← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Trump Endorses in Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky & Texas, Castro about to be Indicted, and Dems’ Disgraceful History on Race
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- [00:00]
Senator Ted Cruz
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:02]
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Senator Ted Cruz
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- [02:49]
Ben Ferguson
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- [03:18]
Ben Ferguson
It is VERDICT with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. And Senator, we've got a lot of news that's happening, including a big runoff, election day in America. And there are a lot of results that have come in and it did not look good for people that didn't get the endorsement of Donald.
- [03:34]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, elections in America, it turns out that Donald Trump's endorsement has enormous potency in a Republican primary that was not really much in doubt two weeks ago, but it's even less doubt today. We're going to talk about the results there. We're also going to talk about the pending news coming out today that the Trump Department of Justice is expected to indict Raul Castro in Cuba. We're going to break that down as well. And we're also going to talk about fireworks on the Senate Judiciary Committee, in particular, a battle over racial gerrymandering. The Democrats trying to claim they have clean hands, that racial gerrymandering is a wonderful thing. And you know, I did my very best this week to hold them to account.
- [04:19]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, it's going to be very, very fun audio. I've heard it earlier and you're going to not want to miss that. Want to also talk to you about an organization if you want to stand up for, for unborn babies in this country. And things have changed now. That's gone back to the states from the Supreme Court with the overruling of Roe v. Wade. Well, now your help is needed more than ever before. And Americans United for Life, they are on the front lines writing incredible legislation state by state protecting women and unborn babies. Now over the past 50 years, Americans United for Life has filed more than 200 legal briefs and and also helped create at least 400 pro life bills in over 40 states by writing model legislation. They are consulting with state legislators and defending their own laws and other pro life statues in court. Now, aul's dual front approach of writing and defending legislation has proved an effective one that could become even more impactful as pro life state legislators move to enact protections for preborn babies and their mothers. Now that the legality of abortion has returned to the states, that is where you come in. You and I have the opportunity to overturn pro abortion laws and advance pro life legislation that attacks the most vulnerable in our society. From the womb to the tomb, together we can shape the future of our nation through life affirming legislation in every state. Now, a gift of just $25 helps hold abortion providers accountable and helps protect women and unborn children across this country. And now through a match, your gift is doubled. Donate securely@aul.org verdict that's a U L.org verdict sponsored by Americans United for Life. So Senator, there's leave no doubt in this country, Donald Trump's endorsement extremely important. And if you didn't get his endorsement, it is not good news for you if you're a Republican running for office. Now, there's two ways to interpret this. I interpret this way simply. Donald Trump's agenda is what's on the ballot in this midterm election coming up. Redistricting is a part of that. If you are not standing and fighting with Donald Trump, then there's a lot of American voters that say we want someone different. And clearly that was the thought process for many people that went to the voting booth.
- [06:54]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, in the last two weeks we've had four illustration of the potency of President Trump's endorsement. We had first of all, Indiana. So Indiana, President Trump and the White House asked Indiana to redistrict to redraw their congressional map to gain additional Republican seats. The Indiana legislature refused. They rebuked the President. They said, no, we're not going to do that. And the President got pissed off. And so there were seven Indiana state senators that Trump endorsed against and five of them were defeated in their primaries. That was two weeks ago. It was really a striking result that if you stand up and defy the president, if you declare I'm opposed to the president, at least in the Republican Party, There is no never Trump lane in the Republican Party that does not exist or it does not exist with any staying power. The never Trump lane is largely non existent. Then we saw the state of Louisiana. State of Louisiana. My colleague Bill Cassidy, the incumbent Republican Senator from Louisiana was in a primary. President Trump endorsed against him. And Louisiana has a multi person primary. They Require that in order to win, you got to win a majority. So if you don't win a majority, the top two go to a runoff. What ended up happening in Louisiana is two other candidates, Julia Letlow and John Fleming, ended up winning the primary. And Bill Cassidy, the incumbent Republican senator, did not make the top two. So he was defeated. He's not going to be in the runoff, so he will not be a senator next year. And that was a powerful illustration. Cassidy had millions of dollars behind him. Look, Cassidy's most significant step that he took is that he voted to convict President Trump during the impeachment. I'll tell you, I was sitting next to Bill Cassidy. He and I, our seats are on the floor of the Senate, were next to each other during the impeachment trial. When he cast that vote to convict, it felt like he knew what he was doing. It felt like he knew that he was ending his political career. I was surprised. I think most Republicans were surprised. We did not anticipate that Bill Cassidy would vote to convict.
- [09:18]
Ben Ferguson
That was a shock in the moment when it happened, if you take people back to that day, it wasn't like he was out on TV talking about how he was going to convict Donald Trump. It wasn't like he was Democrats. And the media were not floating that as a real possibility. And then when it happened, I remember it was a total shock on social media at that moment.
- [09:35]
Senator Ted Cruz
Look. And Louisiana is now a bright red state. And so it was. That vote was costly. He did not make the top two. He will not be either Fleming or Letlow will be the next senator from Louisiana, but it will not be Bill Cassidy. And so the Trump endorsement was demonstrated to be extremely potent. Then we saw tonight. You and I are here. It is 11:19pm and tonight in Kentucky, Thomas Massie, incumbent Republican congressman, has been defeated, has been defeated by, it looks like maybe up to 10 points. The numbers are still being counted. Massie. Look, Massie used to win by big margins. Massie is a libertarian. Massie is, in some ways, Massie is similar to Rand Paul. But in the House, I was gonna
- [10:27]
Ben Ferguson
say he's the Rand Paul of the House, in essence.
- [10:30]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah. And listen, President Trump endorsed against him, leaned in against him. They had a Navy SEAL running against him, who was a strong Donald Trump supporter. And listen, I know Thomas. Thomas is a very smart guy. He's an MIT graduate. He's a principled libertarian. I don't doubt that he believes what he's doing, but I will say Thomas tenure in the House had become simply relentless. Votes Against Trump, he voted no. No, no, no, no on everything. He voted no on the big reconciliation bill, the one big beautiful bill also called the working families tax cut. And it got to the point that I think President Trump was really frustrated. Listen, if we had, if we had a huge majority, if we had two hundred and fifty Republicans in the House, you only need 218 for a majority. It wouldn't hurt to have a constant no vote. But if you vote against President Trump all the time, and if you vote with the Democrats almost all the time, that's frustrating. When you have a one or two vote margin in the House, it really hurts. If you want to be an op ed columnist and say, I'm against everything. No, no, no, no, no. Fine. Write your columns, express your opinions. But when you're in an incredibly narrow congressional body, those votes have consequence. I will say also Thomas's votes and positions on Israel. This was a bitter, nasty primary. He had a line when he was conceding his race where he said it took some time to call his opponent to concede because it took some time to track him down in Tel Aviv. Yeah, that was gratuitous. That was unnecessary. I get that Thomas is unhappy that he lost, but that kind of nastiness, I wish he hadn't done that. There's no doubt. But for Donald Trump, Thomas Massie wins. And so Trump endorsed against him, leaned in hard. He wanted a House member who will vote with him. And the challenger who beat Massie will win the general election. He will vote with Trump consistently. And then today we got the bombshell news in Ben, your, my home state of Texas, which is that President Trump endorsed Ken Paxton against John Cornyn. As we're sitting here right now, the primary for Senate is unfolding in Texas. We're in early votes. I voted yesterday. I voted on Monday, the first day of early votes. And Texas early votes run from Monday to Friday, and then Election day is next Tuesday. And this is already the most expensive primary in US history. Just the primary. The two candidates spent over $100 million in the runoff. We don't have the firm numbers yet, but my guess is well over $50 million will have been spent in the runoff. So I think, all told, this will be over $150 million in a primary. So it's by a massive margin, the most expensive Senate primary in the history of the country. And look, keyword, by the way, is
- [13:37]
Ben Ferguson
primary, because now you got money going in the general election as well after this, which is going to be a ton of money. As well.
- [13:44]
Senator Ted Cruz
Listen, we don't know for a fact what will happen on Election Day, but, but any observer will, will acknowledge that President Trump's endorsement makes it significantly more likely that Ken Paxton wins. How much more likely, I don't know. But given what we've seen the last two weeks, nobody can dispute the Trump endorsement is a big deal. And, and so this has been a powerful demonstration of the president that he wants members of the House, he wants members of the Senate who stand with him, who support him, and if they don't, there are real consequences.
- [14:17]
Ben Ferguson
You know, it's interesting you mention that because there's even some that reached out to me and I had media people that were calling saying, hey, we want to have you talk about this exact issue just described with this, you know, why did the President endorse when he did? Was it worth it? Should he just stay out of the primary with Cornyn? Because there are consequences. Cassie is another example of this with consequences. Because now there's real talk about, about the War Powers act now getting fast tracked, because you have. I think it's four, if I'm not mistaken. As of before we started the show, the latest news I saw is four Senate Republicans are now willing to go and say, yeah, we're gonna. We're gonna now talk about the worst Power act and maybe taking away some power from the President.
- [14:58]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, so we had a vote today. The Democrats have done repeated, I think it's been about a dozen now, War Powers act resolutions trying to restrict the President's power to wage war in Iran, to defend this nation and to take out the Iranian regime. They have lost every one of those until today. And they've had voting in favor of them has been Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul. But today, for the first time, they won because they got a fourth vote, Bill Cassidy. And I assume. I've not talked to Bill. I did not see Bill today, but I assume he's pissed. He's pissed the President endorsed against him. He's pissed he lost. And I don't think it's a crazy assumption that he's going to be pissed the rest of the year. It's going to be complicated on votes. If Cornyn loses, I can imagine he's going to be pissed as well. And so that dynamic, when we have a 53, 47 majority, if we have several members. Thom Tillis is not running again. And he has been quite expressed a lot of animosity towards the president. Mitch McConnell's not running again. He's expressed A lot of animosity towards the President. That makes the Senate complicated. If you've got a three vote majority and you have four or five senators who are pissed at the President, that ain't easy. By the way, another result that happened today was the Kentucky Senate race. So the race to replace Mitch McConnell. Mitch is not running for reelection. You had multiple candidates running and it was close. It was a bitterly hotly contested race. Millions of dollars were spent. Trump, a week or two ago endorsed Andy Barr, who's a congressman, and that basically ended the race. Barr won the primary today, I think, by about 65% was the last number I saw. But once Trump endorsed, the race was over. And so his endorsement clearly has a lot of potency. And I think he wants senators and House members that are going to stand with him and fight for the agenda that he was elected to fight for. And there's a reason that I have been Donald Trump's single strongest ally in the Senate for 10 years, because I believe in the agenda he's fighting for. And listen, Trump, by far his greatest attribute is he has a cast iron backbone, he is a courageous fighter, and he's willing to stand up and fight. And that I and so many other Republicans have been frustrated by Republicans who were jellyfish, who were afraid of a fight. And so I'm glad to see the President standing up and standing up for what he believes in.
- [17:34]
Ben Ferguson
Is it a fair assessment to say that for Donald Trump, it may be really tough for him on the Senate side, as you mentioned, through the end of the year, but there's a real now possibility that Donald Trump could have even more power in the Senate moving forward because of some of these changes that are coming. And, yeah, there's going to be retribution until they're out of office. And, you know, at the end of the year, January, technically, but like, this could be very interesting to see that he went in knowing, hey, I'm going to have a hard, you know, five, six months here, seven months here. But by golly, it's going to get a lot better for two more years after that.
- [18:11]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah. And look, if you look at how President Trump has done this, I don't think he has abused his decisions on this. It has not been the case that if somebody disagrees with the President on one particular issue that is discrete and not that consequential, that he responds with, you know, massive retribution. It has been, look, Cassidy voted to convict him and impeach him and remove him from office. That's a big damn deal. That's Not a small vote. The Indiana state legislators. Look, the Democrats had gerrymandered the heck out of much of the country. President Trump wanted Republicans to counterbalance that. And the Indiana state legislators told the president, go jump in a lake. That was significant. You look at Thomas Massie. It's not like Thomas Massie just voted against the president on one vote. He voted against the president on almost every single vote, over and over and over again.
- [19:08]
Ben Ferguson
I think it's fair to say Massie was fighting harder against Donald Trump than he was. Even the Democrats out there, in my
- [19:13]
Senator Ted Cruz
opinion, and I will say at least the political retribution for Massie, I don't know how he could vote against Trump. More like at this point, when the speaker of the House is counting votes in the House, he counts all the Democrats as a no and he counts Massie as a no. So it's not like Massie can vote no twice. He's going to vote no. He was voting no before. He'll keep voting no. And so I think the President acted to say, look, I need people in the House who actually support me.
- [19:40]
Ben Ferguson
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- [21:29]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, we don't know a whole lot of details right now because it is Tuesday night. The Department of Justice sent out an advisory. There's an event tomorrow at Miami's Freedom Tower to honor the victims of the Brothers to the Rescue murders. And Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is expected to attend. And a Castro indictment is. Is expected to be announced. So what we are anticipating is that the Department of Justice will indict Raul Castro. Raul Castro is Fidel Castro's brother. Fidel is dead. Raul is still alive. And it is anticipated that the Department of Justice will indict Raul Castro. Presumably, we don't have the details, so this not be exact, but the Brothers to the rescue, the Cubans shot down a plane and it resulted in a loss of life. And I'm assuming that is the basis for the indictment. We don't know for sure. We'll find out tomorrow. But that indicting Raul Castro, assuming DOJ does that tomorrow, is a big deal. And part of the reason it's a big deal is remember the predicate for going in and seizing Maduro.
- [22:41]
Ben Ferguson
That's exactly what I was gonna ask you is, Is this Maduro 2.0?
- [22:45]
Senator Ted Cruz
I don't know. But Maduro had been indicted. Maduro had been indicted by a grand jury for trafficking, for narco trafficking, for sending thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States. And that indictment served as the predicate for the Delta Force going and arresting him. And so indicting Raul Castro. I don't know if we'll see a military conflict with Cuba. I'm still. I'm still a little skeptical that the President will engage in a shooting war with Cuba. Right now, the President is imposing massive economic cost on Cuba. So if you look at Cuba for the history since the communist revolution in 1959, Cuba spent 40 years as essentially a vassal state of the Soviet Union. And the Soviet Union supported Cuba with money and with oil. And then when the Soviet Union collapsed, when America won the Cold War, Cuba entered into a Faustian bargain with Venezuela. And Venezuela, Cuba provided them soldiers. They provided them thugs. You know, the soldiers that were guarding Maduro were all Cuban soldiers. And they did this throughout Latin America, where they would provide thugs and enforcers to abuse and suppress the populace. And Venezuela reciprocated with money and with oil. And then that's what kept Cuba's Communist regime alive. When President Trump arrested Maduro, the Venezuelan oil and money dried up immediately. For a brief period of time, Mexico stepped in the gap and began providing oil to Cuba. And the Trump administration, quite rightly, and this is something I publicly encouraged, leaned on Mexico and said, cut off the oil. Stop sending oil to Cuba. And they did. Mexico did. And as a result, Cuba is in a massive economic crisis. Their public transportation is all but halted. They're almost entirely out of jet fuel. We saw just a week ago, John Ratcliffe, the head of the CIA in Cuba, meeting with the heads of multiple Cuban agencies. I don't know what they were discussing, but the economic crisis and the pressure on Cuba is massive. And I'll say this, Ben, look.
- [24:54]
Ben Ferguson
And by the way, they're out of oil. People need to understand, like, their lights are off, they're having blackouts.
- [24:59]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah. No, I mean, it's an absolute. Their economy shut down. And I also want to say, look, look. It is a testament to what an extraordinary moment we are in. There is a very real possibility that in the next year we will see new governments in Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran. Now, I want to be clear. I'm not naive, I'm not Pollyannish about this. There are a thousand ways those could go wrong. So those are not guaranteed outcomes. Outcomes, yeah. But. But if we wake up a year from now and we have governments in Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela who are not enemies of America, who want to be friends with America, that will be the single greatest geopolitical shift since the fall of the Berlin Wall, since America won the Cold War. And if you look at Cuba, my vision. I've never been to Cuba, obviously. My father was born, grew up there, fought in the revolution, was imprisoned, was tortured in Cuba. My.
- [25:52]
Ben Ferguson
You want to go, but only if the regime falls. Correct.
- [25:56]
Senator Ted Cruz
I do not want to go to a communist cube. I will happily go and visit a free Cuba, and that could happen in the next year. And my vision, what I'd like to see happen in Cuba, I would like to see Cuba free. I would like to see Cuba with free speech. I'd like to see Cuba with free elections. I would love to see Cuba as a haven for free enterprise. Think a Singapore or Hong Kong before China took it over. And I think they could have extraordinary prosperity. And one of the amazing things is there are billions of dollars from Cuban Americans who would be eager to invest back in Cuba if you had a government that would respect the rule of law and property rights and contract rights and would welcome American investment and the
- [26:45]
Ben Ferguson
Cuban beaches, by the way, tourism would explode.
- [26:48]
Senator Ted Cruz
The Cuban beaches, by all reports, I've never seen them myself, but everyone who has says they're among, if not the most beautiful in the world. And it's only 90 miles away from America. So it's a very quick flight. Cuba could, boom, could enjoy enormous prosperity if the communist regime falls. And I know President Trump wants that to happen. And so I hope and pray that's what occurs.
- [27:12]
Ben Ferguson
Final question on this. If something does happen in Cuba the same way that we saw with Maduro, where we actually take a someone with the last name Castro, how significant is that? In the moment in history and for all the victims of the Castro regime,
- [27:29]
Senator Ted Cruz
look, the Castros are among the most evil people to have ever lived. They have ruled a regime of tyranny, of murder, of torture, of oppression, that they took an economy. You look at Cuba, when the Cuban revolution happened, was the number one sugar producer in all of Latin America. Cuba is like the land that time forgot. They strangled the economy. There's misery, there's poverty. You look at Cuba, the cars that most of the people drive are cars from the 1950s. It was like just time froze. Because communism is a failed economic model, it's a failed governmental model. And so you have cars from the 1950s that they're stitching together the mechanics. They're almost holding them together with rubber bands and bubble gum. But look the misery and poverty that the communists have inflicted on that nation. Enough is enough. And we have a moment right now where we could see finally, finally, finally, a Cuba Libre free Cuba.
- [28:30]
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Senator Ted Cruz
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- [31:25]
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- [32:26]
Ben Ferguson
to move to some fireworks that took place today in the Senate Judiciary where they were talking, you guys were talking about the issue of gerrymandering and it got very heated between you and another senator. Walk us through that.
- [32:41]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, we had a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on racial gerrymandering in the Supreme Court's recent decision making clear that you cannot draw congressional lines discriminating based on race. And the Democrats have been losing their minds about this. They've been screaming that it's Jim Crow. And Maisie Hirono, the very, very liberal Democrat from Hawaii, she spoke right before me and she gave a whole speech about how Democrat or how Republicans are racist, how they want to hurt minorities. And it was just, it was a typically vicious, false, slandering speech. I'll tell you, I had a whole set of remarks prepared for me. I had a whole set of questions prepared for me. I did not ask a single one of the questions my team had prepared. What I did instead was just off the cuff. It was reacting to Mazie Hirono's comments. Give a listen and hear what I had to say. Mr. Chairman, just a moment ago, our colleague Senator Hironos said there's a lot more to say. And indeed, she's right. And in fact, I want to go back to her comments. She began by saying we have a long history of racial discrimination in this country. That's undoubtedly correct. And then she said, quote, we had poll taxes. We had literacy tests. We even had tests of how many jelly beans are in a jar. Mr. Chamberlain, when. When Senator Hirono says we had poll taxes, I want to ask you who we is and in particular, what party was it that implemented poll taxes, taxes in the South? I don't want to necessarily speak in every single case, but I'm pretty confident it was mostly the Democrats. And what party was it that put literacy tests in place in the South? Same answer. Mostly the Democrats. And what party was it that had tests like how many jelly beans are in a bottle? The Democrats. Tell me, what party were the founders of the Ku Klux Klan from? I'm pretty sure that was the Democrats. Indeed. In fact, Nathan Bedford Forrest, the founder of the Klan, was a delegate to the 1860 Democrat National Convention. What party wrote the Jim Crow laws in the south, the Democrats. And so on this side of the aisle were members of the Republican Party. Who was the first Republican president? Abraham Lincoln. The Republican Party was literally founded to oppose slavery. We came into existence because slavery was a grotesque evil. And it was President Lincoln, the first Republican president, who signed the Emancipation Pro Proclamation, who won the Civil War, and that resulted in the freeing of the slaves and the passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. By the way, fast forward to the civil rights era. Bull Connor, one of the most noxiously racist politicians. What party was he from? He was a Democrat. The Democrats, for the entire history of their party have been a party based on racial discrimination. They affirmatively embrace it. They support it. Let me ask you, Mr. Grime, is discrimination is discriminating based on race consistent with the United States Constitution? No. What does the 14th Amendment say about discrimination based on race? It's prohibited. What does the 15th amendment say about discriminating based on race and in particular drawing congressional lines and explicitly discriminating based on race? It's prohibited. Now, the Democrats are fond of telling this story. That is, and I wish I could find a kinder way to say it, a fondness flat out lie that without discriminating based on race that no African Americans will be elected and no Hispanics will be elected. Indeed, there was one fellow online who was a vocal left wing spokesperson who tweeted out, if I'm advising anybody to run for president, they sure as hell better have a solution to how you make sure that it's not another hundred years before another black people person can represent South Carolina. So that's a typical Democrat statement, that we cannot elect a black person in South Carolina without discriminating based on race. I want to ask you, Mr. Chamberlain, who is the junior senator from South Carolina right now? That would be Tim Scott. And all right, I'll tell you what I said online. I said, hey, Grok, who is Tim Scott and why do Democrats think he isn't black? And by the way, was Tim Scott elected because of a gerrymandered district drawn only to elect an African American? No. He won statewide. He won statewide. By the way, the Democrat position is you can only elect African Americans with a gerrymandered district. I will point out Burgess Owens, an African American, is elected to majority white district in the state of Utah. He's a Republican. Byron Donalds, another African American, has elected the majority white district in four Florida. He is a Republican. John James, another African American, is elected to majority white district in Michigan. He is a Republican. And my own Congressman Wesley Hunt, who represents me in the House of Representatives. He is elected in a majority white district. He is a Republican. And yet in the Democrats world, you are not black if you're not a liberal Democrat. There is an arrogance to African American voters. By the way, they also have that same arrogance to Hispanic voters. They say you're not Hispanic if you're not a liberal Democrat. Well, I'll tell you, I am proud to be the first Hispanic ever elected to represent the state of Texas in the United States Senate. And Mr. Chamberlain, in my election in Texas, was I elected in the gerrymandered district that could only elect an Hispanic? No, you were elected statewide. Discrimination based on race is wrong. Final question. The Democrats are now clutching their pearls that seats drawn to elect liberal Democrats in the south are going to go away. You may get black Republicans instead. Indeed, in Tennessee, they're freaking out that a liberal white guy who's a Democrat is likely going to lose his seat to an African American woman who's a Republican. And they say that's horrible racial oppression. My final question is this. If you look nationwide, which party has egregiously abused gerrymandering for decades? Both parties are guilty of it, but which. Who has been the worst offender? And in particular, take New England, take Massachusetts, take Connecticut, take Rhode island, take Maine, take Vermont, take New Hampshire. How many Republicans are elected from all of New England in the House of Representatives? I think the answer to that is zero. Zero. They've drawn every district in a naked gerrymander, and yet they're very upset that their illegal pursuit of power has now been stopped by the Supreme Court that is enforcing the Constitution and prohibiting the racial gerrymandering and discrimination their party is built on.
- [39:45]
Senator Mazie Hirono
Senator, be just a chairman, part of personal privilege.
- [39:49]
Senator Ted Cruz
Sure.
- [39:50]
Senator Mazie Hirono
I feel personally aggrieved to sit here and to be lectured by my colleague from Texas. And this reminds me of the time when he was first elected to the Senate and the Judiciary Committee had a hearing on gun safety and he felt a need to lecture Dianne Feinstein, who was a leader, on gun safety legislation. And he took that opportunity to lecture Dianne Feinstein about gun safety and her leadership on the issue. And she said to him something along the lines of, I did not sit here on this committee for however many years she did, only to be lectured by you. And that is how I feel. So why don't you just stop lecturing the rest of us? Just because you think you are the smartest person in the world doesn't mean the rest of us Agree to that. Okay.
- [40:38]
Senator Ted Cruz
Thank you, Senator Hirono. Senator, I knew Dianne Feinstein. I served with Dianne Feinstein, and you're not Dianne Feinstein.
- [40:44]
Ben Ferguson
All right, Senator, I just got one question for you. You're not a big morning person. So who made you mad this morning, and what did you eat? Because that was brilliant.
- [40:53]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, look it. I couldn't stand seeing the Democrats being hypocritical and dishonest. And, you know, it was striking. Maisie Hirono said, I'm offended. I'm offended that you said this. You know what she didn't do? She didn't dispute a single word I said because every word I said was factual. She didn't dispute that her party has been viciously racist since the very beginning of that party, that it embraces racial gerrymandering. Like every word of substance. She just. And this is a classic Democrat tactic. How dare you speak the truth. I'm offended by the truth. And obviously my reference at the end, I was quoting a Democrat. If you'll recall, when George W. Bush. Or not George W. Bush, George H.W. bush was running for president, and he was running with Dan Quayle, and he was running against Michael Dukakis, and his running mate was Lloyd Benson. And Lloyd Benson was a senator from Texas. And Dan Quayle, when he was nominated to be vice president, was a very young senator. I think he was 41 or 42. And he did not have a ton of experience. And in the vice presidential debate between Dan Quayle and Lloyd Benson, Dan Quayle had a riff that I suspect was prepared by his team, where he said, look, I'm the same age that John Kennedy was when he became president. And it was, I think, their line to say, gosh, I'm not inexperienced, because Kennedy and I are the same age. And Lloyd Benson looked at him and said, senator, I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. I served with Jack Kennedy. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy. And that obviously was the riff I was using for Maisie Dianne Feinstein, my first year, we did have a fiery blow up over gun control because she was a big advocate of gun control. I am a big defender of the Second Amendment. And when I asked her a specific question about the constitutional basis for what she was proposing, she got very upset. And she, much like Mazie Hirono, she said, I am not a sixth grader. And she was horrified that I would actually ask her the constitutional basis for what she was trying to do. Maisie does not have. She could not refute a word I said. So instead she resorted to insults and emotional offense. And look, I think that's a fairly typical example of where the Democrats are truth and facts are not their strong points and they're not going to engage in them. Instead, they're going to try to engage in deception. And sadly, that was the entire Democrat theme in the entire hearing.
- [43:35]
Ben Ferguson
No, it really was. Don't forget we do the show Monday, Wednesday, Friday. We'll have a lot for you on Friday's episode, I have a feeling, especially after that press conference in Cuba. So make sure you join us. Then hit that subscribe or auto download button. You can also watch this show on YouTube and please write us a five star review. It makes a huge difference on the charts and the center and I will see you back here Friday morning this
- [43:57]
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