What Did You Accomplish Last Week? With those Simple Words, Elon Musk Drove Dems & the Media Nuts!
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Welcome, it is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you, and Senator, I gotta say, this is an email I feel like should be sent out every single week. What did you do at work last week? That is an actual email sent out from Doge to government employees. You even responded to it.

Well, it's amazing. Every day, it seems, we see the same story playing out. We see Elon Musk holding the federal government to account. We see Donald Trump standing up to the swamp in Washington. And we see the media and the Democrats losing their mind.

Elon Musk with the most basic question any boss asks of what did you accomplish this week? And somehow that is deemed shocking and unbelievable. And it really is a sign of what needs to happen. We're going to break that down and break down the response to it as well. We're also going to talk about a back and forth between President Trump and the governor of Maine.

where the governor of Maine, a Democrat, is continuing what a lot of the Democrats are doing, which is massive resistance. And in this case, boys and girls sports. It turns out the Democrats, they want them some boys and girls sports, and they're willing to stand and fight and do anything. And Trump made clear Maine is at risk of losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds

If they continue to defy the executive orders on boys and girls sports and the Democrat governor is eager for that fight because that is apparently what today's Democrat Party is all about. Yeah, that's a really important one. And we're going to talk about that in a moment. I want to tell you real quick about our friends over at the IFCJ after more than a year of war, terror and pain in Israel.

There is still a great demand for basic humanitarian aid. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has supported and continues to support those in the Holy Land still facing the lingering horrors of war and those who are in desperate need right now. Your ongoing monthly gift of $45 will provide critically needed aid to communities in the North and the South that have been devastated by this ongoing war.

Your generous donation each month will help deliver to those in need, including evacuees and refugees from the war-torn areas, first responders and volunteers, wounded soldiers, even elderly Holocaust survivors, and families who have lost everything, plus so many more that are in need. And you can provide hope during this time of great uncertainty.

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You can also call to give 888-488-IFCJ. That's 888-488-IFCJ. 888-488-4325 or supportifcj.org. And thank you for checking out their incredible work they're doing. All right, before we get into the big story, Senator, I got to say two things. One, to this audience,

You guys are incredible, and thank you.

for hitting that subscribe and auto download button and making sure you save the show. They have changed the algorithms to actually hurt podcasts like this one. So we want to remind you, make sure you hit that subscribe or auto download button and save each episode so that we can continue to grow the audience and find other people out there and help give them the important news we give you every single day. But we also got to say thank you because this podcast is

They put out a list of the best 100 election podcasts. And I got to say, because of the audience center, you and I, this podcast, Vertical Ted Cruz was ranked number one political podcast in America for the election. And that's amazing.

Well, that's right. This is a list that is done by millionpodcast.com, millionpodcast.com, and they rank podcasts. They rank them based on their content, and they put out a ranking of the best 100 election podcasts, and I've got to say it was pretty fantastic.

But Verdict was number one in the entire country, the single best election podcast in the country, according to MillionPodcast.com. And so that I want to say thank you, as Ben did, to all of our listeners, because the content we're putting out day after day is very hard to get. There is not another place you can get it. And so thank you. And that's a big win.

Yeah, huge win there. And you want to talk about another big win. You mentioned it a moment ago. I got to say, there's certain emails that happen and headlines right now with this administration that, Senator, I find great joy in. I smile. I think a lot of people listening to this show are going to smile at this story we're about to tell you about, which is there was an email that went out to all government employees saying, what did

do last week tell me the top five things you did in your job and the left and the unions and the woke people in the government are just like crying and losing their minds well Elon Musk tweeted out this week quote consistent with President Trump's instructions all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week failure to respond will be taken as a resignation very simple

Five bullet points. Tell me what you got done the past week. Now, the media and the Democrats, they are freaking out. A classic example is Senator Tina Smith, senator from Minnesota, very liberal Democrat. She tweeted out the following, quote, This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk, except he isn't even the boss. He's just a dick.

So that's the Democrats' response. Asking someone, what did you get accomplished this week at work, is unacceptable because they live in a world where apparently meritocracy doesn't exist, where government workers aren't expected to do anything positive for the voters, for the taxpayers. And Elon responded to Tina Smith a very simple question. What did you get done last week?

Now, I got to say, I read that and my reaction immediately was, OK, this is something, frankly, bosses do all the time. It's a very reasonable thing. I've been in a lot of jobs where my bosses have asked for a weekly report at the end of the week. What did you get accomplished? I've submitted reports.

hundreds or thousands of weekly reports over the year of what's been accomplished during the past week. That's something a lot of very productive workplaces do. So I responded on Twitter. Here's what I tweeted out in response to Elon. A fair question, Elon Musk. Here's mine. One, passed out of the Senate the Take It Down Act to protect kids from deepfake porn. Two, confirm Kash Patel at FBI and Lutnik at Commerce. Three,

pass the budget resolution to secure the border, rebuild our military, and unleash energy. Four, chair a hearing on freeing up 600 megahertz of spectrum for commercial development so the U.S. will beat China to 6G.

And five, met with 20 African ambassadors on strategies to combat China in Africa. So that's what I did last week. And I got to say, you know, it's an interesting thing. Why don't doesn't all hundred senators report back on what they accomplished last week? I think it's a perfectly fine thing for Democrats.

for federal employees to do it. But at the end of the day, I've got 31 million bosses. I work for every man, woman, and child in the great state of Texas. And I try on a regular basis. In fact, this podcast is an aspect of that accountability. It's an aspect of sharing with the men and women I work for what it is that I'm doing, what I'm fighting for, and what we're able to get accomplished. And it really does say something about the current

surreal expectations

of Democrats and federal government workers that asking, what did you do last week? You know, when, you know, when the woke left was like, Oh, we got to have like safe spaces for people in colleges and kids. That's in essence, what their response is here. They came out hardcore and they're like, how dare you? This is harassment to ask what we did last week. You're, you're, you're making us stressed out. This is making people worry and fearful for their jobs. Uh, I'll,

Yeah, if you're not doing your job, you should be fearful. If your job is something that you can't even explain, you should be fearful you're going to lose your job. But this idea that this is, quote, harassment. We had unions that came out saying you can't harass our union members this way. All by asking a simple question. What did you do last week? Let me ask you, Ben. You've worked in a White House and comms. Is this a strange question to get? What did you accomplish last week?

No, and especially when you work, for example, on campaigns, you know there's accountability every 10, 12, 15, 24 hours. What did you do to respond to this? What are you doing this? Here's the next project. What have you done with this? Like that is a very normal way of doing things. And I can tell you whether it was on the campaign or we were working on Social Security reform, you had deadlines and you had meetings every day. And if you came in unprepared, it could cost you your job, no doubt about it.

Yeah, look, it's the basic idea of having deliverables, but there's a very strange dynamic in Washington right now. The average federal office building up until a few weeks ago

Was empty. The the the attendance is five to eight percent. More than 90 percent of federal workers are not going to the office. Now, that is bizarre. Look, I get in the height of covid, there was a period where everyone stayed home.

But you know what happened? The rest of the world went back to work like everyone's gone back to work. And in the private sector, I don't know of a place where people don't go into the office anymore except the federal government. And I got to say to Democrats, this is treated as as an entitlement that they are owed this. And to see people freaking out. Well, if we have to go to work, that makes it very hard to figure out child care.

Well, guess what? That that's called work. Yeah, it is hard to figure out child care. I mean, every parent that's real. Look, every parent who has a job has to figure out child care. Why do federal employees get to stay at home in their pajamas and bunny slippers when everyone else has to go to work? And it I think these two are intertwined. This this expectation. I am entitled to a federal paycheck for the rest of my life.

I don't have to produce anything. I don't have to ever go to the office. And I can do my job simply by diverting funds to radical left-wing groups. All of this is intertwined. It is the politicization of government. It is the lack of respect for the taxpayers, the lack of respect. Look, this is intertwined. We've talked about this as well.

With how Joe Biden behaved the last three months of his presidency after the election, I have never in my life seen a president...

behave like Joe Biden did, because he behaved with absolute contempt. He spent three months trying to do everything he could to stop Donald Trump from delivering on the promises that he made to the American people that the voters said overwhelmingly we want. Most presidents, when they leave, when they lose, they're like, OK, fine. All right. The next guys are coming in. We're going to transition over. The voters have spoken. You know, I may not like what the voters say. I was on the other side. You know, if your side loses, fine.

But but but the absolute arrogance, the the lack of regard for the voters and the taxpayers, it is also intertwined. Name a Democrat, an elected Democrat.

who has said once, thank God Doge is pointing out all of this waste, fraud and abuse. Thank God we have stopped sending millions of dollars for transgender surgeries in Guatemala. I haven't heard a single Democrat, not one of them. And it's because they don't think they owe anything to the taxpayers or the voters. For them, it's about power. It's not about honoring the commitment you made to the men and women who elected you.

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You know, the other part about this is there was a lot of people that were trying to spin this email as like this was a national security risk.

because it went out to all employees. And there was guidance that came back very quickly from certain departments going, hey, like you can't necessarily say what you did this week. So hold on before you respond back. And yet the media tried to spin this into, oh my gosh, all these rules were about to be broken and you were putting people's lives at risk, Elon Musk, by sending out this email. I think it's important that we clarify, look, there were some positions that it was totally fine to say, hold on, we can't do this.

Yeah, look, of course. And so there were natural places where employees were told, don't respond to this email. For example, Kash Patel told FBI agents, don't respond to this email. Run through your management to respond to this email. Why? Because when you're dealing with classified and confidential law enforcement, there are national security and intelligence agencies

operations where you can't have this kind of report going and going through non-classified channels. So, of course, that's the case. But if you're a run-of-the-mill employee in a federal agency, those constraints are not there, and those employees are obligated to respond.

No doubt about it. Also, let's talk a little bit about CPAC. You had a meeting with Elon Musk right after he was given this chainsaw. You even got a picture. I was there with the chainsaw that we tweeted out. It was actually really fun. And Elon Musk is loving this new opportunity to make a difference in this country. Yeah, I will say, in addition to the five things that I said,

tweeted that i accomplished last week i did did follow up with one more tweet and said oh yeah and six i got to hold a really badass chainsaw and and this is always amazing okay you got to understand so javier malay the president of argentina showed up with a gold and silver chainsaw for elon musk and this is not a run-of-the-mill chainsaw

This is a gold-plated chainsaw. It had Elon Musk on it. It had Viva La Libertad on the blade. The blade was long. It was a massive chainsaw. It had...

brass spikes coming out of the main body of the chainsaw, like something out of Mad Max and Thunderdome. And the pull cord where you start it was a set of brass knuckles. Yeah, that was just so cool. It was seriously badass. And it was, I told Elon, so you and I spent the afternoon at CPAC

last week, and we did Friday's podcast we did from CPAC on Thursday, and we interviewed Pam Bondi. We interviewed Pam Bondi live on the stage. We've done Verdict live on the stage of CPAC several times. Let me encourage folks, by the way, if you didn't listen to Friday's podcast interviewing Pam Bondi, it was one of the very first major interviews of the new Attorney General that has happened today.

Pam and I have been friends a long time, and so we had a really good and candid conversation about what she's doing, what she's accomplishing, what her objectives are. So if you didn't listen to Friday's podcast, go back and listen to it, because it was an interview that I think was really worthwhile. But afterwards, you and I hung out afterwards. I spent about 20 minutes with Elon, and Javier Millay delivered this chainsaw to Elon, by the way,

Malay brought it up on stage while you and I were doing the podcast. I got to say, my security guys were freaked out. They're like, a guy is running on stage with a chainsaw. And never mind that it was a head of state running on stage with a chainsaw. That's just a little surreal. Like you have guys whose job it is to keep you safe.

It is despite the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre. We rarely deal with people running at us with chainsaws. And yet yet that happened at CPAC. And yet somehow it was OK.

Yeah, it really was. There was also another bad-a moment, since we're talking about bad-a moments, at the White House that happened while we were at CPAC. Come on, Benjamin. Benjamin, if you're going to do it, do the full enchilada. All right, there was a bad-ass moment. There we go. There was a bad-ass moment at the White House. I'm all into this show. I'm trying to rescue your dignity, because a bad-a moment is just a weenie way of putting it. All right, we'll go with bad-ass. There was a bad-ass moment at the White House where the president straight up

called out a governor who was in attendance for the governors. They had a bunch of governors come to the white house. They had their big governors meeting. Uh, they invited these governors to come to the white house and, and the president just straight out called out one of the governors for the plan that had leaked in essence, that he was going to defy, uh,

the directive from the federal government about protecting women from men playing in their sports, transgender individuals claiming that they're a chick. And the president just said, I don't care. You're here. Glad you're here. Are you going to not go along with what I told you to do? And it was one of those flashpoint moments just showing you, I think, the difference is time and the mentality of this president.

Yeah, no, that's exactly right. Trump is not backing down. And I got to say, the Democrats, it seems they've learned nothing from the election. Here, give a listen to the exchange between the governor of Maine and President Trump. The NCAA has complied immediately, by the way. That's good. But I understand Maine. Is Maine here, the governor of Maine? Are you not going to comply with it? Well, we are the federal law.

Well, you better do it. You better do it because you're not going to get any federal funding at all if you don't. And by the way, your population, even though it's somewhat liberal, although I did very well there, your population doesn't want men playing in women's sports. So you better comply because otherwise you're not getting any federal funding. Every state... Good, I'll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one. And enjoy your life after governor because I don't think you'll be in elected politics.

I mean, the trash talking, I just got to say, looking at the female governor main saying like, hey, the people there want this, too. You should listen to the people. I'll see you in court. All right, great. Look forward to it. I don't think you're gonna be in politics much longer either. If you keep this up, this is just a different Donald Trump this time around.

Well, it is. And by the way, there's also real teeth to it. So simultaneously with this exchange, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it initiated a compliance review of the University of Maine and the state could be in jeopardy of losing $100 million in federal USDA funding over noncompliance with the executive order on keeping males out of female sports. And at the end of the day, and by the way,

This is not hypothetical. This is happening in Maine. In Maine, there was a transgender boy who identifies as a girl who took first place in the girls pole vaulting at Maine's Class B state championship. And it's a win that helped the high school take first place overall. And so, you know, how would you feel if it's your daughter

who's in second, and she's the best pole vaulter in the state, who's a girl, but there's a dude who says, no, I'm a girl, who beats her and dominates. It's just fundamentally unfair. And I got to say, overwhelmingly, 80, 90% of Americans agree with that proposition. And what's striking is this is not Democrats fighting on some issue where,

where the voters are with them. I promise you, even in Maine, the voters don't want this. They're not happy about this. And today's Democrat Party, this election, if there is an elected Democrat who learned anything from this election, I don't know who it is.

Because not only are they doubling down. This has become like the new litmus test of the extreme left, right? Yeah, but they're also doubling down on open borders. They're also doubling down on anti-Israel. Look, the Democrats in the Senate voted against sanctioning the ICC, the International Criminal Court, which has gone after Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel.

Every Democrat but one, every Democrat but John Fetterman voted against Israel. And they did that after the election. They did that just a few weeks ago. I mean, that's where the Democrats are right now is they're still open border. They're still anti-Israel. They're still pro boys and girls sports. And it's look, look, this is the same issue we started with. Fundamentally, I think, you know, the Democrats love to prattle on about democracy.

But when they prattle on about what democracy, what they really mean is they want power and they don't care what the voters want. They don't care about respecting the will of the voters. Instead, they want to fight against the will of the voters. It's why they indicted Trump not once, not twice, not three times, but four times. It was designed to stop democracy. It's why you had multiple Democrats, judges and state officials fighting.

Trying to remove Donald Trump from the presidential ballot because nothing says defending democracy like stopping the damn voters for voting for your opponent and making it impossible. This is all intertwined, which is it is a lack of of humility, a lack of understanding that you have a boss and the boss is the men and women who elected you.

Yeah, it's a great point. And it goes back, I think, to the core issue of...

He's listening to the people, as you mentioned, and he's doing what the people said with a mandate. And that is that is what this election was about. And it's also I think it's clear the reason why he's doing things, which moves me to the FBI. You got to go to the swearing in of Kash Patel at the FBI. But it's clear that the president's not just like checking a box at the top and saying, OK, now business as usual.

We also found out today that he has decided to name Dan Bongino, who many that listen to the show probably listen to his show, his podcast as well, and know him from Fox News Channel, former Secret Service agent, former police officer in New York City, a very outspoken critic of the deep state. He's now the deputy director of the FBI. I mean, he is truly draining the swamp and bringing in people that are all about reform.

Yeah, on Friday I was at Kash Patel swearing in, and it was a terrific moment. I think Kash is going to bring fundamental reform to the FBI, and I think it is desperately needed. The FBI is an institution. It is an institution with a long and storied history, and I don't think there is any institution in America that has lost more respect, that has had its integrity compromised more than the FBI has. Actually, the CDC may be rivaling it. Fauci may have done as much damage to the...

credibility and respect of government health sciences as James Comey and Christopher Wray did to the FBI, but both institutions

are sorely in need of reform. I think Kash Patel's going to come in and do that. And I've got to say, Dan Bongino, he's a good friend of mine. He's a good friend of yours. He is a strong conservative. He is a reformer. And that combination of Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, I think is going to be really potent reform.

To bring the FBI back to its core mission and its core mission is stopping bad guys. It's stopping violent crime. It's catching the very worst criminals. It's stopping terrorism. It's putting terrorists in jail. It's keeping America safe. It's not.

being a politically woke enforcer for left-wing ideology, or for that matter, for right-wing ideology. I don't expect the FBI to suddenly be a right-wing enforcer. I want the FBI to lock up murderers. And to be clear, I want them to lock up murderers, whether they're Republicans or Democrats. I don't care if you're killing people, if you're raping women, if you're hurting kids, if you're human trafficking, if you're drug trafficking, if you're a terrorist.

I want the FBI to go after you and lock you up. And that's what their core mission is. And I'm very confident that Kash Patel and Dan Bongino with Pam Bondi as attorney general, that they're going to bring the FBI right back to that.

Let's give a quick update about where we are with all these cabinet positions. You guessed that you thought all the big ones were going to get through. So far, that has been exactly the case. And look, they didn't want Pam. They didn't want Patel. They didn't want several of these others. They went after Kristi Noem. We saw a lot of them at CPAC this weekend. The big...

Big positions are getting filled with the people that Donald Trump promised the American voter. How encouraged are you by, I would also say, the Republicans that are in Congress right now seeming to stick together pretty well? Yeah, look, I think the Republicans in the Senate and the Republicans in the House are aware that we've got an historic mandate from the election in November.

And we've got an obligation to deliver on our promises. We can't screw around. Failure is not an option. And I do think that is something in both the House and Senate that Republicans get. I'll tell you, when it comes to confirmations, we are moving at the fastest pace in 25 years. We're moving at a much faster pace than than cabinet nominees were confirmed under Biden or in the first Trump term.

I predicted on this podcast that all of President Trump's cabinet nominees would be confirmed, and that's been the path. That's been the ones they went after. They went after Pete Hegseth. Hegseth was confirmed. They went after Tulsi Gabbard. Tulsi was confirmed. They went after Bobby Kennedy. Bobby was confirmed. And so other than Matt Gaetz, who withdrew very early, and Gaetz would have faced a very rocky path, but other than that,

Once once once Gates withdrew and I made the prediction after Gates withdrew, that's exactly what happened, which is every every cabinet nominee has been confirmed. Yeah, it's incredible. What do we have on the horizon when it comes to what's next when it comes to confirmations?

Uh, well next week, the confirmations that are coming up, we're going to do the secretary of the army, Daniel Driscoll. Uh, and then we'll be voting on Jameson Greer to be the United States trade representative. Both of those are expected next week. Uh, and, and then we're going to go after some of Biden's failed energy policies in, in, in the Senate. We're going to go after, uh, rules and regulations that drive up the cost of energy and make it harder to, to heat your home harder to, to, uh,

that drive inflation. And so that's going to be the priority in the Senate this coming week. It's going to be awesome. We're going to have it all here for you. Don't forget, hit that subscribe or auto download button and make sure you save the podcast that helps us tremendously reach a new audience. Also, grab my podcast, the Ben Ferguson podcast on those in-between days. I'll keep you updated on the latest breaking news as well. And the Senator and I will see you back here on Wednesday morning.

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