Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / We Go Behind The Scenes Of The Senate Leadership Fight Over Mitch McConnell!

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We Go Behind The Scenes Of The Senate Leadership Fight Over Mitch McConnell! · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to Verdict with Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you
0:03
Speaker 1: and Senator. It is a very big moment that we're
0:08
Speaker 1: dealing with right now with Senate elections, also the shock
0:11
Speaker 1: happening in Poem with these missiles from Russia apparently, and
0:16
Speaker 1: we have the president's announcement for everyone if you missed it,
0:21
Speaker 1: here's what Donald Trump had to say about running for
0:23
Speaker 1: a third time for president. He used two words, I
0:26
Speaker 1: don't want to be Joe. It's two words American dream.
0:31
Speaker 1: That was not good what he did. There a lot
0:34
Speaker 1: of bad things, like going to Idaho and saying welcome
0:38
Speaker 1: to the state of Florida. I really love him. In
0:41
Speaker 1: order to make America great and glorious again, I am
0:44
Speaker 1: tonight announcing my candidacy for a president of the United States.
0:50
Speaker 1: I tell you, Senator, it was fun watching Donald Trump
0:54
Speaker 1: mocked Joe Biden right before those words. Tonight, I'm announcing
0:58
Speaker 1: my candidacy for the president night Ate America. We want
1:01
Speaker 1: to get your reaction to this. Well, listen, Joe Biden
1:05
Speaker 1: and the disaster of the last two years deserves mocking
1:08
Speaker 1: because it has been horrific. It's hurt the American people
1:11
Speaker 1: and all across the country people are suffering. I will
1:14
Speaker 1: say when Donald Trump was president, we accomplished tremendous things together.
1:19
Speaker 1: I worked with him every day. I think I was
1:22
Speaker 1: the strongest ally in the US Senate. And I'm really
1:25
Speaker 1: proud of the policy successes we had together in terms
1:29
Speaker 1: of peace and prosperity and people being lifted out of
1:33
Speaker 1: poverty into abundance. So all of that is where we
1:37
Speaker 1: need to move back. We need to get back to
1:39
Speaker 1: a common sense agenda and away from the disasters of
1:42
Speaker 1: the last two years. You mentioned disasters the last two years,
1:46
Speaker 1: and that brings us to this Senate vote. But before
1:49
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3:19
Speaker 1: code Verdict. Mitch McConnell now has an approval rating. The
3:24
Speaker 1: last number I just saw was a seven percent among Republicans.
3:27
Speaker 1: Seven percent, not a typo, not seventeen percent, not twenty
3:30
Speaker 1: seven percent. Seven percent. You have this rush that you
3:33
Speaker 1: warned Americans about just two days ago to make him
3:38
Speaker 1: in charge the Republican Party in the Senate. And now
3:41
Speaker 1: there are many people that have been calling their senators
3:43
Speaker 1: asking for there to be a delay in this vote.
3:45
Speaker 1: You were in the room, senators, only what happened. So
3:49
Speaker 1: yesterday we had a lunch. We have a lunch whenever
3:52
Speaker 1: we're in session. We have lunch together all the Republican
3:54
Speaker 1: Senators every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. But yesterday's lunch was unusual.
3:58
Speaker 1: It lasted three and a half hours, and we had
4:02
Speaker 1: as vigorous a debate as I've ever seen in the
4:05
Speaker 1: United States Senate. I have called publicly for delaying the
4:09
Speaker 1: leadership elections. I think we should delay them till after
4:13
Speaker 1: the Georgia runoff. The Georgia runoff is on December sixth.
4:17
Speaker 1: And the argument that I made in that room yesterday,
4:19
Speaker 1: as I said, look, number one, we don't know who's
4:22
Speaker 1: in our conference. George's not decided, and Alaska's not decided.
4:26
Speaker 1: They're still doing ranked choice voting, so we don't know
4:29
Speaker 1: who the next Senator from Alaska will be. And this
4:32
Speaker 1: is a serious contested election. This is a serious choice,
4:36
Speaker 1: and I think Herschel Walker and whoever the next Senator
4:42
Speaker 1: from Alaska is, either Lisa Murkowski or Kelly Chibaka, deserved
4:47
Speaker 1: to have a say in the leadership elections. But more fundamentally,
4:50
Speaker 1: it's not just about knowing the conference and knowing who's
4:53
Speaker 1: in it. We need to have a fundamental debate about
4:58
Speaker 1: the direction of the Republican Conference and about Republican leadership. Listen,
5:04
Speaker 1: I'm pissed off. Millions of Americans are pissed off because
5:08
Speaker 1: election Day should have been an historic victory for Republicans.
5:13
Speaker 1: We should have won a majority in the Senate, we
5:15
Speaker 1: should have won a huge majority in the House, and
5:18
Speaker 1: we didn't. The Democrats kept the Senate and we have
5:22
Speaker 1: a tiny, tiny majority in the House. And that was
5:25
Speaker 1: a cluster. That was a colossal screw up, And any
5:30
Speaker 1: rational organization, any irrational group, would sit and assess, Okay,
5:36
Speaker 1: what went wrong? What did we do wrong? And what
5:39
Speaker 1: do we need to do differently? And so what I
5:41
Speaker 1: stood up and I made this case to my colleagues.
5:44
Speaker 1: And I'm going to refrain from telling you what other
5:46
Speaker 1: senators said, because I think it's their prerogative to say
5:49
Speaker 1: what they said. But I'm gonna tell you what I said,
5:52
Speaker 1: here's what I said. I said, Number one, this blown
5:56
Speaker 1: opportunity is historic. It is a screw up, and we
6:00
Speaker 1: need to have a serious discussion about why. I said.
6:03
Speaker 1: Number two. Leadership wants to blame Donald Trump. That's their
6:08
Speaker 1: talking point is it's all Trump's fault. It's all Trump's fault. Now,
6:12
Speaker 1: there's lots of blame to go around, and all sorts
6:15
Speaker 1: of people bear some of the blame. But the idea
6:18
Speaker 1: that Mitch McConnell and Republican leadership have no portion of
6:22
Speaker 1: the blame, I think, frankly, is ludicrous. And what I
6:26
Speaker 1: argue to my colleagues is, I said, listen, I've been
6:29
Speaker 1: in the Senate now ten years. This is the sixth
6:32
Speaker 1: leadership election I've ever been in. Every single leadership election
6:38
Speaker 1: is not actually a debate at a choice over who
6:42
Speaker 1: should be leader. Mitch McConnell's never been challenged in the
6:45
Speaker 1: time i've been in there in every instance. And we
6:48
Speaker 1: have five new, brand newly elected Republican Senators. All five
6:52
Speaker 1: of them were there in the lunch. It was actually
6:53
Speaker 1: the first lunch they've ever attended. So they came in
6:56
Speaker 1: and it was an epic gladiatorial battle for the first lunch,
7:00
Speaker 1: we were all joking sort of welcome to the Senate,
7:02
Speaker 1: a very very functional body. But what I told him is,
7:08
Speaker 1: I said, listen, I remember ten years ago when I
7:10
Speaker 1: was newly elected, and it was the year Obama was reelected.
7:13
Speaker 1: It was a big Democrat year. There were only three
7:15
Speaker 1: new Republicans who've gotten elected. We had a tiny freshman class.
7:20
Speaker 1: And I go to leadership elections and deliberately they schedule
7:23
Speaker 1: leadership elections just a few days after the election because
7:26
Speaker 1: they want the freshman not to know what they're doing,
7:29
Speaker 1: to be still in their brand new basement offices, not
7:32
Speaker 1: to know where the men's room is. And the idea
7:35
Speaker 1: is they can't possibly vote against leadership because they're so
7:38
Speaker 1: brand new. And what I described to the freshman, I
7:42
Speaker 1: said that first election, I stood there and I assumed, oh, okay,
7:45
Speaker 1: leadership is going to tell me what their vision is
7:47
Speaker 1: going forward. And you know, you think about it when
7:52
Speaker 1: you know in junior high or high school, when someone
7:55
Speaker 1: was running for student council, the candidate would stand up
7:59
Speaker 1: and give a speech and say, here's what I want
8:01
Speaker 1: to do. If you elect me to student council, if
8:03
Speaker 1: you elect me class president, I'm going to have free
8:06
Speaker 1: chocolate putting in the cafeteria. And if you're like, oh,
8:09
Speaker 1: I want free chocolate putting, okay, I vote for so
8:11
Speaker 1: and so I kind of expected that. The bizarre thing
8:14
Speaker 1: is the United States Senate doesn't do that. Instead, what happens,
8:18
Speaker 1: and this has happened every single time now for ten years,
8:22
Speaker 1: is you have a series of senators that gives speeches
8:25
Speaker 1: nominating Mitch McConnell and they describe how Mitch McConnell is
8:29
Speaker 1: the greatest and most handsome and most eloquent and wise
8:32
Speaker 1: human being you have ever lived. And then Mitch stands
8:38
Speaker 1: up says thank you, I appreciate it, and the entire
8:41
Speaker 1: conference votes to accept and by acclamation. So there's so
8:45
Speaker 1: there's no actual vote, there's no discussion, there's no agenda,
8:48
Speaker 1: and it's bizarre. And what I argued to my colleagues yesterday,
8:52
Speaker 1: as I said, listen, leadership is not accountable to us.
8:55
Speaker 1: There's no agenda, there's no proposal. And I said, listen,
9:00
Speaker 1: if you look at these election results, we screwed up.
9:03
Speaker 1: The conference screwed up, and we ought to ask why.
9:06
Speaker 1: And I said, I believe I know why, which is
9:09
Speaker 1: over the last two years, leadership's agenda has been to
9:15
Speaker 1: unify the Democrats and divide the Republicans. There was bill
9:18
Speaker 1: after bill after bill that at every single Democrat on
9:21
Speaker 1: it and anywhere from ten to fifteen Republicans, and they
9:27
Speaker 1: passed Joe Biden's legislative agenda one after the other after
9:30
Speaker 1: the other. And I put it out. I said, look,
9:32
Speaker 1: the Democrats don't do that. The Democrats we had a
9:37
Speaker 1: Republican Senate. You know how many bills were passed in
9:40
Speaker 1: that Republican Senate with all the Republicans and ten to
9:43
Speaker 1: fifteen Democrats. Zero none. The Democrats actually have discipline to
9:48
Speaker 1: say we don't support your agenda and we will block it.
9:51
Speaker 1: And I said, we have a reason to ask, why
9:54
Speaker 1: does our leadership want to stand up and pass the
10:00
Speaker 1: amocratic agenda? I also pointed, I said, look, for the
10:02
Speaker 1: last two years, we had a fifty fifty Senate, the
10:04
Speaker 1: most narrow Senate imaginable. We won zero conservative victories because
10:10
Speaker 1: our leadership would not use the leverage to get anything.
10:15
Speaker 1: And I asked our leadership, I said, it's perfectly reasonable
10:19
Speaker 1: for the conference to ask what are you willing to
10:24
Speaker 1: fight on? And maybe the ANSWER's nothing, but we got
10:28
Speaker 1: the next two years. Now, in the minority, there are
10:32
Speaker 1: only two lever points that the minority has to force
10:36
Speaker 1: a fight. One is government funding, either continuing resolution or
10:39
Speaker 1: an omnibus. The other is the debt sailing. Those are
10:43
Speaker 1: the two things that take sixty votes to pass, and
10:46
Speaker 1: they're the only places historically that a minority has been
10:49
Speaker 1: able to get leverage to get the majority to agree
10:53
Speaker 1: to concessions. Now, the view of Mitch McConnell over the
10:58
Speaker 1: last two years, and I said, listen, we need to
11:00
Speaker 1: have a real discussion. Is there's something we're willing to
11:03
Speaker 1: fight on. I said, Look, we're getting ready to take
11:07
Speaker 1: up the NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act. Are we
11:11
Speaker 1: willing to fight to say no service man or women
11:15
Speaker 1: can be fired because they declined to take the COVID vaccine?
11:19
Speaker 1: I believe yes. But we will only have a chance
11:23
Speaker 1: in that fight if Republicans will stand together and say
11:27
Speaker 1: we will not give you sixty votes to take this
11:29
Speaker 1: up if we're not. If ten Republicans will say, oh,
11:33
Speaker 1: we're going to give you the votes, then you know what,
11:35
Speaker 1: Seal Team six, you're screwed. You're getting fired by Joe
11:38
Speaker 1: Biden and the Democrats because Republicans were not willing to fight.
11:42
Speaker 1: I said, sorry, it's fun, go ahead. No. Something that
11:45
Speaker 1: I think was so shocking was Mitch McConnell had his
11:47
Speaker 1: press conference and you mentioned this, and for a guy
11:51
Speaker 1: that apparently has a higher approval rating in the Senate
11:54
Speaker 1: that he does with the rest of the American people,
11:56
Speaker 1: it was very interesting to see the way that he
11:59
Speaker 1: described his own party and he said this. Candidates knew
12:04
Speaker 1: what they before expressed it quite clearly. It's pretty obvious,
12:10
Speaker 1: and all of you've been writing about it. What happened.
12:13
Speaker 1: We underperformed among independents and moderates because their impression of
12:19
Speaker 1: many of the people in our party and leadership roles
12:22
Speaker 1: is that they're engolgd in chaos, negativity, excessive attacks, and
12:30
Speaker 1: it frightened independent and modern Republican voters. I mean, that's
12:36
Speaker 1: what he thought about hardcore conservative candidates. Make no mistake,
12:39
Speaker 1: he's talking in code there, but what he's basically saying
12:43
Speaker 1: is if you found more Mitch McConnell's and guys like
12:46
Speaker 1: me that don't stand up to the Democrats, more of
12:48
Speaker 1: us could have gotten elected. But it was the party's fault.
12:52
Speaker 1: On the Conservatives. That is, he describes it the sent
12:55
Speaker 1: up for this country, the Senate for a secure boarder
12:57
Speaker 1: that stand up for balanced Budge amendments. He says, that
13:00
Speaker 1: is you being involved in chaos and excessive negative attacks.
13:04
Speaker 1: He says, that's the reason why we lost the opportunity
13:08
Speaker 1: to win back the Senate. So, look, Mitch McConnell believes
13:11
Speaker 1: if you fight the Democrats, if you fight the socialists,
13:13
Speaker 1: if you fight the cultural Marxists who are destroying this country,
13:17
Speaker 1: and you actually fight to win, that you're being what
13:20
Speaker 1: was the language you used to VISs, If you're being
13:22
Speaker 1: mean that to show your mature you should just surrender
13:26
Speaker 1: the country and roll over. And what I raised to
13:29
Speaker 1: my colleagues, I said, for Pete's sake, look, I don't
13:32
Speaker 1: think you should fight everything. If you fight a thousand
13:35
Speaker 1: things all at once, you're you're not actually fighting anything.
13:38
Speaker 1: You should set priorities. You should pick a couple of
13:41
Speaker 1: big fights that really matter and stand up and draw
13:44
Speaker 1: a line in the sand and say this is what
13:47
Speaker 1: we stand for. So, like I suggested, we're not going
13:50
Speaker 1: to pass the National Defense Authorization Act if you're firing
13:54
Speaker 1: American heroes just because they didn't succumb to your demand
13:58
Speaker 1: that they get the COVID vaccine. That's a good fight
14:00
Speaker 1: to have. How about a fight to say, we're not
14:02
Speaker 1: going to fund the eighty seven thousand new i RS
14:04
Speaker 1: agents that the Democrats just passed to harass and attack
14:08
Speaker 1: the American citizens. We're not going to fund it. Now,
14:11
Speaker 1: here's what's going to happen if we say we're not
14:12
Speaker 1: going to fund it. Joe Biden and the White House
14:15
Speaker 1: are going to say, you mean, Republicans are shutting down
14:18
Speaker 1: the government. And the press is going to say, you mean,
14:21
Speaker 1: Republicans are shutting down the government. And if passed this prologue,
14:24
Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell is going to say, you mean, Republicans are
14:27
Speaker 1: shutting down the government. Our leadership echoes the message of
14:31
Speaker 1: the Democrats and the left. And I just raised I said, look,
14:37
Speaker 1: the conference has a right to know. Is there anything
14:41
Speaker 1: Is there one issue that you give it damn enough
14:45
Speaker 1: about that you're willing to say we will use the
14:50
Speaker 1: levers of legislative power. We have to fight to win.
14:53
Speaker 1: And as I said, the two historically have been either
14:57
Speaker 1: funding the continuing resolution of the OMNIBU or the debt
15:01
Speaker 1: ceiling and by the way, history has shown those levers work. So,
15:05
Speaker 1: for example, the Budget Control Act in twenty ten, Republicans
15:09
Speaker 1: came in the Tea Party wave and they said, we're
15:12
Speaker 1: not going to fund everything, and Obama scream, you're shutting
15:15
Speaker 1: down the government. You're shutting down the government. But actually,
15:18
Speaker 1: for a moment, Republicans discovered a backbone, and the Budget
15:22
Speaker 1: Control Act resulted in the greatest fiscal restraint you and
15:26
Speaker 1: I have seen in our lifetime. And they did it
15:29
Speaker 1: in a fight over the debt ceiling. Go back previously,
15:33
Speaker 1: Graham Rudman. Graham Rudman was the most significant long term
15:38
Speaker 1: spending restraint that has ever passed into law. They did
15:42
Speaker 1: it in a fight over the debt ceiling, where they said,
15:44
Speaker 1: we're not going to let you raise the debt ceiling
15:46
Speaker 1: unless you do something to stop the out of control
15:49
Speaker 1: spending that's driving inflation, that's driving this out of control debt.
15:53
Speaker 1: What is different, Ben, is our leadership believes there is
15:58
Speaker 1: nothing worth act actually fighting for, that we should surrender
16:02
Speaker 1: on everything. And I put it out, I said, look,
16:05
Speaker 1: we ought to have this very real debate. I also
16:07
Speaker 1: put it out there's a reason why most Republicans don't
16:12
Speaker 1: get amendments on bills because our leaders Mitch McConnell and
16:17
Speaker 1: Chuck Schumer block amendments on bills, which means they draft
16:22
Speaker 1: all the spending bills, they drop them on the Senate
16:25
Speaker 1: with an hour's notice. We don't even get to read
16:27
Speaker 1: them because they're thousands of pages and they give it
16:29
Speaker 1: to you as a take it or leave it proposition.
16:32
Speaker 1: I said, the Senate used to operate with freedom of amendment. Historically,
16:38
Speaker 1: the two prerogatives of a senator were unlimited debate and
16:42
Speaker 1: unlimited amendment. And I described to folks, I said, look,
16:46
Speaker 1: many of y'all didn't know some of the old bulls
16:48
Speaker 1: of the Senator have retired, people like Lamar Alexander. I
16:51
Speaker 1: know Lamar well. Lamar described to me a Senate where
16:55
Speaker 1: he said, the Senate majority leader would take up a bill,
16:57
Speaker 1: whatever bill was on the floor, and would say we're
17:00
Speaker 1: going to go through all the amendments, and senators would
17:03
Speaker 1: fire file three hundred amendments, and the majority of leaders say, fine,
17:08
Speaker 1: we're gonna start working through them. And you'd work through
17:11
Speaker 1: a few, work through a few, and then you'd get
17:13
Speaker 1: to about Thursday afternoon, and the phrase they use in
17:16
Speaker 1: the senators. Jet fumes get in the air, which means
17:19
Speaker 1: senators start wanting to go home to their states, and
17:22
Speaker 1: suddenly the three hundred amendments would become a hundred amendments
17:25
Speaker 1: would have come fifty amends to become thirty amendents because
17:27
Speaker 1: people would say, Wow, I don't need my amendment vote
17:29
Speaker 1: on I want to get home. And then the majority
17:32
Speaker 1: leader would move through and process the thirty amendments that remained,
17:35
Speaker 1: and they'd finish Thursday night or Friday afternoon or Friday
17:39
Speaker 1: night or Saturday, but they'd finish and everyone would get
17:42
Speaker 1: an amendment. You wonder how you get these multi trillion
17:45
Speaker 1: dollars spending bills? How you stop them? Well, you allow amendments,
17:48
Speaker 1: and you allow people to force amendments saying don't spend
17:50
Speaker 1: on this, don't spend on this, don't spend on this,
17:52
Speaker 1: and you force votes on everything. But our leadership doesn't
17:56
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Speaker 1: five five three two and now back to the podcast. Senator,
19:24
Speaker 1: let's talk real quick about this part of this press conference.
19:28
Speaker 1: And I pulled this because I watched the whole thing
19:30
Speaker 1: on c SPAN and there was a moment where Mitch
19:33
Speaker 1: McConnell and it just seemed like it was the good
19:36
Speaker 1: old boys club at work, where there was zero concern
19:41
Speaker 1: that he was not going to be the leader, even
19:44
Speaker 1: though only seven percent of Republicans support him as these
19:48
Speaker 1: new poll numbers. But this is what he said, kind
19:51
Speaker 1: of laughing at the idea of anyone challenging him on anything. Well,
19:55
Speaker 1: as you notice, we had a rather lengthy and fulsome
19:57
Speaker 1: discussion not only of the election but the way forward.
20:03
Speaker 1: And I think it's pretty obvious we may or may
20:08
Speaker 1: not be voting tomorrow, but I think the outcome is
20:19
Speaker 1: pretty clear. I want to repeat again, I have the votes.
20:24
Speaker 1: I will be elected. The only issue is whether we
20:28
Speaker 1: do it sooner or later. And I think we'll probably
20:31
Speaker 1: have another discussion about that tomorrow. It's almost like the
20:37
Speaker 1: fixes in he's basically saying, I'm your guy, whether it's
20:40
Speaker 1: now or later, if we wait till walk or gets here,
20:42
Speaker 1: if he wins or not, and I have the votes,
20:45
Speaker 1: and if you want to be on my list people
20:49
Speaker 1: to never get anything done the Senate, or never have
20:51
Speaker 1: my friendship, or never work with me on anything, be blackballed,
20:55
Speaker 1: go ahead and do it. I dare you, because quote
20:57
Speaker 1: I have the votes, whether it's now or later. Well,
21:02
Speaker 1: that is very much as approach I gotta say. Mitch
21:04
Speaker 1: got up and what he focused on entirely was money
21:08
Speaker 1: in his superpacket, over three hundred million dollars in there.
21:11
Speaker 1: So his initial speech, he got up and he pointed
21:13
Speaker 1: to the new guys and he said, I spent thirty
21:15
Speaker 1: million dollars for you. I spent forty million dollars for you.
21:17
Speaker 1: I spent fifty million dollars for you. That was the
21:19
Speaker 1: whole speech, which is basically it's like the Godfather going,
21:25
Speaker 1: you know, I did a favor for you, and there's
21:31
Speaker 1: gonna come a time, and it may be today, it
21:34
Speaker 1: maybe tomorrow when I'm gonna ask for a favor back.
21:38
Speaker 1: That's basically what he stood up and said. I saw
21:41
Speaker 1: it's also a threat there in your future career because
21:43
Speaker 1: you and I talked about this the other day, and
21:45
Speaker 1: you had the most expensive Senate race in history of
21:49
Speaker 1: the US Senate, and zero dollars came in from Mitch
21:51
Speaker 1: McConnell when you were running against beat too in the
21:53
Speaker 1: Senate a couple of years ago. In other words, you
21:56
Speaker 1: want any of this mine in the future, you're better
21:58
Speaker 1: get in line and vote for me, aka the votes,
22:00
Speaker 1: whether it's an hour or later. And if you don't,
22:02
Speaker 1: you'll never get a dime for me, even I'm in
22:05
Speaker 1: your own party. Yep, he spent zero dollars on my
22:08
Speaker 1: race despite having the most expensive Senate race in US
22:11
Speaker 1: history at the time. In twenty sixteen, he spent zero
22:14
Speaker 1: dollars on Ron Johnson's race, despite it being an incredibly
22:17
Speaker 1: contentious race where Ron pulled it out but did it
22:19
Speaker 1: entirely without Mitch McConnell's health. He spent zero dollars on
22:23
Speaker 1: Mike Lee's race this cycle, despite the fact that he
22:26
Speaker 1: faced a very real race. If you're a conservative and
22:29
Speaker 1: you stand up to Mitch, you get zeroed out. He
22:32
Speaker 1: pulled the cash out from Blake Masters in Arizona, arguably
22:36
Speaker 1: cost us winning the Arizona seat. He pulled the cash
22:39
Speaker 1: out from General Bulldock in New Hampshire potentially cost us
22:43
Speaker 1: that seat as well, and so it is it is
22:48
Speaker 1: all about cash and power, and my view is we
22:55
Speaker 1: ought to actually have leadership that lays out a vision
22:59
Speaker 1: of what we stand for. And by the way, so
23:01
Speaker 1: the way this works is there where I don't know
23:04
Speaker 1: about twenty senators who spoke, and about half the senators
23:10
Speaker 1: we're raising concerns about leadership and arguing for delaying delaying
23:16
Speaker 1: the vote, which is I think clearly the right thing
23:18
Speaker 1: to do. The other half the senators are allies of
23:22
Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell, and they stood up and gave speeches. We've
23:25
Speaker 1: got to vote tomorrow and it's incredibly important we re
23:27
Speaker 1: elect Mitch. And so one of the talking points they
23:31
Speaker 1: used is they said, Georgia Herschel walker, because we want
23:35
Speaker 1: Herschel to win, we need to all immediately vote for
23:38
Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell. And I gotta say I stood up and
23:41
Speaker 1: I said, Okay, that is the dumbest argument I've ever heard.
23:45
Speaker 1: I was just down in George. I did the first
23:48
Speaker 1: big rally in the runoff with Herschel. You want to
23:51
Speaker 1: talk about how to demoralize conservatives in Georgia. Have all
23:55
Speaker 1: of us come back today and say, you know what,
23:58
Speaker 1: we got clovered in this election, but we learned nothing,
24:01
Speaker 1: and we're going to reelect the exact same leadership and
24:03
Speaker 1: do the same failed policies that didn't work for the
24:05
Speaker 1: last two years, because charge ahead, and never mind that
24:10
Speaker 1: we're actually going to stand for something, and I'll point
24:12
Speaker 1: out something else. Well. And it's not just that though.
24:14
Speaker 1: It also sends a message to voters that we've already
24:18
Speaker 1: moved on past and accepted quote defeat. And so it
24:23
Speaker 1: really doesn't matter if you give, you work, your door knock,
24:28
Speaker 1: you make phone calls, you do whatever it is on
24:32
Speaker 1: herschel Walker's campaign, because Washington has already admitted defeat and
24:36
Speaker 1: we just move on. Well, and there's another argument I made.
24:39
Speaker 1: I said, you want an example of this right now,
24:42
Speaker 1: the Democrats this week are prepared to take up their
24:45
Speaker 1: bill embracing gay marriage, and they planned to pass it
24:50
Speaker 1: with all the Democrats, and there's a very good chance
24:52
Speaker 1: you'll get at least ten Republicans supporting them. I said,
24:55
Speaker 1: you people say you want to win Georgia, you want
24:59
Speaker 1: the Republicans in the Senate to embrace gay marriage, and
25:02
Speaker 1: By the way, it's not just gay marriage. This bill
25:06
Speaker 1: is designed to empower the Biden Irs to go after churches,
25:13
Speaker 1: to go after universities, to go after schools K through
25:16
Speaker 1: twelve schools, to go after charities, Christian charities, Jewish charities,
25:23
Speaker 1: Muslim charities, any charity that believes marriage is the union
25:28
Speaker 1: of one man and one woman. Any charity that does
25:31
Speaker 1: not embrace same sex marriage. This bill is designed to
25:35
Speaker 1: strip their five oh one C three status, to persecute
25:39
Speaker 1: the churches and universities and schools and charities. And I said,
25:44
Speaker 1: you think you're helping herschel Walker by kicking Evangelical Christians
25:49
Speaker 1: and Georgia in the teeth. You ought to call this
25:52
Speaker 1: whole damn thing an in kind contribution to Raphael Warnock
25:56
Speaker 1: because it's designed to drive down our turnout. Now they
25:59
Speaker 1: don't want to engage in that. In our leadership, God forbid,
26:03
Speaker 1: would actually try to stop a bill that unifies all
26:08
Speaker 1: the Democrats. One hundred percent of the Democrats support it,
26:11
Speaker 1: and that divides our party brutally. That doesn't make any
26:15
Speaker 1: sense to me, And it's why we need leadership that
26:18
Speaker 1: is actually trying to fight and win instead of trying
26:23
Speaker 1: to find ways to acquiesce and roll over to Democrats. Well,
26:28
Speaker 1: let's talk about money very quickly. Was there any guarantees
26:32
Speaker 1: from Mitch McConnell that he was going to open his
26:35
Speaker 1: purse strings to his war chest to help in this
26:40
Speaker 1: runoff election in Georgia. Oh, look, he'll spend money in Georgia.
26:44
Speaker 1: Of course they will, because it Georgia matters, and he
26:48
Speaker 1: will spend money in Georgia. But what he's not interested
26:51
Speaker 1: in doing is changing how leadership occurs. Now, let me
26:56
Speaker 1: give you some good news on this, Ben, I've been
26:59
Speaker 1: in the Senate ten years. We have never had a
27:03
Speaker 1: discussion about leadership like we just had yesterday, a three
27:08
Speaker 1: and a half hour, bare knuckles, serious discussion of the
27:13
Speaker 1: failures of leadership and how we need to do better.
27:16
Speaker 1: That's a step forward. I'm encouraged by that. This morning,
27:20
Speaker 1: at nine thirty, we're going to go and have leadership elections.
27:23
Speaker 1: They will be in the historic Senate Chamber in the Capitol.
27:28
Speaker 1: The very first thing that will happen, I will stand
27:30
Speaker 1: up and I will make a motion to delay the
27:34
Speaker 1: elections until after the Georgia runoff. I don't know whether
27:38
Speaker 1: it will pass or not. They're about ten Senators Usseau
27:42
Speaker 1: who have publicly supported delaying the election. They're about ten
27:47
Speaker 1: Senators Husseau publicly opposed it. The remaining thirty ish Republican
27:53
Speaker 1: senators haven't said. Mitch seems serenely confident that he has
28:01
Speaker 1: the votes, and it is true that almost all of
28:05
Speaker 1: my colleagues are dependent on Mitch for their campaign cash,
28:08
Speaker 1: so maybe he has the votes. Some of my colleagues
28:11
Speaker 1: are resting serene saying, well, the vote will be a
28:15
Speaker 1: secret ballot, so I won't be held accountable for how
28:19
Speaker 1: I vote. Well, I'll tell you what I'm going to
28:22
Speaker 1: tell people how I vote. I'm going to vote to
28:24
Speaker 1: delay the elections. And everyone who votes to do that
28:29
Speaker 1: will tell the press and tell their constituents how they vote.
28:32
Speaker 1: Which means any senator who says I'm not going to
28:34
Speaker 1: tell you how they vote, they just told you how
28:37
Speaker 1: they voted. They voted not to delay the election. They
28:39
Speaker 1: voted with Mitch, and I think that is an unfortunate vote.
28:46
Speaker 1: I hope that the majority takes the reasonable decision delays
28:51
Speaker 1: the election and doesn't just do it, not just to
28:54
Speaker 1: give herschel Walker and whoever the senator is from Alaska
28:57
Speaker 1: the opportunity to participate, but in order to have a
29:00
Speaker 1: month long debate about as a conference, how do we
29:05
Speaker 1: want to operate? Do we want to be a one
29:08
Speaker 1: person dictatorship or do we want members of the conference
29:13
Speaker 1: to actually have input in Okay, this issue matters enough
29:17
Speaker 1: to fight, let's fight together. I don't know how that'll
29:20
Speaker 1: play out, but we will find out later today. Well, lastly,
29:23
Speaker 1: on this issue, for people that are listening that do
29:25
Speaker 1: still want to get in the fight, how important it
29:28
Speaker 1: is for them to call their senators? Is that going
29:30
Speaker 1: to make an impact? Can it still make an impact
29:33
Speaker 1: to call your senator right now and say I want
29:35
Speaker 1: you to delay this leadership vote until after the special
29:40
Speaker 1: or after the runoff in Georgia. Well, i'll tell you
29:43
Speaker 1: the window we're vote. We are meeting to vote, and
29:46
Speaker 1: nine thirty Wednesday morning. So if you're listening to this
29:50
Speaker 1: after nine thirty on Wednesday morning, East Coast time, and
29:53
Speaker 1: most people will be listening to this after nine thirty
29:56
Speaker 1: Wednesday morning, it's probably too late to call your senators
30:00
Speaker 1: at that point because we're going to be physically in
30:03
Speaker 1: the room casting the votes. I will say this has
30:07
Speaker 1: been an important fight to have and I will tell
30:09
Speaker 1: you in the middle of it. So leadership spent a
30:13
Speaker 1: lot of time trying to blame number one, Donald Trump,
30:16
Speaker 1: but number two trying to really stick it to Rick Scott,
30:19
Speaker 1: who was the head of the NRSC, the National Republican
30:22
Speaker 1: Senatorial Committee. And I called out leadership. I said, listen,
30:27
Speaker 1: it is staff for the Republican leader who is planting
30:31
Speaker 1: article after article in the press slamming Rick Scott because
30:36
Speaker 1: they want to blame Rick Scott and say it's all
30:37
Speaker 1: Rick Scott's fault and not Mitch McConnell's. And I said,
30:43
Speaker 1: for one thing, why is the Republican leader spending more
30:46
Speaker 1: time attacking Republicans in the conference than Democrats? Like that
30:51
Speaker 1: is not kosher, That is not playing fair to plant
30:56
Speaker 1: nasty stories slamming the people that you allegedly represent and
31:02
Speaker 1: are working for. But I think that helped proud Rick.
31:09
Speaker 1: So at the lunch she stood up and said, Okay,
31:12
Speaker 1: I'm gonna run. And so Rick is announced that he
31:15
Speaker 1: intends to run for Majority leader today. So starting at
31:20
Speaker 1: nine thirty this morning, I assume Mitch is going to
31:23
Speaker 1: give some form of a speech saying why Republicans should
31:27
Speaker 1: vote for him and then Rick Scott. Rick is promising
31:31
Speaker 1: to run a more collaborative leadership, to actually listen to members,
31:35
Speaker 1: to take the views of the conference, and follow the
31:41
Speaker 1: views of the conference, rather than just dropping multi thousand
31:44
Speaker 1: page spending bills on the conference an hour before ahead
31:48
Speaker 1: of time and giving it as a take it or
31:50
Speaker 1: leave it. I don't know how that outcome will resolve.
31:53
Speaker 1: I think the odds are high Mitch McConnell gets reelected.
31:57
Speaker 1: Why because he's the biggest owner to almost every single
32:01
Speaker 1: member in the conference. But it's an exercise of money
32:04
Speaker 1: and brute power. And I do think this election is
32:08
Speaker 1: significant because I'll tell you every member of the Republican
32:11
Speaker 1: Conference when he or she goes home to their home states,
32:16
Speaker 1: is going to be asked by the voters, who did
32:20
Speaker 1: you vote for? And looks it's no secret I'm not
32:27
Speaker 1: going to vote to re elect Mitch McConnell because I
32:30
Speaker 1: think the current model hasn't worked. Yeah, it's broken, and
32:35
Speaker 1: the American people, I think, obviously are with you. With
32:37
Speaker 1: a approval rating of seven percent of momor Republicans. That's
32:40
Speaker 1: where Mitch McConnell is right now. And ben one important
32:44
Speaker 1: thing to keep in mind. The way I have laid
32:48
Speaker 1: out this case among the conference. I haven't been personal,
32:52
Speaker 1: I haven't been nasty. I haven't been attacking Mitch McConnell personally.
32:56
Speaker 1: What I've been saying is the American people have elected us,
33:00
Speaker 1: expecting us to stand and fight, expecting us to actually
33:05
Speaker 1: give a damn about what we told the voters we
33:07
Speaker 1: would give a damn about and lead smart strategic fights.
33:11
Speaker 1: And my complaint is we haven't been doing that. My
33:15
Speaker 1: complaint is about the substance of the leadership. It's not
33:17
Speaker 1: a personal attack. It's that we need to behave differently
33:21
Speaker 1: if we're going to win these fights. Let me tell
33:24
Speaker 1: you something amazing, Ben, The Democrats leadership election is the
33:29
Speaker 1: second week of December, so they've delayed their own leadership
33:32
Speaker 1: election till after the Georgia runoffs. How in the hell
33:36
Speaker 1: is it the case that the Republican leadership respects the
33:41
Speaker 1: voters less than Chuck friggin Schumer. Yeah, that makes no sense. Well,
33:46
Speaker 1: it goes back to the fix that's in And you
33:48
Speaker 1: could hear him McConnell's voice saying, I have the votes.
33:51
Speaker 1: I have the votes, whether it's an hour or later,
33:54
Speaker 1: I have the Votes Center. It's really fun to get
33:59
Speaker 1: them behind. This means look here what actually happens when
34:03
Speaker 1: it comes to McConnell. And this is why I love
34:05
Speaker 1: doing this podcast with you. For anyone listening, make sure
34:08
Speaker 1: you hit that share button, hit that subscriber auto download button.
34:11
Speaker 1: You get the show for free three days a week.
34:13
Speaker 1: When you do that automatically on your device, you can
34:16
Speaker 1: also tell Alexa or Surrey at any point play Verdict
34:19
Speaker 1: with Ted Cruz and it will play it automatically for you,
34:22
Speaker 1: and we will see you back here on Friday morning.