Welcome. It is Verdict with Center Ted Cruz, the week in Review, Ben Ferguson with you, and we had some major stories that if you missed them this week, you want to make sure you know about them now. First up, Biden Harris diverted billions from actual science research to DEI activities. Where did it go and how did they get away with it? We break that down for you. Also, what does the actual law say about asylum seekers coming into
this country? Now they know how to play the system, but are we supposed to let everyone stay who crosses the southern border? The answer is no, But what does the law say? And well, are the people in the White House breaking the law? We'll explain that for you as well. And finally, a major victory as Israel killed Hamasa's mastermind behind the October seventh attack. How did they pull it off? We explain it all. It's the Weekend Review and it starts right now. I want to move
to another subject real quick. And this is the reason why we do this podcast is we get to bring you information that is not being covered and this is important.
Uh.
There was a investigation that you guys put together in Washington that revealed and you were the leader on this how the Biden Harris administration diverted billions of dollars from scientific research to DEI activists. And for people that are listening, let's start with this, remind them what DEI stands for. And then this story that is broken.
Well, DEI is diversity, equity and inclusion, and it is the catchphrase of the woke left. And let me just give you, give you the headline. Before Biden took office in twenty twenty, less than one percent of the grants from the National Science Foundation were related to AID. Today that number is greater than ten percent. So there has been a massive, massive shift. Now what does that mean. Well, this past week I put out a report. So as you know, I'm the ranking member on the Senate Committee
of Commerce, Science, and Transportation. That means I'm the senior Republican on the Commerce Committee. The Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over about forty percent of the US economy, including science
and including the National Science Foundation. So my team engaged in a systematic study and we put out a report examining how the National Science Foundation has increasingly politicized the use of taxpayer dollars meant for scientific research, and the report shows that in its first week, the Biden Harris administration mandated that all taxpayer funded scientific research and development
must incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion DEI values. In response to this directive, the National Science Foundation allocated over two point zero five billion dollars over two billion dollars to thousands of research projects that promoted neo Marxist perspectives or DEI tenants, and taxpayer dollars supported these very questionable scientific studies used by researchers to drive extreme ideologies in the classrooms and on their campuses. And here are the top
line numbers. Our analysis identified three thousand, four hundred and eighty three grants, over ten percent of all National Science Foundation grants during the Biden Harris administration that went to questionable projects promoting DEI or pushing neo Marxist perspectives about enduring class struggle, and our investigation grouped these grants into five categories status, social justice, gender, race, and environmental justice. So let me get let me give you some of
the examples. So you're in Vosugi, who is an associate professor of Learning Sciences at Northwestern University and a co Principal Investigator for a one million, thirty four thousand, seven hundred and fifty one dollars NSF grant award in twenty twenty three for a project titled quote Reimagining Educator learning Pathways through story Work for racial Equity in STEM and Vosugi credits Marxist traditions for her decision to teach quilt
children quote the meaning of genocide and apartheid after Hamas's attack against israel I give you another example. In twenty twenty three, NSF awarded Georgia Institute Technologies Kelly Cross ninety nine thousand, seven hundred and ninety one dollars to quote disrupt racialized privilege in the STEM classroom by acknowledging quote whiteness and white supremacy are deeply ingrained in the past, present,
and future of US higher education. Cross sought to quote subvert these toxic systems to create a more equitable education system and to quote initiate a national conversation about addressing racial inequity and white supremacy in the STEM profession and classroom. This is what your taxpayers tax dollars are going towards.
How does this happen? Where they can divert this type of funding at this level is the question I think most taxpayers would want to ask immediately. Like, I can understand skimming somebody here there, but diverting billions from scientific research to di two billion dollars, yeah, two billion dollars to DII activists. That's not where your tax dours are supposed to go. And by the way, I think you and I agree on this, I wouldn't want these funds diverted to a conservative activist group either.
No, this is meant to be a science. This is meant to be saving people's lives. Let me give you another example. In twenty twenty two, NSF awarded San Jose State University four hundred and one thousand, seven hundred and forty four dollars for an ongoing project to quote transform science teaching and learning through empowering teachers and students as
climate justice action researchers and change agents. The project is meant to foster quote the development of a hub for justice centered science education and will produce school based materials in professional development activities that examine the interwoven nature of climate justice and racial justice. Now, who was in charge of this?
Well?
The principal investigator was Tammy Visentainer, who sees her classroom as a venue for social activism. In April twenty twenty four, Vicentainer wrote that her course quote for aspiring middle and high school teachers centers racial justice in science education, and at the end of her course, she showed her student's photos of Israel ramp dropping pamphlets inside the Gaza strip to warn residents to move out of the way of
incoming rocket fire. Vis Attainer, who claimed that Hamasa's October terror attack needed to be contextualized, explain that the photos quote creates spaces that engage complexity in promotion of shared dignity and humanity to build bridges across differences. But she didn't explain what the hell they had to do with science, which is what a National Science Foundation grant is supposed to be about.
Send her final question on this story that you obviously have broken, and it's a big one. When these types of stories break, usually in the past, you'd have a lot of media that would cover it. You'd have other colleagues that would come in and say they want to make sure this is stopped, or or have rules and
regulations that would help stop it right away. When you came out with this report, did any of the major media outlets call and say, hey, we want this info that you're exposing, or do they just look the other way?
Well, there were a handful of stories, but they were principally in conservative outlets because the actual corporate media doesn't cover news. This news is inconvenient. The fact that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden are funneling billions that's meant to go to science, that's meant to save lives, that's meant to promote like basic research, they're funneling it instead to
aggressively ideological left wing activists, zelots. They're using it to corrupt students, to corrupt universities, to corrupt K through twelve education. That is a message that the media does not want to cover. They will actively do everything they can to suppress, because, look, you know, what's the big deal to stealing billions of dollars a tax paramney to fund Marxists poisoning the minds
of our kids. The next thing you're going, you know, you're going to say it's a big deal that a handful of apartment complexes are taken over by Venezuelan gangs.
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. This is something that I think many Americans don't understand about those that seeking asylum, and explain that more the law.
What it says, because this is part of the abuse by the left is they make you think that if anyone in the world is in essence not happy with the conditions of where they are in their life, or what they're living, where they're living, or who's in charge of a country, that that therefore means they should immediately go to the front of the line and come straight
into American We should take care of them. And you just says that it's really important you don't just allow people to come in into this country because they don't like their quote economic conditions.
That's exactly right what US law is as we have asylum. We offer people asylum, but to qualify for asylum, you have to demonstrate a quote credible fear of political persecution. If you're in say a communist country, and you can demonstrate the government if they capture you, they're going to torture you, they're going to kill you. That's typically the kind of showing you've got to demonstrate to qualify for asylum.
It's explicitly political persecution. And one of the reason is, look, there're seven to eight billion people on planet Earth, that there are billions of people living in poverty. Our nation has about three hundred and thirty million Americans. We don't have the capacity, we don't have the ability to provide for billions of people flooding in who are simply in poverty and would like to live better, particularly when you combine it with the democrats welfare state, because understand, Kamala
Harris doesn't just provide open border. She says, you get here and we'll give you welfare, we'll give you free healthcare, we will give you money. And so frankly, look, I understand why the people come to this country. If you're living in poverty and you get to come to America and these idiots in the government are going to give you free everything, why wouldn't you come? But that is not US law. Economic need poverty does not qualify for asylum,
and the Democrats don't care. They're not even pretending this meets US law. So what they do, here's the game. You show up. And by the way, just about every one of these these illegal immigrants is trained by the traffickers to say, I'm claiming asylum. Now, the Biden administration knows that when their claim is adjudicated, that fewer than ten percent will meet the standards for asylum. That almost
none of them have any credible fear. They're simply poor and they want a better life and they want handouts. But what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are doing is they say, Okay, we'll take you for asylum. We'll set you a court date three, four, five, ten years in the future, and in the meantime, we'll let you go. Welcome to America. And by the way, a bunch of them are never seen again. That policy is called catch and release. That when people are apprehended, they let him go.
By the way, how did the murderer who killed Lake and Riley get to Georgia because of catch and release? Because Joe Biden Kamala Harris apprehended him and let him go. How did the murderer who killed Rachel Morin get to suburban Maryland because of catch and release? Joe Biden Kamala Harris apprehended him and let him go. How did the two murderers and rapists who raped and murdered Joscelyn Nunger get to Houston, Texas because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
did catch and release. They caught him, they cut both of them, they had them in custody, and they released them. There is no credible argument with these criminals that eat the standards of asylum, But Kamala Harris doesn't care.
You know. I think there's even something else that's just a personal example that we've talked about in the past on the show. It is the beginning of your last book. Your dad was a poster child for someone that would deserve and need asylum in the US because of political persecution, the genuine fear of death when he fled Cuba. Let's just take a moment and let people understand how far that pendulum has swung since your dad was a political
refugee basically in the US. I think I'm describing that correctly.
My father was a political refugee. Actually came initially on a student visa, so he was admitted to the University of Texas. He came in nineteen fifty seven, and so he studied at UT. He got a degree in UT graduated in sixty one with a degree in math, and at that point Castro had taken over and had begun persecuting dissonance. My aunt might Theo Sonia, I was with both my father and my Theosnia this evening. My Theo Sonia fought in the counter revolution against Castro. Might Theos
Sonia was in prison. She was tortured by Castro, and so my family, my father was granted asylum status because why if he came back to Cuba, they'd murder him. My Thea Sonia got out of Cuba and she was granted asylum status because again the government, they had a credible fear, they met the legal standard we see from communist countries that persecute dictators. That's what the asylum laws were made for, is if you can demonstrate if I go back to my country, the government will imprison me,
torture me, kill me. That's why we have asylum laws. The claim was not just I'm in poverty and I would like to live in America. And the reason our laws don't grant a special status to that is they're literally billions of people that fall into that category, and we do not have the capacity. And I want to make a point here, Ben, because you know, sometimes people on the left say, oh gosh, we're just so compassionate
when it comes to immigration. Understand, there is no country on planet Earth that is more compassionate, that is more generous when it came come to immigration. In the United States of America, every year we let in more than one million legal immigrants. There's no other country that's doing that. You can't do that in France, you can't do that. In Britain. You can't do that in Australia. You can't do that in Japan. Name your country. None of them
do what America does. So we are we welcome immigrants. But there's a right way to come. You come legally, you follow the rules, you wait in line. That's the way the system is meant to go. And it goes back to our first story, Bill Clinton, if they'd been properly vetted, you know what, if you're trying to come in legally, if you're a member of Venezuelan gang, if you're a murderer, if you're a rapist, if you're a
child molester. You're not going to get in legally when you're vetted, which is why these open borders are causing such devastations and they are making American families much much less safe.
Final question on this, and it's an important one. I think the American people are really understanding the game here, and they're understanding that these my caravans that are coming and they're running here in case Trump gets elected. They even understand this election is either about a wide open border that continues in mass amnesty or law and order
in a secure border with Donald Trump. If the illegal immigrants that are rushing to get in here before Donald Trump would take office, that's that's clearly they're right that they're saying this, right, they're the ones they're telling us this.
Then then then shouldn't every American take a look at that and realize just the difference, uh of of the perspective from an illegal immigrant senator If this is what they're doing right now ahead of time to understand like there's two policies here, they're two very different and and no matter what Harris says, no matter what Walla says, the illegal immigrants know that they are good for business,
that's good for human trafficking, sex trafficking, drug trafficking. The list goes on and on, and Donald Trump is gonna shut it down. The party's over. I think that's an incredibly important point that needs to be made. These illegal immigrants get it.
They do. And you know another number that everyone should know is two thousand, six hundred percent. Do you know what twenty six hundred percent is.
I'm gonna guess the amount of illegal immigration that's gone up since they got into office.
No, now, it's actually a different stat than that. So in twenty eighteen, the Mexican drug cartels were earning roughly five hundred million dollars in revenue from human trafficking. Now, look, five hundred million dollars a lot of money. Do you know how much they made last year? I hell of a lot more than that, thirteen billion dollars. And those stats are from the New York Times. That is a two thousand, six hundred percent increase, Joe Biden and Kamala
Harris said, been incredibly good. In fact, I've joked, you know, the standard test for any presidential election is are you better off now than you were four years ago? And I've joked, unless you're a Mexican drug lord. And by the way, if you are a Mexican drug lord, you should definitely vote for Kamala Harris because she's made you billions and billions of dollars. You would be an idiot if you're a Mexican drug lord not to vote for
Kamala Harris. But if you're not for just about everyone else, life has gotten a lot worse. That number is staggery, and one of the consequences of it is Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have devastated the nation of Mexico. Mexico is a wonderful nation. In Texas, it is our immediate southern neighbor. Texas and Mexican culture. There's enormous overlap. I'll tell you twenty thirty years ago, you go to South Texas,
people would cross the border back and forth. If you were in Laredo, you'd go down in Nueva Laredo, you'd have dinner at a Mexican restaurant, you come back and forth. I mean, there was this this cross border culture that was wonderful. Nobody does that anymore, like because the violence, the cartels, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have made the drug cartels the most powerful economic force in Mexico, and
they are vicious, utterly amorl criminals. There are I met with the mayor of a border town in Mexico who told me in his town alone, there had been more than three thousand disappearances, just people who disappear who the cartels kidnap, they murder, and they're found just in pits of dead bodies. That's what Biden and Harris have done to Mexico is they have undermined public safety to a level.
They have turned these cartels into superpowers. And it is tragic what's happening to Mexico, but it's also tragic what's happening to America.
As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and dow the podcas Ask 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, but I want to move to this other issue because I think it's really important, and it is the breaking news out of Israel that Israel has killed the October seventh mastermind It is interesting it took them about a
year to do that. It's something that we in this country have still not accomplished. Since nine to eleven, the mastermind of nine to eleven, Khalid Sheik Muhammad, has still not been executed, even though we have him in our custody. Many Democrats have tried to give him a plea deal to save his life, which was a major point that
we talked about. And we're able to at least stop that deal from taking place because of so many listeners that were outraged by the decision by the Biden Harris administration to give him a deal as the mastermind of nine to eleven. Israel said, yeah, we're not going to do that. We're not going to do that at all. In fact, what we're going to do is we're going to kill the leader of Hamas that planned this attack. And they did it today and told the world, yeah,
we're not messing around. We're taking out everybody that was involved in this attack on innocent civilians and those that took hostages.
Look that that is exactly right. And I will say this is a very very good day for Israel. It's a very good day for America. The Hamas leader Sinhoar hated America, was responsible for American deaths, and it's a good day for justice. And here I want you to listen to the coverage when the Israeli foreign minister confirms that the Hamas leader is dead. Give a listen, does.
A Fox News alert. Reuters is now reporting that Israel's foreign minister has just confirmed the death of Hamas leader Yaya Sinhwar. Ya Ya Sinhwar was responsible and the mastermind between the vicious October seventh attack that was the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. And Reuters is reporting at Israeli conficials who were analyzing his dental records that he is in fact dead. We go to Trey yankst and Haifa Israel with more on this developing story. Trade.
Yeah, guys, good afternoon. According to reports, the leader of Hamas, Yakya Sinoar, is dead. We cannot independently confirm this, and I'm going to.
Tell you why.
There are two things ongoing at the moment. Israeli officials are using dental records and they are using DNA to try to match Jakya Sinoar's DNA to DNA. The Israelis have in their file the dental records match, but we are waiting to report until the DNA test comes back. Just given how high profile this figure is. But again, according to reports attributed to Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz,
Yakya Sinhwar is dead. This follows in Israeli operation in southern Gaza today, reportedly in the city of Rafa, Gaza's third life largest city that sits next to the Egyptian border. This was not a planned intelligence operation, according to officials, but rather a ground patrol that intercepted movement in southern Gaza. Ultimately, Israeli forces reportedly fired on that movement and among the cell of Hamas militants was the leader, yak Ya Sinoir now Sinoar is a man who has been at the
top of the Israeli target list since October seventh. He is one of three masterminds behind the massacre, along with Mohammed death, a man who was killed in an Israeli airstrike earlier this year, and Ismael Khania, a man who was killed in an explosion in the Iranian capital of Tehran over the summer. So now that this is confirmed, the three masterminds behind the massacre are dead now. Sinowar
spent twenty two years in an Israeli prison. He was released back in twenty eleven as part of a prisoner swap deal for one single Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. Shalit was exchanged for more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners now. When Sinoir went back to Gaza, he was appointed to a defense minister level position among Hamas's Al Klassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and then ultimately later took
over as the leader of Hamas inside Gaza. The last time that I saw Sinoir was in twenty twenty one. The month was May and he was giving a rally where an infamous photo of him was taken holding a Palestinian child who was dressed as a member of the Al Klassan Brigades. Sinwar is someone who has devoted his life to killing Israelis, despite the fact that the Israelis actually saved his life during brain surgery on him in
the early two thousands. While he was still in prison, and following the October seventh massacre, he had been hiding in the tunnel network beneath Gaza. Some of the Israeli hostages who were released as part of the November Seas fire deal back in twenty twenty three reported meeting him in the tunnels beneath Gaza City.
And so this is.
Significant news and an indication that the Israelis will continue to pick off the remaining Hamas leaders that exist still inside Gaza. They have destroyed the battalions within the Gaza Strip, but the question remains what does this mean for the remaining Israeli hostages inside Gaza. One hundred and one of them are there, around half of them are estimated to be alive. And Israeli sources are texting now they are
talking about this news that is taking place. We do expect to hear from Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Nettan Yahou later tonight Israel time. And the Israelis, according to this source, are in communication with their American counterparts to discuss the operation that took place today. Again, according to our reporting, this was not a planned operation, but rather one that took place after movement was identified inside the Gaza Strip. Again,
the latest information that we have attributable to reports. We are waiting for DNA evidence is that Jakio Sinoar, the leader of Hamas, is dead.
Guys, I mean, this is incredible news. And I loved how steadfast and who has been Yes.
So two observations Number one on yet another issue, Kamala Harris was wrong. Remember, Kamala Harris has been opposing Israel, continuing to fight to eliminate Hamas. Harris was explicit urging Israel, opposing Israel going on the offensive in Rafa, and she claimed to be an expert. She claimed to know that nothing could be accomplished, and what happened today proved that wrong.
I want you to listen to a flashback of Kamala in March of twenty twenty four when she's claiming to know that going into Rafa is going to be a mistake.
We have been clear in multiple conversations and in every way that any major military operation in Rafa would be a huge mistake. Let me tell you something. I have studied the maps. There's nowhere for those folks to go. And we're looking at about a million and a half people in Rafa who are there because they were told to go there, most of them. And so we've been very clear that it would be a mistake to move into Rafa with any type of military operation, a mistake.
But would there be consequences if he does move forward? But we're going to take it one step at a time. But we've been very clear in terms of our perspective on whether or not that should happen.
Are you ruling out that there would be consequences from the United States?
I am ruling out nothing.
Wow. Well, once again, Kamala Harris was wrong. She was wrong. She was threatening Israel with consequences. And to be clear, she and Joe Biden cut off critical weapons to Israel and have been pressuring and undermining Israel at every stage since October seventh and long before that. She was categorically wrong. And I'll tell you the real consequences. The consequences were for Sinoar And this is the final point that I
want to wrap up the podcast with. You know, it was twelve years ago that I was elected to the Senate and when I came into the Senate at the time, I resolved to be the leading defender of Israel in the Senate. And I got to tell you a lot of times people ask me, how on earth did it come to pass that a Cuban Texan Southern Baptist would end up the leading defender of Israel in the United
States Senate. And there are a lot of reasons, but one of the fundamental reasons that I've described this before is I was a little kid when the nteby Rate happened. I was I think five years old, and listen, I didn't understand in detail what happened in the Ntebe raid, but it made an impression on me as a child. And my understanding of the ntevy Rate at the time was the people of Israel were saying, if you take our citizens hostage, our citizens might die, but you are
going to die. And I got to say, ben as a five year old, that struck me as a very techan foreign policy. There was a clarity to that. And I got to say, the three masterminds of October seventh, including Sinwar, the head of hamas well, they've gone to meet their seventy two virgins, and I think they're disappointed
with what they found. And there is an absolute seriousness with which Benjamin Netanyaho in the Nation of Israel takes protecting themselves, protecting their citizens, protecting their safety defeating Hamas, defeating Hezbola, and that is good for America, good for Israel, good for the world, and cause for celebration.
As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with 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 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.