Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Big Sister Is Watching

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Big Sister Is Watching · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Well that was fast. Within just days of Elon Musk
0:03
Speaker 1: announcing his intention to buy Twitter to give conservatives a
0:08
Speaker 1: little more freedom to speak our minds on just one
0:12
Speaker 1: of the big tech platforms, the Biden administration has announced
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Speaker 1: the creation of a Disinformation Governance BORT, a brand new
0:21
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0:28
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0:31
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Speaker 1: Ted Cruz for now until the Disinformation Governance Board gets
4:25
Speaker 1: its way. You can subscribe to Verdict over an Apple podcast, Spotify, Stitcher,
4:29
Speaker 1: Google Play, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. For now, Senator,
4:34
Speaker 1: how much time do we have left? Well, I don't know,
4:38
Speaker 1: but I just got an order from Big Cis that
4:40
Speaker 1: from now on, this podcast must be done entirely by
4:45
Speaker 1: singing Broadway show tunes. Oh is that is a fate
4:50
Speaker 1: worse than cancelation, Big Cis, I suspect you're referring to
4:54
Speaker 1: is Nina Jankowitz, the Biden pick to lead the Disinformation
4:59
Speaker 1: Governance Board, about whom I know only two things. One
5:02
Speaker 1: she spread misinformation about the Hunter Biden laptop, and two
5:07
Speaker 1: she loves singing show tunes on camera. And to a credit,
5:11
Speaker 1: she's actually a pretty good singer. It's a little bizarre
5:15
Speaker 1: and creepy what she sings, but she I don't know
5:18
Speaker 1: as a professional or semi professional singer. But she's this
5:22
Speaker 1: hard knee jerk leftist. And you know watching number one
5:28
Speaker 1: Secretary may orchis who has presided over the most lawless
5:33
Speaker 1: cabinet agency in the history of our country, which the
5:36
Speaker 1: Department of Homeland Security has decided we don't enforce the border.
5:39
Speaker 1: We let two million illegal aliens come in. The law
5:42
Speaker 1: means nothing to US. So now he's created this misinformation
5:47
Speaker 1: board in charge of fighting misinformation, and you know you
5:50
Speaker 1: pointed out he did it literally within hours of Elon
5:55
Speaker 1: Musk's buying Twitter. It is stunning. Listen, the left ideas
6:01
Speaker 1: are crap. They cannot defend them. They don't want to
6:05
Speaker 1: defend them. They want to silence everyone who disagrees. I mean,
6:09
Speaker 1: let's show you something amazing about Elon buying Twitter, which
6:15
Speaker 1: is Twitter accepted Elon Musk's offer to buy Twitter on
6:20
Speaker 1: April twenty fifth. The very next day, literally the next day,
6:27
Speaker 1: April twenty sixth, my new Twitter followers skyrocket. So I'm
6:33
Speaker 1: just gonna read you the daily count of it, because
6:36
Speaker 1: it's stunning. So on April nineteenth, I gained one seventeen
6:40
Speaker 1: hundred and thirteen followers. April twenty fourth, one four hundred
6:43
Speaker 1: and eighty six. April twenty fifth, the day Twitter says
6:46
Speaker 1: yes to Elon Musk one thousand, two hundred and fourteen.
6:51
Speaker 1: So consistently, day after day, I'm between a thousand and
6:54
Speaker 1: two thousand new followers the next day. What's your guest
6:58
Speaker 1: is to how many new followers I got the next day,
7:01
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it doubled at least on April twenty
7:05
Speaker 1: twenty sixth fifty one thousand, four hundred and five, April
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Speaker 1: twenty seventh, sixty one thousand, two hundred and fifty one,
7:19
Speaker 1: on April twenty eighth, seventy thousand, five hundred and eighty four.
7:26
Speaker 1: The level of shadow banning, it's as if And by
7:30
Speaker 1: the way, this is true for conservatives across the board
7:32
Speaker 1: that they're seeing their numbers. Mine literally went from one
7:35
Speaker 1: to two thousand a day to fifty sixty seventy thousand.
7:40
Speaker 1: I've gone from four point eight million followers to five
7:43
Speaker 1: point one million followers in a week, and all it
7:46
Speaker 1: took was Elon buying it. This is the same thing
7:49
Speaker 1: has happened with me. I am not a United States senator,
7:52
Speaker 1: I have not run for president. I am but a
7:54
Speaker 1: humble podcaster. I've gained at least one hundred thousand followers
7:59
Speaker 1: in the what is a week since Elon took over,
8:01
Speaker 1: It's been something like a clip of twenty thousand per day.
8:05
Speaker 1: So either that means that they've unleashed the bots, which
8:09
Speaker 1: I don't think it is, by the way, because my
8:11
Speaker 1: engagement on Twitter is up. I'm seeing new people new
8:16
Speaker 1: blue checkmark people who are ostensibly verified human beings. It
8:19
Speaker 1: seems as though because don't forget, this deal hasn't even
8:23
Speaker 1: gone through yet, so it's just the threat that Elan
8:25
Speaker 1: is going to buy it. It seems as though this
8:27
Speaker 1: has lifted a major shadow banning of conservatives. You know,
8:30
Speaker 1: it's like they're sitting there running the shredders, going oh crap,
8:36
Speaker 1: they're going to find out all the stuff we've done
8:38
Speaker 1: shred at all, turned the algorithm off, and then within
8:42
Speaker 1: hours the Biden administration announces we have a new board
8:47
Speaker 1: to fight misinformation. I gotta tell you I had so
8:50
Speaker 1: this week. I've had two hearings where I've asked Biden
8:53
Speaker 1: officials about this. First of all, I had a Foreign
8:55
Speaker 1: Relations Committee hearing with the Deputy Secretary of State. Okay,
9:00
Speaker 1: so ma Orchus got popped on Sunday about this, and
9:03
Speaker 1: he says, no, no no, no, this is not to go
9:05
Speaker 1: after American speech. This is all about foreign speech. This
9:09
Speaker 1: is foreign disinformation only. Now, mind you, this office is
9:14
Speaker 1: not at the US Department of State, It's at the
9:16
Speaker 1: Department of Homeland Security. It's directed at Americans in the homeland.
9:21
Speaker 1: But their talking point is no no, no, this is
9:23
Speaker 1: only foreign disinformation. So I asked the Department of State today,
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Speaker 1: the Deputy Secretary of State, I said, it so happens.
9:30
Speaker 1: There actually is a long standing office at the State
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Speaker 1: Department whose statutory mission is to fight disinformation abroad from
9:41
Speaker 1: foreign governments, and it's funded. Congress just funded them one
9:45
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty million dollars. It's statutory mission is exactly
9:49
Speaker 1: what these clowns are claiming the new office is going
9:51
Speaker 1: to do. So I asked the State Department, gush, did
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Speaker 1: anybody talk to you about this? No? Do you know
9:57
Speaker 1: anything about it? No? I have no idea. Is it
10:01
Speaker 1: concerning to you that they've announced a new office that
10:04
Speaker 1: they're claiming is doing the same thing your existing office
10:07
Speaker 1: is doing. I have no idea. Nobody consulted us. We
10:09
Speaker 1: know nothing. So that was lie number one. Number two.
10:15
Speaker 1: We also had Pete boodhag Edge, the Secretary of Transportation,
10:19
Speaker 1: testifying before the Senate today, and I asked him about this,
10:23
Speaker 1: and I said, look, I read a quote from the
10:26
Speaker 1: presidential campaign where he gave he waxed poetically about free
10:29
Speaker 1: speech is wonderful, it's incredible, It's what makes America America.
10:33
Speaker 1: I value free speech. When I was a soldier fighting
10:36
Speaker 1: for America, the flag on my shoulder, it represented free speech.
10:40
Speaker 1: It was you know, he's a pretty eloquent guy. And
10:43
Speaker 1: I read the whole quote. I said, you know, gosh,
10:45
Speaker 1: I agree with every word of that. That's beautifully stated.
10:48
Speaker 1: Do you still agree with that? Do you still agree
10:50
Speaker 1: with free speech? Yes? Well, then why did the Biden
10:53
Speaker 1: administration announce an office, the Ministry of Truth to silence
10:57
Speaker 1: people who disagree with you? And he immediately backtracks. He's like, well, well, well,
11:02
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know. Like, well, come on,
11:04
Speaker 1: I mean, you're you're aware of this, right, And he's like, well, well, well,
11:12
Speaker 1: I don't know. But it's to stop disinformation, to stop
11:17
Speaker 1: Russian disinformation. I said, really, like Hunter Biden's laptop. Is
11:22
Speaker 1: that what you mean by disinformation? He's like, well, I
11:25
Speaker 1: don't know anything about Hunter Biden's laptop. It's like, oh, really,
11:29
Speaker 1: nobody seems to know anything about Hunter Biden's laptop, do they. Well,
11:32
Speaker 1: and in this case, the woman who's going to be
11:35
Speaker 1: running the Ministry of truthier for Biden, used that specific example,
11:40
Speaker 1: so this is not just a hypothetical. She said, the
11:42
Speaker 1: Hunter Biden laptop was a case of Russian disinformation, and
11:46
Speaker 1: so presumably this board would have completely wiped away that
11:49
Speaker 1: news story, had Big Tech and the the establishment media
11:53
Speaker 1: not already done that for them two years ago. Now
11:56
Speaker 1: that's exactly right. And as you know, the talking point,
12:00
Speaker 1: there were fifty former leaders from the intelligence community community
12:04
Speaker 1: that put out a letter when Hunter Biden's laptop broke
12:07
Speaker 1: that said, this has all the classic signs of Russian disinformation,
12:11
Speaker 1: which we've learned now is code for this is really
12:15
Speaker 1: bad for the Democratic presidential nominee. But we now know
12:20
Speaker 1: that letter was an outright blatant lie. We know the
12:25
Speaker 1: talking point that that that I don't know whether we
12:28
Speaker 1: should call Nina the Minister of Truth or the commissary.
12:34
Speaker 1: I'm kind of on the fence as to what her
12:37
Speaker 1: tatalitarian titles should be. But she was out there pushing
12:43
Speaker 1: this is Russian disinformation, and that's an uttered lie. And
12:47
Speaker 1: leftists define as disinformation anything that is inconvenient for them,
12:54
Speaker 1: anything they disagree with, and especially anything that is politically
12:58
Speaker 1: damaging they call disinformation. And this is the Biden administration
13:03
Speaker 1: nakedly getting getting caught with their hand in the cookie
13:06
Speaker 1: jar to mix my metaphors pretty badly. I'm going to
13:09
Speaker 1: upset my Yale colleague here with with that rather mangled illusion.
13:13
Speaker 1: That is exactly the kind of thing that the new
13:16
Speaker 1: censorship board is going to censor, the mixing of metaphors.
13:19
Speaker 1: And that's that's a wonderful thing. There's a little silver
13:21
Speaker 1: lining in that storm cloud, Senator. The White House has
13:25
Speaker 1: given two examples of the kind of thing that the
13:30
Speaker 1: board is going to shut down. That is calls to
13:34
Speaker 1: violent extremism and as you say, foreign disinformation, specifically Russian disinformation.
13:40
Speaker 1: And the problem it would seem to me is that
13:42
Speaker 1: the White House accuses everything that Republicans say of being
13:47
Speaker 1: a called to violent extremism or Russian disinformation. So we're
13:50
Speaker 1: joking about it. It's absurd, and it's funny to make
13:53
Speaker 1: fun of this, this power hungry lady and the whole
13:56
Speaker 1: bind administration. But what are they going to do? And
14:00
Speaker 1: what are we going to do about it? Look, it
14:02
Speaker 1: is so bad that this week Jake Tapper from CNN
14:09
Speaker 1: was forced to go on TV and acknowledge, Yeah, she
14:12
Speaker 1: does really seem to be a partisan where she echoes
14:15
Speaker 1: the Democratic talking points and she's skeptical of everything Republicans say,
14:19
Speaker 1: and there's a clear political bias in her take on things.
14:23
Speaker 1: Now when Jake Tapper, who has become a mouthpiece for
14:26
Speaker 1: the hard left, he didn't used to be, but he's
14:28
Speaker 1: become that. When even he says that, like, holy cow,
14:33
Speaker 1: So what are we going to do about it? Listen?
14:36
Speaker 1: I think one thing we're doing about it, we're doing
14:37
Speaker 1: right now, which is just shining enough of a light
14:40
Speaker 1: on it that it prevents them from going forward. I
14:43
Speaker 1: do think you're seeing the Biden administration backpedaling. There's been
14:49
Speaker 1: enough of a blowpack. I actually think labeling it the
14:53
Speaker 1: Ministry of Truth is really powerful, because look, obviously there
14:57
Speaker 1: are communist regimes that have ministries of truth and and
15:00
Speaker 1: that throw you in the gulag for daring to speak
15:03
Speaker 1: other than than the government line and calling this out
15:09
Speaker 1: for what it is. My hope is that that that we,
15:15
Speaker 1: you know, cut it off right at the beginning. If not,
15:21
Speaker 1: then there's a reason why I asked about it twice
15:24
Speaker 1: this week to two different Biden officials, because I want
15:27
Speaker 1: to keep the pressure on. I want to keep the
15:29
Speaker 1: light on. I want to force them to defend this,
15:32
Speaker 1: this ridiculous abuse of power. And if they continue to
15:37
Speaker 1: try to go forward with it next year, I believe
15:41
Speaker 1: we're going to have majorities in both the House and
15:43
Speaker 1: send it. We had to use the majorities in the
15:45
Speaker 1: House and send it to cut off the funding and
15:47
Speaker 1: to shut it down because the government has no business
15:50
Speaker 1: silencing what the American people say. I don't think the
15:53
Speaker 1: timing is coincidental. It's just too perfect, right after we've
15:58
Speaker 1: been joking about it. But I think I think it's legit.
16:00
Speaker 1: Right after Elon Musk announces this, you get the announcement
16:03
Speaker 1: from the White House. So then turning to Musk, do
16:07
Speaker 1: you think this deal is going to go through? One?
16:10
Speaker 1: And two? What does that mean for conservatives on social media?
16:15
Speaker 1: Whether we're talking about how the other big tech platforms
16:17
Speaker 1: are going to react, or whether we're talking about how
16:19
Speaker 1: the government is going to react. Joe Biden is already
16:21
Speaker 1: talking about clamping down on Twitter the minute they free
16:24
Speaker 1: up speech for conservatives. Yeah. And by the way, the
16:27
Speaker 1: European Union is rattling its swords and reminding Twitter we
16:31
Speaker 1: have rules to follow. Look, I think the deal is
16:36
Speaker 1: going to go through. I don't know for sure. I
16:38
Speaker 1: don't know the inside details of the deal. But Elon
16:42
Speaker 1: seems very committed and certainly vocally committed. The board has
16:45
Speaker 1: accepted it. According to the public reporting, he had financing lockdown.
16:50
Speaker 1: The financing may change in terms of the mix of
16:53
Speaker 1: debt and equity. That wouldn't surprise me. But it certainly
16:55
Speaker 1: seems like it's going forward. You know, I will say
17:00
Speaker 1: there is an irony that Elon Mosque has suddenly become
17:03
Speaker 1: the champion and the defender of conservatives. Elon vocally supported
17:10
Speaker 1: and voted for Barack Obama not once, but twice. You know,
17:14
Speaker 1: Joe Rogan the other person who has become that They
17:17
Speaker 1: may be the two most important people concerning free speech
17:20
Speaker 1: in the entire country, Joe Rogan and Dorris Bernie Sanders.
17:23
Speaker 1: So neither one of them meets the standard definition of
17:27
Speaker 1: a conservative, but they both appreciate liberty. They both value
17:33
Speaker 1: free speech. You know, it's spoke volumes. I don't know
17:36
Speaker 1: if you saw last week a journalist at Time magazine
17:40
Speaker 1: and I put journalists in scare quotes, said that free
17:44
Speaker 1: speech is an obsession of rich white guys like the
17:51
Speaker 1: today's corporate media wants to silence everybody except themselves. They
17:59
Speaker 1: want to have a monopoly on speech, only the corporate
18:03
Speaker 1: media and only big tech. And I know you've seen
18:05
Speaker 1: the meme that that Elon tweeted out, which I think
18:08
Speaker 1: is incredibly accurate, that it showed him previously where you
18:12
Speaker 1: had the right, the left, the center, and it had
18:14
Speaker 1: him left of center, and then what it showed was
18:17
Speaker 1: the left running full speed to the left, and suddenly
18:21
Speaker 1: the center moved, so he was right of center. But
18:24
Speaker 1: in the meme he hadn't moved an end. Shit's just
18:27
Speaker 1: the crazies had taken over the Democratic Party. By the way,
18:30
Speaker 1: Bill Maher's in the same boat, where these are old
18:32
Speaker 1: school liberals that just happened to believe in actual liberty,
18:37
Speaker 1: and that in today's Democratic Party that is not only
18:44
Speaker 1: not the mainstream anymore, that is a heretical view that
18:48
Speaker 1: must be demonized and quashed. What do you think the
18:52
Speaker 1: electoral politics of this look like. Do you think that
18:55
Speaker 1: this plays for Democrats? Do you think this ministry of
18:59
Speaker 1: truth is going to help them in the mid terms,
19:01
Speaker 1: whether through the operation of the agency or just through
19:05
Speaker 1: the public perception of it. Or are they stepping on
19:07
Speaker 1: a rake here? I think they're stepping on a rake.
19:10
Speaker 1: But a word you use there that is important and
19:13
Speaker 1: that we don't know yet is operation like whether this
19:18
Speaker 1: board will actually have any legal power or authority if
19:21
Speaker 1: they engage how they intend to engage, if it's just
19:26
Speaker 1: a look an example, an example we've talked about early
19:30
Speaker 1: on when it happened on this podcast was doctor Fauci
19:34
Speaker 1: in emails asking Mark Zuckerberg to silence and censor any
19:40
Speaker 1: discussions of the origins of COVID nineteen, and in particular
19:43
Speaker 1: discussions that it had escaped from a Chinese government lab
19:48
Speaker 1: in Wohan. And we talked about two years ago. This
19:51
Speaker 1: podcast walked through exhaustively the evidence that suggests and suggest
19:57
Speaker 1: overwhelmingly that COVID nineteen escape from a Chinese government lab
20:01
Speaker 1: in Wuhan. Zuckerberg was more than happy to comply. He said, yes,
20:06
Speaker 1: we will censor it, we will keep it silent. I
20:09
Speaker 1: could see this board playing a similar role and for example,
20:13
Speaker 1: emailing Zuckerberg and and Facebook going along. I don't know
20:18
Speaker 1: whether there are media outlets that will go along. I
20:21
Speaker 1: feel confident Elon Musk won't go along. And it's why
20:25
Speaker 1: his buying Twitter is so important, because it creates a
20:30
Speaker 1: significant avenue by the way, one thing people may not
20:35
Speaker 1: realize as to why Twitter matters so much. So so
20:39
Speaker 1: a tiny percentage of Americans actually listen follow Twitter, and
20:45
Speaker 1: those that do skew pretty heavily left. If the world
20:48
Speaker 1: were the Twitter sphere, we'd all be screwed. It would
20:51
Speaker 1: be sunk. Yeah, you know, AOC would be president. So
20:54
Speaker 1: I'm glad that the world is not the Twitter sphere. Now,
20:58
Speaker 1: some of that is is amplified by the shadow banning
21:03
Speaker 1: and practices, so we may find out that the Twitter
21:06
Speaker 1: sphere is not as left as it appears. But most
21:11
Speaker 1: normal Americans are not on Twitter. The reason it matters,
21:13
Speaker 1: One of the reasons it matters so much is every
21:15
Speaker 1: reporter in the universe is on Twitter. And so I
21:18
Speaker 1: could tell you in politics, frankly, the way you get
21:21
Speaker 1: out a statement and get it out quickly as you
21:23
Speaker 1: go to Twitter and you put it out, and it's
21:26
Speaker 1: an amazing thing. Look, Donald Trump pioneered this in twenty sixteen,
21:30
Speaker 1: and I was on the opposing side, and he captured
21:33
Speaker 1: how to use Twitter and just dominate the news within instances.
21:38
Speaker 1: And it is a wild thing that I will pull
21:41
Speaker 1: out my phone and I'll send a tweet and within
21:44
Speaker 1: minutes I can turn on the TV and see my
21:47
Speaker 1: tweet on the news, driving the news and driving messaging.
21:51
Speaker 1: That's part of why free speech on Twitter matters, because
21:55
Speaker 1: it influences everyone that has outlets of communication that is
22:03
Speaker 1: potent for the overall public discourse. Right. I agree, it
22:06
Speaker 1: does set the news in a way that Facebook and
22:09
Speaker 1: YouTube and Google don't. I think that's why they are
22:12
Speaker 1: absolutely losing it that Elon is promising conservatives a little
22:16
Speaker 1: more freedom on this question of political speech. I am
22:19
Speaker 1: ashamed to say that I have neglected our Verdict listeners,
22:22
Speaker 1: but I will do that no more. There's a question
22:24
Speaker 1: I really want to get to here in the mail bag.
22:26
Speaker 1: You of course can join Verdict plus over on locals,
22:29
Speaker 1: the Verdict plus community, and you can subscribe to Verdict
22:33
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. This question comes to us
22:36
Speaker 1: from Al who says, Senator Cruz, how do you think
22:40
Speaker 1: the court will rule on Ted Cruz versus fec A
22:45
Speaker 1: question not only about political speech, but about a case
22:48
Speaker 1: that you are heavily involved in. Yeah. No, it's a
22:50
Speaker 1: case I care a great deal about. It is a
22:54
Speaker 1: case challenging, and I'm the name plainiff. I brought the lawsuit.
22:58
Speaker 1: It is challenging an element of McCain finegold, which is
23:02
Speaker 1: the big campaign finance law. It's a terrible law. One
23:06
Speaker 1: element of the law limits the ability of a political
23:10
Speaker 1: candidate to pay themselves back for loans they make to
23:14
Speaker 1: their campaign. And so it caps it at paying yourself
23:19
Speaker 1: back at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars is the
23:23
Speaker 1: most you can pay yourself back from funds received after
23:26
Speaker 1: the campaign. And so you know, you have lots of
23:29
Speaker 1: candidates who put their life savings into into a campaign,
23:33
Speaker 1: and they may put five hundred thousand or more into
23:36
Speaker 1: a campaign, and McCain finegold says, well, tough, you're not
23:40
Speaker 1: allowed to pay yourself back. You've just basically given a
23:42
Speaker 1: gift to democracy. And doesn't it suck to be you?
23:46
Speaker 1: And by the way, the reason that Congress passed it,
23:50
Speaker 1: if you go look at the debates, it's an incumbent
23:52
Speaker 1: protection plan because one of the ways incumbents avoid being
23:58
Speaker 1: beat is their challengers raise any money and they don't
24:01
Speaker 1: have the name idea to raise money. And so what
24:03
Speaker 1: happens often as someone will invest their own money into
24:06
Speaker 1: the race, and it is how challengers get the initial
24:10
Speaker 1: oxygen to get their message out, well, if you make
24:13
Speaker 1: it that. You know, Michael, you put your money into
24:16
Speaker 1: the race, and even if you win, you can't get
24:18
Speaker 1: it back, and it's going to cost you. You might
24:21
Speaker 1: be willing to do it, but a lot of people
24:23
Speaker 1: are not. And so it's designed to protect incumbents from
24:28
Speaker 1: challengers taking them on. So I brought a constitutional challenge
24:31
Speaker 1: to this provision. I want a unanimous decision in the
24:35
Speaker 1: lower courts. So a three judge district courts struck down
24:38
Speaker 1: this provision of McCain fine Gold. The appeal is pending
24:41
Speaker 1: at the Supreme Court. It's been briefed, it's been argued.
24:44
Speaker 1: We're waiting on the decision. I think the decision will
24:46
Speaker 1: be very soon. It could literally be any day now.
24:48
Speaker 1: I think we're in the sweet spot of when the
24:52
Speaker 1: decision is going to come down. I am cautiously optimistic.
24:56
Speaker 1: I think the chances are good that we prevail if
25:00
Speaker 1: the court addresses the merits. In other words, if the
25:03
Speaker 1: court answers the question is this provision of law unconstitutional?
25:08
Speaker 1: I think the odds are extremely high we win. I
25:10
Speaker 1: think it is on the merits we are very very
25:13
Speaker 1: likely to win. There is some chance that we lose
25:17
Speaker 1: on a procedural ground. That Biden Justice Department had a
25:21
Speaker 1: procedural ground that was a technicality that was based on
25:24
Speaker 1: a factual mistake. But I will say it the oral argument,
25:28
Speaker 1: it sure seemed like John Roberts was fishing around trying
25:31
Speaker 1: to get some justices to basically throw the lawsuit out
25:35
Speaker 1: on the procedural ground. I don't know if he will
25:38
Speaker 1: succeed with that or not, but that's how the argument
25:43
Speaker 1: came across. So if they get to the merits, we
25:47
Speaker 1: are very very likely to win, but there's some chance
25:50
Speaker 1: they punted and avoid the merits altogether. Perhaps I will
25:53
Speaker 1: be nicer to Chief Justice Roberts on this show for
25:56
Speaker 1: just the next couple of weeks to make sure this
25:58
Speaker 1: thing doesn't get thrown out on dural grounds, because that
26:02
Speaker 1: would be an interesting free speech case and we'll look
26:05
Speaker 1: forward to seeing it. Last question also has to do
26:08
Speaker 1: with the court. This is from Michael, who says, how
26:12
Speaker 1: do you believe the leak of the Alito opinion in
26:17
Speaker 1: the Dobbs case? How do you believe the Supreme Court
26:20
Speaker 1: leak will affect the midterm elections? And he has two hashtags.
26:24
Speaker 1: He says, hashtag verdict hashtag cruise twenty twenty four, just
26:28
Speaker 1: reading the whole message. So I don't know that the
26:30
Speaker 1: league itself has a significant impact on the midterms. I
26:34
Speaker 1: do think the League is a manifestation of how the
26:37
Speaker 1: Democrats are destroying our institutions, trying to burn them down,
26:41
Speaker 1: and in particular the degree to which the leftists are
26:44
Speaker 1: cheering it on and literally saying burn it down. I
26:48
Speaker 1: think that is beneficial for the midterms, and in terms
26:51
Speaker 1: of people realizing the radicals really are in charge of
26:55
Speaker 1: this party. It's it's not unlike the Antifa riots ins
27:00
Speaker 1: of just showing that these guys are extreme and crazy.
27:05
Speaker 1: In terms of the underlying decision, I think what is
27:09
Speaker 1: likely to be more consequential in the midterm is the
27:11
Speaker 1: decision itself and if the majority opinion continues to be
27:15
Speaker 1: the majority opinion, and if the outcome is that the
27:17
Speaker 1: Court does strike down roversus Wade. I can tell you
27:22
Speaker 1: Democrats in Washington are holding onto that as their Hail
27:24
Speaker 1: Mary chance to save the midterms. They believe that people
27:27
Speaker 1: will be horrified and that'll help them win. And I
27:30
Speaker 1: gotta tell you more than a few Republican senators are nervous.
27:34
Speaker 1: That's the case. There are several of us who are
27:38
Speaker 1: conservatives who've been trying to make the case to the
27:40
Speaker 1: nervous nellies in our conference It'll be okay, this is
27:43
Speaker 1: going to be fine. And I actually think it probably
27:49
Speaker 1: will not have much of an effect on the midterms,
27:52
Speaker 1: and to the extent it has an effect, it will
27:54
Speaker 1: be a positive effect. Here's why I think it will
27:57
Speaker 1: have less of an effect than the democratic strategist think
28:01
Speaker 1: because the people who are most dismayed about that are
28:03
Speaker 1: hard leftists that are clustered in bright blue states like
28:06
Speaker 1: New York California. Nothing's going to change in those states,
28:12
Speaker 1: at least for the immediate term. California is going to
28:16
Speaker 1: continue to allow unlimited abortion on demand. ROVERSUS weight is
28:19
Speaker 1: if it's struck down, California ain't changing their laws until
28:22
Speaker 1: we get new elected officials in California. And so I
28:26
Speaker 1: think the kind of angry leftists, many of whom are
28:31
Speaker 1: pretty ignorant and don't even know what overturning Row means.
28:35
Speaker 1: I think a month afterwards, are going to be surprised. Wait,
28:38
Speaker 1: nothing about my life changed in other parts of the
28:43
Speaker 1: country that are not bright blue and redder states, In
28:46
Speaker 1: states like Tennessee states like Texas, you're going to see
28:50
Speaker 1: some meaningful restrictions on abortion, and it's going to vary
28:53
Speaker 1: state by state how extensive those restrictions are. That is
29:00
Speaker 1: the Framer's view in the Constitution is to let the
29:03
Speaker 1: rules in each state reflect the values of the citizens
29:06
Speaker 1: of those states. But in the redder states, there are
29:10
Speaker 1: fewer people that are going to be horrified by that.
29:13
Speaker 1: And I think you're going to have a positive effect
29:18
Speaker 1: of people in the pro life community who have been
29:21
Speaker 1: fighting for this for fifty years being energized. And I
29:26
Speaker 1: am hopeful that that being energized is going to cause
29:29
Speaker 1: them to turn out and vote at the polls, and
29:32
Speaker 1: I think that could lead to an even bigger majority
29:35
Speaker 1: in the House and the Senate next year. Right. That's
29:38
Speaker 1: a great point because not only is nothing going to
29:41
Speaker 1: change in terms of abortion law in the most pro
29:44
Speaker 1: abortion places, but even if something did change and the
29:48
Speaker 1: Democrats were irate and steamwork coming out of their ears,
29:51
Speaker 1: nothing's going to change about whom they're electing, and nothing's
29:54
Speaker 1: going to change about the members of Congress or the
29:56
Speaker 1: Senators or anything else. That is a hopeful note to
30:00
Speaker 1: end on Senator that this case might not only come
30:04
Speaker 1: out with a good end for the pro life movement,
30:06
Speaker 1: but also might not hurt us at the pulse. Frankly,
30:08
Speaker 1: it might even might even help us. Before we go,
30:11
Speaker 1: we've got to bring on our friend Liz Wheeler, because
30:14
Speaker 1: you're not done yet, sir. We've finished our episode, but
30:16
Speaker 1: you've got an episode of cloak Room coming up. Liz,
30:19
Speaker 1: what are you going to talk about? Hi, Michael High,
30:21
Speaker 1: Senator Cruz, I know that we've been talking about this
30:25
Speaker 1: leaked draft majority opinion from the Supreme Court overturning Rovwade,
30:29
Speaker 1: or at leasted it does in this draft opinion. You
30:33
Speaker 1: guys have talked about it a lot, We've heard about
30:35
Speaker 1: it a lot, but there are more details that need
30:38
Speaker 1: to be discussed. So we are going to do a
30:39
Speaker 1: little investigative dive into who exactly might have leaked this opinion,
30:44
Speaker 1: how this might have happened, and whether the Supreme Court
30:48
Speaker 1: actually will overturn Roe v. Wade. So join us on
30:52
Speaker 1: the cloak Room on Verdict Plus. You can go to
30:54
Speaker 1: Verdict with Ted Cruise dot com slash plus. If you
30:57
Speaker 1: use my promo code, which as always is cloak Room,
31:00
Speaker 1: you can watch for free for a month on your
31:02
Speaker 1: annual subscription that is Verdict with Ted Cruise dot com
31:05
Speaker 1: slash Plus and your promo code is Cloakroom. It's going
31:09
Speaker 1: to be quite the discussion. I hope you'll join us, So, Michael, yes, Senator,
31:14
Speaker 1: in honor of Big Ciss, will you close us on
31:17
Speaker 1: a show tune? Senator? I absolutely will? And do you
31:22
Speaker 1: know why? Because I feel pretty and I feel witty.
31:27
Speaker 1: I feel pretty and witty and gay, and I pity
31:32
Speaker 1: any podcaster who isn't me today, I'm Michael Knowles. This
31:36
Speaker 1: is Verdict with Ted Cruz. This episode of Verdict with
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