Trump Conquers Colombia, CIA Comes Clean on COVID & Confirmations Accelerate
en
January 27, 2025

In this episode of Verdict, Senator Ted Cruz and Ben Ferguson discuss significant political developments, focusing on immigration, COVID-19 origins, and the rapid cabinet confirmations under the Trump administration. Here are the key takeaways:
Immediate Changes in Immigration Policy
- In just a week, the U.S. under President Trump has initiated strict measures against illegal immigration.
- Key Actions Taken:
- Marines deployed to the southern border.
- Resumed deportations of illegal immigrants, with emphasis on violent offenders, gang members, and drug dealers.
- Example Cases:
- A convicted child rapist arrested in Seattle.
- An MS-13 member apprehended near Los Angeles.
- Various other criminals captured across multiple states, highlighting a significant law enforcement response.
Diplomatic Tension with Colombia
- Tensions arose when Colombia's socialist president, Gustavo Petro, initially refused a repatriation of Colombian illegal immigrants.
- Trump's Response:
- Threatened to implement emergency tariffs and sanctions against Colombian goods.
- Within hours, Colombia capitulated, agreeing to accept deportees.
- This incident underlines the leverage the U.S. holds in international relations and border security.
CIA's COVID-19 Origin Revelations
- The CIA confirmed that the COVID-19 virus likely originated from a lab leak in Wuhan, China, contrary to previous assertions made during the Biden administration.
- Key Insights from John Ratcliffe, CIA Director:
- The agency had already concluded the virus's origin but did not disclose this information publicly under previous leadership.
- Emphasizes the need for transparency in intelligence that impacts public health and safety.
Rapid Cabinet Confirmations
- Senator Cruz outlines the swift confirmation process for Trump's cabinet members.
- So far, four have been confirmed:
- Marco Rubio, Secretary of State (99-0 vote)
- John Ratcliffe, CIA Director (72-26 vote)
- Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense (tied vote, broken by the Vice President)
- Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security (59-34 vote)
- Upcoming Confirmations:
- Several nominated individuals, including Scott Besant for Secretary of Treasury, are projected to be confirmed shortly.
Reflection on Leadership and Policy
- Cruz emphasizes the significant contrast between Trump's firm leadership and the previous administration’s approach to immigration and foreign policy.
- Discusses how the swift action taken against Colombia showcases Trump's commitment to border security and international diplomacy.
- Highlights a crucial moment that demonstrates America's expectations of cooperation from other nations regarding illegal immigration.
Conclusion
In this Verdict episode, the discussion sheds light on the rapid transformations occurring within the U.S. political landscape concerning immigration, international diplomacy, and the handling of significant global health crises. By contrasting Trump’s direct and assertive approach with the previous administration's policies, this episode illustrates the perceived effectiveness of strong leadership in national security and international relations.
Was this summary helpful?
welcome is verdict with senator ted crews ben fergusson with you senator nice to be with you on this monday and at my own mind we have some fun things to talk about including a very quick war with the u.s. and columbia over legal immigrants
What a difference a week makes. A week ago, Joe Biden was still president. Now, just seven days later, Marines are on our southern border. Catch and release is over. We are deporting illegal immigrants. We are arresting thousands of criminal illegal immigrants, including murderers, including child molesters, including gang members.
And the nation of Columbia tried to stand up and say, we will not allow Colombians to come back. Trump immediately retaliated threatening tariffs. And within hours, Columbia back down it went so far. The president of Columbia, a radical socialist said he would send his presidential plane to America to pick up
the Colombian illegal immigrants. It is an incredible victory for President Trump, for the nation, for securing the border in just hours. That is a big, big deal. But that's not all that's going on. We also have the CIA has confirmed its own judgment that the COVID virus originated in China.
That's something you and I have talked about. We've talked about on verdict for a long time within hours of John Radcliffe being confirmed as the director of the CIA. He made that public. We're going to talk about that as well. And finally, we're going to talk about confirmation. The cabinet members that have already been confirmed, who's on deck? I've told you within 30 days, every single Trump cabinet member will be confirmed. We'll walk you through exactly where that stands.
Yeah, it's going to be a really fun show today. I also want to remind you about something really important, and that is that today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. When we remember the great evil of the Holocaust, when millions of Jews were slaughtered during the Nazis' reign of terror.
Today, the rise in global anti-Semitism and the constant attacks on Israel show us that it's more important than ever to remember the atrocities of the Holocaust and to ensure that it never happens again. That's why I partnered with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. They provide food, shelter, and safety to Jews in Israel and around the world.
including those remaining Holocaust survivors. Now your donation today will help provide food, water, medicine, and other basic necessities to the Jewish communities in need. And through your gift, you will stand with the Jewish people and against this growing anti-Semitism and hatred that we're witnessing around the world.
So give a gift to show your support of the Jewish people today by visiting supportifcj.org. That's one word, supportifcj.org. You can also call to make a donation, 888-488-IFCJ. That's 888-488-IFCJ or online at supportifcj.org.
So, Senator, before we get into the big war with Colombia, I want to start with the incredible news of the deportations that are taking place with violent rapists, murderers, gang members, drug traffickers that ICE is picking up, not just in one city, but all over the country, people that could have been picked up that were walking among us by the Biden-Harris administration and they refused to do it.
Yeah, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did not care that murderers and rapists were allowed to wander free. They would not arrest them. They would not pick them up in just a week. Thousands of illegal immigrants have already been arrested. Here are a few of the examples the White House has put out that they've arrested. Edgar Delacruz-Monzo, a convicted child rapist, was arrested by ICE in Seattle on January 25th.
or a Jordanian national with suspected ties to ISIS was arrested in Buffalo on January 24th. An MS-13 gang member from El Salvador wanted for aggravated homicide was arrested in Los Angeles also on January 24th.
A Mexican national wanted for murder was arrested in Los Angeles on January 24th. A Honduran national was found with cocaine, fentanyl, and a firearm. He was arrested in Seattle on January 24th.
A Ethiopian national who's a convicted sex offender was arrested in New Orleans on January 24th. A Honduran national with convictions for driving while impaired and pending charges including assault and firearms offenses was arrested in Atlanta on January 25th.
A Brazilian national convicted of vehicular manslaughter was arrested in Boston on January 25th. A Mexican national convicted of three counts of aggravated DUI was arrested in Phoenix on January 24th. Those are just a few of the examples and let me ask you something Ben. Why the hell were none of them arrested when Joe Biden and the Democrats were in charge?
Yeah, it's a question that every American should be asking is why were they purposely allowing them to stay and walk among us and how many people's lives were affected, how many people's lives are lost, how many children were abused because of people like this in this country, they knew where they were and they didn't take, go get them, they didn't deport them, something that they've done in less than a week.
Notice, ICE was able to find them and arrest them within days. Many of those were January 24th, January 25th, which means we had the information. We know how to get them. What was missing was the political leadership. It's not that Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Democrats couldn't find these murderers, couldn't find these rapists, couldn't find these terrorists, couldn't find these gang members, couldn't find these child molesters. They could find them. It was actually pretty easy and straightforward for ICE to do so.
the reason they weren't arresting them is the democrats didn't want to arrest them and understand it's not just by den Harris it is every senate democrat who over and over and over again when we tried to vote and say let's go after the criminals they voted no no no straight party line i want you to listen to tom homing the the the new border controls are talking about what they're doing on the border and what they intend to keep doing
to deport all of those people. Well, I think Congress has a mandate. There's this number one issue that people will not think Congress has a mandate to give us money we need. Of a price you put on national security. What price you put on the all these young ladies have been raped and murdered and burned alive. What price you put on that? What price you put on Lake and Reiner's life? What price you put on national security? Like I just explained, when you have a Surza because we don't secure that border,
That's when national security is threatened with the country. That's when sex trafficking goes up. That's when, you know, that's when the fentanyl comes in, it kills the court of many Americans. I don't put a price in that. And on those detention centers. It's amazing how the media keeps arguing. Yeah. A quarter million Americans die from fentanyl, as he described it. He also mentioned the Lake and Riley Act was finally passed because Republicans are in charge now.
uh... and it is going to go you know to the president this is one of those moments where it should have been completely bipartisan but these are all the things that the biden here's administration stopped well they blocked it and by the way one of their excuses for not deporting people to read the real reason they didn't report people as they want the illegals here but one of their excuses is they say well some countries wouldn't take them back i gotta say what we saw with columbia in the last two days has been stunning
So the Trump administration was flying two different plane loads of Colombian illegal immigrants to Columbia. And the head of Columbia Gustavo Petra, who is a hardcore socialist, radical anti-American, he decided he announced
We're not going to let the planes land. We're not going to take them back." Now, President Trump sent out the following truth social. I just want to read you what the president says. I was just informed that two repatriation flights from the United States with a large number of illegal criminals were not allowed to land in Colombia. This order was given by Colombia's socialist president, Gustavo Petro, who was already very unpopular amongst his people.
Petro's denial of these flights has jeopardized the national security and public safety of the United States. So I have directed my administration to immediately take the following urgent and decisive retaliatory measures. Emergency 25% tariffs on all goods coming into the United States. In one week, the 25% tariffs will be raised to 50%.
a travel ban, and immediate revocations on the Colombian government officials, and all allies and supporters, visa sanctions on all party members, family members, and supporters of the Colombian government, enhance customs and border protection inspections of all Colombian nationals and cargo on national security grounds.
Aipa, treasury, banking, and financial sanctions to be fully imposed. These measures are just the beginning. We will not allow the Colombian government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the criminals they forced into the United States. Now that truth was posted on January 26th at 1.28 PM.
Within hours, Columbia completely caved. The White House press secretary put out a statement that ran as follows, quote, the government of Columbia has agreed to all of President Trump's terms.
including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from columbia returned from the united states including on u.s military aircraft without limitation or delay based on this agreement
The fully drafted IEPA tariffs and sanctions will be held in reserve and not signed unless Columbia fails to honor this agreement. The visa sanctions issued by the State Department and enhanced inspections from customs and border protection will remain in effect until the first plain loan of Colombian deportees is successfully returned. Today's events make clear to the world that America is respected again.
President Trump will continue to fiercely protect our nation's sovereignty, and he expects all other nations of the world to fully cooperate in accepting the deportation of their citizens illegally present in the United States.
It's amazing how fast this happened and also the backstory. So this tweet that went out, went out apparently while Donald Trump was playing golf. And he was clearly focused on this the same time. He's been all over the country from North Carolina, all the way out to LA, then to Vegas and back to Miami. And you look at the timeline here, it is incredible. This man doesn't stop. And he was ready for this fight. His team was ready for this fight.
That is, I think, maybe the biggest blessing of him not getting reelected in 2020 is he had time to think about, hey, if I go back, what would I do differently? They're clearly operating at a different level of efficiency this time compared to 2016, and it's paying off big.
It is indeed, and I got to say, the timing of it, as I mentioned, 128 p.m. was when Trump's truth social came out on January 26th. Do you know when the press secretary set out her statement that Columbia had caved?
what time at nine twenty p.m. on one twenty six so less than eight hours later that's how long it took for the Colombian president he didn't just say okay never mind you can let everyone in he said I'll send my damn presidential plane to pick up
And that capitulation, and this is from a hardcore leftist who hates America. It illustrates the strength and leverage the United States has. Every country in the world wants to trade, wants access to the U.S. market. That gives us leverage. Just one of the things we've talked about a lot concerning tariffs.
which is that President Trump uses them as leverage. Now, he likes tariffs generally. So we may see tariffs as a broader policy, but he especially likes them as leverage to change conduct that is hurting America. And Ben, I want to ask you a simple question. Can you imagine any universe in which Joe Biden or Kamala Harris would do this?
no no chance in hell and by the way number one you have to imagine a universe in which they're actually willing to deport someone and then that's a big hypothetical but let's assume they sent two planes to columbia and the colombian president did what he did to trump he would have done it to them to say we won't take it it is simply unimaginable
that Biden or Harris would have had the backbone to do anything other than to meekly back down and say, okay, we'll take the criminals back. Like this is it is a simple illustration that America always had the power to enforce our borders. If we had a president who gave a damn about it and was willing to do what was necessary and thank God finally we do.
It also sends a bigger message to other countries that we're going to have to deal with because there's a lot of other countries. I think, simplistically, a lot of people think, well, okay, the southern border, we have an issue with Mexico, let's be very clear. There are millions of people that are in America legally from countries all over the world, and these types of flights are going to need to land in many other countries. The presence for what Donald Trump put out
and saying it's not just going to be a tear for twenty five percent in a week it's going to get a fifty percent it's not just that we're going to make sure that anybody in your country your government family allies friends can't come to america we're going to get rid of it and by the way that that piece listen if you're the foreign minister and your wife wants to go to new york to go shopping
that's a real problem if she's not allowed to go to new york to go shopping you want to talk about that that's one of the areas of leverage that actually causes foreign leaders to freak out when they're not allowed to access america for for many that many reasons people travel from all over the world and want to come to american it's using leverage and and we've talked on this part a lot about about the enormous damage that was done to america under joe biden because he was so weak nobody was afraid of him
Yeah, no, our enemies are terrified of Donald Trump. That is very, very good.
Well, and it goes back to this. Now, every country that we're going to need to take these planes and just so people understand, they had agreed that these plans could land in Columbia. It wasn't like Donald Trump randomly just had two plans headed towards Columbia. This had been prearranged. The president said, yes, then in the air, he said no. They revoked the authorization midair. And I kind of say, look, look, there's an online meme.
That is FAFO. And because this is a family-friendly podcast, I'm not going to spell it out. But I'm going to say, to speak euphemistically, screw around and find out. Yeah. And Donald Trump tweeted that out. Like, OK, that's just pretty damn funny.
So every other country now that we've got to deal with wasn't this clearly a I would argue probably a pre-planned any country that messes with us. Here is what we're going to do back to them. And now every country knows you're going to get the same treatment.
Look, I'll tell you, I met a week ago with a senior government official from Canada who was very concerned about the threat and tariffs on Canada. I was saying, okay, what do we do? And I basically said, listen, he's not bluffing. What I would advise you do is lean in vigorously and aggressively to do everything humanly possible to help us secure the borders because if you don't, you're going to see those tariffs.
And and no matter how aggressive you were thinking of being to secure the border, triple down on that because this is not a bluff. It is a real incredible promise. And I got to say, as we saw in less than eight hours, it can spur incredible change of conduct. By the way, in the first Trump term,
We saw the same thing prompt the remain in Mexico agreement with Mexico for the same reasons. Well, and now it seems like he's willing to double down even more than he was back then. And if anyone was doubting his resolve on securing the southern border, just call Columbia's
uh, petro and say, Hey, how'd it work out for you? Because when you have to send the presidential plane to pick up migrants after Trump announced the sanctions, that is the biggest failure I've ever witnessed in a political gamesmanship like this in modern political history. Yeah. And look, I'll say, uh, within an hour of, of Columbia refusing, uh, refusing the planes to land and Trump announcing the consequences. Here's what I tweeted out.
I tweeted out, Colombian President Petro is playing with fire. After he took over Colombia in the summer of 2022, I worried this would happen. I introduced the Caution Act, which required suspending aid to Colombia unless they cooperated to reduce illegal immigration. That is child's play compared to what will happen now if Petro doesn't reverse course. And about six hours later, he did.
I want to move to this other big headline and that deals with the CIA and releasing new analysis on the COVID origins. It doesn't matter where you read the headline, whether it's Fox News, Politico, AP, BBC, Wall Street Journal. They're all writing the same article now and I'll go to Politico. CIA now says COVID-19 is more likely to have originated from a lab leak.
Now, the most interesting part about this transparency that we're getting from the CIA director, John Radcliffe, a friend of both of ours, is the fact that he made it clear, hey, I'm releasing information that they had already come to a conclusion on center when Biden and Harris were in charge. They just didn't want the American people to know it. So if you think I'm the one giving you this intel, it's not me. This is intel from Biden and Harris that they hid from you.
Yeah, so the CIA had already come to this conclusion. And for a number of years, the CIA's public position was it could not conclude with certainty where the pandemic started. And yet, two days after John Ratcliffe was sworn in as the new director of the CIA, they issued a public statement that said, quote,
We have low confidence in this judgment and will continue to evaluate any available, credible new intelligence reporting or open source information that could change CIA's assessment. And by the way, low confidence typically when the intelligence community has a conclusion that they will report it with low confidence, with moderate confidence or with high confidence. So they're saying that they're not convinced it's absolutely right, but they think it's correct, but it's at the lowest confidence level.
And they did note CIA continues to assess that both research related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID pandemic remain plausible. It is striking, however, that as you just said a second ago, the CIA had concluded this some time ago. It's just under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. They didn't bother to tell the American people. Listen to John Radcliffe explaining this.
part of what uh... we have to do is we have to restore uh... americans trust in our own institutions uh... like the intelligence community and law enforcement in that that includes uh... the c i a and you know one of the things the president uh... stress you know that that the purpose of the c i a is is to protect americans to keep a safe from foreign threats and foreign adversaries
But we also need to be truthful with Americans, and he has stressed to me and others that, you know, these aren't mutually exclusive missions. We can do both. And so in the case of the CIA, which is the best foreign intelligence service in the world, after five years to not have a public assessment, to be honest with the American people about where the likely source of a pandemic that
that killed millions around the world, including a million Americans, and really impacted all 345 million Americans in some way. People lost jobs, they lost houses, they lost their health, they lost their businesses, all of that. And so I had the opportunity on my first day
to make public an assessment that actually took place in the Biden administration. So it can't be accused of being political and it does assess. The CIA has assessed that the most likely cause of this pandemic that has wrought so much devastation around the world was because of a lab-related incident in Wuhan. And so we'll continue to investigate that moving forward. But I think it was important for the American people to see
An institution like the CIA get off the sidelines and be truthful about what our intelligence shows at the same time of protecting us from adversaries like China if they caused or contributed to this. I mean, Senator, wow, what else can you say? This is all intel that we already had that they hid and lied to the American people about.
well listen and i know john ratcliffe well he's a good friend of mine uh... he is someone i i sat and spent about an hour talking with him uh... a week ago before his confirmation and i'll tell you one of the things i urge john to do it is bring maximum transparency that's possible look the nature of the cia you can't be transparent everything obviously we don't want the public to know the identity of covert agents or worse you know secret wiretaps or things that that would jeopardize national security
The consequences of the politicization and weaponization of both law enforcement and the intelligence community is that the public's trust in those institutions has been severely diminished. That's what John was talking about in that clip you just played. And so I urged him, by the way, it's the same thing I've urged Pam Bondy, who's been nominated to be attorney general. It's the same thing I've urged Cash Patel, who's been nominated to be FBI director
is have the maximum transparency possible, and in particular, I've urged them with respect to COVID and the origins of COVID. And by the way, any US government complicity in terms of funding the Chinese research and the gain of function research that may have created the COVID virus, that we need maximum transparency concerning that in particular. And I think John Radcliffe is following through with that. I've also urged maximum transparency concerning January 6th.
and any U.S. government informants who may have been involved, who may have enticed or entrapped people into conduct on that day to make that public as well. And I'm hopeful. And by the way, I'll mention Trump is also releasing the files on JFK and RFK and Martin Luther King's assassinations. I will note, Ben, when Trump said he was releasing the JFK files. I know you're going with this. I did at least tweet.
uh... just wondering what are the non-extradition countries again i i i'm asking for a friend all right you can't say that without telling the back story on this one right guy guy guy can you write people the humor here on this sure during twenty sixteen and trump accused my father of of of killing jfk which for the record know my dad did not kill jfk he did kill jimmy hofas buried my bad dads backyard but he didn't kill jfk
And so it's a thing. And so if he's releasing the JFK files, I got to tell you, I'm buying a plane ticket for my dad to go to Bolivia right now.
Between that and the zodiac killer, you just making headlines, my friend. And it is amazing. So Ben, there is actually a real poll that I have seen that show. This was a few years ago that 28% of Floridians believe I may well be the zodiac killer.
uh... which is that's what i would frame and put on my desk i really is and given that the zodiac killer killed a number of people in northern california in the nineteen sixties before i was born that's an amazing talent to be able to murder in utero to reach like back in time uh... that that that's that that that's just you know i'm kind of proud of that
I mean, if if liberals need another reason to be afraid of you, just know that center crews can time travel per per internet report. So as the meme says FAFO. I love it. All right. Let's talk about the last thing on our list. And it is one, were you right in your prediction? When did you get home? We if you listen to our last show, we were
talking about our Democrats going to hold out through the weekend. Are you going to have to stay in DC all weekend? Are you going to get to come home? They were holding up the nomination yet again. So tell us how that went down. When did you get back? Were you right? So I was right. I said, I thought we'd get back Saturday. I thought the Democrats would fight tooth and nail to try to beat Pete Hagg Seth. I said they'd lose.
And I said, when they lost, they'd give in and they want to get out of town because they want to get home just like we do. So that's exactly what happened. So we were there. We were there late Friday night. And then we ended up finishing the vote Saturday morning and we all flew out Saturday afternoon. So I'm, you and I are recording. It is 12 11 in the morning right now, Sunday night, Monday morning. I'm in Houston. And tomorrow morning, I'll fly back to DC to go back to the Senate tomorrow. So we did get out.
and and where are we on the confirmations so right now for cabinet members have been confirmed
The first to be confirmed was Marco Rubio, as Secretary of State. He was confirmed. On January 20th, the vote was 99 to nothing. The second to be confirmed was the guy that you just played that clip from. John Ratcliffe at CIA Director. The vote was 72 to 26. So big bipartisan vote. And it's striking, though, that the Democrats delayed that several days, even though there was clear bipartisan support for them.
Ratcliffe should have been confirmed on January 20th also. In fact, we thought he was going to, and the Democrats delayed it several days just because they're engaged in obstruction. They're trying to delay everything.
And we're way behind schedule compared to other administration, just so people understand that. Way behind is strong, but they're dragging their feet. And that's why we ran through, forced them to stay through the weekend, kept them late Friday night, kept them there Saturday, to make clear, listen, if you delay, we'll just motor through. And so you can decide, do you want it to be unpleasant, or do you want to move forward? We're going to move expeditiously and confirm these nominees.
the democrats if they want they can abuse the procedural rules they can drag things out but that means they're going to be there on friday's and saturday's and sunday's and they're not going home and and and that's the most effective way to get them to get give it gave in which is what they did and so friday night
The third cabinet member was confirmed. That was Pete Haggseth. That vote was 51-50. More on that in a second. I'll come back to that. And then on Saturday, we confirmed the fourth cabinet member, which is Christie Gnome for Secretary of Homeland Security. She was confirmed 59-34, so a respectable bipartisan vote, not overwhelming, but she got six Democrats.
And next week we have teed up Scott Besant for Secretary of Treasury, Sean Duffy for Secretary of Transportation, Chris Wright for Secretary of Energy, and Doug Burgum for Secretary of the Interior. All of them are out of committee. All of them are teed up. I think all four of them will be confirmed next week. We may have some others to confirm next week as well.
But we're moving expeditiously. And as I said, my prediction is that we will confirm all of Trump's cabinet nominees within 30 days. We also have next week in judiciary. We will vote Pam Bondi out of committee and we'll have the hearing on cash Patel. And by the way, one of the things I did last week.
is is participated in in a new preparation with cash patel which was very productive cash i think it's going to do a good job the democrats are going to go hard after cash patel they're going to go hard after tulsi gabbard those are the top two targets and then pete hexa so pete hexa
they fired everything they could have him they really wanted to defeat peat and and the vote ended up being fifty fifty on the floor of the senate so three republicans voted no susan collins which is not a surprise
lisa mr kalski again not a big surprise and mitch mcconnell who i have to admit i was not surprised that which voted no but that was the more surprising of the three i will say friday i was surprised by that one to explain why you say you weren't surprised i just i was shocked knowing who he had voted to confirm in the past on the democrats sides with was it more of an inside baseball and he said i thought yeah he'd probably do this i don't explain why
So several things. One, I think it's fair to say Mitch is not a fan of Donald Trump to put that mildly. I think both of them can't stand each other. I think secondly, Mitch, listen, that the odds are overwhelming. Mitch is not going to run for re-election, which means he's got two years and his term is up in 2026.
I think for his final two years, Mitch has decided he wants to be basically John McCain. He wants to fight for a bigger military. He wants to fight for an aggressive interventionist foreign policy. And I think he views many of Trump's foreign policy nominees, many of his foreign policy positions, Mitch passionately disagrees with. And I think in Mitch's mind, he put Hagg Seth into that category.
and so just given where mitch is coming from i wasn't surprised that he voted no and i think you could see mitch vote no uh... i think those three collins or casket mccottle could vote no on on on a couple of other nominees on most of them they'll be yeses uh... but but those three have a good thing about a fifty three vote majority
is we can afford to lose three we can afford to lose three and win so it was fifty fifty on the floor of the senate which meant the vice president jadey vance came late friday night and he cast the tie-breaking votes of pete hegseth is now the defense secretary but that was a battle and there was some real drama in particular because tom tell us from north carolina
Uh, had raised real issues during the day, whether he would be a yes or a no. And I can tell you there were a lot of intense conversations with Tom, uh, with Pete Hegseth with the White House back and forth. Look, if one more Republican had voted, no, it would have taken Hegseth down. But at the end of the day, I was confident Tillis would vote yes. And he did vote yes. In fact, I, I offered to several of my colleagues. I said, I'll bet you a hundred bucks. He's a yes and nobody would take my bet. That's a shame. Cause I would have liked to have won $100.
Yeah, no doubt about it. All right. So lastly, this week, what do you think is going to happen? Is it going to be a long week or are you guys going to get a lot of this done and get out of there on Thursday like normal or are the Democrats going to keep playing the games?
well listen normal senate schedule as you come in monday night your first vote is typically five thirty p.m. the reason it's five thirty p.m. that's called the comeback vote and you've got senators flying in from all over the country so even from the west coast you can fly in and land in d.c. and get to a five thirty vote so that's why we start monday night so everyone could come back to town that day
The normal Senate schedule is you wrap up voting Thursday afternoon, you fly home to your state, and then you're in your state, you're traveling your state on Friday and the weekends. What John Thune has announced is the schedule right now, every week we're going to be there through Fridays.
uh... i think part of that is to put pressure on the democrats not to be obstructionist i think if the democrats agree to collapse time in the move a little faster i i think we may go home thursday afternoons as well so we can be back back in the state on friday but if the democrats delay an obstructionist i expect us to be there every friday
incredible. Don't forget we do the show Monday, Wednesday, Friday. We're going to give you a blueprint for what's happening, especially during these confirmation hearings, just like we talked about. So hit that subscribe or that auto download button. And on those in between days, grab my podcast, the Ben Ferguson podcast. I'll keep you updated on the latest breaking news as well on those days. And the Senate, I will see you back here Wednesday morning.
Was this transcript helpful?
Recent Episodes
The Legal Basis for Retaking the Panama Canal, plus No Taxes on Tips is Happening

Verdict with Ted Cruz
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
January 29, 2025
Trump Moves to Save Americans Billions in Tax Dollars

Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump renews call for tax-free tips and social security; issues executive order banning gender-affirming care for minors; White House pauses federal grants and loans.
January 29, 2025
Trump Deports the Worst Immigrants First and Welcomes Back Unvacc'd Troops

Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump's Administration conducts raids on 'criminal aliens', service members reinstated/discharged for refusing COVID-19 vaccine, key officials depart from DOD under Jack Smith.
January 28, 2025
Trump to Colombia on Illegals "FAFO!"

Verdict with Ted Cruz
US suspends tariffs after Colombia agrees to deportation flights; CIA supports lab leak theory regarding Covid-19 origins; Vance targets Catholic churches and media for protecting and profiting off illegal activities
January 27, 2025

Ask this episodeAI Anything

Hi! You're chatting with Verdict with Ted Cruz AI.
I can answer your questions from this episode and play episode clips relevant to your question.
You can ask a direct question or get started with below questions -
What was the main topic of the podcast episode?
Summarise the key points discussed in the episode?
Were there any notable quotes or insights from the speakers?
Which popular books were mentioned in this episode?
Were there any points particularly controversial or thought-provoking discussed in the episode?
Were any current events or trending topics addressed in the episode?
Sign In to save message history