He'll pull you back in two months. Two months. Yes, it's a schedule. He's extremely busy sleeping. Now, could we speak to the present? Would that be possible? We can do it any time over the next month. They're so used to this, right? I say, no, I'm picking up right now. Is the other phone? Yeah. Hello. How you doing?
You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. Good Monday morning. It's Ben Ferguson. Nice to have you with us. And here are the big stories we're covering today on the 47 Morning Update. Columbia's president, Petro, buckled under Donald Trump's trade war threat after the president refused to allow planes to land in his country filled with illegal immigrants from his nation. I'll have the latest on how Donald Trump pulled this off in a moment.
Also, we now have the CIA saying that the government lied to you about the lab leak theory coming out of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the new CIA director explaining exactly what the evidence is. We'll play that for you in a moment as well.
And finally, Vice President JD Vance calling out the Catholic Church for protecting illegal immigrants and profiting off them as well. It's the 47 morning update and it starts right now. Story number one. Sunday was a very busy day for Donald Trump and foreign policy, especially after Columbia's President, Petro, decided to stop
Two military planes landing in his country filled with illegal immigrants had been rounded up in America. The worst part about the story is he had said early on he would allow the planes to land and then decided to block them. Well, President Donald Trump wasn't having any of that and said, okay, you want to go to war? Let's do it. And that is when Donald Trump responded with some incredible threats to the country.
In a response, Trump swiftly enacted a wave of retaliatory measures, including ordering a 25% tariff being posed on all Colombian goods coming to the U.S. Now, many in the media that were acting like that wasn't a big deal.
Except if you look at what Columbia exports to America, it is a big deal, including Colombian coffee. These measures are just the beginning, Trump said. 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.
Trump went on to warn that that tariff that starts at 25 percent would then jump to 50 percent at the end of week one. Now before the South American leader caved, the Secretary of State Marco Rubio also alleged that the president of Columbia had canceled his authorization for the flights of Columbia nationals when the planes were already in the air.
It is a responsibility of each nation to take back their citizens who are illegally present in the United States in a serious and expeditious manner. The Colombian president had authorized the flights and provided all needed authorizations and then canceled his authorization when the plans were in the air. Rubio went on to say on X.
as demonstrated by today's actions. We are unwavering in our commitment to end illegal immigration and bolster America's border security. Rubio went on to state. Well, guess what happened? The president of Colombia instantly caved after the list came out of exactly what President Trump was going to do. It wasn't just the emergency tariffs that were jumping from 25 to 50 percent at the end of one week.
But also a travel ban and immediate visa revocations on the Colombian government officials. Also, all of their allies and supporters. Donald Trump wasn't done with that, saying visa sanctions will happen on all party members, family members, and supporters of the Colombian government.
And just to add on to that, the president said he was going to have enhanced customs and border protection inspections of all Columbia nationals as well as cargo because of the national security grounds.
And finally, the president said the IEPA treasury banking and financial sanctions will be fully imposed. These measures are just the beginning, the president stated, and we will not allow the Colombian government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and the return of criminals that they forced into the U.S.
Well, guess what the Colombian president did? Not only did he say, OK, let's all get along. But he even said he would send his own presidential jet to America to pick up the 160 plus illegal immigrants that we were originally flying back to Colombia. If you want to know what make America great again looks like, well, Donald Trump, he's bringing it week one. Now story number two.
So remember the lie that we were told for years from the Biden-Harris administration that there was no such thing as a lab leak when it came to the origins of COVID-19. You may also remember that Dr. Fauci lied to the American people and even needed a preemptive pardon because of what he said the American people about the Institute of Virology in Wuhan and the lab leak theory. He also fund a gain of function research and lied about that.
Well, now because all of those individuals are out of the government, we're finding out exactly what really happened. And the CIA is now being reported by Politico, the Wall Street Journal, the BBC, Fox News, even CNN, and the Associated Press are now running headlines that say the CIA believes COVID most likely originated from a lab.
Yes, another headline. The CIA releases new analysis on COVID origins favoring lab leak theory. Politico's headlines say, now says COVID-19 is more likely to have originated from a lab leak. These headlines would have been banned from social media and had your account silenced or even shut down if you shared them during COVID-19 in the pandemic. But now we're hearing a lot more about the facts.
John Radcliffe is now the CIA director after being confirmed this past week. And here is what he had to say about the American people. It's time that they are able to trust their government again. Part of what we have to do is we have to restore Americans trust in our own institutions like the intelligence community and law enforcement and that.
that includes the CIA and you know one of the things the president stressed you know that the purpose of the CIA is is to protect Americans to keep us safe from foreign threats and foreign adversaries but we also need to be truthful with Americans and and he has stressed to me and others that you know these are 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 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.
It's very clear from Radcliffe's words there that the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, is instructing the people in his cabinet to be transparent with the American people, to bring back faith to institutions like the CIA, or the FBI, or the Department of Homeland Security,
And I have a feeling what we're going to witness in the days and the weeks ahead is more people like Radcliffe stepping up and saying, this is what they were hiding from you in the Biden and Harris administration. It is clear. This is an initiative of Donald Trump. So get ready for more bombshells and also many moments that are going to probably be like, I knew I was right moments where we relied to buy our government. And lastly, story number three.
There's a very famous saying. It is a saying that you've probably heard before. Follow the money. Well, nothing can be true when it comes to government and politics. And many times when there is a crisis and money is thrown at that crisis, there are always people on the take that are more than happy to get rich.
Well, JD Vance is now calling out the Catholic Church, saying they are doing more to help immigrants, illegal immigrants specifically, to actually help their bottom line, not so much because they believe in a policy. Well, Vice President JD Vance ruffled a lot of feathers when he got into it back and forth over the idea now that the government is going to raid churches, to if there are illegal immigrants in attendance.
There are some saying that is inhumane. And the president of the United States of America is saying there should be nowhere that is off limits to violent illegal immigrants, even if they seek refuge in a church. Take a listen to what J.D. Vanta to say about the Catholic church profiting off of, quote, taking care of illegal immigrants in America.
of Catholic bishops this week condemned some of the executive orders signed by President Trump, specifically those allowing immigration and customs enforcement to enter churches and to enter schools. Do you personally support the idea of conducting a raid or enforcement action?
in a church service at a school? Well, let me address this. Of course, if you have a person who is convicted of a violent crime, whether they're an illegal immigrant or a non-illegal immigrant, you have to go and get that person to protect the public safety. That's not unique to immigration. But let me just address this particular issue, Margaret, because as a practicing Catholic, I was actually heartbroken by that statement.
And I think that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Or are they actually worried about their bottom line? We are going to enforce immigration law. We're going to protect the American people.
Donald Trump promised to do that, and I believe the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, if they're worried about the humanitarian costs of immigration enforcement, let them talk about the children who have been sex trafficked because of the wide open border of Joe Biden. Let them talk about people like Lake and Riley who are brutally murdered. I support us doing law enforcement against violent criminals, whether they're illegal immigrants or anybody else in a way that keeps us safe.
Let me ask this question, Margaret. Let's separate the immigration issue. If you had a violent murderer in a school, of course I want law enforcement to go and get that person out. Of course. So what's the point of the question? You changed the regulation this week. That's the point of the question. Exactly. Giving the authority to go into churches and go into schools. Exactly. We empowered law enforcement to enforce the law everywhere to protect Americans. But that also has a knock on the fact, a chilling effect, arguably, to people to not send their phones.
I desperately hope it has a chilling effect on legal immigrants coming into our country. In the church, you think the US Conference of Catholic Bishops is actively hiding criminals? I think the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has frankly not been a good partner in common sense immigration enforcement that the American people voted for, and I hope, again, as a devout Catholic, that they'll do better.
as a devout Catholic, he hopes they'll do better. So follow the money. What are we talking about? Early reports have been coming out after Vance did that interview showing millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars have been flowing into the Catholic Charities to make sure that they take care of the illegal immigrants.
Yes, the Catholic Church is profiting off of this. There's no doubt about it. And now you have the Vice President of the United States of America calling them out for it. Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now. And for more in-depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast. And we will see you back here tomorrow.
