← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Who Is To Blame For The GOP Losing The Senate? We Explain WHY We Must Delay The Senate Leadership Elections And Why The GA Runoff Is Still Critically Important!
00:34:18
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- [00:01]
A
Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. Senator, the elephant in the room. We have officially lost the Senate, the ability to pick up the Senate. And there are a lot of Americans are going to be tuning in to you this morning and they want to know who is to blame for this. There are a ton of people arguing over this right now that saying it's Mitch McConnell's fault. No, no, no. It's Donald Trump's fault for picking candidates like Dr. Oz. And then it's not even his fault, it's his wife's fault. And everybody's trying to figure out, how do you put this in a box? And I think it's so important to get your take on this. What happened, how did this happen and who's to blame for it.
- [00:41]
B
Well, Ben, let me start out by saying I am so pissed off I cannot even see straight. We had an extraordinary opportunity. We had a generational opportunity. This should have been a fundamental landslide election. We should have won the House and the Senate. We should have a 30, 40, 50 vote majority in the House. We should have 53, 54, 55 Republicans in the Senate and instead, holy crap, the Democrats keep the Senate. And worse than that, the Democrats potentially grow their majority in the Senate. Worse than that, yes, we take the House, but at best we're going to take the House with a couple of seats. Maybe there is an outside chance we lose the House. I don't think we will. I think the numbers are enough that we will hold onto the House. But it's going to be A majority of 2192-202212-22218 is a majority. So we're going to be looking at a 2, 3, 4 vote majority at best. The rage Americans are feeling across this country, the rage that I'm feeling, there are almost not words to describe it because this opportunity was screwed up. It was screwed up badly. And the people are going to pay the price are the American people. The country is screwed for the next four years because of this. We're going to see horrible left wing judges confirmed for the next two years because of this. We're going to see judges taking away our free speech rights, our religious liberty rights, our Second Amendment rights. Judge. It is an enormous missed opportunity. And I gotta say it is hard to describe my feelings as anything other than rage right now.
- [02:31]
A
Senator, before we get into some of the exit poll data that I think really tells you a lot about where the American mindset was going into election day, I want to remind people about our good friends over at Patriot Mobile. If you have a cell phone and 99% of you do, there is a company where every single time you make a phone call you are actually standing up for the values that you believe in. The company is called Patriot Mobile and they actually save you money on your cell phone bill while also supporting Christian conservative causes. Now this is why I love them as a company. Not only do they fund concerted causes and candidates that believe in exactly what you and I believe in the sanctity of life, freedom of speech, the second amendment, but they're having a huge impact when it comes to standing up for kids in our public schools and helping with adoption. Right now since Roe v. Wade has been overturned, these are the important issues that they do every day. All you gotta do is switch. You're gonna get the same cell phone coverage you get right now. You're gonna save money. You can keep your same cell phone number and switching is really easy. You use the same towers and the same coverage you have right now, except you are supporting conservative causes. So check out Patriot Mobile. Get in the game. Patriotmobile.com verdict patriotmobile.com verdict Use the promo code VERDICT. You'll save money and you'll get free activation. You can also call them 972-PATRIOT that's 972-PATRIOT or patriot mobile.com verdict one of the things that I still think is so shocking is the exit poll data did show that Americans were very concerned over the issues of the economy. They were very concerned over inflation. They were very concerned over parental rights. They were very concerned over all of these types of issues that clearly lean to the Republican candidates. Yet on election day we still see and Democrats were as shocked as anybody. They were expecting a bloodbath, Senator. And then they went on TV this weekend on the Sunday shows and they were basically sitting there in total disbelief. They were actually saying out loud we cannot believe how well the Democrats did. Comparing it to how bad the economy was and how low the President's approval rating was and how low the Democrats approval rating was as a party.
- [05:08]
B
Look, the Democrats had assumed they were going to get utterly obliterated in the House. And the Democrats thought they would lose the Senate. And on every objective in ditio they should have the top issues. A large majority of Americans believe we're on the wrong track. They believe the economy is terrible, but they believe Joe Biden is doing a terrible job. The top three issues in the country, number one, inflation. Number two, crime. Number three, illegal immigration. Democrats are disastrous on all three of them. And yet at the end of the day, look, one of the patterns we have out of this election. Incumbents, by and large, one across the board. So the voters came in, we said, we think it's all crap. Let's vote for the guy we got right now. And so a whole bunch of incumbents prevailed, despite the voters recognizing their lives had gotten a lot worse. Yet they reelected the same people who did this in terms of whose fault it is. This is going to be a discussion we're going to have for weeks and months going forward. I think there is plenty of blame to go around. Everybody bears some of the blame. But I will tell you, look, the issue right now that I think is critical, the Republican Senate has a leadership election scheduled for Wednesday, two days from now. It would be insane if we reelect the same leadership two days from now, if we say, hey, nothing happened, everything's good, keep rowing off the waterfall, crash into the rocks, everything's awesome. Listen, if you have the number one team in the nation and you get crushed, and you get crushed, and you get crushed, you know what happens? They fire the coach. The idea that we would have leadership elections on Wednesday is insane, I can tell you. I have publicly called for delaying the leadership elections of the Senate until at a minimum after December 6, which is when the Georgia runoff is. Because at this point, we don't even know who the Republican conference is. Sadly, we know it's a minority. So at best, we're going to have 50 senators. And with Kamala Harris as the vice president, that means the Democrats will have a majority. But we don't know who the senator from Georgia is. It could be Herschel Walker. We don't know who the senator from Alaska is. There's still, it's going to be a couple of weeks before they reallocate the rank choice voting. So we don't know who the senator from Alaska will be. And yet what is happening is the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, is trying to force through a vote on Wednesday. Now, one of the things to understand, people ask, well, gosh, what's, what's a Republican leader election like? And I have to admit, when I first arrived here 10 years ago, I didn't know what it would be like. I went to my first one. So they do it deliberately immediately after the election. And the people that vote, the old retiring senators, don't vote. So the people who vote in a leadership election are all of the new senators coming into the new Senate. So you show up. When I showed up there in 2012, I'm a baby senator. They put you in a little temporary office down in the basement. You have, like three little offices with a bunch of people packed in there. You don't know what you're doing. You don't even know where the men's room is. And you immediately walk in and have to vote on leader. And they do that because they don't want the freshmen who are the least. They have the least hooks in them at that point. They don't want them to be able to organize and vote against any existing leadership. So they try to force a leadership vote through before you have a chance to do anything. The first leadership election I went to in 2012, I was amazed. I kind of sat back and said, oh, this should be interesting. And I assumed the Republican leader was Mitch McConnell, then would stand up and give a speech and say, hey, here's what I want to do. 2012. Barack Obama had just been reelected to a second term. We'd had a really disappointing election like this one. I'd gotten elected. I was one of the few bright spots, at least from my perspective, not necessarily from Mitch's or the Democrats perspective, but, you know, I was waiting for a Republican leader to lay out a vision of, here's how we're going to fight against Obama. Here's what we're going to do to press back against these disastrous policies. Ben, it will amaze you. At leadership elections, the leaders don't give speeches. They don't lay out agendas. They don't say what they intend to do. They say absolutely zero about their plans going forward. Instead, what happens is.
- [10:01]
A
Which is shocking, by the way, because if it's a leadership election, you would think, and this is the first time I'm learning about this, I thought for sure there was a, hey, here's why I still think I should be the Leader. Mitch McConnell. Right. This is what we're going to do. This is what we're going to. How I'm going to do things. This is. And then would answer questions. You're saying that will not happen on Wednesday and does not happen in the past either.
- [10:23]
B
So I can tell you in the past it has never happened. And look, you point out, think back to, like, when you and I were in junior high student council elections. Sure. Someone would stand up and say, elect me to student council. And if you do, I'll have chocolate ice cream in the cafeteria. Like. Like, they. They'd have some promise of what they're gonna do. And you'd be like, oh, okay, I like that. I'll Vote for you. I naively came in and said, okay, I assume that's what the leader elections are like. They don't give any speeches at all. Instead, other senators stand up and give nominating speeches. And the nominating speeches are like, are these epic poems composed to the leaders? And so I've been there 10 years. I have never voted for or against Mitch McConnell. Why is that? No one's ever run against him. And every election has been a vote by acclamation. In other words, he's just been adopted by acclamation. We've never had to cast a vote. My first year I saw that, I was like, okay, this is really bizarre. But then two years later, 2014, I'd been in the Senate for two years. Something new developed, which is in 2014, for the first year, Mitch McConnell created a super PAC. And Mitch's super PAC raises and spends about $300 million every two years to elect Senate Republicans. I remember sitting there in 2014, two years into my term in the Senate, amazed and horrified, in fact, texting Mike Lee, the wonderful conservative from Utah, and my closest friends. This is terrible because today, Mitch McConnell is the single largest donor to every single Republican senator, almost without exception. He doesn't give to my campaigns. He didn't give a penny to Mike Lee's campaign six years ago. He didn't give a penny to Ron Johnson's campaign. But Mitch, for most of the Republicans in the Senate, Mitch is spending 10 million, 20 million, 30 million, as much as $40 million on their races. So most of the Republicans are scared to cross him. I do think this cycle, it may be different. So I have publicly called for delaying the leadership elections from Wednesday till after the Georgia runoff, which is on December 6th. Several other Republican senators are called for the same. Most Mike Lee has called for the same. Ron Johnson has called for the same. Josh Hawley is called for the same. Cynthia Lummis has called for the same. Actually, Marco Rubio has called for the same, which surprised a lot of people. That was an unusual development. Just, just a few hours ago, Lindsey Graham called for delaying the elections. We're starting to see several Republicans lean out and call for that. That being said, the response of Republican leadership is not only no, but hell, no, we will vote. Shut up and vote.
- [13:28]
A
Is that because they're afraid you guys are going to organize or because. And is it also they're afraid that as each day goes by, more and more Americans will sound off and talk to their elected officials about why they don't want Mitch McConnell to be the leader?
- [13:46]
B
Yes, yes, yes. Listen, I think if you look back at the record of success, just like with a football coach, where you would fire a football coach if the team loses when they should have won, we should have won. And I gotta say, Mitch's philosophy as leader is to snuggle up to the Democrats and work with the Democrats. You know, you look at what happens when the Democrats have a majority in the Senate, when the majority leader is Harry Reid or Chuck Schumer, they don't cozy up to Republicans. When Republicans had a majority in the Senate under Trump, the Democrats didn't want to work with us. They voted no and hell no on everything. The difference is when Republicans have the majority, our current leadership believes it's a good idea to pass bill after bill after bill with all the Democrats and with 10 or 12 or 15 Republicans. And so they end up organizing a small crew of Republicans to suck up to the Democrats and give the Democrats legislative wins. And by the way, Ben, the Democrats never, ever, ever do this. When we have the majority. They're not 10 or 12 Democrats who come give us wins. Nope. They just vote hell no on everything. And I gotta say that I think there is a need for a real reassessment of is this a good strategy for the next two years? I think the American people expect us to fight against these disastrous policies from the Democrats. The policies that are producing rampant inflation and out of control gas prices and crime that is skyrocketing and open borders. And our current leadership, my single biggest Disagreement with Mitch McConnell over the last 10 years is over and over and over again. When it comes to can we stand up to Barack Obama or Joe Biden? His answer is no. And I believe the answer is yes, that we ought to stand and fight. Not on everything. Look, if you fight on everything, you're not being smart, you're not being strategic, you're not actually fighting a real fight. I think you pick real significant fights that matter and then you develop a strategy to really fight on it. So for example, I think we ought to fight an epic knockdown drag out fight over stopping the Democrats from funding 87,000 new IRS agents to harass and intimidate and persecute Americans and their political enemies. Now, to do that, we will have to draw a line in the sand and say we will not fund them. Here's what will happen next, Ben. The Democrats and the media will say Republicans are shutting down the government because the only way to do it is on a government funding bill.
- [16:31]
A
Sure.
- [16:32]
B
If past this prologue, our current Leadership will agree with the Democrats in the media and say, yeah, Republicans are shutting down the government. It's terrible. So let's fund the IRS agents. I think the American people are pissed with Republicans behaving like jellyfish. We need to stand up and fight. And so one of the big reasons to delay the election is to have time to have a real debate about what our strategy should be. And it ought to be a strategy that involves every Republican, not one leader as dictator, deciding the rules and for those rules to be capitulation to the Democrats.
- [17:16]
A
One of the things that I think so many Americans are going to want to have an answer to, Senator, is if you take a step back, who's to blame for some of the candidate selection that's got us into this situation that we're in now? Some of the losses, I think were lack of funding from Mitch McConnell. I think you would probably agree with me in that one. But the other part of this is we had some really bad candidates that were picked. Dr. Oz screams @ the top of my list. And I want to get your take because so many Americans I've talked to over the last couple of days, they're trying to figure that part of this out of the math equation of how we screwed this up so badly.
- [17:56]
B
So look, we had some candidates who were not very good candidates. Mitch McConnell said that two months ago. I disagreed with him strongly at the time, not in the fact of it. Yes, there were some candidates who were not great candidates, but it's really dumb for the Republican leaders to take a two by four to them while they're running. Once there are damn nominees like don't stand up and kneecap them while they're running. But the time to have done that was in the primaries to elect candidates who are real and serious candidates. And you take Pennsylvania. Listen, I was all in for Dave McCormick. I went. I campaigned for Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania the first week he announced. I campaigned with Dave all over the state. If Dave McCormick had been our nominee, he would have won Pennsylvania and we would have been, I hope, on a path to a Republican majority. He was clearly the strongest conservative who can win, and yet he didn't win. And Trump came in at the end, endorsed Dr. Oz, did big rallies for Dr. Oz, and actually stood up on the rally podium and blasted McCormick, which is amazing given that he offered Dave McCormick the position of Deputy Secretary of Defense And Dave's wife was the deputy National Security Adviser to Donald Trump in the Trump White House. But that had a real effect. And I got to say if we had come together as a party and said, we need to win this race and we need a serious and real candidate to do so, we would be celebrating a victory instead of a loss. But that's not what happened.
- [19:39]
A
Let's deal with Walker. There's a lot of people, and you look at Georgia, that's the last place we're really in a fight. You and I were just out there on his tour, on his campaign bus two days after the election, he's in this runoff. And I'm really worried, Senator, that there's going to be a lot of people in this country that are gonna now think, well, because we don't have the majority, right, or the chance at the majority anymore in the Senate, that this race is pretty much, who cares what really happens, right? Because they're gonna have control of the Senate. So. So be it. That is not the case at all. And I need you to explain to everybody why this election in Georgia is still so extremely important.
- [20:25]
B
Yeah, it's a great question. I wanna say to everyone who listens to this podcast, I want to call on you to do two things. Number one, the battle this week to delay the leadership election in the Senate is hugely important. I mentioned to you the senators that have called publicly for delaying it. Me, Mike Lee, Ron Johnson, Josh Hawley, Rick Scott, Cynthia Lummis, Marco Rubio, and Lindsey Graham. If your senator is not on that list, pick up the phone today and call your senator and call on them to delay the majority election, the leadership election, until after the Georgia runoff. That is hugely important. And the only way this will change, the only way that election gets delayed, is if a gazillion phone calls come in. Two Senate Republicans in the next 48 hours. But secondly, the question you asked Ben about Georgia. There is a tendency among activists, among donors to say, well, gosh, if the Democrats have the majority, no matter what, Georgia doesn't matter. That is absolutely wrong. And let me explain why. So, as you know, right after the election, we go to the runoff. The very first call the Herschel Walker campaign made was to me and my team, and they asked me to come rally with Herschel. I was there on Thursday, two days after the election, for the kickoff rally of the runoff. We had over 3,000 people come out. We had enormous energy. It was fantastic. But let me tell you why. This is an important message to hear. This is why the Georgia runoff matters immensely, even though Democrats are going to have the majority regardless. And the reason is as follows. If we lose Georgia, the Democrats will be at plus One in the Senate. In other words, they will go from 50 Democrats to 51 Democrats. Why does that matter? Because the last two years the Democrats tried repeatedly to end the filibuster. They had 48 votes to end the filibuster. They were blocked by two Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Those two stopped them from ending the filibuster. Between the two, I think Sinema was the far stronger. I think Manchin would have rolled over, but Sinema provided the backbone to stop Manchin from rolling over on that. And I base thought, listen, I've served in the Senate for 10 years with Joe Manchin, prior to the last two years, 100% of the time when the stakes were high and Chuck Schumer put the pressure on, Manchin gave in and did what schumer wanted, always 100% without exception. Manchin was never the deciding vote. It was cinema that changed the whole dynamic because she came in and had some backbone and suddenly it was like, wow, they're really not ending the filibuster now. You might say, okay, why do I care about ending the filibuster? Here's what the Democrats want to do. If they end the filibuster, number one, they will pass S1, the corrupt politicians act, which would strike down every voter integrity law in the country, would strike down every photo ID law in the country. It would legalize ballot harvesting all across the country. It would immediately register to vote millions of illegal aliens. It would register to vote felons all across this country. It is designed to ensure that Democrats can never lose again. The second thing they would do is add two new states to the Union, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. They're doing that. They want to do that because it would add, they believe, four new Democrat senators so that they believe Republicans could never take the Senate again. The third thing they would do is grant citizenship and voting rights to every illegal alien in America. 10, 15, 20 million, we don't know the exact number, but a big number. Again, they would do that to seize power forever. And the fourth thing they would do is pack the United States Supreme Court, add four new left wing Democrats to the Supreme Court, take it from nine justices to 13, which would critically injure and take away our constitutional rights to free speech, to religious liberty, the second Amendment, it would strike down school choice all across the country. I believe if the Democrats win in Georgia and they have a 51 vote majority that Joe Manchin will fold under the pressure from Chuck Schumer and they will end the filibuster. And I gotta say, look, Ben, by my nature, I'm a deeply optimistic person. But if they go down that road, I don't know how we come back from it.
- [25:29]
A
Well, and Democrats have shown no restraint at all in undermining the rules or the laws or even the procedures with our government or our country. I mean, they knew when they were impeaching Donald Trump that they were trying to overthrow the will of the people on a dossier that they knew that their party, the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton paid for. They knew when they were trying to overthrow the will of the people that it was done on information they created out of thin air. So if they're willing to do that, I think they're more than willing to do exactly what you're describing right now, which 10, 15 years ago would have been, you would say, I think, unimaginable. Yet now I think this is their reality.
- [26:11]
B
The Democrats, their priority is staying in power. Everything else is secondary. They care about staying in power. Notice the legislative agenda that I said they'd pass if they end the filibuster, the corrupt politician. That act is to stop voters from voting Democrats out of office. Making D.C. and Puerto Rico states is to put more Democrats in the Senate. Giving illegal aliens the right to vote is to elect more Democrats. Packing the Supreme Court is to give them control over all three branches of government. They believe in power. They don't believe in democracy. One of the great ironies, just about every single attack the Democrats use on Republicans is what, in fact they are doing. And, and so listen, I would ask the folks who listen to this podcast, you guys are passionate believers in our country. You're standing up and fighting. I know you're angry, you're demoralized, you're frustrated. How did we blow this? I promise you that that frustration is volcanic on my part. Two things I would ask you to focus on. Number one, pick up the phone and call your senator and get your senator. Every Republican senator needs to hear from thousands upon thousands of their constituents. Delay the leadership elections. Let's have real leaders who actually stand and fight and deliver. Number two, Georgia matters enormously. And if you are in Georgia, make sure you turn out, make sure you turn your friends out, your family out. If you have friends and family in Georgia, call them. It is about turnout. And then it's also about fundraising. It's about supporting.
- [27:54]
A
Well, and that was going to be the last thing I was going to ask you, which I think is probably the most important. Center, money is going to be needed in Georgia. And Democrats are now betting on Republicans and conservatives being, in essence, demoralized over what just happened to the point where they just don't give. Democrats are fired up because they had one hell of a midterm that they didn't expect. It's like they've won the game, in essence, right? Come back out of nowhere. They want this seat in Georgia, and they think they can grab it, and they think they have what they need to grab this seat, and they're going to be able to raise a ton of money because they feel like there's some sort of momentum here for them. If Republicans don't give, we're going to lose this thing because we just get out. The money is outraised. And you already talked about that. Just. I call it corruption in the Republican Party. I mean, do we have any indication that Mitch McConnell is going to open up his purse strings and give some real money to Herschel Walker?
- [28:55]
B
Oh, look, I'm sure he will raise money and invest in the race. But if you look at this last cycle, Mitch McConnell pulled the money out of Arizona. We could have won Arizona. We nearly won Arizona. And abandoning Blake Masters was indefensible.
- [29:09]
A
Why did that happen? I got to ask you. Because everybody is going to say the same thing I am right now. Explain to me, Senator, why in a race where the polling showed that we had a legitimate chance of winning there, why did he pull out that money from Masters, who desperately needed it?
- [29:27]
B
Because Masters said he would vote against Mitch McConnell. And so Mitch would rather be leader than have a Republican majority. If there's a Republican who can win, who's not going to support Mitch, the truth of the matter is he'd rather the Democrat win. So he pulled all the money out of Arizona. He put $9 million into Alaska and Alaska, we've got an election between Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, and Kelly Shabaka, a Republican. One of the two is going to win. Right now, Chewbacca is leading in the polls. She is endorsed by the Alaska Republican Party, but she said she'd vote against Mitch, whereas Lisa Murkowski will vote for Mitch. And So Mitch spent $9 million in essentially the primary in Alaska. Now, it may be that Murkowski wins because they have this weird ranked choice voting there. So the Democrat got a handful of votes. Those Democrat votes will be reassigned. And you have to assume all the Democrats are going to vote for Lisa Murkowski, which may give her the win. But $9 million in Alaska. Look, Alaska has a very small population. $9 million is like setting off a bomb. Atom bomb. Yeah, that was $9 million that was not spent in Arizona. If that $9 million had been spent in Arizona, Blake Masters probably would have won and we would be on the road to a Republican majority. But Mitch made a decision. It's more important to him to have Republicans who will back him than it is to have 51 Republicans. I understand why there's a certain selfishness that justifies that. It just doesn't make any sense if you give a about the country. Mitch also pulled all the money out of New Hampshire. Don Bulldog. Look, he ended up losing by a significant margin. But Maggie Hassan, the Democrat was way under 50%, was vulnerable, and a big part of the reason Bull Goldach lost as he got massively outspent and had no resources. I think there needs to be a real discussion about where dollars are invested. I think we will see significant dollars invested in Georgia, but I'm worried that people will be demoralized and say it doesn't matter. And if you say it doesn't matter, that's how you get 51 Democrats. That's how they nuke the filibuster. That's how they enact the republic ending changes that destroy our democracy. And so I get that you're pissed, but go to teamherschel.com teamherschel.com teamHerschel.com make a contribution if you're in Georgia, show up, work. Let's win that seat. But also today, call your senators.
- [32:14]
A
You got to call your senators on that leadership vote.
- [32:17]
B
By the way, do you know that the Democrats are voting the first week of December? So the Democrats have the sense to delay because they're like, gosh, Raphael Wardock ought to be able to vote. We shouldn't have a vote till we know who's in the conference. That actually makes enormous common sense. And yet the Republican leadership is like, screw the voters. Doesn't matter who's in the conference. We're voting now. It makes no sense other than other than as an exercise of raw political power. And yet there are acolytes of Mitch McConnell who are going on national television saying, vote for Mitch and let's vote now. I gotta say, I just disagree with that.
- [32:59]
A
It's truly incredible. Make those phone calls. Call your senator. The switchboard. 202221 3121. You can also Google your senator's name directly online and get their number, but you need to be calling your senator's this week. Here. It is important Also, make sure that you share this podcast at that little forward arrow. Put it everywhere, you know, on social media, forward in a text message. Your family and friend and senator, you and I had a funny conversation this week. We tell people, make sure you hit that subscribe button. We want to make clear all that means when you hit that auto download subscribe button is that you get the show three times a week for free on your phone. You can tell Siri or Alexa, play a verdict with Ted Cruz and it will play automatically. But hit that subscribe button, it doesn't cost you anything. It just guarantees that you're gonna get the three episodes every week. You and I were laughing because people were asking, like, wait, when I hit subscribe, what do I do? I have to pay something? You do not. It is always free this podcast. So download it. Hit that subscriber auto download button sender. I appreciate your leadership. I know you're exhausted from this election. Like you said, you should be mad. It's demoralizing. We still have this fight in Georgia, and that's where people need to get involved. Teamherschel.com that's teamherschel.com and we will see you guys back here again on Wednesday morning.