You want smart political talk without the meltdowns?
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I'm Ben Ferguson, and I'm Ted Cruz.
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Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
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All right, Leonard Skinner, Simple Man.
It can only mean one thing on this radio program, and that's all things Simple Man.
Well, he's very complicated.
Bill O'Reilly, all things O'Reilly at BillO'Reilly.com.
Uh we have some good news to announce that Bill O'Reilly's brand new book has now again debuted number one on the New York Times bestseller list.
But in all fairness, your killing series has been, I think, the biggest series of books.
I don't know the exact verbiage in in the history of publishing.
Am I not right on that?
Yeah, nonfiction.
The Harry Potter book sold more, but nonfiction is the biggest uh series ever.
Why aren't you angry at J.K. Rowling for that?
I mean, you should really hate her.
Uh no, I'm not that kind of guy.
I just uh want to compete.
But look, I want to thank you because uh you read the book and you like the book, and when the millions of people who listen to you hear that, uh it makes it a lot easier for me to sell it.
I didn't just like it.
I think it was perhaps maybe your best, and you've had a lot of good books, and it's you know, uh killing the killers, and and you you bring us behind the scenes and tell us about the bin Laden raid, tell us about you know all of these these radicals that you know take joy in killing innocent men women and children and how we hunt them down and how we defeat them and kill them and make the world a safer place.
You know, I talked to uh Secretary of State Mike Pompeo uh a few weeks ago, and I know you know him very well.
I thought he did a very good job, the Secretary of State under Trump.
Um, but the Iranians are still trying to assassinate him.
In response to uh Solomon right.
And and Americans really don't understand the intensity of this.
So we news people and and we uh talk show hosts can lay out a general scenario of what's happening in the world and people listen to us, but in order to understand uh the life-death nature of the war on terror, Putin, she, others like that.
You have to get personal.
And you know, that's why we have the Kayla Muller story, 26-year-old Arizona humanitarian woman graduates from college, goes to Turkey to help refugees.
This this was probably the saddest part of the book, and there's a it was so sad.
And and you know, when I was uh talking with her parents, because that's the only reason I the only way I could put that in the book was to uh get her parents to tell me it was okay.
So I'm not one of these people who are gonna say things in in TV, radio, or in print that are gonna hurt people.
I don't do that.
So we developed a very strong rapport with uh the Mueller family out in Phoenix.
Um they showed us emails uh of from ISIS from Al Baghdadi haunting them while their daughter was held in captivity, being raped by Baghdad at the same time.
And And this is why a book like Killing the Killers, it transcends the discussion about the war on terror, and it puts it in the middle of the city.
But there's one other aspect to this bill, and this was the case for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
The U.S. only waterboarded three people.
Right.
You would think based on enhanced interrogation discussions in this country that we did it routinely.
We did not, and we did it under very close medically supervised conditions.
And with only the president's uh approval.
So there's only one person who can make that approval.
Now there are black there are black sites that are in other countries that we don't fully control and and somebody could make an argument.
Well, we only waterboarded three people.
In the case of KSM, it led us to the courier, which led us to Bin Laden.
And you have you opened the book with that story.
Yeah, and the same thing happened to Al Baghdadi.
We picked up his courier in uh Turkey.
Actually, the Turks picked him up, handed him the CIA.
He wasn't talking.
CIA handed him to the Iraqis, and the Iraqis do what they do.
And he talked.
And that's how they got Al Baghdadi.
We walk you through that whole thing.
So I mean, people have to make up their minds whether uh the United States is responsibly fighting the war on terror.
I believe we are.
Uh there hasn't been a personnel change from Trump to Biden.
Biden didn't sack all the CIA and NSA people who are, you know, the pros who really know what they're doing.
Biden didn't sack them, so they're still operating.
And um, but on every page in Killing the Killers, people are gonna go, I didn't know that, and they're gonna be horrified, as you said, sometimes.
But the payoff is we are waxing these evil people.
All right, let me move on to we have a new press secretary, um, as you know, uh, Karine Jean Pierre.
Let me play a couple of clips of her and get your reaction.
Uh, you know the background on her is very extreme.
Right.
She's made made many, many controversial statements.
Uh the question is, why would Biden pick her?
And if it was a Republican administration, and you had a conservative that had said very outrageous incendiary things, would that person ever be chosen to be a press secretary?
I would argue no, but here's what she said.
Is this running point on the on the formula issue at the White House you mentioned the White House is on?
I mean, I I at the White House I don't I I don't know if I can find out for you and get you a person who's running point.
Um, but I I don't have a person.
So what is your take?
You've been analyzing her past statements as we have, and what is your take on this choice to be the White House press secretary?
The same take I had on the disinformation woman.
She's a radical leftist.
Right.
I mean, circle back, gen side.
We're gonna miss circle back.
Come on, that was great TV.
Circle back and Peter Ducy.
I'll get to Saki in a moment because it's it's uh it's an interesting story here.
But Joe Biden isn't the type of uh administrator like Trump was.
Um, that a person walks into his office and says, Here's a resume of somebody we'd like to be the White House spokesperson, and then Biden takes off his reading glasses and looks and and mulls it over and has a discussion.
That does not happen.
So it's basically somebody walks in and says, Mr. President, this is what we'd like to do, and he says, okay.
That's how he runs his operation.
And he's not involved with any of the micro things.
In fact, he doesn't even know her name.
I can bet you if you or me, Hannity walked up to Biden today and said, Who's your new secretary?
He would not know her name.
Hey, Bill, what are the odds you and I ever get within a mile of him?
It's never gonna happen.
We'd be gonna be won't allow it.
It might be worth me getting wounded if I'd sold more books.
I don't know.
Are you kidding?
The Secret Service will be on guard and they'll stop you a thousand feet away.
What I'm trying to do is to paint a picture, a vivid picture to our listeners here, that Joe Biden does not run the show.
That these people are selected by the far left advisors who are telling Biden what to do every day.
So why O'Reilly, you gotta you gotta give me some props here.
I saw this way ahead of everybody else.
I I I was talking about this during the campaign.
I was comparing Joe Biden in 2007 and eight and two thousand and twelve and even two thousand and sixteen to today.
And I was pointing out what has now become very clear Joe is in a significant cognitive decline.
But he never really was the brightest bulb.
But this is very that that's different, separate and apart, isn't it?
No, it's true, but but here's the pattern, and this was never brought out.
When he was a senator, his staff ran what he did.
It was he if you look at the legislation, it was very, very scant that he even came up with.
I mean, he he's not a thinker, a problem solver.
He's an administrator who allows his subordinates to do the heavy lifting.
Now let's get to Jen Saki's a fascinating, fascinating character.
You're gonna miss her, I can tell.
Um I don't have any dog in this hunt.
I mean, I'm not on on the scene, but if I were on the scene, believe me, Missaki and I would have had some pretty good discussions.
So he does crack me up.
We would have had some good discussions.
You gotta give props to Peter Ducey.
He's done a really good job.
By far.
Yeah.
He and because he looked it's their job to scrutinize what the White House is doing, no matter who's in there.
You're not supposed to be a butt kisser.
All right.
But let's get to Saki because this is it.
She's a technician.
All right, not an ideologue.
Everybody thinks that a crazy left-wing ideologue.
No.
She's a technician, who a woman who understands what her job is and does it pretty well.
Keeps her cool, very articulate, dodges when she knows she doesn't have an answer.
Okay, but always very conscious of the camera on her.
A meticulous appearance, looks like she's credible, and does her job very, very well.
And that is the truth.
But now Saki knows the shimp, it be sinking, Hannity.
The ship is not gonna write itself.
So what does she do?
Cash is in at the at the moment when she's most in demand, and where she can get inflationary dollars added to her salary from MSNBC.
Where a year ago it would have been this number, now it's 20% higher because of Joe's inflation.
So Jen is actually making money on the inflation.
So she's gonna go into the Matto slot at nine o'clock.
Okay, up against you, Hannity.
I'm scared to death.
Um shaking in my boots.
She'll bring in her liberal fan base.
I don't know, I don't know how much that is, but you and I know because we've done this so long, to run a one-hour cable program is a difficult thing to do.
Bill, most people have no clue.
There are people that say, well, you only work four hours a day, Sean.
And I'm like, it doesn't infuriate me.
It just it just irks me.
There's a difference.
I get I get I get mildly annoyed as if all of a sudden I know all of this information that we put out every day, and we put out a ton of information as you do.
Right.
Uh, that somehow I just I I just walked into the studio and it all came to me.
Yeah, people have no clue.
I they did they don't know how difficult, and particularly for one person to drive a show.
Because you have to be on it every second.
That's 42 minutes.
You can't kind of wander off.
Anyway, Saki will be interesting to watch herself on television.
Doesn't have much of a sense of humor.
I haven't seen it if she does.
Uh doesn't look like she's got a wide frame of reference outside the democratic liberal politics.
That's all she needs on MSNBC.
That's all they want.
But you know, it'll be Very interesting to see, but the only American in this country who has benefited from inflation is Jen Sankey.
All right, quick break more with Bill O'Reilly, all things or BillO'Reilly.com, and then your calls 800-941 Sean.
Uh, if you want to be a part of the program as we continue.
Hey there.
I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started normally a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional sass.
You're our kind of people.
Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
I'm Ben Ferguson.
And I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So down a verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.com is book debuting, killing the killers, uh, and number one on the New York Times list.
Bill two-thirds of Americans now, then this breaks my heart.
Are living paycheck to paycheck.
I don't know.
I I don't know if you ever lived paycheck to paycheck.
I have for many years in my early adult life.
It is not a good feeling, Bill.
And no problem.
And I'm worried about it.
About the poor, the middle class, people on fixed incomes in this country, Bill.
Uh, this is not going away anytime soon.
And everybody was caught unaware because under Trump, inflation was 1.4%.
And it's so ridiculous.
Biden gets out there, oh, it's a it's COVID.
Well, wait a minute.
No, it's Putin.
Right.
Yeah, well, but that's ridiculous, too.
But Trump presided over a country that shut down its economy.
A hundred percent.
And he still, the Trump administration kept inflation at 1.4%.
Now, you saw the latest number today, right?
With the wholesale 11.3% inflation rate on the wholesale level.
That means that's all passed on to us all summer.
It's just a catastrophe.
And record high gas prices, Bill.
Look, Bloomberg, their estimate is the average American household is going to pay $5,200 extra a year for Biden inflation.
Now, one other st uh statistic.
The average person that drives a car is going to pay an extra two grand a year because we have these record high gas prices.
And as I pointed out at the time, the release of the strategic uh petroleum reserves, it was a band-aid.
It never was a real solution.
And now we have the highest gas prices that we've ever had.
Yesterday was a new high.
Today is a new high.
Right.
I'm getting a scooter, Hattie.
I'm getting a little why don't you get a moped or what do you call that thing of best?
One of the little scooters and got a, you know, with a little horn.
Bill, why don't you just man up and get a Harley?
Just get one.
You know, I used to have one.
I I used to be a motorcycle.
What happened?
I I took a header.
Oh no.
Someday I'll tell you that story.
It was really Genoa, Italy.
Oh, boy.
All right, so I'm going to tell everybody the real reason your latest book debuted this week, number one on the New York Times list, Killing the Killers.
Congratulations.
Uh, it is a great book, and we're proud of you.
Thank you, Sean.
Appreciate it.
Quick break, right back.
We'll continue.
Continuing the mission of saving America.
As we return to the Sean Hannity Show.
we have now learned from whistleblowers that in fact the FBI targeted parents via terrorism tools, uh, despite sworn testimony by the attorney general, Merrick Garland, that it didn't happen.
Now, Congressman Jim Jordan, Congressman Mike Johnson now have evidence that the FBI in fact did target parents.
Remember that whole domestic terrorists, you know, moms and dads speaking at school board meetings.
Yeah, well, Merrick Garland said it's not happening.
Apparently it happened.
And anyway, in a letter now addressed to the Department of Justice, uh Jim Jordan and Congressman uh Mike Johnson said they have evidence the FBI labeled dozens of investigations into parents with a threat tag created by the Bureau's counterterrorism division to assess and track the investigations related to school boards.
These are parents saying we're against critical race theory.
These are parents saying we want age-appropriate materials taught to our kids.
These are our parents that are unhappy with the education curriculum and are speaking out rightly so.
You would think you want more parental involvement in schools, not less parental involvement.
Anyway, this evidence has come through brave whistleblowers within the Department of Justice, and they now Jim Jordan and Congressman Mike Johnson have now sent a letter to Merrick Garland uh demanding answers to these very specific allegations, and Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio joins us now.
Uh this is a big deal because if in fact he did this and lied to Congress about it, that means he should be removed from office.
Clueless, Sean.
I mean, because he said he wasn't gonna use any anti terrorism measures to go after moms and dads.
Well, that's exactly what it looked like happened based on whistleblowers and based on two dozen cases, more than two dozen cases that they that they uh talk to us about.
So that's the scary part.
And again, Sean, you've talked about this better than anyone.
When you view it in context, the disinformation governance board, the abuse at the at the FISA court, the doxing, what's going on and the failure to enforce 18 USC section 1507 that says you shall not go to a residence of a just a judge or justice and try to intimidate them.
When you when you put it all together, you're like, holy cow, this is what's going on, and it's moms and dads.
You saw the examples.
One was a mom, if so, if you're a mom in the group Moms for Liberty, who happens to believe in the second amendment, and you show up at a school board meeting to advocate for the best interest of your child, look out.
The snitch line is gonna someone's gonna report you, which is exactly what Mayor Garland set up, and the FBI is gonna come and do an investigation.
That is not how it's supposed to work in our country.
You say in your letter these investigations into concern parents were the direct result of his very specific October the fourth directive to the FBI, and every one of these cases was initiated following his directive, and each of the complaints came into the FBI through the same snitch line, the National Threat Operations Center highlighted in the press release accompanying the uh October 4th memorandum.
And one complaint even told an FBI agent uh that they reported the tip of the FBI because of the snitch line, despite having no specific information about any real or actual threat.
Yeah, they didn't like the person.
That's not how America operates for goodness sake.
But but understand too, Sean.
Remember what happened.
September 29th, left-wing political organization sends a letter to the Biden White House.
Five days later, October 4th, Merrick Garland issues the memorandum to every single U.S. attorney in this country, set up this snitch line.
16 days after that, the FBI sends out an email, put the threat tag designation on cases that you're looking at.
All that happened in 22 days.
When have you ever seen the federal government move with that kind of speed, that kind of intensity?
Never happens.
But when it's about chilling the speech of parents, of moms and dads who are fed up with the very things you just talked about.
Oh my goodness, we're going to go get them.
But forget about the fact that you got protesters at Justice Kavanaugh's home trying to influence a pending decision in front of a separate and equal branch of government.
By the way, it's it's U.S. Code uh 1507, it's a violation of law punishable by fine and or imprisonment.
Yep.
Yep, it sure is.
But they're so busy, I guess, going after moms and dads, they don't have time to do that.
And and and the silence, as you pointed out, Sean, from uh the people in this administration relative today.
It just goes this is all about silencing concerns.
Today's the to today's left says if you don't agree with me, you're not allowed to talk.
And if you try, we're gonna call you a racist, we're gonna dox you, we're gonna cancel you, we're gonna come after you, you're gonna face what Barry White said the digital thunderdome that the left will put you in and attack you.
That is how they operate, and that again is not supposed to be how it works.
Let me go to the whistleblower aspect of this.
How how certain are you?
How overwhelming is the evidence?
Is it incontrovertible that in fact he lied before Congress and he did the very thing he said that is that that his department would not do?
Well, look, it it could be that he just didn't know what was gonna flow from this, how it worked.
Um I don't know.
But that's that uh as I've said before that's a concern in and of itself.
What I know is we had multiple whistleblowers come forward.
They were so concerned about what they saw.
It ran so contrary to how our good people, all those good people in the FBI, the the people you and I have have have complimented who do hard work, the vast majority of people, it goes so against what they're supposed to be doing that these two brave these these individuals came forward and said, We're gonna give this information to the Judiciary Committee, and God bless them for doing so.
And by the way, Jim Jordan has his book out, do what you said you would do, which by the way would be refreshing with a politician.
Let me play the attorney general in his own words, testifying that they are not investigating parents involved at school board meetings.
Is there legal precedent for the Department of Justice to investigate to investigate peaceful protest or parent parental involvement at public schools uh meetings?
Uh uh just to say again, we are not investigating peaceful protest uh or parent involvement in school board meetings.
There's no uh precedent for doing that, and we would never do that.
We are only concerned about violence, threats of violence against school administrators, teachers, staff, people like your mother, a teacher.
That is what we're worried about.
We are worried about that across the board.
We're worried about threats against members of Congress.
We're worried about threats against police.
Now you give very specific examples.
In one investigation uh following Merrick Garland's directive, the FBI field office interviewed a mom for allegedly telling us school board, well, we're coming for you, and the complaint which came into the snitchboard, if you will, um, alleged that the the mom was a threat because she belonged to a quote, right wing group known as moms for liberty, moms for is that a right wing group that I I've never heard of moms for liberty being a right wing group.
Yeah.
No, son, this is this is no different than what the IRS did uh uh ten years ago under the uh President Obama when they went after conservatives across the country and they sent them letters.
We call that the Hannity treatment, but go ahead.
Exactly.
They exactly.
You know what it's like, and but they said to these conservative groups, oh, do you have pastors praying at your meetings?
What are you show us your minutes?
Who supports your all kinds of stuff they're not supposed to ask, not supposed, but it's the same thing to kill speech.
And they did it back before the 2010 election and the twelve election because they wanted to impact politics.
They're doing the same thing here.
Although I think it backfired.
It backfired in with Glenn Youncan in Virginia last fall.
I think it's gonna backfire uh this November.
I think the American people and and moms and dads are gonna show up in a big way and say, We're tired of this Democrat uh control.
We we have another example.
The FBI's field office opening an investigation subsequent to Merrick Garland's directive into a dad that opposed masked mandates.
Again, that came that that tip came through the snitch line and alleged that the dad fit the profile of an insurrectionist because he rails against the government and believes conspiracy theories, et cetera, et cetera.
Yeah, you almost have to laugh because it was like it was people who believed in the second amendment and didn't like what government was doing, who started this place called America.
And this is the one where there was no basis, none whatsoever.
Well, I didn't know of any threats he made, didn't know of any any crime.
I just turned him in, and this is what runs contradictory to what Merrill said, because the very apparatus they set up the snitch line and then the threat tag designation, that's exactly how it played out.
And the person who did the threat on the government sponsored snitch line had nothing, but they still now is this threat tag gonna be stay associated with this individual as they move forward in life?
What happened?
I mean, I that's the concern you have too, because that's that's in the back of Americans' minds, and that's that's what they want.
So it will chill political activity, chill First Amendment protected speech.
All right, quick break more with Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan on the other side.
Then we'll get to your calls.
800-941 Sean is on number as we continue.
You want smart political talk without the meltdowns?
We got you.
Now I'm Carol Markovich.
And I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
We've been around the block in media and we're doing things differently.
Normally is about real conversations.
Thoughtful, try to be funny, grounded, and no panic.
We'll keep you informed and entertained without ruining your day.
Join us every Tuesday and Thursday, normally on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Ben Ferguson, and I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So down a verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.