Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / A Look Inside Senator Tim Scott’s Voicemail Box

Transcript

A Look Inside Senator Tim Scott’s Voicemail Box · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Made your tensions around the country on the police, on
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: criminal justice, on race. Some anarchists are talking about defunding
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the police, abolish the police, ginning up racial tensions. Well,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: we have a serious person here who can speak with
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: great authority on real criminal justice reform and on real
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: racial experiences in America. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz. I'm Michael Knowles.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: We will get to our special guest in just one second,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: but first I have to thank you so much. We've
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: now got over ten million downloads on this podcast, and
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: it's all thanks to you. I really exceeded our expectations
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: and we're so glad to be able to continue to
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: do it. Please head over on Apple Podcasts. I leave
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: a five star review if you would like to, and
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: if you want to leave less than don't leave anything
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: at all. Thank you very much, and please go subscribe
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: wherever you listen to podcasts. All right, because the Senator
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: is the greatest booking producer in the history of podcasts.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: I am joined by Senator Tim Scott. He is really
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: good at what he does, not just in podcast world,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: but in their all worlds. I am so glad. First
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: of all, Senator Cruz, thank you for bringing Senator Scott on.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Senator Scott, you are behind you or the author behind
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: probably the most significant piece of legislation that the Senate
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: is considering right now. That would be the Justice Act. Yes, listen,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: I'm excited about the Justice side. I wish our Democrat
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: colleagues were more excited about not the Justice Act only,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: but about actually serving the community that has been wed
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: to the Democrat Party for generations. And they continue to
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: under deliver while overpromising. Instead of taking eight today, giving
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: them an opportunity to say to the people and the
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: communities across the country, we hear you, we see you,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: we are fighting for you. We could have gotten eighty
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: percent delivered today. They gave the community zero. They decided
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: to make an an election year issue, an election in
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: November issue, presidential election issue. And that's just so unfortunate
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: for so many kids living in underserved communities, worried about
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: making it from their house to the school, always having
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: in the back of their consciousness whether or not an
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: interaction well in poorly for them. We could have said
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: we see you today. I think what would be helpful
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: to podcast listeners and viewers. Is knowing some of your
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: personal story. This this is a faith journey in a
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: life journey for me. Yes, absolutely, And and so you
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: know you grew up, you had you had a pretty
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: tough upbringing. Absolutely. I grew up in a single parent
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: household who mired in poverty. My mother and father got
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: divorced when I was about seven years old. I felt
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: like this nation, my community, had nothing to offer me.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: So from seven years old, when you come to that
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: decision at seven, it's a bad thing. You drift, and
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: all drifting leads in their own directions. So by seven,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: from seven to fourteen, I was completely a draft her.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: I flunked out of high school. As a freshman, I
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: felt world geography and Civics. Now, Civics is the study
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: of politics, So God has a sense of humor. You
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: can't failing civics in name while arriving in the body
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: that the most deliberative body in the history. Right. I
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: also realized that after being here seven years, I'm not
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: the only one failing civics in the US. I also
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: felt Spanish in English that year. When you feel Spanish
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: and English two languages, no one considers you bilingual. They
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: all call you by ignorant because you can't speak in
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: any language. But I had two major blessings, a mother
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: who believed that the power of prayer would deliver her child,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: and a mentor, a white guy who said, you haven't
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: yet discovered was in you. You're looking around at your circumstances.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: He said, that's a wrong view. Your vision has to
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: be bigger than the vision you see on the outside.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: And he said, if you look at the mirror and
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: you start blaming yourself, don't blame your dad because he's
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: not around. Do not blame your mother because she's working
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: sixteen hours three days a week and eight hours two
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: more days a week to put food on the table.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: He should blame yourself. He said. The beauty of it is,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: if you're the problem, the promise is in here. If
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: you see the opportunities from the inside, the obstacles from
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: the inside, the opportunities manifests on the osite. And yet,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: what do you make of seeing churches now going up
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: in flames. There's a prominent BLM activist on Twitter. He
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: said that people need to smash stained glass windows at churches.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: That doesn't seem productive to me. Well, it's also the
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: opposite of productive. I would say that that person. I
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: wonder what Martin Luther King Junior would say that that person.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: I wonder what John Lewis, who was beaten within an
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: inch of his life and never struck back, what would
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: he say at the Pettis Bridge when he's nearly bleeding out.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: He would say this because he said it to me.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Don't get better, get better, Embrace your nation. Know that
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: if you continue on your journey, it will happen. We
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: took a five thousand year leap in the last fifty years,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: mostly because of non violent protesters who believed in America.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Frederick Douglas did the exact same thing. Yeah, he said,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: I'm not fighting against the Constitution. I'm fighting on the constitution. Right.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: I'm going to make the nation live up to what
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: it says in the Constitution. You know, last week we
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: had a number of Senators who went to the floor
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: and read doctor Martin Luther King's letter from Birmingham jail,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: which I did last week as well. Him and I
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: both participated. Yes, it's bipartisan Democrats and Republicans, and it's
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: it's so powerful. You know, we've all read it in school. Yeah,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: but it's different when you hear it, and frankly it's
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: different when you read it out loud, and to read
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: it on the Senate floor. It is incredibly important, particularly now.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: And and you know, one of the points people forget
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: is doctor King wasn't just doctor King, he was Reverend King.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: The letter from the Birmingham Jail was written to my
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: fellow clergyman. It was a call to the church. One
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: of the things he says in that letter is for
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: the church to be a thermostat and not a thermometer.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Don't just reflect the bigotry of your community. Change it.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Speak up. It's a call to action. And you look
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: at these riots and vandals and tearing down George Washington
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: and Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln because you know, Abraham Lincoln
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: was such a Confederate percenta. But you know doctor King
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: and Frederick Douglas, they made explicit appeals to the founding
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: principles of our country. They said, look, we haven't reached
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: it yet. But as doctor King said, the arc of
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: history bends towards justice. Well, speaking of this justice, I
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: do I do want to get to this on this
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: exact point, Senator, you have an admirer. I guess in
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: the audience this is from Prey who said, other than
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Republican senators like Cruise and Scott and Cotton, where is
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: the rest of the Senate gop on justice as we have?
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: And the phrase that they used is anarcho communist insurrectionists
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: tearing down our country's culture and history. That must be
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: a fan of Ted, just is Trey Gotti. I'm sure
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Trey Gotti fan. Take Trey g I did tell him
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: the call, so I'm glad he called. Yeah, listen, I
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: think our conference is I think we're coming closer and
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: closer to the plate. I think many issues we were
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: almost shy in our response to some of the challenges
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: that we saw in the streets. We just said, and
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: know what to do. One of the things that causes
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: that kind of paralysis is when you think you have
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: to make a choice between law enforcement and communities of color.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: That is not the binary choice on the table today. Yeah,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: the binary choice is for America or against America. In
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: order to have that as the actual choice, we have
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: to say I am for law spent and I'm for
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: community's scholor. No conjunction called or it's and when that happens,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: I think we all rise up. And I've been thankful
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: to see the conference coming closer and closer, not into
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: the microphone, but to the plate. We had fifty three
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Republicans say, let's start debating. I can't imagine that five
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: years ago, because five years ago I can get Democrats
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: to come to the debate. Well. And Tim's point about
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: and is really important protecting civil rights. That doesn't just
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: protect American American citizens. That protects police officers, because police
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: officers to do their jobs, they've got to have the
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: trust of the community. And I've I've heard from so
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: many cops right now who are right now they're demoralized.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, they're they're painted as as as the demon.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: And I think Tim's Justice Stack was an effort to
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: help help the police. Officers said. I have called every
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: time there has been a shooting in South Carolina where
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: the officer loses his life, I try to make sure
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: that I'm the first person to call the spouse or
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: the parent. Gregor Lea and outside of Columbia, South Carolina
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: lost his life because someone murdered him. The suspect that
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: he was pursuing killed him. Left a eighteen month old,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: a little boy, and a beautiful wife, Cassie. I showed
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: up at the wake, the viewing and had a conversation
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: with her and her parents, and they're surprised to see me.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: I didn't want any cameras around it, don't want anybody there.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to say, I'm so sorry that someone
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: killed your husband. Several months later, she called my office
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: and she started nonprofit organizations for police officers. I've contributed,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: We've helped, we stay in touch. She's a blessing to
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: our community. Here's the point. So many officers lose their
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: lives not because they're making thirty thousand dollars a year
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: and they're getting rich. It's because when you look at
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Romans thirteen, there's this notion of mission, that there are
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: government officials who can be a ministers of the gospel
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: carrying a sword a weapon for what purpose? For a
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: righteous purpose. Her husband lost his life for a righteous purpose,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: and we should celebrate law enforcement. When when I had
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: a major car accident, it was law enforcement that showed
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: up and said to me, son, I was laying on
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: the side of the road, I went through the windshow
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: came back in my car fell asleep on the Interstate
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: twenty six, literally on an interstate, rolling through traffic in
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: my car. I'm laying there with glass in my backside
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: and my back and he looks down at me and said, son,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: your mom is going to be so happy you're alive.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: And I looked at it and say, sir, you don't
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: know my mama. But what he was trying to tell
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: I didn't hear. What he was trying to tell me
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: was that your mother values you right more than this car. Yeah,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: he was saying to me as he bent down and said, son,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: you're so much more valuable. Yeah, you have intrinsic worth,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: far beyond any material possession. He was speaking words of
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: affirmation to who I was, well, speaking of words of affirmation.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: I'm glad to hear that you got a nice phone
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: call at your office, because I understand you get many
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: phone calls that are not very nice at your office.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: You know, I, unfortunately get a lot of phone calls
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: that are not that nice, and unfortunately I have learned
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: to deal with it. But there are not always words
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: of encouragement. You know. This is kind of a this
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: is a safe space. We like to think about it.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: I mean this is we try to keep this pretty personal. Yes, seriously,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: could we listen? Yeah. A quick note for our loyal audience.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: What you are about to hear are some profane voicemails
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: received by the office of Senator Tim Scott that reflect
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: the ongoing racism by certain individuals in this country, specifically
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: against black conservative Because it's an important part of the
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: context for this episode, we have chosen to play it
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: the uncensored sound. If you do not wish to hear
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: these recordings, you may choose to tune out. Now, Uncle Tim,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: you're uncle WILLI you coon? Motherfucker you. I hope you're
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: choking your fucking tongue in late. Bitch, I don't wish
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: sitting good for your motherfucking ass. You are the lowest
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: so shit this country ever produced. You sell out, motherfucker
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Your mamma no good, your sperm mother. He's even fucking worse,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: he said, shot to your fucking Mamafaith dot Com catching
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: bitch once again. Thank you. This is from the Sunshine State. Also,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Lisa Grammas, your bitch. You fucking him and he fucking you.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: You sucking him, He's sucking you. Michael Rubens a little bitch,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: he turns on people and motherfucker rich sconsin god damn crook.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: So all you motherfucker's gonna burn in hell together. So
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: take your ticket one way to track the hair, you
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: sucking motherfuckers. Have a great day and enjoy your evening. Bye.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: This is one imagine being uh, this is the next one.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: My new staff assistant, just graduated from college, first job,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: gets to hear this, bitch, if you had a bill,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: don't you fucking cut You're probably sucking his date. You're nasty, bitch.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: You Oh you fucking folk is nasted. I'm gonna keep
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: on calling along that that motherfucker wants to I'm gonna
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: sucking my first bit were right, So fuck you motherfuckers,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: you pieces of ship to all come buckets. And then
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: later on another one calls to see it's got me
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: in the cross errors. That's pretty explicit threatening language. Absolutely,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: there's a level of hate that gets directed at Tim
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: that that frankly is different from other members. Acme, why
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: is that? I think I know the answer, but unfortunately,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: you know being obviously the racial uh if the racial overtones,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: the the racial words, the slurs, the challenges are being
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: a black conservative where you were out of sync with
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: the with the he what he thinks is the black cause.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: It incites the kind of rage and anger that could
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: lead to violent outcomes in a way that very few
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: things I've seen in my life has ever done. And
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: you know, when you get sixteen to these, you your
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: your your staff, assistance, your your front line folks start
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: wondering what in the world. Two eleven, we literally shut
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: our phones down because the number of racial slurs that
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: we were getting from around the country. Off Calina else.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: I started this journey five years ago because of the
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Walter Scott murder in North Charleston, South Carolina, my hometown
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: where I grew up in Frankly, Walter Scott was running
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: away from the police. He was shot five times, shot
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: out eight times, that shot five times in the bag.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: The officer falsified the police report and said that he
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: took his taser when the video came out, which it
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: was a few weeks A few weeks later, literally no
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: one there was not even a conversation about what happened
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: in the incident because we had an incident report, right,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: had it not been for some guy literally walking by
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: at the exact right moment the exact right street with
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: his phone out capturing the actual interaction, the engagement. Without
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: that video, we would not have known Walter Scott's name
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: at all. Well, you know, I think the Walter Scott
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: won for a lot of us. Sometimes these are complex situations.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Sometimes the officers used to forces justified the Walter Scott one.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Everyone looked at that and said, this is outrageous. It's
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: just so clear. Yes, And I know there are some
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: people in this debate who say that we need to
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: abolish the police. The police are hopelessly corrupted. We got
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: to I don't know, they're the anarchists in Seattle right now.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: And then there are some people who say the police
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: don't need any kind of reform at all. You do
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: have an interesting perspective here because you're one of the
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: most prominent black politicians in the country and you're the
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: author of this criminal criminal justice reform bill. Yeah. And
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: one of the reasons why I think I have credit
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: building on the topic is not just because I'm an
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: African American. That's helpful, especially when so many of these
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: incidents are African American men having challenges with law enforcement.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: I'm the guy that got stopped seven times as an
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: elected official just driving while bligh stop nine times I
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: believed that year seven times for doing nothing, two times
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: for speeding, so yeah, speeding prigs, but the other seven
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: times for nothing. Eighteen unnecessary stops in the last two decades.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: I would like to just put a pause there for
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: a moment, because I actually didn't know that. Yes, this
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: is a this is a personal experience of an elected
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: US senator. Well, this year, this US senator was stopped
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: by police form failing to use my turn signal early
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: enough in the lane change. I didn't know that was
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: the thing. Yeah, I didn't know, but literally pulled over.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: I got a warning ticket thingfully, but how do you
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: full over it? I called the police chief at another department,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: and they said, basically, what they're trying to do is
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: get your windows down so that you can see they
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: smell any weed or anything in the air. Get a
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: look inside your car. He said, this is what we
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: call racial profiling. Tom I said, I should have dawned
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: on me that the reason for the stop was to
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: take a look inside. It just didn't. It didn't occur
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: to me, even though that was my eighteenth stop. The
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: seventeen stop was last year. For having my blinkers on
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: while helping someone find their telephone. And you know this.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: You can't make this up right up. And so fortunately
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: for me, I've walked away from each one of those unscathed.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: I mean I've got some scar tissue emotionally, but none physically,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: because it's it's a sort of preposterous thing and you
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: can laugh about it, Okay, they pulled you over for
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: the blinker, but this is this is a real harassment
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: that you have personally experienced. One Walter Scott was pulled
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: over for a bust at tail light. There's a video
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: at least as a scene. I think it was a
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: last AGAs Divide where the guy was riding his bicycle
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: and it was pulled over. So what we're talking about
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: is real. But what you said it is so important,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: and I think that you've focused on it the importance
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: of the body camera. One of the reasons why five
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: years ago I started talking about increasing funding for body
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: cameras by one hundred million dollars per year for five
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: years is because if a picture is worth a thousand words,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: then a video should be worth a thousand pictures, right right,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Because we have an opportunity not only to see it,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: but to watch it unfold. That is really important and
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: I think that dynamic. Had it just been a picture
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: of the law enforcement officer on George Floyd's neck, yeah,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: you could debate how long. Yeah, you don't know if
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: he's fighting, if it's a violent situation. Without the video,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: you don't understand the country, don't, Yes, don't. You don't
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: appreciate it. But eight minutes of forty six seconds left later,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: no one had a question, and you can hear him
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: gasping for his breath, saying I can't breathe, pleading for
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: his life. I mean, it makes a real difference. Yes, right,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: and if we that united our country, this tells me
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: something that's really important. Our country. It is the most
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: remarkable country on earth, all the racial divisions we've had
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: in the last several years. We saw that picture, and
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: because there's something in our instinct that says, that's just wrong.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: We are a nation built on fairness. We've been we've
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: we've we've always been a nation that was going to progress.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: We've been making progress for the entire time. We saw
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: that was a wait a second, that cannot that cannot be.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: People were shocked stunned, they said that's not actually happening,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: and once they understood that it was, the entire conversation
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: around police reform became real. I'm afraid that our friends
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: who are playing presidential politics, they're willing to waste the
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: moments hoping for an outcome, so they'd rather I could
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: be wrong. I think they're willing to run campaign on
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: police brutality, maybe more than solve it. We just saw
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Senate Democrats filibuster the Justice Act, and they did it.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: I think it's exactly what Tim said. They want a
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: political issue. They want to set campaign in November, rather
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: than actually make meaningful progress towards addressing the problem doing
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: it responsibly. Look, one of the things Tim did a
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: very good job of also is understanding the objective here
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: is not to tear down cops. It's not to destroy
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: the police officers are keeping vulnerable community's safe. Well and
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: frankly to as you just alluded to that, there's no
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: doubt in my mind that the people who want character
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: driven law enforcement, though most our communities of color, sure,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: the people who are saying whin down nine one one,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: I want someone coming immediately our communities of color, why
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: not because they're always crime ridden neighborhoods. It's because your grandmother,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: who may not be able to move out of a
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: bad neighborhood economically, should always be in a good neighborhood.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: From a social perspective, they want, I want our family members,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: are loved ones, ourselves to always have a responsive law
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: enforcement department. And so this defund police and this autonomous
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: own concept is anathetical to everything that we believe is
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: dear in the communities of color. You know, one of
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: the frustrating things. I mean, race, Slavery is our country's
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: original sin. Yes, and race is an issue a lot
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: of people demagogue on a lot of Republicans are uncomfortable
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: talking about it. Away from it too much. We see
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Democrats this week in the Judiciary Committee, there were several
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Democrats who said, we haven't moved one inch since the
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixties on race and what utter garbage, rebated enormous
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: strides Jim Crow laws, you had segregated schools. We're making
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: a journey now, We've still got a long way to go. Yes,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: But you know, and I think understanding the perspective so
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: many people have of why they feel the justice system
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: isn't treating them fairly. I think that's important. And Tim
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: has spoken up a lot, particularly in the last couple
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: of weeks in the conference, sharing his perspectives. But one
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: thing that I thought was particularly powerful. People were asking Art,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: what do we do with the Confederate statues and renaming
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: in all of this controversy, And your answer, which which
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: almost immediately was echoed by just about every Republican senator right,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: I thought was really powerful. Well, thank you can repeat
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: it for me since I don't remember it. But if yeah,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: I don't think the country's better off trying to create
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: the future than reframe the past. Yeah, we spend almost
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: too much time in the rearview mirror and not enough
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: time in the windshow. It's hard not to get into
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: an accident when all your focus is on yesterday. So
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: for us to reframe the past doesn't benefit almost anyone.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: So if we want to reframe the past, however, put
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: up more statues. Put up a statue not of just
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Martin Luther King Jr. What about Rosa Parks or our
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: book or two at Washington, Washington, Carbor. There's a lot
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: of folks that we could celebrate. But tearing something down
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: does not necessarily build you up. Number one? Number two,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Why aren't we spending the time on economic mobility? Why
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: are we not spending the time on educational outcomes and
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: the poor zip goes in America? Why are we not
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: spending the time creating financial literacy and frankly literacy to
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: break the pipeline between education and incarceration. If you want
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: to spend all the money in the world on something,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: please let it not be on tearing down a statute.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: Let us spend the dollars and the resources on building
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: the future where every single American says, yes, that's my country.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: We have just seconds left. But I have to know,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: yes after that, I have to know, with all these
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: terrible things in the news, and with particularly awful things
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: being directed at you, how do you stay so cheery?
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, why do you keep doing it? Why would
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: you sign up for this job? You know? I don't
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: think I signed up for this job. I think I
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: was called into this job. I think when I became
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: a Christian born again believer in nineteen eighty three, the
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Lord had a plan for my life. Jeremiah one five
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: talks about before you were in your mother's womb, he
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: had a plan for us. I think I was hardwired
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: for public service. Why I don't know, the fact that
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: I find great joy in serving others is something that
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: I think I'm hard wired to do. And frankly, if
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: you think about Matthew twenty two thirty seven through thirty nine,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: loving the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: and strength. The second commandment is to love your neighbor
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: as yourself. How better do we do that by making
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: sacrificial offerings of our time, our talent, or our treasure.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: I was a poor kid, no treasure, time, time, talent,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: not enough. So I went into the one area where
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: I knew I could make a difference and hopefully make
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Mamma proudly. Senator, you mentioned a frustrated preacher. I think
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: maybe a not so frustrated preacher. I think just an
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: honest to God inspiring preacher. I can't beat that. Thank you, Senator,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Senator. I'm Michael Knowles. This is Verdict with
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Ted Cruz. This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: being brought to you by Jobs, Freedom and Security Pack,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: a political action committee dedicated to supporting conservative causes, organizations,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: and candidates across the country in twenty twenty two. Jobs,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Freedom and Security Pack plans to donate to conservative candidates
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: running for Congress and help the Republican Party across the nation.