IRS Agents Target the Middle Class, Radical Bias at NPR Exposed & Schumer's Plan to Nuke the Constitution Week In Review

Summary

The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Episode: IRS Agents Target the Middle Class, Radical Bias at NPR Exposed & Schumer's Plan to Nuke the Constitution Week In Review
Release Date: April 13, 2024

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1. IRS Targeting the Middle Class

Ben Ferguson opens the episode by addressing significant concerns affecting the middle class under the Biden administration. He challenges the administration's claims regarding economic improvements, particularly focusing on gas and grocery prices.

• Biden Administration's Claims: At [01:43], Uri Berliner from the White House states, “We are pleased that gas prices have come down by a $40 relative to that peak that was caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But as you say, we are watching carefully to make sure that those gas prices at the pump don't go up.”

• Ferguson's Counterpoint: Ben Ferguson disputes this, asserting that gas prices are not decreasing and highlights the surge in grocery prices, now up nearly 40% since 2019. He emphasizes that the middle class is being disproportionately affected, not just the wealthy elites as initially promised.

• Economic Data and IRS Audits: Senator Mike Lee provides detailed statistics at [02:08], revealing that while the administration boasts about favorable gas prices, overall prices have risen by 18.6%, and real average weekly earnings have declined by 4.2%. He cites a Wall Street Journal report stating, “President Biden's plan to hire a new army of tax collectors is falling flat. The agents already at work are targeting the middle class.”

• Predictions and Warnings: John Kennedy recalls previous warnings on the podcast about the IRS targeting average Americans, reinforcing the notion that the administration is failing the middle class. Bari Weiss adds that the IRS is hiring 27,000 new employees, intending to “harass citizens, small businesses, and political enemies of the Biden White House.”

2. Radical Bias at NPR Exposed

The discussion shifts to concerns about media bias within NPR, sparked by revelations from a long-time NPR employee.

• Whistleblower’s Account: At [07:11], Uri Berliner, a 25-year NPR veteran, publicly accuses the organization of shifting from a liberal bent to an active agenda against conservatives. In his column for The Free Press, he writes, “Today, those who listen to NPR or read its coverage online find something different, the distilled worldview of a very small segment of the US Population.”

• Interview Highlights: During an interview segment at [12:05], Berliner elaborates on NPR's transformation, stating, “We started covering Trump in a way that... we were trying to damage his presidency to even find anything we could to harm him.”

• Host and Panel Reactions: Ben Ferguson and Ted Cruz express outrage over NPR's alleged bias, with Cruz likening NPR’s current state to "Twitter before Elon Musk bought it," emphasizing its shift towards activism over objective journalism. Bari Weiss strongly advocates for defunding NPR, arguing that it has become a “propaganda outlet” funded by taxpayers.

• Impact on Public Trust: Bari Weiss underscores the consequences of such bias, noting a significant decline in NPR's listener diversity—from 26% conservative in 2011 to only 11% in 2023—highlighting a loss of moderate and traditional liberal audiences as well.

3. Chuck Schumer's Plan to Nuke the Constitution

The episode delves into Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's controversial strategy regarding the impeachment process, which opponents claim threatens the constitutional balance of power.

• Impeachment Process Explained: John Kennedy outlines Schumer’s plan to expedite the impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas, comparing it to Harry Reid’s 2013 decision to eliminate the filibuster for judicial and executive appointments. At [25:27], Kennedy explains, “What Chuck Schumer is planning to do next week is every bit as big a deal as nuking the filibuster.”

• Strategic Implications: Ted Cruz questions the rationale behind Schumer’s approach, suggesting it’s an attempt to bypass proper legislative procedures ([29:40]). John Kennedy responds by emphasizing the constitutional obligations tied to impeachment, arguing that Schumer’s actions would undermine the Senate's role as a co-equal branch of government.

• Potential Consequences: Kennedy predicts long-term ramifications, stating at [29:56], “If Schumer does this next week, you will never again see an impeachment trial when the Senate is the same party as the president, that will be taken off the table.” He warns that this could set a precedent where impeachment becomes a tool for political maneuvering rather than constitutional accountability.

• Republican Response: The Republican senators, including Kennedy himself, are strategizing to delay the impeachment process to ensure it receives proper attention. At [25:41], Kennedy shares that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson agreed to postpone sending the articles of impeachment to early next week, aiming to prevent a rushed and potentially unconstitutional trial.

4. Closing Remarks and Future Implications

Ted Cruz and Ben Ferguson conclude the episode by reiterating the gravity of the discussed issues. Cruz encourages listeners to engage further by downloading the full podcast for an in-depth understanding.

• Call to Action: Cruz urges Republicans to challenge the impeachment process, emphasizing the importance of adhering to constitutional procedures to maintain democratic integrity.

• Final Thoughts: Bari Weiss highlights the need for bipartisan support to defend media integrity and democratic institutions, aligning with Uri Berliner’s whistleblower revelations.

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This episode of The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson provides a critical examination of the Biden administration's economic policies, exposes alleged media bias within NPR, and scrutinizes Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's impeachment strategies. Through detailed discussions and compelling quotes, Ferguson and his panel underscore the challenges facing the middle class, the integrity of media institutions, and the preservation of constitutional safeguards in the legislative process.

Transcript

[Ted Cruz]

Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz WEEKEND Review. Ben Ferguson with you. And these are the big stories that you may have missed that we talked about this past week. First up, the IRS is targeting now millions of middle class Americans, something they promised that they weren't going to do when it came to the Biden administration. We'll expose why you may be a target coming up in a moment. Also, a whistleblower inside of NPR comes forward after decades of working there saying now they're just out to destroy people like Donald Trump. They're no longer just kind of a, you know, a little bit more liberal mentality in the office. It is about destroying conservatives. I want you to hear what he has to say. It's truly shocking. And finally, Chuck Schumer is confident that the mayorkas impeachment will be resolved in a single day. Will Republicans actually fight back? We'll explain that battle heating up. It is the week in review and it starts right now. Senator, let's talk about this shocking new.

[Ben Ferguson]

Data that's come out, a warning that came from you on this show. And I want to play that in a moment. But but I want to get to the headline here. There are two things right now that are worrying many Americans. Number one, it's bidenomics. It is a disaster. Right now we are seeing even top Biden economic advisor bragged about gas prices which are up 50% since Biden took office saying quote, we are pleased that gas prices have come down. Now the is allowing them to lie and the American people are not going to fall for this. I don't believe. But take a listen to this. This is coming from the White House, from the Biden team trying to convince Americans that hey, you're paying less the pump right now than ever. You should be excited.

[Uri Berliner]

Oh, important for American families and a big focus of President Biden. We are pleased that gas prices have come down by a $40 relative to that peak that was caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But as you say, we are watching carefully to make sure that those gas prices at the pump don't go up.

[Ben Ferguson]

Now Senator, that's just a lie. Gas prices are not down. Anyone that goes the pump knows this. We also know now that grocery prices are nearing 40% higher than they were in 2019. And to add insult to injury, we're now being told on top of all of that that's hurting the middle class, there's now going to be more than ever IRS agents that are targeting specifically middle class Americans with more audits than ever before.

[Mike Lee]

Well, that's exactly right. First of all, in terms of prices, you know, they're crowing about that. They say gasoline prices are lower than the worst they were under Biden, but they're still up 51% from where they were under Trump. By the way, overall prices are up 18.6%. Real average weekly earnings are down 4.2%. Real average weekly warnings earnings were up 8.2% under Trump. And in the month of March, zero new manufacturing jobs were added. And so, look, the economy is hurting mightily. And then you put on top of that, the IRS is doing actually what we predicted on this podcast is targeting the middle class. The Wall Street Journal wrote just a few days ago, quote, the Internal Revenue Service got an audit of its own in time for tax day, and two irregularities jump out. President Biden's plan to hire a new army of tax collectors is falling flat. And the agents already at work are targeting the middle class. Those are the two findings of the IRS's watchdog, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. The most recent data suggests the IRS is still focused on the middle class. As of last summer, 63% of new audits targeted taxpayers with incomes of less than $200,000. Only a small overall share reached the very highest earners, while 80% of the audits covered filers earning less than $1 million. And as the Wall Street Journal urges you, don't forget to save those charitable giving receipts. This is exactly opposite what Joe Biden promised the American people. But it's what we knew was going to happen. They were going to use the new agents to go after the middle class. That's exactly what they're doing.

[Ben Ferguson]

Let me just remind people of what you said on the show, and this was quite some time ago. Here is the warning when we said it here early on, that they're going to come after average Americans, not just the elites, as they were claiming, or.

[John Kennedy]

Good Friday and Easter.

[Bari Weiss]

The IRS released the news. They did it as a news dump going into the holiday because they didn't want people to pay attention to it, that they are right now hiring the first 30,000 of those employees. 10,000 of them are being hired in the current fiscal year. And in fiscal year 2024, they're planning.

[John Kennedy]

To double that with 27,000 new hires. Now, now, what does that mean?

[Bari Weiss]

Well, let's go through a lot of different elements. The long and short of it is it means a whole bunch more IRS employees there to harass you, to harass citizens, to harass small businesses, to harass and Target the political enemies of the Biden White House.

[Ben Ferguson]

But Senator, you look at that warning and you look at what you mentioned right beforehand about prices that have skyrocketed, the cost of goods and services are up, manufacturing jobs that are down. And there has to be a moment, I would argue, of reckoning with the average American voter where they look at this administration and they sit there and they stare at you in the face. They say, no, no, gas prices are good. And the American people have to know, no, that's not true.

[Ted Cruz]

When they say, oh, no, no, the.

[Ben Ferguson]

Price of the grocery store, they're not that bad. They've got to have a moment where they say, no, no, we don't believe you anymore. You travel a lot. You talk to a lot of people around the state of Texas. I don't believe that the American people are gonna be bamboozled by this much longer.

[Mike Lee]

Yeah, look, I think the American people know that bidenomics is a mess. And in fact, you see the Biden White House backing away from using that term, bidenomics, because they thought it was a good thing and they discovered, oh, wait, people think it's a terrible thing. That's. Listen, anyone who's paying the bills, anyone who goes to the grocery store, anyone who fills up their tank at the pump, anyone who deals with healthcare costs, electricity costs, rent, mortgages, I'll tell you, young people, I think one of the most potent things is young people buying their first home. A young married couple, they're suddenly discovering they can get about half as much house as they thought they could get. Because a few years ago when you had mortgage rates at two and a half percent, you could get actually a pretty big, pretty, you know, a nice three bedroom house, a backyard, a swing. And suddenly young people are discovering, holy.

[Bari Weiss]

Cow, what I thought I could afford.

[Mike Lee]

Is now out of reach.

[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. Senator, there was another story that broke, and this is one that is for a guy that has spent my ent career in media. NPR annoys me beyond the level of frustration that most people can imagine because I don't understand why my tax dollars are subsidizing a hardcore leftist organization and why I'm paying their salaries at npr. That's the reality. But now we've got a guy that was there for 25 years who has blown the whistle on NPR saying that basically when Donald Trump was elected, it completely broke npr. And they are there every day to take down conservatives, take down Trump, take down anybody like him, and our tax dollars are going to pay for npr.

[Bari Weiss]

No, that's exactly right. And this story is a big deal because this is, as you noted, a whistleblower who came clean and really wanted to describe what was happening in a major media institution, one of the most important media institutions in the country. And so the individual in question is a guy named Uri Berliner who was a 25 year veteran of NPR. He was a senior business editor at NPR and he wrote a column on the Free Press that came out April 9th. And I actually want to read from a good chunk of it because I think it's important what he said and it is very much whistleblowing. So here's how he starts, quote, you know the stereotype of the NPR listener, an EV driving wordle playing tote back bag carrying coastal elite. It doesn't precisely describe me, but it's not far off. I'm Sarah Lawrence educated, was raised by a lesbian peace activist mother. I drive a Subaru and Spotify says my listening habits are most similar to people in Berkeley. I fit the NPR mold. I'll cop to that. So when I got a job there 25 years ago, I never looked back as a senior editor on the business desk, where news is always breaking. We've covered upheavals in the workplace, supermarket prices, social media and AI. It's true that NPR always had a liberal bent, but during most of my tenure here, an open minded, curious culture prevailed. We were nerdy, but not knee jerk, activist or scolding. In recent years, however, that has changed. Today, those who listen to NPR or read its coverage online find something different, the distilled worldview of a very small segment of the US Population. If you are conservative, you will read this and say, duh, it's always been this way. But it hasn't. For decades, since its founding in 1970, a wide swath of America tuned into NPR for reliable journalism and gorgeous audio pieces. With birds singing in the Amazon, millions came to us for conversations that exposed us to voices around the country, the world radically different from our own, engaging precisely because they were unguarded and unpredictable. No image generated more pride with NPR than the farmer listening to Morning EDITION from his or her tractor at Sunrise. Back in 2011, although NPR's audience tilted a bit to the left, it still bore a resemblance to America at large. 26% of listeners described themselves as conservative, 23% as middle of the road, and 37% as liberal. By 2023. The picture was completely different. Only 11% described themselves as very or even somewhat conservative, 21% is middle of the road, and 67% of listeners said they were very or somewhat liberal. We weren't just losing conservatives, we were also losing moderates and traditional liberals. An open minded spirit no longer exists within npr. And now, predictably, we don't have an audience that reflects America. That wouldn't be a problem for an openly polemical news outlet serving a niche audience. But for npr, which purports to consider all things, it's devastating both for its journalism and its business model.

[Ted Cruz]

You listen to that and it's a guy that's almost like he's coming clean, realizing just how damaging what NPR is doing to the country and describing it. Yeah, he's in pain. He also did an interview, he sat down talking about this. And I want you to hear what he had to say on Honestly with Bari Rice. Take a listen to this.

[Uri Berliner]

Everyone knew that NPR had a liberal bent. It was like saying these days like Fox has a conservative bent. That was obvious to anyone. But you argue that it's really gone from having a liberal bent or a liberal shading to really a bias. Here's one thing you write in your essay. You write for the majority of your time at npr, despite the liberal bend, an open minded, curious culture prevailed. We were nerdy, but not knee jerk activists or scolding ori. When did that start to change? When did the thing that everyone sort of recognized as sort of a liberal bias start to shift into something harder than that into, into what you call a knee jerk activist and even scolding quality?

[Chuck Schumer]

Well, I think it was cumulative. I don't think it was one event. I mean, I think part of it was Trump's election. You know, I think like every newsroom, every legacy media newsroom, we were shocked, disturbed, distraught, really troubled. We assumed Hillary Clinton was going to win and she didn't. And it was really an unsettling experience. But I also think, to me, it revealed that we didn't really understand a lot of what was going on in America, that we were out of touch. But I think also we kind of locked down after a while. I think after a while we started covering Trump in a way that like a lot of legacy news organizations, that we were trying to damage his presidency to even find anything we could to harm him. And I think what we latched onto was Russia collusion, like a lot of news organizations, which was, as I write, sort of catnip. Although it was just Rumors, and a lot of it based on pretty shoddy documents or evidence. There was. It wasn't really solid, but I think it was. It was compelling. And for us, you know, I think a lot of newspapers, you know, use documents or anonymous sources. We really latched on to Adam Schiff. He was like our muse to the Trump collusion story. We had him on constantly. A lot. I think I counted 25 times, you know, and in most of those conversations, he sort of alluded to evidence he may have had or sort of teased out, yeah, Russia, you know, he was colluding, or the campaign was colluding with Russia. And then the Mueller report came out, and no collusion. And, you know, I think we sort of, sort of. The story kind of disappeared. But to me, that was like a time for, like, what went wrong. Why did we miss this? Like, you know, despite our feelings about Trump, this is a story we should have sort of treated differently.

[Ted Cruz]

You hear him say that they. He said they were trying to harm Trump. Now, that is shocking for him to say this, because in Translation center, that means.

[Bari Weiss]

And stop. Stop and repeat that for a second. Stop and stop and repeat that for a second.

[John Kennedy]

This is a senior editor at npr.

[Bari Weiss]

Mind you, they're funded by US Taxpayer dollars, and he is admitting the entire institution, in his words, was trying to harm Trump. I mean, that is a damning admission. And at some level, as he noted.

[John Kennedy]

In what I read a minute ago.

[Bari Weiss]

It was obvious to any conservative, but it says something for a senior editor to go and blow the whistle like this.

[Ted Cruz]

NPR reminds me of Twitter before Elon Musk bought it. In many ways, where it's bloated, it's out of control, it's activism. It's not run like a business because it's subsidized by government taxpayers. I'm fine with NPR existing, Senator. They should figure out how to do it the same way that everybody else does in media, which is to make money instead of us giving them our tax dollars to then, as he described it, try to hurt Trump every time they could. And it won't just be Trump in the future. It will be any other conservative based on what he's saying. It's not like they just went in against Trump and that was it. They're going in against every conservative on every story out there.

[Bari Weiss]

Yeah. Let me focus on two other segments of what Uri Berliner wrote. Quote, concerned by the lack of viewpoint diversity, I looked at voter registration for our newsroom in D.C. where NPR is headquartered, and many of us live. I found 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans, none. Now that's not vague or ambiguous. That's not equivocal. That is explicit. Let me read this other segment. Quote. In October 2020, the New York Post published the explosive report about the laptop Hunter Biden abandoned at a Delaware computer shop containing emails about assorted business deals. With the election only weeks away, NPR turned a blind eye. Here's how NPR's managing editor for news.

[Mike Lee]

At the time explained the thinking.

[Bari Weiss]

Quote, we don't want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don't want to waste our listeners and readers time on stories that are just pure distractions. But it wasn't a pure distraction or a product of Russian disinformation, as dozens of former and current intelligence officials suggested. The laptop did belong to Hunter Biden. Its contents revealed his connection to the corrupt world of multimillion dollar influence peddling and its possible implications for his father. The laptop was newsworthy, but the timeless journalistic instinct of following a hot story lead was being squelched during a meeting with colleagues. I listened as one of NPR's best and most fair minded journalists said it was good we weren't following the laptop story because it could help Trump. When the essential facts of the Post post reportings were confirmed and the emails verified independently about a year and a half later, we could have fessed up to our misjudgment. But like Russia collusion, we didn't make the hard choice of transparency.

[Ted Cruz]

Why fix it if it's your ideology, right? If this is what the ideology is and it's being funded by taxpayers, why stop? Which brings me to my final question on this. I've heard about this and we've talked about this for, I hate to say it, 20 years. How on earth are they getting this type of government funding? Especially now if we know this from someone that worked there for 25 years, is there any way to say to NPR that's fine, if this is what your mission is, go and do it. But you're not going to do it subsidized by taxpayers.

[Bari Weiss]

Listen, I would eliminate the funding for NPR tomorrow. That's the right thing to do.

[John Kennedy]

We shouldn't be in the business of funding npr.

[Bari Weiss]

The problem is every Democrat wants to spend your taxpayer dollars funding npr because why wouldn't you? If you're a leftist, why wouldn't you be willing to use taxpayer dollars to fund a propaganda outlet for your view? And I gotta tell you, in the budget battles, too many Republicans are scared of taking on npr. And so between the two, it keeps going. Look, I actually think it speaks volume that where Uri Berliner wrote this was the free press. The Free press was started by Bari Weiss. Bari Weiss resigned from the editorial board of the New York Times and wrote a letter. If you haven't read the letter, we may do a podcast where we just read the letter because it's something I actually think should be taught in every journalism class in America. It is a letter where. And listen, Barry, by her own description, is left of center. She's a liberal Democrat who voted for Obama twice, but she was horrified. And actually Barry's resignation letter reads very much like Uri Berliner's article. They're both people, left of center who actually believe in some modicum of free speech, some modicum of fairness, and they look at the corruption of institutions they respected. I look at Uri Berliner and I'm reminded of John F. Kennedy's famous speech at the Berlin Wall, ichben ein Berliner, which he thought meant that he was a Berliner, a resident of Berlin, but actually it was poorly translated German. And what the better translation was is I am a jelly donut. Which was not JFK's finest moment, but nonetheless, I feel the same sentiments. Uri Berliner and I may disagree on a lot of things, but I'm proud to stand with Uri Berliner for daring to speak the truth. Because free speech matters. And I actually think it matters. I met recently with the CEO of a major journalistic enterprise. I won't say who it is, And.

[John Kennedy]

I told him, I said, listen, I.

[Bari Weiss]

Actually believe in a free press. I defend you even when you kick the crap outta me, even when you attack me, because I think it's important to democracy and free speech to have a real and vibrant press. But when you guys are just corrupt ideologues, when you're just propagandist, it hurts the entire country. And so I give a big shout out to Uri Berliner, like Barry Weiss, on whose platform he wrote this. There are a handful of liberals and I actually want to call out listen. I don't know that many fair minded.

[John Kennedy]

Liberals in the media listen to verdict.

[Bari Weiss]

Although we're close to a million listeners. So maybe there are. If you're a fair minded liberal working in the media and you don't like the bias and propaganda, and I'm not saying you're suddenly conservative and a right winger, that's okay, that's okay, we can have reasonable discussions. But when people speak out like Uri Berliner and Barry Weiss. It makes a difference, and we need more people to do that as before.

[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, let's talk about the confidence of Chuck Schumer. In that clip that we played, he seemed pretty confident and said it over again, I think twice, that this is going to be something that we're looking for, a resolution quickly, maybe in a day. As the reporter yelled back at him, he didn't seem to push back on that at all. So what is their game plan to basically make all this go away and how do we stop it? And that seems to be your core goal here, is to make sure that doesn't happen.

[John Kennedy]

Schumer wants it incredibly quick, incredibly silent. He doesn't want Senate Democrats on record. He doesn't want any of the facts revealed to the American people. So originally the plan was that the House had announced they were going to transmit the articles of impeachment Wednesday night. You and I are recording this right now. It is 11:51pm Tuesday night. The plan from the House was it was going to come over Wednesday night. Now, the consequence of that means that the Senate would have convened as an impeachment trial Thursday at 1pm so when articles of impeachment come to the Senate, there's actually a separate set of rules for impeachment. They're totally different from the legislative rules. And it's mandatory that the Senate immediately moves into impeachment when articles of impeachment come over. Look, it's only come over 21 times in our whole nation's history. It is an unusual moment. The problem with the Senate starting this Thursday at 1pm is typically senators go home Thursday afternoon, get on a plane and fly back to their states. Schumer wanted to do all of this Thursday afternoon because he knew senators would be anxious to leave to get back to their states. They have events scheduled in their state. They're traveling around their state, and he knew they would want to get out of here. So this morning, Tuesday morning, I started the morning by sitting down in a meeting with Mitch McConnell and with Republican leadership and with Mike Lee and John Kennedy and meeting with leadership about how we can fight what Schumer is doing here. And a point that I raised in that meeting this morning, I said, it is really damn stupid for us to do this Thursday afternoon. It facilitates Schumer's goal of making this quick. And what I suggested at the meeting this morning is I said it would make a lot more sense for the House to transmit the articles of impeachment next week, next Monday. If they transmit it Monday, the Senate takes it up Tuesday. Tuesday is a much better time to take it up because it means the Senate, we have the entire week to put this issue before the American people. And we're not doing it at a time when Senators, both Democrats and Republicans, are eager to get out of town. The phrase is jet fumes are in the air. Like Thursday afternoon is when leadership tries to ram things through quickly because everyone wants to leave.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, and by the way, side note, what's happening also this weekend, which every person in America that loves sports gonna be paying attention to as well, that starts on Thursday, the Masters. So for Democrats to be even a better time to do it on Thursday.

[John Kennedy]

So a bit of good news I raised this morning at the meeting. I said, this doesn't make any sense. Everyone who was meeting, meeting with us agreed. And so I texted the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, Mike Lee texted the speaker of the House. John Kennedy texted the speaker of the House. And the speaker, to his credit, he's a great guy. He's a great friend. The speaker said, okay, great. Happy to do it. And so he announced this afternoon that they were gonna delay sending the articles of impeachment until early next week. And so we asked him to do that.

[Bari Weiss]

He did that at our request.

[John Kennedy]

And the reason we wanted it to come early next week is so that we could focus early on the week when we could get real attention and focus on it. So that was a good step. Now I want to pause and have you reflect a little bit on why this motion to table is so consequential if Schumer succeeds, if every Democrat votes for it. And right now, Schumer seems supremely confident that every Democrat will vote for it. What that means, number one, is that every Democrat is now on record supporting Joe Biden's open borders, that they're perfectly fine with what Alejandro Mayorkas has done. But number two, understand that they will have participated in changing the U.S. senate. And so today, I participated in a press conference with a number of Republican senators where we talked about the significance of this moment. And it is in many ways very similar to 2013. In 2013, Harry Reid, the Democrat, was the Senate Majority Leader. And it is when Harry Reid nuked the filibuster for judicial appointments and for Cabinet appointments. And nuking the filibuster what that meant is that Harry Reid broke the Senate rules in order to change the Senate rules. It used to be the case that you needed 60 votes to move forward on judges, to move forward on executive branch nominees. And what Harry Reid did is he used what was called the nuclear option, which is that he got a ruling from the chair on the floor that it takes 60 votes to proceed to a nomination, and then he moved to overturn the ruling of the chair. Under the Senate rules, any ruling of the chair can be overturned, and you can overturn the ruling of the chair with just 51 votes. And so what happened was Harry Reid got the Democrats to overturn the ruling of the chair. And once you do that, you change the precedents, and that new ruling is binding. The effect of that is since 2013, nominations have only required 51 votes instead of 60 votes. Well, that night that Reid was nuking the filibuster for nominations, the filibuster still exists for legislation, but Reid nuked it for nominations. I talked to Amy Klobuchar on the Senate floor, and I told Amy that day, I said, you are going to regret this decision. All of the Democrats are going to regret this decision. And the consequence of this decision is we are going to see more justices like Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas on the courts. And there is an irony that the direct result of Harry Reid nuking the filibuster is Roe versus Wade being overturned. If Harry Reid had not nuked the filibuster, there's no way on earth that the Senate would have confirmed Brett Kavanaugh or probably not Amy Coney Barrett and maybe not even Neil Gorsuch, that if we required 60 votes, Roe vs Wade would still be the law of the land. But for the Senate Democrats nuking the filibuster in 2013. And I told them that. A number of us told them that in 2013. Now, what Chuck Schumer is planning to do next week is every bit as big a deal as nuking the filibuster. And in many ways, it's more significant. Why? Because the filibuster is not.

[Ted Cruz]

Let me ask you, what is the cause and effect then?

[Uri Berliner]

Right?

[Ted Cruz]

If you're saying, and you give the last example, which is significant, and I don't think many people understood that or remembered it, but what would it then be, the cause and effect of this? And could there be a silver lining in it?

[John Kennedy]

Well, look, the reason it is more significant is the filibuster is not written in the Constitution. The filibuster is a matter of Senate procedure and Senate practice and the Senate rules. Impeachment is written into the Constitution. The obligation on the Senate to try impeachment is mandatory. It is in the Constitution. So what the Senate Democrats are planning to do next week is nuke the impeachment clause of the Constitution, destroyed the Senate's responsibility. Give away the Senate's power, and you want to know the consequences. Listen, we've got an election in November. I think there's a very good chance Donald Trump will be elected president. And it is entirely possible that Trump will be elected president. Republicans will take the Senate, and yet we could lose the House. We could end up in January with Trump in the White House, a Republican Senate and a Democrat House. If that happens, I'm here to predict right now, if the Democrats have the House, they will once again impeach Donald Trump, maybe for the third time, the fourth time, the fifth time. I can't tell you how many times a Democrat House will impeach Donald Trump. It may be the only thing they do for two years. If that happens and it comes to the Senate and we have a Republican Senate, you know what we'll do? We'll table the damn thing. And let's be clear, we didn't last time. So when Donald Trump was impeached the first time, it was exactly that scenario. You had a Democrat House, Pelosi rammed the impeachment through the impeachment came over to the Senate. We had a Republican Senate. Mitch McConnell was the majority leader. We could have tried to do what, what Chuck Schumer is getting ready to do. We could have just tried to table it at the outset, but we didn't, because Senate Republicans actually took our constitutional obligations seriously. We followed the Constitution, we conducted the trial, and Donald Trump was acquitted. We voted not guilty. That's actually the proper constitutional way. What Chuck Schumer is willing to do to protect Democrat senators from accountability for the disaster at our southern border of their policies, what he now calls a policy dispute, is break the Senate and nuke the impeachment clause of the Constitution. That's a big deal. And it's a deal that will have consequences. 10 years, 50 years, 100 years from now, if Schumer does this next week, you will never again see an impeachment trial when the Senate is the same party as the president, that will be taken off the table.

[Ted Cruz]

So if he does this, will there be any backlash, you think, come November? Or is this such inside baseball that it just says, they say, okay, so. So what he Changed it. Who really cares?

[John Kennedy]

Well, look, the institutional change of the Senate, I don't think that's going to be a big voting issue. I do think the border and the chaos and the suffering and the death that is coming from Joe Biden and the Democrats, open border, I think that is going to be probably the single most important issue in November. And so it is critically important we do everything we can to, number one, increase the price for Schumer breaking the Senate, destroying the institutions of democracy. You know, there's an irony. Democrats love to beat their chest and talk about how they want to save democracy, and yet this is an assault on democracy. This is an assault on the Constitution and the institution that is the Senate. Just like the Democrats assault on the filibuster back in 2013, the Democrats have systematically been tearing down our institutions. But what I think is gonna resonate. So, listen, when we move to the impeachment trial, hopefully early next week, a number of us intend to raise points of order. I intend to raise probably multiple points of order challenging what the Democrats are doing. And let me be clear, what's supposed to happen? So here's what should happen next week. There are one of two things that can happen. Number one, the Senate, the full Senate could move to, could adopt an organizing resolution and move to holding an impeachment trial on the floor of the Senate. Now, when the president is impeached, the Chief justice of the United States presides over the impeachment trial, and it occurs on the floor of the Senate. You'll recall that's what happened with both of Trump's impeachments. That's what happened with Bill Clinton's impeachment. And so Mike Lee has filed an organizing resolution that I've co authored that would set up a trial using exactly the same rules that the Democrats put in place that we followed for Donald Trump's impeachment. Actually, the first one the Republicans put in place, the second one the Democrats had a majority they put in place for Trump's second impeachment. And by the way, the second impeachment of Trump, the Chief justice did not preside because Trump was no longer president. So Pat Leahy, the President pro Tem, presided, because the Chief justice only presides when it is the sitting president who's being impeached. That's one way of proceeding. Frankly, if we had a Republican majority, that's the way we would proceed, is we would have a trial on the floor of the Senate to put the facts before the American people. There is another way that Schumer and the Democrats could proceed, consistent with the Constitution and consistent with the law, which is the Senate could appoint an impeachment committee, a committee with an equal number of members, an equal number of Democrats and Republicans, and the committee would conduct the impeachment trial. Now, the trial would be public. The House managers would present their evidence, and the committee would conduct the trial. That is the way that the Senate has handled, for example, the judicial impeachments that come over. They've appointed a committee. The committee has heard the trial, and then the committee makes a recommendation to the Senate and the Senate. Ultimately, every senator has to vote guilty or not guilty. But the trial itself is not held on the Senate floor. It's held in a committee. Now, I filed an organizing resolution that would set up exactly that process, would set up a committee to conduct the trial. The trial would be public. So we would put the information, we'd put the charges, we'd put the evidence, we'd put the harms, we'd put the people hurt and killed by the Democrats, open borders. We put all of those facts before the American people, but it would not be on the floor. It would be in a committee. I'm going to make a motion to do that. The Democrats are going to oppose it, I expect. And I think there are a number of Republicans who are going to raise points of order, try to make motions to highlight the enormous harms caused by the open borders. And what I'm anticipating is every Democrat voting party line over and over and over again against every motion and every point of order we raise. Why? And it's what Chuck Schumer told us. Because this is a policy dispute. And the policy of the Democrats is they are for open borders. No matter how many people are killed, no matter how many children are violated, no matter how many women are sexually assaulted, they're for open borders. No matter how many terrorists come into this country and how much death and destruction results. And I think next week we're going to see that vividly before the American people.

[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.