Welcome to his verdict with Center Ted Cruz Weekend Review. Ben Ferguson with you, and here are the three stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week. First up to decline of Joe Biden, now on tape with her report coming out, and you're going to be shocked what you hear. Will have the latest on that in just a moment. Also, Donald Trump signs a historic Take It Down Act that will protect so many people
from revenge pornography. Will give the details as well. And finally, Tom Homan, he is our guest on holding politicians accountable for helping illegal immigrants get away with their crimes. It's the weekend Review and it starts right now. I actually feel bad for Joe Biden. I think it's very clear that people were taking advantage of him. I think this is a form of elder abuse.
No, that was sad.
It is It is absolutely sad. That is the president United States of America and the fact that there were some of you who wanted to keep their power. Whoever those five people were that they did this to him.
Look and he do you remember the question that was in the front to that, what was it? It was where are you're keeping classified documents? And he went down a four minute recollection of losing his son tragically, and there's nothing sadder than a parent burying a child. And then that's certainly a personal tragedy that Joe Biden has had more than his fair share of. But he was not able to even answer the question. Well, all right,
here's another segment of her tapes. Listen, listen to this next excerpt.
As a memo, mister president, was this something that you consciously kept after your term as vice president? Is this something that he wanted to hold on too?
I do recall did I have this in my position to spend up?
Yes, And to give you some context for this, mister president, he was found in front of this notebook that's on the first page and.
To what was founded in the library at the lake House.
He one of the parentswer you don't I don't recall how I got back. I mean, I don't recall how I got back in the book because I sent it to the president.
I gave it to the president, and this looks like the original. I don't think there's maybe there's a copy.
Made it, but I don't think it was faxt just oh, okay, that's why.
Yeah, alright, no, I got.
I wasn't sure how I got how I whether I gay handed the president.
It was fact to the president which.
I had to copy, right, Okay, I had the reason and I just put it in the book and that was it.
Okay.
Were you awayer that you had kept it after your returning vice president?
Did you know that you had it?
I I don't know that I knew, would wouldn't when it's time something I would have started to think.
About the reason I asked, is it's.
Been written it out about Woodward about it in one of his books, Jewels that would cover, wrote about it in his biography or you. So that's that's the reason I asked. If it was something that he wanted to hang on to you he cause he was gonna be.
Such reporting or his it's gonna be subjet reporting.
But I I wanted to hang I guess I wanted to hang on to it just preposterity setting. I mean that this was my position on Afghanistan. I I've been a view from a historical standpoints that there are certain points in history, world history where fundamental things change, usually technology, for example, without Gutenberg's pretty pressed Europe gonna be a very different place, literally a different place, because countries would not have known what what what was happened to another
country on the parts of the country. You know, Uh think about a stupid idea, a notion Nixon had probably been unpresident or you to television where he sweaty is I'm I'm used to say the sweating is so profusely in that debate. A lot of people thought he won the debate, but he lost the debate because of his demeanor.
The So there's a lot of things that I think are.
Fundamentally changing how the international society's function, and that related a lot to technology and one of the.
Things that I was in the view that.
A lot has changed in terms of everything from the Internet to to the way which we communicate with one another to that that is fundamentally older built.
I've had this discussion with the press is for that, and I mean, that's that's what I wanted to do.
I I uh, nothing to do with that fancy.
And Mark just really quickly, I probably believe.
I just really would like to avoid, for the purpose of a Cleton record, getting into specuative areas. When the President responded and said, I don't recall intending to.
Keep this memo.
You then said, well, you know, might you have thought it was important to keep him whatever, And he said, well, I guess I couldn't.
His recollection, as I understand.
It is, he does not recall specifically intending to keep this memo after you left the vice presidency.
And I want that to.
Be I want these questions to be as clearly answered and recorded.
On the transfer it as possible. I bet we should take a great piece.
There's one thing that's consistent. They wanted to take a break, and you had the questions coming in in such a kind way like this is not what I was expecting.
So let me say legally that exchange is very important. So this is a classified document on Afghanistan. I don't actually know the precise details of the document, but it's a classified document in Afghanistan that he had in a non secure location, which is a criminal violation. Is the violation they were charging. Right then, the Biden Justice Department was prosecuting Donald Trump for doing exactly that. And the prosecutor asked him, so did you intend to keep this document?
And he's like, I don't know, I don't and immediately his lawyer jumps in. Your answer is you don't know.
Now.
His lawyer's been a good lawyer there, because this is all about establishing the men's raya the mental status to be guilty of the crime. But then Biden goes on and says, you know, well, why did you keep it. It's been reported, it's been in this book, it's that book. And he says, well, I kept it for posterity. It was important to have, and his lawyer comes in at
the end, he's like, oh, crap, oh crap. You just admitted that you did it on purpose, and you kept it because you wanted to be able to tell a really good story about Joe Biden, and you wanted to lead classified information to reporters, and you needed the memo to do it. And he admits that, and then his reporter at the end, his lawyer at the end tries to clean that up. That exchange has enormous legal significance.
Had doj not concluded that the sitting president of the United States was incompetent to stand trial, let me repeat that sentence, because it's an astonishing one. Had doj not concluded that the sitting president is incompetent to stand trial. That exchange would have featured prominently in the criminal trial convicting him of violating that law.
You look at now what we're seeing with this herd tape, and I go back to accountability. There are clearly people that were helping cover this up. They were taking advantage of Joe Biden. I think his family obviously was in on this as well. They wanted the power whoever the five people are. The question I ask you is, how the hell do we find out who the five people are? And what is Congress's role play in this to make sure it never happens again.
There should absolutely be congressional hearings. We need an answer. The media ought to do its job and report. Want to play one more excerpt from the her tapes. L listen to this final excerpt went.
To Mongolia and UH and the Great Pictures.
I unfortunately embarrassed they held out a leader of Mongolia.
They were shown they were doing, ay what they would do at the time of the innovasion.
Of the Mongols into Europe and UH fourteen in the UH eight hundreds and and.
So around in the middle of nowhere, and they're looking up and the aile and see this tiny mine.
And I was a twenty mile horse race with all these kids under the age of sixteen out of bareback racing to come down.
And you know they're sumer wrestlers and doing everything they do.
And uh so they walked over and they had uh target, big bail, say, hey, a hundred yards away, and these guerrillas were, you know, taking shots, and uh, I think as an embarrassed marriage I would make a point.
But there handed the bow and arrow. I'm not a bad archer, but I found that word. I can pull it back.
True and luck I.
Ain't the target. I really get bills of Hayes, right, twenty bills a hey with a.
Big target, and.
So I didn't meet any but I turned a primer shandon to hear.
So, look, if Genghis Khan, if Genghis Khan comes comes in, if if we face the Mongol Horde, know that that Joe Biden is ready to fire his bow and arrow. Look, there are a lot of things you can say about this interview, but it's very clear why Democrats did not want this release before the election.
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, Senaer, Let's talk about and this other incredible moment that happened this week at the White House. Donald Trump signed to
Take It Down Act into law. It's something that you championed and remind people what this law is intent and why it is such an important base of legislation to protect not only young people and minors, but really anyone from just evil and hateful revenge from an ex.
Well, this is legislation that I authored that President Trump signed into law this week. Actually he signed it into law in the Rose Garden and a big ceremony in the Rose Garden. I've done a lot of bill signing ceremonies in the Oval Office. This first time I've been in the Rose Garden because you had victim groups and victim advocates and people who have been victims of non consensual explicit imagery.
Now what is that?
That's really two different things. Number One, so called revenge porn. So if you have a boyfriend and girlfriend and they're in a relationship and they take explicit pictures or videos and then they have a breakup and one or the other is mad and they say, Okay, I'm gonna stick it to you. I'm gonna put this out for the whole world to see. And it is an utterly grotesque violation of privacy. Nobody has the right to do that to somebody else, and it's something we're seeing happening more
and more often. There's a second manifestation that is new, and it has to deal with technology, which is more and more we are seeing people use AI artificial intelligence to create deep fakes and deep fakes where they appear to be either a picture or a video of a real person, but it's utterly fake. And so they make and naked or explicit image of someone and put it out.
And the incidence of deep fakes last year increased three thousand percent, and over ninety percent of the victims of deep fake explicit imagery are women or teenage girls, and so it is growing massively. And so the Take It Down Act is legislation that I introduce that makes it a crime, a federal felony to post non consensual intimate images,
either real pictures or deep fakes. And secondly, it puts a federal statutory obligation on tech platforms to take the pictures down, to take the videos down, because the platforms have been horrifable responding to victims. They ignore victims, they leave the images up, and so the victim ends up being being victimized over and over and over again by
the images staying out there. And so To Take It Down Act puts a legal obligation that when the victim notifies them, hey, that's me, that's an explicit image of me, and you don't have my consent to put it up, they have to take it down. This legislation I introduced with Amy Klobuchar, Democrat from Minnesota, and we passed it through the Senate. We passed it unanimously. It was one hundred and nothing. And then the House took it up
and passed it with an overwhelming bipartisan majority. And President Trump signed it in the law. And give a listen to what President Trump said this week in the Rose Garden as he signed the Take It Down Act into law.
Today.
It's my honor to officially sign they Take It Down Act into law. It's a big thing, very important, so horrible what takes place. This will be the first ever federal law to combat the distribution of explicit imaginary posted without subjects consent, take horrible pictures, and I guess sometimes even make up the pictures and they post it without consent or anything else. And very importantly, this includes for forgeries generated by artificial intelligence known as deep fakes. We've
all heard about deep fakes. I have all the time, but I don't nobody does anything. I asked, Pam, can you help me, Pam, she says no, I'm too busy, too busy doing other things.
Don't worry.
You'll survive. But a lot of people don't survive. That's true and so horrible. With the rise of aiimage generation, countless women have been harassed with deep fakes and other explicit images distributed against their will. This is the wrong and it's just a so horribly wrong, and it's a very abusive situation, like in some cases people have never seen before. And today we're making it totally illegal, sinater.
One of the things I just I love about this legislation is the fact that not only is it bipartisan, but you had the first lady who really got involved in this as well. It was important to her and that made it I think even easier to bridge the gap.
Well, we did the First Lady became very active in pushing this bill. She reached out out to me and said she wanted to help get it over the finish line. So last year we passed it out of the Senate one hundred to nothing, and the House failed to take it up last year, so it did not pass last year, and so we got to this year to the new Congress. I passed it through the Senate again one hundred to nothing, and the real battle was to get it to rise
up the priority list of House leadership. And so when the First Lady called my office and said she wanted to help, what I did is I invited her to come the Capitol Hill for a roundtable where she could hear from the victims. And also at that roundtable was the Speaker of the House and Steve Scalise, the Majority Leader, and Brett Guthrie, who's the committee chairman in the House. And when the First Lady asked them, will you please pass this into law, they committed to her they would.
And this was the day before the State of the Union address, and you may remember the State of the Union address, Milania was sitting with a teenage girl from Texas, Elliston Barry, and President Trump told her story in the State of the Union and called on Congress to pass this bill. And I'll tell you it's actually it's a fascinating story of how this bill came to pass because it originates with one teenage girl in Texas, Elliston Barry.
She's from North Texas, from Aledo, Texas, and a year ago, she was fourteen, and she was in ninth grade and she woke up one morning and her was blowing up with texts from her friends because a classmate of hers had taken a perfectly innocent picture of her from social media and had used an app online that he had found to create a deep fake and then sent what appeared to be naked pictures of Elliston to all of her ninth grade classmates. And so she was in tears. Listen,
it is hard to be a teenager. I'm the father of two teenage girls. I know the pressure that is on teenage girls. It's much harder to be a teenager today than when you and I were teenager's ben and this was just just horrific. Well, what happened is her mom, Anna. Look, Elliston and Anna are are constituents, They're Texans, so Anna picked up the phone and called my office and said, hey, look, you're my senator, can you help my daughter?
And my staff.
To their credit, they elevated this to me and they told me what had happened Elliston, and this is happening more and more all over the country. And so I said, look, let's draft legislation to fix this, to address the problem. And so we did it. And it was it was because of Elliston that we drafted it. But as I said, it's happening all over the country. Well, Elliston came to DC the day we announced the bill last year for the press conference, and I sat down and met with Elliston.
I met with her mom in my office, and in the course of the meeting, I asked, I said, hey, what happened to the pictures? And her mom said, it's the most frustrating thing in the world. She said, this happened nine months ago. She said, I have been calling and emailing Snapchat over and over and over again. They just Stone Wallace. We get no response. Ben I turned to my staff, I said, I want you to get the CEO of Snapchat on the phone today. I want
those pictures down today. They pulled them down within two hours. Now, it should not take a sitting senator making a phone call to get those pictures taken down. And now, as a result to the legislation Trump hassigned, every victim has a statutory right to insist that it be taken down as a matter of law automatically.
Yeah.
In fact, Ellison Barry got to go on Fox News Channel with our good friend Kally mc andanny and talk about this moment. And here's what she had to say.
Take a listen.
But you didn't stop. You decided to go and talk to your local congressman. You get connected with the senator, and then you manage there you are standing behind the President of the United States changing the laws for other young women like you. Did you ever think this day would come?
I never would have thought that this could ever be my reality. My mom, she's really an amazing person, and she's the one that's been pushing for this, and she's the one that's encouraged me. So I wouldn't be able to do this without her help and her support, and she really just has encouraged me to the point where I feel encouraged about this. So having the opportunity to speak about this and to bring awareness really just means
so much. Especially it's so much growth seeing how scared I was at first and seeing how confident I am able in this situation.
Well, other young women now have recourse thanks to you, Elliston Berry. So impressive.
Thank you.
I love it.
It's finally a happy ending to a really hard and sad subject.
Well, and Ben att the signing ceremony, I was able to introduce Elliston to the President. I introduced also Francesca Mani, who was another fifteen year old girl who was in New Jersey and the exact same thing happened to her as happened to Elliston. And I also introduced Brandon Guffy. Brandon Guffy is a state rep from South Carolina, and tragically, his oldest son got what we thought was a direct message from a cute girl and she convinced him to
send naked pictures to her. Well, it turned out it was not a cute girl, it was a con man, and the con man began extorting him and threatening I'm going to send these naked pictures to your friends and family. Well, Brandon's son, Gavin, killed himself, and we are seeing suicides across the country. So I introduced Brandon, his family, the President too, and this law is of victory for everyone that is a target of this kind of exploitation.
As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and dow the podcasts from earlier this week to hear the entire thing. I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed. I want to go back to accountability for a second time, and I want to ask you there are a lot of people that believe that there were laws that were broken deliberately in the last administration. They knew they were
breaking the law. One of those would be former Homeland Security Secretary. My orc is that you mentioned a moment ago. Should he be criminally prosecuted for his role in the border crisis if it was as deliberate as it now seems.
Look, I think what he did was borderline trees in this I'm not an attorney, I'm not a prosecutor, but what he did, he did more damage to this country. Him and the Biden administration. What they did to this country, I can tell you when they opened that border up sex trafficking women should increase tenfold of a record number of migrants died making that journey, over four thousand, A record number of Americans died from fatanah that come across
that open border. And it's just what he what he calls this country and from a national securities perspective, because here's what his orders were, process quick, release quick. They didn't care about the crisis. They cared about the optics of the crisis. If there's no overcrowding, there's nothing to see here. So border trades were processed as quick as
they could, and releases a quick as they could. And there's been several instances where they released so quickly the FBI scan didn't come back and it came back hot. Actually they already been released. They came back hot. As a known spectatorian, So yeah, what he did was unconsortable. What he did is my opinion, borderline treason. Is he should be held accountable because a lot of death hurt
under his watch. And look at like Sandra Cruz said a few minutes ago, right now, ninety six percent decline and illegal immigration, when ninety six percent less people are coming, how many women aren't being raped, how many children aren't dying crossing that border. How many no inspected taaris aren't getting in the country. How many pounds of fentanyl is not getting the country. What are you going to see
on the President Trump's administration? Ventanyl deaths, a decrease, sex trafficking with decrease, smuggling with decrease, and no inspected tars.
They got no.
Open night anymore. Now that we got the board secure, every single borders religion is on the lying on patrol. During his National Security duty under Joe Biden, it was an average most days, an average seventy percent seven zero seventy percent of agents were no longer on patrol. They were changing diapers, making baby formula, making hospital runs the last time, aren't down there. Before the election, I talked to hundreds of board plays, told me to hang on,
hang on, changes coming. I really think the President Trump's going to win. But they told me no, we're sick of being tour station. We're sick of being uber drivers. We process and delivered these people to the very same people who pay for their smuggling. They couldn't recruit, they couldn't people were quitting. They were quickly for it, even
as well for retirement. They couldn't red recruiting numbers. You know, last month, Ice, I'm excuse me, Bord Patrol had the highst recruiting numbers and the history of that agency just last month.
That's fantastic. And look, I will say Tom's not exaggerating at all, like when I would visit with Border Patrol agents the frustration. Look, the men and women who sign up for the Border Patrol, they do do so because they're patriots. They do so because they love America. They do so because they want to keep our communities and our families and our kids safe, and they want to be out on patrol. Look, these that's what you sign
up in the job. And they were sitting there just shuffling paperwork, they were processing and just running a revolving door to try to release as many illegal immigrants as fast as possible. That's what may ORCS looked viewed. His job is accelerate illegal immigration, not stop it, but make it go more quickly. Let me ask you, Tom, you mentioned fentanyl. What do we know about the numbers of fentanyl traffic Over the first four months of the Trump administration.
There's been a decrease and I've got from three or four different sources. The percentage of decrease is different from every source. The problem is the CDC doesn't have good metrics on fatanyl. But look across the country. You can see the decrease in fatanyl. Fatanyl's being c's on the southern border, and it's the metrics. And that's maybe something you all can work on up there in the Senate. UH,
CDC needs a track this more more more accurately. Like I said, you got you got a number of deaths reported by states, you got a number of death reported by CDC. None of them match. So, but we do know there's been a reduction. You don't see you know, three hundred people dying every day from fantanlock. We did that right. We don't have two nine to elevens a week happening from kids dying from fatanah. So I don't have exact numbers, but we already see the effects of a secure boarder.
And Tom, let me ask you also. So one of the things we've talked about on this podcast. In twenty eighteen, the Mexican drug cartels made roughly five hundred million dollars from human trafficking. Last year, the drug cartels made over thirteen billion dollars from human trafficking. That's a twenty six
hundred percent increase. Do we have any data yet? Do you have any visibility on what has happened to the drug cartel's revenue Because one of the worst consequences of what Biden's open border did is is it turned these vicious, murderous, transnational criminal organizations into incredibly wealthy powerhouses, and it put huge resources in their pockets. Do do you have any data on what's happened to their revenues?
Well, one of the first wresting President Trump too is organization. Because these cartels have killed more Americans every turance organization were combined. We knew that. That's why there's so much buy on some Mexico. The last four years cartels were fighting each other for control of the plausas. Why because they're making record amounts of money, smuggling people, record amount of money, and trafficking women and children, and the record
amount of money moving dope across that border. Now, with the board secure, we're hitting them where it hurts. Are smugglings down, both drugs and people trafficking is down, So we're hitting where it hurts. That's why the latest intelligence force I see they're trying to produce and push more fatanol into Asian European nations because their market here in
the United States has been so brutally attacked. I wish what would happen is that Mexico would agree with President Trump to let us help them take the cartels and wipe them off the face the ears, because right now they're like the holical cartel. They're in forty four countries around the globe. They're like a fortune five hundred company's going to take to the United States to take them on. Mexico's failed for decades to do it, and a lot of mechs.
Sure.
You know that military, police and government versus are corrupt. I'll say this, a lot of the corruption is forced corruption. Because you're a police officer Mexo. You're making you know, four hundred dollars a month, but a Mexican cartel comes up and obviously ten thousand look the other way, and you're going to take it? Are they going to kill
you and your family? I think Mexico will be a much safer, a much prosper more prosperous country if they let President Trump help them wipe the cartels off the face.
Of the ear.
Look that that is absolutely right. And let me underscore that point. A lot of people don't realize, particularly those on the left, that that what Joe Biden the Democrats did, it wasn't just horribly cruel to the American people, it was horribly cruel to Mexican nationals in Mexico. Turning these vicious criminals into the most powerful economic force in Mexico has increased the murder rate, the crime rate, the kidnapping
rate rate. I visit with a Mexican mayor of a town on the other side of the border, and I'm not going to say which mayor because he told me in confidence because he was afraid, but he said in his town they had had over three thousand disappearances, just people Mexican nationals living in Mexico who just ran a foul of the cartel and they just disappear, and they find mass graves and the suffering and murder and kidnapping.
That that that that has happened in Mexico because of the Democrats political decision I think was cruel and horrible. And and Tom, You're exactly right that that the US military can take out the cartels. And we've done it before in Colombia. President Euribe asked the military to come in and take out the cartels in Colombia, and we came in and did that, and we could do it again. And and I do think it would be much better
if the Mexican government invited us in. It would have transformational impact within Mexico.
Yeah, let's say a lot of lives, like say lex and cartoons have killed thousands of judges and prosecutors and journalists. Yeah, and citizens. So you know, I wish they I wish they'd joined with President Trump, and that would be a game changer, Uh, for Mexico and the United States.
All right, final question. Uh, we saw just this week that that New Jersey Democrat Congresswoman Lamonica mac Ivor was charged for assaulting law enforcement at an ice facility. Uh, tell me tell us how important that is and and what do you think about about the fact that that charges were brought for assault. We saw during the Biden administration repeatedly, Uh, law enforcement Customs Border patrol ice agents
were subject to physical assault, no charges were brought. How important is it that these charges were brought?
The SUNS of strong mentions is very important. It also proves that on bluff I'd said them the David auguration. If you want to not support ICE, well, but.
You have that right.
If you want to protest against ICE and to protest against Trump's policies, that's fine. If you want to watch ICE come in and clean your city up because you're a sanctuary of city don't want to help, you can do that too. But ICE had from day one. You can't cross that line. You can't cross the line on impediment, that's a felony. You can't cross the line on noialing and harboring, concealing and they will go amis mice, that's
a felony. You certainly can't commit criminal trespasses at our facilities, and for God's sake, you can't put hands on i ICE officers. And this happened during the same time frame. The same week I went to Blue Mass in Washington, d c. And remembrance of the men and women in law enforce and put their lives on the lines of this country every day. So we spent a week just just just praising these men and women, talking to their families who also paid the ultimate sacrifice. They lost the
loved one forever. Children lost their fathers and mothers, and mothers and fathers lost their sons and daughters in the same week we're supposed to be honor in law enforcement. You got some of the member Congress putting their hands in shoving an ice officer, which makes that facility very unsafe. And I'm sick and tired of hearing what we have Congressional oversight responsibilities. There is a right way and wrong way to do it. You don't force your way in
the facility. You don't put hands on an officer's We do oversight all the time. And what are they finding out as people are getting tours in that facility that they have the highest detention standards in the industry, and it puts every every other UH detention center in jail in the state of New Jersey, whether it is a county or state. It puts them to shame because our
detention standards are so high. So when you go and calls that kind of practice where we're trying to maintain a facility with very dangerous people inside, we got to protect not only the criminals, we gotta protect the employees and the citizens on the outside. What she did was just horrendous. She she put hands on an officer. Like they said for four years, no one's above the law. You're damn right. They're not above the law, even members
of Congress. The president is above the law, but these are members of Congress.
As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Sentner, Ted Cruz, ben Ferguson with you don't forget to deal with my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day you're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict. Afterwards, I'd love to have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson podcasts, and we will see you back here on Monday morning.