On the Ground with President Bukele in El Salvador plus Cracker Barrel Surrenders
Welcome. It is Vertica Center Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. Usually I'm the
one that's out of town far far away. Tonight as we do this show you're in
another country Senator and you're on a codel through Latin America. Well that's
exactly right. As you and I are talking it is late Tuesday night and I am in El
Salvador. I've spent the entire day in El Salvador meeting with senior
government officials, meeting with the president of El Salvador. I'm going to
walk you through exactly what I heard, what I saw, what is
happening on the ground. We're also going to talk about your and my favorite
Maryland man the MS-13 gangbanger who the Democrats have decided to make the
poster child for their entire party and he has once again been arrested by ICE
and is facing deportation. We're going to lay out the facts of what's happening
there. And finally Cracker Barrel. Cracker Barrel after deciding they hate their
customers. After deciding they hate everything their company was founded
upon. They utterly and completely surrendered. They threw in the cracker.
They threw in the barrel. We're gonna break down the absolute mess that was
behind that and and I'll give you the punchline early. Go woke, go broke. Go
woke, go broke. And the best part about this story is this controversy they were
warned about a long time ago and we've got a new timeline on it. It wasn't just
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talk about why you are where you are right now in El Salvador. Explain
quickly what a CODEL is, what it means and then why you chose to do this in
Latin America. Well a CODEL is very simple. That is an abbreviation for
congressional delegation and that is official travel as part of your
job serving in Congress or in my case serving in the Senate and I've done a
number of CODELs to different parts of the world. You do it because you need to
go and meet with foreign leaders. You need to understand that the challenges
in in different countries as they impact the United States and and so I am right
now this week on on a CODEL throughout Latin America and and it started today
in El Salvador and the reason I started in El Salvador is because it's a country
that is impacting the United States profoundly. It is impacting the United
States because in the last several years particularly in the Biden administration
we saw a massive influx of illegal immigration from El Salvador that
impacted Texas and the whole country and then we've seen El Salvador turn itself
around. President Bukele, the president here who was elected with overwhelming
support, reelected with with massive support. The success he has had turning
crime around, targeting the cartels, targeting the gangs is extraordinary and
I spent quite a bit of time this evening with President Bukele with his senior
team and and that has made El Salvador safer but it's also made America safer
so that's why I'm here. Now let me tell you how a CODEL begins. So I started the
day early this morning in Houston in my home. I got up went to the airport and I
flew down to El Salvador. I got off the plane and I have a team from my office
who's with me of my national security and foreign policy team. We started by
going to a military base that the United States Navy has right by the
airport and I met with a number of American sailors who are there. They're
engaged significantly in drug interdiction and and counterterrorism
efforts and it's an air base where they can they can support they can
support planes they can support drones and and and they can support all sorts
of air missions fighting terrorism and fighting cartels and and so I met with
the leadership there of the base and and I met with there were a number of sailors
from Texas and so I started by having lunch with them asking them about how it
was living in El Salvador what what their backgrounds were and they were
from multiple places throughout throughout Texas. What is interesting
then I asked each of those sailors I said okay you guys have lived it varied
anywhere from from a few weeks to two years down in El Salvador. I said okay
how have things changed and what kind of job is President Bukele doing? Every
single American sailor I spoke with said it's extraordinary like this country has
changed it is safe it used to be incredibly dangerous it is now safe
people are willing to walk the streets they said people would not walk the
streets at night it was not safe you would not go out after dark because you
would be assaulted you'd be kidnapped you'd be murdered and it is now becoming
incredibly safe that that was the assessment of our sailors. I then went to
the US Embassy and I met with with the our country team there I had a
classified briefing in a skiff where they walk through everything that's
happening in El Salvador and then I went met with a number of US Marines they
were all young men that they had been in the country anywhere from from actually
one fellow was there literally a day Wow and it ranged it was it was this was a
second day in country and it ranged from I think the the Marine had been
there the longest was was nine months and I asked them the same questions
about a dozen Marines and so I went and talked with them and I said okay what do
you think of the country every one of them said this is an incredible place we
love it down here but I also asked okay what kind of job is the current
administration doing and again they raved about it it was one of the
interesting things Ben every single person I asked on this trip I asked how
is President Bukele doing I did not find a single person a single Salvadoran
a single American and I met as I said I talked with a number of especially
American servicemen and women I didn't find a single one who had anything
negative to say that is rare and there's a reason for that after meeting with the
Marines after meeting with our country team at the embassy I went and sat down
with the Justice Minister and I got to say the Justice Minister that
presentation Ben there are very few presentations I've been in in the in my
entire time in the Senate that have been more impressive real because the justice
yes the Justice Minister laid out what they've done in 2015 do you know that
El Salvador was the murder capital of the world yeah it was a and and I'm
pretty sure if I remember correctly the State Department put it out there in
essence is a do-not-travel zone for Americans in fact in 2015 here are the
data the murder rate in El Salvador was 100 people per 100,000 that meant one
out of a thousand people in the country was murdered that was the single highest
murder rate of any country on the planet President Bukele came in and he came in
and began going after the cartels and he began arresting he arrested over 80,000
gang members he went after ms-13 and he locked them up he built a gigantic prison
the Seacott prison that houses up to 40,000 people it was designed to house
gang members one of the things the Justice Minister said he said look in
the United States ms-13 to become a member of ms-13 you know you know we
have to do if I remember correctly you've actually got to like kill
somebody that's exactly right that that is the test for membership is you have
to murder someone so here's what the Justice Minister told me that I did not
know do you know what the requirement was to become a member of ms-13 in El
Salvador I'm assuming it's worse you had to murder ten people Wow ten so you're
not in the gang unless you kill ten people and that explains the murder rate
if you've killed nine yeah yeah if you killed nine you're not in yet you're not
bad enough you only killed nine you're still an amateur and and it was it was
fascinating like listening to the judge describe it he described how the old
government of El Salvador the leftist they made a decision to essentially hand
government over to the cartels to disempower the police to disempower the
judiciary to disempower the government from enforcing law and order and he said
look there was a government and the government was the gangs the gangs were
in charge the gangs imposed taxes the gangs had an army the gangs had it had a
justice system they were running the country and and and in it was the murder
rate was so bad that that nobody went out at night I was listening to I was
talking to American personnel that lived there and they said if they had say a
Salvadoran and employee who was working for them they would insist on going home
about 4 p.m. why because they would not drive after dark because if they did
they might be kidnapped they might be assaulted they might be murdered so you
would not drive after dark so but Kelly came in and they said we're not going to
let the gangs be the government of El Salvador we are going to be the
government and we are gonna go after them and they went in and what's
fascinating is they said the prior government had a list of most of the
gang members they'd arrest them they knew who the gang members were they'd
let him go they'd arrest him again they let him go again they'd arrest him again
they let him go again so they had a comprehensive list what it took was a
simple decision we're done we are not letting gang members wreak havoc murder
our citizens cause terror throughout the country and so they went and began
arresting gang members they began arresting gang leaders and and putting
them in jail taking them off the street now here is what is amazing Ben the
murder rate went from the worst murder rate on planet Earth to becoming one of
the safest countries in the world it went from 100 murders per 100,000 people
to last year in 2024 it was 1.9 murders per 100,000 people it was a 98 percent
decrease in murders it is stunning yeah and and that's why president Bacali got
reelected with over 80% of the vote because when you take people from a a a
Mad Max in Thunderdome dystopian hellscape where you're terrified to be
out at night you do not leave your house because you and your family are risking
death to a place where this evening I was I was in in the capital city and
and people were walking on the streets and they're safe and and they're not
afraid it turns out locking up the criminals getting them off the street
that works all of you know that I am a pro Second Amendment guy I've shared on
numerous occasions how carrying my firearms saved my life from a gang
related attack but for those of you out there with family members who may not be
comfortable having a gun by their side you still want them to be able to
protect themselves and others in times of danger and that's where the Burna
launcher comes in Burna is a handheld pistol that fires both kinetic rounds
and chemical irritants to separate you from an attacker and I'm here with Josh
Sherrard from Burna to share the true story of how an avid hiker uses Burna to
stop an attacking mountain lion Josh tell us what happened yeah you know
Jason is an avid hiker decided to take his family out on a hike that he's done
several times super easy hike but super fun armed with his Burna you know this
is one of those things where he didn't expect to see anything and all of a
sudden on this hike this mountain lion appears out of nowhere of course he
sends his family on down the trail watches the lion for a few minutes
realizing it's not going away so uses Burna fires a few rounds to scare it
off continues down the trail but unfortunately this mountain lion
appears again at which point he realized he was gonna have to up his aggression
with that Burna fires four rounds was able to strike the mountain lion all
four times the chest and torso at which point that mountain lion tears off never
to be seen again these guys make it down the trail but back to their car and
back to home safely fortunately this is all it took to make sure and get this
family back home safe off a hike that could have taken an obvious turn for the
worst and I I'm gonna guess that Burna has been used to stop other types of
animal attacks as well absolutely we we get stories all the time of users with
whether it be dogs or other wildlife we even have an ecological park whose
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you know this also reminds me so much of the conversation that I think we're
trying to have right now in this country in so many of these dangerous cities it
just takes the willpower and the leadership whether it's New York whether
it's Memphis or Detroit or st. Louis or New Orleans Baltimore the list goes on
and on California San Francisco right in LA those types of areas where we've seen
the criminals take over we've seen the the gangs take over we've seen cartels
that have clearly got their tentacles into so many of these cities and are
making countless dollars off the drug trade the human trafficking the sex
trafficking the child trafficking the list goes on and on it just takes
somebody willing to say enough that's what the president's doing in Washington
DC we're witnessing and have instant effects it's a lot like what you're
talking about right now where you are yeah it is a political choice and and
that's what everyone here was emphasizing it was a choice before we're
going to allow the gangs to run this country and we don't care if people are
murdered we're not going to do anything about it it was a choice to end it and
it was a choice that was was dramatic in terms of the effects you know when I was
sitting with the Justice Minister he pulled up on the computer that they have
in very detailed statistics so in 2018 right before Bukele came into office
there were across the country roughly 2,300 murders do you know how many
murders there been this year how many 50 Wow it went from you want to talk about
legacy by the way hundred yeah I mean just think about a leader like a legacy
yeah you you're literally saving lives through this policy and and and so the
the the Justice Minister pulled up on the computer they have all across the
country he had every single police officer in the country on this computer
you could see the cars you could see the foot patrols he could click on them and
you would get the names of this is officer so-and-so officer so-and-so in
every city across the country where they were he could actually click on them and
connect with them he could call them on their cell phone he could video stream
with them on their cell phones he also had a record of every person that had
been arrested that day there were four people who were arrested today and he
had you could click on them and and at 432 p.m. I'm making that up I don't
remember the time but you know one guy was arrested for for theft or whatever
whatever it was and you could click on it you could see their arrest report you
could actually see the mugshot I saw the mugshot of a guy was arrested today and
and and he had real-time data literally all across the country and and and
they're developing AI systems to go and target it and where they see crime is
greater they go and devote the resources and they get the criminals off the
street well I gotta say having met with the Justice Minister then I went then I
went to the presidential office and I met with President Bukele and and I gotta
say President Bukele is is one of the most impressive leaders I've ever met
he's young he's charismatic and his record of success is extraordinary his
country is fundamentally different I shared with him I shared with him the
story that every person I had met in the country today I asked hey what do you
think of the president all of them everyone every every Salvadoran every
American said he's doing a phenomenal job I laughed and said you know what I
don't know of a politician in America that would be true it's certainly not
true of me if you ask a guy on the street there's some people who like the
job I'm doing there are other people who would tell you what what a terrible
horrible human being I am that that's a little bit of the price of politics it
says something but you know what when you go from the worst murder capital on
the planet to one of the safest countries in the world turns out people
really appreciate that well and when you're living in that type of fear and
hell it's not political it's about your family and safety and it sounds like
people are judging him based on that not on like look you you interact with
someone that's conservative they're gonna love you liberals automatically
hate you that's that's like a 50-50 split right away when you wake up every
morning it would be nice by the way if while President Trump is doing what he's
doing in DC if people in DC would look at this as a safety issue now as a
political issue maybe I should take that away from the from from what you're
witnessing down there right now well and listen President Bukele expressed real
frustration because the Biden administration did everything they could
to undermine him to attack the government of El Salvador and I was
laughing with President Bukele saying you know it is bizarre I think the
policy of America ought to be that we we treat our friends well we are good
friends to our friends and we stand up to our enemies and under Biden the
policy seemed to be that we treat our friends like crap and and we give in and
show weakness and appeasement to our enemies and I got to say I think
President Bukele he agreed with that the Biden administration put sanctions on
government officials in El Salvador they undermined it they attacked it and and
they did everything they could to drive El Salvador away by the way when they're
locking up these ms-13 gang members these leaders they're making America
safer and yet the Biden administration undermined him and one of the things
President Bukele was very grateful about is President Trump is exactly the
opposite he and President Trump are quite close you remember not not too
long ago he was in DC in the Oval Office with President Trump they've worked
together very very closely and and and the difference in what he was
emphasizing he said this is a choice it is a choice and we talked about DC we
actually analogized it look the president in DC said we're gonna we're
gonna put federal law enforcement officials on the ground we're gonna
arrest murderers we're gonna arrest criminals and keep people safe and the
results have been dramatic violent crime has dropped significantly in DC because
of the simple act of saying we're going to arrest violent criminals that's a
choice I'll tell you President Bukele brought up San Francisco he brought up
when when she from China came to San Francisco and he said it was amazing
suddenly all the homeless people and drug addicts they remove them all from
the streets and I was laughing and this is what you and I talked about just two
days ago on the podcast Gavin Newsom when he was able to clean up San
Francisco he told every resident of San Francisco you don't matter to me let's
assume Ben this is a little bit of a stretch but you're let's assume you're a
lefty granola crunching Marxist in San Francisco and you've been told over and
over again there's nothing we can do about homelessness so there were nothing
we can do about heroin addicts shooting up on the street there nothing we can do
about people defecating on the streets and then suddenly the leader of
communist China shows up and Gavin Newsom cleans everything in its sparkling
spick-and-span and how even if you are the most left-wing Democrat on earth how
do you not stop and say wait a second you told me you couldn't fix this and
then in 24 hours you fixed it what that means is you could have fixed it a week
ago a month ago a year ago and you didn't because my kids don't matter to
you as much as the leader of China and that that that's what we Kelly brought
up and he and I were both agreeing you can fix this problem if you choose to
fix this problem and I gotta say book Kelly's results and we talked about I
did a press conference this evening where we're of course the reporters were
attacking the Kelly because they don't like his results and I said listen when
you have a 98% reduction in the murder rates the results speak for themselves
and I said there's an analogy to President Trump in the United States
where when he got sworn in we have a 99% reduction in the rate of illegal border
crossing border crossings that happened immediately and and I did point out to
be Kelly when I said that I said look you're at 98 President Trump's at 99 I'm
not trying to one-up you and I said to be fair I said to be fair your status
murder so that so that's like incredibly acute but if we're arguing
between 98 99 that is incredible success for both our nations this by the way
brings me to subject number two and and you talk about how the left is just hell
bent on crime and and making sure that crime stays high they're fighting law and
order everywhere they can they still haven't even learned of how bad it makes
them look to support an illegal alien criminal who has become the poster child
the Democratic Party and let's talk about the update to to this Camaro
Brego Garcia story well that this is the Maryland man who the Democrats have
decided is who they stand for and and he's an ms-13 gangbanger and and he was
arrested he was deported to El Salvatore he was brought back he's been charged
with human trafficking he's also been been alleged to to a physically
assaulted and beaten his wife you and I on this podcast read through the the
indictment and and and the human trafficking the crimes that he'd been
involved with ms-13 for a decade and and yet Democrat senators including including
Chris Van Hollen the Democrat from from Maryland who's my colleague flew down to
El Salvador and did something very different than what I did I sat down
with McKelley and wanted to talk about his incredible success making the
country safer and protecting innocent families Chris Van Hollen wanted to go
to the prison where where where a Brego Garcia was and sit down and have
margaritas with him and be like oh it's terrible that they're locking up gang
members and you know what you know what Americans want apparently what what Van
Hollen thinks Marylanders want is more illegal immigrants and more gang members
and and so what what happened is I arrested Brego Garcia and then they're
in the process of deporting him yet again and and and the Democrats are once
again circling around him because apparently they believe that's what
Americans want and and I want you to listen to this clip of of what happened
concerning his arrest give a listen
today I'm a 13 gangbanger and human trafficker kill mark of radio Garcia
turned himself into ice in Baltimore give me a comment on this and why are
the Democrats so emotionally attached to this man who beats his wife and is part
of a terrorist organization because they're they think he's gonna be good
for votes and I think he's very bad for us these people are deranged he's not
good for votes he beat the hell out of his wife his wife is afraid to even talk
about she's been mauled by this animal and you know through a system of liberal
courts there he's doing things but no we have that under control and Pam has got
that very much under control do you want to comment on it no no we've got him
under control he will no longer terrorize our country he's currently
charged with human smuggling including children the guy needs to be in prison
he doesn't need to be on the streets like all these liberals want him to be
and as part of this operation here in DC we've also taken off MSM MS 13 members
we've taken I think just last night we got a TDA guy off our streets right here
right around from where we all work another TDA member gone because of this
project so we're going to keep America safe from all of these foreign
terrorist organizations including a break-up Garcia you know one of the
funniest things Pam Bondi when she's talking about it she said you know in in
DC we got an MS and she starts to say MSNBC and then she's like an MSN 13 yeah
and like an MS an MSNBC reporter at MSNBC commentator off the street who to
be honest there may not be a massive difference because on MSNBC what are
they doing they're defending MS 13 but I just thought that was a really amusing
Freudian slip yeah no you can't make it up it's one of those that makes me laugh
you look at this story and and I I gotta say I really like our chances right now
going into a midterm if Democrats cannot get it together even their national I
don't know convention wherever the hell you call it they're obsessed over words
and language they're obsessed with defending criminals and illegal alien
criminals like they're learning nothing and they're certainly not listening to
the American people and what they're saying either which is the most
important thing yeah well look we saw an illustration of this with Cracker Barrel
Cracker Barrel is a terrific institution particularly in the south and their woke
leadership decided that everything the company was built on they didn't like
and in particular they didn't like the customers you know their customers they
they thought were not nearly as enlightened as they should be they were
not nearly as woke as they should be and the whole thing was very reminiscent of
Bud Light you know Bud Light you had a marketing executive who said you know
the people who buy Bud Light we don't like them we need to have you know a
bunch of of woke transgender activists drinking our beer instead it was
reminiscent of what happened with Target where they decided to to market you know
to market to transgender toddlers and and do it prominently pushing pushing
bathing suits for two-year-old boys to tuck their genitals to hide them away to
pretend they're not boys that that was Target thinking this is really what
America wants because you know if you're the parent of a two-year-old clearly you
want your son to believe he's a daughter when he's two this is a phenomenon of
business leaders who buy into an ideology that is wildly unpopular and
ultimately directly antithetical to their customers and so Cracker Barrel
had a had a logo at a logo of you know an old gold guy sitting on a chair next
to a giant barrel and they decided okay let's get rid of the cracker let's get
rid of the barrel let's get rid of it all and we'll just have anodyne words
because we're really embarrassed that that we're for anything nostalgic
anything that that is Americana and the pushback has been phenomenal their stock
price is tanked just like Bud Light just like Target and and just today they
announced never mind okay yeah this has not worked well the beatings are really
hurting so we're going to stop but but it is it is striking that that it took
the reaction of the market for them to figure it out I want to say though it is
a great great victory for common sense that Cracker Barrel finally gave in and
said you know what we're gonna stop being woke because we'd like to actually
have one or two customers when this is all said and done yeah the I think the
frustration of conservatives now voting with our dollars and that is what
ultimately this came down to a Cracker Barrel this was a bunch of Americans it
said okay you despise us you despise the you know who we are as a customer
base you're basically telling us you don't want us anymore watch this and and
that is exactly how they got this point very quickly and look I also think when
you have people like you and the president who are willing to speak out
on this and say you guys are being stupid they realize how quickly others
are like yeah us too like we're gonna you know what we're gonna say that we
think this is ridiculous and we're starting to finally I think see the
pendulum swing back the other way which is really really cool I was gratified
because yesterday President Trump publicly called out Cracker Barrel and
said look you need to just go back to your old logo like give this up in the
rebranding and and accept that you were wrong and and I'll tell you I jumped in
on Twitter I retweeted him I said this is absolutely right and and the two of
us were very vocal saying go back to where you were and 24 hours later they
did so that that was gratifying it's not always that people listen they
listen to common sense in this case they did it and and and it's worth noting it
isn't just in the last week that people notice that what Cracker Barrel was
doing was was nuts almost a year ago November of last year a big investor in
in in Cracker Barrel guy named Sardar Biglori he owns approximately 5% of the
restaurant chain stock he wrote to his fellow shareholders that the Cracker
Barrel transformation was a quote mistake of misguided executives falling
into a textbook trap of overspending on cosmetic remodeling and he continued the
day Cracker Barrel opened it was already old it's theme derived from the 1920s
and he wrote I am concerned that not only will the remodel not work but it
could actually damage the brand further these decisions are taking us down the
same path I believe is Ruby Tuesday Red Lobster TGI Fridays and the like let me
make my position clear the company's 700 million dollar remodel plan will not
work and he called it a letter to the shareholders in October of 2024 the
board's transformation plan quote obvious folly and yet the corporate
leadership ignored the shareholder owned 5% of the company and they charged down
that road anyway and they vaporized roughly 15% of the market cap of the
company because they that they were more interested in listening to woke
marketing executives and by the way the entire marketing world much of that is a
scam of left-wing woke people who despise their customers and let me say
if you're in corporate America don't listen to marketing executives that
don't understand and don't like your customers but in this instance Cracker
Barrel should have listened to its investor and not these marketing execs
and it paid the price but the good news is they finally finally finally listened
and reversed and said you know what the principles we were founded on the
principles America was founded on those principles are pretty good we're gonna
get back to them yeah it's incredible all right final question for you you've
got day one in the books of the code out you're gonna be down there and and and
also doing more we're gonna be able to talk about that coming up on the next
episode of verdict that's right this is a multi-day trip and we're traveling to
two other countries throughout Latin America and and the focus is really on
meeting with heads of state meeting with leaders in each of these countries the
where the issues directly impact the United States directly impact Texas they
impact our national security the impact our economy by the way I had dinner
tonight with the economy minister here in El Salvador they're very focused on
American investment on energy on technology on pharmaceuticals on on
creating jobs and by the way to give a sense of how much these changes matter
I'm gonna give you two stats to wrap up with the Justice Minister told me they've
had over 10,000 applications for people who want to be police officers suddenly
people are eager to be police officers because making a difference because if
they're making their community safe previously when the gangs were running
the country they hadn't one year over 300 police officers murdered being a
police officer was what was literally taking your life and your family's life
in danger now people are lining up to be police officers because they see the
difference but here's something else it used to be that the people of El
Salvador were fleeing this country because look you were risking being
murdered your kids were risking being murdered you wanted to get out now we
are seeing reverse migration there are roughly six million Salvadorans in El
Salvador there are about three million Salvadorans and in the United States
President Bacali told me roughly half of those Salvadorans in America about one
and a half million have said they want to come back to El Salvador they're
seeing reverse migration because suddenly people are saying wait I fled
my country because I was terrified for my safety and my family now the country
is safe I want to come back I love love the beach and the mountains and the
people and the culture that is changing this country and and it ought to be an
encouragement to any other leader to any mayor to anyone facing facing crime and
challenges when you fix these problems it doesn't just keep people safe which
it does but it has economic benefits it literally transforms your community
that's inspirational and and as I said this is the beginning of a multi-day
trip throughout Latin America so so in two days we'll report on the rest of the
trip it's gonna be awesome don't forget we do this show Monday Wednesday and
Friday so hit that subscriber auto download button and the senator and I
will see you back here in a couple of days