Blockbuster SCOTUS Cases plus Radical CDC Nominee-The Masking Queen

Summary

Podcast Summary: The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Episode: Blockbuster SCOTUS Cases plus Radical CDC Nominee-The Masking Queen
Release Date: July 5, 2023
Host/Author: Premiere Networks
Duration: Approximately 51 minutes
Participants: Ben Shapiro, Senator Ted Cruz

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1. Supreme Court Victories and Their Implications (00:01 - 07:26)

Ben Shapiro opens the episode by congratulating Senator Ted Cruz and the listeners on significant Supreme Court victories, emphasizing the importance of these decisions in upholding legal precedents. He states, “Elections have consequences. And we have had some elections that made a solid conservative Supreme Court. And now we're reaping the benefits of that” (00:01).

Ted Cruz echoes these sentiments by highlighting two major Supreme Court decisions related to student loan forgiveness and a religious liberty case from Colorado. He critiques President Biden's attempt to forgive student loans, describing it as “Joe Biden's blatantly illegal attempt to forgive student loans” and accuses the administration of using this policy to “buy a whole lot of votes” (02:01).

2. The Illegality of Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan (02:01 - 07:26)

Cruz delves deeper into the Supreme Court's decision in Biden vs. Nebraska, where the court struck down Biden's student loan forgiveness plan by a 6-3 vote. He argues that Biden overstepped his authority, stating, “the President cannot act contrary to federal law” (02:49).

In response to Biden's actions, Nancy Pelosi appears in a clip where she admits, “People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone, he can delay, but he does not have that power” (03:05). Cruz praises Pelosi for this stance, noting it was unprecedented and asserting that it confirms the illegality of Biden’s plan (04:14).

Cruz shares his personal experience with student loans, emphasizing the long-term financial commitment he maintained, contrasting it with the administration's targeted relief to specific groups. He criticizes the Democrats for favoring “young lawyers and young doctors” over blue-collar workers who have diligently repaid their debts (06:07).

3. Democrats' Impact on Blue-Collar Workers and Education (07:26 - 13:00)

The discussion shifts to the broader impact of Democratic policies on blue-collar workers. Cruz argues that the student loan forgiveness plan unfairly benefits those who did not pay back their loans while punishing those who did. He describes this as a “reverse Robin Hood” approach, siphoning funds from hardworking individuals to favor the wealthy intelligentsia (07:38).

He further criticizes universities, labeling them as “entrenched pits of Marxism” and accuses them of promoting degrees that do not lead to sustainable employment. Cruz asserts that Democrats are neglecting the needs of truck drivers, steelworkers, and other blue-collar professionals in favor of ideological agendas (08:14).

4. Media Misrepresentation of Supreme Court Decisions (13:00 - 25:56)

Cruz introduces a significant Supreme Court case involving Laurie Smith, a website designer who refused to create a wedding website for a same-sex couple based on her religious beliefs. He criticizes media outlets like Axios for misrepresenting the case, stating, “If Axios were a first-year law student, this answer would earn an F” (30:53).

He contrasts this with the Supreme Court's actual ruling, which protected Smith’s First Amendment rights to not be compelled to convey messages she disagrees with. Cruz emphasizes that this decision upholds the principle that the government cannot force individuals to speak against their beliefs (31:34).

David Brooks from The New York Times is also criticized for his commentary on the case. Cruz describes Brooks as a “fake conservative” who undermines genuine conservative viewpoints, arguing that Brooks misrepresents the legal nuances of the case to align with liberal agendas (33:53).

5. Efforts to Undermine the Supreme Court (25:56 - 37:59)

The conversation shifts to broader attempts by Democrats to delegitimize the Supreme Court. Cruz accuses the party of advocating for “Supreme Court ethics reform” and term limits as veiled efforts to pack the court with more liberal justices. He warns that expanding the court from nine to thirteen justices would allow Democrats to “ram additional justices on board to control the outcome” (25:14).

He draws parallels to FDR’s court-packing attempt, labeling it as “profoundly dangerous” and underscores that true court-packing involves altering the number of justices for partisan gains, not simply filling vacancies (25:56).

6. The Radical CDC Nominee: Mandy Cohen (37:59 - 53:05)

Cruz criticizes President Biden’s nomination of Mandy Cohen as CDC Director, arguing that the position requires Senate confirmation due to its significant impact on public health and policy. He points out that historically, the CDC Director was not subject to Senate approval but a new law will require it starting January 2025. Cruz has introduced legislation to expedite this process, citing Cohen’s track record of advocating for strict shutdowns, mask mandates, and vaccine mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic (41:40).

He provides excerpts from an interview with Cohen, highlighting her casual approach to implementing policies like banning professional football and enforcing mask mandates without proper oversight or accountability (45:35). Cruz emphasizes the importance of Senate confirmation to ensure that the CDC is led by a non-partisan, scientifically grounded leader rather than a partisan figure with a history of overreach.

7. Conclusion and Call to Action (53:05 - End)

Ben Shapiro and Ted Cruz wrap up the discussion by urging listeners to remain vigilant against Democratic attempts to undermine key institutions and to support policies that uphold constitutional principles. They emphasize the importance of holding elected officials accountable and maintaining the integrity of the Supreme Court and other governmental bodies.

Cruz encourages listeners to engage with their senators regarding the CDC nomination and other legislative matters, reinforcing the episode's central themes of legal integrity and political accountability.

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Notable Quotes

• Ben Shapiro (00:01): “Elections have consequences. And we have had some elections that made a solid conservative Supreme Court. And now we're reaping the benefits of that.”

• Ted Cruz (02:01): “Joe Biden's blatantly illegal attempt to forgive student loans.”

• Nancy Pelosi (03:05): “People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone, he can delay, but he does not have that power.”

• Ted Cruz (07:38): “Democrats are taking care of two constituencies. Young people who they've convinced it's a good idea not to work and they don't have to pay their debts, and universities who are scamming young people.”

• Ted Cruz (25:14): “Packing the court means expanding the number of Justices in order to just ram your partisans on board. That's what the Democrats want to do. And it's profoundly dangerous.”

• Ted Cruz (45:35): “She is the masking queen... she just abuses her power.”

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Conclusion

This episode of The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson provides a detailed analysis of recent Supreme Court decisions, critiquing Democratic policies and actions that, according to the hosts, undermine constitutional principles and favor partisan agendas. Key discussions revolve around the illegality of Biden’s student loan forgiveness, media misrepresentation of Supreme Court cases, efforts to delegitimize the judiciary, and concerns over the nomination of Mandy Cohen as CDC Director. Throughout the episode, Ben Shapiro and Ted Cruz advocate for maintaining the rule of law, protecting individual freedoms, and ensuring that governmental actions remain within constitutional boundaries.

Transcript

[Ben Shapiro]

Senator, nice to be with you. Happy 4th of July for everyone that's watching a day afterwards. And there were some really big victories in the Supreme Court. I think we should take a moment to celebrate it. Also to tell people what is in these victories and what it means for precedents moving forward. And then there's politics dealing with this as well. We'll deal with that in a moment. With Democrats really trying to undermine the court. But I go back to a saying that is said so many times by conservatives when they're running for office. Elections have consequences. And we have had some elections that made a solid conservative Supreme Court. And now we're reaping the benefits of that.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, let me say happy birthday to the United States of America. July 4th. We celebrated our incredible nation. We celebrated our freedom. We celebrated the founding of this nation. We celebrated the signing of the Declaration of Independence. We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those were extraordinary words. And I gotta say, those words were vindicated. Last week we had some blockbuster Supreme Court decisions. We discussed several of them in an earlier pod last week. We're going to discuss two more today. Two big, big decisions. The student loan decisions and. And the free speech religious liberty decision coming out of Colorado. Let's start with student loans. In Biden vs. Nebraska, the Supreme Court, by a vote of 6 to 3, struck down Joe Biden's blatantly illegal attempt to forgive student loans. It was an attempt right before the last election to buy a whole lot of votes. Joe Biden knew that it was lawless. He knew that he had no legal authority to do it. He knew that his lawyers almost certainly advised him this is contrary to federal statute. And he made the decision. Screw it, I'm gonna do it anyway.

[Ben Shapiro]

Buying votes.

[Ted Cruz]

Because we got an election coming up and we're gonna buy votes. I'm gonna tell people they're gonna get their loans forgiven. Even though, and I would wager dollar to doughnuts, his lawyers told him, we're gonna get sued, we're gonna go to court, we're gonna lose. And I do wanna point out as we talk about this, when Biden issued this illegal student loan forgiveness plan, the next podcast we did, we did a deep analysis on the law and why it was illegal then that walks through the law and makes clear then what the Supreme Court has now ruled now, which is that we are a nation of laws. And the President cannot act contrary to federal law. Now, the amazing thing is, you know who used to know that?

[Ben Shapiro]

A lot of liberals. One of them that I know that you don't usually agree with Nancy Pelosi.

[Ted Cruz]

You know, I don't know that we've ever teed up Nancy Pelosi in a positive sense. But here is Nancy Pelosi doing something you've never seen or heard before, speaking the truth.

[Nancy Pelosi]

People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone, he can delay, but he does not have that power. That would has to be an act of Congress. And I don't even like to call it forgiveness because that implies a transgression. It's not to be forgiven. Get just freeing people from those obligations. So the question of who gets forgiven, to use the term of art that is out there, is a, is a debate. Do we use whatever money there is for the broadest base of support of those with more people with even less debt or fewer people with more debt? That's a policy discussion. But the difference between the president doing President can't do it. So that's not even a discussion. Not everybody realizes that. But the President can only postpone delay, but not forgive.

[Ben Shapiro]

I've never enjoyed listening to Nancy Pelosi more in my entire life than that clip right there.

[Ted Cruz]

It truly is shocking. Every word she said was true. And she said that beforehand. It was obvious. Look, everyone knew this, that you couldn't just that the President's not a king, that he doesn't get to wave a scepter and forgive massive amounts of student loans. And look, there are policy issues and there are legal issues. On the policy issues, what Joe Biden and the Democrats did is they purported to forgive 10,000 or in some cases $20,000 of student loans from individuals making 125,000 or less or from couples making 250,000 or less. They did it because they thought, okay, bunch of young people, we can buy their votes. We can get them to go vote Democrat. And this was designed to be a massive wealth transfer. And so who were they hurting? They were hurting every person in this country that didn't get a college degree. Yeah, they were hurting truck drivers, they were hurting steel workers. They were hurting blue collar workers, they were hurting union members. They were hurting also everyone who did get a college degree who actually saved up and paid for their college degree. They're hurting everyone who did what I did took loans. Look, look, when I went to college, a lot of them when I Went to college. When I went to grad school, my parents had just declared bankruptcy. They were in the oil and gas business. They had a small business. It was the mid-80s, oil cratered and we lost everything. We lost our business, we lost our home. They were in bankruptcy. So I showed up in college and. And they had no money at all. I was 17 and was on my own financially. And so I took a ton of student loans in college, in law school. I came out of grad school with about 100 grand in student loans.

[Ben Shapiro]

And this was back, I mean, in today's dollars. That's a lot.

[Ted Cruz]

That's a lot. This is 20 plus years ago.

[Ben Shapiro]

Significant amount of cash.

[Ted Cruz]

It was 1995. I owed over 100 grand. So that almost 30 years ago. And you know, I joke that I had a mortgage, I just didn't have a house.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

And I paid off those student loans for almost two decades. I paid them all off eventually, but I made payments every month. Every month. And when I had a job, I sent a check and I sent a check and I sent a check. And that's the way you're doing it. Well, you know what the Democrats said, You know, you and I are chumps. If you paid off your student loan, you're a fool. The responsible ones, nope what they want to do, and it's a reverse Robin Hood. They're literally taking it from guys out digging ditches. They're taking their money and they're giving it to young lawyers and young doctors and young university professors. And really that's who the Democrat party is, which is the party of the wealthy intelligentsia. And today the Republican party is a blue collar party. It's the party of working men and women. It's also a party responsibility. Like, you know, there's a funny meme online which is, you know, solving the student debt crisis. You borrowed, you took a loan. Solution, pay it back. Yeah, that was my solution.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

And look, it wasn't fun to spend almost 20 years paying it back. But I took the loan, I owed the money. And by the way, I also took the loan to get a degree so.

[Ben Shapiro]

You can make money.

[Ted Cruz]

That enabled me to get a good job, to make the money to pay it back. This is an issue where on politics, the Democrats have a confluence of, number one, sort of young, unemployed slackers smoking bongs. That's who they're appealing to. These are the same people who, during COVID they wanted to pay, not to work. Well, if you're not working, it's hard to pay your student Loans. And suddenly Democrats have told a bunch of 23 year olds, you don't gotta work, man, that'd be mean to make you work.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah, or you don't have to pay off your loans for years now.

[Ted Cruz]

Right, like that. But there's a second group which is the constituencies, which is the universities. And the universities have become entrenched pits of Marxism. But ironically, they're Marxists who like to make the money, which is actually not that ironic if you look at whether it's Putin, whether it's Fidel Castro, whether it's xi.

[Ben Shapiro]

They like to live big.

[Ted Cruz]

Marxists live like billionaires. They're actually very good at using power for them to live well. So the universities are printing money, but.

[Ben Shapiro]

There can huge endowments that people don't talk about either.

[Ted Cruz]

Multi, multi, billion dollar endowments. The professors live like kings and they can't get fired. They have life tenure. And they convince young people, hey, take 100,000 or 200,000 in student loans to get a major in underwater basket weaving or in, you know, transgender literature analysis. And then they find, wait, I got a degree that no one wants to hire. Yeah, like there is. It used to be when you went to school and you're taking loans and you said, okay, I gotta pay these loans back, you stopped and said, okay, at the end of this, I'd like to be able to get a job. And so the Democrats are taking care of two constituencies. Young people who they've convinced it's a good idea not to work and they don't have to pay their debts, and universities who are scamming young people, not teaching them life skills to get good jobs, but instead indoctrinating them with WOKE nonsense which happens not to pay the bills at the end of the day. And here's what they're gambling. They're gambling that the truck drivers and steelworkers will never know the difference, that the union workers won't understand they're getting sold a bill of goods. I'll tell you, there's one fellow understood, a fellow who came up and talked to Elizabeth Warren. So watch this exchange in 2020 on the campaign trail, when she was offering the same sort of giveaway that Joe Biden tried to do.

[Concerned Parent]

I just want to ask one question. My daughter's getting out of school. I saved all my money. She doesn't have any student loans. Am I going to get my money back?

[Musical Parody Artist]

Of course not.

[Concerned Parent]

So you're going to pay for people who didn't save any money and those of us who did the right thing get screwed.

[Ted Cruz]

No, it's not anybody.

[Concerned Parent]

Of course we did. My buddy had fun. Bought a car, went on vacations. I saved my money. He made more than I did. But I worked a double shift. Worked extra. My daughter worked. She was 10. So you're laughing. Yeah, that's exactly what you're doing. We did the right thing and we get screwed.

[Ted Cruz]

I appreciate it.

[Ben Shapiro]

There's a lot of people that feel like him. I remember the first check I ever got. I wrote a book at right out of college, and I got that advance check, and I paid off a large chunk of my student loans. I didn't want to. I wanted to go buy something fun. Like he was talking about his buddy, a new car. And I said, no, I'm gonna be responsible. I don't wanna have debt. There are people that work two jobs and three jobs out of school to pay off those student loans. And he's right, what he was saying here.

[Ted Cruz]

But by the way, notice her response. Her first response. She laughs at him.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

And then she's like, thank you, and just walks off. She doesn't answer his question. He says, I got screwed. My buddy, he went out, bought a new car, lived in it. And she has no substantive response. That is the modern Democrat response. They don't give a damn. They don't actually engage in debate with you. They don't actually have a discussion. They're like, you don't matter. I don't care about you. Because they're gambling that other people like him won't realize they're getting screwed. And you know the magnitude of it. So, look, the legal argument that Joe Biden put forward to how he claimed he had the authority to do that is something called the Heroes Act. So the Heroes act was a bill that Congress passed following 9, 11. So September 11th, the global war on terror begins. Planes fly into the World Trade center, fly into the Pentagon. Congress passed the Heroes act, which gives the Secretary of Education the authority to, quote, waiver, modify any statutory regulatory provision applicable to the student financial assistance Programs under title 4 of the Education act, as the Secretary deems necessary in connection with a war or other military operation or national emergency. In other words, the Heroes act was designed to. There are a bunch of soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines that were off in Afghanistan, off fighting to defend America. And it was to say, we can give some debt relief to those young fighting men and women that are keeping us safe. And what Joe Biden said is, well, now everybody, we're all soldiers now.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

And they hinged it all on national emergency they said, well okay, Covid's a.

[Ben Shapiro]

National emergency, so therefore we'll stop all.

[Ted Cruz]

The payments and then we'll just forgive it. And by the way, the magnitude of how much we're talking about, the initial estimates were 500 billion. There were later estimates that this was over a trillion. Doll never get a firm estimate on how much it cost. And the argument of the Democrats was with a stroke of the pen, Joe Biden could give away a trillion dollars.

[Ben Shapiro]

Cuz he wants to or to buy votes in translation.

[Ted Cruz]

And one of the fundamental protections of the Constitution is that Congress has the power of the purse. In other words, if you're going to spend money, the elected representatives in Congress have to sign off on it. This was an assault fundamentally on the limitations of the power of the President and the requirement that it be Congress that appropriates money. And yet here's Joe Biden reacting with disdain at anyone who would hold him to account.

[Ben Shapiro]

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[Ted Cruz]

Mr. President, why did you give millions of borrowers false hope? You've dated, doubted your own authority here in the past? I didn't give any false hope. The question was Whether or not I would do even more than was requested. What I did, I thought was appropriate and was able to be done and would get done. I didn't give borrowers false hope, but the Republicans snatched away the hope that they were given.

[Ben Shapiro]

And it's real. There was no hope ever from Republicans this would ever pass number one and two. I rarely could say this. What? Hell of a question from a reporter, finally, about him lying to the American people on purpose.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah, look, he knew he was lying. His team knew he was lying. The media knew he was lying. Everyone knew that giving away a trillion dollars to every student borrower in America was not falling under the Heroes act for times of war, taking care of soldiers and sailors. Yeah, like it was a ludicrous interpretation. His own Department of Justice had told him that. And then he had them flip their decision and wrote a very creative opinion to justify the lawlessness. And you know what? It was great political lawyering. In other words, it was putting politics ahead of law. It was obvious on this podcast more than a year ago. I said, this will be struck down, and it will be struck down. Six, three. And the only challenge I said was standing. In other words, they were gambling that it was gonna be hard to find a plaintiff who could challenge it. That was their one hope, is the court couldn't get to the merits. I said, if it gets to the merits, it's a six, three easy decision. As it so happened, there were two lawsuits. One of them the Supreme Court threw out and said you didn't have stand. But the other one, the Nebraska case, they concluded they did have standing and on the merits. It was exactly what I said, actually. Chief Justice Roberts, who wrote the majority opinion, quoted Nancy Pelosi with what we just played and said, look, everyone knew you couldn't do this and this was a political decision to ignore the law. And you know, it's interesting. Biden gets so angry when he's challenged.

[Ben Shapiro]

It is because it rarely happens.

[Ted Cruz]

It so rarely happens. But his anger is just palpable at it. And it's. And by the way, we forced a vote in Congress to rescind this legislatively. And the Democrats in a party line vote, they've decided blue collar voters don't matter to them. They think the Democrats think blue collar voters are too dumb to know they're getting screwed here, that this is. This is the Democrat Party selling out steel workers in order to buy favor with gender studies majors.

[Ben Shapiro]

We've seen big victories in the Supreme Court recently like we've never seen before. At least in my lifetime and consistently. There's something that's happening here that I think is encouraging because we're seeing the rule of law being applied and they're not getting away with these radical ideas. There's also, though, something that's happening that concerns me and I think many people that listen to this podcast and watch and that is the delegitimizing and the undermining of the Supreme Court and what Democrats are trying to do. And it's happened. We saw this with Roe v. Wade. We've gone in great detail on that. The threats and the pressure, the leaking of that opinion, doxxing the Supreme Court justices where they live, putting their lives in danger. In other words, Democrats saying, if you don't give us what we want, we're gonna burn the whole place down. We're gonna pack the court, we're gonna redo it the way we want it. Hell, we even say term limits. In fact, you can see the media, when they all got together in this montage doing exactly that when they didn't get their way on one issue.

[Ted Cruz]

And honestly, at this point, I think we're all right. Sort of question the legitimacy of the court.

[Ben Shapiro]

It read like an anti activists wrote it, not a Supreme Court justice.

[Ted Cruz]

These justices are acting like this is somehow something that they have the right to change. They do not have the right to change this. And this Supreme Court has said they don't care. They don't care about those women. What they care about is imposing their extremist view on the rest of the country. The Supreme Court is poised to inflict.

[Ben Shapiro]

The greatest restriction of rights in the past 50 years. The decision would be an abomination. An abomination that's just on Roe v. Wade. But they are now pushing this every time they don't get their way. Hey, we're gonna delegitimize this court. We're gonna say that they're wrong. We saw Joe Biden say this court's not a normal court or something to that effect. When he was walking out, he took that last question. He's walking out the room at the White House. And that concerns me. And the Supreme Court does at least seem to be fighting back a little bit.

[Ted Cruz]

The radical left has corrupted every major institution of government. We've seen under Joe Biden. We've seen the hard left, the cultural Marxists take over. We've seen them politicize and weaponize the Department of Justice politicize and weaponize the FBI politicize and weaponize the IRS politicize and Weaponize the intelligence community. As you know, my last book, Justice Corrupted, the entire book is on the left. Seizing law enforcement and turning it into a political weapon to attack their opponents. We've also seen them do that in Congress. The absolute abuse of power we've seen from congressional Democrats in the Senate and in the House last year. The radical agenda they ran through the strict party line vote. There used to be such a thing as moderate Democrats in the Senate and the House. They don't exist anymore. They have been driven out because the Democrats hate Trump so much that they've embraced, Look, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and aoc. That is the heart of today's Democrat Party. They're all socialists. Now. The one institution the Democrats have not managed to corrupt is the Supreme Court. So they've corrupted from within the executive branch, both the presidency, but also the cabinet members, but also the career bureaucrats up and down the agencies. They've corrupted Congress, the Senate and the House. They've corrupted the media, they've corrupted big tech. And the one outlier is the third branch of government, the judiciary, that, thank God there are justices there who are actually following the law. And the fury they have. Look, this student loan decision, a few years ago, Nancy Pelosi said it was obvious. Any lawyer who tells you like is actually speaking the truth, who isn't a wild partisan would say this should have been 9, 0. This is obvious that you can't give away a trillion dollars under a statute meant to help soldiers at a time of war. You don't get to call everyone a soldier and just give away a trillion dollars. That if you want to do that, if you think it's a good policy to give away a trillion dollars, you actually have to pass legislation through the House, through the Senate and get it signed by the President. That's how you pass legislation. Everyone knows that. But today's left wing Democrats, they want the result and the hell with what the law is. And so their intention, they are systematically trying to delegitimize the court, trying to attack the court. Well, look, listen to this one left wing congressman talk about his plans for the court.

[Nancy Pelosi]

A lot of lawmakers are calling for an expansion of the Supreme Court.

[Ted Cruz]

Do you think the President should do that? Yes. Expand the Supreme Court. We need Supreme Court ethics reform and we need term limits.

[Ben Shapiro]

That's a completely different setup of the Supreme Court. So we don't get our way. We want term limits. I'm not sure why he's saying they want ethics reform.

[Ted Cruz]

Is that so they can blackmail them oh, no, no. Ethics reform. Look, we've seen the entire assault directed at Clarence Thomas from ProPublica, funded by Dark money left wing outfits.

[Ben Shapiro]

And we did a show on that.

[Ted Cruz]

Bogus ethics complain on that, pointing out that the rules, they're applying to Clarence Thomas, he followed the rules. His conduct is the same as the left wing justices, is the same as Steve Breyer, as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as Sonia Sotomayor, as Elena Kagan. But the Democrats and the media are applying a completely double standard. They're faulting him for following the rules and they're not looking at all on the conduct of the justices on the left. That's the quote. Ethics reform is part of the Democrats assault on the court to delegitimize it. Term limits and packing the court. Look, fdr, when he was trying to ram through the New Deal, wanted to pack the court, wanted to grow. And packing the court has a meaning. Yeah, it means expanding the number of justices in the court so you can ram additional justices on there to control the outcome. In this case, what the Democrats want to do is grow the Supreme Court from nine justices to 13 justices so they can immediately appoint four left wing justices to undermine the Constitution across the board. It is profoundly dangerous. By the way, leftists, as is their want, abuse the language. They accuse Republicans of packing the court. And here's a pro tip, everything the left is doing, they accuse the other side of doing. It's almost whatever the accusation is, you can be like, oh, that, that's what you're doing.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

So it is not packing the court to fill a vacancy with justices. It is true that Republican presidents have been elected, Republican Senates have been elected, those Republican presidents have nominated constitutionalist justices, and those Republican Senates have confirmed constitutionalist justices. That is not, quote, packing the corporate elections. That's the ordinary operation of our constitutional system for nominating and confirming justices. What is packing the court is altering the number of Justices in order to just ram your partisans on board. That's what the Democrats want to do. And it's profoundly dangerous.

[Ben Shapiro]

We're gonna keep watching this because it's gonna be very important, but at least we're getting these victories. And I also think there's one other encouraging aspect to this. The Supreme Court justices seem to be becoming much more outspoken on this and not taking as much crap from the media.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, they're not playing politics, they're just following the law.

[Ben Shapiro]

But that's good because they've been attacked. And the undermining of the court, I think they understood how much damage was done with the Roe v. Wade undermining and the releasing of that document beforehand and the doxing of them. I think now they're saying we're gonna stick to the rules, but I'm glad to see them say it publicly.

[Ted Cruz]

So there's a reason the framers of the Constitution gave justices life tenure. They're supposed to be immune or at least resistant to political pressure. And you may be right. You may see this majority now saying, fine, if you're going to just assault this institution, we're gonna keep our eyes on the law and we're gonna follow the law and follow the Constitution and let politics do what it may. Taxes was taxing. Now taxes is relaxing. When you file for free, I can file for free. TurboTax Free Edition. Roughly 37% of filers qualify. Simple Form 1040 returns only. See if you [e-mail] free. Hmm, I can file for free. Now this is taxes. File for free with TurboTax Free Edition and get your maximum refund. No schedules except for earned income tax credit, child tax credit, and student loan interest. See if you [e-mail] free. Look, you look at this other decision from last week, 303Creative vs. LS. This is a very important, important decision. It's a religious liberty decision. It's a free speech decision. It was 6:3 as well. Justice Gorsuch wrote the opinion. And what happened here is a woman named Laurie Smith. Laurie Smith is an artist. She's a website designer. So she designs websites. That's what she does. She's creative. She makes websites and she does. She wanted to do wedding websites. She thought it'd be fun to do. Ben and Anna are getting married. Let's do a website. Let's celebrate their lives. Let's design something that tells their story. She's a storyteller. Well, the facts alleging the case is that two gay men wanted to hire her to create a website celebrating a gay marriage, a same sex marriage. She is a believing Christian and she did not want to tell that story. She did not want to say that she agreed with that because she doesn't agree with that. And Colorado has a very, very strict law. They call it a non discrimination law, but it's designed to really force and punish anyone who wants to exercise their own religious liberty. Now, she wasn't trying to stop their wedding. She wasn't speaking out against their wedding. She was saying, I don't want to use my voice to say something that my faith teaches me is wrong. Well, the Supreme Court 6, 3 ruled for her. And you know what's striking? So there's several things that are striking. And I should point out, I led an amicus brief in this case along with Senator Mike Lee. We had a number of House members and senators who joined us urging precisely this outcome. So this was, I filed a brief in this case and the Supreme Court agreed with our brief and upheld her religious liberty rights. But let me start with this point, which is the corrupt corporate media deliberately, and Democrats deliberately are wildly mischaracterizing. So I want to give an example of Axios, which is this fairly well respected media outlet who put out a tweet and a headline that was just objectively false. And so I responded on Twitter. So here is the tweet they put out. The tweet they put out is Supreme Court rules businesses can refuse service to LGBTQ customers. Now, if you look at that, that headline is objectively false. And you see what they wrote in their tweet breaking businesses can refuse to serve same sex couples if doing so would violate the owner's religious beliefs. The Supreme Court ruled on Friday. And so here's what I tweeted. I had a three part tweet thread. I said, first of all, if Axios were a first year law student, this answer would earn an F. It is either ignorance, they don't know or dishonesty, they know and they're lying. I suspect the latter. I think they know and they're lying. But if it's the former, if it's an honest mistake, then a real journalistic outlet with integrity would issue a correction. Now, why is it that they are wrong and they're either ignorant or lying? Well, let's look at the second tweet thread. Assuming that whoever wrote the headline didn't actually bother to read the opinion, which I think is a pretty good assumption.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

What the court did hold is that the First Amendment prohibits the state of Colorado from compelling a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which she disagrees. This is a free speech case. This is about her right to speak and not be forced by the government to say things she disagrees with. Third tweet, the tweet thread. So, for example, the government could not force Axios to tweet, all journalists are morons or Donald Trump is awesome.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

Two sentiments with which presumably Axios disagrees. Like, you can't force. They can't go force Ben Ferguson to.

[Ben Shapiro]

Go say something I don't believe in.

[Ted Cruz]

Online and say Memphis sucks. Yeah, you're just not gonna say that.

[Ben Shapiro]

Not gonna say it.

[Ted Cruz]

You like bleed Memphis hometown.

[Ben Shapiro]

That's just the way it is. But no, you're right. I should never be put in that situation. And if you have a venue hall where you rent it out to people and someone says, I'm gonna come have a satanic ritual, there's. And you say, I don't want that in my private venue, you shouldn't be sued or lose a court case over that for religious beliefs.

[Ted Cruz]

So look, that's actually a different case. My point is, this case is very different. This is about free speech. This is about expressive design. A website designer is writing. You are writing your own message.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

The point about this case, this really is the heart of it. Should the government force you to speak. So look, hosting a venue, that's a different issue. And there's been litigation over that. But First Amendment speech, this would be about. You're a radio host. Can the government force you to say things you disagree with? Now, I will tell you just how dishonest the media is. Well, I'm not gonna tell you how dishonest the media is. I wanna show you. So watch. David Brooks from the New York Times.

[David Brooks]

I'm not qualified to give it a legal opinion. I'm not a lawyer. So I look at it. Is it good or bad for society? And so in this case, you had the right for artistic expression against non discrimination. And it was a contest between those two. And the court chose free expression. That strikes me just as someone who lives in American society as doing great harm to American society. It seems to me the idea that we do not discriminate in our businesses is just. That's much more serious thing to break that than to restrict someone who's really running a business, not just painting a painting, but is running a business. And if that person who's running a business is allowed to discriminate, it seems to me it's just a poison in our society.

[Ted Cruz]

So I gotta say, David Brooks, who I don't know very well, I've met him, but I don't really know him, he's paid by the New York Times to be their fake conservative. So he claims to be a sort of conservative who just happens to agree with the left on everything.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

And his whole job is to say I'm a conservative and I hate conservatives. I hate all the people who believe what I say I'm believing. And at some level you gotta wonder what self respect does someone have? Because he literally, he's surrounded by people who loathe conservatives. He Pretends to be one. He's obviously not. But his whole point is to be the whipping boy. You know, in the old.

[Ben Shapiro]

You get paid to lose.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, you know, in old monarchies where you'd have the king and the prince and the prince would misbehave, like the phrase whipping boy came from, they didn't want to spank the prince because he had a royal behind.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

So the whipping boy, when the prince misbehaved, they grabbed the whipping boy and whip the whipping boy. And the whole purpose of it was the royal derriere cannot be touched. Someone needs to be spanked because of the prince's malfeasance. So let's whip the whipping boy. It's the person whose job it is to take the blows. Well, that's what David Brooks there Sundays. So, number one, he starts by saying, I'm not qualified to say anything about this because I'm not a lawyer. He's right. He's not qualified because he's not only not a lawyer, he hasn't read the opinion, he doesn't know what it's about, and he's not talking about the opinion. So it's not just that he doesn't have a law degree, it's that he hasn't done even the barest modicum of homework to know what the case is about. But he knows what he's supposed to say. Yeah, he's supposed to say the left is right and the right is wrong. Because that's what he says every time. Usually in a very self righteous, moralistic way. In this instance, he says, this is a battle between discrimination and artistic expression. No, no, no, it's speech. It is literally. Can you force. Let me ask you, can you force a Jewish rabbi to perform a Muslim wedding ceremony?

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah. The answer should be no, because you.

[Ted Cruz]

Can'T force someone to speak. All right, David Brooks said that, you know, clearly preventing discrimination is more important than free speech. Mind you, number one, the guy works for the New York Times. So the New York Times is on record saying free speech is less important. He's the fake conservative, so he especially believes free speech is less important. All right, I'll tell you what. I want to pass a law that every time David Brooks speaks, he must publicly say, I'm a dishonest, lying imbecile that works for the propaganda outlet called the New York Times. And he should be okay with that because it's just his free speech. And he's perfectly. His free speech doesn't matter. He told us that so the government can Force him to say, I'm assuming. Well, maybe he does believe that he's a lying propagandist. But I mean, given the benefit of the doubt and assume that he doesn't believe that, should the government be able to force him to say that? And the point, listen, it is altogether different. If you take, for example, look, there was a prior case, the Colorado baker case. It was the same Colorado state law where again, the press mischaracterized it and they said, this is a baker that didn't want to serve people who were gay. Well, the baker there said that's not the case at all. That he served people who were gay every day. That when people came in, they wanted to buy a cake, he'd sell them a cake. He didn't care if they were gay, transgender, whatever. Like he'd sell a cake. He was in the cake buying business. Cake selling business. This was not a case about refusing to do business, refusing service to someone because of their sexual identity. Rather, what the Colorado baker said is, you had a gay couple that wanted to come in and have him design a wedding cake celebrating their same sex wedding. He was an evangelical Christian and he said, look, my faith teaches me that's wrong. You can go get married, but I don't wish to speak. And he said baking a cake was expressive. Now, I gotta admit, I'm not much of a cook or baker. I didn't really think of baking as all that expressive. But he said, for him it is.

[Ben Shapiro]

That's what he does.

[Ted Cruz]

When he designed a cake, he was speaking. And you could get, look, if you were a baker and let's say you're a Jewish baker and someone comes in and says, will you bake a Nazi cake with a swastika on it? That you ought to be able to say, no, I'm not going to. I don't wish to convey that message.

[Ben Shapiro]

Or a Klansman cake or anything that goes against your beliefs.

[Ted Cruz]

But the point is, the Colorado baker didn't refuse service to people on the basis of their sexuality. People could come in, are gay, and buy any cake they wanted. He was not going to speak and offer his voice. In this instance, this website creator, there's no indication she'd ever turn down her services to someone who was gay. If you had a gay couple who said, hey, we want to design a website about the Colorado mountains and the prettiest mountains and we want to do a website, sure. She presumably would have said, sure, happy to do that. Like, okay, you're hiring me to design a website. Let's do this mountains this high. This mountains this side. Let's put up pictures. It wasn't that she was refusing to do business with people who were gay. She was more than happy to do business. They were asking her. We want you to use your voice to speak. A message that you disagree with and that your faith teaches you is wrong.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah. Your religious beliefs going against your religious.

[Ted Cruz]

Beliefs, that's the core that is fundamental. That government cannot force you to speak. Which is why I use the example and to see the fake conservative at the New York Times happily say free speech doesn't matter because all my left wing buddies tell me it doesn't matter. Yeah, it really is sad.

[Ben Shapiro]

It's an interesting point. I want to also get the CDC real quick because I think this is really important. Before we do that, let me tell you about Patriot Mobile. The only conservative Christian cell phone provider in the country. You've probably got a cell phone and if you are just like me where you're just done with woke companies, you're sick and tired of giving your money to companies actually not only disagree with your values but are fighting against your values. That is why you need to switch to Patriot Mobile. Big Mobile has actually been giving millions and millions of dollars to woke leftist causes including Planned Parenthood. If you don't want your money going there, switch to Patriot Mobile now. They have nationwide coverage on all three major network tower systems so you don't have to worry about coverage. You can keep your same cell phone, your same cell phone number if you want to. And switching is easy with 100% US based call center. They can also help you with your business or your small business line switching all of those over and many times actually save you money every month. Now when you pay your bill, this is where the magic happens. They take a portion of that bill, no extra cost to you and they give it to conservative causes and organizations that you want to support. We're talking about the first and the second amendment. We're talking about protecting unborn children. We're talking about our veterans, our wounded warriors. That's where your money is going. So check out Patriot Mobile 878-patriots their number. That's 878-patriot or patriotmobile.com verdict that's patriotmobile.com verdict. Use a promo code verdict when you call them and you will get free activation. The best deals of the year. Patriot mobile.com verdict there's something I want to bring up and you and I were talking about this before the show. Center Biden has nominated a radical CDC director You're trying to change how this nomination process works. Explain why.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, look, we all learned during COVID that the head of CDC can have a massive impact on everyone's life in America, that it is an enormously important position. We saw CDC pushing for shutdowns and lockdowns all across the country. School shutdowns, mask mandates, vaccine mandates, impacting life and liberty and health of every American. And it is a massively important position that there is a basic proposition in our Constitution that positions that are very important, that impact the American people very significantly should be subject to Senate confirmation. Historically, the CDC director has not been subject to Senate confirmation. So it's just someone that the president can appoint, that the secretary of HHS can appoint. And CDC did not require Senate confirmation after Covid. I think everyone recognizes, okay, this is big enough. It requires it. And in fact, Congress has passed a law that going forward, the CDC director will require Senate confirmation starting in January of 2025.

[Ben Shapiro]

Why do they wait so long? Out of curiosity. People don't understand this in laws. I mean, it's annoying. Why not do it in 2024?

[Ted Cruz]

Whoever wrote it in just wrote it. I assume, wait till after Biden's presidency.

[Ben Shapiro]

Got it.

[Ted Cruz]

But what it means. So Biden has named a woman named Mandy Cohen to be head of the cdc. She presumably will be the last head of the CDC if nothing changes. Whoever takes that position without Senate confirmation, the next one after January of 2025 will require Senate confirmation. I have introduced legislation. It's very simple. It makes Senate confirmation the requirement immediately. It just moves the date forward from January 2025 to now. And it would make Mandy Cohen subject to Senate confirmation. Why is that? Because her record is terrible. So she was the head of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and she was one of the leading advocates of shutdowns, of lockdowns. She was an advocate of shutting down small businesses. She was an advocate of shutting down schools. She was an advocate of mask mandates. She was a total acolyte of Dr. Fauci. She went so far as wearing a mask with Dr. Fauci's face on it. I mean, she's a fan girl for Anthony Fauci, quite literally. She's also a Democrat partisan. She's been a Democrat partisan her entire life. She's been very active. For example, in 2009, she was the national outreach director for Doctors for Obama. So this is a partisan Democrat. She also participated in the, quote, white coat rally supporting Obamacare at the White House.

[Ben Shapiro]

I remember that. Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

So she is a partisan Democrat. You know, the CDC historically has been a relatively apolitical position that you and should be. You put a respected scientist. This woman is a partisan Democrat who. She shut down churches in North Carolina with much stricter rules than other places. So she had the hostility of Democrats towards churches because she didn't like churches and religious belief, and she put much tougher rules than for any other organization. And I gotta say, the degree to which she just abused her power. Well, look, I'm actually gonna let you watch her tell you I'm laughing because.

[Ben Shapiro]

You sent this to me earlier this week, and it's brilliant. So go ahead.

[Ted Cruz]

So I want you to watch this interview with Mandy Cohen where she describes just how cavalierly she approaches her abuse of power.

[Mandy Cohen]

So I would call. Probably the person I called most was the secretary of health and Human services in Massachusetts. She worked for a Republican governor, just. But when she was like, are you gonna let them have professional football? And I was like, nope. And she's like, okay, neither are we. Neither are we. So it was like conversations like that. Or I'd be like, so when are you gonna think about lightening up a mess? They're like, next Monday. I'm like, okay, next Monday.

[Ted Cruz]

So look, she's telling you that she would call the head of HHS in Massachusetts, by the way, North Carolina. I'm sure the people are thrilled to know North Carolina is taking their cues from Massachusetts, one of the most liberal states in the country. Yeah, and listen to what she just said. So are you going to allow them to play professional football, which is insane.

[Ben Shapiro]

That a non elected official can even decide that.

[Ted Cruz]

No, neither am I. Ha ha, ha ha ha. She just laughs. I mean it. She doesn't care at all the imperiousness with which I am going to ban football. Oh, you are too. Isn't it fun? Ha ha ha. And she says, also, when are you gonna lessen your mask mandates? On Monday. Okay, I'll do it on Monday too. It is an act.

[Ben Shapiro]

Showed you how arbitrary, by the way, the mask mandate was.

[Ted Cruz]

It was made up, right?

[Ben Shapiro]

It was totally made up. It was like, all right, well, I'll release it when you release it. Let's synchronize it. Totally different parts of the country, Totally different stats and data at that point, I'm sure. Totally different hospitalization numbers at that moment, different ICU numbers. But this was based on science.

[Ted Cruz]

It's politics. It's not science. It's purely politics. And you look at that and you see the contempt she holds the American People in. She believes she's an unaccountable philosopher king. She'll dictate. Look, when was the last time you saw someone say, are you going to allow professional football?

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

And laugh about it, by the way. And it's why I say she needs to be subject to Senate confirmation. Let's make senators vote on her. Do you want that woman to have the power to ban football? Which she's already done once, and she laughs about it. And if you do, you know what, Joe Manchin? Why don't you cast a vote and tell us you want to put her in charge of the next lockdown? You want to put her in charge of the next shutdown in schools that hurt school kids across the country. You want to put her in charge of illegal vaccine mandates? Let's put every senator on record.

[Ben Shapiro]

Great point. There's one more thing I want to play for everybody because you sent this, and it's hilarious. And before we play it, because it deals with exactly this issue, let me tell you about our friends over at Chalk. If you're a guy and you deal with a real problem that men are dealing with, and that is low test testosterone, you need to check out Chalk. C-H O Q.com Chalk has the male vitality stack. Now, this is herbal supplements that can help boost your testosterone levels up to 20% in 90 days. So if you're feeling lethargic, you're feeling like you're just kind of weak and you just don't want to get off the couch, you don't want to go do fun things like workout or play sports, any of those types of things, you just feel like you've lost that edge. Check out chalk. Go to chalkchoq.com use the promo code, Ben. You're going to get 35% off your order for life. So if you haven't tried it and you're ready to get back to the way you used to fill, go to chalkchoq.com grab that mail. Vitality stack promo code Ben. 35% off. And you will not have to give in to that weakness that you're experiencing right now. Check. That's choq.com promo code BEN for 35% off. Lastly, Senator, this one is hilarious. I'll let you tee it up because you sent it to me, and I was like, this is pretty brilliant and people I think are gonna like it.

[Ted Cruz]

All right, so this is a video I had my team put together, and I talked about just how radical and extreme Mandy Cohen's record is. The corporate media doesn't want to cover it. They want to hide it. They want to bury it. It's also why they don't want to see her subject to senate confirmation. Because they want to put her in a position to be able to ban football and shut down schools and shut down your businesses once again. I don't want that to happen. So here is a light hearted video that actually lays out what a real record is.

[Musical Parody Artist]

Wear a mask and she will try to lock us down all of our lives Ooh, see that girl don't make a scene she is the basking queen Lockdowns had our spirits low didn't have a place to go Kids kept out of school didn't learn a thing and found she was a king Mandy Cohen stood by her side Drunk on power and feeling high with another press conference Just follow the science she's got a cause to advance and when she got the chance she was the masking queen first one on counting on the screen Masking queen feel the pain of abandoning oh yeah Wear a mask and she will try to lock us down all of our lives O see that girl?

[Ben Shapiro]

I can't.

[Ted Cruz]

She's wearing a mask.

[Musical Parody Artist]

She is the masking queen.

[Ben Shapiro]

Dare I say I want more of these. Senator from the team. It is the perfect way of exposing who these people are, what they're all about, and using a little bit of humor to do it. Because this is what people will send around and go, okay, I don't want this woman to be the CDC director, Especially when she's crazy like this.

[Ted Cruz]

That's her actual record. That's her with Fauci on the mask. She really is a fan girl to Dr. Fauci. You saw the video of her coming out to the press conference. She's not wearing her mask. And then suddenly, like all good hypocritical Democrats, TV camera. Gotta put a mask on for the TV cameras. Nothing to do with science, nothing to do with medicine, nothing to do with the virus. Has everything to do with virtue signaling. And as she just laughs and shows you, let's ban football because ha ha ha, I can. Every senator ought to vote. My vote is hell no. But there are a bunch of Democrat senators who are running in red states. I'd like to know what Jon Tester thinks in Montana. Does he want her to be able to shut down schools and ban football in Montana? I'd like to know what Joe Manchin thinks. I'd like to know what Sherrod Brown thinks. He always votes left wing anyway. But the people of Ohio happen to like some football. So let's have a vote on this. This ought to be easy. But let's see if Democrats actually support putting a radical in charge of shutdowns and lockdowns and shutting down our kids schools.

[Ben Shapiro]

Call your senators, call your senators, call your senators. Senators, always it's a pleasure. Don't forget, we do this show three days a week. And if you are watching this, make sure you share this video on your timeline. If you're watching on Facebook or YouTube, if you're listening to this, there's that little forward button. You can share this on any social media platform you're on to help us reach more people with what's really happening in this country. Write us a five star review and hit that follow, like or subscribe button if you're listening to this podcast so you don't miss an episode and we'll see you back here in a couple of days.