Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Musk becomes Liberal's Public Enemy #1, Georgia Election Turning Heads & College Sports Bill a Reality Week In Review

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Musk becomes Liberal's Public Enemy #1, Georgia Election Turning Heads & College Sports Bill a Reality Week In Review · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome.
• 0:00
  Speaker 2: It is Verdict with Ted Cruz week in Review, Ben
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Ferguson with you, and here are some of the stories
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: that you may have missed that we talked about this
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: past week. First up, Elon Musk becomes enemy number one
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: by the Democrats. Why because he's successful and it becomes
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: the first trillionaire in the world's history. So what do
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: they want to do. Well, they want to steal all
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: his money, and we break that down for you. Also,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: a big election night result in Georgia and what does
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: it mean looking ahead to the midterms. We break it
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: down for you. And finally, a bill that is actually
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: moving through Congress that is now quite possibly going to
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: save college sports forever. It's the Weekend Review and it
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: starts right now. By the way, that's the liberals are
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: all they're going to hear from the show. I want
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: to be very clear. Twenty minutes in, is you said
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: that Elon must it be carved into Mount Rushmore, that
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: will be the headline.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: I just want to predict that right now, but keep going.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: It may well be. Although what I said is that
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: if the leftists believed what they said, they should carve
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: itv they should be doing to do because there is
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: literally no human being who has existed in the history
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: of humanity who has done more for electric vehicles than
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: Elon Musk. But you know what, they hate him now
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: you know how he could change that. Do you know
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: whose wealth they're not calling to confiscate George Soros?
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Oh, of course not.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: No, no, if you're a lam artist, if you pay,
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: he's a massive billionaire. By the way, he made his
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: money on arbitraging currency, on essentially betting and bankrupting lots
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: of people. He made his money in a very very
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: cynical way, shorting the British pound and causing enormous devastation.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: That's quite different from how Elon made his money building
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: companies that employ thousands of thousands of people, innovating and
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: transph forming the world. But you know what, the Left
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: loves George Soros because he funds their Marxist ideology.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Look a look at Plattner, who we've talked about.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Platner's biggest donors are four different multi billionaires, and they'll
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: sit up there saying the oligark no oligarchs is on
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: their sign, and those signs are literally being paid for
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: by billionaires.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: That's like hypocrisy. One I won.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: And by the way, Bernie Sanders and AOC's No Oligo
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: Gark Tour, they flew in private jets from stop to
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: stop to stop. So you get off your private jet
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: and say, oligarchs are terrible. Yeah, And I don't know
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: if you saw it was very funny. But Bernie was
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: doing an interview h and asked, well, well, Bernie, how
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: did you become a millionaire? And he said, oh, by
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: writing anti capitalist books, which so he.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Was capitalism caused him to become a millionaire, which he
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: was writing books against.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: Look, there's a principle here that I think is really
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: important for folks listening to Verdict to understand. The beauty
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: of free enterprise is the way you succeed is by
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: making others succeed. Let's take Tesla as an example. If
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: Elon made crappy cars, they didn't work, they were ugly,
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: if they were slow, they broke down a lot. Nobody
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: would buy them. And you know what, if nobody buys
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: his cars, he doesn't make any money. He goes broke.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: Like free enterprises is ruthlessly efficient. If you can't solve
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: a problem and improve people's lives, not only do you
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: not make money you had a business, how do you
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: make a ton of money? You make a product people
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: like that is better than the alternatives in the market
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: that people are willing to pay for and they're happy for.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: You look at whether it is SpaceX, whether it is Xai,
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: whether it is Starlink, whether it is Tesla, whether it
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: is the Boring Company. The Boring Company is just getting started.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: But the ability to build tunnels, I think that's another
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: one that he's filling a knee that doesn't exist in
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: the market. And I think for those who in terms
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: of connecting, say a busy downtown where there's a ton
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: of traffic, the ability to tunnel down and suddenly double
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: your usable space, that is a trend insormational technology. Now, Ben,
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: do you remember why he created the Borington Company?
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Why was that?
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: Because Elon has a unifying theme with all of his
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: companies and it is going to Mars. He's filling a
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: knee that doesn't exist in the market, and I think
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: for those who in terms of connecting, say a busy
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: downtown where there's a ton of traffic, the ability to
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: tunnel down and suddenly double your usable space, that is
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: a transformational technology. Now, Ben, do you remember why he
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: created the Borington Company.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Why was that?
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: Because Elon has a unifying theme with all of his companies,
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: and it is going to Mars, and.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: He is focused.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: When we interviewed him, we talked about this, him saying
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: getting a person to Mars was like a life dream
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: goal of his.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: Look, not just getting a person to Mars, building a
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: civilization on Mars. Because unlike the Marxists who have all
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: of these apocalyptic language about how climate change is going
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: to destroy us, mind you, their solution is so put
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: us in charge of your life, let us be dictators
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: because of climate change. Elon solution is okay. Elon's solution
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: is okay, if the Earth is going to be destroyed,
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: I don't know if it is or not, but if
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: it's going to be, let's go build a new civilization.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: And that's what he's working to do in each of
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: his companies. Look, SpaceX Starship is designed to actually get
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: us to Mars. Not just get humans to Mars, but
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: get enough equipment, get enough materials that we could build
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: a civilization. Tesla electric vehicles are designed to power transport
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: on Mars. The Boring Company is designed because to build
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: a civilization. To build a city on Mars, you need
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: to dig tunnels, and so there wasn't nobody was doing that,
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: and so he built a whole company to do that.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: Xai the Ai will be needed to build the Mars civilization.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: We asked him in the interview, said what do you
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: want to be remembered for? And he said and he said,
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: getting mankind to Mars. And I asked him, I said,
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: I said, do you want to die on Mars? And
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: he said yes.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: And there is no one paused, by the way, which
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: was really funny. He said on Mars, not getting to Mars, right,
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: there was anyone to distinguish that very clearly if I remember.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Right well what he said. What he said is yes,
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: hopefully not on impact, yes, which I thought was was
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: quite good. And that Look, that's how you innovate with capitalism.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: You create a solution. And what is the reaction to
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: the left. It is envy. And we've heard Bernie Sanders,
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: we heard Elizabeth Warren. I want you to listen to
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: Jimmy Kimmel uh to really embody the leftist envy and contempt.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: Give a listen.
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: First ever trillionaire in the history of the world this man,
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: our first trillionaire, the richest man in the world, is
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: also one of the weirdest people we've ever seen.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: On this planet.
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: This obscenely wealthy weirdo has the ability and means to
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: blow up them if he chooses, and also to put
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: a lot of other people's money in his pockets.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: You listen to that, just just the disdain there. It
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: is a coordinated effort which goes back to my final
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: question center, And I'll make a prediction here. I believe
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: that the Democratic Party, if they gain power again in
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: the House, Senate, certainly the White House, they will go
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: after Elon Musk Yes, and every one of his companies
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: and every one of his government contracts because of what
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: he did with Doge and the fact that he was
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: an ally of President Trump. Even though they've had their
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: own little fights, they will move to destroy him and
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: make sure that there's no part of our US government
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: that uses anything that he touches.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: You are absolutely right and understand. These are not the
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: Marxist of the sit in the faculty lounge and muse
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: abstract theories. These are the Marxists of the Stalinist kind,
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: of the kind that go and crush their enemies. If
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: the left takes over, If if AOC or Gavin Newsom
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: or some other leftist becomes president, you will see every
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: single federal government agency weaponized and targeting Elon Musk. You
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: will see them denying him licenses to launch satellites, denying him,
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: canceling his contracts, the EPA shutting down his launches, Tesla,
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: being investigated by OSHA, by the I R. S. Elon personally.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: They will make it their mission. This cannot stand, is
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: what Bernie said. They want to destroy him for daring
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: to demonstrate that free enterprise works. And I want you
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: to think back again to what Jimmy Kimmel said, which
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: is he makes obscene amount of amounts of money by
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: getting other people's money. And let me just ask a
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: very simple question, Jimmy, how how does he get other
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: people's money? And he does it one of two ways.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: One he does it by running a business. It's very profitable.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: So he builds a car people really like, and they decide,
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: I like this car better than all the other cars.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: And it's really good, and it's fast, and it's super
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: environmentally clean, and it looks cool and it's self driving.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: So I want to buy it, so he produces a
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: product people really like and want, which, by the way,
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: is also much much better for the environment, which you
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: hypocrites claim to care about. But there's a second way.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: How did he make so much money this week? Well,
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: he sold five hundred and fifty million shares of stock,
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: and you know what unified every single person who bought
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: that stock.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: They all wanted to make money.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: They did so voluntarily. Nobody forced them. Five hundred and
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: fifty million decisions of people who said I would like
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: to purchase at least a share of SpaceX, I want
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: to buy that. And by the way, it's not just gazillionaires.
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: It's lots of moms and pops, lots of ordinary people.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: And you know what, You and I we probably don't
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: know this, but you and I are both probably and
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: most of our listeners are probably SpaceX stockholders too. Because
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: many of the purchasers were pension funds for a one
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: K So if you're in a widely diversified mutual fund,
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: which most of my retirement savings are in mutual funds,
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: many of them bought SpaceX as part of their portfolio.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: So the people who purchased he is literally making Americans
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: rich all across the country. And if you're really good
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: at that, you make a bunch of money too. Leftists
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: hate that. They want to destroy you, and they also
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: want to take the money. They want government in charge
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: of it, and they want the only way you can
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: make money is for government to give you a check
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: every month. So you got to go vote to re
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: elect the Marxist and keep them in power. I want
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: to say to Elon Musk, Gwen Shot well, to everyone
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: at SpaceX, Congratulations, this was an historic week. God bless capitalism,
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: God bless liberty.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: you can go back and listen to the full podcast
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: pass from earlier this week. Now onto story number two.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: But there is a story that is not being covered
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: that is an important story, and that is there was
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: actually an election in Georgia. You were involved in it.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: You went down to Georgia. Was that yesterday or the
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: day before?
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Every day is.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Running together now with the with the flight times and
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: you know, whatever time it is in the morning as
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: we speak. But you were just there and made an
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: endorsement there or couple actually in Georgia. What has happened there?
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: And what does this mean for the control of power
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: in DC.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so it was yesterday and there was a The
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: Georgia primaries were tonight Tuesday night in Georgia, and in
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: the governor's race, you had a guy named Rick Jackson,
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: who's a very successful businessman who was running against Burt Jones,
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: who's the lieutenant governor, and early on President Trump had
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: endorsed Burt Jones, and just a few days ago I
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: endorsed Rick Jackson, and that that caused the press to
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: like the tongues to wag and being like, oh, this
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: is a big conflict. I will say, Look, my approach
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: on endorsements is Number one, I endorse the most conservative
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: candidate who can win, and so I want to see
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: proven evidence that you're conservative, but I also want to
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: see that you can win, that you got a path
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: to victory, not just in the primary but in the general.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: Number Two, I tend to get involved in races late
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: late to that. That's my philosophical approach is that I
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: try to get involved right before election day, hopefully at
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: a time when the election is close and my involvement
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: can make a difference, It can move someone into victory.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: And so I jumped in this race just a few
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: days ago. Yesterday, the day before the election, I flew
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: down to Georgia to Atlanta, did a big rally with Rick,
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: and I got to say so Rick's story. Let me
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: tell you a bit, a little bit about the guy.
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: And I did not know him until the last few days,
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: but I looked at his I examined it, I talked
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: to people who knew him, and I made the decision
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: to endorse it. So his story. He grew up in
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: a broken home in the projects in Atlanta, poverty dysfunction.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: As a young boy, he ran away from home. He
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: ended up going into the foster home system as a child.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: He had five foster families, so that's what he came
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: out of. He then went on to college, spent I
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: think a little over a year in college, dropped out
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: of college, did not succeed in college, and he went
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: and got a job. This is a cool story. So
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: he went and interviewed to work for a company that
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: was engaged in healthcare sales. He did the interview, he
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: did pretty well, and then the guy interviewing him said,
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry, look, we only hire people who have college degrees.
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: You dropped out of college, we're not going to hire you.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: And Rick said, okay, that's fine. He said, can I
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: ask you, just out of Curiousity City, what did the
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: job pay? And the guy said, well, it paid fifteen
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: hundred dollars a month plus thirty three percent of all
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: the sales you make. And Rick came back. He said,
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you what. How about if you don't pay
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: me the fifteen hundred dollars a month, don't pay me anything,
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: but just give me the thirty three percent of the sales.
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: And the guy kind of laughed. He said, well, that
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: sounds like a good deal. I don't have anything to
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: lose on that do so he hired it, even though
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: he didn't have a college degree. He came in and
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: was a monster salesman. Ended up making so much money
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: that within two years he bought the company that had
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: hired it.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Wow, and he.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: Ends up building this company into a massive, multi billion
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: dollar healthcare company in Georgia. He's one of the biggest
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: employers in the state of Georgia. Incredibly successful businessman, self build,
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: built from nothing. Yeah, he now has been an incredibly
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: generous philanthropist. He's decided, look, I don't want to take
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: He's worth several billion dollars. He's very successful, and he said,
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: I don't want to take this money with me, so
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: I'm going to give it away and make a difference
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: to the world around me. So, for example, on foster care,
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: he has given millions to help foster kids in Georgia.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: So kids that are in foster care, he'll come in
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: and say, you know what, I'm going to pay for
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: you to college. I'm going to pay for your expenses.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: I'm going to help you get started because he's been there. Look,
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: so many foster kids that they've been subject to horrible conditions.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: They've often been subject to abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: They're the kids that it seems sometimes society gives up on. Yeah,
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: and he understands firsthand. Look, you can be in that
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: circumstance and you can make something of your life and
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: make a real difference. And so he's invested in these
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: kids that have every disadvantage. I'm going to help them
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: achieve their dreams. He's also funded Christian ministries all over
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: the world. For example, he's funded a Christian orphanage in
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: China that my understanding is it's the lone orphanage that's
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: able to teach Christianity in China. So he's he's putting, Look,
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: you and I are both Christians. It's one thing to
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: have empty words. It's one thing to say you have faith.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: It's another thing to put your faith to action, to
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: put to invest and make a difference. And Rick decided, Okay,
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: I'm going to run for governor because I think I
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: can make a difference. And I looked at at his
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: record and I said, this guy has an incredible, I mean,
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: an inspirational life story, and I think he can win.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: And so I endorsed him. I went down we did
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: a big rally in Georgia, and I'm gonna give you
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: some fun behind the scenes story. So as we're coming in,
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: I fly down there on Monday. We're going to the
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: route and Trump had endorsed his opponent, this guy named
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: Burt Jones. I don't know Burt Jones. I'm sure he's
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: a perfectly decent and fine man. He's the Lieutenant.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: He endorsed early, right, so people understand.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he endorsed early before Rick was in the race.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: And I understand.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Look that's a key point.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he went for who he thought at the time
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: the other guy wasn't in yet.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Jones was the lieutenant governor. He was running, and
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: so Trump endorsed early. Rick wasn't in the race. So
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: so Rick was actually at the White House a big
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: fundraiser this weekend, and you know, Trump was saying, Hey,
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: this guy's great, he's awesome. Uh, he's incredibly successful. I
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: didn't know him, but he was like praising him vocally
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: at this fundraiser this weekend. As I'm flying in, I'm
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: headed to the event, and we get the news that
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: Donald Trump Junior is going to endorse Rick Jackson. Now
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: that's a big deal because the main argument against him,
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: what everyone was pounding him, is that Trump, Trump the Dad,
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: had endorsed his opponent. You know, tons of campaign ads
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: saying Trump picked the other guy. Then we get the
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: news that Don Junior was going to endorse Rick, and
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: it was actually fun. As I'm headed to the event,
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: the campaign said, hey, do you want to announce Don
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: Junior's endorsement and listen, Don Junior is a buddy of mine.
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: I know him very well, and I was like, yeah, sure,
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: And I said, look, I just want to help your campaign,
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: So if it's helpful for me to announce it. I'm
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: happy to. If it's not like it's your call, but
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: I'm more than happy to. And they ended up deciding
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: that Don Junior, the actual endorsement statement was not going
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: to use the word endorse, but was going to praise
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: him as like he's a great patriot. I know him well,
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: and he's fantastic and he's America first, and the timing
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: ended up working out. I said, sure, I'm happy to
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: announce it, but then they didn't end up approving the
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: statement for another two hours, and it just look, it
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: takes some time when you're right before an election and
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: you're trying to decide going through a political operation, it
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: takes some time to approve it. So I said, I'm
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: happy to announce it. It wasn't finalized, so I did not,
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: in fact announce it from the stage, but right after
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: I left, Don Junior tweeted out the support and tonight
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: Rick ended up winning. The margin as of tonight nine
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: to nine percent is in is fifty two point six
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: percent to forty seven four percent. It's a great victory,
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: and I think so one of the cases I made
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: to the voters. We had a big, big rally in Georgia.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: And I said, listen that Rick's life story is incredible.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: He's campaigning on a promise number one, to immediately freeze
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: property taxes in Georgia. That's big number two, on income taxes,
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: to cut the Georgia income tax in half, and ultimately
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: to work to abolish it all together. And what Rick
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: has said is he said if he doesn't see seed
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: in freezing the property taxes and cutting the lincomb tax
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: in half, he will not run for reelection. He will
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: serve one term. If he fails in that, he's not
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: running for reelection. And I made a point to everyone.
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: I said, listen, I've got a crazy secret here. Rick
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: is rich. Like everyone laughs, I'm like, yeah, look, this
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: is an incredibly successful dude. He could play golf every day,
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: he could sit on the beach and drink dakeres and
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: live a life of leisure. And I said, listen, to
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: run for office, you've got to be nuts, you've got
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: to be certified crazy. Yeah, you get attacked constantly. There's
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: so much and Rick is doing this. The case I made,
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: I said, Rick is doing this because he believes in Georgia.
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: He believes in the country, he believes he could make
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: a difference. And listen, Georgia used to be bright red.
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: The unfortunate reality is it's purple now and the Democrats.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: Right now, the Democrats are leading in the polling for
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: the governor's race. I think Rick will win. I think
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: Rick will keep Georgia red. And I also made the case,
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: I said, listen, by y'all coming out and voting for Rick,
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: we're going to help John oss Off get a job
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: in the private sector. John Ossof is the very liberal
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: Democrat who represents Georgia. He may be the Senator who
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: is most out of step with the values of his
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: state because he's a very liberal Democrat. George is not
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: a very liberal state. But he's got a ton of
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: money and he's right now leading in the polls a lot.
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: And I said, listen, if you want to win the
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: Senate seat here in Georgia, the best way to do
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: it is have a gubernatorial candidate who's running an incredible campaign,
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: who's mobilizing voters across the state, who, by the way,
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: I mean Rick has put massive millions of millions of
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: dollars in the campaign, so he's going to he's funding
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: it himself. And if you end up with the gubernatorial
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: candidate at the top of the race who's turning out
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: a ton of voters. That's how you have a chance
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: to win the Senate race. Also, and I got to
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: say I'm gratified the voters of Georgia agreed and we
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: had a big, big win in Georgia. Signe as before.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: If you want to hear the rest of this conversation
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: on this topic, you can go back and down the
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: I want to get back to the big story number
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: three of the week. You may have missed, all right,
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: so center, let's move into this is something you've been
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: really working on. This is the most like Jock bro
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: I've ever seen you since i've known you, and it's
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: really been fun for me because usually you're geeking out
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: over like Supreme Court stuff. I feel like our friendship
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: has moved to another level because now we've got to
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: talk sports and NIL so much and the college Sports bill.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: It is now reality. Let's walk us through how this
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: was done and what it means for sports fans and
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: saving many sports that were getting canceled around the country
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: that were non money making sports.
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: So this week was a very, very big week for
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: college sports because the Senate comm Committee, which I chair,
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: passed my legislation to protect college sports, and it passed
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: with a big bipartisan vote. The vote was nineteen to nine,
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: so we got a bunch of Republicans, a bunch of Democrats.
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: We got more than two thirds of the committee voted
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: for it. That's really important. It has momentum now going
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: to the Senate floor. I think it's going to pass
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: on the Senate with a big bipartisan vote, and it's
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: going to go to the House and President Trump is
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: eager to sign it. Now, what's going on in college sports? Listen,
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: College sports is in crisis right now. Every week you
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: see another story about a program being canceled, women's sports
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: being canceled, track and field being canceled, Olympic sports being canceled,
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: non revenue sports, tennis being canceled. And what is happening
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: is is you've got total chaos with the transfer portal.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: You've got athletes transferring two, three, four, five times. You
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: have essentially no rules on eligibility. They're all being decided
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: by lawsuits. It got so ludicals issued. You had the
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: Brendan Soresby case, where even though he was gambling on
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: his own games, you had a hometown judge say no,
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: he can still play anyway. Now, thankfully Texas Tech backed
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: away from that decision. I'm glad Tech made that decision
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: to back away. That was an indefensible decision, but it
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: illustrated the chaos we have. You have people that are
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: twenty six, twenty seven years old still playing college sports,
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: and twenty eight year olds playing against eighteen year olds,
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: which is not fair, not right, and athletic programs they're
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: almost all losing millions of dollars. Many of them are
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: losing tens of millions of dollars because the cost keeps
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: spiraling out of control. And ben if Congress doesn't act,
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: I think five years from now, there will be thirty
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: to fifty competitive college football programs, basically a mini NFL.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think it'll be a franchise. If you're
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: an SEC school, you'll own a franchise.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: And I think all of the other programs go under.
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: And what that means, by the way, that's not just
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: college football going under. The way athletics works in colleges
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: is football pays for everything else, and so if football
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: goes under, it means those schools they lose women's sports,
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: they lose they lose their entire athletic program. It means
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: our Olympic athletes are just devastated and the college programs
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: where they develop their skills right now go away. And
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: I think that would be a terrible outcome. And it
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: would also be a terrible outcome. Do you know right
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: now there are more than five hundred thousand college athletes
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: competing at YAH at any given time. If we allow
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: this chaos to continue to play out, hundreds of thousands
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: of those slots will disappear, Those scholarships will disappear. And
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: sports has been an avenue, by the way millions of
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: young men and women to go to school.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: Well, let's be clear the five thousand just mentioned, And
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: this is the part I want people to understand. The
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: majority of college athletes like ninety I think I saw
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: a study.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: You may know the number.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: I want to say it was ninety eight or ninety
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: nine percent of at college athletes do not play football
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: or basketball. So if you think about college sports, it
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: is all the other sports. The majority of them are
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: not revenue making sports. Football barely is on most cambriages
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: sometimes and depending on what school you're at. If you're
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: at a basketball school, then that will be your revenue sport.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: Outside that, almost all the others lose money.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: If you don't fix this, everything goes away. And then
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: many of those football programs at one percent of the
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: student body, or basketball, which is I mean most basketball
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: teams I have I think scholarships chie I was it's
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: nine and d one.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's eleven scholarships.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: I can't remember. They're always moving it around. But for
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: men like that's not many.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: People, folks.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: If you don't fix this, you have a university that
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: now doesn't even have an identity in sports.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: Look, look my philosophy at addressing this was was number one.
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: I didn't worry too much about the powerhouse programs, the
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: big big programs. Listen in Texas University of Texas and
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: Texas A and M. I love them both. I go
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: to games every year. I cheer them on their incredible institutions.
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: To be honest, UTNA and M, they are gonna survive
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: and thrive regardless of what happens. They would survive the
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: Mini NFL and then continue to win national championships. But
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: I worried about all of the other programs. To be honest,
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: if we don't act, I'm not convinced any other program
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: in Texas survives. And if you can imagine at Texas
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: without SMU, without TCU, without Baylor, without Texas Tech, without Rice,
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: without University of Houston, that would be a tragic outcome.
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: And so my focus was on maintaining the entire ecosystem.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: But secondly, my focus was not on the superstar athletes.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: If you're Michael Jordan, if you're Arch Manning, you know what,
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: You're gonna get millions of Dill. You're going to be
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: on the wheaties box. You're going to do great. Yeah,
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: ninety nine percent of college athletes will never play in
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: the NFL, will never play in the NBA, But yet
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: athletics is their ticket to college. Look it was for
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: you playing tennis is how you went all miss.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: I'll be honest with you, I'm not sure I would
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: have gone to college if it wasn't for having the
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: scholarship which came through tennis to pay for college. My
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: family did not have a lot of means, and my
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: dad was the first to admit and it was like,
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: if you want to go to college. If you want
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: to go to good school, you're going to have to
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: get there and earn it. Sports was my way in.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: It wasn't going to be the academic road, and that's
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: another avenue you can go, but sports was, and for
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: many of my friends, it was a savior to a
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: better life afterwards, a better member of society.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: By the way, we pay a lot.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: More taxes when you're successful, so it's a great reinvestment
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: in the country from that standpoint as well. You want
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: your kids to go to college. But for so many
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: I had roommates, they would have never gotten into college
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: if it wasn't and gotten their family. Many I had
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: two different roommates there were the first kid in their
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: families to ever go to college. It completely changed the
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: trajector to their family tree. And it was because of athletics.
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: Well, and some people have said, well, why is Congress
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: getting involved in college sports? And the reason is it's
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: federal laws that Congress has passed that created this chaos.
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: It's why all of the rules got thrown out because
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: they're being sued under existing federal law and every rule
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: keeps getting thrown out, and so Congress created the problem
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: which means only Congress can fix it, because only Congress
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: can can can alter that federal law. And if we
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: don't act, we can see the crisis unfolding around us
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: and for millions of young men and women. Many college
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: athletes are coming from economically disadvantaged circumstances. Many of them
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: are African American or Hispanic. Over years and decades, we're
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: talking about millions of young men and women who this
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: may be their only path to go to a going
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: to college and getting an education, but b learning the
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: disciplines that come from being in organized sports of teamwork
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: and hard work and discipline and sportsmanship. And look, I
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: didn't have the skills to play college sports. I would
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: have loved to, but I played high school sports and
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: it was you know, being on I played basketball and
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: football and soccer, and being on a team in high school.
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: Those are really important skills and it's amazing. I actually
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: asked this at our Senate Republican lunch. I said, all right,
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: how many people around this table played college sports? And
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: I would say about twenty percent of the Republicans in
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: the Senate raised their hand and they were college athletes.
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's true, and that's true. You find that
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: with CEOs, you find that the discipline and nobody in
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: the Senate played professional sports, but the discipline of and
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: the skills you learn set you up for success in life.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: Let me ask you one final question on this. Who
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: was behind this that surprised you the most? And Nick
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: Saban was one that I was excited to see that,
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: the African American University of Memphis and my hometown football coach,
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: he got behind this and had some great testimony there
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: in front of you, guys.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: I was proud of that as well.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: But who shocked you that was behind this?
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: So the support we've seen has been overwhelming. Twenty four
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: conferences have endorsed this bill. They represent those conferences represent
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: over two hundred different colleges and universities are enthusiastically supporting
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: the bill. The NFL endorsed the bill, the NBA endorsed
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: the bill. Major League Baseball endorsed the bill. NFL Players
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: Association endorsed the bill, The NBA Players Association endorsed the bill.
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: The College Football Association endorsed the bill. We've had Nick
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: Saban has endorsed at John Calipari led over one hundred
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: college coaches who have endorsed the bill. The US Olympic
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: Committee endorsed the bill, so we've seen just enormous support.
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: And I will say the primary opposition came from the
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: leadership of the Big Ten and the SEC. And look,
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: the SEC is really important in Texas. Obviously, UTA and
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: m I think they're great. If Congress doesn't act, I
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: believe the SEC and Big Ten want to create a
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: super league where they're the only football that exists and everyone.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: Else goes out of bust a billion dollar franchise organizations.
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: That's what they would have, and that is a terrible outcome.
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: We explicitly prohibit a super league in the bill because
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: I want to keep all the other programs alive. That's
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: where the resistance has come from. I think we're going
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: to end up having a big, big, bipartisan vote on
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: the Senate floor. My objective is to do this, get
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: it done, get it past the President's eager to sign it,
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: and do all of that before school starts this fall.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Center,
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to down
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: with my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: every other day you're not listening to Verdict, or each
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: day when you listen to Verdict. Afterwards, I'd love to
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson Podcasts,
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: and we will see you back here on Monday morning.