No Man Left Behind Morale Booster, Pentagon Manual Wrecks the Left’s Talking Point & Temporary Protected Status Equals Permanent Consequences Week In Review

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Why should you listen to Armstrong and Getty on demand? We're not boring. A lot of news is boring. And tedious. And depressing. And makes you angry. You don't want to live your life like that. Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty. We're Armstrong and Getty. We try to bring you the truth. And help you figure out this crazy modern world. How about something about a comedic tone? We have a winner. Listen to Armstrong and Getty on the I Heart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. What God started in my life, he's going to finish. The Joel Osteen Daily Podcasts. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. What was meant for my harm, Lord, I want to thank you right now. You're turning to my advantage. Your daily source of hope and encouragement. Your second wind is on its way. God is about to breathe on your life in a new way. Listen to the Joel Osteen Daily podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Welcome, it is Verdict with Ted Cruz. We can review Ben Ferguson with you and hear the big stories that we talked about this week that you may have missed. First up, it was an incredible morale booster for the American military and their capabilities to rescue the two down pilots in Iran. What went into all of it? We explain it. Second up, Democrats accuse Donald Trump of war crimes. If he does something they say he's not allowed to do, we'll explain that. And finally, yet again, another illegal alien led into this country in the Biden administration commits a violent murder. And will it ever stop? It's the Weekend Review, and it starts right now. You know, several people that I talked to that are in the military over the last couple of days, they were really worried about the airman who was gone missing because they were like, they knew what was going to happen to him if he was caught by the IRGC, by these militias. He was a dead man. And they were going to do it in a horrific way and probably film it and put it out there as propaganda to the world. Yeah. And that was what they were all concerned with. They also said to me in text messages on Easter Sunday, I want you to. understand they said the morale booster of seeing that you have a commander in chief who says i do not care what it costs i do not care go now get him go get him go get him and and use everything stop everything and use everything to go get one man and then we'll go back to what we're doing but whatever it takes there is nothing i'm going to say no to and they said they said to me they said ben it's been a long time since men and women in uniform have felt that they have a commander in chief who truly has their back in this way. One of the things they said that was, I also thought was very interesting, and I'm going to look it up now. See, you looked up saying earlier, but it was a quote. And I want to quote this because it was so important what this individual said, that's serving his country, said, you know, go look at the comparison to Bill Clinton and what he did with American troops in Somalia.

And he said, look at Barack Obama and what he did with Americans in Libya. Look at Joe Biden, who abandoned 13 U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. Trump moved mountains to rescue one American in Iran, one American. And if you're an American soldier right now, how fired up for you to serve Donald Trump knowing he's genuinely got your back? Well, let me be clear. You're serving the United States. You're not serving Donald Trump. But your commander in chief has your back, and that's a powerful thing. And by the way, it's not just you and me saying that. It's also Barack Obama's former Secretary of Homeland Security. Listen to Jay Johnson talking about this incredible rescue. This operation for the first pilot and the second pilot, it's a remarkable exercise, demonstration of U.S. military, courage, technology, power. I would encourage the President and the Secretary of Defense, consistent with operational security, share as much of that with the American public so that the American public can appreciate. what goes into this kind of operation is more complicated than the bin Laden operation, for example. Wow. I'm not sure any of that. That's saying something. That's coming from Jay Johnson. That's pretty incredible. Yeah, it is. And I want to drill down a little bit more on what this does for the fighting spirit and the morale of the entire military. And actually, a different tweet, but I thought very profound as well from a fellow named John Conrad on X. Here's what he said. This is why Americans are the deadliest fighters on earth. I met a priest yesterday who just got accepted to chaplain school in Newport. I asked him the obvious question, Marines or Navy. Navy, he said. His face fell a little. He told me he could never be a Marine because every Marine is a rifleman and as a priest he can't carry a weapon. He's hoping to get assigned to a Marine unit anyway. All chaplains are Navy officers, so that's the only door in. I laughed. I feel a little bad about that. Then I explained to him what devil doc means. The Marine Corps doesn't have medics. They use Navy corpsmen. I told him, when you get out to the fleet, find a Marine sergeant with a couple of Purple Hearts and tell him, devil docks aren't real Marines. Be prepared to duck. Marines are violently particular about who gets to wear their uniform. Navy corpsmen and Navy chaplains who have eaten dirt alongside them in combat, qualify. Full stop. My dad was Air Force, not even Navy. I remember going to VFW halls with him as a kid. Someone would ask him what service he'd say Air Force in the room would chuckle a little. And then they'd find out he was a medic, and the air in the room changed. Something close to reverence. Dad hated being honored. He had one line he used to deflect it. I didn't do much. Save your praise for my cousin, the PJ. That always broke the ice. PJs are the Air Force Special Operators who go into hell to pull downed pilots out. They will take casualties and are prepared to die to rescue a single pilot or crewman. The math doesn't math out.

Why would any combat force take multiple casualties to rescue one Air Force jet jockey? What the Padre is about to learn is that the military has a hierarchy that has nothing to do with rank and nothing to do with the service stitched on your chest. Have you deployed? Have you seen combat? In every firefight, there are men who move towards the guns and men who hang back. And when the guy at the tip of the spear is pinned down bleeding, with rounds cracking past his head, there is exactly one word he screams into the radio. Medic. Yep. Here's the catch. And it is the whole reason America fights the way America fights. That Marine is willing to push forward into fire because he knows the corpsman is coming. He knows the medevac birds will land in the hot LZ. He knows the devil doc will drag him out by his plate carrier if it comes to that. And if the medic can't help, he has what dad called injuries incompatible with life. He knows that chaplain will crawl on his belly to administer last rights and deliver him to heaven. The F-15 pilot punching out over enemy territory knows the same thing. He knows the PJs will move heaven and earth to reach him and turn whatever is shooting at him into a smoking crater of hell on earth on the way in. This is the quiet math underneath American violence. Our warriors are the fiercest on earth, not because they're the more aggressive, not because they're better trained or better equipped, although they are all of those things. They are the fiercest because they know in their bones that when they key the mic and call for help, help is coming in hot. Take that away, and you don't have the U.S. military anymore. You have a security force. I thought that. Those two posts, I thought, were very insightful, and they sum up a truly extraordinary and unique aspect of the American military. And this brings us to the second part of the conversation that is important, and that is a new warning. Senator, coming from President Trump, if there's anything that I've learned from President Trump in a second term. There's two aspects of his foreign policy. One is FAAFO and two is if you're an ally of the United States America and you don't stand with us, then his second foreign policy is, well, good luck to you because we're not going to keep funding and doing things like NATO or UN or whatever it may be. If you're taking advantage of us, he's calling that out as well. And the president has made it clear when he tells you there's a deadline for something. He means it. There's a new deadline with Iran and Tehran and the leadership there. And let's talk about what his new threat is by Tuesday. Well, on Sunday, he sent out a truth social that reads, Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day, all wrapped up in one in Iran. There will be nothing like it.

Open the effing straight, you crazy bastards. Or you'll be living in hell. Just watch. Praise me to Allah, President Donald J. Trump. Now, I will say he did not abbreviate effing, but this is a PG-rated podcast, so I did. I will say also that after he sent that true social, the Wall Street Journal article that I quoted at the beginning of this show quotes it. And for the first time I've ever seen the F bomb in the Wall Street Journal, They did it quoting the president of the United States. I'm not aware of any precedent of a president dropping the F-bomb, but then again, I'm not aware of any president dropping the level of bombs that he is dropping in a concentrated focus that is having this kind of effect. And look, I think Tuesday night is a very serious deadline. The president wants the Strait of Hormuz open. And if you're an Iranian leader, as bat crap crazy as those guys are, I don't think they think this is a bluff. Yeah, I would think not. Now, they may be crazy enough just to say, go ahead and do it, and that may be how much they're holding on for dear life just to try to save control, but I agree with you. I don't think they think he's bluffing at all. Well, and that's the challenge, is that the mullahs. I don't think care at all about their people. No. You know, we talked before about comparing, say, the Nazi army to the Allies during World War II, that Hitler was willing to send German soldiers in to die and just have them mowed over. I think the same is true with the Mullahs. They're happy to have, not happy, but they're willing to have as many Iranians die as need be. They believe they're on a mission from God. This is... It is theocratic. And if thousands, look, they murdered. The Ayatollah just murdered about 40,000 Iranians who were rising up in protest. So thousands of Iranians dying doesn't bother them at all. Tens of thousands doesn't bother them at all. It may prove to be the case that hundreds of thousands or even millions of Iranians dying doesn't bother them. And so the question is, look, If the U.S. military takes out the power plants and takes out the bridges, that kind of hard infrastructure, that doesn't get rebuilt overnight. That has real and long-lasting damage to the economy in Iran. It imposes enormous consequences on Iran. What I don't know is does a theocratic mullah who's chanting death to America care? about inflicting massive misery on the Iranian people and devastating the Iranian economy. I guess we'll find out by Tuesday. I don't know the answer to you. You know, what's interesting is I was asked this question over the weekend, and it's one I want to ask you, Senator. It was, someone said, all right, well, look, let's say we do this and we knock out their power plant. What good does that do? Because then we're just going to have to help them rebuild it one day. My response was,

What you don't understand is that may be what it is it takes for the people to really overthrow their government. It'll also have a devastating impact on their military in general. And it's another way to fast track them losing control of their country. That's the reason why I think the president's saying, all right, fine, you guys aren't budging. Well, then we're going to go to the next step here because I'm not backing down. Yeah, and look, the president in his nationwide address said he was going to bomb them back into the Stone Ages. What's one of the aspects of the Stone Ages? Not having electricity, not having power. Going back to lighting fires for light. You take out all their power plants and they have no electricity, which is amazing for an oil-rich country like Iran. But you want to talk about grinding the economy to a halt immediately, grinding the military to a halt. Everything runs on electricity. And so shutting down power. And by the way, you take out the bridges, that means, you know, it's one of the things that I've learned. I didn't realize when I was a kid. How much of military effectiveness is logistics. One of the incredible things our military is really good at is moving. people and material, getting it in there, getting ammunition in there, getting food in there, getting fuel in there, moving it around, all of that. Logistically, we are extraordinarily, we, the military, that not you and me, you know, I'm a lawyer and you're even worse, you're a podcaster. So we are not extraordinary logistically, but the military is. Um, notice how I'm not a podcaster. Apparently you do this just, yeah, yeah, I was going to say. You just threw me under the bus with that. I'm pretty sure the name of the show is behind me there, but we just keep going. There we go. Go ahead. You know, pot, meat kettle. Um, but look, you take out the bridges and the ability to move, the military to move, but anyone else to move. You basically shut down, uh, commerce in the country. That puts enormous economic pressure on the country. Um, Look, my hope is that the end game on this is the people rise up and say, enough with these crazy mullahs. We want you out. And my objective has always been the president laid out his objective, which is to eliminate the Iranian military's ability to strike out and kill Americans or kill our allies. That's a very important objective. I think the objective should be to collapse this regime, to have Iran led by a government that is not a crazy Islamist who wants to murder Americans. I don't care who it is, as long as they're not actively murdering Americans. If they're not... Murdering Americans, if they're not trying to murder Americans, I'm good with it. Now, the next step, if we've leveled all their power plants, you get a new government in. The new government is going to have to rebuild the power plants. Now, I will note that there is one advantage for rebuilding, which is Iran has a crap ton of oil. Yeah. And so. Very quickly financially. There's a revenue stream. So you said, like people said to you, well, gosh, we're going to have to rebuild it. I promise you.

If Trump bombs it, the American taxpayers are not rebuilding it. There is no scenario in which the end game is Trump writing a check. Now, there may be a scenario, depending on what happens, where when you have a new government, if they're a friend and ally with America, you could see assistance on the construction that is paid for by Iranian oil revenues. It's possible that we help them build it back where they're paying for it, but I don't envision any universe. in which America is paying for this. And I think anyone who knows Donald Trump knows that's right. 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. Why should you listen to Armstrong and Getty on Demand? We're not boring. A lot of news is boring. And tedious and depressing. And makes you angry. You don't want to live your life like that. Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty. We're Armstrong in Getty. We try to bring you the truth. And help you figure out this crazy modern world. How about something about a comedic tone? We have a winner. Listen to Armstrong and Getty on the I Heart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The Joel Osteen Daily Podcasts. God's plans for you are for good. Be inspired. Get ready. God is about to exceed your expectations. Joel Osteen Daily podcast. You are coming out of that dry place into more than enough. Daily encouragement right when you need it. There are opportunities in your future. bigger than you can imagine. Listen to the Joel Osteen Daily podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Now on to story number two. Let me ask you another question that's gotten a lot of fodder online, and I think it's an important one to answer. Democrats and the media really seem to be trying to figure out some way, even if there's success with this Iranian policy of Trump. that they can stick it to Donald Trump. And now the new thing over the last 24-48 hours been, Donald Trump is advocating for committing war crimes by blowing up bridges potentially in Iran and power plants in Iran. Let's talk about the war crimes aspect of this and deal with what Americans need to know about this new line by the left. Because they care more about Donald Trump being in trouble than actually taking out a murderous regime in Iran. That's true, and I will say one of the sad things, it used to be the case for a long, long time, that politics ended at the water's edge. In other words, that Republicans and Democrats battle here at home over all sorts of issues, but when it comes to military conflict abroad, when it comes to defending America, that the two sides refrain from partisan attack. I got to say that is not the case anymore. The instant President Trump launched this attack, Democrats began savaging him. You know, we had a classified briefling shortly after the beginning of this attack where you had the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the head of the CIA, kind of all the top national security apparatus in the Trump administration. Yeah. And all 100 senators attended that.

That is incredibly inconvenient for all of the Trump haters in the Democrat Party or in the media who want to scream war crime, war crime, war crime, because there's no doubt the power generation is integral to the warfighting ability of Iran. And listen, I will say, the fact that Pakistan stepped in, it actually goes to what we said on Monday's podcast. which is Trump's threat with any ordinary and rational leader would be incredibly effective. If you actually had a leader that gave a damn about their people, that gave a damn about their economy, that threat would be, holy cow, we can't let that happen. The risk factor is the very real possibility that the Aitola and the Mullahs just don't care, that they're willing to see that kind of devastation to their country. I will say Pakistan. Pakistan is... I've long described Pakistan as a problematic ally. They are an ally. But there are challenges in Pakistan. I actually put Pakistan in Turkey. That's a very diplomatic way of putting that, yes. But you know what? They're an ally rather than a friend, but there are real challenges. We work with Pakistan. There are a lot of bad people or enemies of America that are within Pakistan, but we work with the government of Pakistan. And I think the prime minister of Pakistan stepped up and said, hey, look, you guys in Iran don't go down this road and end up crippling. Don't go back to the dark ages. And this goes back to where Pakistan may have some credibility with Iran. I don't know if Pakistan provided Iran something of an off-ramp. That's a good interpretation. Or if Iran's just seizing on this to delay. That's another interpretation that is possible. But I do think Pakistan stepping forward and saying, let's have a two-week ceasefire, is an example of a more normal country. and a leader who presumably cares about his people, at least to a significant extent, stepping forward to Iran and saying, come on, guys, don't keep playing chicken. This doesn't end up well. 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. Why should you listen to Armstrong and Getty on demand? We're not boring. A lot of news is boring. And tedious. And depressing. And makes you angry. You don't want to live your life like that. Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty. We're Armstrong and Getty. We try to bring you the truth. And help you figure out this crazy modern world. How about something about a comedic tone? We have a winner. Yes. Listen to Armstrong and Getty on the I Heart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. What God started in my life, he's going to finish. The Joel Osteen Daily Podcasts. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. What was meant for my harm, Lord, I want to thank you right now. You're turning to my advantage. Your daily source of hope and encouragement. Your second wind is on its way.

God is about to breathe on your life in a new way. Listen to the Joel Osteen Daily podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your favorite podcasts. I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed. Senator, we want to talk about another issue that it needs to be back on the radar screen for a lot of Americans, and that is the continual crimes are being committed by illegal immigrants that are in this country. The media continues to overlook this. They don't want you to know that it's happening, but it's another example of why the president needs to be fighting so hard against these sanctuary cities that are harboring many of these criminals that are, as he would describe them really bad hombres. Well, you may recall back in 2024 at the Republican National Convention when I spoke and addressed the convention, my remarks were focused on this topic. And the theme of it was every damn day. Every day another American is raped, another American is assaulted, another American is murdered. by a violent criminal, illegal alien that Joe Biden and the Democrats have released. And I walk through the tragic cases of Jocelyn Nungary, the beautiful 12-year-old girl raped and murdered here in Houston. I walked through Lake and Riley, the horrific murder of the young nursing student in Georgia. I walked through Rachel Morin, the mom of five, raped and murdered outside of Washington, D.C. It was happening over and over and over again. That was one of the big reasons that the voters came out in overwhelming numbers, reelected President Trump, elected a Republican House, elected a Republican Senate. And we've seen immediate results. We've seen illegal border crossings drop more than 99%. The problem is... We have four years of open borders that we have to unwind. We have over 12 million illegal aliens that were allowed to flood into this country. And so just this week, the story broke that a gas station clerk, a mom in Fort Myers, Florida, was bludgeoned to death with a hammer. I mean, what a horrible way to go, beaten to death with a hammer. And who is it that committed this crime? A Haitian illegal alien who was caught? and then released at the border by the Biden administration in 2022. An immigration judge ordered him deported. Robert Joachim is his name. But the Biden administration shielded him from deportation by granting him temporary protected status. So in other words, what this person did, he took a hammer, the parking lot of a gas station. He walks at her with full strengths. He beats her on the head with a hammer. She falls down unconscious. And then he crushes her head with the hammer while she's unconscious six more times. Here's the statement the Department of Homeland Security put out. Quote, this illegal alien barbarically hit this woman in the head multiple times with a hammer.

This heinous murderer was released into the country by the Biden administration. Not only did the Biden administration release him into the country, but they gave him temporary protected status. Their reckless immigration policies cost this woman her life. This keeps happening over and over and over again. And what is amazing, Ben, In spite of that, every Democrat in the Senate, when we have a vote, the Department of Homeland Security still shut down. Because they have decided they hate ICE so much, they hate border enforcement so much that it is the position of the Democrat Party. They are opposed. They want to defund ICE, which is the organizations that is charged with finding this vicious criminal, arresting him, and deporting him. They don't want him deported. They want this Haitian murderer in your community. They don't care if you happen to be the poor woman who's bludgeon to death. Look, you know, Chris Murphy, the very liberal Democrat from Connecticut, was on TV. And, you know, there's an old line that a gaffe is when a politician accidentally tells the truth. He described, he said, the people we care about the most, meaning we, meaning Democrats, are illegal immigrants. That is what their party is. And it's infuriating. It keeps happening over and over and over again. When you talk about it still being shut down, and this is, I think, why the midterms are going to be a really important, obviously. This should be one of the important issues of the midterms that Republicans need to remind. If Democrats get back in charge, they've made it clear. They will immediately open the borders wide up, and they don't care who comes in. It's going to happen. Get ready for it. That is their policy. And they will absolutely abolish ICE if they can do it as well. And by the way, understand the risk is not just the murderers. It's not just the child molesters and the rapist and the gangbangers. It is also a very real risk of terrorism. We have seen in the last month four acts of terrorism by radical Islamic terrorists. And here's a story that broke this week. I'm just going to read a tweet from Bill Malusian, the fantastic reporter at Fox. Here's what he said, new. Border Patrol caught and arrested four British nationals. entering the U.S. illegally in a remote part of Maine after crossing from Canada. Their names, these are four British nationals. Ali Muhammad Ali Abdullah, that's number one. Hamid Muhammad Nagy, that's number two, Ibrahim Ayub Khan, that's number three, and Muhammad Sultan Saleh. And these are illegal immigrants that were sneaking into a remote, wooded part of Maine. This is dangerous. Now, you know what happened? Because President Trump is in office and Border Patrol is allowed to do their job, they were apprehended. They weren't just let in. And they're apprehended. You know what? I guarantee you they will not be released. They won't be released into this country. If Joe Biden were president.

Those four people whose names I'd just released, they'd be released, and we might be reading about them in another week or two. That pattern has played out over and over and over again. And by the way, it's not just illegal immigrants. It is criminals across the board. It is criminals across the board, such as, for example, De Carlos Brown, who was this psychotic lunatic who murdered the beautiful Ukrainian woman in North Carolina. He was just ruled not competent to stand trial. And I don't doubt that the guy is crazy as a loon. But let's be clear, Democrats, and Roy Cooper in particular, the Democrat governor. released this psychopath murderer 14 separate times. 14. If you keep releasing violent criminals, and actually help me on this, Ben, play devil's advocate for a minute. Try to get inside the mind of a Democrat. Why would they want to release violent criminals? over and over again. Yeah, it doesn't make sense. And yet they continue to do it because for them, I really do think it's an issue of politics, right? They want to bring in new voters. That's the simplest way I can put it. Well, it's not just new voters, yes, for the illegals, but you look at this to Carlos Brown. He was not an illegal immigrant. He was just a psychopathic, lunatic American. But you know what? Democrats also think not only should he be released from jail. They think he ought to be a voter. He's perfectly fine to vote in U.S. elections, and I guarantee you, violent criminals vote overwhelmingly Democrat, and I guess that explains why the Democrats, their priority is violent criminals and not American citizens. As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast. 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 on Monday morning. Why should you listen to Armstrong and Getty on demand? We're not boring. A lot of news is boring. And tedious. And depressing. And makes you angry. You don't want to live your life like that. Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty. We're Armstrong and Getty. We try to bring you the truth. And help you figure out this crazy modern world. How about something about a comedic tone? We have a winner.

Listen to Armstrong and Getty on the I Heart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. What God started in my life, he's going to finish. The Joel Osteen Daily Podcasts. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. What was meant for my harm, Lord, I want to thank you right now. You're turning to my advantage. Your daily source of hope and encouragement. Your second wind is on its way. God is about to breathe on your life in a new way. Listen to the Joel Osteen Daily podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your favorite podcasts.