logo
CNN panelist scolded best friend's wife at dinner for being illegal immigrant: ‘Sorry you decided to break the law'

CNN panelist scolded best friend's wife at dinner for being illegal immigrant: ‘Sorry you decided to break the law'

Independent20-06-2025
A guest panellist on CNN has made the astonishing revelation that he recently scolded the wife of his best friend at a dinner party for entering the U.S. illegally, telling her: 'I am sorry that you decided to break the law.'
Conservative radio host Ben Ferguson was appearing on the network's NewsNight discussion show, moderated by host Abby Phillip, on Thursday night when he was challenged by fellow contributor Van Jones on whether he knew any undocumented migrants as they discussed ICE raids across the country.
'I know you very well and I know for sure, if you knew the people that we're talking about, you would be standing with us,' Jones said to Ferguson.
That's when Ferguson dropped his bombshell.
'One of my best friends married an illegal immigrant. We had this conversation at dinner and I said to her, 'I am sorry that you decided to break the law.'
'There are a lot of Americans that break laws and they go to jail and there's a consequence for your actions,' he said.
A shocked Phillip interjected to ask him to clarify: 'Hold on, Ben. So you said that you have a friend whose wife is an illegal immigrant and you said to that person, to her…'
'I had them on my show. I had them literally on my show because it's an important conversation to have,' Ferguson explained, referring to the podcast he co-hosts with Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
'You said to her, 'You need to be deported'?' Phillip asked.
'I said the same thing that my dad said to me if I ever got arrested: 'Don't expect me to bail you out, you're accountable for your actions,'' he answered.
'And what I said to her was this, 'I think you're an incredible human being. I love that you have this love with your family and friends. It doesn't erase, your kindness or your love, the fact that you broke the law.''
Asked, 'Did you call ICE on her?,' he responded: 'I'm not gonna call ICE on someone.'
'They had already had an interaction with the law. They were already going through the process.'
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

ALEX BRUMMER: Bank under populist siege
ALEX BRUMMER: Bank under populist siege

Daily Mail​

timea minute ago

  • Daily Mail​

ALEX BRUMMER: Bank under populist siege

Running in parallel with Donald Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariff horror has been the President's furious and uncouth attacks on America's independent central bank. Trump makes little secret of his contempt for current chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jay Powell, even though he nominated him for the job in his first term. Powell has refused to be a White House cipher, standing firm against Trump's unrelenting campaign to cut the US's key federal funds interest rate from the current 4.25 per cent to 4.5 per cent range. The Fed chairman's obduracy remains intact despite last week's dissent by two Trumpian choices as Fed interest rate-setters. Events across the Atlantic appear to have little relevance to the UK, where Chancellor Rachel Reeves started her illustrious rise to the nation's top economic post at the Bank of England. Governor Andrew Bailey is a friend, even though the Chancellor and Governor are currently at odds over lifting the burden of City regulation. A more important clash between the Bank and the Government is on the horizon. Bailey is known to be dismissive of the short-lived administration of Liz Truss. In her memoir, Truss was unforgiving of the role that she claims Bailey played in her downfall. Dangerously for the Bank, critics on the Left and the Right are targeting its credibility and independence. The Leftist New Economics Foundation has consistently campaigned against the Bank's approach to 'quantitative tightening'. This process involves running down the £895billion of gilt holdings the Bank acquired between 2009 and 2021 as it injected cash into the banking system with the aim of averting recession and calming markets. The Treasury agreed to indemnify the Bank against losses at a potential cost of £130billion over the current decade. The UK approach is seen as meeting standards of fiscal probity but imposes an extraordinary burden on public finances at a time when the debt to national output (GDP) ratio is close to 100 per cent. The Fed, in contrast to the UK, decided to continue to hold Treasuries (the equivalent of gilts), bought in the post-financial crisis era, on its books and hold them to maturity. So there are no paper losses. Neil Collins (a former colleague) pointed to the daftness of Bank policy in a recent letter to The Spectator magazine. He noted that in May 2020 the Bank bought a long-gilt, dated 2061, for £101. It recently sold the very same stock at a price as low as £28! Few people pay much attention to 'Reform-onomics', even though Nigel Farage leads in the opinion polls. The main criticism of Reform is that the party's big-spending, populist policies are costly and could trigger a fresh Truss-like crisis. Less debated is the dispute between Reform apparatchik Richard Tice MP and Bailey over monetary policy. Tice suggests that the Bank's approach to quantitative tightening has enriched high street banks and is costing the taxpayer money. But Bailey points out the Bank booked an earlier £124billion profit on its gilt purchases and, for the moment, the Government is £34billion up. Details of the dispute are obscure. The more sinister point for Threadneedle Street is that Tice and Reform see Bank independence as potentially a soft target. Echoes of Donald Trump's attacks on the Fed can be heard loudly.

Trump administration denies daily quota for immigration arrests
Trump administration denies daily quota for immigration arrests

The Guardian

time31 minutes ago

  • The Guardian

Trump administration denies daily quota for immigration arrests

In a new court filing, attorneys for the Trump administration denied the existence of a daily quota for immigration arrests, despite reports and prior statements from White House officials about pursuing a goal of at least 3,000 deportations or deportation arrests per day. In May, reports from both the Guardian and Axios revealed that during a meeting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) leaders on 21 May, the White House adviser Stephen Miller and the Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, demanded that immigration agents seek to arrest 3,000 people per day. Following that report, Miller appeared on Fox News in late May and stated that 'under President Trump's leadership, we are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for Ice every day.' He added that Trump 'is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every day'. However, in a court filing on Friday, lawyers representing the US justice department said that the Department of Homeland Security had confirmed that 'neither Ice leadership nor its field offices have been directed to meet any numerical quota or target for arrests, detentions, removals, field encounters, or any other operational activities that Ice or its components undertake in the course of enforcing federal immigration law.' The filing is part of an ongoing lawsuit in southern California, where immigrant advocacy groups have sued the Trump administration, accusing it of conducting unconstitutional immigration sweeps in the Los Angeles area. In mid-July a judge issued a temporary restraining order barring immigration agents from detaining individuals based on factors such as race, occupation or speaking Spanish anywhere in the central district of California, which includes Los Angeles. On Friday, an appeals court upheld that order. Politico reported that during a hearing earlier this week in the case, the justice department lawyers were pressed on the reports regarding the alleged arrest quota, and a judge reportedly asked whether it was a 'policy of the administration at this time to deport 3,000 persons per day?'. An attorney for the justice department, Yaakov Roth, reportedly responded 'Not to my knowledge, your honor' per Politico. And in the government's filing on Friday, the attorneys for the government said that the allegations of that the 'government maintains a policy mandating 3,000 arrests per day appears to originate from media reports quoting a White House advisor who described that figure as a 'goal' that the Administration was 'looking to set''. 'That quotation may have been accurate, but no such goal has been set as a matter of policy and no such directive has been issued to or by DHS or ICE' the attorneys added. The discrepancy was first reported by the Los Angeles Daily News and Politico. Neither DHS or Ice immediately responded to a request fro comment from the Guardian. In a statement to Politico, a White House spokesperson did not directly respond to questions about the discrepancy, but said that 'the Trump Administration is committed to carrying out the largest mass deportation operation in history by enforcing federal immigration law and removing the countless violent, criminal illegal aliens that Joe Biden let flood into American communities.' A justice department spokesperson told the outlet that there is no disconnect between the DoJ's court filings and the White House's public statements. The spokesperson added that 'the entire Trump administration is united in fully enforcing our nation's immigration laws and the DoJ continues to play an important role in vigorously defending the president's deportation agenda in court.' At various points during his 2024 election campaign, Trump claimed that he would target between 15 and 20 million people who are undocumented in the US for deportation. As of 2022, there were 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the US.

White House boasts about Trump's golf score – days after he was accused of cheating on his own course
White House boasts about Trump's golf score – days after he was accused of cheating on his own course

The Independent

timean hour ago

  • The Independent

White House boasts about Trump's golf score – days after he was accused of cheating on his own course

The White House on Saturday posted President Donald Trump 's winning golf score from a tournament at his New Jersey golf club, boasting about his win just days after he was accused of cheating on another course. 'Winning on and off the course,' the official White House Instagram page wrote, showing the final score card from the 2025 Men's Senior Club Championship tournament at Trump National in Bedminster. At the top of the card was Trump's gross score of 69 – representing the number of golf strokes the president took on each hole in the tournament. Adjusted with his handicap, the numerical measure of how well a person golfs by either adding or deducting strokes from the gross score, Trump's net score was 67. The score means the president has a handicap of around 2, which is considered very impressive for a non-professional golfer. But a number of commenters on the Instagram post did not appear excited about the president's score, many joking that just last week, reports accused Trump of cheating on his golf course in Scotland. 'Yo we saw the video from Scotland last week, he just throws the ball where he wants it and makes up a score,' one commenter wrote. 'I mean yeah, I'd win too if my caddy was dropping balls on the course for me,' another Instagram user wrote on the post. While on a trip to Scotland in July, a widely-circulated video of the president golfing at his course in Turnberry appeared to insinuate that Trump cheats at his beloved game. The president's caddy appeared to drop Trump's ball closer to the fairway – which some interpreted as a violation of the rules of golf, which generally says to play the ball where it lies. Allegations that Trump cheats at golf date back to before his first term. Some have accused him of using his caddies or Secret Service detail to move his ball. Others claim the president himself has kicked his ball to make it easier to hit. Trump has always denied the allegations. The cheating allegations have been so rampant that one sports writer, Rick Reilly, even wrote an entire book on it, titled Commander in Cheat. In response to the president's recent win, Reilly wrote on X, 'The 4 guys in Trump's group finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th. Trump has a magic pencil. #CommanderInCheat' However, some professionals who have played alongside the president say he is actually quite a good golfer. Jack Nicklaus, a hall-of-fame golfer, said in 2020 that Trump plays 'pretty well.' Tom Watson, a former professional golfer, said in 2017 that the president was a good hitter and 'can really get the ball out there.' Trump is passionate about golf; he famously played often during his first term in office and continues to play often now. According to a website that tracks the number of golf trips the president takes, he's golfed approximately 49 out of the 196 days he's been in office. Earlier this year, Trump said he won the golf club championship at his golf club in Palm Beach, Florida, as well.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store