Speaker 1: Welcome.
Speaker 2: It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you,
Speaker 2: and as we get ready for a new year, it's
Speaker 2: important that we take a look back at some of
Speaker 2: the biggest stories of this past year, some of the
Speaker 2: biggest conversations at Senator Ted Cruz and I had, and
Speaker 2: that's exactly what we're going to do. Give you some
Speaker 2: of those big stories and things to look forward to
Speaker 2: or issues that you may need to be paying attention
Speaker 2: to heading into twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Senator, you're at the border.
Speaker 2: You are there where Title forty two has literally just expired.
Speaker 2: What does this mean for the country and what have
Speaker 2: you seen today?
Speaker 3: Well, Ben, you and I are recording this. It is
Speaker 3: right now twelve fourteen am Friday morning. Title forty two
Speaker 3: expired at midnight, So for fourteen minutes, the last legal
Speaker 3: authority the Biden administration was using to deport illegal aliens
Speaker 3: is no longer in effect. From the first day of
Speaker 3: the Biden presidency until today, we've seen over six and
Speaker 3: a half million people crossing into this country, the worst
Speaker 3: illegal immigration in the history of our country. As of
Speaker 3: right now, it is about to get much much worse,
Speaker 3: and so I flew down this afternoon Thursday afternoon and
Speaker 3: came to the southern border with three other senators, with
Speaker 3: Roger Marshall, with John Hoven and Ted Budd and the
Speaker 3: four of us wanted to see firsthand what is happening here.
Speaker 3: We wanted to be here for the expiration of Title
Speaker 3: forty two to let the American people know what is
Speaker 3: happening and that the Biden administration wants this absolute catastrophe
Speaker 3: to unfold.
Speaker 2: It is truly shocking to watch the images that so
Speaker 2: many Americans saw, and we'll see over the weekend of
Speaker 2: the drone footage if you've been watching Fox News channel
Speaker 2: of tens of thousands of people waiting to come across
Speaker 2: the border. And there was a warning that was given,
Speaker 2: advice that was given not only to the Biden administration
Speaker 2: by border patrol, but we actually have a guest with
Speaker 2: us tonight that warned the Biden administration that this was
Speaker 2: going to happen. And the Biden transition team clearly said, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: we don't care about the chaos and the anarchy.
Speaker 1: We want this by design.
Speaker 3: Well that's exactly right, and so tonight, Ben, you and
Speaker 3: I are joined by someone who has become a very
Speaker 3: good friend of mine. Brandon Judd Brandon is the president
Speaker 3: of the National Border Patrol Council, that is the union,
Speaker 3: the national union for the men and women of the
Speaker 3: Border Patrol all across this country. And I have spent
Speaker 3: hundreds of hours with Brandon and with the heroes of
Speaker 3: the Border Patrol. I've been blessed to go out with
Speaker 3: them repeatedly on midnight patrol down on the border. I've
Speaker 3: been been with them at midnight muster. I've been with
Speaker 3: them as they're processing this deluge of illegal immigrants. I've
Speaker 3: been with them to encourage those heroes while they have
Speaker 3: political superiors who undermine them, who belittle them, who insult them,
Speaker 3: and who deliberately prevent them from doing their jobs. And
Speaker 3: I have to say it is a miracle that they
Speaker 3: continue to show up to work every day to protect
Speaker 3: this country, even while facing a president and an administration
Speaker 3: that is doing everything it can to make it impossible
Speaker 3: for them to succeed at their task.
Speaker 2: Brendan, I got to ask you about the warning and
Speaker 2: the advice that you gave to the Biden administration. You
Speaker 2: gave advice you told the Biden transition team before even
Speaker 2: Biden took office, what they need to do to keep
Speaker 2: a secure border. You represent, obviously as the president of
Speaker 2: National Border Patrol Council border patrol agents who right now
Speaker 2: I'd bless all of you for what you do, because
Speaker 2: I can't imagine going to work every day knowing that
Speaker 2: the administration is working against you the way that they
Speaker 2: are right now.
Speaker 1: But what did you tell them?
Speaker 2: And and you knew this day would come, and this
Speaker 2: hour would come, and this moment would come if they
Speaker 2: did and put in place the policies that they have
Speaker 2: now put on all.
Speaker 1: Of us, not just once.
Speaker 4: I sat down with the transition team three separate times
Speaker 4: to discuss the issues that we face on the border,
Speaker 4: to discuss what could be done to keep the American
Speaker 4: people safe. And that's what border security is all about.
Speaker 4: We've got to keep Themerican people sary.
Speaker 3: Brandon, this was not just the Trump transition team, although
Speaker 3: you sat down with them as well, talking.
Speaker 1: To I was on the Trump transition.
Speaker 3: You were on the Trump transition team. But when Joe
Speaker 3: Biden came in, you sat I did with them, I did,
Speaker 3: and you tried to help them not have this disaster.
Speaker 4: I did the best that I could I didn't vote
Speaker 4: for Joe Biden. I don't like Joe Biden, and I
Speaker 4: didn't like him as the Senator. I didn't like him
Speaker 4: as the Vice president. But I did want him to
Speaker 4: succeed as the President of United States, because if he succeeds,
Speaker 4: the American people succeed.
Speaker 1: That's all I cared about. And so I sat down
Speaker 1: with the Transition team.
Speaker 4: I sat down with them three separate times, and we
Speaker 4: went over in depth what needs to be done on
Speaker 4: the border secure to secure the border, and we even
Speaker 4: stayed within the parameters that Biden gave on the campaign trail.
Speaker 4: It's not like we offered them up radical ideas. It's
Speaker 4: not like we were telling them stick with the Trump policies,
Speaker 4: although I would have loved to have stuck with those policies.
Speaker 4: We worked within their parameters and they still rejected it,
Speaker 4: which clearly showed to me that they didn't care about
Speaker 4: securing the border. They didn't care about the American people
Speaker 4: who they're supposed to be protecting, and so it was
Speaker 4: really disgusting to me. And not only did I sit
Speaker 4: down with the Transition team, I actually spoke with Secretary
Speaker 4: of my Orchis prior to his confirmation and discussed the
Speaker 4: issues with him as well. And so when you look
Speaker 4: at this, it's not like they can claim that they
Speaker 4: didn't know. It's not like they can say we didn't
Speaker 4: know what we needed to do. They knew, They know
Speaker 4: exactly what they need to do. They knew what they
Speaker 4: needed to do. And so you have to ask yourself,
Speaker 4: are they doing this on purpose? And I think that
Speaker 4: the only answer is yes, they are. They are doing
Speaker 4: this on purpose. They are pandering to open border activists.
Speaker 4: Look at the West Wing, Look look at the West Wing.
Speaker 4: All of the political appointees in the West Wing they
Speaker 4: come from activist backgrounds. Look at the Look at the
Speaker 4: political appointees in DHS. They come from activist backgrounds. So
Speaker 4: now you have activists that are running legitimate law enforcement agencies.
Speaker 3: Brandon, you were with me when I brought down nineteen
Speaker 3: senators to the boarder and we went in to the
Speaker 3: Biden cages, to the tent city at Donnaye, and there
Speaker 3: the Biden administration refused to let TV cameras in. They
Speaker 3: refused to let Fox News in, They refused to let
Speaker 3: ABC News in because they said that the that the
Speaker 3: cameraman might have COVID. Now, mind you, these these Biden
Speaker 3: cages were packed wall to wall and as you'll recall,
Speaker 3: and Brandon, you'll recall, well, because you were standing there,
Speaker 3: I pulled out my cell phone and I began taking
Speaker 3: pictures and recording it. And the Biden DHS had sent
Speaker 3: they'd sent this little political operative who jumped in front
Speaker 3: of the camera and tried to block me. And she
Speaker 3: was she was the right hand to to to the
Speaker 3: head of CBP, and her job was prevent the American
Speaker 3: people from seeing the disaster they were creating. And so
Speaker 3: you know, I kind of laughed and said, well, you're
Speaker 3: about to make yourself famous. And I think that that
Speaker 3: video that I took on my cell phone because they
Speaker 3: wouldn't let news cameras in, it ran on just about
Speaker 3: every news station.
Speaker 1: It did, It did, and it showed.
Speaker 3: And at one point she was yelling at me, respect
Speaker 3: these people, respect these their dignity, and I said, you
Speaker 3: respect these people. You're the one that have locked them
Speaker 3: up in cages like animals, and you leave. They were stacked.
Speaker 3: You saw children shoulder to shoulder lying on the floor
Speaker 3: on mats with with with silver reflective blankets. There was
Speaker 3: a rate of COVID positivity among the kids that was
Speaker 3: through the roof, and the Biden policies kept having thousands
Speaker 3: upon thousands, and ultimately millions of people coming.
Speaker 4: As a federal employee, as a border patrol Asian. That
Speaker 4: was one of the funniest things I had ever seen
Speaker 4: in my career. It was absolutely great to see this
Speaker 4: little political appointed, this little activist, just absolutely lose her mind.
Speaker 4: And that goes back to the problem that we're dealing
Speaker 4: with this administration. We all want to have an honest conversation.
Speaker 4: When I say we all want to the honest people
Speaker 4: want to have a conversation so the American people understand
Speaker 4: what's going on. I don't care if the American people
Speaker 4: agree with me. I don't care if they come back
Speaker 4: and say that, you know, I'm wrong. All I want
Speaker 4: is I want them to have all of the information.
Speaker 4: I want them to be able to make an informed
Speaker 4: opinion upon all of the evidence, not just the rhetoric
Speaker 4: that comes out of the White House. And if we
Speaker 4: have that honest conversation, I am absolutely convinced that the
Speaker 4: American people will agree that the border needs to be secured.
Speaker 4: And I am absolutely convinced that they will blame what
Speaker 4: is currently going on on the border on this administration,
Speaker 4: and that they will know that this administration is actually
Speaker 4: killing American citizens. Fentanyl poisoning is taking place. Seventy thousand
Speaker 4: US citizens are losing their lives every year to fentanyl poisoning.
Speaker 4: And it's all because the Biden administration does not allow
Speaker 4: us to go after the cartels.
Speaker 1: They're enriching the cartels.
Speaker 3: Brandon, how frustrated are border patrol agents right now? Give
Speaker 3: me the real sentiment of the men and women on
Speaker 3: the front.
Speaker 4: We're sick of him. We're sick of him. He's got
Speaker 4: to go. As far as we're concerned, he has got
Speaker 4: to go. And we were absolutely demralized.
Speaker 1: I believe that.
Speaker 4: Every hard working person in this country, they want to
Speaker 4: feel like their job means something. They want to feel
Speaker 4: like they have accomplished something. They want to go home
Speaker 4: every day thinking that I did a good job. Border
Speaker 4: patrol agents cannot do that right now. We know that
Speaker 4: every single time we put on a uniform that we're
Speaker 4: not doing anything. All we're doing is actually aiding in
Speaker 4: a betting these criminal cartels with facilitating the transport of
Speaker 4: illegal aliens throughout the entire United States, the fentanyl that's
Speaker 4: coming in. We want to go after these cartels, We
Speaker 4: want to go after their profits. We want to stop
Speaker 4: sex trafficking. We want to save migrants' lives, and this
Speaker 4: administration won't let us.
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Speaker 2: There is so much this Trump indictment that needs to
Speaker 2: be broken down. That's going to be the goal today
Speaker 2: for people to understand this indictment. Let's walk through exactly
Speaker 2: what they have charged Donald Trump with and also your
Speaker 2: overview how serious is this in your opinion scale one
Speaker 2: to ten.
Speaker 1: We've seen like in New York there was not a
Speaker 1: lot of people worried about that indictment.
Speaker 2: They thought it was frivolous, they thought it was kind
Speaker 2: of absurd, satul limitations.
Speaker 1: There's gonna be a lot of problems in court. Is
Speaker 1: this different?
Speaker 3: Well, the last podcast we did on Friday, we did
Speaker 3: it right after news of the indictment broke, but the
Speaker 3: indictment wasn't public. What has changed between then and now
Speaker 3: is we now have the indictment so we can see
Speaker 3: specifically what they brought. I will say now Having reviewed
Speaker 3: the specific indictment, it's pretty underwhelming. There's not a lot
Speaker 3: of there there. We talked quite a bit before the
Speaker 3: indictment about how I believed it was extremely likely that
Speaker 3: the Department of Justice was going to indict Donald Trump,
Speaker 3: that Merrick Garland I believe wants to indict Donald Trump.
Speaker 3: I think he came into office wanting to indict and
Speaker 3: to prosecute Donald Trump. But we also talked about the
Speaker 3: problem that he couldn't just base it on the classified
Speaker 3: documents because it so happened just that everyone else had
Speaker 3: did the same damn thing. And so we discussed on
Speaker 3: this podcast how I believe they would really build their
Speaker 3: case as an obstruction case. What's interesting is they did that,
Speaker 3: but the bulk of the indictment focuses on the classified documents.
Speaker 3: So if you look at the indictment, there are thirty
Speaker 3: seven counts in the indictment. It starts with criminal offenses
Speaker 3: concerning the wilful retention of national defense information, with holding
Speaker 3: a document of record, corruptly concealing a document of record,
Speaker 3: concealing a document of a federal investigation, a scheme to
Speaker 3: conceal and if you look at it all right, so
Speaker 3: counts one through thirty one, So the bulk of the
Speaker 3: indictment are multiple counts of willful retention of national defense information,
Speaker 3: and by the text of it, the terms of that
Speaker 3: crime are serious. Whoever having unauthorized possession of, access to,
Speaker 3: or control over any document writing, codebooks, sign signal books, sketch, photograph, photographic, negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance,
Speaker 3: or note relating to the national defense, or information relating
Speaker 3: to the national defense, which information the possessor has reason
Speaker 3: to believe could be used to the injury of the
Speaker 3: United States or the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits,
Speaker 3: or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts
Speaker 3: to communicate, delivered, or transmitted, or caused to be communicated,
Speaker 3: delivered or transmitted the same to any person not entitled
Speaker 3: to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails
Speaker 3: to deliver it to the officer employee of the United
Speaker 3: States entitled to receive it. Whoever being entrusted with, or
Speaker 3: having lawful possession of, or control of any document writing, codebook,
Speaker 3: signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic, negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note,
Speaker 3: or information relating to the national defense through gross negligence,
Speaker 3: permits the same to be removed from its proper place
Speaker 3: of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust,
Speaker 3: or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or having
Speaker 3: knowledge that the same has been illegally moved from its
Speaker 3: proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation
Speaker 3: of its trust, or lost or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed,
Speaker 3: and fails to make prompt report of such lost, theft, abstraction,
Speaker 3: or destruction to his superior officer. The consequence of all
Speaker 3: of that is that you face a maximum fine of
Speaker 3: two hundred and fifty thousand dollars an imprisonment of not
Speaker 3: more than ten years, or both a noother thirty one
Speaker 3: counts of that. If those thirty one counts, if Trump
Speaker 3: were can victed of it, and if they ran consecutively,
Speaker 3: he could be sentenced to three hundred and ten years
Speaker 3: in prison. Now, on the face of that, all that
Speaker 3: sounds serious, Yeah, except for the problem that this is
Speaker 3: a president of the United States. This is a president
Speaker 3: of the United States, and every president of the United
Speaker 3: States has taken papers from his time as president. That
Speaker 3: goes back, I suspect back to George Washington. This is
Speaker 3: a general statute that if you or I are working
Speaker 3: in government, we have a classified document and we shove
Speaker 3: them down our underwear, like Sandy Berger, who was the
Speaker 3: national security advisor to Bill Clinton did. That's the kind
Speaker 3: of statute that can be used to go after you.
Speaker 3: In this instance. The press has been breathless about the
Speaker 3: allegation that Trump stored classified documents in his bathroom, in
Speaker 3: his shower, and the Biden Department of Justice Media production
Speaker 3: office helpfully took a picture, which they conveniently released to
Speaker 3: the world because this is a media production. And I
Speaker 3: say that tongue in cheek. It should not be a
Speaker 3: media production. But they are engaged in politics here. We've
Speaker 3: all seen the picture of the boxes stacked up in
Speaker 3: the marble bathroom with the chandelier, and there's something titillating
Speaker 3: about that. That's an odd place to store classified documents
Speaker 3: in a shower. Although I have to ask you something.
Speaker 3: Number one, every president has taken records. So just saying, oh,
Speaker 3: if you have a national security record, you're obviously a felon. Well,
Speaker 3: if we're going to lock up all our former presidents.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm not sure Jimmy Carter is gonna last
Speaker 3: long in doing hard time. Bill Clinton, on the other hand,
Speaker 3: could do quite well behind cars. But secondly, okay, fine,
Speaker 3: you've got an embarrassing place for documents to be, which
Speaker 3: is a bathroom and shower. Is that any more embarrassing
Speaker 3: than in a cardboard box in a garage next to
Speaker 3: an antique corvette. Yeah, that would be where Joe Biden
Speaker 3: kept his documents.
Speaker 2: Or classified documents on a server in Hillary Clinton's basement,
Speaker 2: in her bathroom.
Speaker 3: At the end of the day, the biggest problem the
Speaker 3: Department of Justice has is the screaming hypocrisy. This breathlessly says,
Speaker 3: my god, he had a classified document off with his head.
Speaker 3: And it doesn't say a word about why. They have
Speaker 3: no concerns at all about Joe Biden about all of
Speaker 3: the documents he had, not in one place, not in
Speaker 3: two places, in multiple places, left with no security, left
Speaker 3: stacked in the garage, unlocked garage. This is so obviously
Speaker 3: a double standard. This is a double standard driven by
Speaker 3: a Department of Justice that's blinded by hatred. I think
Speaker 3: they've convinced themselves that Trump actually is Adolf Hitler, and
Speaker 3: so nothing else matters. If you're going after Hitler, everything
Speaker 3: is justified. And well, yes, Joe Biden did the same thing.
Speaker 3: Well yes, Hillary Clinton did the same thing. But they're
Speaker 3: not Hitler. This is how they're thinking, goes. They're not Hitler,
Speaker 3: so it's fine. We like them, they're on our team,
Speaker 3: so it's not a crime if they do it. But boy,
Speaker 3: isn't this a good excuse to go after the devil?
Speaker 3: Looking at this indictment, I think the same thing today
Speaker 3: that I thought last week when it was announced. This
Speaker 3: is garbage. It's not the same kind of garbage that
Speaker 3: Alvin Bragg's New York indictment is. That's just legally frivolous.
Speaker 3: It's legally frivolous on the face of It's go.
Speaker 1: To one to ten.
Speaker 2: How concerned are you over that indict.
Speaker 3: The brag one? Yeah, one point five?
Speaker 1: And what about this one?
Speaker 3: Four point five?
Speaker 1: What's the biggest difference in.
Speaker 3: There are several things. Number one, this is the Department of.
Speaker 2: Justice, unlimited funds, unlimited lawyers, unlimited time.
Speaker 3: When the Department of Justice comes after you, it is
Speaker 3: a lot more serious it just is DOJ has resources,
Speaker 3: has power, It has the ability to devote massive resources,
Speaker 3: and typically far more talented prosecutors than Alvin Bragg has
Speaker 3: at his disposal. Alvin Bragg, on the face of it,
Speaker 3: the indictment is really reaching. It's trying to create crimes
Speaker 3: where none exists. In this instance, what they allege is
Speaker 3: arguably criminal for someone who's not the president of the
Speaker 3: United States. The problem with it is the double stand
Speaker 3: and the political persecution, rather than whether or not this
Speaker 3: is in fact a violation of law. The pundits on
Speaker 3: CNN will all say, ah, they've shown a violation of law.
Speaker 3: My response is great, Explain to me, why if you
Speaker 3: want to prosecute Trump, are he and Biden going to
Speaker 3: be sell mates? If you bring twin prosecutions for the
Speaker 3: same thing and put Hillary in, have the three of them,
Speaker 3: you want to prosecute all three of them? We can
Speaker 3: talk about that. Now. That would be absurd, sure, but
Speaker 3: that would at least be consistent to say, okay, any
Speaker 3: of you who had a classified document, we're going to
Speaker 3: prosecute all of you. All right, that I could understand
Speaker 3: this is so serious, off with all their heads. But
Speaker 3: that's not what they're saying with zero explanation. They say,
Speaker 3: when the guy we don't like who used to be
Speaker 3: President of the United States, who is a leading candidate
Speaker 3: to be the next president of the United States, when
Speaker 3: he does it, we will come after him and try
Speaker 3: to put him in jail. When our boss does it?
Speaker 1: Who what?
Speaker 3: Never heard Joe Biden? Who's that guy?
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Speaker 2: to two Patriot. There were some big wins that you
Speaker 2: were leading on legislation, you were leading on for the
Speaker 2: people in Texas and in this country as well. Let's
Speaker 2: talk about how big these wins were right before recess.
Speaker 3: Well, sure, and I want to focus on on a
Speaker 3: single day, and that was Thursday, the last week of July,
Speaker 3: is the last day the Senate was in session. We've
Speaker 3: been on recess for the past several weeks, and so
Speaker 3: I've been traveling across the state of Texas at doing
Speaker 3: events all over Texas. But the last day we were
Speaker 3: in session was the Thursday, the last week of July,
Speaker 3: and on that one day, I passed eight separate pieces
Speaker 3: of legislation. It was a big deal to pass eight
Speaker 3: pieces of legislation. That there are a lot of members
Speaker 3: of the Senate that don't pass eight pieces of legislation
Speaker 3: after years of serving in the Senate, and I passed
Speaker 3: eight in a single day, and so I just wanted
Speaker 3: to walk through that day to give a sense of
Speaker 3: what can be accomplished fighting for Texas in a single day.
Speaker 3: So two of them passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee.
Speaker 3: And as you know, I'm the ranking member, the senior
Speaker 3: Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, and there were two
Speaker 3: different bills that I'd introduced, both of which passed the
Speaker 3: Senate Commerce Committee that day. One of them focuses on
Speaker 3: AM radio and we've talked about that bill here on
Speaker 3: the podcast before, which is that eight automakers announced that
Speaker 3: we're pulling AM radios off of brand new cars and trucks.
Speaker 3: I think that's a terrible step. It's terrible for a
Speaker 3: lot of reasons, including that it denies people disaster information
Speaker 3: in the case of a hurricane or a fire or
Speaker 3: tornado or some other natural disaster.
Speaker 1: It hurts rural.
Speaker 3: Americans who rely on AM radio, and it hurts conservative
Speaker 3: speech in particular. It's an example of corporate America silencing
Speaker 3: one of the most important platforms for conservative speech. Well,
Speaker 3: I teamed up with Ed Markey, the single most liberal
Speaker 3: member of the Senate, in legislation called the AM Radio
Speaker 3: for Every Vehicle Act, which mandates that new cars and
Speaker 3: trucks include AM radio, and that legislation passed. The Commerce
Speaker 3: Committee passed it with overwhelming bipartisan support. So that was
Speaker 3: victory number one. A big deal. That impacts you. You
Speaker 3: have a radio station, radio show, It impacts all sorts
Speaker 3: of people on the radio, but it impacts up to
Speaker 3: eighty million Americans who listen to AM radio every single month.
Speaker 2: It's incredible legislation, and it's also, as you mentioned, as well,
Speaker 2: a safety issue. You look at the hurricane that is
Speaker 2: that we're dealing with right now in Florida that's going
Speaker 2: to be going up the east coast, and I've already
Speaker 2: heard it and talked to friends down there. They're already
Speaker 2: reminding people grab your crank AM radios to keep up
Speaker 2: when the power goes out so that you know what's
Speaker 2: going on. And I think there were many that thought
Speaker 2: of this as a way to silence conservative talk radio. Yes,
Speaker 2: there's no doubt there was a political side of this
Speaker 2: as well. But this other part was a safety issue
Speaker 2: when hurricanes hit, when there's natural disasters that happened and
Speaker 2: they're talking about it. I was watching the Weather Channel
Speaker 2: today as a storm was developing, this hurricane and strengthening.
Speaker 2: They were saying, make sure you have your crank AM radio.
Speaker 2: That is something that saves lives and situations like this.
Speaker 2: And that's also why it was so important to make
Speaker 2: sure these AM raders because there are people so after
Speaker 2: storm's hit and even before they can got to their car,
Speaker 2: turn it on for a second, listen to the latest
Speaker 2: updates of what's happening. And that's something that happens, or
Speaker 2: there's crank radios or battery powered radios with AM it's
Speaker 2: so vitally important for safety as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and other media often go down in the case
Speaker 3: of a disaster, so it's it's critical for getting people
Speaker 3: out of harm's way. A second piece of legislation that
Speaker 3: I authored that also passed the Commerce Committee that day
Speaker 3: is legislation called the Ticket Act, and it concerns if
Speaker 3: you go online and you buy sports tickets, you go
Speaker 3: buy baseball tickets, or football or basketball tickets, or you
Speaker 3: buy concert tickets you want to go see your favorite artists.
Speaker 3: Pay and all of us have had the experience where
Speaker 3: you go online to buy tickets, you pick out your seats,
Speaker 3: and you're really excited, and then you get to the
Speaker 3: final step of the transaction and you see fees that
Speaker 3: are just massive. The fees can be as upwards of
Speaker 3: forty to fifty sixty percent of the total amount you're paying,
Speaker 3: and you don't learn until the very last step when
Speaker 3: you're entering your credit card. And so I joined with
Speaker 3: Maria Cantwell, the Democrat from Washington State is the chairman
Speaker 3: of the committee, and authored legislation that requires online ticket
Speaker 3: brokers to disclose the total amount of the ticket price
Speaker 3: with the fees up front, so that when you're searching,
Speaker 3: you can know, Okay, if this ticket's going to cost
Speaker 3: me one hundred dollars, I'm not going to think it's
Speaker 3: fifty bucks and get surprised on the back end as
Speaker 3: a consumer. I'm going to get to know upfront and
Speaker 3: have the information to be able to comparison, shop and
Speaker 3: make informed choices.
Speaker 1: Center.
Speaker 2: You mentioned that there was not just these two pieces
Speaker 2: of legislation, but more than that that happened on this
Speaker 2: single day.
Speaker 1: Walk us down that again that path of what else happened.
Speaker 3: Well, sure, the first two passed the Commerce Committee. The
Speaker 3: remaining six pieces of legislation that I passed that day
Speaker 3: all passed the entire Senate, the full Senate, and all
Speaker 3: of them on that day, the last Thursday in July,
Speaker 3: we passed the National Defense Authorization Act, which is the
Speaker 3: big bill that passes every year that authorizes the Department
Speaker 3: of Defense and our military, and it's critical for ensuring
Speaker 3: that we can defend our nation, and it is considered
Speaker 3: must pass legislation so that if you can author amendments
Speaker 3: that get attached to it, those amendments get passed into
Speaker 3: law and sign into law. I had six different amendments
Speaker 3: that passed on this year's NDAA. So one of the
Speaker 3: amendments I had was very focused on defense in the
Speaker 3: state of Texas, and it was ensuring that B one
Speaker 3: bomber wings remain in service for at least three more years,
Speaker 3: at least until twenty twenty six until they're actually replaced
Speaker 3: by newer B twenty one bombers. And this is critically
Speaker 3: important number One, to preserve the US's long range strike capabilities.
Speaker 3: But number two, many of those B one bomber wings
Speaker 3: are right now housed at Dias Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas,
Speaker 3: and we're in the process of replacing B one bombers
Speaker 3: with B twenty ones. B twenty ones are much more
Speaker 3: advanced bombers, but it takes time to produce the B
Speaker 3: twenty ones, and there's great concern Number One in West
Speaker 3: Texas that the b ones will be taken down before
Speaker 3: they're replaced by the B twenty ones, And so there's
Speaker 3: been a battle year after year to make sure that
Speaker 3: we don't decommission the b ones until we have B
Speaker 3: twenty ones in place to replace them. That battle's happened
Speaker 3: every year for a number of years, and I've managed
Speaker 3: to win temporary delays in it. This year we got
Speaker 3: a three year freeze, which is critically important for ensuring
Speaker 3: our defense capability but also for protecting West Texas and
Speaker 3: Dyas Air Force Base. So a second amendment that also
Speaker 3: passed that day is legislation that I introduced that focused
Speaker 3: on what are called spy fridges, which is there are
Speaker 3: all sorts of impliances that you buy, whether they're refrigerators,
Speaker 3: whether they're microwaves, whether they're stoves or ovens that are
Speaker 3: smart devices, and they have built in cameras and or recorders,
Speaker 3: and often people don't know when you're buying a fridge.
Speaker 3: You don't think to ask, gosh, is my refrigerator recording
Speaker 3: me in my kitchen? And so I authored legislation. It's
Speaker 3: very similar to the legislation we talked about before the
Speaker 3: Ticket Act. It's disclosure legislation that says, if there's an
Speaker 3: appliance that's being sold to consumers that can record you,
Speaker 3: that has a camera either a video camera an audio recorder,
Speaker 3: that they have to disclose to you the consumer, Hey,
Speaker 3: your fridge is spying on you. And that likewise was
Speaker 3: bipartisan legislation that likewise passed on the floor of the Senate.
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Speaker 2: seven seven the number four gold Ira Senator, did you
Speaker 2: ever think you were ever going to have to pass
Speaker 2: legislation that would tells like consumers if their products would
Speaker 2: possibly be able to spy on them.
Speaker 1: I mean, it does sound insane.
Speaker 2: It's extremely important, but did you ever think when you
Speaker 2: ran for the Senate that this would be something we
Speaker 2: would need?
Speaker 1: And fast forward to twenty twenty three. It's insane to me.
Speaker 3: It really is nuts. And it's where technology is taking us.
Speaker 3: It's where so much of corporate America violates the privacy
Speaker 3: of consumers. And look, the next time, Ben, you're walking
Speaker 3: to the fridge at two in the morning and your
Speaker 3: box of shorts to get a midnight snack, just just
Speaker 3: remember that video may be in the hands of whoever
Speaker 3: sold you the fridge.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, thank you for passing that. I do appreciate that.
Speaker 2: I think all of us can say yes on that one.
Speaker 2: What else was on the list?
Speaker 3: All right? So two other amendments that both concerned oil.
Speaker 3: One of them concerns Nordstream two. We've talked a lot
Speaker 3: about Nordstream two, which is the pipeline that Putin was
Speaker 3: building from Russia to Germany, and I had an amendment
Speaker 3: that holds accountable the corrupt responsible the corrupt officials who
Speaker 3: were responsible for building and or maintaining Nordstream too, and
Speaker 3: so that passed on that Thursday as well. The second
Speaker 3: one focused on US oil and in particular our strategic
Speaker 3: petroleum Reserve. And as you know, Joe Biden has sold
Speaker 3: down our strategic petroleum reserve to the lowest level it's
Speaker 3: been at in four decades. And the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
Speaker 3: is there to protect our economy, to protect our national security,
Speaker 3: to ensure that we have energy in a time of crisis,
Speaker 3: and Joe Biden's used it to try to temporarily lower
Speaker 3: gas prices right before the last election, to get a
Speaker 3: political benefit from it. And so I teamed up with
Speaker 3: Joe Manchin and authored legislation to prohibit the federal government
Speaker 3: from selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China, Russia, Iran,
Speaker 3: or North Korea, not to sell it to our enemies.
Speaker 3: And that is not a hypothetical threat, because Joe Biden,
Speaker 3: in fact sold over a million barrels of oil from
Speaker 3: the us' strategic petroleum reserve to Communist China, and given
Speaker 3: that I thought that was absurd. Joe Manchin and I
Speaker 3: teamed up together to pass this legislation and that was
Speaker 3: the fourth piece of legislation on the Senate floor that
Speaker 3: passed on that Thursday.
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