Speaker 1: Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz Weekend Review, Ben
Speaker 1: Ferguson with you. These are the big stories that you
Speaker 1: may have missed that we talked about this week. First up,
Speaker 1: a major report the media is not talking about. It
Speaker 1: involves the president's brother, Jim Biden, and he may have
Speaker 1: been making more money than anyone selling access to his brother,
Speaker 1: even more than Hunter Biden. So who is paying him
Speaker 1: and whether they get in returned will break it all
Speaker 1: down for you. Also, you know what's happened on college campuses.
Speaker 1: You've seen the protesters, So who's paying them? It's clearly organized,
Speaker 1: and how much are they getting paid. We've got the
Speaker 1: financials and we'll have that for you in a moment.
Speaker 1: And finally, new legislation it's bipart of san that Senator
Speaker 1: Cruz wants you to know about that deals with keeping
Speaker 1: your kids safe and your grandkids safe on social media.
Speaker 1: It is Verdict. We can review and it starts right now. Sinaer.
Speaker 1: One of the reasons why I just I love doing
Speaker 1: this show with you is we get to talk about
Speaker 1: it issues that the media is not covering. The last
Speaker 1: one's a great example, but there's also one that needs
Speaker 1: to have everyone listening, share on social media, and that
Speaker 1: is this new report out that it wasn't just Hunter
Speaker 1: Biden that was getting in on the action of selling
Speaker 1: access to daddy. Jim Biden was getting in on the
Speaker 1: action and actually may have been a bigger offender based
Speaker 1: on what we're finding out. Jim Biden is now being
Speaker 1: accused of being in business with Katari officials, the actual
Speaker 1: government and Hunter Biden. Yeah, he leverages ties to his dad.
Speaker 1: We've seen that. But Politico has a new report out
Speaker 1: that says that Joe Biden's brother was winning business deals
Speaker 1: with business partners that were directly linked and tied to
Speaker 1: foreign governments, those that were actually tied to terrorism. According
Speaker 1: to the outlet, Jim Biden, the President's brother, was in
Speaker 1: business with Katari officials to fund his healthcare venture. That
Speaker 1: would be quote some of the closest known link between
Speaker 1: a Biden relative and a foreign government.
Speaker 2: Well that's exactly right. This was a bombshell report that
Speaker 2: came out three days ago in Politico. The title of
Speaker 2: the report is quote fund manager indicates Jim Biden was
Speaker 2: in business with Katari officials, and Politico explains, quote new
Speaker 2: details about Jim Biden's foreign fundraising efforts are spilling out
Speaker 2: into a Kentucky bankruptcy court, where recent testimony indicates that
Speaker 2: President Joe Biden's brother partnered with the Katari government officials
Speaker 2: in his quest to find money for a US healthcare venture.
Speaker 2: The sworn testimony by fund manager Michael LeWitt, a former
Speaker 2: business partner of Jim Biden's, a test that two companies
Speaker 2: that facilitated the efforts were part owned by members of
Speaker 2: the Katari government. One company named in the testimony partnered
Speaker 2: directly with Jim Biden the multi year fundraising efforts. The
Speaker 2: second company provided financial backing for a series of loans
Speaker 2: that a hospital chain paid Jim Biden to rank. According
Speaker 2: to documents and testimony LeWitt submitted in the course of
Speaker 2: the federal bankruptcy proceedings. If substantiated, the alleged arrangements would
Speaker 2: constitute some of the closest known financial links between a
Speaker 2: relative of President Joe Biden and a foreign government.
Speaker 1: It's also about following the money. Yes, we're hearing now
Speaker 1: that this money that was coming in was not just
Speaker 1: going to Jim Biden, but it was also going into
Speaker 1: the pocket of the now president of the United States
Speaker 1: of America, this testimony that came out in this bankruptcy,
Speaker 1: these documents, and now this individual that did business with
Speaker 1: the Bidens. He said, Look, at first, there was a
Speaker 1: bridge loan to amer Corps that coincided with a payment
Speaker 1: from America Corps directly to Jim Biden. The report says
Speaker 1: Biden said in testimony in February that the roughly six
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand dollars payments that he received from Americrps
Speaker 1: around the time where his role was in arranging quote
Speaker 1: loans and many other services quote unquote, and then in
Speaker 1: March of twenty eighteen, Jim Biden transferred two hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars of the payments in question to then his brother
Speaker 1: Joe Biden.
Speaker 2: Well, look, that is exactly right, and you needn't understand,
Speaker 2: Cutter has some of the most problematic foreign policy of
Speaker 2: any country on Earth. And so this is you know,
Speaker 2: it's amazing the Biden crime family. In that phrase, I
Speaker 2: got to say a while ago it sounded like hyperbole.
Speaker 2: It no longer sounds like hyperbole because the entire Biden
Speaker 2: family is engaged in a business where they only do
Speaker 2: business with our enemies. They somehow never seem to do
Speaker 2: business with Canada. They never do business with the United Kingdom.
Speaker 2: They never do business with France or Spain or Japan.
Speaker 2: They only do business with Russia. They do business with Ukraine.
Speaker 2: They do business with communist China. Let me read from
Speaker 2: this political art article because it lays out quote. In
Speaker 2: June of twenty seventeen, Cutter's neighbors, led by Saudi Arabia,
Speaker 2: ganged up and cut diplomatic ties with the country, citing
Speaker 2: its alleged support for terrorism. The ensuing financial and physical
Speaker 2: blockade through the country, a peninsula that juts out from
Speaker 2: Saudi Arabia into the Persian Gulf, into a sustained crisis.
Speaker 2: In response, the country's rulers began showering well connected Westerners
Speaker 2: with gifts and financial benefits, sometimes in the form of
Speaker 2: investment funding. The Qatari influence offensive strengthened the country's ties
Speaker 2: to the US and Europe, but also led to corruption scandals,
Speaker 2: including the European parliaments sprawling Cuttergate fiasco. Around the time
Speaker 2: of the blockade, Jim Biden was embarking into a foray
Speaker 2: into the healthcare business, in which he worked closely with
Speaker 2: the truck hospital chain, AmeriCorps. And by the way, when
Speaker 2: Jim Biden was raising money, he pitched himself very directly
Speaker 2: as so. For example, here's what Jim Biden said in
Speaker 2: a draft letter to official at Cutters sovn Wealth Fund.
Speaker 2: He said, quote, my family could provide a wealth of
Speaker 2: introductions and business opportunities at the highest level that I
Speaker 2: believe would be worthy of the interest of his excellency
Speaker 2: on behalf of the Biden family. I welcome your interest here.
Speaker 2: That's how he was pitching it, and it resulted in
Speaker 2: payments of roughly six hundred thousand dollars from AmeriCorps that
Speaker 2: he received, and Jim Biden transferred two hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 2: of those payments directly to Joe Biden. Now understand who
Speaker 2: Cutter is. Also, do you know where the leaders of
Speaker 2: a MOSS live? Where's the Cutter?
Speaker 1: There?
Speaker 2: You go that they live as billionaire as they live
Speaker 2: in incredibly lush, opulent apartments, They fly private jets. Cutter
Speaker 2: gives them sanctuary, Cutter supports them, Cutter protects them. This
Speaker 2: is the same Hamas that carried out October seventh. This
Speaker 2: is the same Hamas that murders Israelis and murders murders Americans,
Speaker 2: and yet the Biden administration consistently refuses to sanctioned Cutter,
Speaker 2: refuses to stand up to Cutter, and suddenly we discover
Speaker 2: that the Biden family has been bought and paid for.
Speaker 1: By the way, can you go back and read that
Speaker 1: one line, because I do think it's an important one.
Speaker 2: Holy, let me read a different line, which is Jim
Speaker 2: Biden presented a presentation on behalf of AMERICRPS, saying that
Speaker 2: AMERICARPS was seeking thirty million dollars in financing to acquire hospitals.
Speaker 2: Do you know how the presentation described Jim Biden.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna guess Joe Biden brother.
Speaker 2: It described him as totally separate person with no connection
Speaker 2: to the vice president of the president. No, no, that
Speaker 2: actually is not correct. I'm gonna read you what it said.
Speaker 2: This is a quote Jim Biden quote, brother and campaign
Speaker 2: finance chair of former Vice President Joe Biden. So it
Speaker 2: ain't complicated. Why do you want to give him money
Speaker 2: because he's Joe's brother. And by the way, the money
Speaker 2: you give him, he'll give to Joe. Why is this
Speaker 2: not on the six o'clock news Ben.
Speaker 1: Because it indicts the president United States of America and
Speaker 1: a paid a play scheme that would bring down I
Speaker 1: would argue any other presidency look.
Speaker 2: In any normal sense, that would be right. But if
Speaker 2: you look at at this these documents, these documents are
Speaker 2: being ignored by the media. So, for example, Lewett wrote
Speaker 2: to Jim Biden to express confidence that his funds would
Speaker 2: be repaid immediately for its loans to AmeriCorps with money
Speaker 2: from Dubai. According to an email that emerged the bankruptcy litigation, quote,
Speaker 2: nothing else changes in terms of what I will be
Speaker 2: doing re AmeriCorps since I will be just as responsible
Speaker 2: for the Dubai dollar dollar dollar three dollar signs with
Speaker 2: the added worry of being driven around the desert.
Speaker 1: L Ol. Wow. I mean I'm sitting here and I
Speaker 1: say wow, and I mean it rarely am I speechless,
Speaker 1: But I go back to that sense. I wanted you
Speaker 1: to read again where the pitch is to his excellency.
Speaker 1: I mean they're saying, hey, do business with us. You
Speaker 1: guys need access. You're in trouble. This is how you
Speaker 1: get the Biden family on your team again. It's just
Speaker 1: going to cost you millions of dollars in quote business.
Speaker 2: Yet, let's speak clear the entire pitch. It was not
Speaker 2: about Jim Biden's financial acumen. It's not about what he
Speaker 2: knew about healthcare. As far as we can tell, he
Speaker 2: didn't know a damn thing about healthcare. Here's what he wrote.
Speaker 2: I'm going to read it again. The draft letter from
Speaker 2: Jim Biden read, in part, quote my family. It's not
Speaker 2: even me my family, And who's my family mean? He
Speaker 2: means his brother. It's just like Hunter Biden when he
Speaker 2: says my father. They're all talking about Papa Joe. My
Speaker 2: family could provide a wealth of introduction and business opportunities
Speaker 2: at the highest level that I believe would be worthy
Speaker 2: of the interest of his excellency. And his excellency are
Speaker 2: both capitalized on behalf of the Biden family. I welcome
Speaker 2: your interest here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, meaning I'm speaking on behalf of my brother.
Speaker 2: Just like Hunter Biden said, I'm sitting here next to
Speaker 2: my father to the Chinese Communist. If you do not
Speaker 2: give me five million dollar dollars right now, my father
Speaker 2: will retaliate. It wasn't just Hunter, it was Jim. It
Speaker 2: was the entire family. And I want to underscore why
Speaker 2: didn't they do business with the French, or the British
Speaker 2: or any friends. The Japanese, the Canadians know. It was
Speaker 2: only enemies of America. It was only countries that provide
Speaker 2: comfort and shelter to Hamas and terrorists to murder Americans.
Speaker 2: That was their business strategy is find people who hate America,
Speaker 2: find countries who are enemies of America, but who need
Speaker 2: favors from Joe Biden, and go get hundreds of thousands
Speaker 2: or millions of dollars from them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this comes, by the way, two weeks after
Speaker 1: James Biden it came out in court documents as well
Speaker 1: apparently secretly negotiated one hundred and forty million dollars settlement
Speaker 1: deal in twenty twelve between a US company and the
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabian government quote due to his relationship with then
Speaker 1: Vice President Joe Biden. Court documents revealed, and no one
Speaker 1: talked about that story either on the nightly news. As
Speaker 1: you mentioned a moment ago.
Speaker 2: Look, it reminds me of mel Brooks's movie History of
Speaker 2: the World Part one, where he says repeatedly, it's good
Speaker 2: to be the.
Speaker 1: King, It's good to be the king.
Speaker 2: That's how the Biden family sadly approaches government.
Speaker 1: Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
Speaker 1: you can go back and listen to the full podcast
Speaker 1: from earlier this week. Now onto story number two, Let's
Speaker 1: go back and look at the hierarchy of this, just
Speaker 1: to put it in perspective. In the hours after the
Speaker 1: attack on Israel, you had to call out the United
Speaker 1: States government. Yeah, the Biden administration repeatedly, and I want
Speaker 1: you to go through that quickly in a second, but
Speaker 1: you had to call them out for basically holding Israel
Speaker 1: to a standard they're not holding hamas to which is
Speaker 1: if Israel responds and protects itself and anyone dies that
Speaker 1: they're somehow evil. You then have a White House that's
Speaker 1: doubled down on that. You then have people like Alamo
Speaker 1: mar and others in the Senate and the Democratic Party
Speaker 1: that have done the same exact thing. You then have
Speaker 1: that trickle down to the presidents of these universities. And
Speaker 1: we saw them go before Congress and none of them,
Speaker 1: by the way, got fired. Some of them aren't presidents anymore,
Speaker 1: but they still got their six figure salaries, are still
Speaker 1: in doctrinate kids on campus. None of them didn't lost
Speaker 1: their access to the university, which they've taken away from
Speaker 1: even some Jewish professors this week. So then that trickles
Speaker 1: down into the base professors, which we just played a
Speaker 1: moment ago, which then trickles down to the students that
Speaker 1: can hate Jews, and then it trickles down into the
Speaker 1: outside non students who are the protesters that are there.
Speaker 1: And yet you could fix all of this the way
Speaker 1: that we've seen in Texas this week, the way we've
Speaker 1: seen it in Florida this week, where these protesters come
Speaker 1: out in those universities in those states and they said,
Speaker 1: we're not putting up with this crap. So this is
Speaker 1: all being done and organized and allow by the universities,
Speaker 1: by law enforcement, by Democrats who are locally elected, and
Speaker 1: they could stop it all in a matter of days,
Speaker 1: but they're saying no, No, let's keep going and let's
Speaker 1: keep this growing.
Speaker 2: I want to read something that was tweeted by Carol Markowitz. Now.
Speaker 2: Now Carol Markowitz is a columnist at the New York Post,
Speaker 2: and she said something online that I think was really
Speaker 2: quite powerful. She said, quote, a lot of Jewish friends,
Speaker 2: especially those who are finally awake after October seventh, say
Speaker 2: things like, quote how is this America? Or quote it's
Speaker 2: so scary that this Jew hatred is happening everywhere, But
Speaker 2: it's very much not America. And it's absolutely not happening everywhere.
Speaker 2: In South Florida, Jews wear the dinner plate Megan David's
Speaker 2: and no one says one word. In rural Michigan churches
Speaker 2: put pray for Israel on the signs outside. I'm not naive.
Speaker 2: Obviously Jew haters can and do live anywhere. But they're
Speaker 2: only thriving, open, proud in blue areas. And I'm not
Speaker 2: going to let people ignore that. A lot of liberal
Speaker 2: Jews are trying to parse things right now. They imagine
Speaker 2: that they are still of the left, but just on
Speaker 2: this one tiny little thing, their right to exist, they disagree. No,
Speaker 2: my friends, it's a house of cards and you're pulling
Speaker 2: the one from the very bottom. The whole left ideology
Speaker 2: is corrupt, and you're going to have to face it.
Speaker 2: You can't spread the blame around. The hatred, the rage,
Speaker 2: the violence, the dehumanization is all coming from one side.
Speaker 2: Yours a second example. It is an op ed that
Speaker 2: was written in JNS. It was written by Jonathan Berniski.
Speaker 2: It's entitled Jewish Democrats Wake Up, and it says at
Speaker 2: the outset quote, the antisemitic right is a fringe phenomenon,
Speaker 2: while the anti Semitic left is mainstream, powerful and shaping
Speaker 2: America's future. And I'm just going to read the beginning
Speaker 2: of this because it's really quite powerful.
Speaker 1: Quote.
Speaker 2: This is addressed to you, my fellow Jews, since most
Speaker 2: of you are Democrats. You've heard from liberal colleagues that
Speaker 2: Tucker Carlson, whose show you've never watched, has been flirting
Speaker 2: with anti Semites. You've been told by liberal friends that
Speaker 2: Candice Owens, whose show you've never watched, has been picking
Speaker 2: fights with Ben Shapiro, whose show you've never watched. From
Speaker 2: CNN and MSNBC. You know that a pack of guys
Speaker 2: with citronal a tiki torches march through Charlottesville while shouting
Speaker 2: the Jews will not replace us. And that's why you've
Speaker 2: convinced yourself that there are far more anti Semites on
Speaker 2: the right than there are on the left. I wish
Speaker 2: to pose several questions. How many of the thousands of
Speaker 2: individuals who got gathered in Times Square on October eighth,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, and chanted resistance is justified and glory
Speaker 2: to our martyrs are registered Republican voters and planned to
Speaker 2: cast their ballots for Donald Trump. How many of the
Speaker 2: individuals who barricaded Jewish students inside Cooper Union's library on
Speaker 2: October twenty fifth, twenty twenty three, pounded on the doors
Speaker 2: and carried signs that read Zionism, hands off our universities
Speaker 2: are registered Republicans and planned to cast their ballots for
Speaker 2: Donald Trump. How many of the thousands of individuals who
Speaker 2: rallied in Manhattan on December twenty fifth, twenty twenty three
Speaker 2: and carried banners emblazoned with the words quote by any
Speaker 2: means necessary and quote resistance until return are registered Republicans
Speaker 2: and planned to cast their ballots for Donald Trump. How
Speaker 2: many of the thousands on thousands of individuals who assembled
Speaker 2: at Columbia University on February second and shouted Globe Belies,
Speaker 2: the Intifada, and death to the Zionist State are registered
Speaker 2: Republican voters and planned to cast ballots for Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: How many of the individuals who amassed in Dearborn, Michigan,
Speaker 2: on April fifth and yelled death to America and death
Speaker 2: to Israel are registered Republicans and planned to cast their
Speaker 2: ballots for Donald Trump. How many of the thousands of
Speaker 2: individuals who blocked traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge and
Speaker 2: other cities on April fifteenth and carried the flag of
Speaker 2: Hesbela are registered Republicans and planned to cast their ballots
Speaker 2: for Donald Trump. How many of the hundreds of thousands
Speaker 2: of individuals who have participated in the thousands of anti
Speaker 2: Zionists and Prohamas protests across the country since October seventh
Speaker 2: are registered Republicans and planned to cast their ballots for
Speaker 2: Donald Trump? And then he answers it. He said, the
Speaker 2: answer to every question posed above is close to zero,
Speaker 2: if not none, He goes on. Yet, we've been told
Speaker 2: by reporters and commentators at August publications and news networks,
Speaker 2: leaders of esteem nonprofits, academics at prestigious colleges and universities,
Speaker 2: and career civil servants at major three letter federal government
Speaker 2: agencies that anti Semitism is solely a problem of the right. Yes,
Speaker 2: fringe right wing anti Semites are a problem. They should
Speaker 2: be considered a threat, but they are on the fringe.
Speaker 2: And because these fringe elements continue to be the near
Speaker 2: exclusive target of the less so called quote quote fight
Speaker 2: against anti Semitism, it's more imparent than ever that our
Speaker 2: elites are purposely engaged in a partisan game. This next
Speaker 2: paragraph is the most important paragraph in the op ed.
Speaker 2: Right wing anti Semites are kuks and grifters. Left wing
Speaker 2: anti semites are college professors, newspaper editors, Hollywood stars, a
Speaker 2: growing number of Democratic members of Congress, and quite a
Speaker 2: few Biden administration officials. They have immense cultural and political influence,
Speaker 2: and they are decisively shaping the future of America. I
Speaker 2: don't know how you can dispute one word that was
Speaker 2: written there, and that is a point that explains why
Speaker 2: these universities are sick, why these college students are being
Speaker 2: fed poison, why the administrators are afraid to stand up
Speaker 2: to the bigoted lies, why Democrat politicians are celebrating the
Speaker 2: bigoted lies. AOC and ilhanum Omar are going and cheering
Speaker 2: on the anti Semites, and why even so called mainstream
Speaker 2: Democrat politicians like Joe Biden stand happily by while the
Speaker 2: squad cheers on the anti semis.
Speaker 1: Senator, last question, I want to ask you about what's
Speaker 1: happening on college campuses. Is we talked about following the
Speaker 1: money and we now know who's behind it. Isn't there
Speaker 1: an obligation now for people that went to these universities
Speaker 1: to stand up and say, not only do we think
Speaker 1: at Columbia the president should resign, but you're not getting
Speaker 1: another dime for me until we see significant changes. You
Speaker 1: look at Robert Kraft, the Patriots owner. He really came
Speaker 1: out and did some interviews. He didn't just stop the
Speaker 1: flow of money and their buildings and named after him
Speaker 1: at Columbia, he has been a massive donor. He said
Speaker 1: they're not getting another dime of my money. And he
Speaker 1: didn't just say it, He went out and explained it
Speaker 1: and challenged others to do the same thing. We need
Speaker 1: people to do that. Yes, all over the country in
Speaker 1: a big way.
Speaker 2: Absolutely yes. And you look at Robert with Columbia. You
Speaker 2: look at Bill Ackman with Harvard. Bill Ackman played a
Speaker 2: pivotal role in Claudine Gay stepping down. You look at
Speaker 2: Mark Rowan with Penn Mark played a pivotal role. These
Speaker 2: are all very very successful leaders in business who've been massive, massive,
Speaker 2: multimillion dollar donors to these universities who've taken leading roles
Speaker 2: speaking out and saying what is happening is disgraceful, the
Speaker 2: anti semitism, the radicalism that you were allowing, the DEI oppression.
Speaker 2: And by the way, this anti semitism is the fruit
Speaker 2: of DEI, the introversy.
Speaker 1: They don't know what de I stands for.
Speaker 2: Explain, it is diversity, equity and inclusion, and it is
Speaker 2: the vehicle within the universities where they teach this nonsense.
Speaker 2: They teach this racism, They teach that Jews are oppressors
Speaker 2: and Palestinians are victims. Look, here's an illustration and let's
Speaker 2: play this as our final clip. Ilhan Omar talking about
Speaker 2: the protest. Give a listen. How do you think this
Speaker 2: will translate to the Jewish students who are facing anti
Speaker 2: semitism here on campus.
Speaker 3: So I actually met a lot of Jewish students that
Speaker 3: are in the encampments, and I think it is really
Speaker 3: unfortunate that people don't care about the fact that all
Speaker 3: Jewish kids should be kept safe and that we should
Speaker 3: not have to tolerate anti semitism or bigotry for all
Speaker 3: Jewish students, whether they are progenocide or anti genocide?
Speaker 2: What utter garbage. Whether they are pro genocide or anti genocide,
Speaker 2: Understand what she's saying. If you're not protesting in favor
Speaker 2: of Hamas, then you are a pro genocide Jew. Now,
Speaker 2: Israel is not remotely committing genocide. In fact, they go
Speaker 2: to extraordinary lengths to avoid civilian casualties. They are killing terrorists.
Speaker 2: Do you know who is trying to commit genocide?
Speaker 1: Hamas? Hamas.
Speaker 2: When they entered on October seventh, they were only murdering Jews.
Speaker 2: They were looking for Jews. They were murdering them because
Speaker 2: they are Jews. That is genocide when you are trying
Speaker 2: to wipe out a people.
Speaker 1: Market attacks the other day, they weren't targeting anyone building.
Speaker 1: They were just targeting any part of Israel.
Speaker 2: Any Jew. Like we started off with a Columbia organizer.
Speaker 2: He wants to kill Zionis, by which he means Jews.
Speaker 2: She's saying, and this is where the left it is Orwellian,
Speaker 2: they turn things upside down. You know who is pro
Speaker 2: genocide Hamas, the same Hamas she supports, the same Hamas
Speaker 2: the protesters support. You know who is anti genocide?
Speaker 1: Israel?
Speaker 2: Israel has tried to save the lives of civilians. Hamas
Speaker 2: is also ironically pro Palestinian genocide. Why because they put
Speaker 2: Palestinian civilians in harm's way and they want them to
Speaker 2: die because they know the useful idiots will use the
Speaker 2: deaths of those Palestinian civilians to attack Israel. That is
Speaker 2: the sad reality of cultural Marxism. This is the fruits
Speaker 2: of this poison that has taken over our institutions.
Speaker 1: As before, if you want to hear the rest of
Speaker 1: this conversation on this topic, you can go back and
Speaker 1: dow the podcasts from earlier this week to hear the
Speaker 1: entire thing. I want to get back to the big
Speaker 1: story number three of the week you may have missed. Finally, Senator,
Speaker 1: I want to get into something else. It's a very
Speaker 1: important piece of legislation that you're working on, and I
Speaker 1: have actually seen a little bit of this be talked
Speaker 1: about on social There are some people that don't actually
Speaker 1: think they understand the intent of what we're trying to
Speaker 1: accomplish when it comes to protecting kids on social media.
Speaker 1: So explain why this legislation is something that parents really
Speaker 1: need to know about.
Speaker 2: Well, this is legislation I introduced this week, and it's
Speaker 2: bipartisan legislation. I teamed up with Brian Schotz, who's a
Speaker 2: Democrat from Hawaii, and the bill is called the Kids
Speaker 2: Off Social Media Act, and it does several things. Number one,
Speaker 2: it prohibits children under the thirteen from accessing social media.
Speaker 2: So kids, there's no reason for an eight or nine
Speaker 2: year old to be on TikTok or to be on
Speaker 2: social media. And there are a lot of harmful things.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you. Listen, you and I are both parents,
Speaker 2: and any parent who is dealing with I'm dealing with teenagers.
Speaker 2: Your kids are not teenagers yet, but if you blink,
Speaker 2: they will be. Any parent dealing with teenagers or adolescents,
Speaker 2: how to deal with phones and social media is one
Speaker 2: of the greatest challenges because phones are really a portal
Speaker 2: for kids to access all sorts of harmful content. And
Speaker 2: so this bill says, if you're under thirteen, you can't
Speaker 2: be on social media. And then it says for kids
Speaker 2: younger than seventeen, big tech companies are prohibited from using
Speaker 2: algorithmic boosting to send messages to them. So we know
Speaker 2: right now. There's been a lot of testimony in the
Speaker 2: Senate that big tech companies send messages to our kids,
Speaker 2: to our teenagers that are really harm that they send
Speaker 2: messages that undermine their body image, They send messages that
Speaker 2: encourage self harm. They send messaging that that increases suicidal ideation,
Speaker 2: They send messaging that that increases increases their feelings of
Speaker 2: depression and anxiety. They send messages encouraging dangerous behavior. They
Speaker 2: send messaging pushing radical beliefs, things like Prohamas beliefs. And
Speaker 2: so this bill says, if you're under seventeen, big tech
Speaker 2: cannot target using algorithm boosting to send messages that are
Speaker 2: addicting and and and that are harmful. And then the
Speaker 2: bill also includes a separate bill that I had introduced previously,
Speaker 2: and I introduced it with John Fetterman. It was also
Speaker 2: bipartisan and and my separate bill was called the Eyes
Speaker 2: on the Board Bill, and the Eyes on the Board Bill,
Speaker 2: which is now part of this bill, says that any
Speaker 2: school that receives federal funds has to block social media
Speaker 2: on campus. And the basic idea is, while our kids
Speaker 2: are in school, they ought to be listening to teacher,
Speaker 2: they ought to be doing school work. They don't need
Speaker 2: to be posting on Instagram while they're in school. For
Speaker 2: older kids, they can do that when they get home,
Speaker 2: but at school they ought to be focused on the
Speaker 2: school work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they should be. And this is legislation that you
Speaker 1: mention is bipartisan. Here, what does it look like the
Speaker 1: chances of this moving forward since it is a bipartisan
Speaker 1: piece of legislation.
Speaker 2: So I'm actually quite optimistic. We are likely to have
Speaker 2: a markup in the Senate Commerce Committee next week. I'm
Speaker 2: the ranking member, the senior Republican on the Commerce Committee,
Speaker 2: and I think it is very likely to pass the
Speaker 2: Commerce Committee with overwhelming bipartisan support. I think there's a
Speaker 2: good chance it'll pass unanimously, and I think there is
Speaker 2: a good prospect of this bill being passed into law.
Speaker 2: There are two other bills called Kosa and Kappa that
Speaker 2: are both dealing with things like online predators targeting kids,
Speaker 2: and I think there's a real possibility of all three
Speaker 2: of these bills being put together and brought to the
Speaker 2: Senate floor, and I'm hopeful we can pass all three
Speaker 2: of them.
Speaker 1: We'll keep you updated on it. It's so important, especially
Speaker 1: preventing children under thirteen from having access these social media sites.
Speaker 1: And also, as you mentioned, programming those algorithms for teens
Speaker 1: younger than seventeen. This is really important. Job well done,
Speaker 1: and we'll keep everybody updated on how this looks moving forward.
Speaker 2: Well, that's right, and you look, I'll say something also
Speaker 2: as a parent, I mean, I mean, these are hard
Speaker 2: issues and one of the things I talk to a
Speaker 2: lot of parents, I don't know a parent who disagrees
Speaker 2: on this issue. And that's true, right or left, that's
Speaker 2: true regardless of politics. We're all worried about our kids.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's really it's hard to be a teenager
Speaker 2: right now. The pressures on our kids. You and I
Speaker 2: didn't have these kind of pressures when we were teenagers.
Speaker 2: It's really tough is what is all of the influences
Speaker 2: that are pounding our kids. And it's hard to be
Speaker 2: a parent right now. And one of the challenges because
Speaker 2: some people say, well, parents ought to just restrict this. Look,
Speaker 2: it is a hard dynamic when you're kids, when every
Speaker 2: student in their class is on the social media platform,
Speaker 2: when that's how the kids communicate, when that's how they
Speaker 2: schedule play dates, when that's how they interact, No parent
Speaker 2: wants to socially ostracize their kids, and so a lot
Speaker 2: of parents will talk to each other and say, I
Speaker 2: wish they were all off of it, but I'm not
Speaker 2: willing to have my kid the only one that's not
Speaker 2: able to interact with their peers and have a social life.
Speaker 2: And that's one of the reasons why, you know, it's
Speaker 2: interesting in the Senate the folks that are coming together
Speaker 2: and supporting this bill. So myself and Brian Shotts, and
Speaker 2: and and we've all also got Katie Britt. We're all
Speaker 2: about the same age. We're all in our forties or fifties,
Speaker 2: we all have kids the same age. I have to
Speaker 2: say the senators are there in their seventies or eighties.
Speaker 2: They don't quite get this issue in the same way
Speaker 2: that if you're a parent, you're dealing with it.
Speaker 1: And so I'm.
Speaker 2: Hopeful that that that we'll see some real bipartisan agreement
Speaker 2: that we ought to enhance the tools parents have to
Speaker 2: keep their kids safe.
Speaker 1: As all day. Thank you for listening to Verdict with Sentner,
Speaker 1: Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to deal
Speaker 1: with my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast
Speaker 1: every other day. You're not listening to Verdict or each
Speaker 1: day when you listen to Verdict. Afterwards, I'd love to
Speaker 1: have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson
Speaker 1: podcasts and we will see you back here on Monday morning.