Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Cornyn Crushed, Grassroots Paxton Wins plus Beware of Likable Jim Talarico, the Liberal RADICAL 'Moderate?'

Transcript

Cornyn Crushed, Grassroots Paxton Wins plus Beware of Likable Jim Talarico, the Liberal RADICAL 'Moderate?' · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: It was a big election knife in Texas and Trump
0:03
Speaker 1: bat Ken Paxon defeated a twenty four year incumbent in
0:07
Speaker 1: John Cornyn. So how did this happen? We're going to
0:10
Speaker 1: dive into that. We're also going to talk about Tallerico.
0:14
Speaker 1: You may not know just how radical the Democrats can
0:17
Speaker 1: it really is. They've dressed him up to be this
0:20
Speaker 1: moderate guy that you should just fall in love with
0:23
Speaker 1: because he's a pastor, but what does he actually believe in? Well,
0:27
Speaker 1: Senator Cruz and I we were together on election night
0:30
Speaker 1: and we decided we'd break it all down for you.
0:33
Speaker 1: It is the Ben Ferguson Show, and here's our conversation.
0:37
Speaker 2: So, Centater, this is one of those that is a.
0:39
Speaker 1: Very interesting case study in Traditionally, if you are an establishment,
0:46
Speaker 1: if you are an incumbent, you have a massive advantage.
0:50
Speaker 1: You have a lot of fundraising that comes in, you
0:52
Speaker 1: got a lot of Washington money that comes in, you
0:54
Speaker 1: have special interest money like you got a lot of
0:56
Speaker 1: advantages and usually a bigger microphone. What we have learned
1:00
Speaker 1: so far through this whole process around the country is
1:03
Speaker 1: just because you have that if Donald Trump decides that
1:06
Speaker 1: he wants to go against you and wants to back
1:09
Speaker 1: another America First, Kennedy he believes will serve the interest
1:13
Speaker 1: of his agenda better. You could be in serious trouble.
1:16
Speaker 1: We watched it happen in Louisiana. We've now seen it
1:19
Speaker 1: happen in Texas.
1:20
Speaker 3: Well. I think that's right. There was an awful lot
1:22
Speaker 3: going on in this race. Let's let's start off just
1:24
Speaker 3: with the results. So we're sitting here, it's right now
1:27
Speaker 3: eleven forty three pm Tuesday night, Election night, and as
1:32
Speaker 3: of right now, this is with ninety two percent of
1:34
Speaker 3: the results in Ken Paxton is getting sixty four percent
1:38
Speaker 3: of the vote. John Cornan is getting thirty six percent.
1:41
Speaker 3: So that is as of right now, eight hundred and
1:44
Speaker 3: fifty eight, five hundred and forty seven votes for Ken Paxson,
1:47
Speaker 3: oh just bumped up eight hundred and sixty two, one
1:50
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty votes for Ken Paxton to four hundred
1:53
Speaker 3: and eighty four thousand, six hundred and twenty five for
1:56
Speaker 3: John Cornyan. So that is nearly a thirty point victory,
1:59
Speaker 3: a twenty eight point victory. We'll see what the final
2:01
Speaker 3: numbers are when all the votes are tallied, but that
2:05
Speaker 3: is a massive win. And yeah, that represents it.
2:08
Speaker 1: That's a blood bath for any incumbent. I don't care
2:11
Speaker 1: if you're a Republican or Democrat. And that's how the
2:13
Speaker 1: media is treating it.
2:14
Speaker 3: As well well. And it represents a sea change. So
2:18
Speaker 3: John Cornyn has been in the Senate for twenty four years.
2:22
Speaker 3: He has been an institution in the Senate. He was
2:25
Speaker 3: the majority Whip of the Senate, so he was the
2:27
Speaker 3: number two elected Republican in the Senate. He served that
2:31
Speaker 3: position for six years. John Cornyn ran for Majority leader
2:36
Speaker 3: when we took the majority. When Mitch McConnell stepped down
2:39
Speaker 3: as Majority Leader, John Cornyn ran against John Thune and
2:45
Speaker 3: it was a close election. John Cordyan obviously did not prevail,
2:48
Speaker 3: but it was a vote that was decided by just
2:50
Speaker 3: a couple of votes. And so John Cornyn in a
2:54
Speaker 3: different universe would have been the majority leader of the
2:59
Speaker 3: United States Senate right now. Uh And and instead he
3:02
Speaker 3: has faced an election where he lost by by twenty
3:06
Speaker 3: eight points. Uh. Now, there were a number of factors
3:10
Speaker 3: that play there. And I will say Donald Trump endorsed
3:13
Speaker 3: and endorsed late and and there's no doubt it had
3:17
Speaker 3: a very significant impact that that being said, Uh, most
3:21
Speaker 3: of the polling that that was in this race, even
3:24
Speaker 3: before the Trump endorsement, showed that Paxton was going to
3:27
Speaker 3: win and was likely to win with a sizeable victory.
3:30
Speaker 3: And so I think the Trump endorsement certainly grew that
3:33
Speaker 3: margin of victory and and and made it the dramatic,
3:37
Speaker 3: the nearly thirty point victory that it was. Uh. But
3:40
Speaker 3: I think one of the factors that that caused President
3:43
Speaker 3: Trump to endorse is he was looking at the same
3:45
Speaker 3: polling everyone else was looking at that showed showed Paxton
3:49
Speaker 3: with it with a significant lead in the race to
3:51
Speaker 3: begin with. Uh. There are a lot of reasons for this,
3:54
Speaker 3: but but in many ways, this race played out as
3:57
Speaker 3: a traditional UH, conservative versus establishment primary, and that's a primary.
4:04
Speaker 3: I know a lot about my race fourteen years ago
4:07
Speaker 3: when I was elected to the Senate was very much
4:10
Speaker 3: the same dynamic where I was running against David Dewhurst.
4:14
Speaker 3: He was the city lieutenant governor, he had universal name ID,
4:19
Speaker 3: he had over two hundred million dollars, so he wrote
4:22
Speaker 3: a thirty five million dollar check to his own campaign.
4:27
Speaker 3: And I'd never been elected to nothing like literally the
4:31
Speaker 3: last thing I was elected to was student council, so
4:34
Speaker 3: I was at two percent in the polls.
4:36
Speaker 1: I was ahead of you technically because I did win
4:38
Speaker 1: like I think, class president freshman year in college. So
4:41
Speaker 1: I even had more credencs than you did at that moment.
4:43
Speaker 1: I just want to make sure that the audience understands
4:46
Speaker 1: that right.
4:46
Speaker 3: Now, it was an impossible race. And yet what we
4:50
Speaker 3: saw when I was elected in twenty twelve is we
4:53
Speaker 3: saw the conservative grassroots come together and we ended up
4:58
Speaker 3: going from two percent in the polls to winning by
5:01
Speaker 3: double digits in the primary and winning by double digits.
5:03
Speaker 3: We won the primary by fourteen points, and we won
5:07
Speaker 3: the general by sixteen points, and so it was an
5:09
Speaker 3: amazing victory of the conservative grassroots against the person everyone
5:15
Speaker 3: thought was the unbeatable front runner. This Cornn Paxton race
5:19
Speaker 3: had had similar dynamics. The money in this race was massive,
5:24
Speaker 3: So this is now shattered records. Yeah, for the single
5:28
Speaker 3: most expensive Senate race in American history in a primary.
5:32
Speaker 1: In this race, I mean we're just talking more than
5:34
Speaker 1: usually spent a general election by a lot.
5:37
Speaker 3: So just in phase one of the primary, over one
5:40
Speaker 3: hundred million dollars was spent. I think when you tally
5:44
Speaker 3: the runoff, it will end up being well north of
5:46
Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty million dollars spent in this primary,
5:49
Speaker 3: and the overwhelming that ninety plus percent of that was
5:53
Speaker 3: spent supporting John Cornyn. So Paxton spent relatively little money
5:59
Speaker 3: and and won by an overwhelming margin. Now, one of
6:03
Speaker 3: the consequences of this is is the Democrats, Uh, they
6:08
Speaker 3: are looking to attack Ken Paxton. He is a conservative Ken.
6:11
Speaker 3: Both Ken and John are friends. I've served with John
6:14
Speaker 3: Cornyon fourteen years. He and I are very different senators,
6:18
Speaker 3: but we've worked well together and and and we've worked
6:21
Speaker 3: in a cooperative and collegial way. That's that's that's part
6:24
Speaker 3: of how you represent your state. And and at the
6:29
Speaker 3: same time, Ken Paxson has been been a friend of
6:31
Speaker 3: mine for a long time. Both Paxon and corn And
6:34
Speaker 3: I've supported previously. I've campaigned with them previously, have campaigned
6:37
Speaker 3: for them previously. Uh. Paxton, objectively, I believe has been
6:44
Speaker 3: the most conservative state attorney general in the country. Is
6:47
Speaker 3: a strong record as a conservative state ag and that
6:50
Speaker 3: was a big part of why he prevailed, and and
6:55
Speaker 3: and that was driving his momentum. Long before President Trump
6:59
Speaker 3: made his endorse horsemen. That being said, there are a
7:02
Speaker 3: lot of nasty personal attacks that have been leveled at
7:05
Speaker 3: Ken Paxton, and the odds are precisely one hundred point
7:10
Speaker 3: zero percent that we will see millions and millions of
7:15
Speaker 3: dollars of attack ads in the general election, bringing up
7:19
Speaker 3: every one of those personal attacks and going after him viciously.
7:24
Speaker 3: The Democrats are not gonna play nice because they see
7:27
Speaker 3: a chance. The Democrats believe they have a chance to
7:30
Speaker 3: win the general and I got a message to Republicans
7:34
Speaker 3: in Texas and nationwide, do not take this general election
7:38
Speaker 3: for granted.
7:39
Speaker 2: It aim into that.
7:41
Speaker 3: It is easy to say it's Texas, it's red, We're
7:43
Speaker 3: gonna win, and I believe we are gonna win. But
7:46
Speaker 3: I also think the Democrat nominee, James Tallerico, is a
7:50
Speaker 3: dangerous candidate.
7:53
Speaker 1: Before we get to Before we get to James, I
7:55
Speaker 1: want to just go back and let people understand the
7:57
Speaker 1: basis for why you have that warning. You have been
8:02
Speaker 1: in the same position in many ways that Kin's walking into.
8:06
Speaker 1: You have a Democratic party that is very energized. You
8:09
Speaker 1: have a Democratic party that is well funded. You have
8:12
Speaker 1: a Democratic party that sends massive amounts of cash into
8:15
Speaker 1: Texas against a conservative and you were the number one
8:21
Speaker 1: target maybe.
8:22
Speaker 2: Twice in your career.
8:24
Speaker 1: I think it may be fair to say by Democrats
8:27
Speaker 1: wanting to get rid of you, and the majority of
8:30
Speaker 1: the money coming into that race was from outside interest
8:33
Speaker 1: groups outside the state. Massive amounts of money come from
8:35
Speaker 1: place like California and New York. And the reason why
8:38
Speaker 1: you said you're warning the way that you just said
8:41
Speaker 1: it is because they do get better at this over time,
8:45
Speaker 1: not worse, said it. They start to realize where they
8:47
Speaker 1: messed up, where they may be spent money shouldn't have spent,
8:49
Speaker 1: and they get smarter and smarter. That's part of the
8:52
Speaker 1: reason why you're saying this warning, not just in Texas
8:54
Speaker 1: but around the country.
8:55
Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, I have been there before both of my reelects.
9:00
Speaker 3: I was Chuck Schumer's number one target in the country,
9:03
Speaker 3: and so they've thrown everything in the kitchen sink trying
9:06
Speaker 3: to take me out, and I've been there. They're getting
9:08
Speaker 3: ready to do that to Ken Paxton. And actually there
9:12
Speaker 3: is potentially a real analogy between twenty twenty six and
9:15
Speaker 3: twenty eighteen. Twenty eighteen was my first reelect. Yeah, twenty
9:19
Speaker 3: eighteen was two years after Donald Trump was first elected
9:22
Speaker 3: president in twenty eighteen, you had several things going on.
9:26
Speaker 3: Number one, the left was enraged. They hated Donald Trump,
9:31
Speaker 3: so they were energized and they showed up in massive,
9:36
Speaker 3: massive numbers in twenty eighteen. And also two years into
9:40
Speaker 3: the administration without Trump on the ticket, there was some
9:44
Speaker 3: complacency and so cross the country, Republican turnout was not
9:48
Speaker 3: nearly as high as it had been. And those two
9:50
Speaker 3: together are a dangerous combination. What did that mean in
9:53
Speaker 3: twenty eighteen? Let me let me give you just what
9:57
Speaker 3: we faced in that year. The Democrat more than doubled
10:03
Speaker 3: their turnout in Texas. They drove Democrat turnout from one
10:08
Speaker 3: point eight million all the way up to four million,
10:13
Speaker 3: more than two x. Now, my campaign, as you know,
10:18
Speaker 3: and you know my campaign team, well we're obsessively numbers
10:21
Speaker 3: and data driven. We saw all of that happening. We
10:24
Speaker 3: saw the surge and Democrat turnout, Democrats who had never
10:28
Speaker 3: shown up coming out to vote, and so we set
10:32
Speaker 3: out to drive up Republican turnout. I did a fifty
10:36
Speaker 3: stop bus tour across the state, spent six weeks barnstorming
10:41
Speaker 3: the state, spent a lot of time in rural Texas
10:43
Speaker 3: and deep East Texas, in West Texas, in the Panhandle,
10:46
Speaker 3: You've got conservative voters there who historically don't show up
10:50
Speaker 3: in midterms. They typically stay home. And I was ringing
10:53
Speaker 3: the bell saying, look, if you stay home, we will lose.
10:57
Speaker 3: The state of Texas.
11:01
Speaker 1: Was public by the way. I was around that campaign,
11:04
Speaker 1: and it was we were nervous. When, by the way,
11:07
Speaker 1: when did you actually feel good in that year about
11:09
Speaker 1: like having a victory that day? If I remember correctly,
11:13
Speaker 1: till the very end, there was not a lot of
11:15
Speaker 1: like swagger in the campaign, like, hey, we got this thing.
11:18
Speaker 3: Well, and there's a reason for that. So we drove
11:21
Speaker 3: Republican turnout from two point eight million all the way
11:25
Speaker 3: up to four point two million. Yeah, so I won
11:30
Speaker 3: by point two I won by two hundred thousand votes
11:33
Speaker 3: out of more than eight million votes cast statewide. The
11:37
Speaker 3: margin was two point six percent. And yeah, look, a
11:42
Speaker 3: lot of observers, I'll tell you the Beto O'Rourke campaign,
11:46
Speaker 3: I was running against Beto O'Rourke, and he was particularly
11:49
Speaker 3: the first time he ran, which was against me. He
11:51
Speaker 3: was a remarkable candidate, charismatic, became a national phenomenon. That
11:57
Speaker 3: twenty eighteen race at the time was the single most
11:59
Speaker 3: expense of senate race in US history. That's how much
12:02
Speaker 3: they wanted to take me out to give you a
12:05
Speaker 3: sense of the kind of financial mismatch, because I was
12:08
Speaker 3: outspent three to one in that race in the third
12:11
Speaker 3: quarter of twenty eighteen. I raised you to wine.
12:14
Speaker 1: By the way, when in politics, you don't usually win
12:17
Speaker 1: when you're down three to one. Just so people understand
12:20
Speaker 1: how much outside influence money came in.
12:24
Speaker 3: So let me give you a little bit of the math.
12:25
Speaker 3: Third quarter of twenty eighteen, I raised twelve million dollars
12:30
Speaker 3: in hard money people going to my website contributing money.
12:33
Speaker 3: That was, at the time the record for the most
12:37
Speaker 3: hard money any Senate candidate had raised in a single
12:40
Speaker 3: quarter in the history of the state of Texas. Wow,
12:43
Speaker 3: do you know. Do you know how long my record lasted?
12:46
Speaker 2: I'm going to guess like three seconds.
12:49
Speaker 3: Two hours. It took two hours, two hours.
12:51
Speaker 2: There we go.
12:52
Speaker 3: So so my record was twelve million. It was the most.
12:55
Speaker 3: The old record had been like eight or nine million,
12:57
Speaker 3: So I had beaten the old record by a decent margin.
13:00
Speaker 3: My record was twelve million. Two hours later, Beto O'Rourke
13:03
Speaker 3: reported his numbers. What do you think he raised that quarter?
13:06
Speaker 1: I see if I remember it was it like almost
13:08
Speaker 1: double what you had.
13:10
Speaker 3: No, it was thirty eight million. It was more than
13:13
Speaker 3: three x I had twelve. He had thirty eight in
13:16
Speaker 3: one quarter. That was the kind of dynamic we were facing.
13:20
Speaker 3: And I'm going to tell you the Beto campaign was
13:23
Speaker 3: shocked to lose. They believe they had won that race.
13:26
Speaker 3: They went into election night thinking they'd won. They had
13:29
Speaker 3: confetti cannons on the stage because they're looking at the
13:33
Speaker 3: numbers and they're saying, Okay, we've more than double turnout.
13:36
Speaker 3: Game over, like like if they.
13:39
Speaker 1: Had unlimited spending power against you, because the entire Democrat
13:42
Speaker 1: machine from DC to California was in to take you out.
13:46
Speaker 1: So if you've got unlimited funds and you double the turnout,
13:50
Speaker 1: in theory, you should absolutely win that race.
13:54
Speaker 3: So twenty twenty six has a lot in common with
13:56
Speaker 3: twenty eighteen. It's two years in to the beginning of
13:59
Speaker 3: another presidency. The left is highly energized. They're raising a
14:04
Speaker 3: ton of money. They hate Ken Paxton just like they
14:07
Speaker 3: hate me. They're gonna raise a mountain of money against him,
14:10
Speaker 3: and I guarantee you leftists are going to be energized
14:14
Speaker 3: and show up to vote, and the challenge is much
14:16
Speaker 3: the same as twenty eighteen. I called Kendnight, I congratulated him.
14:20
Speaker 3: He was obviously very happy, and I said, listen, I'm
14:23
Speaker 3: all in. You have you have my total support. I'm
14:26
Speaker 3: going to do everything I can to help you, to
14:28
Speaker 3: help you raise money, to help you turn people out,
14:30
Speaker 3: to help you with the grassroots. We've got to win
14:33
Speaker 3: because the races is dangerous and and the left is
14:38
Speaker 3: coming after him, and their candidate is very reminiscent of
14:42
Speaker 3: Beto O'Rourke. Now now James tall Rico. He was a
14:46
Speaker 3: state rep. But and he's someone whose substantive views are
14:51
Speaker 3: really extreme. You know, last podcast we did, we highlighted
14:55
Speaker 3: Graham Plattner, the the the communist with a Nazi tattoo
15:00
Speaker 3: in Maine, who is the Democrat nominee in Maine, and
15:03
Speaker 3: we talked about just how extreme and crazy the Democrat
15:06
Speaker 3: Party is. Well, James Tallerco is absolutely extreme. We're gonna
15:11
Speaker 3: break that down in just a minute. But I will
15:13
Speaker 3: tell you what makes tall Rico dangerous and that worries
15:16
Speaker 3: me is he packages it in this very nice, aw
15:21
Speaker 3: shucks demeanor. Yeah, and he sounds like a preacher. He
15:27
Speaker 3: went to seminary, so he is a licensed preacher. And
15:33
Speaker 3: any much of what he says he quotes biblical verses.
15:37
Speaker 3: And what worries me is someone who's not paying attention
15:41
Speaker 3: much to politics. Mike, turn on the TV and look
15:44
Speaker 3: at him and say, oh, he seems like a nice
15:47
Speaker 3: young man. And for me, I would rather my wolves
15:51
Speaker 3: come in wolves clothing rather than look like a sweet, inoffensive,
15:55
Speaker 3: nice young man who happens to be an extreme radical
15:58
Speaker 3: left winger. I'd rather rather they be out in the
16:01
Speaker 3: open and let you know exactly who they are.
16:04
Speaker 1: Let's dive into who this guy is here, because you
16:08
Speaker 1: go back to twenty twenty two, James Tallerico said, it
16:13
Speaker 1: is ex essential, all right, to reduce meat consumption.
16:17
Speaker 3: What was that word again?
16:19
Speaker 2: Ex essential? You're gonna mock me on. You're gonna mock
16:22
Speaker 2: me on the shirt to night, aren't you. I've been
16:23
Speaker 2: talking a long time.
16:24
Speaker 3: Todayk try that word. There's a there's a tad good.
16:29
Speaker 2: I'll take the masterclassroom.
16:31
Speaker 1: You go ahead and say the word that I'm having
16:33
Speaker 1: a problem with the night I'm just I'm more than
16:36
Speaker 1: happy at midnight for you to say that word on
16:38
Speaker 1: my behalf.
16:38
Speaker 3: That would be existential. Existential.
16:42
Speaker 2: There we go, go, I can, I can copy the word.
16:45
Speaker 3: It's not that he has extra sensory abilities. That's something different.
16:49
Speaker 3: If he had esp that that would be a different story.
16:52
Speaker 1: But lickings, I take it's unbelievable. So back to twenty
16:56
Speaker 1: twenty two and James, this is a guy that in Texas.
17:01
Speaker 1: I said this on Harris Faukner' Shewan Fox today when
17:05
Speaker 1: they were talking about the prime Like, in Texas, we
17:07
Speaker 1: like meat. In Texas, we are ranchers, we are farmers.
17:11
Speaker 1: We're not vegans. We don't do this like mystery fake
17:15
Speaker 1: meat stuff like that's just not who we are. But
17:18
Speaker 1: this is what he doesn't want you to know about
17:21
Speaker 1: him back in twenty twenty two as a principal. By
17:24
Speaker 1: the way, while saying this, he was wearing a mask
17:27
Speaker 1: the COVID mass for the press conference.
17:29
Speaker 2: Here is in his own words, take a listen.
17:32
Speaker 4: What we have I think heard more and more issues
17:36
Speaker 4: of animal welfare. I think not just because it's the
17:39
Speaker 4: right thing to do and the moral thing to do,
17:41
Speaker 4: but also it's as all of you know, necessary to
17:44
Speaker 4: fight climate change, it is now existential that we try
17:47
Speaker 4: to reduce our meat consumption and that we try to
17:50
Speaker 4: respect animals in all aspects of society. And so I
17:54
Speaker 4: am proud to say that our campaign has officially become
17:58
Speaker 4: a non meat campaign. So we have we are we
18:03
Speaker 4: are only buying vegan products from from our local vegan businesses.
18:08
Speaker 4: Some of you may know big nonas. They were little
18:10
Speaker 4: nonas and then they opened up brick and mortar some
18:12
Speaker 4: of their big nonas. But we just got our pizza
18:14
Speaker 4: from there today. And so the point is that I
18:17
Speaker 4: think all of us, not just policymakers, but everyone has
18:21
Speaker 4: to take personal responsibility in this effort.
18:25
Speaker 1: I've never in my life heard a vegan campaign being
18:29
Speaker 1: like propped up much. I was like, you want to
18:31
Speaker 1: do that in Seattle, that actually may work. You want
18:33
Speaker 1: to do it in San Francisco that it may actually work.
18:35
Speaker 1: You want to do this up in New York City.
18:37
Speaker 1: I'm not even sure it would work there actually, because
18:39
Speaker 1: they actually like normal food there. But saying our campaign
18:43
Speaker 1: as a responsible cana is a vegan campaign.
18:46
Speaker 2: Like that in Texas. And this goes back to like
18:49
Speaker 2: everyone needs to know who this guy is.
18:51
Speaker 3: Well, look, and I get that you're taking this very
18:54
Speaker 3: personally because because you owned a barbecue restaurant and oh yeah,
18:58
Speaker 3: so he's taking a wrecked assault on your livelihood. Just
19:03
Speaker 3: wait till he comes out for banning guns and banning radio.
19:06
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean, Ben will lose his mind.
19:09
Speaker 2: I will that as a fact.
19:12
Speaker 3: You know, it's actually ironic that in twenty eighteen, when
19:16
Speaker 3: I was running against Beto of our fifty stop bus tour,
19:20
Speaker 3: my guess is a third of those stops were barbecue restaurants.
19:23
Speaker 3: If you're traveling little towns around the state, a lot
19:25
Speaker 3: of times barbecue restaurants are where you'll do a rally.
19:28
Speaker 3: And we were at one barbecue restaurant I think it
19:30
Speaker 3: was in Columbus, Texas, a little town kind of halfway
19:33
Speaker 3: between Houston and Austin. And we're there and Peta was
19:38
Speaker 3: there protesting me. They had signs out and they were
19:40
Speaker 3: protesting people of the ethical treatment of animals. They were
19:43
Speaker 3: protesting against me, And I joked at the time, I said, look,
19:47
Speaker 3: thank you, I'm really glad Pete is here. And then
19:49
Speaker 3: they've underscored the stakes of this campaign, which is if
19:52
Speaker 3: you elect Beto O'Rourke, he's gonna ban barbecue. Yeah, and
19:57
Speaker 3: look it was a laugh line there. I didn't realize that.
20:00
Speaker 3: Fast forward to twenty twenty six, you're gonna have someone
20:03
Speaker 3: who literally believes barbecue is immoral. And and listen, if
20:07
Speaker 3: someone chooses to be vegetarian or vegan or what have
20:10
Speaker 3: you looked to be clear, my wife, Heidi is vegetarian.
20:13
Speaker 3: That's a choice you could make. I am an enthusiastic carnivore.
20:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I had barbecue tonight. Literally that's like we
20:19
Speaker 1: at a campaign.
20:20
Speaker 3: Event had lapenna sausage. It was it was good stuff,
20:24
Speaker 3: halapenna cheddar uh, and there was some sort of I
20:27
Speaker 3: don't know what was the vengue. Was that like celery
20:29
Speaker 3: or something. It was holopena, chad or something else. It
20:32
Speaker 3: was in the It was in the sausage. Did you
20:34
Speaker 3: not eat the sauce?
20:35
Speaker 4: Is it?
20:35
Speaker 2: Oh? I have the sausage, but I also had the chicken.
20:38
Speaker 2: I had some of the brisket.
20:39
Speaker 3: You know.
20:39
Speaker 1: I was like carnivore all like everything else. So you
20:42
Speaker 1: us salad part, you went with it? Did you look
20:45
Speaker 1: at the salad part?
20:46
Speaker 2: There was the nice screams there for you, sir.
20:48
Speaker 3: Okay, so you went with the girly meats like like
20:50
Speaker 3: you said, I went to the barbecue restaurant and I
20:53
Speaker 3: had turkey.
20:55
Speaker 2: It was there, and I ate it. I feel good
20:57
Speaker 2: about it too.
20:58
Speaker 3: Look, I think you're prepared to volunteer for tele Rico's
21:00
Speaker 3: campaign if you're boycotting the sausage that that's.
21:05
Speaker 2: Not the sausage. It was good.
21:07
Speaker 1: I just didn't notice the green in there. I look
21:09
Speaker 1: over that stuff. I look for just pure.
21:11
Speaker 2: Is that meat? Is that cheese?
21:12
Speaker 3: I'm all in, all right, So look, it's the self
21:17
Speaker 3: righteous way in which he lectures that. Yes, and it's saying,
21:21
Speaker 3: you know, all of you are morally inferior to me,
21:25
Speaker 3: and and and I'm gonna give you an example. We're
21:27
Speaker 3: gonna play some of these, but I'm gonna give you
21:28
Speaker 3: an example of some of the things he said. He
21:31
Speaker 3: has said God is non binary. Yeah, now that's pretty
21:36
Speaker 3: out there. He has also said, we've got the montage
21:39
Speaker 3: on that.
21:39
Speaker 2: You want to play that real quick.
21:40
Speaker 3: Because we will it we will in a second, but
21:42
Speaker 3: we will in a second. But but I want to
21:44
Speaker 3: just walk through some of it. He has also said
21:46
Speaker 3: they're not just just two sexes. There are actually six
21:50
Speaker 3: biological sexes six What day?
21:53
Speaker 2: What day in creation did God do the six sexes?
21:56
Speaker 2: I'm just curious, is that.
21:56
Speaker 1: On like the eighth day and the Bible we just
21:58
Speaker 1: add that in there. I just want to know when
22:00
Speaker 1: that happened.
22:01
Speaker 3: And by the way, your former employer, CNN, when they
22:04
Speaker 3: were covering a story about I couldn't resist that about
22:07
Speaker 3: about pastor hitting him for saying they're six biological sexes,
22:10
Speaker 3: CNN put a chiron on the bottom of the screen.
22:13
Speaker 3: Paxton falsely claims Tallerico said they're six biological sexes. He's
22:18
Speaker 3: on video. We're going to play it for you, and
22:22
Speaker 3: are you going to believe, CNN? Are your own lying
22:24
Speaker 3: years He has said that the Bible justifies abortion, that
22:30
Speaker 3: he is pro abortioned because of the Bible, he.
22:33
Speaker 1: Said pastor, so he's got to be right right because
22:35
Speaker 1: he's a pastor, so therefore he would never lie about
22:37
Speaker 1: what the Bible says.
22:39
Speaker 3: He has said Jesus was a radical feminist. He has
22:43
Speaker 3: said white men are the greatest domestic terrorist threat in
22:47
Speaker 3: our country.
22:49
Speaker 1: He is six, so you don't have to worry about
22:50
Speaker 1: being I'm the one that's the target.
22:52
Speaker 3: There well, he has said that illegal immigrants are his
22:56
Speaker 3: quote constituents. He has posted tips to evade ice, and
23:02
Speaker 3: he said we should approach the southern border like our
23:05
Speaker 3: front door and put a welcome mat on it. Yes,
23:09
Speaker 3: when he was a school teacher, he made his sixth
23:12
Speaker 3: graders write Obama memoirs, and he has said fascism will
23:20
Speaker 3: be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross. Listen
23:24
Speaker 3: to some of the greatest hits from James tall Rico.
23:27
Speaker 4: This is the guy you voted for. Our southern border
23:30
Speaker 4: should be like our front porch. There should be a
23:32
Speaker 4: giant welcome matt out front. There are many more than
23:36
Speaker 4: two biological sexes. In fact, there are six. God is
23:40
Speaker 4: both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is
23:47
Speaker 4: non binary.
23:48
Speaker 2: Oh really, God is non binary.
23:51
Speaker 1: And by the way, the sixth sexes disverseeeing in clarity.
23:55
Speaker 1: As you mentioned, you're exactly right. We have the tape
23:59
Speaker 1: so your headlin You might want to, like, you know,
24:01
Speaker 1: fix it, alter it, change it, whatever it is. But
24:04
Speaker 1: these are just some of the highlights of what this
24:06
Speaker 1: guy believes in. And again they are trying to make
24:08
Speaker 1: him and I do think it's the most dangerous part.
24:10
Speaker 1: As you mentioned earlier, he looks like he's a really
24:14
Speaker 1: nice guy who's a pastor, soft spoken, he's very charismatic.
24:20
Speaker 1: That's what makes him so dangerous until you actually go
24:23
Speaker 1: to his own words, in his own posts and his
24:26
Speaker 1: own speeches. Center, that's when you find out what a
24:29
Speaker 1: radical he actually is.
24:31
Speaker 3: Well, yes, but look at least the guy loves America,
24:35
Speaker 3: loves the American flag. And well wait, wait, no, let's
24:38
Speaker 3: actually listen to his own words. I want you to
24:41
Speaker 3: listen to what he said about the American flag. This
24:44
Speaker 3: again is his own words. Give a listen.
24:47
Speaker 4: I often think when reclaiming symbols, I think about the
24:49
Speaker 4: American flag. I think the Confederate flag is a symbol
24:52
Speaker 4: of treason and terrorism. But the American flag is such
24:56
Speaker 4: a complicated symbol for most of us in many ways,
24:58
Speaker 4: like Jesus, like the cross, It's been co opted in
25:05
Speaker 4: some ways.
25:05
Speaker 2: That's true.
25:06
Speaker 4: Meeting has been betrayed.
25:07
Speaker 1: By the way he said that Center in a church,
25:10
Speaker 1: that the American flag is a complicated symbol for most
25:15
Speaker 1: of us. The American flag has never been complicated for me.
25:19
Speaker 2: I don't know. Maybe you look kind of differently.
25:21
Speaker 3: Well, and he says the American flag is a complicated symbol,
25:25
Speaker 3: like Jesus and like the cross. Those are the three
25:28
Speaker 3: examples he gives of complicated symbols. I don't think any
25:33
Speaker 3: of the three are complicated. And the idea that you're
25:37
Speaker 3: running to be a US senator and you look at
25:39
Speaker 3: the American flag and think it's a complicated symbol, you know, yes,
25:46
Speaker 3: if you are a leftist, yes. If you are a Marxist, yes,
25:49
Speaker 3: if you are someone who is his body into cultural
25:53
Speaker 3: Marxism and believes America is irredeemably racist, believes that we
25:57
Speaker 3: are a nation of oppressors pressing victims, and that his
26:01
Speaker 3: goal is to overthrow the oppressors. And and and that
26:05
Speaker 3: is listen, Graham Plattner in in Maine is more.
26:10
Speaker 1: Exciting tattoo The S S is sad too, right, Just
26:14
Speaker 1: to remind people who we're talking about right now. This
26:15
Speaker 1: is a guy that that actually mocked and made fun
26:19
Speaker 1: of an American soldier being shot, saying he should have died. Uh,
26:23
Speaker 1: and then review doubled down on it. And the same
26:26
Speaker 1: guy that has an SS tattoo.
26:29
Speaker 3: Yes, and and look and and who is also an
26:32
Speaker 3: open racist. I mean he he is mocked African Americans.
26:36
Speaker 3: He he is, he wears a Nazi tattoo, and and
26:39
Speaker 3: and and his is demeaning to Jews. He's demeaning to women.
26:42
Speaker 3: He says women rape victims are asking for it. Platner
26:47
Speaker 3: is at least out in the open about who he is.
26:50
Speaker 3: But Tall Rica, let's take the racism of the Democrat
26:53
Speaker 3: Party and and and and listen. Here's here's something Tall
26:56
Speaker 3: Rico said in another church about his own race, about
27:00
Speaker 3: being white. Get a listen for me.
27:03
Speaker 4: Prophetic voices like Jesus have helped me reckon with my
27:06
Speaker 4: own whiteness, my own masculinity, my own certainty, my own ego.
27:12
Speaker 4: It's a never ending process, and it's a painful process.
27:16
Speaker 1: I got to give him self awareness credit there center,
27:19
Speaker 1: Like when he says it's helped him deal with his masculinity.
27:21
Speaker 1: I think he's nipped that problem in the bud, going
27:24
Speaker 1: vegan and talking the way he does, Like by the
27:26
Speaker 1: Lord heard those prayers. I'm if he was working on
27:29
Speaker 1: the masculinity issue, he has nailed it that.
27:33
Speaker 3: There's no doubt about that. If you listen to what
27:35
Speaker 3: he's saying. He's in a church, he behind him. If
27:37
Speaker 3: if you're watching the video. He has a giant cross
27:40
Speaker 3: behind him. What he calls that? That that that? What
27:43
Speaker 3: is it? Complicated image of the cross, like the American
27:46
Speaker 3: flag and like Jesus, And he said the prophetic voices
27:49
Speaker 3: like Jesus helped him deal. Let's take the racist aspect
27:53
Speaker 3: his own whiteness, which is a hard thing to reckon with.
27:58
Speaker 3: You know, look, I'm sorry. In my book, being white
28:02
Speaker 3: is not a something to be ashamed of, is not
28:05
Speaker 3: a symbol that you are a bad human being. But
28:08
Speaker 3: in the leftist world, white equals evil. This is the
28:13
Speaker 3: Marxist dichotomy. It's why I'm saying he's a wolf in
28:16
Speaker 3: sheep's clothing. What he's saying there, everyone white is an oppressor.
28:21
Speaker 3: You're all evil, you're all illegitimate. That is the same
28:24
Speaker 3: thing everyone who is black. You're you're all oppressed and
28:28
Speaker 3: you should overthrow your evil oppressors. That is the same
28:31
Speaker 3: garbage that says America as a racist history from day one.
28:34
Speaker 3: That is who we are as irredeemably racist. It is
28:37
Speaker 3: a lie. Now play the second clip of him talking
28:40
Speaker 3: about his masculinity.
28:42
Speaker 4: Right, no need to sit and cry over you know,
28:46
Speaker 4: your whiteness or your masculinity, right, use it, use it
28:49
Speaker 4: to do something. Yeah, let's be productive.
28:52
Speaker 2: Wait which one is it?
28:53
Speaker 1: Now? I'm a little confused. Are we masculine on Monday, Wednesday, Friday?
28:57
Speaker 1: But Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday? We just like turn that completely off?
29:02
Speaker 1: Which one is it? I just want to know?
29:04
Speaker 3: And this is where you really ought to be watching
29:07
Speaker 3: this in video, because look, tall Rico is a little dude. Yes,
29:11
Speaker 3: you know, he may be the least likely person on
29:15
Speaker 3: planet Earth to be complaining about his overwhelming masculinity. Look, Ben,
29:21
Speaker 3: you're a big dude. I'm pretty sure you could hip
29:23
Speaker 3: check this guy into the next zip code. He also,
29:27
Speaker 3: in another clip that I don't have, explained that he
29:29
Speaker 3: never played sports at all growing up. I believe that.
29:33
Speaker 2: I believe that. Yes, yes, I believe that as well.
29:36
Speaker 3: I will say, if you were listening to him speak
29:40
Speaker 3: and you were assembling one thousand adjectives to describe him,
29:46
Speaker 3: masculine would not be one of them.
29:49
Speaker 2: Would not be on that list.
29:50
Speaker 3: I'm just saying I don't think anyone would. And yet
29:53
Speaker 3: he described that he was crying over his masculinity, that
29:58
Speaker 3: he was too too masculin and it made him cry.
30:01
Speaker 2: By the way, she wasn't fair to everybody else.
30:03
Speaker 3: Senator, if you're crying over your masculinity, it may not
30:07
Speaker 3: be your masculinity you're crying over. Like I'm just saying
30:10
Speaker 3: that there's almost something definitionally false. But this guy is extreme,
30:17
Speaker 3: which means the Democrats love him, and they love.
30:21
Speaker 1: They oh, they love him, They absolutely love him. And
30:23
Speaker 1: I gotta say, Senator, I want as we wrap up
30:26
Speaker 1: the show, I do want to ask and when I
30:28
Speaker 1: look at this race and I look at tell Rico,
30:30
Speaker 1: and I look at everything you and I have just
30:32
Speaker 1: talked about quickly, and we're going to keep talking about
30:34
Speaker 1: him throughout now until November, I can promise you, because
30:38
Speaker 1: there's more that's going to come out. There's more crazy
30:40
Speaker 1: things going to say. But I do like the fact
30:43
Speaker 1: that I feel like there is a little bit of
30:45
Speaker 1: sanity coming back into the political world where you now
30:49
Speaker 1: can just talk about this individual and what he believes,
30:52
Speaker 1: and you can look at voters in Texas and you
30:55
Speaker 1: can just say, this is not what we believe in.
30:58
Speaker 1: We do not believe and mutilating children. He's obsessed by
31:02
Speaker 1: the way with transgenderism.
31:04
Speaker 3: And transgender children in particular. He is he is described
31:10
Speaker 3: I forget the exact phrase, but people near near his
31:13
Speaker 3: heart or most near his heart are transgender children. Yes,
31:18
Speaker 3: And look, if you think you ought to be sterilizing
31:21
Speaker 3: and mutilating little boys and little girls, that is an
31:25
Speaker 3: extreme out there position. That's not where most Texans are,
31:28
Speaker 3: but it is where Tallarico is.
31:30
Speaker 1: It is, and I do find a little bit of
31:32
Speaker 1: comfort in knowing that, Like, how do you run against
31:34
Speaker 1: a guy like this in a place like I get Texas?
31:38
Speaker 1: And I think other Republicans around the country should should
31:41
Speaker 1: actually look at this. Sometimes winning is just saying this
31:44
Speaker 1: is not who we are. We're not for that. We
31:47
Speaker 1: don't We're not a bunch of vegans. Okay, we're normal
31:50
Speaker 1: people that eat meat, and we're not gonna shame you
31:53
Speaker 1: for that. There's not six genders in the world. Certainly
31:57
Speaker 1: Jesus is not advocating for that either. And even if
32:00
Speaker 1: you can quote scripture, if you take it out of
32:04
Speaker 1: context in this way and you take I think part
32:08
Speaker 1: of just being a Christian. I find so offensive about
32:10
Speaker 1: tall Rico is the fact that he's sitting there saying
32:13
Speaker 1: he's an expert, and yet he seems to be taking
32:16
Speaker 1: the Bible and using it for evil instead of for good,
32:19
Speaker 1: and all these radical ideals that clearly God is not
32:22
Speaker 1: in favor of. God is not in favor of mutilating children,
32:25
Speaker 1: He's not in favor of there being six different genders like,
32:27
Speaker 1: that's not what he's about.
32:30
Speaker 3: And remember, even the devil can quote Scripture. If you
32:33
Speaker 3: look back to when the devil was tempting Jesus in
32:37
Speaker 3: the garden right before he was crucified, the devil repeatedly
32:40
Speaker 3: quoted Chris Scripture at him, and Jesus rebuked him. And
32:43
Speaker 3: so the fact that he quotes Scripture does not means
32:45
Speaker 3: he is being truthful about what the Bible is saying.
32:48
Speaker 3: And if he's twisting it and using it for evil
32:51
Speaker 3: ends that are precisely the opposite of what the Bible
32:54
Speaker 3: is saying, that that is not honorable or righteous or truthful.
32:59
Speaker 3: And you know, listen, I'll say the Paxton campaign has
33:03
Speaker 3: started calling him low T taller Rico, which I think
33:06
Speaker 3: is pretty durned funny. Yeah, but I want to give
33:09
Speaker 3: a caution. It's a caution I gave at the beginning.
33:12
Speaker 3: Do not take this general election for granted. Here's what
33:15
Speaker 3: tall Rico tweeted tonight right after the primary results. Quote,
33:20
Speaker 3: I want to thank Senator John Cornyan for his years
33:22
Speaker 3: representing our state. We don't agree on everything, but were
33:26
Speaker 3: we both still believe in public service. To Senator Cornyn's supporters,
33:31
Speaker 3: you have a place in our campaign. Yeah, that's very savvy.
33:35
Speaker 3: He's making a very open pitch to more moderate Republicans
33:40
Speaker 3: vote for me. Look, I'm a nice, sweet, gentle inoffensive guy,
33:46
Speaker 3: wouldn't hurt a fly. And if you're not paying attention,
33:50
Speaker 3: if you don't know his record, if you're not listening
33:52
Speaker 3: to what he said, you can be deceived. And so
33:56
Speaker 3: we need to I think this campaign, an awful lot
33:59
Speaker 3: of it is going to be put in his own
34:00
Speaker 3: words in front of the voters, because they do reveal
34:03
Speaker 3: who he is. But he's really good at being slick
34:06
Speaker 3: and pretending to be something he's not. That in politics
34:10
Speaker 3: is dangerous.
34:11
Speaker 1: Thanks as always for joining us on the show Don't Forget.
34:14
Speaker 1: You can grab the Ben ferguson podcasts wherever you get
34:17
Speaker 1: your podcasts, and I'll see you back here on this
34:20
Speaker 1: radio station next week and on the podcast all week long.