Transcript
Ben Ferguson (0:01)
Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you on what we'll refer to as an emergency pod. Senator, it's 1:00 in the morning, Central 2 Eastern AM. You've just landed and the world is still talking at this hour. People are waking up around the world realizing that the United States of America has made history by indicting Donald J. Trump. This is a, I think a sad day, a dark day for our country. I want to get your thoughts on this for everybody that I know is listening.
Senator Ted Cruz (0:37)
Well, Ben, I have conflicting emotions. Part of me is angry, it is outrageous what happened earlier today. Part of me is sad because it is tragic for the rule of law. This indictment is utter and complete garbage. This is not law. This is not a prosecution based on the facts. This is a political vendetta brought by a left wing partisan Democrat who was elected by George Soros, a billionaire who spent over a million dollars to elect Alvin Bragg as District attorney. And Bragg is motivated by one thing, and that is partisan hatred. On the merits, this case is utterly baseless. It is frivolous. It is a case that will most assuredly fail in court. But Bragg doesn't care. The Democrats, the media partisans who are exultant right now, they don't care. They love the fact that Donald Trump is being indicted. Never mind the fact, never mind the law, never mind guilt or innocence. They hate the man. They are exultant for the political theater of the mug shot that will happen in the coming days.
Ben Ferguson (2:00)
Is there any, is there any downside to Bragg doing this, Senator? Because there have been a lot of people saying that he overstepped here, right? That this was a complete overstep. There were Democrats basically begging him not to do this publicly on tv, saying he should step back from the brink. They were saying that on cnn. But if you look at New York and you look at where he's, where he would run for reelection, he's looking at becoming the governor. And that's what we've been told about him in New York. Even if he loses, even if all this is thrown out, is it still in his mind a win for him because it's such a partizan attack on Donald Trump?
Senator Ted Cruz (2:38)
Well, look, I don't know the man, but everything about the him says that he is a zealot, said that he says that he's an extreme partisan. I'm a conservative and I'm heartbroken today because this is such a blow to America. It's a blow to rule of law. Our Constitution was designed, Listen, there are countries all over the world. If you're in Russia, this can happen to you. If you're in China, this can happen to you. If you're in North Korea or Venezuela or Cuba, this is what banana republics do, this is what dictatorships do. If one party takes power, you better hope you're not the prior party because they're coming after you, they're going to lock you up and they may put you in front of a firing squad. I feel confident at least Alvin Bragg won't take it to that. But America is different. We're built on rule of law. We're built on the law applying to everyone. And so as a conservative, this makes me sad. But I gotta say, the irony then, if I were a liberal Democrat, I'd be horrified right now, because even while this is devastating to the rule of law, to the confidence the American people will have in our justice system, at the same time, I think this is an enormous political gift to Donald Trump. If I were a Democrat, I might well report Alvin Bragg to the Federal Election Commission for making the single greatest in kind contribution to a presidential campaign in history. This is. There's a reason, Look, Trump put out almost two weeks ago that he was about to get arrested, and he said he was going to get arrested the next day. And Bragg delayed and delayed and delayed. A lot of national Democrats were freaking out, were pressuring Bragg, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. This will help Trump. And you know, as you know, he sent the grand jury home for a period of time. The press was reporting the grand jury had been sent home for a month. Turns out that was false. That was either misreporting or deliberate misinformation from Bragg. But I think the delay you and I speculated, we talked on the pod, it may have been Bragg getting cold feet. But I'll tell you, I said on the podcast that there was a very good chance Bragg was going to say, screw it, I hate the guy and I'm going to indict him and all the rest of you can go jump in a lake. And sadly, that's what he's done. And, you know, this is not going to be the last salvo. There's going to be more presidents indicted. This puts America on a road that is a very, very bad road. You know, you look back in history, Richard Nixon, who committed multiple crimes, as you know, I'm not a Nixon fan. My latest book, Justice Corrupted, there's an entire chapter detailing the crimes and obstruction of justice and abuse carried out by the Nixon White House. But I gotta say, when Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon, it probably cost Gerald Ford his election. It probably elected Jimmy Carter. But Gerald Ford did it because he believed he was helping the country. He believed that having a trial of the former president, even a president as corrupt as Nixon, he thought would be deeply harmful for the country. You know, my sentiments are similar to what they were when the Democrats impeached Donald Trump not once, but twice. And that's when verdict started. Verdict started, as you know, on the first night of the first impeachment trial against Trump. And I said at the outset, they're starting a new chapter. This will become routine when one party controls the House and the other party controls the White House. We will see presidents get impeached. That's not good for America. That's not good for the rule of law. And this has now escalated it even further. These are radical partisans who don't care about the rule of law. It is war by any means necessary. That's how Alvin Bragg and George Soros and the radical left approaches that. And that's a really tragic day for America.