Latest / The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson / Terrorist Nidal Hasan to be Executed by Military Firing Squad, plus When USAID Funding Halted, Marxists STOPPED WINNING in Latin America

Transcript

Terrorist Nidal Hasan to be Executed by Military Firing Squad, plus When USAID Funding Halted, Marxists STOPPED WINNING in Latin America · The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: with you. It's nice to have you with us. And Senator,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I tell you what, finally, we're going to have a
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: death penalty for a terrorist that killed innocent people here
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: in America. That is the big breaking news we start
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the show with.
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  Speaker 2: Well, justice will be served when Nadal Hassan, who 17
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: years ago murdered 14 innocent souls at Fort Hood in
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: a grotesque act of terrorism. This week, The Department of
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: War and President Trump has set a date for his
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: execution by firing squad by the military. We're going to
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: break down what to expect and why this is carrying
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: out justice for a horrific attack that should have occurred long,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: long ago, this sentence, and it is now scheduled to
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: occur in the next two months. We're also going to
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: talk about a remarkable consequence of President Trump being reelected
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: and Elon Musk going into the administration and leading Doge,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: and in particular, shutting down much of USAID, shutting down
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: the funding that flowed, the billions of dollars that came
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: out of USAID, and what we have seen since those
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: dollars stopped over and over again throughout Latin America, right-wing
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: conservative candidates have prevailed. Previously, you had left-wing, you had Marxist,
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: you had communist candidates prevailing, and without the USAID flow
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: of money, suddenly Latin American countries are picking pro-America, pro-freedom,
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: pro-free market candidates. We're going to break that down as well.
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  Speaker 1: All of that Yeah, absolutely on that one. I also
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: want to talk to you about a very important date
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: that is coming up, and it is a way that
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: you can stand with the people that were attacked on
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: October the 7th, 2023. Israeli firefighter Danny faced a nightmare
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: no parent should have to ever endure. A terrorist attacked
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: his community. He and his wife sheltered in their safe room.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: And unfortunately, just yards away, his daughter and son-in-law were
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: trapped inside their home as it burned during the horrific
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: attacks on that day. Now, there was nothing he could
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: do to save them. Danny had dedicated his life to
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: rescuing others. Yet in the midst of unimaginable grief, he
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: stepped forward to help evacuate survivors and care for his
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: shattered community, even with his own loss. Today, he continues
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: helping rebuild. Now, his story reminds us that behind every
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: headline is a real family, a mother, a father, a son,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: or a daughter whose life mattered. And that's why thousands
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: of churches across America are joining the Flags of Fellowship movement,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: started by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Each
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: flag planted as part of this powerful movement honors a
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: life lost. Each flag stands against hatred, and each flag
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  Speaker 1: declares to the world that Israel is not alone. Join
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: believers across America in this powerful act of remembrance and
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: solidarity with Israel. Learn how you or your church can
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: make a difference at joinfof.org. That's joinfof.org. All right, Senator,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: let's go back to this first big story. And the justice,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: I think, is finally going to be served. That's the
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: blessing here for the victims' families. President Trump has approved
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: the execution of Nidal Hassan. But we got to go
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: way back to 2009. And there's a lot of people
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: that listen to the show that may have been too
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: young to even remember this horrific terrorist attack. And the
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: fact that this was done by someone that was in
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: our own U.S. Army. So let's remind them of exactly
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: what happened back then.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Well, Nidal Hasan was a major in the army, and
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: he was stationed at Fort Hood in Texas. And in 2009,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: he walked into Fort Hood, and he murdered 14 innocent souls,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: all shouting Allahu Akbar. It was an act of radical
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Islamic terrorism. It was obviously an act of radical Islamic terrorism.
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  Speaker 2: And yet, to add insult to injury, Barack Obama was
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: president at the time, and the Obama Department of Defense
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  Speaker 2: categorized this killing not as an act of terrorism, but
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: as a, quote, act of workplace violence. Now, there was
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: a consequence to that. Because it was deemed workplace violence
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: and not terrorism, the soldiers who were murdered and the
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: soldiers who were injured were not eligible for the Purple Heart.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: It was outrageous. But this was the Obama administration was
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: engaged in an effort of revisionist history. They were trying
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: to erase the concept of radical Islamic terrorism. They were
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: trying to erase the fact that Nadal Hassan was a jihadist. Now,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: several aspects of this are notable. Number one, one of
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: the very first pieces of legislation I ever passed, I
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: was elected to the Senate for the first time in 2012.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: I was sworn in January 3rd of 2013. And I
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: introduced legislation to reverse this miscarriage of justice, and in particular,
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: to mandate that the soldiers killed by Nadal Hassan receive
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: the Purple Heart. At the time, we were in a
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Democrat Senate. And yet, the Democrat Senate, I was able,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: and the Senate Armed Services Committee, to get the support
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: of Republicans and Democrats. They adopted my legislation, passed it
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  Speaker 2: into law, and I will tell you, I was there
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: in 2015 when the Army finally awarded the Purple Heart
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: to those who were injured and to the families of
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: those who were murdered. And I was there, and to
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: each one of them, I shook their hands or I
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: hugged them, and I looked them in the eyes because
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: at this point it was years after the killing. And
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: I said to each of them, I'm sorry. I'm sorry
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: that your country took so long to acknowledge this was
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: an act of terrorism. Now I'll tell you a second
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: aspect of this killing. Nidal Hasan had been radicalized while
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: serving in the army. And in particular, he had reached
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  Speaker 2: out to a radical Islamic cleric named Anwar al-Awlaki. And
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: he had inquired of this cleric about the permissibility of
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  Speaker 2: waging jihad against his fellow servicemen and women, murdering other
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  Speaker 2: soldiers in the army. And Anwar al-Awlaki had informed him
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  Speaker 2: on email that, yes, it was permissible to wage jihad
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  Speaker 2: and murder the other soldiers. Now, here is what is astonishing.
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  Speaker 2: The Obama administration had those emails. They knew that Nidal
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  Speaker 2: Hassan was asking this radical Islamic cleric, can I murder
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  Speaker 2: my fellow soldiers? And they did nothing in any sane world,
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  Speaker 2: they would have shown up and arrested Nidal Hasan before
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  Speaker 2: he carried out his act of jihad, and they would
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  Speaker 2: have saved 14 innocent souls. By the way, you will
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: see in the press the number 13 in terms of
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  Speaker 2: who he murdered. The reason I use 14 is one
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  Speaker 2: of the 13 people he murdered was a pregnant woman,
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: and so not only did he murder her, but he
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: murdered her unborn child. It's why I use 14, because
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: 14 people died that day, although the press consistently omits
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: the unborn child. Now, years ago, when I was running
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: for president in 2016, I was doing an interview with
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Jake Tapper for CNN. And I was doing the interview
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: on the campaign bus. He came, and I think we
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: were on the trail in Iowa. I'm not sure, but
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: I think it was Iowa. And we had reached an
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: agreement that we would record, I said, look, we'll either
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: record the Sunday show live or live to tape, but
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: you can't edit it, because I had had a bad
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: experience with Bob Schieffer from CBS, who had done a
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: Sunday show, and it was taped, and then I had
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: made several points that were quite damaging to Obama, and
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  Speaker 2: CBS just edited them out. They're just like, no, we
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: don't like those, so we're just going to remove them.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: And ever since then, my press team, when we did
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: an interview for a Sunday show, we'd say, look, you
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: can decide how long you want me on, if you
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: want me on six minutes, eight minutes, ten minutes, whatever.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: But whatever the time period, You use exactly what I say,
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: not one word different. If you don't like what I said,
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: tough cookies. And so CNN had agreed they would use
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: exactly what I said live to tape. And so we're
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: talking about Nidal Hasan on this interview. And I said
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: what I just said a minute ago, which is that
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  Speaker 2: the Obama administration had his communications with Anwar al-Awlaki and
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  Speaker 2: they did nothing. And Jake Tapper interrupted me. He said,
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  Speaker 2: that's not true. That's just false. He said, what you're
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: saying is not accurate. It's not true. And I sort
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: of laughed. John Adams famously said, facts are stubborn things.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: And I said, Jake, I'm right, and the facts will
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: bear me out. And so we finished the interview, and
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Jake left the campaign bus. And a few minutes later,
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: he came back, and he knocked on the door of
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: the campaign bus. And he was chagrined. He was embarrassed.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: And he said, Senator, I went and researched it, and
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: it turns out you were right and I was wrong.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: And he said, I didn't know that. I genuinely thought
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: you were mistaken in what you were saying. I had
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: not seen that the Pentagon had these email communications. So
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: when I interrupted you and contradicted you, I was mistaken.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: And he said, look, we agreed to play what you
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  Speaker 2: did live, unedited. And so he said, I'm going to
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: give you two options. He said, number one, we will
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: play exactly what we just interviewed. And then after we
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: play it on Sunday, I will chime in and say,
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: after the interview, I researched it, and it turned out
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: Senator Cruz was right and I was wrong. He said,
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: that's option one, and he said, I'm willing to do that.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: He said, option two and what I would rather do
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: is simply erase the, I don't know, minute or two
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  Speaker 2: where you and I talk about this and just remove
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  Speaker 2: it from the interview. And Ben, I remember thinking at
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  Speaker 2: the time, I said, look, option one is obviously better
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: for me to have Jake Tapper and CNN admit they
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: were wrong. They were caught. That was unequivocally better for me.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: But I actually respected, this is before Jake Tapper, his
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: mind had melted and he'd gone crazy because he hates
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump. And so at the time, this is 2015, 2016,
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: he was trying to be a real journalist. And I
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: respected what he said to me. And I said, you
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: know what? You can delete the segment. And even though
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: it hurt me in the short term, My view was
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: I'm playing the long game. I intend to do lots
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: and lots of interviews. And the goodwill that is earned
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: by letting him take out something that was embarrassing to
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: him was worth it. It's interesting how CNN has gone
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: from here.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: It really is. And you look at this story now,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: and this is going to be something I think the
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: left is going to have a hard time reconciling. That
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: is the death penalty here. To me, it's beyond warranted.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: I think he should be executed. They're going to say
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: he shouldn't. And I think that tells you a lot
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: about the difference between law and order and standing up
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: to terrorists and sympathizing with them. We know what this
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: individual was trying to accomplish. He was able to accomplish
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: a lot of what he wanted to do. He was
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: yelling on Akbar during the attack. And this, again, the
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Secretary of the Army is going to set the time
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: and place to execution. This, to me, should be looked
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: at as a deterrent to anyone else thinking about doing
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: something like this, that as long as conservatives are in charge,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: this will be your fate if you survive that day.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Look, and I believe the death penalty is a matter
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: of justice. It's a matter of punishing those who commit
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: premeditated murder. In this case, it was an act of terrorism. Now,
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: in terms of the specifics... I actually pulled out Grok
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: and I typed in, when will Nadal Hassan be executed?
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: And here's what Grok came up with. Nadal Hassan is
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: scheduled to be executed by Army firing squad on December 3rd,
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: 2026 at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time at Fort Hood,
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: the base where he carried out the 2009 attack. I'm
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: going to mention as an aside, I think it is
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: particularly just that he is scheduled to be executed at
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: Fort Hood where he carried out this act of terrorism.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: Grok continues. That date comes from an Army execution order
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: and a statement by Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Tell,
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: reported on October 6, 2026, after families of victims were
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: notified by email. President Trump approved the death sentence on
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: October 2. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended a firing squad,
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: and Trump approved that method. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: the approval publicly on October 5. Hassan, a former Army
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: major and psychiatrist, was convicted in 2013 of 13 counts
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: for the November 5, 2009 shooting that killed 13 people.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: Note that Grok says 13 and not 14. The unborn
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: child never makes it in this. And wounded 32. A
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: military jury sentenced him to death. He has been on
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: military death row at the U.S. disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: the Supreme Court declined to review his case in 2025,
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: ending his direct appeals. If the execution is carried out,
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: it would be the first U.S. military execution since Army
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Private John A. Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth in 1961.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: 1961 was a long time. And the first Army firing
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: squad since World War II. And so then I typed in,
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: how likely is it to be delayed? Look, having litigated
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: a number of death penalty cases on behalf of the
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: state of Texas delay and litigation is always likely here's
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: what Kroc said a delay is plausible and a long
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: one is possible but it is not automatic the December
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: 3rd date is real on paper whether it holds depends
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: almost entirely on a federal court in Kansas his military
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: appeals are finished the court of appeals for the armed
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: forces affirmed the conviction in the sentence and the supreme
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: court denied review in March of 2025 What remains is
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: collateral review, a habeas corpus petition in federal district court
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: in Kansas, which could include a request for stay. The
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: only modern comparison is Ronald Gray. President George W. Bush
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: approved his military death sentence in July of 2008. The
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: Army set his execution for December 10, 2008, and a
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: federal judge stated days beforehand. Now, that was 2008. What
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: happened to Gray? Gray is still on military death row. Now,
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: two things cut the other way that say that Hassan
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: may well be executed in December of this year. Hassan
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: has long said he wants to die and has not
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: fought the case the way most capital defendants do. He's
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: represented himself at trial and framed the shooting as jihad.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Courts have sometimes let lawyers press review anyway when a
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: prisoner's competence to waive is in doubt, so his wishes
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: are not fully controlling. On the merits... military justice analysts
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: at the National Institute of Military Justice have described the
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: odds in the 10th Circuit as low to none. A
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: weak claim can still buy time if a judge grants
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: a stay while it is litigated. So it's not 100%
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: certain by any means that the execution will happen on
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: December 3rd, but I think President Trump is exactly right.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: It is way past time. And I think this sentence,
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: which a jury of his peers entered in the military
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: trial should have been carried out long ago, and I
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: very much hope finally for the families of the victims
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: who were murdered, we see justice on December 3rd of
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: this year.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, amen to that. I couldn't agree with you more.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: All right. I want to take a moment and talk
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: to you real quick about the midterm elections.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: They're here.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: And if the DSA Democrats win, they'll push a radical
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: socialist agenda and drown President Trump in endless investigations. How
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: do we know this? Because that's what they said they're
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: going to do. Now, we've seen their playbook before. They
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: tried impeaching him. They tried putting him in prison. They've
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: tried everything. So don't let them win, because if we lose,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: they'll undo everything our movement has fought for. Now, I
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: need you to vote early. You can bank your vote
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: and fight back against the left's turnout machine. Go to
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: GOPvotes.org right now and find out when you can vote. Now,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: if you live in the critical Senate battleground states of
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Maine or Ohio, early voting is already underway starting this week.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Making your voice heard is easier than ever. You can
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: get election reminders, look up your polling location, and pick
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: a date to vote early. Go to gopvotes.org today. Paid
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: for by SLF PAC, not authorized by any candidate or
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: candidates committee. All right, Senator, I want to move to
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: the second story that we mentioned earlier. And I got
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: to tell you, the news coming out of USAID and
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: how Elon Musk was able to have a major impact
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: on the left's chokehold in Latin America. This story is
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: really interesting. And it's one that shows you if you're
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: committed to a cause, you can have a really big
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: impact if you focus on the facts.
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: Well. This is a story I want everyone listening to
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: really understand because it is profound and it is completely
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: unreported in the press. As you know, when President Trump
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: came in for the second term, he appointed Elon Musk
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: as the head of Doge. One of the first things
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: Elon Musk did is essentially zeroed out USAID. So the
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: billions of dollars that had been flowing out in foreign
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: aid just stopped. And the left, the Democrats, the press,
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: they all screamed blue murder. They described it as chicken little.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: The sky is falling. The world is ending. People are dying.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: It is horrible. Well, they nonetheless succeeded in cutting the
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: vast majority of that money. Here is an interesting consequence
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: of this that very few people are noting. Since the
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: USAID money stopped flowing, leftists... communists, America-hating zealots, have stopped
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: winning elections in Latin America. During Joe Biden, while the
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: USAID money was flowing, we saw leftists and communists and
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: people who hate America winning election after election after election
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: and implementing socialism and Marxism throughout Latin America. That has
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: ground to a halt. And the obvious inference is is
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: that USAID, the federal taxpayers, were flowing money, millions if
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: not billions of dollars, to Marxists who hate America, to
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: elect communists that not only hurt Latin American countries, but
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: fight against the United States. I want to read to
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: you a very interesting tweet from Breville Le Pogam. Now,
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: I don't know Breville Le Pogam. He is a French entrepreneur,
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: apparently from an AI company, but he sent a tweet
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: that I read on X, and it was striking, and
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: it really made this point in a way that was powerful.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: I want to read it to you. It's a long tweet,
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: but it has a lot of substance to it. In
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: 50 years, history books will say that Elon Musk won
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: a war that no one even knew we were losing.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: A war that began 100 years ago in an Italian
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: prison cell. In 1926, Mussolini had a 35-year-old Sardinian intellectual arrested.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: At the trial, the prosecutor reportedly said, quote, we must
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: stop this brain from working for 20 years. His name,
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: was Antonio Gramsci. His brain never stopped working. In prison,
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: he filled thousands of pages that became one of the
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: most influential political texts of the 20th century. I think
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: we're living through the moment when the theory is collapsing.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Let me explain. Gramsci asked a simple question. Why did
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: the communist revolution succeed in Russia, but fail everywhere in
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: the West? His answer was, In the West, power isn't
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: just held by the state, the police, and the army.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: It's held by culture. But what people find normal, obvious,
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: common sense, he called it cultural hegemony. So, to seize power,
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: you don't first take the palace. You first take the minds,
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: the schools, the universities, the newspapers, the theater, publishing, the courts.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: That's the war of position, a slow conquest, institution by institution.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: When the culture is flipped, the politics follows on its own.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: Forty years later, the German activist Rudi Doisky would turn
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: it into a slogan, the long march through the institutions.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: For decades, we've lived with a puzzle that no one
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: could really explain. Why are almost all artists on the left?
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: The actors, the singers, the teachers, the journalists, a good
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: chunk of the judiciary. Why could a country vote right
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: election after election and still see its culture speaking with
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: one voice? We were told it's because educated people are
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: on the left. I think the answer is simpler. Gramsci
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: had written the recipe and it was applied. When you
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: control who gets the grant, the job, the good review,
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: the prize, the invitation on the set, you control what becomes, quote,
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: the culture. The same puzzle existed on a global scale.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Why did so many developing countries, especially in Latin America,
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: keep voting again and again for socialist or radical left governments? Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua,
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: the Argentina of the Kirchners, Petro's Colombia. The economy was collapsing.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: The cartels were thriving. Chaos was setting in. And yet
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: the same vote kept coming back. My conviction. Poverty wasn't
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: an accident of the system. It was an electorate. And
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: around it, there was a whole ecosystem of NGOs. Quote,
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: independent media and quote, civil society programs funded largely by
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: Western money. Then, in early 2025, something happened that no
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: one had ever dared to do. Elon and Doge opened
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: up USAID's books. An agency that had been virtually untouchable
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: since 1961. Tens of billions of dollars a year. The
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: vast majority of programs were cut, and the agency was
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: absorbed into the State Department. The faucet was turned off.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: And look at What has happened since? Bolivia. MAS loses
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: power after nearly 20 years. Ecuador. Noboa re-elected. Honduras. The
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: right takes back the country. Chile. CAST elected. Argentina. Malay
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: wins the midterm elections by a landslide. And two days ago, Brazil.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: Jair Bolsonaro is ineligible, sentenced to 27 years in prison.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: The left thought they'd close the chapter. Lula, 80 years old,
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: was running for a fourth term against a country that
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: was said to be in the bag. On Sunday, his
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: son Flavio came in first in the first round, over 47%
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: against nearly 45% for Lula. Lula himself acknowledged a quote,
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: unexpected result. The largest country in Latin America is one
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: runoff away from flipping. The biggest rightward turn on the
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: continent in decades. Coincidence? I don't think so. When the
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: funding dries up, the narrative loses its megaphones. There's one
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: last real stronghold left, Europe. Brussels funds its own network
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: of NGOs, with an opacity that even the European Court
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: of Auditors has pointed out. The big foundations, like Soros'
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: Open Society. The supranational entities that produce norms without ever
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: facing a voter. It's the last fortress of cultural hegemony.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: And it's starting to crack. I'm convinced all of this
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: is going to collapse, and faster than we think. Gramsci
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: was right on one essential point. Culture precedes politics. But
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: he forgot that it works both ways. When an artificial
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: culture loses its IV drip, what's real underneath rises to
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: the surface. What comes next, I believe, is a renaissance.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: A culture that starts loving beauty, ambition, science, the civilization
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: that gives it birth again. And in the history books,
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: we'll remember that it all started when one man decided
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: to look at the accounts. It took someone rich enough
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: not to depend on anyone, crazy enough to take it on,
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: and free enough to weather the hate that would follow. Thanks, Elon.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: You listen to that and I got to tell you,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: it goes back to just focus. And it's one of
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: the things I think that is so really important about
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: what he was able to accomplish the way that you
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: describe it. And it's it is it's incredibly important that
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: we have that we have leaders that step up and
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: do things, do bold things. You and I have talked
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: numerous times about how I think Elon Musk saved free
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: speech in this country by buying X. And what a
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: massive impact that had on this country as well. Now,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: before I get your response to that.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: I want to take a moment here and just talk
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: to you about the midterm elections. Look, the Democratic Socialists
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: of America, they won primaries across the country. Next, they're
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: coming for Congress and they're coming for you. If they
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: win the midterms, they'll defund the police. They've already said it.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: They'll reopen the borders. and force men into women's sports.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: You are the last line of defense, and GOPvotes.org is
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: your partner in the fight. So go to GOPvotes.org right
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: now and make a plan to vote early. Now, if
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: you live in the critical Senate battleground states of Maine
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: or Ohio, early voting is already underway starting this week. Democrats,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: they're energized, and the stakes have never been higher. We
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: can't afford to have people like AOC and her communist
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: cronies running the show. That's why I need you to
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: make a plan to vote early right now. Go to
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: GOPvotes.org to find your polling location. Vote early and stop
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: the socialist takeover of America. Paid for by SLF PAC,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: not authorized by any candidate or candidates committee. All right, Senator,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: I want to get your reaction again. This is so
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: much of the legacy of Elon Musk. And I go
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: back to him saving, I think, free speech in many
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: ways in this country with buying X.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: Look, there's no doubt that when Elon Musk purchased Twitter,
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: it was, I believe, the greatest step in defense of
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: free speech, at least in a generation. And if Elon
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: had not bought Twitter, I don't know that Donald Trump
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: gets reelected in 2024. There was such a stranglehold on
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: free speech and X has become the public square. And
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: when you have propaganda from the left that the news media,
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: the corporate media tries to force down our throat, X
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: is now the vehicle that the truth gets out. But
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: if you look at what USAID is doing, and by
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: the way, I want to pause. Ben, have you heard
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: a single news anchor, a single newspaper like the Washington Post,
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: New York Times, like a major newspaper say, comment on
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: the massive shift in Latin America that happened since the
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: billions stopped flowing through USAID?
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: Not a single one.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: It's absolute silence, and I want to read, this is
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: from a column in the Daily Caller by Mary Rook,
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: and it says, and this makes the same point, but
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: I want to read this as well. Following the Trump
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: administration's aggressive restructuring of the U.S. Agency for International Development,
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: a striking pattern emerged across Latin America. Left-wing governments, long
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: dominant in several countries, suddenly stopped winning national elections. Center-right
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: and conservative presidential candidates have swept to victory in Bolivia, Chile, Honduras,
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: Costa Rica, Peru, and Colombia since Trump ordered the cancellation
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: of the bulk of USAID's programs. While it's normal to
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: see some political pendulum swinging, the speed and uniformity of
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: the recent shift coinciding with President Donald Trump's neutering USAID's
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: democracy and governing funding apparatus, raises uncomfortable questions. On day
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: one of Trump's second term, he signed an executive order
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: pausing most foreign assistance as a first shot across the bow.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: USAID eventually ceased independent operations, was effectively absorbed under the
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: State Department. Secretary of State Marco Rubio oversaw the cancellation
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: of approximately 83% of USAID programs, which were worth tens
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: of billions of dollars. Quote, after a six-week review, we
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: are officially canceling 83% of the programs of USAID. The
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: 5,200 contracts that are now canceled spent tens of billions
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: of dollars in ways that did not serve, and in
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: some cases even harmed, the core national interest of the
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: United States, Rubio said. After a six-week review, we are
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: officially canceling 83% of the programs at USAID. A substantial
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: portion of these now-canceled contracts fell under the Democracy, Human Rights,
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: and Governance portfolio. These initiatives funded election support, legislative strengthening,
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: local governance reforms, anti-corruption efforts, independent media, civil society capacity building,
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: and human rights advocacy. This is me making an observation.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: In other words, all BS designed to advance leftist causes.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: In short, this funding often helps prop up left-leaning social
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: agendas in foreign countries. Daily Signal's Tyler O'Neill testified during
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in February
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: 2005 that USAID had, quote, troubling ties to the left's
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: dark money network. USAID spent millions propping up the Marxist
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: ideology of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the unfair and divisive
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: transgender orthodoxy, and the climate alarmist movement. Some of these
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: grants arguably undermine America's standing in the world. USAID awarded
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: a roughly $ 2 million cooperative agreement in 2024 to Asociación
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: Lambda in Guatemala to help strengthen so-called gender-affirming health care.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: The agency also awarded funding to support other LGBTQ projects,
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: such as transgender-themed artistic initiatives in Colombia and Peru. While
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: framed as human rights work, USAID funded NGOs to promote
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: far-left ideologies in culturally conservative countries, with DRG's election integrity
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: arm working alongside them. And here's a simple question. Has
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: a left-wing government won an election in Latin America since
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: the USAID NGO complex was defunded? The answer to that
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: is no. Center-right Senator Rodrigo Paz-Piera defeated candidates tied to
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: the long-ruling Socialist MAS party in 2025, ending nearly two
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: decades of dominance in Bolivia. Chile's presidential race delivered a
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: victory for José Antonio Kass' right-wing coalition. Honduran voters chose
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: conservative Nasri Asfura. Costa Rica elected right-wing populist Laura Fernandez
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Delgado in February. Peru's June contest produced a narrow win
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: for Kiko Fujimora on the right. Colombia's June runoff saw
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: hard-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espiera prevail over the leftist candidate.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: It wasn't that the region hadn't already seen the mood
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: shift from left to right, as Javier Millet famously won
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: the presidency in Argentina in 2023. Still, the post-Trump USAID
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: restructuring stands out for the complete absence of left-wing political
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: breakthroughs after its implementation. A shift happens slowly over time.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: And while correlation does not equal causation, the rapid acceleration
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: of right-wing successes only makes sense if the entire left-wing
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: support apparatus was astroturfed by USAID funding. Let me read
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: that sentence again. The rapid acceleration of right-wing successes in
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: Latin America only makes sense if the entire left-wing support
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: apparatus was astroturfed by USAID funding. This is a big mistake.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: Big deal. And it's an enormous success, not just for America,
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: but for the country throughout Latin America.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Senator, that's exactly why I love doing this show with you,
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: because we get to highlight stories like this. As you mentioned,
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: no one else is talking about. And this is one
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: of those stories where I said, everyone listening, this is
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: what you need to be sharing.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: That's exactly right. And I want to encourage you guys, look,
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: verdict listeners, you're smart, you're informed. And you know things
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: other people don't. I want to encourage you when you're
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: talking to your friends, when you're talking to your colleagues
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: around the water cooler at the office, when you're talking
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: to your kids, to say, hey, have you noticed that
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: every election since we cut off the USAID funding in
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: Latin America has gone not to the leftists but to conservatives?
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: What does that tell you about what the people of
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: Latin America want? And there are two points that are
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: really important. If it is right that USAID funding was
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: sending billions to elect communists in Latin America, the federal government,
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: the American government, was hurting the people of Latin America.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: Communism is the most destructive ideology mankind has ever invented.
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: If the people of Latin America don't want it, and
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: the fact that once the money stops, they keep voting
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: for conservative free market candidates suggests they don't want it,
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: then America was exporting harmful ideology to the entirety of
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: Latin America. And by the way, I think more broadly
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: the rest of the world. But look, Latin America, the
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: Western Hemisphere is our backyard. But secondly, the people that
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: were being elected in Latin America with the support of
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: USAID were not just left-wingers. It's one thing to say, okay,
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: each party, they get in power and they want their
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: team to win. Okay, their differences, higher taxes, lower taxes,
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: we can disagree on some of that. But the people
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: who were being elected in Latin America were viciously anti-American.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: They hated the United States of America. So you literally
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: had the federal government taking the taxpayer money of Americans
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: and sending it to help support the election of communists
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: in Latin America who hate America, who fight America. We
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: were fighting against ourselves. Very few people realized that was happening.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: And I will say, Ben, The chances of USAID being
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: zeroed out or largely zeroed out under any president other
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: than Donald Trump were essentially zero. There was not another
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: president who would have had the guts to do this.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: And his doing this, it revealed the absolute crock, the lie,
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: the manipulation, the destruction of our nation from the deep state.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: And it was Donald Trump plus Elon Musk who had courage.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: And I'll tell you, they benefited... certainly all of Latin America,
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: but they benefited America too. We're not electing leaders now
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: in our hemisphere who hate America. That's a really good
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: thing to have instead leaders who want to stand with
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: America and be our friends.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: Amen to that. Don't forget, we do this show three
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Hit that subscribe or
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: auto-download button so you do not miss a single episode
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: of Verdict with Ted Cruz. You can also watch the
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: majority of them as well on YouTube, so you can
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: watch it there and on Facebook. And the Senator and
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: I will see you back here in a couple of days.