0:01

Welcome.

0:01

It is a Verdict with Ted Cruz Weekend

0:04

Review. Ben Ferguson with you. And these

0:06

are the big stories that you may have missed

0:08

that we talked about this week. Number

0:10

one the big story of the week, Donald

0:13

Trump voters and those that

0:15

consider themselves MAGA supporters

0:17

are now going to be targeted by the

0:20

FBI in a shocking

0:22

new minimum. The federal government believes

0:24

that the quote threat of violence and major

0:27

civil disturbances from

0:29

MAGA supporters is so great that

0:32

they have created a new category of

0:34

extremists that it seeks to quote

0:36

track and counter. Who

0:39

are they tracking?

0:40

You?

0:41

And Donald Trump's army of MAGA

0:43

followers. Number two

0:46

Crime in America out of control,

0:48

but this time it's affecting Democrats,

0:50

including one congressman that

0:53

was carjacked. And finally,

0:55

we had a very interesting Q and a Senator

0:58

Ted Cruz at the Texas Youth

1:00

Summit. I want you to hear some of

1:02

the brilliant questions that were asked of

1:04

the senator. It is the Weekend Review

1:07

with Ted Cruz and it starts right

1:09

now. There is now

1:11

intel that shows that

1:14

MAGA Republicans, Donald

1:16

Trump's supporters will

1:19

be targeted by the FBI.

1:21

As the twenty twenty four election nears,

1:24

Newsweek is now reporting

1:26

on this and Biden to go back tweeted

1:29

in September of last year quote

1:31

Donald Trump and maga Republicans are

1:33

a threat to the very soul of this country.

1:36

The very soul of this country, Chris.

1:39

FBI director chrispher Ray and

1:42

sworn testimony said it's not just

1:44

Trump supporters. Early this year, he said, House Republicans

1:46

say the FBI document that they've obtained

1:49

proved that several field offices contributed

1:51

to a memo that targeted traditional

1:53

Catholics. We talked about this extensively

1:56

on this show as potential

1:58

tarists and tried to turn and parishioners

2:00

on their fellow church

2:03

goers. So, if you just

2:05

look at the last year, parents

2:07

who show up at school board meetings are

2:09

to be labeled domestic terrorists. The

2:12

FBI was spending time recruiting

2:15

people in the Catholic church to spy on

2:17

their friends and family. And

2:19

now we are being told that heading

2:22

into the twenty twenty four election, that

2:24

if you are a Donald Trump follower

2:27

supporter, that you may be

2:30

now monitored or targeted

2:32

by the FBI.

2:35

Well, that's exactly right,

2:37

and part of the challenge s heare

2:39

like, for example, you focused

2:42

on the FBI's targeting of traditional Catholics,

2:44

which they rightly got enormous grief

2:47

because they were talking about infiltrating Catholic

2:49

churches and trying to get priests to

2:52

spy on their parishioners and become

2:54

FBI informants to inform

2:57

on the members of their church. So

3:00

initially the FBI said, oh, that was

3:02

a rogue office down in Richmond, Virginia,

3:05

it's not a broader problem.

3:06

Now that they've admitted

3:08

that it.

3:08

Was multiple offices that participated

3:10

in that this was a much broader effort

3:13

to target traditional Catholics.

3:17

And the same is true with

3:20

the targeting of Donald Trump's supporters.

3:23

You know, even this language, so you can

3:25

tell someone did a focus group on the Democrat

3:27

side and they discovered

3:29

the phrase maga Republican. They're

3:32

going to brand that that like magi by the

3:34

way, Maga republican, and their definition

3:36

they mean everybody. They literally mean

3:39

every Republican is a maga Republican.

3:41

And then they just think the word maga is really

3:43

scary and they

3:45

claim that if you are

3:48

a maga Republican is defined as a Republican

3:50

who voted for Donald Trump. So you

3:52

know, seventy five to eighty million Americans

3:55

are defined, according to

3:58

this White House potential

4:00

terrorists as threats

4:03

to democracy.

4:04

And this is how Democrats have

4:06

become radicalized.

4:07

They now say, if you

4:09

dare vote against Democrats, you

4:12

are a threat to democracy. Just

4:14

understand, every time

4:17

Democrats use the word democracy,

4:19

what they mean is me, I'm

4:22

a Democrat. I want to get elected,

4:24

and anything that stands in my way

4:26

is a quote threat to democracy.

4:30

They don't actually want

4:34

that. They don't actually want real

4:36

democracy if it elects Republicans. What

4:38

they want is Democrats to

4:40

be in power forever. And by the way, this

4:43

is intimately connected to their lawlessness

4:45

on the southern border, because the reason they've

4:47

allowed seven point six million illegal immigrants

4:49

into the country is because they

4:52

want to subvert democracy by

4:54

getting them to vote for Democrats and

4:56

keep Democrats in power.

4:58

Sinri I also think we should bring up in

5:00

the Newsweek article it says that if

5:02

you voted for Donald Trump, the government

5:04

will track you.

5:07

Well, that's right, and in

5:09

June of this year, the FBI

5:12

and the Department of Homeland Security

5:15

filed a joint report with

5:17

Congress, and what they say

5:20

in that joint report is they say, quote

5:23

threats from domestic violent

5:25

extremists have increased

5:27

in the last two years, and any

5:30

further increases in threats likely will

5:32

correspond to potential flash

5:34

points such as high profile

5:37

elections and campaigns

5:40

or contentious current events. So

5:43

they're saying terrorists

5:45

are associated with high profile elections.

5:48

And just to make sure there's no ambiguity

5:50

that they're not talking about Antifa, they're

5:53

not talking about left wing terrorists. They are

5:55

focused on Republicans.

5:58

Here's what the report concludes.

6:00

Quote socio political

6:02

developments such

6:04

as narratives of fraud

6:07

in the recent general election,

6:10

conditions related to the COVID

6:12

nineteen pandemic, and conspiracy

6:15

theories promoting violence will

6:18

almost certainly spur some

6:20

domestic terrorists to try

6:23

to engage in violence. Now, everything

6:26

they list there they

6:28

associate with Republicans. And notice

6:30

they say COVID. So if you don't

6:32

like lockdowns, you're a terrorist. If

6:34

you don't like forced maskings, you're

6:37

a terrorist. If you don't like vaccine mandates,

6:39

you're a terrorist. If you're concerned about

6:41

the potential health negative effects

6:44

of forced vaccines of the COVID vaccines.

6:46

You're a terrorist. That is

6:48

the narrative. Anyone that disagrees

6:51

with the regime they

6:53

now define as a violent extremist,

6:56

And amazingly enough, left

6:58

wing violence in their narrative doesn't

7:00

exist. So black lives matter, not

7:02

a word about that. Antifa,

7:05

not a word about them, the

7:08

efforts targeting. Look, we've got

7:11

now violent riots

7:13

that are playing out right now in cities

7:15

like Philadelphia, where

7:17

they're ransacking and looting stores, where

7:19

they're attacking police officers. That is

7:22

not violent extremism. If you're a

7:24

leftist, that's okay, that's

7:26

that's wonderful. That is beautiful

7:28

social protest to burn

7:31

American cities. But yet,

7:34

if if you're if you don't want to see

7:36

America locked down again on COVID,

7:39

clearly you're a terrorist.

7:40

Final question to you, I think we should give it A quick

7:42

update on that speakership

7:45

and the House vote kind

7:47

of risen to the top at this point.

7:49

He said he's willing to be the speaker that

7:52

would be. And if you missed our interview

7:54

with him, a two part series on the Hunter

7:56

Byden Investigation, go back and listen to

7:59

it. He's phenomenal on this issue.

8:01

Talk about the timeline now of

8:03

when we expect the House side

8:06

to take this up, of deciding again who's

8:08

going to be the speaker.

8:09

Well, my understanding is the House is

8:11

going to vote on speaker next week

8:13

and then I expect it to be a roller

8:16

coaster ride.

8:17

I mean, you remember back in January we had a roller.

8:19

Coaster ride of

8:21

over a dozen different ballots

8:24

before Kevin McCarthy was elected Speaker,

8:26

and it was very narrow. It

8:28

may well be a similar battle

8:30

at this point. There are several contenders that are

8:33

talking about running. Two

8:35

have announced publicly. One is Steve

8:37

Scalise. Steve Scalise is

8:41

the Majority leader, was Kevin McCarthy's

8:43

number two. Steve

8:45

is generally perceived to be more

8:47

conservative than McCarthy,

8:50

and so Steve is running as

8:53

the candidate that can unify both

8:55

the moderates in the

8:58

Republican Conference and all so some of

9:00

the conservatives. A second

9:02

candidate who's running, as you noted as Jim Jordan.

9:05

Jim Jordan was one of

9:07

the original founders of the Freedom Caucus.

9:09

He is a prominent and well

9:11

known conservative. The media

9:14

is deeply skeptical of Jim Jordan, and they

9:16

say he's too conservative to get elected and the

9:18

moderates will never support him.

9:20

I don't know if that's true or not.

9:22

There is also discussion that

9:25

Kevin Hearn, who is a Republican

9:27

from Oklahoma, that he may run.

9:30

Kevin is a good man.

9:31

It's not clear if he will, although there

9:33

have been reports that he's telling other Republicans

9:36

he's looking at the race seriously. And then

9:38

there's been some chatter that

9:41

Chip Roy might run. I don't know if

9:43

Chip will run or not. At

9:45

this point, neither Kevin nor Chip are

9:47

in the race, but next week they might both

9:49

be in the race, and and I

9:51

don't know if yet another Republican

9:53

might jump in. So I think it will be vigorously

9:57

contested. I'm sure there's there is. There's

10:00

a lot of horse trading going on right now.

10:02

There's a lot of negotiations going

10:04

on right now. What's striking is

10:07

that each of the potential candidates went

10:09

and met with the Texas delegation. The

10:11

reason they met with the Texas delegation is

10:14

Texas is the largest contingent

10:16

of House Republicans, and so you've got the

10:18

biggest block of votes, Particularly if the Texas

10:21

delegation votes together. It's not clear

10:23

that they will, but they might, and

10:26

so at this point I don't know what will happen.

10:28

My intention is to stay out of

10:30

it and to leave leadership

10:32

elections to House Republicans.

10:35

But the answer as to who comes.

10:37

Out of it is going to matter quite a bit, and so

10:40

we will certainly watch with interest

10:42

and continue to provide

10:44

the best analysis we can.

10:46

Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,

10:49

you can go back and listen to the full podcast

10:51

from earlier this week.

10:53

Now onto story number.

10:54

Two, I want to move to something

10:57

else that obviously got pushed back in the headlines,

10:59

but it still is important. The crime

11:01

wave that we're seeing is not

11:03

just sweeping the nation, but now it's affecting

11:06

democratic leaders and

11:08

leaders in the liberal movement

11:11

like we haven't seen before, and it's happening way

11:13

more often. I'll give you an example. You have a

11:15

Democratic representative, Henry Queller,

11:18

who was carjacked at gunpoint

11:20

in DC. This comes

11:22

as in just the past, well it was in a twenty

11:25

four hour period. You had a liberal

11:27

gay reporter that was shot and killed in his home

11:29

in Philly. You had a far left

11:32

activist that was stabbed to death by a deranged

11:34

stranger in Brooklyn in

11:36

front of his girlfriend. You had this Democratic congressman

11:39

who was carjacked at gunpoint in DC by

11:41

four African American men. And

11:44

yet we have Democrats

11:46

who have a soft on crime policies

11:49

that aren't just hurting their neighborhoods

11:51

that I mentioned these different spots, but it's hurting

11:53

people in Texas as well. And almost

11:56

every House Democrat voted

11:58

against the Republican efforts

12:00

to stop the DC Week on Crime

12:03

bill, which specifically

12:05

would have reduced carjacking penalties.

12:08

This is something that the Democrats,

12:12

I mean they voted for its. Aldred for example, voted

12:14

with the Dems on this one. It's shocking to me.

12:17

Well, listen, crime is out of control in this country,

12:20

and it's an issue that has people understandably

12:23

very concerned. I watched tonight

12:26

the video of the liberal

12:28

activist in New York at four the

12:30

morning being stabbed to death on the

12:32

streets of New York by a guy that certainly appears

12:35

deranged.

12:35

It was horrific to watch.

12:38

You're right, the news of the left

12:40

wing journalist in Philadelphia

12:42

who was shot. I think seven times in his own

12:44

home and killed in the past few

12:46

days. And Henry Quaar. Look, Henry

12:48

Quayar is a Democrat congressman from Texas.

12:51

I know Henry well. Henry represents Laredo

12:53

up to San Antonio. Henry

12:55

is the most conservative of the

12:57

Texas Democrats.

12:58

I worked hand in.

13:00

Hand with Henry, for example, on the

13:03

Texas Bridges. We've talked on this podcast

13:05

before about four bridges

13:07

from Texas to Mexico that Henry and I teamed

13:10

up in and won big legislative victories

13:12

to build new bridges to Mexico for legal

13:14

commerce, to expand bridges. Henry,

13:17

as I said, is by far the most conservative

13:19

of the Texas Democrats.

13:21

Well, in the.

13:22

Last couple of days, Henry was coming

13:24

to his apartment in DC. It was

13:26

nine thirty at night and he was getting out of his car

13:28

and it was carjacked. He was carjacked by four individuals.

13:31

They put a gun in his face, they stole the car,

13:33

they stole his luggage. Presumably

13:36

I haven't spoken to Henry since it happened, but you

13:38

have to assume that with a gun in his face,

13:40

he was afraid for his life. I mean, that

13:42

is frightening. My understanding is Henry

13:45

lives at an apartment building

13:47

where there were multiple members of Congress

13:50

who lived there. That there are apparently multiple

13:52

members of congressional leadership who

13:54

live there, which means there are a lot of Capitol police

13:56

around there. And at nine to thirty at night, he

13:59

was carjacked on the streets of

14:01

DC, and then that reflects the

14:04

crime wave that is sweeping this country. Now,

14:07

the DC City Council,

14:09

which is populated by left wing Democrats,

14:12

they voted to lower the penalties

14:14

for violent crimes, including carjackings.

14:16

In particular, they

14:19

voted to lower the sentence from

14:23

twenty one years to seven years,

14:26

and they voted to lower the sentence from

14:28

forty years if armed to fifteen

14:31

years. And under

14:33

the revised code, carjacking is now

14:35

divided into three gradations dependent

14:37

on severity, with the lowest

14:40

penalties for an unarmed defense ranging

14:43

from four to eighteen years and the highest

14:45

penalties from an armed defense ranging

14:47

from twelve to twenty four years.

14:50

Now in the Congress, thankfully, the Congress

14:52

has the ability to rescind

14:54

any legislation in the District of Columbia. The

14:56

reason for that is the Constitution gives

14:59

Congress total authority over DC.

15:01

Unlike a state. We can't rescind laws in Texas

15:04

or any other state. But d C is

15:06

a federal district in Congress has plenary

15:08

authority over it. And so in Congress

15:10

we voted to rescind these softened crime

15:12

laws that lessen the penalties for violent

15:15

crimes. And the results

15:17

are horrific, as

15:19

we're seeing carjacking, murders,

15:22

crime rates skyrocketing in d

15:24

C and all across the country.

15:26

You also have the White House, who was

15:28

asked about part of this, and I want to play

15:30

that for everybody. Take a listen.

15:33

If a member of Congress is not safe

15:35

on the streets of the nation's capital, who

15:38

is.

15:39

Look, we're grateful and relieved

15:42

that the congressman is unharmed. We

15:45

understand what communities are going through across

15:47

the country, not just in DC. That's

15:49

why the President took action very early on

15:52

in his administration to get the American

15:54

Rescue Plan done without the help

15:56

of Republicans. That's why every time

15:58

he puts forward his budget, make sure

16:00

there are billions of dollars to deal with crime.

16:02

That's just a fact.

16:03

All you got to look is what the president has been able

16:05

to do this past two years. There's

16:08

always going to be work, more work to be done, But

16:10

the fact is the president has taken

16:12

action.

16:13

He hasn't taken action, He's done the opposite

16:16

of that.

16:16

She didn't have an answer to that. Holy crap.

16:19

If a Democrat congressman is getting carjacked

16:21

on the streets of DC at nine thirty pm,

16:24

what the heck is the answer? And she's like, no, no, no, no,

16:26

no, I'm not going to answer that. And

16:29

what was her answer? Well, you know, Joe Biden spending

16:31

a ton of money, mind you, not

16:33

actually putting criminals in jail, not supporting

16:35

police, not doing anything to stop crime.

16:38

But he's shoveling a whole lot of

16:40

cash at Democrat special interest

16:42

groups. He's shoveling a whole lot of cash at

16:45

deficit spending that's causing rampant inflation.

16:47

That is her answer. It's an utter non sequitur.

16:50

And by the way, it's not just Henry quaar

16:53

Angie Craig, who is a Democrat Member

16:55

of Congress from Minnesota, was assaulted

16:58

in the apartment of her DC her

17:00

DC apartment in February of this year.

17:03

And this is a.

17:04

Pattern that is happening over

17:07

and over and over again. Let me give you

17:09

some stats. Carjackings in DC

17:11

are up one hundred and

17:14

nine percent, robberies

17:17

are up sixty eight percent, theft

17:20

is up twenty two percent, homicides

17:24

are up thirty eight percent,

17:26

and the city is on pace for the deadliest

17:29

year in two decades. Not

17:31

only that, nine of the

17:33

top ten cities with the highest homicide

17:35

rights are run by Democrats. Twenty

17:38

seven of the top thirty cities with the highest

17:41

murder rates are run by Democrats.

17:44

This is a pattern, and you're

17:46

saying Kareem John Pierre and the Biden

17:49

White House utterly dodging

17:51

responsibilities for their

17:53

soft on crime policies that are endangering

17:56

people all across the country.

17:58

One to ask question for you, will Democrats

18:01

move on this? Because even the White House Presidenttery

18:03

was asked a question of follow up where she could

18:05

have kind of gotten a redo. I got to play

18:07

it. It's too good, not too If.

18:10

President Biden's policies are helping

18:12

bring crime down, would he be comfortable with

18:15

somebody borrowing his corvette and parking

18:17

it on the street overnight in Southeast DC.

18:19

I'm not gonna get into hypotheticals. I'm just gonna get

18:22

into the facts about what this president has done.

18:24

In this president, I mean, she's still screwed

18:26

it up.

18:27

Look, of course not nobody. Would

18:30

you park your corvette on the street. It's gonna get robbed,

18:32

it's gonna get broken into, it's gonna get keyed, it's gonna

18:34

get vandalized. She can't answer

18:37

that question, and so you know what she's counting

18:39

on. Look, that was a question

18:42

from Fox News, So Fox'll cover

18:44

it. Ben, you worked

18:47

for years at CNN. Did CNN cover that exchange?

18:49

Hell?

18:50

No, MSNBC, no,

18:53

ABC, NBCCBS, Nope.

18:56

They know that.

18:57

The corporate media, they are

19:00

the puppets for the administration.

19:02

They are the propagandists for the administration.

19:05

They will repeat the regime line.

19:08

And so look, any

19:10

sane person would

19:12

say no to the question would you be happy

19:14

with your your classic

19:17

corvette parked on the streets of DC? Of course

19:19

not, because crime

19:22

is out of control and the problem

19:25

is Look, let me underscore that again. When

19:29

the DC City Council looked at skyrocketing

19:31

crime rates and said, you know what, the answer here is,

19:34

let's lower the penalties on violent crime.

19:36

That's the best solution. We've got too many murderers, too

19:38

many murders, too many carjackings. Let's

19:41

send people to jail for shorter times

19:43

for murder and carjacking. That's a great idea.

19:46

In Congress, thankfully we overturn

19:48

that. In the House.

19:51

Every single House Democrat

19:54

except two, the

19:56

Saint DII Gonzalez, a Texan and

19:59

Henry quay are at Ti, Texan, who was just carjacked

20:01

in the last forty eight hours, are the

20:03

only two who voted no.

20:05

That means every other House Democrat, if you can think

20:07

of a House Democrat, they voted

20:10

in favor of lessening

20:12

the penalties on carjackers and

20:14

on murderers. Why do you think crime

20:16

is out of control?

20:17

Yeah, it's a Democratic party and this is certainly

20:20

going to be an issue with the presidential election.

20:22

Dark for Ben ben hold On. Before we wrap

20:24

up, I want to ask you a final question.

20:26

I'm ready.

20:27

If you're standing by a doorway and

20:29

you see a little red box that is three inches

20:31

by four inches and it says

20:33

the word fire on it and it

20:35

says pull this for the fire alarm.

20:38

My question to you is is that a

20:40

doorknob.

20:42

That is not a doorknob, and that is not a

20:44

way to exit the building.

20:45

But how do you know, how do you know? Ben?

20:48

Seriously?

20:48

I mean, look, it's not like.

20:50

That insurrectionism one oh one, right,

20:53

Like, don't you immediately lock that person up forever?

20:55

Well, let me ask you this. It's not like

20:58

you were a high school principal. It's

21:00

not like you were a high school principal in a high school

21:02

that had fire alarms. It's not like you were a high school

21:04

principal in a high school that had fire alarms, that

21:06

had a policy that said, if you a student

21:09

pulls the fire alarm, you will

21:12

be expelled. Jamal Bowman, the

21:14

Democrat congressman, was a principal at

21:16

a high school that had a policy that if you,

21:19

Ben Ferguson, a student in his high

21:21

school, pulled the fire alarm, you would be expelled.

21:23

And yet what did Jamal Bowman do, Oh,

21:25

I'm gonna pull the fire alarm because I want to stop

21:27

the Republican vote. And why

21:30

is it? His claim? If

21:32

you believe him, his defense

21:35

is, I'm dumber than a box of rocks,

21:37

and I think a fire alarm is a doorknob. That

21:40

is his defense. And that's the best

21:42

interpretation he can hope for.

21:44

By the way, I have to ask now, because you brought it up,

21:46

if a Republican would have done that, how

21:48

fast would they have been kicked out of Congress? And

21:52

would they have a mug shot at this point?

21:54

To be honest, I don't think they'd be kicked

21:56

out of Congress, but I think they might have a mug

21:58

shot. And my guess is,

22:02

look, kicking people out

22:04

of Congress is pretty severe. My guess is

22:06

the votes won't be there for that. My prediction

22:08

is they will censure him. I think the

22:10

votes will be there for censuring him. But

22:13

it is a criminal offense in the district of Columbia

22:15

to pull a fire alarm fraudulently, and he

22:18

is on video doing that, But

22:21

he is counting on the corporate media

22:23

to ignore the fact that he

22:25

was willing to pull a fire alarm to try to

22:27

stop the Congress from voting on a provision

22:30

that he didn't like, which, mind you, was a provision

22:32

to fund the government, and he wanted to force a government

22:34

shut down, so he pulled a fire alarm

22:36

to cause it to happen. But again, he

22:39

knew the corporate media would cover for him.

22:41

And they're doing it right now as

22:43

before.

22:44

If you want to hear the rest of this conversation on

22:46

this topic, you can go back and dow the

22:49

podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire

22:51

thing. I want to get back

22:53

to the big story number three of the week.

22:55

You may have missed, Senaer.

22:58

You're gonna love this. The t shirts the Texas

23:00

Use Summit are don't tread

23:03

on Me, which is awesome. And our

23:05

next question is coming from someone that has that T shirt

23:07

and I love it. Well done.

23:08

Hello, Senator Cruz. My name is

23:10

Jenna. I go to U of H here and

23:13

I work at a tax from as a tax

23:15

consultant, and the tax deadline

23:17

is coming up October eighteenth, and I was

23:19

wondering how the government shutdown is going

23:21

to affect the IRS and

23:24

the accounting industry regarding that deadline

23:26

that's coming up, and if you could explain

23:29

kind of what's going to have.

23:30

Yeah, look, that's a very good question, and

23:33

I expect that if the shutdown goes

23:35

long and it could easily go a month.

23:37

The last one was thirty five days and twenty

23:40

nineteen, the Schumer shutdown, it could

23:42

easily go a month. What it would mean as

23:44

a practical matter, is

23:46

that much of the manpower at the IRS

23:49

that would be available to assist you, that would

23:51

be available to process

23:54

returns, that would be available to answer questions,

23:56

much of that man power is

23:58

not going to be there. They will keep essential

24:00

workers, and it's up to eat each agency

24:03

to decide who is essential. But

24:05

things like customer service almost

24:08

always get deemed non essential,

24:10

and you end up with a significantly reduced

24:13

workforce.

24:13

And so you're.

24:15

Working at a private firm, that that's

24:17

going to mean that your clients are going to need

24:19

your advice more

24:21

significantly because the IRS is

24:23

going to be less available

24:25

to be responsive, even less than they normally

24:28

are.

24:29

Let's take a question from over here.

24:31

Hi, Senator Cruz, my name is Helen and

24:33

I'm from the Woodlands. My question

24:36

to you is are you in favor of the

24:38

age and term limits to be

24:40

elected for Senate and Congress?

24:42

Thank you, Helen,

24:44

Thank you for that question. So let me break

24:46

them down one at a time. You asked about age

24:48

limits and term limits. On

24:51

age limits, the only age limit we have

24:53

for the Senate is the Constitution.

24:55

So the Constitution.

24:56

Provides that you have to be twenty five years old

24:59

to be elected to the House Representatives. You

25:01

have to be thirty years old to be elected

25:03

to the Senate, and you have to be thirty five years

25:06

old to be elected president. Other

25:08

than that, there are currently no limits when

25:10

it comes to serving in federal elected

25:12

office, and it's one of the reasons why

25:15

you see so many people in the Senate who are

25:17

one hundred and forty two years old. I

25:20

have joked, if you ever want to feel

25:22

young, come work in the US

25:24

Senate, because the median age

25:26

is such that I have colleagues

25:28

reminiscing about Eisenhower. I mean, it's you

25:31

know, I feel like a sprightly young

25:34

lad in the body in which I serve.

25:38

Term limits is something that

25:40

I emphatically support, and so

25:44

I have repeatedly introduced in the Senate

25:47

a constitutional amendment to mandate

25:49

term limits, to limit senators, each senator

25:51

to two terms, to limit each House member

25:53

to three terms.

25:56

You know, it's interesting.

25:56

Term limits was something I supported before

25:59

I got to the Senate, but having

26:01

seen this place firsthand, now I support

26:04

it a thousand times more because

26:07

this place is the swamp. It is corrupt,

26:09

and the people who are here a long time

26:12

are the worst. You get drawn in and

26:14

corrupted by the swamp. And it's both parties.

26:16

Look, the Democrats are bad, but

26:19

for much of this spending that is bankrupting

26:21

the country, we have a uniparty.

26:24

We have Republican career

26:26

politicians who jump in bed with the Democrats

26:28

and eagerly spend trillions of

26:30

dollars. And so term limits would

26:34

be a major step to reducing

26:36

that power and reducing that corruption.

26:39

And it's an amazing thing. If you look at term limits

26:41

nationally, over seventy

26:43

percent of American support term limits. That's

26:45

true among Republicans, among

26:48

Democrats, and among independents. You see

26:50

massive majorities supporting term

26:52

limits. The one group that doesn't

26:55

is career politicians. In Washington,

26:58

in the Senate, I have zero Democrats

27:00

who support my term limits amendment.

27:02

Every one of the Democrats is opposed to it.

27:05

And I've chaired

27:07

I used to be chairman of the Constitution's

27:09

Subcommittee, the Senate Judiciary Committee. I chaired

27:11

a hearing on term limits, brought

27:13

in witnesses to talk about term limits.

27:16

And the reality is

27:18

in the Senate, the young guys

27:20

support my term limits amendments, and

27:22

none of the longtime career politicians

27:25

do.

27:25

And that's why neither.

27:27

Chuck Schumer nor Mitch McConnell

27:29

wants term limits to get a vote on the Senate floor

27:32

because they oppose it that much. So I've been

27:34

fighting, but I have not been able to

27:36

get it on the floor because Schumer and McConnell

27:39

control what gets on the floor.

27:41

Let's get a question on this set over here.

27:43

How do you My name is Chad. I' miss sophomore

27:46

in Houston, and I wanted to ask how Congress

27:48

can get back some tenth moment rights to

27:50

the Satan people after events like nine to eleven

27:53

and COVID have taken it away and given it to

27:55

the federal government.

27:57

Look, that is a fantastic question

28:01

if you look at the Bill of Rights and you

28:03

asked about the tenth Amendment. When I

28:05

was in college, I wrote my senior thesis

28:07

on the ninth and tenth Amendments to the Constitution.

28:10

And I'll tell you a little bit.

28:11

Of the history of why they're written, and then

28:14

I will get straight to your question. But

28:16

originally the Constitution was written, there was no

28:18

Bill of Rights.

28:20

It was just the Constitution itself.

28:21

And then there was a debate over whether to ratify

28:24

the Constitution, and the two groups there

28:26

were the federalists and the anti federalists. And

28:28

the federalists were advocating, the Constitution's

28:30

a good idea, we should ratify it, we should

28:33

have it be the organic document forming

28:35

our government. The anti federalists,

28:37

we're arguing against it. And one of the big arguments

28:40

the anti federalists had is they said, well, there's

28:42

no bill of rights. This is a flawed document

28:45

because there's no provision

28:47

in it protecting our fundamental liberties.

28:49

Now, the federalists came.

28:50

Back and they said, no, no, no,

28:52

we don't need a bill of rights. And the

28:54

reason the federalists gave is they said, this

28:57

is a government of enumerated powers.

28:59

If you look at Article one, section.

29:01

Eight of the Constitution, Article one establishes

29:04

the Congress the legislative function, an

29:06

Article one, section eight specifies

29:09

it enumerates eighteen specific

29:11

powers that Congress has.

29:14

And the argument the federalists said is, look, we

29:17

don't need to say that

29:19

the federal government cannot violate your free

29:21

speech, cannot violate your religious

29:24

liberty, cannot violate your right to keep in bear

29:26

arms, because there's nothing in the

29:28

enumerated powers that gives the federal

29:30

government the power to violate those

29:33

rights. And so we've already done that by limiting

29:35

the federal government's authority initially.

29:39

Now, the anti federalists came back

29:41

and they had lots of arguments, one of which was,

29:43

well, there's nothing to stop them

29:45

from violating those rights within

29:48

the enumerated power.

29:49

So, for example, one of the enumerated.

29:51

Powers is the power to create

29:53

and maintain post offices. Under

29:56

the original Constitution, without a Bill of rights,

29:59

a government, it could say, the Biden administration

30:01

will say, we will only transport

30:04

letters from Democrats

30:06

all Republicans. We've decided we

30:08

don't want Republicans speaking anymore, so

30:11

we won't transfer there. We won't

30:13

transport their letters. Now, if the

30:15

government tried to do that today, that would obviously

30:18

be an unconstitutional violation of free

30:20

speech. Without

30:22

a Bill of rights, it would be permissible. I think the

30:24

anti federalist won that debate. So

30:27

we now have a Bill of rights. The

30:29

first ten amendments to the Constitution are the Bill

30:31

of Rights, and

30:34

the first eight are protecting

30:36

specific rights, and

30:40

then amendments nine to ten both

30:44

say Amendment nine says

30:46

the enumeration of certain rights in the Bill

30:48

of Rights shall not be construed

30:50

to deny or to disparage other

30:52

rights.

30:53

Retained by the people.

30:54

The Tenth Amendment says the powers not given

30:57

to the federal government are

31:00

reserved to the states and

31:02

to the people. Basically,

31:04

the ninth and tenth Amendments restate

31:07

that the Constitution is a constitution of enumerated

31:11

powers. In other words, they say, even though we

31:13

just listed these eight Bill of Rights, we

31:15

agree that the federal government probably couldn't have done

31:17

any of this anyway, but

31:20

we want Belton suspenders.

31:21

And so the question.

31:23

I think the Tenth Amendment solves an enormous

31:25

number of problems in our country. I

31:27

think federalism having states decide,

31:31

and I would actually advise you to take

31:34

a look at a center at the Texas Public Policy

31:36

Foundation. It's called the Center

31:38

for Tenth Amendment Studies. I started

31:40

it. I was the first director,

31:42

the first leader of the Center for Tenth Amendment

31:44

Studies at TPPF,

31:47

and it's continued and is ongoing.

31:50

I agree that at we

31:52

should put as much decision making,

31:54

as much authority as possible at

31:57

the state level, or even better at the local

31:59

level, because it's more likely to meet

32:01

the needs of the people that are being

32:04

affected, and it's also more accountable. You

32:06

the citizen, are much more

32:08

able to express your views

32:10

and hold accountable local officials

32:12

and state officials than some bureaucrat

32:15

in a windowless office in Washington.

32:17

D C.

32:18

Let's get a couple more questions in here on this side.

32:20

Go ahead, Hello,

32:23

Senator Cruz. My name is Mary melvied.

32:25

I am eighteen and from Magnolia, Texas.

32:30

It appears that Democrats

32:33

have control of the elections illegally

32:36

through mules and in counting ballots.

32:38

How is our

32:41

vote even going to matter? Is there a plate

32:43

a plan in place for actually

32:45

having our votes count?

32:48

Well? Mary, thank you for that question. It's a hugely

32:51

important question.

32:52

You were right that voter fraud is a real

32:55

problem, and it is a persistent problem.

32:58

It's a problem that has been round since

33:01

the dawn of time, since the very first elections.

33:03

I'm convinced that when the caveman

33:06

sat got together to vote on who was going

33:08

to be Grand Poobah.

33:10

Somebody stuffed the ballot box.

33:11

That's just human nature that

33:14

we have crooks, and crooks try to steal things.

33:17

So we need to fight against voter

33:20

fraud. We need to fight to preserve voter

33:23

integrity. Now, the good news is we're

33:25

in Texas, and Texas

33:28

the Texas Legislature has passed legislation,

33:31

strong legislation designed

33:33

to prevent voter fraud. It's not perfect,

33:35

it still exists, but we have tools

33:38

in place to prevent voter fraud.

33:40

There are things like requiring photo ID,

33:42

which we do in Texas, that reduces fraud.

33:45

There are things like prohibiting

33:47

ballot harvesting, prohibiting paid political

33:50

operatives from handling someone else's

33:52

ballot that reduces voter fraud

33:54

significantly. Ballot harvesting invites

33:57

voter fraud, things like limiting

34:00

mail in ballots in Texas. We do so

34:02

only unlimited circumstances, typically

34:05

seniors or people with significant disabilities,

34:07

but for the vast majority of Texans. The way

34:09

you vote as you go vote in person. We

34:12

have a two week period of early voting, so it's

34:14

actually pretty easy to vote, but you vote in

34:16

person. In person voting reduces

34:18

the chances of voter fraud. I think

34:21

we need to be vigilant fighting

34:23

against voter fraud. I've spent twenty

34:25

plus years fighting against

34:27

voter fraud at the same time,

34:30

if you look nationally, they're blue states,

34:32

they're purple states that they're

34:34

not going to pass legislation to protect

34:36

election integrity because the Democrats

34:38

have decided they support voter

34:40

fraud.

34:41

It helps them, and it's the way

34:43

the world's changed.

34:44

Ten years ago, there were Democrats

34:46

who would work with you on something like photo ID.

34:49

There are none today because

34:51

they've decided voter fraud is good for

34:53

them. In

34:55

blue states and purple states, they're not going

34:57

to change their laws to stop voter fraud. The

35:00

good news historically,

35:02

voter fraud typically only matters

35:04

at the margins.

35:05

It matters in a close election.

35:08

So the answer is, in those

35:10

blue states and purple states, we got to win

35:12

by a big enough margin.

35:14

They can't steal the race from us.

35:16

Now that's not fair, it's frustrating,

35:19

But the alternative is give

35:21

up on our country. And I got to tell you there are a lot of Democrats,

35:23

that a lot of people of the corporate media that

35:26

want all of us to give

35:28

up on our country. They want conservatives to say,

35:30

well, voter fraud is still

35:32

there.

35:33

So I'm not going to vote to hell with it.

35:35

And I'll tell you what if we do that

35:38

that becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

35:40

Then our country truly

35:42

is lost. And I'll point

35:45

as a moment of encouragement, look

35:47

no further than the state of Virginia.

35:50

Virginia went

35:52

for Joe Biden by ten points. Virginia

35:55

has been blue for the past decade. Biden

35:57

won Virginia by ten points. One year

35:59

later, in twenty twenty

36:01

one, Glen Youngkin, who's a good friend of mine,

36:03

I campaigned with Glenn Youngkin all

36:06

over Virginia. Spent two days barnstorming

36:08

the state of Virginia with Glenn. One

36:11

year after Biden was elected, Glen Youngkin

36:14

was elected as a Republican in

36:16

Virginia. Now, Virginia had not changed a single

36:18

voter integrity law. They had the same lousy

36:21

election laws they had the year before.

36:24

But a whole bunch of moms,

36:26

moms.

36:27

Who had voted for Joe Biden, got

36:29

ticked off at what the schools were doing

36:31

to our kids, and they flipped over and

36:33

voted Republican. That gives us a

36:36

roadmap to what we can and I think what we

36:38

have to.

36:38

Do is in this next election.

36:42

As always, thank you for listening

36:45

to Verdict with Sentner Ted Cruz Ben

36:47

Ferguson with you don't forget to deal with my podcast,

36:49

and you can listen to my podcast every other day you're not

36:51

listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict.

36:54

Afterwards, I'd love to have you as a listener

36:56

to again the Ben Ferguson podcasts,

36:58

and we will see you back here on Monday

37:00

morning.