Loading summary
Transcript49 lines
- [00:01]
A
Welcome to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz. Ben Ferguson with you, Senator. Nice to be with you today. Except we're in different places on this episode. For people that are like, wait, why aren't they in the same room? I had to fly back to my hometown of Memphis to check on my dad, who was in the hospital. He is doing okay, but that's why we're remote today. And Senator, it's good to be with you as always, Ben.
- [00:21]
B
Great to be with you. A lot going on in the world and hope your dad continues to do better.
- [00:26]
A
He is doing well, thank goodness. Let's start in on this big issue, and that is we have a game plan now from the President of the United States of America to fix the problems at the border. And he's decided that if we just use WOKE terminology, all the issues at the border are gonna go away. Let's just let you get your initial reaction to some of these terminologies the President decided to use while visiting, apparently the president in Mexico. This is what their master plan is.
- [00:55]
B
Yeah. Look, it's even worse than in the last few days. Joe Biden. There's good news and bad news. Joe Biden has done more in the last few days on our southern border than he has the entirety of his presidency. That's the good news. The bad news is everything he's done is bad. He flew down to the southern border. He went to El Paso, not the Rio Grande Valley, which is the epicenter of the disaster. Before he arrived in El Paso, there had been illegal immigrants sleeping on the streets. The mayor had declared it an emergency. So what did they do? They cleaned all the illegal immigrants off the street before Joe Biden arrived because they wanted to set it up like a TV set and clear everyone out when he got there. This is an amazing thing, Karine Jean Pierre said from the White House podium. She said Biden did not meet or speak to or see a single illegal immigrant when he was there. Now, Ben, that is friggin hard. I have been to the border many, many times. Times we've had 5.3 million people cross illegally under Joe Biden's presidency. For him to go to the border and not see a single illegal immigrant, I guarantee you that was political staffers working overtime saying, make sure you don't show some little girl who was sexually assaulted by the traffickers. Make sure you don't show some impoverished person who went through a horrific journey to get here. Definitely make sure you don't show an MS.13 gang member who just came into this country and is now carrying out crimes in this country. Instead he went down there for a photo op but then he wasn't done. Then he got on a plane and he headed to Mexico and he met with Amlo, the president of Mexico and he announced the Biden border plan. And it is truly stunning. So here's what Joe Biden has said and I want to quote him. He has said, quote we are trying to make it easier for people to get here. In other words the 5.3 million that have crossed illegally, that's not a bug, that's a feature. They want more of it. He doesn't intend to fix this. He doesn't want to fix this. Instead he wants full on open borders. He's not hiding it. And by the way, Amlo, the president of Mexico, he gets it. Have a listen to what Amlo said with Joe Biden standing next to him about Biden as president and border security.
- [03:19]
A
And before we play that, I want to remind everybody real quick about our good friends at Patriot Mobile. If you have a cell phone and your cell phone is with a big carrier, you can make a difference by switching to Patriot Mobile you're probably going to save money on your bill. You get to keep your same cell phone number and many times the same cell phone you have. But while you pay that bill you are going to be saving and supporting conservative causes. It stand up for our first amendment rights or second amendment rights. They're also now helping the lives of the unborn, protecting them and helping with adoptions. So imagine knowing that every time you use your phone you're standing up for what you believe in. If you're ready to put your money where your mouth is and you want to stand with a company that stands with your values, check out Patriot Mobile. Go to patriot mobile.com verdict that's patriot mobile.com verdict. You can also call them 972-PATRIOT. Use promo code verdict for the biggest savings of the year. Again 972 Patriot use promo code verdict center. Let's play that video real quick of the president Mexico talking about how proud he is. America's given the ultimate thing, the ultimate gift, that open border.
- [04:50]
B
And Ben, if your Spanish is not up to snuff, what Amlo just said is that you're the first president of the United States in a long time who hasn't built even a single meter of border wall. And that he said we appreciate so explicitly. By the way, Amlo is a leftist Marxist president of Mexico who has been embracing the cartels, who's been turning a blind eye to the cartels, murdering police officers, murdering journalists. And he's standing there with Biden beaming, praising him. Because you're the first president a long time, by the way. He's including Barack Obama in that. He's including George W. Bush. He's including Barack Obama. He's including Bill Clinton. He's including, of course, Donald Trump. Joe Biden is the worst of all of them. On open borders. AMLO is praising him. And then the White House rolled out this, this rather amazing document on January 10th. It's called the Declaration of North America DNA. So this is their leftist DNA. I don't think that that acronym is is accidental. So we are right now facing the worst crisis of illegal immigration in the history of our country. It has never been this bad. 5.3 million people have crossed illegally under Joe Biden. The Biden White House lays out six principles. You know what principle number one is?
- [06:21]
A
All woke liberal ideology. That's what they're going to do with the entire list.
- [06:26]
B
Principle number one, diversity, equity and inclusion. That's the very first thing. Not border security. Not saving lives. Not preventing women from being raped, not preventing children from being assaulted, not stopping fentanyl from flooding across the border. Diversity, equity, and inclusion. What do you think number two is?
- [06:47]
A
I'm going to go with woke ideology yet again, like an academic. Decided to write this for the White House at some woke school. Right?
- [06:56]
B
Climate change and environment. That's number two. That's what he's down there talking to. Mexico.
- [07:03]
A
That made Al Gore happy.
- [07:04]
B
I'm sure it did.
- [07:05]
A
That made Al Gore happy.
- [07:06]
B
Number three. Surely illegal immigration comes up. Number three. Nope. Competitiveness. We need to outsource more to Mexico. What's number four? Number four. All right. Finally, immigration comes up. It's entitled Migration and development. And what do they say they want to do about it? Work together to advance labor mobility in North America. And in particular, it says since June, Mexico, the United States and Canada have collectively welcomed record numbers of migrants and refugees from the Western Hemisphere under new and expanded humanitarian programs. They don't want to end it. They're not trying to end it. They're not asking for Mexico's help in ending it. They want more. Number five on this list is health. Number six is regional security. Do you know what word does not appear in this entire White House list? Cartel.
- [08:09]
A
I didn't hear anything about actual border security or the cartels or the drugs. Or the fentanyl, for that matter.
- [08:16]
B
Fentanyl. Look, last year we had over 100,000Americans die of drug overdoses. Most of those opioids, many of them fentanyl. It is a deadly poison that is murdering Americans. Joe Biden and the Democrats don't care. They don't want to stop it. They're not purporting to stop it. And this meeting with amlo. Listen, even though AMLO is a leftist, he was afraid of Donald Trump. He was afraid of Donald Trump. I'm going to tell you an interesting story. So we've talked before about how the remain in Mexico agreement, how effective it was. Let me tell you how it came to pass. So it came to pass. Donald Trump was president and he issued a threat to Mexico. He said he was going to impose a 25% tariff on goods coming in from Mexico. Now, I got to say, you and I are both Texans. And a 25% tariff on goods coming from Mexico would be devastating to Texas farmers, to Texas ranchers, to Texas manufacturers and businesses. And so catastrophic. I was vocal criticizing, and I said, look, I'm all for securing the border and doing everything necessary, but punishing the people of Texas and the businesses of Texas and jobs in Texas is a mistake. And what I said at the time, I said, look, Trump is playing a game of chicken where he's driving a truck really fast at another guy at a country road. And sometimes you win a game of chicken, sometimes the other guy swerves, sometimes. And I said at the time when he issued that demand, I said, if Trump wins this game of chicken, if Amlo swerves, then it'll be great, and we'll make real steps towards solving the problem. But if he doesn't, if Amlo crashes his truck into Trump's, the result is gonna be a ton of lost jobs and harm in the state of Texas. Well, it turned out Trump won the game of chicken. Amlo blinked. He gave in.
- [10:19]
A
Yeah.
- [10:20]
B
And he signed the remain in Mexico agreement. Now, the night he signed it, I was at a retreat with a bunch of other Republican senators. I was there with my wife. And I was with Roy Blunt and his wife. And I was with Cory Gardner and his wife. Roy Blunt was senator from Missouri. Cory Gardner was senator from Colorado. So the six of us were sitting down, having a glass of wine together, and Trump calls my cell phone right after the news broke. And I answer it, and he goes, ted, I was right. You were wrong. I said, hi, Mr. President. And he was exultant. He was on cloud nine. And I decided, all right, if he's gonna give me grief about it, I'm gonna do the natural step, which is Bring in other people. So I said, Mr. President, I'm here with Roy and Cory. Why don't I put it on speakerphone? And so we put it on speakerphone, and Trump was exultant. He was really, really happy. And he said, you want to hear the details of the deal? We said, sure. And the deal involved, among other things, if I remember right, Mexico agreed to put 6,000 soldiers on their southern border. You know, the southern border of Mexico next to Guatemala is much, much smaller than our southern border. It's much easier to secure the border south of Mexico than it is on our southern border. And he agreed to remain in Mexico. He agreed to the agreement that people who crossed illegally into Mexico would remain in Mexico while their US Asylum case was proceeding. And he walks through it and he asks, you know, so it turns out all you. All you guys were wrong about this. And Roy Blunt had the line of the night. He said, Mr. President, now that you got a deal, we were with you the entire way. And Trump howled, laughing.
- [12:10]
A
Welcome to politics, by the way. Brilliant.
- [12:12]
B
Yeah, look, Trump howled, laughing. It was a good line, but it was. Amlo was scared of Trump. The amazing thing is he was scared enough. Look, he thought Trump was crazy enough to put the tariffs on Mexico, which would have hurt the United States, but it would have hurt Mexico, too. And because Trump had a credible threat, I have to say, look, his judgment that AMLO was going to blink was the right judgment. And that agreement was such a massive, massive success that it produced the lowest illegal immigration in 45 years. It's remarkable. And it's because even though this leftist who ran on anti American rhetoric didn't want to secure the border, he was scared of the American president. And so he helped do so. And we got enormous results. When Biden came in. Not only is amlo not remotely scared of Biden, Biden comes in there as the most beta male, weak American president that AMLO is glowing, saying, well, you know, it's great that unlike Obama, unlike all the other presidents, you haven't built any border wall at all. And what does Biden say? Well, diversity, equity and inclusion, climate change, and we want even more open borders. It is a travesty. And it's even more of a travesty because in the face of this crisis, we should have a president who actually stands up for America when dealing with Mexico. And that's not what Biden is.
- [13:46]
A
I want to ask you about the politics. There's a lot that you can, I think, read into the fact that he said this publicly, referring to the president in Mexico about the American president. Even if, and this is just politics, most American presidents would not want to be praised publicly by another country for having an open border. It's just you would assume bad optics, bad for your country, even if that is your plan. And I think it's also just a point where this president felt so comfortable because Biden's so weak that even Biden wouldn't look at him and say, hey, man, don't say that in public. You're just undermining what I'm helping you with here. You're undermining the border, the open border policy that I have here. Don't say it out loud in front of the media. Don't praise me for it. Just enjoy it and be quiet about it. And yet it's like Joe Biden is so incompetent that he didn't even understand how strong this made Mexico look while mocking the lack of American security.
- [14:47]
B
Well, look at the problem. And people ask me all the time, why would the Biden administration do this? Why would they have open borders? And the challenge with today's Democrat party in Washington, they've given their agenda on every issue over to the radicals. So on immigration, they've given it over to the open border radicals. On gun control, they've given it over to the gun control radicals. On crime and law enforcement, they've given it over to the abolish the police radicals. On issues of sexuality, they've given it over to the transgender radicals who want boys competing against girls in sports and are fighting for the chemical castration of little boys and sterilization of little girls in pursuit of woke ideology. Look, all of those are fringe positions. They're fringe positions nationally. Every one of those 70, 80% of Americans oppose. I mean, I mean, they're not, you know, you think back to, like, the Bill Clinton presidency, and I was not a fan of Bill Clinton.
- [15:51]
A
Yeah.
- [15:52]
B
But Bill Clinton consciously tried to triangulate, tried to go to the middle, and it was successful. It got him elected twice. Even despite his personal scandals. Going to the middle was a successful strategy for the Democrats. What Biden has employed is very different, which is today's Democrat party is essentially an assembly of radical groups. And each radical groups gets their issue area. And they're not calculating. The Democrats are not hiding that they are open borders. They're not pretending they're going to solve this situation. And part of the reason is the corporate media is so utterly corrupt that they're counting on them not to tell the stories, not to Tell the truth. There's a reason Biden didn't see a single illegal immigrant. Because when you see a little boy or little girl who's been sexually assaulted and abused, you can't just spin it off as, look how compassionate I am. So instead, they try to hide it and count on the media, media to hide it with them.
- [16:56]
A
And that's the question I was gonna ask you as we wrap this part up, is there's one big story here that was so clearly underreported, and it was an admission of guilt, I think, by this administration. There were a lot of videos that came out in El Paso of what the Biden administration was doing, Senator, to get ready for his visit. And they showed the picture the day before and the day he arrived. They came in and you can't say this administration doesn't know what's going on, because not only do they know what's going on, they went into El Paso and they literally, in the most inhumane way, I would argue possible, just cleaned out every illegal immigrant, every. Every illegal immigrant that was homeless, all of the stuff that could look bad for the TV cameras of the route that the President was going to take. So they know the chaos was there. They know that how many illegals are sleeping on the street. They know how dirty the streets have become and how they've lost control in El Paso because of the massive number of legal immigrants coming across the border. But they made sure for a 24 hour period that they just cleaned it out. They arrested people. This was caught on video. They put them in the paddy wagons. They did exactly what they should be doing to secure the border, just for a 24 hour period solely so the cameras where the President wouldn't see it.
- [18:15]
B
And for the video version of this pod, we'll put up right now the before and after picture. So if you're watching the video on YouTube, you can see it. You can see the before and after they cleaned it up. By the way, if you're watching the video on YouTube, that's great. Make sure you subscribe on YouTube, but also make sure you subscribe on the audio version. Because we put out two a week in just audio, and then we put out one a week in both audio and video. So make sure you're subscribed to both. But if you're watching the video, you can see the before and after. And in the before and after, look what becomes clear. This is a Hollywood movie. This is a TV production. The people in charge of it are Hollywood producers. And if we actually had A functioning press corps. You couldn't do this if you had journalists who were actual journalists, who were not PR flacks for the White House. They would cover it. But they don't cover it because they support the agenda of open borders. They support the agenda of this White House, and they no longer view their job as actually reporting on the children being murdered. Don't matter to these journalists and they don't matter to the Democrats. And the Democrats know the journalists won't report on it. And it's why you have Biden not only not trying to fix this crisis, but promising to continue this crisis. He is promising next year, more people will cross illegally. More children will be assaulted, more women will be raped, more elderly people will be abandoned to die in the desert. More drugs will come in, more fentanyl, more gang crimes, more teenagers trapped working for the cartels. And by the way, the cartels, the word that doesn't appear in this White House document, have made billions and billions of dollars because of Joe Biden. Joe Biden becoming president was hands down the single best thing that has ever happened for the human traffickers and drug traffickers in Mexico and across the world.
- [20:17]
A
Record profits. I saw a report the other day that said they believe now the amount of money being made off fentanyl will far outpace the cocaine and marijuana drugs that they were running for decades into this country. They said it's the most profitable period, they believe, for the cartels in the history in Mexico. And the president is allowing it to happen.
- [20:39]
B
Well, and Ben, one thing about the cartels, they make about the same amount of money from human trafficking and from drug trafficking. Both of Those are approximately 50% of their revenue, which tells you what a big business it is treating human beings as cattle. This is modern day slavery. Joe Biden is responsible for modern day slavery. And it is every bit as evil and grotesque and cruel and inhumane as it was in the 1700s and 1800s under Joe Biden. He's responsible for funding the slave traders and for their murder and torture and suffering. That is all deliberately caused by this White House.
- [21:21]
A
If you hear any Democrats, by the way, say that there is a secure border, they're lying to you. Because we know for a fact that last year, Senator, and as a senator from Texas, you see this more than anybody. More people crossed the border into Texas illegally last year than any other year on record that we've had since. The government has been keeping these stats. And that's just of the people that we caught. We don't know how Many people got across the border that we didn't catch, which they clearly believe is another record year that we've never seen before.
- [21:55]
B
No, that's. That's exactly right. And it is, it is deliberate. It's not an accident. And they don't intend to stop. They intend to continue making the problem worse and worse and worse and turning a blind eye to the human suffering that results.
- [22:10]
A
I want to switch gears to what we're seeing with the playbook from Democrats on issues that they go back to, Senator, when they lose. We're seeing. And we're going to do another show on this, but I'm just going to use as example. San Francisco is now saying they want to pay reparations to people of $5 million and give them 200 years. I'm sorry, 150 years of salary. You see Sheila Jackson Lee, that's talking about reparations and saying that she wants to imprison people that say anything that's negative towards a minority. And we'll deal with that another day. They're going back to their playbook, which is we go after guns, we try to start a race war and divide the country to solidify our base. And now we are seeing the president and Democrats calling for banning of AR15s again. The President talked about this on Martin Luther King Day in a very blunt way. And then we saw the governor in Illinois come out banning all semiautomatic weapons. That's part two of this. So they're actually implementing. They're not just talking about. They're actually doing this state by state where they can. And then you have people. And it may have been the most amazing clip. It was Geraldo on Fox where he said this about AR15s. It makes, makes macho. The people who possess it.
- [23:31]
B
Oh, look at me. I'm a big deal.
- [23:33]
A
And it's not a rifle rifle.
- [23:36]
B
It is a machine.
- [23:37]
A
What is armor? It is. It is automatic rifle.
- [23:41]
B
No, no, that's not what it is.
- [23:46]
A
I mean, if you're going to say you want to ban something, at least Google it and find out what the hell it means. Right. And this is the reason why I will never trust liberals center with my guns because they don't even know what they're talking about when it comes to the name of a gun.
- [24:01]
B
Yeah, look, that embodies the ignorance and apathy and ideology of the left wing media. So Geraldo has no idea what an AR15 is. All right, that's fine. There's some people that don't. But Geraldo's job is to go on TV and talk about issues like gun control. And Geraldo's decided to be a left winger and advocate gun control. So he's advocating banning AR15s. Here's the problem. He doesn't know what an AR15 is. Now Gutfeld comes back with, you know, what does the AR stand for? And Geraldo responds, automatic rifle. Now, you and I both know that is wrong. That is not what the AR stands for. The AR stands for Armalite rifle. Armalite was the company in the 1950s that developed it. And an AR15 is a semiautomatic rifle. It's not automatic, it's semiautomatic. The difference. And look, listeners of this pod are educated and savvy, and so y'all know the difference, but Geraldo has no idea. An automatic rifle, a machine gun, is a weapon that when you hold the trigger down, multiple bullets come out. You think Rambo going, that's a machine gun. A semi automatic weapon is a weapon. When you pull the trigger once, one bullet comes out, and then you pull the trigger a second time and a second bullet comes out. It's a fundamental difference. Machine guns, automatic rifles have been functionally illegal in the United states for over 80 years, other than in very limited circumstances with very strict licenses. As a practical matter, an ordinary citizen cannot own a machine gun. So Geraldo there, when he says, oh, AR stands for automatic rifle, it's not just a gotcha question. He's fundamentally ignorant about what the thing is that he wants to ban. And he says, actually earlier in that clip, he calls it a machine gun. He thinks it is a machine gun, and he doesn't really care. It is an example. Why can the Democrats be so left wing? Because the media is that bad. They don't know what an AR15 is. They don't care what an AR15 is. Good.
- [26:21]
A
They don't know what they're talking about at all with weapons. And another example of this, Senators, this last week, there was a man who had created apparently one gun that was a single shot.22 little mini gun, they called it, with a spring that he had to pull back and it shot. And he found out through someone that was looking at the bill in Illinois where they're banning all of these guns that his prototype that never went into production, that was one little bullet, a.22 is spring loaded. That never went into production. Somehow his gun got on the list of the evil, scary, terrible guns that should be banned in America, they're saying, at least in Illinois, and they found this guy, and they're like, you never even produced this gun. This is not something you can even buy on the market. It doesn't really exist. How did you end up on this list? And he says, I genuinely have no idea. This is a gun that I got a patent on. This is a gun that I did once. And yet Democrats. And again, it shows the example that you're mentioning. They don't even know what they're banning. And the governor in Illinois has come out and this is serious. And I would say to conservatives, listen, the governor in Illinois, senator has, has passed a significant law. It's going to be challenged. Yes, but it bans all semiautomatic guns. And the majority of firearms bought in America today, the majority of guns are used to protect people's lives. The number one gun that people have to protect themselves of personal carry are semiautomatic weapons. They've now banned them all, which is really going back to gun confiscation. Just take a look at this.
- [27:55]
C
You know, I think it's a lot of grandstanding, frankly. And I know there are some of them that are opposed to the law, but the fact is they've signed an oath of office to uphold and enforce the laws of the state of Illinois, and I expect them to do so.
- [28:09]
B
What penalty would state residents pay if they don't abide by that and within the next year come forward and register their weapons in this category?
- [28:20]
C
Well, it begins with a fine. If they, if they don't, you know, if they're caught under this law, it begins with a fine. But a second instance, it is a Class 4 felony.
- [28:32]
A
I mean, this is gun confiscation and the first part there, and this is, I think, pretty cool. I'm going to give you the numbers. Sheriffs in 80 Illinois county senator are making clear they will, quote, not enforce the assault weapons ban that the Democratic governor signed into law on Tuesday saying they will not do this because they believe it's unconstitutional. Which I think is amazing that law enforcement standing up. But this is about taking away your guns in a gun registry, saying if you don't register them, then you'll be a felon because you didn't register them by default. Which when you're a felon at that point, you're not allowed to own any firearms.
- [29:08]
B
Well, look, that clip I think really embodies just how extreme today's Democrat party is on the question of guns and how hypocritical it is. Number one, Pritzker is a billionaire. He lives with vast wealth. He is surrounded as governor, he is surrounded by an armed police detail. Previously he was surrounded, no doubt. I don't know this for sure, but I would wager a whole lot of money that he had armed security with him. Just as a really rich guy, he lives in a really rich neighborhood with armed security and is kept very, very safe. What does he want to do? He wants to disarm the ordinary citizens of Illinois. And by the way, Illinois, Chicago already has some of the strictest gun control laws in the country. And it, year after year after year has among the highest crime rates and murder rates. Why not? Because they don't have tough enough gun control. In fact, in Chicago the gun control laws have succeeded in disarming the law abiding citizens. Because by definition, if you're law abiding, you abide the law. But the criminals are not law abiding, the gang bangers are not law abiding and they have all the guns they need. And so they're shooting each other and they're shooting innocent citizens. They're shooting many of the people murdered in Chicago under these gun control laws. Many of them are African American, many of them are Hispanic. The vast majority of them are low income. And the Democrats don't care. Those black lives don't matter to them. The kids that are shot in drive by shootings, those don't matter. And their solution is to say you can't defend your home every year. This is according to the Obama White House. Firearms are used defensively to stop a crime between 500,000 and a million times each year. According to the Democrats, they take the guns away from all of them and just let the criminals be armed. And you can see the suffering, the chaos, the tragedy that plays out in Chicago every day and every week and every month and every year because of those misguided policies. I'll also note, you know, Pritzker says, well, the sheriff, the sheriffs took an oath. Yes, they did, but they didn't take an oath to obey the Democratic kingpin Boss Hogg who sits there and decrees, you shall obey my orders. They took an oath to defend and protect the Constitution. And I believe these Illinois laws are going to be struck down. The courts are not going to let him stand, but the Democrats don't care. And by the way, one of the strategies of gun confiscation, law abiding people, as I said, abide by the law. They want to confiscate as many firearms as they can. By the way, they also want to turn into felons as many gun owners as they can, because that's one way of confiscating them and taking away their rights. You know, when the courts began striking down Joe Biden's illegal COVID vaccine mandates, when he was trying to force employers, large employers, to fire their employees who didn't get a COVID vaccine, the court struck it down, and the White House said, well, you should comply with it anyway. Even though it's been enjoined, Even though it's not in force, you should comply anyway. That's their view on guns anyway. We will use power in. You must obey and listen. The Democrat view of politics is they use government power to punish their enemies and reward their friends, so they want to go after their enemies. If you believe in free speech, if you believe in religious liberty, if you believe in the second Amendment, if you believe in free enterprise, they consider you an enemy. They want to punish you. They want to make your life difficult. They want to crush you into submission. On the other hand, if you're a Democrat lobbyist, if you make money on all of these different scams dealing with the federal government, they want to make you rich, they want to shovel cash into your pocket. And that fundamentally is the corruption that's at the heart of today's Democrat Party.
- [33:16]
A
I want to ask you a practical question from a legislative standpoint, Senator, because there are a lot of second amendment advocates, gun owners, that are concerned about two aspects of this. And yes, we have the court system that I believe is going to strike this down in Illinois. But Democrats clearly are trying to figure around workarounds to take away our rights. There are two things that concern many gun owners, and I know you've heard about this a lot. One is this gun registry aspect of that, and that's what they're obviously trying to do in Illinois. The second is government monitoring. We talked about this, I think, on this podcast couple months ago, when banks were recording transactions and the White House was wanting this for gun stores and places to kind of monitor and then see if you were buying what they believed was too much ammo or too many guns or too many transactions. Look, I own a gun store, and we've had banks and credit card processing companies that have actually just said, we're not working with you, even though you're selling the most regulated industry by the government. We have multiple layers of regulations on this industry. And they've also said, you know, not only are we not going to do it, we're going to try to basically use that to put you out of business, and people are Terrified of the government monitoring their transactions. So number one, is there anything that you guys can do to make that illegal? And second of all, is there any type of legislation that could come about that says you cannot have gun registries in this country?
- [34:46]
B
So yes, there is. And in the Senate, I've been leading the fight against a gun registry and in defense of the Second Amendment for the entire time I've been there. And listen, I. The Second Amendment, I believe passionately in the Constitution. As you know, my second book that I wrote was One Vote How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History. And there's an entire chapter in One Vote Away that talks about the Heller case where the Supreme Court upheld and first clarified the individual right to keep and bear arms in the Second Amendment. And I led the states, I was Solicitor General of Texas and I led the states in defense of the Second Amendment in Heller, which is why the NRA named me as a champion defending the Second Amendment. Because that victory, that victory and the subsequent case of McDonald is a big part of why this Illinois law is likely to be struck down protecting those rights. When I first got to the Senate, one of the very first things that happened, I was elected in 2012, I arrived in 2013. Tragically, we saw the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut where that monster, that animal murdered little children. You and I are both parents and I think there is nothing more evil on planet earth than a monster who hurts little kids. And the Democrats were exultant. Obama just been reelected, they were convinced they were going to pass gun control. And I was a brand new baby freshman senator. I was still in my basement office. I didn't know where the men's room was, but I said, I'll be damned if I let this Congress pass anything that takes away the second Amendment rights of Texans and Americans. And I led the fight just fresh into the Senate and we defeated those bills on the floor of the Senate. I authored the lead alternative to those bills that was a law enforcement alternative that focused on criminals and fugitives and those with serious mental illness and putting them in jail and taking, taking their firearms away and securing schools, all of those. There's a lot we can do to make, make people safer. The Democrats don't want that. They want to disarm you, the law abiding citizen. And one of the most central elements you rightly focused on is a gun registry. And listen, for people who don't follow these issues, a registry can sound innocuous. One of the arguments they like to give is, look, you need a license to Drive a car. You ought to have a license to own a firearm. And just, you know, you gotta register a car. You should register a firearm. Well, the difference is there are not yet a group of political ideologues and zealots that want to confiscate our automobiles. By the way, that may be coming. They want to confiscate our gas stoves. Automobile confiscation may be coming, but we're not there yet. But with firearms, Pritzker wants to take them. Joe Biden wants to take him. Dianne Feinstein wants to take him. Gavin Newsom wants to take him. They want to come in and forcibly remove your firearms. And so the entire purpose of a registry is create a list. Okay? Ben Ferguson has the following firearms. The local law enforcement shows up and says, Mr. Ferguson, hand over every gun on this list. And if you don't hand it up, we're putting you in handcuffs and taking you away. That's why they want a registry. And so there are already elements of current federal law that prohibit, for example, the atf. When you go and buy a gun at a firearms dealer, you own a gun store, so you're a firearms dealer. You got to fill out a background check. And as you know, federal law requires you run that background check, but after it comes back clean, you're required to destroy those records. And the reason federal law requires that is because they don't want a registry. That becomes a list for the gun grabbers to disarm America. That is their objective, and it is. Fortunately, it's unconstitutional. But as the Democrat party has gotten more and more extreme, they're not even bothering to hide their objective, that they want to disarm you. And mind you, at the same time, they want to let out of jail the violent criminals who are committing these acts. I mean, think of the combination. Prevent your ability to defend your home and your kids. But at the same time, these are the people that want to abolish the police and that are supporting George Soros DA's that let violent criminals out of prison who turn around and commit more crimes. You and I live in Houston, Texas. In Houston, we've got cashless bail policies that are releasing murderers who turn around and murder more people. I don't understand. I really do struggle with the reason and logic that says disarm someone who's never committed a crime, who wants a firearm to protect their children, but at the same time, release someone who. Who's already murdered somebody and is likely to murder somebody else. That's not logic. That's emotion, that's rage. That's ideology disconnected from real life. And it is a tiny sliver of America. But what's bizarre is the Democrat Party has handed their policy on these issues over to that tiny sliver of America.
- [40:19]
A
And embraced every bit of it. I say to people all the time, if you think these types of things cannot happen in America or you think that it'll never happen, call anybody you know in Canada right now and ask them what rights they have with guns. Because Trudeau just took them all away because of truck drivers that stood up to the vaccine mandate. It scared the elitists enough in Canada. Those truck drivers banding together. They then said, here's our response to this. Let's get rid of the guns. And they did it successfully there. And that is a reminder of how quickly it can happen. If you're not paying attention. Senator, I want to end on a. On a positive note, and I think we should do this more often when we have victories in the conservative movement. You and I just had dinner recently in D.C. with some of those that were fighting for a lot of the deals that were done to basically have strong, staunch conservatives sit on certain committees. Your former chief of staff, Congressman from Texas, Chip Roy was. Was instrumental in working this deal. We now are seeing the fruits of that fight over the speakership with Kevin McCarthy. And the payoff is massive. Tell people about how good this is.
- [41:31]
B
Well, we're starting to get the announcement of who is on various committees. And one of the things we talked about at great length when the media was freaking out, when Democrats were freaking out, and even some Republicans, particularly those kind of at home that weren't following it closely, were freaking out that the speaker fight was a disaster. It was a disgrace, that it was a catastrophe. Look, it was the Democratic process. We spent four days with the House of Representatives debating who its leader should be and debating more importantly how it should lead. And the consequence, those that stood up and led that fight extracted major concessions. And those concessions are going to change how the House majority is able to govern and able to fight bad policies from Biden and the Democrats over the next two years. And it was a massive victory. If you care about having Republicans actually stand up and fight for what they say they believe, that fight over the speakership was massively important. Now, in the middle of the fight, one of the things that shifted the battle, you know, early on, there were a handful of rebels, and it wasn't clear how many were going to vote against Kevin McCarthy as Speaker. And they had a meeting of the House Republican Conference. And one of McCarthy's lieutenants stood up and threatened the rebels, if you dare vote against him, you'll be stripped of your committees. Now, that's the kind of high handed, haughty authoritarianism that you expect of Nancy Pelosi, but it's not what you should expect of Republican leadership. And I'll tell you, that pissed a lot of members off. And I think it played a big part. We could easily have seen on the first vote, maybe 10 or 12 no votes. Instead, we saw 19 on the first vote. And I think that threat may well have doubled or nearly doubled the number of no votes. Well, turned out that threat wasn't carried through. And we're starting to get who's going to be on the various committees. And one in particular that is quite notable is the House Oversight Committee. And the members of that committee will be Kelly Armstrong from North Dakota, Lauren Boebert from Colorado, Tim Burkett from Tennessee, Eric Burleson from Missouri, Byron Donalds from Florida, Chuck Edwards from North Carolina, Russell Fry from South Carolina, Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia, Paul Gosar from Arizona, Nick Langworthy from New York, Jake Letourneur from Kansas, Gary Palmer from Alabama, Ana Paulina Luna from Florida, Scott Perry From Pennsylvania, Lisa McLean from Michigan, Pete Sessions from Texas, and William Tibbins from South Carolina. Now, what's striking is that a whole bunch of those are rock rib conservatives who were among the rebels, who were among the people that were told, you will be in Siberia, you will get no committees. And they've been put now on the Oversight Committee with the ability to go after the abuse of power from Joe Biden and this administration. That's what we need as principled fighters. I think this is a great, great development. I think we will see more. We will see strong conservatives in significantly greater positions able to leverage their position to fight conservative battles and hopefully win conservative victories for the American people. And I think standing and fighting for issues and principles that matter is also how we win in 24. It's how we win the Senate back. It's how we hold this House and grow our House majority. It's how we win the White House back. And so this is a good illustration, you know, when people said, gosh, why have this fight? And look, when you and I were having dinner in D.C. i pulled out my phone and I read to you texts from Republican donors, some of whom are friends of mine who were irate. Why is this fight happening? And listen, I understand if you're a business guy and you're at home and you turn on the news and they just say chaos and, and chaos and madness with the House Republicans. You're kind of annoyed and you're kind of embarrassed if you don't understand why that fight is happening. And I think we're seeing the very real and tangible results of standing and fighting. If you want conservative leadership, you've got to stand up and have a conservative conference that demands it. And this is a big step forward.
- [46:03]
A
Look, I just have to say, sitting at the dinner that night, and this was me looking from the outside, it was fun to see you and I think how proud you were of someone that you know well, Chip Roy, and the way that he was able to orchestrate that deal and communicate with the speaker and to make sure that these principals had another day to fight and live and have people on these committees. It was just cool to see the, as I put it, the good guys win here. And when we have these moments, we should celebrate them and remind people that this is why we fight so hard. This is why you fight so hard. This is why you do the bus tour in a year when you're not up for reelection and you try to get principled conservatives into Congress. And these are those moments that we should enjoy and take a moment and say it was worth it. And to the donors, it's worth it. And to finding tough, strong principal conservatives and running them and backing them, it's worth it. And it paid off big. And I just think it's a big moment that we should all enjoy. Fully agree, Senator, I appreciate it. As always, it's fun for everybody watching and listening. Don't forget we do this show three times a week. Two times, it's audio only. One day a week it's audio and video that we put out. So make sure you hit that subscribe or download button. If you've never listened to an audio podcast before, make sure you just download it. You can use your Apple phone, you can use iHeartRadio app, Spotify, you can tell Lex or Siri play Ted Cruz or play Verdict with Ted Cruz. It will do it for you automatically. Make sure you rise to five star review and share this podcast with your family and friends and we'll see you back here in a couple of days.