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- [00:00]
Ted Cruz
As the liberal establishment goes into overdrive, spinning new Yarns about the January 6th insurrection, the Supreme Court is taking more rights away from the people, specifically denying a petition from New York healthcare workers to avoid the coronavirus vaccine mandate. And on that point, on killers and insurrectionists and the coronavirus and our rights being taken away, my very own co host, Senator Ted Cruz has been accused of being tantamount to a murderer because he refuses to wear his mask. Almost two years after the beginning of slowing the spread after his own vaccination. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.
- [00:52]
Michael Knowles
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- [02:11]
Liz
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- [03:22]
Michael Knowles
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- [04:35]
Ted Cruz
Enter Code Verdict welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz. I'm Michael Knowles astounded that here in the 12th month of the year of our Lord 2021, we are still talking about January 6th, even after so many of the media narratives about what happened that day have fallen apart. The idea that at police officers were murdered by these violent white supremacist people. So many of these claims have been retracted by the mainstream media and yet Liz, we were just talking and you told me that there is a major bombshell from the January 6th committee. What's the bombshell?
- [05:12]
Michael Knowles
Michael? I think you might be mistaking which Liz is Propagating the idea that there is a bombshell. Because if it's Liz Cheney that you're talking about, I think I speak for the American people here. I presume. I take that presumption to speak for the American people here when I say, what exactly is this bombshell that Liz Cheney is talking about? What exactly is this smoking gun? Because what she did is she read in the January 6th committee, she read a list of text messages that Mark Meadows, who was at the time, of course, President Trump's chief of staff, text messages he received on January 6. These are texts from Fox News personalities like Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham and Brian Kilmeade. These are text Messages from Don Jr. Obviously, President Trump's son, all saying, condemning the violence, saying the President should speak out and condemn this loudly so it's not conflated with the peaceful protesters. Liz Cheney portrayed this as if it was an indictment on those sending the text messages, on the conservatives who were condemning the violence. And the mainstream media, of course, just picked up this narrative that this was some kind of bombshell revelation. These text messages were. And this clip, this video of Liz Cheney went viral. Take a look at this.
- [06:19]
Unnamed Speaker
These text messages leave no doubt the White House knew exactly what was happening here at the Capitol. Members of Congress, the press and others wrote to Mark Meadows as the attack was underway. One text Mr. Meadows received said, we are under siege here at the Capitol. Another, they have breached the Capitol. In a third. Mark, protesters are literally storming the Capitol, breaking windows, on doors, rushing in. Is Trump going to say something? A fourth, there's an armed standoff at the House chamber door. And another from someone inside the Capitol. We are all helpless. Dozens of texts, including from Trump administration officials, urged immediate action by the President. POTUS has to come out firmly and tell the protesters to dissipate. Someone is going to get killed. In another, Mark, he needs to stop this now. A third in all caps. Tell them to go home. Home. A fourth, and I quote, POTUS needs to calm this down. Indeed, according to the records, multiple Fox News hosts knew the President needed to act immediately. They texted Mr. Meadows and he has turned over those texts. Mark, the President needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy. Laura Ingraham wrote, please get him on tv destroying everything you have accomplished. Brian Kilmeade texted, quote, can he make a statement, ask people to leave the Capitol. Sean Hannity urged. As the violence continued, one of the president's sons texted Mr. Meadows, quote, he's got to condemn this ASAP. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough. Donald Trump Jr. Texted.
- [08:51]
Michael Knowles
All right, Senator, am I missing something here? Is this a spoke. Is this a smoking gun? Is this a bombshell?
- [08:57]
Unnamed Speaker
No, not remotely. You had a bunch of folks saying violence is bad and the violence should stop. That should not be a smoking gun. I will say you noted the confusion between Liz's and Liz's. I think in the future, we'll simply refer to the greater Liz and the lesser Liz. And I'm very pleased. The greater Liz is our co host.
- [09:21]
Michael Knowles
Well, thank you for that compliment. Let me just pivot to Michael. Does this not exonerate these folks that sent the text messages? Because these are people that have spent the last year facing accusations of encouraging or being complicit with this violence, and yet they proved that even behind the scenes, they were condemning this. From moment one.
- [09:37]
Ted Cruz
Of course, I don't really see what the story is. You had all of these prominent conservatives, some of whom were at Fox News, some of whom were lawyers, and they texted Mark Meadows, who's been on this program before, White House chief of Staff, and they said, hey, the president should address the country. And then he addressed the country and he said all that stuff. And that does not exactly seem like a man bites dog story to me. But, Senator, you're there. You were there at the Capitol that day, and you're at the Capitol around these people every single day. What is the outcome of this January 6th commission if this is the best they've got?
- [10:12]
Unnamed Speaker
Well, listen, I think you have to distinguish from the substance of the issue versus the politics of the issue. The substance. And it's very easy. You know, in some ways, this reminds me of the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict, where everything was so polarized that it was either 100% one direction or 100% the other direction. And I think this podcast was one of the few places that we tried to say, okay, let's assess what occurred, let's assess what the facts are. If you look at January 6th, it's a little bit the same way where if you listen to Democrats, if you listen to the corporate media, it was Pearl harbor, it was 9, 11, it was cats and dogs living together. Armageddon. I mean, it was the worst day in the history of the universe. On the other hand, there's some that defend January 6th as just another day that was perfectly fine. I view it somewhere in the middle, which is, I think, where reality lives. My view is straightforward. Violence is wrong. If you commit an act of violence, you should be prosecuted. If you violently assault a police officer, you should go to jail for a very, very long time. And I don't care if you are left wing or right wing or you don't have any wings at all, if you violently assault a copy, you're going to the slammer. That ought to be non controversial. That ought to be real straightforward. What we see with January 6 and the media right now is hyperventilating. I had multiple reporters stop me in the Capitol today and say, we want you to reflect on the anniversary of January 6th. And my response, I said, you know what? When I hear from Texans, I, I don't hear from Texans on that. What I hear from Texans on is they're upset about inflation, they're upset about the chaos at the open borders, they're upset about illegal vaccine mandates, they're upset about the disaster in Afghanistan and weak foreign policy. They're upset about all of the things that are impacting their lives and their families. But that doesn't fit with the political narrative. And Democrats seized upon the aftermath of that day to try to score political points. And so one of the ways they score political points is in language and listen. Language matters immensely in all forms of discourse, but especially political communication. The word insurrection. What nonsense. Insurrection. This wasn't an army that like, was trying to conquer America. I mean, like insurrection is, you know, we had an insurrection. It was called the Civil War. 600,000 people died. That was an insurrection. Really bad one. This was. It was a riot. It was. And in fact, I would say it was a terrorist attack. When you have a mob that is attacking police officers, that's a terrorist attack. But we came out of a year in which we had an entire year of terrorist attacks all over the country, in cities all over the country. We had fires, we had stores looted, we had police cars firebombed, we had police. Police officers murdered. And the Democrats spent the entire year ignoring, whitewashing, covering it up, apologizing it. But even worse, celebrating the violence, celebrating the terrorist attack. I remember the mayor of Seattle went on TV and said, oh, it's the summer of love, man. It's the summer of love. And this is where leftist terrorists had declared, remember the Chaz autonomous zone? The whole thing was out of a bad south park episode where they declared, we, the warlords are in charge. And you had women being raped, you had assaults, you had ongoing. You wanna talk about an insurrection? These numbnuts were actually trying to do the violent overthrow of the government. And because the Democrats were such nitwits, they rolled over and let them succeed in an insurrection for weeks at a time. And yet that became the summer of love.
- [14:31]
Ted Cruz
There is a real threat to our political rights and our way of life that was just handed down from the Supreme Court. So I wanna get to that. Liz. The greater Liz, you will be getting back to us in the mailbag, though.
- [14:43]
Michael Knowles
That is correct, yes. And if anybody wants to ask a question, head on over to verdictwithtedcruise.com locals and submit those questions. We'll get to the mailbag shortly.
- [14:51]
Unnamed Speaker
I wanna go back to January 6th for a minute because there's another component that for five months after January 6th, the United States Capitol was surrounded with fences. Big, giant, black, scary fences, chain link fences that at the top of them they had razor wire. And it was frightening looking. It looked like Baghdad. It looked like our capital was under siege. And in front of the fences you had thousands of national Guardsmen. Now, the National Guardsmen are there in uniform, in camo, and they're holding machine guns with no magazines. They had no bullets in them. And it was the most absurd exercise of political theater. Why did that happen? It happened because Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer wanted to say that every person in America who voted for Donald Trump, every Republican, every conservative, anyone who loves liberty, we're all terrorists, we're all insurrectionists, we're all violently attacking the Capitol. And very quickly it became clear that's what was going on. And so the red state governor said, all right, bring our guardsmen home. We're not sending them up there to be part of a set in a studio production. So the only guys left were guardsmen from blue states, and they were from New York and New Jersey and Rhode Island. And I'd go talk with them. A number of them would come in and meet with me in my office. I'd take pictures with them and I'd visit with them. And it was interesting almost to a person. They recognized this was ludicrous theater, that they were actors in a Democratic play that had a political purpose. And the machine guns with no bullets really captured at all. The cherry. On top of the hypocrisy Sunday from Democrats and the media is that Kamala Harris, our vice president, raised money to bail out of jail violent rioters and terrorists who'd committed acts of violence. So she actively supported the violence. And it was very funny. One of the reporters today was in the Capitol, said, well, well, okay, yes, I understand that there were protests elsewhere. And I laughed and said, Protests. Oh, really? Is that what you call it? Protest? When they're firebombing police officers, when Officer David Dorn is shot and murdered, that's a protest? And the reporter almost had to step back, admit. Okay, yeah, I guess calling them protests. No, they were violent riots that Democratic officials were complicit in, refused to send the police, refused to allow the police to do their jobs, and effectively sponsored. And my view is we ought to be consistent. Whether you agree with the ideology or not of a violent criminal, nobody has a right to commit an act of violence on another American.
- [18:02]
Ted Cruz
Of course. And where does the real threat to our way of life and our system of government come from? The horn guy or the other eccentric who tried to take Nancy Pelosi's lectern, or the people who wield actual political power in the United States? Which is why I'm quite concerned about this Supreme Court decision. The justices rejected this petition of the New York healthcare workers who did not want to take the vaccine for any number of reasons why they didn't wanna take the vaccine. The court, as I understand it, came down and said, nope, sorry, the mandate stands. Now, Senator, you know, I don't know anything about the law. I know a tiny little bit about the Constitution. What is the deal with the court?
- [18:42]
Unnamed Speaker
Justice Gorsuch wrote a 14 page dissent, which I commend to you. I've read the whole thing. It's worth reading. It is exceptionally well done. It details what happened, which is that New York State has a vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. And it actually talks about how under Governor Andrew Cuomo, it was fine. When Cuomo rolled out the mandate, he said he was gonna allow an exception for religious object objections. And so that was Cuomo's rule, which was fine. It protected religious liberty, protected rights of conscience. And then, you know, Cuomo kind of got himself in trouble. And, you know, he's now with his younger brother in the ranks of the unemployed. And then his successor, Kathy Hochel, or Hochul, or I'm not sure how you.
- [19:36]
Ted Cruz
Pronounce it, something like that.
- [19:37]
Unnamed Speaker
Hochul. Anyway, she came in, look, she was lieutenant governor. Nobody knew anything about her other than she was Cuomo's number two. Suddenly she's governor. And this woman was a zealot. And so she changed the policy to eliminate the exception for religious liberty. And, you know, Justice Gorsuch writes about that and explains that. She explained why. And in her press conferences she said, quote, we left off the religious exception in our regulations intentionally. So it had been there in the original version that they carved out religious exceptions. And she asked why. The governor answered that there is no sanctioned religious exemption from any organized religion. And she goes on to say, quote, everybody from the Pope on down is encouraging people to get vaccinated. Then to a different audience, she says, quote, how can you believe that God would give a vaccine that would cause you harm? That is not truth. Those are just lies that are out there on social media. And then even further, she specified all of you. Yes, I know you're vaccinated. You're the smart ones. But you know there's people out there who aren't listening to God and what God wants. You know who they are. So think of the arrogance of an elected official who now claims to speak for God. And if you don't share her view, you are not listening to God and what God wants. Who the hell are you, Kathy? What's your name? You know what? Just cause you are in an elected power, you don't get to decide questions of faith for the people. And so she carved it out. By the way, there are exceptions for health issues. So if you have a doctor who says for some reason the vaccine is a health risk for you, there's an exception for that. There's also an exception for people that were given the placebos in tests of the vaccine. So there are two exceptions, but they decided religious liberty doesn't count. And this was a lawsuit. It was brought by about 20 healthcare workers who had been providing care to Covid peoples. These were the heroes on the front lines that are not only about to get fired, but the New York governor also decided they don't get unemployment benefits. So we're gonna fire you and you are categorically ineligible for unemployment because apparently you're not listening to God.
- [22:23]
Ted Cruz
It's clearly vindictive going after the unemployment. And she's presuming not only to speak for God, but to speak for the Pope who I suppose himself speaks for God. And she's misrepresenting the position, by the way. It is true that many Catholic bishops, including the Pope, have encouraged people to get the vaccine or said that it's permissible to get the vaccine. But the way that they have said it is permissible is by saying that even though the vaccine involves a remote cooperation with evil, the evil of the aborted fetal cells or the evil of the abortion from which the fetal cells that were used in the development and production of the vaccine came, the Church is not compelling anybody to do that. The Church can't. The position of the Church is that it cannot force you to cooperate with evil, no matter how remote. So this glib governor of New York is presuming not only to speak for God, which is outrageous enough, but to speak for other people who have their own religious views and to misrepresent those views. It is so arrogant, but it is also so ignorant and I suppose, new in American jurisprudence.
- [23:30]
Unnamed Speaker
Well, and the fact that she says there are no organized religions, big, formal organized religion. Religious liberty is not. You don't have to have a big organized religion to sign off on it. The Constitution protects your faith, and it can be challenged on whether it's sincere. But if there's no dispute with these plaintiffs that their faith is sincere, that they're acting according to their faith, and the Constitution protects it, whether you're in a religion of a billion people or a religion of just a handful, there are protections of religious liberty. And I gotta say, it was disappointing. So you had three justices, Thomas Alito and Gorsuch, who would have stayed the mandate, in other words, said, you can't fire these healthcare workers until the court decides whether to grant certiorari whether to hear the case. Yeah, but the other supposed conservatives, John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, all voted no. If one of them had voted yes, they could have granted cert. If two of them had voted yes, they could have stayed the order. All three of them voted no. And, you know, I gotta say, Justice Gorsuch wrote in the end, a comparison that was really powerful. And he talked about World War II, World War II, and in the time leading up to World War II, people were freaked out, and they were concerned. And obviously it was a major war. And local jurisdictions passed laws in public schools requiring students to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. They wanted national unity because we were heading into a war. And one public school in Minersville, Pennsylvania, had that mandate. And there was a family, Lillian and William Gobitis, who were Jehovah's Witnesses, and their child was in the schools. And Jehovah's Witnesses believe as a matter of faith that they should not pledge to anything but God. And that includes a pledge of allegiance to the flag. And so they had a genuine and heartfelt religious objection to their child being forced to pledge allegiance to the flag. They brought a lawsuit, went all the way to the supreme court. And in 1940, right at the dawn of World War II, the court rejected their claim and said, no, this is an emergency. It's a crisis. You don't have a religious liberty. Right. And so they Threw them out. Now, three years later, 1943, in another decision called Barnett, Supreme Court reversed itself. It reversed itself and said, we were wrong. We were wrong. And this religious liberty, right. It was a different Jehovah's Witness who was bringing a challenge to a similar mandate. And they reversed itself. And here's what Justice Gorsuch wrote that I think was really powerful. He said, quote, today our nation faces not a world war, but a pandemic. Like wars, though, pandemics often produce demanding new social rules aimed at promoting collective interests. And with those rules can come fear and anger at individuals unable to conform for religious reasons. If cases like Gobitis bear any good, it is as their cautionary tale. They remind us that in the end, it is always the failure to defend the Constitution's promises that leads to this court's greatest regrets. And that is a powerful, powerful analogy that I think it's disappointing that we didn't see all nine justices say, we're going to defend the religious liberty rights of these doctors and nurses who were the heroes of this pandemic. And now they're gonna be fired and denied unemployment for daring to stand for their faith.
- [27:29]
Ted Cruz
Right. It does raise questions about where the real threats to liberty and our way of life and our rights really come from. I think we should hear from some of our wonderful viewers and listeners from Verdict. So we should bring on not Liz the Lesser, but Liz the Greater with the mailbag.
- [27:46]
Unnamed Speaker
Liz.
- [27:46]
Michael Knowles
Thank you, Michael. We have a lot of good questions tonight. As always, if you wanna submit a question to ask to Senator Cruz, to ask to Michael Knowles or to ask to me, you can do so at verdict with TedCruz.com plus, if you are a subscriber on Verdict, well, you get access to ask questions that will be answered right here live on episodes of Verdict. So, Senator, I wanna start with. Well, an obvious fact here. This is a reality. You were trending on Twitter this week because of Senator Bob Dole's funeral was this week. You attended? Of course. He was a great man, a great conservative. That is not why you were trending, though. You were trending because left wing blue check marks on Twitter were angry because you were not wearing a mask at this funeral. And they essentially. I mean, these people were hysterical. They were essentially accusing you of murder, of homicide because you didn't wear a mask to protect others. They said, against COVID 19. How do you respond to this?
- [28:39]
Unnamed Speaker
Well, you know, it was interesting how the whole thing spun out of control on Twitter and online. I went to Bob Dole's funeral. I didn't know Bob personally. We didn't serve together. He was obviously a national figure. I knew of him, but we didn't know each other personally. But I respected his service and in particular, his heroic service in World War II, where he's, you know, he really embodied the greatest generation, the heroism. He lived his whole life with serious injuries that he suffered in World War II. And we're at a time when the very last of the greatest generation are passing from us that there are only a handful that are left. And so I wanted to go to honor his life and service and legacy. And I went. And there were a whole bunch of senators that went, but I did not wear a mask. I wasn't the only senator not wearing a mask. Roger Marshall, who's senator from Kansas, is a medical doctor. He didn't wear a mask. Alphonse D'Amato from New York State, former senator. He didn't wear a mask. But most of the senators wore masks. Most of the. All the Democrats wore masks. Most of the Republicans wore masks. And Twitter went nuts and the corporate media then threw gasoline on the fire. It culminated in this past Sunday on Jake Tapper's show on cnn. Jake Tapper was interviewing Amy Klobuchar, Democrat from Minnesota. And Amy and I were sitting next to each other. And she was on Tapper's show. And Tapper, and I'm gonna paraphrase, but he basically said, so you were at Bob Dole's funeral and Ted Cruz was sitting next to you, and you're a breast cancer survivor, and didn't Ted endanger your life, put your life in danger, because he was next to you without a mask? Now, Amy, to her credit, and I will give her credit, she didn't take the bait. She actually took the high road. She didn't take a shot at me. She didn't go, as Jake was begging her to do and say, yes, Ted endangered my life. But I will say a couple of observations that were particularly ironic. Number one, Jake Tapper asked this question sitting just a couple of feet from AB Klobuchar, not wearing a mask. He didn't have a mask on. She didn't have a mask on. They're facing each other now. His premise is to be in the room, to be next to Amy Klobuchar without a mask. You are endangering her life. And they're both staring at each other with no mask while making that point. It is the absolute hypocrisy. We were talking about it on January 6th. We're talking about it on CNN. It is political theater and kabuki theater. Let me tell you a second component, which is, how did I get to the funeral? Well, I got to the funeral the way most of the other senators got to the funeral which is we all loaded up into a bus that met in the Capitol and we rode in the bus from the Capitol to the funeral. Now, on the bus, you have a whole bunch of current senators, former senators on the bus. Almost every single senator took their mask off, right? So on the bus, we're sitting next to each other. We're all together, Democrats and Republicans, almost. To a person, it was, I'd say 80 to 90% of the senators took their masks off on the bus including most of the Democrats. We're next to each other chatting, and then we step off the bus and suddenly the masks go on. And it is because there are TV cameras there, and apparently a TV camera, something in the lens makes the virus more dangerous. That when you're on a bus and there are no cameras, everything's hunky dory. But when you're performing for theater, that's what was going on there. And so look, I think it revealed the utter hypocrisy. And by the way, that hypocrisy continues. If you look at the Senate, when Democratic senators get together in the Capitol today, most of them take their masks off. It's only when the cameras are there, they're putting it on. So it showed the masks are an aspect of theater. Just like the razor wire and the National Guard with machine guns and no bullets were an element of political theater. And ridiculously, CNN and other folks in the corporate media are enthusiastic participants in the charade.
- [33:14]
Michael Knowles
And Michael, very similar question to you. Have you ever worn your mask over your nose?
- [33:20]
Ted Cruz
Almost never. I actually, I was on an airline a few weeks ago. I'm not gonna say which airline. I don't wanna get them in trouble. But the stewardess came over. The speaker admitted that they all hate the stupid masks and they don't wanna enforce it. One of the stewardesses had a mesh mask on. It was fully mesh. My mind was on my chin for the entire flight. But of course, to Senator Cruz's point, there is no virtue signaling theatrical benefit to us putting on the mask for the cameras or out in public if we are conservatives or Republicans or sensible, ordinary people. But for Democrats, ardent Democrats and Democrat elected officials, they really do because it has taken on this symbolism. It's almost a religious symbolism, certainly a political symbolism. And so you get to that case at one point, Senator, I'm actually envious that you got to go to Bob Dole's funeral. I loved Bob Dole. I was just a child. I really liked the guy. I was a Republican, basically straight out of the womb. And there was a great line in his farewell letter in which he said he looked forward to seeing if heaven really looked a lot like Kansas and if he would still be able to vote in Chicago. So even among the political theater, Dole was still cracking jokes, even at the very end.
- [34:37]
Unnamed Speaker
Well, and in fact, his line was if he would still be able to vote in Chicago like so many who have gone before me have done. Which. And it was funny. The Democrats were all nervous. Oh, dead people voting in Chicago. We're not allowed to laugh at that. The Republicans, we were howling, laughing. And I gotta say, all right, Norm did a fabulous Bob Dole. And after the 96 election, Dole went on SNL with Norm playing him. And, you know, he blasts him for, you know. And why are you speaking in the third person? Bob Dole wouldn't do that. Bob Dole would not be speaking in the third person. So I have one Bob Dole anecdote, which is a good friend of mine was an intern in Dole's office in 91, in the first Persian Gulf War, and I guess the Iraq ambassador, foreign minister, some senior Iraqi official came by his office to meet with him. And Dole apparently walked out into the hallway of the Senate office building and lots of people walking up and down the hallway, and he says, are there any military men here? And two young men step forward and they go, yes, sir, we're both United States Marines. And Dole goes, good, there's an Iraqi in my office. Go kick his ass. And that apparently is a true story.
- [36:05]
Ted Cruz
That is magnificent. They don't make them like that anymore.
- [36:08]
Michael Knowles
All right, Senator, this is a little bit more serious of a question. This is from Daniel Reed over at Verdict Plus. He says, senator, other than registering more voters and electing more conservatives in 13 months, what steps can you in Congress or us in the community take to prevent wild left policies like Build Back Broke or Corrupt Politicians act from being enacted?
- [36:27]
Unnamed Speaker
Well, we've got to keep shining a light on how bad they are. We gotta make it clear to the American people. We've got to mobilize and educate. To be honest, this podcast tries to do that. I mean, a big purpose of this pod is to give the verdict community the information, the facts, the background, so that when you're talking with your friends, when you're talking with your families and your co workers. When you're posting on social media, you can spread the word about how disastrous the Corrupt Politicians act is, how disastrous the Build Back Broke bill is. To defeat them, we've got to get Democrats on the fence like a Joe Manchin or a Kyrsten Sinema to continue to vote no on Build Back Broke. They are right now. That could change any day now. And I think the more we highlight the substance, the policy, the more unpopular it gets, the less likely it is that you'll get all Democrats uniting like lemmings to jump off a cliff. But we'll see. Right now, the Democrats have all the levers of power, but the most important lever of power is the American people. And the more we can inform and educate, educate and mobilize the American people, the more we have a chance at stopping the bad things. And also the more likely we are to retake the House and hopefully the Senate as well in 22.
- [38:03]
Michael Knowles
And Michael, let me ask you about retaking the House and Senate. Give us a prediction here. I mean, most of the time, the first midterm election of a first term of a sitting president, that president party loses both the House and Senate by a significant amount. What do you think it's gonna look like in 2022?
- [38:20]
Ted Cruz
Well, I like to think that part of the reason I've been able to keep my podcasts and my career in political commentary is I don't make very many predictions. I did make one prediction once. I had a bet with Ben Shapiro over who would win in 2016, and I won 400 bucks off the guy. So I'm batting 1,000 basically on my predictions. And look, if you're looking at the polls, then you yes, the Republicans are looking really great in 2022. Certainly, we'll see what happens in 2024. The one objection I have heard is that if the Supreme Court overrules Roe versus Wade, that that will galvanize the Democrats and they will suddenly be motivated to go out and get to the polls. And that's why we all need to not save all the babies and save a serious reading of the Constitution. But other polls do not back that up. And so this should give a lot of hope to conservatives here. Yes, many Democrats care about abortion, but according to polls, a relatively small number of voters of the Democrat or Republican Party are actually motivated to show up to the polls. Given a candidate's stance on abortion, I don't think that's gonna be a big motivator. And so then you're Looking at all of the other issues. And on all of the other issues, the Republicans are winning. So I think it is a safe bet to say that right now the Republicans are looking at a very, very good midterm election.
- [39:39]
Michael Knowles
I certainly hope so. This next question from Nancy. I'm excited to hear both of your answers on this. Senator, I want to go to you first. Nancy says Julian Assange, hero, villain, or pawn.
- [39:56]
Unnamed Speaker
I don't like people that reveal information that endangers national security. And I am grateful for highlighting abuses of government power, but doing so in ways that put put our country's security at risk are not great. And so I would rather have the abuses of power highlighted in ways that don't endanger covert operatives, don't endanger people who are actively fighting to protect our security. So somewhere in between is my answer for that.
- [40:45]
Michael Knowles
All right, and Michael, what is your analysis? This, by the way, is coming on the heels of Julian Assange is very likely to be extradited back to the US So that's why he's in the news again.
- [40:54]
Ted Cruz
Well, the reason this is a tricky question, as Senator Cruz has alluded to, is because of the corruption within the American intelligence community. If the American intelligence community at the highest levels of leadership were not incredibly corrupt, then this would be an easy answer. Who do you side with? The United States government or the guy who's publishing secrets of the American government? But because of the intense corruption of the intelligence community and more broadly, what we call the deep state, we've seen this play out time and time again. They tried to subvert the 2016 presidential election. They spied on Donald Trump as a candidate, and then they tried to undermine his whole presidency. Because of that, it's very difficult to defend the ic, certainly the leadership of the intelligence community. And what does this mean for Julian Assange? I don't know. I don't know anything about Julian Assange. But in the political battle that we're talking here between this guy, Mr. Assange, and the political leaders of the IC, it strikes me that it's similar to the Iran Iraq War. I hope they both lose.
- [41:52]
Unnamed Speaker
Well, and if he is in fact extradited to the United States and there's a trial, we may get greater assessment about the extent to which the secrets he revealed genuinely endangered Americans. If they did, that's a real problem. We right now have just sort of broad assertions about that and the facts and substance matter.
- [42:17]
Ted Cruz
Yep, that's a great point.
- [42:18]
Michael Knowles
So basically, to summarize the answer, the very non vague answer is all of the above hero, villain and pawn at this moment until we get more information. If you want to submit a question to ask Senator Cruz, Michael Noyes or me, please join us over on Verdict plus it's Verdict with Ted Cruz.com plus if you want your questions answered live on air, that's the best place to get inside access to the senator and his answers to all of your concerns. Michael. On that note, I will hand it back to you now.
- [42:44]
Ted Cruz
We're very excited to go back on the road with Young America's foundation for Verdict Live. If you did not apply already for your school to host one of the shows, too bad it's too late. We've already got all the applications in, but on the next episode of Verdict we will be announcing a way that you can make it out. You will be flown out to be there live no matter which school. We're not going to give you the details yet, so subscribe. We're going to bring it out on the next episode. Subscribe, ring that bell. Leave a 5 star review Click and do all of the things that you need to do to get notifications. We'll see you next time.
- [43:29]
Michael Knowles
So I tried to get the great and powerful Jaehae to draw a cactus on the Vesta board for this little, this little bit that we're doing, but he could not produce. So let me just tell you, we have a 20% off sale on the Verdict merch store right now. You can get one of those sweet, sweet cactus hats. I would put one on for you to model it but I'm a little vain of my hair today. I think I'm having a pretty good hair day so I didn't want to mess it up. But go over to verdict with TedCruise.com shop and if you use the promo code Santa then you will get 20% off the entire shop between now and Christmas. 20% off. That's a really good deal. We have T shirts, we have cactus merch, we have hats. We have all kinds of cool stuff over there. Between now and Christmas, you get the great deal. 20% off if you use the promo code Santa then I don't know. In the meantime, maybe the great and powerful J hey will figure out how to put a T shirt or a cactus on the Vesta board. But while he's figuring that out, I invite you join us verdict with TedCruise.com shop to buy really cool merch. You get 20% off if you use the promo code Santa at checkout. That's actually pretty good.
- [44:39]
Liz
This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is being brought to you by Jobs, Freedom, and Security Pack, 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.