Welcome.
It is verdict with Senator Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you and Senator it has not been a great day for the Biden family on multiple fronts.
Well, that's putting it mildly. Number one, we've seen the evidence of Joe Biden's personal corruption continue to grow. James Biden, it's now come out. It's not just Hunter, it's the entire Biden family that has a business of selling favors, selling access to Joe Biden to the tune of millions of dollars. And James Biden was on Capitol Hill, was testifying and contradicted himself, and it is getting worse and worse and worse for the corruption of the Biden family. Beyond that, we're also seeing the media turning on him. I got to say Rolling Stone has abandoned Joe Biden.
Holy crap.
If you're a Democrat and you've lost Rolling Stone, what is next? And I'm going to say, finally, as the entire higher Biden edifice collapses in flames, the corporate media is an abject state of panic. And so they fired Catherine Herridge, the lone reporter at all of CBS who actually reported on anything happening in America. They fired her, and then the news broke this week that CBS has gone and seized her files. They've said, we want to see every damn confidential informant you talk to, we want to see every source. We want control of all of it. And I got to say, even lefty journalists are saying, what is going on when CNN is doing this, it's a big week.
Yeah, we're running into all that.
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If are going to support IFCJ dot org got support IFCJ dot org center. This story when it broke was one where I kind of laughed. James Biden lies just like Joe Biden does. James Biden now had to tell the truth, contradicting himself during testimony on his brother, who just happens to be the President's involvement with the family business dealings, which means virtually every Biden that's ever spoken publicly about the Biden family businesses lied to the American people, saying Joe Biden had nothing to do with it, and we now know he was the entire business and his brother is now admitting it.
Well, it's a sad pattern. It's one we're seeing over and over again. And to step back a second to set the stage. So this past week, Politico broke a major story. The story was entitled, Biden's brother used his name to promote a hospital chain, then it collapsed. This was a bombshell story. And so let me read a portion from the story because it's important.
Quote.
The investigation, based on public records, court filings, dozens of interviews, and hundreds of exclusively obtained internal documents, reveals that Joe Biden's role in Americ Corps was larger than previously reported. In some eternal documents and investor materials, his name is included among its top handful of leaders. That's Joe Biden, by the way. He also helped the company seal regulatory approval to acquire the Pennsylvania Hospital and personally fired Americ chief financial officer, according to the emails obtained by Politico. The investigation also reveals that Joe Biden's name and inner circle were more involved with the company than has been understood. In addition to the accounts provided by former executives, investor materials described Jim Biden as an advisor to his older brother, and on top of Joe Biden's own previously reported encounter with the firm CEO, at least three of Joe Biden's relatives did work with AmeriCorps. They include Jim Biden's wife Sarah, his son Jamie. The President's son Hunter Biden also met with its CEO and his personal doctor. The current White House physician Kevin O'Connor, joined meeting with Jim Biden and the president of a hospital being acquired by AmeriCorps. According to a former executive and emails obtained by Politico.
That's a lot.
And if you think about just all of that in the context of the Biden crime family, at least they're consistent now where they were willing to walk into basically any room with any person at any time, where if they had cash, it didn't matter. If they were enemies of America, it didn't matter. It matter if they're Russian oligarch's Romainian Oligarch's Ukrainian oligarks it didn't matter if they were doing business directly with the Chinese Communist government and people that were connected to the spying agency of the Chinese Communist Party.
The Bidens were willing.
To take a check to sell access to the United States of America. And he has now made it clear, Yes that was the business. Sure you got us, But is there going to be any accountability? That's the big question. Everybody wants to.
Know the entire Biden family, their source of financial support, their business was selling. The big guy was selling Joe Biden. Here's also from that Politico story quote. One person on the receiving end of Jim Biden's healthcare pitch recalled a phone call in which Jim Biden said he was sitting in a car next to his brother Joe. Joe Biden has said that he has never discussed business with his brother. Now at this point, there's a parallel. Do you remember the text that Hunter Biden sent to the Chinese Communist executive where he said, I'm sitting next to my father. This is a pattern now that apparently the entire Biden family. It's a really lucrative business to be sitting next to Daddy Joe, and you sit next to Daddy Joe and you shake people down for cash, and you say, right next to me is Joe Biden. And if you don't give me millions of dollars right now, Joe is going to come after you. And the consistency of this story that it's not just Remember, look, what is the White House's main defense. Their main defense is, you know, Hunter is a sad soul. He's troubled by substance abuse. Look, the guy's a crackhead. That's not our fault, that's his problem, but just blame it on him. Well, it turns out it's not just Hunter. As far as we know. Joe's brother Jim is not a crackhead. He just is in the same damn business. And by the way, in the business with other family members of it. The business is selling Joe Biden. And in this case, the hospital that they acquired in Pennsylvania was a hospital that focused in rural Pennsylvania providing healthcare that was needed by Americans in real trouble. They acquired it and then they went broke, They went out of business. They left their patients high and dry. But you know, who did great on this. You know who made a whole bunch of money. That would be Joe Biden and every damn member of his family.
Well, let's go back to the also the fact that this company which they were working for, AMERICRPS, allegedly defrauded Medicare. I mean, this claim comes, as you mentioned, the House Oversight committe Chairman James Comer. He's a former bank board member. We've had him on this show now, I think four episodes. He found in October that two hundred thousand dollars check from AmeriCorps, which allegedly defrauded Medicare, landed in Joe Biden's bank account via James Biden. So this is direct linkage of the money on top of the fact that that's not even the biggest part of the story of the two undred thousand. It's the fact that this is a company that was allegedly defrauding Medicare.
Here, don't you normally go to jail if you do that? That's what I thought.
I mean, Democrats are obsessed with fraud right now, right that's their whole thing. They're obsessed with fraud, even if it's not even there. Like we saw with Donald Trump in New York. But this is actual fraud, actual payments, and actual defrauding of medicare.
Listen, defrauding medicare, that means you're defrauding the American people. You're also defrauding your patients. And that is the Biden family's emma. That that is their approach. And this Politico story, it is number one interesting. We talked about the last podcast. We're going to talk more in this podcast about how the media, the corporate media, is turning on Joe Biden. The fact that they publish this story. Holy cow. A year ago, they would not have published this. Politico would have said, nope, no story here, We're not reporting this. Leave this to Breitbart. We the esteemed members of the fourth estate at Politico will not write this. Well, well, suddenly they've decided, uh uh, Joe Biden's a liability. Let's get rid of him. But you know what's interesting. This story then segues into what happened this week. So this week, GOP lawmakers who said James Biden contradicted himself during testimony about his brother, Joe Biden's supposed business dealings with his family. And here's what Fox News reported quote. The president's brother initially said he was not part of a deal with his nephew Hunter Biden and business associates Rob Walker, Tony Bobolinski, and James Gilliar, according to a source familiar with the interview, but when presented with an agreement with his signature on it, Oh, oh, that's a problem, Biden changed his story, saying he didn't recall signing the agreement. The source said, now understand James Biden's like, no, no, no, not in business with them. I don't know who's Hunter. What do you mean my nephew. Don't know the guy you mean the guy that's that's naked and smoking crack and running around with all the prostitutes. No, never heard of that guy, the one on Air Force two, Air Force one. No idea who that guy is. And then he's like, uh, here's the agreement you signed. And he's like, uh, I don't know what you're talking about. Look, a lot of our listeners are young enough. You may not remember Hogan's Heroes. I grew up with my dad watching Hogan's Heroes as a kid. And Hogan's Heroes there was a character Sergeant Schultz, big fat guy German guy, and and when when, when Hogan was like doing all sorts of shenanigans, Sergeant Schultz would say, I see nothing, I hear nothing. Well, that right now is James Biden's defense. I hear nothing well. I gotta say the rest of us we see something.
It's big. And now the media is turning on him. We've talked about this. I just came back from Seapack in DC and it was a very clear topic of conversation and a real concern of many that were there, saying what happens next when it comes to Joe Biden? Will he actually be who we're running against come November? And the media seems to be turning on Joe Biden. And it's not just like they're testing out the waters now, it's like they've gotten their orders and the Democratic establishment. Okay, Now, maybe the time that we take our hand off of Joe and we push him underwater and sink this ship so we can get somebody else in here. And I want you to talk about rolling stones. Before you do that, let me tell you about freedom gold USA. If you're like me and you like to make sure that you protect your hard earned dollars, if you're close to retirement. If you're in retirement and you're watching what's happening with inflation, you're watching your savings a road away, you're purchasing power a road away, Well, then it may be time for you to take a look at gold and silver as part of diversifying your financial portfolio. It is something that I've done and I use Freedom Gold. In fact, right now in my hand, I have a ounce of silver that is part of my portfolio. And I have this because no matter what happens, we've got a death that's above thirty four trillion dollars with a T, and we've seen the push for central bank digital currencies, our financial freedom is at risk. That is why I want you to know about Freedom Gold USA. They are ready to help you preserve your wealth and provide you stability and uncertain times. Now here's the big perk. If you call them right now, you can see if you qualify for up to ten thousand dollars in free silver.
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Senater, I think the reason why the media has flipped on Joe Biden is because this is an orchestrated effort. It's not like one media outlet decided to go rogue here. They all started on the same day. They all are putting out stories at the same time. They're all trying to basically say, Okay, maybe we got to get rid of them rolling stones. For goodness, Sakes writes this that has never happened before to write an article like this about a Democrat, much less a sitting president in the Democratic Party.
Well, listen, that's right. And we talked about in Wednesday's podcast how the media is turning on Joe Biden, how the Washington Post, how the New York Times is turning on Joe Biden. And you're right, there is an amazing thing. Maybe we'll discover at some point there's some secret list server or text message or signal app that they send each other. There like, okay, now we're turning on them. I don't know, I just know the results that they all do it simultaneously, and so look as bad as the New York Times is, as bad as the Washington Post is. When you think of lest wing mouthpieces, it's hard to find one that is more so than Rolling Stone. And here's an article from Rolling Stone this week. I want to read you the title over it, young Black and Done with Biden, the issues that could decide the taking a ride through Detroit with the young black Democratic voters who helped Biden get into office in twenty twenty and aren't so sure about doing it again.
That's not a story that's ever written by the mainstream media, much less like hardcore lefties. And that would be Rolling Stones magazine. And they didn't just this didn't just happen, by the way, in a week. They clearly knew what they were going to write. They knew this was a story that probably was worth writing, and they just decided to look the other way for the last three years. Now, all of a sudden, you're going to write it like the timing of this is laughable.
No, that's exactly right, and let me read you the opening of this article. Troy, Michigan is quintessential suburbia, strip malls, banks with drive throughs and jewelry stores through just thirty minutes outside of Detroit, feels a world away from the motor city with its blocks of boarded up houses and abandoned stores. The disparate environments speak to the systematic inequality that brought me here to talk politics and the bind that Joe Biden has gotten himself into. Inside Fresh and Pressed Juice, a brightly lit juice bar and cafe with a vibrant green ceiling, I talk with the impeccably dressed shop owner, Kiara Smith and her husband, wrapper Icewear Vezzo, who has brave the snow in his designer wool jacket over smoothies. Vezzo takes off like a rocket when I ask what issues he'd like to see presidential candidate's address in the lead up to November. Vezzo says that over the past several years he's been paying attention to electoral politics more than ever. He thinks Biden's deceitful and that likely Republican candidate Donald Trump is a blabbermouth Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy is his preference over both men. He takes some local pride in Michigan being a battleground state because he said voters are actually paying attention. Now understand, this is Rolling Stone saying Black Democrats in Detroit, Michigan are not going to vote for Joe Biden. That's a big deal.
It's not just that, it's also that all of the data is pointing to the disaster, which is the Biden administration, specifically on the economy, and you compare that to what Donald Trump did when he was in office. The lowest unemployment ry in the history of African Americans happened under Donald Trump, and Joe Biden came in said I'm going to fix everything in the African American community. Look at what's happened since Biden took office. As the latest number, overall prices are up seventeen point nine percent. Food prices are up twenty one percent, rent is up nineteen point four percent. Electricity is up twenty eight point six percent. That's Biden nomics, and this White House says, oh no, no, it's working it's working.
We promise you it's working.
And I think that's part of the reason why I center that the African American community is turning against him, as they're saying, you have ruined what we had under Donald Trump and now we have a massive crime wave on top of everything else I just mentioned.
Well, if you remember the political party in New York previously that was called the rent is too damn high. Yeah, well, I got to say the rent is too damn high. That is a message that is resonating in a whole lot of cities right now. And Joe Biden he owns it. You think your rent is too damn high? That would be Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. Who brought that to you. And that's a real problem. That's a real problem for the voters. The Democrats need to turn out. If they're sitting there saying the rent is two damn high, they're in trouble. And it's why. Look, this podcast six months ago broke national media when we said that, I believe there was a very real risk the Democrats were going to jettison Joe Biden and replace him with Michelle Obama. It's been interesting the last two weeks suddenly seeing the rest of the press say, holy crap, there's a very real chance they jennison Joe Biden and replace him with Michelle Obama. And the fact that the media is turning on him day and night is increasing the chances every day.
There's also another shocking story, and I want to make sure we spend some time on this. Many people may know the name Katherine Herrid. She is a phenomenal reporter. She was at Fox for a long time. She then moved to CBS News. She did incredible reporting on tough issues and stories, including what's been happening with the Biden crime family. She was let go, slash fired, whatever you want to call it, laid off with some other people as CBS is having financial issues and downsizing. But it was shocking that she was let go in that because she's basically that one of their best and only tough investigative reporters, certainly in Washington, d C. Now we have found out that CBS News went full communists after quote seizing her journalistic files. That is not what's supposed to happen in America in journalism. And yet now we're finding out not only they get rid of her. But the question is what was she what did she what was she about to report on? I would say this enter, I know you love her reporting. I think we should try to get her on Verdict because I would love to hear what she has to say about everything she uncovered that maybe she hasn't been able to tell us yet.
So I agree with you that we should have Catherine Herridge as a guest on Verdict. We're going to try to make that happen. And I will say, look, in many ways, Catherine Herridge is a unicorn because the corporate media is so utterly corrupt that they do not report on news that is inconvenient to the regime. And Catherine Harridge was a rebel in that she actually reported on things the Biden White House didn't like, and so CBS was engaged in layoffs. And I get Look, the media are a bunch of dishonest, lying hacks. I understand that they're firing people because people don't want to purchase their goods anymore because it is useless. They're no longer journalists, they're liars. That being said, if you're off people, somebody and some corporate suit in a corner office made a decision, who do we want to lay off. Let's lay off the person who actually is criticizing the White House, and so Catherine the heritage they laid off. That was shocking in and of itself because she is such a unicorn. But then the news broke this week that then not only do they layer off, but CBS officials took the unusual step of seizing her files, her computers, her records, including her information on privileged sources. And and that I've got to say, so.
Explain people privileged sources so people understand why that's such a shocking, in my opinion, abuse of power by CBS.
Well, listen, reporters have sources that give information and under promises of confidentiality, and those promises or that their name will be held secret, they will not be outed. And that is right at the heart the essence of journalism, of free press. Well, CBS, the corporate suits have said, we want to know who your sources are. And the problem is that nobody rational with their head not inserted in a bodily orifice, believes that the corporate suits want that for any reason other than bad purposes. Look, I'm going to read from an article in The Hill. So in the Hill, this is something written by Jonathan Turley, who has been really terrific on a lot of these issues. But here's what he but he wrote, quote, I've spoken confidentially with current and former CBS employees who have stated that they could not recall the company ever taking such a step before. One former CBS journalist said that many employees quote are confused why Herridge was laid off. As one of the correspondents who broke news regularly and did a lot of original reporting, this has led to concerns about the source of the pressure. He added that he has never seen a seizure of records from a departing journalist and that the move has sent a chilling signal to the ranks of CBS and that is deeply, deeply disturbing. By the way, there have been reports that when Catherine Herridge published stories that were critical of the Biden White House, that CBS executives pushed back, including someone CBS News president ingrid Cyprianne Matthews, who I don't know, but good god, her name sounds like something out of a science fiction movie about some overlord in the star chamber who wants to silence, all dissent ingrid Cyprian Matthews. Let's fire the reporter that dares report anything of substance because we are propagandists. And I got to say, there was a time when CBS actually had a reputation as being real journalists. How many Walter Cronkite is rolling over in his grave at what has happened to CBS today.
I want to just talk about the quality of Catherine's reporting for a moment. There are reporters that you don't talk to. There's reporters that I don't talk to. You see them, you roll their eyes, You deal with it a lot more than I do. There's certain reporters on Capitol Hill You're like, really, you again, give me a break because you know they're hacks. When when you saw Katherine and now there's like there seemed to be mutual respect from both sides the owl because she wasn't partisan, she just was a truth teller and investigative journalism. It's something that we've lost in this country and that's what, ultimately I think made her lose her job at CBS.
Look sadly, what Catherine Herridge does used to be the norm and journalism. Yeah, you would have journalists who would actually investigate stories, they would follow the facts, they would report on the substance. That used to be how the entire enterprise worked. Now and I really think this is post Trump. Trump broke the corporate media. They hate him so much that they've abandoned any effort at truth telling, any effort at reporting facts, any effort at being even handed, eddy effort reporting both sides. Instead, Look, if you go back a decade ago, if you go back to twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen, you would have people at CBS, You'd have people at CNNMSNBC, even MSNBC that would claim they're trying to be journalists and report both sides. What has changed is Trump convinced a lot of the so called journalists and all of the corporate brass that reporting fairly was no longer acceptable, that Trump was the devil, and because he was the devil, their mission was no longer present both sides. Their mission, and this is the way they framed it, was to save democracy. And what they mean by save democracy is elect left wing democrats in every election no matter what, which means never ever ever report on anything harmful to left wing Democrats and only be propagandists for the left wing of the party. Now listen, I don't like the New York Times. I think they're a bunch of freaking communists. I don't particularly like the Washington Post. I don't like much of the media. But bizarrely, Ben, I think they're valuable. How many years were you an employee of CNN?
Seven years? In hell is how long I was there fighting the good fight.
Okay, but compare CNN all right, you're a former employee. You were an employee there from win to win.
Gosh, it was I mean, go back what two years ago and then and then add seven on to there. So in the middle of it, right before Trump was elected, when it wasn't that bad.
I was there for I guess about two years.
Before the sixteen election when Trump was elected and then the will came off.
So give your perspective, because you were a paid employee of CNN. Give your perspective of CNN before twenty sixteen, in the Trump election and after, because look, what I'm describing is real, but you experienced it from the inside.
Yeah, when I first got hired, it was funny. When I got hired by CNN. The call came in and they said, look, we want real and genuine conservatives on the air.
I got hired.
I think it was on the same day with New Gingrich and they said, we want to have a robust debate, and it was and that's exactly what it started out as. And even when they were covering Donald Trump in sixteen, remember CNN would go wall to wall with him campaign event after campaign event, and I remember, well, yeah, it was huge for their ratings. You remember, you were running against him. It's like CNN was giving it was almost like the Trump News Network during the primary. And then once he got the nomination, and then once he actually looked like he might have a chance of winning, they started to turn a little bit.
It wasn't intil the night.
And I was at CNN that night all night long in election night, and you could see the shock and the anger because everyone there from the highest up.
People they assumed tilly.
Assumed Hillary was gonna win.
So this was basically just great TV drama until he won. And then when he won, they basically and once he started saying they were fake news, and he was in there going after them as the president and going after them in the White House Press Briefing Room and allowing Sara Huckabee, Sanders and others to fight back. They couldn't take it out on Trump enough, so they started taking it out on the commentators that were left. I was one of the last, I think real concertis left at CNN. I actually begged them to not re sign me at the end. They had a right to sign and right to match, and they did it anyway, And in my last year they signed me to silence me.
I don't think I've ever talked about this publicly.
Actually, in my last year I asked them not to and they said, no, we're going to resign you. And I had another offer and they were gonna match, and and that was it. I can say this and you'll laugh. I will go down in history as being the highest paid CNN contributor in history if you count it per appearance, because in the last year of my contract, when they extended it, they signed me to bench me just to say they had a pro Trump commentator on the payroll. And I did a total of two appearances in twelve months under contract. Yes, lot of appearances. Yes, I've never really talked about this publicly. So they resigned me, and I said, please don't and they did it anyway, and they didn't have me on for like three and a half four months.
All right, Ben, I don't want to out your personal finances, but I kind of do. How much to see Ann pay someone. I mean, look, if you don't want to answer that, don't answer that. But I'm kind of curious.
Yeah, it all depends on if you're hosting, what your past resume was, how long you been there, and so I made I mean low six figures when I was there my first Yeah, clus I think it's what it was.
And you did two appearances in a year, in a year, in a year, they paid you fifty freaking thousand dollars per appearance.
A little more than that.
That's why I said, I go down in history, is the highest paid CNN contributor in history per appearance. But they benched me, and the Hollywood Reporter noticed that there was like two or three of us that were pro Trump, and we vanished from the screen. Because a normal week when I was there in the first you know, six years, I would probably average four to six appearances a week some weeks to be eleven, twelve, thirteen during the political campaigns. I did so many appearances in my first contract.
That I'm doing some quick math, let's say five appearances a week fifty two weeks. That's over two hundred and fifty appearances a year. That yeah, that's what you used to be. And you went from two hundred and fifty appearances a year to.
Two to two in my last year two and it was only I did one appearance where they tried to I think it was actually to try to get rid of me. They had me come on to defend Rush Limball, and they try to turn me into a racist bigot that was defending Rush Limball, that was anti gay, and I didn't take the bait. And you could see I was very angry when I was on TV because I knew what they were trying to do and it didn't work, and I didn't take the bait, and I fought back. And then there was a bunch of articles from you know, scumbags and me that were trying to apply that I said something I didn't say. And then Hollywood Reporter noticed that the pro Trump sarrogates in essence, these conservatives at CNN had vanished from the air, and they wrote an article.
So I say this seriously, and look, I don't watch CNN. So but I can't recall a single pro Trump surge in years they've had. I can tell you I used to do CNN. I didn't do it five times a week because they paid me zero and in my entire life have been paid zero by CNN, and you know, I feel it was a fair trade. But I used to do CNN once a week consistently. I haven't done them in years, years because they're not interested in a fair discussion. They are propagandas, yes, and they're not even Democrat propagandists. They are the left wing of the Democrat Party. And it's not just CNN. Why did CBS sees Catherine Herriage's confidential source notes that is extremely unusual, but it is a manifestation of the complete corruption of the corporate.
Media, no doubt about it. This is really fun. I hope everybody enjoyed it. Don't forget hit that share button, subscribe button, and write us a five sturreview on wherever you're listening to this podcast right now. It helps us reach new people that have not seen this show before. I heard the show before. I don't forget we do the show Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I keep you up to date on my podcast, the Ben Ferguson Podcasts, on those in between days as well, so download that podcast mine the Ben Ferguson podcast as well, and we have that week in review what you may have missed during the week if you didn't get to get every episode, we have that for you on Saturdays as well and the Sinat and I will see you back here Saturday morning for that.
Have a great day.