Iran Invites Neighbors to War by Attacking Them, Noem Out-Mullin In & Elections are BIGGER in Texas Week In Review

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Welcome.

It is verdict with Ted Cruz.

A week in review.

Ben Ferguson with you.

And these are the stories that you may have missed

that we talked about this week.

First up.

Iran doing everything wrong.

Now attacking countries all around them.

So what does that mean for the region?

And the escalation of this war.

Also, a big shake-up of the Department of Homeland Security

is Christy Nome is out.

Who's replacing her?

We'll give you the background.

And finally, it was election night in America.

A big primary on Tuesday.

And a lot of big things happening in Texas.

We break it all down for you.

It's the weekend review.

And it starts right now.

Well, let's go back to the Middle East for a moment.

One of the things that we talk about, you know,

the Ayatollan and his team.

They're homicidal.

And you could also even say suicidal.

And they're obsession with killing innocent people

in their own country, going after Americans,

going after Israelis as well.

But one of the things that I was even a little bit shocked by

was how quickly they decided to bring in every other country

on the side of Israel and the US by attacking these other

Middle Eastern nations around them that weren't involved, right?

They were outside.

Were you as shocked as I was that they just decided,

all right, like whoever's still left standing,

let's just go after Bahrain.

Let's go after Qatar.

Let's go after, I mean, the list is pretty long now.

The countries they've attacked.

And now they brought them into the fold.

I mean, that to me just seems like a suicidal mission

on their port.

Yeah, I will admit, I was surprised by that.

There's been a lot of public reporting that suggested

that other Middle Eastern nations were discouraging President Trump

from going after Iran.

I'm a little bit skeptical of that.

I have not recently had those conversations

with other Middle Eastern nations,

but I've had many conversations with the Saudis,

UAE, Bahrain, and they have always been very focused

on number one, doing everything necessary to stop Iran

from getting a nuclear weapon.

The Saudis have said publicly,

if Iran ever got a nuclear weapon,

that they would do everything possible to get a nuke themselves

to defend themselves from Iran.

And so I don't know if it's true or not

that in the recent weeks Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries

were urging Trump not to attack,

but I do know that Iran's behavior,

so they fired missiles and sent drones and had attacks

at almost every single Arab country

all throughout the Middle East.

So they've attacked Saudi Arabia, they've attacked UAE,

they've attacked Kuwait, they've attacked Qatar,

they've attacked Bahrain, they've attacked Jordan.

And we've seen statements from many

of those other Middle Eastern countries,

mostly Arab countries,

expressing condemning Iran's response.

And in my view, they're just indiscriminately firing abroad.

And I think their reasoning was that if the United States

and or Israel hit them, that they wanted to make it

as painful as possible for the entirety of the region,

what they haven't insured is that there's basically nobody

standing up and siding with the Iranians.

They're demonstrating essentially,

they're willing to kill anybody and everybody.

I got to say that's also a really powerful illustration.

If that's what they do now,

what would they have done with a nuclear weapon?

Yeah, can you imagine how much worse

if they had a nuclear weapon?

And during the whole, go back to Obama

and the debates on Obama's terrible Iran nuclear deal.

I always said most of the debate rotated around well

if they had a nuclear weapon,

it would change the balance of power,

it would make them more aggressive,

they would fund more terrorism.

And I always said, look, that's the best case scenario.

The best case scenario is a horrible situation.

The worst case is that they would actually use the nuclear weapon.

And everyone operates under an assumption,

well, having a nuclear weapon doesn't mean you use it.

Listen, when the Ayatollah chants death to Israel

and death to America,

I believe him.

When he calls Israel the little Satan

and America the great Satan,

I believe him.

And I think the odds are unacceptably high.

I don't know what they were,

but they were unacceptably high that the Ayatollah,

if he had a nuclear weapon,

would detonate it maybe in Tel Aviv

or maybe in New York or Los Angeles.

And I don't want to wake up and discover,

uh-oh, the predictions were wrong

because we have a mushroom cloud

and hundreds of thousands or even millions

of Americans being killed.

The reason, and by the way,

I'm going to say a lot of the news reporting is challenging.

Why would Trump do this attack?

You heard Margaret Brennan there say,

Trump campaigned on not getting in wars.

I did after face the nation.

I also did state of the union with Dana Bash.

And Dana Bash asked a question of me.

She said, uh, you know,

President Trump campaigned on, on no more wars.

And I, in my response, I said,

well, Dana, you actually misquoted what the president said.

What the president said was no more forever wars.

Yeah.

Referring to Afghanistan.

Exactly.

Totally and troops on the ground

is completely different doctrine you can tell.

Yeah.

And, and I said, listen,

we're not going to see troops on the ground in Iran.

We're not going to see hundreds of thousands of Americans

there for an extended period of time.

I don't think we'll see that at all.

Um, that is very different.

And I said, look, there are isolationists

who want, want America to withdraw from the world.

Donald Trump has never been an isolationist.

And he is acting to protect America.

This is America first.

The reason we are striking Iran right now

is because the odds are unacceptably high.

Iran has already killed nearly a thousand Americans

and they have every desire to kill more.

As I told the president, driving in the beast,

I said, if the Iatola could kill the two of us right now,

he would.

The only thing that is preventing him

is that he's not able to because he is trying.

And, and so if we have an opportunity

to take out this regime and,

look, my hope is we see a new government in Iran

that wants to be friends with America.

That would make this country massively safer,

uh, removing these psychopaths from power

and replacing them with anything resembling

a normal government would massively improve

the safety of every American.

Two questions to wrap things up.

Number one, I thought it was really interesting

to see the comparing contrast of the women standing up

for themselves in Iran on the streets risking their lives.

Well, women in America were actually standing up

angry at America for going into Iran.

We saw that in New York City, for example.

We saw it in some other college campuses.

I, the disconnect from reality

from some of these leftists is amazing.

I want to get your take on that real quick.

And then also I want to talk about the possible

closing story of her moves and what that means

and what America's role could be in that as well.

Yeah, so, so today, uh,

Comrade Mandami put out a statement that I want to read to you.

Today's military strikes on Iran

carried out by the United States and Israel

mark a catastrophic escalation

of an illegal war of aggression,

bombing cities, killing civilians,

opening a new theater of war.

Americans do not want this.

They do not want another war in pursuit of regime change.

They want relief from the affordability crisis.

They want peace.

I am focused on making sure every New Yorker is safe.

I've been in contact with our police commission

and emergency management officials.

We are taking proactive steps,

including increasing coordination across agencies

and enhancing patrols of sensitive locations

out of an abundance of conscience.

Caution, additionally,

I want to speak directly to Iranian New Yorkers.

You are part of the fabric of this city.

You are our neighbors, small business owners,

students, artist workers, and community leaders.

You will be safe here.

Look, this is Comrade Mandami.

Cheering for the Ayatollah.

Yeah.

Because they are both jihadists

and they both want to see the great Satan of America.

They want to see this country fundamentally change

and to become an Islamic caliphate.

That was the Ayatollah's objective.

That sadly I believe is Comrade Mandami's objective.

And I want to contrast that

with the reaction of protesters, Iranians,

like his line to Iranians, you will be safe here.

I know a great many Iranians.

Every Iranian I know hates the regime is cheering.

And I want you to watch in particular this scene

that played out on the ground in Austin, Texas

and a CBS news reporter

who was told don't cover the protests celebrating

the Ayatollah being killed, cover that up.

This brave reporter didn't do that.

Give a listen, give a watch.

It's incredible there.

And again, for people that can't see the video,

you have this Austin CBS reporter.

He was handed the phone from his cameraman

and he reads it and he's like, what does that mean?

And the cameraman responds,

they don't want us to focus on this.

And this brave local reporter said, all right, well I am.

And now it's out there on the internet of him having this moment.

It's sad that you've got to be this brave in America

and a local affiliate to report the news,

which was the news that you had people celebrating

and waving American flags and Iranian flags

and standing up for the innocent people in Iran.

And they're like, no, no, no, no.

We don't want you to focus on that at CBS.

Yeah, look, this is happening all over the country,

all over America.

It's happening on the ground, on the streets of Iran.

It's happening around the world.

Kamala Harris today put out a statement, quote,

Donald Trump is dragging the United States

into a war the American people do not want.

Let me be clear.

I am opposed to a regime change war in Iran

and our troops are being put in harm's way

for the sake of Trump's war of choice.

Now I will tell you, I responded to her on X

and I said, your administration gave over $100 billion

to the Iatola who kept killing Americans.

We know you're sad that your friend isn't with us anymore.

Look, the Democrat party was all in in support of the Iatola.

Now sometimes they pretended they weren't,

but when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

sent over $100 billion flowed that money into the Iatola,

they funded his terror.

The Obama Iran nuclear deal was designed

to inevitably lead to a nuclear Iran to the Iatola

with nuclear weapons.

And so this is, I'll tell you,

and folks that deal with conflict in the Middle East

and deal with foreign policy,

frequently refer to Iran as, quote,

the head of the snake.

Why do they call it the head of the snake?

Because it is what is leading and directing

and funding the vast majority of the terrorism you see.

Without Iran, Hamas has no resources.

Without Iran, Hezbollah and the Houthis have no resources.

And so what President Trump is doing here

is being a strong commander in chief

and making Americans safer.

Final question on the story of the Hormuz

and the reality of what's happening there.

Give us your thoughts and perspective on that

and what you think can happen moving forward.

So we don't know that there is reporting

that the Iranians may have mined the Straits of Hormuz.

So we don't have an answer to that right now.

Right now there's not shipping.

There are not ships going through the Straits of Hormuz

until it is determined whether or not they have mined it.

Clear. That's significant.

People just don't understand how important it is.

A significant amount of oil,

world's oil supply goes through there.

Yeah, so right now that is shut down.

By the way, right now,

civilian air traffic is shut down

throughout the Middle East.

You can't get on an airline

and fly into and out of most of the cities in the Middle East

because you've got missiles flying everywhere.

And so all of the countries have understandably

shut their airspace down.

And so I am confident that we will have mine sweepers

go into the Straits of Hormuz.

That may be happening now.

I don't know.

An examine and determine if they're mines there.

But at least right now,

you're not seeing ships go through there

because these guys are just crazy enough

to have put mines there.

And so no one wants to risk it

and until it's determined one way or another

whether it's safe.

Now if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,

you can go back and listen to the full podcast

from earlier this week.

I want you to pause what you're doing for just one minute

and I want you to hear about love, generosity,

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Now on to story number two.

There was a shake-up.

You don't want to ever be the first one to be a cabinet secretary to get the boot.

But it was pretty clear, Chris, you know, got the boot this week.

One of your colleagues,

is going to take over at Department of Homeland Security.

Mark Wayne, at moment I want to take your take on all of that.

Well, the president announced this week that he was removing,

Chris, you know, from Secretary of DHS

and replacing her with Mark Wayne.

It's all going to be fun.

Watch.

Watch.

Watch.

Okay.

Thank you.

And then we'll see you in the next.

Thank you.

I'm going to ask you to answer this question.

with Mark Wayne Mullen. I have to say this was not much of a surprise to anyone watching closely.

Chrissy Nome testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. I was part of that hearing.

I questioned her on it. The questioning was bumpy and she got the Democrats, of course,

went after her hard, but a number of Republicans went after her hard as well.

I have to say one of those that was the most effective was my friend and colleague from Louisiana,

John Kennedy. John has been on this podcast and he's someone who's a good friend of mine.

I want to play John Kennedy's cross-examination at Chrissy Nome because this proved very

consequential cross-examination. Give a listen.

How do you square that concern for waste, which I share,

with the fact that you have spent $220 million running television advertisements that feature you

prominently? Sir, the president tasked me with getting the message out to the country and to

other countries where we were seeing the invasion come from, with putting commercials out that

told them that if they were in this country illegally that they needed to leave or we would detain

them and remove them and they'd not get the chance to come back to America the right way.

That has been extremely effective. I ask you to run these advertisements.

We had that conversation, yes, before. I was put in this position and sworn in and confirmed

and since then as well. Did you bid at those service contracts? Yes, they did. They went out to

a competitive bid and career officials at the department chose who would do those advertising

commercials and the people that you ended up picking were people who had formerly done your

political work back in shop to cut. Is that right? No, that's not correct, sir. No, it's not, sir.

We, the individuals who, I believe, the careers who they chose were two different media firms.

There's been conversation about their subcontractors but we have no legal authority to look into

subcontractors on work like that. Okay. And you're saying that you're testifying that President Trump

approved this. They had a time. Does that understand? We had conversations about making sure that we

were telling people. No, ma'am. I'm asking you, sorry to interrupt, but the president approved

ahead of time. You spending 220 million dollars running TV ads across the country in which you

are featured prominently. Yes, sir. We went through the legal processes. Did it correct?

Did the president know you're going to do this? Yes. He did. Yes. Okay.

And one thing, Senator, I think, would be helpful to know is how effective that communications has

been. Well, well, effective in your name, recognition. I mean, I personally just, I mean, to me,

it puts the president in a terribly awkward spot. And it, it, and I just, I'm not saying you're

not telling the truth. It's just hard for me to bully. You know, I'm the president. As I do that,

you said, Mr. President, here's some ads I've cut and I'm going to spend 220 million dollars

running them that he would have agreed to that. I don't think Russ vote at OMB would have

agreed to that. It's something we have to defend. I'm on the Appropriations Committee.

I mean, my research shows that you did not bid them out that you pick, in fact, one of the

people you picked, the strategy group, I'm sorry, say for America Media was a company formed on

oven days before you picked them and that the strategy group got most of the money and the head

of that is married to your former spokesperson. I'm, I'm, I'm, look, we all have friends who are

qualified. I'm not quit playing with that. I'm just, it troubles me quarter, fifth to a quarter

of a billion dollars of taxpayer money. When, when we're scratching for every penny and we're

fighting over recession packages, I just can't agree with Madam Secretary. Are you still running

those ads? No, Senator, I did not have anything to do with picking those contractors. I know

politicals at the Department of Social Security did it. Are you still running those ads? Are you still

running those ads? I think the ads are due to end here in March, I think within a week.

I'm not sure. The one that is running is focusing on angel families. Have you seen that?

It is the one that's talking about this is our why. This is why we work every day. It's for

the angel families and their victims. Senator, it was, it was not, not a good showing there for,

for her. And, you know, your colleague there, Senator, can any asking questions? I think a lot of

Americans care about. The President also come out saying she did not run this by him in the

amount of money being spent either. That also didn't work well for her either.

Well, and that's something that John Kennedy pointed out. He said in the aftermath,

he said that President Trump was, quote, mad as a murder hornet that gnome claimed he approved

the $200 million ads contract. And, and, and listen, John is a good friend of mine.

I talked to him today on the Senate floor and I just, the number of nominees that his cross

examinations have taken out is quite remarkable. And, and I think it was John Kennedy's cross

examination that, that was pivotal in the decision to, to shift from Christie. Look, I like

Christie personally. I had dinner with, with, with her just a few weeks ago. And, and I do think

the results of the Department of Homeland Security in terms of securing the border have been very

effective. And, and so that, that is beneficial. I think John Kennedy's line of questioning here

was fair. And, and, and it was, it was incredibly effective. I also think and we've talked about

this on the podcast before, that the messaging from the administration, particularly following

the shooting of two different Americans in Minneapolis, that the, the messaging was, was wrong.

And, and it did real damage. That, that, that, that I think that the, the, the messaging was,

look, any time an American citizen is killed in a confrontation with law enforcement, it,

it's a tragedy. And, and we should see our officials acknowledging it's a tragedy.

We should see our officials saying, listen, if there's an officer involved shooting, there's

going to be an investigation, we're going to examine what happened and, and determine what exactly

caused it. And, instead the rhetoric immediately leaped to, to really aggressive rhetoric, calling

both of the individuals, using language like terrorists and seeking mass murder. And, and, and that,

was, that was hard to square with the facts of what occurred. I think that rhetoric

did damage to the administration. And, I think it was one of the things that contributed to the

decision of the president to shift from, Christie Dome, as the leader of Homeland Security.

Mark Wayne, Mark Wayne, I've, I've served with him in the Senate. He, he, he's a good guy. He's

someone the president trusts. I think he will be confirmed. I think it will be a party line vote

in the Senate. We may get John Federman, but I would be surprised if any other Democrat votes

form. So my prediction is the vote on Mark Wayne, Mullen, will, will be 54 to 46 that 46 Democrats

will vote now. And, and I think Mark Wayne, look, the, the, their, there are advantages to being

an experienced elected official. He was a house member. He's been a senator. I'm hopeful that he

will bring a level of professionalism and effectiveness. The results of DHS have been quite strong.

But, but I, I, I do think, I, I do think that the testimony that Secretary Nome gave,

it, it was not an easy day for her. And I think John Kennedy, Tom Tillis also lit into her

really hard, but, but I think the Kennedy cross examination was more significant. There's been

quite a bit of reporting that, that the president was unhappy that she said that he knew about the

ad she had run. And, and, and I don't have independent knowledge of that, but, but I don't have

reason to, to doubt that reporting. Yeah. And, and, and so look, we need to secure our border.

We've had an incredible success rate doing so, so far. And I'm hopeful that Mark Wayne Mullen

coming in will continue with that success and consent, continue to keep our family safe.

As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and

download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing. I want you to pause what

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Authors are subject to change, and certain restrictions may apply. Imagine if your Wi-Fi was a lot

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Exfinity. Imagine that. Restrictions apply.

I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.

It was election day on Tuesday in America. It was a very big election day in Texas.

There were certainly some upsets on the house side. There's a lot of people around the country

watching Dan Crinchell's race. He lost that race to someone that you endorsed. That was a big

one that was I was on national TV talking about over and over again. And then there's obviously

the Senate race that's happening as well. That's now gone into a runoff between two people that

you know well. Your colleague in the Senate and also Ken Paxon. So we're going to have to wait and

see how that plays out as well. But then there's also the Democrat running against whoever wins

that runoff. And this is a guy that Democrats are really excited about. He's talented. He's radical.

He's extreme, but he comes across like a very moderate guy if you listen to him today.

Well, we had primary day in Texas this this week and it was highly consequential. Number one,

there were a number of House candidates who I endorsed who prevailed. We had one Jessica Steinman

who was my former regional director in Houston. She won decisively the Republican primary. She is

going to be in all likelihood the next Republican Congress member from Houston. We had another

Chris Gober who's been my lawyer for 10 years. He won his primary decisively. He's going to be a

new Republican congressman from Central Texas. We had another John Bonk who I endorsed who is

a close friend. He is the son-in-law of one of my closest friends in the world who has been

my national finance chairman for years. But by the way, that was a fun night. Let's think

a moment and talk about how fun that was. So you were obviously in DC, but I went to the victory

party and it's fun to see someone that you and I know personally and the smile on your dear

friend Willie's face. And even Heidi was there as well at your wife. It was really a cool evening

to see someone work hard and win. I know you had to have a really, that had to feel personal to you.

So Willie whose John Bonk's father-in-law is one of my two or three closest friends on planet

earth. And I love him. He's a good man. He's a principled man. He's a conservative. He's a

godly man. He's someone who frankly I rely on for advice for spiritual counseling. We pray together.

We talk together. And John is very likely to win. He did not clear 50% so unfortunately there's

going to be a runoff, but I think he's going to prevail. I actually did a rally for him just a

week ago in the middle of the rally while I had several hundred people there rallying for him.

I got the chance to announce from the stage while I was up there that President Trump had

endorsed him. That was a very cool moment. We knew it was likely to come. I thought there was a

chance that that that Trump would call on the cell phone. If he had called I would have put the

cell phone up to the microphone and let him announce it to the whole crowd. Instead I got to

announce that the crowd went nuts. That was really gratifying to have three people who are

two who are members of my team and have been employees and another who's a very close friend

to see three new likely members of Congress coming. That was a big deal. We also had Don Huffins who

I endorsed for for Comptroller in a statewide position in Texas that won decisively. That was a

big victory. Then you noted Dan Crenshaw. Look, in my 14 years in the Senate, I almost never

endorse against Republican incumbents. There's a reason. If you're serving in the Senate, if you're

working in Congress, if you're endorsing against your colleagues, it makes it very hard to get

anything done. That makes lifelong enemies. You just have to be really reluctant to do so. I

endorse and open races, but I almost never endorse in races against Republican incumbents. I've

made two exceptions in 14 years. The first was Liz Cheney, because Liz Cheney lost her mind and

became a radical leftist who hated President Trump. I endorsed her opponent, Harriet Hagueman,

who beat her and is getting ready to be the new Senator for Wyoming now. Then I did it again

for Dan Crenshaw for much the same reason, because he had really lost his way. He had

gotten angry with his constituents. There were multiple instances in which he yelled. There's one

instance where he yelled at a 14-year-old girl and just got angry. In this race, there's a very

good friend of mine who's been a longtime supporter and close friend who was supporting Dan's

opponent and Dan decided to just light him up. This is a banker, a private citizen in Texas,

and Dan decided to go after him personally. I got to say that pissed me off. He's a close friend

of mine, and I didn't like Dan just attacking him directly. I endorsed his opponent, Steve

Toe. Steve Toe has been a state legislator for a number of years. He's a very strong conservative.

It ended up that Steve Toe, one and one decisively, one by a big margin, and that was a little bit

of a cannon shot. Dan also, a couple of months ago, we were on a plane landing in DC and in the

jetway walking off, Dan began screaming and cursing at me. It was really a little unhinged,

and he was like, why are you coming after me? Dan was like, well, I'm not. He was mad that

supporters of mine were supporting his opponents. Look, I don't control what my supporters do. They're

individuals who have free choice, but he was literally screaming and cursing at me, and I told him

at the time, I said, Dan, if I come after you, I promise you, you will not be subtle. It will not

be hidden. You will have full awareness of it. But I told him afterwards, I said, listen, in 14

years in the Senate, you are the only House member who's ever screamed and cursed at me on an

airplane, and that includes all the Democrats. It pushed me beyond the edge, and the voters of

Texas decided that he was not reflecting their conservative values. They've elected Steve Toe,

a great member of Congress. He'll be a strong conservative. We've got the Senate race. The Senate

race, there is a runoff between John Cornyn, my colleague right now, and Ken Paxton, the Attorney

General. Both of them, I know very well. Both of them are friends of mine. Both of them I've worked

together closely with for years. I've endorsed both of them in the past. I've campaigned with both

of them in the past. I got to say, this primary is better in nasty. Look, it is to date the most

expensive primary in American history. John and Ken really dislike each other. It is going to be

brutal. It is going to be ugly. I don't know how it's going to resolve. The President Trump tweeted

out this week that he is going to make an endorsement. He is not yet. We'll see what the President

decides to do on this. I will say at the same time, the Democrats nominated a guy named James

Taleriko as a state rep. This guy is dangerous. He's an ordained minister. He's a radical. He's a

hardcore leftist and will and subsequent podcasts break down just how radical and extreme his

record is. But what makes him dangerous is he sounds reasonable. He masks his radicalism

in reasonable sounding soft language. He masks it in the language of a pastor. It's incredibly

deceptive and dishonest, but that makes it dangerous. We've got a real fight in Texas and I don't

know what the result will be. As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz,

Ben Ferguson, whether you don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcasts.

Every other day, you're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.

I'd love to have you as a listener to again, the Ben Ferguson podcast and we will see you back here

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