Welcome in his verdict with Ted Cruz Weekend Review, Ben Ferguson with you, and these were the major stories that we chatted about this past week that you may have missed. First up, John Radcliffe being confirmed as a CIA director. Well, he then decided to release COVID info that was readily available when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were in the White House, but they deliberately chose not to share it with the American people. What is that information? I'll explain
it to you in just a moment. Also tips no tax on them and no tax on Social Security? Can this idea from Donald Trump actually pass through Congress? Senator Cruz explains the real opportunity here to change things in a big way for seniors. And finally, Democrats moving to obstruct the confirmation hearings as much as they can, and they're trying to get at least one of Trump's nominees to fail. So what is going to happen next? We'll explain that for you. It is the Weekend Review and
it starts right now. I want to move to this other big headline, and that deals with the CIA and releasing new analysis on the COVID origins.
Doesn't matter where you read the headline.
Whether it's Fox News, Politico, AP, BBC, Wall Street Journal, they're all writing the same article. Now, and I'll go to Politico. CIA now says COVID nineteen is more likely to have originated from a lab leak. Now, the most interesting part about this transparency that we're getting from the CIA director John Ratcliffe, a friend of both of ours, is the fact that he made it clear, Hey, I'm releasing information that they had already come to a conclusion
on Center when Biden and Harris were in charge. They just didn't want the American people to know it. So if you think I'm the one giving you this intel, it's not me. This is intel from Biden and Harris that they hid from you.
Yeah.
So the CIA had already come to this conclusion, and for for a number of years, the CIA's public position was it could not conclude with certainty where the pandemic started. And yet two days after John Radcliffe was sworn in as the new director of the CIA, they issued a public statement that said, quote, we have low confidence in this judgment and will continue to evaluate any available, credible, new intelligence, reporting, or open source information that could change
CIA's assessment. And by the way, low confidence typically when the intelligence community has a conclusion that they will report it with low confidence, with moderate confidence, or with high confidence. So they're saying that they're not convinced it's absolutely right, but they think it's correct, but it's at the lowest confidence level. And they did note CIA continues to assess that both research related in natural origin scenarios of the
COVID pandemic remain plausible. It is striking striking, however, that as you just said a second ago, the CIA had concluded this some time ago. It's just under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris they didn't bother to tell the American people. Listen to John Radcliffe explaining this.
Part of what we have to do is we have to restore Americans trust in our own institutions like the intelligence community and law enforcement, and that includes the CIA. And you know, one of the things that the President stress, you know that the purpose of the CIA is to protect Americans, to keep us safe from foreign threats and foreign adversaries, but we also need to be truthful with Americans. And he has stressed to me and others that you know,
these aren't mutually exclusive missions. We can do both. And so in the case of the CIA, which is the best foreign intelligence service in the world, after five years, to not have a public assessment to be honest with the American people about where the likely source of a pandemic that killed millions around the world, including a million Americans, and really impacted all three hundred and forty five million
Americans in some way. People lost jobs, they lost houses, they lost their health, they lost their businesses, all of that.
And so I had the opportunity on my first day to make public an assessment that actually took place in the Biden administration, so it can't be accused of being political, and it does assess the CIA has assessed that the most likely cause of this pandemic that has wrought so much devastation around the world was because of elaborated incident in Wuhan, and so we'll continue to investigate that moving forward.
But I think it was important for the American people to see an institution like the CIA get off the sidelines and be truthful about what our intelligence shows at the same time of protecting us from adversaries like China if they caused or contributed to this.
I mean, E said, wow, what else can you say? This is all intel that we already had that they hid and lif to the American people about.
Well listen, and I know John Ratcliffe, well, he's a good friend of mine. He is someone I sat and spent about an hour talking with him a week ago before his confirmation. And I'll tell you one of the things I urged John to do is bring maximum transparency that's possible. Look, the nature of the CIA, you can't be transparent and everything. Obviously, we don't want the public to know the identity of covert agents or or you know,
secret wiretaps or things that would jeopardize national security. But the consequences of the politicization and weaponization of both law enforcement and the intelligence community is that the public's trust in those institutions has been severely diminished. That's what John was talking about in that clip you just played, And so I urged him. By the way, it's the same thing I've urged Pam Bondy, who's been nominated to be
Attorney General. It's the same thing I've urged Cash Betel, who's been nominated to be FBI director, is have the maximum transparency possible, and in particular, I've urged them with respect to COVID and the origins of COVID and by the way, any US government complicity in terms of funding the Chinese research and the gain of function research that may have created the COVID virus, that we need maximum transparency concerning that in particular, and I think John Ratcliffe
is following through with that. I've also urged maximum transparency concerning January sixth and any US government informants who may have been involved who may have enticed or entrapped people into conduct on that day to make that public as well. And I'm hopeful and by the way, I'll mention Trump is also releasing the files on JFK and RFK and Martin Luther King's assassinations. I will note Ben when Trump said he was releasing the JFK files.
I know where you're going with this.
I did at least tweet just wondering what are the non extradition countries Again, I'm asking for a friend.
All right.
You can't say that without telling the backstory on this one, right?
Can you find people the humor here on this?
Sure?
During twenty sixteen, Trump accused my father of killing JFK, which, for the record, no, my dad did not kill JFK. He did kill Jimmy Hoffa. Jimmy Hoffa is buried my dad's backyard, but he didn't kill JFK.
And so it's it's a thing. And so if he's releasing the the.
JFK files, I got to tell you, I'm buying a plane ticket for my dad to go to Bolivia right now.
Between that and the Zodiac Killer, you're just making headlines, my friend.
And it was amazing.
So Ben, there is actually a real poll that I have seen that show, this was a few years ago, that twenty eight percent of Floridians believe I may well be the Zodiac Killer.
That's one I would frame him put on my desk.
It really is.
And given that the Zodiac Killer killed a number of people in northern Klifornia in the nineteen sixties before I was born, that's an amazing talent to be able to murder in Utero, to reach like back in time. That that's just you know, I'm kind of proud of that.
I mean, if liberals another reason to be afraid of you just know that Center crews can time travel per per Internet report, So.
As the meme says, FAFO, I.
Love it all.
Right, let's talk about the last thing on our list, and it is one.
Were you right in your prediction? When did you get home?
If you listen our last show, we were talking about our Democrats going to hold out through the weekend. Are you gonna have to stay in DC all weekend? Are you gonna get to come home? They were holding up the nomination jet again. So tell us how that went down. When did you get back? Were you right?
So?
I was right. I said I thought we'd get back Saturday.
I thought the Democrats would fight tooth and nail to try to beat Pete hegg Seth. I said they'd lose, and I said when they lost, they'd give in and they want to get out of town because they want to get home, just like we do.
So that's exactly what happened.
So we were there, We were there late Friday night, and then we ended up finishing the vote Saturday morning, and we all flew out Saturday afternoon. So i'm you and I are recording. It is twelve eleven in the morning right now, Sunday night, Monday morning. I'm in Houston and tomorrow morning. I'll fly back to d C to go back to the Senate tomorrow. So we did get out and where are we on the confirmations? So right now four cabinet members have been confirmed. The first to
be confirmed was Marco Rubio, a Secretary of State. He was confirmed on January twentieth. The vote was ninety nine to nothing. The second to be confirmed was the guy that you just played that clip from, John Ratcliffe, ats a director. The vote was seventy two to twenty six, so big bipartisan vote. And it's striking though that the Democrats delayed that several days even though there was clear bipartisan support for him. Ratcliffe should have been confirmed on
January twentieth. Also, in fact, we thought he was going to and the Democrats delayed it several days just because they're engaged in obstruction.
They're trying to delay everything, and.
We're way behind schedule compared to other administrations.
So people understand that way behind is strong, but they're dragging their feet and that's why that's why we ram through, forced them to stay through the weekend, CAPE, kept them late Friday night, kept them their Saturday.
To make clear.
Listen, if you delay, We'll just motor through, and so you can decide do you want it to be unpleasant or do you want to move forward. We're going to move expeditiously and confirm these nominees. The Democrats, if they want, they can abuse the procedural rules. They can drag things out, but that means they're going to be there on Fridays and Saturdays and Sundays and they're not going home. And that's the most effective way to get them to give
cave in, which is what they did. And so Friday night the third cabinet member was confirmed, that was Pete Hegseith. And then on Saturday we confirmed the fourth cabinet member, which is Christy nom for Secretary of Homeland Security. He was confirmed fifty nine to thirty four, so a respectable
bipartisan vote. Not overwhelming, but she got six Democrats. And next week we have teed up Scott Bessen for Secretary of Treasury, Sean Duffy for Secretary of Transportation, Chris Wright for Secretary of Energy, and Doug Bergham for Secretary of the Interior. All of them are out of committee. All of them are teed up. I think all four of
them will be confirmed next week. We may have some others confirmed next week as well, but we're moving expeditiously, and as I said, my prediction is that we will confirm all of Trump's cabinet nominees within thirty days. We also have next week in Judiciary, we will vote Pam Bondi out of committee and we'll have the hearing on Cash Battel. And by the way, one of the things I did last week is participated in in a moot preparation with Cash Battel, which was very productive.
Cash.
I think it's going to do a good job. The Democrats are going to go hard after Cash Battel. They're going to go hard after Tulsi Gabbard. Those are their top two targets.
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. All right, so taxes tips. It was clearly a big campaign issue. It brought in a lot of voters. A lot of people came to Donald Trump and said this couldn't have a huge impact. Now it's paying off on it, Is there a real chance?
So yes, and I believe this will happen. This will happen by the end of the year. So let's rewind. In the middle of the presidential campaign, Donald Trump was in Las Vegas, Nevada, and he actually told us the story. So he came by in the middle of the campaign. He had lunch with all the Republican senators and he said, listen, I was in Vegas.
I had a rally that night.
And he said, I was having lunch and he said, there was a waitress who came. It was serving me my meal, and he said she began like complaining about the enormous burden that the Biden administration had put on recording her tips, on paying taxes on tip.
And he said, I pulled out.
A piece of paper and I got out of pen and I just wrote, no taxes on tips.
They said, it's just.
An idea that popped in my head. And he said, look, some people, they they focus group things, they do white papers. He said, I didn't do any of that. I just wrote it down from the conversation I had with the waitress over lunch. And he said, I had that rally later the day and I had thousands of people there, and he said, I just threw it out there no taxes on tips, and he said, and they went crazy,
They went absolutely crazy. And I got to say, there are times when when Trump I just think has an instinct that is a very good, gut instinct, and I think this policy makes enormous sense. And so when he announced it, He's right, the crowd went crazy.
I looked at it and I said, this is this is a great idea.
I immediately went to my team and I said, let's draft the legislation to make this happened. So the next week I filed federal legislation of no taxes on tips. Now what's interesting, Ben is when I filed this, it immediately became bipartisan. Both senators from Nevada, Jackie Rosen and Catherine Court's Master, both of them immediately co sponsored it. One of them said to me, she said, look in Nevada, twenty five percent of the employees in the entire state
are tipped workers. And so it was bipartisan. And then shortly thereafter, Kamala Harris endorsed it and she said, this is a great idea. So it became there was enormous bipartisan support. Now, obviously Trump is won. We have a Republican Senate. At Republican House, I've refiled my legislation. Here's what I'm pressing to happen. So Trump just was back in Nevada and Las Vegas just made a huge push to pass this. I am pressing for Congress to pass
the legislation right now. It doesn't have to be part of budget reconciliation. Now, for any tax bill under the Constitution, the House of Representatives has to originate it. So if that's a provision of the Constitution, the Senate cannot start a tax bill. A tax bill has to originate with House. So I am merging the Speaker of the House. I'm merging the majority leader take up my legislation no taxes on tips.
Just pass it.
We have the votes in the House, Republicans can pass it. If it passes and goes over to the Senate, I believe we can pass it in the Senate, and I think we'll get sixty votes, so we don't have to wait for reconciliation. Reconciliation is the process that gets around the filibuster. Lets us pass something with just fifty votes. I don't think we need that for no taxes on tips. If the House passes it. What I'm merging, John Thune, the Senate majority leaders put it on the Senate floor.
I think we'll get sixty votes, and that means we could pass it. It would be a big bipartisan win, and we'll put it on President Trump's desk. He can sign it into law as a huge victory. And by the way, it's a win win man. If we put it on the floor and Democrats decide to be partisan, they decide, Okay, we're going to oppose it because we just oppose any tax cut, we oppose anything Trump wants. Okay, that's not the end of the day. If Democrats defeat it in the Senate because we can't get to sixty,
that's fine. Then we'll stick it in budget reconciliation. We can get it done with fifty. But it's a win win because every Democrat senator who votes know that is an ugly issue in two years to go face the voters and say, hey, I voted against no taxes on tips.
Even though every waiter, every waitress, every bartender, every taxi driver, every uber driver, every barber, every hairstylist, every nail salon person, everyone who is relying on tips cares a lot about this, So if the Democrats all want to vote against it, look, I think this policy is an incredible embodiment of the most important political transformation of the last decade, which is
that Republicans have become a blue collar party. We are the party of waiters and waitresses and working men and women. And so Democrats can decide where they stand, but I think we ought to get this passed, and one way or another, my prediction is this will get done before the end of twenty twenty five.
Is this one of those issues where people should call their congressmen their sinners? I mean we talk about this, Yes, yes, yes, I mean yes, And what do you say?
This is good for my state, this is good for my city, this is good for hourly workers.
It's the best argument. Just pass no taxes on tips. So look, one of the things to understand when you call your hungers, when you call your senator, if you make a detailed, subtle argument, that doesn't get through. So every member of Congress gets what I get every day, which is I get an email. So all right, let me find my email from today.
Call totals.
So on t eight twenty five, today there were one thousand, three hundred and seventy two calls to my office. There were seven hundred and fifty four to DC, there were six hundred and eighteen to Texas. There are four hundred and eighty two live calls, so we had interns and staff assistants who answered four hundred and eighty two calls. Today, there were eight hundred ninety calls that went to voicemails.
Of those calls, oney three hundred and twenty two Texans called, fifty non Texans called, so overwhelmingly the calls were Texans. So let's break it down casework. So that's I've got an issue with Social Security, I've got an issue with the VA, I've got an issue with government. Forty five of those calls were casework, and I've got a whole team that works to help Texans deal with the government
every day. Twenty four dealt with the academy, so young men and women in high school students that want to go to service academy. So twenty four of them. Eight concerned the campaign. I don't know what they concerned. Ninety one concerned scheduling, so people calling and saying, hey, can you come and do this event or this other event now of the breakdown. Eighteen called in support of me, twenty eight called in opposition to me. So people called
and said, I can't stand Cruise, He's terrible. Okay, that gets recorded. Ten people called in support a President Trump, Seventy nine people called in opposition to President Trump. Now nominations, seventy five people called in support of President Trump's nominees. Seventy people called in opposition to President Trump's nominees. Now, it's interesting. FK Junior got a bunch of calls. One hundred and eighty seven people this is yesterday called in
support of RFK Junior for HHS Secretary. Ninety three people called in opposition to RFK Junior, so about two to one, Bobby Kennedy, the calls were coming in. Nineteen people called in support of Cash Battel for FBI director. Four hundred and thirty two people called in opposition to cash Battel as FBI director. And I think there probably were some liberal groups stirring up calls, because that number is big enough, four hundred and thirty.
I was going to say, when you see days like that, you got to be thinking somebody went on an email campaign or a Callboitz campaign and said, yeah, target this member today specifically, because if it doesn't match the day before, the day after, that's when that's kind of the tel right.
And that happens.
There are groups that will focus and say make these calls. And I think those calls the four hundred and thirty two, that's a big enough number. That's where that probably came from. Now, in a day, forty eight people called in support of Tulsa Gabbard, twenty two people called in opposition.
To Tulsa Gabbard.
On legislative issues, thirteen people called in support a border of security, two people called in opposition to border security, and interestingly enough, four hundred and seventy four people called in opposition to the omb pause of federally appropriated funds. So look that's the sort of report. I get that report every day and I read it every day. Now, look what we get over the course of the year, hundreds of thousands of calls. So I can't listen to
every voicemail that comes in. I could literally spend all day long doing nothing but listening to voicemails and not do any hearings, not do any legislation, and I still wouldn't have enough time. So the way I consume that data is through report like that. I just read you the report that came today. Every other member consumes that this same way. What I'm saying is, if you want Congress to pass no taxes on tips, you don't need to present a long, detailed, subtle argument as to all
of the pros and cons. Just pick up the phone and call your member and say, pass no taxes on tips. If you say that sentence, it will get recorded in a report just like that to the House member of the senator you're calling. That's how the information gets consumed.
That's encouraging.
By the way you said, everybody looks at their call this like the same way you do.
It, I hope.
So I don't know that there may be some people that don't give a damn.
I look at it every day.
I can't promise that all five hundred and thirty five members of Congress do, but I certainly look at it every day because I work for thirty one million Texans, and so I want to see what issues people are engaged on and what they care about.
As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic. You can go back and dow the podcast from early 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 that obviously means the pace is moving up. When you look at so far what's happened there does seem to be a little bit of a change.
Now.
We're noticing it with the Democrats in the media especially, it seems like there's a real appetite to just get a nominee whatever when they get their hands on to not pass.
Is that part of the gainsmanship that we're witnessing. Am I reading the room the right way?
Yeah?
Look, I still believe, and I've said this a number of times, that all of Trump's cabinet nominees are going to be confirmed, and I think they'll be confirmed within thirty days.
That we are leaning in.
We're putting the pedal to the medal under the Senate rules that the Democrats can delay some, but I think within thirty days we'll get them all through. Now, the three that they are going after hardest are in terms of cabinet nominees, Tulca Gabbert for Director of National Intelligence, Bobby Kennedy for Health and Human Services. And then it's not a cabinet position, but Cash Pateel for Director of the FBI, which it's a sub cabinet position, but a
very very important law enforcement position. Those are the three. It's not complicated or subtle. Those three are the top targets of the Democrats.
Today.
In the Senate Judiciary Committee, we had Cash Betel's hearing. I was vigorous at the hearing defending him. I will tell you I think I think Cash did very well. I think he acquitted himself in an excellent way. This evening I was on Sean Hannity, and as I put it, I said, my assessment of the Democrats' behavior at Cash Betel's hearing reminded me of the quote from Shakespeare's Macbeth. It was a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing.
That is a great.
Accurate way of describing I mean, it was, you know what show is how I was going.
To put it.
But they didn't land any material blows. And look, the point on Cash what they're attacking him on not that he's not qualified.
He's clearly qualified. He has.
Over a decade of experience in law enforcement, national security, including having been a federal public defender, including having been a federal prosecutor, having worked in the National Security Division of the Department of Justice, having worked in the White House and the National Security Council, having been a senior intelligence staffer on Capitol Hill, and having been the chief of staff at the United States Defense Department. They're not
arguing he's unqualified. What they're arguing is they're terrified he will do exactly what President Trump promised he would do, which is eliminate the politicization and weaponization of the FBI and get it back to its core function. I believe Cash Bettel will do that, and I think the Democrats are freaking out because they don't want him to do that. But I think Cash will make it through. We also had hearings this week for both Bobby Kennedy and Tulsea Gabbert.
I don't know, it is not impossible that one of those nominees is defeated, but I think they all make it through.
Right now, when you look at the Republicans, when Democrats are pushing this obstructionism the way that they are doing it and trying to slow things down, does that unify the Republican base more because it's like, all right, come on, guys, does that make it actually easier to get the votes you need because you realize what you're up against.
A Look, potentially, you had Pete hag Seth, who is the one they went after the hardest so far, and that vote was fifty to fifty. We lost three Republicans. We lost Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitch McConnell. Because we have a fifty three to forty seven majority, losing three made it fifty to fifty, and that meant the Vice President jd Vance could break the tie.
I am glad we have fifty three.
If we had a fifty one vote majority, I would not be nearly so saying, and I would not be saying every Trump Cabinet nominee is going to be confirmed if we had a fifty one vote majority. But because we have fifty three, we can lose up to three, and so I think all of these make it through. Listen, Tulsi. Tulsi was a Democrat for most of her career. She is perceived if you look at Republican foreign policy, they're
interventionists and isolationists. There are many who perceive Tulsi as much more of an isolationist, So there are Republicans who have real concerns with her. Will that play out into no votes? I don't know. I think the President deserves a considerable amount of deference in naming his cabinet members, and he has decided to name Tulci Gabbert. I'm going to vote yes, but I don't know. It's not impossible that we get four no votes, which would take down
the nomination. Likewise, Bobby Kennedy. Bobby Kennedy's a complicated situation. Both Kennedy and Tulsi, until like twelve minutes ago, they were both Democrats. Yeah, and so Bobby Kennedy obviously a scion of one of the great Democrat royalty families, Camelot.
It is a curious dynamic.
It's not clear to me any Democrat is going to vote for him, which is an interesting situation.
Listen, there's some conservatives.
Bobby Kennedy, until recently, on many policies is his views were quite left of center. I'm going to vote for Bobby Kennedy because I think he's a change agent, because I think he has courage to take on I think some of the corruption that we have at HHS, particularly with big Pharma, that gets in bed with the career bureaucrats there and stifles competition and drives up costs. I think if you have a terrible disease, you should have a right to access.
Life saving medication.
And I'm one of the original sponsors of the right to Try legislation. I think that's very important and and I think Bobby Kennedy is going to shake up the the cronyism that that that that has characterized HHS.
What's not clear to me.
Is I don't if any Democrats want that cronyism shaken up, and to be honest, there may be some Republicans that don't.
Let's play this exchange.
So this is Bobby Kennedy responding to Bernie Sanders Bernie's going to vote now. When Bertie was attacking him like crazy, but I got to say, Bobby Kennedy popped him back pretty hard.
Listen to this exchange.
I'm going to make America healthier than other countries in the world. Right now, will you guarantee do what every other major countries. It's a simple question and by the way, Bernie, you know, the problem of corruption is not just in the federal agents, is in Congress too. Almost all the members of this panel are accepting, including yourself, are accepting millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical And.
I did no interest. Oh, I thought that that would no.
I ran for president like you. I got millions, millions of contributions. They did not come from the executives, not one nickel of pack money from the pharmaceuticals, and they came to twenty twenty. In twenty twenty, you were the single largest because I receiver comminations from workers all over this country. Workers. You were this not a nickel from corporate You was the single largest pharmaceutical dollars from workers in poor three five million.
Yeah, out of two hundred million.
All right, but.
You have not answered last question.
I mean that you want to talk about a beatdown with the facts there, Bernie, you've accepted millions of dollars in the pharmaceutical industry. In twenty twenty, you were the single largest receiver of pharmacual dollars one point five millions.
Like, let's just move on here.
Yeah, he did not like that exchange.
By the way, I've never seen a confirmation hearing where the nominee refers to the senator by his first name.
He keeps calling him Bernie.
Like it's clear Bobby Kennedy and Bernie Sanders they know each other well. I mean, they've got a long history there. Because that's that that that's quite unusual too. But I gotta say Bernie was not anticipating that pop back. We'll see how it plays out, but I think Kennedy's gonna
get confirmed. I want him to get confirmed. I like Bobby Kennedy, and I also think there are a lot of Americans, a lot of Americans who are not even very political, a lot of moms who are worried about the garbage that that our kids are are consuming, are worried about the rise in in in in chronic illness. That that that that I think Bobby Kennedy is a very good person to take that on.
As always. Thank you for listening to Verdict.
Was center Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to deal with my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast every other day.
Hey, 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.