Welcome.
It is Verdict with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you, and this is one of those fun shows where many of you are going to be listening on your way to go visit family all over the country.
I was in an airport today. It was insane. Center.
You were in an airport today, it was also, I'm sure insane with the holiday travel. So we will try to have a little bit of fun today and also give you some of the big news, which includes you hanging out with Donald Trump.
Today.
Not a bad day because it is.
By the way, as we're recording this, I have four more minutes to say this your birthday, Happy birthday.
Sir, Well, thank you. I'm fifty four years old today and it is eleven fifty six pm, so I will be It'll be my birthday for just four more minutes.
But I wanted to get that in there. And can we just say the age again because that's important to me.
Fifty four, and I will say a good friend of mine texted me and said I look great for sixty five, which I appreciated very much. I will say that there may have been some expletives in response to.
That, yes, as there should be there as there should be. So at fifty fort do you have any wisdom you'd like to bestow on? I have everyone listening right now, because I mean, let's be honest, that's like long.
I think I'm enough.
Apparently, I think I have enough wisdom that I do a podcast three days a week. So ah, I'm at least happy to prattle on about what's going on three times a week. Whether it's wise or not, I leave that to our incredible verdict listeners.
But by way, I make no promises. Well plad, he's still feisty at fifty four.
I love it.
So you hung out with you hung out with Trump today? That's not a bad birthday.
Yeah. So I started the day.
I was in Phoenix and I was at America Fest Turning Points, big rally there and it was incredible. Three thousand plus people, young people, mostly college kids, energized. They were incredible. So I started the day, gave a speech to Turning Point, which actually we're going to end the podcast with your hearing what I had to say.
Uh.
But then after I gave my speech, two speakers after me it was Donald Trump, and so I caught up with the President backstage and then he went, He went on stage and gave gave very concise hour and a half re marks, which we will not play the full hour and a half re marks, although they were actually they were fun.
I got to say.
President Trump was in a great mood. He was happy, he was loose, he was cutting jokes, he was feeling really good. So we are going to play at exchange because while he was standing on stage, he decided to call me up to say something. And the problem was I was backstage and didn't know he was going to do it. So he starts calling me up and I'm like what what? And so I kind of run from backstage. But there's an amusing back and forth where he's looking around,
going where the hell's dead? And since I didn't know he was going to do that, I was way backstage. I'm really glad I wasn't in the men's room when he did that. But we're going to play that exchange where we're.
By the way.
Let's just be clear. You love doing that too, Yes, to do that. And it's such a fun thing when you're up there and you know you can call somebody out and if they're not paying attention, you get to roast them and if they are paying attention. And I've been the butt of that once or twice so far in my time hanging around you, and and and you you relish the moment just as much as is Donald Trump.
Does, undoubtedly, and more will come. We're also going to talk about the fact that Joe Biden is talking about commuting every single murderer on federal death row. And this is something sadly that that verdict predicted a year ago. So we're going to walk through what the news is and what we predicted, but it is an incredible abomination
of justice. If Biden goes through with this. Then we're going to talk about the fact that SNL SNL talked about the murderer who murdered the healthcare CEO and the crowd cheered for the murderer and just exactly what that means. And then finally, as I said, we're going to give you my remarks to Turning point three thousand people.
It was energized.
It was an incredible day, and I got to say, the young men and women at Turning Point really do inspire me because they are working, they are passionate, they are fighting, they are turning this country around. And I think the victory we saw in November is in significant part due to their hard work and the hard work of millions across the country.
Yeah, no doubt about it.
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bendday to get free Amo in your account. All right, So let's paint the stage here for everybody that may not have seen your comments at turning Point, because when Donald Trump went up on stage, there was a really funny moment you mentioned in the intro there, and that was you being backstage. And then what was funny was is people start putting on social media as Center Cruz sneaking up on Trump on stage, which made me laugh because he was looking for you. And I'm glad that's
the Secret Service. Did you know, like tackle you or anything, But this is what Donald Trump had to say when he was looking for you.
It was hilarious.
Pleased to be joined by a man who just also we really did well in Texas. Then I heard Ted's speech and he can come up and speak more of you once or he can just you know, Ted's gonna be going to a big event. And a little while, where's Ted Cruise?
Is he here?
He's here someplace?
Ted Dad?
Oh oh, oh, he's in trouble.
He's in trouble.
By the way, the cheering right there is. I'm walking up behind him.
Oh oh good, he's not in trouble. Chief Texas, Texas. Amen.
And I've got to say this election has given President Donald J. Trump, a Republican Senate in a Republican House, a mandate to deliver on our promises. One month from today, President Trump will secure the border. We are going to bring back jobs. We are going to lower prices. We are going to protect American families. We're going to put criminals in jail. We are going to keep our kids safe.
We are going to end foreign wars with victory. And I'll tell you, mister President, the results of this election. Seven battleground states. You won all seven. The people elected a Republican Senate in a Republican House to have your back, and we are going to deliver results. And if I can speak parochially for a minute, one of the most
consequential things that happened in this race in Texas. You won profoundly in Texas, and both you and I won a majority of Hispanic votes in the great state of Texas. That is unprecedented. That is generational change, and it demonstrates that we are.
Going to protect our nation.
We are going to bring our country back, and we are going to make America great again.
He's a great He's actually a great guy. Was was really out there working.
Oh I'm so glad he was here.
Huh. That one.
That was an amazing moment.
I gotta tell you, I love just the end there he's smiling, he's grinning.
The demeanor and.
The interaction is just seems to be very different this time than it compared to twenty sixteen. It's like you guys are on the same football team going into the playoffs as a team and let's whoop some ass.
Well, I think that's exactly right. And I got to say at the entire America Fest, Trump was happy, he was relaxed, he was feeling good. You could see it in a way that just he was loose at having fun. And listen, we're coming in with an incredible mandate. We're going to transform I believe the country, and I think he's ready to get to work. And I know I am, and I think all of us are.
So let's talk about his agenda for a second. One of the things you tell talked about was the border. That seems to be a very central point of what he keeps talking about over and over again, and and is that something that you and him have talked about very clearly, like, Hey, this is square, this is step one.
Let's go. We're going to knock this out day one.
Absolutely. And the clearest single mandate of this election is to secure the border. People are fed up with Joe Biden the Democrats' open borders. They want it to end. They want the border secured. And we're going to get that done. And and Trump understands that. I think Republicans and the Senate understand that. Republicans of the House understand that. And and we're going to get it done, which is which is exactly what the voter sent us there to do.
I want to move to this other topic that's a big one, and that and that deals and we're going to obviously get to your turning point speech in just a little bit, and that'll be certainly a part of this UH in a moment. But I want to turn to another unfortunate I say, prediction UH is about to come true, and the news continues to break. And I think it's fair to say to the audience listening right now, brace yourself, because while you're spending time with your family
and your friends. Over Christmas and New Year's Joe Biden and the White House are going to be handing out some unbelievable pardons and clemency. And Biden is apparently granting clemency to people the on federal death row yet again, saying we don't care about justice for the victims. We are going to start pushing this political ideology.
Well, that's exactly right, and it is. You know, sadly, you could say, who could have predicted this? But the reality is you and I predicted this. We predicted this over a year ago, that Joe Biden was going to take federal death row and empty it and use his executive power. Now, listen to the Constitution gives them the power to grant pardons, gives them the power to grant clemency, and with pretty much no limits. It's essentially an unlimited power.
That being said, we've never had a president use that pardon power. We've already seen him use the pardon power to give his son a get out of jail free card for all of his illegal conduct. And we've talked about how I believe he's going to grant many more pardons to members of the Biden family, to Democrats, to those who have engaged in illegality.
But while he's.
Engaged in this business, he's also going to seek I believe, I think there's a very real risk he's going to seek to nullify federal law. Federal law passed by Congress signed by the President provides for the death penalty, the death penalty for the most egregious crimes. That includes the Boston bomber that murdered people at the Boston Marathon. And I think we are perilously close to Joe Biden emptying federal death row. So Politico reported this week, quote President
Joe Bliden. Biden is promising to flex his clemency powers again before he leaves office next month, booing hopes of capital punished opponents that he'll take a big step towards making good on his campaign promise to end the federal death penalty. Biden could use his authority to grant commutations to convert existing federal death sentences into life in prison. That would deal a serious blow to Trump's plans to bring back and even broaden the use of the death
penalty when he returns to power. The Justice Department has quietly recommended that Biden grant commutations to most of the forty people on death row, according to a person familiar with the discussions not authorized to discuss them publicly. Meanwhile, the Justice Department is also on the verge of publishing the findings of a long running internal review of the lethal injection protocol that the Trump administration adopted in twenty nineteen.
That protocol uses a fatal dose of a single sedative drug, pentobarbital, to put prisoners to death. Many experts and critics of the death penal have said the method, adopted due to shortages of other drugs used in executions, can cause extreme pain during a prisoner's final minutes. An anti death penalty activist say the DOJ's forthcoming report may bolster the case for clemency.
Quote.
We hope the review will find that the problems with legal ethal injection are one additional reason as to why President Biden should grant clemency to death row prisoners, said Ruth Friedman, whoever sees death penalty work for the federal defenders nationwide. This is if he does this, it is absolutely outrageous because, as I said, it is federal law. If he doesn't like federal law, propose a change to federal law, propose taking the death penalty off the books, but he doesn't.
Have the votes to do that.
Congress is not going to do that, and so he simply wants to lawlessly say, give me the very worst murderers, give me the Boston Marathon bomber, and I'm going to give them the gift of life. As I said, that's exactly what we predicted over a year ago.
Yeah, I want to play and just remind people exactly what was said. And it's I hate it when these predictions become reality because it's not good for the victims' families, it's not good for law and order, it's not good for justice. And yet this is exactly what we knew was going to happen because of the radicals within Joe Biden's administration and his viewpoint.
And by the way, I'm going to make a prediction as well, which is that these are not the only mass murderers that I think this administration is going to refuse to follow federal law and impose the death ben I'm going to make a prediction right now, which is Joe Biden before he leaves the White House will commute the sentence of every federal prisoner on death row.
That he will do it for every one of them.
And that includes It includes the white supremacist and Nazi who murdered nine African Americans at the Mother Emmanuel Ame Church in Charleston, South Carolina in a horrific hate crime.
He's on federal death row.
It includes the Boston bomber who murdered innocent people by exploding a bomb at the Boston Marathon. One of the two brothers is still alive. He's on death row. And my prediction right now is Joe Biden intends to spare every one of these mass murderers, every one of them. Many of them are racist, bigoted, homicidal lunatics, and I think we're going to see him commute all of their sentences before he leaves the White House.
I mean, we said that a year ago, Senator, and there was these these clear, you know moments where the mastermind Cleetchek Muhammad of nine to eleven. They were like, oh yeah, let's not put that out of death. Let's let's do a deal and let's let him live. And now we can see it. And you say, we're very close. It's becoming reality. What could stop this? What is there anything that people listening could do right now to say no to this?
Well?
Yes, And the podcast you just played was from August of twenty twenty three, so it was more than a year ago. It was last summer, and that was when the news was reported that the Biden administration was cutting a deal with Khalid Shaik Muhammad, the mastermind of nine to eleven, to take the death penalty off the table, and that was about to happen. And we coverted this on the podcast, and the news was ignoring it. CNN
was ignoring it. The networks we're ignoring it. We covered it at length, and I got to say our listeners were incredible. They lit up the phones, they began speaking out, they began tweeting about it, they began using their voice, and the political heat on the White House became so intense that I believe this podcast played a major role in ratcheting up the heat on the White House and causing them to back away from granting clemency and taking
the death penalty off the table for shake Muhammad. Right now, not only is Joe Biden considering sparing the life of the bomber at the Boston Marathon, also considering sparing the life of the bigoted racist who murdered African Americans at the Mother Emmanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina. And by the way, he's also considering sparing the mass murder at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in twenty eighteen.
And all of these you have vicious racists who committed mass murders, and yet the Democrat Party, they have embraced the notion that capital punishment is always wrong, even in the most egregious circumstances. And your question is, what can listeners do speak out if you're outraged, if you don't want these racist, bigoted psychos given clemency by the President of the United States, let your voice be heard. We turned it around with KSM. Let's turn it around with this as well.
It's also, I think a mindset that is starting to change in this country, and not in a good way.
The LAFT is.
Continuing to cheer and turn murderers into hero yes, and people that are just horrible human beings into I don't know, it's like they're movie scripts for them. It's this reality TV obsession where they're like, oh, we think because someone is attractive that therefore we should spare their life and because they went up against somebody we don't like, whether it be trying to assassinate Donald Trump or killing the CEO of the Healthcare coming in New York City as
an assassin. But the assassin looks nice. And now we're seeing it make its way into TV. I know you saw this as I did on Saturday Night Live this weekend, and it was disgusting as Saturday Night Live Live not only talked about this murder, but they actually the audience was cheering on the murder who killed the CEO.
Yeah, this was during the weekend Update on Saturday Night Live this weekend, and Colin Jos had a joke about the murder, not mass murderer, but the murderer who shot the healthcare CEO in cold blood and the reaction of the audience. This is a live audience in New York City. I gotta say it. It took my breath away. So
he just mentions his name. I'm not going to mention the murderer's name, but it is in this little excerpt, and I want you to hear the audience's reaction at hearing the name of this cold blooded murder play the clip.
Luigi Mangione drop, yeah, yeah, definitely woo. You're willing it for justice, right. Luigi Manzoni dropped his extradition fight and was flown from Pennsylvania to New York to face multiple charges. In related news, Bumble exploded.
I mean, I think he was actually a little shocked by the audience there that they were cheering like it was a rock star.
Charles Manson woohoo.
Jeffrey Dahmer yay, Ted Bundy, woohoo, Like what the hell is wrong with people in this New.
York city where this is being taped.
It he was shot not far from where this was taped. And listen, we've talked about this before. The leftists have spread the ideology that oppressors being the subject of violence is a good thing. Anyone defined as an oppressor. These are the same idiots that are cheering hamas in Israel. These are the same idiots who believe that violent revolution.
These are the same idiots that look the other way at Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots for an entire year because if it's a so called oppressor or so called victim against a so called oppressor. Violence and murder is okay. And I got to say watching that, listening to that, that's horrifying because the screams of joy we covered a week ago on this podcast, how Taylor Wrenz, the former reporter for the Washington Post, described that she felt joy when the CEO was murdered. Well, you know
what you just heard, screams of joy. And that is the poison that has been accepted sadly so far on the left of our society.
Yeah, it really is sad. And yet they again, they're turning these people into heroes. And now we're going to see this president give our clemency to people that have taken others' lives. And you wonder where our moral compasses in this country right now? It is being destroyed by the left. I want to talk to you real quick
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All right, Senator.
Finally, I want to get back to uh, the Turning Point event that you just left. Obviously, Donald Trump was there. You were asked to speak, and I want you to give us a quick preview before we play your speech, because this is one of the moose speeches that I think is really about setting the tone for what's coming in January when you guys have control of the Senate and the House and the White House.
Well, I started this morning speaking, and this is about an hour before the exchange that you heard at the beginning of the podcast with President Trump and me. I addressed, as I said, over three thousand young people activists at Turning Point. It was incredible, and I really wanted to encourage them. I wanted to encourage them that they had had a profound impact on this election on this country, and I also wanted to focus on now that we've won,
we've got a job to do. And so what I intempted to do in these remarks is lay out here are the deliverables that we need to accomplish in the next two years to have a clear vision for what to expect. I'm really excited. I'm excited about President Trump being reelected and coming back into office. I'm excited about a Republican Senate and a Republican House. But I also have in front of me the absolute seriousness we needed
to deliver on our promises. And so that's what I had to say to Turning Point this morning.
Take a listen as we play this right now.
God bless Turning Points. We are looking at America. We are gathered here at truly a momentous time. If you were young and passionate and it was seventeen seventy six, you would have been part of transforming and creating the United States of America. If you were young and passionate in the year was nineteen eighty and the Reagan Revolution was happening, you would have been part of transforming the United States of America and today in twenty twenty four.
You are young and passionate, and every one of you is integral to transforming the United States of America. The Washington Swamp is terrified of you. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris are terrified of you. Joe Biden, well, no, he's actually not terrified. He don't know where he is, but he is wondering what time the People's Court is on TV. If you look at what happened in November, the results of the election were clear and unequivocal. Seven
battleground states across America, we won all seven. And I've got to say Donald J. Trump is truly an extraordinary leader. Has there ever been anyone in American history who, after being shot in the head, stands up and respond, fight, fight fight. The American people have given us the White House, They've given us the House, they've given us the Senate.
Now it's time for us to deliver.
We have work to do to deliver on our promises. So a year from now, two years from now, four years from now, the American people can say they did exactly what they said they would do. Number One, Starting on January twentieth, we will secure the border. Catch and release ends on January twentieth. If you are an illegal alien, if you're a murderer, if you're a rapist, if you're a child molester, if you're a Venezuelan gang member, pack
your bags because you're getting the hell out. And I'm here to tell you that's not gonna take a year. It's not gonna take six months. We are going to see the numbers of illegal immigration plummet, and they are going to plummet in January and February of this year. Number two, we are going to unleash American energy. America is the world's energy superpower, the number one producer of oil in the world, the number one producer of natural gas in the world, and America will be energy dominant.
If you're fed up with high prices, high prices at the gas pump, high prices at the grocery store, high prices when you pay your bills. Energy feeds into every one of them. The American people in this election said enough is enough is enough, and we are going to lower energy costs and make life more affordable for everyone. Number three, we are gonna unleash small business. The regulators descending from Washington. We are going to repeal the rules
they're using to kill small businesses. And I'll tell you what. We are also going to unleash crypto. I'm proud to stand with crypto. I'm proud to stand with bitcoin, and I am the only member of the United States Senate who is in fact a bitcoin minor. I've got three miners hashing in West Texas right now, and it is beautiful. And let me say to all of crypto at all of bitcoin, come to Texas. Texas is the oasis for bitcoin. Number four, we will restore integrity to the Department of
Justice and the FBI. If you are a wild eyed partisan who has abused your power and targeted your political enemies at DOJ or the FBI, will pack your bags because your job is done.
And that means Number five.
We will enforce the law, especially against universities across this country. The anti Semitic protests we've seen at universities.
Will end next year.
If if you violently protest, if you threaten your fellow students, you will be arrested, you will be expelled, and if you're a foreigner, you will be deported. And we're going to see the Department of Justice and the FBI follow the money, go after the money, cut off the money. We're going to see universities that tolerate anti Semitism having
their federal funds cut off. And when your fellow students look around and say, hey, why didn't this happen before, Why did everyone look the other way at the violence and the threats and the hatred and the bigotry, You're going to be in a position to tell them. And we will end the wars with victory. The war in Ukraine will end this next year, and Vladimir Putin will lose, and the war in Israel will come to an end, and Hamas will lose, Hezbalah will lose, Iran will lose.
Every one of you stand up and speak, and I want to encourage you inform your friends. When I ask you, pull out your cell phone. Pull out your cell phone and send the word text the word verdict to the number two four zero zero five. That number again, two four zero zero five. Text the word verdict. You will get in back a link to subscribe to my podcast that is designed to help inform you to be You are the ones who won this election. You are the ones who are persuading your colleagues.
You are the.
Ones who are informed and educated, in engaged, and just as if we were in nineteen eighty, just as if we were in seventeen seventy six. I stand here today amazed and inspired to be in the company of patriots who love America, who together we are making America great again. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
Center.
It's really exciting to just see where we're going to be going over the next year. We're going to be covering it all here and for all of you that are getting ready for Christmas, I just want to make sure I say Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Don't forget what this is about. Be safe on the road.
Center.
I know you want to say something as well well.
I just want to wish everyone a merry Christmas. I hope you have a wonderful and blessed Christmas. I hope you spend time with your family, hugged your loved ones. I hope you focus on God's love for us, his salvation for us, and take a minute away from the craziness upon politics, just to be thankful for the blessings we enjoy as Americans, the blessings we enjoy with God's love. Merry Christmas,