Welcome. It is Verdict with Center, Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you and Center. We've got a lot to talk about tonight. But everyone seems to really be talking about these drones in New Jersey as we're doing the show. I'm in New York City. Everywhere I went today people were talking about these drones. People were showing me videos on their phone when I was at Fox. They're concerned about it. And there's a bigger issue, and that's lack of people having trust in our government right now.
Well, that's exactly right. People are talking about the drones that are being seen up and down the East Coast. We're going to break that down, tell you what we know about that, and tell you what it says about the state of trust in government and the media right now. Today, we also have a story that just broke of gang members arrested in Aurora, Colorado. You know, the media told us this was not a problem, that were not Venezuelan gang members there. Well it turns out they are. They
engage in a home invasion. We're going to break that down as well. And finally, a new survey that that really is going to shock you. It's a survey of young people that found a very significant percentage of young people find the murder of the healthcare CEO acceptable. It is truly stunning the consequence of the ideological brainstorming of our young people. We're going to lay those numbers out as well.
Yeah, it's just shocking and sad to see these the data you just mentioned. I want to tell you real quick about Patriot Mobile. If you have a cell phone, and your cell phone is a big mobile, then you need to know that your money is working against you when you pay your bill. They give big donations to democratic causes, candidates and radical organizations, organizations that advocate for defunding the police, for example, and organizations that pay for
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it foreign governments spying on us? There's a bigger conversation that I think we need to have, and that is I am genuinely worried now that there are so many
Americans that have no trust in the US government. They have no trust in our in our agencies like the FBI or the CIA or the Department of Homeland Security because they've been lied to, whether it's on COVID or whether it's on us having a secure border like my orcs said over and over again, or a lying to us about saying tarists are not coming across the southern
border when there's people on the Terrace watch list. And so now with this drone thing, there's a genuine concern and paranoia that when the government comes out and says, hey, everything's okay, everybody says, why would I believe you?
Look, that's a fair question, and I'm going to start with I've been in the US Senate twelve years. I have the top level classified clearance, I have classified briefings regularly, and I'm here to tell you I have no friggin idea what's up in the sky. It actually as frustrating as all get out. So I'm going to walk you through some of the data points. I'm going to walk you through what I've been told and where the American
people are. First of all, we're getting reports all up and down the Eastern Seaboard about people seeing strange things in the sky. For example, Governor Larry Hogan, former governor Maryland, he tweeted out the following quote. Last night, beginning at around nine to forty five pm, I personally witnessed and videoed what appeared to be dozens of large drones in the sky above my residence in Davidsonville, Maryland, five miles from our nation's capital. I observe the activity for approximately
forty five minutes. Like many of observed these drones, I do not know if the increasing activity over our skies is a threat to public safety or national security, but the public is growing increasingly concerned and frustrated with a complete lack of transparency and the dismissive attitude of the federal government. The government has the ability to track these from their point of origin, but has mounted a negligent response people are rightfully clamoring for answers, but aren't getting any.
We are being told that neither of the White House, the military, the FBI, or Homeland Security have any idea what they are, where they're coming from, or who has launched or is controlling them, and that they pose no threat. That response is entirely unacceptable. I join with the growing bipartisan chorus of leaders demanding that the federal government immediately address this issue. The American people deserve answers and action now. So that's one data point. Look, Larry Hogan is a
serious and credible observer. He's reporting what he's seeing.
Now.
Here's another another tweet. This is from Congressman Tom Keene in New Jersey. Quote, We here in New Jersey are at our wits end with the complete absence of answers on drone activity over our neighborhoods. The federal government should either explain if these are our government's assets in practice, or if these are truly unknown flights, responsibly remove one from the sky for examination. Either option would lead us to an answer, and the public is rightfully demanding closure here.
Nothing about what is occurring is acceptable. Governor Murphy and President Biden need to step up right now. So that's two data points. Now, I got to say. I asked my staff, the incoming chair of the Senate Commerce Committee. The Senate Commerce Committee, among other things, has jurisdiction or the FAA. I asked my team find out from the
FAA what the hell these are. Staff had a briefing with the FAA and the FBI and other agencies, and what we were told is there's no evidence that they're drones. But they have been able to verify that what people see are man deviation because there are flight plans and I've heard different people say one staffer is speculated. Quote the ones in New Jersey or airplanes, the ones that Hogan saw are stars. The reason they all look small is because is not because they're drones, but because they're
far away. Now, I don't have any freaking clue. I don't know what the truth is or what the falsity is. And listen, at the end of the day in the Senate, I don't have control of satellites. I don't have the information to assess what is accurate or not. But why is the federal government not directly answering this. You're right, everybody is asking this and their whole variety of theories. Some people are saying, you know what, it's UFOs, it's
little green men in the sky above New Jersey. Now, as much as I'd love to make a headline by saying I can guarantee you, I can prove to you right now it is space aliens above New Jersey, I do not, in fact have that information. Now I can't tell you it's not space aliens above New Jersey. I don't know. But the question you asked at the outset, Ben, I think is really very interesting, the number of Americans
who don't believe a damn thing they're being told. Why, Because the government, especially with the Biden administration, has demonstrated they're willing to lie over and over and over again. You remember the Chinese spy balloon. Government didn't let anyone know about.
That, shut it down to it. Yeah, and they didn't shoot it down until after it had completed what you would describe as a mission.
And remember look, the first government spy balloon we knew about. People up in Montana spotted it and said, hey, what the hell is that thing in the sky. And then the Biden administration reluctantly said, oh, yeah, this is spy balloons from China. And by the way, we've had a bunch of them before we knew about them, we didn't do anything about them. We let them fly over America. We let them fly over a military basis, We let
them spy on America, and we didn't tell you. And it wasn't until some citizens spotted it that we were caught. And then even after that, even after it was public, this is a Chinese spy balloon. It is being maneuvered to fly directly over a military bases to engage in surveillance. The Biden administration decided to let that Chinese spy balloon fly over the entire continental United States, from Alaska all the way across the country, and they finally shot it
down over the Atlantic Ocean. So all of us experience that when strange things were flying in the sky and the Biden administration knew what they were, they refuse to tell us. So so I don't think people are being unreasonable when you're getting lots of reports of people looking up seeing strange things in the sky, figuring, you know what, the Biden administration knows what these are, and they're not telling us. I've heard people speculate it's the military, it's experiments.
I have no idea, but I'm frustrated that when I ask, I don't get an answer. I will say this, and I do think this is a responsible thing to say. Ordinary citizens should not shoot them down if they are in fact manned aircraft. We don't want someone in a helicap copter getting shot down. So don't shoot at the thing flying above you if you see something flying above you, because you don't want to. You don't want to kill someone. You don't want to knock it down and have it
crashed down and injure or kill your neighbor. But I will say that there is a real need for for trendency. And it says an enormous amount that the level of distrust is so deep. And it's because we've seen this administration lie to the American people over and over and over again and expect them to believe the lies.
Here's another question, and you mentioned classified briefing, So if you'll explain kind of how this works, because there was a briefing to the media today and the briefing was, or the statement that came out from the US government. It was kind of like a KUMBAII universal statement from a lot of agencies under the Biden administration that this is not a threat from some adversary around the world.
Everybody calmed down, and then there were some House members that got it classified briefing, And immediately the question was asked by the media, is, well, if there's no threat here, why was it a classified briefing? If you're saying that this isn't US and it's not an adversary, So it is that a bunch to do about nothing? Or explain your thoughts on that and and and why it would have been done in a classified setting.
Possibly, Well, listen, and we've talked about this on on Verdict previously. Some time ago. Uh, there was a classified briefing on potential UFO sightings and I was really interested. I'm like, hey, I want to know this. I went down and I read the folder. I got to tell you, Ben, it was the most underwhelming thing I've ever seen, Like, like, if I wanted to reveal a classified secret about it, I couldn't because the whole thing said some people saw
some stuff, they didn't know what it was. Like that's it, Like there's a bunch of pages of I don't know. Some people said, so look, look, look up in the sky. It's it's a bird, it's a it's a plane, it's a dog. That, by the way, for people old enough to remember, is the opening of Underdog. Uh which which were you old enough to watch Underdog as a kid?
Ben?
I was not.
No.
I actually think this is the band.
List, this is the you're showing glaring right now.
So they're looking up in the sky. They go, it's a bird, it's a plane. It's a frog. A frog, not bird, nor plane, nor even frog. Just little old me Underdog. And it was the opening of a dog that would fly through the air like Superman. That's what when I was a little kid, the cartoon I watch. But to be honest, the classified briefing did not tell you anything more than the opening cartoon from Underdog. So why do they do classified briefings that don't say anything.
I don't know. Often the administration does it. I think it is in part a sense that they don't owe the American public leveling with them. I see all the time. And this is something actually both Republican and Democrat administrations do, but the Biden administration is particularly bad about it. They'll classify a briefing just because they don't want to talk about a topic, or because they think it's politically embarrassing,
not because looks are proper, properly classified. If it's so happened, uh that it was a spy satellite from from the American government, you would want to classify that. We don't. We're not in the business of telling people about our spy satellites. Since I have I have not attended a classified briefing on the drones. I have no idea if it's that or not. People have speculated that, but I
have no information one way or the other. What I would just say is, at this point, so many people have reported seeing this, including credible serious people, that I think the federal government owes the American people just some level of leveling. Hey, here's what you're seeing, here's what's going on. You know, it's it's a flight test for this, it's that, or what what whatever it is. And and the fact that that that the people are basically told
what you're worried about doesn't count. I mean, listen, you said you're you're in New York City right now. You said people were talking about all day long that that's everywhere quest to me. Yeah, the government ought to frigid answer it, and they won't tell members of the Senate. So if they won't tell me that, they don't view it that they owe anything to Congress, they don't view
it that they owe anything to the American people. And no wonder so many Americans fundamentally distrust our government when you don't have the government leveling with you and just telling you the basic facts, and by the way, just saying it's nothing to worry about, Well, that's not comforting. They said the same thing with the Chinese spy balloon, which they never would have told us about if it were not for people who spotted it with telescopes and binoculars.
And to be clear, by the way, they finally admitted there had been multiple Chinese sky balloons before that. They never told Congress that. They never told me that, not once until the public spotted it. And so when you have a long pattern of lack of candor with the American people, it's unsurprising the American people are deeply distrustful. And that's that's not a healthy thing.
No, And let's talk about two other aspects. Of this and it deals with national security. You and I several months ago talked about the number of drone incursions that were happening at the southern border and how the cartels down there are using an incredible number of drones to basically spy on us, whether.
It's Hens of South Servins.
Right, there's like thirty thousand incursions in this certain time period that we talked about, my memory is correct. And yet they're using them for intelligence to see where we're moving and how we're trying to protect our border, to human smuggle, sex trafficking, fetnyl drugs, all of it. Put it all together, and that's it. Then we have a second now aspect of drones, and it's what we're witnessing in the Middle East. We are seeing drones that are
being used to attack in the Middle East. We've seen drones that have been used in the war between Russia and Ukraine at a level that I think five ten years ago no one could have imagined. And then we had a drone expert on TV who was asked a couple of different things, one about shooting down drones, but two does our government have what it takes to take out hardened drones, drones that may actually be used by adversaries,
whether it's terrorists or other countries. And Scott Jenning absters him the question about hey, like, if you've got a drone over your house, can you shoot this thing down? And here's what he had to say. It's very interesting some of these constraptions by my house.
But I am not a counter I wrote this down a counter drone expert. You got the coodest job I have ever known about it.
I have a question, can you shoot these things down?
So let me answer that a man who got a gun.
No, but go ahead, sorrd Yeah. Legally no, they're treated the same a shooting down aircraft which would carry even a smaller and even your own.
Interesting and shoot your own I'm just saying it wasn't the law hypothetically speaking, would it be dangerous to shoot?
Still a terrible idea for a normal civilian to attempt to shoot.
Then show us these these two that are closest to you, because these two have been through some things.
What happened to these drones? So these drones were taken out of the sky. The way that we test that is in special facilities. We're a kind of drone company. We build auto amiing firearms to actually take them down with bullets.
Uh.
The common method for drones to be taken out of the sky via law enforcement in agencies is with electromagnetic weapons like jammers and spoofers and microwaves. But they don't work against drones that are hardened. And that I think is a really scary undertone to this whole drone mystery is that we lack the kinetic responses necessary with our law enforcement in federal agencies. So the DD does maintain that we said.
Drones that are hardened, meaning that they are made to not be taken out.
Of the story.
Right.
Yeah, And it's a very simple thing to do, like microwaves, to harden a drone for microwaves, find it is a copper tation.
Should be a drone that size?
Could you put a weapon on.
That you could put you could carry a couple of pounds a weapon being explosives? Absolutely wow, So I mean that's not big at all.
Could you hear it coming?
Is it lowed?
They're pretty loud, but you don't know where it's coming from. It's actually a pretty terrifying experience.
See that's why it's all these people I mean are.
Hearing I mean well over the weekend.
I mean if you just stop there. What my big concern is now center is we are seeing drones use them Middle Least, we are seeing terrorists use them. We're seeing the cartels use them. We're seeing all these up. We don't have any answers. And then this drone expert is saying, quote, we lack the kinetic response from law enforcement to combat hardened drones that could be used against anyone anywhere in the country.
Yeah. Look, I've been down on the southern border where border patrol on boats on the Rio Grande River that they will use guns to take down drones from the cartels. But an ordinary citizen can't do that. And the problem is you maybe can do that with one or two, but you can't do that with a thousand. You can't do that with five thousand, or ten thousand, or twenty
thousand or thirty thousand. And I will say that that's one of the dangers of the directions warfare is going, is that we're seeing more and more or synchronized drones being used in warfare, drones being used for surveillance, and the danger of hardened or weaponized drones is real and significant. Then let me be clear. I want to reiterate, I have no evidence that these are drones that are over the Eastern seaboard. But the Biden administration is doing nothing
to assuage people's fears. They're not leveling with the American people. They're telling them just hey, don't worry about it, nothing to see here, and based on their past pattern of lying, that does not inspire confidence.
Final question on this, John Kirby came out and said this about the drones, trying to, I guess, make people feel better. It didn't make me feel better, but he said fellow authorities are now investigating one hundred tips on drone activity. Here's what the White House National Security Communications Advisor said.
Well, I would repeat what we've said yesterday and last night in a multiple agency statement that we have taken a serious look at this. We have gone through five thousand some odd sightings, we have added detection capabilities to the region, We've even sent up visual observers, and everything we're seeing to date, our assessment tells us that these are commercial drones, hobbyist drones, or law enforcement drones, all operating legally and.
Lawfully, nothing to worry about. Everything's fine. I just think this goes back to that issue we talked about the very beginning to bring it back full circle. Any why would anybody believe him even if he is saying spot on it's true when there's so many unanswered questions.
And by the way, that's completely different from what the FA and the FBI briefed my staff where they said they were manned aircraft. So now John Kirby is standing up saying their drones, which is it? Like what is When you have multiple and conflicting answers, people naturally distrust them, and it's why you get lots and lots of conspiracy theories. But part of the problem with conspiracy theories is everything we're told is a conspiracy. Six months later, proove's true.
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 Aurora, 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 Radits 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 video 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 of Lowery 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 the 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 and he went on to say, quote, this is without question a gang incident.
I don't know which gang they're affiliated with yet. 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 on the with JD. Vance on this issue. And I want you to hear what she had to say. And again, this is 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 CONFLX 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.
Stop lives in opulence. 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.
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holiday season. Go to support IFCJ dot org to donate now, that's support IFCJ dot org alltogether, or you can call them at eight eight eight for eight eight IFCJ that's eighty eight four eight eight four three two five. 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 the 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, uh 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, While sixty eight percent of 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 goles, 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 a 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, a 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 then indoctrination. 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 so horrible they don't know anything about him. They don't know about any health care clim 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 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 and when we cover 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, Yeah, no problem at all. Don't forget. We do this podcast Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You can also this in between days. Grab my podcast, the Ben Ferguson Podcasts, and I will keep you update on the latest breaking news. Make sure you hit that subscribe or autoload button right now, and most importantly, share this podcast wherever you are on social media. It helps us reach new people. And that's why we do the show to reach as many as
we possibly can. The Senat and I will see you back here on Friday morning.