Speaker 1: Welcome.
Speaker 2: It is verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with
Speaker 2: you and Senator there are a couple big issues we
Speaker 2: get to deal with today that are really important, including
Speaker 2: a shock that almost one hundred terror linked migrants were
Speaker 2: released into the United States of America in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: four a loan by the Biden administration.
Speaker 3: It really is a shocking story.
Speaker 4: Tulsea Gabbard revealed an eagle pass in Texas that the
Speaker 4: intelligence community had informed the Biden administration that of hundreds
Speaker 4: of terror linked illegal immigrants, that roughly one hundred of
Speaker 4: them were arrested in twenty twenty four, and that they
Speaker 4: released all but eight of them after they knew that
Speaker 4: they were linked to terrorist organizations. It's a shocking story.
Speaker 4: We're going to break it down and give you the details.
Speaker 4: We're also going to talk about the Take It Down Act.
Speaker 4: To Take It Down Act is my legislation protecting women,
Speaker 4: protecting teenage girls, teenage boys from revenge porn, from deep
Speaker 4: fakes online. And this week the First Lady of the
Speaker 4: United States, Millennia Trump, she came to the Capitol supporting
Speaker 4: my legislation. We did a roundtable together, so We're going
Speaker 4: to bring you into what Malania had to say about
Speaker 4: to Take It Down Act, and also President Trump at
Speaker 4: the State of the Union praise the Senate for passing
Speaker 4: my Take It Down Act unanimously and called on the
Speaker 4: House to pass it. We're going to bring you in
Speaker 4: that roundtable and you're going to hear what the first
Speaker 4: lady had to say and what several of the victims
Speaker 4: had to say.
Speaker 2: All Right, I got to tell you today I did
Speaker 2: something that was just really fun, and it was to
Speaker 2: spend a little time at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention
Speaker 2: in Dallas, Texas with my friends at the International Fellowship
Speaker 2: of Christians and Jews, and I got to see just
Speaker 2: what their work looks like with some videos that I
Speaker 2: was shown some pictures of the impact that so many
Speaker 2: of you were having by being involved with IFCJ and
Speaker 2: helping the people in Israel. After more than a year
Speaker 2: of war, tearin pain in Israel, there is still a
Speaker 2: great demand for basic communitanitarian aid and that is where
Speaker 2: the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has supported and
Speaker 2: they continue to support those in the Holy Land still
Speaker 2: facing the lingering horrors of war and those who are
Speaker 2: in desperate need right now, your ongoing monthly gift of
Speaker 2: forty five dollars will provide critically needed aid to communities
Speaker 2: in the North and the South that have been devastated
Speaker 2: by the ongoing attacks against the Jewish people. Now, your
Speaker 2: generous donation each month helps deliver to those that are
Speaker 2: in need the most, including the evacuees and the refugees
Speaker 2: from all of these different war torn areas. There's also
Speaker 2: a lot of first responders and volunteers and wounded soldiers,
Speaker 2: even elderly Holocaust survivors that are in desperate need, and
Speaker 2: you are helping them. That is why I just want
Speaker 2: to say, number one, thank you for getting involved and
Speaker 2: helping so many people in this great time of need
Speaker 2: and uncertainty. Your gift to bless Israel and are people.
Speaker 2: You can do that by visiting support hot IFCJ dot org.
Speaker 2: That's one word, support IFCJ dot org, or you can
Speaker 2: call them eight at eight four eight eight IFCJ that's
Speaker 2: eight eight eight four eight eight IFCJ eight at eight
Speaker 2: four eight eight four three two five or support IFCJ
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Speaker 2: hearts and minds. So let's go back center to the
Speaker 2: headline almost one hundred Terrace linked migrants released in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four. The part that I think we really should
Speaker 2: hone in on is this wasn't an accident. It wasn't
Speaker 2: like a misappropriation of paperwork.
Speaker 1: This was done on purpose.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they knew, they had full knowledge. And look, don't
Speaker 3: take my word for it. Listen to Tulsa Gabbard and
Speaker 3: what she said this week down in Texas at to
Speaker 3: Eagle Pass. Give a listen.
Speaker 5: Pump has been in office. Really, what you're seeing here
Speaker 5: today and what you'll continue to see as a unified
Speaker 5: effort across President Trump's National security team, the Department of
Speaker 5: Homeland Security towards our mission, which is to ensure a safe, free,
Speaker 5: and prosperous society for Americans. As Director of National Intelligence.
Speaker 5: There are a number of areas where we are focused.
Speaker 5: The President talked about.
Speaker 1: In his speech.
Speaker 5: Over twenty one million people have come across our borders
Speaker 5: illegally under Joe Biden's administration. There are many of them
Speaker 5: that we don't know who they are. They have not
Speaker 5: been vetted, we don't know where they are.
Speaker 1: I'll give you.
Speaker 5: One quick example of one of the problems that we
Speaker 5: are getting after from Central Asia. There were over four
Speaker 5: thousand people who came across our borders using an ISIS
Speaker 5: affiliated network. Our National counter Terrorism Center went through and
Speaker 5: identified those individuals.
Speaker 3: There were hundreds of them who.
Speaker 5: Were either known terrorists or associated with known terrorists. That
Speaker 5: information was provided to the Biden administration. You may remember
Speaker 5: in some of the news a little over one hundred
Speaker 5: of those people were arrested in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: Of those who.
Speaker 5: Were arrested, only eight were either deported or remained in custody.
Speaker 1: Only eight.
Speaker 5: The rest of them were released back into our country.
Speaker 5: Where are they, what are they doing? What may they
Speaker 5: be plotting? This is just the beginning. There are many
Speaker 5: many areas that we need to stay very focused on,
Speaker 5: working with Department of Homeland Security, working with the FBI
Speaker 5: to ensure that we're keeping the American people safe. The
Speaker 5: Honor Terrorism Center is working on making sure that we
Speaker 5: have that single source for vetting so that we can
Speaker 5: figure out who is actually in our country and identify
Speaker 5: those who pose a threat and get them removed.
Speaker 3: The President's designation.
Speaker 5: Of the cartels as foreign terrorists organizations falls directly into this,
Speaker 5: especially as we're seeing some of the tactics that these
Speaker 5: cartels are using reflect some of the tactics that we've
Speaker 5: seen used by Islamus terras in countries that many of
Speaker 5: us have served in overseas.
Speaker 3: Our mission is very clear.
Speaker 5: Our objective is to keep the American people safe.
Speaker 3: I'm grateful to be.
Speaker 5: A part of this team that President Trump has assembled
Speaker 5: to accomplish that mission.
Speaker 6: Thank you.
Speaker 1: I love the focus.
Speaker 2: The Vice President was down there as well the team,
Speaker 2: and you compare that to the borders are who never
Speaker 2: decided to go to egle Pass, didn't want anything to
Speaker 2: do with it, and now we understand again more why
Speaker 2: because they knew they were doing all of the things
Speaker 2: that they were doing to put America's national security at risk.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's worth really focusing on the facts that
Speaker 4: Telsea Gabbard is now the Director of National Intelligence. What
Speaker 4: she said, she said from Central Asia, there were more
Speaker 4: than four thousand people who came across our borders using
Speaker 4: an ISIS affiliated network. So isis, you know, kind of
Speaker 4: bad guys, terrorists who've killed lots and lots of Americans.
Speaker 4: They're smuggling over four thousand people illegally into this country
Speaker 4: from Central Asia. By the way, Central Asia includes multiple
Speaker 4: Islamic countries like Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, where radical Islamic terrorism
Speaker 4: is a real threat. And Tulsi said, the National counter
Speaker 4: Terrorism Center went through and identified those over four thousand
Speaker 4: individuals and there were hundreds of them, hundreds of the
Speaker 4: word she used, who were either known terrorists or associated
Speaker 4: with known terrorists. And then she says, quote that information
Speaker 4: was provided to the Biden administration, So the Biden administration
Speaker 4: knew hundreds of either known terrorists or people associated with
Speaker 4: known terrorists were smuggled into America. Illegally by an ISIS
Speaker 4: affiliated network. And then she goes on to say, in
Speaker 4: twenty twenty four, a little over one hundred of those
Speaker 4: terror leaked people were arrested, and then the shocking thing
Speaker 4: of the little more than one hundred, only eight were
Speaker 4: either deported or remained in custody.
Speaker 3: Only eight.
Speaker 4: Quote the rest of them were released back into our country.
Speaker 4: So this is not illegal aliens crossing the border that
Speaker 4: get apprehended at they let them go, but they don't
Speaker 4: know their terrorists. These are people they know are either
Speaker 4: themselves known terrorists or associated with known terrorists. They also
Speaker 4: know that they were smuggled illegally into this country by
Speaker 4: an ISIS affiliated network, and they were arrested again. And
Speaker 4: yet over ninety of them, nearly one hundred, the Biden
Speaker 4: administration released into America into your community, into my community
Speaker 4: in a single year.
Speaker 3: This isn't twenty twenty four. That is stunning.
Speaker 4: And I got to tell you, bet, I've never heard
Speaker 4: a single Democrat give any justification for what is just idiocy.
Speaker 4: Let's release terror linked illegal immigrants into America.
Speaker 3: What possibly could go wrong with that?
Speaker 2: When you look at the and you sometimes it's just
Speaker 2: people are stupid, is it?
Speaker 1: But it also could be more I could be more
Speaker 1: sinister than that, I guess.
Speaker 2: I look at this, I'm like they knew it, did
Speaker 2: They just not want to admit that the open border
Speaker 2: would allow for so many bad actors to come across,
Speaker 2: with many that may just be coming across right for
Speaker 2: a better life a job if you put it in
Speaker 2: the best like possible center. And so they knew that
Speaker 2: if they admitted they caught these people and then they
Speaker 2: didn't release them, and they actually prosecuted them or sent
Speaker 2: them back to their country, there's a lot of options
Speaker 2: here that was going to sign a huge light on
Speaker 2: the problem. So therefore, hey, we can't admit it's happening.
Speaker 2: So we're just gonna go with this anarchy and in
Speaker 2: Sandy till the end.
Speaker 3: Look, Bet, I really don't know.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: I had my very first boss at a phrase he
Speaker 4: used to say. He said, never attribute to incompetence and
Speaker 4: never attribute to malice. What can be explained with incompetence,
Speaker 4: And look, I think there's a lot of wisdom to
Speaker 4: that that a lot of times people are just they
Speaker 4: just do dumb things. That being said, Listen, I do
Speaker 4: I believe the Biden administration wants terrorists to attack America. No,
Speaker 4: but then why the hell would you release these people?
Speaker 4: And I guess the only plausible explanation I can come
Speaker 4: up with is there such radicals on open borders they're
Speaker 4: so committed to their open bodor because they want millions
Speaker 4: and millions of illegal immigrants, because they they view them
Speaker 4: as future Democrat voters, that they're just deportation was off
Speaker 4: the table. They're not in that business. They don't do it.
Speaker 4: I don't know. Listen, this is related to a story
Speaker 4: we covered in a pod a couple weeks ago. We're
Speaker 4: in Massachusetts right now. They're taking violent child abusers, child molesters,
Speaker 4: people who are raping children, who are illegal aliens, and
Speaker 4: even with violent child rapists, the Massachusetts authorities are releasing
Speaker 4: them rather than give them over to Ice to be deported. Now, look,
Speaker 4: reasonable people, you could have an argument about what should
Speaker 4: be the level of illegal immigration.
Speaker 3: You could. There are all sorts of things you'd have
Speaker 3: reasonable disagreements on.
Speaker 4: But I mean, Ben explained to me why someone says,
Speaker 4: you know what we need more of? We need more
Speaker 4: child rapists in our community. Let's let these go. Like
Speaker 4: I my brain cannot wrap itself around those repeated actions.
Speaker 4: And yet that's what's happening. This is the same sort
Speaker 4: of thing you apprehend someone who's a known terrorist who
Speaker 4: was smuggled into America by ISIS, and you say, oh,
Speaker 4: let's let them go like like I, I don't know.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: The poll numbers that came out from the present speech
Speaker 2: the other night were truly incredible. Seventy six percent approved
Speaker 2: of Trump's address to Congress. That is a massive win
Speaker 2: for the president. You look at some of the other
Speaker 2: ones and poll numbers. Not only that, ninety one percent
Speaker 2: said Trump spent time on issues they cared about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is a home run.
Speaker 2: Seventy one percent said the speech was quote inspiring, and
Speaker 2: sixty two percent said it was unifying. And they said
Speaker 2: that this speech sixty eight percent, so they felt hopeful
Speaker 2: fifty four percent, so they felt proud of the country
Speaker 2: from the speech.
Speaker 1: And when you look at these numbers, even on the.
Speaker 2: Issue of inflation, where Democrats leaned in heavy over the
Speaker 2: last few weeks to try to say everything that's you know,
Speaker 2: eggs and everything else are the problem of Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: The American people aren't buying that either. When they were
Speaker 2: asked for the president a clear plan to battle inflation,
Speaker 2: sixty eight percent said yes to that as well. And
Speaker 2: then on the issue of immigration at the border, the
Speaker 2: people watched in seventy seven percent said they were in
Speaker 2: favor of Donald Trump's plan on immigration at the border.
Speaker 2: When you see this right and you look at what
Speaker 2: the President's saying, and then all those that are working
Speaker 2: towards this, You've got the Vice President, You've got Tolca,
Speaker 2: you've got the Secretary of State. Everyone seems to be
Speaker 2: in lockstep on this issue of the border. Is that
Speaker 2: the reason why you think the President's winning so much
Speaker 2: right now on securing this border, because he's explaining it
Speaker 2: the way we are right now as well.
Speaker 4: Because he is not absolutely frigging nuts. Yes, I think
Speaker 4: the Democrat Party has gone insane. Releasing murderers and rapists
Speaker 4: and child molesters to America is a really bad idea,
Speaker 4: and it turns out it's.
Speaker 3: A really unpopular idea.
Speaker 4: Releasing terrorists into America is a really bad idea, and
Speaker 4: it turns out it's a really unpopular idea. Look, you
Speaker 4: and I the we covered did a pod the Night
Speaker 4: of the State of the Union, UH and we talked
Speaker 4: a lot about how the Democrats, for the first time ever,
Speaker 4: didn't applaud for the president of the United States, didn't
Speaker 4: stand for the President of the United States, didn't applaud
Speaker 4: and anything. I'll tell you Actually, yesterday the Senate, Jim
Speaker 4: I had a conversation with a Senate Democrat. I'll keep
Speaker 4: him anonymous, but he was a Senate Democrat, one of
Speaker 4: my colleagues, and.
Speaker 3: He made a comment.
Speaker 4: He said something about he thought we were just living
Speaker 4: in a surreal world. And I said, look, I got
Speaker 4: to say, I was shocked that you guys didn't applaud
Speaker 4: or stand for the president at all. And he and
Speaker 4: he was like, well, you got to understand, we just
Speaker 4: think he's destroying the Constitution. And I said, look, I
Speaker 4: stood and applauded every year for Barack Obama, I stood
Speaker 4: and applauded every year for Joe Biden. And I disagreed
Speaker 4: with almost everything they were doing, but I respect the
Speaker 4: office and I respect the American people. And he just
Speaker 4: kind of shrugged and said, we're living in different universes
Speaker 4: and we're our bases are fundamentally different. You look at
Speaker 4: Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Speaker 2: He also announced a policy to penalize foreign countries that
Speaker 2: allow the transit of illegal immigrants and is pressuring many
Speaker 2: countries that refuse to accept to the return of their
Speaker 2: migrants as well. This could also have a big impact
Speaker 2: on this country. I want to get your thoughts on that.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Look, this administration is securing the border. They're doing it
Speaker 4: right now, and they are going to deport illegal aliens.
Speaker 4: They are going to send out of the country, especially
Speaker 4: the violent criminal illegal aliens, the murderers, the rapists, theild molesters,
Speaker 4: the gangbangers, and the countries that don't take it, they're
Speaker 4: they're going to make them take it. And that's what
Speaker 4: a strong president who's actually defending this country does.
Speaker 2: All right, I want to move on to this other
Speaker 2: really important issue, and I want to say, sincerely, Senator,
Speaker 2: thank you for leading on the Take It Down Act.
Speaker 2: It is going to have a huge impact in this
Speaker 2: country at protecting people against deep fake porn and people
Speaker 2: that are trying to harm them, especially young girls. You've
Speaker 2: highlighted it and explained it, and the First Lady is
Speaker 2: now all in on this issue as well. And you
Speaker 2: guys had a round table on Capitol Hill talk a
Speaker 2: little bit about this.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, So the First Lady came this week to
Speaker 4: Capitol Hill and this is the first legislative issue she's
Speaker 4: gotten involved in this term, and she's leaned in hard
Speaker 4: in support of my Take It Down legislation. And so
Speaker 4: we did a roundtable that she came in diticipated in,
Speaker 4: and we had several of the victims who had been
Speaker 4: targeted share their stories and it was really powerful and
Speaker 4: her leadership will really have a powerful effect here. I
Speaker 4: want you to listen. These are my opening remarks at
Speaker 4: the roundtable.
Speaker 3: Give a listen.
Speaker 4: Start by thanking the First Lady for joining us today,
Speaker 4: and thank you for your support of this incredibly important
Speaker 4: legislation to Take It Down Act, which has already passed
Speaker 4: the Senate unanimously, and I am hopeful that the House
Speaker 4: will soon take it up and pass it and put
Speaker 4: it on the President's desk to be signed into law
Speaker 4: to protect young women and young boys and all of those.
Speaker 3: Who are being victimized across the country.
Speaker 4: I also want to thank our brave victims and victim
Speaker 4: advocates who are here, Aliston, Barry, Francesca Mani, Brandon Guffy,
Speaker 4: and Breezeloo.
Speaker 3: Thank you for being here.
Speaker 4: Each of you have endured the unspeakable, and your courage
Speaker 4: standing up and speaking for others is really remarkable. I
Speaker 4: also want to thank Stephan Turkheimer with RAIN for your
Speaker 4: advocacy and support on.
Speaker 3: This issue as well.
Speaker 4: Thank you for your leadership, and of course I want
Speaker 4: to thank Senator Klobuchar, who's the lead Democrat sponsor in
Speaker 4: the Senate, and Representative Salazar and Representative Dean who are
Speaker 4: the lead sponsors in the House, who've worked alongside in
Speaker 4: this important bipartisan legislation. If you're a victim of revenge
Speaker 4: porn or AI generated explicit imagery, your life changes forever.
Speaker 4: Most likely you've been targeted by someone you know, and
Speaker 4: you're likely struggling to have that material removed from the Internet. Disturbingly,
Speaker 4: many of these victims are teenagers at American high schools
Speaker 4: who are facing a surge in AI generated sexual images.
Speaker 4: Hundreds of teens, often targeted by their own classmates, are
Speaker 4: enduring senseless psychological harm knowing that these fake images exist
Speaker 4: and they're still out there, and in many case there's
Speaker 4: no recourse for these teenage victims. But this issue extends
Speaker 4: beyond high school. There are thousands of cases where predators
Speaker 4: have used non consensual intimate images to extort victims, both
Speaker 4: sexually and financially, and the results can be even more
Speaker 4: traumatic than financial loss, as we'll here today. In dozens
Speaker 4: of instances, parents and siblings have suffered unbearable pain having
Speaker 4: lost their child, or their brother or their sister to
Speaker 4: suicide because the victim felt there was no way out.
Speaker 3: From sextorship outside of high school.
Speaker 4: Many adults are also dealing with the very real and
Speaker 4: dire consequences of having their sexually explicit images shared online
Speaker 4: without their consent. I have heard from victims of sexual abuse,
Speaker 4: of rape, of human trafficking who strongly support the Take
Speaker 4: It Down Act because they desperately want some of the
Speaker 4: most traumatic moments of their lives taken off the Internet.
Speaker 4: The Take It Down Act empowers victims across the entire
Speaker 4: United States. It makes it a felony for these deviants
Speaker 4: to publish any non consensual intimate images, including fake lifelike.
Speaker 3: Pornographic images of real people.
Speaker 4: Just as importantly, our bipartisan bill requires big tech to
Speaker 4: have a notice and takedown propit so that every victimized American,
Speaker 4: not just the rich and famous, but everyone has a
Speaker 4: right to get these disturbing images taken offline immediately. We
Speaker 4: are today one step closer to making this dream of reality.
Speaker 4: Just three weeks ago, the Senate unanimously passed to Take
Speaker 4: It Down Act. Now it goes to my House, colleagues,
Speaker 4: and I have every assurance and confidence that the House
Speaker 4: will take it, take this up, pass it, and put
Speaker 4: it on the President's desk so that we can protect
Speaker 4: the victims of these predators. And we're very excited to
Speaker 4: be joined today by the First Lady of the United States,
Speaker 4: Milania Trump. Missus Trump has long been a champion for
Speaker 4: protecting our nation's children with her be best initiative, and
Speaker 4: I can think of no more important issue for our
Speaker 4: First Lady to lean on than protecting children online. Your
Speaker 4: success will mean our children's success and healing for thousands
Speaker 4: of victims.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's incredible this legislation, and it's also awesome
Speaker 2: to see the First Lady coming to the forefront on
Speaker 2: this issue and saying I want to champion this as well.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Look, it was tremendously important. She reached out, she wanted
Speaker 4: to do this, she actively participated in the roundtable, and
Speaker 4: here I want to play a moment of what she
Speaker 4: had to say at the round table. Here's the first Lady,
Speaker 4: Milennia Trump.
Speaker 8: I was hardened to learn that Senator Bruce and Senator
Speaker 8: Toobechi united to poritize these from AMENTA.
Speaker 3: Then I must the lead.
Speaker 8: However, I expected to see more Democrats leaders in US
Speaker 8: to add as the serious issue. Surely, as adult, you've
Speaker 8: fize Americans chisi ahead of farms far. I urged Congress
Speaker 8: to to prioritize the passage of the paying down EQUIL.
Speaker 8: This limitation desential for addressing the growing concerns related to
Speaker 8: online safety, protecting individual routs, and promoting a healthier digital environment.
Speaker 8: By advocating Field, Congress and take.
Speaker 9: An important step towards ensuring.
Speaker 8: Accountability and postling responsibly online delilation to take it down.
Speaker 8: Andy represents power from step to justice.
Speaker 7: Healing and unity.
Speaker 2: The first lady there, and I do love that she
Speaker 2: was honest. She's like, how are there not more Democrats
Speaker 2: with this?
Speaker 4: Well, and look it's the answer is the anger and
Speaker 4: rage we saw at the State of the Union. They're
Speaker 4: just filled with anger in rage. But I will say
Speaker 4: the fact that the first Lady got involved so last
Speaker 4: year we passed the Take It Down Act out of
Speaker 4: the Senate. We got it passed out of the Senate
Speaker 4: and went to the House, and unfortunately the House did
Speaker 4: not take it up and pass it. Now, the House
Speaker 4: tried to, and they actually had it attached to the
Speaker 4: continuing Resolution at the end of the year, and then
Speaker 4: it dropped out at the end of the day. And
Speaker 4: so here's how this happens. When the First Lady wanted
Speaker 4: to come, she came, and we invited multiple victims.
Speaker 3: To tell their stories and it was very powerful.
Speaker 4: But we also invited the Speaker of the House and
Speaker 4: the majority leader in the House, and so both Speaker
Speaker 4: Johnson and Leader Scalise came, and then both Mike and
Speaker 4: Steve are good friends. But look, what are the challenges
Speaker 4: of getting any legislation to move in either body is
Speaker 4: getting leadership to prioritize it. There are lots of priorities,
Speaker 4: There are lots of people pulling in all sorts of
Speaker 4: different directions, and so you're always battling to say, Okay,
Speaker 4: this should be high enough up on the priority list
Speaker 4: to move. And the fact that the First Lady leaned
Speaker 4: in now makes it a certainty. Both the Speaker and
Speaker 4: and and the majority leader committed the House will take
Speaker 4: it up and they will pass it. And I think
Speaker 4: they're going to do so quickly. And Elliston Berry, So
Speaker 4: Elliston was there, and and she is She's from Texas.
Speaker 4: She is a fifteen year old girl. And what happened
Speaker 4: to her She's from Aledo, Texas, up in North Texas.
Speaker 4: And what happened to her is is is she woke
Speaker 4: up one morning and she was in ninth grade, and
Speaker 4: she was getting all these texts and calls from her friends.
Speaker 4: And it turns out a classmate of hers, a boy
Speaker 4: in her class, took a perfectly innocent picture of her
Speaker 4: from social media and used an app, an ai app,
Speaker 4: to create a deep fake that that turned her picture
Speaker 4: into naked pictures. Now it wasn't real, but anyone looking
Speaker 4: at it would think it was real. It appeared to
Speaker 4: be real. And then this, this, this, this ninth grader
Speaker 4: emailed it, or not emailed it, but sent it on
Speaker 4: snapchat to to all of her classmates. And and so
Speaker 4: she woke up, you know, just in tears because all
Speaker 4: of her classmates. I mean, look, remember how hard freshman
Speaker 4: year is. It's hard to be a teenager. And and
Speaker 4: the nightmare. You're a teenage girl and suddenly all your
Speaker 4: friends think they're looking at naked pictures of you, and
Speaker 4: and and there was nothing she could do about it.
Speaker 3: The boy they found out who did it, and and.
Speaker 4: And he he did not get in significant trouble, and
Speaker 4: and and and she was frustrated out of her mind
Speaker 4: that now it's it's kind of a cool story. How
Speaker 4: the take it Down legislation happened, which is she she's
Speaker 4: a textan, she's a constituent. And so her mother called
Speaker 4: my office and described what had happened to her to
Speaker 4: her daughter and said, look, can y'all help help us
Speaker 4: with this? And and my team brought it to my attention,
Speaker 4: and I said, look, this is horrible. Let's do something
Speaker 4: about it. And so Elliston was was actually the inspiration
Speaker 4: for this legislation because I heard what happened to her,
Speaker 4: and I said, this isn't right. And so we drafted
Speaker 4: the bill, and we invited Elliston and her mom, Anna
Speaker 4: to come up to DC and they were at the
Speaker 4: press conference where we introduced the bill, and Bennett was striking.
Speaker 4: We were meeting in my office before the press conference,
Speaker 4: and I was talking this the first time I'd met
Speaker 4: them in person, and I was talking and I asked
Speaker 4: in the middle of the conversation, I said, okay, so
Speaker 4: what happened to the pictures? And they both looked at
Speaker 4: me in enormous frustration, and they said they're still up.
Speaker 4: It had been nine months since this had happened, and
Speaker 4: Elliston's mom said she had called Snapchat repeatedly, she'd emailed them,
Speaker 4: and she just got the stiff arm. She said it
Speaker 4: was they were just stonewalling. They would get no response whatsoever.
Speaker 4: And so I turned to my staff and I said,
Speaker 4: I want you to get the CEO of Snapchat on
Speaker 4: the phone today and I said, I want this garbage
Speaker 4: down today. Within two hours, they pulled them down.
Speaker 1: Incredible.
Speaker 4: Now, look, it's maddening, but it shouldn't take a sitting
Speaker 4: US senator making a phone call to the CEO to
Speaker 4: get it down. The victims ought to have the right
Speaker 4: to get it down. So what we wrote into the
Speaker 4: Take It Down Act is Number One, we make it
Speaker 4: a felony to post non consensual intimate images, either real pictures.
Speaker 4: Let's say you have and real pictures can come from
Speaker 4: a number of places. They can come from. Number one
Speaker 4: people who are in a romantic relationship and they take
Speaker 4: a picture, they take a video, and then they have
Speaker 4: a breakup and somebody's pissed and decide to post it
Speaker 4: to the world. And that's a grotesque violation of privacy.
Speaker 4: You don't have a right to do that to somebody else.
Speaker 4: Or they can come from deep fakes, and we're seeing
Speaker 4: the numbers. The numbers have increased three thousand percent of
Speaker 4: deep fakes that are being put out. They're real pictures,
Speaker 4: but they're real people, but fake either explicit pictures or
Speaker 4: in some cases explicit videos that appear to be sexual
Speaker 4: videos and they're generated by AI, but nobody watching can tell.
Speaker 4: And this is exploding. And one of the reasons you
Speaker 4: need the legislation is a number of states of past
Speaker 4: laws criminalizing revenge porn, but the laws often don't cover
Speaker 4: deep fakes, that they only cover real pictures, and so
Speaker 4: deep fakes fall into a hole in the law.
Speaker 3: And I'll tell you, Ben, there's another.
Speaker 4: Instance where this happens, which is kids are subject to
Speaker 4: human trafficking and are sexually abused and violated, and you
Speaker 4: have the predators will put those images out online. And
Speaker 4: the second component of this bill is a requirement that
Speaker 4: any tech platform take down these images or these videos
Speaker 4: once they're notified by the victim, a legal requirement that
Speaker 4: once you're notified, you got forty eight hours to take
Speaker 4: it down or else they face serious penalties. And that
Speaker 4: the number of victims I've heard who have been so
Speaker 4: frustrated getting big tech to act. In many ways, that's
Speaker 4: the most important part of this bill is getting this
Speaker 4: garbage taking down and creating a.
Speaker 3: Legal right for any victim to remove the content.
Speaker 2: One of the things that I also love seeing now,
Speaker 2: and I want you to expand on this just for
Speaker 2: a moment, was the fact that when you guys had
Speaker 2: this roundtable, you mentioned Speaker Johnson was there. How important
Speaker 2: is it to get legislation done that Republicans and the
Speaker 2: senat are working with the Republicans in the House because
Speaker 2: this is that type of I call it harmony that
Speaker 2: I know makes a huge difference in getting an idea
Speaker 2: to become a reality.
Speaker 4: Oh look, it's very important, and personal relationships make a difference.
Speaker 4: I mean, I had dinner with Steve Scalise last week.
Speaker 4: Steve is a good friend. Mike Johnson is a good friend.
Speaker 4: Mike and I have had dinner multiple times. We spent
Speaker 4: a lot of time together. And that's that's how you
Speaker 4: move legislation is through personal relationships, through strategizing, through working together.
Speaker 4: And so when the first lady said she was coming,
Speaker 4: I reached out and invited both of them, and invited
Speaker 4: Brett Guthrie, who is the committee chairman of the Energy
Speaker 4: and Commerce Committee, which is the committee that has jurisdiction
Speaker 4: over this. It's the equivalent of the Senate Commerce Committee
Speaker 4: that I'm the chairman of. And Brett's a friend as well.
Speaker 4: He and I have had dinner. I mean a lot
Speaker 4: of what if you want to actually move things through Congress,
Speaker 4: the personal relationships really matter. And I got to say
Speaker 4: I was really excited because at the State of the
Speaker 4: Union address, Elliston Barry was sitting right next to Milania Trump,
Speaker 4: she was her guest, was right there in the box
Speaker 4: and actually President Trump explicitly called on Congress to pass
Speaker 4: the Take It Down Act. I want you to listen.
Speaker 4: This is the President at the State of the Union
Speaker 4: calling on Congress to act.
Speaker 7: And Elliston Berry, who became a victim of an illicit
Speaker 7: deep fake image produced by a peer With Elliston's help,
Speaker 7: the Senate just passed the Take It Down Act.
Speaker 1: And this is so important.
Speaker 7: Thank you very much, John, John Thune, thank you, stand up, John,
Speaker 7: Thank you John.
Speaker 1: Thank you all very much.
Speaker 7: Thank you, and thank you to John Thune and the Senate.
Speaker 7: Great job to criminalize the publication of such images online.
Speaker 7: This is a terrible, terrible thing, and once it passes
Speaker 7: the House, I look forward to signing that bill into law.
Speaker 5: Thank you.
Speaker 7: And I'm going to use that bill for myself too,
Speaker 7: if you don't mind, because nobody gets treated worse than
Speaker 7: I do online, nobody. That's great. Thank you very much
Speaker 7: to the Senate. Thank you.
Speaker 2: I mean, I love how they're just enthusiasm, there's excitement, Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's momentum.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And it makes the chances. I think it's a certainty.
Speaker 4: Now the House will take it up. As I said,
Speaker 4: the Speaker and the Majority Leader both committed to doing
Speaker 4: that and doing so quickly. And the President and First
Speaker 4: Lady Engaging just raises it on the priority list. So
Speaker 4: that's really good. Elliston. Was there another teenage girl, Francesca Mani,
Speaker 4: who's from New Jersey. She's the same age, fifteen. She
Speaker 4: had the same month this happened to Elliston, in Texas.
Speaker 4: The identical thing happened to Francesca in New Jersey. They
Speaker 4: had the exact same experience. And both Elliston and Francesca
Speaker 4: I've had testify at a field hearing I did on
Speaker 4: the Take It Down Act that I held in Dallas,
Speaker 4: and they both testified there. And these are two young
Speaker 4: ladies who were really, really effective. Francesca was featured in
Speaker 4: sixty Minutes. She's really powerful. Ellison and I did Good
Speaker 4: Morning America together and she told her story there. I
Speaker 4: kind of tell you she's so so articulate that the
Speaker 4: Good Morning America host we're laughing and saying that Ellison
Speaker 4: was coming for their jobs, and I think that's right
Speaker 4: here here listen to listen to Ellison telling a little
Speaker 4: bit of her story in her own voice.
Speaker 6: I'm Ellison Barry. I'm fifteen years old. I'm from Fort Worth, Texas.
Speaker 6: I was a survivor of AID fakes. A classmate of
Speaker 6: mine targeted me and eight other of my friends and
Speaker 6: put an innocent picture of Instagram through an AI ending
Speaker 6: app that stripped our clothing off. And since you round
Speaker 6: my whole school, I was able to get in touch
Speaker 6: with Ted Cruz's office and we were able to write
Speaker 6: up the Take It Down Act, which protects America's children
Speaker 6: from these heinous acts. Thankfully, the First Lady's office was
Speaker 6: able to reach out. And it's really just been such
Speaker 6: an amazing experience knowing that she has the heart for
Speaker 6: my situation and that she cares, and that the overall
Speaker 6: support behind this act in this situation is so amazing
Speaker 6: and were protecting the future generation.
Speaker 2: It's sad that this story has to even be a story,
Speaker 2: but what an incredible young lady at fifteen to be
Speaker 2: this articulate and to be able to understand that she
Speaker 2: can help so many others and to contact your office,
Speaker 2: and that you were able to help her and so
Speaker 2: many others.
Speaker 1: This way is just truly incredible.
Speaker 3: It is really powerful.
Speaker 4: And I'll tell you we had multiple victims testify and
Speaker 4: sometimes the consequences of this are even worse. And so
Speaker 4: I want you to give a listen to the testimony
Speaker 4: of Brandon Guffy at the Roundtable to describing what happened
Speaker 4: with his son. Although the vast majority of the targets
Speaker 4: of this abuse are women and young girls, young boys
Speaker 4: can be targeted as well, and the FBI has warned
Speaker 4: that there's a growing threat of sextortion, deliberately targeting miners online,
Speaker 4: where evil people use either real or fake explicit images
Speaker 4: to extort their victims, both sexually and financially, and in
Speaker 4: some instances the results can be even.
Speaker 3: More devastating and catastrophic.
Speaker 4: And that was the tragic situation that that South Carolina
Speaker 4: State Representative Branded Guffey and his family experienced in twenty
Speaker 4: twenty two. Representative Guffey, would you please share what happened
Speaker 4: with your son, Thank.
Speaker 9: You, Senator Cruz. July twenty seventh, twenty twenty two, I
Speaker 9: lost my oldest son, Gavin Guffy, to suicide. We quickly
Speaker 9: found out that he was being extorted online, that someone
Speaker 9: pretending to be a young female at another college requested
Speaker 9: images to be shared back and forth, and as soon
Speaker 9: as he shared those images, he took his life. It
Speaker 9: was an hour and forty minutes from the time that
Speaker 9: he was contacted until the time that he took his life.
Speaker 9: At that time, I had never heard of the crime
Speaker 9: of sextortion. I was always a more liberty minded politician,
Speaker 9: even though I hate to say that word, and you know,
Speaker 9: I wanted freedom as much as possible, but as I
Speaker 9: started looking into this. I started to see that big
Speaker 9: tech operates, and they are the equivalent of big tobacco,
Speaker 9: of this of today's generation. The account that targeted my son,
Speaker 9: that caused him to take his life, was taken down
Speaker 9: online once Homeland Security reached out. However, they left the
Speaker 9: additional accounts up. If I send a friend request, I
Speaker 9: can choose remove this account and any other accounts associated.
Speaker 3: Yet they left these.
Speaker 9: Other accounts up, and those other accounts began to extort
Speaker 9: my fourteen year old cousin, my sixteen year old son
Speaker 9: who had just lost his brother, and myself as well,
Speaker 9: going as far as sending a message saying, did I
Speaker 9: tell you that your son begged for his life? From
Speaker 9: that day forward, I've made it my life's mission. Politics
Speaker 9: are not to fight to protect children online. Since December
Speaker 9: of twenty twenty two, whenever I took office, within four months,
Speaker 9: we were able to pass Gavin's Law in South Carolina,
Speaker 9: which criminalized digital sextortion. And the first person that we
Speaker 9: were able to convict under Gavin's Law was actually under
Speaker 9: an AI photograph. I have helped thousands of children since then.
Speaker 9: Matter of fact, I've dealt with three within the past
Speaker 9: forty eight hours, the families that are reaching out that
Speaker 9: are being extorted in these situations. I've worked with groups
Speaker 9: such as in Cozy and Nick Meck. Here on the Hill,
Speaker 9: I have showed up with parents and unfortunately, the amount
Speaker 9: of parents that are losing children are growing daily. Since
Speaker 9: my son took his life, there's been forty other teens
Speaker 9: that are public about this. I can tell you there's
Speaker 9: more than a dozen that I know of that just
Speaker 9: do not feel comfortable share in their stories. But I'm
Speaker 9: witnessing teens constantly take their life and as you said,
Speaker 9: Senator Cruz, trying to get an image down. Now, granted,
Speaker 9: I'm just a state representative, but I have a little
Speaker 9: bit more pull than the average citizen, and I'm able
Speaker 9: to get some of these taken down occasionally, but that's
Speaker 9: generally not the case. And with something such as take
Speaker 9: it Down, it would allow families to be able to
Speaker 9: have those images taken down and to have the voice
Speaker 9: that my son did not have. There was no recourse
Speaker 9: of being able to know to be able to get
Speaker 9: these images down, and in his mind, no one had
Speaker 9: his back, and this wasn't talked about. So since then
Speaker 9: it's been my mission to speak up, scream it from
Speaker 9: the mountaintops on how we have to hold big tech
Speaker 9: accountable and take it down. Does that? So for everyone involved,
Speaker 9: I really thank you for your involvement and urge for
Speaker 9: passage within the House.
Speaker 1: Sentta you hear that part of the story, and it's heartbreaking.
Speaker 2: It's also incredible to listen to a father making its
Speaker 2: life's work to help others.
Speaker 3: Afterwards, you know what a friggin nightmare. You and I
Speaker 3: are both dads. I mean, that's it's terrifying.
Speaker 4: And and you know young people will anyone, but especially
Speaker 4: teenagers are are targeted and victimized by this, and and
Speaker 4: and that's why the bill bill is really important and
Speaker 4: it's it's a it's a huge problem. So listen, I'm
Speaker 4: grateful to the first Lady, and I'm grateful to the
Speaker 4: President for for for leading on this, and we're going
Speaker 4: to get it done. And I'll tell you I told
Speaker 4: I told Brandon, I told Elliston and and and Francisca
Speaker 4: and and all of the victim advocates there that that uh,
Speaker 4: they're going to be in the Oval Office for the
Speaker 4: bill signing. The President's going to sign the bill, and
Speaker 4: each one of them is going to get a signing
Speaker 4: pen that they're going to get to take home. And
Speaker 4: then that's you know, that's really who we're fighting for,
Speaker 4: are the victims who are targeted here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's incredible. Make sure you share this podcast with
Speaker 2: your family and friends. It is a really important one.
Speaker 2: We did this Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. You can grab
Speaker 2: my podcast a Ben Ferguson's show on those in between
Speaker 2: days and we'll keep you up there in the latest
Speaker 2: breaking news and the Senat and I will see you
Speaker 2: back here for the week in review the top stories
Speaker 2: of the week on Saturday morning as well