Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Sleepy Joe’s Soporific Speech

Transcript

Sleepy Joe’s Soporific Speech · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: One hundred days into his administration, President Biden has finally
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: addressed a joint session of Congress sword of with a
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: State of the Union address. Sword of the room was
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: largely empty. There were lots of masks, people going in
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: and out. We will cover all of that. Senator Cruz
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: rather was there in the room, Senator any reports. Senator
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz. I'm Michael Knowles.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: I have often been called boring but radical, and Senator
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: I guess you've been getting a lot of that these days.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: You had the finest moment of the night. I'm sort
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: of damning with faint praise because that State of the
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Union address was unbearable to watch, and I could I
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: really empathized with you in the room because the TV
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: cameras caught you front and center dozing off during the speech. Well, look,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: the whole thing was sixty three minutes. I'm amazed that
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: I didn't sleep more during the speech. I mean, I
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: mean it was so. It was actually on this podcast
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: about a month two months ago, that we actually coined
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the three word summary for the Biden administration of boring
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: but radical. It was on Verdict, and that prediction had
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: proven right, and in fact, going into the State of
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the Union, I did a bunch of preview interviews where
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: reporters say, okay, well, what's tonight going to be? And
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: I said, it's going to be boring but radical. I
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: didn't realize just how true that was, so like in
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: both directions, in both the boring side and the radicals.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: The radical didn't surprise me. It was I was trying
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: to stay awake and it you know, actually one of
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the reasons why it was so boring. So there's a
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: weird aspect of State of the Unions. And actually you
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: and I talked about this last Date of the Union,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: which is there's kind of a game Republicans Democrats play.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: If it's your party, you're pop it up like pop
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: goes the weasel on every sentence, like yeay, yeay, yeay.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: And what's interesting is if you're in the out of
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: power party, So if you're a Democrat when Trump's president,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: if you're a Republican, what Obama Biden's president. A State
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: of the Union is often kind of a complicated thing
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: because you're listening to each sentence and try to evaluate
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: do I clap, do I not clap? Do I stand
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: do I not stand? And you know, look, the Supreme
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Court justice is the generals. They kind of clap and
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: stand for nothing other than the beginning of the speech,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: and occasionally America is good, and then there's sort of
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: statements in between. This was bizarre. It is the only
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: this is the now the ninth State of the Union,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: or that kind of speech that I've been to. There
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: was virtually nothing for any Republican to clap at. I mean,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: it was strange. There were whole swaths of I don't know,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: seem like ten fifteen minutes where we're just sitting there
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: and every word out of Biden's mouth is directed only
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: to Democrats, and it's only Democrats clapping, and he wasn't
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: even throwing like a tiny fig leaf trying to trying
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: to bring anyone together, trying And that's part of why
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: I nodded off and and and you know, helped the
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Internet go crazy last night. So in terms of the
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: big takeaways for people who like you, were nodding off,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: not not in the Capitol but in their own homes,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: what are we supposed to make of this? Because I
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: almost wish that Biden were more overtly radical, that he
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: were more exciting because he would be calling more people's
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: attention to what he's trying to do. So what is
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: he trying to do? What is going to get done?
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: And do Republicans have any hope? Well, Michael, your point
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: is really important that that the boring is by design.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: It's a mask, it's a facade. It's designed to hide
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: just how extreme the policies are that are being implemented
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: by the way. Interestingly enough, I also saw screenshots of
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: at different points Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi both nodding off,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: and I guess Met Romney was also filmed nodding off.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: And so I I saw Met on the floor today
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: and I said, mett Man, you and I apparently need
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: to get more sleep, and and he laughed and said,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: I wasn't sleeping. I was looking at my phone. It's like, oh, yeah, me,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: I was sleeping. Yeah, I was genuinely like I was
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: nodding off. And you know, but look, if you look
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: at what this administration has done, the hard partisan nature
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: of it is remarkable. They start with a so called
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: COVID relief bill, get zero Republican votes in the House,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: zero Republicans in the Senate. That's actually hard to do.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, last year we did five COVID relief bills
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: that were overwhelmingly bipartisan. I mean, they made the decision
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: they didn't want any Republicans. They wanted a hard partisan bill. Infrastructure,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: they're they're two point six trillion dollar infrastructure bill as
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: written will get zero Republicans. And again, which is hard
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: to do because there are a lot of Republicans that
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: care about infrastructure. But Biden's bill, five percent of the
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: bill is Rosen Bridges. I mean, it really is absurd.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: And you know, everything on Earth they're going to tax.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Every tax is going up. I mean, that's there. We're
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: looking at trillions and trillions and trillions in new taxes.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: The brazenness of it. You know, you think about the
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: speech last night, not a word about the crisis of
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: the border that his policies have created. By the way,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: in the midst of the speech, I don't I don't
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: know how much of this made it on TV. But
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Lauren Boebert, who's, you know, a new freshman House member
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: and someone I like and helped get elected and support
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: and she's a fireball. But but midway through the speech,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: she pulled out of her bag a a reflective emergency blanket.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Uh like, like the children are wrapped in in in
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: the cages on the border, and she wrapped herself up
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: in the reflective emergency blanket. I gotta tell you, Kevin
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: McCarthy is sitting in front of her and turns and
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: just glares with dagger eyes. I was doubled over laughing.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: But but it was an interesting sort of quiet protest
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: of the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants that that
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Biden is ignoring and the crisis that he's created, that
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: that he's ignoring, you know, not a word about the
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: massive debt, not a word about you know, not a
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: word of graciousness to President Trump and Operation Warped Speed.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: I mean, he just crowed about the vaccines without acknowledging
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: that he laughed at Trump when when he said that
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: we would have a vaccine by the end of the year.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: And that's of course exactly what they did. So I
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: thought the substance and so of it. If you actually
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: hired an actor to give the identical speech but in
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: an angry partisan tone, yeah, people would have been shocked.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, it really is. It's almost a theatrical thing
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: of having these you know, soporific tones, which which as
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: you know, being being a yalily. Soporific is an underused term,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: but but it literally means putting people to sleep, and
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: last night that was a literal use of the word. Yeah.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: You know, this has been Biden's great advantage, certainly in
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: the last several years, which is, if you just read
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: the text of the speech last night, that would have,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: I think put a lot of Republicans on their guard.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: If Kamala Harris, for instance, gave that speech, I think
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: it would have put a lot a lot of people
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: in defensive But because it's it's Biden, it lulls everyone
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: into this false sense of security. There was, however, one
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: moment I noticed of quasi almost bipartisanship, and it was
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: the moment when Joe Biden began to take ownership of
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: a major Trump policy, or at least a presumptive Trump policy,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: which was getting out of Afghanistan. And was very curious
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: was in that room the Democrats applauded, the Republicans weren't applauding.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: With a couple of exceptions, Yeah, when President Biden said
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: We're going to pull out of Afghanistan. There were that
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I saw only two Republicans who applauded. I applauded, and
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Mike Lely applauded, and the rest of our side of
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: the aisle sat there, stone faced, just looking at him.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: And I think that's unfortunate, because I think this is
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: an area where President Trump was right and he was
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: leaning in to end the endless wars that we've been
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: in Afghanistan. It's been twenty years, and it's time to
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: bring our sons and daughters home. That doesn't mean we
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: stop killing terrorists and defending our nation, but we don't
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: need to be on the front lines of a battle
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: front for generations. And you're now literally having having soldiers
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: serving on a front that their parents served on, and
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: and that that that's a pretty strong sign that we've
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: been there too long. Yeah, this issue is one that
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: I think shows the way that the GOP, you know,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: is kind of transforming from the way that it once
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: was and the way that Biden is transforming. Let's not
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: forget the decision to restart the war in Afghanistan to
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: really surged the troops there. That was an Obama Biden
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: decision back when when President Obama came into office. But
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: but other than that one brief moment, it did seem
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: extraordinarily divisive. And then there was the visual fact that
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: you had the masks in the room, you had Joe Biden,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: who was very much pushing this idea of public health
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: crisis and we're not allowed to go back to normal,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: and everything about it just felt so eerie. When when
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: are we going to be able to get back to normal?
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: How are we going to be able to push this
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: unified government to get us back to Look, I thought
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: there was an enormous amount of political theater now and
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: listen State of the Union. There's always political theater. But
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: when it comes to COVID and masks, every person in
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: that room has been vaccinated, and we're also spread out,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: so we were far away from each other. I actually
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: think it's idiotic that anyone was wearing a mask. And
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: there was a little moment at the beginning of the speech.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw when Biden goes up there,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: he walks up at his mask, because of course he does,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: and then he turns and looks to Nancy Pelosi and
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: ask permission before he removes his mask. It may have
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: been the most beta moment for a US president in history,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: and it was just pitiful. And look, I gotta tell you,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: I was conflicted on what to do. So for I
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: think three weeks now, I have not been wearing a
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: mask on the Senate floor. And you've made a big
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: point about this. There have been reporters who have said,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: please put a mask, and you've said, you're more than
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: welcome to walk away from me. But I've been inoculated. Hey,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: you know, and listen, I'm not a zealot on mask issues.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: I wore a mask for a year on the Senate floor.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: This is a dangerous disease. I thought, take reasonable precautions
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: makes sense. But in the Senate it's every person or
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: virtually every person has been vaccinated, and it doesn't make it.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: I believe in vaccines, and so it's interesting. I just
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: so Rand Paul has not worn a mask throughout. He
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: was kind of the loan in the heat of the pandemic.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Now he got the disease. So he said, look, I
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: got the disease. I have have antibodies, which is reasonable.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: But Rand was the only one of a hundred that
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: wasn't wearing a mask for months and months and months,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: and then after everyone got vaccinated, and you know, Michael,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: you'll remember I actually delayed getting vaccinated, so they offered
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: us the vaccines I think early January, and I didn't
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: think it was right for members of cong to cutting line.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm relatively young, relatively healthy. I get that.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: A whipper snapper like you doesn't think I'm that young.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: But but you know, you know, compared to my colleagues
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: in the Senate, I'm still in short shorts and wearing
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: a beanie. It's true. And you remember when the polio
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: vaccine came out, so you're you know, you're well acquainted
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: with all these vaccines, and so you know, I said,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: all right, I'm gonna wait and let seniors get the vaccine.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna let first responders get the vaccine. It's not
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: right for me to cutting line. And I did that
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: until about March. And at March there had been tens
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: of millions of vaccines. The people who were at highest
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: risk had had the opportunity to get the vaccine. And
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: then I said, okay, I'll get it. So I've gotten
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: it now. And so a couple of weeks ago, I
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: just stopped wearing the mask, So what's funny? Two three
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: days I stopped wearing the mask walk on the Senate floor,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: and nobody notices, Like I was doing it for two
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: three days, and it was just a nothing burger. And
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: then finally one reporter for CNN like sticks a camera
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: in my face and it's like, wait, wait, you're not
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: wearing a mask. Where are you not wearing a mask?
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: And I said, because we're all vaccinated, And actually this
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: reporter says, well, I'm not vaccinated. I'm like, well, that's
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: your choice, Like and the elevation, the elevator closed, and
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: I remember thinking like, Okay, if you're choosing not to
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: get a vaccine, you can do that, But what right
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: do you have to insist that the rest of us
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: must wear masks because you've chosen not to get a vaccine.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: You don't have a right like it is available to you.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: And and so I have not been wearing it for
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: two three weeks. I did wear my mask last night,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: and I sort of struggled with the question. But Pelosi
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: is running this, you know, military installation. Do you know
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: that she is finding house members, finding them if they
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: don't wear a mask on the floor, and she is
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: insisting that House members go through metal detectors, and as
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: idiotic as it is, is because she's afraid some Republican
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: is going to be packing heat. It's the dumbest thing
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: I've ever heard. And thankfully the Senate is not that idiotic.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: And they actually they took down metal detectors or whatever,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: because like when I walked in, we didn't go through
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: metal detectors, but I went ahead and wore the mask
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: on the house floor because that's sort of what they're
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: doing there. But but but I felt pretty sheepish for
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: doing so because it was all theatrics. There is something
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: deferential and conservative about saying, well, I'm in this chamber
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: now it's being run by this crazy lady, so I
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: guess I'll follow the rules. But that's exactly what I
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: was doing. Yeah, and it is really nice to see
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: that you've taken this very sensible approach, I think from
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: the beginning. And I don't think that people on either
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: side can call you reckless about the masks or particularly zealousy.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: They can, but well they certainly will regardless. The only
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: question is now there are so many layers to this question,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: and I think and a lot of conservatives are very confused.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: What do we do here? It's not just I recognize
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: the pun of many layers to the masks, but you
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: do You have some people who say we need to
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: wear three masks. There's some people who say just where
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: one mask is fine. Some people are saying you don't
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: need to wear a mask. Some people are saying everyone
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: needs to get vaccinated. Some people are saying you need
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: a vaccine passport. Some people are saying, ban it at
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: the government level, ban it at the private level. What
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: is the conservative, sensible American way to approach this issue? So,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: I think a vaccine passport is a terrible idea, and
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: I have been vocal and outspoken saying the government shouldn't
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: require it. It It would be horrific if the government did it.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: And I don't think private businesses should. So I don't
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: think airlines should. I don't think I don't think private
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: businesses should. I'm someone who believes in vaccines. I think
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: vaccines are a good thing. I've gotten the COVID vaccine,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: Heide's gotten the vaccine, My parents have both gotten at
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Heide's parents have gotten it, and I'm encouraging people to
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: get it. I'd like to see as many people as
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: possible get it. But I also believe in individual liberty,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: and if you don't want to get it, that's your choice.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: And there are some people who've got health issues for
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: whom it may not make sense to get it, and
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: so I think each person should evaluate whether it makes
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: sense in your circumstances. But you know, I think the
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: CDC is actually doing real damage with the arbitrariness of
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: their their rules. So for example, even after people get vaccinated,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: they're still idiotically saying, oh, well, we're wear masks here
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: and there and everywhere, and it's like, well, wait a second.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: If we want people to get vaccinated, one of the
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: best ways to do so is make clear once you
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: get vaccinating and take the damn mask off. I mean,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: I mean that. I think CDC's dragging their feet on
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: that is very possibly disincentivizing millions of people from getting vaccines.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: And you know, this week they put out the guidance
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: of Okay, now you don't need to wear a mask
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: when you're outside if you've been vaccinated. It's like, well, okay,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: only morons we're doing that, Like like that, thank you,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: and like do I need a mask when I'm taking
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: a shower, like like you haven't clarified that point. Although
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: did you see Michael, a track coach in Massachusetts, was
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: fired because he wouldn't make his kids wear masks while
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: running cross country track outside. He didn't want his students
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: to collapse in the woods and fall fall down on
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: a rock. It. You know, there's so much of this
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: mass stuff that is just petty totalitarianism. It is we
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: can control you, and we want to control you, and
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: that's what we're doing. Well, the rules keep changing, but
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: it's not really about the rules themselves. I find it's about,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: as you say here, the imposition of the rule. Who
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: gets to impose their will on others? I want to
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: go back to something you said though, that I think
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: is extraordinarily important. On the question of the vaccine passport.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: A number of governors have been divided on this because
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: a lot of it's taking place at the state level.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Some are saying we will not have any mandates from
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: the government on the vaccine passport. Others are saying, we
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: will not permit private businesses to force you to show
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: your medical history when you come into the bar, or
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: when you try to go on an airline or something
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: to that effect well, and you're seeing employers that are
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: firing employees for not getting the vaccines, which I think
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: is terrible. I think that that is deeply, deeply troubling
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: and shouldn't be allowed. This ties in with something that
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: you published yesterday in the Wall Street Journal, and you
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: did not tell me that this was coming out. It's
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: not like I got advanced notice. I just saw the
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: alert in the journal, and I basically stood up and
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: cheered when I saw this op ed because it's something
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: that conservatives just don't get except for very few who
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: are pretty rock ribbed. You said that the era of
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: conservatives shilling for private companies corporations that hate our values
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: and are opposing our country and are opposing even voter
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: integrity measures. Ye, that time is over. And you said
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: that you will not accept corporate pack money in your campaigns.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: So that's right. I mean, look, we've we've all been
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: watching the rise of the woke corporations and these big businesses,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: these Fortune five hundred companies where the CEOs have essentially
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: decided they're going to be the political enforcers for the
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: radical left. They're going to be the muscle for the
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Democratic Party and we've seen, whether it's Coca Cola or
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Delta Airlines demogoguing on the Georgia voter integrity law, or
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: companies demagoguing on the Texas voter integrity law. And obviously
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Major League Baseball yanking the All Star Game out of
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Atlanta and moving to lilywhite Denver instead, which which which
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: just totally beclowns at Atlanta's fifty one percent black, Denver
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: is nine percent black. So they are so racially woke
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: that they're going to take one hundred million dollars out
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: of the pockets of a bunch of African American small
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: business owners and move it to a bunch of wealthy
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: white people in Denver, like it's weird. Also worth pointing
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: out that Georgia they left because of the voter integrity law.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Colorado has relatively strict voter laws. It's it's not a
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: clear cut issue over which has the more lenient voter laws.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: So the dynamic that's playing out in the Fortune five
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: hundred big business is not conservative. They are not our friends.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Many of them are just risk averse and scared, and
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: the liberal mob comes after them and they mobilize their employees.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: They mobilize their shareholders, they mobilize the press, and these
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: CEOs are more than willing to just cave in and
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: give the mob whatever they want. And it's really dangerous.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: And so what I announced this week is is that
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: I am no longer going to accept any corporate pack checks,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: that corporate packs, I won't take their money. And to
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: give a sense of the magnitude of that, so I've
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: been in the Senate nine years. Over those nine years,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: I've gotten about two point six million dollars in campaign
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: contributions from corporate packs. Now I've raised well over one
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: hundred million dollars during that time, and so that's not
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: it's not the lion's share of the money that I've raised,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: but it is you know, two point seven million dollars
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: ain't nothing. And I just decided enough is enough. If
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: you guys are going to be actively fighting the American people,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: tearing down America, tearing down freedom, I don't want you're
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: stinking money. And I've called on other other Republicans to
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: do the same, and I think it's a powerful thing.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: And listen, you and I have talked about before. Corporate
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: welfare has always been garbage and Republicans have been too
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: willing to engage in that where big companies come and say,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: give us a subsidy of US corporate welfare, give us
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: a band date. And I've been fighting against that from
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: day one. A lot of other Republicans get sucked in.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: So the Export Import Bank, which which serves as essentially
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: a giant subsidy for Boeing, a massive corporate welfare scam.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: I've fought against the XM Bank for the entire time
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: I've been in the Senate, but a whole lot of
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: Republicans are eager to carry Boeing's water on that. Major
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: League Baseball, major League Baseball has a unique exemption from
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: the antitrust laws that no other sports league has, and
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: so in response to moving the All Star Game, I
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: joined with Mike Lee. We introduced legislation to revoke Major
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: League Baseball's exemption from the antitrust laws. And I think
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: these two should be tied together, which is no corporate
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: welfare and no more money from big companies. And I
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: think that if other Republicans follow suit, that will be
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: a real improvement. I hear this all the time from
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: conservatives writing in I'm not talking about elected people. I'm
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: not talking about Beltway staffers or anything, but just conservatives
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: around the country. They say these Republicans are such shills.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Even the ones who will call out the woke corporations,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: they're totally in their pockets. They'll still accept a lot
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: of money. I think it is such a great move.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: It said in such a strong message, and it shows
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: what we all know to be true that there is
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: nothing conservative about letting these giant, woke corporations totally undermine
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: the American way of life, and that you're not going
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: to accept their money to do it. Well, big business
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: gets in bed with big government. Big business likes big government.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Big business uses government regulations to crush their enemies, to
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: crush their competition. I think we should be the party
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: of the little guy. I think we should be the
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: party of the entrepreneurs, of the disruptors. The giant companies
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: don't need our help, and frankly, the policies they pushed
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: for are almost uniformly terrible. You know, I was encouraged,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: so I put this op ed out Thursday morning, and
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: within a few hours one of my colleagues, Josh Holley,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: had already put out on Twitter that he was gonna
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: follow follow my lead and likewise turned down corporate packs.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: I think that's going to increase the pressure on a
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: lot of other Republicans to go down the same road.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: And if that happens, that's a good thing. I love that.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: You know. There was a line in Joe Biden's speech
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: which was it was totally regurgitated left wing talking points
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: where he said, you know, the ninety nine percent and
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: the one percent, and we've got to make the rich
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: pay their fair share, even though they already pay virtually
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: all of the taxes. And it was this classic class
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: warfare sort of stuff. But then I remembered the rich
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: and especially corporations voted for Biden, donated to Biden. That
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: is this I idea that the Democrats are the party
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: of the working man, and the Republicans are these plutocrats
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: with their fancy cigars. I mean, I might have the
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: fancy cigars, but the idea that we're all rich uncle pennybags,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: it's just not what's going on in the parties. And
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: I can say this, I've spoken multiple cigars with you.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: I've never once seen you use one hundred dollar bill
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: to light it. And I think you're too chio not
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: to do that, which is good. I would advise against
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: that fiscal conservative. It'll look you look at the Fortune
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: one hundred. There are only a handful of CEOs and
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: the Fortune one hundred who could be remotely characterized as
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: right of center. They're almost all Democrats. And that is
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: the ethos a big business. Because big business does great
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: under the Democrats. They're quite happy with this massive expansion
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: of spending and regulations and even taxes. The giant companies
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: think if you tax everyone, you'll drive the little guys
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: out of business, and the big guys will be just fine.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: And that's that's bad, right of course. Barry Goldwater put
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: it very well in Conscience of a Conservative. He said,
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: conservatives need to make war on all monopolies. We need
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: to make war on all unlimited power, all of this
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: unchecked power. And anyway, I don't mean to lay it
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: on too thick here, but I was just so pleased
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: to see that up ed. I hope that all the
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: other Republicans feel the pressure. It's absolutely the right direction
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: for the party. And you know, we've got a lot
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: of questions in from our wonderful listeners, all of whom
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: are they're so great they subscribe, they leave a five
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: star review on the Apple podcasts, they go to all
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: the different platforms, So we really really appreciate that. And
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: we are not going to get to a single one
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: of those mail bag questions right now because I want
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: to spend most, if not all, of our next episode
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: on Verdict getting to our listeners in the mail bag.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: So please be sure to send those questions in and
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: while you're at it, maybe you subscribe, maybe you'll leave
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: a five star off you, maybe you sent it around
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: to your friends, and we will get into all of
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: those questions asap. Senator, I'm Michael Knowles. This is Verdict
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: with Ted Cruz. This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: is being brought to you by Jobs, Freedom and Security Pack,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: a political action committee dedicated to supporting conservative causes, organizations,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: and candidates across the country. In twenty twenty two, Jobs,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Freedom and Security Pack plans to donate to conservative candidates
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: running for Congress and help the Republican Party across the nation.