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- [00:00]
Michael Knowles
My co host has taken on some tough political opponents in his career. Fierce, tough political battles against Barack Obama, against America's geopolitical foes, against establishmentarians in his own party. And now he finds himself fighting against one of the biggest opponents yet. Big Bird. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.
- [00:34]
Liz Wheeler
Verdict with Ted Cruz is sponsored by amac, the association of Mature American Citizens. Did you know there's a conservative advocacy and benefits organization with more than 2 million members and counting? It's called AMAC, the Association of Mature American Citizens. AMAC has become one of the most impactful conservative organizations in America. Joining AMAC gives you access to money saving benefits, cutting edge news, and a magazine full of insightful takes on today's most important issues. But most importantly, AMAC is working tirelessly to preserve the freedom secured by our Constitution. With a full time presence on Capitol Hill, AMAC is pushing back against the efforts to defund our police, weaken our borders, and replace your freedom with government controls. Stand with me and over 2 million patriots by joining right now and at AMAC US Cactus. That's AMAC US Cactus. The benefits are great, but the cause is greater. Join today at AMAC US Cactus. That's a M A C US Cactus if you're looking for ways to skip the trip to the post office and dodge all that hectic holiday shopping traffic, why not save time and money with stamps.com? stamps.com lets you compare rates, print labels and access exclusive discounts on UPS and USPS services all year long. Here at Soundfront we use stamps.com to send you merch like that sweet cactus hat to do business on the road and to save time and money. It just makes sense, especially if your business sends more mail and packages during the holidays. Whether you're selling online or running an office or a side hustle, stamps.com can save you so much time, money and stress during the holidays and get discounts on post office and UPS shipping services without making the trip discounts you can't find anywhere else. Like up to 40% off USPS rates and 76% off UPS. Going to the post office instead of using stamps.com is kind of like taking the stairs instead of the elevator. If you spend more than a few minutes a week dealing with mail and shipping, stamps.com is a lifesaver. Save time and money this holiday season with stamps.com sign up with promo code Verdict for a special offer that includes a four week trial, free postage and a digital scale. No long term commitments or contracts, just go to stamps.com, click the microphone at the top of the page and enter code verdict.
- [03:05]
Michael Knowles
Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz. I am Michael Knowles. Senator, I saw you trending on Twitter today. I say, what has Senator Cruz done now? And I kid you not. The description says Senator Cruz gets into a fight with Big Bird. What is happening?
- [03:23]
Ted Cruz
Well, I guess it's a sign that I had too much time on my hands yesterday afternoon. But it's important to take on the Muppets that are destroying America. And there are furry puppets being controlled, being controlled by dark, ominous forces that are really a danger to our liberty.
- [03:45]
Michael Knowles
Well, you know, we might sound like we're joking about this, but there actually are furry puppets being controlled by dark, ominous forces.
- [03:54]
Ted Cruz
And we're not talking about Dr. Fauci.
- [03:57]
Michael Knowles
We're not. That's a totally. We would never say that about the good doctor, applicable though it may be. The Muppets are actually being used as a mouthpiece right now to persuade children to get the vaccine. We're talking about kids between the ages of 5 and 11 to go get the COVID vaccine.
- [04:17]
Ted Cruz
Well, look, that's exactly right. And when it comes to vaccine, it ought to be your choice. You ought to be the one making that decision. And what we're seeing from Joe Biden, what we're seeing from a lot of big businesses, what we're seeing from sports leagues, is they want to use government funds, force, to force you to comply. And when it comes to kids, I think that's really pernicious. So a couple of days ago, Big Bird tweeted out, I just got the COVID vaccine and boy, does my wing hurt. And it's a tweet sent out directed at kids. And listen, on one level, it's Big Bird. And so I responded on my phone and I just said, government propaganda directed at your 5 year old. And I gotta say, Michael, it's an amazing thing. Liberals, I think are genuinely like mentally ill. An open border, 2 million people crossing illegally, they don't care. A disastrous retreat from Afghanistan. Surrender, giving $80 billion in military equipment to the Taliban, they don't care. Skyrocketing inflation, they don't care. All the disasters that are happening, none of them matter. But you mess with big Bir. Holy crap, they lost it. I mean, we're seeing lefties. I just initially intended a smart ass tweet. I was driving along and saw it and just thought it was kind of dumb. And then the reaction of the left. This has been on ABC News, on NBC News, on cbs, the Washington Post, like the entire Corrupt corporate media is surrounding Big Bird. They're protecting the big fella. And you also apparently had tweets coming out from Elmo. You had tweets coming out from Oscar the Grouch. Now pause for a second. Would you really take vaccination advice from somebody who lives in a trash can? I mean, that's just not a safe place to get needles. And you gotta wonder about that.
- [06:18]
Michael Knowles
It does not seem conducive to public health.
- [06:20]
Ted Cruz
It most assuredly is not. And the entire thing is driven by, I don't get the left that wants to control you and force you to take the vaccine. If you want to take the vaccine, make a decision and take it. If you don't want to take it, don't take it. And with your kids, if you decide you want your kids to get the vaccine, that's your right. You ought to be able to make that decision. But you also ought to be able to make the decision with your 5 year old that, gosh, maybe this isn't the right decision for a five year old. The cost benefit analysis, the risk for a child of getting seriously ill from COVID is very, very low. The risks of unknown side effects from a new and experimental vaccine, we don't know what those are. I think parents can make that determination. And it is bizarre to see the democratic complex saying you don't have a right to make your choices. You don't have a right to make choices for your kids.
- [07:23]
Michael Knowles
Well, it's that last part that I think is what's so pernicious about this Muppet assault, you know, propaganda assaul for the COVID vaccine. Because 99% plus of the viewers of Sesame street are children. And maybe you've got a parent watching too or walking into the room or something, but this was not a message going out saying, hey parents, you really should vaccinate your kids. And here are the reasons why this was going over the heads of parents going directly to the kids. That seems really ugly. It seems disordered. And I know that beyond the cartoons and the puppets, you're actually bringing this fight to Capitol Hill to try to put some teeth in it to stop these mandates for 5 and 6 year olds to get the fauci Ouchie.
- [08:09]
Ted Cruz
No, that's exactly right. So I filed legislation, I filed legislation banning vaccine mandates at work. I filed legislation banning vaccine passports. I filed legislation just this past week. I filed legislation focused on kids to prevent any level of government, federal government, state government, local government, school boards, from requiring kids to get the COVID vaccine. It should not be a requirement. Look, we're seeing places like California where they're forcing school kids. Whether you want it or not, you've got to give this vaccine to your kids. I don't think that's right. I think we ought to empower parents. And I'll tell you, the arrogance of the left, look, when it comes to parents. We saw that play out in Virginia where the same people who are saying, we, the government, are going to force your kids to obey. Whatever you think. It's what Terry McAuliffe said. Parents have no business telling schools what to teach their kids. These same people think parents have no business making health care decisions for their kids. I got to say, that's nuts. I believe in parents and trust parents. You know, I will say one of the people who got mad at me about this was Seth MacFarlane, you know, the comedian who's Family Guy. Family Guy, and he's funny as all get out. And he sent a tweet saying that Big Bird is smarter than Cruz and so's Elmo and the Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch and Animal, and he listed a whole bunch of others. And, you know, I had to respond. And I said, look, last I checked, every one of those you listed are puppets, usually with someone's hand stuck up their rear end. And I said, listen, you're a really funny guy, and I'm sad to see you shilling for authoritarian tyrants who wanna force kids to obey and take away healthcare choices from parents. I think that's not right, of course.
- [10:07]
Michael Knowles
And, you know, comedians used to speak truth to power. Now they just push the regular narrative. But, you know, the Virginia of it all as what's interesting to me, because the Democrats just got a shellacking. You would imagine they got the message that this issue of education, parents having a right in how their kids are raised, that's really gonna resonate even in a blue state like Virginia. So do you think there's any chance that you could get some Democrats in the Senate or in the House to come along, come over and say, you know, no mandates for kids? Or is the party line so strictly enforced that doesn't matter what happens in Virginia? They can't back down from it?
- [10:45]
Ted Cruz
Look, I think the party line is so strict, they're terrified. You know, we had a vote on vaccine mandates on the Senate floor where we voted to stop government funding for vaccine mandates for your job, that you shouldn't be fired if you decline to get a vaccine. And every Democrat voted no. I mean, it was A complete party line vote. It's where their party is. They believe in government power and they don't think you have individual rights, they don't think you have individual liberty. And I gotta say, Michael, it's striking. As I travel the country, I'm hearing from people in all sorts of walks of life. I'm hearing from doctors and nurses because they're firing thousands upon thousands of doctors and nurses because they're declining to get the COVID vaccine for various reasons. I'm hearing from airline pilots and air traffic control controllers. You know, we're seeing, every week, it seems, there's a new story about thousands of flights being canceled. Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, United, one after the other, cancellation after cancellation. And the corporate media is desperate to say it has nothing, nothing, nothing. I mean, they freak out. Absolutely nothing to do with the vaccine mandates. I'll tell you. I'm talking with the pilots unions. I was the chairman, I'm now the ranking member on the Aviation subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee. So I talked to aviation people a lot because I'm the lead Republican on all aviation issues. I'm talking to the pilots unions, I'm talking to the air traffic controllers unions. I can tell you there are a whole bunch of them who are really upset about these mandates. And what I'm hearing is that we're seeing sick outs and walkouts. Now the unions don't want to acknowledge that publicly, cuz there are negative legal repercussions that come from doing that. But I think that's what's happening. And the media is desperate to have nobody acknowledge it. And you know, I gotta say, this weekend I was up in Chicago and I was speaking at an event that was called Freedom fest. There's about 7, 800 people there and was talking to them. So I flew up there. Now as I flew up there, this happens almost every time I fly now where people stop me. Airline pilots, flight attendants, mechanics on airplanes, they come up to me, they grab me by the shoulder, they say, ted, thank you, keep fighting. It has gotten to the point now I almost can't get on an airplane without somebody coming up and saying that. Because they're facing, I'm hearing every time I fly someone saying, I've been with airlines such and such for 10, 20, 25 years, I'm losing my job. When I arrived in Chicago, I was greeted by Chicago cops. And look, normally there's a police officer or two that is there to escort you. In this case it was seven or eight cops who were there and the Chicago cops I love the Chicago cops. They gave me two of their patches. Chicago Police Department. And I've been speaking out loudly for the Chicago cops because the Chicago Police union is fighting their idiot mayor. Lori Lightfoot has a vaccine mandate. According to the Chicago Police Union, a third of the Chicago police have refused to file their vaccination status and they're facing being fired. Joe Biden was asked in a national town hall, what should Chicago do? Should they fire a third of their cops? And Biden said, yeah, fire them. Fire cops. I gotta tell you, the speech I gave in Chicago, I told that story and I pulled out the patch of the Chicago Police Department. I held it up and, and said, I am proud to stand with the men and women of the Chicago Police Department. Every person in the room stood to their feet. A long, rousing standing ovation for those Chicago cops. I told the press who were there, I said, why don't you guys cover this? That every person at the Chicago gathering stands with the Chicago cops. You know what? It didn't make the 6:00 news.
- [14:41]
Michael Knowles
It did not. And it's not just the Chicago cops. There was a story out now that more than a third closer, I think to 37% of truck drivers in the United States could resign or be fired, but would end up off the job amid a supply chain crisis as we're approaching the holiday season. Could be a massive disruption to the economy. Little Johnny won't get his Christmas presents in time and there will be more serious consequences.
- [15:08]
Ted Cruz
But Big Bird has a special present for Little Johnny.
- [15:11]
Michael Knowles
That's right. It's industry after industry. You mentioned the airline. What? Coincidentally, there was only negative weather that affected Southwest Airlines a few weeks ago. Then there was only negative weather that affected American Airlines just a couple weeks later. These are obviously sick outs sometimes. It's not even the airline. It's as you say, the air traffic controllers. So there was a court decision, I believe, from the fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that pushed for a stay on the Biden vaccine mandate, saying, we're gonna figure out if this is constitutional or not. In the meantime, you can't force your employees to take the vaccine. The Biden White House has just come out today and said, nevermind, forget about that. Force your employees to get the vaccine anyway. It seems utterly lawless and at the very least, extremely confusing. So what are the workers supposed to do?
- [16:04]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, lawless is the right word for it. If you look at the Biden vaccine mandates, there's four levels to it. There's a mandate that applies to Federal civilian employees. There's a mandate that applies to federal military, active duty military. There's a mandate that applies to government contractors, anyone that does business with the federal government. And then there's a mandate through OSHA that's supposed to be a health and safety regulation that applies to any employer with 100 or more workers. All of those mandates are being challenged in court. I think all of them are legally dubious. The ones focused on federal employees are the most likely to succeed just because the federal government has a fair amount of leeway there. But what's interesting is the litigation is succeeding against all of those different components. I gotta tell you, I'm also hearing from a lot of active duty military, from soldiers, from sailors, from airmen and Marines. I've talked to Navy seals. I was in the Detroit airport and a guy pulled me aside, said, I am a 10 year Navy Seal. I've given over 10 years of my life to defending this nation. They are forcing me to get this vaccine. He said, I'm gonna quit. And he said, a bunch of the other SEALs who have put in years and years and years, and he said, some of them who are at 14, 15, 16 years, and you get your retirement in the military at 20 years, he said, those guys are ready to quit. And so that dynamic is massive. Now, there's been different litigation. So, for example, the United employees have sued trying to stop the vaccine mandate for the airlines. Where they're getting hit is the government contractor aspect of it. So, you know, Southwest Airlines, the United States government, is their single biggest customer. All of the other airlines are customers. The government is a customer to them. And so they're really. They're between a rock and a hard place because the federal government is threatening to withhold millions of dollars if they don't comply. The litigation, the last I checked, the United litigation, there was a stay in place so that the employees had won the initial round. The 5th Circuit case you're talking about is a lawsuit that was brought against the OSHA regulation targeting employers that have 100 or more employees. And the Fifth Circuit, the federal Court of Appeals, concluded that they had stated a strong initial case, that there was a likelihood of success on the merits and a strong case of statutory and or constitutional violations. The Biden administration is litigating this. I've said from the beginning, the OSHA rule is going to be struck down. It's going to be struck down as contrary to law. I believe that is by far the most likely litigation outcome. I also think Michael Joe Biden's lawyers do too, that they've told the Biden White House, we're gonna lose in court. But they've also said, look, litigation takes months, sometimes years. It's slow, and in the meantime, most people will comply. And so if you watch at the White House press conference, when asked, so the Biden administration lost in court. The federal Court of Appeals stayed the order. In other words, issued an injunction saying, this order has no effect. And the Biden deputy press secretary said, well, people should comply nonetheless. Just shut up and obey. Nevermind the law. That's really disturbing.
- [19:42]
Michael Knowles
You know, I had the same gut reaction when President Biden made the announcement. I said, I think that they're on shaky legal ground here, but they're just gonna hope that everyone takes the jab and then it won't be a big deal. Today when the White House came out and said, well, while this is working its way through the courts comply anyway, I thought, there's the proof. There's the proof that you know you're not gonna win in court, so you're gonna try to get your desired outcome before that all happens. There's a ton of hypocrisy here, by the way, and we've seen this from the beginning on the left and Democratic politicians not following their own mandates and their own health requirements. And before we get to the mailbag, I can't let us move on without bringing this up. There was a ton of hypocrisy from left wing politicians who have just been at their climate change a palooza all week, the United Nations Climate Summit. And it seems to me a fair number of them flew private jets on the way to save the world and stop the emissions.
- [20:41]
Ted Cruz
Well, look, hypocrisy is something Democrats do a lot. I gotta say, by the way, let me start off by saying, what did the Scots do to piss us off so much that we caused all these people to descend upon them like locusts? I always liked the Scots. But by the way, if you haven't watched it, Michael, have you seen Robin Williams monologue on golf?
- [21:02]
Michael Knowles
I don't think I have, actually.
- [21:03]
Ted Cruz
Oh, your life is incomplete. You are culturally stunted. So look, I adored Robin Williams. I think he's one of the funniest human beings to have ever lived. I shed a tear when he passed. He was such an incredibly gifted, funny as hell, talented actor, but his standup and golf. Now, language warning. There is a profanity about every third word.
- [21:29]
Michael Knowles
It's like a comma.
- [21:31]
Ted Cruz
My ribs hurt and I can't breathe when I watch it. When he talks about the Scotsman inventing golf and just what a screwed up game golf is. So I will say I love the Scots. I wish we hadn't caused all these folks to descend upon them. The hypocrisy of Democrats. It's almost their defining characteristic. Look on masks. They all know masks are a crock. So Nancy Pelosi, when she does a fundraiser in California, all the rich Democrats sit at the table, the big donors, they don't wear masks and they make their serving staff wear masks. Barack Obama, when he does his birthday party in Martha's vineyard, he turns 60, he's dancing on the disco floor. Along with him dancing are other rich Democrats. None of them have a mask.
- [22:26]
Michael Knowles
Gavin Newsom at the French Laundry, the mayor of San Francisco. I mean, the examples go on and.
- [22:31]
Ted Cruz
On and on and they put rules they don't follow. Just this weekend, Chuck Schumer was down in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico has a mask mandate. Indoors, he's partying indoors, Dancing. By the way, no one should have to gaze at Chuck Schumer dancing.
- [22:46]
Michael Knowles
That's a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
- [22:48]
Ted Cruz
I think I will tell you a true story. One of my colleagues, a Republican senator who's female, described being in the Senate gym and accidentally the door opened and seeing Schumer in his tighty whities. And she just said, she said she wanted to wash her eyes with bleach. It was deeply traumatic. But look, Schumer dancing away, no mask. By the way, you know who was down there too? Randy Weingarten, the head of one of the big teachers unions, partying away. No mask. Mind you, this is the person, one of the people saying all kids have to wear masks at all times. And she explained, well, I didn't wear a mask because it was hard for people to hear me. Oh, oh, really? Oh, okay, that's unique to you then? No one else has ever had the problem of it being hard for people to hear them. But the hypocrisy is massive. And on climate. Look, the person who I think embodies hypocrisy so much is John Kerry. John Kerry is dripping with patrician condescension.
- [23:55]
Michael Knowles
Thurston Howell III.
- [23:57]
Ted Cruz
Okay, how old are you, Michael?
- [23:59]
Michael Knowles
I'm 31 years young. A lady never tells, but I'm 31 years young.
- [24:03]
Ted Cruz
Well, okay, but you know who Thurston Howell is. So I was on Fox News and I referenced Thurston Howell and I went back to my office and my staff. They're all 20 somethings and 30 somethings. Nobody on my staff had any clue who Thurston Howell was. And I felt 1,000 years old.
- [24:26]
Michael Knowles
They didn't watch enough Nick at night when they were kids. You know, those reruns were very important. And apparently Thurston Howell III was based on one of the founders of the conservative movement, William F. Buckley Jr. Oh.
- [24:37]
Ted Cruz
Now that I didn't know. Okay, that's an interesting bit of okay, there's the Yale mafia kicking in.
- [24:42]
Michael Knowles
There's the connection.
- [24:44]
Ted Cruz
So it was interesting. I told that story at the Republican senators lunch. And I stood up and said, you know, I talked about John Kerry, how he's like Thurston Howe. And then I said, warning to you guys that I asked my staff and no one knew who he was. And I said, now you guys are all such old farts, you all know who he is. And Mitt Romney had some advice. He said, use Mr. Burns instead. That Mr. Burns is a younger hipper reference. And I look to Mitt for younger hipper references. So that. But this is a digression on a digression. John Kerry has a private jet. He flies his private jet all over the place. And Kerry's comment, he said, you know, really, for someone like me, it's the only way to travel. That makes sense. A rich, condescending, arrogant hypocrite, mind you, who's trying to impose taxes and fees and regulations on you because of carbon emissions to drive up the cost of living and to take away. He want, I mean, to take away practically all the joys of your life. The guy's got a bigger carbon footprint than most small towns. So this past week I was doing a press conference with a bunch of Republican senators talking about the environment, talking about if you want to clean up the environment, you want low cost energy, you want more natural gas, all of the steps that actually lower emissions. And I talked about Kerry's hypocrisy on the jet and I said, you know, last I checked, none of us up here on this stage have a private jet. Now, John Kennedy was one of the senators there and Kennedy is ridiculously funny. And Kerry deadpans, goes Portman does. So Rob Portman was behind me and it was funny. And here's the funnier thing. The media all believed Kennedy fact checked me. ABC News wrote stories about how Cruz was fact check because Rob Portman has a private jet. Okay, shocker. Rob Portman does not have a private jet. Kennedy was being funny as hell and a smart allocate. So actually Portman and I spent the next day like fighting back These fact checks because the liberals were so happy. Ah, ha ha. This Republican has a private jet. You know what? Portman doesn't? But even if Portman did, he's not running around trying to impose rules on you that he's not obeying. That's what John Kerry is doing. I feel very confident that Barack Obama, when he went to Scotland for his speech, did not fly commercial. And these guys are hypocrites.
- [27:34]
Michael Knowles
Yes. You know, Obama, I don't think was in section B of Southwest or anything. No, he flies private, I think, all of the time and has for a very long time. And so beyond the hypocrisy which we all see, I mean, at this point, it's almost. We don't even wanna talk about it because it's so flagrant. You know, if the Democrats didn't have double standards, they'd have no standards at all. But the substance of what was said at this conference was a little disconcerting too, especially in Barack Obama's speech.
- [28:06]
Ted Cruz
It made me long for a Scandinavian teenager. And by the way, that's a sentence that can really be cut out of context and used against me. So I'm gonna insist that there be broader. There's no clipping of that sentence.
- [28:20]
Michael Knowles
You think they took the Kennedy Portland private jet thing out of context? That you are Senator, you're going down with that one. But what Barack Obama said was that he apologized to the world. It's too bad that America has been behind on climate for so long because of big bad Donald Trump, mind you, by the way, that in the first year of the Trump administration, the United States did better than the actual signatories to the Paris Climate Accord on reducing carbon emissions and protecting the environment. Completely thrown out the window because big bad Trump got us out of the Paris climate deal. But what Barack Obama said was that it was the fault of rising nationalism that we weren't taking on this problem of climate change. And we need to come together. If there's one thing that should transcend our politics, it ought to be climate change. And it was so spooky to me because what he was saying is that all the ordinary political fights and workings of democracy and our constitutional order and the way we run our government, basically all of that's gotta be suspended and superseded by the need to fight off the sun monster. And it occurs to me that's basically been their strategy from the beginning.
- [29:28]
Ted Cruz
Well, look, their strategy is always, always, always give them power. It's the only thing they care about. The COVID vaccine mandate, the shutdown school shutdown, businesses shut down, churches shut down, synagogues shut down. It's all about power. They want control over your life. And when it comes to climate, Joe Biden's policies are terrible for the environment. Last year, the number one nation leading the world in reducing carbon emissions and pollutions was the United States of America because of the widespread substitution of natural gas for coal and energy production. Joe Biden and the lunatics in his administration are shutting down US production. And meanwhile, they're begging OPEC to produce more oil. OPEC produces it dirtier and pollutes more. They're literally shifting from low pollution energy to high pollution energy. They don't believe what they're saying. They're hypocrites. But their answer to everything is they say we're all gonna die. There's a catastrophe, it's coming tomorrow. They've been saying for 30 years. In 12, the world's going to end and no one notices. When 12 years passes, they just repeat it again and again and again. And you know what? When you get 12 years, 12 more years, 12 more. And there's a solution. It's a solution. Fidel Castro looks at these people up from hell and says, they're good. I mean, what an excuse. Make me dictator for life or else all of humanity will perish. That's the left's pitch right now. You want to have a serious conversation about protecting the environment, about keeping air clean, water clean, being good stewards of our earth? Absolutely, yes. These guys are not having that conversation. This is an excuse for power.
- [31:29]
Michael Knowles
Right? The past is always evil, the future is always going to be wonderful, and the present is always a crisis that justifies them taking more and more power before any of us know what is going on. So before we die, I think it would be important to bring back our good old friend Liz Wheeler to come on and bring some of the questions that all of the Verdict listeners have submitted. So, Liz, give us some questions.
- [31:55]
Liz Wheeler
We have a lot of great questions over at Verdict tonight. By the way, anybody who wants to submit a question for upcoming episodes, please join me over at verdict with TedCruise.com plus we will be exclusively taking questions from our supporters over there. That is Verdict with TedCruz.com plus the questions tonight are very interesting, very intellectual. Michael, this one's for you. This is from Real Truth Cactus. Who says we've seen the red wave come to Virginia? Do you think one of the biggest reasons was that Youngkin made the race about the issues while McAuliffe tried to make about Trump. We need to move our arguments away from Trump and to the culture war.
- [32:31]
Michael Knowles
Well, don't forget, Donald Trump was pretty successful by running on the culture war, too. And some people really like Trump and some people really hate Trump. And I think that McAuliffe's strategy in Virginia was recognizing that Virginia has a lot of lot of Democrats, a whole lot of Democrats and a lot of more moderate Republican voters. McAuliffe wanted to make this all about Trump, and then he thought that he would handily defeat Youngkin. Youngkin realized, I think, one that he is not a personality driven candidate. Right. He is not quite the reality TV star of Donald Trump. He's a standard conservative Republican of the sort that can win in Virginia. And so he picked his issue very well. He wasn't just running on tax cuts. He wasn't just running on kind of ordinary Chamber of Commerce type issues. He ran on a big culture war issue, which is education and whether parents have the right to raise their kids and keep radical racial and sexual ideologies out of the classroom. So I think that worked very well in Virginia. I think the lesson more broadly for the GOP is we do need to lean into these cultural issues, but you've gotta be smart about it. I think if Glenn Youngkin had run on the campaign of overturning Obergefell and getting rid of gay marriage, I don't think that would have been a culture war issue, but I don't think he would have won in Virginia. If. If Glenn Youngkin had run on a hardline immigration campaign, that would be a culture war issue, but I don't think it would have won in Virginia. So there is a little bit of savvy here that's required. You need to be wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove. And so it depends on what district you're in. I mean, there are certain districts, I think, in this country where if you. Certain states even, but certainly certain districts where if you ran on your great friendship with Donald Trump, that would probably serve you very well, but it wouldn't serve you very well in Northern Virginia. And there is just an element of running a good campaign that you need to have here. And if we're gonna retake the country, I mean, it's a very conservative principle. There's just not gonna be a one size fits all strategy. You're gonna have to tailor your message to the different constituencies and to the different states and districts that you will be representing and not pretend that some solution that's gonna work for a Republican in California is Gonna be the same sort of thing that a Republican in the middle of Texas is gonna want.
- [35:01]
Liz Wheeler
Senator Cruz, you have the cactus sitting behind you. So same question to you. You, by the way, also started a culture war this week when you hit Big Bird for engaging in propaganda about the COVID vaccine.
- [35:12]
Ted Cruz
Well, listen, let me say a couple of things on that. Number one, what, you know, Michael's answer a minute ago? I think there are a lot of Republicans that behave as if they're wise as doves and innocent as a serpent. They get it. You know, when it comes to Donald Trump, right now, the Democratic playbook is scream, Trump, Trump. Trump. Trump.
- [35:39]
Michael Knowles
Trump.
- [35:39]
Ted Cruz
So when you had the California recall, they made Larry Elder into Donald Trump. Terry McCullough's strategy in Virginia was to say, Glenn Youngkin is Donald Trump. Well, look, he's not. They're very different people. I think that playbook is a one dimensional playbook, and it's not very tethered to reality. The flip side, though, I don't think Republicans should be running away from Trump. I think we accomplished an enormous amount when Trump was president, and he's gonna continue to have a significant platform and a significant voice. And so we can acknowledge all the good we did working together without having every election. If you're debating is Glenn Youngkin, Donald Trump, that's really dumb. Secondly, on culture war, it's worth remembering, listen, we're not waging a culture war. It is the left that is waging a culture war. They are attacking every institution of our culture. They're tearing them down. They're tearing our communities down. They're tearing our families down. They're tearing our children down. They're tearing our churches down. They are engaged in cultural jihad, and all we're doing is defending the culture. So Terry McAuliffe stood up and said we should not teach critical race theory to our kids. We shouldn't be telling them that America is inherently racist and that all white people are racist and America was built on racial oppression. That's not waging a culture war. That's defending our culture. That's saying American culture has value. You know, when Terry McAuliffe says parents have no business saying what's taught in our schools, he's waging a culture war. Now, Republicans have a choice. We can roll over and surrender our culture. And by the way, if we surrender our culture, we surrender our country. Or we can actually defend the Declaration of Independence, we can defend the Constitution, we can defend the Bill of Rights, we can defend the Founding Fathers not pretending that they were perfect men, not lionizing them. Yes, they had faults. Thomas Jefferson was a slave owner. Slave owning is horrific. He also laid out a vision for America of equality that ultimately resulted in abolishing slavery and transforming the world. And so we can defend our culture with honesty and facts. But you know, I get irritated at the press when they say we're waging a culture war. We're simply defending America against Marxists who are trying to destroy our culture.
- [38:26]
Michael Knowles
Yeah, well said.
- [38:27]
Liz Wheeler
So this next question is kind of a long question, but I think it's worth asking. It's a little bit edgy, which is something that I really like. I like to hear both of you answer these questions. This comes of course on Verdict Plus. It is from T Salsa who asks Republicans, including Senator Cruz, seem to be carrying on as if the 2020 election was like all other elections. They're focusing on 2022 and expect to win back seats that they lost. How do we know that all of the mailed out ballots, not the absentee ballots, connect with a real, live, legal voter? I want to be convinced that Biden and the Democrats won in the close elections, but I am not there. The alternative that they beat the system is frightening and if true, should make election integrity the number one, if not only priority for Republicans right now. The fact that really bothers me is this. If we counted all the votes as we have done it before in person and absentee ballots, Trump wins. If we add in the very abnormal mail out ballots, then Biden wins. I don't want to be a conspiracy theorist, but it seems like it would not be too hard to manipulate that kind of vote. Senator, you first.
- [39:33]
Ted Cruz
So listen, those concerns are real and they're concerns I hear all across Texas and all across the country. When it comes to voter fraud, my view is that the two extremes, neither one of them is right. There are right now those in the corporate media and Democrats who say there is no voter fraud. It doesn't exist. It's the big lie. Well, that's a load of crap. That's simply not the case. On the other hand, it's not the case that there is such widespread voter fraud that every election is rigged and we can never have a real election. That's not true either. The reality is democracy is messy. Voter fraud has been part of elections as long as people have been voting. There have been people stealing votes. Should we fight against it? Absolutely. Yes. I've spent 30 years fighting against voter fraud and we need to fight for strong election integrity legislation. Now what do we do in 22 and 24. There's a shift, and it's a shift that has happened in the last couple of years. It used to be a few years back that you would get some modicum of bipartisan agreement that we want safe and secure elections and we should have reasonable ballot integrity provisions that used to be possible that you could work together Republicans and Democrats. That has changed. And it's changed because Democrats have decided, I believe, that voter fraud benefits them, that it's good for them politically. And so right now, today in the United States Congress, you get zero. Not a single Democrat willing to work in any way on any positive element of election integrity. That's true in the Senate. There are zero Senate Democrats. And I think it's true in the House. I don't know of any House Democrats. What does that mean for 22 and 24? Well, it means in red states like Texas or Georgia or Florida, you're going to see the legislatures there passing reasonable common sense voter integrity laws. That's good. I support that. I salute them for doing the right thing in blue states. You're not in states that have Democratic governors or Democratic legislatures. They're not going to pass good legislation in the next two years or four years. On the federal level, as long as Pelosi and Schumer are running the two houses, the chances that Congress passes good voter integrity law are zero. The Democrats don't want it. So what's our answer? The answer, the good news is election fraud historically only matters when it's close, when it's on the margins. If it's a close election, absolutely. Election fraud can take and switch the results. The answer is what we saw last week in Virginia, which is in 22 and 24. We've got to win by a big enough margin they can't steal it. Was there voter fraud in Virginia? Sure. Was there voter fraud in New Jersey? I'm sure there was. But if we win by a big enough margin, you can overcome the fraud. And that may not be fair, but listen, we have two options. We either win by a lot or we give up on our country. And I'm not willing to give up on the country. But that's the reality. If we're sitting there waiting for Democratic legislatures to change the laws to protect ballot integrity, we will wait until hell freezes over. So the only answer is go in and beat them. And that's exactly what we did in Virginia.
- [43:01]
Liz Wheeler
All right, Michael, same question to you. I'm interested to hear your response on this.
- [43:05]
Michael Knowles
I think that's a great point. It's also worth pointing out when people talk about, should we go back and just constantly focus on 2020? I mean, there has been a lot of inquiry into 2020, and there has been the discovery of shenanigans and fraud and election practices that appear to be in violation of the state constitution, at least up in Pennsylvania. But then you look back and you think, 1948, there's a young fella by the name of Lyndon Johnson from Senator from your state. And that fellow Lyndon Johnson, he stole a Senate seat. He stole it. And he stuffed a bunch of ballot boxes and he actually joked with top Democrat officials, fdr, this was on an earlier race. They joked about sitting on the ballot box and it went up to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court wouldn't hear it. Sound familiar? And Lyndon Johnson goes and he gets his Senate seat, then he gets picked to be vice president, then he becomes the president, then he leaves the presidency, does what he does, then he dies. And then in 1990, a writer named Robert Caro laid out the strong case that he had stolen that seat. Well, what a great moral victor. Are we gonna go back and fight the 1948 Senate race? No, you can't do that. He got away with it. And sometimes these things happen. And so, Senator, to your point, I just, I think it's so pragmatic and realistic. You've just got to deal with the realities on the ground and win and just win the next election so that you can make the changes that you want. And it's very encouraging to see in Virginia, apparently, at least, we can still win elections as conservatives and Republicans.
- [44:39]
Ted Cruz
Amen.
- [44:40]
Liz Wheeler
It's almost a vicious cycle, isn't it? In order to win, you have to have elections which are intact. And in order to enact election integrity reform, you have to have won the elections to have the power to do that. Like I said before, anybody who wants to ask a question to Senator Cruz or to Michael Knowles in upcoming episodes, go on over to verdictwithtedcruz.com plus that is the Verdict community. We will exclusively be taking questions from our supporters over there. That's Verdict with TedCruise.com/Senator Michael, thank you for having me. Great round of questions this week.
- [45:17]
Ted Cruz
So, Liz, one more thing before we go. We just finished, as everyone knows, our campus tour. We traveled the country bringing Verdict live to your campus. Well, we're going to continue it again this spring, the second half of the campus tour. And so we want to come to your campus, but we want you to invite us to your campus and tell us why we should come to see you. So go to yaf.org verdict again, that's yaf.org verdict. And apply for your campus to be where Michael and Liz and I, where we come in the spring, we do verdict on campus. It is rockin'we. Had a fantastic time at University of Wisconsin Madison, a fantastic time at Texas A and M, a fantastic time at Catholic University. And we want to be at your school, too. So go to yaf.org verdict wonderful.
- [46:09]
Michael Knowles
Thank you so much, Liz. All right. We have covered quite a lot of ground, but I think it's very important when we think about our elections, when we think about the tyrannical government pushing these crazy mandates on us, when we think about our would be plutocratic leaders in Scotland telling us that we have to upend our democratic norms, we need to tell them no. You've heard chants of let's go. Brandon. I think it's important to follow the senator's lead and give the bird to Big Bird as well. I'm Michael Knowles. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. We'll see you next time.
- [46:56]
Ted Cruz
This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is being brought to you by Jobs, Freedom and Security pac, a political action committee dedicated to supporting conservative causes, organizations and candidates across the country. In 2022, jobs, freedom and Security PAC plans to donate to conservative candidates running for Congress and help the Republican Party across the nation.