Speaker 1: Welcome in his verdict with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
Speaker 1: with you and Senator We've got a lot to talk
Speaker 1: about tonight, including some big news that Donald Trump has
Speaker 1: announced a twenty five percent tariff on imported cars. We're
Speaker 1: gonna deal with that, but also some other things as well.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 3: We're gonna talk about tariff's number one, we're gonna talk
Speaker 3: about terrorists, number two, Prohamas radicals being deported, having the
Speaker 3: student visas revoked, and we're gonna talk number three about
Speaker 3: massive foreign money flooding into our universities. All of that
Speaker 3: we're gonna break down on today's podcast.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna be a lot of fun. So let's
Speaker 1: start with the tariffs. And Donald Trump has come out
Speaker 1: he has announced his twenty five percent tariff on import cars,
Speaker 1: and the President announcing it said he believes this is
Speaker 1: the beginning of liberation Day in America. Here's the President
Speaker 1: in his own words.
Speaker 4: So this is the beginning of liberation Day in America.
Speaker 4: We're going to take back just some of the money
Speaker 4: that has been taken from us by people sitting behind
Speaker 4: this desk or another desk that's not quite as nice,
Speaker 4: but they have their choice of seven, as you know,
Speaker 4: and we're going to charge countries for doing business in
Speaker 4: our country and taking our jobs, taking our wealth, taking
Speaker 4: a lot of things that they've been taken over the years.
Speaker 4: They've taken so much out of our country. Friend and foe,
Speaker 4: and frankly, Friend has been oftentimes much worse than foe.
Speaker 4: And this is very modest. What we're going to be
Speaker 4: doing is a twenty five percent tariff on all cars
Speaker 4: that are not made in the United States. If they're
Speaker 4: made in the United States, is absolutely not terror. We
Speaker 4: start off with a two and a hared percent base,
Speaker 4: which is what we were at, and we go to
Speaker 4: twenty five percent. And basically, as you know, and as
Speaker 4: you've been seeing not reporting as accurately as it should
Speaker 4: be reported, because it's a massive story, business is coming
Speaker 4: back to the United States so that they don't have
Speaker 4: to pay tariffs. And I think also because of November fifth,
Speaker 4: the election, they're very happy.
Speaker 1: Now that's the President talking in the Oval office about this, Senator,
Speaker 1: And look, tariffs can be very complicated. This is something
Speaker 1: that a lot of people are going to hear and say, good,
Speaker 1: we're leveling the playing field. But they can also be
Speaker 1: very complicated, and there's a lot that we're dealing with
Speaker 1: now in this country with tariffs. So I want you
Speaker 1: to break it down for people, say, understand, some of
Speaker 1: these tariffs have been a straight up just strategy from
Speaker 1: the President to get leverage and to lect countries or
Speaker 1: they can't keep treating us the way that they are.
Speaker 1: We've seen that with Canada, We've seen that with Mexico.
Speaker 1: These are a little bit more complicated and complex.
Speaker 3: Well, listen, President Trump uses tariffs for multiple purposes. One purpose,
Speaker 3: he uses them for his leverage to incentivize foreign countries
Speaker 3: to do things that are in America's interest. The easiest
Speaker 3: example of this is the threatened tariffs against Mexico and Canada,
Speaker 3: where the President has threatened twenty five percent tariffs against
Speaker 3: Mexico and Canada unless and until they actively and aggressively
Speaker 3: help us secure our borders. Now, I got to tell
Speaker 3: you ben On that I emphatically support President Trump. There
Speaker 3: is no greater mandate that came out of the November election.
Speaker 3: Then we must secure our borders. And I got to say,
Speaker 3: in the first Trump administration, the President used the threat
Speaker 3: of tariffs against Mexico, a twenty five percent tariff. He
Speaker 3: threatened to get Mexico to make enormous concessions on border security.
Speaker 3: Mexico ended up caving and the government of Mexico Amlo,
Speaker 3: who is the President of Mexico, assigned six thousand Mexican
Speaker 3: soldiers to their southern border. The Mexican southern border is
Speaker 3: much smaller than our southern border because it obviously it
Speaker 3: constricts into an isthmus. And they put six thousand soldiers
Speaker 3: on their southern border, and they adopted the remain in
Speaker 3: Mexico policy. So the remain in Mexico policy was amazingly,
Speaker 3: tremendously successful. It produced the lowest rate of illegal immigration
Speaker 3: in forty five years.
Speaker 2: So when it comes to using.
Speaker 3: The thread of tariffs or tariffs as a avenue of leverage,
Speaker 3: especially for something like securing the border, I am emphatically
Speaker 3: in sport of it. By the way, we did an
Speaker 3: earlier podcast where when the nation of Colombia earlier in
Speaker 3: the Trump administration refused to accept illegal immigrants coming back,
Speaker 3: Trump immediately threatened tariffs against them, and Colombia cratered within
Speaker 3: hours that they just surrendered and said, okay, we'll take
Speaker 3: them back. So I'm all for tariffs's leverage to get
Speaker 3: positive foreign policy concessions from other countries.
Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about the twenty five percent on the
Speaker 1: cars and how this kind of got started from a
Speaker 1: political standpoint, explained to the American people why this is
Speaker 1: a strategy that could work. But also it is very complicated.
Speaker 3: So, Ben, there's a second component of President Trump's tariff approach,
Speaker 3: which is he genuinely loves tariffs. We've all heard him
Speaker 3: rhapsodize at length where he said tariff is the most
Speaker 3: beautiful word in the English language. And I got to say,
Speaker 3: of every view President Trump has ever had, this is
Speaker 3: the most consistent policy view of his entire life. If
Speaker 3: you go back to the nineteen eighties when Ronald Reagan
Speaker 3: was president, Donald J. Trump was calling for we need
Speaker 3: more tariffs on foreign goods.
Speaker 2: He believes this.
Speaker 3: I have sat with Donald Trump over and over and
Speaker 3: over again, and he goes on at great length about
Speaker 3: how tariffs are wonderful, how they're going to raise hundreds
Speaker 3: of billions of dollars. He goes on about how when
Speaker 3: William McKinley was president, the economy was great. As you're
Speaker 3: just played. He goes on saying it's the golden age
Speaker 3: of America. Before we had an income tax, we got
Speaker 3: our revenue from tariff's. Now, I will say on that front,
Speaker 3: I've urged the President two things. Number One, I've urged
Speaker 3: President Trump focus on China. I believe China is the
Speaker 3: single greatest geopolitical threat to the United States for the
Speaker 3: next one hundred years.
Speaker 2: So tariffs are.
Speaker 3: A great tool, a powerful tool, and everything we can
Speaker 3: do to delink our economy from China is a good thing.
Speaker 3: Everything we can do to on shore to bring manufacturing
Speaker 3: back from China to the United States is a good thing.
Speaker 3: Everything we can do to nearshore to bring manufacturing back
Speaker 3: from China to countries near America, that is a good thing.
Speaker 3: So that's number one on what I've urged. The second
Speaker 3: thing I've urged the President to do is focus on reciprocity. Now, Ben,
Speaker 3: why am I focused on reciprocity. Listen, I believe in
Speaker 3: free trade, and well, by.
Speaker 1: The way, for people that are new, maybe they don't
Speaker 1: know what is your definition of free trade, so that
Speaker 1: they understand that, because there's people that have bastardized free
Speaker 1: trade over the last twenty years to mean a lot
Speaker 1: of different things.
Speaker 3: So look, as an economic matter, I believe America prospers
Speaker 3: and does well when we can export our crops, our livestock,
Speaker 3: our goods, our services into other nations. I think we
Speaker 3: are the greatest producing nation. We are the greatest economic
Speaker 3: power on the face of the planet. And when we
Speaker 3: can open up foreign markets to American exports, we do fantastic.
Speaker 3: American farmers and ranchers do great when foreign markets are
Speaker 3: opened up, and their enormous benefits. Now, what I've verged
Speaker 3: the President to do is focus on the principle of reciprocity.
Speaker 3: What do I mean by reciprocity. I mean by reciprocity
Speaker 3: that we should adopt tariffs that mirror the tariffs other
Speaker 3: countries apply to us. Why is it that I'm advocating
Speaker 3: for reciprocity because since I believe in free trade, I
Speaker 3: think it is better economically for America to embrace free trade.
Speaker 3: Reciprocity puts a downward ratchet on our tariffs because if
Speaker 3: the Trump administration imposes tariffs against foreign nations, there is
Speaker 3: an easy avenue for those foreign nations to lower the tariffs.
Speaker 3: And the way they can do so is lower their
Speaker 3: own tariffs against American goods. So I can tell you
Speaker 3: in the last two weeks, the CEO of a major
Speaker 3: European car company was meeting with me and they're very dismayed.
Speaker 3: They're very concerned about tariffs being imposed against them. And
Speaker 3: I can tell you that this European CEO is advocating
Speaker 3: Europe we will zero out our tariffs on American cars.
Speaker 3: Right now, Europe has significant tariffs on American cars. The
Speaker 3: CEO is advocating we'll drop those to zero if America
Speaker 3: doesn't hammer us with tariffs on importing cars to the
Speaker 3: United States. That's a great outcome. I want to see
Speaker 3: foreign countries lower their tariffs on American goods, so that's
Speaker 3: a great outcome. I will say, Ben, it is clear
Speaker 3: the President likes tariffs. He describes when you sit down
Speaker 3: I spend a lot of time with the President. When
Speaker 3: you sit down with him in person, he will go
Speaker 3: on sometime for hours at length about how tariffs will
Speaker 3: generate hundreds of billions of dollars, how they're terrific for
Speaker 3: the American economy. I don't want to see a situation
Speaker 3: where it is a major feature of the long term
Speaker 3: economic picture of America that we have big tariffs in place.
Speaker 3: And here's why who pays tariffs. The American consumer pays tariffs.
Speaker 3: If there are major tariffs on imported goods, it means
Speaker 3: if you go and buy them, you pay a much
Speaker 3: much higher price. And so I would rather see a scenario.
Speaker 3: I prefer lower taxes to higher taxes. I would rather
Speaker 3: see a scenario where we are not imposing big tariffs,
Speaker 3: but at the same time foreign countries are lower their
Speaker 3: tariffs so we can export more. So I am emphatically
Speaker 3: on board with Donald Trump using tariffs' as leverage. I
Speaker 3: have concerns and I think it would be harmful to
Speaker 3: Texas in the country if tariffs become a persistent feature
Speaker 3: of our economic policy nationally.
Speaker 1: So this is one of those where it's also if
Speaker 1: you're a business person, you and your manufacturer, you want
Speaker 1: there to be some stability in the market. What am
Speaker 1: I dealing with?
Speaker 2: What does the future look like for me?
Speaker 1: And so if you're planning, I think, if I'm reading
Speaker 1: this correctly, you're saying this is probably going to be
Speaker 1: a part of his policy for quite some time. This
Speaker 1: isn't going to be a blip on the screen the
Speaker 1: way that you described it. And that may be why
Speaker 1: so many are so concerned.
Speaker 3: Right, So, the single most frequent question I get from
Speaker 3: business leaders in Texas and from bus leaders nationally. And
Speaker 3: I meet with business leaders literally every single day. That's
Speaker 3: a big part of the job of being in the
Speaker 3: Senate is you meet with leaders from your state across
Speaker 3: the country. The most frequent question I get is what's
Speaker 3: going to happen on tariffs? What's going to happen on trade?
Speaker 3: And I genuinely don't know. But look, all right, Ben,
Speaker 3: you're a fancy schmancy radio host, your you know, big
Speaker 3: national guy lots. So you drive a Porsche pan America.
Speaker 3: Really cool ass car. Like, by the way, your steering
Speaker 3: wheel is like really antique wood, which is cool looking.
Speaker 1: It's the best part of the car. And I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna lie, it's like it is nice.
Speaker 2: I agree.
Speaker 3: Now, the last I checked, Porsche's made in Germany. Yes,
Speaker 3: today the President announced a twenty five percent tariff on
Speaker 3: foreign made cars. That means if you bought that car tomorrow, you,
Speaker 3: Ben Ferguson, would pay twenty five percent more for the
Speaker 3: same car you have right now.
Speaker 1: That's meaningful, Yeah, it's meaningful. And what it makes in
Speaker 1: the reality is for many people they'd say, all right, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to spend the twenty five percent premium
Speaker 1: on that car.
Speaker 3: And listen, I will say, there's there's an economic matter
Speaker 3: when it comes to imposing tariffs to block imports. A
Speaker 3: lot of nations do that, and there's an economic school
Speaker 3: of thought called public choice theory, which examines how political
Speaker 3: decisions are made based on economics. And one of the
Speaker 3: consequences of tariffs is you have concentrated benefits. So there
Speaker 3: are industries and jobs that benefit and do great, and
Speaker 3: they're very enthusiastic, and then you have diffuse harms. So
Speaker 3: frequently with tariffs, if you put tariffs and you protect
Speaker 3: jobs at home, if you look as a matter of economics,
Speaker 3: the benefits are in the aggregate much smaller than the harms,
Speaker 3: but the benefits are concentrated. So the people who are
Speaker 3: getting it are really energized, they care a lot about it,
Speaker 3: whereas the people that are being harmed it is more abstract,
Speaker 3: They're less energized, they're less focused on it. I believe
Speaker 3: America has benefited enormously from exporting our goods and services.
Speaker 3: If you talk to any farmer and Rancher, the benefits
Speaker 3: of exporting to foreign markets are massive. If you talk
Speaker 3: to American manufacturers, the benefits of exporting to foreign markets
Speaker 3: are massive. And so I don't want to see a
Speaker 3: scenario where every country is putting massive tariffs on imports
Speaker 3: from other countries, because it will hurt American exports significantly
Speaker 3: and it will raise prices for American consumers. That being said,
Speaker 3: if the President employs these tariffs in the way I'm suggesting,
Speaker 3: which is focused on reciprocity, then they can be a
Speaker 3: powerful tool for lowering the tariffs other countries impose and
Speaker 3: expanding trade, expanding what we sell abroad, expanding American business,
Speaker 3: expanding jobs, and lowering prices for American consumers. I think
Speaker 3: that is a much better outcome.
Speaker 1: I want to move on to the corruption of academia,
Speaker 1: and we are now saying that three hundred Prohamas protests
Speaker 1: got visas protesters, they got visas revoked, and this was
Speaker 1: certainly a big deal. Marco Rubio talking about it, making
Speaker 1: it a clear that, hey, we promised you that if
Speaker 1: you're here on a visa and it's a privilege to
Speaker 1: be here, and you are cheering on the terraces and
Speaker 1: you're hurting your campus or this country. You're anti American.
Speaker 1: We don't have to put up with it. I love
Speaker 1: this your.
Speaker 3: Reaction, Amen, hell olujah. And look, this is something we've
Speaker 3: talked about on Verdict quite a bit. The First Amendment
Speaker 3: protects American citizen. So if you're an American citizen, you
Speaker 3: have a constitutional right to espouse the most hateful, horrible,
Speaker 3: terrible ideas. American citizen has a First Amendment right to
Speaker 3: advocate for being a Nazi, to advocate for being a clansman.
Speaker 3: By the way, if you do advocate for being a
Speaker 3: Nazi or clansman, the rest of us have a moral
Speaker 3: obligation to say, you're a reprehensible bigot and what you're
Speaker 3: saying is evil, but you have a right to say it.
Speaker 3: But the First Amendment does not apply to foreigners. It
Speaker 3: applies to Americans. And when it comes to student visas,
Speaker 3: foreigners that are getting student visas, they're asking for permission
Speaker 3: from the federal government to come study in America. They
Speaker 3: don't have a First Amendment right. And we have no obligation,
Speaker 3: no legal obligation, no moral obligation, no obligation under anything.
Speaker 3: I can imagine to let people in who hate America,
Speaker 3: who are undermining America, who are attacking Jewish students or
Speaker 3: other students at campus, who are spreading poison. And so
Speaker 3: the story broke this week that three hundred student visas
Speaker 3: have been revoked by the way, under Joe Biden, when
Speaker 3: we had viciously anti Semitic, anti Israel, anti American protests
Speaker 3: on college campuses, to the best of my knowledge, zero
Speaker 3: student visas were revoked. And in fact, the Democrats they
Speaker 3: support the Prohamas protesters. Well, Trump being elected, and this
Speaker 3: is something I predicted before the election. This is something
Speaker 3: I said right after the election. You are going to
Speaker 3: see the radical anti American zealots. You're going to see
Speaker 3: them arrested and deported. Well, well that is happening. Three
Speaker 3: hundred student visas have been revoked. And here's what Secretary
Speaker 3: of State Mark or Rubio said. Quote, if you apply
Speaker 3: for a visa to enter the United States and be
Speaker 3: a student, and you tell us that the reason why
Speaker 3: you're coming to the United States is not just because
Speaker 3: you want to write op eds, but because you want
Speaker 3: to participate in movements that are involved in doing things
Speaker 3: like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus.
Speaker 2: We're not going to give you a visa.
Speaker 3: If you lie to us and get a visa and
Speaker 3: then enter the United States and with that visa participate
Speaker 3: in that sort of activity, We're going to take away
Speaker 3: your visa. And Secretary Rubio continued, you're no longer legally
Speaker 3: in the United States, and we have a right, like
Speaker 3: every country in the world has a right to remove
Speaker 3: you from our country. Amen, hallelujah. And you gotta ask
Speaker 3: yourself why didn't this happen even once under Joe Biden.
Speaker 1: Well, you also look at what we found out about
Speaker 1: some of the people that are getting arrested. A great
Speaker 1: example of that is this Tofts University graduate student from
Speaker 1: Turkey was arrested by Ice agents on the street in Massachusetts.
Speaker 1: The liberals are losing their minds, like this is so unfair.
Speaker 1: Should have not been arrested? How dare you target this student?
Speaker 1: But according to the Department of Home in Security, the
Speaker 1: woman was arrested for quote glorifying and supporting terrorists and
Speaker 1: for showing support for a terrorist organization Hamas, the Palestinian
Speaker 1: political party and militant group so they're like, you can
Speaker 1: be set all you want to. We're not putting up
Speaker 1: with this and it shouldn't be happening in America.
Speaker 3: Look, if you are a foreigner and you're saying I
Speaker 3: love Hamas, if you're a foreigner and you're saying I
Speaker 3: hate America, if you're a foreigner and saying I support
Speaker 3: the enemies of America, we have no obligation to admit
Speaker 3: you to our country. We have no obligation to let
Speaker 3: you stay here, and no legal obligation, no more obligation.
Speaker 3: And what is bizarre as the Trump administration is saying,
Speaker 3: all right, these radicals that hate America, that are attacking
Speaker 3: and threatening violence against Jewish students, that are demonizing Israel,
Speaker 3: that are demonizing America, that are praising Amas. And by
Speaker 3: the way, look, let's be clear, Hamas are vicious terrorists
Speaker 3: that want to murder you. Are you if you're an American?
Speaker 3: And I think most of the people listening to this
Speaker 3: podcast are Americans. Understand Hamas wants to murder. You understand
Speaker 3: Hamas on October seventh, carried out the mass murder of
Speaker 3: twelve hundred civilians. They raped women and little girls, and
Speaker 3: these radicals are praising child rapists. You know what, if
Speaker 3: you're praising child rapists, if you're supporting child rapists, get
Speaker 3: the hell out of our country.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: Look, if you're a US citizen, we can't throw you out,
Speaker 3: But if you're not, if you're a foreigner, we have
Speaker 3: no reason to let you in here. And this is
Speaker 3: exactly right, and Benen is amazing. Democrats given a choice,
Speaker 3: do you support protecting Americans, protecting Israel, protecting Jewish students
Speaker 3: at schools, or do you support the radical anti Israel,
Speaker 3: anti American pro Hamas zell It, they are choosing the
Speaker 3: violent anti American protesters. They are standing up and saying,
Speaker 3: deport nobody. We don't care if you are a radical
Speaker 3: pro Hamas supporter, we want you in America. I got
Speaker 3: to say, I don't know any rational or normal American
Speaker 3: that wants pro Hamas supporters in America.
Speaker 1: Let's give a perfect example of this. University of Alabama
Speaker 1: a doctoral student that was arrested. An Iranian student who
Speaker 1: was studying at the University of Alabama was arrested by
Speaker 1: Ice agents.
Speaker 2: Quote.
Speaker 1: The University of Alabama recently learned that a doctoral student
Speaker 1: had been detained off campus by federal immigration authorities, the
Speaker 1: school said, and statement, federal privacy laws limit what we
Speaker 1: can share about an individual student. International students are quote
Speaker 1: valued members of the campus community of the university. Added
Speaker 1: The student newspaper said that called the crimson White identified
Speaker 1: the man arrested who was in the United States on
Speaker 1: a student visa, saying quote, it's unclear what charges he's facing,
Speaker 1: why he was attained, or if he has a lawyer.
Speaker 1: But here's what they did report, and this part really
Speaker 1: made me laugh. In the statement that came out from
Speaker 1: the University of Alabama College Democrats, the group said they
Speaker 1: were aware of the man's arrests and saying, quote, our
Speaker 1: fears have come to pass President Donald Trump. The borders
Speaker 1: are Tom Homan and ICE have struck a cold, vicious
Speaker 1: dagger through the heart of the University of Alabama's international community.
Speaker 1: As far as we know right now, ICE has yet
Speaker 1: to provide any justification for their actions, so we are
Speaker 1: not sure if this persecution is politically motivated, as has
Speaker 1: been seen in other universities across the country. It goes
Speaker 1: back to your point that you just made. The Democrats
Speaker 1: on even at the University of Alabama are like this
Speaker 1: is persecution. You know, facts be damned, supporting terrorist activities
Speaker 1: be damned. Advocating for hamas be damned.
Speaker 2: Well clear, understand the principle.
Speaker 3: When you were quoting that newspaper story, you said, the
Speaker 3: Alabama Democrats were saying, we don't know what crime this
Speaker 3: person has been charged with. You don't have to be
Speaker 3: charged with a crime. Let me be clear, like, okay,
Speaker 3: if you're charged with a crime, that ought to be easy.
Speaker 3: Although I say it ought to be easy if you're
Speaker 3: charged with a crime. My Democratic colleagues, when we argue
Speaker 3: to port people who've committed crimes, support people who committed
Speaker 3: violent crimes, to port people who are murderers, to port
Speaker 3: people who are rapists, to poort people who are child molesters.
Speaker 3: My Democratic colleagues party line vote no. So even if
Speaker 3: you're guilty of a crime, they don't want to deport you,
Speaker 3: but set it aside for a student visa. If you're
Speaker 3: not a US citizen, you don't have to be guilty
Speaker 3: of a crime. If you come to America as a
Speaker 3: foreigner and we've given you a permissive visa, we said, okay,
Speaker 3: we want you to come, and you come here and
Speaker 3: you grab a bullhorn and say I hate America and
Speaker 3: I want the enemies of America to defeat America. You
Speaker 3: know what, my answer is, get the hell out. We
Speaker 3: don't have a reason to let you in. I don't
Speaker 3: have a protection. If you are an enemy of America,
Speaker 3: you're entitled to be that.
Speaker 2: You know what.
Speaker 3: They're seven to eight billion people on planet on Earth.
Speaker 3: There are some people that are enemies of America. But
Speaker 3: why do we have to let enemies of America in?
Speaker 3: If you say I hate America. It's like the old
Speaker 3: Saturday Night Live skit of the flight attendant as people
Speaker 3: are leaving the plane going bubbye, Bubby, you hate America, Bubby,
Speaker 3: get out hate America somewhere else. But we're not letting
Speaker 3: you in here because we don't need people who hate
Speaker 3: American are trying to undermine our nation in this country.
Speaker 1: Which brings me to story number three. And this is
Speaker 1: one where we have I think led on exposing the
Speaker 1: amount of foreign money that's been pouring into universities. We
Speaker 1: also exposed it with a Biden crime family and the
Speaker 1: amount of foreign dours coming in to the Biden Institute,
Speaker 1: for example, and other universities. And we've witnessed the amount
Speaker 1: of money coming in to a point where you say,
Speaker 1: this doesn't make sense economically. This is my opinion. I
Speaker 1: think now you're looking at a bigger issue, which is
Speaker 1: what are they actually getting in return for the staggering
Speaker 1: amounts of foreign money that's pouring these universities. Is this
Speaker 1: co covert opts by foreign nations? Is this trying to
Speaker 1: control the next generation of American minds? Is this about spying?
Speaker 2: What is it?
Speaker 1: But when you look at this new report from a
Speaker 1: nonprofit and a non person government watchdog group, they're sounding
Speaker 1: the alarm saying this amount of money coming in is
Speaker 1: not just from do gooders. This money's coming in, It's
Speaker 1: coming in for something big center. What is that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, look, this is not covert, It is overt. It
Speaker 3: is open, is out and brazen. So the history in
Speaker 3: Fox News entitled quote new reports sounds alarm on staggering
Speaker 3: amount of foreign money pouring into US universities. The report
Speaker 3: says that seven hundred and ninety five million dollars has
Speaker 3: gone from foreign adversaries to American universe. And here's what
Speaker 3: the article says. I'm going to quote a little bit
Speaker 3: of it. Quote a new report from a nonprofit and
Speaker 3: nonpartisan government watchdog is shedding light on the tens of
Speaker 3: billions of dollars tens of billions that have poured into
Speaker 3: US universities in recent years, including twenty billion dollars to
Speaker 3: some of the most prestigious universities in the country. The report,
Speaker 3: produced by Americans for Public Trust and released this week,
Speaker 3: found that sixty billion dollars again, sixty billion dollars in
Speaker 3: foreign gifts and contracts were funneled into American colleges and universities,
Speaker 3: including twenty billion dollars alone to elite schools like Harvard, Yale,
Speaker 3: and others. Within that total, seven hundred and ninety five
Speaker 3: million dollars came from nations that are long standing adversaries
Speaker 3: to the United States, including China, Russia, Venezuela, and Yemen.
Speaker 3: This is shocking. It is fundamental corruption. I can tell
Speaker 3: you I've introduced legislation to require to minimum that universities
Speaker 3: report every dollar of foreign money they received so that
Speaker 3: we have scrutiny. And I'll tell you, Ben, one of
Speaker 3: the very first pieces of legislation ever passed, when I
Speaker 3: was a brand new baby senator thirteen years ago, was
Speaker 3: dealing with this issue of foreign money flooding into universities,
Speaker 3: and China had been funding these things called Confucius institutes.
Speaker 3: Confused institutes were institutes on American college campuses that taught Mandarin,
Speaker 3: that taught the Chinese language, and they were used number
Speaker 3: one as hubs of espionage where China would send spies
Speaker 3: to engage in espionage in the United States, and number
Speaker 3: two as tools of propaganda, where they would push propaganda
Speaker 3: that was favorable to the Chinese Communist government. And when
Speaker 3: I was a brand new baby senator, I introduced legislation
Speaker 3: that banned any money from the Federal Department of Defense
Speaker 3: going to university that had a Confuseducious institute. And at
Speaker 3: the time they introduced it, we had a Democrat Senate.
Speaker 3: When I got elected, Harry Reid as the majority leader
Speaker 3: of the Democrats were in the majority. I was on
Speaker 3: the Senate Armed Services Committee. I introduced this amendment, and
Speaker 3: Ben I'll tell you, I got bipartisan support. I got
Speaker 3: Democrats to support me and Republicans. We passed it into law,
Speaker 3: and the legislation I passed resulted in more than twenty
Speaker 3: Confucius institutes across the country being shut down this was
Speaker 3: a problem back in twenty thirteen, I got to say,
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty five, it's much much worse.
Speaker 1: So what is the government's response now? What should the
Speaker 1: government response be moving forward? And is it time to
Speaker 1: actually look at these universities and ask questions or have
Speaker 1: regulations about money coming in from foreign countries, especially those
Speaker 1: that are adversaries of the United States of America. I
Speaker 1: don't like government overreach, I want to make that clear.
Speaker 1: But the wild wild West that we're we're looking at
Speaker 1: right now from this report and sixty billion and foreign
Speaker 1: gifts and contracts are funneled to American colleges and universities
Speaker 1: like that, they're getting something in return, twenty billion alone
Speaker 1: to Harvard, Yale and other elite schools. They're getting something
Speaker 1: in return. And if they're buying the minds of American
Speaker 1: students or influence, or even what worries me the most
Speaker 1: is stealing intellectual property or spying on America and future leaders,
Speaker 1: this scares the hell out of mean. So what should
Speaker 1: the government's response be?
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, all of the above. So they're doing
Speaker 2: this to buy influence, They're doing this to push propaganda,
Speaker 2: They're doing this to engage at espionage. They're doing this
Speaker 2: to steal intellectual property, and so many of our universities,
Speaker 2: especially our elite universities, have eagerly jumped in bed with them. Look,
Speaker 2: you and I discussed early on in the wake of
Speaker 2: October seventh, when the anti Semitic protests were breaking out,
Speaker 2: if you look at the universities with the highest percentage
Speaker 2: of foreign students, it almost perfectly maps to the universities
Speaker 2: with the most the most virulent, the most nasty antisemitic protests.
Speaker 2: Universities like colombiaan NYU are at the very top of
Speaker 2: the list. And when you let in a bunch of
Speaker 2: foreign students. Now, look, universities like foreign students because they
Speaker 2: pay full tuition, they pay full freight. They're cash cows.
Speaker 2: But why are American universities in the business of educating foreigners,
Speaker 2: especially foreigners who hate American or undermining America. I don't
Speaker 2: see a reason for that. But not only that, but
Speaker 2: they're pushing this to drive a political agenda. And so
Speaker 2: what should we do? Number One, we need transparency.
Speaker 3: As I mentioned, I've introduced legislation to require transparency if
Speaker 3: a university is getting money from a foreign country. We
Speaker 3: need to know about it, how much from which country?
Speaker 3: And I'll tell you the legislation I'm introducing puts putative
Speaker 3: tax penalties if you get money from a country that
Speaker 3: is an enemy of America. In my view of the
Speaker 3: federal government ought to put penalties in place where you
Speaker 3: end up being taxed more than you get. We don't
Speaker 3: need the enemies of America funding our universities and actively
Speaker 3: undermining our education. We need leaders who are willing to
Speaker 3: stand up for America first. And I think that's incredibly important.
Speaker 1: If you look at the money that came in a
Speaker 1: perfect example of this is within that total I gave
Speaker 1: you the twenty billion alone going to those elite schools,
Speaker 1: seven hundred and ninety five million came from nations that
Speaker 1: are long standing advisaris in the US, including China, Rush
Speaker 1: of Venezuela, and Yemen. Is it also time to look
Speaker 1: at certain countries and say you can't have donations coming
Speaker 1: in from there.
Speaker 3: Yes, and we ought to penalize the hell out of it.
Speaker 3: If it RAN is funding your university, you're doing something
Speaker 3: fundamentally wrong.
Speaker 2: Great point. Don't forget.
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Speaker 1: review