Latest / The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson / Defending Police Heroes, Passing Trey’s Law & Fighting for Imprisoned Christians in China, plus Israel Sues the NYT

Transcript

Defending Police Heroes, Passing Trey’s Law & Fighting for Imprisoned Christians in China, plus Israel Sues the NYT · The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome. It is Verdic with Center. Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
0:04
Speaker 1: with you. It's so nice to have you with us.
0:05
Speaker 1: If you're listening on the radio around the Country Center.
0:07
Speaker 1: We've got a lot to chat about on today's show,
0:10
Speaker 1: including some we haven't seen a long time. We are
0:13
Speaker 1: celebrating at the White House. It in Washington, d C.
0:16
Speaker 1: Law enforcement not trying to defund them.
0:19
Speaker 2: Well, that's exactly right. This past week was Police Week.
0:22
Speaker 2: We had police officers from all across the country come
0:25
Speaker 2: to Washington, d C.
0:26
Speaker 3: Come to the.
0:27
Speaker 2: Capitol and we celebrated, celebrated the heroism. We celebrated and
0:32
Speaker 2: remembered the officers who gave their lives, gave their lives
0:37
Speaker 2: in duty defending us. And it really after all of
0:42
Speaker 2: the vilification, after all of the attacks that are directed
0:44
Speaker 2: at police officers, it was nice to have a time
0:47
Speaker 2: just to say thank you. And it was also a
0:49
Speaker 2: time that was recognized the Senate Judiciary Committee. This week
0:53
Speaker 2: we passed a series of bills out of the Judiciary Committee,
0:56
Speaker 2: including two different bills that I authored, one directed specifically
1:01
Speaker 2: to police officers and a second protecting child victims of
1:06
Speaker 2: sexual assault, and both of those victories are significant. Both
1:10
Speaker 2: of them are now going to the floor of the Senate,
1:12
Speaker 2: and I think we'll get both pasted into law.
1:14
Speaker 1: It's going to be really awesome. We're going to break
1:15
Speaker 1: that down for you in a moment. I also want
1:17
Speaker 1: to tell you about a organization that you may not
1:21
Speaker 1: even know exists, and it's one that is so important,
1:23
Speaker 1: Americans United for Life and the amazing work that they're
1:28
Speaker 1: doing right now. If you are proud to be pro life,
1:32
Speaker 1: just like I am, then you need to know about
1:35
Speaker 1: the Americans United for Life. Over the past fifty years,
1:40
Speaker 1: they have filed more than two hundred legal briefs and
1:43
Speaker 1: helped create at least four hundred pro life bills in
1:46
Speaker 1: over forty states by writing model legislation, consulting with state legislators,
1:53
Speaker 1: and defending their own laws and other pro life statutes
1:56
Speaker 1: in court. AUL is a nonprofit law firm an advocacy
2:01
Speaker 1: group that was founded in nineteen seventy one, two years
2:04
Speaker 1: before Roe established the constitucial right to an abortion before
2:09
Speaker 1: fetal viability. Aul's dual front approach of writing and defending
2:14
Speaker 1: legislation has proved an effective one that could become even
2:18
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2:22
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2:27
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2:31
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2:36
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2:40
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2:43
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2:47
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3:08
Speaker 1: org slash verdict a UL dot org slash verdict sponsored
3:15
Speaker 1: by Americans United for Life. All right, Senator, so let's
3:18
Speaker 1: talk about saying that's just exciting for me. My dad
3:22
Speaker 1: still is involved in law enforcement. I am so glad
3:25
Speaker 1: to see the Republican Party moving to put a law
3:29
Speaker 1: enforcement where they deserve to be, which is in a
3:31
Speaker 1: great light instead of a dehumanizing, attacking defund And every
3:37
Speaker 1: time something happens, we immediately go after law enforcement that
3:40
Speaker 1: has changed and something else that's really significant, A bipartisan
3:44
Speaker 1: piece of legislation that your name is on that is
3:47
Speaker 1: going to do something incredible for people that protect.
3:51
Speaker 3: And serve well.
3:52
Speaker 2: This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed my legislation.
3:57
Speaker 2: It's entitled the Officer John Barnes and Chi Michael ansbro
4:01
Speaker 2: Public Safety Officers Benefit Program Expansion Act of twenty twenty six.
4:06
Speaker 2: Now it is named for two tremendous heroes. First of all,
4:10
Speaker 2: Officer John Barnes. Officer John Barnes was the police officer
4:15
Speaker 2: at Santa Fe High School where you'll recall Ben the
4:18
Speaker 2: horrific school shooting that happened. Santa Fe is just outside
4:23
Speaker 2: of Houston, and it's the morning of that shooting. I
4:27
Speaker 2: was actually at home when that shooting happened, and so
4:30
Speaker 2: I jumped in a truck and headed down to the school.
4:32
Speaker 2: I was on campus about an hour after the shooting happened,
4:36
Speaker 2: and I will tell you the horror of what transpired
4:40
Speaker 2: there as that deranged gunman shot and murdered multiple students
4:47
Speaker 2: and Officer John Barnes was on duty, and when the
4:51
Speaker 2: shooter began his rampage, Officer Barnes rushed the shooter. He
4:57
Speaker 2: put himself between the shooter and the students. He saved
5:01
Speaker 2: multiple students' lives. And the shooter had one of the
5:05
Speaker 2: weapons he was armed with was a shotgun, and he
5:08
Speaker 2: fired the shotgun and it hit Officer Barnes in the
5:11
Speaker 2: arm and did permanent damage to his elbow, to his arm.
5:16
Speaker 1: Uh.
5:16
Speaker 3: He had massive blood loss. Uh.
5:19
Speaker 2: And he ended up actually flatlining twice and being resuscitated twice.
5:24
Speaker 2: And I've got to know Officer Barnes, and he's he's
5:28
Speaker 2: the man is a hero. He risked his life and
5:31
Speaker 2: almost gave his life to protect the students that he
5:34
Speaker 2: had been charged with protecting. And so this bill honors
5:38
Speaker 2: him and and and it also honors Chief Michael ansbro
5:43
Speaker 2: who was a hero on nine to eleven, And he
5:46
Speaker 2: was one of the first responders in nine to eleven
5:48
Speaker 2: who rushed into the building, rescued people, risked his life.
5:54
Speaker 3: Uh.
5:54
Speaker 2: He survived nine to eleven in the collapse of the towers,
5:57
Speaker 2: but in the course of that he inhalesiled so much
6:01
Speaker 2: toxic material that ultimately Chief Annsbrod died from cancer from
6:09
Speaker 2: all of the poison he inhaled on nine to eleven.
6:12
Speaker 2: With both of them, they submitted applications to the Public
6:18
Speaker 2: Safety Officer's Benefit Program. Now, the Public Safety Officer's Benefit
6:22
Speaker 2: Program is created within the Department of Justice and in
6:27
Speaker 2: particular the Bureau of Justice Assistance, and it does several things.
6:31
Speaker 2: Number one, it provides death benefits to survivors of officers
6:36
Speaker 2: who died.
6:37
Speaker 3: In the line of duty.
6:38
Speaker 2: And that's something I think we owe owe their families
6:41
Speaker 2: to say thank you for that. And then secondly, it
6:46
Speaker 2: provides assistance to people who are permanently disabled as a
6:50
Speaker 2: result of in the light of the duty injury. And
6:54
Speaker 2: the problem is that the program has historically been very
6:59
Speaker 2: very slow and very very delayed. You look at the
7:03
Speaker 2: Santa Fe shooting. The Santa Fe shooting happened in twenty eighteen.
7:09
Speaker 2: Officer Barnes application is still pending. It's eight years later
7:14
Speaker 2: and it hasn't been adjudicated. The same is true for
7:19
Speaker 2: the application for benefits for Chief Ansbrose family, is that
7:23
Speaker 2: it's delayed and it's still pending long after he passed away.
7:28
Speaker 2: And so what this bill that I did along with
7:31
Speaker 2: Kirsten gilibrand Kirsten Jilibran is a Democrat from New York.
7:33
Speaker 3: She's a friend.
7:34
Speaker 2: She and I have actually done quite a bit together,
7:36
Speaker 2: and so she this was originally the Officer John Barnes
7:41
Speaker 2: bill because he's a Texan and someone I know, and
7:44
Speaker 2: we teamed up and she brought in Michael Landsboro to
7:48
Speaker 2: honor a nine to eleven hero as well. And what
7:51
Speaker 2: this bill does is speed up the determination of benefits.
7:54
Speaker 2: And so it puts a shot clock of two hundred
7:58
Speaker 2: and seventy days. It says the Department of Justice must
8:01
Speaker 2: make it a termination within two hundred and seventy days.
8:03
Speaker 2: You can't have it drag on for eight years. And
8:06
Speaker 2: it also it expedites the processing. And it also expands
8:12
Speaker 2: the coverage. So it extends partial eligibility to officers who
8:16
Speaker 2: are permanently but not totally disabled. So if you have
8:21
Speaker 2: a permanent disability, you qualify. It expands the number of officers,
8:25
Speaker 2: the number of officers families who qualify, and it speeds it up.
8:29
Speaker 2: We got this through the Senate Judiciary Committee. The next
8:31
Speaker 2: step is to move it on the floor of the Senate.
8:33
Speaker 2: Then we'll move it through the House, and I'm confident
8:36
Speaker 2: President Trump will sign it to law.
8:38
Speaker 1: Before we get to trades with Law Center, I want
8:40
Speaker 1: to ask you a couple of questions. Just I think
8:43
Speaker 1: when Americans see this type of bipartisan leadership and you
8:48
Speaker 1: see that this about benefits of those that have risked
8:51
Speaker 1: their lives or given the ultimate sacrifice their life, and
8:55
Speaker 1: to see how many loopholes there are to jump through
8:59
Speaker 1: to clearly get the benefits of the family needs. If
9:02
Speaker 1: you've ever set with an officer, and I have, and
9:05
Speaker 1: it's a miserable moment, or let me rephrase that, a
9:09
Speaker 1: family of a fallen officer. In that miserable moment, even
9:13
Speaker 1: after all of all the people go back home and
9:17
Speaker 1: life gets back to normal, that is when the real
9:19
Speaker 1: thermal they say, sets in because you're waiting for so
9:23
Speaker 1: many things that you've been promised to come through. And
9:27
Speaker 1: then you compare that center to the waste, fraud, and
9:29
Speaker 1: abuse that we're finding where there's just billions here, another
9:32
Speaker 1: billion here, another million here, another twenty million here, another
9:35
Speaker 1: thirty million here, these daycare centers, hospice centers. It would
9:39
Speaker 1: make you go insane if you are a family that's
9:42
Speaker 1: just waiting on the benefit because your loved one gave
9:45
Speaker 1: their life to protect and serve. How frustrating is that
9:49
Speaker 1: for you when you see that this is how we
9:51
Speaker 1: treat our heroes and yet the villains, these con artists,
9:55
Speaker 1: they can get their hands on billions and billions of dollars.
9:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's deeply frustrating. Listen, if an officer tragically
10:02
Speaker 2: loses his or her life in the line of duty,
10:05
Speaker 2: that there's nothing we can do to bring them back.
10:07
Speaker 2: There's nothing we can do to bring that officer back
10:10
Speaker 2: to their loved ones.
10:11
Speaker 3: Uh. But but we do owe honoring our commitments to them.
10:14
Speaker 3: We do oh being there for their family. Uh.
10:18
Speaker 2: The men and women in blue who put themselves on
10:20
Speaker 2: the line, like John Barnes, they literally stand in harm's way.
10:25
Speaker 2: They stand between someone who would harm or kill us.
10:30
Speaker 1: Uh.
10:30
Speaker 2: And and ourselves are our loved ones. And and unfortunately,
10:35
Speaker 2: bureaucracy is one of the few constants in the world,
10:38
Speaker 2: and and dealing with the federal government is frequently maddening
10:43
Speaker 2: and infuriating. That being said, the pso B process, this
10:47
Speaker 2: benefit process, is notoriously slow, It is notoriously backlogged. And
10:53
Speaker 2: so this is a common sense bill just to speed
10:55
Speaker 2: up the process, to ensure that that that that whether
10:59
Speaker 2: it's an office who's lost his life like Chief Ansbro
11:03
Speaker 2: or whether it's an officer who is permanently disabled, like
11:07
Speaker 2: John Barnes, that we make the determinations quickly and we
11:12
Speaker 2: provide them the benefits they've been promised.
11:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely right. I want to move on to Tred's
11:18
Speaker 1: Law as well, and we've talked about this before on
11:20
Speaker 1: this show, but for people that are listening many are
11:23
Speaker 1: listening on the radio around the country this show, can
11:25
Speaker 1: you give us a recap of Trade's Law, how it
11:28
Speaker 1: became about, and now what's happening moving forward.
11:31
Speaker 2: Well, Trey's Law is named for a Texan named for
11:34
Speaker 2: Trey Carlock. Trey Carlock grew up in Dallas and as
11:37
Speaker 2: a kid, he went to a Christian summer camp and
11:41
Speaker 2: at the summer camp, tragically an adult man groomed him
11:46
Speaker 2: and then for years sexually abused him. And ultimately that
11:52
Speaker 2: sexual abuse resulted in a lawsuit. That lawsuit was settled
11:57
Speaker 2: and one of the terms of the settlement was that
11:59
Speaker 2: Trey Carrarlock signed a non disclosure agreement where he committed
12:03
Speaker 2: to not disclose to anyone the details of his years
12:07
Speaker 2: of sexual abuse. Well, the abuse continued taking a toll
12:12
Speaker 2: on Trey, and tragically he took his own life and
12:17
Speaker 2: he was silenced. He shared with his therapist how frustrated
12:20
Speaker 2: he was about being silenced and not being able to
12:24
Speaker 2: speak the truth of his experience of the abuse that
12:28
Speaker 2: he suffered. Trey's law has risen up in the wake
12:32
Speaker 2: of that. And Tray's law is very simple. What it
12:34
Speaker 2: does is it prohibits enforcement of non disclosure agreements concerning
12:40
Speaker 2: victims of child sexual assault, so that legally you cannot
12:45
Speaker 2: enforce a gag order that if a child is sexually assaulted.
12:48
Speaker 2: And I will say, sexual assault of kids is an
12:51
Speaker 2: epidemic in this country. It happens far too often, and
12:55
Speaker 2: litigation and non disclosure agreements are commonplace features that that
13:00
Speaker 2: that the the people who are assaulting kids will put
13:04
Speaker 2: in place to silence the victims.
13:06
Speaker 3: And nobody should have a right to do that. Uh.
13:08
Speaker 2: You know, Tray's Law was was championed by by Trey's sister, Elizabeth,
13:12
Speaker 2: and we had Elizabeth on this show. She talked about
13:15
Speaker 2: her brother, she talked about her her effort. She went
13:18
Speaker 2: in Texas. The state legislature in Texas has already passed
13:21
Speaker 2: Trade's Law.
13:22
Speaker 3: Uh.
13:22
Speaker 2: The legislature at Alabama's passed trades law. Missouri has passed
13:25
Speaker 2: trades law. A number of different states of passed Tray's
13:27
Speaker 2: Law UH and I introduced it UH in the US
13:31
Speaker 2: Congress uh to so that we could pass it nationally.
13:35
Speaker 2: And again I joined with with Kirsten Gillibrand she and
13:37
Speaker 2: I did both of these bills together, UH and and
13:41
Speaker 2: it is it is designed to ensure that that that
13:45
Speaker 2: any child victim has the right to speak out and
13:49
Speaker 2: and the court system will not be used as a
13:53
Speaker 2: tool of a second round of abuse, because when you're
13:56
Speaker 2: silencing a child victim, that is once again abusive. And
14:02
Speaker 2: in Trey's case in particular, he described that great length
14:06
Speaker 2: to his therapist how he felt silenced and agonized that
14:09
Speaker 2: he wasn't able to speak about it. His sister Elizabeth
14:13
Speaker 2: told us on this podcast how much of what happened
14:17
Speaker 2: to her brother she didn't even find out about until
14:20
Speaker 2: after he was dead, until after he'd taken his own life,
14:23
Speaker 2: because because of the gag order, he didn't share it
14:27
Speaker 2: with his sister, he didn't share it with his family.
14:30
Speaker 2: And so Trey's Law, we passed it unanimously through the
14:32
Speaker 2: Senate Judiciary Committee. We'll get it on the floor, we'll
14:36
Speaker 2: get it through the House and once again, the President's
14:38
Speaker 2: going to sign.
14:38
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14:58
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16:45
Speaker 1: All right, Sentata, I want to talk about the presence
16:48
Speaker 1: big trip to China and specifically you add some notes,
16:53
Speaker 1: some requests, some advocacy for some Americans that are being held.
16:58
Speaker 1: And this was a really big moment that people should
17:01
Speaker 1: be talking about.
17:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, so this was a meaningful legislative week. We've already
17:06
Speaker 2: talked about the two victories we had in the Senate
17:08
Speaker 2: Judiciary Committee passing two bills I authored. We had a
17:11
Speaker 2: third victory on the Senate floor, which is the entire
17:14
Speaker 2: Senate passed a resolution that I authored along with Dick Durbin,
17:18
Speaker 2: Democrat from Illinois, concerning the President's China trip and in
17:23
Speaker 2: particular urging the President to prioritize the release of political prisoners,
17:28
Speaker 2: the release of people who are wrongfully imprisoned in China,
17:32
Speaker 2: including Jimmy Lai, who's the great democracy activist in Hong Kong.
17:36
Speaker 2: I met Jimmy Lai when I traveled to Hong Kong.
17:39
Speaker 2: I met with him. His health is failing. He is
17:42
Speaker 2: being imprisoned because the Chinese Communist government views him as
17:46
Speaker 2: a threat to their communist depression. And then also focusing
17:50
Speaker 2: on the Christian pastors and including Pastor ezra Zin who
17:55
Speaker 2: have been targeted, who have been arrested. China has been
17:58
Speaker 2: cracking down on Christian pastors and so Dick Durbin and
18:02
Speaker 2: I together introduced this resolution. We took it to the
18:04
Speaker 2: Senate floor and this week it passed one hundred to nothing.
18:08
Speaker 2: So the entire Senate with a bipartisan voice urge the
18:12
Speaker 2: President prioritize the releasing of these political prisoners.
18:16
Speaker 1: It matters how much political I think pressure in a
18:21
Speaker 1: positive way does that create for the conversation that happened,
18:25
Speaker 1: Because when you meet with an adversary like China, and
18:29
Speaker 1: if you've ever been around these meetings, I was around
18:32
Speaker 1: a couple of them, and the Bush is second term,
18:35
Speaker 1: a lot of it is very much scripted. You have
18:37
Speaker 1: State Department that gets with their equivalent, the State Department.
18:39
Speaker 1: They decide what will and will not be talked about
18:41
Speaker 1: the table and these meetings. But when you have one
18:44
Speaker 1: hundred and nothing vote, you have Dick Durbin, you have
18:46
Speaker 1: you And is that giving the AMMO extra to the
18:49
Speaker 1: President saying hey, you've got all of the United States
18:53
Speaker 1: Congress behind you. It gives you a reason even if
18:55
Speaker 1: you need to in essence to break protocol on what's
18:58
Speaker 1: been agreed to in the meetings, to say, hey, this
19:00
Speaker 1: just happened and we got to talk about it.
19:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly right. And this is something when I
19:06
Speaker 2: put this resolution on the floor, I'm working in coordination
19:10
Speaker 2: with the White House, with the administration and the President
19:14
Speaker 2: had already indicated an openness to raising these political prisoners.
19:19
Speaker 2: And what this does is give him additional ammunition. It
19:22
Speaker 2: lets him say to Ji, look, the Senate one hundred
19:27
Speaker 2: and nothing. We may have political disagreements in our country
19:29
Speaker 2: and other topics, but.
19:30
Speaker 3: Not on this.
19:31
Speaker 2: Every every single Senator, from the most conservative to the
19:35
Speaker 2: most liberal, they're all on the same page. And I
19:37
Speaker 2: use an example that's actually a very similar circumstance, which
19:40
Speaker 2: is Mark Swedan. So, Mark Swedan is a Texan who
19:46
Speaker 2: was wrongfully imprisoned in China for over ten years.
19:49
Speaker 3: He was thrown in.
19:50
Speaker 2: Prison, his health failed badly, and I led the fight
19:54
Speaker 2: in the Senate for years to free Mark Swedan, including
19:58
Speaker 2: sitting down with a ambassador in one on one, leaning
20:02
Speaker 2: in very hard, trying urging China to release him, that
20:07
Speaker 2: that that civilized countries don't keep political prisoners. Joe Biden
20:11
Speaker 2: was President UH during much of this time, and so
20:14
Speaker 2: I repeatedly pressured President Biden and and and the State
20:19
Speaker 2: Department to raise Mark Swedan. Mark Sweden's mom is it
20:24
Speaker 2: lives in Texas. I talked to her multiple times, and
20:27
Speaker 2: I did the same thing. I introduced a resolution calling
20:31
Speaker 2: for the release of Mark Swedan, and it passed the
20:33
Speaker 2: Senate just like this one did one hundred and nothing
20:36
Speaker 2: that gives real force, and it ended up Joe Biden
20:40
Speaker 2: followed through and pressed it. The State Department followed through,
20:44
Speaker 2: and finally the pressure was enough that China released Mark Swedan.
20:48
Speaker 2: So he is no longer in a Chinese prison. He
20:50
Speaker 2: has been released. He came back. In fact, he came
20:52
Speaker 2: to my office. I had the opportunity to meet him
20:56
Speaker 2: and embrace him. And this is someone who for years
20:59
Speaker 2: I was speaking his name and demanding his release. And
21:02
Speaker 2: it's you know, often when you're dealing with with with
21:06
Speaker 2: a government like the Chinese Communist government, it's a question
21:10
Speaker 2: of ratcheting up pressure and any one step typically is
21:15
Speaker 2: not enough. But the more pressure you put on, the
21:18
Speaker 2: more leverage you put on, the more likely they are
21:21
Speaker 2: to comply. So, you know, here's what the resolution said,
21:26
Speaker 2: expressing the sense of the Senate that the President should
21:28
Speaker 2: prioritize securing the release of Pastor Jin Mengri, Pastor Guau
21:34
Speaker 2: Guangfu and his wife, Pangju Jimmy Lai, doctor Gulshan Abbas
21:40
Speaker 2: and Ek Perasat detained by the People's Republic of China
21:43
Speaker 2: during future engagements with Chinese President Shijingping, Whereas the government
21:49
Speaker 2: of the People's Republic of China has arrested Chinese, American
21:53
Speaker 2: and British citizens for the peaceful expression of free speech
21:56
Speaker 2: or religion, or such acts by family members, Whereas such
22:01
Speaker 2: arrests have been widely condemned by the international community and
22:04
Speaker 2: human rights organizations, with repeated calls for the release of
22:08
Speaker 2: the detainees. Whereas, on May seventeenth, twenty twenty five, Pastor
22:14
Speaker 2: Gao Guang Kwangfu of the Light of Zion Church in
22:18
Speaker 2: Xian City was detained and is being held on charges
22:22
Speaker 2: of quote using superstitious activities to undermine the implementation of
22:28
Speaker 2: law in other words, being a Christian is what they're
22:30
Speaker 2: holding him for, and also quote fraud. Whereas Pastor GAO's wife,
22:35
Speaker 2: Pang Yu, who was subsequently detained on June seventh, twenty
22:39
Speaker 2: twenty five, remains held despite holding no official position in
22:43
Speaker 2: the church and has been denied access to critical prescription medication.
22:48
Speaker 2: Whereas Honor about October tenth, twenty twenty five, authorities of
22:52
Speaker 2: the People's Republic of China detained Pastor Jenmingri, founder of
22:57
Speaker 2: Zion Church, along with other church leaders, on equally dubious
23:02
Speaker 2: charges of quote illegal uses of information networks, Whereas Pastor
23:09
Speaker 2: Jin continues to be detained without access to critical medications
23:12
Speaker 2: to treat diabetes or contact with family members in the
23:16
Speaker 2: People's Republic of China and the United States. Whereas on
23:20
Speaker 2: November seventh, twenty twenty five, the Senate unanimously passed Senate
23:25
Speaker 2: Resolution four to sixty three calling for the immediate unconditional
23:29
Speaker 2: release of all detained members of Zion Church, including Pastor
23:33
Speaker 2: Gin and by the way, that was my resolution as
23:35
Speaker 2: well that I introduced in pass last year, and for
23:38
Speaker 2: the government of the People's Republic of China to end
23:42
Speaker 2: harassment and intimidations of the relatives of Zion Church members
23:47
Speaker 2: and their relatives. Whereas in nineteen ninety five, Jimmy Lai
23:52
Speaker 2: founded the Apple Daily newspaper in Hong Kong and subsequently
23:55
Speaker 2: faced repeated harassment and arrest, including a sixty nine months
23:59
Speaker 2: cent twenty twenty two on dubious fraud charges that were
24:03
Speaker 2: later overturned, and a subsequent twenty year sentence in February
24:07
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six on dubious national security charges, Whereas in
24:13
Speaker 2: December twenty twenty five, President Donald Trump said he had
24:15
Speaker 2: asked Chinese President Shi Jingping to consider releasing Jimmy Lai.
24:20
Speaker 2: Whereas on December fourth, twenty twenty five, House Resolution nine
24:25
Speaker 2: thirty was introduced commemorating Jimmy Lai and calling on authorities
24:28
Speaker 2: the People's Republic of China to immediately and unconditionally release
24:31
Speaker 2: Jimmy Lai and all other Hong Kong pro democracy advocates imprisons.
24:36
Speaker 2: It goes on there a whole series more of whereas provisions,
24:40
Speaker 2: but then it says resolved that the Senate calls upon
24:45
Speaker 2: the President to prioritize securing the humanitarian release of Pastor
24:49
Speaker 2: Jin mingre Pastor Guao Gao Kwanfu and his wife Pangyu,
24:54
Speaker 2: Jimmy Lai, doctor Gulsham abbas and Ek Perasat, and other
24:59
Speaker 2: wrongf detained individuals on the agenda for engagements with President
25:03
Speaker 2: Chi Jinping, including the anticipated May twenty twenty sixth summit,
25:08
Speaker 2: and urges the President to seek verifiable proof of life
25:13
Speaker 2: and access to independent legal counsel, family communication, and medical
25:18
Speaker 2: care for such detainees, and reaffirms the commitment of the
25:22
Speaker 2: United States to defend political and religious freedoms worldwide.
25:27
Speaker 1: Incredible, it really is. And look, this is an administration,
25:31
Speaker 1: as you know, that has really been about getting back
25:34
Speaker 1: Americans all over the world. They've made it a prayer order.
25:37
Speaker 2: Its great success. President Trump is very effective at this and.
25:41
Speaker 1: That's the reason why I think it's gonna be very
25:42
Speaker 1: interesting to see what comes out of this quickly, what
25:45
Speaker 1: is your definition of success of overall this big meeting
25:48
Speaker 1: with China.
25:50
Speaker 2: Look, it depends. There are a number of things that
25:53
Speaker 2: President Trump is trying to accomplish. One of the things
25:55
Speaker 2: he's trying to do is to get China to assist
25:59
Speaker 2: with Iran is the main purchaser of Iranian oil, and
26:03
Speaker 2: so China could exert a lot of leverage over Iran,
26:06
Speaker 2: and the President is urging she to lean on Iran
26:12
Speaker 2: in particular to hand over there enriched geranium, to stop enriching,
26:16
Speaker 2: to stop funding terrorism, and to open the Strait of Hormuz. Secondly,
26:19
Speaker 2: I think the President is also working to open the
26:23
Speaker 2: Chinese market. So, for example, it's been reported now that
26:26
Speaker 2: China agreed to buy two hundred Boeing planes.
26:30
Speaker 3: That's a big deal.
26:31
Speaker 2: The President is fighting for farmers and ranchers to get
26:34
Speaker 2: our crops and our livestock into China, and he's fighting
26:38
Speaker 2: for US manufacturers, and so he's fighting for American jobs
26:41
Speaker 2: in China. He's fighting for American national security in China.
26:45
Speaker 2: And he's also fighting for China to do the right
26:47
Speaker 2: thing and release these these wrongfully detained political prisoners.
26:52
Speaker 1: All right, Senator, this is a very interesting story. It
26:54
Speaker 1: deals with the New York Times not saying you say
26:57
Speaker 1: every day, being sued by a foreign country and a
27:02
Speaker 1: lawsuit that I think many are going to be very
27:05
Speaker 1: excited when they hear exactly who's suing the New York
27:07
Speaker 1: Times and what it's all about.
27:09
Speaker 2: Well, let's start with the proposition that The New York
27:11
Speaker 2: Times is a garbage newspaper, that they are not in fact.
27:15
Speaker 1: You need a second for that. I second that, amen.
27:17
Speaker 3: Look, they are not journalists.
27:19
Speaker 2: They are not objectively reporting on facts, they are not
27:22
Speaker 2: trying to tell the truth. They are dishonest. They are
27:25
Speaker 2: propagandas they are hard left, they are frequently pushing anti
27:29
Speaker 2: American propaganda, left wing propaganda, and in particular, The New
27:34
Speaker 2: York Times hates the state of Israel. So they are
27:36
Speaker 2: routinely any way they can slander Israel, they're eager to
27:40
Speaker 2: do so, and that has been the case for many decades.
27:44
Speaker 2: That being said, that they reached a new low with
27:47
Speaker 2: a column by Nicholas Christoff that was truly repulsive and
27:53
Speaker 2: let me read let me read to you how National
27:55
Speaker 2: Review reported on this issue. The Israeli government is suing
27:58
Speaker 2: The New York Times over columnists Nicholas christofs thinly sourced
28:03
Speaker 2: report accusing Israeli soldiers and prison guards of using rape
28:08
Speaker 2: and other forms of sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners as
28:11
Speaker 2: part of an organized state policy. Christof's column, which goes
28:17
Speaker 2: so far as to accuse Israeli soldiers of using trained
28:23
Speaker 2: dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners, cites a number of obviously
28:29
Speaker 2: conflicted organizations and individuals whose accounts are not backed by
28:34
Speaker 2: documentation or supporting eyewitnesses accounts. Now understand this for a minute.
28:38
Speaker 2: Christof wrote that the Israeli government uses dogs to rape
28:42
Speaker 2: Palestinian prisoners men that they let's just start with a
28:47
Speaker 2: fairly obvious proposition. Dogs don't rape people like. That's not
28:52
Speaker 2: something dogs do. That's not like even in the world
28:57
Speaker 2: of anti Semitic Israel. He eight making up stories that
29:02
Speaker 2: they've trained dogs to rape human beings. There is zero
29:07
Speaker 2: evidence of that. That is not something. And by the way,
29:10
Speaker 2: Christoph had no evidence of it. He just cites well, here,
29:13
Speaker 2: I'll read a little more quote following the publication by
29:17
Speaker 2: Nicholas Christoff of The New York Times of one of
29:19
Speaker 2: the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the
29:22
Speaker 2: state of Israel and the modern press, which also received
29:24
Speaker 2: the backing of the newspaper, Prime Minister Benjamin Etna who
29:28
Speaker 2: and Foreign Minister Gideon Syer have instructed the initiation of
29:32
Speaker 2: a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times. So Israel
29:36
Speaker 2: is suing the New York Times for defamation. The column
29:40
Speaker 2: cites fourteen individuals who claim to have been raped or
29:45
Speaker 2: otherwise sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or members of the
29:48
Speaker 2: security forces, only a few of whom agree to be named.
29:52
Speaker 2: Of the name sources, several have changed their accounts over time,
29:54
Speaker 2: and at least one has a history of promoting hamas terror.
29:58
Speaker 2: The column also relies heavily on claims made by human
30:01
Speaker 2: rights watchdogs such as Euromed Human Rights Monitor, a group
30:05
Speaker 2: with close ties to Hamas and a history of gross
30:09
Speaker 2: and unsubstantiated claims against Israel. The Times is standing by Christoff,
30:15
Speaker 2: saying in a Wednesday Evening statement that the column is
30:17
Speaker 2: based on quote on the record accounts and cite several analyzes.
30:22
Speaker 2: This is look the the slander and just the bias
30:27
Speaker 2: of the New York Times that they don't report facts.
30:30
Speaker 2: And I'll tell you Christoff's column came out right before
30:34
Speaker 2: a detailed report came out of the sexual abuse by
30:39
Speaker 2: Hamas on October seventh, and afterwards of the hostages they took.
30:44
Speaker 2: And I guarantee you Christoff of the New York Times,
30:47
Speaker 2: they knew this report was coming. And so this is
30:51
Speaker 2: exactly out of the Sololensky playbook. This is exactly how
30:55
Speaker 2: leftists operate. What it is what they are doing, they
31:00
Speaker 2: accuse others of doing. In this instance, Hamas used rape
31:04
Speaker 2: at a massive level. Now mind you, no accused.
31:08
Speaker 1: Plan and well organized. To be clear, it was part
31:11
Speaker 1: of the attack. And so people understand that's the reporting
31:14
Speaker 1: that was coming out, which is why, of course the
31:15
Speaker 1: New York Times would publish what they just published. The
31:18
Speaker 1: report was very clear that they had pre planned and
31:23
Speaker 1: orchestrated to use rape and sexual assault during and after
31:27
Speaker 1: the attacks of October seventh on the people that we're
31:30
Speaker 1: gonna be taken hostage like this wasn't organic, it was
31:33
Speaker 1: purposely planned to take place. And that's part of the reporting.
31:38
Speaker 1: And so, like you mentioned a moment ago, we will
31:40
Speaker 1: accuse the other side of doing literally what we did
31:43
Speaker 1: and what they did the terrorists did that went in
31:45
Speaker 1: there and took people is they said, we're gonna rape them,
31:48
Speaker 1: We're gonna kill some of them, we're gonna rape others,
31:51
Speaker 1: and we're gonna keep raping them and we're gonna hold
31:53
Speaker 1: them hostage and keep sexually assaulting them. That was all
31:55
Speaker 1: part of their terrorist plan.
31:57
Speaker 3: Yeah.
31:57
Speaker 2: And to give you a sense, you may say, well, look, Christoph,
32:00
Speaker 2: he's a columnist in the New York Times. Surely he's objective.
32:03
Speaker 2: Surely he's not biased, and that would of course be wrong.
32:08
Speaker 2: And stop calling me, Shirley. Let me give you an
32:12
Speaker 2: amazing fact about Nicholas Christoph. Okay, this is from a
32:15
Speaker 2: story in the Free Beacon Headline.
32:18
Speaker 3: Times.
32:18
Speaker 2: Columnist Christoph's father fought on Nazi side in World War II,
32:25
Speaker 2: hamas prison rape dog propagandist. Dad also defended Vshi War
32:29
Speaker 2: criminal then committed suicide after decades of nightmares. Now New
32:35
Speaker 2: York Times columnist Nicholas Christoph, whose article accusing Israel abusing
32:39
Speaker 2: dogs and carrots to rape Palestinian prisoners, is being denounced
32:42
Speaker 2: by the Israeli Foreign Minister as a hamas propagant ganda
32:46
Speaker 2: fabricated in a baseless blood Libel had a father who
32:50
Speaker 2: served on the Nazi side during World War II. In
32:53
Speaker 2: Christof's twenty twenty four memoir Chasing Hope, he writes, when
32:57
Speaker 2: I was growing up and other kids talked about their
32:59
Speaker 2: dad heroically battling the Nazis, I kept quiet. I didn't
33:04
Speaker 2: want to admit that my father had actually fought for
33:06
Speaker 2: a year on the same side of the Nazis. Christo's
33:11
Speaker 2: father also wrote a letter to the editor of The
33:13
Speaker 2: Times in nineteen eighty nine defending Paul Tuvier, the intelligence
33:17
Speaker 2: chief of a pro Nazi militia in Vishi, France, who
33:21
Speaker 2: was convicted of killing seven Jewish hostages. Now look, I
33:26
Speaker 2: got to say, I guess the apple doesn't fall far
33:29
Speaker 2: from the tree. But it is still a little amazing
33:33
Speaker 2: to have someone who fought alongside the Nazis have his
33:37
Speaker 2: son now spreading Hamas propaganda attacking Israel. And I guess
33:43
Speaker 2: the question you would ask is is there anyone responsible
33:46
Speaker 2: at the New York Times?
33:47
Speaker 3: Is there any.
33:48
Speaker 2: Editor the fact that you have the State of Israel
33:51
Speaker 2: suing them for defamation? So one of the things Israel's
33:54
Speaker 2: going to get in this litigation is there going to
33:57
Speaker 2: get the emails and discussion of hey, is there any
34:01
Speaker 2: fact checking? Is there any basis for these extraordinary and
34:06
Speaker 2: ridiculous and absurd claims? And I'm I think it is
34:11
Speaker 2: likely that you're going to see that the editors didn't
34:13
Speaker 2: care if there was any basis. This is the political
34:16
Speaker 2: story they wanted to tell because they knew that the
34:20
Speaker 2: damning report of Hamas's use of rape was coming out,
34:25
Speaker 2: and so they decided, let's put it all on Israel
34:27
Speaker 2: and blame Israel. It is It's disgraceful, but sadly it
34:33
Speaker 2: is not very uncommon for The New York Times.
34:35
Speaker 1: No it's not. And by the way, go grab that
34:37
Speaker 1: free breaking article. You can read all about it. It's
34:39
Speaker 1: a mos propagana. New York Times writer Christoph's sexual violence
34:43
Speaker 1: Colin CAP's a career of corrections, retractions and apologies going
34:47
Speaker 1: back twenty five years. It's a great read. Don't forget.
34:50
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