Speaker 1: Welcome.
Speaker 2: It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you, Senator.
Speaker 1: Back in January of.
Speaker 2: This year, there was a prediction that was made on
Speaker 2: this show. And the prediction that was made on this show,
Speaker 2: I just want to start by playing it.
Speaker 1: You said this.
Speaker 3: I'm going to make a prediction right now, Ben, this
Speaker 3: is not what I like. My prediction is, in December
Speaker 3: of twenty twenty four, Joe Biden will pardon Hunter Biden. Really,
Speaker 3: that's my prediction. He'll be after the election, very likely
Speaker 3: win or lose. You say he'll do it no matter
Speaker 3: what win or lose. If Biden were to win, I
Speaker 3: think he'll delay the pardon until right before Hunter goes
Speaker 3: to jail. But if Biden is losing, I'd put the
Speaker 3: odds at ninety five percent that in December of this year,
Speaker 3: if Biden has just lost the general election, that he
Speaker 3: pardons his son and he gives him a scot free
Speaker 3: get out of jail pass. And so understand, Hunter's legal
Speaker 3: strategy is delay eleven months, delay eleven months, don't go
Speaker 3: to jail for eleven months, and then Daddy gives you
Speaker 3: get out of jail free card. And it's why the
Speaker 3: House needs to keep their eye on the ball.
Speaker 2: That was January the twelfth Center, twenty twenty four. If
Speaker 2: you were listening to Verdict, then this was one hundred
Speaker 2: percent predicted and it happened exactly how you said it would.
Speaker 3: Well to be fair, it was ninety five percent predicted then,
Speaker 3: and then last summer I raised it to one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: But if you listen to Verdict, you knew this was
Speaker 3: going to happen. It is ten fifty three pm on
Speaker 3: December first. We are recording this podcast right now. On
Speaker 3: December first, Joe Biden did exactly what we told you
Speaker 3: was going to do eleven months ago. He pardoned his
Speaker 3: son Hunter Biden. Never mind about the corruption, never mind
Speaker 3: about the gun offenses, never mind about the drug offenses,
Speaker 3: never mind about the tax offenses. No man is above
Speaker 3: the law unless your name is Joe Biden and the
Speaker 3: entire Biden family. We're going to break that down, explain
Speaker 3: what just happened with the Hunter Biden pardon. Today, we're
Speaker 3: also going to talk about Donald Trump's nomination of Cash
Speaker 3: Bettel as the director of the FBI. The left is
Speaker 3: losing their mind. The Democrats are freaking out. The media
Speaker 3: is freaking out. We're going to break down why they're
Speaker 3: freaking out and why this is a very good thing
Speaker 3: for America. And finally a terrific victory, the Chinese communists
Speaker 3: have released three Americans from unjust imprisonment, including Mark Sweden.
Speaker 3: Mark Swodin was a Texan who was imprisoned in China
Speaker 3: for twelve years. I've been leading the fight to bring
Speaker 3: Mark home. Mark is back in America. Three Americans are
Speaker 3: back in America. We're going to talk about that as well.
Speaker 2: It's such an incredible story, especially around Thanksgiving, and it's
Speaker 2: an important one that the media really isn't covering I
Speaker 2: think the way they should, and that's why I love
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Speaker 2: start with the narrative and work our way back. When
Speaker 2: this news broke tonight, we were all on text message
Speaker 2: and this was the first part was Joe Biden pardons
Speaker 2: soun Hunter. I wasn't surprised by it. You predicted it.
Speaker 2: You weren't surprised by. What I was surprised was the
Speaker 2: amount of time of this of that it covers. He's
Speaker 2: basically off the for everything that involves the Biden crime family.
Speaker 2: And this is after Joe Biden repeatedly promised that he
Speaker 2: would not do this, that he would it would honor
Speaker 2: and respect the justice system and the juries and whatever
Speaker 2: they decide to do with his son.
Speaker 1: That was also all a lie.
Speaker 2: And I think the part that was the most shocking
Speaker 2: is how the media is covering this now. And I
Speaker 2: want to start with that they're all saying to the
Speaker 2: American people will look, he already lost his son, one
Speaker 2: son who died a brain cancer. This is just a
Speaker 2: dad being a dad. I don't buy that for a second.
Speaker 2: I think this is him protecting the crime family and
Speaker 2: the bag man, and that protects him. I don't think
Speaker 2: this is compassion from a father. Your reaction to that.
Speaker 3: Well, listen what Joe Biden said today. He put out
Speaker 3: a lengthy statement. Let me read his statement. Then we're
Speaker 3: going to talk about what it means. Here's what Joe
Speaker 3: Biden said. Quote today, I signed a pardon for my
Speaker 3: son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said
Speaker 3: I would not interfere with the Justice Department's decision making,
Speaker 3: and I kept my word even as I watched my
Speaker 3: son being selectively and unfairly prosecuted without aggravating factors like
Speaker 3: use in a crime, multiple purchases, are buying a weapon
Speaker 3: as a straw purchaser. People are almost never brought to
Speaker 3: trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out
Speaker 3: a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes
Speaker 3: because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with
Speaker 3: interest and penalties are typically given non criminal resolutions. It
Speaker 3: is clear that Hunter was treated differently. The charges in
Speaker 3: his case came about only after several of my political
Speaker 3: opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose
Speaker 3: my election. Then a carefully negotiated plea deal agreed to
Speaker 3: by the Department of Justice and unraveled in the courtroom,
Speaker 3: with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking
Speaker 3: credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the
Speaker 3: plea deal held, it would have been a fair reasonable
Speaker 3: resolution of Hunter's cases. No reasonable person who looks at
Speaker 3: the facts of Hunter's cases can reach any other conclusion
Speaker 3: than Hunter singled out only because he is my son,
Speaker 3: and that is wrong. There has been an effort to
Speaker 3: break Hunter, who has been five and a half years sober,
Speaker 3: even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selected prosecution.
Speaker 3: In trying to break Hunter, they've tried to break me.
Speaker 3: There's no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough
Speaker 3: is enough. For my entire career, I have followed a
Speaker 3: simple principle. Just tell the American people the truth. They'll
Speaker 3: be fair minded. Here's the truth. I believe in the
Speaker 3: justice system. But as I have wrestled with this, I
Speaker 3: also believe raw politics has infected this process, and it
Speaker 3: has led to a miscarriage of justice. And once I
Speaker 3: made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in
Speaker 3: delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a
Speaker 3: father and a president would come to this decision. Well,
Speaker 3: let me start with his ending. I understand why I
Speaker 3: said in January, Joe Biden would pardon Hunter Biden. And
Speaker 3: understand that to anyone who listens to this podcast, it's
Speaker 3: not a surprise. It is obvious Hunter Biden is not
Speaker 3: some lonely crackhead who just sort of went astray. That's
Speaker 3: what Joe Biden, the entire White House has tried to
Speaker 3: paint him as. Hunter Biden's business was selling access to Daddy.
Speaker 3: The real crook here is Joe Biden. And this is
Speaker 3: something that in this podcast we've broken down in elaborate detail,
Speaker 3: the evidence of criminality that Joe Biden, the Biden family,
Speaker 3: they made tens of millions of dollars selling favors from
Speaker 3: Joe Biden. Listen, nobody pays Hunter Biden. Nobody pays a
Speaker 3: crackhead money when he has no marketable services. He was
Speaker 3: not selling anything other than Daddy. So when Joe Biden
Speaker 3: is saying, oh it is terrible. No one's prosecuted for this.
Speaker 3: Number One, I'll tell you this. If you use crack
Speaker 3: cocaine with prostitutes, illegally buying guns with guns, you will
Speaker 3: be prosecuting.
Speaker 1: You will go to jail.
Speaker 3: You don't. People not named Biden don't get away with that.
Speaker 3: By the way, if you also defraud the federal government
Speaker 3: out of millions of dollars of taxes, you will be prosecuted.
Speaker 3: That is true as well. But the real corruption. Listen,
Speaker 3: the Biden Justice Department decline to prosecute, deliberately allow the
Speaker 3: statute of limitation to expire on many of the most
Speaker 3: egregious examples of corruption, everything that implicated the big guy. Understand,
Speaker 3: this is all about Joe Biden. It's not about Hunter Biden.
Speaker 3: So when Joe Biden entered this pardon, it is about
Speaker 3: protecting his own rear. End. Does he love his son short?
Speaker 3: Does he want to protect his son? Sure, it's why
Speaker 3: I was certain he would grant this pardon. But if
Speaker 3: you really love your son, you don't send out your
Speaker 3: son who is an addict, to be the front man,
Speaker 3: to be the bag man in collecting millions of dollars
Speaker 3: selling access to you, Joe Biden was perfectly willing to
Speaker 3: use his son as the point person and plan to
Speaker 3: blame it on the addiction. And so I've got to
Speaker 3: say Joe Biden's claiming, well, gosh, it's just unfair he
Speaker 3: was targeted. What is unfair, what is not right, is
Speaker 3: that the Biden family made for decades a practice of
Speaker 3: selling favors from Joe Biden that is fundamentally corrupt. And
Speaker 3: let me say finally, in Joe Biden's statement, he talks about, well,
Speaker 3: there was a plea deal from the Department of Justice
Speaker 3: and then it collapsed. Well, you know what, this podcast
Speaker 3: played a significant role in causing that that that plea
Speaker 3: deal would corrupt out to collapse. And why because we
Speaker 3: shined a light on it. Because it was indefensible that
Speaker 3: the plea deal was zero jail time, a slap on
Speaker 3: the wrist, which Joe Biden said, well, gosh, that would
Speaker 3: be fair. Don't punish my son. And understand, this is
Speaker 3: not about Hunter. This is about Joe.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about the length of this pardon, because I
Speaker 2: think it's not just the pardon for these two charges,
Speaker 2: it's also Hey, this covers virtually all of the corruption
Speaker 2: and all of the sins of the Biden crime family.
Speaker 2: When they knew they had millions of dowers coming into
Speaker 2: their son's bank account that was spending it on drugs
Speaker 2: and and everything else that we know about from his laptop.
Speaker 2: He said, Hey, you can't go after my son basically
Speaker 2: for anything. This is a pardon for all the bad
Speaker 2: things we've done.
Speaker 3: Well, and listen, if you're gonna do it, you're gonna
Speaker 3: make it as broad as possible because you don't care
Speaker 3: about the press blowback. And at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: Joe Biden's lost, Kamala Harris's lost. They don't care about
Speaker 3: the political consequences. That's why it was gonna be December.
Speaker 3: It wasn't gonna be November. It wasn't gonna be January, December.
Speaker 3: It was gonna be the month it was. And I
Speaker 3: want you to understand, for more than a year, Joe Biden,
Speaker 3: every Democrat has been lying to the American people repeatedly
Speaker 3: and brazenly. I want you to listen to Korean John
Speaker 3: Pierre in December twenty twenty three, here's what she had
Speaker 3: to say.
Speaker 4: The President would not pardon or community sensus for it.
Speaker 4: Stun Hunter I want to make sure that that is
Speaker 4: not going to change field for the next six months.
Speaker 4: The President's stay.
Speaker 5: It's still a no. It's still an egg, always nail.
Speaker 5: It's still a no. It will be you know, it
Speaker 5: is a no. And I don't have anything else to add.
Speaker 5: Will he pardoned his son?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 1: Well, partner his son?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: And she's actually banging her hand on the podium. You
Speaker 2: can hear it.
Speaker 3: Okay, So let's play now, Kareean John Pierre in August
Speaker 3: of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 6: We'll go back to the first question of the briefing.
Speaker 4: I know you said not a lot of changed this yesterday,
Speaker 4: and it's a personal matter, but from a presidential perspective,
Speaker 4: is there any possibility that the president would end up
Speaker 4: pardoning his son?
Speaker 3: Okay, Now, let's do Joe Biden himself in June of
Speaker 3: twenty twenty four.
Speaker 7: I'm extremely proud of my son Hunter. He is overcome
Speaker 7: an addiction. He is He's one of the greatest, most
Speaker 7: decent men I know. And I am satisfied that I'm
Speaker 7: not going to do anything I said. I advide by
Speaker 7: the jury decision, and I will do that, and I
Speaker 7: will not partner him.
Speaker 3: Okay, Let's play another interview again from June of twenty
Speaker 3: twenty four. Joe Biden again on the same topic.
Speaker 6: As we sit here in Normandy, your son Hunter is
Speaker 6: on trial, and I know that you cannot speak about
Speaker 6: an ongoing federal prosecution, but let me ask you. Will
Speaker 6: you accept the jury's outcome, their verdict, no matter what
Speaker 6: it is.
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 6: And have you ruled out a pardon for your son?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: I mean the guys a patholgical liar everywhere we go.
Speaker 3: Final clip. Let's let's play Kreeen John Pierre once again
Speaker 3: on the same topic.
Speaker 4: The president would not pardon or community sense for it,
Speaker 4: stun Hunter. I want to make sure that that is
Speaker 4: not going to change field for the next six months.
Speaker 4: The President's stay.
Speaker 5: It's still a no. It's still an egill always. You know,
Speaker 5: it's still a no. It will be a no. It
Speaker 5: is a no. And I don't have anything else to add.
Speaker 1: Will he pardon his son?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 1: Pretty consistent with their lies.
Speaker 3: Look understand, every person listening to Joe Biden, every person
Speaker 3: listening to Queen John Pierre, knew that they were lying.
Speaker 3: The reporter asking that question knew that they were lying.
Speaker 3: Kareean John Pierre, she knew she was lying, and Joe
Speaker 3: Biden every time he said it, knew he was lying.
Speaker 3: We said on this podcast, then they are lying. And
Speaker 3: it was a cynical effort to gaslight the American people.
Speaker 3: They hoped at the time, they hoped Joe Biden would win.
Speaker 3: Later they hoped Kamala Harris would win. But their approach
Speaker 3: was simple, We're gonna lie to you. We're gonna lie
Speaker 3: to you. We're gonna lie to you. Don't you like
Speaker 3: our happy lies? And the plan was always, always, always
Speaker 3: to issue the pardon because it covers up for the
Speaker 3: criminality that Joe Biden is right at the nexus of.
Speaker 2: So let's talk about this future and the Republicans and
Speaker 2: what they should do. There was a lot of people
Speaker 2: asking the question, Okay, is there anything that you can
Speaker 2: do about this or is this just the world we
Speaker 2: live in now where if you're the president you can
Speaker 2: be as corrupt as how if you're a Democrat and
Speaker 2: you've got people to cover for you. Then there's people saying, well,
Speaker 2: hold on, what about the other crimes involved the other
Speaker 2: family members? We know a lot of payments went to
Speaker 2: a lot of people. The last name Biden when they
Speaker 2: were selling access to your government? Is this the quote?
Speaker 1: End of this? Politically move on? And that's just what
Speaker 1: it is.
Speaker 2: And we all know that he's corrupt, and we know
Speaker 2: he lied to us, we know he uses power, and
Speaker 2: we know he sold access to the United States government.
Speaker 3: Well, here is the text of the pardon that Joe
Speaker 3: Biden signed. It is a pardon quote for those offenses
Speaker 3: against the United States which he has committed, or may
Speaker 3: have committed, or taken part in during the period from
Speaker 3: January first, twenty fourteen, through December one, twenty twenty four
Speaker 3: including but not limited to, all offenses charged or prosecuted,
Speaker 3: including any that have resulted in convictions by Special Counsel
Speaker 3: David C. Weiss in Docket number one twenty three CRS
Speaker 3: zero zero zero six y one dash m N in
Speaker 3: the United States District Court for the District of Delaware
Speaker 3: and docket number two two three CRS zero zero five
Speaker 3: nine nine MCS one on in the United States District
Speaker 3: Court for the Central District of California. So, Ben, how
Speaker 3: do you like that every single federal offense that you
Speaker 3: have committed, or you may have committed, or taken a
Speaker 3: part in, for a decade from January first, twenty fourteen
Speaker 3: to December one, twenty twenty four they're all erased clean.
Speaker 3: I don't know that you could write a broader pardon
Speaker 3: other than listen, I'm president, and I got to say,
Speaker 3: by the way, your question is there is there anything
Speaker 3: you can do about it? There is very, very little.
Speaker 3: The pardon power under the Constitution is exceptionally broad. The
Speaker 3: president has the ability to pardon any single federal defense.
Speaker 3: In this case, he's pardoning every single federal offense Hunter
Speaker 3: Biden may or may not have committed for over a decade,
Speaker 3: and those federal offenses it is now impossible to prosecute him,
Speaker 3: impossible to hold him liable for them. Now he's still
Speaker 3: liable for state offenses. But there has not been There
Speaker 3: have not been any state prosecutions, and so this is
Speaker 3: the consequence. This was always the outcome. It's why. Look,
Speaker 3: we've talked about how the impeachment power, the text of
Speaker 3: the Constitution provides the impeachment power for treason, bribery, or
Speaker 3: other high crimes or misdemeanors. At the end of the day,
Speaker 3: much of the conduct that has been alleged here is
Speaker 3: in the nature of bribery is in the nature of
Speaker 3: paying off millions of dollars to Joe Biden for official
Speaker 3: for official favors, and yet the Department of Justice had
Speaker 3: zero interest in examining it, The Democrats in Congress had
Speaker 3: zero interested in examining it. In the media had zero
Speaker 3: interest in examining it. And so as a consequence, Hunter
Speaker 3: Biden is now going to get off scot free, which
Speaker 3: was abundantly clear from the outset this was always the plan.
Speaker 2: Final question, Yes, Hunter Biden is pardon for everything in
Speaker 2: this as you said, a sweeping pardon that I've never
Speaker 2: seen before at this level and in government. From what
Speaker 2: we've seen in the history of my lifetime, we've never
Speaker 2: seen something this broad. So the last question I have
Speaker 2: is what about Joe Biden. Is there anything that can
Speaker 2: be done against him? Or is it just Hey, he's
Speaker 2: an old guy. He dropped out of the race. As
Speaker 2: they said, we would have prosecuted him for keeping classified documents,
Speaker 2: but no jury would ever convict him because he was
Speaker 2: too senile to basically know what he had done in
Speaker 2: the past. Is all of that just going to be
Speaker 2: forgotten now because of age?
Speaker 3: Well, let me be clear, we have seen pardons this
Speaker 3: broad before. And so if you look, for example, at
Speaker 3: the pardon Gerald Ford issued for Richard Nixon, here is
Speaker 3: the operative text of that pardon. Now, therefore, I, Gerald RT. Ford,
Speaker 3: President of the United States, pursuant to the pardon power
Speaker 3: conferred upon me by Article two, Section two of the Constitution,
Speaker 3: have granted, and by these presents, do grant a full,
Speaker 3: free and absolute pardon under Richard Nixon for all offenses
Speaker 3: against the United States which he Richard Nixon has committed
Speaker 3: or may have committed, or taken part in during the
Speaker 3: period from January twentieth, nineteen sixty nine, through August ninth,
Speaker 3: nineteen seventy four. So they deliberately borrowed the language from
Speaker 3: the pardon of Richard Nixon. And the idea was, this
Speaker 3: is a blanket, get out of jail free car and
Speaker 3: it's what the Constitution gives the president this authority. And
Speaker 3: that's exactly what they did. Now, your question was what
Speaker 3: about Joe Biden. So Joe Biden has not pardoned himself.
Speaker 3: I don't think he will. And at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, when the Trump Department of Justice comes into office,
Speaker 3: there will be a question do they go and prosecute
Speaker 3: Joe Biden. My guess is the answer will be now
Speaker 3: that Joe Biden, his dementia has risen to a level
Speaker 3: at this point that I think he's probably going to
Speaker 3: ride off into the sunset and be done. Maybe I'm wrong,
Speaker 3: but my suspicion is Joe Biden will not face accountability
Speaker 3: for the corruption that Hunter was the bag man for,
Speaker 3: and that is his entire family profited from.
Speaker 2: Incredible and there's gonna be a lot of people listening
Speaker 2: right now. They're gonna be angry about this. I understand it.
Speaker 2: I want to be clear, I'm angry about it too,
Speaker 2: because it looks like the entire family, his brother, and
Speaker 2: every other Biden that was on the take, it's going
Speaker 2: to get away with this in a sense. And look,
Speaker 2: this is the corruption the Democratic Party. This is the
Speaker 2: reason why I think Donald Trump. One of the reasons
Speaker 2: why he win this election, why Republicans control the House
Speaker 2: and Senate is people wanted there to be accountability at
Speaker 2: least on election day.
Speaker 3: May By the way, let me jump in, Ben, there
Speaker 3: may be an exception. I don't think it's impossible. That's
Speaker 3: the Department of Justice prosecutes Joe Biden's brother, Joe Biden's brother.
Speaker 3: I'm not aware of any evidence that he has dementia,
Speaker 3: that he is serious mental diminishment, and that may be
Speaker 3: one avenue I could see the Department of Justice investigating.
Speaker 3: And one challenge is.
Speaker 2: Oh, hold on, I'm gonna ask now, prediction. You made
Speaker 2: a last prediction that was good. I want one right now.
Speaker 2: I want you to predict whether or not before the
Speaker 2: last day January twentieth, that Joe Biden says, screw it,
Speaker 2: I'm going to hand out pardons of my brother or
Speaker 2: other family members.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's impossible, but I doubt it. I
Speaker 3: put it at less than fifty percent. Look, and I
Speaker 3: think if you were to asked me to give odds,
Speaker 3: my guess is that the Trump Department of Justice probably
Speaker 3: doesn't prosecute Biden's brother, that there will be a sense
Speaker 3: of this is water under the bridge. It's the prior administration.
Speaker 3: It's not our concern. Let's move on. But I'm just saying,
Speaker 3: if you were to predict one avenue, and one challenge
Speaker 3: is in terms of whether you could prosecute Biden's brother,
Speaker 3: a major challenge would be the statute of limitation that
Speaker 3: many of the most corrupt actions occurred long enough that
Speaker 3: the statute of limitations has expired. And what that means
Speaker 3: statute limitations is in federal law. It's also true in
Speaker 3: state law that there is a limit to how recently
Speaker 3: the conduct must have occurred before you could prosecute it.
Speaker 3: The idea that you can't come back and prosecute you
Speaker 3: ben for something you did twenty years ago that you
Speaker 3: don't remember, that the evidence is stale. There's some notion
Speaker 3: that there needs to be finality in law and that
Speaker 3: prosecutions need to need to occur relatively promptly after the criminality.
Speaker 3: And so I think much of the conduct that Joe's
Speaker 3: brother has been implicated in the statute limitations and all
Speaker 3: likelihood has expired, and so that may prevent a prosecution.
Speaker 3: If you're going to ask me, is there going to
Speaker 3: be another parton for his brother? Probably not, but it's
Speaker 3: not beyond the realm of contemplation.
Speaker 1: Incredible. I want to deal with it.
Speaker 2: Also, you talked about the deep state, and I want
Speaker 2: to talk about the FBI as well, and Casha Patel
Speaker 2: and being named FBI director by Donald Trump. Before we
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Speaker 2: So we originally thought we were going to start this
Speaker 2: show tonight. Sator talking about the FBI and Caspitel being
Speaker 2: named the FBI director.
Speaker 1: This is a name that Democrats do not like. Caspitel.
Speaker 2: So, if you want to understand history, this is a
Speaker 2: guy that actually the deep state went after when he
Speaker 2: was working for Donald Trump the first time with Russia, Russia, Russia,
Speaker 2: and he found out about it that when apparently Google,
Speaker 2: five years after the fact cinema letter saying hey, we
Speaker 2: had to disclose to you now that we gave a
Speaker 2: bunch of your information over to the FBI. That's the
Speaker 2: now the guy that will be running the FBI if
Speaker 2: he gets confirmed.
Speaker 3: Your reaction, well, I think this is a strong nomination.
Speaker 3: I think we're seeing Democrats and we're seeing the media
Speaker 3: freaking out, and they're freaking out not because they think
Speaker 3: cash Betel is unqualified, but rather because they believe he
Speaker 3: will actually do what Trump promised he would do. They
Speaker 3: believe he will actually clean out the corruption at the FBI,
Speaker 3: that he will take on the partisans that have burrowed
Speaker 3: into senior career positions. This is something we've been calling
Speaker 3: for on this podcast for a long time, to have
Speaker 3: leadership that is willing to really root out the partisanship
Speaker 3: and corruption and say no more. The FBI needs to
Speaker 3: restore its integrity. I think this is a nomination. The
Speaker 3: reason people are losing their minds is because they believe
Speaker 3: cash Betel is going to do exactly what Trump said
Speaker 3: he would do.
Speaker 2: And Senator You actually talked about this on Sunday morning
Speaker 2: on facein Nation on CBS, and it was very interesting
Speaker 2: to see the back and forth.
Speaker 1: Take a listen to that for people that may have
Speaker 1: missed it.
Speaker 8: Cash Battel suggested by Trump as the new leader of
Speaker 8: the FBI. How enthusiastic are you about that?
Speaker 1: Listen.
Speaker 3: I think cash Battel is a very strong nominee. I
Speaker 3: think the entire slate of cabinet nominees President Trump is
Speaker 3: put forward is very strong. I believe every one of
Speaker 3: these cabinet nominees is going to be confirmed by the Senate.
Speaker 3: I think cash Battel is going to be confirmed by
Speaker 3: the Senate. You look at his back. He has a
Speaker 3: serious professional background. He was a prosecutor, He was a
Speaker 3: public defender. He was a senior intelligence staffer on Capitol Hill.
Speaker 3: He was a senior intelligence staffer in the White House.
Speaker 3: He was the chief of staff of the Department of Defense.
Speaker 3: He was the deputy Director of National Intelligence. And I
Speaker 3: got to say all of the weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Speaker 3: All of the people pulling their hair out are exactly
Speaker 3: the people who are dismayed about having a real reformer
Speaker 3: come into the FBI and clean out the corrupted partisans
Speaker 3: who sadly have burrowed into senior career positions at the FBI.
Speaker 3: The FBI and the Department of Justice, or two institutions
Speaker 3: incredibly important to the rule of law in the United States.
Speaker 3: I revere both, and one of the most tragic consequences
Speaker 3: of four years of Joe Biden Kamala Harris is both
Speaker 3: DOJ and the FBI have been politicized and weaponized. And
Speaker 3: I think cash Pttel is a very strong nominee to
Speaker 3: take on the partisan corruption in the FBI.
Speaker 8: As you know, Senator, there isn't a vacancy at the
Speaker 8: top of the FBI. What should become of Christopher Ray
Speaker 8: appointed by President Trump.
Speaker 3: Well, I think he'll make a choice. I think either
Speaker 3: he will resign or President Trump will fire him. But
Speaker 3: it's no secret to anybody, including Chris Ray, that he
Speaker 3: is not going to continue to serve as the head
Speaker 3: of the FBI under Donald Trump. Listen, if you look
Speaker 3: at James Comy and Chris Ray, there has never been
Speaker 3: a period in our nation's history where the FBI has
Speaker 3: suffered a greater loss of respect, where more Americans doubt
Speaker 3: the fundamental integrity of the FBI. And it's because James
Speaker 3: Comy and Chris Ray presided over allowing the FBI to
Speaker 3: become a partisan cudgel, to be used to target parents
Speaker 3: at school board meetings, to be used to target people
Speaker 3: who chose not to take the COVID vaccine, to be
Speaker 3: used to target President Trump, and to target the political
Speaker 3: opponents of Joe Biden the White House. It is tragic.
Speaker 3: That is not what the FBI is for. That is
Speaker 3: not what the DOJ is for. And I got to say,
Speaker 3: Pam Bondi and Cash Patel, I think together are a
Speaker 3: very strong slate of nominees to go and restore integrity
Speaker 3: to both institutions.
Speaker 1: I don't think it can be better said than that.
Speaker 2: And that's why there's so many that are freaked out
Speaker 2: over Patel, because he's going to go in and do
Speaker 2: his job the way it's supposed to be done. And
Speaker 2: also that means part of the part of this is clearinghouse.
Speaker 2: Clearinghouse and the political partisans that are in there that
Speaker 2: have weaponized the government.
Speaker 3: That's exactly right, and we've seen it. You know. I
Speaker 3: wrote a book called Justice Corrupted, How the Left is
Speaker 3: weaponized the legal system, and in the book, I described how,
Speaker 3: starting with Barack Obama, we saw the Department of Justice
Speaker 3: and the FBI and the CIA and the alphabet soup
Speaker 3: of the federal government turned into a weapon to target
Speaker 3: and persecute the political enemies of Barack Obama. When Trump
Speaker 3: became president, those partisans what they did is they went
Speaker 3: into senior career positions in the agencies and from day one,
Speaker 3: from the first day of Trump's first term, they waged
Speaker 3: war on Donald Trump from within the deep state. They
Speaker 3: wanted to destroy him, they wanted to stop his agenda.
Speaker 3: They hated him. And then when Joe Biden became president,
Speaker 3: they came out in the open. They were brazen, They
Speaker 3: that they were completely that they were not pretending anymore.
Speaker 3: And so listen, as I said, I think Cash Barttel
Speaker 3: will be confirmed, and when he is, I think it
Speaker 3: is going to be hugely important that he followed through
Speaker 3: on those promises to get rid of the partisans. And listen,
Speaker 3: a point I made. Major Garrett was pressing back saying,
Speaker 3: when this is terrible that Chris Ray would be fired. Listen,
Speaker 3: in the entire history of the FBI, we have never
Speaker 3: seen the respect for the FBI diminished as greatly as
Speaker 3: it has been under Chris Ray and under James coming
Speaker 3: before him. The American people no longer trust the integrity
Speaker 3: of the FBI. That is Listen with James Comy, I
Speaker 3: think he's a hard partisan. I think he was the
Speaker 3: point of the spear with Chris Ray. I think it's different.
Speaker 3: I actually think Chris Ray he's not a Democrat, he's
Speaker 3: a Republican, he's not a leftist. But he views his
Speaker 3: job as protecting the institution. And I think he made
Speaker 3: a fundamental mistake that he believes that protecting the career
Speaker 3: senior officials, who themselves are vicious partisans. I think he
Speaker 3: thinks that's somehow protecting the FBI, where the result is
Speaker 3: that the public respect of the FBI has been profoundly damaged.
Speaker 3: I think the new director of the FBI has a
Speaker 3: very important job to root out those partisans and to
Speaker 3: bring it back to a fidelity to law. By the way,
Speaker 3: I think the other political prosecutions that have been brought
Speaker 3: are natural candidates for the pardon power if you look
Speaker 3: at Donald Trump. I think Donald Trump should pardon those
Speaker 3: people who've been prosecuted for January sixth who did not
Speaker 3: engage in crimes of violence. If you engage in a
Speaker 3: crime of violence, if you physically and violently assaulted a
Speaker 3: police officer, you shouldn't be pardoned. You should face criminal
Speaker 3: prosecution if you committed a crime of violence against a
Speaker 3: police officer. But if you were engaged in a peaceful protest,
Speaker 3: I think those are natural candidates for pardons. I also
Speaker 3: think Lauren Handy, who is the pro life protester who's
Speaker 3: right now serving six years in federal prison for nonviolent
Speaker 3: protest against abortion, I think Lauren Handy is a natural
Speaker 3: candidate for a pardon from President Trump. I think there's
Speaker 3: a very substantial likelihood she will receive a pardon. I
Speaker 3: think the nonviolent January sixth protesters are likely to receive pardons,
Speaker 3: and that is going to cause Democrats in the media
Speaker 3: to lose their mind, because not only are they happy
Speaker 3: to look the other way at the weaponization of the
Speaker 3: Department of Justice and the FBI, they are vested in
Speaker 3: defending that weaponization, and is that is a mandate understand.
Speaker 3: Donald Trump campaigned to the American people saying I will
Speaker 3: root out this corruption, and I think this nomination and
Speaker 3: his following through on that promise is fundamentally about respecting democracy.
Speaker 3: The American people said, yes, we don't want the federal
Speaker 3: government weaponized against the political opposition of the White House.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I am into that.
Speaker 2: And finally, Senator, this is such an important story and
Speaker 2: I hope that everybody listening will actually take this podcast today.
Speaker 2: Share it on acts, shared it on Instagram, share it
Speaker 2: on Facebook, wherever you are on social media. Text it
Speaker 2: to your friends, because the story that we're about to
Speaker 2: talk about is a story that really the media is
Speaker 2: just not covering. It is something that you've also led on,
Speaker 2: especially being a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Speaker 2: There was not one, not two, but three Americans that
Speaker 2: were detained for years in China that have now been released.
Speaker 2: Give a quick recap of just how long they've been there,
Speaker 2: but also why this happened now.
Speaker 3: Well, so there were three Americans who returned from China.
Speaker 3: They've been imprisoned in China for for years. One of
Speaker 3: them is a Texan. One of them is someone named
Speaker 3: named Mark Swedan. The other two are Kayli and John
Speaker 3: Leung So. Mark Swedan is a Texan. He's from Houston.
Speaker 3: His mother is Catherine Swedan. I've spoken to Catherine multiple times.
Speaker 3: She is from Luling, Texas. Mark Swedan has been in
Speaker 3: jail in China for twelve years and it was a
Speaker 3: completely bogus charge. It was a trumped up charge, and
Speaker 3: the Chinese government was persecuting him as an American. I've
Speaker 3: spoken out on Mark Swedan's behalf multiple times. I authored
Speaker 3: a resolution that passed the Senate unanimously calling for Mark
Speaker 3: Swedan's release. I've raised his case over and over and
Speaker 3: over again, and with the Biden administration, I'll give them
Speaker 3: some credit. They leaned in in a significant way and
Speaker 3: they got him home. He is back in Texas today.
Speaker 2: And this is also something that you talked about on
Speaker 2: Face the Nation. I want people to hear part of
Speaker 2: what you had to say.
Speaker 8: Well, can you tell us about the three Americans released
Speaker 8: by China who were in San Antonio? Have you been
Speaker 8: in touch with them and do you have any concerns
Speaker 8: about the contours of that swap.
Speaker 3: Well, at this stage, we don't know all of the
Speaker 3: details of the contours of the swap, but I'll tell
Speaker 3: you I am celebrating the return of three Americans, especially
Speaker 3: Mark Swede. And Mark Sweden is a Texan from Houston.
Speaker 3: His mom, Catherine is from Luling, Texas. I've talked with
Speaker 3: Catherine many times. I authored and passed a resolution in
Speaker 3: the Senate that passed unanimously calling for Mark Swedan's return
Speaker 3: to America. He spent twelve years unjustly imprisoned in communist China.
Speaker 4: I'll tell you I.
Speaker 3: Have raised it directly with the Foreign Minister of China.
Speaker 3: I've raised it with President Biden. I've raised it with
Speaker 3: Secretary of State Tony Blanket, and I will give them
Speaker 3: credit on this. Tony Blenken, just two weeks ago was
Speaker 3: the most recent time I spoke with him about Mark Swedan.
Speaker 3: And the administration has pressed the Chinese government. And Mark
Speaker 3: Sweden is back home with his mother, who has prayed
Speaker 3: for him, who has loved loved him. I want to
Speaker 3: say Mark, welcome home, Catherine, Congratulations. I told you this
Speaker 3: day would come. This is a time where all Texans
Speaker 3: and all Americans should be celebrating.
Speaker 8: Very quickly, Senator Cruz, because I also know you care
Speaker 8: about the case.
Speaker 1: Of Austin Tice.
Speaker 8: Do you have any sense that the rebel gains in
Speaker 8: Syria of the recent vintage will have any chance of
Speaker 8: unlocking Austin Tye's freedom.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I certainly hope and pray Austin Tice needs to come home,
Speaker 3: and I hope and pray. Listen, there's a combination of
Speaker 3: two things working one. As Joe Biden is in the
Speaker 3: process of transitioning out any outgoing president is looking to
Speaker 3: try to get some final wins, I would encourage him,
Speaker 3: and I'm sure he is doing everything he can to
Speaker 3: bring Austin Tice home, to bring the hostages in Gaza home,
Speaker 3: both the Israelis and the Americans bring them home in
Speaker 3: this window. I also think President Trump coming into office
Speaker 3: on January twentieth, the enemies of America, I think are
Speaker 3: afraid of President Trump. That is a moment. I hope
Speaker 3: we have a moment right now that is very much
Speaker 3: like the end of the Jimmy Carter administration, right before
Speaker 3: Ronald Reagan came in and we saw on January twentieth
Speaker 3: our hostages in Iran released. I think in significant part
Speaker 3: because the Ayatola was afraid of Reagan. I hope a
Speaker 3: similar dynamic is playing out. And if we can see
Speaker 3: more hostages come home, that would be caused for enormous celebration.
Speaker 2: Enormous celebration that is one hundred percent accurate because for
Speaker 2: these families, as you mentioned, this is a day they've
Speaker 2: been waiting now for years.
Speaker 3: No, that's absolutely right, and so the fact that we've
Speaker 3: got three Americans back from China, that's great. I hope
Speaker 3: we see more hostages coming back.
Speaker 2: Don't forget. We do this show Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Speaker 2: As I said earlier, make sure you share this podcast
Speaker 2: wherever you can hit that subscribe or auto download button
Speaker 2: as well, and the Senator I will be back with
Speaker 2: you on Wednesday morning