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- [00:01]
Michael Knowles
Inflation is at 40 year highs. Gas has doubled since Joe Biden took office. Drag queens are dancing for little kids at gay bars in Dallas. Crime is through the roof in cities around the country. People are pushing back against the Democrats who are running all of these things. But what's worthy of note here is that it's not just us pushing back. It's not just the conservatives and the Republicans on issue after issue, city after city, all the way up to the federal level. You've got Democrats pushing back against the Democrat ruling class as they see them headed for disaster in the elections. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.
- [00:50]
Liz Wheeler
This episode of Verdict With Ted Cruz is brought to you by Matt Walsh's new film. The new Daily Wire documentary, what is a Woman? I've been waiting since the day Matt announced it, and it does not disappoint. Radical gender ideology is corrupting our nation right now. It's seeping into our children's classrooms as young as kindergarten and preschool. It's even poisoned corporate culture. We see Disney and their queerness agenda that they're inserting into their children's programming. This has become a cultural phenomenon that is assaulting women, that is trying to erase biological women. And so Matt Walsh is fighting this fight. He goes on a global, on a world tour asking a very simple question, what is a woman? And fortunately, he took a film crew with him. So we all get to come on this journey with him. And you will be shocked to hear how many people can't answer what you would think is a very simple question or they have a very warped, twisted idea of what a woman is. The leftists in this film actually admit to Matt Walsh what their ulterior motive is, what their underlying agenda is. You will laugh, you will cry, you will scream, probably all at once. I highly recommend this film. It's available for Daily Wire subscribers only. Go to whatisawoman.com whatisawoman.com and join Matt on this cultural battle. Whatisawoman. Com.
- [02:05]
Ted Cruz
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- [03:18]
Liz Wheeler
With Ted Cruz is brought to you by Genucel. How old does your mirror say you are? You can delay this question by 5, 10, even 15 years with Jennycel's new Ultra Retinol serum. You can, you know, see it sitting right here on the desk. Here's a testimonial from Marina. Marina lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She says, great product. My skin loves it. I have spent more money, she says, on creams over the years, enough to pay off my house. Just kidding. But it feels like that this product has changed my life like no other. Now Marina is flying high with jennyacel's new Ultra Retinal serum with hyaluronic acid. This works to hydrate your skin at the cellular level. It builds on this deep moisture with incredible anti wrinkle effects. And gentlemen, you know that we ladies, we wives, use your razors in the bathroom when you are not looking. Likewise, we know that you use our face products, our skincare products, and it's fun. All's fair in love and war. Now if you go to my URL, that is jennycel.com cactus you can get up to 50% off Genyacel's new Ultra Retinal Serum. That is 50% off. If you go to jennucel.com cactus it spelled G E N U C E L.com cactus jennucel.com Cactus welcome back to.
- [04:30]
Michael Knowles
Verdict with Ted Cruz. There is so much to get to, Senator, that I need your thoughts on. But before I get to any of that, did I see you on TV playing poker with some of the best poker players in the world?
- [04:43]
Ted Cruz
You did, and it was one of the coolest things ever. I played in Poker After Dark. So I will say I Was like, Doyle and Phil, I was giddy about. I was like, this was a bucket list thing. I told my daughters, who are 14 and 11, and they're like, yeah, yeah, whatever. Okay. Some poker players, what's the. What's the big deal? I told them Mr. Beast is going to be there, and my girls lost their minds. They're like, Mr. Be like. So both girls flew to Vegas to meet Mr. Beast. I mean, it was. Look, being in the Senate, it's hard to do anything that seems remotely cool to a 14 year old or an 11 year old, especially a 14 year old. But for them to meet Mr. Beast, they thought it was the coolest thing ever. And so I played poker. They put out the first episode, so the game we played for a couple hours. They chopped it into three episodes. So part one has come out already, but there'll be two more parts and it was pretty awesome.
- [05:47]
Michael Knowles
Well, I am glad that you could be a cool guy now for your daughters. It's always something you strive for. As a parent, you wanna seem like a cool guy. I do have this question on poker though, which is, I know you love poker. There have been a number of other politicians and statesmen who have famously loved poker. Is there something about poker that just speaks to a political kind of spirit? What is it about poker that draws you to it? Cause you're not the first guy I've known who is so into it.
- [06:21]
Ted Cruz
So poker is people. And it's interesting you look at. So you play poker. Poker is math. It's knowing what the odds are. It's knowing what cards you have and what are the odds and how many outs you have. And the math is important. But what I like about poker is it's reading people and it's trying to understand the person sitting across the table from you. What do they have? Are they telling you the truth or lying? Are they bluffing? So I've got a number of really close friends who enjoy playing poker, and we played poker for years. And one of my closest friends, a guy who was a groomsman at my wedding, is a semi professional poker player and he's played multiple times in the World Series. He's actually made a final table at the World Series, not in the main event, but in, I think the 2000 Texas Hold'em event. And he and I have played a gazillion times and we both. He's beaten me a bunch of times. I've beaten him a bunch of times. We've spent a lot of hours around the poker table. What's Interesting is that he is, in terms of the math, clearly a better poker player than I am. I can do the math, but I don't study it to the level of know it to the precision that he does. I spend much more time reading the players. And so we'll have hands where I'll beat him. And he'll be like, what the hell were you doing? That made no sense. Why would you call me there? And my answer is because you didn't want me to. It may not have. It may not have made sense. If you'd had the cards, it would have been a terrible call. But I knew you didn't want me to. You wanted me to lay down my cards, which is why I called you, which is why I took your damn money. So hand me your chips. And look, sometimes you get the read wrong, sometimes you don't. You know, you think you know what, and obviously that's part of what makes poker fun, is projecting weakness. Projecting, you know, you're trying to fool the other players. But it's. I grew up, actually, I learned to play poker as a little kid. My grandmother, my mother's mother, Irish Italian grandmother, great card player. She played bridge every week for probably 70 years. But she would babysit me when I was a little kid. When I was, I don't know, 8, 10 years old, my parents would drop me off at my grandparents for them to babysit me. And my grandmother would sit down and taught me to play poker. And she had a metal tin of buttons, and we would play with buttons as chips. And some of the buttons were costume jewelry. It was like fake diamonds. So I'd like take the fake diamond and say $1 million. And I'd just make up whatever it was if they looked fancy and were glittery. And I always would win as a little kid. I would win and I would win and I would win. And I felt pretty good about myself. And when I was, I don't know, about 10 years old, I came and said, hey, granny, let's play for real money. And she said, okay, sure. And I had $5, which $5 at the time, my allowance was 50 cents a week. So that was 10 weeks allowance that I had. And I sat down and played with her and she took every penny from me. She wiped me out. My mom came to pick me up and I was crying as a 10 year old, I was in tears and my grandmother's just cracking up, laughing, you know, An Irish Italian grandmother said, go on home, sonny. You know, welcome to the big leagues.
- [10:02]
Michael Knowles
Two and a half Months pay, That's pretty tough.
- [10:06]
Ted Cruz
It got your attention.
- [10:10]
Michael Knowles
That. Well, okay, that actually makes sense to me because I have heard people describe this to me that poker, it's not really about the cards. It's not really, as you say about the numbers. It can be about money, it can be about how people relate to money and risk and threat. It's really about people. It's about people reading other people. So this actually leads us perfectly into what I really wanna talk about today, which is the Democrats who are in power seem to be completely misreading the situation. You've got three, you've got a lot of blunders, but as I can see it, three really, really big, prominent blunders they're making right now on the economic front. Not only have they made a lot of poor economic decisions that have hurt the country and certainly their political position, but they're not backing away from them. They're doubling down when it comes to energy, they're doubling down when it comes to so many aspects of the economy. On the cultural, social issues, they're defending drag queens jiggling for kids, actual little tiny Children in bars, 21 plus bars in Texas of all places. They're defending it. And then they're coming on crime. They're still so weak on crime, the DA's, the mayors, that you're seeing real significant challenges from the right. In San Francisco, you've got a recall of the District Attorney in Los Angeles, now you've got a big fight for the mayor and a sort of kind of Republican is posing a big challenge. What the hell are the Democrats thinking?
- [11:43]
Ted Cruz
You know, Michael, it reminds me of. Do you remember those videos that would come out every spring break, Girls Gone Wild. And it would have lots of college women in bikinis or not bikinis. It reminds me of much the same thing. This is liberals Gone Wild. This is the crazy left. This is AOC and Elizabeth Warren, thank God, not in bikinis, but embracing their socialist nuttiness. I mean, it's literally like someone sat down at a bar and said, how much crazy crap can we do? Like how far can we go to drive away not just the conservatives? That's a given. Not even just the moderates, not even just the independents. But what can we do to drive away good old fashioned liberals who are not nuts?
- [12:36]
Michael Knowles
I do want to clarify, Senator, just on the Girls Gone Wild point. I only ever watched that for the articles. You know, I was just. Obviously. But I totally see, I think the analogy is very good. They've gone to extremes and followed Their own wildest impulses. So what is going to happen to them in these elections that are really coming up right before us now? You're looking at Los Angeles, you're looking at the recall in San Francisco. It's not Republicans recalling these guys. It's not Republicans who are gonna be voting primarily in the LA election. So what are the elected Democrats gonna do? Are they gonna moderate or are they gonna get wiped out?
- [13:16]
Ted Cruz
So I don't know what they're gonna do this week, but I know what they're gonna do in November. They're gonna get obliterated in November. It is going to be an historic election. It's. Every issue is so extreme. Look, there are people, Bill Maher. Bill Maher is an old school liberal who they are driving away. Elon Musk. Elon Musk has been a Democrat his whole life. They are driving him away where he said, okay, I'm voting Republican now because these guys are nuts. And you think about it. All right, let's take the drag queen thing. Like, listen, this is not about homosexuality. It's not even about transgenderism. If you want to, if consenting adults want to do what consenting adults want to do, fine, knock yourself out, but leave the kids alone. I mean, this is not rocket science. Listen, if you had straight women who were strippers and you had five year olds tucking dollars in their G strings, you and I would be appalled. Because kids have no business being sexualized. And it's where, look, this is the radical extreme left that they want to sexualize little kids. So they're in this gay bar, they've got transgender drag queens where they're tucking dollars in their G strings. And these are little kids. Like what? It's the whole. The misnamed don't say gay law in Florida. What is it with the radical left wanting to teach kindergartners about sex? Gay sex, straight sex. How about just no sex for 5 year olds? That ought to be a really simple rule that only the crazy left doesn't get.
- [15:07]
Michael Knowles
Well, you make a really interesting point here too, on strip clubs. If instead of the gay bar with the drag queens wearing skimpy clothing and have kids putting dollars in their various scantily attire, you know, scanty attire. If instead of that, you had kids walking into a plain old regular strip club with real women there jiggling around, you would have people calling child protective services in the blink of an eye, as well they should. So I guess in a certain way it does have a tie in with the LGBT movement. In as Much as there's a complete double standard here. And when it's drag queens doing it, it's celebrated and the parents are taking the kids themselves.
- [15:55]
Ted Cruz
Think how crazy this is, that this is parents taking their kids to this. Like, look, we've discussed how our culture has just become twisted. Like, protecting the innocence of kids ought to be something everyone can agree with. And it's where you're seeing it. Or, you know, I mean, let's look at the fact that the DA in San Francisco is facing a recall. Chesa Boudin or Chisa. I'm not sure how you pronounce this name.
- [16:26]
Michael Knowles
I never know how to pronounce it.
- [16:27]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, but he's the son of two radical Weather Underground terrorists who were convicted of terrorist bombing. Literally. The DA was raised by convicted terrorists. And he's one of the many George Soros DAs that got elected and decided, I've got a great idea. Let's not prosecute criminals, let's let violent criminals go. Isn't this a wonderful idea? If we let violent criminals go, will be so enlightened. And even the people of San Francisco are saying, what the hell are you doing? Like, we're liberals, we're all for 90% tax rates or whatever it is that they're for, but could you not let murderers, like, wander the streets?
- [17:14]
Michael Knowles
Well, Democrats see that there's that issue, right? So it's not just the Republicans, it's not just the moderates. Democrats are waking up to this. But I do wonder if it's not just that the liberals have gone totally crazy. I mean, maybe they already were crazy, but you saw, many decades ago, you would see liberal leftist radical theorists writing about all these things, how in order to have true revolutionary change in America, we need to abolish the police. We need to radically redesign the prison systems. They would talk about how we need to sexualize children in order to get rid of all of their old stodgy, traditional prejudices about sex. For goodness sakes. Bernie Sanders wrote essays about this in the 1960s. Even on the economy, you've had not just the radical theorists, but even Barack Obama, even members of the Obama administration saying, we need to increase prices for fossil fuels. We need to create actually some economic hardship, because that's the only thing that's gonna motivate people to go in and finally revolutionize the economy. You've seen them talking about this stuff in a way that shows their long term political goals, which is, to quote Barack Obama, to fundamentally transform America. And I guess I wonder if what you're seeing right now is that those long term goals are just Democrats getting out a little ahead of their skis here, and there's so much short term pain and confusion that maybe their own constituents are gonna say no.
- [18:41]
Ted Cruz
So, Michael, I'm sorry. I'm still traumatized because about halfway through what you said there, you invoked Bernie Sanders and sex. And that's just an image I don't need to see. I've got to walk on the Senate floor and see him with his white hair sticking straight up in the air, and I just don't need to. That's an image I could have avoided.
- [19:01]
Michael Knowles
Truly unpleasant.
- [19:02]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, it is. All right, let's take gas prices. It is truly amazing watching the corporate press try to bend over backwards to say, none of this is Biden's fault, it's Putin's fault, It's global markets, it's this, it's that, it's the other. Biden literally campaigned saying, I'm gonna shut down oil and gas drilling in the United States. I'm gonna shut it down on federal lands, I'm gonna shut it down offshore. The green New Deal I'm gonna embrace. Biden has implemented literally dozens of policies designed to attack, to hurt, to shut down domestic energy production in the United States. He's done it over and over and over and over again. So he promised he would do it. He's followed through on that promise. And the predicted effect of that is prices have doubled. And by the way, the socialists want prices to double. Because what they're saying is, you, Joe Six Pack, make the decision we don't like. You drive a pickup truck, Mom. Maybe you drive a Suburban, maybe you drive a minivan. And here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna make your life so miserable that you have to spend 100 bucks or 150 bucks to fill up your car or truck, that you're gonna get rid of it and buy a Prius, which is what we want you to do. And so we're gonna keep hurting you until you make the enlightened decision that we your betters do. By the way, this past week, I don't know if you saw, the EU is putting taxes on, on fuel, on jet fuel, but they exempted private jets because of course they did. This is called the John Kerry exception. These guys are Mr. Burns. They are wealthy, out of touch, living in opulent riches. But then when they do what they promised they would do, implement policies to hurt domestic energy production, to drive gas prices up, suddenly they discover, wait, people don't like spending 150 bucks to fill up their truck.
- [21:13]
Michael Knowles
Right.
- [21:14]
Ted Cruz
And then they just try to blatantly lie to you.
- [21:17]
Michael Knowles
I'm really hoping that now that the people are kind of people of all parties actually are pulling the radicals back from the brink. But I wonder if the radicals and the people who have been in charge have secured those kind of longer term victories. I look this past week at Joe Biden invoking the Defense Production act cuz there is this energy crisis. Energy costs have gone through the roof. Gas has doubled since the man's been president. And so what does he do? Does he invoke that provision of the law or some other provision to open up oil drilling? No. To, I don't know, create a new nuclear power system? No. What is he to produce solar panels? It's to give the left what they've wanted for a long time that I don't see any way will actually bring down energy costs. Certainly not anytime soon. One, how does he do that? The White House hasn't explained what emergency he's responding to that requires solar panels. But two, are they getting what they want? Are they. As we've heard, from which I forget the name of the Emanuel brother, there's Ari and there's Zeke and there's the one that I'm talking about. Gosh, I can't believe his name escapes me. But one of the worst Democrats in modern politics. Never to let a crisis go to waste. Oh, Rom, there we go. I can't believe I forgot the most famous of the Emanuel brothers names. I remember the Hollywood one and the doctor one, but not Rahm saying never let a crisis go to waste even as they're losing support even among their own guys right now. Are they scoring those long term political wins?
- [22:58]
Ted Cruz
So I actually think there are some voices among Democrats and it wouldn't surprise me if Emmanuel is one of them that is wondering what in the hell are you people doing? They're people like James Carville who Listen, James Carville is smart as all get out. He's one of the most effective Democrats. Mary Madeline, his wife. Mary's a friend. She's been a supporter of mine. So I've been to Mary and James home and he's, he is an effective adversary. He's a Democrat, but he actually gets, he's not nuts. And he's looking at his own party and is like, okay, you people, are you trying to lose every congressional race in America? I mean that's not a quote. But there are definitely. Listen, Bill Maher is an Interesting example. And we've talked about at some point, I hope we have Bill on this show. I'd never met Bill Maher, but more and more I'm watching his diatribes and I'm retweeting them. Not because he, and I agree he is an old school liberal, but he does believe in free speech, which the left has abandoned. He recently had a monologue where he was talking about sexuality and the explosion of people that are identifying as other genders and identifying as gay. And he went through, in history, this was not the case. And we've suddenly had this dramatic shift which we're not even supposed to talk about. And he raised an interesting point. He said, well, they're big regional differences in, say, California, the number of people who identify as 47 genders versus in Youngstown, Ohio. Yeah. And he said, either there's a lot of peer pressure and social pressure in California or there's a lot of suppression in Ohio. But we had to talk about that. There's apparently a fundamental transformational shift of humanity that we're not talking about. And I gotta say, that frankly sounded like something Michael Knowles would say.
- [24:59]
Michael Knowles
Yeah, right.
- [25:00]
Ted Cruz
You gotta wonder, is there anyone left in the Democratic Party who can actually talk to a steelworker? Yep. Like they have become this angry, fringe, wealthy, urban radical elite that is appealing to a smaller and smaller. It's like the Yale faculty is their constituency. And I gotta say, thankfully, the country is not the Yale faculty. And it seems that today's Democrats don't get that.
- [25:37]
Michael Knowles
No, this is actually making me feel a bit better because we tend to spend a lot of time online. And it is true that the boundaries of what is acceptable in society have been basically blown to smithereens. I mean, even five years ago, the thought of a little kid going into a drag bar and putting a doll, I mean, that would be unthinkable. So because we've seen the limits get blown to smithereens, it's very easy to fall down this pit of despair and say, oh, gosh, the country is gone. We might as well give up the fight. But to your point, Senator, they may not be doing this kind of stuff out of confidence, out of a feeling that they've got the wind at their sails. Actually, you might be seeing the kind of defiance you're getting from the administration on the economy, the radicalism on sex and the drag shows, even the defiance on crime and criminal justice. You might be seeing that more out of desperation from Democrats now who know that perhaps their time in office is going to be dwindling. Because there's a very large movement, not just of Republicans, but of moderates and some Democrats too, who are ready to throw them out and ready to shift that pendulum back. But I guess we won't. There's a little optimism to leave on, there's a little hope to leave on, but I suppose we won't know until those elections take place.
- [26:53]
Ted Cruz
By the time this pod comes out, the world will know whether Chesa Boudin's been recalled or not. I don't know whether he will be or not, but in some ways, whether he is or not, the point is the same. Because the fact that it is real and close and significant is powerful. Even if he ekes out surviving or I hope, is recalled. You know, Los Angeles, there's a vigorous primary for mayor. A few months ago, it was assumed that Karen Bass, the extremely liberal Democrat congresswoman, was a shoe in. And now there is at least a vigorously contested primary with a billionaire developer who has been a Republican much of his life. He's running in a Democrat primary, just to tip the hat to it. But I gotta say, if you're in la, look, you fled la. I mean, the crime issue. I remember a couple of years ago, I was visiting with a cop in California, used to be an LA cop, and he showed me on his phone a picture of a tree in downtown LA that was just covered with hypodermic needles, thousands of needles, where the junkies just threw the needles in the trees. And at some point people say, wait, this is nuts. You look at the beaches where you've got homeless people just allowed to take them over, engage in violence. Listen, you fled la, so. Yeah, why am I telling you about the place you fled? Why did you flee?
- [28:29]
Michael Knowles
Well, for all of those reasons, obviously. Plus there were the economic reasons, the onerous regulation, all of the constant tax hikes. And I think the California Franchise Tax Board is basically worse than the Mafia at this point. But then there was this basic safety issue. And I will tell you, friends of mine who have fled la, not all of my friends in LA were conservative. I mean, if that were the case, I'd have very few friends in la. Cause there just aren't that many conservatives. And there were a lot of liberal friends who were making the same comments about crime there. And so people really are getting sick of that stuff. You can see blue places turn on these kinds of issues. You saw it happen in New York in the 90s. You might be seeing that in Los Angeles right now. The very fact that these keep cropping up these hotly contested elections with lots of momentum behind the center or center right candidate. That shows you that something is in the air right now. And so I'm not surprised that the Democrats are throwing everything they've got. They're throwing the kitchen sink right now. And I know one way they're trying to distract is they're trying to distract with the January 6 partisan committee in the House. And I also know that our friend Liz Wheeler will be discussing this with you. And specifically the arrest of former Trump aide Peter Navarro on the cloakroom. Isn't that right, Liz?
- [29:48]
Liz Wheeler
Hi, Michael Heisander. First of all, before we even get into that topic, I want to thank you both for that disturbing image of Bernie Sanders that's now burned into my mind for all eternity. I listen to this whole episode sitting right with you, and this is what I get in return is this image of Bernie Sanders.
- [30:05]
Ted Cruz
Just for the record, Liz, that was Michael, that was not me. I was a victim in that imagery as well.
- [30:11]
Michael Knowles
You're welcome.
- [30:12]
Liz Wheeler
All right, so we are going to talk about Peter Navarro on Colloquium. This is a very interesting conversation, cuz it's not just about the January 6th committee. That's obviously partisan. It's obviously a showboat trial, if you will. I mean, they hired an ABC News executive to produce it, to make it a primetime, a primetime event here. But the arrest of Peter Navarro itself is a constitutional question because what he claimed was executive privilege, that he couldn't testify because this was, this was not his information to give, that it was actually President Trump's information to either divulge or claim executive privilege. And there's a very interesting constitutional question about whether it's even legal for Congress to have indicted him without the court intervening. And we are going to dive into the details of that today. You can join us, of course. We invite you to. We hope you will over on verdict with Ted Cruz.com/ that is the Verdict+ community. If you use my promo code, which is cloakroom, intuitively it makes sense. You can get your free first month free on your annual subscription. That is Verdict with TedCruz.com plus I.
- [31:16]
Michael Knowles
Cannot wait to watch. But in the meantime, I've got to say goodbye. I'm Michael Knowles. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.
- [31:31]
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.