Loading summary
Transcript83 lines
- [00:01]
Ben Ferguson
Senator, nice to be back with you. I've seen you a lot this week, some in D.C. some back here in Houston. And I do think we should explain to people what happened at cpac. It was supposed to be. And we had dinner the night before. We planned out a big show. Some of that we're gonna actually do in today's show. But right before we were to go on stage, there was a vote called in the Senate that was pushed up. You guys, I learned very clearly that day, have no clue what your schedule is. And then we said, basically, all right, here's our audible. All the senators have to leave cpac, go back and vote. We'll have JD Vance on the show. And that's kind of how it went down. Which was really fun.
- [00:40]
Ted Cruz
Yeah. It was entirely inaudible. So we were planning to do the POD from the stages of cpac. It was going to be you and me. And then we had a vote at 1:45 that we had to get back for. And so Matt Schlapp came to me and to you and said, look, I got 30 minutes till you guys are telling me you gotta leave. And he said, I've got you, and I got J.D. vance now. He said, if you want, I can just cut the time in half, give you 15 minutes each, which is less time than we're supposed to have.
- [01:10]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah.
- [01:11]
Ted Cruz
Or you can somehow combine it. And so you and I looked at each other, and we're like, okay, we're gonna do a guest. And look, it helps. JD and I are friends, so. But it was.
- [01:20]
Ben Ferguson
And you campaigned for him, which was. I think he actually really enjoyed the fact that it was, like, it was almost coming full circle.
- [01:25]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, no, it was a nice. But we literally didn't know we were doing it until about 10 minutes before we went on stage with him. And JD had a whole speech prepared. So I don't know what he was planning to talk about, but he had a speech prepared and is like, okay, I'll come on Verdict instead. Now I will say, to give a sense. Look, CPAC has a big reach, both for the people in the room, but also for the people watching. So when I invited people, I said, listen, if you want to subscribe to the. I said, pull out your phone and text the word verdict to 24005, which.
- [02:03]
Ben Ferguson
By the way, everybody can do right now. If you're watching this podcast, that's the easiest way where you can subscribe the podcast. It's free. But you did that to the audience.
- [02:11]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, I did that to the audience. I told them, pull out your cell phone and you can see all across the audience, people pull out their cell phone. And I told them, text the word verdict to 24005. And I always repeated at least twice. 224005. You know how many people sent that text?
- [02:27]
Ben Ferguson
How many?
- [02:28]
Ted Cruz
1,000, 105.
- [02:30]
Ben Ferguson
That's really cool.
- [02:31]
Ted Cruz
And so what you get back is a link to subscribe to the podcast. And so that was. CPAC is always a blast. But I thought it was a good and lively show and having JD Made it all the more fun.
- [02:46]
Ben Ferguson
It was really fun. I gotta ask you something else quickly because it was an interesting weekend of news coverage. There was CPAC and there was Club for Growth, their meetings down in Florida. You were one of very few that actually did both because they both are very important to us, winning back the White House. And you went to both, which obviously people are like, all right, is the Republican Party divided? Are we gonna get our act together and really coalesce and work together these different wings of the party? I came out of CPAC more encouraged. I did not go to Florida with you. Did you come back encouraged saying, we can pull this off?
- [03:23]
Ted Cruz
Oh, yeah. And look, the two are very different. I mean, there was a lot of media coverage saying that CPAC was basically Trumpa Palooza, that it was a lot of Trump supporters there. And the people speaking at CPAC are mostly closely aligned with President Trump Club for Growth. You know, a lot of folks were calling it essentially desantispalooza.
- [03:42]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah.
- [03:43]
Ted Cruz
And a lot of the folks there are not aligned with President Trump. And I will say I was one of very few people to be at both. And it's, you know, we've got a big diverse party and I'm good friends with President Trump. I'm good friends with Ron DeSantis too. And so I would. And I'm focused with both of them and everybody else on trying to. Trying to turn the country around.
- [04:05]
Ben Ferguson
I think we're in a good place overall heading into the presidential. Was that your take coming out of this weekend, that, hey, we're going to be okay? Cuz there's a lot of people that think we're writing doom and gloom stories over the weekend. I didn't see it that way.
- [04:16]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, we'll see. There's still a whole lot of chaos between now and Election Day. I think Biden is badly off track. And so we've got an opportunity for a huge victory in November of 2024. Republicans got to avoid shooting ourselves in Our own rear end. And so hopefully that's what Republicans will do.
- [04:36]
Ben Ferguson
There was a story we were going to get to talk about at cpac. We didn't get to play it because obviously we pulled an audible and it dealt with. There was actually two different hearings, not one, but two different hearings that took place on the same day at the same time that were extremely important. Give a little background on that day on Capitol Hill, because one of them was dealing with Garland and you were questioning there. There was another one dealing with the FAA and a major position there. And they were happening at the exact same time. Is that normal?
- [05:07]
Ted Cruz
Well, it happens a lot. It's one of. One of the stranger things about the Senate is you'll often have multiple hearings going on at the exact time. I'm on four different committees. I'm the ranking member of Commerce, so the senior Republican on the Commerce Committee, I'm on Judiciary. I'm on Foreign Relations and I'm on Rules and Administration. So those are the committees I'm on. And frequently you'll have multiple hearings. You have to go back and forth and back and forth. So when you see empty chairs at a hearing, that's sometimes cause senators are having to run to different buildings. It so happened that the hearing with Merrick Garland was at the exact same time, 10am on Wednesday, that the confirmation hearing for Biden's nominee to be administrator of the faa, really important position in charge of keeping airplanes safe and keeping us safe when we fly home. They were both at 10am and what that meant. So Judiciary has a rule which is that your order of questioning is based on seniority. But it has what's called a gavel rule, which it's seniority for every member present when the gavel comes down. So if you're interesting, if you're not there when the gavel comes down, everyone down. Dyess jumps in front of you. And so I'm fifth in seniority on Judiciary. I'm one of the most senior Republicans on Judiciary. So that morning what I had to do is I was in Judiciary at 10am and actually Durbin was three minutes late, which was kind of really irritating. Cause I just needed to be there for him to bang the gavel. I was there at gavel, which meant I could speak in my order of seniority and not wait until the very last Republican to ask my questions. So as soon as he banged the gavel, I got up and walked very quickly to a totally different building to the Commerce hearing where I was the lead, the senior Republican. And so The Commerce hearing had already started with my chair empty and I made it there by the time I got started. But that sort of thing happens a lot in the Senate. It is a new challenge with my being now a ranking member on a full committee because I've got greater responsibilities to be there for much more of the hearing than if you're just a member of the committee. You usually show up, do your questions and leave. So as ranker you try to be there as much as possible.
- [07:38]
Ben Ferguson
That is an interesting thing that I guess. And is that new that they do that with a gavel or is that been throughout history?
- [07:44]
Ted Cruz
It's always been the gavel rule. It's usually pretty easy for me because look judiciary I like the issues. I care about it. On any important hearing I'm usually there at gavel. It's going to be more challenging the next two years because I've got more responsibilities on Commerce now and so I've got a judge them both.
- [08:05]
Ben Ferguson
I want to go back to the Garland questioning. There was one part, like I said, we didn't get to cover at cpac. We want to make sure we hit that today. Before I play a very contentious moment between you and the attorney General Garland, I want to remind everybody about Augusta Precious Metals. If you are wanting to protect your retirement, if you want to protect what's happening with this crazy economy, we're talking about using gold and silver as part of your 401k or your Iraq and you've saved $100,000 or more, you need to check out Augusta Precious Metals. Augusta Precious Metals does things a little bit differently. They actually do a web conference with you where you sit down with them and they talk about your financial future, they talk about what your goals are and then they see if gold and silver is even right for you and your plan. Now if you're closer to retirement or in retirement, you know making up losses is really something you don't want to deal with because you've running out of time. That's also one of the reasons why gust of Precious Metals job and goal is to protect your hard earned dollars. So check out and get their free guide. But more importantly do the free web conference with them. I do it. I use them. I actually have invested with them. You'll love Augusta Precious Metals. The number 8, 7, 74 the number 4 Gold IRA. That's 877 the number 4 Gold IRA. Or go online to AugustaPrecious Metals.com that's AugustaPreciousMetals.com Use the word BEN. And if you do you will actually get your fees for up to 10 years. They'll cover them. Augusta precious metals.com all right, I want to play this clip. Senator, it was you and Garland getting into it. And a very interesting back and forth. Take a look for everybody watching.
- [09:45]
Ted Cruz
We've also seen across the country violent attacks this pregnancy centers by similar left wing terrorist groups, including one graffiti of a firebomb building said Jane was here. There have been attacks all over the country and yet the Department of Justice has not brought these violent criminals to justice. You contrast that. If you're a violent criminal and you attack a crisis pregnancy center, that is not a priority in the Biden Department of Justice. Contrast that to Mark Hauck, who's a pro life activist. He's a sidewalk counselor and he had an altercation with someone who allegedly interfered with his son's personal space and threatened his son and he pushed him. Now, in an ordinary world, pushing someone would be maybe a simple misdemeanor assault, but not under the Biden Department of Justice. If you're a pro life activist, what can you expect? Well, in this instance, according to Mr. Hauck's wife, two dozen agents clad in body armor and ballistic helmets and shields and a battering ram showed up at his house pointing rifles at his family. Why do you send two dozen agents in body armor to arrest a sidewalk counselor who happens to be pro life but you don't devote resources to count to. To prosecute people who are violently firebombing crisis pregnancies. It is a priority of the department to prosecute and investigate and find the people who are doing those firebombings. They are doing it at night and in secret. So. And we have found. We have found one group which we did prosecute. You found one? How many have there been? How many attacks? There have been a lot. And if you have any information specifically as to who those people are, we ask yourself, we would be glad to have that.
- [11:46]
Ben Ferguson
If you're an American, you see this, it's gotta scare the hell out of you that there is two separate ways that this Department of Justice is working. Oh, are they Republican? Oh, let's really go after. They're conservative. Let's go after them. They're a Christian. Let's go after them. They're a sidewalk Counselor. Let's send 20 plus men there like it's the military raiding your home.
- [12:07]
Ted Cruz
Well, look, the double standard is obvious with regard to the bombings and the attacks on crisis pregnancy centers. You heard the attorney general articulate a new rule at the Biden Department of Justice. Apparently they don't do violent crimes anymore if they happen at night.
- [12:26]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, too hard to investigate.
- [12:28]
Ted Cruz
You know, your dad. How many years was your dad a cop?
- [12:30]
Ben Ferguson
I mean, decades. He was in law enforcement. Still works for the sheriff's department now.
- [12:34]
Ted Cruz
So was it the rule that you only went after criminals if they committed crimes during the daytime?
- [12:39]
Ben Ferguson
No. In fact, he usually works still nights because that's when the stuff's going.
- [12:44]
Ted Cruz
It's the most asinine statement of, well, gosh, it happened at night. You know why they haven't had any prosecutions? Because he doesn't care about this. He is sympathetic to the violent criminals. He made the decision to devote thousands upon thousands of man hours to going after the January 6th protestors. If you're a little old lady who was in the mall on January 6th waving an American flag, he wants to know everything about you.
- [13:09]
Ben Ferguson
If there was bank records, if you just happened to be in D.C. during that time, they were saying, well, maybe we should look at those people too.
- [13:16]
Ted Cruz
It is real simple. They aren't bringing prosecutions because it's not a priority, because he doesn't care. And you know, Mark Hauck, it's amazing. He offered to turn himself in. His lawyer said, all right, if you're going to prosecute me, my client will turn himself in. But the Biden Justice Department decided, nope, we don't want you to turn yourself involuntarily. We're sending literally 20 plus FBI agents. And I asked him the next question. I asked that we didn't play there, but I asked him, did you personally authorize that? He claimed he didn't. And this is the pattern Merrick Garland followed at most of the hearing is just dodging responsibly. Well, it's the FBI that does it. Well, it's the FBI that does it. Well, you know, it's.
- [14:01]
Ben Ferguson
He's in charge of them.
- [14:02]
Ted Cruz
He is in charge. The FBI reports to the Attorney General. The FBI is under the Department of Justice. And I asked him, okay, well, it happened. Do you wish to apologize to Mrs. Hauck and to their seven children that were woken up early in the morning by 20 plus FBI agents with rifles pointed at them? And he said, no, no, he doesn't apologize in the slightest. By the way, Houck pushed a guy. You know, they brought the case. Merrick Garland prosecuted it. Not personally, but the Department of Justice under investigation.
- [14:40]
Ben Ferguson
Did he lead? Yeah.
- [14:42]
Ted Cruz
The jury acquitted him in a matter of minutes. The jury looked at it and said, this is stupid. No, we're not gonna Send a guy to jail for 13 years. That's what the statute. The statute that Merrick Garland went after this sidewalk counselor on made him liable for up to 13 years. And that's the political double standard we have.
- [15:06]
Ben Ferguson
There was two things in that back and forth that really stuck out to me. One of them was, he's asking you, if you have evidence, bring it to him. And it was a snarky line. I understood why he said it, but I also think it was one of those, oh, you know what moments when you watched it afterwards. He walked into basically saying, I'm literally not looking for evidence by default, is what he was basically admitting, saying, if you've got something, give it to me, because I don't have it and I'm not looking for it.
- [15:32]
Ted Cruz
Well, and look at the last podcast we did at cpac. We played my questioning with him about the protesters at the Supreme Court Justice's house. He also pled ignorance, and there he blamed it on the marshals. And this is an interesting. So it is true that there were marshals there to protect the justices. So I'm glad they were there. That was necessary, particularly given that we know someone traveled from California with a gun and a knife and burglary tools to murder. Justice Kavanaugh, a leftist, mad about the leaked Dobbs decision. But he tried to avoid responsibility by saying, the marshals decide whether to arrest someone. Now, he's right. The marshals on site decide whether to arrest someone. But what he refused to take responsibility for is it is the prosecutor, and only the prosecutor who decides whether to charge someone, whether to actually go to a grand jury, seek an indictment, get an indictment. Only Merrick Garland, only the Department of Justice can get a federal indictment. And once again, you know, he. You know, he says, well, gosh, no one was arrested. These protesters at the justice's house put up pictures of themselves on social media. They are confessing and they're to the.
- [16:58]
Ben Ferguson
Crimes they committed, which is to endorse it. And the statute's clear. I don't think we've spent enough time on this. So I want you to explain why, not just the Supreme Court, but in general, why we have serious laws about intimidation of judges, of jurors. Why is that in place across all sectors of our legal system?
- [17:19]
Ted Cruz
Because we need to have a legal system that operates fairly and free of intimidation. So you've got. It is a federal crime to protest in front of a juror's home in order to influence the outcome of a case. You know, you think about it. Let's suppose you're a mob boss and you find out where the jurors live. And while the jurors are still considering the case, guilty or not, you send a bunch of folks to their home. That's called jury tampering. And you're gonna go to jail. Quite rightly, you're supposed to anyway, you're supposed to. The same is true for a judge. Look, the protesters were outside the justices houses before the Dobbs opinion had issued. So there'd been a leaked opinion, but the court had not issued the opinion. Any one of those justices could have changed their minds. And that's why the law says, look, you're not allowed to go and try to intimidate judges into changing their rulings. You're not allowed to go try to intimidate jurors into changing how they're going to vote in a case. And Merrick Garland knows all of that. The amazing thing is he was a judge for 24 years. He knows that. He just agrees with the protesters in front of the justices homes. And he's sympathetic. Agrees is probably too strong, but he's sympathetic to the violent attacks on the crisis pregnancy centers. He's certainly not willing to put serious man hours into trying to find out who did it because it's not important to him.
- [18:53]
Ben Ferguson
One other thing in you as a lawyer, I go back in my mind to Waco when I see the government ratchet up the heat or the pressure on this house with these seven kids there, you're putting lives at risk. Especially when you have direct communication with the attorney saying if you're going to prosecute him, he will turn himself in. I'm assuming the reason why they have that communication, you turn yourself in if you're going to be prosecuted, is so that there isn't a misunderstanding or this under siege moment or guns drawn when there doesn't need to be guns drawn because your attorney's going to walk you into a courthouse and book you and they offer to do it and they didn't do it. And I say Waco because my point is one bad moment, one accident, one ratcheting up here, you're putting family members at risk. Now just because you're trying to say we're the government, sure.
- [19:47]
Ted Cruz
No, no. It's designed to terrorize. Listen, the Department of Justice has not pointed to any evidence that they had reason to think that Hauck was dangerous. You know, if you're going to arrest Tony Montana from Scarface, then you may need 20 agents and rifles and body armor. Like if you're going to a drug dealer, a gang banger, or a violent.
- [20:10]
Ben Ferguson
Criminal, someone that shows that they're willing to kill you.
- [20:13]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, that's the circumstances where you need that kind of show of force for a sidewalk counselor who, on all indications, has been not only peaceful, but is devoting significant time to trying to save the lives of unborn children not through violence, but through speech and prayer. The FBI did it to send a statement. Number one, they don't care that they terrorize him and his family. Those children. Look, seven kids. You and I are both dads. Imagine how your kids would react to 20 agents in body armor showing up and pointing rifles at them.
- [20:56]
Ben Ferguson
You'd be terrified.
- [20:57]
Ted Cruz
And, you know, I can't imagine that those kids are not having nightmares about it. I mean, that is a very. And by the way, all the neighbors. It's like the perp walk. Look, if you're a mob boss, you know what? They may put handcuffs on you and walk you down the street in front of the. In front of the cameras to get on the news. The FBI did this because they want to send a message. Pro life activist. We don't like you. And he claimed he didn't personally authorize it. He either. I don't know if he knew about it or not. I didn't get a chance to answer. I ran out of time. So I didn't get to ask him if he knew about it or not. He certainly doesn't apologize for it now. And he hasn't changed anything because. And what he did is he just blamed the FBI. It's the FBI's decision. It's the FBI decision. They make the decision, then I'm in.
- [21:51]
Ben Ferguson
Charge of them, but whatever.
- [21:53]
Ted Cruz
And if they screw it up badly, a reasonable boss, if you didn't know about it at the time, would tell them you screwed it up badly. Don't do this again. You know what he did, though? He went ahead and prosecuted Hauck. So he didn't think it was screwed up that badly because he thought it was appropriate to go after him on federal charges instead of.
- [22:12]
Ben Ferguson
And that was directly under his Department of Justice. Right. You can separate yourself from the FBI just so people understand the hierarchy here. And you can say, oh, that was the FBI that raided his house, but the decision to prosecute. You can't say that's the FBI's decision. That is the DOJ's decision.
- [22:27]
Ted Cruz
And I would wager 100 bucks the prosecutors were fully aware that they were going on that raid early morning. I don't have proof of it. But the way it ordinarily operates, in a situation like that, the prosecutor, maybe not the attorney general, but the ausa, the assistant US Attorney handling the case would know about it. And depending at what level. Look, I would love to know who at the Department of Justice signed off on this use of force, who signed off on this prosecution, how far up the chain it went. And if we had a Department of justice that actually was accountable to the people, we would know the answer to those questions. You know, the questioning from Garland's, look, he's offended that senators dare ask him questions. He doesn't want to answer anything and.
- [23:25]
Ben Ferguson
Much less imply they did something wrong.
- [23:27]
Ted Cruz
And it is. It's not just that he looks at senators on the Judiciary Committee, which, by the way, is charged with oversight. It is literally our responsibility to engage in oversight over the Department of Justice. And we do that for both Republican and Democrat administrations. But his contempt is really contempt for the American people because it is saying, you have no right to second guess me. I will not answer your questions because I don't answer to you. That's really dangerous.
- [24:01]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, it's dangerous. And while that was going on, there was another important hearing that was going on that deals with the FAA and another script there. Before we get into that, I want to remind you about Patriot Mobile. They are the only conservative Christian cell phone provider in the country. Why does that matter to you? Well, when you have a cell phone, and probably 99% of you do, when you use your phone, when you send a text message, and when you pay your bill, you're actually supporting conservative causes that you actually want to stand up for. We're talking about stand up for our first and Second Amendment rights. And Patriot Mobile, when you pay your bill, a portion of your bill every month goes back to support these organizations and causes, including standing up for the right of unborn children and helping with adoptions. Patriot Mobile is a company that, when I pay my bill, I feel good about it because I know that I'm making a difference. I'm sitting with a company that actually stands with me on these issues and not fighting against me. You get to keep your same cell phone number, and 99% of the time, you can keep your same cell phone or upgrade to a new one. So how do you save money and how do you switch? It's easy. 8 7, 8, Patriot. That's our new number. 8, 7, 8, Patriot. Or go online to patriot mobile.com verdict. You'll use the promo code verdict when you call them or online, you'll get the best deals of the day. Their new number, 878 Patriot. Senator, you mentioned there was a lot going on the same day the FAA administrator nominee has become a disaster. And there's also an issue here of public corruption with this individual. But I want to start with just you kind of laying the groundwork for this guy at this hearing. Basic questions. FAA is a big job. Being in charge of it's an even bigger job and making sure, you know, like, what the FAA does. Kind of important. Take a look.
- [25:44]
Ted Cruz
Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Washington, you've emphasized your time as CEO of the Denver Airport. 20 months. Have you ever flown a plane? Thank you for the question, Senator. No, I have never flown a plane. So you weren't a military pilot or a commercial airline pilot? No, Senator. Have you ever worked for an airline? No, Senator. Have you ever worked as an air traffic controller? No, Senator. Have you ever worked for a company that manufactures airplanes? No, Senator. Have you ever worked for a company that fixes airplanes? No, Senator. So for 20 months, you've been char. In charge of the Denver airport. You're in charge of the airport's buildings, correct? I am in charge of everything that goes on at that airport. Okay. Well, I'm not sure that's exactly right. You're. You're in charge of parking at the airport, is that correct? How many parking spaces are there at the Denver airport? Thousands. Okay. You're in charge of all the shops and restaurants in the airport. How many restaurants are there in the Denver airport? We have anywhere from 150 to 200 or so. You're in charge of coffee shops and clothing stores and newsstands. You're not in charge of the pilots, are you? No, Senator. You're not in charge of the airplane mechanics, are you? No, Senator. You're not in charge of the air traffic controllers, are you? No, Senator.
- [27:14]
Ben Ferguson
You're not in charge of any of it.
- [27:16]
Ted Cruz
Look, I gotta say, this nomination is really astonishing. Look, FAA is a really important position. And if you look back at the people who've been nominated to lead the FAA under both Democrats and Republicans, they're typically really senior individuals in aviation.
- [27:40]
Ben Ferguson
Would it be fair to say a nonpartisan nominee?
- [27:44]
Ted Cruz
Usually, yeah. They're usually someone that has 20, 30, 40 years experience in aviation. Many of them have been military pilots. When I asked you, you weren't a military pilot. An awful lot of FAA administrators were military pilots. An awful lot of them were airline pilots or airline captains. Have 20, 30 years flying, you know, flying airline jets frequently. They have experience in Management at an airline. Frequently they'll have experience dealing with aviation safety. Frequently they'll have certifications and other experience like it is a technical position. And in this instance, Phil Washington, he spent over, over two decades in the military and I certainly respect his military service. He was in the military, he was not involved in aviation. So his military service is honorable. It just doesn't have to do, it's.
- [28:45]
Ben Ferguson
Just irrelevant to this new job.
- [28:46]
Ted Cruz
It doesn't have anything to do with planes. And then he was the head of the LA Metro. Now the LA Metro is buses and trains and he's an administrator and a bureaucrat. And then he got appointed to be head of the Denver Airport. And look what the Biden administration is doing here is they've nominated him because some Colorado Democrats care about putting him in this position and they're treating the FAA as a patronage position. They're treating it as just a spoil system. Let's stick a Democrat because this makes Democrat politicians happy. Both Democrat senators from Colorado came to the committee and introduced him. And this is all about the Denver mayor was there, big song and dance. This is all about, we're giving a favor, a political favor. And you know what, if there's, as I put it out, I said look, if they wanted to nominate him to the Amtrak board and he was initially considered for the Amtrak board, that would have probably been fine. Like he might well have gotten bipartisan support to be on the Amtrak board. Okay, fine. He was at the LA Metro, dealt with, dealt with train issues. That's fine. The faa, look, you and I are in planes all the time. When you get on an airplane, you are counting on the FAA to do everything possible to keep you safe. Now that's not just the air traffic control, that's also the pilot training, that's also airplane manufacturer, it's airplane maintenance. You know, I asked him about the 737 Max. You recall there were two horrific crashes of the 737 Max. 346 people lost their lives in those two crashes. When I got into the technical details about the 737 Max and I asked why did those crashes happen? His answer was I don't know why they happened. And I said, you know what, I believe you. Yeah, I believe you don't know. And that's a big frigging problem. Cuz the head of the FAA should know, by the way, the administrator of the FAA, who at the time, who had been a pilot for I think almost 40 years, the 737 Max was grounded now, what happened is Boeing with the 737 Max, had this new system called the MCAS system that if you get into some of the technical details on the front of the 737 Max, there are two sensors called Angle of attack sensors. And one of them, at least in one of the two crashes, it appeared it was sheared off of the plane by a bird strike. A bird hit it and broke the sensor off. And so the result that the MCAS system was sending a message to the plane and automatically turning the nose down, turning the nose down, turning the nose down. And the two crashes that happened, you had relatively inexperienced pilots, they were foreign pilots. They didn't have anywhere near the experience that a US pilot would have. A pilot would have. And the nose went down, down, down. And it just steered the nose into the ground and crashed and killed everyone. And Boeing unfortunately did not train the pilots about the MCAS system. So presumably, and in fact, if you listen to the back and forth with the air traffic controllers, the pilots are essentially saying, what the hell's going on? They don't understand why the, while the plane's doing what it's doing is automatically going down. They grounded every 737 max for months. They changed the system, they changed the training. They went through the training. By the way, I sat down and met with pilots. I said, okay, what would you do? And they explained you'd adjust the trim like an experienced pilot. Even if the MCAS was operating, an experienced pilot would know how to fix it. Now, I don't know how to fix it, but an experienced pilot would. And what's interesting is the former FAA administrator, when they allowed the 737 Max back in the air before they did, so he actually went and flew the damn thing.
- [33:01]
Ben Ferguson
I mean, that's, it's a non political position. Yes, it is a true safety technology. Understanding air travel, understanding what the military may need when it comes to airspace, understanding what civilians need, understanding minimum requirements.
- [33:17]
Ted Cruz
Look, if you need heart surgery and the hospital tells you, well, hey, this guy's a big donor to the hospital. So we're gonna have him do the heart surgery. He's not a doctor, but we really like him, you'd say that's crazy. The FAA needs someone who knows something about airplanes.
- [33:35]
Ben Ferguson
Will his nomination make it? I mean, the question that you asked, honestly, I didn't think was snarky. It may have come across that way because he didn't answer any of the questions with a yes. It was all, no, I've never done this. I'VE never done this. I didn't. I was saying it's showing how glaringly bad of a nominee this was.
- [33:53]
Ted Cruz
I don't think he'll be confirmed.
- [33:54]
Ben Ferguson
Really?
- [33:57]
Ted Cruz
Several Democrats have expressed concerns. And I gotta say, look, let's say you're a Democrat senator and let's say you're up for reelection in 2024 as a whole bunch of them are. Do you really want to cast a vote to confirm an FAA administrator with zero experience in aviation or aviation safety? You know, listen, if, God forbid, in the next two years there's an airline crash and look, we've had a series of near misses recently. This, this position has not had a Senate confirmed administrator in a year because the Biden administration doesn't prioritize it. Instead, they're using it as a political benefit, as a gift, a patronage job, rather than saying, look, we ought to have an FAA administrator in there right now who knows what he or she is doing and is examining. Why are these near misses happening and how can we prevent them from happening? But if you're a Democrat senator, and God forbid there is an airline crash, do you really wanna be going to your voters saying, yeah, I voted to put in place a guy who had no idea what he was doing and now a bunch of people, well, and their lives have been lost.
- [35:13]
Ben Ferguson
I want to also, I think there's a clip of you that was brilliant. Summing up the lack of qualifications. This guy. I want to play that in a moment. Before we get to that, though, I want to tell you about our good friends over at Chalk. If you're a guy and you're getting older and you feel like you're losing that edge, there is a way to get that edge back with testosterone replacement. And that is what my friends at Chalk do. Choq. They are here to help real men, real American men, maximize your masculinity by boosting testosterone levels up to 20% over 90 days. Now, I've been taking the chalk male vasculinity stack and it actually really does work. You can up your Testosterone levels over 20% up to 20% over a 90 day period. My buddy Jesse Kelly talked about this as well. He was like, Ferguson, you got to try it. You'll see the difference. So if you're a guy, you're getting a little bit older and you're ready to get back that edge. Check out chalk choq.com choq.com use the promo code BEN for 35% off any chalk subscriptions for life and you can cancel anytime. Chom code BEN for 35% off. Senator, this one clip of you kind of just talking about, like, qualifications should matter with this guy. It went viral. I want everybody to see it. If you miss it, because it's brilliant, take a look.
- [36:32]
Ted Cruz
FAA administrator is a specialized position. I'm not qualified to be FAA administrator. I have no idea how to fly a plane. No one in their right mind would put me in charge of aviation safety because I don't have that experience. I suspect most of the members of this committee are in a similar position. The American people, when they think about aviation safety, when they think about. I played in this committee, a Southwest Airlines and FedEx plane almost colliding at Austin's airport. They want an FAA administrator who knows why those planes crash and knows how to fix it to keep them safe. And with all respect, Mr. Washington, it gives no comfort to the flying public that their pilot might be a transgendered witch, but doesn't actually know how to prevent the plane from crashing into the ground and killing them. I believe your record is woefully lacking, and in fact, you have zero aviation safety experience, and I don't believe you'll have the votes for confirmation. As you and I visited about earlier.
- [37:38]
Ben Ferguson
This week, it reminds me so much, by the way, of Mayor Pete, because there's a great headline this week. It says, pete starts to rethink how he does his job in the wake of the Ohio train disaster.
- [37:49]
Ted Cruz
Really?
- [37:50]
Ben Ferguson
Their nominations are so much alike, it's scary. No experience in the job they're about to get. And there are consequences when you get a job you know nothing about.
- [37:58]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, Pete Buttigieg is wildly unqualified for the job he has. He's a small town mayor, and we've seen one transportation disaster after another after another. The FAA reports to the Secretary of Transportation. So just like the FBI reports to the Attorney General, the FAA administrator reports to the Secretary of Transportation. So, you know, if Biden's FAA nominee is confirmed, I can imagine the conversation of Phil Washington saying, well, I don't know what this aviation safety's about. And Buttigieg say, yeah, me neither. Let's go have lunch. It is stunning and it's dangerous. And look, in some ways, this nomination is even more dangerous than Buttigieg is. Look, DOT is at least a big agency, and you assume the components have experts in them. When you're talking about the faa, the guy running it is supposed to know what the heck he's doing, and Washington doesn't have that background. I'll tell you, there's a whole different concern with Washington that Pete didn't have, by the way, that we know of, which is when Phil Washington was the head of LA Metro, there is an ongoing public corruption investigation that's happening right now about his time as head of the LA Metro and in particular giving a contract to a nonprofit that ended up doing very little to make hundreds of thousands of dollars in the nonprofit was closely connected with an influential Democrat on the board. And so the investigation that's ongoing, it's not being conducted by some right wing group. It's the LA Sheriff who executed a search warrant. Now, unlike Biden's DOJ, I don't think the search warrant was executed by 20 agents with machine guns.
- [40:00]
Ben Ferguson
Sure.
- [40:01]
Ted Cruz
But who executed a search warrant seizing the emails and communications from Phil Washington about this appointment. And just recently, the California Attorney General has taken over the investigation. So my office called the staff of the California Attorney General last week, a week before the hearing, and said, okay, what's going on with the investigation? And they said, it's still ongoing. We're actively investigating and Phil Washington is materially involved in the investigation. And my staff asked, said, well, has anyone talked to you about the investigation? Did the White House talk to you about the investigation? Did the FBI talk to you about the investigation? Did Senate Democrats talk to you about the investigation? They're like, nope, nobody has.
- [40:48]
Ben Ferguson
No one called. No one cares.
- [40:50]
Ted Cruz
So he's literally being investigated right now, and yet the Biden White House is trying to put him in a position without knowing the outcome of the investigation.
- [41:01]
Ben Ferguson
In which we have a clip about this. Take a look.
- [41:04]
Ted Cruz
And it is more than a little troubling, I think it's fair to say. California sheriffs, the LA Sheriff and the California Attorney General are not Republicans. They're not right wing activists with an axe to grind. And the fact that this corruption case is ongoing, it's truly remarkable that this committee is considering confirming a nominee in the middle of an ongoing investigation for public corruption. And I am hard pressed to think of anything more damaging to the FAA than not only confirming someone who is not qualified and has no experience in aviation safety, but secondly, doing so while a public corruption case is ongoing, which, according to the terms of the search warrant, implicates you directly. And if it so happened that you ended up indicted as a result of this ongoing investigation, I don't know if that will happen or not. The investigation needs to conclude what sort of damage would it do to the FAA to have the administrator indicted on public corruption?
- [42:15]
Ben Ferguson
It's a fair question by the way. It's an important question. And you would think this administration would have said, let's pump the brakes on this guy. Maybe we pull them off the table, find someone who's qualified. And yet they're like, nope, full speed ahead.
- [42:27]
Ted Cruz
Yeah, look what they need to do, they need to pull this nomination, and they need to nominate someone who's qualified. And if they nominate someone who's qualified who has real experience in aviation safety, that person is going to get confirmed with a big bipartisan majority. We all want to see someone in the FAA who knows how to make air travel safe. And right now, the Biden White House is putting politics above the safety of you and your kids.
- [42:56]
Ben Ferguson
Well, well done this week in Washington. I'm glad people know what's going on. We're getting to expose the stuff that the media's not even covering or talking about. These are two very, very important hearings for everybody that's watching. Don't forget, we do the show three days a week. One day is with video, the other are just audio only. So you can tell Siri or Alexa, play Verdict with Ted Cruz. You can download it and make sure you get every episode wherever you get Your podcast, Apple, iHeartRadio app, Spotify, it doesn't matter. You can grab it there. It's free to subscribe, so hit that auto download or subscribe button and you'll make sure you get every single episode. And we'll see you back here in a couple of days.