents really need to know about.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Well, this is legislation I introduced this week, and it's
bipartisan legislation. I teamed up with Brian Shotts, who's a
Democrat from Hawaii, and the bill is called the Kids
Off Social Media Act, and it does several things Number one,
it prohibits children under thirteen from accessing social media. So kids,
there's no reason for an eight or nine year old
(28:40):
to be on TikTok or to be on social media.
And there are a lot of harmful things, I'll tell you. Listen,
you and I are both parents, and any parent who
is dealing with I'm dealing with teenagers. Your kids are
not teenagers yet, but but if you blink, they will be.
Any parent dealing with teenagers or adolescents out to deal
(29:00):
with phones and social media is one of the greatest
challenges because phones are really a portal for kids to
access all sorts of harmful content. And so this bill
says if you're under thirteen, you can't be on social media.
And then it says for kids younger than seventeen, big
tech companies are prohibited from using algorithmic boosting to send
(29:24):
messages to them. So we know right now, there's been
a lot of testimony in the Senate that big tech
companies send messages to our kids, to our teenagers that
are really harmful. They send messages that undermine their body image,
they send messages that encourage self harm, they send messaging
that increases suicidal ideation, they send messaging that increases increases
(29:48):
their feelings of depression and anxiety. They send messages encouraging
dangerous behavior. They send messaging pushing radical beliefs, things like
Prohamas beliefs. And so this bill says as if you're
under seventeen, big tech cannot target using algorithm boosting to
send messages that are addicting and that are harmful. And
(30:11):
then the bill also includes a separate bill that I
had introduced previously, and I introduced it with John Fetterman.
It was also bipartisan, and my separate bill was called
the Eyes on the Board Bill, and the Eyes on
the Board Bill, which is now part of this bill,
says that any school that receives federal funds has to
(30:32):
block social media on campus. And the basic idea is,
while our kids are in school, they ought to be
listening to teacher, They ought to be doing school work.
They don't need to be posting on Instagram while they're
in school. For older kids, they can do that when
they get home, but at school they ought to be
focused on the school work.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Yeah, they should be. And this is legislation that you
mention is bipartisan. Here what does it look like the
chances of this moving forward since it is a bipartisan
piece of legislation.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
So I'm actually quite optimistic. We are likely to have
a markup in the Senate Commerce Committee next week. I'm
the ranking member, the senior Republican on the Commerce Committee,
and I think it is very likely to pass the
Commerce Committee with overwhelming bipartisan support. I think there's a
good chance it'll pass unanimously, and I think there is
a good prospect of this bill being passed into law.
(31:23):
There are two other bills called Coosa and Kappa, that
are both dealing with things like online predators targeting kids,
and I think there's a real possibility of all three
of these bills being put together and brought to the
Senate floor, and I'm hopeful we can pass all three
of them.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
We'll keep you updated on it.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
It's so important, especially preventing children under thirteen from having
access these social media sites and also, as you mentioned,
programming those algorithms for teens younger than seventeen.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
This is really important.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Job well done, and we'll keep everybody updated on how
this looks moving forward.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Well, that's right, and you look, I'll say something also
as apparent. I mean, I mean, these are hard issues.
And one of the things I talk to a lot
of parents, I don't know a parent who disagrees on
this issue. And that's true, right or left, that's true
regardless of politics. We're all worried about our kids. I mean,
it's really it's hard to be a teenager right now.
The pressures on our kids. You and I didn't have
(32:17):
these kind of pressures when we were teenagers. It's really tough.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Is what is.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
All of the influences that are pounding our kids. And
it's hard to be a parent right now. And one
of the challenges because some people say, well, parents ought
to just restrict this. Look, it is a hard dynamic
when your kid when every student in their class is
on the social media platform, when that's how the kids communicate,
when that's how they schedule playdates, when that's how they interact.
(32:45):
No parent wants to socially ostracize their kids. And so
a lot of parents will talk to each other and say,
I wish they were all off of it, but I'm
not willing to have my kid the only one that's
not able to interact with their peers and have a
social life, and that's one of the reasons why, you know,
it's interesting in the Senate the folks that are coming
together and supporting this bill. So myself and Brian Shots
(33:08):
and we've all also got Katie Britt. We're all about
the same age. We're all in our forties or fifties,
we all have kids the same age. I have to
say the senators that they're in their seventies or eighties,
they don't quite get this issue in the same way
that if you're a parent, you're dealing with it.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
And so I'm.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Hopeful that that that we'll see some real bipartisan agreement
that we ought to enhance the tools parents have to
keep their kids safe.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Yeah, great point.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
We're going to keep you updated on this legislation as
it moves forward.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Don't forget.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
We do this show Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and a week
in review on Saturdays. Hit that subscribe, follow or auto
download button wherever you're listening to this podcast so you
do not miss a episode. Also, on those in between days,
download my podcast, The Ben Ferguson Podcasts, and I will
keep you updated on the latest breaking news that is
happening on those in between days and the Center and
(33:59):
I I will see you back here on Saturday for
a weekend review.
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