Latest / The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson / Shocking Audio Shows Hunter Biden BEGGING For Money From Family, plus Gas Prices Soaring Under Govt. Regulations.

Transcript

Shocking Audio Shows Hunter Biden BEGGING For Money From Family, plus Gas Prices Soaring Under Govt. Regulations. · The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

0:00
Speaker 1: Big breaking news and the Hunter Biden fiasco with the
0:05
Speaker 1: Biden family. We're gonna have that for you in just
0:08
Speaker 1: a moment. Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz and
0:12
Speaker 1: I am the new co host, Ben Ferguson here with
0:15
Speaker 1: you today. We have a lot to talk about, Senator
0:18
Speaker 1: obviously in the in the news world, but this is
0:20
Speaker 1: a moment that is an honor for me. I am
0:23
Speaker 1: beyond excited to get to co host your podcast with
0:27
Speaker 1: you and do this with Premiere Networks with iHeart. We're
0:32
Speaker 1: going to be expanding for everyone listening to three days
0:36
Speaker 1: a week, which is going to be so much fun
0:38
Speaker 1: I think for the Verdict audience here and something that's
0:42
Speaker 1: been important to you to be able to get to
0:44
Speaker 1: expand this and reach more people. Well, Ben, that's exactly right.
0:48
Speaker 1: And the expansion is going to change the format a
0:50
Speaker 1: little bit in that two of the three are going
0:53
Speaker 1: to be audio podcasts, so we're going to do video
0:55
Speaker 1: where the objectives is going to be to continue to
0:57
Speaker 1: do video once a week, but two of us, including
1:00
Speaker 1: obviously this one, are going to be audio only and
1:03
Speaker 1: that's one of the ways we're going to expand the
1:05
Speaker 1: coverage and hopefully connect with a lot more folks that
1:09
Speaker 1: are looking for the inside scoop, looking to understand what
1:13
Speaker 1: actually is happening and what it means. You know, It's
1:16
Speaker 1: so I think important now for us to be able
1:18
Speaker 1: to go around the media and go directly to the audience,
1:22
Speaker 1: which is I think one of the reasons why your
1:24
Speaker 1: podcast has exploded and why it made sense to expand
1:27
Speaker 1: it to three days a week. And you and I
1:30
Speaker 1: are so much aligned, I think, with our goal and
1:34
Speaker 1: our objective. I started in radio for people that don't
1:38
Speaker 1: know me when I was twelve years old. It was
1:40
Speaker 1: my mission field. I started in TV on Bill O'Reilly's
1:44
Speaker 1: show on Fox when I was seventeen years old and
1:47
Speaker 1: have been doing TV and radio ever since. And I
1:50
Speaker 1: have my own podcast, my own national syndicated show, and
1:54
Speaker 1: it's you and I have that same mission, which is,
1:57
Speaker 1: I think, to change hearts and minds of a mayor
2:00
Speaker 1: kins with facts and the real story behind some of
2:04
Speaker 1: these the ridiculous headlines and the propaganda of the left.
2:07
Speaker 1: I jokingly say that, you know, my job is to
2:10
Speaker 1: make liberals go insane with facts and figures each and
2:13
Speaker 1: every day. And I love my job because for me,
2:16
Speaker 1: this is my mission field very much the same way
2:19
Speaker 1: I think you believe God put you on earth to
2:21
Speaker 1: stand up for values, traditional values, for the sanctity of life,
2:25
Speaker 1: for the Constitution, for the Second Amendment, part of the
2:27
Speaker 1: reason why you obviously went to law school. Well, I
2:30
Speaker 1: will say the only problem with that that that mission
2:32
Speaker 1: there is I think liberals start out insane, and so
2:35
Speaker 1: really the only thing you're doing in the exposing their
2:38
Speaker 1: mental illness. I don't know if you happen to see
2:42
Speaker 1: yesterday on Twitter the video of this this crazy lady
2:47
Speaker 1: who has stolen money from two little kids in their
2:50
Speaker 1: lemonade stand and she's wearing a mask and the father
2:55
Speaker 1: is asking her please give back the money to my children,
2:59
Speaker 1: and this lady is just berating him. But you are
3:02
Speaker 1: endangering us because these children are selling selling lemonade, and
3:06
Speaker 1: you shouldn't be allowed to sell lemonade, and you need masks.
3:09
Speaker 1: And it was a level of COVID paranoia that was
3:12
Speaker 1: just you watched it, and it was interesting, Ay, she
3:15
Speaker 1: wasn't taking it that this was not she believed this
3:19
Speaker 1: in the core. You know, if they had been injecting
3:23
Speaker 1: a bola into the neighborhood cats, she would not be
3:26
Speaker 1: more worked up, but be she felt an absolute entitlement.
3:29
Speaker 1: I'm going to take these children lemonade stand money, and
3:32
Speaker 1: at the end of it, she gets the money back
3:34
Speaker 1: because he very calmly demands that she do so. And
3:36
Speaker 1: then she knocks the whole stand over and knocks the
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Speaker 1: lemonade over, and it gets a mental illness at that
3:42
Speaker 1: point when you think, as a busybody that you have
3:46
Speaker 1: the right to control somebody else and if they don't
3:49
Speaker 1: comply with your paranoia that then you can use force
3:53
Speaker 1: to force them to comply. You've done this and seen
3:56
Speaker 1: this on college campuses. You do a ton of college
3:58
Speaker 1: campus speaking. I do some of as well, And even
4:01
Speaker 1: in the college campus world, we've seen these massive, I
4:04
Speaker 1: think changes with just personalities. Where it used to be
4:08
Speaker 1: you could go in and you could have a grand
4:10
Speaker 1: debate and there would be people that would prepare right
4:14
Speaker 1: look forward to the opportunity to question you or to
4:16
Speaker 1: question me on a certain topic or issue. And now
4:20
Speaker 1: there is no longer a grand debate. With many on
4:22
Speaker 1: the left, it's just scream at you and tell you
4:24
Speaker 1: a name, call you're big at racist, homophobes, NFO. The
4:27
Speaker 1: list goes on and on and on and on on,
4:29
Speaker 1: and they just go, you know, now we're domestic terrorists.
4:32
Speaker 1: Now we are we are a cult. We're a domestic
4:35
Speaker 1: terrorists organization that is a threat to democracy. We see
4:38
Speaker 1: Democrats running on that, doubling down, and many of these
4:41
Speaker 1: laces we saw in the Senate race in Ohio where
4:45
Speaker 1: they're doubling down the Democrats. They're saying that they believe
4:48
Speaker 1: that if you support conservatives people like the MAGA movement,
4:51
Speaker 1: that you are a threat to our nation and should
4:54
Speaker 1: be treated like you are a domestic terrorists organization no
4:57
Speaker 1: different than al Qaeda. Well look, President called half the
5:01
Speaker 1: country fascist or semi fascist. I will say though, that
5:04
Speaker 1: this podcast so far has managed to cut through some
5:07
Speaker 1: of that, and that the campus tour, as we've done,
5:10
Speaker 1: you know, we've seen a number of liberal students come
5:13
Speaker 1: and show up, and they come to the front of
5:15
Speaker 1: the line and they ask their questions, and we've had
5:18
Speaker 1: very little We had at University of Wisconsin Madison, on
5:22
Speaker 1: one leftist kind of run up and screamed fu and
5:24
Speaker 1: then scamper off and I kind of chuckled the courage
5:29
Speaker 1: of your convictions. But you know, beyond that, we have
5:31
Speaker 1: not had the rudeness of instability. That's a good thing.
5:35
Speaker 1: So but all right, there's a lot of breaking news.
5:37
Speaker 1: But before we do that, I want to drill down
5:40
Speaker 1: a little bit. A lot of the Verdict listeners I
5:43
Speaker 1: assume know who you are, have seen you on TV,
5:45
Speaker 1: have listened to you on radio or your podcast, But
5:47
Speaker 1: there only some of the Verdict listeners who don't know you.
5:51
Speaker 1: You and I go back a decade from when I
5:54
Speaker 1: first ran First Sented. I think we met back in
5:56
Speaker 1: twenty eleven, and your story is pretty remarkable, and so
6:00
Speaker 1: I just want to take a minute to kind of
6:02
Speaker 1: walk folks through your history. Now. You kind of casually
6:06
Speaker 1: mentioned that that you started on radio when you were twelve,
6:10
Speaker 1: which is a pretty crazy and wild thing. Yeah, Ben,
6:14
Speaker 1: maybe tell the story of like how the heck that happened,
6:17
Speaker 1: because most twelve year olds don't don't get on the radio.
6:20
Speaker 1: You know, my life took an interesting turn, and I'll
6:25
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about myself so people know kind
6:28
Speaker 1: of what got me to do what I'm doing now.
6:32
Speaker 1: We were hit when I was very young by a
6:34
Speaker 1: drunk driver, and that drunk driver died, and thank goodness,
6:38
Speaker 1: what we lived. I grew up in a family that
6:41
Speaker 1: was law enforcement, that my dad was a police officer.
6:45
Speaker 1: When when actually we were hit by that drunk driver,
6:47
Speaker 1: he wasn't with us. It was my mom and my
6:49
Speaker 1: sister and I And that gave me, I think, an
6:52
Speaker 1: instant kind of life purpose at a very young age,
6:54
Speaker 1: because I realized how quick life could be taken away,
6:58
Speaker 1: and I paid attention to stuff. I was home when
7:02
Speaker 1: that car accident. I was like five years old. I
7:06
Speaker 1: was five, but it was my first vivid memory because
7:09
Speaker 1: I remember um the impact. I remember my mom. You know,
7:13
Speaker 1: we all had our seat belts on, but we had
7:15
Speaker 1: the lap seat belts. They didn't in the back seat
7:17
Speaker 1: have yet those shoulder straps. And the whiplash broke my
7:21
Speaker 1: sister's collar bone from the snap back of the impact
7:24
Speaker 1: of the wreck. He hit us going over a hundred
7:26
Speaker 1: and he didn't have a seat belt on. He went
7:28
Speaker 1: through the passenger window of his car as he turned sideways.
7:32
Speaker 1: At the very last moment, we hit his passenger door
7:35
Speaker 1: and he hit our windshield, and I remember getting out
7:37
Speaker 1: of the car and my mom's head had hit the
7:40
Speaker 1: windshield and there was blood coming down her face, and
7:42
Speaker 1: I just wanted to get to my mom, and I
7:44
Speaker 1: remember running out of the back door and I couldn't
7:47
Speaker 1: I had to walk over his body and I couldn't
7:49
Speaker 1: get her door open. And a man came along. To
7:53
Speaker 1: this day, I still think it was God's intervention, and
7:57
Speaker 1: he said he grabbed me and took me the back
8:00
Speaker 1: of the car and he said, I've got this, and
8:01
Speaker 1: he got my sister out and he got my mom out,
8:03
Speaker 1: and then they rushed us all to the hospitals and
8:05
Speaker 1: even separate us, and I'm you know, my sister and
8:07
Speaker 1: I went to the children's hospital and she went to
8:10
Speaker 1: the adult the met the trauma center. And that moment
8:15
Speaker 1: was a moment where I think I realized and didn't
8:18
Speaker 1: take for granted life. And having that moment was a
8:22
Speaker 1: blessing in disguise because it made me, at a very
8:25
Speaker 1: young age, realize how important it was to stand up
8:28
Speaker 1: against right and wrong. My dad laughs to this day
8:30
Speaker 1: that when I was a little kid after that, he
8:32
Speaker 1: was a police officer and we would be in Kroger
8:34
Speaker 1: and I would see somebody senator buying beer and I
8:37
Speaker 1: would tell my dad, like, I need you to Dad,
8:39
Speaker 1: arrest him. Because I was very literal, I didn't understand.
8:41
Speaker 1: You know, I saw a beer and thought that guy's
8:43
Speaker 1: gonna drink it and they're gonna hit my car and
8:44
Speaker 1: I'm gonna die. And my dad was he had to
8:49
Speaker 1: explain to me, like laws and I can't arrest him
8:52
Speaker 1: for buying beer. It's okay to buy beer. And he
8:54
Speaker 1: talked about consumption. He talked about what the law says
8:57
Speaker 1: and how you can't get behind the wheel if you've
8:59
Speaker 1: been drinking in this blood alcoho level, which back then
9:01
Speaker 1: was a one point zero before they changed it to
9:04
Speaker 1: zero point eight. And so that had that impact where
9:09
Speaker 1: I was paying attention, I think to more things because
9:11
Speaker 1: I wanted to understand how this country worked and how
9:13
Speaker 1: laws worked. So you fast forward to eleven, twelve years old.
9:17
Speaker 1: I'm sitting in the back of the blue four aerostarred
9:20
Speaker 1: van and that was one ugly van by the way
9:23
Speaker 1: that Ford made, and my mom was listening to talk radio.
9:27
Speaker 1: Now this is before talk radio became more conservative. This
9:30
Speaker 1: is before Hannity or back right. It was Limba just
9:34
Speaker 1: kind of come onto the scene. But a lot of
9:36
Speaker 1: news talk stations had liberal shows and conservative shows, and
9:39
Speaker 1: there was a liberal host, a city council member in
9:42
Speaker 1: my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. And in that in my hometown,
9:46
Speaker 1: she was screaming about the school lunch program and the
9:49
Speaker 1: contract with America in nineteen ninety four. And this contract
9:55
Speaker 1: there was part of it was a school lunch program.
9:57
Speaker 1: And you may remember this, Richard Gephart hold up a
10:01
Speaker 1: bottle of ketchup and he said, is this what conservatives
10:06
Speaker 1: are going to call a vegetable? And she continues to
10:09
Speaker 1: say that Republicans are going to starve kids and it
10:11
Speaker 1: was going to be their only hot meal a day gift.
10:15
Speaker 1: Part mean the cash up or himself? Yeah right exactly,
10:18
Speaker 1: yeah bingo, yeah, exactly exactly. And so I'm in the backseat.
10:24
Speaker 1: My mom's school teacher, right, and then she's teaching us homeschool,
10:27
Speaker 1: and I said, Mom, there's no way that anyone would
10:29
Speaker 1: do that to children, and she immediately perked up. Right,
10:33
Speaker 1: this is a you know, a school mom's dream. She's like, well, honey,
10:37
Speaker 1: how do you know that. I'm like, mom, I can't
10:39
Speaker 1: think that any adult would take away a child's lunch.
10:42
Speaker 1: And she said, well, why don't you call our congressman
10:46
Speaker 1: and get a copy of the bill and you can
10:47
Speaker 1: read it I'll help you read it and you can
10:50
Speaker 1: see if you're right. So I did. I called Ed Bryant,
10:53
Speaker 1: who was our congressman at the time. He facts the
10:56
Speaker 1: bill to my dad's facts machine with that old roller
10:58
Speaker 1: facts paper right that falls on the ground. You have
11:01
Speaker 1: to put it back in order. And I read the bill,
11:03
Speaker 1: and sure enough, she lied to her audience, and I
11:06
Speaker 1: I found out that the Republicans wanted to increase school
11:10
Speaker 1: lunch funding by three point seven percent and Republicans wanted
11:13
Speaker 1: to increase it by like four point three percent, and
11:16
Speaker 1: the Democrats were calling the difference in their two numbers
11:20
Speaker 1: the cut, even though both were clearly increasing school lunch funding.
11:24
Speaker 1: And I called her and we got into this big
11:27
Speaker 1: debate and I said to her. She was yelling at me,
11:29
Speaker 1: and I said, ma'am, I said, have you read the bill?
11:32
Speaker 1: And she said, well, no one reads the bills. And
11:34
Speaker 1: I said, well I did, and maybe you should before
11:36
Speaker 1: you go on the radio and lie to people. And
11:39
Speaker 1: it just blew up another show. It was. It was
11:42
Speaker 1: one of those moments. It just happened. And I read
11:44
Speaker 1: her the bill on the air and told her why
11:46
Speaker 1: she was wrong, and I was great. At one point
11:49
Speaker 1: does she say, wait a second, are you twelve? Like like,
11:51
Speaker 1: how does that come out? My voice had not changed yet.
11:55
Speaker 1: It was pretty clear that I would, you know, I had.
11:59
Speaker 1: I had not yet at the full puberty yet, and
12:01
Speaker 1: so it was, you know, the high, little squeaky kid voice.
12:04
Speaker 1: And she was like, how old are you? I mean,
12:06
Speaker 1: she's yelling at me and I'm like twelve years old.
12:08
Speaker 1: I said, ma'am, I'm twelve. And so this other show
12:11
Speaker 1: that came on the afternoons heard this call and they
12:15
Speaker 1: went on the radio and drive time at like five
12:17
Speaker 1: o'clock and they played the phone call and they said,
12:19
Speaker 1: whoever this kid is, if anyone knows who ben is,
12:23
Speaker 1: please tell them we're talking about and we want to
12:25
Speaker 1: talk to him on the radio. So my mom and
12:26
Speaker 1: dad's home phone starts ringing from friends that are listening.
12:30
Speaker 1: They're like, they're talking about Benjamin on the radio. And
12:33
Speaker 1: so I called in and they put me on the
12:35
Speaker 1: air and they're like asking me about the bill and
12:37
Speaker 1: reading the bill and just they were kind of enamored
12:39
Speaker 1: with this idea of a young person getting involved. And
12:42
Speaker 1: they're like, have you ever seen a radio studio? And
12:44
Speaker 1: I was like, no, ma'am, no sir. And they were like, well,
12:46
Speaker 1: put your mom on the phone and this is all
12:48
Speaker 1: live on the air. And I hand the phone back
12:51
Speaker 1: to my mom. Now, can you bring your son down
12:53
Speaker 1: here tomorrow and let him see the studio. My mom's
12:54
Speaker 1: like sure, So I go down there. They're gonna have
12:56
Speaker 1: me as a guest for ten minutes, and the first
12:59
Speaker 1: break we went to. One of the hosts looks at
13:01
Speaker 1: me and she goes, you're dying to talk, aren't you.
13:02
Speaker 1: I said yes, ma'am, and she goes, next time you
13:04
Speaker 1: have something important to say, raise your hands. So I
13:06
Speaker 1: did and I was on for an hour and a half.
13:09
Speaker 1: The phone lines were jammed and they're like, this is weird.
13:12
Speaker 1: Can you come back tomorrow? I was like, after as
13:14
Speaker 1: my parents, So my parents drive me back down the
13:16
Speaker 1: next day. I'm on for another hour. They had me
13:19
Speaker 1: come back a week later, and then literally they hired
13:21
Speaker 1: me a week after that at four twenty five an
13:23
Speaker 1: hour minimum wage at the time, and I've been doing
13:28
Speaker 1: radio ever since. Fell in love with it because radio,
13:30
Speaker 1: for a younger person, people didn't judge you based on
13:34
Speaker 1: what they saw right your age. It didn't look at
13:36
Speaker 1: you and think you don't. You can't have an opinion
13:39
Speaker 1: because you could hide behind the microphone and they would
13:42
Speaker 1: listen to what you said. And it was a great equalizer.
13:44
Speaker 1: And once I realized that I could be judged by
13:47
Speaker 1: the content of what I was saying and not because
13:50
Speaker 1: of how babyface I looked, I knew this was what
13:53
Speaker 1: I was going to do, probably for the rest of
13:55
Speaker 1: my life. And so you went from there to going
13:58
Speaker 1: on TV. Yeah, I was, how did that happen? I
14:02
Speaker 1: was so I was. I did a hit that was
14:06
Speaker 1: like a news piece that happened to show up. I
14:08
Speaker 1: think it was on CNN, and it was about getting
14:12
Speaker 1: out the vote and young people voting. And that was
14:14
Speaker 1: right when MTV was doing Rock the Vote and Bill
14:18
Speaker 1: O'Reilly had just come over to Fox News channel had
14:20
Speaker 1: just launched, and there was a guy from Memphis, Tennessee,
14:24
Speaker 1: who was I think his producer at the time, and
14:29
Speaker 1: called me and said, hey, he wants to have you on.
14:32
Speaker 1: Um there's this new channel called Fox News now on
14:35
Speaker 1: cable in Memphis. Fox News wasn't even available yet, so
14:39
Speaker 1: their pitched to me and Bill O'Reilly and I laugh
14:41
Speaker 1: about this every time we see each other. When he
14:43
Speaker 1: comes out with a new book and you know, come
14:45
Speaker 1: on my show. And we always laugh because the pitch
14:48
Speaker 1: senator was was, Hey, we have this host who's the
14:52
Speaker 1: former host of Inside Edition, and he'd really like to
14:56
Speaker 1: have you on a show. And so I did the show.
14:59
Speaker 1: We sparred, we fought, it went, it went really well,
15:02
Speaker 1: and then that was the hit. That was it. They
15:04
Speaker 1: started having me back on a regular basis, and I
15:06
Speaker 1: started doing other shows at Fox and Shepherd Smith and
15:09
Speaker 1: Gibson show back when he was there. I mean, we're
15:11
Speaker 1: talking about the old lineup, no cavudo, and it took
15:14
Speaker 1: that one hit with the guy who used to host
15:17
Speaker 1: Inside Edition, as they described it. And I remember doing
15:19
Speaker 1: the show and no one could watch it. Right, your
15:22
Speaker 1: parents are proud of you. You're seventeen. They want to
15:24
Speaker 1: see it because no one could see it, and so
15:26
Speaker 1: they fed ax me a VHS no, a beta tape.
15:29
Speaker 1: It was a beta tape of the appearance. So we
15:31
Speaker 1: had to find a friend who had a beta machine
15:34
Speaker 1: so we could even watch it. Wow. And by the way,
15:36
Speaker 1: for a lot of our podcast listeners, you may not
15:39
Speaker 1: know what a beta tape is. You know, the very
15:43
Speaker 1: beginning of being able to play movies at home. You
15:47
Speaker 1: had two different types. You had a VHS cassette and
15:51
Speaker 1: you had Beta, which was son of Sony Beta Max,
15:54
Speaker 1: and they were competing size and Beta was a little
15:56
Speaker 1: bit smaller, and VHS went out. It was a battle
15:59
Speaker 1: to see who would be the market dominant, and Beta
16:01
Speaker 1: got crushed and went away. So it's you have to
16:04
Speaker 1: be at a certain age to know what the heck
16:06
Speaker 1: of Beta Max or a beta is. And then that
16:09
Speaker 1: later became DVDs, and then that later became Blu rays.
16:12
Speaker 1: And now you know, our kids probably won't know what
16:14
Speaker 1: DVDs or Blu rays are because it'll all be streaming
16:17
Speaker 1: and who knows, it'll be virtual in about ten minutes.
16:19
Speaker 1: Oh exactly. It's the world has changed, and the and
16:22
Speaker 1: the ability to reach people, it's changed drastically over the
16:26
Speaker 1: last time. I remember when I started radio, we had
16:28
Speaker 1: the eight tracks and you would hit the button and
16:31
Speaker 1: the eight track would play during the commercial breaks. When
16:34
Speaker 1: I started, I mean I was twelve, and then they
16:35
Speaker 1: gave you a big magnet that you would demagnetize the
16:39
Speaker 1: tape so you could rerecord over it. That's how long
16:42
Speaker 1: I've been in this business. So okay, so you're doing radio,
16:46
Speaker 1: you're doing TV, you're a teenager. You go off to
16:49
Speaker 1: college at Old Miss on a tennis scholarship. Now, I
16:52
Speaker 1: guess you you're a pretty hardcore tennis player. Yeah. I
16:55
Speaker 1: started playing tennis. My aunt was a racquetball player, and
17:00
Speaker 1: so she was sponsored and she used to send Ectlon
17:04
Speaker 1: racquetball rackets to me for holidays and I would go play.
17:08
Speaker 1: And this tennis coach walked up to me as he
17:10
Speaker 1: saw me hitting on a racquetball court, and he's like,
17:12
Speaker 1: hey man, why don't you play a sport that other
17:15
Speaker 1: people actually play? And he goes, why don't you try tennis?
17:19
Speaker 1: And I was like okay, And so I went out
17:21
Speaker 1: and hit a few balls with him, and he saw
17:23
Speaker 1: that I had, I guess, you know, some talent and
17:26
Speaker 1: he was like all right, he was like, you need
17:29
Speaker 1: probably get into tennis clinic. And so I started fell
17:33
Speaker 1: in love with a game understood very quickly. My parents
17:36
Speaker 1: didn't have a lot of resources, and I knew I
17:39
Speaker 1: needed a scholarship to go to college and tennis was
17:42
Speaker 1: gonna be my way to pull that off. And I
17:45
Speaker 1: played in college and absolutely fell in love with the game.
17:48
Speaker 1: Got to see the world and play overseas and meet
17:51
Speaker 1: really interesting and cool people, and you know this playing
17:54
Speaker 1: you put your basketball guy obviously, And I got to
17:57
Speaker 1: play in high school and just have that team sport
18:01
Speaker 1: and taking a little bit of a break from the
18:03
Speaker 1: politics and the radio and TV. And I would still
18:06
Speaker 1: drive back and forth from Old Miss. I'd still fill
18:08
Speaker 1: in on radio for guys like Michael Reagan, Ronald's son
18:11
Speaker 1: and Gee Gordon Lyddie, Oliver North and some others like that.
18:14
Speaker 1: So I was able to keep my hand in the
18:17
Speaker 1: political world. But having that break and just to be
18:20
Speaker 1: a college student and a college athlete is something I
18:23
Speaker 1: tell kids all the time. If you're passionate about sport
18:26
Speaker 1: and you get to play, play it to the highest level.
18:29
Speaker 1: I've never talked to anybody that regretted playing in college.
18:33
Speaker 1: I have a lot of friends that regretted not playing
18:37
Speaker 1: in college because maybe they didn't get a scholarship to
18:40
Speaker 1: the university they wanted to go to, so they're like,
18:42
Speaker 1: all right, well I'll just give up on the dream.
18:44
Speaker 1: And almost I mean, I don't know anybody that's ever
18:46
Speaker 1: told me they you know, if you have that ability
18:48
Speaker 1: to play, I think at that level you run with
18:51
Speaker 1: it and you do it because you'll never forget those
18:54
Speaker 1: moments with those teammates. And I think there's also something
18:57
Speaker 1: cool about sports, like there's a very small window senator,
19:00
Speaker 1: you know this where you can get to play it,
19:03
Speaker 1: and it's based on age. At the highest level. It's
19:06
Speaker 1: so fun to keep playing later in life. But when
19:09
Speaker 1: you get to play at peak physical condition at that
19:13
Speaker 1: age where you can maximize your potential, it's a very
19:16
Speaker 1: small window. And getting to play at that level was
19:19
Speaker 1: was something if I could go back and do it again,
19:21
Speaker 1: I'd do it all over again. Well, and Ben and
19:24
Speaker 1: you had size and speed and strength and talent, all
19:29
Speaker 1: things sadly I was lacking. So so you know, you
19:32
Speaker 1: very kindly threw threw me a bone of Oh, you're
19:34
Speaker 1: a basketball player. I was a mediocre high school player,
19:37
Speaker 1: and I still play today, and I'd say I'm still
19:40
Speaker 1: right about the level of a mediocre high school player.
19:43
Speaker 1: Um So, so you know, it was a very different
19:45
Speaker 1: experience from from being a varsity athlete at a major
19:51
Speaker 1: university and competing at the top level. But but one
19:54
Speaker 1: of the things I think is interesting, So you're you're
19:57
Speaker 1: a varsity athlete, you're you're in a fraterner. You're a
20:00
Speaker 1: big man on campus. But then you're also jumping on
20:03
Speaker 1: airplanes and flying to New York City and going on
20:06
Speaker 1: TV and on Fox at the same time. What was
20:09
Speaker 1: that Like it was you know back then, um when
20:12
Speaker 1: I was in college, So it was college two thousand
20:14
Speaker 1: and two thousand and four. Satellite. You know how we
20:17
Speaker 1: can do TV now you just grab that. You know,
20:20
Speaker 1: they do it by satellite. The cost is very inexpensive
20:23
Speaker 1: now compared to what it was in two thousand. So
20:25
Speaker 1: if you were going to do TV, you got on
20:27
Speaker 1: a plane and I would literally run, you know, haul
20:30
Speaker 1: it from Oxford, Mississippi, to Memphis, get on a plane,
20:33
Speaker 1: fly to New York to do TV and then come back.
20:37
Speaker 1: And then you know, people around campus figured it out right,
20:40
Speaker 1: like this is weird. You're doing TV, but you're also
20:43
Speaker 1: you know, hanging out at lunch, and it was it
20:46
Speaker 1: was pretty funny, you know, it was it was hilarious
20:50
Speaker 1: to see their reaction of like, hold on a second,
20:52
Speaker 1: you're the same guy that's screaming on Saturdays at the
20:56
Speaker 1: football game and Sunday morning you're doing the Sunday morning
21:00
Speaker 1: talk shows. This is weird, And I was lucky I
21:04
Speaker 1: got to experience both of the exact same time. And
21:07
Speaker 1: I also it turned into me seeing bias at the
21:13
Speaker 1: first first level I've ever seen bias from adults, you know,
21:18
Speaker 1: from people in positions of power against young people. And
21:23
Speaker 1: that was the most shocking. I almost failed a class.
21:27
Speaker 1: And you're gonna laugh when I tell you which class
21:29
Speaker 1: I failed. It was a four hundred level class and
21:34
Speaker 1: it was literally entitled Editorial and opinion writing. If there
21:39
Speaker 1: is any class editor that I should pass, it would
21:45
Speaker 1: be editorial and opinion writing. And I had this professor
21:50
Speaker 1: those who can do those who can't teach, Oh, so
21:54
Speaker 1: tell me. I assumed the professor was some wild eyed leftist, oh,
21:59
Speaker 1: hardcore left. And I walked in the first day. He
22:03
Speaker 1: knew exactly who I was, He knew exactly what I did.
22:08
Speaker 1: And it was my senior year and I would had
22:11
Speaker 1: just signed a book deal with William Morrow Harper Collins
22:14
Speaker 1: to write a book, and so it had been written
22:17
Speaker 1: about it was you know, it is obviously a big
22:19
Speaker 1: deal writing your first, you know, big book. And I
22:22
Speaker 1: was doing a ton of TV then and I walked
22:25
Speaker 1: in and it was game on and he would do
22:28
Speaker 1: entire lectures, basically yelling directly at me in the class. Well,
22:32
Speaker 1: this class had three papers that you wrote that were
22:36
Speaker 1: a third a third to thirty year grade. Well, if
22:39
Speaker 1: you felt one of them, do the math. It's not good.
22:42
Speaker 1: So you're gonna it's gonna be bad. And so I
22:44
Speaker 1: did my first again editorial and opinion writing. I did
22:48
Speaker 1: my first piece, and he gave me an f and
22:51
Speaker 1: I went to the head of the department and I said, now,
22:55
Speaker 1: was your first piece. Was it an editorial or was
22:58
Speaker 1: it writing about editorial? Write? No, it was like literally
23:01
Speaker 1: write an editor like an opinion piece. So I think
23:04
Speaker 1: I wrote about the Second Amendment and he failed me,
23:07
Speaker 1: and it looked like he got hammered and then spilled
23:11
Speaker 1: the red ink. I've never seen more red ink and
23:14
Speaker 1: writing on a paper. And so I went to the
23:17
Speaker 1: head of the department and I was like, look like,
23:19
Speaker 1: it's obvious this dude has it out for me. And
23:21
Speaker 1: they're like, well, he's tenured, and he's a senior, he's
23:23
Speaker 1: been here, he's a premier. He's written for all of
23:25
Speaker 1: these magazines and newspapers, and you know, I can't overrule him.
23:29
Speaker 1: And I'm like, all right, fine, and I know what's
23:31
Speaker 1: gonna come. I'm gonna write the second one. He's gonna
23:33
Speaker 1: fail me. Second one comes. Sure enough, he gives me
23:35
Speaker 1: a D. And I went back and I'm like, to
23:38
Speaker 1: the head of the department, I said, okay. I said, now,
23:42
Speaker 1: now you're really screwing with my life. Like I have
23:44
Speaker 1: to have this class to graduate. It's if this grade stands,
23:50
Speaker 1: I'm gonna fail the class, which means i'd have to
23:53
Speaker 1: come back and take this class in another semester. I'm
23:56
Speaker 1: gonna be gone. I'm going to the Bush campaign like
23:58
Speaker 1: I'm out of here and this could really screw up
24:01
Speaker 1: my life. And they're like, I'm sorry. So I ended
24:03
Speaker 1: up going to the chancellor of the university and he
24:07
Speaker 1: said there was nothing he could do, and I said,
24:09
Speaker 1: all right, well, I just want to give you a
24:10
Speaker 1: heads up. I'm gonna go on. I think it was
24:12
Speaker 1: on Fox, and I said, I'm going to tell my story.
24:15
Speaker 1: And then the whole thing changed. Senator will hold on
24:18
Speaker 1: a second, let's see I can come of a compromise, said, well, ho,
24:21
Speaker 1: you just told me. You just told me a second
24:23
Speaker 1: ago you can't compromise, and that you're just got to
24:27
Speaker 1: stand with this decision because well, what are you proposing.
24:29
Speaker 1: I said, take my name off the papers, given a
24:31
Speaker 1: three different professors in three different departments, and let them
24:36
Speaker 1: grade it, and if they failed me, I'll accept the grades.
24:39
Speaker 1: And they all came back with a's. And that changed it.
24:42
Speaker 1: But that was the moment that I really was. I
24:45
Speaker 1: became angry, and I was like, I've got to keep
24:47
Speaker 1: doing this because what if you didn't have that threat
24:50
Speaker 1: of being able to expose them on national TV? If otherwise,
24:54
Speaker 1: and this is what's happening, I think on college campuses,
24:56
Speaker 1: as so many kids now are health hostage, they can't
25:00
Speaker 1: speak out, they stay quiet, they sit on their hands,
25:03
Speaker 1: they write what they think these professors want them to say,
25:06
Speaker 1: instead of having a grand debate. And that's where we've
25:09
Speaker 1: I think, how we've gotten to the point where we
25:10
Speaker 1: are in this country right now where it's basically indoctrination,
25:14
Speaker 1: no longer a grand debate. That's exactly right, and that's
25:17
Speaker 1: why verdickt is something very very different. Look. I think
25:21
Speaker 1: we are going to have a fun and amazing time
25:25
Speaker 1: doing this show together, doing a three days a week now,
25:28
Speaker 1: doing it regularly so that folks can count on it
25:32
Speaker 1: to come out, and I think it's gonna be it's
25:34
Speaker 1: gonna be a different vibe than Michael and I had.
25:37
Speaker 1: Michael as a sort of Yale academic brought brought a
25:43
Speaker 1: very kind of conservative Catholic vibe that was fun, and
25:46
Speaker 1: I think you and I have a very different vibe
25:47
Speaker 1: that it's going to be interesting and engaging and help
25:50
Speaker 1: help get really to the bottom of the issues that
25:53
Speaker 1: are happening right now. And I'm going to give people updates.
25:55
Speaker 1: I'm going to try to work on your tennis game.
25:57
Speaker 1: People don't know this yet, but we're gonna we're gonna
25:59
Speaker 1: secretly prepare air you for greatness in the tennis World's
26:02
Speaker 1: that's part of that's part of my new mission Field Senator.
26:06
Speaker 1: We gotta get that elbow right and then and then
26:08
Speaker 1: I promise we're not going to lose if we play
26:10
Speaker 1: doubles together. So I actually I have tennis elbow, which
26:14
Speaker 1: Ben knows, and given how lousy my tennis game is,
26:17
Speaker 1: I don't even deserve to have tennis elbo like like
26:19
Speaker 1: that suggests you have some monocum of skill or maybe
26:23
Speaker 1: my skill so bad that's why I have tennis elbow.
26:26
Speaker 1: But anyway, Ben gave me this this like basically little
26:30
Speaker 1: electro shock, saying that your warm and it shocks it.
26:34
Speaker 1: And and I'm not sure if it actually helps or
26:37
Speaker 1: if he's just screwing with me and wants to see
26:39
Speaker 1: how frequently shot myself. But I'm doing it regularly and
26:42
Speaker 1: I will confess it is actually helping. So that is
26:47
Speaker 1: that's been an interesting experience as well. I stated a
26:50
Speaker 1: holiday and Express last night. Senator, Hey, you know, give
26:53
Speaker 1: you electroid shock afterwards, there's gonna be some physical therapist
26:56
Speaker 1: out there. Isn't gonna be yelling at the at their
26:58
Speaker 1: phone right now, going do it, Senator. It's a Tensis machine.
27:01
Speaker 1: Do it. It'll work. So yeah, you're gonna now you're
27:03
Speaker 1: gonna get filled with tweets coming to you on advice
27:06
Speaker 1: on how to do it. Well, I will confess it.
27:10
Speaker 1: It has made it made it sell a little bit better. Good.
27:13
Speaker 1: That's what That's what I like to hear. I want
27:16
Speaker 1: to ask you about some of the big news of
27:18
Speaker 1: the day that I that I think is shocking. There
27:23
Speaker 1: is some new audio that has been released on Hunter Biden,
27:28
Speaker 1: and it is shocking audio of Hunter begging for cash
27:33
Speaker 1: to go, claiming it's for rehab. He is begging his
27:40
Speaker 1: brother's widow who he ended up dating, hooking up with
27:44
Speaker 1: whatever after his brother died, begging her for points reward
27:50
Speaker 1: points from a credit card as he's claiming he's going
27:54
Speaker 1: to check and a rehab and send her. When I
27:56
Speaker 1: listened to this and this just came out, there was
27:59
Speaker 1: two things that shocked me. One, I genuinely have compassion
28:02
Speaker 1: and feel bad for Hunter Biden because it's obvious he's
28:06
Speaker 1: an addict. He's addicted, and this is right around the time,
28:09
Speaker 1: just weeks before his gun purchase. But there was something
28:13
Speaker 1: else in this audio that I think was so disturbing
28:15
Speaker 1: to me, and that is at one point, well, he's
28:19
Speaker 1: begging her for these points, and she's like, no, I'll
28:23
Speaker 1: send you to rehab. I'll do it, I'll book your ticket,
28:26
Speaker 1: but I'm not giving you this to you because she
28:28
Speaker 1: knows it's going to be used, I think for drugs,
28:31
Speaker 1: drug abuse. He says, well, give it to my uncle,
28:34
Speaker 1: and then she says no to that, and then he says,
28:37
Speaker 1: well give it to my dad. And it was such
28:41
Speaker 1: an eye opening moment for me that I think just
28:44
Speaker 1: tells you about Joe Biden and James Biden, and the
28:47
Speaker 1: fact that they knew that he was a struggling addict
28:50
Speaker 1: and they exploited it. They sobered him up for the
28:54
Speaker 1: moments they needed him to get the deals done and
28:57
Speaker 1: the corruption and keep the money flowing to their family.
29:00
Speaker 1: I want to play this for you and get your reaction,
29:02
Speaker 1: and I'll do it. No, Honey, I don't want you
29:05
Speaker 1: to know where I'm going. It's very important that if
29:08
Speaker 1: you want, you won't give me my money. Honey, Holly,
29:11
Speaker 1: please give the money. I mean, it's just points. I'm
29:14
Speaker 1: not even asking pose. I'm asking you from my point
29:17
Speaker 1: care you don't care. I will do it all, okay, here,
29:21
Speaker 1: how about this? Not you? Okay? You give it to No, No,
29:26
Speaker 1: give it to my Give it to my uncle, Jimmy. No,
29:29
Speaker 1: give it to my uncle, Jimmy. What's the difference now? Why?
29:31
Speaker 1: I don't care. I'll do it. Give it to my dad.
29:33
Speaker 1: You're not using it. Give it to my dad. It's
29:35
Speaker 1: really important to me that you don't know. Give it
29:37
Speaker 1: to my dad. I figure a place either wise, don't
29:41
Speaker 1: ask me again. I can't pay for the place. Other wise,
29:44
Speaker 1: you're killing Why are you doing this? No? Center, you
29:48
Speaker 1: hear that and I have it made me sad. If
29:50
Speaker 1: you've ever known somebody that's become addicted to drugs, whether
29:54
Speaker 1: it's illegal drugs like this or prescription drugs, I have
29:58
Speaker 1: compassion for people are struggling. And I hear that, and
30:02
Speaker 1: he basically is saying, send it to my uncle, and
30:05
Speaker 1: she says no, because she obviously doesn't trust certain the uncle.
30:09
Speaker 1: And then he says, give it to my dad, And
30:10
Speaker 1: she doesn't even trust her own father in law to
30:13
Speaker 1: do the right thing and to actually make him go
30:16
Speaker 1: back to rehab instead of just giving him access to
30:18
Speaker 1: what you know, his next fix. Here. I've never felt
30:22
Speaker 1: more compassion for him as a human being than this
30:25
Speaker 1: tape that just came out. Yeah, look, that's that's really
30:28
Speaker 1: hard to listen to. That. That's someone who is clearly hurting,
30:32
Speaker 1: clearly is led, and is living a very troubled life.
30:37
Speaker 1: He's an addict, and and all of us have known
30:41
Speaker 1: addicts in our lives. My older sister, Marian tragically died
30:45
Speaker 1: of an overdose, and addiction is a cruel and horrific disease,
30:54
Speaker 1: and he's clearly in the throes of it, the desperation
30:57
Speaker 1: in his voice, and he one who's had loved ones
31:02
Speaker 1: dealing with this has heard that desperation before. I'll tell you.
31:05
Speaker 1: Listening to it, what it reminded me of was was
31:08
Speaker 1: Rayleiota's character and Goodfellows when he was an addict and
31:12
Speaker 1: he's begging his wife again. It was the same same
31:16
Speaker 1: back and forth of begging his wife and the panic.
31:20
Speaker 1: But you're right that it also illustrates that that is
31:23
Speaker 1: his wife believes that that neither his uncle nor his
31:26
Speaker 1: father are going to do anything about it, That that
31:29
Speaker 1: you couldn't trust giving the points or given the money
31:32
Speaker 1: to Dad, that they wouldn't just turn around. And presumably
31:36
Speaker 1: at least you know, you you infer from listening to
31:39
Speaker 1: that that that she thinks they're going to give it
31:42
Speaker 1: to him and let him buy drugs with it rather
31:44
Speaker 1: than ensure that he gets in rehab. And that you know, Look,
31:50
Speaker 1: if if Hunter Biden were Hunter Jones or Hunter Smith,
31:55
Speaker 1: he would be someone who had a very troubled life
31:57
Speaker 1: and and and you would want to see him get help,
32:00
Speaker 1: But it wouldn't be news his conversation. Conversations like this
32:06
Speaker 1: wouldn't be talked about. What's different is his father's president
32:10
Speaker 1: of the United States, and the evidence that has come
32:14
Speaker 1: out of number one, his father, his father's official position
32:21
Speaker 1: being used essentially to immunize him from the crimes that
32:25
Speaker 1: he's committing. But number two, the very significant evidence of
32:30
Speaker 1: his father being directly involved in corruption makes it a
32:36
Speaker 1: matter not just of a private son who is struggling
32:40
Speaker 1: with addiction, but of a question of public corruption that
32:45
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, this has never been
32:47
Speaker 1: about Hunter Biden. This is about Joe Biden. This is
32:50
Speaker 1: about the president and what he's willing to do, and
32:54
Speaker 1: those questions. You know, I think that that recording only
32:59
Speaker 1: ample by those questions. You know, it's amazing how they're
33:02
Speaker 1: trying to act like Hunter Biden's business dealings can be
33:06
Speaker 1: separated from his father and his uncle and the big
33:11
Speaker 1: guy getting ten percent. You know, I part of my background.
33:14
Speaker 1: I own a gun range and a gun store and
33:16
Speaker 1: a barbecue restaurant. And if my dad was, you know,
33:19
Speaker 1: giving a massive government contract to my gun range right
33:23
Speaker 1: for law enforcement, that's a conflict of interest and that
33:28
Speaker 1: obviously would be a massive problem. I know that right
33:31
Speaker 1: at the basic level. Yet NBC News Today came out
33:36
Speaker 1: and said, well, there's nothing wrong, nothing illegal with Hunter
33:40
Speaker 1: Biden taking money from foreign governments, acting like immediately that
33:45
Speaker 1: that's a closed case. I want you to hear this.
33:47
Speaker 1: This was on MSNBC, their NBC reporter saying this earlier.
33:52
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people who evade taxes or never
33:54
Speaker 1: prosecuted criminally, so that's going to be a big issue
33:57
Speaker 1: in this case in terms of like corruptionplic of interest.
34:00
Speaker 1: We've never heard a hint that that was that there
34:03
Speaker 1: were potential criminal charges there. Because under Biden wasn't an officeholder,
34:08
Speaker 1: it was perfectly legal for him to take money from
34:10
Speaker 1: foreign governments as long as it wasn't he wasn't inappropriately
34:14
Speaker 1: giving them information from his family or something. There's no
34:17
Speaker 1: hint of that. There's no hint of that. I mean,
34:20
Speaker 1: NBC News looks at you in a straight face and
34:23
Speaker 1: you've seen it. You've seen all the data that's come out,
34:26
Speaker 1: you've seen just all the suspicious activity reports on their
34:30
Speaker 1: bank accounts, and they say, in their actual words, there's
34:35
Speaker 1: nothing here, there's nothing that says that any of this
34:38
Speaker 1: was nefarious. And they say it with a straight face.
34:40
Speaker 1: And I think that's what worries so many Americans is
34:42
Speaker 1: they truly believe, Oh my gosh, they're gonna get away
34:46
Speaker 1: with this. I mean, if they just nail Hunter Biden
34:48
Speaker 1: with tax issues and they just nail with a gun issue,
34:51
Speaker 1: those are technically the two issues, Senator that you probably
34:55
Speaker 1: cannot connect to his father and all the other stuff
34:59
Speaker 1: that they act did is that they should be charging
35:02
Speaker 1: him with. If they don't, then he's going to basically
35:04
Speaker 1: walk away with a slap on the wrist with the alibi.
35:07
Speaker 1: And I think it's clear as a family knew it. Well,
35:09
Speaker 1: we can say it's a drug addict, so you shouldn't
35:11
Speaker 1: be hard on him. Yeah. Look, the obviously DJ is
35:16
Speaker 1: leaking like a sieve right now and projecting that they
35:20
Speaker 1: are going to in nit Hunter Biden on a tax
35:24
Speaker 1: claim at a gun plant charged those are I'm glad
35:30
Speaker 1: to see it on one side, and in that the
35:32
Speaker 1: laws should be blind and the fact that his daddy
35:34
Speaker 1: happens to live in government housing on Pennsylvania Avenue should
35:38
Speaker 1: not give him a get out of jail free card
35:40
Speaker 1: that nobody else has. But it's it's disturbing for the
35:44
Speaker 1: same reason, which is that what they're leaking suggests they're
35:49
Speaker 1: not looking at the corruption. They're not looking at whether
35:52
Speaker 1: the corruption from Ukraine or the corruption from China, and
35:55
Speaker 1: in particular that they're not looking at the connections to
35:58
Speaker 1: his dad. The reason any one should care is because
36:03
Speaker 1: of his father. And you know, the clip you just
36:06
Speaker 1: played for from NBC is truly absurd because takes something
36:11
Speaker 1: like boris mine and every time we talk Barisma, that
36:13
Speaker 1: brings us back to the very beginning of verdict launched
36:16
Speaker 1: on the first day of impeachment, when we talked about
36:18
Speaker 1: Barisa a lot. Hunter Biden was given a job at
36:22
Speaker 1: Barisma where they paid him eighty three thousand dollars every
36:28
Speaker 1: single month. Now, what expertise does he have. He doesn't
36:32
Speaker 1: speak Ukrainian, he doesn't know anything about oil and gas,
36:37
Speaker 1: He has no relevant expertise. He had one qualification and
36:40
Speaker 1: one qualification only, which is that he carried the DNA
36:44
Speaker 1: of being the son of the sitting vice president at
36:47
Speaker 1: the time. And so NBC, well, there's no question of
36:50
Speaker 1: corruption or anything. Really, why does the Ukrainian gas company
36:54
Speaker 1: pay him that money? What are they getting? And by
36:57
Speaker 1: the way, Hunter Biden, his father je Biden, then the
37:00
Speaker 1: vice President, was the point person for the Obama administration
37:04
Speaker 1: on Ukraine, so it was literally bribing essentially the family
37:10
Speaker 1: of the lead US policy person. And I'll tell you
37:13
Speaker 1: one thing to understand. Okay, Look, if you're a foreign government,
37:16
Speaker 1: let's say you're the Ukrainian government. Let's say you're communist China,
37:20
Speaker 1: and you're trying to influence a US decision maker. Now,
37:23
Speaker 1: if you just show up and hand Joe Biden a
37:27
Speaker 1: paper bag full of cash, you could try to do that.
37:30
Speaker 1: But that's a little clunky and a little obvious and transparent.
37:33
Speaker 1: Even the shills at MSNBC might have a hard time
37:38
Speaker 1: explaining that one away. But there's a second way you
37:41
Speaker 1: do it, which is listen the video you played or
37:44
Speaker 1: the audio you played of Hunter talking to his wife.
37:48
Speaker 1: It is clear that Hunter Biden was a financial burden
37:52
Speaker 1: to his entire family. He was a financial burden to
37:54
Speaker 1: his dad. His dad, I am sure, spent hundreds of
37:59
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, trying to
38:03
Speaker 1: take care of his very troubled son. And look, we
38:07
Speaker 1: all respect that you should do what you can to
38:09
Speaker 1: help help your children, especially when they're troubled. But by
38:13
Speaker 1: Barisma giving Hunter Biden eighty three thousand dollars a month,
38:17
Speaker 1: what they did is they took that obligation off of
38:21
Speaker 1: Joe Biden's palace sheets. In other words, he didn't have
38:23
Speaker 1: to support Hunter Biden because lo and behold, the Ukrainians
38:28
Speaker 1: are doing it for him. And then later on in
38:30
Speaker 1: China the private equity deals, and that he didn't China
38:35
Speaker 1: multi billion dollar deals. You've got indications there, including as
38:42
Speaker 1: you noted that the ten percent for the big guy.
38:44
Speaker 1: Let's be clear, the big guy. He is not talking
38:47
Speaker 1: about some of his back It's talking about Joe Biden.
38:51
Speaker 1: And once again it is highly disturbing that DJ it
38:56
Speaker 1: doesn't seem has even the slightest interest in looking anything
39:01
Speaker 1: that could implicate Joe Biden. This is all about finding
39:04
Speaker 1: a fall guy and with an alibi, with an alibi,
39:09
Speaker 1: Phil and I mean, look, you and I both have
39:12
Speaker 1: compassion for Hunter. When you listen to that tape. Don't
39:14
Speaker 1: think that tape's not going to be played if they're
39:16
Speaker 1: in a court, when people are on a jury, A're
39:19
Speaker 1: gonna say this guy, this poor guy's an addict. He's
39:22
Speaker 1: addicted to drugs. Okay, yeah, he broke the law, but
39:24
Speaker 1: maybe we'll give him a little compassion here. That's been
39:27
Speaker 1: their game plan the whole time, even when they brought
39:29
Speaker 1: out Joe's sister when she did the morning show Sunday
39:33
Speaker 1: Morning Show, CBS This Morning or whatever it was several
39:36
Speaker 1: months back. She clearly laid out the plan for the family,
39:40
Speaker 1: and that was he may have done something wrong back
39:43
Speaker 1: in the day, but he was an addict, so it's
39:45
Speaker 1: not his fault. And that's always been the alibi, which
39:48
Speaker 1: meant they could exploit him and get even to do
39:51
Speaker 1: more insane deals. And I think you and I and
39:54
Speaker 1: this is something the American you will have to ask themselves.
39:56
Speaker 1: This Hunter Biden exists as a businessman in any of
39:59
Speaker 1: these capacities, whether it's with you know, Chinese Communist Party
40:02
Speaker 1: and the oil and gas deals with Bob Olenski, the
40:05
Speaker 1: whistle blower about their deals with Russian olagarchs, and the
40:09
Speaker 1: former mayor of Russia's wife giving him millions of dollars
40:13
Speaker 1: with him being a defense attorney for more than a
40:15
Speaker 1: million dollars for a guy that's going to prison and
40:17
Speaker 1: missing in China or Barisma. Does any of that happen,
40:21
Speaker 1: forget his last name, Hunter Biden. Does any of that
40:25
Speaker 1: happen without his father being involved in those deals? I
40:28
Speaker 1: would argue it's impossible to separate Joe Biden and James
40:32
Speaker 1: Biden from any of this. Look, I think that's right,
40:35
Speaker 1: and I think DJ is once again being partisan and political.
40:39
Speaker 1: And what I fear is that this is also being
40:42
Speaker 1: done for a very explicitly partisan purpose, which is that
40:46
Speaker 1: Merrick Garland has decided if we indict Hunter Biden, then
40:51
Speaker 1: he can turn around and indict Donald J. Trump, And
40:54
Speaker 1: I think that is his objective at this point is
40:56
Speaker 1: to say, Gus, we're not political. Look, we indicted THEO
41:00
Speaker 1: who is so plainly guilty and recorded videos of it
41:03
Speaker 1: and put it out to the world, and we could
41:05
Speaker 1: only not indict him if we ignored it. But it's
41:08
Speaker 1: all about having the Look how even handed we are.
41:11
Speaker 1: We're doing both sides for people that are angry, and
41:15
Speaker 1: I would be in this category center you hear this,
41:19
Speaker 1: And if the DOJ doesn't do a special prosecutor, if
41:22
Speaker 1: we don't get real indictments, just these two kind of
41:27
Speaker 1: slap on the risk indictments that insulate the president. What
41:30
Speaker 1: does justice look like if you guys take control of
41:34
Speaker 1: the Senate, if Comber takes control, you know, in the
41:37
Speaker 1: leadership role there in the House, to investigate you know.
41:41
Speaker 1: Congressman Comber said that Hunter Biden quote is a national
41:43
Speaker 1: security threat who may be compromise, who may have compromised
41:47
Speaker 1: the president. And that's what he says. They're going to
41:50
Speaker 1: look out in the House side. But what does justice
41:52
Speaker 1: look like if we don't get these indictments? Can you guys,
41:56
Speaker 1: you know, get a special prosecutor? Or? Is that no?
41:59
Speaker 1: Because the president is Joe Biden. Is there anything that
42:03
Speaker 1: you guys can actually do when you're investigating him to
42:05
Speaker 1: go back and force a DJ or the FBI or
42:08
Speaker 1: law enforcement do their job if they don't do it
42:10
Speaker 1: the first time around. Well, I think the election matters
42:13
Speaker 1: powerfully because having a majority gives you the ability to
42:17
Speaker 1: then convene hearings, and those hearings there has been essentially
42:22
Speaker 1: zero oversight of the Biden administration. With Democrats in charge
42:25
Speaker 1: of Congress. They put partisan politics above everything else, so
42:29
Speaker 1: they don't want to know the answers to any of
42:30
Speaker 1: these things. I think we are extremely likely to see
42:33
Speaker 1: a Republican House, and I think there's a good chance
42:35
Speaker 1: we'll see a Republican Senate. If and when that happens,
42:38
Speaker 1: I think we will see I hope and believe vigorous
42:43
Speaker 1: hearings examining all sorts of issues. The corruption, the corruption
42:48
Speaker 1: going straight to the top, Joe Biden, his involvement in it,
42:52
Speaker 1: doctor Fauci, the origins of COVID, the Wuhan Institute of Virology,
42:59
Speaker 1: the ding from the NIH forgative function research, all of that,
43:04
Speaker 1: The involvement with Big Pharma in the administration's policy, the
43:09
Speaker 1: involvement with the teachers unions in the administration's in defensible policies.
43:14
Speaker 1: There are so many topics that are screening for oversight.
43:17
Speaker 1: I think we will see hearings on every one of
43:20
Speaker 1: those topics. Those hearings may involve subpoenas if witnesses refuse
43:24
Speaker 1: to attend. Having the majority means you can issue subpoenas
43:27
Speaker 1: and use legal compulsion to make witnesses attend. You can
43:32
Speaker 1: have lawyers who engage the investigations. But you asked, can
43:36
Speaker 1: Congress appoint a special prosecutor? And the answer to that
43:39
Speaker 1: is no. Under our constitution, we have separation of powers
43:44
Speaker 1: and only the executive can execute the laws. So the
43:48
Speaker 1: questions of prosecution, it is only article to the President
43:53
Speaker 1: the Attorney General that have the authority to indict anyone
43:57
Speaker 1: to prosecute anyone to bring a case risk. The legislature
44:01
Speaker 1: can pass laws that need the President's signature to become law,
44:07
Speaker 1: and Congress can hold hearings and shine a light. So
44:11
Speaker 1: I had been calling for two years for a special
44:13
Speaker 1: prosecutor to look at Hunter Biden, for a special prosecutor
44:16
Speaker 1: to look at Anthony Fauci. This administration lasts that off.
44:20
Speaker 1: They don't care that they are going to be corrupt
44:24
Speaker 1: and political, and they do not care with the majority.
44:28
Speaker 1: What the hearings can do is shine a light and
44:30
Speaker 1: put pressure. But at the end of the day, the
44:35
Speaker 1: only person with the authority to appoint a special prosecutor
44:39
Speaker 1: is the Attorney General of the United States. And so
44:42
Speaker 1: that's one of the reasons why I believe one of
44:44
Speaker 1: the first orders of business should be impeaching Merrick Garland.
44:48
Speaker 1: The degree to which he has turned J into a
44:51
Speaker 1: partisan nest of hornets, working on behalf of the White House,
44:58
Speaker 1: working on behalf of the dn SEE, I think has
45:01
Speaker 1: profoundly compromised the integrity as a partment of Justice and
45:05
Speaker 1: the FBI, And as an alumnus I worked at the
45:08
Speaker 1: DOJ in two thousand and one, that is both very sad,
45:14
Speaker 1: but it's also incredibly dangerous. I want to switch gears
45:17
Speaker 1: real quick before we run out of time today to
45:20
Speaker 1: gas prices. Senator JP Morgan CEO came out earlier today
45:26
Speaker 1: in an interview and he said this about American oil production,
45:30
Speaker 1: as he also said we're headed into a recession if
45:33
Speaker 1: we're not already there. That obviously made a Wall Street
45:36
Speaker 1: perk up. But I want you to hear what he
45:38
Speaker 1: had to say about America with oil production. America needs
45:42
Speaker 1: to play a real leadership role. America is the swing producer,
45:45
Speaker 1: not Saudi Arabia. And we should have gotten that right
45:49
Speaker 1: story in March. It's almost too late to get it
45:51
Speaker 1: right because obviously there's the longer term investments. America needs
45:55
Speaker 1: to play a real leadership role. You rarely see CEOs
45:58
Speaker 1: come out in this way, and this happens, and you
46:01
Speaker 1: tweeted this out. Valerio has now fired back with facts
46:05
Speaker 1: after the California government is going to investigate oil and
46:10
Speaker 1: gas companies for the gas price spikes there that are
46:13
Speaker 1: hitting seven eight dollars a gallon in some parts of
46:16
Speaker 1: California because the California Energy Commission, and obviously this is political.
46:20
Speaker 1: Right before the elections, wrote executives at five oil and
46:25
Speaker 1: gas companies Centerer, demanding answers for sharp price increases, and
46:30
Speaker 1: basically the vice president for state government affairs at Valerio said, Okay,
46:35
Speaker 1: you want to know what's happening, Fine, we'll tell everybody.
46:39
Speaker 1: He said, California, for Valero, is the most expensive operating
46:43
Speaker 1: environment in the country and quota very hostile regulatory environment
46:48
Speaker 1: for refining. He also said California policymakers have knowingly adopted
46:54
Speaker 1: policies with the express intent of eliminating the refinery sector.
47:00
Speaker 1: Valero said California requires refiners to pay very high carbon
47:04
Speaker 1: cap and trade fees and burden gasoline with a cost
47:08
Speaker 1: of low carbon fuel standards, saying, quote, with the backdrop
47:11
Speaker 1: of these policies, not surprisingly, California has seen refineries completely
47:17
Speaker 1: closed or shut down major units. And he said when
47:20
Speaker 1: you shut down refinery operations, you limit the resilience of
47:24
Speaker 1: the supply chain, saying, don't blame us for this. You
47:28
Speaker 1: guys have isolated this market. You guys have destroyed this market.
47:32
Speaker 1: You guys have made us to produce a unique blend
47:34
Speaker 1: of gasoline, and now you want to investigate us while
47:37
Speaker 1: you set up this entire thing. You're I'm glad finally
47:41
Speaker 1: some companies are speaking out like this. I think it's
47:44
Speaker 1: really important to see companies pushing back. You know. The
47:47
Speaker 1: letter continues and it goes right out the California regulators.
47:50
Speaker 1: In the letters from Valero, says, quote from the perspective
47:53
Speaker 1: of a refiner and fuel supplier, California is the most
47:57
Speaker 1: challenging market to serve in the United States for several
48:00
Speaker 1: additional reasons. California regulators have mandated a unique blend of
48:04
Speaker 1: gasoline that is not readily available outside of the West Coast.
48:09
Speaker 1: California is largely isolated from fuel markets of the Central
48:13
Speaker 1: and eastern United States. California has imposed some of the
48:16
Speaker 1: most aggressive and thus expensive and limited environmental regulatory requirements
48:22
Speaker 1: in the world. California policies have made it difficult to
48:25
Speaker 1: increase refining capacity and it prevented supply projects to lower
48:31
Speaker 1: operating costs of refineries. It is a great example of
48:35
Speaker 1: just responding with facts, and this is we're seeing this
48:39
Speaker 1: nationally with the radicals, the Green New dealal radicals and
48:44
Speaker 1: the Biden administration, and California is the Wuhan virus epicenter
48:52
Speaker 1: of the craziness that is in the Biden administration. All
48:56
Speaker 1: of these nutty ideas originated in California, with the crazies there.
49:02
Speaker 1: It is the reason people are fleeing California in droves.
49:06
Speaker 1: But when it comes to energy, the reason gas prices
49:10
Speaker 1: are so high nationally five dollars, six dollars, even seven
49:14
Speaker 1: dollars a gallon is because Joe Biden and the people
49:17
Speaker 1: he appointed want gas prices to be high. They promised
49:21
Speaker 1: Joe Biden on the campaign trail, promised that he would
49:25
Speaker 1: end drilling on federal lands, both onshore and offshore, and
49:28
Speaker 1: they have bent over backwards trying to do that. They
49:31
Speaker 1: have put in place dozens of rules and regulations and
49:35
Speaker 1: policies designed to make it harder to develop oil and
49:40
Speaker 1: gas in the United States. They shut down the Keystone Pipeline,
49:43
Speaker 1: They shut down exploration in anwar the incredibly resource rich,
49:47
Speaker 1: very small section of Alaska. They shut down new leases
49:51
Speaker 1: in offshore drilling where they're vast reserves. In the Golf
49:54
Speaker 1: of Mexico. They're not giving new leases there. They are
49:57
Speaker 1: not granting permits for pipelines, they're not granting hermits for refineries.
50:01
Speaker 1: And not only that they're cutting off the funds to
50:06
Speaker 1: pay for exploration. They're two avenues. To fund a new
50:10
Speaker 1: exploration project, you'd neither have debt or equity. The Biden
50:16
Speaker 1: banking regulators are hammering banks not to lend oil and
50:20
Speaker 1: gas projects. And on the equity side, the Biden appointeeds
50:24
Speaker 1: to the SEC are hammering hammering efforts to raise equity
50:31
Speaker 1: to fund that. Also, if you have no capital, you
50:33
Speaker 1: can't drill. And so what's happening. The bad guys are
50:36
Speaker 1: getting rich. Russia's getting rich, or Rand's getting rich. Venezuela
50:40
Speaker 1: is getting rich because they're producing and by the way,
50:43
Speaker 1: they pollute a lot more than America does. So so
50:46
Speaker 1: the Biden zealots are shutting down are hurting the environment
50:49
Speaker 1: at the same time. And as bad as all of
50:51
Speaker 1: that is, California takes all of that and does it
50:54
Speaker 1: on steroids. So when you pay seven bucks a gallon
50:58
Speaker 1: in California, I guess you could be grateful, because in
51:01
Speaker 1: a year they want you to pay ten bucks a gallon.
51:03
Speaker 1: And it's this is the direct result of policies passed
51:08
Speaker 1: by people who don't give a damn about your life.
51:13
Speaker 1: They don't care about your kids, They don't care about
51:16
Speaker 1: working people being unable to afford to get to work
51:18
Speaker 1: or get to school. This is a religion for them,
51:22
Speaker 1: and the consequences of their policy that's for little people
51:26
Speaker 1: to worry about. It doesn't trouble their pretty little hits. Senator,
51:30
Speaker 1: we're often running with Verdict. As I said earlier, I'm
51:33
Speaker 1: looking really forward to doing this with you three days
51:36
Speaker 1: a week. It's going to be fun for everybody listening.
51:39
Speaker 1: I will say it every time. Make sure you hit
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51:55
Speaker 1: write us a review, and Senator, it's going to be
51:57
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. It's an honor to get spend
51:59
Speaker 1: time with you talking about these issues. And this is
52:02
Speaker 1: gonna be, as I said, a exciting expansion with premiere
52:07
Speaker 1: with iHeart and exciting expansion to do this three days
52:10
Speaker 1: a week. And I can't tell you how excited I
52:12
Speaker 1: am personally. We're gonna have a lot of fun. It's
52:15
Speaker 1: gonna be a blast. That's it for this edition of
52:17
Speaker 1: Verdict with tech CRUs we'll see you back here literally
52:20
Speaker 1: in a couple of days.