Speaker 1: Welcome it's verdict to a center. Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
Speaker 1: with you. And if you are excited that Joe Biden
Speaker 1: might be going to prison for classified documents found in
Speaker 1: an office, well you've got to be disappointed. I just, senator,
Speaker 1: is this whole story? I'll give you my theory. I
Speaker 1: think that they have set this up to say, look
Speaker 1: at how you should handle this. This will be used
Speaker 1: as precedent to then say Donald Trump, as a horrible person,
Speaker 1: deserves to be indicted and even go to jail for this.
Speaker 1: This has been done too perfectly. And I'll ask you,
Speaker 1: as a former i'd say former lawyer, practicing lawyer, when
Speaker 1: was the last time you hired a lawyer to move
Speaker 1: your office like a as a mover. And he's like, oh,
Speaker 1: my lawyers were packing up an office, an old office.
Speaker 1: I don't buy that for a second. Well, to be fair,
Speaker 1: my wife Heidi has used me to move office more
Speaker 1: than once, but that's more a matrimonial thing. Get a professional. Yeah. Look,
Speaker 1: let me start out by saying, when this news broke,
Speaker 1: I immediately jumped on Twitter and tweeted a very simple tweet,
Speaker 1: convene a grand Jury's like it now I don't actually
Speaker 1: mean convene a grand jury. But the reason I tweeted
Speaker 1: it is because if you're a leftist, if you're a journalist,
Speaker 1: if you're a Democrat, if you're an operative, if you're
Speaker 1: one of the gazillion Twitter trolls that are out there,
Speaker 1: and you see that convene a grand jury, make your
Speaker 1: head explode. So you've got to say, no, f and wait,
Speaker 1: do not convene a grand jury because and I really
Speaker 1: wanted to hear the becauses. I really wanted to hear
Speaker 1: why Lefty's explaining why we should not convene a grand
Speaker 1: jury and listen, this episode I think demonstrates absolute and
Speaker 1: complete hypocrisy. This episode demonstrates one of the things that
Speaker 1: you and I said on this podcast when the Marlaga
Speaker 1: raid happened, when the media was hyper ventilating over Oh
Speaker 1: my goodness, there were documents and Trump's archives. Every president
Speaker 1: of modern times has had documents, and there's been an
Speaker 1: ongoing back and forth. When presidents leave, they take documents,
Speaker 1: They write autobiographies, they write memoirs, they write books. This
Speaker 1: has been true with George W. Bush, This has been
Speaker 1: true with Bill Clinton. This has been true with Barack Obama,
Speaker 1: and you know what, this is true with Joseph Robinette
Speaker 1: Biden Jr. The problem here, so you suggested they're doing
Speaker 1: this is like a it's just too perfect. This story
Speaker 1: is too perfect. My lawyers are packing at my office.
Speaker 1: We then contacted the authorities immediately. We then went to
Speaker 1: the DJ We followed the protocol. We let them have
Speaker 1: them within twenty four hours. It's too perfect. Okay, So
Speaker 1: I don't agree with you, all right, then, please explain
Speaker 1: to me what I'm missing. Look, I don't think it's perfect.
Speaker 1: I think the Biden guys are crying and like, oh crap.
Speaker 1: I think they were packing it up and they discovered
Speaker 1: and they said, oh crap. And they did decide to
Speaker 1: turn it in. So look, that's the right thing to do. Sure,
Speaker 1: but I don't think this was orchestrated at all. I
Speaker 1: think this hurts them profoundly. Okay, So where were these documents.
Speaker 1: They were at an organization that is entitled the Biden
Speaker 1: Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement at the University of Pennsylvania. Now,
Speaker 1: what is the Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement,
Speaker 1: among other things? In an institution that has received fifty
Speaker 1: four point six million dollars in donations from communist China.
Speaker 1: So I want you to think about this, Hunter Biden
Speaker 1: is out doing business with China, making millions of dollars.
Speaker 1: He's earning of dollars and loans on top of that
Speaker 1: ten percent for the big guy. That big guy would
Speaker 1: be Joe Biden the president right now. And at the
Speaker 1: same time, China is giving fifty four point six million
Speaker 1: dollars to the Joseph Biden Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: And it just so happens this center that is being
Speaker 1: funded and very significant part by communists, China has classified
Speaker 1: documents there illegally. I gotta say, if you're a Democrat,
Speaker 1: I don't care how machievellen you are. I don't care
Speaker 1: how much you're like, Okay, I'm trying to think not
Speaker 1: four dimensional chess, but nine dimensional chess. This is zero
Speaker 1: dimensional chess. This is just a frigging mess. So the
Speaker 1: Democrats are not happy about this. But the beauty of
Speaker 1: it is it illustrates the utter and complete hypocrisy of
Speaker 1: the press and all the Democrats because if they explain,
Speaker 1: if they try to dismiss it away, well look, he
Speaker 1: was vice president. He had lots documents. He at things
Speaker 1: in there. You know it. It's part of the natural process.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, wait, this kind of undermines our narrative that
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is a master spy committing espionage. By the way,
Speaker 1: you want to know someone who actually committed serious crimes
Speaker 1: with classified documents. Have you ever heard of Sandy Burger? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Sandy Burger was Bill Clinton's National security advisor. He went
Speaker 1: into a classified dance, right, classified skiff, which is so,
Speaker 1: have you ever been in a skiff? I've not, Okay,
Speaker 1: I've been in a skiff many times. A skiff is
Speaker 1: a big secured room with like big heavy metal doors,
Speaker 1: and it's a skiff is designed so like you can
Speaker 1: have you can take no electronics in there. So when
Speaker 1: you go into a skiff, you gotta give your cell phone,
Speaker 1: you gotta give. I wear a fit bet on my
Speaker 1: rich you gotta give your fit bet. You gotta give
Speaker 1: like everything you have no electronics you go in there,
Speaker 1: and it's designed so the Chinese, so the Russians, so
Speaker 1: no one can penetrate and do surveillance. It's basically a
Speaker 1: steel and concrete box. It's a big room Sandy Burger
Speaker 1: went to a skiff of the National Security Council and
Speaker 1: he found some classified documents that apparently he found problematic.
Speaker 1: And what he did you referenced it. He took the
Speaker 1: documents and stuffed them down his damn pants, literally stuck
Speaker 1: them down his damn pants, and he walked out of
Speaker 1: the room and he got caught. Now, listen, if Joe
Speaker 1: Biden were caught with classified documents in his underwear, that
Speaker 1: would be a bigger problem. To be clear, I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: but okay, only because I know the system's rigged. To
Speaker 1: be clear, we don't necessarily know whether Joe Biden has
Speaker 1: classified documents in his underwear now or not. I don't
Speaker 1: think he would know either. But this is a different scenario.
Speaker 1: And when the Marlaga raid happened, we did a podcast
Speaker 1: where you and I talked about it, and all of
Speaker 1: the media was clutching their pearls and saying, oh, my goodness,
Speaker 1: is the most horrible thing ever. And I made the point.
Speaker 1: I said, listen, Presidents, when they leave the White House,
Speaker 1: they go to wherever their next location is, they move
Speaker 1: a lot of documents out. They are preparing for their
Speaker 1: presidential library. So if you want a library, the Ben
Speaker 1: Ferguson Presidential Library, the monument to old Miss Tennis. I
Speaker 1: love it. See now you're making me think of running
Speaker 1: one day. Just for that. I'm kissing up to you
Speaker 1: big time. But look, you take your papers with you.
Speaker 1: Now do you take the nuclear codes with you? Know?
Speaker 1: Because you're not a moron, right, But you take a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff with you because it's your presidency, it's
Speaker 1: your legacy. It is your legacy. You're looking at writing stuff,
Speaker 1: you're looking at history, you're looking at creating a library.
Speaker 1: That's what all presidents do. Now, much of the overheated
Speaker 1: concern I think about Trump was taking what all presidents
Speaker 1: do and exploding it. Why I think this news development
Speaker 1: is so problematic for the mainstream media narrative is, well,
Speaker 1: if Joe Biden did it, either it's a big deal
Speaker 1: and throw as ass in jail, which they're not willing
Speaker 1: to do, or everyone does it and it's not a
Speaker 1: big deal, which we mean Donald Trump's documents are not
Speaker 1: actually a big deal. So that's their problem, and so
Speaker 1: it's why I'm not given to This was a plan
Speaker 1: to show, look how moral we are. I think they
Speaker 1: were like, oh, crap op op o, crap o, crap.
Speaker 1: I think that that was their reaction when they found it.
Speaker 1: Did the lawyers pack it up? No, of course not.
Speaker 1: That was my question about the big lie. It's not
Speaker 1: the big lie. It's usually the little lies to get
Speaker 1: you in trouble. I don't believe I had a far
Speaker 1: a boss. It was a very senior lawyer in the government,
Speaker 1: and when I was a baby lawyer fresh at a
Speaker 1: law school. He said, Okay, when you're a senior lawyer
Speaker 1: in the government, often people will come to you and
Speaker 1: they'll say, okay, so I've got a dead body. Is
Speaker 1: that a problem? And you're sitting there as the lawyer, what, Yeah,
Speaker 1: We're not a problem, are you? Where are you out
Speaker 1: of your frigging mind? Yes, that is a problem. I
Speaker 1: think what happened here was the same that they had
Speaker 1: people packing up. They're packing up, they're open a box
Speaker 1: and they're like, oh, oh wait, this says classified at
Speaker 1: the top. That's kind of a problem. Let's call somebody.
Speaker 1: They probably first person they calls, not a lawyer, and
Speaker 1: they say, okay, we've got a bunch of documents to
Speaker 1: say classified or top secret or say sci code code.
Speaker 1: We don't know what they said. We don't know what
Speaker 1: they were. I do actually believe them when he says
Speaker 1: I have no idea what they were. Okay, that believe it.
Speaker 1: But I also believe Joe Biden has no idea what
Speaker 1: the classified documents are. They showed him yesterday in the
Speaker 1: Oval office. So absolutely believe there's no idea what was
Speaker 1: it penned? But somebody found them. Somebody called someone higher up,
Speaker 1: and at some point someone higher up in the Biden
Speaker 1: organization said, we had a call lawyer, and they call
Speaker 1: lawyer and the law layer says, you've got a dead body.
Speaker 1: What do you mean. Is this a problem? Yes, it's
Speaker 1: a problem. You got a bunch of classified documents. And
Speaker 1: so the lawyers said, okay, we're gonna come over, we're
Speaker 1: gonna look, and we're gonna unpack it. And oh, we
Speaker 1: have classified documents. And by the way, this is what
Speaker 1: lawyers do to fix things, is when they discover it,
Speaker 1: they go call and try to turn it in. So look,
Speaker 1: I get the sort of media narrative of we want
Speaker 1: to show the right way to do it. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's clear it's too perfect. But nobody in their right
Speaker 1: mind would do this this so complicates If the Biden
Speaker 1: Department of Justice tries to indict Donald Trump, they will
Speaker 1: deal with a thousand questions of why are you indicting
Speaker 1: Trump for doing what Joe Biden literally the exact same thing. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it's so they might say, oh, it's different, it's more,
Speaker 1: and maybe it's true. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: the broader point that they're trying to criminalize they hate
Speaker 1: Donald Trump. They don't want him to be elected president.
Speaker 1: They want him permanently ineligible. They are willing to say
Speaker 1: that again because I think people may forget this. The
Speaker 1: whole reason why the FBI, in my opinion, went into
Speaker 1: Marlago and the Democrats want this and the dj wanted
Speaker 1: this is because they want to charge him with a crime,
Speaker 1: so that therefore, if he's charged that crime and convicted
Speaker 1: that crime, he would be ineligible to run for office.
Speaker 1: So look, let me be clear, Joe Biden and the
Speaker 1: elected Democrats in Congress and the Democrats in the White
Speaker 1: House hate Donald Trump. They loathe him. They think these
Speaker 1: the embodiment of evil, the deep state that has burrowed
Speaker 1: into the Department of Justice, the FBI, to the CIA,
Speaker 1: to the entire alphabet soup of the federal government hates
Speaker 1: Donald Trump, as we've talked about on this podcast a
Speaker 1: bunch of times. My most recent book, Justice Corrupted, talks
Speaker 1: about how the left has weaponized our legal system, how
Speaker 1: they burrowed into it. By the way, for the folksleist
Speaker 1: this podcast. If you haven't bought the book, go buy
Speaker 1: the book Justice Corrupted. It'll walk you through. Look. I
Speaker 1: revere the Department of Justice. I revere our legal systems,
Speaker 1: and I am angry that these partisans, starting with Barack
Speaker 1: Obama and even worse under Joe Biden, have turned them
Speaker 1: into political weapons to go after their enemies. But the
Speaker 1: problem is they hate them so much that the ends
Speaker 1: justify their means. So, for example, one of the things
Speaker 1: we know about the ridiculous Russia prosecution as there was
Speaker 1: a senior lawyer at the FBI who fraudulently created a
Speaker 1: fake document and submitted it to a federal court. He
Speaker 1: was prosecuted for this. So this this federal lawyer was
Speaker 1: going after Carter Page, who was a kind of ancillary
Speaker 1: foreign policy advisor the Trump campaign, and the FBI was
Speaker 1: investigating Carter Page because he had talked to suspicious Russians.
Speaker 1: Now you talk to suspicious Russians. That's not unreasonable for
Speaker 1: the government to say, why are you talking into suspicious Russians.
Speaker 1: The FBI sent an email to the CIA and said, Hey,
Speaker 1: is this guy, Carter Page one of your guys source? Yeah? Literally,
Speaker 1: is this guy one of your guys and working for you?
Speaker 1: And even to ask that question, they had to have
Speaker 1: been tipped off by somebody. You might want to check
Speaker 1: with the CIA because Carter Page may be their guy.
Speaker 1: And he sends the email, and what does the CIA say? Yes,
Speaker 1: he's our guy, he's our guy. He's doing this for
Speaker 1: the United States of America. He is helping us by
Speaker 1: talking to sketchy Russians. So what does this lawyer for
Speaker 1: the FBI do. He takes the email from the CIA
Speaker 1: and he alters it. He creates a fraudulent counterfeit document,
Speaker 1: and he takes the sentence he was he was a source,
Speaker 1: and he adds the word not to say he was
Speaker 1: not a source. Now, let me tell you this, Ben,
Speaker 1: if you did this in civil litigation, if you took
Speaker 1: a document, a piece of evidence, you altered it to
Speaker 1: make it one hundred and eighty percent one hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty degrees the opposite of what it was, and you
Speaker 1: submitted it to a federal court, you'd be doing hard time.
Speaker 1: And someone would be saying, Benjamin, don't bed over for
Speaker 1: the soap. That's just the simple reality. If I did that,
Speaker 1: you don't get to create fraudulent documents and submit him
Speaker 1: to a federal court and get busted and not be
Speaker 1: held accountable for it. And that's what the deep state
Speaker 1: was doing. And so when you look at this their
Speaker 1: degree of loathing for Donald Trump when they went after him,
Speaker 1: the reason for the Marilaga raid is they hate him
Speaker 1: so much they wanted to go They wanted to prove
Speaker 1: him guilty of a crime. But in particularly they want
Speaker 1: to prove him guilty of a crime that renders him
Speaker 1: ineligible to run for or be elected president. Now listen,
Speaker 1: if you're a Democrat, you don't want Donald Trump to
Speaker 1: be elected. Okay, fine, there's a democratic process. You can
Speaker 1: go and try to win at the ballot box. But
Speaker 1: but they're trying to do here has corrupt the justice system.
Speaker 1: And the day of the Marlaga raid, you and I
Speaker 1: did a podcast where I said it ain't gonna work
Speaker 1: if they think some federal Court is gonna say Donald
Speaker 1: Trump can never be president again. The chances of that success,
Speaker 1: I believe are zero point zero percent. Maybe true, you
Speaker 1: have a lot of faith in the system that when
Speaker 1: you say that there's gonna be good that listen, go,
Speaker 1: how can you say that when they just they just
Speaker 1: rated mar Lago. How can you say that when they
Speaker 1: they made fraudulent documents against Carter Page. How can you
Speaker 1: say that when the FBI director knew that the Steel
Speaker 1: dossier was a source document from the Democrat National Committee
Speaker 1: in Hillary Clinton, and the lawyer was lying to the FBI.
Speaker 1: You got to understand why people are gonna listen to you, going,
Speaker 1: how can you have such confidence that this is never
Speaker 1: gonna happen when we just witnessed all the things I
Speaker 1: just mentioned. Because at the end of the day, the
Speaker 1: federal courts have not been thoroughly corrupted. Okay, So there
Speaker 1: have been hard partisans that are burrowed into the FBI,
Speaker 1: that are burrowed into the DJ that have correct up
Speaker 1: to justice. That's why I wrote the last book. Look,
Speaker 1: I was in two thousand and one. I was what's
Speaker 1: called an Associate Deputy Attorney General in the US Department
Speaker 1: of Justice, and the Department of Justice is an institution
Speaker 1: I respect deeply. It has an incredibly long history of
Speaker 1: being a political I've said before, I don't want a
Speaker 1: Republican Department of Justice. I don't want a Democrat Department
Speaker 1: of Justice. You don't want to right leaning or left leaning.
Speaker 1: You want a non party that follows the damn law.
Speaker 1: I want an FBI that follows the damn law. If
Speaker 1: you're a child predator, the FBI how to catch you,
Speaker 1: the dog, how to prosecute you. If you're a mobster,
Speaker 1: if you're if you're a money launderer, if you're a
Speaker 1: crack dealer, the DOJ, how to go after the FBI
Speaker 1: go after you. But if you are of the wrong
Speaker 1: political persuasion, and I don't care if whether that is
Speaker 1: right leaning or left leaning, it's not the DOJ and
Speaker 1: FBI's job to go after people on either side. They
Speaker 1: ought to stay the heck out of it. And I
Speaker 1: will tell you, with an enormous frequency, I talk to
Speaker 1: people who are either currently at the FBI of the DOJ,
Speaker 1: or who are alums of the FBI and DOJ. They
Speaker 1: come to me, and particularly the current folks, they're really
Speaker 1: upset because they've spent imagine, Ben, You've spent ten years,
Speaker 1: twenty years, thirty years devoting your life. You believe in
Speaker 1: so life mission, the rule of law. You believe in
Speaker 1: protecting people, you believe in protecting kids. I mean, there
Speaker 1: are so many heroes that work is these institutions, and
Speaker 1: they've seen these rabid partisans take over the senior career
Speaker 1: positions and just corrupt them from within. It's fundamentally wrong.
Speaker 1: And so listen, were there's some documents that should not
Speaker 1: have been at Marlago, perhaps, and the judicial process will
Speaker 1: play out on that. But my point is that's something
Speaker 1: that every prior president is done that when it comes
Speaker 1: to the documentary history and the chain of custody of
Speaker 1: documents from the White House to the former president to
Speaker 1: the former president's library and often their negotiations the archives.
Speaker 1: When you think of the chief criminal law enforcement organizations
Speaker 1: of the United States, the archivists of the United States
Speaker 1: of America is not high on your list. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: historically there have been negotiations and discussions back and forth
Speaker 1: between the archives and former presidents in the libraries, right
Speaker 1: even libraries, because they want to see this stuff, they
Speaker 1: want to have this stuff, and there's these debates that happened.
Speaker 1: I remember when when we were I was going to
Speaker 1: the Bush Library opening forty three. There was debate both there.
Speaker 1: We saw each other, Yeah that I didn't actually even
Speaker 1: know each other very well. That was such a cool
Speaker 1: thing because, like I was, I got to be a
Speaker 1: part of that campaign, a part of that administration, and
Speaker 1: there's history that happened. But I remember the debates even then.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of things that happened, specifically with
Speaker 1: the War on Terror Posts nine to eleven that were
Speaker 1: fought over of could the public have it, could the
Speaker 1: library have it, could they see it? Could it be
Speaker 1: in display? Could it be in the in the in
Speaker 1: the library, you know, so you can look it up.
Speaker 1: Basically you could go in and see parts of the history.
Speaker 1: And I remember some of those grand debates because some
Speaker 1: people thought the archives were being a little bit over
Speaker 1: zealous and like saying no too often when he's like, look,
Speaker 1: this is part of the history of my administration. This
Speaker 1: needs to be on display for the America. Even every
Speaker 1: foreign president wants to tell that narrative. And they hold
Speaker 1: on too documents and I will say, listen, in my
Speaker 1: time in the Senate. I've read a lot of classified documents,
Speaker 1: and one of the virtues of being the Senate, I
Speaker 1: haven't had this issue because I don't take classified documents
Speaker 1: out of a skiff, so there are no classified documents.
Speaker 1: I gotta pull back the curtains so people understand how
Speaker 1: this works, because everybody's gonna want to ask a question
Speaker 1: about to ask you when you become a senator, do
Speaker 1: they teach you the pro to call of classified documents?
Speaker 1: Like right away? Do they explain to you they got
Speaker 1: to stay in the in the in the skiff? Is
Speaker 1: there a skiff in the Senate side? Where can you
Speaker 1: talk about that? And then and then what is the
Speaker 1: protocol for that? Ever? You can't make copy like this
Speaker 1: is pretty simple, okay. So in the Senate at least,
Speaker 1: there's a skiff down in the basement of the Capital,
Speaker 1: so if you're going down there, we go down there
Speaker 1: fairly regularly for briefings, and there are hearing rooms. So,
Speaker 1: for example, I spent six years in the Center Arm
Speaker 1: Services Committee. I'm currently on the Senate Formulations Committee. So
Speaker 1: we regularly have classified hearings in the skiff, and there's
Speaker 1: a hearing room and you go in and they have
Speaker 1: lots of it's actually very funny. They have lots of
Speaker 1: posters that are sort of scary World War two eras
Speaker 1: of somebody talked and people died, and they're sort of
Speaker 1: posters about protect classified information. And you go in and
Speaker 1: I and Evan, maybe I take my iPhone, I hand
Speaker 1: it to Gray, who is with me at all times.
Speaker 1: I handed my iPhone, I handed my AirPods. I don't
Speaker 1: know if air pods are questionable or not, but I
Speaker 1: just give them to them anyway, why not? And I
Speaker 1: give them a fitbit. So you just want no electronics
Speaker 1: because I don't want the Chinese hearing me. Sure, you
Speaker 1: go in and you sit. So if it's hearing, you
Speaker 1: sit in a room and the room is I don't know,
Speaker 1: thirty feet by fifty feet, so it's sort of like
Speaker 1: in a hearing room. It's not that bit. It's not huge,
Speaker 1: but on purpose though, design that way, right. It's down
Speaker 1: in the basement of the Capitol, and it's designed so
Speaker 1: that no listening, no penetration of anything. And you'll have testimony.
Speaker 1: I've been in that room with testimony from the Secretary
Speaker 1: of State at the head of the CIA, the Attorney General,
Speaker 1: the Secretary of Defense, or a lot of times you'll
Speaker 1: have testimony from the Assistant Secretary of State, the Assistant
Speaker 1: Secretary Defense, and you'll have classified briefings about then, about Ukraine,
Speaker 1: about Russia, about China. So when people to paint that
Speaker 1: picture of I remember after nine to eleven, there was
Speaker 1: a lot of people that testified on public hearings and
Speaker 1: they would say to the center center, I can give
Speaker 1: you a close classified briefing on that. I can't say
Speaker 1: that publicly. I can certainly give you that answer center offline.
Speaker 1: Basically in the skiffs, that's where this room would come
Speaker 1: into play. So I've been to dozens, if not probably
Speaker 1: hundreds of hearings in a skiff where you hear classified information,
Speaker 1: and with some frequency ethose hearings, you're given classified documents
Speaker 1: and they'll have all sorts of markings about the level
Speaker 1: of classification, their lower levels and higher levels of classification,
Speaker 1: and you could read those documents and my general practices,
Speaker 1: I'll read them the skiff and I leave them there.
Speaker 1: There's no issue for me a classified documents because I
Speaker 1: don't take them out. I come in with nothing and
Speaker 1: I walk out with nothing, So there's no issue. Now,
Speaker 1: there are other times where there is, for example, classified
Speaker 1: reports that for some reason or other someone will say
Speaker 1: you should read a classified report. So when I was
Speaker 1: leading the fight against the Nordstream two pipeline from Russia
Speaker 1: to Germany skipping Ukraine, and I passed twice major sanctions
Speaker 1: legislation to stop the pipeline and successfully defeated Russia, defeated Putin,
Speaker 1: there were multiple classified reports about the efforts to build
Speaker 1: that pipeline. I went to the skiff over and over again,
Speaker 1: and I would read reports from the CIA, from the DEI,
Speaker 1: the Director National Intelligence, from different intelligence agents, and I'd
Speaker 1: breathe the reports and I would learn things. But you
Speaker 1: can't go and repeat the reports. There was another instance
Speaker 1: where there no staff member are like, that's literally you
Speaker 1: and other senators and the heads of the CIA that
Speaker 1: you could have those discussions. So I usually have a
Speaker 1: staff member who's a senior staff member who has security clearance,
Speaker 1: who he or she can come in and read some
Speaker 1: classified documents. I've got a higher security clearance than any
Speaker 1: one of my staff. So there's some documents. So sometimes
Speaker 1: a staff member will be able to read some documents,
Speaker 1: but the really classified documents I'm the only one who
Speaker 1: can read, and so it'll vary depends on who's on
Speaker 1: my staff. In the ten years, it's varied who's been
Speaker 1: on my staff. I like to have at least one
Speaker 1: person with a security clearance because it's nice to have
Speaker 1: a staff member who could read through a bunch of
Speaker 1: documents in briefly on it, because the volume of it
Speaker 1: is significant, you know. I remember at one point there
Speaker 1: was a classified document on UFO sightings and I went
Speaker 1: in wanting to see, Okay, what does the government know
Speaker 1: on UFO side. I'm really curious. I've got to say,
Speaker 1: I've never been to Area fifty one. I'm really bummed.
Speaker 1: I've been ten years of the Senate, Like, like, how
Speaker 1: did you get that tour? Like you should sign up
Speaker 1: for that. So I went in and read it. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to repeat anything that was in the briefing
Speaker 1: on UFO sightings. I will just say this. I was
Speaker 1: incredibly underwhelmed. I was like, all excited, give me, little
Speaker 1: green men, tell me stuff. I just laughed and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, so there's a whole and in the
Speaker 1: White House, down in the National Security Council, there's a
Speaker 1: whole skiff the security room is a giant skiff. Many
Speaker 1: of the confidential briefings are down there. There's a difference
Speaker 1: between the nuclear codes XB three O two of Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm making up numbers. So if the prosecutors are coming
Speaker 1: to lock me up, I think XB three O two.
Speaker 1: Maybe isn't that the new COVID variant. Did you see
Speaker 1: Jimmy Fallon singing about the new COVID variant? It was
Speaker 1: the most third thing I've ever seen. Dias play a
Speaker 1: clip from Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show, just singing
Speaker 1: about this variant. There was Alpha, Ben, Delta, Ben, almar Cone,
Speaker 1: but this latest variant might be the best. It's x
Speaker 1: BB point one point five. Another brand of Coman nineteen
Speaker 1: has arrived. It's a new strain, but it isn't the same.
Speaker 1: Sounds more like Elon Muski's name. Look, I gotta say, Ben,
Speaker 1: I know Jimmy Fallon, which is a little bit bizarre.
Speaker 1: I don't feel I don't you and Jimmy Fallon and
Speaker 1: Jimmy Kimmel. I had no idea that you guys had
Speaker 1: this connection to each other like that. So it's an
Speaker 1: interesting dynamic. So I've been in the Senate ten years.
Speaker 1: When I first got there, every late night host would
Speaker 1: have senators and national figures on, both Democrats and Republicans.
Speaker 1: It's one of the ways the world has changed. So
Speaker 1: when I was a brand new senator, I was on
Speaker 1: Jay Leno, I was on Jimmy Fallon, I was on
Speaker 1: Jimmy Kimmel, I was on Stephen Colbert Um. It was
Speaker 1: part of the job. In the last five years, I
Speaker 1: don't know of a single one of the late night
Speaker 1: comics that has had a single Republican on there. They
Speaker 1: become left wing shills, I will say, of all of them,
Speaker 1: Fallon was by far the best. Now some of that
Speaker 1: is because Fallon does the Tonight show. Fallon inherited Jay
Speaker 1: Leno's audience, and by the way, jay Leno was the
Speaker 1: first one I went on, and I'm like, when I
Speaker 1: went on his show after, do you think it's awesome?
Speaker 1: In my opinion, it was like twenty twenty fourteen, I
Speaker 1: was branded in the Senate and I'm like walking out
Speaker 1: going like, holy crap, what am I doing on Jay Leno?
Speaker 1: Like it was weird, that's a big deal. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was bizarre. So Fallon inheritce jay Leno's audience and
Speaker 1: jay Leno's audiences to night show audience is still much
Speaker 1: of it is with the American Midwest. It's it's it's
Speaker 1: red America, Sure, it's it. And so of them. I
Speaker 1: mean Colbert is viciously left wing. Yes, Um Kimmel has
Speaker 1: become viciously left wing, total disdain for five our country fallon. Look,
Speaker 1: the guy probably leans left. But he's pretty. He's pretty.
Speaker 1: If you had to watch one, that's the one I'd watch.
Speaker 1: So I will tell you an interesting thing. When when
Speaker 1: Jay Leno got cut from late night TV, I was
Speaker 1: a newbie center. I made a phone called you know,
Speaker 1: I called who Rupert Murdoch away? And I called Rupert
Speaker 1: Murdoch and I said, Rupert, let me encourage you. Fox
Speaker 1: should put Jay Leno on late night TV. I actually
Speaker 1: think it is important for America that comedy matters, that
Speaker 1: culture matters, that entertainment matters. And Jay Leno. I don't
Speaker 1: know Jay well. I don't think he's a conservative. I
Speaker 1: assume he's left of center. But he spent years speaking
Speaker 1: to the middle of a America. And so what jay
Speaker 1: Lena would do is he would make fun of both sides.
Speaker 1: Of the aisle, and not in a vicious, evil or
Speaker 1: mean wright. He wouldn't be. He wasn't trying to destroy
Speaker 1: your life. By the way, baking fun of Republicans is fine.
Speaker 1: I mean you and I make fun of Republicans like
Speaker 1: if you can't laugh, but it doesn't mean spirited. And
Speaker 1: when I gotta say, when I pitched it to Rupert,
Speaker 1: he kind of laughed at me. He thought he did
Speaker 1: not think it was serious. I still think the country
Speaker 1: would be better off to have. I think comedy is powerful, yes,
Speaker 1: and I think and one of the problems, look, I
Speaker 1: love to laugh. All right. Did I tell you about
Speaker 1: Game four of the ALCS Astros against the Yankees? No?
Speaker 1: All right, So Game four of the ALCS was Yankee Stadiums.
Speaker 1: The Astros had won three games in a row. I
Speaker 1: went to Yankee Stadium. Okay, that this idea? Remember, yes,
Speaker 1: but I don't know which story you're going with. But yes,
Speaker 1: it was really fun to watch them because you were
Speaker 1: behind the plate and everybody was freaking out on Twitter,
Speaker 1: which made me laugh. All right. I sat directly behind
Speaker 1: home plate in the second row, so you're right on
Speaker 1: the damn TV shot behind home plate. You were close
Speaker 1: enough you could call the balls and strikes, you could
Speaker 1: practically smell the umpire's cologne. And let's be clear, I'm
Speaker 1: behind home plate and Yankee Stadium in a bright orange
Speaker 1: Houston Astro's jersey. There were more than a few Yankees
Speaker 1: fans who suggested that I do something anatomically impossible. Yes,
Speaker 1: most fun I've ever had in my life, because look,
Speaker 1: you're an Astro's fan. You're sweeping the damn Yankee and
Speaker 1: you're you're kicking there they are home. Yeah, it's better
Speaker 1: than almost winning at home that game. Four. Okay, So
Speaker 1: sitting in front of me was Lauren Michaels, the producer Satturday.
Speaker 1: He was directly was the front row, directly behind home played,
Speaker 1: and so kind of midway through the game, I introduced
Speaker 1: myself to Lauren Michaels and I said, you know, Lauren,
Speaker 1: I've been watching Saturday Ight live my entire life. And
Speaker 1: he responded, well, so have I I said, yeah, but
Speaker 1: I started at four. Yeah, like there's an older guy.
Speaker 1: I'm a lot younger than Yes, I literally as a
Speaker 1: little kid grew up. And I did say to him,
Speaker 1: I don't want to repeat what he said because I
Speaker 1: think that's probably not fair, but I'll say what I said.
Speaker 1: I said, you know, Saturday Night Live was a lot
Speaker 1: funnier before they became so damn political. I like comedy,
Speaker 1: by the way. I like comedy that makes fun of
Speaker 1: Republicans or Democrats. There used to be a time when
Speaker 1: we could laugh. Late night television has been destroyed, but
Speaker 1: of all of them, it used to be Jay Lenna
Speaker 1: was the best. Sadly when he was when he was
Speaker 1: pulled off air, My feudal attempt to convince Rupert Murdock
Speaker 1: to put him on air didn't succeed, so he was
Speaker 1: done and Fallon got on it and he was actually
Speaker 1: was a nice guy. I went on. I did Fallon
Speaker 1: Show actually on my daughter Caroline's birthday, her eighth birthday
Speaker 1: was April fourteenth, and it was really cool and we
Speaker 1: did a fun He had a whole skit set up
Speaker 1: where he played Donald Trump and it was the middle
Speaker 1: of the presidential primary. He was calling me and it
Speaker 1: was it was funny and it was a comedy skit.
Speaker 1: It was a comedy skit and he wasn't a jerk.
Speaker 1: So if you watch this skit that we just played,
Speaker 1: the segment from where Fallon is like singing about the
Speaker 1: latest variant of COVID nineteen. My god, late night comedy
Speaker 1: is dead. It's been destroyed, like if you are a
Speaker 1: propagandist for doctor Fauci and for At one point he says,
Speaker 1: you know, make short away a mask and indoor facilities,
Speaker 1: and mind you, Jimmy, Fallon's not wearing a mask. None
Speaker 1: of his staff's wearing a mask. None of the band
Speaker 1: is wearing a mask. But you know what when I
Speaker 1: did the view the day after the Yankees game, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know who's wearing a mask? Who every single member
Speaker 1: of the audience. They were trying to protect you, sir kay.
Speaker 1: None of the crew of the view, none of the host,
Speaker 1: Whoopie Goldberg, wasn't wearing a mask. But they made every
Speaker 1: single audience member word and look. I wish we could laugh.
Speaker 1: I wish culture wasn't so political. I wish late night comedy.
Speaker 1: And by the way, let let me give you an
Speaker 1: example of what I think is fabulous comedy. And this
Speaker 1: may get me in trouble with some people. One of
Speaker 1: my favorite movies. You ever see the movie Team America.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, Team America, World Police. Now listen, it is
Speaker 1: raunchy as all get out. I'm gonna I'm gonna admit
Speaker 1: an embarrassing thing. So I love Team America. I took Heidi.
Speaker 1: Heidi doesn't like movies as much. She almost fell out
Speaker 1: of the chair laughing so hard. We did a family
Speaker 1: vacation with Heide's parents and we brought a DVD. This
Speaker 1: was a while ago, so it was back when DVDs existed.
Speaker 1: We brought a DVD of Tea Americans. It was so funny,
Speaker 1: and we're playing it to Heide's parents and I guess
Speaker 1: I forgot just how profane the movie is. I'm remembering
Speaker 1: it now vaguely, and I do remember. It was like
Speaker 1: a lot of curse works and a lot of politically
Speaker 1: incorrect line but hilarious. Every third word is an F bomb. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so we're sitting there watching it with their parents
Speaker 1: and Heidi at our newlyweds and her parents literally were
Speaker 1: in a houseboat on Lake Powell out in the middle
Speaker 1: of the wilderness, and Heidi's parents literally got up and
Speaker 1: left because it was so it's funny. But I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I feel really bad. I didn't mean inflict
Speaker 1: this on my mother In law. Yeah, but look, Team America.
Speaker 1: It is a movie that it ridicules Republicans. Yes, but
Speaker 1: it ridicules democrats. That's actually good comedy. Yeah, good with that.
Speaker 1: At least it's at least it's every equal opportunity offender
Speaker 1: Today Late Night Comedy Today SNL is all about being
Speaker 1: a political mouthpiece and it's not about actually, I give
Speaker 1: you telling jokes. Jerry Seinfeld say, he doesn't just stand
Speaker 1: up anymore because, yeah, but Bill Burr, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you know who Bill, I know who he is.
Speaker 1: I don't know him. I think he's very funny, hysterical,
Speaker 1: and if you listen to him, he goes after both sides.
Speaker 1: He was in Houston and we went and I laugh
Speaker 1: because I we went with friends, and my wife is
Speaker 1: the I call it the um, the more judgy one,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. I was like, look, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: laugh my tail off, but if you're next to me,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna have as much fun. So you're gonna
Speaker 1: sit two seats down. I'm gonna sit next to my buddy,
Speaker 1: and the girls can sit together and the guys can
Speaker 1: sit together. And so she's three seats away. Just so
Speaker 1: I knew I could have a good time. And finally,
Speaker 1: about twenty five minutes in, I looked down and she's
Speaker 1: dying last thing, and I looked at it. I was like,
Speaker 1: you can't judge me now. You can't judge me now.
Speaker 1: But my point is he was an equal opportunity offender.
Speaker 1: If you listen to his comedy, he'll attack the pets. Great,
Speaker 1: and that's what we wish. I love George Carlin. Now listen.
Speaker 1: George Carlin probably would agree with almost nothing that we agree.
Speaker 1: Although I say this, George Carlin was an old school liberal,
Speaker 1: so he believed in a free speech. Yes, today's Democrat
Speaker 1: party that was no censor everyone they would hate George Carlin.
Speaker 1: So I kind of hope, and maybe I'm deluding myself
Speaker 1: that Carlin would appreciate the free speech ethos and and
Speaker 1: I've got a pretty strong libertarian sentiment. But Carlin is
Speaker 1: funny as all get out. You go back to Bush,
Speaker 1: and I love where this podcast has gone tonight. This
Speaker 1: is really fun. You go back to Bush and they
Speaker 1: were just relentless. I'm beating up on Bush forty three
Speaker 1: in late night. Yeah, but some of it was funny,
Speaker 1: Like it was even talked about at the White House
Speaker 1: the next day. Obama, they broke it. Yes, Obama, they
Speaker 1: broke it because they couldn't make fun of of of
Speaker 1: who they thought was the chosen one, right and say, well,
Speaker 1: they were so terrified. It's where Late night Comedy look
Speaker 1: SNEL has some of the great Chevy Chase brilliant playing
Speaker 1: Gerald Ford falling down. And by the way, Gerald Ford
Speaker 1: is probably the best athlete to ever be President of
Speaker 1: the United States. He was All American University of Michigan
Speaker 1: football player. I didn't know that. I really I didn't
Speaker 1: know he was a serious like that. I don't believe
Speaker 1: there's ever been another All American athlete. He was a
Speaker 1: legit athlete college that like like like the real deal,
Speaker 1: and Chevy Chase fell off of ladders, fell down, and
Speaker 1: the entire country thought of Gerald Ford as a klutz
Speaker 1: and an oath because of Saturday Night Live. You look
Speaker 1: how if you were if you go back in the
Speaker 1: night Saturday A Live and you look at the gaffs
Speaker 1: from Biden. Now we'll play a gaff from today. Great example,
Speaker 1: let's go back to what we're talking about classified documents.
Speaker 1: Let's play this. And I thought he was really on
Speaker 1: point because I think his staff prepped him and said, hey,
Speaker 1: your response these classified documents is incredibly important. You nailed this,
Speaker 1: but even at the end he couldn't hold it together
Speaker 1: very end dies it play? First, Let me get rid
Speaker 1: of the easy one first. People know I take classified
Speaker 1: documents a classifying information seriously. When my lawyers were clearing
Speaker 1: out my office at the University of Pennsylvania, they set
Speaker 1: up an office for me, secure office in the capitol.
Speaker 1: When the four years after being vice president as a
Speaker 1: profession at penn they found some documents in a box
Speaker 1: in a locked cabinet or at least a closet, And
Speaker 1: as soon as they did, they realized there were several
Speaker 1: classified documents in that box, and they did what they
Speaker 1: should have done. They immediately called the archives. Immediately call
Speaker 1: the archives, turned them over to the Archives. And I
Speaker 1: was briefed about this discovery and surprised and learned if
Speaker 1: there are any government records that were taken there to
Speaker 1: that office. But I don't know what's in the documents.
Speaker 1: I've my lawyers have not suggested. I asked what documents
Speaker 1: they were. I've turned over the boxes. They've turned over
Speaker 1: the boxes to the archives and we're cooperating fully, co
Speaker 1: operating fully with the review and which I hope will
Speaker 1: be finished soon and it will be more detail at
Speaker 1: that time. The first question, now I forgot, He's like
Speaker 1: he nailed it, and then but my point is, sati
Speaker 1: question I forgot, And he says, first of all, at
Speaker 1: the beginning, if you're listening us, first of all, first thing,
Speaker 1: and then he doesn't even remember. The first thing was,
Speaker 1: which is what you just did? How Saturday Night would
Speaker 1: have had the time of their lives at this moment.
Speaker 1: But they will not criticize them this week. No one
Speaker 1: in Late Night's going to criticize them for that. I
Speaker 1: don't think to do yet. They'll gently pop Biden for
Speaker 1: being old and senile. I'll give you to do that.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, okay, barely, but not this one. They won't.
Speaker 1: But okay, Obama, he did nothing wrong. And you look
Speaker 1: back from Chevy Chase, torontod Reagan, who they viciously destroyed,
Speaker 1: to to to Bush forty one. Dana Carvey, you remember
Speaker 1: you used to go Nagada, Nagata. In fact, it was
Speaker 1: one of the funniest things. After Bush was defeated, he
Speaker 1: went on Saturday I think it was Saturday Night Live
Speaker 1: or maybe his letterman, I remember what I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 1: He was talking and and Bush forty one said said
Speaker 1: said to Dana Carvey, Nagata, what is that? I don't
Speaker 1: say dot dot. It was funny. By the way, remember
Speaker 1: Dana Carvey not only played Bush forty one, he also
Speaker 1: played Rossi perro yea diet second sound from the South
Speaker 1: Giants second sound. It was ridiculously funny. You look at
Speaker 1: Will Farrell as George W. Bush. Amazing side splittingly funny.
Speaker 1: The entire history of SNL mocking politicians. All Right, Sarah Palin,
Speaker 1: I can see Russia from my porch, do you know?
Speaker 1: Never said that, never said it, but everybody I thought so.
Speaker 1: I'm willing to bet of our listeners and listen, our
Speaker 1: listeners on this podcast are smart, they're engaged, they're politically involved.
Speaker 1: I'd be willing to bet ninety percent of our listeners
Speaker 1: believe Sarah Palin said I can see Russia from our house,
Speaker 1: because almost everybody does. She never said those words. Where
Speaker 1: did those words come from? They were Tina Fey playing
Speaker 1: Sarah Palin on Saturday at Lives, and it was brilliant.
Speaker 1: I can see Russia from my house, and I got
Speaker 1: to admit, look, I consider Sarah a friend. I laughed
Speaker 1: because it was amazing. It was it was ridiculously funny.
Speaker 1: Comedy has been destroyed because a they won't make fun
Speaker 1: of the left, be their relentless partisans attacking anyone on
Speaker 1: the right. And see they're now willing to be shills
Speaker 1: for the authoritarian state. And so when I hear Jimmy
Speaker 1: Fallons saying about the latest COVID variant, it makes me sad.
Speaker 1: It makes me sad for the death of comedy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because now it's propaganda. It's so your comedy, and it's
Speaker 1: like the thirteenth strike of a clock. It destroys any credibility.
Speaker 1: A comedian ought to have the integrity to say I'm
Speaker 1: going to speak truth to power and not speak power
Speaker 1: to truth. Yeah, I agree with you. There last question,
Speaker 1: back to the documents for a moment this comes out,
Speaker 1: you hear Biden, we just play that clip him trying
Speaker 1: to clean it up. Is there anything that really happens
Speaker 1: with this number one j I'll ignore it, okay. And
Speaker 1: and how big of a saving you believe this is significant?
Speaker 1: Though for Donald Trump? Not in the legal sense, but
Speaker 1: in the public opinion debate sense, it becomes it's why
Speaker 1: I sent the forward tweet convene a grand jury. I
Speaker 1: actually don't think we should convene a grand jury. So
Speaker 1: that tweet was not that was to make them defend it.
Speaker 1: It was to hypocrisy prompt them to give the reasons
Speaker 1: why that shouldn't happen, and president is everything. I do
Speaker 1: think the public narrative has become infinitely complicated by the
Speaker 1: fact that Joe Biden not only did the same thing,
Speaker 1: but did the same thing at a center that received
Speaker 1: over fifty million dollars from communist China that is literally
Speaker 1: being paid for by the Chinese communists. If you think
Speaker 1: of places to store secure classified documents, places being funded
Speaker 1: by the Chinese communist perhaps we shouldn't be on the
Speaker 1: top of your list. Yeah, just promise me, if there's
Speaker 1: ever hearing about this, you will ask what's the hourly
Speaker 1: rate for lawyers to move people? I just have to
Speaker 1: know that. I gotta know what moving coming like, did
Speaker 1: you did you hire that happens to be lawyers? I
Speaker 1: gotta know that question. Well, if you need to move
Speaker 1: your house, I'm gonna tell you right now. I ain't
Speaker 1: gonna do it, and I'm not, and there it is.
Speaker 1: We'll leave it at that, Senator. It's pleasure we're here
Speaker 1: in DC together. It's always fun to be in the
Speaker 1: nation's capital with you. We will see all of you
Speaker 1: guys back here on two days, so make sure you
Speaker 1: grab our podcasts then and don't forget hit the subscribe button,
Speaker 1: the auto downlotle button. You'll get the podcast automatically for
Speaker 1: free every time we publish, and you never know when
Speaker 1: those extra episodes are gonna pop up, so you don't
Speaker 1: want to miss those. We'll see you back here. Have
Speaker 1: a great week, my friends.