← The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
BONUS: Biden DOJ Subpoenaed MY Phone Records, Spied on 20% of GOP Senators, plus Lunch w Trump in the Rose Garden
00:39:51
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Ben Ferguson
This is an iHeart podcast.
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The NFL International games continue on NFL Network and here our stars come out in the morning. Week 10 Bijon Robinson and the Falcons take on Daniel Jones and the Colts in Berlin.
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Ben Ferguson
Fireworks in the fourth quarter.
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NFL Network Announcer
Then in week 11, Jaden Daniels and the Commanders touchdown once again. Face Tua and the Dolphins in Madrid. Snooze off. Game on it's Sunday Morning Football continues November 9th at 9:30 in Eastern only on NFL Network.
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Ben Ferguson
The stories making the news headlines across the world.
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The News Agents we're not just here to tell you what's happening, but why? From me, Emily Maitlis and me, Jon Sopel with Global's award winning podcast the News Agents Dropping daily covering everything you need to know about politics and current.
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Affairs and The News Agents USA listening.
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- [02:37]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome. It is verdict with Senator Ted Cruz. Ben Ferguson with you. And Senator, we've got to break some news here. Apparently I was spied on because I texted you during a period when you were spied on, which means I was spied on. I feel like my name should be in this a little bit here. We thought it would happen. It came out. It's real. Congratulations. They really wanted to see what you were texting and I think they're going to be highly disappointed. I'm not going to lie.
- [03:05]
Senator Ted Cruz
Look, I think my texts are pretty damn amusing and I'm sorry you have no sense of humor. I need to text you more about when Ole Miss doesn't win a football game. But you're right, the news broke. The news broke in the last couple of days that the Biden Department of Justice Jack Smith issued a subpoena, spying on me, trying to get information about my cell phone, about communications I was having about voicemails, about text, all the information they could from my subpoena. That now makes nine Republican senators that the Biden DOJ issued subpoenas and tried to get their cell phone records. We're going to break that down. We're going to talk about what an extraordinary abuse of power this is, what a nakedly political it is. We're going to break all that down for you. We're also going to talk about. I spent about two hours with President Trump at the Oval Office today at the White House. He invited all the Republican senators to have lunch with him. We're going to talk to you about everything that went on and what's going on. And by the way, the Democrats losing their minds because President Trump is paying to improve the White House and to make some really significant additions to the White House. And apparently that, that, that for the Democrats is, is unspeakably horrible.
- [04:27]
Ben Ferguson
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- [06:46]
Senator Ted Cruz
So, so I found out about this last week. Last Thursday I got the information. And let's back up. A couple of weeks ago, a couple of weeks ago the news broke that Jack Smith, the prosecutor in the Biden DOJ that was going after January 6th, that was going after President Trump had subpoenaed eight senators and one Republican House member and had gotten their cell phone records. And the eight senators who had been subpoenaed were Marsha Blackburn, Ron Johnson, Bill Haggerty, Josh Hawley, Cynthia Lummis, Lindsey Graham, Dan Sullivan and Tommy Tuberville. And then Mike Kelly, a Republican House member from Pennsylvania, was also subpoenaed. All nine of them had their cell phone records handed over to the Biden Department of Justice. Now I got to admit, just over a week ago, Sean Hannity was in town and I had dinner with Sean and with several of the senators on that list as well. And I was laughing with Sean. I was saying I'M actually kind of offended. Like, how did I get left out of this list? Like, what did I have to do?
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Do?
- [07:52]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, I was literally standing on the Senate floor on January 6, objecting and leading the fight. And I had brought together 11 senators to stand together in fighting for an election commission to assess the evidence of voter fraud. And including many of the senators who were subpoenaed were in the group that I'd brought together. So I was joking with Sean, but I wasn't entirely joking. Well, it turns out the reason I was not on the list is apparently all eight of those senators, their cell phones are with Verizon. And the evidence had come out that Verizon had handed over their cell phone information. Well, my cell phone is with at&t. And I didn't know it at the time, but I found out late last week that Jack Smith sent a subpoena to ATT demanding my cell phone records. And AT&T told him to go jump in a lake. AT&T did not give my cell phone records. I really look AT AND T is based in Texas. I'm proud of them. They did the right thing. I appreciate that. And they assessed it. They had a subpoena from Jack Smith, by the way. The subpoena called for, quote, detailed records for inbound and outbound calls, text messages, direct connect and voicemail messages, among other things. So they were seeking that. There was an. Also an order from Judge Boasberg, who was, you know, this, this left wing judge has been presiding against, over much of the litigation against, against Trump had an order from Judge Boasberg ordering AT&T, you cannot disclose to Cruz that we're seeking his cell phone information for a year.
- [09:38]
Ben Ferguson
Isn't that amazing? By the way, are you sitting United States Senator? Don't tell him. We don't want him to know.
- [09:43]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yes. And so AT&T examined it and they actually, they came to the conclusion. Now, the way it works, so the subpoena just comes and they get a cell phone number. So, so, so the Biden DOJ didn't identify who they were seeking. And by the way, look, the telecom companies typically, if they get a subpoena for, for phone records on a number, they typically hand it over because it's usually a drug dealer, a criminal. You have a subpoena that's issued from a grand jury. So, so it, it. They will routinely in a criminal proceeding handover. Well, it so happened that, that AT&T, even though they just asked for the number, they looked and realized whose number it was. And they talked with their legal team and they said, listen, what Cruz is saying is. And any member of Congress, what they're saying is protected by the speech and debate clause of the Constitution. The Constitution protects the ability of senators and House members to engage in debate, to do our jobs. Article 1 of the Constitution vests all legislative power in the Congress. And in fact, on January 6, it was very literally speech and debate. As I said, I was standing on the Senate floor giving a speech and raising objection. So it's literally the heart of what one does as an elected member of Congress. And so AT and T concluded, listen, we're not gonna comply. As I said, I'm grateful for AT&T doing that, but that now makes it nine senators that we know of and one House.
- [11:21]
Ben Ferguson
So I'm guessing there might be other senators that were also at AT and T. And they probably said, no, we're not going to do that either. Right? It would be. Verizon just caved instantly and said, sure, here's everybody you're asking for. There could be easily, I would say, another four, five, six others. Who knows how many outside the Senate.
- [11:36]
Senator Ted Cruz
Right.
- [11:36]
Ben Ferguson
That they could have asked for, that they could have said no to as well. And I would assume there was a lot of people on att.
- [11:42]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, and look, the. The Biden DOJ also went after. Went after the Republican Attorney General's Association. It went after Turning Point usa. This was a massive fishing expedition, and this was a political persecution. Understand. Jack Smith was appointed special counsel to investigate and prosecute January 6, three days after Donald Trump announced his campaign for reelection in 2024, literally three days later. So it was 2022. So it was two years after January 6th. They had not appointed anyone. And yet suddenly, when Trump announces his campaign, the. They rushed to appoint Jack Smith to say, go after Donald Trump because we want to stop the voters from. From voting for him.
- [12:27]
Ben Ferguson
Sure, but.
- [12:28]
Senator Ted Cruz
But nine senators, that is 20% of the Republicans in the United States Senate. And I got to say, for the executive branch to engage in wholesale spying on their political opponents and spying with. Let's be clear. None of us engaged in criminal conduct. None of us engaged in anything remotely criminal, arguably criminal. This was political persecution. This was snooping. This is hoping someone said something.
- [12:59]
Ben Ferguson
Here's what I was going to ask you. What were they hoping to find? Right? Like, you go fishing and what is the smoking gun in that scenario? They were. They were just, hey, we'll just go after all these conservatives and maybe we get lucky.
- [13:12]
Senator Ted Cruz
Look, I don't know what they were hoping to find, but they were asking for the cell phone records from January 4th to January 7th. So all surrounding January 6th, I assume they were looking for some modicum of coordination with those who engage in active violence on that day. Part of their theory was the alternate electors that were being sent from various states. So I assume they were looking for some modicum of coordination there. But. But this was a political prosecution because they did not have evidence. And so they said, well, let's. Let's go through their cell phone records and see if we can find something. And by the way, who knows, if. If. If somebody had sent something stupid text, had a voicemail, had. You know, I mean, people, when you go through someone's emails, when you go through someone's cell phones, when prosecutors go looking for a crime, the nature of a fishing expedition is, let's go look around. You know, there's a book that was written decades ago that's called three Felonies a Day. And it talks about how the average American commits three felonies a day. That in our regulatory state, things are so complicated, things are so mired in complexity that you can violate. You know, you step on a wetland in your backyard, and, you know, there's an old line that a prosecutor can indict. A ham sandwich. Yeah. That a prosecutor goes in front of a grand jury. When a prosecutor goes in front of a grand jury, you know, there's no defense attorney there. It's just the prosecutor and members of the grand jury. And so I don't know what they were looking for. I think they were looking for anything that could stick because this was a political prosecution.
- [15:02]
Ben Ferguson
Let me ask you this.
- [15:04]
Senator Ted Cruz
And so, Ben, I just want to say I'm really grateful they did not find the pictures you sent of me of you in a pink tutu. Because I just think that it's not.
- [15:15]
Ben Ferguson
Criminal league jokes that I send you about the Ivy League snobs. I mean, Jack Smith probably ended up going to one of those places that could have been very bad for me.
- [15:25]
Senator Ted Cruz
You know, it would have been. And I gotta say, just the typos and misspellings that you have in your text, that. That alone would have been a little bit embarrassing, too. So I'm glad none of that came out.
- [15:38]
Ben Ferguson
Good news is they're very hard to decipher when you're. If they're. If it's in front of, you know, Congress, like, it's. What was Ben really trying to say? And I'm like, you're welcome.
- [15:46]
Senator Ted Cruz
I will tell you. I talked to AT&T today. And I said, look, you guys ought to start a marketing campaign of shift to AT&T. We'll protect your stuff. Like, kudos to them, Verizon. I. Look, I, I don't have a good answer to that, but, but, but, but I did, and I didn't know about this until just a few days ago. So this was when the first news broke. I, like, I was joking that I felt excluded, but it wasn't entirely a joke. And then I was like, oh, okay, that makes sense. And, and, and here we are.
- [16:17]
Ben Ferguson
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- [16:57]
Josh from Burna
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- [17:46]
Ben Ferguson
Now, look, obviously the burner worked great in this case, but why wouldn't someone choose to use a gun in this case instead of a burner? So many people me that type of.
- [17:54]
Josh from Burna
Question, you know, same. I get to ask that all the time. And here we have a couple different reasons. One, he may not be in an area where he could carry a gun. Depending on the laws of your state, it may limit where you can and can't carry a gun. And to look, nobody wants to kill these dogs, right? Nobody wants to kill anybody but dogs either. If we can use a lower level of force to affect a safe getaway for us and everyone else, man, that's the way to do it. And that's exactly what happened here.
- [18:19]
Ben Ferguson
If you want to be able to protect your family and you want to have something like this, a less lethal option, you need to check out Burna. You can go right now to Burna B y R N a dot com Again, that's Burna B y rna dot com you'll understand after you see the videos exactly why I carry this in every car we have. Burna by rna.com all right, final question on this. What is going to be the response from Congress? Will there be any to this? Or is this just old administration abuse of power? It is what it is. We're going to move on or is there going to be a way to make sure, like we have standards that this is not allowed to happen and that people are held accountable for this?
- [18:59]
Senator Ted Cruz
Look, I think we're going to see hearings. I think we've, we've, we've got hearings coming in the House. I think we'll see hearings in the Senate. I will tell you, the nine of us who were targeted, we're talking to each other because we want to prevent this. We want to prevent a subsequent DOJ from doing this, from spying on their political opponents, particularly in Congress. The executive doesn't have the ability to go engage in spying on members of the opposing party in Congress. That is an abuse of power. It is politicization. And this entire effort. So this prosecution was called Arctic Frost. And I think this is going to be the Watergate of the Biden doj. I think it is a demonstration that Jack Smith was a partisan prosecutor who was drunk on power. And I don't believe Jack Smith made this decision on his own. I think the decision making goes all the way up. I think it goes up to the attorney General, I think it goes up to the White House. And so I expect, number one, some real investigation and hopefully transparency in terms of who approved the let's go spy on members of Congress. And that I think we're going to work to have some real transparency on. And I think we're going to look at real and concrete steps we can take to make sure this never happens again. Because this kind of.
- [20:25]
Ben Ferguson
Is there part of you that just thinks like, maybe this has just been going on and never really stopped after, you know, the famous FBI director that had, you know, files on Everybody.
- [20:37]
Senator Ted Cruz
And.
- [20:37]
Ben Ferguson
And people said, well, we won't have that again after. After Jaeger and. And. And now it's like, they're just like, they Wild West. You can do whatever the hell you want to if you're a Democrat and you're in charge. Like, we can spy on the President. We can spy on the campaigns. We can go after people in the Situation Room and entrap them. We can try to go after their business associates and their kids and get them to turn against them. Like, Eric Trump was talking about that on our show the other day. If you missed that show, people should go back and listen to. He's like, they were literally trying to turn Donald Trump's own children against him, threatening that your life's gonna be over and you're gonna be in jail, so you better get a get out of jail free card. And now it's like, yeah, and we were also spying on senators. I'm assuming some congressmen will come out. Like, who knows who's there? I mean, Charlie Kirk said recently, before assassination, it came out that he said during the campaign, we either win the campaign or I may go to jail. I actually believe now, witnessing what we've seen, that that's not far off from reality at all.
- [21:33]
Senator Ted Cruz
Look, the left was willing to weaponize the Department of Justice and the FBI. As you know, I wrote an entire book entitled justice how the Left Has Weaponized Our Legal System. And it talked about. It actually started with Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon tried to do that. And you look at some of the. Some of the harebrained schemes that the Nixon Justice Department came up with, including creating underground stings to get people on film taking drugs and with prostitutes to use to essentially blackmail them and to go after their political opponents. I mean, it was grotesque abuse of power. And when that came to light, we actually saw an improvement. And there were a couple of decades where I think this receded and occurred far less. And then what Richard Nixon tried to do to the justice system, Barack Obama succeeded in doing. He came in as this almost messiah figure, and DOJ Eric Holder as his Attorney general. You had Lois Lerner at the irs. They began targeting their political opponents, targeting anyone that they disagreed with, and also protecting their friends. During the Trump administration, the first term, they went underground, but they waged war on the President. These are the people that created fraudulent documents submitted to the FISA court in order to try to go after President Trump. They wanted to reverse the results of the 2016 election because they were furious that the American people elected Trump, and then During Biden, they were open, they were flagrant, they were out in the open and they were abusing their power. And I think they felt that the ends justified the means and anything was acceptable. And so I think we need to take real steps. Do I think this has been going on forever and ever? I don't. I certainly hope not. I'm not aware that it has. There's ancient history, but it took really, I think under Biden to make it just as viciously partisan as wills came along. Yes.
- [23:41]
Ben Ferguson
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- [26:22]
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- [27:20]
NFL Network Announcer
The NFL International games continue on NFL Network and here our stars come out in the morning.
- [27:26]
Senator Ted Cruz
Let's go.
- [27:27]
NFL Network Announcer
Week 10, Bajan Robinson and the Falcons take on Daniel Jones and the Colts in Berlin.
- [27:33]
Ben Ferguson
Fireworks in the fourth quarter.
- [27:35]
NFL Network Announcer
Then in week 11, Jayden Daniels and the Commanders touchdown once again. Face Tua and the Dolphins in Madrid snooze off. Game on. It's Sunday Morning Football continues November 9th at 9:30 Eastern only on NFL Network.
- [27:51]
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- [28:22]
Ben Ferguson
To something else that is obviously big. You were at the White House meeting with the President. You guys were asked to come over and check out the construction site that the left is losing their minds over right now. By the way, can we just talk about that for a second before we get the government shut down? This is hysterical. There have been multiple presidents that, by the way, have done different things to the White House. The majority of the time it's actually paid for by taxpayers. This time this is being paid for by Trump and donors. So it's not costing taxpayers a dime. It's a huge improvement to the White House that every future president will be able to use. I love that. And yet the lies that are out there is that Donald Trump is like destroying the White House and he's gone rogue and he's destroying America's House and it's going to cost you money. While the government shut down. Like there's, there's, there's tons of Democrats out there putting it out there going, oh, so the government shut down, but Donald Trump's paying money on this? Implying that like this government shutdown doesn't involve his plans. Yeah, cuz it's private money, you liars. So you were there, you saw it and I'm sure it came up.
- [29:25]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah. So President Trump invited all the Republican senators to come over and we came and joined him. We had lunch with him. He served cheeseburgers and French fries. I gotta say, the cheeseburgers were really good. There was actually a rumor he was gonna serve McDonald's.
- [29:41]
Ben Ferguson
I was gonna say, was it McDonald's? Cause he did that before when there was a shutdown.
- [29:45]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, there was a rumor that he was gonna serve McDonald's. And I think it is at or near the anniversary of when he went to work at McDonald's restaurant, which was one of the classic moments of the campaign last year.
- [29:56]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah.
- [29:57]
Senator Ted Cruz
And so he did not serve McDonald's. They were, I think the White House chef made the. They were good cheeseburgers. They were actually, they were quite good. And he was in as good a mood as I've ever seen him. He was just happy. So we met in the Rose Garden. And the Rose Garden, it's right off the Oval Office and it is surrounded by rose bushes. And it used to be like the ground was just a lawn and it was just grass. Yeah. And it's interesting, the President talked about this quite a bit and you can actually watch it on tv. He was on TV and the cameras were there as he was talking. But he's a builder, he's excited about this. There was a joy as he was talking about this project and he said, look, the rose garden. The problem was it was grass. When it rained, it would get muddy. You'd do events here and you're trudging through the mud and the grass. He said, you know, women, I've been there for this. Yeah, women would be there in expensive high heels. The high heels would be sinking into the mud. They'd ruin their shoes. They would get upset. And so what he did is he built a patio instead. So he did not, you know, I was told not a single rose was killed. The rose bushes are all there, but instead of the grass in the middle, he built a white marble patio that is matching the stone on the White House itself. So it's very much. It's the same color, it's the same theme.
- [31:14]
Ben Ferguson
It clearly ties in aesthetically.
- [31:17]
Senator Ted Cruz
And it's actually beautifully done. Like, I was impressed. And like, for example, around the patio, there are a series of drains. And the way they built it, the drains are an American flag where they have, oh, I don't know, probably an 8 by 8, 10 by 10 marble square that is the stars. And then they have the same size marble squares that is a series of horizontal slits that are the drains. But they have them alternating. So it's clearly American flags surrounding it all.
- [31:48]
Ben Ferguson
That's cool.
- [31:49]
Senator Ted Cruz
And it's really elegant. It's very well done. And it gives a place to go and sit. And today was a beautiful fall day, so it was a great day to gather. And then the President is also building a ballroom. You know, it's amazing. The White House does not have a ballroom. Correct. The biggest room in the White House is the East Room.
- [32:11]
Propane Advertiser
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- [32:11]
Senator Ted Cruz
But the East Room is not that big. Like, if you're doing a seated dinner there, you can get. It's tight, maybe 80 people there. I mean, it's just.
- [32:19]
Ben Ferguson
I've been in there for dinner. It is. I mean, it's like, it's tight. Like, there's not a lot of room to mingle, much less dance. And I don't think if you've never been to the White House, I do think this is something that people. I think they think it's a lot bigger than it really is. It's really not that big. When you go in the West Wing, for example, it's extremely tight. The offices are tiny for the senior staff.
- [32:41]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yes.
- [32:42]
Ben Ferguson
Even the chief of staff, the White House press office. Every office is extremely. It's like a closet with a door. That's the best way I can describe it.
- [32:49]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah.
- [32:49]
Ben Ferguson
The East Wing, by the way. And one of my dear friends worked for Laura Bush in her office. So I was over there a lot and actually go see the dogs and so that they always had the dog's knee swing. So, like, if you want to break just to get away, we would go over there and you'd give A treat. Play the dog, throw. Throw the ball outside on the White House lawn. But it was also very tiny because it just. It was not built for what our government is today. Even the size of staff like the White House, the First lady staff was nothing in the First Lady's role, was nothing compared to what it is in 2025. So when they're like, we're gonna expand this out in the east side, it's like, that makes sense. Like, this should have probably been done 30 years ago.
- [33:24]
Senator Ted Cruz
And there's a whole history of presidents going back more than a century of making additions to the White House, adding the West Wing, adding the Oval Office, adding the second floor, adding an indoor swimming pool, and then Richard Dixon filled the indoor swimming pool. It was actually very.
- [33:39]
Ben Ferguson
The bowling alley.
- [33:40]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah, look, look.
- [33:41]
Ben Ferguson
By the way, hold on. Go back to the swimming pool story. That's a good one.
- [33:45]
Senator Ted Cruz
Yeah. So Trump was telling the swimming pool story. He said, you know, when JFK was president, Jackie would come by and she'd say, wait, am I here? Because this was an indoor swimming pool. And Jackie's like, am I hearing women? And Trump was saying, the Secret Service said, no, ma', am. No, no, no. There are no women in there. You have to move on. And it was a very funny riff. And then when Nixon came in, he filled up the swimming pool and turned it into the press briefing room.
- [34:15]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah.
- [34:15]
Senator Ted Cruz
And so that's where the, you know, the White House press briefings are today is they're literally standing on top of what used to be the indoor swimming pool. Those previous. Many of those previous revisions use taxpayer money. Trump is not using taxpayer money. The building, the patio was not done.
- [34:32]
Ben Ferguson
The American flag he just put up. The two big American flags he's put up is a great example of that.
- [34:36]
Senator Ted Cruz
And the ballroom, the project is expected to be over $200 million. It's going to be a big, beautiful ballroom. They're building it. They're talking about it being able to seat 6, 700 people. And by the way, every subsequent president will use that. If you're doing a state dinner, if you're doing a gathering, the ability to host a larger gathering is a very useful thing for a president to be able to do. Regardless of your party, I mean, it will be a real and material improvement to the White House. And I gotta say, just listening to the President talk about it, he's so proud. Proud of. He likes building things.
- [35:11]
Ben Ferguson
I mean, that goes back to his roots. Like, this is. This is him at a core.
- [35:17]
Senator Ted Cruz
Well, and then, so we had A lunch. And he was talking about the shutdown. He was talking about everything that's going on. And then afterwards, he said, okay, and I want to ask all you guys, come on into the Oval Office with me and join me in the Oval. So we had, you know, there were 50 plus of us there. So we all came into the Oval, which is not that big, and we crowded around and Trump took us back to what he calls the Monica Lewinsky room.
- [35:38]
Ben Ferguson
Yes.
- [35:39]
Senator Ted Cruz
It's not complicated to figure out why he calls that the Monica Lewinsky room.
- [35:43]
Ben Ferguson
It's now the great gift shop that you cannot buy anything in. You were only gifted it directly from the President.
- [35:49]
Senator Ted Cruz
So. So it's the room where Bill Clinton was alone and shall we say, stained the blue dress with Monica. I have to admit, I love how.
- [36:00]
Ben Ferguson
You say, shall we say. I like that. That was nice.
- [36:03]
Senator Ted Cruz
I have to admit I was tempted to suggest to President Trump that he actually put up a sign naming at the Monica Lewinsky Room, but I haven't yet. I might suggest that to him because I actually think there's a good chance he did. By the way, he created the hall of Presidents along the Rose Garden. He has a photograph of every president. He starts with Washington. He's either a photograph or a painting of every president going up to 45 and 47, obviously, both him and in between, 46. Instead of a picture of Joe Biden, he has a picture of the auto pen, which is just hysterical. Like, it's just, it's. That's the presidential picture along the Rose Garden is the auto pen, because that's, that's who. Who was president for four years. So he invites us all into the Oval, and, and he's. And then he takes everyone into the. And the Monica Lewinsky room is not very big.
- [36:52]
Ben Ferguson
No, it's tiny.
- [36:53]
Senator Ted Cruz
It's across by 10ft. I mean, it's a little office right off the Oval. So it's down, like a really short hallway and it's to the left. And as he. He's basically put a gift shop there, and he has all sorts of bling.
- [37:08]
Ben Ferguson
All right, so if you're watching the video, here's one of the blings. That's something that, that he gave me when I was there. And, and, like, it's, he's got. It's all this kind of stuff, and it's like. And then he. And then I always like this one because he always, like, he's like, Ben, he goes, give it. Make sure you get your kids taken care of. So the presidential m. And Ms, he'll have those in there. The best part is the Eminem on the back. That's what my kids love the most. This is random tokens on my desk here. By the way, the kids, if you, you know that they don't care that much because the M and Ms. Are gone. They're like, we're going to eat those yet. I'm like, all right, you might want to save the box.
- [37:39]
Senator Ted Cruz
So, so. And he's got tons of hats. He's got MAGA hats. He's got Trump 2028, which he was laughing. He says, he says this drives the press crazy. They just lose their mind when it, when I have Trump 2028, he had cufflinks and, and he had. And he told every center, take whatever you want. Like, just grab whatever you want. It's all, it's all free. He's paying for it all. And so, like, I got. There's a very cool golf towel that they had that I just. You got me one.
- [38:06]
Ben Ferguson
Thank you. Wait, a way to look out for your co host here. I appreciate you getting me a golf towel because you don't play golf. That means a lot. That means a whole lot to me.
- [38:15]
Senator Ted Cruz
It's a beautiful golf towel.
- [38:18]
Ben Ferguson
You are.
- [38:18]
Senator Ted Cruz
It has Donald Trump's signature. It's gorgeous, by the way.
- [38:23]
Ben Ferguson
I just want the audience to be clear. He did not commit that. That golf towel is for me. Keep going.
- [38:27]
Senator Ted Cruz
Okay, let's be clear. You know the answer to that. But what is funny? And so Trump said, hey, grab whatever you want. And he said, I'll sign whatever you want. And he sat there for 30 minutes at the Resolute desk just signing stuff.
- [38:42]
Propane Advertiser
Yeah.
- [38:43]
Senator Ted Cruz
And what was funny? He was laughing. He made this joke, but he's true. He said, it's amazing. You have like some stuff in. In the gift shop. And suddenly senators turn into five year old kids. I mean, we're literally lined up and being like, oh, that looks cool. I'm gonna grit like people were grabbing.
- [38:59]
Ben Ferguson
He's got his Pro V1 golf balls he's very proud of with the presidential seal on there. He signed one of those for one of my boys. And his cufflinks, by the way, are truly incredible. You've got a pair, right?
- [39:09]
Senator Ted Cruz
I do, yeah.
- [39:10]
Ben Ferguson
I mean, they're nice.
- [39:12]
Senator Ted Cruz
And he's got like challenge coins he's made that are about this big. I mean, they're probably 3 inches in diameter and they're really cool. And I have two on my desk. But I will confess. So he keeps the challenge coins on the Resolute desk right there. I will confess I snagged two of those because I'm gonna give, give one to each of my daughters. I figured that would be kind of a cool, you know, cool, cool thing to bring back home, 100%.
- [39:34]
Ben Ferguson
Want to take a moment and just talk to you real quick about an incredible opportunity for you to continue to expand your mind and learn, no matter what your age is. Senator Cruz and I were at the memorial service for Charlie Kirk and one of the people that spoke was the president of Hillsdale. And he talked about meeting with Charlie early on and how he said, you're going to have to work hard, you're going to have to suffer, and you're going to have to continue to learn. When he was so young. And he talked about all of the classes that Charlie ended up taking at Hillsdale, I immediately said, I want the listeners of this show to be able to have the same opportunity to do that. There are amazing classes. History, economics, the great works of literature, the meaning of the US Constitution. And if you didn't study these things in school, or maybe you did, but you were like, you know, just trying to check the box and make the grade. When you're 20, now is a great time for you to go back and learn so much more. Hillsdale College is offering More than 40 free. I want to say that again. 40 free online courses. That's right. More than 40 free online courses. You can learn about the works of C.S. lewis, the stories in the book of Genesis, the meaning of the US Constitution. I'm doing that one. It's incredible. The rise and fall of the Roman Republic or the history of the ancient Christian church with hidden steel. College's free online courses. Now I'm also looking at the Constitution 101. It's amazing. A refresher course and you can see and explore the design, the purpose of the Constitution, the challenges it faced in the Civil War, and how it's been undermined for more than a century by progressives and liberals. This 12 lecture course is self paced, so you start whenever you want to and it is truly amazing. So how do you do this? You can go right now to Hillsdale Edu Verdict to enroll. There is no cost and it's easy to get started. That's Hillsdale Edu Verdict. V E R D I C T to enroll for free and take any one of these classes. Take advantage of it. It's free. Hillsdale Edu V E R D I C T Verdict and go check out the amazing classes they have there Senator, one more question on on on the senators meeting today. Serious question and that is give us a real update on where we are with a shutdown. We had the no Kings rally. I think your prediction of mine are going to be spot on. We're gonna see some movement probably in the next five, six, seven days. That's my gut. You know more you were there today. What is the temperature and where are we?
- [42:20]
Senator Ted Cruz
So look, it's hard to say. We keep voting. I think we voted 11 or 12 times to reopen the government. The Republicans are voting to reopen the government. I voted over and over and over again to reopen the government. And the Democrats are voting party line to keep the government shut down. We have had to date only three Democrats have voted to reopen the government. Everyone else has voted no. Now the reason that matters is in order to pass legislation funding the government, you need 60 votes in the Senate. Under the Senate rules, if you can't get 60 votes, you can't pass it. We only have 53 Republicans. That means we need at least seven Democrats. If we're getting three Democrats, we don't have the votes. Now at some point that is going to change. What's interesting is it's not just the radical left. It's not just the Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warrens who are voting to shut the government down. It's not just Chuck Schumer who's terrified of being primaried by aoc. It's everybody else. It's people who are claiming that they're moderates that are voting to shut the government down. Jon Ossoff, who is the most vulnerable Democrat in the Senate, he's running in Georgia next year. Jon Ossoff has voted 11 times to keep the government shut down. It's very clear, even though Georgia is a purple state, even though there are a lot of people who are not happy, by no stretch of the imagination is Georgia a radical left state. And yet it's clear Ossoff is more afraid of the radicals at the no Kings rallies than he is of just ordinary people living in Georgia. Mark Kelly, who says he calls himself a moderate, he keeps voting to keep the government shut down. In order for this to change, what you're ultimately gonna see is 7, 8, 9 Democrats, I think mostly retiring Democrats who are no longer gonna face the voters who are not worried about being primaried.
- [44:11]
Ben Ferguson
Bingo.
- [44:11]
Senator Ted Cruz
At some point they're gonna say enough is enough. Let's reopen the government. But I don't know if it's a day or two, I Don't know if it's a week or two. I don't know. Look, we're having discussions that things could be shut down, you know, through Thanksgiving. One of the challenges is were so tribalized and divided right now that I think the Democrats are listening to an echo chamber of the radical base.
- [44:37]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah.
- [44:38]
Senator Ted Cruz
And their radical base is happy with the shutdown. So.
- [44:40]
Ben Ferguson
So they want to burn it down. They want this country to fall. They want there to be a demise of our government, especially when they're not in charge of it. If they're not in charge of it, they want to burn it down.
- [44:50]
Senator Ted Cruz
And. And listen, on Friday, I went to Hobby Airport in Houston and I did a press conference there, and I pointed out that right now there are 50,000 TSA agents who are going into work who are not getting paid. Right now there are 14,000 air traffic controllers who are going into work, but they're not getting paid. And what we're seeing is more and more delays. We're seeing flight cancellations. Hobby just today had a ground stop because they said a shortage of personnel. Air traffic controllers.
- [45:19]
Ben Ferguson
Yep.
- [45:20]
Senator Ted Cruz
And the Democrats, they don't care. They're perfectly happy. One Democrat told Politico said, we'll keep it shut down, quote, until planes start falling out of the sky. Like, that's how radicalized they are. And they don't care about the government workers. They're mad at Trump for paying the troops. Yeah. And so, look, I think at some point, sanity will prevail and they'll allow the lights to be turned on. I'll tell you what. I've advised the president. You know, the president referred to Russ Vogt, who's the head of omb, the Office of Management and Budget, and he laughingly called Russ Darth Vader. He said the Democrats are terrified because Russ is using the shutdown to permanently lay off left wing bureaucrats who are advancing programs and priorities that the Democrats care about that are inconsistent with the president's agenda. I think that's one of the keys to ending this shutdown, is continuing to do that and so making it painful to the radical left because they're losing their influence. Yes. And so I. This will end at some point, but. But. Honest answer, Ben. Damned if I know when.
- [46:34]
Ben Ferguson
Interesting. Don't forget, we'll cover it all here. We do the show three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. A lot of them we do on video. So. Also subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. Hit that subscriber auto download button so you don't miss an episode. We'll keep you updated on what's happening with the government shutdown. You'll know about it probably before a lot of others will because you get insider information. That's why I love doing this show and the center and I will see you back here on Friday morning.
- [47:01]
NFL Network Announcer
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- [47:30]
Ben Ferguson
Take a deep dive into the stories making the news headlines across the world.
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Emily Maitlis or Jon Sopel
The news agents we're not just here to tell you what's happening, but why? From me, Emily Maitlis and me, John Sopel with Global's award winning podcast the News agents dropping daily covering everything you need to know about politics and current.
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Ben Ferguson
Affairs and the newsagents USA listening to.
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Emily Maitlis or Jon Sopel
The newsagents on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search the newsagents to start listening.
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