Speaker 1: Welcome.
Speaker 2: It is Verdict with center, Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you.
Speaker 2: It's so nice for you to join us today. And
Speaker 2: we've got a lot to talk about. The world's talking
Speaker 2: about Iran right now, Senator, and we've got updates from
Speaker 2: where we are in this war with Iran.
Speaker 3: Well, we're in week two of the war with Iran,
Speaker 3: and I will say the success is continue to build up.
Speaker 3: If you look at the first day of this conflict,
Speaker 3: Iran launched three hundred and fifty ballistic missiles. By day
Speaker 3: eight that had dropped to fifteen. The second day of
Speaker 3: this conflict, Iran launched five hundred and forty one drone attacks.
Speaker 3: By day eight that had dropped to twelve. What we
Speaker 3: have done in less than two weeks now, we have
Speaker 3: taken out Iran's air defenses. We've taken out their missile
Speaker 3: launching capacity. We have taken out their missiles, we have
Speaker 3: taken out their missile manufacturing. We've taken out their drone
Speaker 3: launch capacity. We have taken out their drones. We have
Speaker 3: taken out their drone manufacturing. If you look at their navy,
Speaker 3: virtually every ship in their navy has been sunk to
Speaker 3: the bottom of the ocean. That effect in less than
Speaker 3: two weeks is profound. And I want you to listen
Speaker 3: to the Secretary of War Pete Hesith talking about what's
Speaker 3: been accomplished and what to expect next.
Speaker 4: Give a listen.
Speaker 2: Before we get to that, though, I want to tell
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Speaker 3: All right, center, So so let's play for very interrupt
Speaker 3: you let me interrupt you right now, Ben.
Speaker 4: So you're right now in Caba. I am that's true.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, that's true.
Speaker 3: And I just want to thank you on behalf of
Speaker 3: every Verdict listener, but especially the Verdict viewers. So there
Speaker 3: are a lot of vertict viewers who watch on on
Speaker 3: on YouTube, who watch on Facebook, and I just want
Speaker 3: to say, I'm really glad that you are not in
Speaker 3: Aspito right now.
Speaker 1: I am not I am in a suit, a jacket.
Speaker 4: Or even worse, a borat.
Speaker 3: A borat, Yes, that like covers the equipment and goes
Speaker 3: over your shoulders. I'm just gonna say, to be honest,
Speaker 3: we don't know if you're in aspeito a borat because
Speaker 3: the camera shot is is only chest up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is this is what you call hazing. When
Speaker 2: when when when crazy?
Speaker 3: One of us is at work, Like I've spent the
Speaker 3: whole day in the Senate, I'm working. By the way,
Speaker 3: it's your spring break, it's my spring break. My girls
Speaker 3: were skiing on spring break. I went for a day
Speaker 3: and a half and then got on a plane and
Speaker 3: I flew back to Washington, d C.
Speaker 4: Because some of us have a job.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2: And I'm proud. I want you to know that I'm
Speaker 2: proud of you. As I was clear on the beach today.
Speaker 3: Benjamin has had nineteen dakeries today, and and and if
Speaker 3: I asked him to walk in a straight line and
Speaker 3: spell the alphabet backwards, he couldn't do.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 1: I did have two Miami vices today, just an interview.
Speaker 1: I knew you would.
Speaker 4: I don't even know what a Miami vice is.
Speaker 2: You that's that's just said, I'll introduce you the next
Speaker 2: time we're hanging.
Speaker 1: Out in Kabba.
Speaker 4: What what is a Miami Vice.
Speaker 2: It's it's a pinnaclouda strawberry dodacri together. They called him
Speaker 2: Miami Vice. You never had a Miami Vice in your
Speaker 2: entire life. As I'm sitting here in Caba, I mean
Speaker 2: this sincerely, I just don't care. That's how happy I am.
Speaker 2: All Right, So here we go. Here's peteread Seth. We're
Speaker 2: gonna start with Peter head Seth giving an update on
Speaker 2: the war. I want you to take a listen to
Speaker 2: what he had to say about where we are now
Speaker 2: and what is happening.
Speaker 1: Take a listen to this.
Speaker 5: On day ten of Operation Epic Fury, we are winning
Speaker 5: with an overwhelming and unrelenting focus on our objectives, which
Speaker 5: are the same as the day I gave my first
Speaker 5: briefing here on Operation Epic Fury. They're straightforward, and we
Speaker 5: are executing them with ruthless precision. One destroy their missile stockpiles,
Speaker 5: their missile launchers, and their defense industrial base missiles and
Speaker 5: their ability to make them. Two destroy their navy, and
Speaker 5: three permanently deny Iran nuclear weapons forever. It's a laser
Speaker 5: focused maximum authority mission delivered with overwhelming and unrelenting precision,
Speaker 5: no hesitation, no half measures.
Speaker 2: Well, let me ask you this sinator as you hear
Speaker 2: him lay that out, I want to know what the
Speaker 2: pulsees in DC as you guys are there talking about this.
Speaker 2: I'm still trying to figure out what exactly the Democrat
Speaker 2: talking point is. I've seen like four or five of
Speaker 2: them that they've been kind of throwing jello at a
Speaker 2: wall to.
Speaker 1: See if anything will stick.
Speaker 2: They're obviously wanting to hurt Donald Trump and this or
Speaker 2: trying to say he's gonna get into forever or it's
Speaker 2: not really working.
Speaker 1: So what are your colleagues saying in the Senate about this?
Speaker 2: And also among Republicans as well, there's even been there
Speaker 2: was an interesting moment by the way, where like they
Speaker 2: were trying to bait you into trashing Lindsey Graham and
Speaker 2: others are trying to turn Republicans against Republicans. And as
Speaker 2: I was sitting here on the beach drinking my Miami Vice,
Speaker 2: I enjoyed watching You have to deal with that on
Speaker 2: TV because I just got to be a spectator.
Speaker 1: It was great.
Speaker 4: Yeah, look, last night.
Speaker 3: I was on Laura Ingram, and Laura's a friend and
Speaker 3: she's supporting President Trump in this military com But she
Speaker 3: asked a whole series of questions about aren't you upset
Speaker 3: that it's been reported that Lindsey Graham was talking to
Speaker 3: Prime Minister net Yahoo? And she basically said, isn't Lindsay
Speaker 3: acting as a lobbyist for Israel? And I said, Laura,
Speaker 3: with all due respect, now, and that's really a silly question. Listen, Lindsey.
Speaker 3: I agree with Lindsay on some issues. I disagree with
Speaker 3: Lindsay on other issues. You look at the Iraq War.
Speaker 4: Lindsay was a big.
Speaker 3: Proposent of the Iraq War. I think the Iraq War
Speaker 3: was a serious mistake. I think it did harm to
Speaker 3: the United States. And I've said that for a long
Speaker 3: long time. So Lindsay and are on totally different pages
Speaker 3: when it comes to Iraq. When it comes to Iran,
Speaker 3: Lindsey and I agree. I think when the Ayatola says
Speaker 3: death to America, he means it. I think President Trump
Speaker 3: is right to act to take out the leadership in
Speaker 3: Iran because having radical islamistle readership that wants to murder
Speaker 3: Americans is bad for America. The regime in Iran has
Speaker 3: been the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism for forty
Speaker 3: seven years. They provide ninety percent of the funding for Hamas,
Speaker 3: for Hesbaala and for the houthies. They've killed nearly one
Speaker 3: thousand Americans in the last five decades. The Ayahtola he
Speaker 3: leads mobs channing death to America, and he hires two
Speaker 3: different crews of hit men to try to murder Donald J.
Speaker 1: Trump. Yeah, by the way, two and can you pause on.
Speaker 4: That, for one was just convicted the last week of
Speaker 4: doing so.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, let's spend a moment on this
Speaker 2: because this is part of the Democrats talking point and
Speaker 2: I've been fighting this pretty hard on TV as well,
Speaker 2: and they're like, well, they weren't. There was not a
Speaker 2: direct threat here. This was not a direct threat to America.
Speaker 2: This is you're now putting people in harm's way. Let's
Speaker 2: make it very clear on this show as you described it,
Speaker 2: not one but two that we know about were sent
Speaker 2: to try to take out and kill the President of America.
Speaker 1: That came directly from Iran.
Speaker 3: And by the way, the hitman told the Department of Justice,
Speaker 3: I was hired by Iran. I was trained by Iran,
Speaker 3: and my purpose was to murder President Trump. There's no
Speaker 3: dispute that it was Iran that was paying for this.
Speaker 3: And I will note if you remember last year when
Speaker 3: I was interviewed by Tucker Carlson, it was an unhinged interview.
Speaker 4: But he disputed me.
Speaker 3: He said, no, no, no, I've never heard that Iran's
Speaker 3: trying to murder Donald Trump, which was insane and totally counterfactual.
Speaker 3: And it's hard to actually argue with someone for whom
Speaker 3: facts don't matter and they just make up facts. But
Speaker 3: then Tucker said, bizarrely, well, and if Iran was trying
Speaker 3: to murder Trump, we should attack them now, we should
Speaker 3: nuke them, Yeah, which was insane. And by the way,
Speaker 3: I will say, in Monday's podcast, we pointed out Tucker
Speaker 3: has become such an Islamist shill, such an Israel hating zealot,
Speaker 3: such an advocate for every Islamist enemy of America that
Speaker 3: he has argued this week that President Trump's demand for
Speaker 3: unconditional surrender of Iran means that Iran should expect American
Speaker 3: soldiers to rape their wives and daughters. Yes, that is
Speaker 3: an absolute slander of our American servicemen and women. It
Speaker 3: is totally false, it is ahistorical. We don't do that.
Speaker 3: Other armies do that. America does not. And he also
Speaker 3: argued that he thinks America is going to nuke Iran.
Speaker 3: To be clear, that's what Jahadis Tucker said in his
Speaker 3: interview we should do if Iran was trying to murder
Speaker 3: President Trump. We now have one of the hit men
Speaker 3: convicted in a federal jury for trying to murder Trump.
Speaker 3: So Tucker's bad faith, disingenuous position is we should nuke them.
Speaker 3: Of course we should nuke them. We're not gonna nuke Iran.
Speaker 3: That is bizarre, that is wrong. We're also not There
Speaker 3: is no circumstance in which American soldiers are going to
Speaker 3: rape the women of Iran. But do you know who
Speaker 3: is broadcasting Tucker's broadcast right now?
Speaker 2: Literally, Iran state sponsored media is broadcasting it to their people.
Speaker 3: The government of Iran is broadcasting Tucker to their people.
Speaker 3: The Muslim Brotherhood has retweeted and put out Tucker's broadcast
Speaker 3: to the world r T the press organization Russia. Russia
Speaker 3: today is pushing out Tucker. So you want to talk
Speaker 3: about a damn effective propagandist for people who hate America.
Speaker 3: And this is the slippery slope of Jew hate and
Speaker 3: Israel hate. You start with just hating Israel and Jews
Speaker 3: blaming everything bad in the world, it's the Jews, and
Speaker 3: you very quickly get into.
Speaker 4: The problem is capitalism.
Speaker 3: By the way, Tucker is now attacking capitalism on a
Speaker 3: daily basis and embracing He's embraced Comrade Mondami as the
Speaker 3: mayor of New York.
Speaker 4: He's defended him repeatedly.
Speaker 3: He's embraced Nicholas Maduro, the Marxist America hating dictator of Venezuela,
Speaker 3: who Donald Trump went and rightly apprehended for being one
Speaker 3: of the biggest drug dealers in the world, killing Americans.
Speaker 3: Tucker is defending him, and that pattern is incredibly dangerous.
Speaker 3: We're seeing it play out every day.
Speaker 1: By the way, side note, this is going to be interesting.
Speaker 2: I want you to guess in two thousand, this would
Speaker 2: probably be two thousand and nine, eight or nine, my
Speaker 2: big today today to date, right now, the biggest contract
Speaker 2: I've ever been offered in mind higher life to do
Speaker 2: radio TV.
Speaker 1: Do you know who it was from?
Speaker 3: I'm guessing Tucker, And what I want to ask is,
Speaker 3: did you have to buy a home and cut her?
Speaker 1: Like he has no.
Speaker 2: No, that's a good guess, but no, it was not.
Speaker 2: My biggest offer in the history of my career was RT.
Speaker 2: They tried to hire. They were trying to hire conservatives,
Speaker 2: and so in two thousand whatever year they like, they
Speaker 2: came into America in the marketplace.
Speaker 4: How much did they offer you?
Speaker 1: Oh dude, it was seven figures.
Speaker 2: I mean it was I don't remember, Like seriously, I
Speaker 2: get rich, like instant, get rich money.
Speaker 4: So like they offered you over a million dollars.
Speaker 1: Yes, over a million dollars.
Speaker 3: So the likes to say Vladimir Putin is wise and
Speaker 3: a damn good looking man.
Speaker 2: So this is how they entrap people. As I describe it,
Speaker 2: I was in the bush years. I get a phone
Speaker 2: call from a former worker slash, you know, TV executive
Speaker 2: from Fox News Channel, and they said, Hey, I've moved
Speaker 2: on to something else. I'd love to meet with you.
Speaker 2: I'm like, sure, more than happy to me. I'd worked
Speaker 2: with them before at Fox News Channel. Like, okay, big deal.
Speaker 2: I go to lunch in DC, that's where I was
Speaker 2: living the time, and she hands me her card and
Speaker 2: she's working for RT and I'm like RT like Russia today,
Speaker 2: like and she's like yes, and she's like, we would
Speaker 2: love to have you come on and just give your viewpoint.
Speaker 2: We would never tell you what to say. We would
Speaker 2: never tell you what to like. You know, we want
Speaker 2: you to just be exactly who you are. We want
Speaker 2: a fair and balanced conversation about the world. We think
Speaker 2: you would be great. I was like, I was like,
Speaker 2: I'm still in shock. I'm like, this is I'm like
Speaker 2: looking for cameras. I'm waiting for, like you know, somebody
Speaker 2: to come out like from the side room like we
Speaker 2: got him.
Speaker 1: And I'm like I literally looked.
Speaker 2: I was like, there's no amount of money that is
Speaker 2: gonna make me work for the Russia and for BLA.
Speaker 2: I think, I said Vladimir put and they were like, well,
Speaker 2: here's the offer, and they slid across the table.
Speaker 1: It was like a scene ow of the movie. And
Speaker 1: I opened it.
Speaker 2: It was I mean it was seven figures and I
Speaker 2: literally I literally number.
Speaker 4: Tell me what seven figures means?
Speaker 2: Do you remember that it was well over a million
Speaker 2: per year but it was a multi year deal, so
Speaker 2: it was like.
Speaker 3: It was like a million one, a million nine, like
Speaker 3: I can't remember if.
Speaker 2: It was like I want to say again a long time.
Speaker 2: I want to say, it's like a million two or three.
Speaker 2: And that was their first offer per year. And so
Speaker 2: I leave the meeting and I'm like, look, I'm not
Speaker 2: gonna do it, but things, I just think about it,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, I'm not gonna do it, but things
Speaker 2: They're like, well, if you ever want to come as
Speaker 2: a guess or if you ever change your mind. So
Speaker 2: I leave and I called John Ashcroft at the time,
Speaker 2: he was the former Turity General. I was like, John,
Speaker 2: I just got offered money from Vladimir Putin. He was
Speaker 2: like started chuckling, like Santa. He was like Russia today.
Speaker 2: I was like, yay. He's like, you're like the eighth
Speaker 2: person's called me today to tell me the last week
Speaker 2: they're getting an offer from russiaday because they're trying to
Speaker 2: legitimize themselves in America for their propaganda, and then they
Speaker 2: were on TV until they invaded Ukraine and then Artie
Speaker 2: like fired everybody in America. But I knew people that
Speaker 2: took the money and got rich, Like I knew like legitiularly,
Speaker 2: like yeah, take the Russian cash like, no problem. That
Speaker 2: is by the way, the reason why I bring it
Speaker 2: up is because with Tucker Carlson, when everybody's like, well,
Speaker 2: there is there really money to be made to be
Speaker 2: like anti America, anti Israel? Yes, there is lots of
Speaker 2: money that people are getting paid. I don't know who's
Speaker 2: getting paid, but a lot of people are getting so
Speaker 2: just know that much.
Speaker 3: So, by the way, we know that a foreign funders
Speaker 3: for US universities.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the number one country in the world. You know
Speaker 4: what it is?
Speaker 1: Is it China?
Speaker 4: Nope?
Speaker 1: Really, Russia?
Speaker 4: Nope? Iran nope?
Speaker 1: All right, who is it?
Speaker 4: Cutter?
Speaker 1: Oh that okay, there you go.
Speaker 3: Six point six billion dollars with a b.
Speaker 1: Six point six billion comes from cut to our universities.
Speaker 4: To our universities.
Speaker 3: You want to know why our universities are so rabidly
Speaker 3: anti American, so rabidly anti Semitics, so rabidly anti Israel,
Speaker 3: so rabidly anti capitalism, so rabidly. Look you look at
Speaker 3: the anti Semitic protests that we had on college campuses
Speaker 3: all across the country. Yeah, did any of you notice
Speaker 3: that the tents all matched?
Speaker 1: Yeah? There you go.
Speaker 4: And to be clear, cutter.
Speaker 3: By the way, it's been publicly reported they hired spies
Speaker 3: to spy on me. They view me as their biggest
Speaker 3: opponent in Washington, and listen, it's very simple. I don't
Speaker 3: have anything against the Kutaris other than they welcome and host.
Speaker 4: Hold.
Speaker 3: Let me finish this, Let me finish this. I don't
Speaker 3: have anything against the Kataris other than that they welcome
Speaker 3: and host the senior leadership of Hamas. They live like billionaires,
Speaker 3: They live in lavish luxury. They support Hamas, they encourage Hamas.
Speaker 3: They fund Israel haters, America haters, communists, people tearing America down.
Speaker 3: They propagandize our kids. I'm perfectly happy to welcome the
Speaker 3: Qataris into the society of civilized nation if they will
Speaker 3: stop funding people trying to destroy America. And I don't
Speaker 3: take it kindly when you write lots of checks to
Speaker 3: people who hate American or trying to destroy our nation.
Speaker 3: I view that as less than friendly conduct.
Speaker 2: Having just come back from Israel, I want to paint
Speaker 2: you a picture. It's midnight, sirens are blaring and and
Speaker 2: you have only seconds to grab your child and run.
Speaker 2: Now imagine your elderly your legs don't work like they
Speaker 2: used to. Getting downstairs feels impossible, and after all of that,
Speaker 2: you end up in a bomb shelter for hours, even days,
Speaker 2: because you can't make the trek again. This is what's
Speaker 2: happening across Israel as Operation Epic Fury continues. Children are
Speaker 2: being traumatized, families are just exhausted, and homes have been destroyed.
Speaker 2: And that's why the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews
Speaker 2: is there on the ground, bringing food, emergency equipment, care
Speaker 2: for those children, and help for the elderly, and supplying
Speaker 2: the bomb shelters and medical centers for critically needed essentials.
Speaker 2: If you've ever wondered what it looks like to stand
Speaker 2: for Israel and stand for good against evil, this is it.
Speaker 2: And that's why I'm asking to now please act, give
Speaker 2: forty five dollars right now to rush life saving essentials
Speaker 2: to the vulnerable under fire. You can also call eight
Speaker 2: eight eight for eight eight I f c J. That's
Speaker 2: eight eight eight for eight eight I f c J.
Speaker 2: Join me and give and make a real difference online
Speaker 2: at IFCJ dot org.
Speaker 1: That's if c J dot org.
Speaker 2: By the way, to everyone in guitar, that's a spy
Speaker 2: listening right now. I just want you to know. And
Speaker 2: this is the comment Ted's life is very boring. Sometimes
Speaker 2: he really is sathnical. It's not there's nothing exciting happening there.
Speaker 3: I just want to be cool, right, can I can
Speaker 3: I tell a story And it's a story some of
Speaker 3: our podcast listeners will will will remember. So back in
Speaker 3: twenty sixteen, when I'm running for president and it's it's
Speaker 3: getting down to to the end of the race, and
Speaker 3: it's me and Donald Trump and we're neck and neck.
Speaker 3: And in that race, I won twelve states, Trump won
Speaker 3: twenty four and no other Republican one more than a
Speaker 3: single state Kaseikuan, Ohio, Rubio one Minnesota, and trumpet I
Speaker 3: won every other state in the country. And in the
Speaker 3: course of that campaign, there was a story that broke
Speaker 3: in the National Inquirer that said I was having five
Speaker 3: simultaneous affairs and.
Speaker 4: This is front page, big story.
Speaker 3: Cruise caught yes, and look, Ben, you know my wife,
Speaker 3: Heidi da.
Speaker 4: I had to call Heidi.
Speaker 3: And for anyone married, let me say to everyone listening
Speaker 3: and watching this spot, if you're married, I got to
Speaker 3: tell you it sucks to pick up the phone and
Speaker 3: call your spouse and say a sweetheart. So there is
Speaker 3: a front page story that is in every checkout aisle
Speaker 3: of every supermarket in America that said I'm having five
Speaker 3: simultaneous affairs and I ad dore Heidi.
Speaker 4: She's my best friend the world. But I was nervous
Speaker 4: about this call.
Speaker 3: That is not a fun If you had a call
Speaker 3: on and say that, that would be a call that sucked.
Speaker 4: So I make the call. Do you know Heidi's reaction, Well.
Speaker 2: I I know this story and I know exactly the reaction,
Speaker 2: which is the best part about the whole story.
Speaker 3: Heidi burst into a uporious laughter.
Speaker 4: She's like doubled over laughing, and I actually got offended.
Speaker 4: I'm like, sweetheart, it's not true, but damn it, I could.
Speaker 4: I mean, like, what are you saying? Like? I like,
Speaker 4: I didn't, but but.
Speaker 2: You're that undesirable. That's what she's saying right there. There's
Speaker 2: no way.
Speaker 3: And I gotta say for the Qatari spies, I think
Speaker 3: they were frustrated because look, I have dinner many nights
Speaker 3: in DC at Capitol Garrell.
Speaker 4: You and I have had dinner many times there. Yes,
Speaker 4: we had my black fact.
Speaker 1: To be clear, I don't think you and I have
Speaker 1: ever had dinner anywhere else in d C. But there.
Speaker 1: That's how mondand Okay even exist in DC. In the world. Look,
Speaker 1: I'm if you're cheating on anybody, it's capital grill. That
Speaker 1: would be the story.
Speaker 4: I'm a homebody. Listen.
Speaker 3: When I was in law school, I lived in the
Speaker 3: dorms Hemingway. I lived in Hastings Hall, which is a dorm.
Speaker 3: I lived there three years. Right next to it was
Speaker 3: Hemingway Gym, and then right next to it was Gannett
Speaker 3: House was the Law Review.
Speaker 4: That triangle was maybe three hundred yards.
Speaker 3: I spent almost every waking moment of three years of
Speaker 3: law school in that triangle between my dorm, the gym,
Speaker 3: and the lar Review. That was basically I would go
Speaker 3: to class occasionally, but it was essentially that triangle DC.
Speaker 3: I rarely, like, like cap Girl is six blocks away
Speaker 3: from the Capitol.
Speaker 4: I rarely go beyond that that that radius.
Speaker 3: But I will tell you in twenty sixteen, my opponents,
Speaker 3: and more than one of my opponents, was like flashing
Speaker 3: major chunks of cash, trying to get waiters and waitresses
Speaker 3: to like rat on me, like running around and getting
Speaker 3: busy with some Washington Line.
Speaker 2: They were looking for an Easter and Peo don't realize this.
Speaker 2: This is real in politics, like they.
Speaker 4: Go to they're dragging through trying to get.
Speaker 1: Me hand out cash to anybody.
Speaker 2: They'll give them a story so they can report it
Speaker 2: as someone who says in this world, and I.
Speaker 3: Got to say, like, my life is just pretty damn
Speaker 3: boring on that. And I will tell you I actually
Speaker 3: I want to take a minute. I want to speak
Speaker 3: to the men listening to this podcast. I want to
Speaker 3: share some wisdom. So our pastor is Greg Mott, and
Speaker 3: actually you now go to our church. You used to
Speaker 3: go to Second Baptist, you now go to First Baptist.
Speaker 3: Greg Mott is a wonderful, dear friend. He's a man
Speaker 3: of God. Before you moved First Pastor, Greg did a
Speaker 3: sermon series. It was like I think six weeks and
Speaker 3: it was on King David. And I really enjoyed that
Speaker 3: sermon series. King David was remarkable person in the Bible.
Speaker 3: And I remember he was covering the chapter on Bathsheba.
Speaker 3: And if you remember, King David is standing on the
Speaker 3: roof of his palace and he looks down and he
Speaker 3: sees Bestsheba, the most beautiful woman in the land, and
Speaker 3: he gazes upon her, and he ultimately ends up bringing
Speaker 3: her in and sending her husband your riot to the
Speaker 3: front lines and killing him and sleeping with her and
Speaker 3: then marrying her. And God extracts the price of killing
Speaker 3: her firstborn son, although her next son was King Solomon.
Speaker 3: So he did continue the line. But Pastor Gregg is
Speaker 3: talking about and he just stops. He says, all right,
Speaker 3: I want to talk to all the men in the congregation,
Speaker 3: and he says, you may be by.
Speaker 2: The way if you're this podcast and you want to
Speaker 2: hear greg Mont's voice, like, go listen to one of
Speaker 2: his sermons and you'll understand how good he is at
Speaker 2: delivering these types of lines.
Speaker 3: Continue it's and by the way, Pastor Gregg started his ministry.
Speaker 4: He was a student at Texas A and M.
Speaker 3: And he started a little Bible study in his dorm
Speaker 3: room or his apartment, and it started with a few students.
Speaker 3: It grew into what's called away and he would have
Speaker 3: ten thousand students a week meeting in the basketball gymnasium.
Speaker 3: So where we go to church. First Baptist Church is
Speaker 3: an institution in Houston. I went there as a little kid.
Speaker 3: Doctor John Bassania was the pastor forty years ago and
Speaker 3: he was a Houston institution. By the way, the church
Speaker 3: was founded, do you know the story? Do you know
Speaker 3: when the church was founded? No, so the church was founded.
Speaker 3: I don't know the exact year, but Texas was an
Speaker 3: independent nation between eighteen thirty six and eighteen forty five,
Speaker 3: and First Baptist Church of Houston was founded somewhere in
Speaker 3: that nine year period.
Speaker 4: I don't remember the year.
Speaker 3: And Pastor Greg said one time, he said, look, this
Speaker 3: church was actually founded by American missionaries who were coming
Speaker 3: to a foreign nation. And the foreign nation was the
Speaker 3: Republic of Texas. So American nations went from America to
Speaker 3: the Republic of Texas and they founded the church. Anyway,
Speaker 3: what he said to the men in the church, and
Speaker 3: by the way, so so Pastor Greg built up Breakaway
Speaker 3: and it was getting ten thousand students a week to
Speaker 3: come to this Bible study at A and M. And
Speaker 3: then when doctor Bassanio retired, First Baptist did a search,
Speaker 3: who's our new pastor and they actually found Pastor Greg.
Speaker 3: He was thirty three years old and they brought him in.
Speaker 3: He'd never pastor to church. He just like led this
Speaker 3: Bible study at A and M. They brought him in
Speaker 3: and he's led.
Speaker 4: Pastor.
Speaker 3: Greg and I are exactly the same age, we're both
Speaker 3: fifty five, and they brought him in like and he's
Speaker 3: become our pastor, and he is.
Speaker 4: He's a great pastor.
Speaker 3: But what I admire most about him is he's incredibly humble.
Speaker 4: Yes, like Heidi doesn't like megachurches.
Speaker 3: She grew up in a very small church in the
Speaker 3: central coast California. She likes small, intimate churches where you
Speaker 3: have forty people there on Sunday morning, like like where
Speaker 3: everyone knows everyone. And First Baptist is a huge church.
Speaker 3: The only reason we go there is because she likes
Speaker 3: Pastor grew so much that she's just like, all right,
Speaker 3: I will endure the larger.
Speaker 1: The larger crowds. Yeah.
Speaker 3: But part of the reason she likes him and I
Speaker 3: like him is he is genuinely humble and he's a
Speaker 3: godly man. Like he's a lot of pastors of megachurches
Speaker 3: are are are frankly arrogant. I mean, hubris, look hubris is.
Speaker 1: They become rock stars in a bubble.
Speaker 3: Pride is a temptation in the ministry. It's a temptation
Speaker 3: in politics, it's a temptation in the media. Like you
Speaker 3: like it's it's easy when you're surrounded by adulation to
Speaker 3: believe it, and it's hard to resist it. And I
Speaker 3: will say Pastor Greg does an amazing job. He and
Speaker 3: I spend every month. Actually something we've started this year
Speaker 3: which I'm really grateful for. He's begun coming over to
Speaker 3: my house once a month Sunday afternoons or evenings, just
Speaker 3: to have a Bible study and prayer session together, which
Speaker 3: I'm grateful for. But anyway, his David sermon, when he
Speaker 3: talks about Bethshiv, he says, I want to talk to
Speaker 3: the men in the congregation, and he said, you may
Speaker 3: think you are strong, you may think you have an integrity,
Speaker 3: you have resolved, and he said, I want to tell
Speaker 3: you when temptation presents.
Speaker 4: Itself, run run, just get away.
Speaker 3: He said, the mistake David made is he's on the
Speaker 3: roof of his palacies looking down and he kept watching.
Speaker 3: What David should have done is turn around. And by
Speaker 3: the way, the Bible describes David as a man after
Speaker 3: God's own heart. And he said David should have turned
Speaker 3: around and just gotten himself out of that.
Speaker 2: So before we wrap, I want to get back to
Speaker 2: something else political world that I do think is important
Speaker 2: for us to cover real quick, and that is the
Speaker 2: one thing that the Democrats seem to be being able
Speaker 2: to grab on. And thing tangible here is gas prices.
Speaker 2: I know you've been around the president. See the President's
Speaker 2: been pretty queer about this. This is going to be
Speaker 2: short terming increase. Democrats do seem to be latching onto this.
Speaker 2: Like remember when egg prices is like a big thing
Speaker 2: and the put a world. Yep, this is the new
Speaker 2: egg price thing, right. Oh my gosh, Donald Trump say's
Speaker 2: a lower price to the pump for you. Look at
Speaker 2: it now, Look how bad it is. Now it's gonna
Speaker 2: be you know, ten hours a gallon in California, it's
Speaker 2: gonna be five six hours gallon everywhere else.
Speaker 1: The presents come out and says it's gonna be short term.
Speaker 1: I believe him.
Speaker 2: I think also seeing how hard we're hitting a ran
Speaker 2: right now, is also showing the timeline here that they
Speaker 2: are wanting to do everything as fast asy can. Why
Speaker 2: drag this out, go all in, do it quickly, get
Speaker 2: the pain over with and let those people hopefully rise
Speaker 2: up and take over a ran and actually move forward.
Speaker 1: Are you that worried about about the gas prices? I'm
Speaker 1: I'm not yet.
Speaker 2: Like if it's three months from now or two months
Speaker 2: from now, I'm going to be more worried. But right
Speaker 2: now I feel like this is exactly on schedule or
Speaker 2: ahead of schedule, as the White House has described it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, look, there's been a short term increase in gas prices,
Speaker 3: and anytime there's a military conflict in the Middle gas
Speaker 3: prices go up because a lot of oil comes from
Speaker 3: the Middle East, and so military conflict has an effect
Speaker 3: on supply demand. I think this will be short term.
Speaker 3: One of the things to remember is, so six months ago,
Speaker 3: gas prices were about I don't have the exact number
Speaker 3: off the top of my head, but about two dollars
Speaker 3: and fifty cents a gallon.
Speaker 4: They've risen about a dollar. They're about three dollars and
Speaker 4: fifty cents a gallon.
Speaker 3: This is national averages, and so it is true that
Speaker 3: over the last six months gasoline prices have risen. Where
Speaker 3: were they eighteen months ago? Under Joe Biden there were
Speaker 3: nearly six dollars a gallon, So by any measure, they're
Speaker 3: massively cheaper than Joe Biden. Yes, they've gone up from
Speaker 3: about two fifty to about three fifty, But I think
Speaker 3: this is a short term increase. And I got to say,
Speaker 3: if and when the Iranian regime collapses, and by the way,
Speaker 3: we've utterly degraded their military and we've taken out the Ittolin,
Speaker 3: the senior military leadership, if and when we have a
Speaker 3: government in Iran that is not a radical theocratic Islamist
Speaker 3: government who wants to murder America, who is funding terrorists
Speaker 3: all across the world, who is actively trying to murder
Speaker 3: Americans every single day, if we have just a normal government,
Speaker 3: I don't really care who we have, just as long
Speaker 3: as it's not a crazy person killing Americans. The effect
Speaker 3: on global gas prices will be to lower them significantly.
Speaker 3: So I actually think this conflict in the long term
Speaker 3: or even the medium term, will have a substantial downward
Speaker 3: pressure on gasoline prices. There's a short period where prices
Speaker 3: have spiked somewhat, although to be clear, they're much much
Speaker 3: lower than under Biden, but they are higher than they
Speaker 3: were six months ago under Trump. Look, I think the
Speaker 3: Democrats are attacking gas prices because they hate Trump and
Speaker 3: they're just everything Trump does is wrong. This is an
Speaker 3: incredibly important decision that Trump has made for advancing US
Speaker 3: national security. And I will say part of the reason why,
Speaker 3: when like I was being questioned on Lindsay Graham, I
Speaker 3: like Lindsay as I said, I agree with him sometimes,
Speaker 3: I disagree with them sometimes. But what the questioning really
Speaker 3: was about, isn't the Iran war about Israel? Isn't this
Speaker 3: all about Israel? And the suggestion was Israel or is
Speaker 3: a puppet master controlling Donald Trump? That's just a blatant lie.
Speaker 3: This military conflict has very little to do with Israel.
Speaker 3: The reason President Trump decided to attack Iran is because
Speaker 3: Iran has been waging war with America for forty seven
Speaker 3: years and they've killed nearly a thousand Americans and they're
Speaker 3: the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world. And
Speaker 3: so the people trying to say I don't want another
Speaker 3: war for Israel, I don't want my children to die
Speaker 3: for the Jews, that is that is not honest, Because
Speaker 3: we're doing this because the regime in Iran is killing Americans.
Speaker 3: And to be clear, if they had the capacity, if
Speaker 3: they had nuclear weapons, they would kill many, many more
Speaker 3: Americans if they could. They would kill you and me
Speaker 3: right now, Ben, if they could, every listener of this podcast,
Speaker 3: they would kill If they had a nuclear weapon, I
Speaker 3: believe there is a real possibility they would detonate it
Speaker 3: in the skies of Tel Aviv or New.
Speaker 4: York or Los Angeles.
Speaker 3: And I'm not interested in seeing a day where hundreds
Speaker 3: of thousands of Americans are murdered by an iatola channing
Speaker 3: death to America. That's why President Trump acted. But it
Speaker 3: was not about Israel. It was about America, and I
Speaker 3: think we need to be very very clear about that.
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Speaker 2: I also think one of the other things that I
Speaker 2: think is really frustrating is just seeing how many people
Speaker 2: act as if somehow Donald Trump was hoodwinked by Israel
Speaker 2: for us to get involved in this war.
Speaker 1: And you were asked about that.
Speaker 2: I was asked about as well on TV, and I said,
Speaker 2: that is the biggest load of crap I've heard in
Speaker 2: a long time. President Trump isn't hoodwink by anybody. President
Speaker 2: Trump isn't walked around by anyone, And if you've ever
Speaker 2: been around them, you know that. I think it goes
Speaker 2: back to what you just said, the President understood the
Speaker 2: national security risks not to Israel. All right, there is
Speaker 2: America first, correct, it's America and the national security threat
Speaker 2: to America. And clear the fact that they're trying to
Speaker 2: kill and have sent people and train people and pay
Speaker 2: people to try to kill the president of the United
Speaker 2: States of America. Also people in the last administration. John Bolton,
Speaker 2: for example, was one of those. There's several others on
Speaker 2: this list that have actually have been they've had.
Speaker 4: Hits at all.
Speaker 1: Brian Hook, Yes, exactly, So you go with the list here.
Speaker 2: The President was clear about this that this is about America.
Speaker 2: And I think that's another example when I said there's
Speaker 2: like four or five working theories Democrats throw on Joe
Speaker 2: at to wall saying does any of this fit with Americans?
Speaker 2: I also think it's very interesting and final thing to you,
Speaker 2: I don't think the American people are buying this. And
Speaker 2: part of it's because I think Democrats have just said
Speaker 2: some of those orlandis and crazy things on every issue,
Speaker 2: tried to hurt Donald Trump. Now it's becoming a little
Speaker 2: bit more of white noise, and that's that I'm thankful
Speaker 2: for that.
Speaker 4: To be honest with you, Yeah, no, I think that's right.
Speaker 3: And look, some of the reaction of the voters will
Speaker 3: depend on how this plays out. If this military conflict
Speaker 3: lasts many months or years, if we're sitting here a
Speaker 3: year from now and still mired to military conflict, if
Speaker 3: we've got a massive troop presence on the Great Ground,
Speaker 3: if we have hundreds or thousands of American soldiers being killed.
Speaker 4: This war will be very unpopular.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the chances of that happening are very
Speaker 3: very close to zero percent.
Speaker 4: Iran is not a raq.
Speaker 3: We're not going to see a massive troop presence on
Speaker 3: the ground. We're not going to see an extended military occupation. Actually,
Speaker 3: I want you to listen to Pete haig Seth making
Speaker 3: this point, and we're going to wrap up on this. Listen,
Speaker 3: listen to the Secretary of War, Pete hegg Seth.
Speaker 5: You see, this is not two thousand and three. This
Speaker 5: is not endless nation building under those types of quagmires
Speaker 5: we saw under Bush or Obama. It's not even close.
Speaker 5: Our generation of soldier will not let that happen again,
Speaker 5: and nor will this president, who very clearly ran against
Speaker 5: those kinds of never ending nebulously scoped missions. Those days
Speaker 5: are dead. Instead, we're winning decisively with brutal efficiency, total
Speaker 5: air dominance, and an unbreakable will to accomo pumplish the
Speaker 5: President's objectives on our timeline. We stay locked on the
Speaker 5: target because here at the Department of War, that's our job.
Speaker 1: You listen to Pete there.
Speaker 2: This is one of the reasons why I actually think
Speaker 2: it was a blessing that he was named and made
Speaker 2: it through confirmation.
Speaker 3: He's a guy, he's a combat veteran who's been in
Speaker 3: harm's way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a guy that I think is genuinely
Speaker 2: in the room advocating to make sure that what happened
Speaker 2: to a lot of his colleagues when he was serving
Speaker 2: in uniform and deployed, that doesn't happen to this group
Speaker 2: of soldiers now.
Speaker 1: And it's clear that this is personal for him.
Speaker 2: That's why I'm so thankful that he's there in this position,
Speaker 2: because he lived the other side of it that he
Speaker 2: was just describing.
Speaker 3: Right, Look, avoiding endless wars does not mean embracing isolationism. Yeah,
Speaker 3: peace through strength is what Reagan called it. Donald Trump
Speaker 3: just understands it as being a strong commander in chief
Speaker 3: that when people are killing Americans, he is going to
Speaker 3: respond vigorously to take them out. And by the way,
Speaker 3: our enemies are terrified. As I've said before, at three
Speaker 3: am on January third, there was not a Latin American
Speaker 3: dictator who didn't have to change his shorts because that's
Speaker 3: when President Trump sees Nicholas Maduro, what is happening in Iran.
Speaker 3: The top leadership has been taken out. Every bad guy,
Speaker 3: every person who hates America is really really worried right
Speaker 3: now because this is a nation that defends itself. And
Speaker 3: by the way, that makes clear if you kill Americans,
Speaker 3: there are going to be massive consequences to it. Barack
Speaker 3: Obama and Joe Biden's weakness and appeasement that if you
Speaker 3: kill Americans, oh well, we're not going to do anything
Speaker 3: about it, that invites more people to target and kill Americans.
Speaker 3: This is about avoiding war by being strong enough to
Speaker 3: take out the people that are killing Americans, and that
Speaker 3: avoids protracted military conflict. I think that's what we're seeing
Speaker 3: right now, and it makes America a whole lot safer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt about it.
Speaker 2: For everybody listening, thank you for joining us as we
Speaker 2: do a dual pod with the Ben Ferguson podcast and
Speaker 2: Vertic with tech Cruise. Don't forget hit that subscriber auto
Speaker 2: download button wherever you're listening right now, and if you
Speaker 2: want to watch the show, it's also on YouTube Vertic
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Speaker 2: as well, and we'll see you back here in a
Speaker 2: couple of days.