← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
CBS Cans Journalist Following Biden Crime Family, Behind the Death of Alexei Navalny, & the Headlines Turn on Joe Biden Week In Review
00:38:01
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- [00:02]
Ted Cruz
Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz. We can review live from Austin, Ben Ferguson with you. And these are the stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week. First up, Kathryn Heritage was let go from NBC News. And the most shocking part is apparently her notes were seized by the network. What was behind that shocking decision? Oh, also, what's going on in Russia? And will there be recountability for Vladimir Putin for killing his top political opponent? We're going to break that down for you. And finally, the media turning on Joe Biden this week in the headlines that we never thought they would ever write. So will this continue or is this just going to be a bad week for Biden? That will go back to the media praising him. It's the week in review and it starts right now. There's also another shocking story and I want to make sure we spend some time on this. Many people may know the name Katherine Herod. She is a phenomenal reporter. She was at Fox for a long time. She then moved to CBS News. She did an incredible reporting on on tough issues and stories, including what's been happening with the Biden crime family. She was let go, slash fired, whatever you want to call it, laid off with some other people as CBS is having financial and downsizing. But it was shocking that she was let go in that because she's basically that one of their best and only tough investigative reporters, certainly in Washington, D.C. now we have found out that CBS News went full communists after, quote, seizing her journalistic files. That is not what's supposed to happen in America in journalism. And yet now we're finding out not only they get rid of her, but the question is what would she, what, what did she have? What was she about to report on? I would say this center, I know you love her reporting. I think we should try to get her on Verdict because I would love to hear what she has to say about everything she uncovered that maybe she hasn't been able to tell us yet.
- [02:12]
Ben Ferguson
So I agree with you that we should have Kathryn Herridge as a guest on Verdict. We're going to try to make that happen. And I will say, look, in many ways, Katherine Herage is a unicorn because the corporate media is so utterly corrupt that they do not report on news that is inconvenient to the regime. And Catherine Herridge was a rebel in that. She actually reported on things the Biden White House didn't like. And so CBS was engaged in layoffs. And I get, look, the media are a bunch of dishonest, lying hacks. I understand that they're firing people because people don't want to purchase their goods anymore because it is useless. They are no longer journalists. They're liars. That being said, if you're laying off people, somebody and some corporate suit in a corner office made a decision. Who do we want to lay off? Let's lay off the person who actually is criticizing the White House. And so Kathryn Herridge, they laid off. That was shocking in and of itself because she is such a unicorn. But then the news broke this week that not only did they layer off, but CBS officials took the unusual step of seizing her files, her computers, her records, including her information on privileged sources. And that, I've got to say.
- [03:40]
Ted Cruz
So explain people privileged sources so people understand why that's such a shocking, in my opinion, abuse of power by cbs.
- [03:49]
Ben Ferguson
Well, listen, reporters have sources that give formation and under promises of confidentiality. And those promises are that their name will be held secret. They will not be outed, and that's that. That is right at the heart the essence of journalism, of free press. Well, cbs, the corporate suits have said, we want to know who your sources are. And the problem is that nobody rational with their head not inserted in a bodily orifice, believes that the corporate suits want that for any reason other than bad purposes. Look, I'm going to read from an article in the Hill. So in the Hill, this is something written by Jonathan Turley, who has been really terrific on a lot of these issues. But here's what he wrote. Quote. I have spoken confidentially with current and former CBS employees who have stated that they could not recall the company ever taking such a step before. One former CBS journalist said that many employees, quote, are confused why Herridge was laid off as one of the correspondents who broke news regularly and did a lot of original reporting. This has led to concerns about the source of the pressure. He added that there he has never seen a seizure of records from a departing journalist and that the move has sent a chilling signal to the ranks of cbs. And that is deeply, deeply disturbing. By the way, there have been reports that when Kathryn Herridge published stories that were critical of the. Of the Biden White House that CBS executives pushed back, including someone, CBS News President Ingrid Cyprian Matthews, who. Who? I don't know, but good God, her name sounds like something out of a science fiction movie about some overlord in the star chamber who wants to silence all dissent. Ingrid Cyprian Matthews. Let's fire the reporter that dares report anything of substance because we are propagandists. And I got to say, there was a time when CBS actually had a reputation as being real journalists. How many. Walter Cronkite is rolling over in his grave at what has happened to CBS today.
- [06:39]
Ted Cruz
There's. I want to just talk about the quality of Catherine's reporting for a moment. There are reporters that you don't talk to, there's reporters that I don't talk to. You see them, you roll their eyes, you deal with it a lot more than I do. There's certain reporters on Capitol Hill, you're like, really?
- [06:54]
Ben Ferguson
You.
- [06:54]
Ted Cruz
Again, give me a break. Because you know, they're hacks. When you, when you saw Catherine and others, like, there seemed to be mutual respect from both sides because she wasn't partisan, she just was a truth teller in investigative journalism. It's something that we've lost in this country. And that's what ultimately I think made her lose her job at cbs.
- [07:19]
Ben Ferguson
Look, sadly, what Catherine Herridge does used to be the norm in journalism. Yeah, you would have journalists who would actually investigate stories. They would follow the facts, they would report on the substance. That used to be how the entire enterprise worked. Now, and I really think this is post Trump, Trump broke the corporate media, they hate him so much that they've abandoned any effort at truth telling, any effort at reporting facts, any effort at being even handed, any effort at reporting both sides. Instead, look, if you go back a decade ago, if you go back to 2014, 2015, you would have people at CBS, you'd have people at CNN, MSNBC, even MSNBC that would claim they're trying to be journalists and report both sides. What has changed is Trump convinced a lot of the so called journalists and all of the corporate brass that reporting fairly was no longer acceptable. That Trump was the devil. And because he was the devil, their mission was no longer present both sides. Their mission, and this is the way they framed it, was to save democracy. And what they mean by save democracy is elect left wing Democrats in every election no matter what. Which means never, ever, ever report on anything harmful to left wing Democrats and only be propagandists for the left wing of the party. Now listen, I don't like the New York Times. I think they're a bunch of frigging communists. I don't particularly like the Washington Post. I don't like much of the media, but bizarrely, Ben, I think they're valuable. How many years were you an employee of CNN?
- [09:26]
Ted Cruz
7 years in hell is how long I was there fighting the good fight.
- [09:30]
Ben Ferguson
Okay, but compare cnn. All right? You're A former employee. You were an employee there from when to when?
- [09:36]
Ted Cruz
Gosh, it was, I mean, go back what, two years ago and then, and then add seven onto there. So in the middle of that, right before Trump was elected, when, when it wasn't that bad, I was there for, I guess, about two years before the 16 election when Trump was elected, and then the wheels came off.
- [09:53]
Ben Ferguson
So give your perspective because you were a paid employee of CNN. Give your perspective of CNN before 2016 in the Trump election and after. Because look, what I'm describing is real. But, but, but you experienced it from the inside.
- [10:10]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, when, when I first got hired, it was funny. When I got hired by cnn, the, the, the call came in and they said, look, we want real and genuine conservatives on the air. I got hired, I think it was on the same day with Newt Gingrich. And they said, we want to have a robust debate. And it was. And, and that's exactly what it started out as. And even when they were covering Donald Trump in 16, remember, CNN would go wall to wall with him, campaign event after campaign event, and it was huge. Yeah, it was huge for their ratings. You remember you were running against him. It was like CNN was giving. It was almost like the Trump News Network during the primary. And then once he got the nomination and then once he actually looked like he might have a chance of winning, they started to turn a little bit. It wasn't until the night. And I was, I was at CNN that night all night long at election night. And you could see the shock and the anger because everyone there, from the highest up, people, they assumed Hillary was gonna, assumed Hillary was gonna win. So this was basically just great TV drama until he won. And then when he won, they basically. And once he started saying they were fake news and he was in there going after them as the president and going after them in the, in the White House press briefing room and allowing Sarah Huckabee Sanders and others to fight back. They couldn't take it out on Trump enough, so they started taking it out on the commentators that were left. I was one of the last, I think, real conservatives left at cnn. I actually begged them to not resign me at the end. They had a right to sign and a right to match, and they did it anyway. And in my last year, they signed me to silence me. I don't think I've ever talked about this publicly, actually, in my last year. I asked them not to, and they said, no, we're gonna resign you. And I had another offer. And they were, they were going to match. And, and that was it. I can say this and you'll laugh. I will go down history as being the highest paid CNN contributor in history if you count it per appearance. Because in the last year of my contract when they extended it, they signed me to bench me just to say they had a pro Trump commentator on the payroll. And I did a total of two appearances in 12 months under contract. Yes, two appearances. Yes, that's. I, I've never really talked about this publicly. So they resigned me and I said please don't and they did it anyway and I, they didn't have me on for like three and a half, four months.
- [12:45]
Ben Ferguson
All right, Ben, I don't want to out your personal finances, but I kind of do. How much does CNN pay someone? I mean, look, if you don't want to answer that, don't answer that. But I'm kind of curious.
- [12:55]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, it all depends on if your posting, what your past resume was, how long you've been there. And so I made, I mean low six figures when I was there. My first hundred grand.
- [13:08]
Ben Ferguson
100.
- [13:09]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, I think is what it was.
- [13:12]
Ben Ferguson
And you did two appearances in a year?
- [13:15]
Ted Cruz
In a year. In a year.
- [13:16]
Ben Ferguson
So they paid you 50 friggin thousand dollars per appearance?
- [13:19]
Ted Cruz
I, I little more than that. That's why I said I go down in history is the highest paid CNN contributor in history per appearance. But they, they benched me and the Hollywood Reporter noticed that there was like two or three of us that were pro Trump and we vanished from the screen. Because a normal week when I was there in the first, you know, six years, I would probably average four to six appearances a week. Some weeks would be 11, 12, 13 during the political campaigns. I did so many appearances in my first contract, I'm doing some quick math.
- [13:53]
Ben Ferguson
Let's say five appearances a week, 52 weeks, that's over 250 appearances. A, that's, that's what you used to be. And you went from 250 appearances a.
- [14:02]
Ted Cruz
Year to two to two in my last year. Two. And it was only I did one appearance where they tried to, I think it was actually to try to get rid of me. They had me come on to defend Rush Limbaugh and they tried to turn me into a racist bigot. That was defending Rush Limbaugh that was anti gay and I didn't take the bait and I was, you could see I was very angry when I was on TV because I knew what they were trying to do and it didn't work and I didn't take the bait and I fought back. And then there was a bunch of articles from, you know, scumbags the media were trying to imply that I said something I didn't say. And then Hollywood Reporter noticed that the pro Trump surrogates, in essence, these conservatives at cnn, were, had vanished from the air and they wrote an article.
- [14:50]
Ben Ferguson
So I say this seriously and look, I don't watch cnn, so but I can't recall a single pro Trump surrogate in years they've had. Yeah, I can tell you, I used to do cnn. I didn't do it five times a week because they paid me zero. And in my entire life I've been paid zero by cnn. And you know, I feel it was a fair trade. But I used to do CNN once a week consistently. I haven't done them in years. Years, because they're not interested in a fair discussion. They are propaganda and they're not even Democrat propagandists. They are the left wing of the Democrat Party. And it's not just cnn. Why did CBS seize Kathryn Herridge's confidential source notes? That is extremely unusual, but it is a manifestation of the complete corruption of the corporate media.
- [15:55]
Ted Cruz
Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week. Now on to story number two. Let's talk about what's happening also with this adversary to Vladimir Putin and give a little context here so people understand. The Russian regime has been trying to, to murder Alexei for now, years. You go back to Joe Biden and he even went on the Record in Geneva, Switzerland back on June 16th of 2021, saying that there would be major consequences if he died in captivity by the, by the Russians, by Putin. I want to play this from June 16, 2021. Mr. President, just a quick follow on the same theme of consequences. You said just now that you spoke to him a lot about human rights. What do you say would happen if opposition later, Alexei Navalny dies?
- [16:51]
Joe Biden
I made it clear to him that I believe the consequences of that would be devastating for Russia. I'll go back to the same point. What do you think happens when he's saying it's not about hurting Navalny, does he? All the stuff he says to rationalize the treatment of Navalny and then he dies in prison. I pointed out to him that it matters a great deal.
- [17:19]
Ted Cruz
I mean, Senator, that was 2021. What changed?
- [17:25]
Ben Ferguson
Well, actually, nothing changed. And I'm going to explain in a minute that he didn't believe what he was saying then. But, but before I explained that. Let's play what Biden is saying now, because even he is admitting today that what he said then was full of crap. Listen to what he's saying right now.
- [17:42]
Joe Biden
Now's the time for even greater unity among our NATO allies to stand up to the threat that Putin's Russia poses. You know, I send my deepest condolences, Alexei's staff and supporters who are going to continue his work despite this loss, despite all of Putin's desperate attempts to stamp out the opposition, and most of all, to his family, especially to his wife, his daughter, and his son, who already sacrificed so much for their family and a shared dream for a better future for Russia.
- [18:11]
Ted Cruz
Now, that was him making his first statement at the White House. But then the media asked him that question. Hey, what happened to what you said three years ago? First, was this an assassination?
- [18:26]
Joe Biden
The answer is, we don't know exactly. But there is no doubt that the death of Navalny was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.
- [18:38]
Ted Cruz
And to be clear, you warned Vladimir Putin when you were in Geneva of devastating consequences. If Navalny died in Russian custody, what consequences should he and Russia face?
- [18:50]
Joe Biden
That was three years ago. In the meantime, they faced a hell of a lot of consequences. They've lost and or had wounded over 350,000 Russian soldiers.
- [19:00]
Ted Cruz
I mean, Senator, he doesn't answer the questions. He says that was three years ago. And now because the war with Ukraine. Well, they've had some, somehow, some consequences that have nothing to do with killing this individual.
- [19:12]
Ben Ferguson
Well, he did answer the question, actually, and his answer is nothing. That he's so weak, that he's so ineffective that he's not going to do anything. And Putin knows that. Everybody else knows that. Navalny knew that. So last week, when. When. When the news of Navalny's death broke, here's the statement that I put out. Quote, the Russian regime has been trying to murder Alexei Navalny for years to stop his criticism of Vladimir Putin's corruption and ontocracy and to intimidate the Russian people from similar criminal criticism. Tragically, they appear to have finally succeeded in murdering him. We must ensure that they will never succeed in silencing him. The regime interprets weakness from the United States as appeasement and has only escalated its oppression in recent years. The Russian people are entitled to express their views peacefully, without fear of retribution. And I will work with my colleagues to hold accountable those in the Russian regime responsible for this atrocity. So that's what I put out. But I want to go back, because I said that, that Biden didn't mean the tough consequences when he said that. How do I know that? Because if you go back to 2021, you go back to the beginning of the Biden administration where Vladimir Putin poisoned Alexei Naval, actually poisoned him in August of 2020. And he was poisoned with a Novichok class nerve agent, which is the same class that was used by Russia in the 2018 assassination attempt against a former British intelligence agency. It's a strategy of murder that the Russians are fond of poisoning. And at the time Biden announced really mild sanctions on Russia, said, okay, we're going to slap your hand. And what I called for at the time was sanctioning and shutting down the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Now remember, Nord Stream 2 pipeline was a pipeline that Putin was building that went straight from Russia to Germany. It circumvented Ukraine. The entire point of The Nord Stream 2 pipeline was to enable Russia to get its natural gas to Europe without needing to go through the pipelines in Ukraine. Why did Putin want the Nord Stream 2 pipeline? So he could invade Ukraine? I authored the sanctions that shut Nord Stream 2 down. I passed them into law in December of 2019. Got overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate, got overwhelming bipartisan support in the House. Donald Trump signed my sanctions legislation into law. And listen to this. Putin stopped building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Literally the day, the very same day that Donald Trump signed my sanctions legislation, the pipeline was done. That was December of 2019. December of 2020, I passed another set of sanctions legislation on Nord Stream 2, again with overwhelming bipartisan support. Again, Donald Trump signed it to law. The pipeline remained dead. Now, Fast forward to January 2021. On January 20, Joe Biden takes the oath of office. He becomes president four days later. 4. January 24, 2021, Putin resumes deep sea construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Literally four days into the Biden presidency. Why? Because Biden was already showing weakness. Putin understood Biden was weak. And by the way, that foreshadowing of weakness was true. It was accurate. Why do we know that? Because several months later, Biden formally waived the sanctions on Nord Stream 2. He gave Vladimir Putin a multi billion dollar gift. He let him complete that pipeline and that pipeline. Waving those sanctions is why Putin invaded Ukraine. It is Biden's fault. But when Navalny, when Putin went after Navalny, I called on Biden, I said, all right, you gave Biden this gift of Nordstrom 2. How about now, when Navalny's in jail? How about now? Impose the sanctions on Nord Stream 2. How about now grow a backbone and stand up to Putin. And Biden refused to do so. Instead put little slap of the wrist sanctions on it. And so when he said severe consequences, he didn't mean it in 2021. And, and, and he's admitted it now. The consequences he has in mind are nothing. And you know what? Putin will continue to behave worse, will continue to be more oppressive, will continue to, to, to be more of a threat. China Xi will continue to behave worse, to be more oppressive, to be more of a threat. North Korea will, Venezuela will, Iran will every enemy of America, Hamas will, Hezbollah will all of them. When we have a weak commander in chief? America is at greater peril and every one of our allies is at greater peril.
- [24:25]
Ted Cruz
Senator, final question for you on sanctions. What is the point of having sanctions? And you mentioned multiple countries there that we have sanctions on, that we're not doing anything, we're not enforcing the sanctions. And if the President and his administration will not enforce the sanctions, is there any checks and balances that can come into play on the House, the Senate, Congressional oversight? Because if you've got the sanctions and they're worthless because you don't enforce them, who does that fall on? And can it change?
- [24:56]
Ben Ferguson
Well, it certainly can change and Congress can force the President to do it. And the best example of that. Let's go back to Nord Stream 2 and I'll finish the story. When Biden waived the sanctions, my response is I put a hold on every single nominee at the State Department. I blocked them in the Senate, and it caused the Biden administration to go nuts. It caused Senate Democrats to go nuts. And I said, listen, Joe Biden is, is handing a massive gift to Vladimir Putin. He is causing war in Europe. He is causing Russia to prepare to invade Ukraine. This makes no sense. And it is endangering Europe, our allies, and it's endangering America for all of 2021. I had those holds in place in December of 2021. I cut a deal with Chuck Schumer. I let, I think it was 34 of those holds go in exchange for scheduling a vote on new sanctions on Nord Stream 2 in January of 2022. Schumer agreed. So I forced the vote on the Senate floor. Now, when the vote came up In January of 2022, the week before the vote, President Zelensky in Ukraine publicly begged the United States Senate, please, please, please pass Cruz's sanctions legislation. This legislation is the last best hope to stop Russia from invading Ukraine to avoid war. That same week, the government of Poland put out a formal statement pleading with the United States Senate to pass my sanctions legislation. Poland said, if you do not do so, Russia will invade Ukraine. Now, Ben, that is highly unusual. Foreign countries generally do not put out statements on particular votes in the Senate asking the Senate to do something. In this case, both Ukraine and Poland put out those statements. The day of the vote, Joe Biden came 16 blocks from the White House down to Capitol Hill, and he went to the Democratic Senate lunch. He personally lobbied the Democrat senators. This was the first time he had done so since he became president. And he came there to lobby them. His request was, please, please, please vote against Cruz's sanctions legislation. Please vote for Russia and Putin. So twice when I had introduced my legislation and passed it to law, all the Democrats had come together and supported it. So they were on record twice supporting my, my sanctions. In January 2022, because of Biden's personal lobbying, 44 Democrat senators flipped their votes. They voted against sanctions. They voted in favor of Russia, they voted in favor of Putin. And as a result, a month later, Russia invaded Ukraine. And we have still today the biggest war in Europe since World War II. Look, I'm someone who hates war. Yeah, I am very reluctant to go to war, but I agree with Ronald Reagan, I agree with Winston Churchill, I agree with Donald Trump in the philosophy of peace through strength, that the best way you avoid war is being strong enough. Your enemies don't want to mess with you. And sanctions can be a very powerful tool for avoiding war. What the Biden White House is all about when it comes to our enemies is weakness and appeasement. And waiving these sanctions directly caused the war. Once the pipeline was complete, Putin's view was he could invade because he could still get his gas to Europe, even if the pipelines in Ukraine were destroyed as before.
- [28:54]
Ted Cruz
If you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing. I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed, Senator. I want to move lastly to this other issue, and that is, it is weird. The media seems to be turning on Joe Biden headlines now coming from major news organizations. The Washington Post, for example, had this headline, what happens if Trump or Biden can no longer run for President? Obviously, they're trying to act like Donald Trump is in cognitive decline. It's not happening. And we know it's different with Joe Biden. The New York Times even said this. How old is too old to Be president. An uncomfortable question arises again. And now the New York Times taking heat for that headline. I want to get your reaction to this moment on FOX News Channel as they describe this turning on the president on this story.
- [29:55]
Fox News Anchor
Thanks for being here this afternoon with us, everybody. Interesting. When you take a look at a theme that seems to be emerging in the coverage of this campaign, this presidential race, right. Check out some of these recent headlines. Quote, what we know about cognitive decline, quote, what happens if Trump or Biden can no longer run for president? How old is too old to be president? These are not your typical election year headlines, but this is clearly not a typical election year matchup if it turns out to be these two presumed nominees. So the publisher of the New York Times is standing by his papers reporting on the president's, quote, unpopularity and his age, but says that the White House is not happy. In fact, he says they're extremely upset about the coverage that they're getting at the New York Times. And take a listen to this exchange. Just a short time ago, as President Biden left for a fundraising trip to California, watch starting California 2024.
- [31:01]
Ben Ferguson
Does Gavin need to stand by?
- [31:03]
Joe Biden
Are you ready?
- [31:04]
Ben Ferguson
Yes, sir.
- [31:05]
Joe Biden
Well, I'm looking for, I'm looking, looking at you. We're looking at you.
- [31:08]
Fox News Anchor
Okay with that?
- [31:09]
Ted Cruz
We bring in our, I mean, he didn't even know what they were talking about, Senator. And you can see the media flipping on him. Is this the beginning of the end of his presidency with the Democratic Party figuring out how to offload him?
- [31:23]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, look, that was weird, that exchange at the end, being asked, are you going to California for a plan B to talk to Gavin Newsom? Look, that was a nasty little question. But, but his answer was bizarre. It was a non sequitur. It made no sense. And you know those three headlines that you, that, that the Fox story just read? The first one was from the Wall Street Journal. The second one was from the Washington Post. The third one was, was from the New York Times. And, and, and I do think we are seeing the corporate media starting to turn on Joe Biden. And we've talked at length. Listen, it was this podcast that drove news and, and drove news across the country. When we said months ago that I believe there was a very significant chance the Democrat Party would pull the cord on Joe Biden, yank him out and replace him with Michelle Obama. And I think if they do that, they're likely to do it either at the Democrat convention this summer or shortly thereafter. And we're seeing the corporate media, which is one in the same with the Democrat Party, but in many ways, they're the left wing of the Democrat Party. They're starting to get nervous. They're starting to realize, crap, if it's Biden against Trump, we think Trump's gonna win. And so they're hitting the panic button. And I think we're gonna see more of these stories as the media turns on em. I do think you're seeing both Democrats and the media getting very, very worried about Joe Biden's ability to win in November.
- [32:50]
Ted Cruz
When you are running for president, you've done this before and you see something this significant of a change in the news cycle. Joe Biden has had three years of basically a media that's been covering for him. I think that's why he was so shocked when he had that the report that came out about his cognitive decline and couldn't answer basic questions. And then he came out with that very angry, really dysfunctional press conference at night. And the media didn't get back in line since then. So when you see this, who is moving the needle? Is it donors who are saying, we're not going to give money anymore, or is it the leadership of the Democratic Party saying, we got to figure something out, we got to figure it out fast? Or could it even be both?
- [33:35]
Ben Ferguson
So I don't think it's donors and I don't think it's anyone cutting off money. And understand the Democrats and the media would be perfectly happy if they could wave a wand and put Joe Biden there four years more. They're not worried that he's incompetent to be president. They're not worried that the Department of Justice says he's not competent to stand trial. They're not worried that he's such a weak commander in chief that our enemies are attacking our allies and threatening America. They're not worried that he lacks the competence to do the job. There's only one thing they're worried about, that he would lose. If they believed he would win, they'd be perfectly fine to weekend at Bernie's him to stand him up as a corpse and say, Joe Biden's there and let's keep pulling the puppet strings. Their concern is they're worried he's going to lose. And that is a very real and acute concern on their part. It's also worth noting you were talking about the press turning on him. You know, there's a real difference between Republicans and Democrats. Look, on my end, the press has always turned on me. They're always hostile. Every question they're asking, they're looking to screw me nine ways to Sunday. That, that's just when, when you're. And by the way. And you've been in the Capitol with me, Ben, as you know, when I walk from my office to the Senate floor and I do so repeatedly, whether it is to vote or to go to meetings or to go to committee hearings, I'm walking back and forth through the Capitol, and there's a cluster of reporters that surround you, and they ask you hostile question after hostile question on every topic under the sun. And if you're a Republican, especially conservative Republican, you're used to just getting constant barrages of attacks. The Democrats don't get that. They get the kind of questions. Remember Joe Biden in his first year in the White House? The reporters would ask him things like, Mr. President, what's your favorite flavor of ice cream? I mean, that was right.
- [35:31]
Ted Cruz
What are you eating, Mr. President? I mean, it's, it's embarrassing.
- [35:35]
Ben Ferguson
It's, it's, they're like groupies chasing the Beatles, throwing their panties at him. And that's just the guys. I mean, I mean, it is, it's pitiful. And, and, and so he is really startled because he's not used to any scrutiny. He's not used to journalists actually being journalists. By the way, there is this phenomenon for Republicans as well. If you remember John McCain. John McCain used to get lots of adoring press coverage because when he was a Republican senator, he would often attack other Republicans and the press, and he would attack him from the left. And the press loves it when a Republican attacks other Republicans from the left. It's the best way to get good press. You get called a bipartisan statesman when you agree with the Democrats and attack your fellow Republicans. Well, when John McCain got the Republican nomination, and you and I Both supported John McCain once, he was our nominee.
- [36:30]
Ted Cruz
Yeah.
- [36:31]
Ben Ferguson
But the press turned on him and turned viciously on him. If you remember, McCain made a comment something like, I don't understand. I thought you guys were my base. And he was completely startled because that. It's the same sentiment Biden's having when you're used to just getting your hindquarters kissed by the media. When they start biting, you don't know how to handle it.
- [36:56]
Ted Cruz
And one of two things is going to happen when it comes to this Senator. They're either going to get back in line after trying to, you know, step out and see will others follow us. Right. And test the waters, or they're going to keep going. What's your prediction?
- [37:11]
Ben Ferguson
Well, if he stays the nominee they'll get back in line and they'll immediately begin saying it's ageist and racist and horrible to even ask these questions and they have no shame. So this is the moment where they're trying to see if they can push him out and replace him with Michelle Obama. If they can't, if he doesn't go, if we get to September and Biden's the nominee, the media will suddenly be completely silent on this front and will attack anyone who dares raise the same questions they're raising right now.
- [37:42]
Ted Cruz
As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day you're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards. I'd love to have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson Podcast and we will see you back here on Monday morning.