Welcome in his verdict with Ted Cruz the week in Review, Ben Ferguson with you, and we had a very busy week with some top stories that maybe you miss well. Let's start first with the shocking news that the ICC wants to arrest Benjamin Net and Yahoo. We'll give you the latest on this radical move by the ICC and what it means moving forward and how the Trump administration will respond. Also, Senator Cruz and Elon Musk, they were
together with President Trump watching this SpaceX launch. Senator Cruz actually flew with President Trump on Trump Force one and learned a lot about his cabinet and his administration. He'll give you all those behind the scene details. It's really interesting. And finally, Alvin Bragg going row get again, trying to manipulate the courts into hitting pause on the Trump prosecution for four years until after he leaves the presidency. We'll give the details behind that. It is the Weekend Review
and it starts right now. Centaera. I want to pull an audible real quick because I should have mentioned this earlier. But as we were just talking about Israel, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Net and Yahoo and Gallant and they also they're like, oh yeah, we threw in a hamask guide too, so it looks like we're being
equal here. This is a shocking attack by the ICC on net and Yahoo, and also one that makes it very tough for him to travel more than likely the way he needs to because of the threat of being arrested, for example, if he is traveling to many parts of Europe.
Well, it is an absolute outrage and the ICC already had very, very questionable legitimacy, but with this decision, the International Criminal Court has just become a kangaroo court, and frankly, that's not fair to kangaroos. I mean, I mean, it is an absolute This is a a political act of anti Israel hatred and anti Semitism that sadly infests so many of our international institutions that that that just hate
Israel profoundly. And I believe the United States we should impose sanctions on every individual involved in issuing this arrest warrant, from the prosecutor to the judges, everyone involved. They should be sanctioned by the United States government. We should also make clear that we will sanction anyone who attempts to enforce this arrest warrant. If you're a French prosecutor, be prepared to have American sanctions put on you if you
try to enforce this this utterly lawless arrest warrant. And understand, the reason that the ICC did this is because of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's incredible weakness. Listen, the ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel. Israel is not a party to the ic CC. It also has no jurisdiction over the United States of America. And understand, this is a threat not just against Israel, although it is very much that, but this is a threat against America. This is a
threat against the people who hate America. Imagine these same bigots who hate Israel how much they would love to issue an arrest warrant for Donald Trump, or for the Secretary of State or the Secretary of Defense of the United States. And it is only because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are so weak that the ICC felt empowered to issue this. It's not an accident that this came out after the presidential election, but before Trump was sworn in.
That is when the enemies of Israel and the enemies of America historically have done some of the worst actions against the United States and against Israel. It is when if you remember, at the end of Obama the last time we were in this comparable moment, which is a democratic administration was ending and Donald Trump was get ready to be sworn in as president. That would have been November and December of twenty sixteen, right after the election.
Obama was leaving. And remember what the Obama administration did. They orchestrated UN Resolution two three three four, which is one of the most shameful resolutions ever to be voted on in the United Nations, and the Obama administration it. This resolution denounced much of modern Israel as illegitimate and illegally occupied. It denounced the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem as illegitimate and illegally occupied. It denounced the Whaling Wall in
Jerusalem as illegally occupied and illegitimate. And what happened is the Obama State Department orchestrated it, They got others to push it, and they just stood back and abstained. And I will tell you this week, I had a classified briefing with Tony blink In the Secretary of State, and I asked him very directly in that briefing. Is the Biden administration going to do the same thing, Because last
time y'all did that, it profoundly hurt Israel. It was used by the enemies of Israel to justify all sorts of targeting against the people of Israel, and I'm very concerned the Biden administration is going to try to orchestrate
something similar. At the United Nations, we had a vote this week that actually the Biden administration blocked to their credit, where the UN was trying to call for an immediate cease fire of the war against Tamas, but they did not include within it a demand that the hostages be released, and the Biden administration vetoed it without the hostages being
released as part of the language. But I'm worried in the next two months that they will try to do something very similar to what happened in December of twenty sixteen with two three thirty four. And I think that this ICC arrest warrant is shamed. I also think the incoming Trump administration is going to stand very strongly against this absolutely disgraceful decision.
Thune came out and threatened the International Criminal Court with sanctions if it doesn't drop the net and now who warrant for rest? But he also called on Schumer to not wait for the Republicans to get in charge to do the right thing, and to do something now on this. He said, if Majority Leader Schumer does not act, the Senate Republicans majority will stand with our key ally Israel and make this another supportive legislation a top priority in
the next Congress. Is there a chance that Schumer could actually lead on this as Thum called on him to do, and said, don't make us wait till January. Do the right thing now for Israel.
I think the chances are virtually zero. So the House has passed legislation to do exactly that, and Schumer has refused to take it up the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. We have had legislation before us from Jim rish who's getting ready to be the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, to do exactly that, to sanction the ICC for doing this, and the Democrats have refused to take
it up. It's basically shut down the Foreign Relations Committee for the last six months because the Democrats have blocked legislation standing up to the ICC. And look, this is on the unfortunate reality that in today's Democrat Party there is a pro Haamas faction of the Democrat Party. And I don't think that as hyperbole. It is tragically the case.
They are the ones cheering. We just had votes this week that Bernie Sanders pushed on the floor to cut off weapons to Israel, to cut off thirty two thousand tank rounds to Israel, cut off over fifty thousand mortar cartridges to Israel, to cut off to cut off the kits that are used to make precision bombs. Now understand the argument of the leftist is that when Israel is bombing Hamas Er Hesbelah, they accidentally have incidental civilian casualties.
So what is their response. Take away the ability to have targeted smart bombs, so they can only drop dumb bombs that they can't steer. The difference a precision bomb you can direct it so you hit your target and it's much less likely to have collateral damage. These leftists hate Israel so much they want to say, no, let's take away your ability to target your weapons, so we
increase the number of civilians killed. And nineteen Senate Democrats voted to cut off Israel's funds that pro Hamas faction of the Democrat Party. Not every Democrat in the House and Senate is a member of it, but just about every single Democrat is terrified of that faction. And it's why Schumer look that the internal the internal notes from Columbia University when Columbia was having the anti Semitic protest and the leaders of Columbia were talking to Schumer, Schumer
told them, don't worry about it. The Democrat we don't care. It's only the Republicans who care about this. Understand what that admission was, and that was out of Schumer's own mouth, that we the Democrats, don't care about violent anti Semites terrorizing students in Columbia University and other universities, threatening Jewish students. It's not a priority for them. Why because they're terrified by the Prohamas faction of the party who supports the
radicals and the anti Semites. That is tragically where we are. And so I'm going to predict we will take up the legislation to sanction the ICC, and we will do it early next year when we have a Republican Congress and a Republican president. I don't even know that we'll need that legislation, though, because I expect the Trump administration to act unilatterly, I think there's ample authority under the
law for them to act. Even if the Democrats filibuster legislation to sanction the ICC, I think the president will have ample authority to act come January twenty.
Now.
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.
As we were watching it, or I was watching on TV and many others were, I do have to say one of the most fun parts for me of watching you know, Trump and you and everybody there is just the boy boyhood excitement is and I say that in the in the in the the most sincere and authentic way ever on the faces of everyone that was able to watch us.
I don't care who you are, just getting.
To watch it and to see Elon's face and in your face and President Trump's face and others that were around you.
Guys.
I saw Haggarty there, for example. It was just the moment of like, this is unbelievable.
Well, and it was traveling, so the starship itself traveled halfway around the world, the booster separated. We saw the booster separate, and initially the plan was that it was going to go down and because by the robot arms where it had been launched, and in fact it separates. So the booster was attached to the starship for a
minute and a half and then it separated. And we initially got the call catches a go, which we were excited about because they only try to catch it if all the conditions are right, and so they were going to catch the booster, and then they ended up altering the plan and not doing the catch, but having it instead land in the Gulf of Mexico, and so the conditions were slightly off and so they had it landed the gulf. But Elon was really happy because it landed
in the golf but it did not explode. And last time when it landed the golf, it did explode. And so look, they're testing different things to see what happens. And it was interesting. It floats in the water and I was asking Elon why does it float? He says, well, look, once once the liquid methane and liquid oxygen is out, he said, it has the density essentially of an empty beer can, and so just like you throw an empty beer can on the water and it floats, that's the
same thing as the booster. And so they're going and salvaging the booster and discovering, okay, what happened, what's going on there? So that landed pretty quickly. The starship traveled for about an hour and it landed, I think.
About going side after. How long were you outside? And then where did you get to watch the second part?
So we were outside.
We arrived probably an hour before the launch, and so we were talking with Elon and we were in the control room and just having conversations, and we watched lunch, and we watched the booster separate, and then we watched the booster come down, although we couldn't see the booster landed far enough out in the gulf that we couldn't see with our naked eye the booster landing in the water, but we had the video on a big screen, so
we were watching it there. And then what we did, because you had about an hour while the starship was traveling in space and it was going about twenty six thousand kilometers an hour, it was about one hundred and
sixty kilometers above planet Earth. One of the things Elon said is that the Starship was traveling about ten times the speed of a bullet out of an assault rifle, which there's an analogy you can understand, Ben and as find out, Junior was laughing, going, all right, that makes sense to me too.
But that's fast.
Yeah, that's fast on a whole nother level. And so you got to watch all of this take place. How important is this just this technology and the fact that it's being done in Texas, because that is the reason why you were on that plane. That's why they asked you to go down there, because this is in Texas. I don't think people realize what this is doing for the Texas economy as well.
So it is incredible.
And while the Starship was flying halfway around the world, we left the launch observation site. We went to the factory, which is right at the launch site now the factory. So five years ago this was essentially an empty beach, just sand and nothing was on it.
And in five years Elon has built.
This incredible and I've been to it before, I've toured it before, but but it is it takes your breath away. They are manufacturing about one rocket ship a month. And then these things are massive. So you go into the factory and and there I think it was twenty two stories high.
As how tall the booster is.
I mean, it just goes up and up and up and up, and it's it's huge. And and you know, we went in and saw and they are manufacturing them to a level of precision down to the tenth of a millimeter. I mean, you think about this, It's not like it's not like SpaceX is making just widgets. I mean, if a screw is wrong, the damn think can blow up. There's so many ways for something to go wrong. And and they have a level of precision that is just astonishing. And so we went in and and and saw and toured.
And one of things Elon said is is, look, they're doing launch after launch after launch and everyone they're improving the technology and they're trying different things.
So one of the things they did on.
This one is they're testing different angles of re entry to see, Okay, if you angle the starship at a slightly different angle, is there more heat, is there less heat? What what happens? You know, what what's the optimum angle? So they're trying all sorts of different things. So we toured those facilities. By the way, they like basically built
a whole town. They built housing for the employees. One of the things Elon said that, you know, is a challenge when you're recruiting the best engineers and rocket scientists and they're literally rocket scientists, is he said, you've got to find a place that that there significant others want to live. And so they basically built a whole community with like houses all around there. And like, I didn't
go this time, but I've been previously. They have like a little tiki bar that's sort of a club that the employees can go hang out and the you know, he said, look, you gotta you have to create.
An environment that that that that that.
Both your your incredibly skilled employees and their significant.
Others want to be in.
And and one thing, you know, but not every every Verdict listener may know, Look, Brownsville has historically been faced very significant economic challenges and and so to have this incredible high tech billions and billions of dollars invested in Brownsville and in deep South Texas in the Rial Rand Valley was really significant. By the way, when we took the motorcade from where Trump Force one landed to the
launch site. The entire road side of driving along that there were thousands of people waving signs, waving American flags, cheering. And one of the most significant aspects of this election in Texas is is that both Donald Trump and I, both of us one Hispanics in the state of Texas. I won Hispanics by six point statewide. That's unprecedented. And the Rio Grande Valley, South Texas has been bright blue for one hundred years. It has been just an absolute
bastion of the Democrat Party. And this election, South Texas flipped red. I mean, the Star County had a fifty point move. It's the most Hispanic county in America and it had a massive move.
Trump won it.
The move in South Texas, I think is generational and transformational, and you could just see it as people were cheering and thrilled the President was there.
That was a very cool aspect of it as well.
All right, final question on this trip, So you get done with all this excitement and then this is still kind of awesome. You get back on Trump Force one and you fly back to Florida. What was the conversation like on the way home again.
It was relaxed. We're having fun, We're talking. You know, we had had Fox on and so we're watching Jesse Waters, lor Ingram and Hannity. We're talking about all that and just sort of riffing back and forth. You know. As we were landing, Trump began playing music. And so when he stand at mar Lago, Trump likes to basically be the DJ, and he has an iPad there that he controls the music at mar Lago, and they'll sit there at the table and just play the songs he wants
to listen to. And so as we were landing in Palm Beach, he put on guns N' Roses, the music video that he loves from guns N' Roses, and then he put on another music video from Pavroti, which would you want to talk about some breadth in music taste? That That's what we were listening to as we went wheels down back in Florida.
Now, did you eat any McDonald's, because there's a lot of pictures that get taken on Trump for one eat McDonald's, We did not.
Our dinner instead was Waterburger because we were in Texas.
Damage I love it.
See I set you up perfect for that answer. So in the answer to that, did you I know, but I set you up there perfectly. So what did he say about whatburger compared to McDonald's. Was it a no brainer for him?
He was like, this is a really good Hamburger. Wow, this is really great. I mean he was I would say he was a fan as before.
If you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and down the podcast 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. All right, I want to ask you lastly about big news that happened, and this is much more of a serious topic. Trump team is declaring victory after the Manhattan prosecutors push for a four year freeze on sentencing Donald Trump in his
business records case. I've never heard of this before in my life. Maybe this is something that's normal. And Alvin Bragg is upset. He's like, no, no, I still want to go after dumb Trump. You gotta delay it. We'll delay it. But I want him. I still want him. I still believe I'm right. I still want to put him in jail.
Well, President Trump has filed a motion to dismiss his criminal conviction, and the Manhattan prosecutor, instead of agreeing to that, has suggested to the judge, no, no, no, don't dismiss it. Just put it on hold for four years, just freeze it. Don't sentence him, just leave the conviction hanging out there. And I got to say, look, unprecedented doesn't begin to describe it. It is an absolute abuse of power. And look, you got to understand, Alvin Bragg is an elected Democrat in Manhattan.
In Manhattan, you've.
Still got an overwhelming majority of Democrats, many of whom hate Donald Trump's guts, and so for Alvin Bragg, even though politically nationally the persecution and lawfare of Donald Trump, I think actually played a significant factor in his winning.
And that was the point I made to him on the.
Play, is that I said, we talked quite a bit about all the cases and everything he's endured, and I said, look, ironically, the more they went after you, the more I think it helped you. And if it had been just one indictment, it might have been more harmful, but there were so many that it became obvious to anyone that this was just a persecution. This was a political witch hunk. This was a partisan effort to go after someone because they were terrified that what would happen.
Is what, in fact did.
Happen, that the American people would vote to re elect him, And I think, as I said, it ended up boosting him significantly in the polls well. Even though it I think was harmful to Democrats nationally in Manhattan, I suspect it's quite helpful to Alvin Brad because there are a lot of partisans who hate Trump. And I got to say, I am very hopeful you know that.
This will be thrown out.
The judge Juan Marchan as Devin's, I think a lot of bias. He is a partisan Democrat as well. It'll be interesting to see what he does, because I think if he agrees with the prosecutor, if he says, okay, we're going to just put this on ice for four years, I think that will prompt an appeal. It will probably prompt what's called a Ritaman damus to an appellate court to order either the case dismissed or to order him
to rule. Because what Alvin Bragg wants to do is he wants to run for reelection saying I prosecuted Donald Trump, I got a conviction of Donald Trump and to use it. Number one for his political advantage. Number two, he wants to avoid a repellate reversal, so he wants four years of the appellate courts not not examining the many and the rampant legal errors in his rulings. But number three, he wants to use this to threaten the president, to have it hang over. And this guy enough of a
zealoth that. I mean, he's literally talking about okay, four plus years from now, when he's done with being president's eighty two years old. Alvin Bragg wants to put him in jail like it just to be there to threaten the president every day. And by the way, number four, he wants CNN and MSNBC and all of the corporate media to refer to him as a convicted felon over and over and over again.
And if the case is.
Thrown out, that becomes a lot more problematic. I do not believe Alvin Bragg will succeed in this either. The trial judge will say, look, this is not tenable. You can't you can't have a jury verdict and then just free sentencing for four years or if not, I think we will see an appellate court step in and say that this is inconsistent with New York law and it is inconsistent with the Constitution.
I'm very hopeful that's.
What will happen, Senator. Finally, I want to hit something else. That is I have to admit I am enjoying this watching the liberal media meltdown. The View had an all time melt down about Donald Trump's win. Joy Mayhar on The View said this to the audience, take a listen, I do.
You know what's in the air? Whoopy, what's sump? Is? We lost the election? When at it we lost the election. We're miserable. Half of this country is miserable. And let's just tell the truth. We hate that he won.
We hate everybody. I mean, I know we're all like Nazis, and I know that we're all deplorables, and I know that we're all floating garbage. But you would think they would have learned from losing an election, and clearly they're not.
Look, I got to say, if Joy Behar is crying on TV and is miserable and is unhappy. That's a good day for America because her radical and extreme ideas that they're hurting the country. And you know, that may be the most honest thing she's ever said on the view because she is as a hard leftist and and
and notice she's learned nothing, She's listened to nothing. There's no part nobody on that show has stopped to say, wait, why did the American people overwhelmingly reject our disastrous policy agenda. They're not asking that. They're just mad at at at what they views as the idiot voters. And listen, that's an arrogance that we see in elected democrats. It's an
arrogance we see throughout the corporate media. Uh and and I think it's going to it's going to fuel their their doubling down and getting, if anything, even more extreme.
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.