Welcome in this Verdict with Ted Cruz, the Weekend Review. Ben Ferguson with you, and we had some very big stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week. First up, usaid the abuse that has been found out of our government tax dollars going to corrupt organizations, even to terrorists, is now all being exposed because.
Of Elon musk In Doge.
So what do we found out. We'll give you the list in just a moment. Also, what are the needs of Israel? Well, Benjamin nette Yahu set down with Senator Ted Cruz for about two hours talking about exactly what's happening in Israel and what they need from us. We'll break all that down for you as well. And finally, it's going to be a new day at the FBI if caspitel can get the votes needed this week. So what did he have to say to Senator Cruz.
We have that for you.
It is the Weekend Review and it starts right now. People that in this show and conservatives out there said okay, let's let everybody know where your tax hours is going. After Elon must and Doge yet again blowing the whistle, they're gonna I mean, they got to be exhausted because they're finding so much waste, fraud and abuse in our government.
And a perfect.
Example of this is US A I D and some of the abuse that they found walk us through it.
Well, I gotta say Elon Musk is doing a fantastic job. He is working around the clock at at DOGE and and really focused on on reining in government spending and reining in the absolute abuse, the abuse that you would never see in a private company, but but yet in in government is is commonplace. And it is a result of politicians funding their their their own political hobbyhorse, their
own political pet project. And and so I got to say, what one of the areas that that that Doge in the new White House has done is freeze funding at US A I D and. And Democrats in the media have been losing their minds over this, have been lighting their hair on fire. In fact, a bunch of Democrats went to the USAID offices to storm the offices this week, which was really pretty ridiculous. But but they're really they're very very upset about it.
They're not set by the way about the abuse of the money and the fraud. Then there they're just upset that they've lost their power.
Right, Well, they're upset that the abuse is stopping. But you know, when reporters have asked me about it, I've said, listen, uh. The president got a mandate from the American people, and part of the mandate is to stop the out of control spending in debt, and the USAID engages in all sorts of abuse. Let me give you some of the examples. USI ai D spent one point five million dollars for advancing DEI in Serbia's workplaces. They spent two million dollars
for sex changes in Guatemala. They spent six million dollars for tourism in Egypt. They paid for quote hundreds of thousands of meals that went to al Qaeda affiliated fighters in Syria. They gave funding for the production of opium, the primary ingredient in heroin in Afghanistan, which benefited the Taliban. Yeah, they spent one million dollars to help disabled people in Tajikistan become quote climate leaders. They spent one million dollars
for Hamas linked charity. And they spent fifteen million dollars for contraceptives and condoms in Taliban controlled Afghanistan. This is all nonsense. This is a waste, and there's a reason Elon Musk is going after it. There's a reason President Trump is going after it. And there's a reason Democrats in the press are horrified that this gravy train is stopping.
It is a gravy train, and it's a very, very big one that's costing taxpayers massive amounts of money. Elon Musk said early on that he thought there was probably like ten percent waste in our government. He's now changing those numbers. I want to get your reaction. He's saying it could be well above twenty percent.
Yeah, there's massive waste, and it is by design. Understand, it's not just that they picked things out of a hat. These are all ideological. This is the agenda of the radical left. They're funding the agenda of the radical left. But it shouldn't be the taxpayers paying for this nonsense. And let me give you an example of one of the ones that I found frankly funniest AOC Alexandria Kja Cortez went off on Elon Musk this week, and listen
to what she says. Her argument is that Elon Musk is a dummy, give a listen.
This dude is probably one of the most unintelligent billionaires have ever met or seen are witnessed, which you know, you can probably even glean that from watching these people on TV. Anyways, all of that is to say is that they don't do their homework. Clearly like they're putting nineteen year olds in at the Treasury. This dude is not smart. And the danger in not in the lack of intelligence and the lack of expertise that Elon has.
I mean, this guy is one of the most morally vacant but also just least knowledgeable about these systems that we really know of. But the point is is that what that means is that they're going to hit a button. Inevitably, they are going to hit a button and things can go sid.
I mean this, this is one of those moments where you actually get to watch that, you know what, the sausage being made in her brain. She's making it up and pausing as she goes to try to figure out a way to hit a guy that's having massive success at saving taxpayers dollars.
Look, I gotta say I laughed out loud when I listened to that and watch that it should be a Saturday Night Live skit. Of course, Saturdayight Live wouldn't actually make fun of liberals, so they wouldn't show it. But listen, you can criticize Elon Musk on all sorts of fronts, but the one front you can't criticize him on is being a dummy. I've spent a ton of time with Elon. Listen, I've been blessed, Ben. I have known a lot of brilliant people. I've known antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas and
Chief Justice William Renquist. I have known brilliant, brilliant scientists and world leaders, and I believe Elon Musk, this is, without exaggeration, is is the most brilliant man I've ever met. And I've spent a lot of time with Elon. If you think about the distribution of intelligence, you assume roughly eight billion people on planet Earth. Intelligence is distributed along a bell curve. Someone is at the bleeding edge of that bell curve, and I think Elon Musk is that person.
And I mean I've sat with him for two three, three and a half hours talking with him, and it's fascinating watching his brain work because the guy it's not even that he thinks outside the box. He doesn't know there is a box. And so, listening to AOC say he's unintelligent, I got to say, it reminded me of a scene from from my favorite movie, This One. And so give a listen to what AOC was saying. And she was really she was channeling the Sini. Give a
listen good, that's smart. Let me put it this way.
Have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates?
Yes, morons, So that's AOC. Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, elon musk morons. AOC. She knows what's right.
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, let's talk about.
The humanitarian side of this and the real need needs of the people in Israel. What did BB say from that standpoint? Because there is obviously a great humanitarian need we're talking about all this money with dods that we're finding that we're giving to all these people, many of them that are just waste and fraud and abuse and absurd things like transndered plays in certain countries. When you know, as an American, I don't mind helping our allies in times of need.
Israel is a great example of this.
There is so much money, though that's being used in such fraudulent ways that I do think there's a hesitancy now to just say, Okay, what do you need because it seems like everyone was taking from us and abusing it. I think Israel is very different, and that's why I want to bring this up.
But what are the needs?
So let me say, do you know what the amount of economic aid and assistance is that we give to Israel? How much? Zero dollars and zero cents. We do not provide economic aid to Israel. Israel's not asking us for money to feed its citizens. Israel's not asking for money to provide housing or cloth it citizens. Israel's not asking for money for relief. The only assistance the United States provides to Israel is military aid. Each year, we provide
roughly three billion dollars in military assistance. But that's we do no economic assistance. We're not paying welfare. We are providing military assistance. And do you know why we do that? Why this is something critically important to understand. We provide military assistance to Israel because it is good for America Israel. Think about this for a second. Everyone who hates Israel
hates America bingo. And by the way, those who hate Jews hate Christians, and everyone who Israel is fighting against they're doing so to protect Israel.
Of course, Well there's a reason why it's almost simultaneous. You hear death to Israel chance and death America chance. A lot of times they are intertwined.
The Ayahtola refers to Israel as the little Satan and America as the great Satan. And so listen. One of the things I said to Bibie, and I've said this to him many times, I said, thank you, thank you for killing terrorists, for taking out Hamas, for taking out Hezbela. These are lunatics that want to murder Israelis, and they want to murder Americans, and they have Look. October seventh was a horrific terrorist attack against Israel, but it was
also a horrific terrorist attack against America. Many Americans were killed, many Americans were taken hostage. And so we provide military aid to Israel because it keeps America safer, and it also is incredibly frugal, as a monetary matter because the benefits we get from Israeli intelligence. The Masad is one of the most effective and potent intelligence networks in the world.
And the Massad has incredible intelligence on hesblood Hamas, on Iran, on al Kaeda and Isis and all enemies of Israel, but also enemies of American Historically, they have shared that intelligence with us. If we tried to recreate the benefits we get from Israeli intelligence in their military, it wouldn't cost US three billion dollars a year. It would cost
us tens of billions of dollars a year. And so we make that investment because it keeps America safe, and they spend that investment to be very clear on taking out the people who want to kill Americans.
When you look at the money and you look at what's happening, and you look at the meeting today that you had and the needs that are there, I think there's a couple of just overall themes. One, Israel now knows that America does in fact have their back. Two, they can start sharing intelligence and talk about honest plans to protect Israel in America because they can trust this administration.
And that seems to be maybe the most valuable part of this three We both have a true, genuine agreement in our foreign policy that we must stop Iran from gaining that nuclear weapon.
And that also means now you've.
Got to figure out how you're going to stop it from happening, and that could be using military prowess to do it, Which brings me my fine question to you. Donald Trump's a guy that has been very proud about saying, I haven't started any wars, I get us out of wars, and I try to end them. Would you look at this as a war or more of a just a straight up attack on a nuclear weapons site.
How should Americans look at this?
Well, listen, it's important to understand President Trump is right, he has not started any wars. We did not have it. In fact, he ended wars. He inherited the war with ISIS from Barack Obama. ISIS had a caliphate, had territory about the size of the state of Indiana, and Trump within months defeated ISIS altogether and ended that war. Because
they were defeated and conquered the caliphate. There are some who try to say that America First foreign policy is isolationist, is just withdrawing from the world and not engaging with our enemies. That has not been the foreign policy of
Donald Trump. It's worth remembering that when President Trump in his first term, he gave the order to take out General Solimani, the the Iranian leader responsible for the murder of over six hundred American servicemen and women, the Iranian leader who had played a critical part in planning planning terrorist attacks against the United States and against Israel for years. And Solomoni, along with Nozrala, we're probably the two most
important terrorist leaders on the face of the planet. And President Trump ordered General Solimani taken out, and Prime Minister net and Yahoo ordered Nosralla taken out, and now neither one of them are able to threaten America or Israel.
It's incredible. I'm glad that you guys got to have this meeting. I also just am really thankful as you described it, that now I think Israel can trust that they have a partner in the US and they're not trying to They're not having to hide from the United States what the are trying to accomplish.
And we have the same goals.
Yes, and and by the way, another aspect of it. So look the efforts to attack Israel, you saw them directly through terrorism through October seventh. You saw them through Hamas and hezbla Uh and and to be clear, the Biden administration was responsible for a very substantial part of the funding for that October seventh attack. But but you also saw it through law fair through using international institutions
to go after Israel. And one of the most profound examples of the that is the International Criminal Court, which which has has indicted Bibi Uh for committing war crimes and and and that decision is grotesquely false. It was an anti Semitic attack on Israel. But but it is
also a profound threat to America. Israel is not a party UH to the International Criminal Court, neither is American and the International Criminal Court there's a real risk of it being used to go after American officials and American soldiers. The same enemies of Israel want to use the ICC to accuse American soldiers of committing war crimes when we stand up to terrorists. And so you know, just just a few days ago in Congress, we voted on legislation
to sanction the International Critical Criminal Court. And I'll tell you it was really sad. Every Democrat in the Senate except one except John Fetterman voted no. They all voted against Israel. Amazing And to be clear.
Is there going to be hell to pay politically you think for this?
I mean, the Democratic Party has become really a lot of their leaders are just strit up anti Semitic.
Is there going to be hell to pay for that at some point?
Well, there hasn't been so far, and the Democrats feel that there are no consequences. Chuck Schumer was among the leaders who who met with net and Yahoo and was trying to give excuses for why he and all the other Democrats voted against sanctioning the ICC. Today, President Trump issued sanctions as president, and they were very strong sanctions. That's one thing Bib was very happy about is he now had a president that would stand up to the
International Criminal Court for going after him. Look, Bib is not able to travel to much of Europe because they're European nations who have threatened they will arrest bebe if he steps foot on their soil. That is a profound attack on the government of Israel. Think about it that there are many European countries that he simply won't go to. Now, let me ask a simple question to anyone listening. Trump sanctioned the ICC today, Why didn't Joe Biden the ICC
did this under Biden's presidency. And the answer is, I think the Biden administration wanted the ICC to go after Benjamin Netton Yahoo. And I think we're going to see facts come to light in the weeks and months ahead that show some real complicity of the Biden administration for the law fare attacking Israel, and that really underscores the
difference one election can make. And thank god, we have a president now who will stand up for America and who will stand up and stand alongside Israel 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. I want to move on to another big issue, and that is confirmation hearings. Cash Betels was at the end of last week as well, and we are now seeing a lot of people that are getting their audios.
See you later.
Thanks for serving you're out of a job in the deep state. This is another reason why we need to get cash hotel in there quickly.
Let's talk about where that is.
And also you had a very interesting back and forth with him over some of the things that the left is trying to attack him on.
Well, the hearing, the Democrats went after cash Patel furiously. As I said on Hannity last week, the hearing reminded me of Shakespeare's Macbeth. It was a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing. The Democrats did not get any traction. They were foaming at the mouth. They were coming after him ferociously. And yet I don't think they moved a single vote. I
think cash Patel will get confirmed. Now every Democrat on the committee's going to vote no, and my guess is every Democrat in the Senate is going to vote no on him. But I think we will get We might get to fifty three, but we will at a minimum get to fifty with jd Vance breaking the tie. And I don't think the hearing moved a single vote. When my questioning occurred, you know, the week before I had spent a couple of hours helped being moot cash Bettel,
helping get him ready. I actually got to play Sheldon white House, who's a very liberal senator, in the moot, and I got to say it was fun just raving at him, screaming at him. I tried to insult him. I was a total jerk in the moot, which which if you're doing to moot, well.
You explained for people that don't know how this works. You get people, and I've gotten to do this a couple of times. It's really fun. You get somebody ready for a confirmation hearing and many people like you just described, you play the other side. You try to get them ready for what they're going to face. And the setting that you do it in. Was this more relaxed or was it more formal?
I don't know. It was done exactly like a hearing. He was sitting at a table, we were around him, like firing questions at him. And sometimes you do it this way, sometimes you don't. But in this instance, they gave me the role of Sheldon white House, who's one of the most partisan Democrats on the committee. I've served with Sheldon thirteen years. I know him well, and so you know, I mean, I was screaming at him and I and my questions were wildly unfair, but you got
to get ready for wildly unfair questions. I was not trying to be nice to him in the mood because that if you're doing that, you're not doing your job in a mood, and I got to say he did. So it was interesting in the mood A couple of times like Cash would try to pop back and we would stop and say, look, it's not your job to punch the Democrats of the face in this hearing. My advice, by the way, to every hearing nominee is be boring right now today you've got the votes to be confirmed.
From the Democrats perspective. The only way they can change that is get you to say something in the hearing where you step on a landmine and blow yourself up. If you don't do that, you will be confirmed and you will go do the job the president has asked you to do. And so a good role of a hearing you know someone you know very well is John asked Croft.
Yeah.
So when I was a young baby lawyer, I was part of the team that that that helped prepare John Ashcroft for his confirmation hearing to be Attorney General. And I was, you know, thirty years old, a baby lawyer, but i'd been on the Bush campaign and Ashcroft gets nominated. Bag So I remember we're prepping him and and just
like with Cash Pttel, we were asking horrible questions. We were asking uh, I mean, we were just just and in the prep session Ashcroft would get pissed and he yelled at us and and and and we'd say, we'd say, Senator, you're exactly right that that that question was terrible. It was it was unfair, it was dishonest, it was abusive. Senator, can we remind you you have the votes right now?
Like they want you to get pissed? And so I was glad he yelled at me, and he yelled at the other people in the mood because that it got
it off his chest. And I still remember. You go back and watch Ashcroft's confirmation hearing, and then there was one exchange and I'm paraphrasing, and it was twenty four years ago, but he had given a speech about the Second Amendment, and he had talked about the Second Amendment that the Framers had intended a second Amendment as a check on tyranny from the government, and Ted Kennedy, who was questioning him, goes, tyranny from our government, the American government.
You know what that is? Treason? Man, I say, you're a trader, and he like screams at the top of his lungs calling Ashcroft a trader. And at the actual hearing, Ashcroft, I don't think his heart beat exceeded sixty five beats a minute, and he very calmly said, Senator, if I'm confirmed as Attorney General, I will follow the law and I will enforce the law. And he got confirmed. So Cash Bettel likewise, he got some of his yelling out
at the motors. Actually, no, not much. He did a good job of not losing his cool in the moot and then in the hearing. I think he did an excellent job. When it came to my turn, they had been beating him up a lot on January sixth, and so I wanted to give him a chance to get out some basic facts. So give a listen to my cross examination of Cash Patel this past week on his confirmation hearing for Director of the FBI. You will be and have been accused of just about everything they can.
But I want to focus on what several Democrats have done recently, which is trying to blame you for the violence that occurred on January sixth, which, even in the annals of ridiculous attacks, this one really takes the cake. So let's just focus on some facts. Let me ask you a question. What role did you occupy in the days immediately before January sixth?
Chief of staff of the Department of Defense?
You were the chief of Staff at the Department of Defense, yes, sir, So to be clear, you were not rioting at the Capitol, No, sir. Where were you physically on January.
Sixth in the office of the Secretary of Defense in the Pentagon?
And what were you doing on that day?
On that day specifically responding to preparing to mobilize and deploy the National Guard once we got the lawful request from the local governing authority, which was the Mayor of DC and the Speaker of the House.
Now, how many days in advance were you working to prepare the Department of Defense to help secure the Capitol on January sixth?
Days in advanced Senator, we were in the Oval office on an unrelated national security matter with the President of the United States. The Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and myself and the President authorized up to twenty thousand plus National guardsmen and women to secure any security measures necessarily related to the capital.
So we were moving to the fullest extent of the law before the requisite request came from a local governing authority days ahead of time.
And while you were chief of staff at DoD, how many times did DoD approach Capitol police and ask if they needed National Guard assistants?
I believe those letters are well documented. Numerous instances, and numerous of those instances were those requests were shut down?
Now, my correct at the capital sergeant at arms said assistance was unnecessary.
That's correct, Senator.
Who did the sergeant at arms.
Report to the Speaker of the House.
That would have been Nancy Pelosi at the time. Is that correct, yes, Senator? And would that also be Chuck Schumer than the Senate majority leader.
The sergeant at arms, Yes, Senator reports.
Up there did Mayor Bowser, the Democrat elected mayor in d C, either request or allow National Guard assistants?
She put in writing on the days leading up to January sixth, a declination for National Guard additional support and that letter is available publicly.
To the world. So and just to speak England for folks at home, a declination meant she said no, don't send national Guard? Is that right? Yes, sir? Let me ask you a simple question, because from the questioning from a Democrat colleagues they might think otherwise. Do you condemn violence against law enforcement? All of it? And by the way, is that true whether the violence is right wing or left wing or anywhere else?
There is no discriminating between types of violence against law enforce?
And do you believe those who assault and commit violence against law enforcement should be prosecuted and should be sent to jail.
Especially those that kill them?
Me ask you how many years have you worked in public service?
About sixteen, senator, And.
How many years have you worked in particular in law enforcement and prosecution and national security over decade? Senator? You know, I have to say it is ludicrous but sadly predictable that Democrats are endeavoring to tarnish you, to paint a false caricature based on innuendo and smoke. And so you're working to protect the Capitol on January sixth, and yet they're trying to blame you for the violence that occurred.
Let me ask you to this, just as a straightforward matter, what is the job of the FBI and what will the FBI's role be if and when you are confirmed as its director.
The simple motto on the website of the FBI's homepage is to protect American citizens and uphold the Constitution. If I am confirmed as the next director of the FBI, that's what we're going to do and redirect resources and making sure that occurs every single day.
Thank you for your willingness to do so, and this committee we'll hold you to account on restoring integrity at the FBI, and I thank you, and also for your commitment to transparency. I think that is incredibly important to bringing back integrity and I'm grateful for it.
Wouldn't it be nice if the media would fact check the Democrats on the committee that we're trashing him, trying to connect him to January sixth, like he was an insurrectionist in their words, and just tell the story of what he was actually doing.
I'm so thankful that you asked those questions.
Yeah, don't hold your breath on that. The media has their story to tell and they're not going to get let facts get in the way.
So last question on this.
This is a really important position being in charge of the FBI. When are you guys going to actually get to vote on this?
So we will vote on Cash Betel in a week, so this week there'll be a markup. But the way the Senate Judiciary Committee works is the minority has a right on any vote to hold it over for a week and delay it for a week. So they will do that this week, and so they'll delay that now. Pam Bondi will be confirmed on the floor of the Senate this week, so by the end of this week
she'll be Attorney General. Next week will vote on Cash Betel and Judiciary Committee and then I'll go to the Senate floor after that.
As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with sentater Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to deal with my podcast and you can listen to my podcasts 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.