Verdict with Ted Cruz
Trump's Iran Address, Pam Bondi Leaving & ActBlue Facing Criminal Liability
03 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. And if you're listening on the radio around the country, it's really nice to have you with us. Senator, we've got a lot to talk about on this show and remind people we also do this show as a podcast three days a week. So if you like the radio show, you'll love the podcast.
Make sure you download Verdict with Ted Cruz wherever you get your podcasts. And the president addressed the nation this week, made it very clear. We're going to wrap things up with Iran, but we also got some work still to get done.
Well, the president gave a national address talking about Iran, what we're accomplishing and what the goals are. And I got to say, if you're a caveman, the president's address was very, very good news. But if you're an Ayatollah, if you are a radical mullah who chants death to America, the president's address was terrible news.
We're going to break it down, tell you exactly what he said, what it means for the Iran war, where things are going. We're also going to talk about the fact that this week the president asked Pam Bondi for a resignation. He's going to move to a new attorney general. Pam is a good friend. She has been a guest on this show.
We're going to talk about Pam's record, and we're going to talk about what's next at DOJ. And finally, the New York Times has a bombshell report that ActBlue, the big Democratic left-wing fundraising online apparatus, may well have committed multiple criminal acts, may well be laundering foreign money, and could face criminal liability, could be shut down. This is from the New York Times.
We're going to break that story down because it has potentially enormous consequences for the midterms.
Yeah, it's a really big story and it's really interesting to see who is reporting on it. Before we get to all that, though, I want to talk to you about our friends over at Bitcoin IRA.
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Chapter 2: What did Trump address regarding Iran and military action?
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7871 or bitcoinira.com slash ben that's bitcoinira.com slash ben to open a free account and earn up to a thousand dollar bonus right now so senator president trump came out he addressed the nation about 31 days after he kind of told us what was going to go on when we were going into iran and what the goals and objectives were He was giving an update to the American people.
I really genuinely love this level of transparency and also explaining where we are, what is still left. And I think it landed pretty well, especially with people that voted for the president.
Yeah, I think that's right. The president said exactly what we're doing and what's coming next. Here, give a listen.
Thanks to the progress we've made, I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America's military objectives shortly, very shortly. We're going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We're going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong.
Senator, for anybody that wants transparency, you don't get any more transparent than this president. He's like, yes, we have the upper hand to the level where he can literally just say to Iran, this is what we're going to do to you if you don't agree to this. If you don't open the stray of the Hormuz, well, guess what? We're going to bomb the living snot out of you. And we're not bluffing.
I love the fact that this president is just being like this transparent, not just with us, but like with the rest of the world as well.
Look, that's important for our enemies to hear. It's important for our friends to hear. Imagine for a second you are the current Ayatollah.
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Chapter 3: How do Republicans view Trump's stance on Iran?
The previous Ayatollah has gone to meet his maker. You're the new Ayatollah. And you're thinking, okay, we've made it through four weeks of this. This is about to be over. The Americans are about to stop. And then you turn on the TV, you turn on the Internet, and you see him say, we're going to bomb you back to the Stone Age. Look, that's not encouraging for the people who chant death to America.
That is extremely dismaying. They're holding on by their fingernails, and he's being clear that they're going to hit very, very hard. Now, he's also being clear, this is going to last a couple of weeks. It's not going to last months more. It's not going to last a year or longer. He's going to pound the hell out of them for the next couple of weeks.
And, you know, for the handful of online critics, and I do want to say the press loves to say this, There's a civil war among Republicans on President Trump attacking Iran. That is objectively false. If you look at the polling, the support is between 85 percent and 90 percent of Republicans support what the president is doing.
Chapter 4: What led to Pam Bondi's departure as Attorney General?
That's not a civil war. They're just a handful of really loud voices, self-proclaimed influencers and podcasters. By the way, can you stand a podcaster? What an annoying class of human being, the podcasters.
Yeah, they get quoted a lot when you need them, right? There's a lot of Republican podcasters that I describe as useful idiots for the left whenever they need one. It's like they raise their hand like, oh, I'll do that for you. Like, I'll say that for you as long as you get my name out there. It's truly incredible.
Yeah, these self-proclaimed podcasters are fond of saying, oh, President Trump has changed his view. He's changed his view because he's a puppet that others are pulling his strings. Well, look, the president was clear also in his national address. This has been his view for a long, long time. Here, give a listen.
From the very first day I announced my campaign for president in 2015, I have vowed that I would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. This fanatical regime has been chanting death to America, death to Israel for 47 years. Their proxies were behind the murder of 241 Americans in the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, the slaughter of hundreds of our service members with roadside bombs.
They were involved in the attack on the USS Cole, and they carried out the countless other heinous acts, including the blood, just horrible, bloody atrocities of October 7th in Israel. something that most people have never seen anything like it. This murderous regime also recently killed 45,000 of their own people who were protesting in Iran, 45,000 dead.
For these terrorists to have nuclear weapons would be an intolerable threat. The most violent and thuggish regime on Earth would be free to carry out their campaigns of terror, coercion, conquest, and mass murder from behind. A nuclear shield. I will never let that happen. And neither should any of our past presidents.
You know, the only difference between Donald Trump and the past presidents he just mentioned there is every other president has said that you can't allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon and that they are a threat to this country directly. The only difference is Donald Trump actually did what he said he was going to do and he was going to stop them. The other ones did not. They tried appeasement.
They tried just kind of looking the other way. None of it works since 1979. So now he's doing it.
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Chapter 5: What challenges does the Department of Justice face?
That's literally the only difference here.
Well, listen, President Trump has been absolutely clear, as he pointed out, going back to when he launched his first presidential campaign in 2015. 2015 was 11 years ago. So the naysayers online who claim there's some like magical realization Donald Trump has had have not listened to him year after year after year for more than a decade.
When he said Iran will not get nuclear weapons, he meant it and he's acting, he's carrying out on that right now.
I want to play devil's advocate with you because there's a lot of people and some of those on the right that have said this like, we didn't need to go now. This was just Donald Trump wanting to get into some sort of war and this was bad timing by him. So let me ask you, for people that are saying, why now? Explain why now made sense.
Well, there were two factors that were really critical. Number one, as President Trump mentioned just a minute ago, and as he said for 11 years, we cannot allow Iran to get nuclear weapons. That when the Ayatollah chanted, death to America, we have every reason to believe him. The Iranian regime has killed nearly a thousand Americans.
They have been the number one state funder of terrorism worldwide. If they had a nuclear weapon, the odds are unacceptably high they would use it. Now, A month ago, they were not on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons.
Last year, during the 12-day war, President Trump ordered our B-2 bombers to fly halfway around the world and we dropped bunker busters on their nuclear weapons research facilities, particularly Fordow, which Fordow is a secret research bunker. It was built under a mountain and it was built to withstand bombing attacks because Israel did not have bombs big enough to take out Fordow.
No other country on Earth had bombs big enough to do that except for the United States. We're the only ones that had the bunker busters big enough to take it out. The ordnance we dropped on their nuclear research facilities last year were the equivalent of one third of a nuclear weapon. We're talking big, big bombs. And we took out their nuclear weapons facilities. So...
A month ago, they were not on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons facilities or nuclear weapons, rather. Why did President Trump act? Because Iran was building missiles, short range and medium range ballistic missiles at an incredibly rapid clip, over 100 missiles a month they were building.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of ActBlue's investigation?
They fired missiles at everybody, not just at Israel, at every one of their neighbors. And and so the Trump administration made the determination they needed to act now before they had so many missiles and so many drones that there would be a massive loss of life if we acted subsequently to take out nuclear weapons research facilities. That's number one.
Number two, the Iranian regime is weaker right now than it has been at any time during our lifetime. As you know, I spent the entire day the day before this conflict began with President Trump. He and I were together in Air Force One. We flew from D.C. to Texas together. And then he asked me to join him in the beast in the presidential limo. It was just the two of us one on one.
the entire time we were talking about what should he do in Iran, and what I was arguing to him, I support this attack and I urge this attack vigorously, and I said, listen, the regime has never been more vulnerable.
It is teetering and there is very little, if anything, that you could do that would more greatly enhance American national security than to see this radical Islamist regime collapse, to remove from power An Ayatollah who chants death to America, who has been murdering Americans for years and who wants to kill as many Americans as he can.
All right, let me go back to another big question, and I would say a fallacy that's been out there that a lot of people have been talking about, and that is, well, it wasn't America's role to do this. If the neighbors were afraid, then they should have been the ones. We already went after their nuclear facilities. That's where America should have stopped.
And if others in Europe were concerned about being hit by these missiles that could reach them, capital cities, then that's on them to do it, not America. Why did we have to do this? I That's the isolationist viewpoint I've heard.
Right. Look, we weren't doing it for Iran's neighbors. We weren't doing it for Saudi Arabia or UAE or Qatar. We weren't doing it for Europe and we weren't doing it for Israel. I know all of the Jew haters online like to say it's for Israel, it's for Israel, it's for Israel. The Ayatollah chanted death to America. He also chanted death to Israel.
But there's a reason the Ayatollah called Israel the little Satan and America the great Satan. I believe if the Ayatollah had a nuclear weapon, he might have detonated it in Tel Aviv and killed vast numbers of Israelis.
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Chapter 7: How might ActBlue's legal issues affect Democratic fundraising?
But I actually think it is more likely if he could. He would detonate a nuclear weapon in New York City or Los Angeles and kill as many Americans as possible. That is, look, when he calls us the great Satan and understand this is not hypothetical. I want to underscore my view. I am, as a general matter, very reluctant to use military force. I think the Iraq war was a mistake.
I have been vocal for a long time that the Iraq war was a mistake. Why do I think it was a mistake? Because Saddam Hussein was not waging war against the United States. He was not killing vast numbers of Americans. He was not pledging to kill vast numbers of Americans. The Ayatollah was. Over 90% of the funding for Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis had come from Iran.
They were murdering Americans year after year after year. They were trying to murder President Trump. And that is why the president acted. And look at all we've accomplished. Give a listen to the president on everything we've accomplished so far.
Tonight, Iran's navy is gone. Their air force is in ruins. Their leaders, most of them, terrorist regime they led, are now dead. Their command and control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is being decimated as we speak. Their ability to launch missiles and drones is dramatically curtailed and their weapons factories and rocket launchers are being blown to pieces. Very few of them left.
Never in the history of warfare has an enemy suffered such clear and devastating large-scale losses in a matter of weeks.
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Chapter 8: What are the potential consequences of foreign contributions in U.S. elections?
President Trump being very clear there. I want to move on to one of the big headlines. It's never fun when someone loses their job in the administration. The headline from the New York Post, Pam Bondi speaks out for the first time after Trump fired her as the attorney general. I want to get your take on this. You know her well. I know her. We've had her on this show before.
Look, in cabinets, there's always people that come and go. That's just part of Washington and politics. It is what it is. There's a lot of people on the left that are just thrilled about this, that there's a turmoil and everything. I don't think it's that way at all.
I think this is the president just saying, okay, I want to do something a little bit different, and he's going to move on pretty darn quick.
Yeah, listen, Pam Bondi is a good friend of mine. I think she took on what may be the single hardest job in the entire administration. The Department of Justice, there is a deep state at DOJ and at the FBI who fought her from day one, who have been waging war, trying to prevent her efforts to bring back integrity, to take the politicization out of the Department of Justice.
And it's been an uphill battle. It's been a difficult battle. Pam was someone who she was a guest on Verdict literally when she was just a couple of weeks into the job. At a very beginning, brand new AG, she came on Verdict and was a guest and talked to us about everything she was trying to accomplish. You know, she put out a tweet saying farewell. Here's what Pam had to say.
Over the next month, I will be working tirelessly to transition the Office of Attorney General to the amazing Todd Blanch before moving to an important private sector role I am thrilled about and where I will continue fighting for President Trump and this administration.
Leading President Trump's historic and highly successful efforts to make America safer and more secure has been the honor of a lifetime and easily the most consequential first year of the Department of Justice in American history. Since February 2025, we have secured the lowest murder rate in 125 years, secured first-ever terrorism convictions against members of Antifa,
shattered domestic and transnational gangs across the country, taken custody of more than 90 key cartel figures, and won 24 favorable rulings at the Supreme Court. I remain internally grateful for the trust that President Trump placed in me to make America safe again. And listen, I think Pam served honorably.
It is the president's prerogative to choose if he wants new leadership in the Department of Justice, and he's made that choice.
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