VERDICT WITH TED CRUZ: No Deal: Trump Moves to Blockade the Strait of Hormuz as Iran Defies Nuclear Demands plus Swalwell Bombshell
4/14/202639 mincomplete
0:00This is an iHeart Podcast.
0:02Guaranteed human. Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson.
0:07With you, Senator, we've got a lot to talk about that's happened over the weekend.
0:11The news was not sleeping, and CINCOM and the White House has now confirmed that
0:15the U .S. Navy is going to block ships entering and exiting the Iranian ports,
0:21and that has nothing to do with what's going on in California with Eric Swallow
0:25on top of that. Well, we had 20 hours of negotiations in Pakistan, and unsurprisingly,
0:31the Iranians were unwilling to move at all, in particular on nuclear weapons.
0:37They want a nuclear weapon, and I think they want a nuclear weapon because they
0:40want to be able to use a nuclear weapon.
0:42And President Trump, quite rightly, is insisting under no circumstances will the regime of Iran
0:50be allowed to have nuclear weapons.
0:51And so the president responded by ordering a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, shutting
0:56down every ship going into and out of the Strait.
0:59We're going to break that down.
1:01We're going to talk about what that means for Iran, what that means for America,
1:04what that means for China and Europe, what's going to happen next.
1:08And then we're going to talk about poor Eric Swallow, who seems to be on
1:16a train, falling off a cliff, on fire, exploding, and it's all self -inflicted.
1:23And, you know, schadenfreude is not a pretty sentiment, but I guess people will be
1:31forgiven for just kind of shaking their head and saying, well, couldn't happen to a
1:37nicer guy. Yeah, yeah. Fang Fang, you thought, was the worst.
1:41The low. Nope, it wasn't.
1:43Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.
1:45Fang Fang was a high point for Eric Swallow.
1:47Well, he is looking back to the halcyon glory days of Fang Fang.
1:54He wishes that that's where he was today.
1:57No doubt about it. We'll explain all of this story as it is continuing to
2:01unfold as we speak. Plus, he's running or was running for governor.
2:06We're going to explain that to you as well.
2:08Before we get to that, though, there are still so many people that are dealing
2:12with the fallout of this war in Israel.
2:16And there are many needs for the people in Israel right now.
2:19And so many of you that listen to the show have been standing with those
2:21people and getting involved with the incredible work that's being done right now in Israel
2:26with IFCJ. I want to take a moment and talk to you about a man
2:30named Phineas, who, as a child, survived the Holocaust.
2:35Phineas survived because Christians hid him from the Nazis, risking everything to save his life.
2:43Today, he is in his 80s.
2:45He can no longer stand on his own or leave his home to receive medical
2:49care. And when the siren sounds and the missiles fall, he doesn't have time or
2:54the strength to reach safety.
2:56But once again, Christians are helping save his life through the International Fellowship of Christians
3:02and Jews. A mobile clinic brings doctors and medicine right inside of his home, providing
3:09care he wouldn't receive, especially in wartime.
3:12Christians saved my life during the Holocaust, he said.
3:16And now again, they're helping me.
3:18So as Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day approaches, we honor survivors like Phineas, not just with
3:25words, but with action. Give $45 right now and you can rush life -saving essentials
3:32to the vulnerable in Israel under fire.
3:34888 -488 -IFCJ. That's 888 -488 -IFCJ.
3:42Or go online to ifcj .org.
3:45That's I -F -C -J .org.
3:49All right. So, Senator, you wake up Sunday and you get the news.
3:53The president's like, all right, we had these 20 hours of talks.
3:56They're not going well. We were about 95 % of the way there.
3:59The only problem is that last 5 % dealt with Iran getting nuclear weapons.
4:03We say no to that.
4:05And now the president is saying, we're going to do this blockade with the straight
4:08-of -form moves. They're not going to hold us or the rest of the world
4:11hostage anymore. This is a very bold move.
4:14I want to get your initial reaction to it.
4:16Well, I have to say, none of this, I think, is surprising.
4:20If you go back to our last pod on Friday, we laid out that the
4:24president had drawn a series of red lines.
4:27His red lines were, number one, Iran must have no enrichment whatsoever.
4:32Number two, Iran must give up all of its already enriched uranium.
4:38Number three, Iran had to agree to completely open the Strait of Hormuz.
4:43And actually, number four was Iran had to stop funding terrorism across the globe.
4:49Those were the demands. Those were the red lines.
4:51As you and I discussed on the pod, I emphatically agree with all four of
4:55those red lines. Those are the right things to insist upon.
4:58The president asked J .D.
5:00Vance and Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to go and negotiate.
5:03So they went to Islamabad.
5:05They negotiated with multiple officials from Iran.
5:10They had Pakistan was hosting and was intermediating.
5:14Apparently, the negotiations went 20 hours.
5:16I got to say, it was not surprising they didn't go anywhere.
5:20It was very interesting that J .D.
5:22Vance was the person asked to lead this and that J .D.
5:25has been... the most vocal opponent of military action against Iran.
5:29And so the fact that the president asked him to lead it, I'm not sure
5:32what the thinking was there, but it's an interesting statement.
5:35Here's what the president put out.
5:37He put out two lengthy truth socials, which said as follows, Iran promised to open
5:47the Strait of Hormuz, and they knowingly failed to do so.
5:51This caused anxiety, dislocation, and pain to many people in countries throughout the world.
5:57They say they put mines in the water, even though all of their navy and
6:01most of their mine droppers have been completely blown up.
6:04They may have done so, but what ship owner would want to take the chance?
6:09There is great dishonor and permanent harm to the reputation of Iran and what's left
6:15of their quote -unquote leaders.
6:17But we are beyond all of that.
6:20As they promised, they better begin the process of getting this international waterway open and
6:27fast. Every law in the book is being violated by them.
6:32I have been fully debriefed by Vice President J .D.
6:35Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner on the meeting that took place in
6:40Islamabad through the kind and very competent leadership of Field Marshal Asim Munir and Prime
6:46Minister Shabazz Sharif of Pakistan.
6:49They are very extraordinary men and continuously thank me for saving 30 to 50 million
6:54lives in what would have been a horrendous war with India.
6:58I always appreciate hearing that.
7:00The amount of humanity spoken of is incomprehensible.
7:04The meeting with Iran began early in the morning, lasted throughout the night, close to
7:1020 hours. I could go into great detail and talk about much that has been
7:15gotten, but there is only one thing that matters, and this is in all caps.
7:20Iran is unwilling to give up its nuclear ambitions.
7:25In many ways, the points that were agreed to are better than us continuing our
7:30military operations to conclusion. But all of those points don't matter, compared to allowing nuclear
7:37power to be in the hands of such volatile, difficult, and unpredictable people.
7:44My three representatives, as all of this time went by, became, not surprisingly, very friendly
7:52and respectful of Iran's representatives.
7:54Muhammad Bagar Ghalidaf, Abbas Argachi, and Ali Bagheri, but that doesn't matter, because they were
8:04very unyielding as to the single most important issue.
8:08And as I have always said, right from the beginning and many years ago, again
8:12in all caps, Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.
8:18And then here's the second truth socially sent.
8:20So, there you have it.
8:23The meeting went well. Most points were agreed to.
8:27But the only point that really mattered, nuclear, was not.
8:32Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the finest in the world, will begin the process
8:38of blockading any and all ships trying to enter or leave the Strait of Hormuz.
8:44At some point, we will reach an all -being -allowed -to -go -in, all -being
8:50-allowed -to -go -out basis.
8:52But Iran has not allowed that to happen by merely saying, there may be a
8:57mine out there somewhere that nobody knows about but them.
9:01This is world extortion. And leaders of countries, especially the United States of America, will
9:09never be extorted. I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel
9:15in international waters that has paid a toll to Iran.
9:20No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas.
9:26We will also begin destroying the mines the Iranians laid in the Straits.
9:32Any Iranian who fires at us or at peaceful vessels will be, again in all
9:38caps, blown to hell. Iran knows, better than anyone, how to end this situation which
9:47has already devastated their country.
9:49Their navy is gone. Their air force is gone.
9:53Their anti -aircraft and radar are useless.
9:56Khamenei and most of their leaders are dead, all because of their nuclear ambition.
10:02The blockade will begin shortly.
10:06Other countries will be involved with this blockade.
10:09Iran will not be allowed to profit off this illegal act of extortion.
10:14They want money, and more importantly, they want nuclear.
10:19Additionally, and at an appropriate moment, we are fully locked and loaded, and our military
10:27will finish up the little that is left of Iran, President Donald J.
10:32Trump. Those are remarkable, detailed, and I think absolutely clear messages from the President of
10:41the United States, and I gotta say, if you're an Iranian mullah, if you're the
10:45Ayatollah, you are not happy to read one word of that.
10:49Yeah, and the President reiterated some of that as well.
10:53Called in to Maria Bartiroma on Fox Sunday on her show, Sunday Futures, and the
10:59transparency here I do think is one of the things that I just love about
11:03this president. And he said publicly the same things that he's saying privately, and he's
11:09making it clear that what they're doing is unacceptable.
11:12Now, the question becomes, what's next?
11:15And this has also been part of the politics of this.
11:19You know, Democrats really honed in and obsessed over if Donald Trump hit the bridges
11:26and the tunnels and then hit the power infrastructure, the electrical grid, the power plants
11:32that they were going to declare that he has committed war crimes.
11:36And by the way, we talked about this on verdict.
11:38That's not true. It's not accurate.
11:40But regardless, this does seem to be another.
11:44I've exhausted every mean, every measure possible before I go there.
11:49And if he does this the way he's saying he's going to do it, this
11:52is just another example of the president trying to give diplomacy, but also having accountability
11:56at the same time. You come to the meetings, you screw with us for 20
11:59hours, you won't agree, fine.
12:01Here's another step forward. Look, this is a massive hammer to the Iranian economy.
12:07The vast majority of the revenue Iran takes in is from selling their oil.
12:12They sell the bulk of that oil to China.
12:15So this blockade shutting down all of the ships and there's an entire ghost fleet
12:21that has been built up of ships that have been taking Iranian oil to China.
12:25That ghost fleet will not be able to travel through the Strait of Hormuz, will
12:30not be able to carry any Iranian oil.
12:32It means there's going to be no Iranian oil being sold, no money coming in.
12:38It also means there have been reports that China might be sending weapons to Iran.
12:44I don't know if that's true or not, but by shutting down the Strait, it
12:48also means that there are going to be no incoming material to Iran through the
12:54Strait of Hormuz. That puts enormous pressure on Iran.
12:58Now, it also puts a lot of pressure on China because they rely on that
13:01oil from Iran. They're not going to be able to get that oil from Iran
13:04anymore, and it puts significant pressure on Europe.
13:08You know, I will say one of the amazing things that has happened in this
13:12military conflict is Europe has shown how much they have changed.
13:18And Western Europe, look, Western Europe, I think, is basically on a suicide pact.
13:24They have brought in such a massive Muslim immigration that the leaders in Western Europe
13:30are terrified to stand up even against an Ayatollah who is screaming death to America.
13:38They're terrified to stand up.
13:40I'm sure you've seen the meme online that shows Muslim countries standing with America, and
13:45it lists every Arab country in the Middle East, the Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and
13:49Bahrain. They're all standing with us.
13:51And then Muslim countries opposing us, and you've got France and the United Kingdom and
13:55Germany and Italy, and Western Europe has not crowned itself in glory, to put it
14:03mildly. Eastern Europe has. Look, Eastern Europe, you know, if you remember back when George
14:08W. Bush was president, Don Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense at the time, made a
14:13reference to old Europe, meaning Western Europe and new Europe.
14:17And he said, old Europe is a lot less relevant than new Europe, the Eastern
14:21European countries that were under Soviet domination and that are eager to stand with America.
14:27One of the most far -reaching consequences of this military action, the fact that our
14:34European allies said, we want nothing to do with America in this conflict, that's going
14:40to have consequences. That's going to have real consequences for decades, and those consequences are
14:47not good for Europe, and they're frankly not good for the world.
14:52It is unfortunate, and I've got to say, I was surprised to see even Italy
14:56joining that group saying, no, we won't stand with America on this conflict.
15:02But the Strait of Hormuz shutting down is going to put real pressure on Europe,
15:08real massive pressure on Iran, and very significant pressure on China.
15:12You know, let's talk about the oil coming out of there, because I don't think
15:14people understand how Iran gets their oil out, and these black ships that you described
15:20it. When there have been these, you know, basically, hey, we're not going to let
15:26your oil come out into the market this way, and we're going to put, you
15:30know, all these restrictions. You sell that oil, Venezuela had done this, and others, where
15:36they sell it in the black market.
15:37They get a little less for it, but they find a buyer.
15:40They put it in these ships that are unmarked, in essence, and they keep it,
15:43and we all know it's happening, and it's happening.
15:45Iran has operated in that space for quite a long time with all of the
15:50sanctions that have been on them.
15:51But as it was described to me by an oil trader that I was talking
15:55to as we were watching the Masters, they said, you literally can decimate financially Iran
16:02if this actually happens, because this is the way, the only way that they get
16:07a substantial amount of oil out of the country.
16:09There's no way to put it on 18 -wheelers and get it out in a
16:12big way to Europe. There's no way to get it out, driving it somewhere.
16:16It's either this or nothing, and the regime...
16:21eyes on these tankers 24 -7 moving their currency, which is oil, and then turning
16:27that into cash for them to keep their government propped up.
16:30If you shut this down, he said, this is a country that in essence can
16:34go bankrupt in a very short window of time.
16:38Well, and let's back up a little bit of history on this.
16:42So at the beginning of the Trump administration, Iran was selling roughly 1 million barrels
16:47a day of oil. President Trump in the first term, there was a massive battle
16:52within the Trump administration about whether to withdraw from the Obama -Iran nuclear deal.
16:57It was a disastrous deal.
16:59Both state and defense urged him not to withdraw from the deal.
17:03I vigorously urged the president to pull out.
17:06I probably talked to him in the Oval Office on Air Force One 20 or
17:1230 times about pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal.
17:16He agreed with me. He overruled his own Secretary of State, his own Secretary of
17:20Defense in the first term.
17:21He pulled out of the deal.
17:22Once he pulled out of the deal, there were a series of waivers that remained
17:27in place. There were seven civilian nuclear waivers that allowed Iran to conduct what they
17:32called, quote, civilian nuclear research with the Russians.
17:36It wasn't civilian at all, but they claimed that it was.
17:39And then there was an oil waiver that specifically allowed them to sell oil.
17:44After President Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, we had a second battle
17:48to end the civilian nuclear waivers and to end the oil waiver.
17:53On both of those, again, the State Department opposed ending those waivers.
17:57On both of those, I led the charge to end those waivers.
18:02When it came to the oil waiver, the Department of State and the Department of
18:06Energy had a sharp disagreement.
18:08State said, if you end the oil waiver, the price of oil will skyrocket and
18:13that'll drive up the price of gasoline at the pump.
18:16The Department of Energy and Trump won, which you would think the Department of Energy
18:20would know something about, well, energy, said, no, that's ridiculous.
18:25There's plenty of global supply.
18:26We can enforce these sanctions and it's not going to materially affect the price.
18:31I leaned in aggressively with the president and said, end the oil waivers.
18:35Again, he agreed with me, overruled State yet again.
18:38And we now know who was right.
18:40The Department of Energy was right and State was wrong because when he ended the
18:44oil waivers, Iran's exports fell from a million barrels a day to about 300 ,000.
18:51So they fell 70%. That was a massive blow.
18:56And so under Trump won, by the end of Trump won, the Iranian economy was
19:01in freefall because down to 300 ,000 barrels a day was starving them of cash.
19:07Joe Biden came in and almost immediately just stopped enforcing the sanctions.
19:13What do you think? By the way, they had, don't forget, I want just everybody
19:17listening to remind them, every time that the Biden administration was challenged on the point
19:22you just made, they said, we haven't lifted the sanctions.
19:25The sanctions are still there.
19:26But it was very clear what they said was, we just want to say on
19:30paper, they're sanctioned. So you can't criticize us.
19:32They were not enforcing the sanctions.
19:35That's the key point that Americans need to understand because the Biden administration, they did
19:39it time and time again from the podium.
19:41Jen Psaki, I remember, she's like, we have not gotten rid of sanctions.
19:44That is a lie. That is not true.
19:46That's the right wing lying to you.
19:48And it was true, by the way, they had not gotten rid of sanctions.
19:51They just said, we're not going to enforce them.
19:53So they're meaningless. Well, they stopped enforcing them.
19:56And what they allowed to grow was this ghost fleet of ships, some 400 ships,
20:01some 400 tankers, many of them flagged under the flag of Panama.
20:05And when I've met with the government of Panama multiple times, I've leaned on them
20:09to stop flagging the ghost ship that is taking Iranian oil to China.
20:15But the result of Biden not enforcing the sanctions, Iran's oil exports grew from 300
20:24,000 barrels a day to what do you think they hit under Joe Biden?
20:27I'm going to go all the way back up to a million?
20:30Two million. They doubled where they had.
20:34The consequence of that going from 300 ,000 barrels a day to 2 million barrels
20:39a day was more than $80 billion that the Biden administration flowed into Iran in
20:49a very real way. The Biden administration, by not enforcing the oil sanctions, funded Hamas
20:56and Hezbollah because 90 % of Hamas and Hezbollah's money comes from Iran.
20:59And that $80 billion in a real sense paid for the death squads on October
21:067th. What President Trump is doing with this blockade is shutting down the ghost fleet.
21:13That is incredibly potent. I don't know what the resolution of this will be, but
21:20you're right. It's an intermediate step.
21:21It is another way of inflicting enormous leverage on Iran.
21:26It's not as significant as taking out the power plants and the bridges, which the
21:31president may still do. It also shuts down.
21:36Iran was trying to say, hey, we're going to charge a toll of 2 million
21:39bucks a ship and suddenly make revenue.
21:42I love that the president said, you know what?
21:44Any ship that pays that toll will not be allowed to traverse the sea.
21:49And by the way, for 60 plus years since World War II, the seas have
21:57been free and open and navigable because the United States protects the waterways.
22:02It's the Pax Americana that we have had in place.
22:05And the president is saying, you know what?
22:08We don't have to enforce the waterways.
22:11We've done that for the good of the world.
22:13It helps America, but it helps the entire world.
22:15But we're certainly not going to do it if Iran is sitting there extracting a
22:21toll on every ship traveling through this waterway.
22:24I want to ask you one other question about this.
22:27I've been getting this question a lot, and it's the question of, okay, how does
22:31the president wind this thing down, number one?
22:34Two, what is the definition of success?
22:38I answered it this way.
22:40I said there's two different definitions of success.
22:41One is to make sure that Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon.
22:45That, for me, is the number one priority.
22:48I said a bonus, obviously, success barrier.
22:53The second tier for me would be if the regime falls.
22:58There's a lot of conversations of, well, can Democrats say the president failed if he
23:03doesn't get the regime to fall, but make sure they don't get nuclear weapons, and
23:08then Democrats will use that against us.
23:10And I'm like, look, as long as they don't get a nuclear weapon, that is
23:14the ballgame for me, first and foremost.
23:16I would love for the regime to fall.
23:18But that takes an extended amount of time.
23:22Is that worth it to make that, in essence, a new objective?
23:26Now, the president said early on he wanted regime change.
23:29Yes. It doesn't mean exporting democracy.
23:31But explain to everyone listening, what is your definition of success here?
23:37And is it both now that both are one and the same, or is it
23:41a two -tier system? So, let's be clear.
23:44Whatever happens, the Democrats and the media are going to say President Trump failed.
23:48It doesn't matter. On day one of this military conflict, they said it's a failure.
23:53Every day since then, they said it's a failure.
23:55They are rooting for it to fail.
23:56It is, I got to say, I am so disappointed in my colleagues.
24:01It used to be that politics ends at the water's edge.
24:04They are now so filled with partisan hatred that they are rooting against the American
24:09military. It's sad. In terms of success, I'd say success is threefold.
24:14Number one is the military success.
24:16Taking out the ballistic missiles, the drones, the Air Force, the air defenses, the Navy,
24:22the Ayatollah, and the military leaders.
24:24That is almost entirely achieved.
24:27The success of that has been astonishing.
24:30It took Iran 40 years to build up its military.
24:33It took us 39 days to utterly and completely destroy it.
24:37That is a massive victory, and that has essentially already been achieved.
24:41The second major objective is the nuclear objective.
24:47No enrichment, handing over the enriched uranium.
24:51I think that is incredibly important.
24:54President Trump is right to insist on that red line, and he should continue to
24:58insist on the red line.
24:59Now, the question of regime change.
25:02The Trump administration has been very reluctant to use the words regime change.
25:07And there's a reason for that, which is they're really nervous.
25:11After the Iraq war, people are really leery.
25:14They don't want to see another Iraq war.
25:18This is not. Iran is not Iraq.
25:22There is zero chance that we are going to see hundreds of thousands of U
25:26.S. troops invading and occupying for years to come.
25:30That's simply not in the cards.
25:32President Trump's not going to order that.
25:34That is not contemplated. I am quite willing to use the words regime change, and
25:39actually the way I've been putting it is regime collapse.
25:43This is a regime that hates America, that is a radical theocratic regime, that for
25:4947 years has been actively murdering Americans, funding terrorists who are murdering Americans, calling for
25:56death to America. The reason they want nuclear weapons is to murder Americans.
26:01And what I urge President Trump at the outset of this conflict is the regime
26:07has never been weaker. And if we do not take this opportunity to collapse this
26:14regime, we will regret it for decades to come.
26:19I still think that is an objective.
26:21Now, will we achieve it?
26:22I don't know. That's not an easy goal to achieve, but I think we should
26:27be trying. It's one of the reasons I have repeatedly been urging, fund the protesters,
26:34fund the Kurds on the ground, fund the Balacis, fund their groups that are armed
26:40and trained. Look, the Kurds, the Peshmerga, are trained fighters.
26:44And by the way, Turkey, one of the reasons against arming the Kurds is Turkey
26:51is arguing, don't do it.
26:52You know what? I don't give a damn what Turkey is arguing.
26:57That's very nice for Erdogan.
26:59Some other time I'll talk to you about in Trump 1, when Erdogan came to
27:04D .C. and met with President Trump in the Oval Office, and the president had
27:07me and four other senators.
27:08We were in about a two and a half hour, three hour meeting with Erdogan.
27:14At the end of the day, we ought to be arming.
27:16rebel groups in Iran to topple the regime.
27:19We're not going to send our sons and daughters to bleed and die for it,
27:22but we certainly should be assisting the Iranian people in getting these lunatics out of
27:27power because Americans will be much, much safer without this regime and control of Iran.
27:34So for you, to be clear, you would say regime change is certainly something that
27:38you think is extremely important in the way that you just described it.
27:42Yes, it is a major objective.
27:45Now, if we end up shutting down enrichment, getting the enriched uranium, that is a
27:51massive victory. On the face of it, taking out the military, what we've achieved, the
27:56goal the Trump administration stated was goal number one, the military victories, which we've achieved.
28:03Taking out the Ayatollah and the senior leadership is a big, big deal.
28:07So we have already achieved a massive victory to finish the job where the president
28:12is focused is preventing a nuclear weapon.
28:15He is right to do that.
28:16And I think we ought to be using every lever point we have to try
28:20to collapse this regime because that would be much better for the Iranian people, but
28:26much, much better for the American people and our safety and security as well.
28:30Yeah, no, you're absolutely right.
28:31It's going to be very interesting to see how this blockade works.
28:34We're going to keep covering it here and we'll keep you up to date on
28:36it. I want to move on to this other story.
28:38The headline that broke on Sunday evening, and I'm going to read this headline from
28:43CNN, Eric Swalwell ends campaign for California governor after sexual misconduct allegations.
28:50He said Sunday he would withdraw from the California governor's race in the wake of
28:54allegations of sexual misconduct that led to a nearly immediate campaign collapse.
28:59As staffers quit on him, prominent Democrat supporters now urging him to drop out.
29:04He then put out a statement on X saying, I am suspending my campaign for
29:08governor to my family, staff, friends, and supporters.
29:11I'm deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I've made in my past.
29:17Then he says, I will fight the serious false allegations that have been made, but
29:23that's my fight, not a campaign's.
29:27After that, we found out even more about what's happening.
29:31And that is the Manhattan district attorney's office has opened a criminal investigation into sexual
29:36assault allegations. The key claim is a former staffer alleges assault in 2024, apparently in
29:42New York, and another earlier incident in 2019.
29:47Prosecutors are reportedly reviewing evidence, asking for additional witnesses to come forward, as the AP
29:52put it. And that is the most serious legal exposure right now because it could
29:57lead to criminal charges. And then you have multiple sexual misconduct allegations.
30:01At least four women have accused Swalwell of misconduct ranging from sexual assault, rape allegations,
30:07unwanted contacts, sending explicit images, and one alleged allegation claims the accuser was too intoxicated
30:15to consent. He has denied all those allegations, calling them false and politically motivated.
30:21What's even more shocking is now, I think it's 50 of his former staffers have
30:27come out against him saying he needs to resign and basically defending one another, saying
30:33he's a terrible guy. There's two parts of this story, Senator.
30:36One, how the hell the Democratic Party protect this guy for this long?
30:40And two, why are all the Democrats now turning against him?
30:45It's because they're afraid they're going to lose the governor's race in California.
30:49Well, just a week ago, this guy was the front runner among the Democrats to
30:54be the next governor of California.
30:56I was actually in California this weekend.
30:59I spoke at the California Republican Convention.
31:02So I was there when this was breaking.
31:04And you could see, look, it was clear.
31:07When this story broke, everyone knew Swalwell's gubernatorial campaign was over the instant it broke.
31:14The breadth and volume of this is this is not just one allegation.
31:19It's multiple allegations. It's allegations of a pattern of misconduct, a pattern of repeated sexual
31:25harassment of multiple employees. One staffer who was interviewed by CNN alleged that twice she
31:34got very, very drunk with him and that he had sex with her, not only
31:41without her consent, but over her vigorous resistance and objection.
31:46If that is true, that is rape.
31:48That is criminal conduct. That is criminal conduct for which anyone who commits it should
31:53be prosecuted and go to jail.
31:57There are a number of points that are obvious.
32:00Number one, this was so widespread to see 50 Swalwell staffers come out against him.
32:08Strongly suggest everybody knew. Now, you asked me right before we recorded this pod, did
32:14I know this? Look, to be honest, I don't hang out with Democrat House members.
32:18I'm not particularly privy to the gossip among Democrats.
32:22So the rumors are true that you alienate yourself from Democratic Radical House members.
32:27I just am glad we cleared that up.
32:29Those are not my peeps.
32:30So I have no idea what the gossip was about this guy.
32:35But given how widespread this is, the allegations, I think it is impossible that it
32:42was not common knowledge, that there were not a lot of people who are in
32:44the A lot of Democrats who knew this guy was doing this, that this was
32:47a pattern of conduct. And that suggests that they all covered it up.
32:51They all looked the other way.
32:53When he was an attack dog, attacking Republicans, attacking President Trump, attacking Brett Kavanaugh, they
33:00were perfectly happy to have him be the attack dog.
33:03And you're right. What has changed is the Democrats are in a panic because you've
33:08got multiple Democrats running for governor in California, and you have two Republicans running for
33:12governor in California, and California has this weird jungle primary where there's not a Democrat
33:18primary and a Republican primary.
33:21Everyone runs on the same ballot, and the top two vote -getters make it to
33:26the general election. And so there was a possibility, not a likelihood, but a possibility
33:31that the top two vote -getters could be the two Republicans.
33:36And I will say for Democrats, their heads would explode if they went to the
33:40general election and it were 100 % certainty that the next governor of California was
33:45going to be a Republican.
33:46But there were multiple polls that had come out that showed the two Republicans as
33:50one and two. And part of the reason is that you had multiple Democrats splitting
33:55the vote. And you had Eric Swalwell and Katie Porter, both a former House member
34:02and current House member slugging it out.
34:04You've also got Tom Steyer, the billionaire who is spending millions and millions of dollars
34:10trying to buy the nomination.
34:12And so you had Democrats splitting their votes.
34:15That was helping the Republicans.
34:17And suddenly, I think Democrats saw a partisan value to getting rid of Swalwell, and
34:22they took him out ruthlessly.
34:25Now, Ben, I want to point to you the tell.
34:29Now, you can tell any Democrat if they're just being a partisan hack by the
34:37following tell. Are they calling for him to suspend his gubernatorial campaign?
34:44Yep. Or are they calling for him to resign from Congress?
34:48Yeah, it's just a gubernatorial campaign.
34:50That's the tell. They don't want him to resign.
34:53No, no, no. Don't resign.
34:54Because look, Republicans barely have a two vote majority.
34:58They want Swalwell there. They don't want to jeopardize the majority at all.
35:01So they're perfectly happy to have a serial sexual harasser, even a rapist, as long
35:08as they get partisan advantage.
35:10Now, the momentum is shifting.
35:11It would not surprise me if Swalwell is out of Congress by the end of
35:15the week, because this is getting a lot of momentum.
35:18And by the way, you talk about the second tell.
35:19The other tell is those that are calling for him to resign are saying, well,
35:23he should resign and a Republican should also resign that has allegations against him.
35:28In the Republican side. So they get rid of one of the Republicans.
35:31And that's the only reason why they're saying it now is, well, all right, I'll
35:34call for both of them to resign.
35:36Look, and by the way, I could see that potentially happening.
35:40The Republican, the facts around him are really pretty ugly.
35:44He's not running for reelection because they are so ugly and disturbing.
35:49And so it would not shock me to see both of them resign.
35:54And that's an outcome I could see the House getting to.
35:57But it's been fascinating that virtually every Democrat who's come out with this big, bold
36:02statement, they've said suspend the campaign, but they haven't said resign from Congress now.
36:08Yeah, it is. It's going to be interesting to see how this ends.
36:11But I think you are not far off.
36:13I think they want to finish him off and be done with him.
36:16And they knew all this.
36:17And the only reason why they they defended him indefinitely, they they pushed him to
36:22be the guy in California.
36:24And then they turned on him when they realized that a Republican could win.
36:27That is the only reason why we're hearing about any of this.
36:29And also the media. You just want to talk about hypocrisy, Senator.
36:34The way that the media, the liberal media.
36:36I mean, this was on the morning shows that the meet the press, the face
36:40the nations, that whatever the hell the other one's called, like they were CNN was
36:45wall to wall on this.
36:46They were covering it like it was a Republican who had done something, but it
36:51was a Democrat more of their own.
36:52And they were like, yeah, we got to get rid of him because if we
36:54don't get rid of him, what happens next?
36:56Well, then the Republican could win.
36:58So, you know, who cares about the victims here?
37:00This is all about the politics, as you described in a moment ago.
37:04Yeah, it is. And I'll point out there is a second Democrat House member, Shelia
37:10Cherflius -McCormick of Florida, who should also be expelled from Congress.
37:17She has the Ethics Committee, which is bipartisan, declared her guilty on 25 out of
37:2527 ethics charges from stealing up to $5 million of FEMA money.
37:33So she is likely going to jail for stealing millions of taxpayer dollars, and yet
37:40the Democrats are amazingly silent.
37:43You've got an alleged serial sexual harasser and potentially even serial rapist and an embezzler
37:53and thief. And they're sitting there going, oh, we're great having both of them there
37:57because, you know, partisan power matters more than anything.
38:00And by the way, the press on the coverage of Trefilius -McCormick, almost all the
38:09press coverage, there's actually very little coverage.
38:11But what little there is, they almost all leave out that she's a Democrat.
38:16They just, that fact, never mind, just nothing to see here.
38:20Just some random person in Congress.
38:22Yeah, that's how it works.
38:24Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
38:26Hit that subscribe or auto -download button.
38:28Please write us a five -star review.
38:30It helps us reach more people.
38:31And if you are a YouTube person, you love watching on YouTube, you can watch
38:36almost every episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz on YouTube.
38:40Hit the subscribe button to the channel as well as we are really making sure
38:44we get a lot of video out there for you guys.
38:46And the Senate and I will see you back here on Wednesday morning.