Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz in our week in Review.
Ben Ferguson with you, And these are the major stories that we talked about this week, and well it was a big week in news. First up, Democrats still out to lunch, not understanding exactly why the policies they have on illegal immigration lost them the election. How do we know this because of new polling data that proves they were out of touch with reality on securing the southern border.
We'll break that down for you. Also, the big.
Lie you may remember, the left and the media said that there were not gangs from other countries that were taking over apartment complexes in Colorado. Well, we now have even more proof of just how extreme those gang members have become in those apartment complexes now kidnapping and torturing people. The details on that as well. And finally, we have a big fight over the debt ceiling taking place as we speak in Washington. So why is the dead ceiling
so important? We'll break down the logistics of that as well. It's the weekend review and it starts right now. Finally, Senator, this is another story and the media is trying to figure this out. The Democratic Party is trying to figure it out, how do we lose this last selection? What caused it was it really our policy on migrants and illegal immigrants. And there was a very interesting conversation that took place, and people even on the left like, is
this aha moment? And I laughed because it's something that you actually said on this show a couple of years ago. Jessica Tarlove and Katie Curic, we're talking about JP governors sending ilegal immigrants to other parts of the country from border states, and I want to play this clip for people, and they specifically we're talking about Rod DeSantis in Florida, Greg Abbott in Texas and this is what they said.
In reaction on.
The immigration front, there was a tendon see amongst democrats, and especially Democrats were discussing the issues of people who do interviews or are part of the media to minimize it. Over the first two and a half years, when there were a lot of people coming in here, and I thought that it was a stunt. You know, when they started bussing migrants they go to markets, vineyards. Yeah, it was the smartest thing they ever did.
Well. It's interesting because I have a friend who lives in Florida, and I said, what did you think of of Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott taking some of these immigrants and moving them to northern States? And she said, I thought it was great because nobody really was paying
attention before that. And I do think that this untold story was the strain on social services and communities, particularly along the border, this influx, huge influx of immigrants was having and I think the mainstream media, however, you find out these days, kind of ignored that story to its peril.
I mean, wow, right, like, at least they're figuring it out. I don't want to say that all the media is figuring out, but it is pretty funny they figured out. The only problem is they were just a couple of years too late.
Yeah, look at striking to hear Kitty Kurk admitting that now, as you know, this was an idea that I suggested three years ago. In October of twenty twenty one, I introduced a bill called the Surge Act. And the Surge Act was designed to create thirteen new ports of entry to send illegal immigrants. And here's here's what my press really said at the time. If Washington Democrats had to endure even a fraction of the suffering South Texas families, farmers, ranchers,
and small businesses have had to face. Our nation's immigration laws would be in force, the wall would be built and remain in Mexico. Policy would be implemented. And so I introduced legislation to change the points of entry and
add thirteen new places. Block Island, Rhode Island, Greenwich, Connecticut, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Governor's Island, New York, Rehobeth Beach, Delaware, Nantucket, Massachusetts, Newport, Rhode Island, Scarsdale, New York, Palo Alto, California, Yuntville, California, Saint Helena, California, and North Hero Vermont, which is where Bernie Sanders vacations. And the idea was all the places where rich liberals sit and sip chardonnay and look down
on people concerned about the open borders. And it was really striking. At the time I introduced this legislation, the leftist media went crazy, and in fact, the county executive at Martha's Vineyard attacked me, attacked me by name, and he said Cruise doesn't understand immigration. And he said we and Martha's Vineyard would welcome illegal immigran Well, several months later, Ron De Santis and Greg Abbott took me up on
what I had suggested, and they did exactly that. They sent fifty illegal immigrants to Martha's Vineyard, and of course that same county executive within twenty four hours declared an emergency and ended up deporting the fifty who had been sent. And I'll tell you we actually covered this on Verdict several years ago, so I want you to play an old segment from Verdict. This is actually pre pre the great Ben Ferguson. This is back when when Michael Noles and I were doing it.
Oh good Ford, Yeah, yes, the voice is about to change a little bit, right.
But this is us talking about it three years ago, and it had a bit of foreshadowing. So give a listen.
They've just sent airplanes full of illegal aliens to Martha's Vineyard. And I cheered when I saw the headline, and then I had to think, you know, there's a certain podcast hosted by a certain senator from Texas that has been calling exactly for that for many weeks now, and I just can't help but wonder if that may have had some effect on this policy going into effect.
I was thrilled when the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, took me up on the idea and began sending illegal immigrants, first to d C, then to New York, then to Chicago. It's had a fantastic event as these Democratic mayors have lost their minds and declared national emergencies. The mayor of d C declared a national emergency or a city emergency because six thousand illegal immigrants were sent to d C.
Of course, we've had since Joe Biden became president. We have had four point two million illegal immigrants cross illegally with Biden as president. It is horrific.
That's a crazy number. Four point two million. That is a crazy number. It is larger than many of the states of our union. I mean, four point two million since Joe Biden put his hand on the Bible and took the oath of office. That's what's come and it continues to get worse.
And what is amazing about when red state governors, first Texas now Florida are shipping to blue strongholds is the Democrats who talk a good game immediately flipped tail. So I want to give you a quote on the from Martha's Vineyard. When I introduced the legislation, you had Democrats, Democrats and the House of Representatives slamm me. But I want to read from the county commissioner of Martha's Vineyard, Keith Chattenover, and here's the quote he said about my legislation.
I would love to see Martha's Vineyard become a haven for new immigrants in the country. But Senator Cruz has no idea what he's talking about regarding a border crisis. He went on to say, immigrants make our country stronger, as evidence by immigration from zill in other countries to the vineyard. And he is trying to whip up racial anxieties for political gain, which is essentially the entire GOP platform. Anyhow,
that's before they arrived. I want to see if after two, three, four, five, six ' ten, one hundred planeloads or bus loads, if the county commissioner has the same view.
Three years ago you said that, Senator, and now we're seeing that Democrats are actually saying, man, this is really effective, Like this was really really effective. You did this as stopped the Surge Act in October twenty twenty one.
And by the way, three years ago, notice that number four point two million illegal immigrants were now over twelve million. What has happened at our southern border is an experiment in radicalism that has never been tried in the United States of America. Our country is struggling the suffering that has occurred, and I will say the actual sending of planeloads and bus loads of illegal immigrants to Blue strongholds.
It showed the complete and utter hypocrisy as every Democrat mayor, every Democrat governor, every Democrat county executive completely demonstrated everything they'd been saying was a lie, and it broke through the media freeze out in a way nothing else did. I think Katie Kirk's right that that single action of demonstrating Democrat hypocrisy on this issue could well have decided the presidential election last month.
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.
Speaking of conspiracy theories, at six months ago they said we're not real, or five months or four months or three months, even two months ago, and then it becomes real That brings me to the second big topic that we mentioned earlier, and let's go back to Colorado. Let's go back to what the White House and the media said. They said that it was not happening, that there were not gangs that had been taking over apartment complexes and running these criminal gangs out of them in Aurura, Colorado.
They said this was a lie, that it wasn't true. Then they said, well, it's only happening in a couple of them, not that many, so it's not a big deal.
They changed their story again, and.
Now we were right all along, a legal alien invasion in Colorado. Number one is real, and number two, you have fourteen detained in Aurora, Colorado in a horrific home invasion that are likely illegal gang members. Police are now staying saying when individuals were not only taken, but they were tortured.
Well, Martha Raddits at ABC dismissed this, said, oh, it's only a handful of apartment complexes, which with the classic contempt of the elite left looking down on little people that live in apartment buildings who are being terrorized. But this story broke this week. The headline from Fox News fourteen detained in armed Aurora, Colorado home invasion are likely illegal gang members. Home invasion occurred at the Edge at Lowry Apartments, where viral videos showed gang members earlier this year.
So the media tell told us, don't believe your lying eyes. Oddly enough, the same thing they're saying about the drone sightings of the sky. But here's what Fox reported. Quote Police at Aurora, Colorado say the overnight armed home invasion at a local apartment complex that resulted in fourteen suspects
being detained was quote without question, a gang incident. Just before two thirty am on Tuesday, police were called to the Edge at Lowry Apartments for a reported armed home invasion in which the victims were kidnapped and assaulted, the Aurora Police said. Aurora Police Department Chief Todd Chamberlain said during the Tuesday news conference that thirteen to fifteen people, mostly males with some females, entered an apartment where two
people were inside. Police say the suspects took the migrant victims to another apartment at the same location, where the victims were threatened and bound. One of the victims, a man, sustained a stab wound, but is expected to survive. Police said both of the victims are still at the hospital for treatment for their injuries. At some point, authority said, the suspects released the victims, who then called nine one one. Quote they were pistol whipped, they were beat they were mistreated.
Chamberlain said, so does that fall in the category of torture for me? Yeah, it does. That's the chief of police in Aurora, Colorado. And he went on to say, quote, this is without question a gang incident. I don't know which gang they're affiliated with. Yes, Chamberlain said that quote there is a high assumption that they may be affiliated with the TDA, the trender Aragua gang, but he stopped short of declaring which gang in particular was involved because
he could not be certain. At this time, we were told this wasn't true, and yet it is true.
Well, and let's go back to Martha Raddick, because this was when she was getting into it with JD. Vance on this issue, and I want you to hear what she had to say. And again, this goes back to the lies. When people don't trust the media or the government when they lie to.
Us, stop you. The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment conflicts apartment complexes, and the mayor said, our dedicated police officers have acted on those concerns. A handful of problems.
Only, Martha, do you hear yourself?
Only a handful of apartment complexes in America were taken over by Venezuelan gangs. And Donald Trump is the problem and not Kamala Harris's open border. Americans are so fed up with what's going on, and they have every right to be.
By the way, if it's your apartment complex, I think it is a big deal when you have it being taken over by the.
Government and stop lives an opulent She's a multi millionaire. It's not her problem. Her home wasn't taken over by Venezuelan gang, So why should she possibly be concerned? And listen, that liberal contempt for ordinary Americans is a big part of the reason we saw the overwhelming election results we did in November.
Finally, Senator, I want to get to this other issue, and that is Uh, there's a study that has come out. It's really shocking and it is one where I guess you call it a poll that young people in this country actually are understanding of this assassin in New York City who killed the Healthcare CEO, saying it's almost justifiable that this is happening to people that work in industries they don't like.
Yeah, this is really stunning. So Emerson College put out a poll, and they polled people's attitudes towards the healthcare ceo assassination. Here's what they concluded. Quote, a majority of voters, sixty eight percent think the actions of the killer of the United Healthcare CEO, Brian Thompson are unacceptable. So I want you to pause and think about that. Only sixty eight percent of Americans think it is unacceptable to murder
someone in cold blood. Seventeen percent find the actions acceptable murdering someone in cold blood, mind you, while sixteen percent are unsure. Now, if you break it down a little more, here's what Emerson College continues. Quote, well, sixty eight percent voters overall reject the killer's actions. Younger voters and Democrats are more split. Forty one percent of voters aged eighteen to twenty nine find the killer's actions acceptable, while forty
percent find them unacceptable. So, according to Emerson College polls, more young people age eighteen to twenty nine find the cold blooded murder of this ceo acceptable, then find it unacceptable, And it's forty one percent to forty If you break down that forty one percent, twenty four percent say it is somewhat acceptable, and seventeen percent say it is completely acceptable. Yes, murder of CEO. We've been trained like good little Marxists.
Shoot them now. By the way, if you break it down on party lines, twenty two percent of Democrats find them acceptable, while fifty nine percent find them unacceptable. So over a fifth of Democrats think it's perfectly fine to murder a CEO, to murder a man in cold blood, to shoot him in the back, and the comparison among Republicans, twelve percent of Republicans find the actions acceptable and sixteen
percent of independence find the actions acceptable. I got to say, look, of all of those polls, the one that is the most horrifying is forty one percent of young people find the killer's actions acceptable and only forty percent find them unacceptable. So a plurality of young people say, hey, no problem,
murder someone who's a CEO. That is as stunning an indictment of the brainwashing that young people are receiving in school in K through twelve education in colleges and universities and through the media as anything I've ever seen.
It is the doctrination.
And it's also I think the radical left taking over education where and they're normalizing it. It's what you and I talked about on this podcast a couple of days ago. The left has normalized the idea of assassinating people you disagree with who are in positions of power and giving you reason to believe that it is justifiable.
And remember Joy Bihar on the view said it was terrible that I said it was leftists who are saying this. Well, look that polling data shows it's Democrats and it's young. It doesn't break it down by liberal or conservative. But I am very confident a significant percentage of those young people that think it's acceptable would also identify as leftists. And we know that young people skew further left anyway. This is Look, let me repeat what ought to be
a simple proposition. Murder is always, always, always wrong, whether you like the person or not. And by the way, all the people who think the murder of this CEO is is so horrible, they don't know anything about him. They don't know about any health care climate claims. He denied. He was CEO of a major healthcare insurance company. Now, I get a lot of people don't like insurance companies. I've got issues with insurance companies. But this guy may
be a wonderful human being. We don't know. He was a father, he of two teenage kids. He was murdered in cold blood, and yet according to this poll, forty one percent of young people think perfectly okay to murder him. That is, we need to see people speaking out and saying this is wrong, period the end. Not like in when we covered this in Monday's podcast, Not like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and AOC murder is wrong, but it's okayar I understand it here. People can only be
pushed so far. No murder is wrong, period the end. That would actually be a good and sensible and moral and reasonable position and what was understood throughout American history, at least in modern times. But for the cultural Marxist murder of the enemy, no problem.
As before.
If you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and dow 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.
Here's the third principle. I want to say. There are some people arguing for eliminating the debt ceiling permanently, altogether, just getting rid of the death ceiling, never again having to worry about it. And by the way, one of the plans that's discussed is, well, the Democrats have always wanted to eliminate the death ceiling, so let's just do that, and that's how we get out of this. I pray
that is not the end game here. Eliminating the debt ceiling would be the single worst step we could possibly take if you care about spending or deficits or debt. Now, why is that? Okay, let's do a little history. Historically, the debts has been the single greatest leverage Republicans have had to force spending restraint. Now, this has only happened, and it's only worked against the opposing party. So one of the challenges with the debt ceiling is when your
own party is in power. Trump wants the dead ceiling raised. Every president wants the dead ceiling raised. Republicans, as a general matter, are not willing to exert massive leverage on their own parties president and force spending restraints. So when Trump was president the first time, the debt ceiling was not leverage against Trump because Republicans didn't want to do that.
I understand that. But when Democrats are in the White House, Republicans, the debt ceiling is the single most effective lever point that has been used against Democrats to force spending restraints. And I want to point to a couple of examples. Number one, Graham Rudman Hollings. Graham Rudman Hollings, passed decades ago, remains the single most effective spending restraint that has ever been passed into law. Phil Graham, former Senator from Texas,
was the lead author. How did that get passed? It got passed because of the debt ceiling. Got passed because Republicans forced it and said, we won't raise the debt ceiling unless you pass meaningful structural reform to reign in spending. And Graham Hollings was in effect for many years and had a very positive effect reigning in the growth of spending. I'll point to a second example twenty ten, the Budget
Control Act. Twenty ten, Barack Obama was president and Republicans used the debt ceiling to force Barack Obama to agree to something called the Budget Control Act. The Budget Control Act again significantly constrained the growth of federal spending. It was only through the debt ceiling we got that. Now the argument. And by the way, today we the Republicans senators, we all had lunch. JD. Vance came to express his views.
To the lunch, there were a number of Republicans saying, well, we should just get rid of the debt ceiling now. And I'll tell you I expressed my views. If we get rid of the debt ceiling, it would be utterly disastrous. If you care remotely about government spending, eliminate the debt ceiling would be a massive mistake. And I just put it up. If we get rid of the dead ceiling, there will come another Democrat president. I get the urge to live in the moment of we're in charge. Wuoha.
But unfortunately, there will come another time when the American people elect a Democrat. And for anyone who has an attention span beyond twelve seconds, you recognize throughout history that politics has been a pendulum, and it goes from one party to the other so we will get another Democrat president. And I told my colleagues today at lunch, I said, all right, you get rid of the debt ceiling. Get
ready for president Elizabeth Warren. And if you don't like a thirty six trillion dollar debt, get ready for fifty trillion dollar debt. Because the Democrats, Elizabeth Warren wants to eliminate the death ceiling. AOC wants to eliminate the death ceiling. Chuck Schumer wants to eliminate the dead ceiling because they want to spend us into oblivion. So I will say, one potential way out of this is to cut an absolute deal with the Democrats that gets rid of the
debt ceiling forever. We will have given away what history has proven. And by the way, I'll go back. I'll go back to about a decade. I don't have the most recent stats, but about a decade ago, it was the case that of the previous fifty one times Congress had raised the debt ceiling, twenty eight of those times that had attached meaningful conditions to the death ceiling. So
it's leverage. Remember my principal number two. As you was spending for leverage, this is related on principal number three. The death ceiling is about getting leverage for concessions. Now here's the problem I mentioned to you. There are a bunch of Republicans in the House who say they'll never vote for continue resolution. There are also a bunch of Republicans in the House who say they will never, ever ever vote to raise the debt ceiling. I got to
tell you, I don't think that makes any sense. I've never said it, and I consider myself very much a fiscal conservative. But forty percent of every dollar the federal government spends is borrowed unless you're prepared to slash the federal government budget by forty percent tomorrow. And by the way, there is literally no serious person on planet Earth who is prepared to do that and is able to do that. Even if you would with a magic wand do that,
there's no way to make that happen. Unless you're prepared to do that, the debt ceiling will have to be raised. My position has always been I'm willing to vote to raise the debt ceiling if we are getting concessions that are raining in the out of control spending that's bankrupting our country. However, in the House. There are a bunch of Republicans who simply say, I will never ever ever vote to raise the dead ceiling, no matter what. It doesn't matter what we get. My answer is no, that
is a real problem. Let me make one final principle. Mike Johnson, who's the Speaker of the House. There are a bunch of voices on TV, a bunch of voices on talk radio, a bunch of voices on Twitter saying get rid of Mike Johnson, throw them overboard. I'm going to tell you something that I believe is an absolute fact. Mike Johnson is the single most conservative Speaker of the House that will ever be Speaker of the House in our lifetime. He is undoubtedly the most conservative Speaker of
the House we have ever had in our lifetime. It's not even close, It's not even arguable. And I'm here to tell you listen, Mike Johnson may lose his job over this. He has a very perilous It's a tiny majority in the House. You've got a bunch of House members saying I'm going to vote against him. I will tell you this, if Mike Johnson is toppled a Speaker of the House, and he might be Kevin McCarthy was. Mike Johnson is orders of magnitude more conservative than Van McCarthy.
It's not even close. If Mike Johnson is toppled as Speaker of the House, we will end up with a Speaker of the House who is much much more liberal than Mike Johnson. I think that is indisputable. I know Mike Well, he's a good man. He's a decent man. He's a strong Christian, he is a man of humility. And everyone on Twitter is saying, but he gave the Democrats concessions. I want to go back to the first principle.
I said, count to two eighteen. If Mike Johnson could draft a bill that makes it out of the House with two hundred and eighteen Republicans, he would I don't believe that is possible. There's certainly nothing to indicate its possible right now. If you cannot get to two eighteen with Republicans because a bunch of Republicans say I will not vote for anything you propose, no matter what, then Mike Johnson is forced to get Democrat votes. To get
Democrat votes, he must give Democrats things they want. And so I don't know what will happen. I think there's a reasonable chance somehow out of this we get some very short term cr a week or two or three, and then in mid January we're back in the middle of this mess again. That's possible. I'll tell you. In the state, we're all sitting there. We have no idea what's going to happen. I gotta tell you. I feel
for Mike Johnson. I think he is trying with all his might, and I would just encourage you to focus on listen. I think we need people to be serious about changing the direction of the battleship of government, and to do so, you actually need a strategy that can get the votes to prevail. If you can't get the votes, it's easy to tweet about it. I mean that's from the cheap seats. Thirty eight Republicans voted No. One hundred and seventy four is not to eighteen, and so I
don't know what the result is here. I think it is chaotic. We will get through this one way or another. But the fundamental structural dynamics, and it's one of the things look going forward into the next year. I'm really optimistic about the Trump presidency. I'm really optimistic about a Republican Senate in the House. But I'll tell you the Senate's going to be a lot easier. We've got fifty
three Republicans coming in next year. By the way, we still have a Democrat Senate today, so I haven't even this whole discussion has ignored the fact that you've got to get Chuck Schumer and the Democrats to agree with whatever you do, which is even harder. But next year we'll have fifty three Republicans in the Senate. Fifty three is a big enough majority that we can lose three votes and still get things done. So I think the Senate will be able to pass pretty good legislation, not fantastic,
not wonderful, but surprisingly good. The House worries me enormously next year because the majority is so excruciatingly small that if you lose a handful of votes, you cannot get to to eighteen. And so I think Mike Johnson is trying to work miracles right now. But the single hardest challenge of the next two years in terms of passing good legislation is going to be getting to too eighteen in the House. And I don't know what the answer is.
To that 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 Ben Ferguson Podcasts, and we will see you back here on Monday morning.