Speaker 1: Welcome.
Speaker 2: It is Verdict with Ted Cruz, the Week in Review,
Speaker 2: Ben Ferguson with you, and these are some of the
Speaker 2: big stories that you might have missed that we talked
Speaker 2: about this week. First up, it's not a surprise, but
Speaker 2: it is a little shocking. The Democrats are now going
Speaker 2: all in saying it is time to make sure they
Speaker 2: keep Donald Trump out of the White House. How do
Speaker 2: they want to do it by having Congress say no,
Speaker 2: you cannot be president. This coming from the same party
Speaker 2: that said that Donald Trump was a quote threat to democracy,
Speaker 2: that he would be a dictator and a tyrant, and
Speaker 2: he wouldn't respect the outcome of the election, and if
Speaker 2: he got into office, he would never leave office. Well,
Speaker 2: now the Democrats they're doing exactly what they said Donald
Speaker 2: Trump was going to do. Also, there was a very
Speaker 2: interesting moment that happened at the Turning Point USA conference
Speaker 2: out in Arizona and an involved sater, Ted Cruz and
Speaker 2: Donald Trump sharing the stage plus his speech at that event. Well,
Speaker 2: it was an very very interesting one, especially about the
Speaker 2: future of this country. We're going to have that for
Speaker 2: you as well. And finally, the COVID cover up, we're
Speaker 2: now finding out a lot more about just how far
Speaker 2: they went to cover up the lab leak theory, and
Speaker 2: now what we know about what the government did under
Speaker 2: Fauci to cover.
Speaker 1: Up all of it. It's the Weekend Review and it
Speaker 1: starts right now.
Speaker 2: The way that you're talking about accountability maybe explains why
Speaker 2: we are now seeing Democrats write articles saying that it's
Speaker 2: time to steal the election from Donald Trump. In the Hill,
Speaker 2: for example, Congress has the power to block trumpet from
Speaker 2: taking office, but lawmakers must quote act now. This was
Speaker 2: an opinion, a piece written by two different individuals demanding
Speaker 2: that the Democrats refuse to accept the outcome of the election.
Speaker 1: So much for the party. It's obsessed with democracy, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I gotta say. This is an article that was
Speaker 3: in the Hill that it came out again on December twenty,
Speaker 3: sixth day after Christmas. It is entitled Congress has the
Speaker 3: power to block Trump from taking office, but lawmakers must
Speaker 3: act now. And it is by Evan Davis and David Shulty,
Speaker 3: who I don't know either one of these individuals. I
Speaker 3: don't know anything about them. Their bio says Evan Davis
Speaker 3: was editor in chief of the Columbia Law Review and
Speaker 3: David Shulty was editor in chief of the Yale Law Journal,
Speaker 3: both clerk for Justice Potter Stewart. Davis is a New
Speaker 3: York lawyer served as president of the New York City Bar,
Speaker 3: and Shulty is a Chicago investment banker. I don't know
Speaker 3: these guys, but it's been a long time since Potter
Speaker 3: Stewart served on the Court, which means these are not
Speaker 3: spring chickens. They were law clerks a long time ago.
Speaker 3: I mean, I clerked for Chief Justice Rehnquist in nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety six, and by the time I was there, Potter
Speaker 3: Stewart had been long long god, and I got to
Speaker 3: say that. The most screamingly funny part of it it
Speaker 3: is they begin their bios with they were editor in
Speaker 3: chief of the Columbia Law Review and the dal Law Journal. Like,
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, these are presumably accomplished lawyers who were grown
Speaker 3: ass adults and they're quoting the law review they were
Speaker 3: on when they were twenty four years old. That's just ridiculous.
Speaker 3: And it actually it makes the rest of the article
Speaker 3: makes sense, because listen, part of the reason our academy
Speaker 3: is so messed up is you have people who are
Speaker 3: disconnected from reality. Who are hardcore leftists. Far too many
Speaker 3: people in our universities are openly Marxist. When I was
Speaker 3: at Harvard Law School, there were more professors on the
Speaker 3: faculty who were explicitly Marxist than there were who were Republican.
Speaker 3: And it wasn't even close. There were there were more
Speaker 3: than a dozen by their own self description Marxist professors there.
Speaker 3: There was only one open Republican on the faculty when
Speaker 3: I was there. But what these two numb skulls are
Speaker 3: arguing is that Congress, when we come together on January sixth,
Speaker 3: should block Trump from becoming president, and we should do so.
Speaker 3: They argue under the fourteenth Amendment, Section three of the
Speaker 3: Constitution that says, no person shall hold any office of
Speaker 3: or military who, having previously taken an oath supports Constitution,
Speaker 3: shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same. Now,
Speaker 3: they argue, this has been disqualification. The evidence of Trump's
Speaker 3: engagement and insurrection is overwhelming. It has been decided in
Speaker 3: three separate forums, they write, two of which are fully contested,
Speaker 3: with the active participation in Trump's council. The first was
Speaker 3: Trump's second impeachment trial. The second contested proceeding was Colorado's
Speaker 3: five day judicial judicial d process hearing where they found
Speaker 3: that trumpeld engage in insurrection and barred in from the ballot.
Speaker 3: And finally there is the bipartisan inquiry of the House
Speaker 3: Select Committee to investigate January sixth. Now, the stupidity of
Speaker 3: this argument literally leaps off of every syllable of every
Speaker 3: word that they have written. Let's take the first. Okay,
Speaker 3: a bunch of partisan Democrats in peach Trump because they
Speaker 3: hate him. And by the way, to be clear, verdict
Speaker 3: was launched in response not to the second impeachment and
Speaker 3: been an response to the first impeachment trial, because we
Speaker 3: have seen law fair against Donald Trump. Trump derangement syndrome
Speaker 3: is real. It is a serious mental illness. These people
Speaker 3: are friggin nuts. They hate his guts. They've lost their minds.
Speaker 3: And at this point understand, these two numskulls and every
Speaker 3: other Democrat who engage is in fantasy about this is
Speaker 3: an election denier and an insurrectionist. They are trying to say,
Speaker 3: we don't care that the voters voted, we don't care
Speaker 3: that the result was overwhelming, we don't care that of
Speaker 3: the seven contested battleground states Donald Trump one, not two,
Speaker 3: not three, not four, not five, nine, six, but seven
Speaker 3: all seven. We don't care. We are angry leftists, and
Speaker 3: their argument is we should block it. Now. To be clear,
Speaker 3: they said there were three different proceedings that had determined
Speaker 3: he was an insurrectionists. The first was the impeachment trial.
Speaker 3: Of course, the impeachment trial is two parts. One is
Speaker 3: the impeachment in the House of Representatives, and partisan Democrats
Speaker 3: did impeach him. But then it went to the Senate
Speaker 3: and there was a trial, and at the end of
Speaker 3: the trial, Donald Trump was acquitted. They ignore that fact
Speaker 3: that literally is not mentioned in the roped. The second
Speaker 3: is the Colorado the radical partisan decision of the Colorado
Speaker 3: Supreme Court, except for the fact that the US Supreme
Speaker 3: Court unanimously reversed that decision. By the way, that's another
Speaker 3: prediction I made on this podcast when the Colorado Supreme
Speaker 3: Court came back down, I said, this will be reversed,
Speaker 3: and it will be reversed unanimously. That's what the court did.
Speaker 3: They barely acknowledged the Supreme Court reversed it, but they
Speaker 3: just kind of ignore it and say, well, that's another
Speaker 3: way it was determined in a decision that has been
Speaker 3: reversed unanimously by the Supreme Court. And the third I
Speaker 3: really laugh is the quote bipartisaning of the House Select
Speaker 3: Committee to investigate January sixth. Now, it's bipartisan because Liz
Speaker 3: Cheney and Adam Kinzing are two people fully afflicted by
Speaker 3: Trump arrangements center more included. Of course, Nancy Pelosi allowed
Speaker 3: no Republicans on.
Speaker 2: Rather they voted for Kamwa Harris and Joe Biden. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so let's not forget that. But they're like, oh, they
Speaker 2: act like they were Republicans.
Speaker 1: No, they're not.
Speaker 3: I'd look to be clear. And by the way, both
Speaker 3: of them also campaigned against me. I was really grateful
Speaker 3: for it. I think that was quite helpful, probably drove
Speaker 3: votes my way. But to call that inquiry bipartisan when
Speaker 3: the way committees are put together on Capitol Hill is
Speaker 3: that both sides pick. The Republicans pick the Republicans on
Speaker 3: the committee, the Democrats pick the Democrats on the committee. Well,
Speaker 3: for the January sixth committee, Nancy Pelosi said no, no, no,
Speaker 3: I'm picking the Republicans. And the only Republicans I will
Speaker 3: allow on are people who hate Donald Trump, who are
Speaker 3: foaming at the mouth that will do everything they can
Speaker 3: to destroy Donald Trump. They're the only ones I will
Speaker 3: allow on. And so you know, when you had other
Speaker 3: Republicans that Kevin McCarthy was trying to put on, Nancy
Speaker 3: Pelos said, Nope, they are not welcome. We only take
Speaker 3: Republicans who agree with the Democrats on everything that ain't
Speaker 3: a bipartisan inquiry. And by the way, we're getting more
Speaker 3: and more evidence of just how skew that was. The
Speaker 3: point is, at the end of the day, it doesn't
Speaker 3: really matter what this op ed was other than it
Speaker 3: is a window into the eyes of what the hard
Speaker 3: left is. They hate Trump so much. Sigmund Freud talked
Speaker 3: about projection, and the left engages in projection all the time.
Speaker 3: Everything they accuse their enemies of doing is what they
Speaker 3: are doing. They claim to be defending democracy. This may
Speaker 3: be the most anti democratic article I have ever read,
Speaker 3: which is saying that Congress should say, I don't care
Speaker 3: that the voters elected Trump. And by the way, they
Speaker 3: don't dispute that the voters elect Trump. They fully accept Yes,
Speaker 3: the American people came to vote and want Donald Trump,
Speaker 3: but we know better than they do, and so take
Speaker 3: a stand and take a stand to block what the
Speaker 3: voters want. Why because we are democrats and we hate democracy.
Speaker 3: They don't say that, but that's clearly what they conclude.
Speaker 2: Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
Speaker 2: you can go back and listen to the full podcast
Speaker 2: from earlier this week.
Speaker 1: Now onto story number two.
Speaker 2: All right, so let's paint the stage here for everybody
Speaker 2: that may not have seen your comments at turning point,
Speaker 2: because when Donald Trump went up on stage, there was
Speaker 2: a really funny moment you mentioned in the intro there,
Speaker 2: and that was you being backstage. And then what was
Speaker 2: funny was is people start putting on social media as
Speaker 2: Center Cruz sneaking up on Trump on stage, which made
Speaker 2: me laugh because he was looking for you. And I'm
Speaker 2: glad that's the secret Service and you know, I tackle
Speaker 2: you or anything. But this is what Donald Trump had
Speaker 2: to say when he was looking for you.
Speaker 1: It was hilarious.
Speaker 4: He used to be joined by a man who just
Speaker 4: also we really did well in Texas. Then I heard
Speaker 4: Ted's speech, and he can come up and speak more
Speaker 4: of you once or he can just you know, Ted's
Speaker 4: gonna be going to a big event. And a little while,
Speaker 4: where's Ted Cruise? Is he here? He's here someplace Ted Dad?
Speaker 3: Oh oh, oh, he's in trouble.
Speaker 1: Oh he's in trouble.
Speaker 3: By the way, the cheering right there is I'm walking.
Speaker 1: Up my eyes. Oh oh good, he's not in trouble.
Speaker 4: Keep Texas, Texas, Amen. And I've got to say this
Speaker 4: election has given President Donald J. Trump, a Republican Senate
Speaker 4: in a Republican House, a clear mandate to deliver on
Speaker 4: our promises. One month from today, President Trump will secure
Speaker 4: the border. We are going to bring back jobs. We
Speaker 4: are going to lower prices. We are going to protect
Speaker 4: American families. We're going to put criminals in jail. We
Speaker 4: are going to keep our kids safe. We are going
Speaker 4: to end foreign wars with victory. And I'll tell you,
Speaker 4: mister President, the results of this election. Seven battleground states.
Speaker 4: You won all seven. The people elected a Republican Senate
Speaker 4: in a Republican House to have your back, and we
Speaker 4: are going to deliver results. And if I can speak
Speaker 4: parochially for a minute, one of the most consequential things
Speaker 4: that happened in this race in Texas. You won profoundly
Speaker 4: in Texas and both you and I won a majority
Speaker 4: of Hispanic votes in the great state of Texas. That
Speaker 4: is unprecedented. That is generational change, and it demonstrates that
Speaker 4: we are going to protect our nation, we are going
Speaker 4: to bring our country back, and we are going to
Speaker 4: make America great again.
Speaker 1: He's a great He's actually a great guy.
Speaker 4: Was was really out there working.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad he was here.
Speaker 4: Oh that was an amazing moment.
Speaker 2: I gotta tell you, I love just the end there
Speaker 2: he's smiling, he's grinning. The demeanor and the interaction is
Speaker 2: just seems to be very different this time than it
Speaker 2: compared to twenty sixteen. It's like, you guys are on
Speaker 2: the same football team going into the playoffs as a
Speaker 2: team and let's whoop some ass.
Speaker 3: Well, I think that's exactly right. And I got to
Speaker 3: say at the entire America Fest, Trump was happy, he
Speaker 3: was relaxed, he was feeling good. You could see it
Speaker 3: in a way that just he was loose at having fun.
Speaker 3: And listen, we're we're coming in with an incredible mandate.
Speaker 3: We're gonna we're going to transform I believe the country,
Speaker 3: and I think he's ready to get to work. And
Speaker 3: I know I am, and I think all of us are.
Speaker 2: So let's talk about his agenda for a second. One
Speaker 2: of the things you talked about was the border. That
Speaker 2: seems to be a very central point of what he
Speaker 2: keeps talking about over and over again. And and is
Speaker 2: that something that you and him have talked about very clearly, like, Hey,
Speaker 2: this is square, this is step one.
Speaker 1: Let's go. We're going to knock this out day one.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And the clearest single mandate of this election is
Speaker 3: to secure the border. People are fed up with Joe Biden,
Speaker 3: the Democrats open borders. They want it to end. They
Speaker 3: want the border secured, and we're going to get that done.
Speaker 3: And and Trump understands that. I think Republicans and the
Speaker 3: Senate understand that. Republicans in the House understand that. And
Speaker 3: we're going to get it done, which is exactly what
Speaker 3: the voter sent us there to do.
Speaker 2: I want to get back to the turning point event
Speaker 2: that you just left. Obviously, Donald Trump was there, you
Speaker 2: were asked to speak, and I want you to give
Speaker 2: us a quick preview before we your speech, because this
Speaker 2: is one of those speeches that I think is really
Speaker 2: about setting the tone for what's coming in January. When
Speaker 2: you guys have control of the Senate and the House
Speaker 2: and the White House.
Speaker 3: Well, I started this morning speaking, and this is about
Speaker 3: an hour before the exchange that you heard at the
Speaker 3: beginning of the podcast with President Trump and me. I addressed,
Speaker 3: as I said, over three thousand young people activists at
Speaker 3: Turning Point. It was incredible, and I really wanted to
Speaker 3: encourage them. I wanted to encourage them that they had
Speaker 3: had a profound impact on this election on this country.
Speaker 3: And I also wanted to focus on now that we've won,
Speaker 3: we've got a job to do. And so what I
Speaker 3: intempted to do in these remarks is lay out here
Speaker 3: are the deliverables that we need to accomplish in the
Speaker 3: next two years to have a clear vision for what
Speaker 3: to expect. I'm really excited. I'm excited about President Trump
Speaker 3: being reelected and coming back into office. I'm excited about
Speaker 3: a Republican Senate and a Republican House. But I also
Speaker 3: have in front of me the absolute seriousness we need
Speaker 3: to deliver on our promises. And so that's what I
Speaker 3: had to say to Turning Point this morning.
Speaker 1: Take a listen as we play this right now.
Speaker 4: God bless Turning Point. We are looking at America. We
Speaker 4: are gathered here at truly a momentous time. If you
Speaker 4: were young and passionate and it was seventeen seventy six,
Speaker 4: you would have been part of transforming and creating the
Speaker 4: United States of America. If you were young and passionate
Speaker 4: in the year was nineteen eighty and the Reagan Revolution
Speaker 4: was happening, you would have been part of transforming the
Speaker 4: United States of America. And today, in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 4: you are young and passionate, and every one of you
Speaker 4: is integral to transforming the United States of America. The
Speaker 4: Washington Swamp is terrified of you. Chuck Schumer and Nancy
Speaker 4: Pelosi and Kamala Harris are terrified of you. Joe Biden, well, no,
Speaker 4: he's actually not terrified. He don't know where he is,
Speaker 4: but he is wondering what time the People's Court is
Speaker 4: on TV. If you look at what happened in November,
Speaker 4: the results of the election were clear and unequivocal. Seven
Speaker 4: battleground states across America. We won all seven. And I've
Speaker 4: got to say, Donald J. Trump is truly an extraordinary leader.
Speaker 4: Has there ever been anyone in American history who, after
Speaker 4: being shot in the head, stands up and responds, fight fight, Fight.
Speaker 4: The American people have given us the White House, They've
Speaker 4: given us the House, they've given us the Senate.
Speaker 3: Now it's time for us to deliver.
Speaker 4: We have work to do to deliver on our promises.
Speaker 4: So a year from now, two years from now, four
Speaker 4: years from now, the American people can say they did
Speaker 4: exactly what they said they would do. Number One, starting
Speaker 4: on January twentieth, we will secure the border. Catch and
Speaker 4: release ends on January twentieth. If you are an illegal alien,
Speaker 4: if you're a murderer, if you're a rapist, if you're
Speaker 4: a child molester, if you're a Venezuelan gang member, pack
Speaker 4: your bags because you're getting the hell out. And I'm
Speaker 4: here to tell you that's not gonna take a year.
Speaker 4: It's not gonna take six months. We are going to
Speaker 4: see the numbers of illegal immigration plummet, and they are
Speaker 4: going to plummet in January and February of this year.
Speaker 4: Number two, we are going to unleash American energy. America
Speaker 4: is the world's energy superpower, the number one producer of
Speaker 4: oil in the world, the number one producer of natural
Speaker 4: gas in the world, and America will be energy dominance.
Speaker 4: If you're fed up with high prices, high prices at
Speaker 4: the gas pump, high prices at the grocery store, high
Speaker 4: prices when you pay your bills, energy feeds into every
Speaker 4: one of them. The American people in this election said
Speaker 4: enough is enough is enough, and we are going to
Speaker 4: lower energy costs and make life more affordable for everyone.
Speaker 4: Number three, we are gonna unleash small business. The regulators
Speaker 4: descending from Washington. We are going to repeal the rules
Speaker 4: they're using to kill small businesses. And I'll tell you what.
Speaker 4: We are also going to unleash crypto. I'm proud to
Speaker 4: stand with crypto. I'm proud to stand with bitcoin, and
Speaker 4: I am the only member of the United States Senate
Speaker 4: who is in fact a bitcoin minor. I've got three
Speaker 4: minors hashing in West Texas right now and it is beautiful.
Speaker 4: And let me say to all of crypto at all
Speaker 4: of bitcoin, come to Texas. Texas is the oasis for bitcoin.
Speaker 4: Number four, we will restore integrity to the Department of
Speaker 4: Justice and the FBI. If you are a wild eyed
Speaker 4: partisan who has abused your power and targeted your political
Speaker 4: enemies at DOJ or the FBI will pack your bags
Speaker 4: because your job is done. And that means number five,
Speaker 4: we will enforce the law, especially against universities across this country.
Speaker 4: The anti Semitic protests we've seen at universities.
Speaker 3: Will end next year.
Speaker 4: If you violently protest, if you threaten your fellow students,
Speaker 4: you will be arrested. You will be expelled, and if
Speaker 4: you're a foreigner, you will be deported. And we're going
Speaker 4: to see the Department of Justice and the FBI follow
Speaker 4: the money, go after the money, cut off the money.
Speaker 4: We're going to see universities that tolerate anti Semitism having
Speaker 4: their federal funds cut off. And when your fellow students
Speaker 4: look around and say, hey, why didn't this happen before,
Speaker 4: Why did everyone look the other way at the violence
Speaker 4: and the threats and the hatred and the bigotry, You're
Speaker 4: going to be in a position to tell them. And
Speaker 4: we will end the wars with victory. The war in
Speaker 4: Ukraine will end this next year, and Vladimir Putin will lose,
Speaker 4: and the war in Israel will come to an end,
Speaker 4: and Hamas will lose, Hezbollah will lose, Iran will lose.
Speaker 4: Every one of you stand up and speak, and I
Speaker 4: want to encourage you inform your friends. When I ask
Speaker 4: you pull out your cell phone. Pull out your cell
Speaker 4: phone and send the word text the word verdict to
Speaker 4: the number two four zero zero five. That number again,
Speaker 4: two four zero zero five. Text the word verdict. You
Speaker 4: will get in back a link to subscribe to my
Speaker 4: podcast that is designed to help inform you to be
Speaker 4: You are the ones who won this election. You are
Speaker 4: the ones who are persuading your colleagues. You are the
Speaker 4: one on to our inform and educated and engaged, and
Speaker 4: just as if we were in nineteen eighty, just as
Speaker 4: if we were in seventeen seventy six, I stand here
Speaker 4: today amazed and inspired to be in the company of
Speaker 4: patriots who love America, who together we are making America
Speaker 4: great again. God bless you, and God bless the United
Speaker 4: States of America.
Speaker 2: As before, if you want to hear the rest of
Speaker 2: this conversation on this topic, you can go back and
Speaker 2: down the podcast from earlier this week to hear the
Speaker 2: entire thing. I want to get back to the big
Speaker 2: story number three of the week. You may have missed,
Speaker 2: so Joe Biden's administration has got some cover ups going
Speaker 2: on that the Wall Street Journal Center is reporting on.
Speaker 1: Behind the Closed Doors.
Speaker 2: We found out that the lab we cover up was
Speaker 2: a legit cover up, and now since he's lost, it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: we can report on this now.
Speaker 3: Well. This was a story that came out in the
Speaker 3: Wall Street Journal December twenty sixth, and it really is
Speaker 3: a bombshell story and it describes how the federal government
Speaker 3: essentially the deep state under Joe Biden. But this is
Speaker 3: also true under Trump. They didn't The Journal article doesn't
Speaker 3: talk about Trump, but I'm very interested to what was
Speaker 3: happening under the Trump administration as well, but how the
Speaker 3: deep state covered up the evidence and covered up the
Speaker 3: scientists that were arguing that the COVID virus escaped from
Speaker 3: the Wuhan lab in China, and it focuses on in particular,
Speaker 3: it starts with Jason Bannon. So here I'm just going
Speaker 3: to read you at the beginning of the article because
Speaker 3: it lays it out. A car and driver had been
Speaker 3: ready to whisk Jason Bannon from FBI headquarters early one
Speaker 3: morning in August twenty twenty one to brief the White
Speaker 3: House on a novel virus that was killing hundreds of
Speaker 3: thousands of Americans that had stopped the world in its tracks.
Speaker 3: Bannon had been told by his superiors to be on
Speaker 3: hand in case the Federal Bureau of Investigation was asked
Speaker 3: to join at top intelligence community briefing for the President,
Speaker 3: but the White House summons never came. Bannon, at PhD
Speaker 3: in microbiology, had joined the Bureau after the September eleventh
Speaker 3: terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, when the agency
Speaker 3: bulked up its expertise to deal with the threat of
Speaker 3: germ weapons, toxins, and other weapons of mass destruction. But
Speaker 3: for more than a year he had spent most of
Speaker 3: his waking hours on the COVID nineteen virus that had
Speaker 3: seeped out of China in twenty nineteen. Frustrated by China stonewalling,
Speaker 3: President Biden had ordered an urgent assessment by the U
Speaker 3: S intelligence agencies and national laboratories on whether the virus
Speaker 3: had leaped from an animal to a human or it
Speaker 3: escaped from a Chinese lab that had been doing extensive
Speaker 3: work on coronaviruses. The dominant view within the intelligence community
Speaker 3: was clear when Averill Haines, the Director of National Intelligence,
Speaker 3: and a couple of our senior analysts brief Bidens and
Speaker 3: its top aides. On August twenty fourth, the National Intelligence Council,
Speaker 3: a body of senior intelligence officers who reported to Haines
Speaker 3: and that organized the intelligence review, had concluded with quote
Speaker 3: low confidence that COVID nineteen had emerged when the virus
Speaker 3: leapt from an animal to a human. So did four
Speaker 3: intelligence agencies at the time. The FBI was the only
Speaker 3: agency that had concluded that a lab leak was likely,
Speaker 3: a judgment that it had rendered with quote moderate confidence,
Speaker 3: but neither Bannon nor any other FBI officials were at
Speaker 3: the briefing to make the case first hand to the
Speaker 3: president quote. Being the only agency that assessed a laboratory
Speaker 3: origin was more likely and the agency that expressed the
Speaker 3: highest level confidence in its analysis of the source of
Speaker 3: the pandemic, we anticipated the FBI would be asked to
Speaker 3: attend the briefing, Bannon recalled in his first on the
Speaker 3: record interview on the subject. I find it surprising that
Speaker 3: the White House didn't ask. In this article on the
Speaker 3: Wall Street Journal, it goes on and on discussing Bannon,
Speaker 3: this FBI scientist, but also scientists throughout the federal government
Speaker 3: who had laid out evidence early on that COVID came
Speaker 3: from a Chinese lab, and that evidence was systematically shut down,
Speaker 3: It was systematically de emphasized, and it appears that it
Speaker 3: was systematically blocked from going to the White House under
Speaker 3: Joe Biden. And as I said, I'm very interested. The
Speaker 3: Wall Street Journal doesn't report this, but my suspicion is
Speaker 3: they were doing the exact same thing when Donald Trump
Speaker 3: was president.
Speaker 2: So here's my question, and this is a political one.
Speaker 2: There are people that are really frustrated with so much
Speaker 2: that happened around COVID and the answers we didn't get
Speaker 2: in Fauci line to Congress. The list goes on and on,
Speaker 2: and there's people that are frustrated in all right, now
Speaker 2: that Republicans are in charge, what are they going to
Speaker 2: do about it? Are they going to investigate? Are they
Speaker 2: going to hold people accountable if they were lying to us,
Speaker 2: whether it's on the origins with GEG of function research,
Speaker 2: there's a long list. Should Republicans go down that rabbit
Speaker 2: hole and do that? Or is that going to be
Speaker 2: looked at by many Americans like, move on already, We've
Speaker 2: done this already.
Speaker 1: What are you doing already?
Speaker 2: There's a real political price that you could pay from
Speaker 2: being out of touch with what the American people want.
Speaker 2: I know there's people that are angry and are frustrated,
Speaker 2: But what should the strategy become January twentieth.
Speaker 3: I think the strategy should be serious transparency, and it
Speaker 3: should be accountability. It should be no, you are in
Speaker 3: favor of accountabilitys coms okay, so let me let me
Speaker 3: start with transparency. And this is a conversation I have
Speaker 3: had the last couple of weeks with Pam Bondi, who's
Speaker 3: been nominated to be the Attorney General, and with Cash Betel,
Speaker 3: who's been nominated to be the director of the FBI,
Speaker 3: and also with the nominee for the deputy director, deputy
Speaker 3: Attorney General, and with other senior law enforcement nominees. I've said,
Speaker 3: very simply, make the information public. Make it public on
Speaker 3: January sixth, the confidential informants that were there, don't give
Speaker 3: the names, don't out obviously people who are under cover.
Speaker 3: But make the information public. It is a public interest
Speaker 3: and on COVID nineteen, put the evidence out there and
Speaker 3: make it public. I believe China was directly culpable, and
Speaker 3: by the way, I will say, this is a prediction
Speaker 3: that Verdict laid out almost before anybody out else. We
Speaker 3: had two different podcasts I believe, in March and April
Speaker 3: of twenty twenty one, right at the very beginning of COVID,
Speaker 3: where we laid out the evidence that the COVID virus
Speaker 3: came from a Chinese lab, and that evidence we're going
Speaker 3: to do for New Year's We're going to do an
Speaker 3: episode going through all of the predictions that Verdict has
Speaker 3: laid out that have come true, because look, we have
Speaker 3: not been shy on taking a risk, on making a prediction,
Speaker 3: making a counter intuitive Look, when I said COVID came
Speaker 3: from a Chinese virus at the time, that was almost
Speaker 3: universally labeled misinformation.
Speaker 2: Oh it well on social media, you couldn't post that.
Speaker 2: They'd shut you down.
Speaker 3: It remains remarkable to this day. I don't know why
Speaker 3: they didn't block Verdict when we said it, because others
Speaker 3: were getting blocked. Somehow we got through and it is
Speaker 3: And by the way, I will say, it wasn't just
Speaker 3: this scientist at the FBI. Let me go back to
Speaker 3: the Wall Street Journal article. Here's a couple more paragraphs.
Speaker 3: Quote three scientists at the National Center for Medical Intelligence,
Speaker 3: part of the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, conducted a scientific
Speaker 3: study that concluded that COVID nineteen was manipulated in a
Speaker 3: laboratory in a risky research effort, but that analysis was
Speaker 3: at odds with the assessment of their parent agency, the
Speaker 3: Defense Intelligence Agency, and wasn't incorporated in the report presented
Speaker 3: to Biden that if the DIA Inspector General's Office opened
Speaker 3: an inquiry in the spring into whether the scientist's assessment
Speaker 3: was mishandled or suppressed, familiar with the matter said and look,
Speaker 3: I think this is important number one, because we need
Speaker 3: truth and accountability. I think the Chinese government bears enormous
Speaker 3: responsibility for the people who died, for the millions who died.
Speaker 3: One point two million Americans are counted as having been
Speaker 3: killed with the coronavirus, seven million people worldwide. It was
Speaker 3: a massive consequence and the economy shut down globally, trillions
Speaker 3: of dollars was destroyed, millions of lives, trillions of dollars.
Speaker 3: And I believe the Chinese Communist government has direct culpability
Speaker 3: for that. And I think the Trump administration would be
Speaker 3: doing America in the world of service for making that
Speaker 3: evidence public. But I also think it's important. Listen, there's
Speaker 3: going to be another crisis. We don't want career bureaucrats
Speaker 3: within the government suppressing evidence that they don't like. We
Speaker 3: don't want career bureaucrats the deep state pushing their preferred narrative.
Speaker 3: You got to ask why they were leaning in so
Speaker 3: hard to protect China. Why was that the dominant narrative,
Speaker 3: and why was everything else shut down? Because the next
Speaker 3: crisis we face, Let's go back to the Wall Street
Speaker 3: Journal article, because we also saw the scientific community lean
Speaker 3: in like crazy. Here's another two paragraphs talking about two theories,
Speaker 3: one that it came from an animal naturally in the
Speaker 3: other that it came from a lab leak quote. Those
Speaker 3: two theories have also divided the scientific community. In February
Speaker 3: twenty twenty, more than two dozen scientists publish a statement
Speaker 3: in the medical journal Landset calling the lab leek hypothesis
Speaker 3: a conspiracy theory that would jeopardize global cooperation and the
Speaker 3: struggle against the virus. One of the authors was Peter
Speaker 3: Dazik of EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit that has worked extensively
Speaker 3: on coronavirus research with the Wuhan Institute. That statement was
Speaker 3: followed a month later by a March twenty twenty paper
Speaker 3: on the proximal Origins of COVID nineteen, in which Kristin
Speaker 3: Anderson of the Script's Research Institute and four other scientists
Speaker 3: argued that the virus wasn't purposely manipulated in the laboratory
Speaker 3: and almost certainly had natural origins. Now my view right now,
Speaker 3: based on the evidence that is public, I think it
Speaker 3: is overwhelmingly likely that the COVID virus escaped from a
Speaker 3: Chinese government lab. And I think it is likely. I
Speaker 3: wouldn't use the word overwhelmingly, but I think it is
Speaker 3: greater than fifty percent that the COVID virus was manipulated
Speaker 3: by those Chinese scientists through gain of function research to
Speaker 3: make it either more deadly, more transmissible, or more in
Speaker 3: particular able to impact humans. That has not been as
Speaker 3: conclusively proven as has been proven in my judgment that
Speaker 3: it escaped from a government lab. It's possible was a
Speaker 3: natural virus and they screwed up and it escaped. It
Speaker 3: is indisputable that China covered it up and did everything
Speaker 3: they could to suppress it after the fact, but I
Speaker 3: think it is more likely than not that not only
Speaker 3: did it escape from a Chinese government lab, but they
Speaker 3: created it through gain it to function research. We need
Speaker 3: to know that. And I got to say the paragraph
Speaker 3: I read, Peter Dazik got a whole lot of money
Speaker 3: at the EcoHealth Alliance for doing research on coronavirus research
Speaker 3: at the Wuhana Institute. There's every reason to expect he
Speaker 3: was deeply invested in not having anyone know that. And
Speaker 3: by the way, so was Anthony Fauci, and Anthony Fauci's
Speaker 3: culpability Dazik's culpability. I hope we have congressional hearings on this.
Speaker 3: I hope we get to the bottom of what actually happened,
Speaker 3: because I think there is virtue to transparency and clarity,
Speaker 3: both for accountability and responsibility for the Chinese Communist government,
Speaker 3: but also to prevent manipulating the science for the next crisis.
Speaker 2: So final question on this, and that's going to come
Speaker 2: back to Fauci.
Speaker 1: What does accountability look like for a guy like that?
Speaker 3: Look, I don't know. I think it is likely that
Speaker 3: Fauci lied to Congress under oath. Lying to Congress under
Speaker 3: oath is a felony. I've called repeatedly. I've asked Merrick
Speaker 3: Garland if he's opened an investigation, if he's willing to
Speaker 3: prosecute Fauci. Merrick Garland had no interest in prosecuting Fauci.
Speaker 3: As I'm sitting here right now, I don't remember the dates.
Speaker 3: I think it is likely the statute of limitations has
Speaker 3: expired on prosecuting him, So it may be I'm not
Speaker 3: remembering the dates as you and I are doing this
Speaker 3: right now, But I think there's a good chance that
Speaker 3: Trump cannot prosecute Fauci for line to Congress. But I
Speaker 3: think laying out that accountability is important, and I think
Speaker 3: the reason the Biden DOJ didn't want to do so
Speaker 3: is because this has been the most politicized Department of
Speaker 3: Justice in history. Fauci went before Congress and insisted that
Speaker 3: the US government had not paid for had not funded
Speaker 3: gain A function research, and actually the NIH came back
Speaker 3: and had to correct that after the fact and make
Speaker 3: clear that what he said was false.
Speaker 2: As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Sentner,
Speaker 2: Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to deal
Speaker 2: with my podcast and you can listen to my podcast
Speaker 2: every other day you're not listening to Verdict, or each
Speaker 2: day when you listen to Verdict afterwards, I'd love to
Speaker 2: have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson Podcasts,
Speaker 2: and we will see you back here on Monday morning.