Ignorance & Ideology: AOC’s Twisted Commie History of America

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:05]Welcome in as Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz. Ben Ferguson with you. For all the mothers out there that may be listening, we hope you had a great Mother's Day weekend. So, happy Mother's Day to all of the moms out there uh as well. And Senator, we've got a lot to talk about today, including the fact that AOC uh she wants to get rid of all the wealthy people in this country, make it illegal for you to make a billion dollars. It's pretty impressive. Well, let me first of all say happy Mother's Day. I I took my mom out uh for brunch this afternoon and and my mom is 91 years old. She is amazing. She is brilliant and it was just fun to hang out with with me and my mom. We had some some one-on-one time and and a really delightful time. I hope everyone listening uh I hope to all the the moms who are listening, I hope your kids, I hope your your family embraced you, said thank you to you and and and said how much we appreciate everything moms do.

[00:00:56]And to everyone else, uh, I hope you did that to your mom, to your wife. Uh, if you didn't, do it now. Even if if if it's Mother's Day, >> and you're in the doghouse, by the way.

[00:01:05]If you're doing it this late, you're in the doghouse, so you better get a better gift.

[00:01:09]>> But but you know what, moms? Uh, they're the there's a reason moms are the only things that rank above apple pie. That that uh it's a beautiful thing.

[00:01:20]>> We've got one big story to talk about today. It deals with socialism, communism, Marxism, and AOC. She now wants to ban wealthy people in this country and says, "You didn't really earn it. You can't make it up. This is now the Democratic Party in a new shocking tell all." All right, Senator.

[00:01:36]So, let's start with AOC. And I This is something you and I have been talking about for a really long time on this show. There is a war on success in this country and it is being led by the Democratic Party. They don't want you to own your own stuff. They don't want you own your own business. They don't want you to succeed. They don't want you to keep more of your own money. They believe that you are a worker bee for their socialist communist Marxist ideals. And AOC went all the way to the University of Chicago Institute of Politics to now make her case yet again.

[00:02:05]Well, communism is a dangerous ideology.

[00:02:08]It is one based on deception and and it's one based on ignorance. And and I'm very hardressed to find anyone who combines deception and ignorance in in more of a complete package than than AOC. uh she was at uh she was with David Axelrod at the Institute for Politics in Chicago and and one of the things she started off by saying is her understanding of the American Revolution and and and give a listen to to to what apparently according to AOC the American Revolution was all about. The American Revolution was against the billionaires of their time and we are declaring independence from such an extreme marriage of wealth and power and the state >> that I mean I I I clearly need a refund in high school and college senator because that's not what I was taught at all. By the way, I didn't know there was a whole lot of billionaires back in the revolution days, but apparently there were.

[00:03:04]>> Yeah. Look, if you wrote that answer on your ninth grade history exam, you would get an F because it is not only a little bit wrong, it is not only kind of slightly wrong, it is entirely 180 degrees opposite. What was the American Revolution fought against? It was fought against arbitrary government power. It was fought against King George. It was fought against government tyrants that tax you without representation. It was fought against the AOCC's of the world. The irony is literally she is an advocate of more and more government power. She wants to be able to tax the hell out of you. She wants to be able to regulate the hell out of you and she wants to ensure that you have no voice. You don't get to say anything. She is in charge. That's what it was fought against. But but here's why her her retelling is is is so both ignorant and dangerous which is do you know who funded the American Revolution?

[00:04:06]>> Who is that?

[00:04:07]>> That that would be effectively the billionaires of that time. There was a guy named Robert Morris. Robert Morris was the wealthiest man in America. He was a Philadelphia financier and he put virtually all of his wealth into the American Revolution. He ended up he died nearly bankrupt. Uh but >> wow he funded and he funded the American Revolution. You have other people uh you you have other people like George Washington. George Washington was one of the richest men alive. If you look at George Washington's wealth by the time he died, if you adjusted it for inflation, he had the equivalent in today's dollars of about $600 million.

[00:04:45]That's how wealthy George Washington was. Thomas Jefferson likewise was incredibly wealthy, a land owner in Virginia. It was we didn't have billionaires at the time. No one had accumulated a billion dollars. But but the richest people in America are the people who funded and supported the revolution against government power. And listen, like a little Marxist that she is, she takes that story and turns it on its head and says the revolution was against the American free enterprise that actually funded the revolution. And what they were fighting for was giving government more power. She is the King George in this story. And those sorts of lies. That is right at the heart. Look, there's a reason. The reason communists go and try to undermine the American Revolution. And it's the same reason, by the way, that say anti-semites go and try to undermine what happened in World War II and in particular cast out on the Holocaust be be because you go to foundational premises and and you turn them into bizarro land. You turn them upside down and and you end up with unfortunately some really confused young people who haven't learned history. And then she also had this to say. Let's just talk about billionaires in general.

[00:06:04]Look, part of the communist argument is nobody deserves to create any wealth.

[00:06:12]Government should be in charge of your wealth because you don't do anything to create the only thing that should be wealthy. You should be a minion.

[00:06:18]>> So, give a listen to what she says about today uh creating wealth and and whether it's possible for anyone to to to genu generate a billion dollars in in production and and society. There's a certain level of wealth and accumulation that is unearned, right? You can't earn a billion dollars.

[00:06:44]>> That's right.

[00:06:44]>> You just can't earn that.

[00:06:46]>> That's exactly correct.

[00:06:48]>> You can you can get market power. You can break rules. You can do all sorts of things. You can abuse labor laws. You can pay people less than what they're worth. But you can't earn that, right?

[00:07:03]And so you have to create a myth that since you didn't earn that, you have to create a myth of earning it.

[00:07:13]>> A myth, Senator, of earning it. That that's a whole new way of putting it.

[00:07:17]And by the way, I know some people that are billionaires.

[00:07:21]They earned it. They didn't they didn't break a rule. They didn't do any of the things she tried to describe. they actually created an amazing product or did something unbelievable or or created something out of thin air and and many times that turns into something that's massive and she's like no no no that's impossible. Well, there's a village somewhere that's missing its idiot. Uh what what she is saying there is bizarrely foolish and profoundly ideological. And of course the the left-wing interviewer there is, oh yes, that's right. That's exactly right. Oh, oh yes, yes, you're right. Now, to be clear, I have to acknowledge, you know, AOC has not earned a billion dollars. She was a bartender. Nothing wrong with being a bartender. Bartender is an honorable job to have, but she's right. If you're slinging drinks, you can't earn a billion dollars slinging drinks. That's true. Um, I mowed lawns as a teenager.

[00:08:16]Mowing lawns, I couldn't make a billion dollars mowing lawns. That there are a lot of jobs where you can't earn a billion dollars. Now, what does AOC do today? She's a member of Congress. She's right. You can't earn a billion dollars as a member of Congress unless you're like Nancy Pelosi, unless you're engaging in, say, insider trading. Set that aside.

[00:08:35]But let's actually look in history. All right. Who have the billionaires been?

[00:08:40]Uh let's look at the first billionaire uh in American history. That was John D.

[00:08:44]Rockefeller. What did John D.

[00:08:46]Rockefeller do? He discovered oil and he developed lowcost distribution for energy all across the country. produced enormous value transforming this nation, transforming the lives of millions of people. One of the other early billionaires, Henry Ford, invented the Model T, >> invented and and perfected the assembly line of production. What did that do? It literally brought about the American middle class. We went from a society where you had horses and carriages and even horses and carriages were limited to people who were wealthy to to within a generation having automobiles being widespread and being at a point where middle class families could afford an automobile. Now in AOC's telling Henry Ford did not generate a billion dollars worth of worth. I've got to say, bringing up the entreating effectively the American middle class, both the workers uh that worked for Henry Ford and worked in the auto industry that could go in and have honorable jobs and make make money and go and buy a home and and and raise their kids and have a a house with a backyard and a swing in the tree and and have a car parked in the driveway. I mean, that for most of history, for millennia, you lived with lords and surfs. You lived with monarchs and peasants, people that were scraping out subsistence living, trying to farm enough food on the ground, not not to feed lots of other people, just to feed themselves and their own kids and barely surviving. You had life expecties at the time that that our country began, life expecties. People were dying in their 30s. Um, >> yeah, >> you look at the benefit of a Henry Ford or or let's take Elon Musk. So according to AOC, you cannot earn a billion dollars. Well, how about inventing the Tesla, inventing and and putting in place the manufacturing capability of Tesla to be the world's dominant seller of electric vehicles to sell millions of electric vehicles. by the way, also developing the self-driving technology that now millions of people are are putting their cars on auto drive, transforming how we are living within relatively short order as we see more and more people moving to autonomous vehicles and self-driving.

[00:11:07]One of the benefits of that, every year there are about 40,000 people who are killed in car accidents.

[00:11:13]In within the next decade, we're going to see that number drop to nearly zero.

[00:11:19]is saving 40,000 lives >> just because the autonomous cars.

[00:11:22]>> Yes. Is saving 40,000 lives a year I I is that producing of a billion dollars of value. How about SpaceX? SpaceX launching, you know, going to South Texas, going to Bokeh Chica where six, seven years ago that that was an empty strip of sand on the beach down in South Texas. I've been there. Elon built an entire city there. Built an entire factory there that's manufacturing a rocket ship a month. Over 90% of the satellites around the world are SpaceX or Starlink satellites. By the way, Starlink producing connectivity all over the globe. You can be in the middle of the Amazon. You could be on a on a deserted uh mountain somewhere in the middle of nowhere and nonetheless have connectivity because Elon has put satellites all around the globe. And you want to talk about changing changing going to space where it used to be for the entire space race you launch a rocket and when you're done launching the rocket you throw the rocket away. It crashes into the ocean.

[00:12:28]It burns away in the atmosphere. It's never used again. Everyone knew that's the only way you can do it. Elon said, "Well, why why not reuse it?" And he developed the the the the technology >> that he launches a rocket, has it come down and giant arms, giant chopsticks, grab the spaceship and set it back down on the landing plate. That is crazy science fiction technology. And yet, for that sweet little communist, nothing Elon has done, has earned the money he has made. The beauty of the American free enterprise system, you can earn today billions of dollars and many people have done so. But the way you do it is by inventing a product people work. Inventing want inventing a a service and improving their lives. Look, people's lives were better >> because Henry Ford created the Model T and and created a system and manufacture it. and and communists like AOC would say, "We're going to crush those inventors. We're going to crush those entrepreneurs. We're going to move you to the kind of poverty that comes when the communist government is in charge, whether that is in Russia, whether that is in China, whether that is in Cuba, whether that is in North Korea." and and AOC I'm sure she doesn't know the facts but every place her system of government has been implemented communism the result is crushing poverty starvation suffering misery and and it's also in terms of human rights murder torture imprisonment and in China at least concentration camps that's literally what the left is arguing for and and they they don't know enough and they are not honest enough to admit it >> you know there's also something else she said and she decided it was a good time to play the race card and talk about race and wealth. I want to I want to play for for you what she said and then and get your reaction. Take a listen.

[00:14:20]>> There are very few like real archetypes of in my opinion truly what America is all about. I think about the civil rights and voting rights movement and how black Americans really created democracy in this country.

[00:14:40]>> That's exactly right. how they literally made something from nothing. It is just beyond me. I think about how like native people have survived and preserved and and treasured uh their culture.

[00:15:06]I think about and I think many of us think about immigrants which if you aren't from one of those first two populations you are certainly from largely the third and so many of us like have our story of our parents our grandparents our great greatgrandparents and so on and so forth and um who like come and make something from nothing and I think that's a big part of also the most inspiring elements of what America is all about.

[00:15:42]>> That's her definition of what inspiring America is all about. God help us.

[00:15:46]>> Well, look, I I will say the the actually third point she made, I I agreed with her when she talked about the immigrant story that so many millions of Americans have. But it's interesting what she described. She said so many people, whether us, our parents or grandparents, who came to America and made something from nothing. That's actually right. and she screwed up and actually told the American free enterprise story like accidentally. I'm sure she didn't actually listen to the word she was saying, but look, when my dad came from Cuba in 1957 with $100 in his underwear, he came to America because as as AOC accurately put it there, you could make something from nothing. Freedom was possible. You you could live. Your success didn't depend on who your parents were, who your grandparents are. if if you had talent and hard work and a vision, you could succeed. It's why millions of people come to this country. But you look at the first half of what she said, it it was like she was at a faculty lounge and just sort of signaling out all of the oppressed people because it's it's intersectionality. It's there's a whole spectrum. I I was really waiting for her to talk about like like like a a lesbian Hamas terrorist in a wheelchair like like how could you find e every element of oppression. So she says she says well indigenous people that that there she just sort of emotes in their direction.

[00:17:09]She doesn't actually say >> anything just check the it's check the box.

[00:17:12]>> She's just like oh you know we're on stolen land. Mind you she's not proposing giving Manhattan back. She just is like, "Stlen land, stolen land, America illegitimate." But look, the comment she makes at the beginning, which which is truly it's just ludicrous. She says, "Black Americans created democracy in America." Now, listen, I think much of the journey of America has been a journey towards equality, a journey towards justice, and and I agree with her. The civil rights movement in America was pivotal. But the idea that democracy was created in America by black Americans is just wildly ahistorical. Where did democracy come from? Well, number one, we don't have a pure democracy. A pure democracy, an Athenian democracy would be say all the people get together and vote on the ultimate policy. So you get together and say what should the law be? Should the top tax rate be 10%, 20%, 30% or 90%?

[00:18:08]Everyone votes and whatever wins that's what it is. That's a pure democracy. We don't have that. we have a republic, we have representative democracy. But her claim that black Americans created democracy in America. No, there were actually two processes that created democracy in America. Number one, what we are celebrating in July of this year, >> the Declaration of Independence that that was the birthday of our nation. and and and it was Thomas Jefferson who penned the immortal words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalenable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." That declaration, by the way, declaring our independence not from billionaires, but from oppressive government, from King George, that was the beginning of our nation.

[00:18:58]And then some 20 years later, the United States Constitution which created our democracy. I mean, if you want to look at the moment that our democracy was created, it was the delegates in Constitution Hall in Philadelphia who drafted the Constitution, who set up our system of government and then the states that had to ratify it. And once it was ratified, it went into effect. That is what has created our democracy. Now if she were speaking precisely what she could have said is when our democracy was created it was imperfect and we had to travel a journey to move towards greater equality. That statement is unequivocally right. It is true.

[00:19:39]>> Yeah. Accurate.

[00:19:40]>> When our nation was created African-Americans in half the country were slaves. They had no right to vote.

[00:19:47]Women had no right to vote. On the question of slavery, I've said many times, slavery is the original sin of America. It was a grotesque evil. Uh I will point out though that how did we abolish slavery? Look, we abolished slavery. Number one, the person who did it was Abraham Lincoln, the very first Republican president. Our party was created in order to defeat slavery. That was the purpose. That's the origin of the Republican party. The Democrat party, by the way, virtually its entire tenure defended sla slavery and fought ferociously in favor of slavery. But the way the abolitionists in the Republican party successfully abolished slavery was not by attacking our founding principles, not by attacking the constitution, not by attacking the de declaration, but rather by appealing to those principles, by saying we are not living up. When Jefferson wrote the words, "All men are created equal," that statement is on its face completely incompatible with slavery, Jefferson knew that. Yeah. He was brilliant. Yeah.

[00:20:52]>> And he was putting into place I I believe with I I I agree with Dr. Martin Luther King >> who who said the arc of history is long, >> but it bends towards justice. But AOC, and this is true with with the squad and with all of the communists on the left, they're so ignorant that everything I just said there, they don't know.

[00:21:15]They're told that the American Revolution was a communist revolution against the billionaires, that the answer is more government power. And and they repeat things like, "Black Americans gave us democracy," which is just simply not accurate. The Civil Rights Movement was one of the greatest Democratic movements in in our nation's history. By the way, she points to the Civil Rights Act. Look, Civil Rights Act. Far more Republicans, a much greater percentage of Republicans in Congress voted for the Civil Rights Act than Democrats. Her party opposed the Civil Rights Act, the majority of them.

[00:21:49]And so, yes, we're on a journey, but the left, their ignorance, it it it is a close battle.

[00:21:58]Which predominates? Ideology or ignorance? But they're both intertwined and they're both fundamentally wrong.

[00:22:04]>> Yeah. She And by the way, AOC was not done there. She also uh had another pretty interesting line. She made it very clear uh that she wanted to say something about illegal immigrants and saying through fear-mongering that once they're all deported, they're going to come after other groups. Referring to Republicans, take a listen to this.

[00:22:23]>> All of a sudden, we now have a paramilitary force.

[00:22:28]We don't have a court system, right?

[00:22:30]They don't need they they don't think they need judicial warrants. So, you don't get due process. So, you start creating this blackbox system.

[00:22:38]>> That's right.

[00:22:40]point a finger, whether it's like again like we saw in Jim Crow, whether you just point a finger and a 100 years ago accuse a little black boy of something, you can point a finger and accuse someone of that today. If you think when once you build that machine that it's only going to be reserved to that, >> that's right.

[00:23:03]>> This eats profit.

[00:23:06]these things.

[00:23:08]ICE, it's not just ICE, it's Core Civic, it's Geog Group. These those are corporations that run >> ice detention centers. That's right.

[00:23:19]>> They are forprofit. They are traded >> on Wall Street.

[00:23:24]And what happens, >> oh my god, >> is that those companies and this system is that it does not accept anything but growth.

[00:23:36]It's not even good enough to be profitable.

[00:23:39]It's not even good enough to be profitable. You have to be more profitable and more profitable and more profitable. It's not enough to be a profitable business. You have to keep growing those profits. And so once they've rounded up every person in this country, who do you think is next?

[00:23:54]>> You know, look, that that is the both the classic ignorance and misinformation of the left. So, so they understand AOC supports a open border. So she wants to abolish the police. She wants to abolish ICE. She opposes all law enforcement that actually secures our border against foreign invaders, against illegal immigrants, against violent murderers, rapists, uh child molesters, and gangbangers. And her position has consistently been let all of them out of jail. But at the same time, she wants to tell her her very ill-informed supporters, if there are detention centers that are used for illegal immigrants, that are used for violent criminals, those will be used by government against you. And and part of what is really astonishing is is if you look throughout history, uh in almost every instance where there have been mass detention centers, it's been the left that has put them in place. You look at at at whether it is the Soviet gulags where communists imprisoned millions. You look at Joseph Stalin, you know, you you read Solenich and uh the Gulag archipelago and talks about the incredible miseries of communism imprisoning millions in prisons. You look at my father's home country of Cuba and the prisons that are there right now. You look at North Korea.

[00:25:17]>> Cuba is communist. Soviet Union was communist. North Korea is communist. You you you you have goologs there. You look at China. China today has over a million weaguers who are religious minorities who are in concentration camps. It's the largest instance of human slavery on the face of the planet. That is communist China. And by the way, you you you you look at World War II, the Nazis. So leftists like to paint the Nazis as right, but let's be clear, Nazis were national socialists. That was their policy. That's what Nazi stands for is national socialist. The economic policy >> of the left is what the Nazis believed in government control. And I do want to be clear, it's not just historical leftist who who have imposed concentration camps. Let me be very clear. I think slavery is wrong.

[00:26:09]Concentration camps are wrong. Detention camps. By the way, in the United States, which president created detention camps and detained American citizens? I'm going to go with it was a Democrat is I just want to be clear about this.

[00:26:21]>> Uh it is a Democrat. It was FDR who set up internment camps for Japanese Americans who were American citizens and interned thousands of them, forcibly detained them during World War II. That was a Democrat. By the way, she talks about Jim Crow. She probably doesn't know this, but do you know who wrote the Jim Crow laws? That would be Democrats.

[00:26:42]Do you know who funded who who funded and founded the KKK? That would be Democrats.

[00:26:48]and and and and I want to read to give you something recent in 2020.

[00:26:55]There was an Iowa based field organizer for Bernie Sanders's campaign who was caught on tape discussing the need for quote re-education camps for people who did not support Bernie Sanders, particularly for Trump supporters. So, so AOC, it is her side that has advocated we're going to put the people we disagree with in camps.

[00:27:21]>> In in some level, that's not shocking because the left has always been willing. If you support government power, you are willing to use that government power to lock up everyone who disagrees with you. And there's something fundamentally different between locking up a violent criminal, locking up someone who has violated the law. That is protecting the community.

[00:27:42]That's protecting our citizens. That is upholding the rule of law. There's something fundamentally different between that and rounding up and locking up lawful citizens. And in history, virtually the only people to have done so have been leftists, have been communists like AOC. And yet, look, I do think she studied Solinsk's rules for radicals. She starts and throughout accuses her opponents of doing that which she would do.

[00:28:13]>> And look, the these interviews, truth matters. And let me let me say this as a final point. This is a big part of the reason we do these podcasts is to actually engage and give you the substance because if if someone is a young person and they're listening to AOC and they're like, "Oh, oh yeah, the American Revolution fought to overcome the billionaires. We got to stop those billionaires. This podcast is here to give you the facts and information to push back on on that dishonest and and ignorant indoctrination. Yeah, no doubt.

[00:28:47]Don't forget, we do this show three days a week. So, make sure you share it wherever you can right now so other people see it. Write us a fivestar review as well and hit that download or auto subscribe button. It's always free and you will not miss an episode. Plus, we do the show on YouTube as well if you want to watch it there. and the Senate and I will see you back here on Wednesday morning.