BONUS: On the Ground with President Bukele in El Salvador plus Cracker Barrel Surrenders
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
iHeartPodcasts
4.3 • 11.1K Ratings
🗓️ 28 August 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this bonus episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz:
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Cruz’s Visit to El Salvador
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Cruz is in El Salvador meeting with President Nayib Bukele, government officials, U.S. military, and embassy staff.
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He describes dramatic changes in safety under Bukele’s leadership—highlighting the crackdown on gangs, mass arrests of MS-13 members, and construction of a mega-prison.
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Cruz emphasizes the murder rate dropping from the highest in the world (100 per 100,000 in 2015) to 1.9 per 100,000 in 2024, a 98% decrease.
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He contrasts Bukele’s tough-on-crime approach with U.S. cities that, in his view, are paralyzed by progressive policies.
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Cruz stresses that security improvements are also prompting reverse migration: Salvadorans in the U.S. are reportedly returning home.
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MS-13 and U.S. Politics
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They discuss Kamar Abrego Garcia, an MS-13 member from Maryland involved in human trafficking and domestic abuse, who is facing deportation.
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Cruz criticizes Democrats, particularly Senator Chris Van Hollen, for being sympathetic to such individuals instead of supporting law and order.
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This segment is framed as an example of Democrats prioritizing criminals over public safety.
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Cracker Barrel & “Go Woke, Go Broke”
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Cruz and Ferguson mock Cracker Barrel’s recent rebranding decisions, claiming the company abandoned its traditional customer base for “woke” marketing strategies.
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They compare the backlash to similar situations with Bud Light and Target, noting plummeting stock prices and customer revolt.
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Cruz highlights investor warnings that leadership ignored, framing the reversal as a victory for conservative consumer pushback.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:05.2 | Welcome. It is Vertiquist Center, Ted Cruz. Ben Ferguson with you. |
| 0:09.7 | Usually I'm the one that's out of town far, far away. |
| 0:13.4 | Tonight, as we do this show, you're in another country center, and you're on a codel through Latin America. |
| 0:21.4 | Well, that's exactly right. As you and I are talking, it is late Tuesday night, and I am in El Salvador. |
| 0:27.6 | I've spent the entire day in El Salvador meeting with senior government officials, |
| 0:31.4 | meeting with the president of El Salvador. I'm going to walk you through exactly what I heard, |
| 0:36.1 | what I saw, what is happening on the ground. |
| 0:39.0 | We're also going to talk about you're and my favorite Maryland man, the MS-13 gangbanger, |
| 0:44.9 | who the Democrats have decided to make the poster child for their entire party. |
| 0:49.3 | And he has once again been arrested by ICE and is facing deportation. |
| 0:53.5 | We're going to lay out the facts of what's |
| 0:54.7 | happening there. And finally, Cracker Barrel. Cracker Barrel after deciding they hate their |
| 0:59.9 | customers after deciding they hate everything their company was founded upon. They utterly and |
| 1:05.1 | completely surrendered. They threw in the cracker. They threw in the barrel. We're going to break |
| 1:09.9 | down the absolute mess that was behind that. 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. We've got a new time on it. It wasn't just over the last week and a half. |
| 1:33.2 | All right, let's talk real quick about how you start your morning. Have you ever started your morning with a perfect cup of small batch coffee? Now, small batch coffee is different. It is roasted to |
| 1:42.2 | perfection in small batches on purpose by experts who love the taste |
| 1:47.1 | of great coffee. If you've never tried it, you need to try Crockett coffee. Now, Crockett coffee is |
| 1:55.0 | amazing. I drink it now every morning. I get to start my morning off with the best cup of coffee |
| 2:00.8 | I've ever had. |
| 2:02.1 | And I want to save you money to try it because once you do, you're going to love it. |
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