Loading summary
Transcript104 lines
- [00:00]
Michael Knowles
The state of our Union, much like the state of our podcast, is strong. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz. I'm Michael Knowles. Senator, you have just come from the Capitol and the State of the Union address. I want to get into that because it was one of the greatest State of the Union addresses I've ever seen.
- [00:25]
Ted Cruz
It was raucous.
- [00:27]
Michael Knowles
Before we get to that, I have to talk about Iowa, because the last time I saw you, we were here for three hours last night waiting to do a podcast about Iowa, and then the results never came in.
- [00:39]
Ted Cruz
Look, two words, dumpster fire. I mean, it is so last night, Monday night, you and I arrived here at 9. The plan was we're doing a podcast. So we said, all right, we'll get Iowa results and we'll go just on air and react to them. And then 9 o'clock became 10, that became 11, that became 12. And we're sitting there going, we have no results.
- [01:00]
Michael Knowles
We still don't have results.
- [01:01]
Ted Cruz
But the nice thing about a podcast, look, if we had a TV show that went on at 9pm we'd have to go on air and say, tonight, we know nothing. And then you just kind of sit there. And so we said, all right, if we don't know the results, let's do the podcast tomorrow. But you remember, then we said, all right, let's do it 10:00am we didn't have results at 10:00am Then we said, let's do it at 3:00pm we didn't have Results at 3:00pm and we're sitting here now at 12:43 in the morning. And we have 60% of Iowa reporting.
- [01:29]
Michael Knowles
We have 60% of Iowa reporting. There is a discrepancy between the delegates and the popular vote. Now, you happened to win Iowa in 2016, so I want your insider take. But just from what I'm reading, Pete Buttigieg, who declared victory last night with no results in, he has 26, which.
- [01:47]
Ted Cruz
I'll actually give him some credit. That was a ballsy move. And so look in that scenario, and actually, the numbers are backing him up. If he had come in with 3%, he would have looked pretty ridiculous. But that was.
- [02:01]
Michael Knowles
Fortune favors the bold.
- [02:02]
Ted Cruz
That's exactly right.
- [02:03]
Michael Knowles
Right now, in terms of delegates, Pete Buttigieg has 27%. Bernie is at 25%, Elizabeth Warren, 18%, poor Joe Biden down at 15%, Amy Klobuchar, 12.6%. And yet Bernie is leading in the popular vote. I think people have no idea what the Iowa caucus is, including many Iowans you spent a lot of time in Iowa in 2016, and it paid off because you won the state. What happened? What does it look like?
- [02:32]
Ted Cruz
So Iowa is a state where they take their responsibility very seriously. And people pour thousands of hours into grassroots campaigning in Iowa because Iowa has proven to be a launching ground where, look, Iowa rarely Alexa nominee or Alexa president, but it excludes a lot of people. And it can elevate someone who wasn't a front runner, who wasn't dominant to major top tier status. And so, you know, you look at the results in Iowa tonight or whenever we get them two months from now, assuming they resemble the ones you just read, it's a catastrophic night for Joe Biden. Joe Biden was the inevitable, the unstoppable front runner, and he's in fourth place. That's a big problem. It wasn't a great night for Elizabeth Warren. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are battling for who can be the great leftist hope, Right? And Bernie right now won. If those numbers hold up and you got to assume moving into New Hampshire, the poll numbers out of New Hampshire, Bernie as a neighbor in Vermont is in a very strong position and all.
- [03:42]
Michael Knowles
The polls bear that out.
- [03:44]
Ted Cruz
So Warren coming in third, she's still around, but between Bernie and Warren, she's not in a great place. It was a great night for Buttigieg. And look, Biden's donors right now are freaking out. Biden's supporters are freaking out. And if you figure there's 20 to 30% of moderate Democrats, they gotta flee somewhere. Buttigieg did a nice job of throwing himself in contention. Klobuchar would have been another person in contention. She's not totally out, but fifth place is not. She wanted to come in and shock the world with, say, a second place finish in Iowa. If that had happened, it could have really elevated Klobuchar to be the alternative to Biden. What you may see some oxygen for is a Michael Bloomberg coming in.
- [04:36]
Michael Knowles
He seems to be trying to veer into this moderate lane. The Biden campaign is collapsing.
- [04:41]
Ted Cruz
It's amazing what $50 billion could do. But, you know, the Democrats are the party of the people and the party of poor people. And, you know, frankly, you know, Bloomberg does look at Tom Steyer and say, you're a really poor billionaire. That's true.
- [04:57]
Michael Knowles
As far as billionaires go, it's rarefied error. But, you know, this does make the Democratic candidates look a little bit ridiculous in part because the candidate who won the popular vote very well may not win the state. And in.
- [05:09]
Ted Cruz
Well, Bernie's a socialist. So he's going to redistribute his votes to others. You know, I got to say, number one, that they. The Democrats couldn't. And it's the state Democratic Party that screwed this up. They couldn't figure out how to count the votes. Last night I was thinking about, you know, I felt really bad for the volunteers. Every one of these candidates had people who pour their hearts into it. I mean, I remember four years ago in Iowa. I mean, we had worked for over a year. We had volunteers who had come in from Texas, from all over the country who'd moved to Iowa. We actually rented an entire dormitory, a college dorm that was filled with volunteers that would go out in blizzard conditions, knocking on doors. And there's something called the full Grassley, where Chuck. Chuck. Chuck Grassley, the senior senator from Iowa. Chuck goes to all 99 counties in Iowa every single year. And four years ago in Iowa, I did the full Grassley.
- [06:13]
Michael Knowles
You hit every county I hit.
- [06:15]
Ted Cruz
And in fact, we hit the 99th county on the day of the caucus. And it look. Iowa, you drive through a lot of sparse, rural counties. You're doing events. I remember one of my favorite events. It was about 10:30 at night, and it was a county where there were not many kind of big gathering places. So we did it at a gas station. It was a pretty big gas station. And it was on the road, and it was 10:30 at night. And we had, I think close to 100 people came out to the gas station from the county. And I jumped behind the counter and, you know, began serving people coffee. Cause it was 10:30 at night, and they came out to hear, you know, it's a place where people have poured their hearts in. And to get to last night, to get to the caucus, complete debacle.
- [07:01]
Michael Knowles
It collapses.
- [07:03]
Ted Cruz
And to not have a result.
- [07:04]
Michael Knowles
Yeah.
- [07:07]
Ted Cruz
I think that I've never seen anything more messed up. And by the way, Democrats are the people that tell you they want the federal government to be in charge of everything. They think they're geniuses. And so they say, put us in charge of your health care. Put us in charge of the economy. Put us in charge of your life. These people can't count votes. It ain't complicated. You literally go to a gymnasium and go stand over there. If you're with Biden, go stand over there. If you're with Bernie.
- [07:36]
Michael Knowles
That's very complicated. But they can control your entire healthcare. There is a big contrast, right between the Democratic Iowa caucus's complete debacle and tonight's State of the Union, which you've just come from, this is the Republican president counting off his victories. And the president spent the first, what, 20, 25 minutes of the speech just listing off his victories. I know that you spoke with the President a few days before the State of the Union. I was obviously not on the phone call, but I suspect you talked about what that speech should look like.
- [08:07]
Ted Cruz
So I talked to him on Sunday. He called me, and we visited about a number of topics. But on the State of the Union, I encouraged him. I said, make it positive, make it optimistic. Focus on substance, focus on results, focus on success.
- [08:22]
Michael Knowles
Don't focus on impeachment.
- [08:23]
Ted Cruz
And that was my very explicit advice. I said, Mr. President, for what it's worth, I wouldn't say a word about impeachment. And the reason is, look, impeachment's gonna be over tomorrow, but there are still potentially a couple of votes in flux. So I told the president on Sunday, I said, I think the votes, the votes for not guilty will be somewhere between 50 and 56, okay? I said, 50 is the bare minimum. There will be 50 not guilty votes, and I'm confident of that.
- [08:55]
Michael Knowles
And as long as he has, I mean, he would need 67 votes of guilty to be removed from office.
- [09:02]
Ted Cruz
That's not going to happen. There was never any risk of that. But on the upside, I think we could get as high as 56 not guilty votes. And I said, look, Mr. President, if you gave a State of the Union that people saw as spiking the ball and it ticked them off, I said, look, a lot of the. You could end up seeing a few of these votes go south.
- [09:21]
Michael Knowles
And you have a little insider knowledge here, because you're speaking to the people who could be those votes that go one way or the other. And you're speaking to the President.
- [09:28]
Ted Cruz
And so on Sunday, the six votes that were in play, you had three Republicans. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney. Now, I told the President, I said, frankly, I think all three will vote not guilty. Now, we know as of tonight, Collins and Murkowski have announced they're gonna vote not guilty. So that much is right. If Mitt has announced, I haven't seen it, so I think he probably will as well. But we'll find out tomorrow. On the Democratic side, I think there are only three votes that are even plausibly in contention, and that's Joe Manchin, who I think probably does vote not guilty.
- [10:03]
Michael Knowles
It seems he's signaled that he's seriously considering voting not guilty. Breaking with his party.
- [10:09]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, I had a reporter run up to me in the Capitol all excited and said, hey, what do you think of Joe Manchin censure motion? And I said, I hope it means he's voting not guilty.
- [10:16]
Michael Knowles
Like, you know that, because that's what he suggested. Instead of voting guilty, removed from office, he suggested vote for censure, say that the President did a bad thing, slap him on the hand, but leave him in office.
- [10:27]
Ted Cruz
And I think the odds are pretty good that Manchin votes not guilty. The other two votes that are potentially in play are Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona, who has. She hadn't been in the Senate long, but she's been trying to carve out a more moderate path. I think it's at least possible she votes not guilty. And then the third one is Doug Jones from Alabama, who at least possibly could. So my advice to the President was rather than, rather than risk getting into them angry, just focus on the incredible results at a positive vision. And I gotta say, and I wasn't the only one who gave the President that advice. That was, that was. A lot of people were giving him that advice.
- [11:10]
Michael Knowles
But how did he do?
- [11:12]
Ted Cruz
I don't know that any of us were sure he would follow it. To be honest, I don't know that he was sure he would follow it. But he was open to it when we talked, and I thought he did spectacularly tonight. It is the best speech I've ever seen Donald Trump give. And it started out just relentlessly making the case of the substantive victories we've had in the last three years. And it was powerful, it was compelling, it was optimistic. And the contrast, the way Congressional Democrats behaved tonight was horrible.
- [11:49]
Michael Knowles
They wouldn't even stand up or applaud for low unemployment, or there were women wearing white like the suffragettes, and they wouldn't stand up and applaud for low female unemployment.
- [12:04]
Ted Cruz
It was one after the other where the President says, we have the lowest unemployment in history, stone cold silence, the lowest African American unemployment history, stone cold silence, lowest Hispanic unemployment in history, stone cold silence. As you point out, lowest unemployment for women in 70 years. And you have all of these congressional women in white who just are sitting there snarling, what do they want?
- [12:28]
Michael Knowles
What more could they ask for?
- [12:30]
Ted Cruz
And I like that the President, he didn't just have one line about it, he had one after the other after the other. They were all based on facts, they were all based on substance. So when the President says the lower 50% of income, the people who are struggling the most have seen their incomes go up the most As a percentage. Stone cold silence for the Democrats when he talks about poverty, the lowest African American poverty in history. Stone cold silence. Right. You know the moment in the early part of the speech that was most dismaying, the President talked about how 7 million Americans have come off of food stamps and 10 million Americans have come off of welfare. And not only did the Congressional Democrats not applaud, there was hissing. I mean, was there.
- [13:14]
Michael Knowles
Because you couldn't really hear that on.
- [13:15]
Ted Cruz
The TV feed on the floor. They were hissing. And it was like. It was like some leftists in a college classroom. And I gotta say, that's really twisted. And it reveals where the modern Democratic Party is because they're saying, they're saying to people who are struggling that they want you to remain dependent, they want you to remain unemployed, they want you to. Those 7 million people the last three years have gotten jobs. These are real men and women. These are single moms who are suddenly now working. They're providing for their K. They have the dignity of work, the self respect. And the approach of the Democrats, the Congressional Democrats, they hissed that it's bad.
- [14:02]
Michael Knowles
That they're off welfare.
- [14:04]
Ted Cruz
And it is revealing of, I think, a really cynical attitude. There was also. So one of the things the President did really well, there are what are called Lenny Stutnik moments. Okay, what is a Lenny Stutnik moment? So Lenny Stutnick is. We see them a lot in State of the Unions where the someone out in the gallery. And the origin of that, it was actually Ronald Reagan, who invented that. It was 1982. And Reagan called out Lenny Stutnik who had saved someone who had crashed into the Potomac. And look, Reagan was a master showman. He understood the power of it. But that was the first time in 200 years of our country's history that a president had done that. Now, every State of the Union, you have a Lenny Stutling moment. What President Trump did with that tonight, I've never seen. And he's taken it to another level. So we saw, for example, Rush Limbaugh.
- [14:59]
Michael Knowles
That was an amazing moment.
- [15:03]
Ted Cruz
When the President awarded him the Medal of Freedom right there and then. And Melania put it around his neck. Rush, I think. And I was sitting kind of right beneath where Rush was. So I was looking right up at him. He was probably, I don't know, 50ft away from me. Rush was so astonished. And look, yesterday, Rush announced he has stage four lung cancer. And if you haven't listened to his announcement on air, it's worth listening to. And you know, Rush, Rush is a Friend he is. I think the man is a hero and he's a patriot. And, you know, I remember having dinner with Rush. I think it was 2015 before the whole presidential campaign had started. And we were talking about the future. And it had been eight years of Obama or seven years at the time. And Rush at the time was a little, I wouldn't say discouraged, but he wasn't sure we could turn things around.
- [16:07]
Michael Knowles
It was a discouraging era.
- [16:09]
Ted Cruz
And I remember telling him, I said, rush, you have 20 million Americans who listen to you every single week. Look, you and I are pretty hop daddy skippy happy that we've had 2 million downloads in two weeks. So look, that ain't nothing.
- [16:25]
Michael Knowles
That's pretty good. That's not. And you know, we did, by the way, just to mention it in passing, we didn't podcast for a few days here. Show's still at number two, even with several days of silence.
- [16:37]
Ted Cruz
Well, that's the sound of silence. That's the power of people wanting content. But my point that I said to Rush is I said, look, you got 20 million people a week that listen to you. If every one of your listeners gets two other people to come out and vote, that's it. Just each person find two people in America to come vote. That's 60 million people. I remember telling Rush, with 60 million people, we can turn this country around. Donald Trump won in 2016 with 62 million votes. Those numbers were almost. And Rush, you know, it's an interesting. You and I both went on Glenn Beck this morning. We were back to back, back to back, we pounded this podcast. I think Glenn was ready to strangle us both.
- [17:19]
Michael Knowles
It was a full hour of plugging his show.
- [17:21]
Ted Cruz
Guys, could you. But both Glenn and then I did Hannity earlier tonight, and both of them gave beautiful emotional tributes to Rush that he had blazed the field.
- [17:35]
Michael Knowles
I mean, that he's number one. I mean, in many ways, what we're doing right now would be unthinkable without Rush.
- [17:41]
Ted Cruz
And he was the kind of lonely voice in the wilderness. And what was so powerful, there was all sorts of people across America that were sitting there going, I thought I was the only one. And he just, he spoke for the everyman. And by the way, he speaks for the everyman. I don't want to. So my mom is a two time cancer survivor. Cancer is a horrific, nasty, vicious disease. And having been by my mom's side through chemo, through radiation, it's horrible. Rush is a tough, tenacious fighter. So, I mean, I sent Russia a Note yesterday that one of the things I said is, look, yours is an incredibly important voice in America, and we need you.
- [18:34]
Michael Knowles
And we're all. And it was a great moment to see Melania put it on. And obviously everybody's praying for him, but.
- [18:39]
Ted Cruz
That we've never seen in terms of a Lenny. Stunning to actually have the medal. And the rush was blown away. There were three times I had tears in my eyes. And I've been to now I7 state of the Unions. I've never had tears in my eyes. And I had three times.
- [18:53]
Michael Knowles
What were the other two?
- [18:54]
Ted Cruz
That moment. Kayla Mueller, who was tortured and killed by isis. Her parents were there. The president did an incredible job telling her story, seeing them looking up, particularly as a father of daughters. You know, I kept looking at the dad. I mean, look. And the mom, but, you know, I identified with the dad. And to know the horrific hell that their daughter went through. And the president told a great story about the Special Forces team naming their mission to take out Al Baghdadi after her birthday.
- [19:41]
Michael Knowles
Because it ties in. Look, we all know about the policy accomplishment, but the personal story is what I agree. I had tears in my eyes at the same moment.
- [19:50]
Ted Cruz
It was beautiful and powerful. And the third time was the mom with her two little kids, who's a soldier and her husband's a soldier, and he was deployed in Afghanistan, I think. And then the President said, and he's back here now.
- [20:10]
Michael Knowles
Yeah, talk about a reveal.
- [20:12]
Ted Cruz
And the look on her face. And to see him come down that sergeant come down the steps, and her like she was next to Melania and the joy she expressed her kids. I mean, seeing him hug his little girl, hug his little boy. Okay, that is a new threshold. There's never been a Lenny Stutnik moment where you actually reunite a soldier's family right in front of you. I think to the surprise of the family. That was incredible.
- [20:44]
Michael Knowles
It was powerful. It turned everything up to 11. And I agree. I mean, it was just such an effective speech. He didn't mention impeachment, which I'm very glad that was part of your conversation. And other people had encouraged him that way, too.
- [21:00]
Ted Cruz
And by the way, he did a great contrast last week. Last week, I was the White House twice. One day for the announcement of his Middle east peace proposal. He was there with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the next day for the signing of the usmca, the Mexico Canada trade agreement. And I thought the silent contrast of he's working for the country for the future, while the Congressional Democrats are just consumed with Hate. I think that was a really sharp contrast.
- [21:31]
Michael Knowles
And we'll see the contrast again tomorrow because you had the State of the Union, a really, really strong State of the Union. And State of the Union address tomorrow is the vote on impeachment. I mean, you're gonna go. It's pretty late into the evening, so, you know, in a few hours, you're gonna head back to the Senate. How does impeachment end?
- [21:48]
Ted Cruz
Well, before we finish the State of the Union, let me say two quick things on it.
- [21:52]
Michael Knowles
Okay.
- [21:53]
Ted Cruz
Number one, I think the Democrats seemed incredibly out of touch. I think to any American watching you wonder, why can't you cheer for Americans? Yeah. Like when The President says, 12,000 new factories, we're seeing a blue collar boom. Democrats for years have claimed to be the party of working men and women, the party of unions, and they're sitting there snarling, furious at manufacturing jobs. You know, when the president pointed out, one of the first people he pointed out in the gallery was an African American band from Ohio who'd been homeless, who'd been. Had substance abuse problems. And because of an opportunity zone, part of what we implement in the tax cuts that incentivizes capital and jobs in struggling neighborhoods. He now has a job. He's clean turned. And he turns his life around. He's turned his life around. And the Democrats just snarled. And you think about it, most of these inner cities, these areas with severe poverty, almost all of them are represented by Democrats.
- [22:57]
Michael Knowles
Yeah.
- [22:58]
Ted Cruz
And it was literally their own congressional representatives angry that their constituents who are struggling are doing better than someone else.
- [23:08]
Michael Knowles
Did it for them.
- [23:09]
Ted Cruz
It ruins their narrative. And the moment that I think captured the whole night, sadly, was at the end of the speech when Nancy Pelosi stood up and ripped the speech in half.
- [23:22]
Michael Knowles
I thought that was the Constitution she was ripping. It was the speech.
- [23:24]
Ted Cruz
Okay, maybe I mistook that was sitting not very far from her either. I was off on the side. Was actually sitting between Marco Rubio and Rand Paul. It was kind of an interesting. The day after Iowa was sort of amusing, but that was just accidental little reunion where we walked in, but we were kind of. I was kind of laughing at how the seating worked out, but. And. And the. I didn't initially see her tear the speech. It was Marco who nudged me and said, did you. You see her tearing the speech? And I looked up and she was still tearing it. And I was seething. It was pitiful and disgusting. And I think Nancy Pelosi should be ashamed and so disrespectful. Fine. I get that parties have different views and you don't like. But look, I went to, I think, four State of the Unions. Obama gave. He talked about all sorts of policies I didn't like, and I didn't applaud for all of them. So there's one picture, I think it was from the 2013 State of the Union, where you had in a row, me, I forget the order, but it was me, Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and Obama was saying, we need to give amnesty for illegal aliens. And Schumer and Lindsey and McCain and Gillibrand are all standing, cheering, and I'm sitting there silently. I'm actually perfectly fine with that picture. They want to cheer for amnesty. I ain't gonna. Right, that's fine. I don't mind where there's a policy disagreement expressing it. But to rip the speech in half showed a contempt, not just for Donald Trump personally, but a contempt for the presidency, a contempt for the American people that I thought was repulsive. And I can tell you one Democratic senator who will remain nameless, but on the elevator down, he turned to me and said, did Pelosi really rip up the speech?
- [25:23]
Michael Knowles
You mentioned this the other day, and it was.
- [25:27]
Ted Cruz
No, this was just tonight. This was just like an hour or two hours ago.
- [25:30]
Michael Knowles
You mentioned also how some of these Democratic senators, or more moderate senators, they really have not liked this intense partisan.
- [25:38]
Ted Cruz
He was really unhappy with that. I said it was pitiful and offensive and disgusting. I was genuinely pissed. I mean, it made me angry. And it was interesting. This one Democratic senator, he said, that's terrible. That's completely. Now, look, he didn't like some of what Trump said, but it was sort of the. When I look at the congressional Democrats, they're consumed by hate. And hate's ugly. It is an ugly. Like, fine, if you want to disagree on substance, but we should be rooting for the American people. We should be celebrating victories. And by the way, my job, I represent 28 million Texans. I don't just represent the Republicans in Texas. I represent Democrats in Texas and libertarians and independents. But you know what? If I'm fighting for more jobs and higher wages and protecting their rights, that benefits everyone and made me angry. But it also made me sad to see that right now, hatred of Trump consumes all else. We ought to all be able to root for Americans because that should be who we are.
- [26:49]
Michael Knowles
I was obviously not there in person. I was just watching on tv. And I agree with you. The anger, the sour puss, what appeared to be Hatred doesn't play well on tv. I'm glad to hear that there was at least one Democratic colleague who. Who found it troubling as well. Before we go, we're obviously so much to get to. We'll have to get to more tomorrow. Let's try to get to one or two mailbag questions. First question from Miles. Iowa caucus implosion. Hilarious thing or the most hilarious thing.
- [27:22]
Ted Cruz
Ridiculous. Inept. As I said, I felt bad for the activists, like the volunteers who work.
- [27:29]
Michael Knowles
Right.
- [27:29]
Ted Cruz
But look, for Democrats who want to run everything, they ought to demonstrate they can count votes first.
- [27:42]
Michael Knowles
Right. One question, I guess, can tease.
- [27:45]
Ted Cruz
By the way, can you imagine these rocket scientists taking over and deciding whether, when and if you get a heart transplant?
- [27:53]
Michael Knowles
Yeah.
- [27:55]
Ted Cruz
Well, we got a system and an app, and I'm sorry, the app doesn't.
- [27:57]
Michael Knowles
Work, so I'll have to cross some border if that ever comes to be.
- [28:02]
Ted Cruz
Three days whenever the app operates. Hope you're doing all right by then.
- [28:04]
Michael Knowles
This is a question. It's a little bit on impeachment, but I guess it'll touch on tomorrow's vote as well, because tomorrow's gonna be the big vote. Do you acquit the president or do you remove him from office? From Karen, I understand treason, bribery, and high crimes as grounds for impeachment. What I do not understand is misdemeanors. How do you go from treason to misdemeanors? So far, no one's explained what that means exactly. And I'm hoping you, Senator, can.
- [28:26]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, it's a good question, and it's a weird term. Some of it to remember is the distinction of felonies and misdemeanors didn't exist as those terms are understood. Okay.
- [28:37]
Michael Knowles
Because you think of a misdemeanor as kind of a minor crime.
- [28:39]
Ted Cruz
And so that's a confusing part of the phrase. I wouldn't think of them as separate categories. The phrase as a whole is other high crimes and misdemeanors. And that was a unified. So there were misdemeanors at the time the Constitution was adopted that were punishable by death.
- [28:55]
Michael Knowles
Yikes.
- [28:55]
Ted Cruz
So a misdemeanor was not a speeding ticket. It was not a parking ticket. It was the phrase high crime or misdemeanors were serious crimes, and they were crimes against the public trust. They were things like bribery and treason. So it wasn't just knocking over a 7 11. It was a crime that did harm to the public, to the nation, like treason. But by the way, the, you know, one of the examples that Adam Schiff used is, well, under the definition of high crimes and misdemeanors that Dershowitz and others are saying, what happens if a president allowed Alaska to be invaded? And I gotta say, Dan Sullivan, the senator from Alaska, was pretty worked up about this. Oh, no, no, I'm against that.
- [29:43]
Michael Knowles
Yeah, I oppose the invasion of Alaska.
- [29:46]
Ted Cruz
And I pointed out Dan and he agreed with me on this. But I said, dan, if a president allows a foreign country to invade the United States of America, that's treason. Yeah. That is actively covered. Like the Constitution defines treason in the text of the Constitution. And you don't get to allow our enemies to invade and take over any of the United States.
- [30:05]
Michael Knowles
It's a shame that we have to teach our legislators that now. Although I'm sure.
- [30:08]
Ted Cruz
Although Dan knew that. I don't.
- [30:09]
Michael Knowles
Right, of course.
- [30:10]
Ted Cruz
Emphatically so. I'm not. Not throwing him.
- [30:13]
Michael Knowles
I'm sure, though, that there are going to be many House Democrats who do try to impeach the president again for speeding tickets and for parking tickets. So that's something to look forward to. We will be discussing, obviously, the big vote that comes out tomorrow, but unfortunately, we're out of time today. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. We'll see you tomorrow.
- [30:37]
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.