Welcome. It is verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you and Senator this week has been truly a crazy week. It's been a crazy two weeks with these two hurricanes that hit the people of Florida, not once, but twice. Our thoughts and prayers go out to them and the recovery efforts that are down happening in Florida
right now. And I think we should obviously take a moment and just say we are praying for the people of Florida, We are with you right now and all of those have been affected by these last two hurricanes. But there was also something else that happened that was extremely important, and it got overshadowed because of the weather, obviously, and that was the one year anniversary of the attack on the people of Israel.
Well, that's exactly right, and let's start by saying to the people of North Carolina that are still suffering from Helene. And Helene was a horrific hurricane. There was enormous death and devastation. And to the people of Florida that are suffering from Hurricane Milton, and I know there are there. We we've had I think the latest death count is nine people have lost their lives. There has been massive suffering. I will say you and I are both Texans. Texas
understands full well the misery of hurricanes. We faced hurricane after hurricane, we face suffering and death. And I just want to say we are praying for the people of North Carolina and Florida and everyone in harms Way, but especially those two states which which bore the brunt of these two hurricanes.
Uh.
We are praying for the first responders we know are still rescuing people in harms Way and and and and for the federal relief efforts from from FEMA and and HUD and the Small Business Administration. There are enormous resources that become available to those who were hurting. And I will say, having come through Hurricane Harvey, which devastated Houston, you're in my hometown, in the entire Gulf Coast, and Rita, a Nike, and all all of the different hurricanes Texas
has faced. Our prayers are with the people who are suffering from these two hurricanes. This podcast, we wanted to do something different, which is this past week was the one year anniversary of October seventh and October seventh was truly a horrific day. I believe it's an historic day.
I believe one hundred years from now we will be talking about the horrors and evils of October seventh, and so on October seventh in Dallas, I gave a speech memorializing and recognizing what happened on October seventh, but also acknowledging the positive benefits that ironically came in the wake of October seventh and that have made a real difference.
So in this podcast, rather than talk about the news of the day, which which is important and we'll talk about again on Monday, we wanted to give you an opportunity to hear the remarks that I gave on October seventh, because I think they're important. And so that's what's about to follow.
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code vertict for twenty percent off your first order. All right, let's play this important speech. Uh, just to put into perspective what has happened over the last year since the horrific attack on the people in Israel.
God bless Texas and God bless the state of Israel. We're here today on a solemn occasion.
We're here today to remember one year ago the horror that the world saw unfold.
On October seventh, three hundred and sixty five days ago, genocideal Hamas terrorists entered southern Israel. They went from kibbutz to kibbutz and from home to home, murdering virtually everyone they found, deliberately targeting civilians, targeting the elderly, targeting women, targeting children, and even toddlers and infants. And they murdered them for one reason, because they were wish. October seventh is the single worse mass murder of Jews in a
day since the Holocaust. Eleven hundred and ninety five people were murdered on October seventh. Two hundred and fifty one people were taken hostage.
On October seventh.
We saw terrorists using rape as a deliberate tool of terror, raping women, raping young girls. I will tell you I have had the horrible displeasure of watching videos of what unfolded on that day. Videos from security cameras in Israel, videos from body cameras and cell phones that the Hamas terrorists took. Understand what they did that day. They were not hiding, they were proud of. They were there to murder and rape, and their only regret of the day
is that they did not murder more. When you watch those videos, I spent nearly an hour watching videos in the Senate. Roughly half of the US Senate came to watch it. I saw in those videos one hundred and thirty seven people being murdered. I will tell you it makes you violently sick. It's not like watching a Hollywood shoot them up or to make believe these are real
people being murdered for racist and genocidal purposes. It was striking also listening to the Hamas terrorists, to the utter dehumanization.
Of Jews.
You saw them severing the heads of Jews, you saw them mutilating the bodies. You saw them referring repeatedly to the Jews they were murdering, not as he and not as she, but as it, as something less than human. One of the most chilling aspects of watching those videos was listening to an intercepted phone call of one of the Hamas terrorists calling home to his parents, and he was thrilled. He was overjoyed to report how many Jews he had murdered that day. And his father cries out
in great celebration. And what does he say, Call your mother, Tell your mother about this wonderful act you have done in the wake of the Holocaust. Never forget and never again was said many times. It should be said the same for October seventh. Now October seventh was Nazi ends carried out using Nazi purposes. Will say, though, as horrific as what happened on that day was, we also know that God is a good God.
The Book of.
Genesis, after Joseph has been sold into slavery by his brothers, years later, he encounters his brothers again, and his brothers are terrified for what they have done to their brother and Joseph says to them in the Book of Genesis, what you have intended for evil, God intended for good. And I will say, as horrific as evil as what happened on October seventh was, there have been at least two seriously important and profoundly beneficial consequences that have unfolded
in the year that followed October seventh. Number one was clarity. Clarity is important with what is unfolding in Israel. In my view, there are no shades of gray, there is no ambiguity. This is a contest between good and evil. This is a contest between civilization and barbarism.
And that clarity is important.
It's important in Israel, it's important in Europe, it's important in America. And I'll tell you it's important in the political sphere. Now listen, this is by design not a political event, But I will say this October seventh and each day that followed is an opportun tunity for everyone holding elected office to.
Make a choice where do you stand?
And everyone in a position of leadership can decide do you stand with Israel or do you stand with the terrorists? Well as for me and my house, we will stand with Israel. That clarity is profoundly important throughout elected offices. I will tell you in Congress there are too many of my colleagues that cannot figure out which side of that divide.
We should stand on.
There are too many of my colleagues whose immediate response following these horrors, we need a cease fire. Now, I will tell you. On the night of October seventh, at three in the morning, the State Department sent out a tweet from the Office of Palestinian Affairs, and it said Israel must not respond, there must be no military response whatsoever. My team and I saw that at three in the morning, and we responded on Twitter immediately and said this is disgraceful.
Whoever wrote it should be fired and it should be deleted immediately. Within minutes, the State Department deleted the tweet. The next day, October eighth, we discovered that the tweet was not an anomaly sent by some low level staffer, because Tony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, on October eighth, sent out a tweet and said, I have just finished speaking with the Turkish Foreign Minister and we have agreed that Israel must not retaliate and there must be no
military response whatsoever. Again, I responded and said this is utterly disgraceful and should be deleted.
Again, they deleted it within minutes.
Every day since then, elected officials have had a choice, where are you, Who are you? Who do you stand with? Some have risen to the occasion, and others have not. There's also been clarity on college campuses. I know that every one of us here has been utterly horrified that October seventh has revealed the vicious anti semitism on so
many of our campuses. And I point out to you that I will use the word revealed on purpose, because nobody with any sense could possibly maintain that that anti semitism wasn't there on October sixth, but a whole lot of people had difficulty seeing it. And we've seen across our country, we've seen viciously anti Israel, anti Semitic protests, many of which are unequivocally Prohamas. Columbia University one of
the first places these protests started. It got so bad that the Orthodox Rabbi at Columbia sent an email to two hundred seventy Jewish students at Columbia advising the Jews who are students there, stay home, do not come to class, do not come to campus, because Columbia University cannot and will not protect your safety. I got to say that is utterly and completely disgraceful. If you watch the videos
of those protests, you listen to what they're chanting. Protesters at Columbia were chanting, among other things, we love Hamas. To understand the viciousness of it. Some Columbia students were bravely standing up waiving American flags in Israeli flags Jewish students who had the courage to face the mob. There was a picture on Twitter of a woman wearing a mask, because these protesters are oh so brave. They hide and are terrified for the world to know who they are.
But she was wearing a mask and holding up a sign, a cardboard sign that she had hand lettered. The sign said al Cassam's next targets, with an arrow pointing at the Jewish students behind her. Al Casam is the military arm of Hamas. I'm going to tell you something amazing. The Internet being what it is, the mask did not serve to hide this young woman's identity. She was not Palestinian. She was a young blonde girl from Atlanta, Georgia. Those parents are multi millionaires and they set her off to
the Ivy League to go learn something. And she was taught that it is perfectly acceptable and even praiseworthy to call for the murder of your fellow students because they are Jews. If you don't understand the poison that is being taught to our students. It was powerfully, powerfully illustrated the University of Washington. The protesters chanted to Jews, go back to the ovens.
This is not ambiguous.
And I will tell you I was visiting with a friend of mine on the left, very successful tech entrepreneur. He's been a democrat his entire life, and he expressed from frustration, bewilderment, where is this vicious anti Semitism coming from? And I told him it is the consequence of the poison that has been poured into the minds of our children at so called elite universities now for many years.
This is the fruits of cultural Marxism. This is the fruits of a leftist ideology that divides the world into two categories, oppressors and victims. And for the modern day leftists, they have defined Palestinians as victims.
And Jews as oppressers.
And I want you to note that I didn't say Israelis. I said Jews, because the target of their enmity is not just those who live in Israel, but any Jew anywhere on the face of the planet.
And to the academic Marxist.
Once you have someone defined as an oppressor and as a victim, our children are taught to favor the violent revolutionary overthrow by the victims of the so called oppressors, to cheer on the violence, to celebrate it. If you don't understand that, take a look on October eighth at the Chicago chapter of Black Lives Matter that tweeted out a meme said we stand with Palestine, and in the
meme was an image of a paraglider. Now understand, they were not saying we think geopolitically, we ought to approach it to state solution. The paragliders, as you know, is how the Hamas terrorists came to the music festival to murder young people. And the Chicago chapter of Black Lives Matter was not being ambiguous on where they stand. They stand with Hamas because they were murdering Jews. That clarity
is important. And I will say some commentators have said, well, it is terrible that this is happening all over the country, and I have to say, in the interest of accuracy, that facts matter. It is not happening all over the country. It is happening in bright blue states where the elected officials agree with the protesters. It's happening in New York. It's happening in Pennsylvania. It's happening New Jersey, happening in Illinois.
It's happening in Washington State. It's happening in Connecticut. It's happening in Massachusetts. It's happening in California. You know where it's not happening. It's not happening in Florida. You know where it's not happening. It's not happening in Texas. In Texas, we saw protesters at the University of Texas and within hours the police arrived and arrested them.
I talked about clarity.
This is an opportunity for everyone in leadership, every elected official, every university president, every dean of a faculty, every professor, to say where you stand. But I'll tell you what the answer should be, which is that no one has the right to threaten the safety of another student. And if you threaten an harass another student because they are Jewish, you should be arrested, you should be prosecuted, you should be expelled, and if you're a foreign student, you should be deported.
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At MIT, Jewish students reported that they were afraid to go to class because of threats of violence. The president of MIT said, well, we cannot discipline the people threatening the Jewish students because if we discipline them, they'll lose their student visa and be deported. You need to understand the ideological rot.
That has infused so much of.
Our elite academy. And by the way, it's been a year since October seventh, have you noticed the protests on the campus. They're not springing up organically, They're not spontaneous. Am I the only one who's noticed that the tents all match? There is real money funding these anti Israel, anti Semitic, anti American protests, and that money is coming from Iran, That money is coming from Cutter, and that money is coming from prominent leftists in this country who
are also funding prominent politicians in this country. I want to ask you, in a year, has there been a single investigation by the Department of Justice or the FBI to follow the money. Under Title six of our Civil Rights Law, a university cannot create an environ that is threatening to the safety of a student based on race or ethnicity. Has there been a single university in America who's had their federal funding cut off because they refused
to protect Jewish students on campus? Answers, No, not one. That's not an accident. We need a Department of Justice that stands with our students.
By the way, I.
Will note the protesters that were arrested in the University of Texas, roughly half of them had no connection to ut They weren't students there. They just came in to agitate and threatened violence. The same was true at Columbia, the same was true at fordom that when people have been arrested, about half of them are either radical Islamist or Marxists or just anti American.
Paid violent thugs.
Clarity matters, and by the way, I will say that clarity is not entirely delineated on partisan bases. I will say one of the most astonishing things to me has been the courage my colleague John Fetterman has shown on this topic. I'll confess when Senator Fetterman was elected from Pennsylvania, I had no reason to anticipate that he would show
that kind of courage. But he has been astonishing. And I will say when giving a commencement address, when he removed his hood from Harvard University as a fellow Harvard grad, I was proud that he was willing to stand up to the shameful behavior of his and mi alma mater. Clarity is an opportunity for everyone on each and every
day to decide where do I stand. There is a second enormously beneficial outcome of the horror and evil that was October seventh, which is that Israel has stated its commitment to utterly and completely eliminate Hamas and now eliminate Hesbelah. And I have to say, eliminating Hamas and eliminating Hesbela is unquestionably in the national security interest of Israel and unquestionably in the national security in interest of America, and US policy should very simply be we stand unequivocally with
Israel for as long as it takes. I listened to colleagues of mine in the Senate, in the House for their only response to what happens at Israel is we need a cease fire.
Now.
What is it that leads American politicians to say our view should be please, please, please stop killing the terrorists.
Thank you.
When I got on Southwest Airlines this morning and flew from Houston to Dallas to come here today, a woman standing in the line came up to me and said, please, we need to cease fire now on the one year
and of nursery of October seventh. I'll tell you, month after month after month, every Saturday morning at seven am, I had anti Israel, antisemitic protesters in my front lawn, screaming, yelling, ringing cowbells, blowing whistles, screaming expletives at the top of their lungs, waking up my daughters, waking up my neighbors
and their young children, week after week after week. And I'll tell you when I encounter, as I do with some regularity, people on airplanes who will yell at me, we need to cease fire now, and I ask them, really, tell me, why is it that you side with genocidal maniacs carrying out Nazi ends? How do you look at what happened and say the murderers and rapists are the ones we stand with. But part of it is a lot of people are lied to. They don't know the
truth they are being told. The victims, in our definition are the good and the oppressors are the evil. That's why that clarity needs to continue. I will say, if you look at Israel's distribution of pagers, I've got to say that is one of the most extraordinary intelligence and military operations I have ever seen when I saw it on the news. When I read about it, it read like a James Bond novel. If I don't know if any of y'all are fans of the show, Fouta Fouda
is phenomenal. If you tried to write it in a plot of Fouta, they wouldn't publish it because they would have said, this is ridiculous. And I will say what is what was truly elegant about it is the people who received the pagers were decided by the leadership of Hesbela. The leaders of Hesbela said, all right, you are enough of a genocidal murderer that I want you on page. They selected every person.
And then they got their page.
And then a few days later they said, let's go to walkie talkies, and the walkie talkies blew up. And then at the head of hesbel has said, let's go to a basement bunker and meet in person. And then the basement bunker blew up. And if you want to understand where someone stands, look to their reaction to that. Let me tell you, I think it is beautiful that psychopathic terrorists are terrified now to pick up the phone and pick up the pager and go meet with another terrorist.
That is unequivocally good for Israel. In America, we are saying forces across the globe arrayed against the people of Israel. And I will tell you in particular, if you want to prevent another October seventh, if you want to save innocent lives in Israel and America, then you've got to start by focusing on the nation of Iran.
Iran is the head of the stake.
I will say, in the last four years, the US government has funneled over one hundred billion dollars to Iran. We all know about the six billion that got the most attention. That was six billion in ransom for five Americans, and many others at the time said that's a terrible policy. It will only encourage more Americans to be taken hostage. It effectively puts a bounty of one point two billion
per hostage. Tragically, when we said that, I didn't realize it would be just a couple of months before we would see more Americans taken hostage. Some of you may also know about the ten billion in funds that were frozen in Iraq from electricity receipts that the administration unfroze to flow to Iran. Both of those, however, pale in comparison to the real source of revenue. Iran derives the
bulk of its revenue from oil and gas sales. When Joe Biden and Kamala Harris came into office four years ago. Iran was at the time selling roughly three hundred thousand barrels of oil a day. That was a consequence of the previous administration vigorously enforcing oil sanctions. I had spent hundreds of hours urging President Trump to vigorously enforce oil sanctions on Iran. He did so, and their oil sales plummeted from a million barrels a day to three hundred
thousand in January of twenty twenty one. The Iranian economy was in shambles, the Iranian regime was teetering and near collapse, and the current administration came in and immediately stopped enforcing those oil sanctions. What are the consequences of that? Iran's oil sales went from three hundred thousand barrels a day where they were in January of twenty twenty one.
Do you know what they are today?
Roughly two million barrels of oil a day, primarily sold to communist China. What is the delta between three hundred thousand barrels a day and two million barrels a day? It is more than eighty billion dollars that came in like a lifeline to save the regime. I told you this is a battle between good and evil. The Ayatola Kamehni is unambiguously evil. He leads mobs in chants of death to Israel and death to America. Now, if history teaches anything it is that when somebody tells you they
want to kill you believe them. And you need to understand this is not just a threat to Israel. There is a reason the Ayahtola refers to Israel as the little Satan and America is the great Satan. The enemies of Israel are enemies of America. Those who hate Jews hate Christians. And I have to say, if any sanity comes from the aftermath of October seventh, it is that we should agree to come together and cut off all of the funds for Iran. Two statistics that are important
to know. Over ninety percent of the funding for Hamas comes from Iran. Over ninety percent of the funding for Hesbola comes from Iran. If you are giving one hundred million dollars to Iran, you are giving the money to the terrorists who are committing these atrocities. I got to say, regardless of your politics, it should not be a complicated proposition to say, do not give money to people who want to murder you. And yet somehow in Washington that's
deemed a controversial statement. Look, I want to thank all of y'all for being here. I want to thank the unity we see. It's easy if you look at the viciousness on a campus to think that's where America is. And one message, I'm glad we have reporters here. I'm glad we have TV cameras here. If there's one message that I want people to hear, it's that the people of Texas stand with the State of Israel, and the people of a Maria, Erica stand with the State of Israel.
May justice prevail, May Israel prevail.
May God continue to bless the people of Israel and the people of America, and may God's mercy and blessings be upon all of us.
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That's by r NA dot com slash verdict. Don't forget we do the show Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so it makes you had that subscriber auto download button and make sure you grab my podcast as well the Ben Ferguson podcasts for those in between days. I will keep you updated on everything going on as well in the latest breaking news and the Senator. I will see you back here for the week in review on Saturday morning.