Biden’s Bullsh*t

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Biden’s Bullsh*t" - The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

Episode Overview In the episode titled "Biden’s Bullsh*t," released on September 17, 2021, host Ben Ferguson engages in a candid and critical discussion with Senator Ted Cruz. The conversation delves into the Biden administration's handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal, the controversial vaccine mandates, political hypocrisy, and reflections on the 20th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Through incisive commentary and personal anecdotes, the episode aims to shed light on perceived shortcomings in current U.S. policies and leadership.

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1. Biden Administration's Afghanistan Withdrawal: A Foreign Policy Catastrophe

Critical Assessment of the Withdrawal Senator Ted Cruz opens the discussion by condemning President Biden's foreign policy, labeling the Afghanistan withdrawal as "the worst foreign policy catastrophe in a generation" (00:00). He emphasizes the widespread disillusionment among American servicemen and women, the emboldening of global adversaries, and the disheartening effect on U.S. allies.

Accountability and Blinken's Testimony Cruz criticizes Secretary of State Antony Blinken, highlighting his perceived evasiveness during Senate hearings. At [03:29], Cruz recounts Blinken’s reluctant admission to providing the Taliban with lists of Americans and Afghans for evacuation, raising concerns about the safety and fate of those individuals.

“What’s happened to them? How many of them escaped? How many of them have been hunted down for torture or murder.” (03:29)

Operational Failures and Political Motivations The conversation underscores the administration's alleged lack of competence and political maneuvering. Cruz points out the failure to maintain Bagram airfield, attributing this strategic mistake to political directives to reduce troop numbers (08:36).

“They gave away Bagram. And by the way, giving away the Bagram airfield will be taught 100 years from now in War College as among the great strategic blunders.” (04:46)

Impact on Americans and Afghan Allies Cruz raises alarms about the incomplete evacuation of American citizens and the reckless intake of Afghan evacuees without proper vetting, leading to potential security threats and instances of abuse (05:10).

“We’re bringing that child abuse and that domestic violence, that crisis the Biden administration is importing, while at the same time abandoning Americans behind evacuations.” (06:00)

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2. Vaccine Mandates: Legality and Political Strategy

Introduction to Vaccine Mandates Shifting focus to domestic policies, the discussion turns to the Biden administration's vaccine mandates. Cruz critiques the legality of these mandates, particularly the use of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to enforce them (20:31).

Legal Challenges and Procedural Flaws Cruz outlines the stringent criteria and procedural hurdles for emergency temporary standards (ETS), arguing that the mandates fail to meet the necessary "grave danger" threshold required by law (21:25).

“On its face, it is bullshit.” (24:29)

Political Motives Behind the Mandates He asserts that the mandates are a strategic move to divert attention from the Afghanistan debacle, expecting compliance out of fear of prolonged litigation (19:20).

“They do it to change the subject on Afghanistan.” (19:20)

Corporate Compliance and Public Resistance Cruz criticizes large corporations for supporting the mandates, suggesting that they benefit from the political cover while ordinary Americans face job losses or firings for non-compliance (25:51).

“This is perfect. You can say, gosh, the government's making us do it. What choice do we have?” (26:09)

Personal Stance on Vaccination Both hosts share their personal experiences with vaccination, emphasizing individual choice over government mandates.

“But the government has no damn business ordering you or Me to take this vaccine, particularly an experimental vaccine.” (26:11)

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3. Political Hypocrisy and Media Manipulation

AOC at the Met Gala: Symbol of Hypocrisy The hosts discuss Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (AOC) appearance at the Met Gala wearing a dress adorned with the slogan "Tax the Rich," highlighting the perceived hypocrisy of wealthy Democrats advocating for policies that seemingly threaten their own financial status (34:34).

“Hypocrisy is a beautiful thing. I actually would have respected it more if it said eat the rich, go all the way.” (34:34)

Mask-Wearing as a Political Symbol Cruz mocks the Democratic Party's mask-wearing practices, suggesting it serves as a form of self-identification and hypocrisy, where masks are worn publicly but not in private (39:48).

“But you repeat yourself.” (40:13)

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4. Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of September 11th

Personal Narratives of 9/11 Experiences Both hosts share their personal memories of the September 11th attacks, contrasting the unity and national resolve that emerged during that tragic period with the current state of political division and discord.

Michael Knowles recalls being 11 years old during the attacks, describing his mother's experience and the vivid memories of the event (40:15).

Ted Cruz shares his immediate reaction from Washington D.C., detailing the chaos and confusion as the second plane struck the Pentagon (41:28).

Unity vs. Current Divisiveness Cruz emphasizes the profound sense of unity post-9/11, expressing hope that the nation can regain that collective spirit despite current challenges.

“We are at a chapter where we're angry and bitter and at each other's throats. But I believe that same power of resolve that brought us together after 9/11. I still think we have that.” (50:19)

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5. Conclusion: Hope and the Path Forward

Enduring Hope Amidst Challenges The episode concludes on a note of cautious optimism, with both hosts expressing belief in the American spirit's resilience and the potential for renewed unity.

“I still believe in that unity and greatness in this country.” (50:47)

Final Thoughts on Individual Liberty Cruz reiterates the importance of individual liberty, criticizing arbitrary power and advocating for personal decision-making in matters such as healthcare.

“Whether someone can make decisions for you, you're almost never wrong, starting with a base of individual liberty.” (33:15)

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Ted Cruz on Foreign Policy Failure:
  “President Biden and the Biden administration have presided over the worst foreign policy catastrophe in a generation.” (00:00)

• On Blinken's Admission:
  “He finally said, yes, we gave them a list. I asked him how many. He didn't know how many he gave them.” (03:29)

• Regarding Vaccine Mandates' Legality:
  “On its face, it is bullshit.” (24:29)

• AOC's Met Gala Appearance:
  “Hypocrisy is a beautiful thing. I actually would have respected it more if it said eat the rich, go all the way.” (34:34)

• Reflection on 9/11 Unity:
  “We are at a chapter where we're angry and bitter and at each other's throats. But I believe that same power of resolve that brought us together after 9/11.” (50:19)

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Final Remarks

"Biden’s Bullsh*t" offers a pointed critique of the Biden administration's policies, blending political analysis with personal narratives to engage listeners. Through detailed discussions and heartfelt reflections, the episode seeks to inform and provoke thought on the current state of American leadership and societal cohesion.

Transcript

[Ted Cruz]

President Biden and the Biden administration have presided over the worst foreign policy catastrophe in a generation. Americans across the nation are horrified. Our servicemen and women, our active duty military, are angry. They're disillusioned and they're frustrated. Our enemies across the globe are emboldened, which makes the world more dangerous today for America. And our allies are dispirited. Ever since the disaster began unfolding in Afghanistan, we've seen the Biden administration making political excuses. We've seen Democrats on this committee explaining at great length how everything that happened in Afghanistan is Trump's fault. It's all Trump's fault. Mr. Secretary, Joe Biden is the president of the United States Congress. Kamala Harris is the vice president of the United States. You are the United States Secretary of State. Just like Jimmy Carter owns the disaster of the Iran hostage crisis, you own this.

[Michael Knowles]

Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz. I am Michael Knowles, joined by Senator Cruz. Senator, I am really glad that I am not on the losing end of a hearing from you. I almost felt bad for Secretary of State Antony Blinken, except listening to what you said to him. It just seems that they totally blew it.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, they did. And unfortunately, they're not doing any better. It's one thing to screw it up and then say, okay, let's go fix our mistakes, but they're not changing what they're doing. I mean, right now, the Biden administration's focus is all political. They're just trying to spin it. So their talking point, and you saw Democratic senators echoing that in that hearing, is that it's all Trump's fault. It's all Trump's fault. It's all Trump's fault. Don't blame Biden. At one point, Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, suggested we hold hearings on George W. Bush. So it wasn't even just Trump's fault. It's Bush's fault.

[Michael Knowles]

It's not Obama's fault. It goes all the way back.

[Ted Cruz]

It skipped Obama just altogether went back. It is really screwed up when the only thing they're focused on is politics. And I will say later in that cross examination, there were two things Blinken admitted to that were really important. Number one, there had been media reports that the Biden administration had given the Taliban a list of Americans and list of Afghans that they wanted to let out. The Biden administration had never confirmed that. And so I asked Blinken flat out, did you give them a list? And he hemmed and hawed. He didn't want to answer that. But finally, and it took Two or three times going back at it. He finally said, yes, we gave them a list. I asked him how many. He didn't know how many he gave them. I said, thousands. He said, no, not thousands. Said, hundreds. Well, maybe hundreds. So we don't know. The obvious follow up question now is, okay, you gave the Taliban a list of Americans and a list of Afghanis that you wanted out. What's happened to them? How many of them escaped? How many of them have been hunted down for torture or murder. That is a serious follow up that needs to happen.

[Michael Knowles]

Because the argument for the list, for giving the Taliban the list was, here are the people that the Taliban you have to let out of the country, and you better fulfill your promises just like you always do, and you better play nice. The way that normal people, I think, are interpreting this is you gave them a kill list. You gave them a list of people to target. So what's going on with them?

[Ted Cruz]

And the thing to understand is this entire Biden circle, it's like a university faculty lounge. They're so fundamentally naive. They think the Taliban want to be welcomed at a Georgetown cocktail party. They think they care what the United nations thinks about them. And they fundamentally. It's an ideological extremism, but also this deep naivete that incompetence is what led to the disaster in Afghanistan. But a second thing. Blinken confirmed it's the first time the administration has done this. Is that so? They screwed up the evacuation on multiple fronts. They gave away Bagram. And by the way, giving away the Bagram airfield will be taught 100 years from now in War College as among the great strategic blunders second only to starting a land war in Asia. No, wait, they did that, too. Sorry, I can't resist the Princess.

[Michael Knowles]

At least they haven't gone up against a Sicilian when death is on the line yet. Yes, although I think you have some Sicilian blood, don't you?

[Ted Cruz]

Only Italian, not Sicilian.

[Michael Knowles]

Fair enough.

[Ted Cruz]

The boot and not off the tip of the boot. Do you have Sicilianity?

[Michael Knowles]

I do. In fact.

[Ted Cruz]

This is my.

[Michael Knowles]

I don't like to admit this on air, you know, but. But you know we're joking about the Princess Bride. They have made every classic blunder.

[Ted Cruz]

It's massive. And the second big admission Blinken had was they brought tens of thousands of Afghanis here. They did terrible vetting. They don't know the background of who it is. So they didn't get the right people out. They didn't actually evacuate the Americans. And there are hundreds of Americans still there. But at the Same time, they scooped up 10, tens of thousands of Afghanis without vetting them. And among them are some significant number of adult men with children with little girls that they claimed were their wives that were child brides.

[Michael Knowles]

Now, this seems like, and I say this as a conservative talk radio host, this seems like the sort of sensationalist story that seems like a fake news on the Internet. But we're now getting confirmation that this has actually happened.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, and the clearest confirmation is the Secretary of State under oath told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, yes, we have had adult Afghani men come with little girls and say they were their wives. And what he also testified to. So he confirmed that. And he also confirmed that in some instances they've had to separate them. In other words, you had little girls being sexually assaulted by grown men. And the Biden administration, after trafficking those children in, separated them. I asked him how many, he didn't know. He said only a handful. How many is a handful? The State Department had formally requested, and they use this word, urgent guidance about what to do with these grown men with little girls who, saying their wives, the Department of Homeland Security, again, the Biden administration said that it was a product of desperation. And what's terrifying is they're Afghani moms who presumably have a little girl who I don't know what age we're talking, whether it's 14 or 12 or 10, that are so desperate to get their daughter out of the country that they may well have just been handing their daughters over to grown men. And one of the disturbing things is the percentages in Afghanistan of child brides. A massive number of children are married in Afghanistan in domestic violence. World Health Organization puts the rate of domestic violence in Afghanistan at 90%. 9, 0. It is an accepted norm. And by bringing tens of thousands of evacuees into the United States with no vetting, we're bringing that child abuse and that domestic violence, that crisis the Biden administration is importing, while at the same time abandoning Americans behind evacuations.

[Michael Knowles]

Because what we were told is the Afghans who are coming here, they're all the good guys. And the ones we're leav there, those are all the bad guys. Now you're seeing among the so called good guys who we were told were going to be vetted, they weren't vetted. Some people have come here actually have already been convicted of crimes in the United States before they even came here because they were deported. Now they've come back. We were told they wouldn't leave any Americans behind. They did leave Americans behind. And we're only talking about this one area of policy. It's a complete blunder. So my question beyond all of this dark comedy of errors is who takes responsibility? Blinken would not take responsibility. Biden doesn't seem to be taking responsibility. Most people don't think Biden's even calling the shots because they don't think he knows what end is up. Pardon my disrespect. So who's running the show over there?

[Ted Cruz]

The White House is running the show, and the political operatives there are running the show. What really drove. You know, I've had a lot of people ask, well, why would they. Why would they suck so bad? I mean. I mean, at the end of the day, why would this be such a disaster? And if you look at the evacuation, to use a math concept. Wait a second. I was told there'd be no math.

[Michael Knowles]

I know.

[Ted Cruz]

I'm a little.

[Michael Knowles]

A little nervous here, but, yeah, their.

[Ted Cruz]

Evacuation was both underinclusive and over inclusive. It was under inclusive that they didn't prioritize getting the Americans out. And they didn't keep Bagram, a secure airfield that would have kept our servicemen and women safe and allowed us to get the Americans out. They also left thousands of legal permanent residents, green card holders are still stuck behind enemy lines, and also probably tens of thousands of Afghanis who assisted us. So they were under inclusive because when they just took off and left and everything went to hell, they had no plan for getting the people out. But they were also over inclusive because instead of prioritizing the Americans, they just started grabbing people. I mean, tens of thousands bringing them here. And so a couple of weeks ago, I was at Fort Bliss. Fort Bliss is right outside El Paso. It's El Paso, New Mexico, on the western tip of Texas. And Fort Bliss is where one of the places where they're housing a number of these evacuees. And I did a helicopter tour of Fort Bliss, went up with the commanding general, and it. They're putting them in what were troop barracks. And so they're barracks that they use to train troops before deployment. And they were erecting these massive tent buildings, these giant white tents that held up to 100 people each. And they were just erecting them to build the capacity to hold up to 10,000 evacuees. And so I'm in the helicopter, and we're circling around. I asked the commanding general, I say, well, what kind of vetting are you doing of. Of the folks here? And he says, oh, no, no, we're not doing any vetting. No, no, no, they're doing the vetting in country. So he's counting on in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan. And mind you, this is while planes are taking off from Kabul and Afghanis are hanging to the wheels and falling potentially to their death. So the vetting is half assed. And I said, well, what security is there? And the general looks at me and says, there's no security. There's no perimeter, there's no fence. And he said, this is not a detention facility. He said, we have no authority to detain anybody. They could just walk out once they get here. He said, any one of them can leave anytime they want. At the time, it was only a few days in into the evacuees coming. They were having planes land every couple of hours. He said at the time, he said about 35, 36 of them had left already. One had literally called an Uber and had taken an Uber from the camp to downtown El Paso. They had no idea where he was. And Michael, nobody knows this. So everyone assumes the camps where the evacuees are taken are secure facilities processed, they're wide open, and they are free to go anywhere they want. And the Biden administration apparently doesn't care if these are adult men with little girls who they are sexually assaulting. The vetting is so half assed that there is a very real risk that if even one or two jihadis are in the mix, that we could see a suicide bomb like we saw in Afghanistan. But in an American mall or restaurant.

[Michael Knowles]

If they're letting people hop on these planes who have been convicted of crimes in the United States, surely the vetting is not top notch. And it's not as though they're only going to Fort Bliss. They're going all around the country. I mean, what sort of numbers are we talking about?

[Ted Cruz]

It's Fort McCoy, which is in Wisconsin, is where they've had, where the State Department asked for quote, urgent guidance on what to do with the adult men with little girls who they said, oh, this is my wife. And the State Department folks were deeply concerned. You know, I was dismayed. Blinken seemed to know next to nothing about it. He acknowledged it existed, but he had no sense of urgency that, wait, why are we participating in exploiting little girls? And you asked who the decision making is. The weird thing about this process, I don't think State was the decision maker. I don't think Defense was the decision maker. I think it was the political operatives at the White House. And I think two things drove it. Number one, Joe Biden and his political team wanted him to give a speech on September 11, on the 20th anniversary, a triumphant speech. Nobody else could end the war. I ended the war. I am the great liberal hope. And that political mandate trumped everything else. So when things started to go to crap, they didn't alter it because they had a political mandate. So we had. Over the last month, we had multiple conference calls with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. And at one point, it was with all the senators. And at one point, a number of us were asking, but we're asking, for example, Secretary Austin, the Secretary of Defense, General Milley, the Chairman of Joint Chiefs, said, look, who advised abandoning Americans behind enemy lines? And the answer was, well, we didn't know who the Americans were. We didn't know where they were, so we didn't know how to get them out. So there was no plan to do that.

[Michael Knowles]

Not a great excuse.

[Ted Cruz]

And when they were asked, well, why did you abandon Bagram? The answer was, the order came from the White House to lower the troop count, to drop it below 2,500. And what Milley said is, he said, look, we had a choice. We didn't have enough soldiers to maintain Bagram and keep security at the embassy. And since we had to keep the embassy, we had no choice but abandon Bagram because we'd been ordered lower the troop count below the numbers necessary to maintain it. So that's what drove their leaving. It was an arbitrary political mandate. Look, the Biden White House, they're so astonished that they're being held to account for this. They're used to the press. Look, Joe Biden is used to questions like, what's your favorite kind of ice cream?

[Michael Knowles]

Chocolate chip?

[Ted Cruz]

Is that. I didn't even know the answer to it. I was so pissed at the question, I didn't really care what the answer is. But these guys, I will say it's oddly enough, an advantage being a Republican in that you're used to everything you do being attacked from every direction from the press, that before you do something, you try to think through it.

[Michael Knowles]

How am I gonna get hit for this? How is this gonna play?

[Ted Cruz]

I think these guys are so complex, complacent, that whatever crap they're shoveling, the press will happily shovel it. They just didn't have anything resembling any competence. They had a political objective. Move on.

[Michael Knowles]

I could not figure out. I could not for the life of me figure out why they abandoned Bagram. I thought, I understand why they're still going through with this. I understand why they make the Deal with the Taliban. I understand why they're not even reacting to the terror attack, but I said, why? Why do you leave Bagram before the evacuation? But it of course makes sense if the top line order is you need to reduce the number of troops and then you say on the ground, well, okay, but with this, we already only have 2,500 troops. If you reduce it anymore, we have to make a decision. Do we hold the embassy? Do we hold the airfield? And they give up the airfield.

[Ted Cruz]

And the pitiful thing is it appears nobody in our military pushed back and said, what the hell are you doing abandoning a secure airfield before the evacuation? I mean, it is on the merits, truly indefensible. Bagram doesn't just have one airstrip. It has two, two world class runways. It has a secure perimeter. And think about, you know, we had horrific suicide bombing, murdered 13 servicemen and women. Yesterday I gave tribute to Lance Corporal David Espinosa, Texan from Laredo, Texas, who was one of the 13 killed. He. He was 20 years old. He was just barely out of his teenage years. He didn't have to die. Those 13 servicemen and women, they didn't have to die. And if the evacuation had been at Bagram, the odds are really significant that they wouldn't have died because it was built to withstand terrorist attack.

[Michael Knowles]

Unlike the Kabul airport.

[Ted Cruz]

Right. The Kabul airport's a commercial airport in the middle of a dense urban environment. It tragically invited the kind of terrorist attack that took their lives. And this was a political mandate from the White House combined with the military wouldn't press back at all. It appears that the Joint Chiefs didn't press back, the Secretary of Defense didn't press back. And one of the interesting things, the Biden guys are spending a lot of time floating. Well, the screw ups are all Austin's fault and Milley's fault. It's pretty clear. This is before the Milley bombshell of this week, but it seemed clear to me that they're trying to set up for the Defense Secretary, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs to quit or be fired as the scapegoats. Because I think the Biden administration, their priority is protect Blinken and more importantly, protect Biden, protect Kamala, and protect the political operatives in the White House who are, of course, the decision makers doing all that.

[Michael Knowles]

So I want to get into the top operative at the White House right now, Ron Klain, the chief of Staff, because shifting gears from the foreign side of things onto the domestic, the White House has also just pushed this massive vaccine mandate, something they said they weren't going to do Biden said he wouldn't do it. Kamala said Dr. Fauci said they wouldn't do it. Now they're pushing it. The chief of staff, Ron Klain, seems to have made an admission about the way this mandate that is rolling out that could compromise the legality of what they're trying to do.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, that's exactly right. And it's the dangers of Twitter.

[Michael Knowles]

So we've all fallen prey.

[Ted Cruz]

At various times, there's some tweets I've sent that my team has yelled at me. Normally a smart alec comment or something that seemed to make sense at the.

[Michael Knowles]

Moment, but never an admission that you're breaking the law or potentially violating the Constitution.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, and let's step back for a second and give a little context. Number one, the reason I think they rolled out the vaccine mandate was to change the subject on Afghanistan.

[Michael Knowles]

I agree. I agree.

[Ted Cruz]

They were getting killed in Afghanistan. It was the first issue where Democrats were attacking them. And even more so the press was. I mean, when their most passionate groupies, and by that, I mean CNN and MSNBC and all the networks were going after them in Afghanistan, that was a real problem. By rolling out the vaccine mandate, all of the press fell back in line. They all came to their standard talking points. Hooray, hooray. Mandate vaccines. And it drove. Drove Afghanistan off of the front page. I think that was the political desire. What Biden did is, I believe, blatantly unlawful. So there's several things. There's one, an executive order for federal employees and for federal contractors that has arguable legality. You've got more authority over federal employees. So he's got more of a hook to claim the power to do it. He shouldn't have done it. It was abuse of power. But there's at least an arguable legal hook for that. But he also rolled out an order for every company in America with 100 or more employees, and he did it through OSHA.

[Michael Knowles]

Can I ask a stupid question? What is OSHA?

[Ted Cruz]

It is the Occupational Safety Hazard Administration. And so it makes workplace rules and regulations for injuries at work. And they rolled it out under a standard that is called an emergency temporary standard. I'll give you a little bit of the kind of legal background on it. So the test for an emergency temporary standard, it's called an Etsy, is that employees are exposed to, quote, grave danger from exposure to substances or agents. So it's supposed to be like asbestos, those kinds of things determined to be toxic or physically harmful. Or from new hazards, and that the emergency standard is necessary to protect employees from such danger. So that's what they have to prove.

[Michael Knowles]

Okay.

[Ted Cruz]

It's a high standard. It also can only be in effect for six months. After six months, they have to have a formal rule that goes through notice and rulemaking and all of the requirements for formal rules. Now, by the way, osha, the average time for a formal rule, how long do you think it takes them?

[Michael Knowles]

I don't know. I really have. I have no frame of reference.

[Ted Cruz]

93 months.

[Michael Knowles]

Oh my God. I thought you'd say 93 days.

[Ted Cruz]

93 months, nearly eight years is their average time for a formal rule. So the ets, the emergency temporary standard is a six month window. It can be challenged once it goes into effect. Anyone affected by it can challenge it. And you challenge it immediately in the court of appeals. So you skip the district court. It's a weird. Because it's an emergency standard, you go straight to the court of appeals. So anyone across the country affected by this could file a challenge in the court of appeals. The court of appeals can stay it, which means order that the rule not go into effect. If there are multiple courts of appeals, which there almost certainly will, then it goes into a multi jurisdictional panel that decides which court of appeals will hear the case. Okay, and do you know how they.

[Michael Knowles]

Figure it out at this point? I think they're gonna cast lots or something.

[Ted Cruz]

That's exactly what they. They draw it out of a drum.

[Michael Knowles]

Stop it.

[Ted Cruz]

So the statute says you put a piece of paper, you put something inside of a drum, and then you reach in and pull out. Okay, you're in the 4th Circuit. Congratulations.

[Michael Knowles]

When do they burn the tea leaves?

[Ted Cruz]

It's a weird. And the statute specifies all this. Wow.

[Michael Knowles]

I want to assure the audience that was not a setup. I actually did not know. So they're basically literally casting lots to figure out which court it then goes.

[Ted Cruz]

To, and then it can go up to the Supreme Court.

[Michael Knowles]

Okay.

[Ted Cruz]

So OSHA very rarely uses this ETS authority. They have issued an ETS nine times. Of the nine, five of them were either fully vacated or stayed or partially vacated or stayed. Four of them were fully vacated or stayed. One was partially vacated or stayed. Okay, so more than half of them.

[Michael Knowles]

So they don't have a great record here on these things being upheld.

[Ted Cruz]

And the ones that were upheld, and by the way, a couple of them weren't challenged. So of the nine, the ones that survived, they weren't always challenged. But of the nine, the ones that survived all happened before 1980. And in 1980, the legal standards changed, and it became much tougher to promulgate an ets.

[Michael Knowles]

So what I'm gathering here is that this mandate, in the way that it was rolled out, is completely bogus.

[Ted Cruz]

That's a technical legal term, and I don't appreciate you whipping out, oh, my high polluted jargon. It's bullshit.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah. Another technical legal term.

[Ted Cruz]

On its face, it is.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

But it's the really cynical part. Number one, they did it to change the subject. But number two, they know there's no legal basis for this. They know they're gonna lose. It's like the eviction moratorium. Remember the eviction moratorium? The CDC decided no landlord in America can evict anyone. What the heck does that have to do with the cdc?

[Michael Knowles]

And that was during the Trump administration. Right. So just to show you how the power in this country works, even under the Republican administration, this random administrative agency that has nothing to do with rentals and property.

[Ted Cruz]

Unelected bureaucrats. Wow. And when it went to the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court, six, three said, no, you can't do an eviction moratorium. There's no legal authority for that. You're the center for Disease Control. Same thing's true here. So the Biden guys know that this is not gonna survive. The OSHA rule's not gonna survive. But here's the really cynical part. They don't care because they're gambling that it'll take months or even years for the litigation to resolve itself. And in the meantime, 90% or more people will comply. Right? And in particular, the big companies. So this really is the Fortune 500 getting in bed and spooning with Joe Biden.

[Michael Knowles]

So you're saying the big companies like the mandate.

[Ted Cruz]

They love it. And look, if you're a big company that you want to force your employees to be vaccinated, but you don't want to get the blame because they're gonna be pissed off. This is perfect. You can say, gosh, the government's making us do it. What choice do we have?

[Michael Knowles]

My hands are tied.

[Ted Cruz]

And so there are a lot of big companies that are eager for this political cover, and it's cynical. It's gonna force. There are people who are quitting their jobs. There are people who are gonna be fired because they choose not to get a vaccine. And you and I have talked about. I'm someone who believes in vaccines. I've been vaccinated. My family's been vacc. But the government has no damn business ordering you or Me to take this vaccine, particularly an experimental vaccine. We don't know the side effects of that. It ought to be a personal healthcare decision that you make with your doctor. These guys, they don't care. This is about power and they're doing something they know is lawless.

[Michael Knowles]

I guess my question about it is, I entirely agree with that. Read on it. Especially now, knowing how this actually works out in the history with these challenges. But it seems unpopular to me. The vaccine mandate seems politically unpopular. Am I just in a bubble with all these right wing conservatives or. Yes, I am. I suppose that's it.

[Ted Cruz]

Look, yes and no. I mean, we just had the California recall. Tragically, Newsom is still there. Now, there was a brief shining moment where it looked like he might be knocked out. And listen, there are conservatives, particularly conservatives in California who are demoralized right now. I get that. But it's worth pausing and reflecting. A year ago, Newsom and Andrew Cuomo were on top of the world.

[Michael Knowles]

The golden boys of American statecraft.

[Ted Cruz]

The word Cuomo sexual had been coined.

[Michael Knowles]

Sends a shiver up my spine.

[Ted Cruz]

Cuomo had just gotten a $4.5 million book deal. Now, you and I have both written books.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, never quite that sort of advanced.

[Ted Cruz]

I think the numbers worked out to $53 a book. At that point, it ought to just be cash in a brown paper bag passed to him under the table. But they were, look, people were talking about, let's replace Biden with Cuomo. They were bestriding the world like Colossus. Now Cuomo's gone and Newsom just had the scare of his life. And frankly, if you look at the polling numbers in California, Newsom, the question of whether he was going to get recalled or not was very, very close. When it was a referendum on Newsom. The reason he ended up winning and winning by a big margin is once Larry Elder became the primary opposition choice, what the Democrats did well is they attacked Elder and they made it. They made elder Trump Jr. Right.

[Michael Knowles]

Explicitly. They said, this guy's worse than Trump.

[Ted Cruz]

Actually, they explained that as an African American, he's the face of white supremacy.

[Michael Knowles]

Black face of white supremacy.

[Ted Cruz]

But they believe this nonsense. And so once it was, they shifted it and made a referendum on Trump, not a referendum on Newsom.

[Michael Knowles]

And Newsom ran on vaccine mandates.

[Ted Cruz]

He did. And what brought that up is you asked about it. I saw some exit polling today that showed in California, a plurality of California voters thought Newsom's rules on vaccines and Covid were about right. And a big chunk of them thought they weren't strict enough. Wow, Your old state is nuts.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, that's why I fled to a land of freedom. All my exes live in Texas, which is why I now hang my hat in Tennessee.

[Ted Cruz]

I played that for you on this.

[Michael Knowles]

Show the very day we moved. That's right.

[Ted Cruz]

So look, I think vaccine mandates are actually quite unpopular in most of America. I mean, the idea that the government will force you to inject something in your body, I mean, that's a really extraordinary threshold. And look, one of the damn talking points is, ah, well, what about measles in school? Well, measles have been around a long time. We've had vaccines a long time. The risks in terms of kids getting vaccinated for those sorts of diseases are very different than a new and experimental vaccine that I'm glad it was developed, but it was developed incredibly quickly.

[Michael Knowles]

There's obviously no long term data. It just hasn't been around long.

[Ted Cruz]

We're going to learn the pros and cons. Listen, I got the thing. So when I assessed the pros and cons, I decided the pros outweighed the cons. And Michael, you know, my parents, my mom got it immediately. She's 86.

[Michael Knowles]

Your father, though.

[Ted Cruz]

My dad argued, so. My dad is 82. I love him. He is bullheaded. For a month we argued and he did not not want to get this vaccine. And we went back and forth and I'm like, dad, you're 82.

[Michael Knowles]

You're in the risk group. I mean, if there is a risk group.

[Ted Cruz]

And he was staying home because of COVID I'm like, don't you want to get out? And he's a preacher. Don't you want to preach? Don't you want to see people. He finally agreed to take it, but he got the Johnson and Johnson one because it's a more traditional vaccine. And that was fine. That's actually, he talked to his doctor, he decided okay, he thought the risk was and fine if he's freaked out.

[Michael Knowles]

About that prudential judgment.

[Ted Cruz]

And he's right, that's actually what a mature adult like tries to learn as much as you can and make a reasonable decision and that's how it should happen. But the Democrats, and by the way, as far as I know, as far as, as best I can tell, every Senate Democrat is just fine with Biden mandating the vaccines.

[Michael Knowles]

Of course, of course. Cause it takes the, just like it takes the pressure off of the corporations, takes the pressure off of all of these Democrat politicians. Now we've gone through a series of Pretty difficult losses here, obviously. Loss of American credibility overseas, obviously. The horrific loss, just the literal loss involved in the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the loss on these vaccine mandates. At least in the short term. We do have to mention a victory. And this question came in, a question that I would have brought up even if it hadn't. It comes in from Jonathan who says, dear Senator Cruz and Mr. Knowles, the Britney Spears conservatorship appears to be coming to an end. Are you responsible for freeing Brittany?

[Ted Cruz]

Well, we'll celebrate when it happens. Yeah, but listen, I mean, you know, straightforward cause and effect. We devoted a verdict podcast to Britney Spears and to the conservatorship, which was abusive and wrong. And we stood up and said, free Britney. And what do you know, it seems to be happening.

[Michael Knowles]

I'm not saying that correlation is causation.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah, you are.

[Michael Knowles]

But some people certainly are. Okay, yes, yes, that is a bit of a victory lap.

[Ted Cruz]

And that's the right thing to happen.

[Michael Knowles]

That is the right. It is the right thing to happen. Jokes aside, that is the right thing to happen.

[Ted Cruz]

You know, look, and her father, as I understand it, is asking not to be the conservator anymore. That is a very good step. And he's asking the conservatorship be dissolved. And that should have happened a long time ago. I hope the court follows through with it. Look, frankly, it's another example of arbitrary power. In that instance, the California state courts. Again, Democrats abusing arbitrary power and the principle of individual liberty. It ought to be something that people. Whether it's whether or not you put a shot in your arm or not, what decisions you make in your life, whether someone can make decisions for you, you're almost never wrong, starting with a base of individual liberty.

[Michael Knowles]

Now, speaking of young women and erratic public behavior, AOC just showed up to the Met Gala. Aoc? The young self styled socialist congresswoman from New York. Wearing a very nice dress. At least it was elegant from the front. This is a 35 or so thousand dollar per ticket event filled with the richest, most famous, most hoity toity ruling class people in the world. And on the back of her dress it said, tax the rich. Are we on the brink of the revolution, Senator? Are we finally gonna tax those rich people?

[Ted Cruz]

You know, hypocrisy is a beautiful thing. I actually would have respected it more if it said eat the rich, go all the way. Come on, you know, go full Jonathan Swift, like it'd be a modest proposal. Yes, it made clear what utter crap it is that the left is selling. Yeah, it's a $30,000 a plate dinner. I've never been to a $30,000 a plate.

[Michael Knowles]

I keep waiting for my invitation.

[Ted Cruz]

That just ain't my circle. So she's surrounded by gazillionaires, masters of the universe, by the way, who are all lefty Democrats, Every one of them. So she's surrounded by rich Democrats, none.

[Michael Knowles]

Of whom are wearing masks, I should note.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, the servants are the servant.

[Michael Knowles]

The help to protect the good rich people from their filthy germs.

[Ted Cruz]

And that really is the view of the left. They make the servants wear masks, and it's like Barack Obama at his birthday party dancing away on the disco floor. Of course none of them have masks. Listen, in the Senate, all of these guys know this is crap, right? Behind closed doors, Democratic senators don't wear masks. They pal around, and then when TV cameras come by, they put on masks. I mean, look at AOC's though, the arrogance. She was on a live TV camera, was laughing away with no mask while perfectly happy mandating you wear a mask.

[Michael Knowles]

You know, I'm actually pleased to hear, Senator, that your Democrat colleagues know that this is all bunk behind closed doors, because it bothers me that they're liars and hypocrites. But I'm glad at least they're not complete lunatics. When I was watching the aoc, I.

[Ted Cruz]

Didn'T say they're not lunatics.

[Michael Knowles]

They may also be, just not in that particular issue. When I was watching AOC show up there with Tax the Rich, pretending to be this radical revolutionary, I had a similar reaction. I said, just say, eat the rich. Go all the way. What was so offensive to me was not even the hypocrisy, but the frivolity of it, that this woman who is basically a tool of these plutocrats of this ruling class, she pretends to be the opposition.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, and what people don't understand is rich people love socialists. Yes, yes. That's what they fundamentally don't get. The Democratic Party is the party of the met of rich, trivial, frivolous, glamorous Hollywood elites. And when you have socialism, it never, ever, ever takes money out of the hands of the real rich, of the generational rich. John Kerry will keep flying his private jet, of course, to go give lectures on climate change. But what it does when they say tax the rich, what they really mean is tax someone who's making their money for the first time. Tax the small business, tax the employers, tax the middle class. And it's what every socialist country they have. Go to Europe, the Rothschilds, Live a pretty good life. Socialist countries have rich people. They don't have new rich people. So all the folks there say, we got ours, so let's tax the hell out of the next guys that are coming after us. I will say, though, I was particularly glad that her dress, they used the exact font from the Chick Fil A bag. I'm wondering if that's actually like Times New Roman Calibra.

[Michael Knowles]

Chick Fil A tax the rich and eat more chicken. Yes.

[Ted Cruz]

And I really was tempted. So there is a meme that has her in her dress and it's a Chick Fil A bag. And I was tempted just to tweet out that picture along with two words, spicy chicken. And I just thought they would. The left would. Those are one of those tweets that my staff would immediately call and start.

[Michael Knowles]

Yelling at me, say, senator, you may take that down. But it does show you where the real revolutionaries are, where the real subversion is. If you and I had been invited to that Met gala and we put on a very pretty dress, I mean, maybe a suit or something, and on the back we said, save the babies. On the back we said, salute the flag. We would be escorted off the premises so fast, no one would take our picture. Certainly no one would applaud us. The woman is being presented as the great thumb in the eye of the establishment. They gave her magazine photos and rounds of applause. It's such a farce.

[Ted Cruz]

You know, the media did go a little crazy because at Joe Biden's inauguration, I wore my mask with come and take it. And so that was at a small.

[Michael Knowles]

And they didn't like it.

[Ted Cruz]

I didn't like it. I didn't print it on my ass. But, you know, it was in a smaller way. I felt more tasteful, you know, a little more understated.

[Michael Knowles]

I agree. Yes.

[Ted Cruz]

By the way, can I tell you an upside of the mask idiocy? Please, please do so on Capitol Hill, as you're walking down the hallways, every Democratic staffer wears a mask. Every Democratic member wears a mask. No Republican staffer wears a mask. No Republican member. So they're self identifying. You can walk along and you'd be like, there's a little dam. There's a little dam. And it's like they're wearing burqas. They're all like, it's a secular kefia.

[Michael Knowles]

Is what I think of it.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah. And, you know, my. My standard response is they messed up because their masks aren't tight enough. We can still hear them.

[Michael Knowles]

That's right. Maybe Add two or three or four. It is amazing. Symbols play an important role in politics, and the mask has long since stopped being a medical instrument. At this point, it really is just a political symbol.

[Ted Cruz]

And you can look at it and the press. It's the Dems and the press.

[Michael Knowles]

But you repeat yourself.

[Ted Cruz]

Indeed.

[Michael Knowles]

Now, I think this perspective is very important, especially how is it that we're still talking about Afghanistan, you know, in 2021? It seems kind of crazy, and we would be remiss if we ended this show without pointing out we've just had the 20th anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks. I remember it vividly. I was 11 years old. I was in the third grade. I'm sorry, not third grade. I was in sixth grade, but I was in my third period math class. I remember exactly where I was when I got the news. My mother was in the city. She was in Midtown, so she wasn't really.

[Ted Cruz]

So they sent you home from school or what?

[Michael Knowles]

They kept us at school. They didn't know what to do. A lot of kids had parents, not only who worked in the city, but who worked at Wall street or in the Trade Center. Some of those parents didn't come home. My mother got off the train at 125th street at Harlem because they had heard that there was this problem and maybe the trains were gonna shut down. And she just sat there looking at it, smoking. And then you could see all the way down Manhattan Island. She saw the building just collapse. Just a little tiny. Just a little blip. And she got on one of the last trains out of the city, came back up, and people were covered in soot. I mean, it was really. So I was 11 years old. I still have all these graphic images from that day. You were a little older than 11 years old.

[Ted Cruz]

So I was. I was in D.C. and I was working. It was the George W. Bush administration, so I was working at the Federal Trade Commission, and Heidi was working at the White House. And I remember it was a September morning, and I just gotten dressed and was getting ready to walk out of the apartment, and Heidi called me and said, turn on the tv. And so she was already at work. And so I turned on the TV and I saw the plane had just hit the first tower. And I thought, like, everyone did. This is some terrible accident. You know what happened? Some pilot screwed up. You know, at first we didn't know it was a big jumbo jet. We thought it was just, you know, if it was a Cessna or something. It looked like a tragic accident, but we didn't appreciate what it was. And so I'm standing in our living room, and I'm just looking at the TV with the tower smoking and watching it and people trying to figure out what it is. And then the second plane hit the second tower. And that we all saw. And we saw it was a commercial jet. And when it plowed into that tower that instant, everybody knew what this was.

[Michael Knowles]

You know, my wonderful priest in New York, Father George Rutler, he was in Midtown when the first plane hit. People are running up, people in smoke. And then when the second plane hit, I think it was at that moment, he runs. He may have run down after the first plane, but he runs down after the second plane, goes into St. Peter's it's the first Catholic parish in New York. It's right downtown, to get oils to give wartime absolution. Because he knew, and a number of people knew at the time this was an act of war. And the firefighters who were going in there, they were going into a battlefield. So he gave general absolution. And at that moment, they carried in Father Michael Judge, who was the first confirmed casualty of 9 11. They laid him on the steps at St. Peter on the altar like a Pieta. He had been crushed. And so the spiritual import, the wartime import of that day was clear the moment that second plane hit.

[Ted Cruz]

So Heidi was. She was at the US Trade Representative's office, which is part of the White House complex. And when the first plane hit, the Secret Service came through, and they said, stay where you are. Something's happened, but just stay where you are. And so she was watching it, and it called me. And so I was watching it at home. And then when the second plane hit the second tower, the Secret Service was running down the halls, and they said, get out now. They said, run. Don't walk. Run. And so Heidi sprinted out of the office. Her car was parked in an underground parking lot, so she couldn't get her car. They wouldn't let her get her car. So she proceeded. We were living in Virginia, Northern Virginia, Pentagon City. And so she took off her high heels and walked barefoot across Memorial Bridge and to Virginia. And we lived less than a mile from the Pentagon. And so when the Pentagon plane. When the plane hit the Pentagon from our apartment, you could smell the smoke. You could see the soot in the air because we were just south of the Pentagon. And. And the cell phone coverage was not very good. So when Heidi left, I knew she was evacuated, but I couldn't get her on her phone. And one of the networks, I think it was ABC when the Pentagon plane hit, you know, there was the fog of war where people are confused about what's going on. And so one of the networks reported the White House has been hit. So I'm sitting there like, holy crap, I just got off with Heidi a second ago. Is the White House on fire? And there were a couple of minutes where it wasn't clear, like there was an angle, there was a camera angle where the smoke from the Pentagon looked like it was from the White House. And I guess there's a lot of speculation that Flight 93 that went down in Pennsylvania was either targeting the White House or the Capitol. And so there was a period of time where I didn't know where Heidi was, cuz we couldn't get through on the phone. And then she walked home. And the plane that hit the Pentagon, we had a good friend of ours that was on that plane, that was Barbara Olson. And Barbara had been married to Ted Olson. Ted was the US solicitor general. I've known Ted for 25 years. Barbara was down in Florida in Tallahassee with me for Bush versus Gore. And in fact, Barbara and I flew together on a plane. They sent me up to Philadelphia to get Arlen Specter. Arlen Specter was the senator from Pennsylvania. He was coming down to be a surrogate for George W. Bush. And I was the young staffer that they stuck on a plane and flew up there to brief Specter so that he could talk to the press when he got down there. And so Barbara flew up with me and she spent the entire three hours of the flight just giving me grief that I needed to man up and ask Heidi to marry me. And she's like, are you a chicken? Are you a coward? And I had actually already asked her dad for permission to marry her. I'd planned to do it, and Bush vs Gore delayed the whole thing. And so I couldn't tell Barbara. I just took the grief for three hours. She's like, you need to ask her to marry you.

[Michael Knowles]

You're an idiot, Don Corleone. You can act like a man.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah, I mean, that's exactly. It was so the whole. And she was a fireball. And you know the story. Barbara called Ted from her cell phone on the plane. And ted, who's at DOJ's, and DOJ is the number three official at DOJ, answered the phone.

[Michael Knowles]

Thank God he answered the phone, if.

[Ted Cruz]

You could imagine that. Hell, he knew Barbara was on the flight. It was the day after her birthday, and he knew what had happened to the planes. And the Twin Towers. So it was not. He knew they weren't seeking to take the plane to Cuba and let everyone off. He knew the likely ending of this. And they were low enough that the phone worked so she could get him. And the last thing she said to Ted, she said, okay, what do we do? And she was a fighter, and I think was given a minute or two, would have organized the same sort of thing that happened with Flight 93. I mean, she was, like, ready to battle the bad guys. And they crashed into the Pentagon. So it was a moment. We were all stunned. The next day, Heidi and I invited several friends over to our apartment, including Eugene Volok, who was a law professor at ucla. Brilliant guy. Eugene came. Eugene is Jewish. And we did a prayer service. We had Christians and Jews. And we just spent the evening reflecting, sharing and praying for our country. And it was. Even though it was 20 years ago, the image that for me is seared in of that day is the people leaping to their death from the top of the towers. And they don't air it anymore on tv, but the people who were in the upper floors as the fire was coming. And if you could imagine you're standing there at the window and you have a choice between being burned to death. What a horrible way to die, or jumping to your death. And we were watching on live news as people were leaping to their death and falling. And it was a moment of unity and national resolve that was extraordinary. And it's a real contrast to what we have today.

[Michael Knowles]

It is. Because you do 20 years on, you remember. It is amazing. Even being 11 years old, you remember it so vividly. And then. And it has become cliche almost to say there was September 12th and 13th and 14th, and there was this real national unity when Bush stood on the.

[Ted Cruz]

Rubble with the bullhorn.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

And said, we can hear you. Soon the whole world will hear you.

[Michael Knowles]

It's the highlight of his presidency, that and throwing the strike at Yankee Stadium afterward.

[Ted Cruz]

Both of those were extraordinary and powerful moment. Yeah.

[Michael Knowles]

Well, it does remind you, even thinking back on these horrific events, hope is. It's not just a feeling. It's not just a sentiment. It's a virtue. It's a fact. It's a theological fact.

[Ted Cruz]

And I still believe in that unity and greatness in this country. We're at a chapter where we're angry and bitter and at each other's throats. But I believe that same power of resolve that brought us together after 9, 11. I still think we have that. And I think we can get back to it. It's not easy, and we've got to stop screaming at each other, but I believe we can.

[Michael Knowles]

I think you're right. Optimism and pessimism, I think, are two sides of the same coin. Actually, this is quoting my priest friend who ran down at 9 11. Optimism and pessimism are two sides of the same coin, but hope is a fact, and that's something we can rely on. And we can pray and hope for better days.

[Ted Cruz]

Amen.

[Michael Knowles]

I'm Michael Knowles. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. We'll see you next time.

[Ted Cruz]

This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is being brought to you by Jobs, Freedom, and Security pac, a political action committee dedicated to supporting conservative causes, organizations, and candidates across the country. In 2022, jobs, freedom and Security PAC plans to donate to conservative candidates running for Congress and help the Republican Party across the nation.