← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Parents NEED To Stand Up To The Schools That Require The Coronavirus Vaccine!
00:48:23
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- [00:01]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome to Verdict with Ted Cruz. I'm Ben Ferguson. Nice to have all of you with us. And Senator, we have got a lot to discuss today, including this new news that Steve Bannon is going to spend, in theory, four months in jail. We also need to talk about some news, and that is the media is starting to actually tell the truth about the damage done to kids with school closures. We're going to have that, plus gun control in Canada and a very important Senate race in Utah. Now, before we get to those other stories center, I want to get to this shocking headline, and that is that Steve Bannon is supposed to spend four months in jail, in prison for defying a outwardly partisan kangaroo court is how one tweet put it earlier today. There's a lot of people asking questions, how do you get four months when guys like Eric Holder didn't get any time in jail? Klein Smith, for example, the former FBI assistant general counsel involved in Crossfire Hurricane, didn't get any in time, any time in jail as well.
- [01:06]
Ted Cruz
Look, I think the news of Bannon's being sentenced to four months is absolutely outrageous. And I, and I am furious about it. I'm furious because Merrick Garland has presided over a Department of justice, that it now consists of simply being a partisan weapon to attack the political opponents of Joe Biden and the Democrats. And Merrick Garland should be ashamed. He should resign in disgrace. And if he doesn't, he should be impeached and removed from office. What happened here? The January 6th Committee subpoenaed Steve Bannon. Now, the January 6th Committee is not a real congressional committee. A real congressional committee has members from both parties. And the Democrats select the Democratic members of the party. The Republicans select the Republican members of the party. Nancy Pelosi wanted, didn't want to have a real committee. She wanted to have a kangaroo court. So she selected the Democrat members of the committee, and the House Republican majority leader, Kevin McCarthy, selected the Republicans. And she promptly said, nope, I don't like those Republicans. She didn't like Jim Jordan. She didn't want Republicans who actually would oppose the Democrat partisan agenda, so she vetoed the Republicans. Speaker doesn't get to do that. That is unprecedented. It's an abuse of power. She literally tried to stack the deck. And so this committee consists of 100% Democrats plus two now fake Republicans, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both of whom will be gone in January, neither of whom are coming back as Republicans. And there are two Republicans who Donald Trump shattered into tiny little pieces of impotent Rage. And they've conducted a year long TV commercial for the Democrats. These hearings. I literally have not watched 1 second of these hearings for the same reason that I don't watch the Democratic National Convention every four years. It is a paid infomercial for the Democrat Party. So is this. Well, this kangaroo court subpoenaed Steve Bannon. He declined to testify and the Department of Justice stepped forward and prosecuted him. He was voted in contempt of Congress and the Department of Justice stepped forward and prosecuted him. And what just happened is the district court sentenced him to four months. The reason I'm furious, Ben, is the wildly double standard. You mentioned. Eric Holder. Eric Holder was Attorney General under Barack Obama. Eric Holder defied Congress. He refused to give them documents on Fast and Furious. The, the incredibly scandalous situation where the Department of Justice ran guns to Mexico. Guns and turns that were used to murder U.S. agents. And to cover up the scandal, Eric Holder refused to turn over documents, refused to testify, just stiff armed Congress. Congress voted him in contempt. But here's the piece that was missing because it was the Obama Justice Department. The Obama Justice Department never prosecuted him. So Congress voted him in contempt. But look, under our Constitution, Congress as the legislative branch defined by Article 1 of the Constitution doesn't have the power to prosecute anyone. Only Article two, the executive branch can prosecute. So when Eric Holder was held in contempt, he wasn't prosecuted. The difference is now when it's Democrats controlling Congress and Democrats controlling the White House, now they go after Steve Bannon and they want jail time. And you know, you mentioned also Kevin Klein Smith. I want to focus on him a.
- [04:51]
Ben Ferguson
Little bit and remind people of Kevin Klein Smith because you know, they hear and look, we saw this this weekend the headlines that came out, Senator, where it says, well, Steve Bannon just got what he always wanted.
- [05:02]
Ted Cruz
Right?
- [05:02]
Ben Ferguson
He wanted to be a martyr is how CNN put it on their website. There was others that say Steve Bannon deserved what he got because he refused to testify. It's not abnormal for people to say they don't want to testify. Can we be clear about that? And that doesn't mean that you deserve to go to jail.
- [05:18]
Ted Cruz
Well, I'll give you someone else who refused to testify who pleaded the fifth, who was held in contempt, Lois Lerner. Lois Lerner directed the section of the IRS under Barack Obama that targeted conservatives for their political beliefs. When it came out that Lois Lerner had targeted conservatives for their political beliefs, Barack Obama held a press conference. He said, I am angry and the American people have a right to be angry. Now, what Barack Obama was doing there, there's a technical word for it that's called lying. How do we know it's lying? Because, number one, Lois Lerner was never prosecuted. Number two, the Department of Justice appointed a special prosecutor in charge of the case, who was a major Democratic donor, to give in about $6,000 to Barack Obama and the Democrats. So she had a clear partisan bias. Number three, Lois Lerner retired with full pension. But number four, when she defied Congress and was held in contempt, once again, the Department of Justice refused to prosecute her because the Obama Department of Justice was thoroughly corrupted, as you know, Next week my book comes out on this topic, Justice Corrupted how the Left Weaponized the Legal System. I walked through Lois Lerner, I walked through Eric Holder, I walked through Kevin Klein Smith. Let's do Kevin Klein Smith because it gives another example. So Obama weaponizes doj, weaponizes the FBI, weaponizes the irs, refuses to prosecute anyone for contempt of Congress even though they're voted in contempt of Congress. Fast forward to Trump when Donald Trump becomes president. Under Obama, these hard partisans had burrowed in to senior positions at the Department of Justice, the FBI, the irs, and all, all different agencies of the federal government. In the FBI, they launched, along with doj, what was called Operation Crossfire Hurricane. There's an entire chapter in my book explaining Crossfire Hurricane. Crossfire Hurricane was the hard partisans at doj, at the FBI, trying to target Donald Trump, trying to go after the newly elected president because they didn't want the American people to be able to elect Donald Trump. Now what did they do? Well, the Department of Justice Inspector General issued a report on all of the mistakes, all of the abuses of power of the FBI and the DOJ. In Crossfire Hurricane, it outlines 17 different major mistakes, the biggest one of which was committed by Kevin Klein Smith. Kevin Klein Smith was an assistant General Counsel at the FBI. The FBI was seeking a wiretap on a guy named Carter Page. Carter Page was a professor. He was, you know, a peripheral foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign. And the FBI wanted to get a wiretap on Carter Page. And, and the basis of their wiretap is they said, well, he's talking to some really shady Russians. And so he may be doing something bad because the Russians he's having conversations to with are questionable. Well, the FBI sent an email to the CIA and they asked the CIA, hey, this Carter Page guy, is he a source for the CIA? In other words, when he's talking to the shady Russians, is he doing it on behalf of the United States of America. Is he helping the CIA out now? If the answer is yes, then it's not suspicious that he's talking to shady Russians because we.
- [08:43]
Ben Ferguson
He's doing it on purpose on behalf of the United States government, which is asking him to do it on their behalf. And that's exactly right.
- [08:49]
Ted Cruz
Exactly right.
- [08:50]
Ben Ferguson
And to ask that question, I want to know, because there's so many people that are listening, Senator, they may say, well, that's a weird question to ask, right? For the FBI to talk to the CIA. There was obviously something that popped in Carter Page's file, right. That made them say, oh, he's an asset of the United States government. To even think to go ask that question.
- [09:10]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, that is a reasonable inference. We don't know what it was that prompted that question. Question. Although if you are, we don't know what it was that prompted it. We know they asked it. And the CIA. CIA responded in writing. Yes, he is a source. Thank you for asking. He's very helpful to us. Yes, he is a source. Here's what Kevin Klein Smith did. He took that, that email and he fraudulently altered it, and he changed the CIA's email. So where they say, yes, he is a source, he changed that to read, no, he is not a source. He then took that counterfeit fraudulent document and he submitted it to a federal court and used it as the basis to get the wiretap on Carter Page to go after Donald Trump. Now, that is a felony. He created a fraudulent document and submitted it to a federal court. He was prosecuted when it became public. And you know what sentence Kevin Klein Smith got.
- [10:09]
Ben Ferguson
You would assume if you do something that egregious to actually spy on somebody, that you would do years, if not.
- [10:15]
Ted Cruz
A decade, that that is absolutely right. If you create a fraudulent document to submit to a federal court, I'll tell you right now, Ben, you or I do that, we're doing hard time. You don't get to submit fraudulent documents to a court on purpose, particularly when you are doing it to target the President of the United States in a partisan vendetta. Well, here's What. What the D.C. district judge sentenced him to 12 months probation and 400 hours of community service. He did not serve a single day in jail. And by the way, his law license was restored as well. It was an absolute slap on the wrist. And what is infuriating is this is a blatant. It is an obvious double standard. No one can defend it. Why did Bannon get sentenced? Because the Democrats hate Steve Bannon. And this is about punishing your political enemies. And I think it is completely indefensible.
- [11:16]
Ben Ferguson
You go back to Steve Bannon for a second and why they hate him so much. This is a guy, number one, Senator, I think you would agree with me. You cannot control him. He's a guy that went into the Trump White House and they couldn't even control him. He immediately comes out and starts exposing stories and issues and telling stories the media refuses to tell. He was a guy, for example, that was on the front lines of the laptop from hell and the hard drive of Hunter Biden and was exposing that on a regular basis. Fast forward to January 6th, and they say, well, Steve Bannon had to be involved. He had to orchestrate this. We have no doubt that he was a part of it. And that's where the witch hunt happened against him, which is why they've decided to subpoena him. And he's like, I don't want to say anything to you. I have nothing to say to you.
- [12:07]
Ted Cruz
Well, and not only that, Steve Bannon is also protected. He was a senior adviser to the President of the United States. And there is a privilege that is called executive privilege, which protects senior advisers to the President of the United States. Why does it do that? Because we want the President to be able to get good and candid advice. And if Congress could haul every senior advisor to the President down and force him to testify under oath, the President wouldn't get candid and real advice. And by the way, that's a privilege that. That has been asserted. George Washington asserted it. It has been asserted, I believe, by every president since George Washington, Republicans and Democrats. And so Steve Bannon, in refusing to comply with Congress, was. Was doing his job. And let me note, Eric Holder was not. When Eric Holder defied Congress, he was just covering his own ass. He was not protecting executive privilege. He was just saying, I don't want you to catch the bad stuff I've done. I refuse to participate.
- [13:00]
Ben Ferguson
Subpoenaed. A lot of people may not remember the story of why that Congress subpoenaed him and why Congress wanted to talk to Eric Holder in that capacity.
- [13:08]
Ted Cruz
So it was a battle over a program that was called Fast and Furious. And Fast and Furious is something that. That was started under the Obama Justice Department, where they put illegal guns on the street and they essentially sold them to drug dealers, to Mexican drug cartels. And it was a ridiculous program. You should not have the federal government in the business of selling lots of guns to really dangerous people. And those guns, in turn were used to murder federal agents. So, so DOJ literally provide, provided and supplied the murder weapons and Congress. Once it was a Republican Congress, Democrats didn't care about it at all. They thought that was just fine, that DOJ was selling, selling guns to Mexican drug cartels. When we had a Republican Congress, they said, gosh, this seems like a problem. We want to see all the documents. We want to see what you discussed. We want to see what the hell were you thinking running guns to drug.
- [14:03]
Ben Ferguson
Cartel members and drug wards in Mexico.
- [14:06]
Ted Cruz
That's exactly right. And Eric Holder was covering his own rear end. Kevin Klein Smith was deceiving and committing a fraud on the court in order to carry out a partisan vendetta against someone he hated. Look, you look at Steve Bannon. I know Steve Bannon very, very well. He and I have been friends for a long time. I've worked very, very closely with Steve for years. Steve is smart as hell, number one. But Steve is also a bull in a China closet. So Steve does not move gently in anything. He does. And in Washington, he. He broke some China. He ticked off a lot of Democrats because he's not afraid of the Democrats. He's not afraid of the media. And so they want to destroy him, but not because of anything he did. They want to destroy him because they hate him. That is what this is about. This is about corrupting the machinery of government to target your political enemies. And it is outrageous. Anyone who cares remotely about the integrity of the Justice Department or the FBI should be horrified and speak out. And by the way, every Democrat, former Attorney general, every Democrat prosecutor ought to come out and say this if they have a shred of integrity. And I got to say, the silence on the left combined with the gloating from the media has been truly stomach turning.
- [15:31]
Ben Ferguson
This idea that he wanted this as the headline from CNN is that their analyst said Steve Bannon just got what he's always wanted. They claim that this sentence of four months was his own fault for his refusal to comply with that subpoena. And he did it on purpose. They said this is exactly what he wanted, to be looked at as a, quote, martyr. And he deserves to get more time than even four months. He obviously is going to appeal this. I don't think anyone, quote, deserves to go to jail just because you don't like him. Politically, if you actually commit a crime, that's a different story. But what they're saying is we hate him so much that he deserves this and more.
- [16:15]
Ted Cruz
You know, that is is maybe among the most ridiculous words ever uttered by cnn. And that's quite a distinction because CNN has a daily business of uttering ridiculous words. But their argument is, look, he really wanted to go to jail because, you know, that's really what Steve Bannon wants, is to be locked up with a bunch of bad guys and have to worry about, don't bend over for the soap. It is ridiculous. It is outrageous. And to suggest, you know what, maybe CNN ought to be locked up. Isn't that what they've always wanted? I mean, what garbage to say, well, yeah, I mean, you know, we're throwing someone in jail for four months, but gosh, they get to be a martyr. That's like tying someone to the stake and burning them and saying, but, hey, they got to be a martyr. So congratulations, it's pure partisan spin now.
- [17:09]
Ben Ferguson
And to say that somebody wants it or deserves it because they want it, that's the way they want to spend this. So you won't feel sorry for him. And look at the double standard with Eric hold and the others that we mentioned, I think is another example of the media is no longer a media in this country.
- [17:23]
Ted Cruz
Let me ask you on CNN's analysis, did Joan of Arc get what she always wanted? She did become a martyr. She became a martyr, but she also got tied to a wooden stake and burned to death. I mean, the cynicism of, well, he wants to be a martyr. I promise you, Steve Bannon does not want to go to jail. They know that. But they are reveling in using government power to punish their enemies.
- [17:53]
Ben Ferguson
I want to move to another story, Senator, one that I think is very important ahead of the midterms, and that is American school test scores are in. We've got a wealth of knowledge now and information, and the student test scores have plummeted in math and reading and science since the pandemic, since we went to remote learning. Now, also to be clear, we have compare and contrast numbers now on private schools that did not shut down and private schools that did not go to remote learning. And what we're seeing is, is not only did those kids flourish, continued to flourish in the private schools where they continue to go to school, but now the public school kids that are traditionally even behind the private schools to begin with are now possibly multiple grade levels behind the kids they're basically going to be graduating with that they're having to compete with in the private sector. And Jake Tapper on CNN actually said this in a conversation. I want everyone to hear it. I have to say I'm surprised that there hasn't been a national conversation about the damage done to kids because of these school closures and the virtual learning and everything. Because, I mean, I'm not saying there should be a national do over, but we can't just pretend that fifth graders, who are now seventh graders, that that didn't happen. You know, like, I feel like there should be. And not with a blame game. Look, it happened. People did it. It was criticized, the school closures, the virtual learning, et cetera. But here we are. There needs to be like a bipartisan movement. You know, I love that he calls it bipartisan center because he says, well, I don't want to get in the blame game. Of course you don't, because we know who closed down the schools. It was the teachers unions, it was the public administrators and the private schools that had to keep running their schools like a business and made the right decision, which was the kids rate of infection is low. Even if you get it that the health conditions are not near as life threatening as adults. They did the right thing. And the public school said, nope, we're gonna go virtual. We demand all this federal government money. Every kid's gonna get a free computer, laptop, whatever, free Internet. And it was a disaster. And if you know, anyone that was teaching the public school systems, they were telling you in real time it was a disaster. And yet now they say, well, shouldn't this be a bipartisan issue where they all agree we shouldn't have done this? Republicans were never in favor of this Senator.
- [20:30]
Ted Cruz
Well, that's certainly true, but let me say Jake Tapper is being so dishonest and hypocritical there. That clip infuriates me as well. I know Jake very well. I've been interviewed by him many, many times. Jake is a very smart guy, and he used to be a journalist. He's one of the few people in the corrupt corporate media who actually had a journalistic bone in his body. He cared about being a journalist. And when Donald Trump became president, it shattered Jake into a million different little pieces. And he's no longer a journalist. He has these occasional pangs, but his role for the last six years is to be a dishonest and lying partisan hack, a propagandist. So when Democrats were shutting down schools, and let's be clear, it was Democrats and only Democrats that shut down schools across the country for a year or more. Republicans did not. It was only Democrats who did so. They did so, as you noted, at the behest of the teachers union. The teachers union bosses, Randy Weingarten is directly responsible for this. The head of one of the biggest teachers unions. She was urging, among other things, the Biden administration to keep the schools shut down. And not only that, Democrats in Congress, every single Democrat in Congress supported the school shutdowns. I forced vote after vote on the Senate floor to reopen the schools in the middle of COVID I forced a vote on the Senate floor with the, with the first big so called Covid relief bill from the Biden administration. They were giving tens of billions of dollars to schools. And I introduced an amendment. I said, okay, I'll tell you what, if you're a school, you can get all of this new money that is just being showered upon you with one requirement that you actually be open and teaching students in person. If you're teaching them in person, all this money is yours. Go have a party. You got all this money. The Democrats are in power. But if you're not open, if you have shut down the schools, if you are not teaching in person. At the time we were voting, there were more there. There were 50% of the kids in America were not in in person school five days a week. I said if you're not open, you still get all the money you got yesterday. You get all the billions of dollars you got before, but the new money, we're not going to pay you extra money if you're not doing the job you're supposed to be doing. Instead, the new billions of dollars will go to a scholarship to the child. $10,000 per child. So if you shut your school down, that child can go somewhere else and actually get an education. Ben, Every single Democrat voted no. It was a party line vote. It failed by one vote. I went, I'll tell you, I went and begged Joe Manchin. Joe Manchin back in 2017, briefly voted with me on my legislation expanding college. 529 savings plans to K through 12 education. It was the most far reaching federal school choice legislation that has ever passed. Mansion voted with me for five minutes until Schumer yelled at him and he flipped his vote. I went and asked Joe, I said, Joe, you know this is the right thing to do. Every single Democrat voted no. They are all responsible for the school shutdowns. And let me tell you what the. You mentioned the test scores. I want to explain that a little bit. So every year there's a test done by a group that is called NAEP and it's the national association of Educational Progress and it does national test on reading and math. September 1st they released the NAEP scores for 4th graders. The NAEP scores showed an average decline of 5 points in reading and 7 points in math for 4th graders for 9 year olds compared to 2020. That was the largest decline in reading scores since 1990 and the first ever decline in mass scores for 4th graders. That was the result of the Democrat shutdowns. Not only that, the racial divide. Unfortunately, we have a divide where African American students and Hispanic students don't perform as well on these tests as white students. And obviously a lot of time and energy has been spent into trying to correct that racial divide. Well, guess what? The racial divide grew bigger under the Democrat shutdowns. In particular, mass scores for black students declined 13 points, mass scores for Hispanic students declined 8 points, and mass scores for white students declined 5 points. So the effect of the Democrats was to hurt kids across the country, but especially hurt low income and minority kids. And for Jake to say, I'm surprised no one is having a conversation. I and many others were screaming on the Senate floor, were forcing votes on the Senate floor. And you know what Jake didn't do? He never covered the vote on the Senate floor. It wasn't news, according to cnn.
- [25:42]
Ben Ferguson
But Jake didn't even look at all the parents in real time. When the school closures were carrying on that were talking about how far behind their kids had gotten, that they were saying, it was clear they were behind. They were worried that their kids are gonna be socially promoted. There were parents that were saying, I know my kid is not at the level where they should be graduating the grade that they just said they graduated with B's or A's. They were saying, this is a fraud, this is a fraud. I referred to it as a form of child abuse. When you set a kid up for failure, right? To me, I called it the educational Ponzi scheme in this country center, because you're taking money, you're claiming you're doing something with the kids and you're not giving them what they paid for, what the money was intended to pay for. That, to me, is a Ponzi scheme. It's the worst kind. Because these kids are going to graduate and they're going to go into society and they're going to realize they're not at a 12th grade level, they're at a 10th grade or a 9th grade level at that point in time.
- [26:47]
Ted Cruz
Look, that's exactly right. And by the way, this is not just a problem that happened in the past. This is a problem that is happening right now, today. So the D.C. public schools have imposed a COVID vaccine mandate. They've announced they're going to throw out a school, any student that doesn't have a COVID vaccine. It's supposed to go into effect in January. Let me give you some stats that show you just how idiotic this vaccine mandate is. The D.C. public Schools, roughly 80% of the kids have received the COVID vaccine. That means for those of you doing math, although after, after the last two years, doing math is hard for people. That means 20% of the students have not had the COVID vaccine. Now let's look on racial lines because it's even more exacerbated when you look on racial lines. In the D.C. public schools, roughly 60% of the students have received the COVID vaccine. That means 40% of the black students have not received the COVID vaccine. Just a couple of months ago, I forced a vote on the Senate floor and I stood up and said we should block this vaccine mandate. Why? Because it's idiotic to throw out of school 40% of the black kids in the District of Columbia. And I stood on the Senate floor and I argued for the amendment and I forced an amendment. And Ben, every single Democrat voted no. All of them. Every one of them. Raphael Warnock in Georgia voted to throw 40% of the black kids out of D.C. public schools. And by the way, this is not some abstract point. Let's say you're a 13, 14, 15 year old kid. The D.C. public Schools, if they throw you out, if they make you a school dropout involuntarily, the chances skyrocket that you go down a road of crime, of substance abuse, of violence, of incarceration, and you have a very good chance of early death. It is cruel. I cannot imagine. I gotta tell you, I literally was looking at my colleagues and wondering like, what in the hell is going through your mind when you cast a vote to throw 40% of the black kids out of the D.C. public schools? And you know what Jake Tapper didn't do? He didn't cover it. He didn't discuss it. He's never asked one Democrat, not a single Democrat. He has Democrats on a show every week. He's never asked one of them, why'd you vote to throw 40% of the black kids out of the D.C. public schools? That's what's amazing for Tapper to say. I'm surprised there's not a conversation about this. There has been a conversation all across America. There's just not a conversation on cnn because CNN is not a journalistic outlet. It is a pure propaganda tool for the hard Left. And so just cause Jake ain't talking about it. That is a choice. Trying to silence and ignore the real conversation that was happening and should have been happening on cnn.
- [29:48]
Ben Ferguson
I think one of the interesting points that's going to end up coming out of this center is the fact that there's going to be many, many, many parents. They're going to now start looking at school choice and vouchers through a very different lens. And conservatives like you who have been talking about this for decades are going to have to remind them of how important it is to give parents the ability to take their children to the school that best serves them. And that is where I think conservatives can capitalize on this absurdity. And they're going to be parents are not going to want to get their kids vaccinated. And they deserve to have their kids get a quality education and have the choice to go to a school that's willing to serve their children. And that's something that needs to be on the ballot in the midterms.
- [30:34]
Ted Cruz
I will tell you, by the way, as a bit of good news, given these idiotic school shutdowns, given the abuses we've seen from school boards and blue state politicians, the national numbers in support of school choice have skyrocketed. There was always a majority, and in fact a super majority of voters supported school choice. And by the way, that's true not just Republicans. It's true of independents and it's true of Democrats. It's true. 60 to 70% of African Americans in the United States, sports, school Choice, same numbers. 70 to 80% of Hispanics support school choice. And those numbers keep going up because so many parents have seen the disaster that, that, that, that their kids unfortunately were subjected to.
- [31:19]
Ben Ferguson
I want to move to this other issue real quick, Senator, and that's coming out of Canada. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my right to carry a firearm. I was a target of a gang initiation. It was two people that shot at us. I was able to shoot back and save my life. I know how important it is to be able to protect and defend yourself. But what's happening in Canada right now is truly unprecedented. And Trudeau announced it, implying that the country and the rest of the world should be envious of them. Take a listen and I'll get your reaction.
- [31:54]
Ted Cruz
In May, our government introduced measures to implement a national freeze on handgun ownership. Today, our national freeze on handguns is coming into force. From today forward, it is no longer legal to buy, sell or transfer a handgun in Canada.
- [32:18]
Ben Ferguson
Senator, this is something that you heard, you would hear back in Nazi Germany, to be honest. And now they're saying it in Canada, like, you should cheer it on.
- [32:28]
Ted Cruz
Well, a couple of things come to mind. First of all, this is the Democrat vision for America. This is what my colleagues in the Senate want. This is what Dianne Feinstein wants. This is what Chuck Schumer wants. This is what Bernie Sanders wants. This is what Elizabeth Warren wants. This is what AOC wants. This is what Beto O'Rourke wants, where he says, hell yes, we're gonna take your guns. This is what they want. This is their desire. They are pretending sometimes they don't want this, but they are looking at Justin Trudeau with envy because this is their objective. Now, why have they not been able to implement it so far in the United States? Two reasons. One, politically, there are tens of millions of Americans who care about defending our right to keep and bear arms, about defending our right to protect our homes and our families and our children. Secondly, we have the Second Amendment to the Constitution. Canada obviously is not bound by our Constitution. They don't, they don't have a Second Amendment. And the left hates the Second Amendment. They wish it didn't exist. And it is hard to find a more powerful current example of why the Second Amendment is important. Democrats in Congress would do what Justin Trudeau is doing today if they could. They can't because the Second Amendment says the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. And it's important to emphasize the reason the Second Amendment is in the Constitution is right. Obviously right after the First Amendment, right at the top of the Bill of Rights. It's not about target shooting, it's not about hunting, it's not about skeet shooting. The Second Amendment is fundamentally about the right to protect your life and your family. It is about the right that if someone comes into your home seeking to harm your children, seeking to harm your wife, that you have a fundamental right, a God given right to defend your life and to defend your family. And that's what the right to keep and bear arms is all about. Look, Ben, what you went through, you. You were attacked by, by criminals with guns. And the fact that you exercise your right to keep and bear arms saved your life. How old were you when that happened, Ben?
- [34:57]
Ben Ferguson
I was 23 or 4 at the time, if I remember correctly.
- [35:03]
Ted Cruz
That's a fundamental right that the left doesn't want you to have. And I'll give you a statistic from the Obama White House not Not normally a source of right wing statistics. The Obama White House laid out that every year in the United States firearms are used defensively to stop a crime between 500,000 and 1 million times every year. That's a stat from the Obama White House. Yours was one of them. So you were one of that 500,000 to a million that year. What Trudeau is saying in Canada and what liberals and Democrats in America are saying is they want that number to drop to zero. And you know what will happen as a result? If you don't have a right to keep and bear arms, if you don't have a right to protect yourself, there will be more murders because the murderers will have their guns, but no one will have the ability to defend themselves. There will be more rapes because the rapists will have their weapons and, and no one will have the ability to defend themselves. There will be more violent assaults. Look, when you saw Antifa and Black Lives Matter riots all across the country, it was the people that had the ability to defend themselves who had at least some, some check to the lawless violence that was waging outside. And Democrats want to take away your ability to keep yourself safe. And this is a really chilling reminder that this is not fanciful, this is reality. And we're saying it just to our northern neighbor.
- [36:46]
Ben Ferguson
Senator, one last thing and I want to bring this up and I know you got to run to the airport in a second, but I think this is very important that we mention it to everyone listening to Verdict today. And that's this. The balance of the Senate could very likely, there's a real possibility could come down to a race in Utah. There is a race in Utah with Senator Mike Lee. We mentioned it on this show last week. This is a race that Democrats understand the value of this fake Democrat who's running as an independent. They understand that he's valuable to them, possibly holding control of the Senate. The amount of money that's coming in from outside the state of Utah is going to end up being historic in Utah politics. And this is a race that many of you listening to Verdict right now, if you can donate to Senator Mike Lee, he's a good friend of yours, he's a good man running for office there. Get involved. If you have family or friends in Utah, you need to be reaching out to them and advocating for Senator Mike Lee. And this is a race that Democrats are going all in on. This is also race that may end up taking you back to Utah even though you were just with them on that bus trip because it's going to be so important.
- [38:01]
Ted Cruz
No, that's exactly right. This race is dangerous. It's a real race. There's a real possibility that Mike could lose. And the reason is what is happening in Utah is one of the most dishonest and deceptive things I've ever seen in politics. And it's several things coming together. You have Evan McMullen, who you remember in 2016, ran as an independent against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and he claimed he was kind of a nice Republican. He wasn't Trump, and he was just a nice guy. And he ended up getting a lot of votes in Utah. He's Mormon. And folks in Utah that didn't like what Trump said and how he talked, they voted for McMullen. All right, fast forward to now. McMullen is one of the many never Trump Republicans who are broken, who are shattered, who, who are so filled with hate for Donald Trump that they've abandoned everything they claim to believe. So McMullen is now running as a, quote, independent in Utah. He is not AN INDEPENDENT. Evan McMullen is a Democrat who will elect Chuck Schumer. My confidence level ON that is 100%. Let me lay out why. So McMullen is claiming. He says, I will not conference with either side. I'm not going to caucus with the Republicans. I'm not going to caucus with the Democrats. I'm going to be a happy independent floating like a. Be just peaceful and happy. Well, let me give you some data points. Number one, the Democrat Party in Utah did not run a Democrat. They chose, let's not have a Democrat at all. So they didn't nominate anyone. Number two, the Democrat Party in Utah formally endorsed Evan McMullen. So they're telling all the Democrats vote for McMullen. Number three, McMullen is raising his money using Act Blue, which is the online portal that you have left wingers and socialists and Democrats from all over the country fueling millions and millions of dollars into the race. He's being funded by the same people that fund Bernie Sanders and AOC and Elizabeth Warren. Number four, just in the last quarter, Evan McMullen spent $1.6 million going to Democrat consultants and operatives who were running his campaign. Number five, in the last few days, he had a fundraiser hosted by John Tester, who used to lead the Democratic Senatorial Committee, the political arm of Chuck Schumer that is devoted to electing Democrats and to keeping Schumer as Majority leader. John Tester knows exactly what he's doing, which is trying to put in place Someone who will vote for Chuck Schumer. Now why is it dangerous? Why is bright red Utah even competitive? Well, the reason it's dangerous is McMullen is getting all of the Democrats and their 40 some odd percent of voters in Utah are Democrats ads. And then he is picking up some of the moderate Republicans, some of the more moderate Republicans. So if you look at McMullen's campaign ads, he looks like a Republican. He talks about securing the border. He talks, everything he talks about is.
- [41:18]
Ben Ferguson
Republican because he knows Democrat. If he was a real Democrat, he couldn't win this thing. That's why they've had to lie to the people and imply that he's actually somehow a independent conservative Republican esque candidate. That's why this is a big lie.
- [41:35]
Ted Cruz
Well, and Ben, let me tell you the question that Evan McMullen should be forced to answer. But because we have a corporate media that are not actually journalists, he hasn't been forced to answer it. He says, well, I'm not going to caucus with either side. So isn't that wonderfully independent? That's not the question. Now let's suppose in January we have 50 Republican senators that are elected and we have 49 Democrat senators that are elected. And Evan McMullen, if that happens, McMullen will have a choice and he will have to vote. Doesn't matter who he caucuses with, doesn't matter who he has lunch with. At the opening of the Senate, he will have a vote and he will have one of two choices. If he does nothing, if he abstains, if he votes for Mickey Mouse, then Republicans will be the majority of the Senate. On the other hand, if he votes for Chuck Schumer, Kamala Harris as Vice President will break the 5050 tie and the Democrats will be the majority. Now if Chuck Schumer is the majority leader, what will that mean? That will mean that Bernie Sanders will remain the budget chairman. That will mean that Dick Durbin will remain the chairman of Judiciary. Which means we will do nothing to have oversight of the Biden administration. We will do nothing to have oversight of the corruption of this administration. We will do nothing to examine The Origins of COVID 19 in the Wuhan Institute for Virology. We'll do nothing to examine the evidence of Hunter Biden and Joe Biden's corruption with China. We will do nothing to secure the border. Just like the Democrats have done nothing from for the last two years. And by the way, if you think that that is an outcome that, that McMullen doesn't, doesn't like he voted for Joe Biden. He voted for Joe Biden. He actively defends Joe Biden. And yet they are deceiving the voters because the voters are thinking, well, he's kind of sort of Republican. No, he is a Democrat through and through. And no reporter has asked him the question. Mr. McMullen, if there are 50 Republicans and 49 Democrats, your vote will determine who has the majority. It doesn't matter who you caucus with. That's not an answer. Which way will you vote? And the odds, I believe, are 100.000%. He will vote for Chuck Schumer and empower the lawless corruption we have seen in Washington.
- [44:12]
Ben Ferguson
If you want to help Senator Lee, you can go to lee4senate.com lee4senate.com and tell your family and friends, if they are out there and able to vote in Utah, about the importance of race. If you want to take articles written about Lee, post them on social media, tell your friends, just support Lee and help that go viral. It's so important in this race.
- [44:36]
Ted Cruz
And Ben, let me say two other things. Number one, so let's take the question of life. When McMullen was running for president in 2016, he claimed to be pro life. He claimed to want to see Roe vs Wade overturned. Now that it actually has been overturned, McMullen has had a change of heart. He suddenly realizes, oh crap, I need to get all the Democrats to vote for me. So he's now against Roe versus Wade being overturned just today online. Robbie George. Robbie George is a professor at Princeton University. He was my thesis advisor in college. He is one of the most respected conservatives in the country. He is a man of impeccable character, a man of impeccable judgment. He wrote a detailed description about Ebony McMullen calling him in 2016 and trying to get his support in the 2016 campaign. And Robbie wrote how he asked him at great length about life and about his support for life. And he, he said McMullen swore up and down he was opposed to Roe and he would fight against it. And Robby just, just recounts how everything he said to me, either he was lying through his teeth then or he believes nothing and is willing to change it for convenience now. It really is a devastating indictment because it shows. What it shows is that he's a Democrat, that he's an opportunist, and, and he's taking advantage of deception. I'll say, secondly, you want to understand what the stakes are in this race if Schumer is still majority leader because people in Utah have been fooled into voting for Evan McMullen. And there's another vacancy on the Supreme Court. The Democrats will ram through another left wing ideologue who will undermine our free speech rights, our religious liberty rights, our second Amendment, all of our fundamental rights. So when you are voting, if you vote for Evan McMullen, you are voting to take away religious liberty from Americans and from people in Utah. Not only that, McMullen has said that he supports S1. What is S1? S1 is Chuck Schumer's number one priority. It is the federal takeover of elections. It strikes down virtually every voter integrity law in the country. It strikes down photo ID laws. It strikes down prohibitions on ballot harvesting. It automatically registers millions of illegal aliens to vote. The purpose of S1 is to ensure that Democrats will remain in power forever and that it becomes effectively impossible to vote them out. The fact that that McMullen supports that makes perfectly clear that if you vote for him, you are voting for Chuck Schumer. And that is absolutely, tragically unacceptable, I think to a large majority of people from Utah, even very moderate people from Utah. Sure, they don't like what the Democrats are doing and they need to understand McMullen and the media are lying to them by suggesting that he would be anything other than a Democrat foot soldier for Chuck Schumer.
- [47:50]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, get involved. Go to the website leave4senate.com Senator, I appreciate it. As always, our conversations were reminder to everybody listening. We now do this three days a week so make sure that you hit that subscribe or auto download button so you get the show three days a week. You can say to Siri or Alexa, just play Verdict with Ted Cruz. It will do it automatically. And write us a five star review please to make sure we can reach more conservatives ahead of the election day. Senator, a pleasure. I'll talk to you again and we'll do this in a couple days.
- [48:22]
Ted Cruz
Fantastic.