← Verdict with Ted Cruz
Verdict with Ted Cruz
No Deal: Trump Moves to Blockade the Strait of Hormuz as Iran Defies Nuclear Demands plus Swalwell Bombshell
00:38:45
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- [00:00]
Ted Cruz
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:02]
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- [02:06]
Martha Stewart
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- [03:15]
Ben Ferguson
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- [03:46]
Ben Ferguson
It is verdict with Center Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you Center. We've got a lot to talk about that's happened over the weekend. The was not sleeping and CENTCOM and the White House has now confirmed that the US Navy is going to block ships entering and exiting the Iranian ports. And that has nothing to do with what's going on in California with Eric Swalo on top of that?
- [04:08]
Ted Cruz
Well, we had 20 hours of negotiations in Pakistan and unsurprisingly, the Iranians were unwilling to move at all, in particular on nuclear weapons. They want a nuclear weapon and I think they want a nuclear weapon because they want to be able to use a nuclear weapon. And President Trump quite rightly is insisting under no circumstances will the regime of Iran be allowed to have nuclear weapons. And so the president responded by ordering a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, shutting down every ship going into and out of the Strait. We're going to break that down. We're going to talk about what that means for Iran, what that means for America, what that means for China and Europe, what's going to happen next. And then we're going to talk about poor Eric Swalwell who seems to be on a train falling off a cliff on fire exploding and it's all self inflicted. And you know, Shaden Freud is not a pretty sentiment. But I guess people will be forgiven for just kind of shaking their head and saying, well, couldn't happen To a nicer guy.
- [05:20]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, yeah. Fang Fang you thought was the worst, the low. Nope, it wasn't.
- [05:24]
Ted Cruz
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Fang Fang was a high point for Eric Swalwell. He is looking back to the halcyon glory days of Fang Fang. He wishes that that's where he was today.
- [05:39]
Ben Ferguson
No doubt about it. We'll explain all of this story as it is continuing to unfold as we speak. Plus, he's running or was running for governor. We're going to explain that to you as well. Before we get to that, though, there are still so many people that are dealing with the. The fallout of this war in Israel. And there are many needs for the people in Israel right now. And so many of you that listen to the show have been standing with those people and getting involved with the incredible work that's being done right now in Israel with ifcj. I want to take a moment and talk to you about a man named Phineas who as a child survived the Holocaust. Phineas survived because Christians hid him from the Nazis, risking everything to save his life. Today, he is in his 80s. He can no longer stand on his own or leave his home to receive medical care. And when the siren sounds and the missiles fall, he doesn't have time or the strength to reach safety. But once again, Christians are helping save his life. Through the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. A mobile clinic brings doctors and medicine right inside of his home, providing care he wouldn't receive, especially in wartime. Christians saved my life during the Holocaust, he said, and now again, they're helping me. So as Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day approaches, we honor survivors like Phineas, not just with words, but with action. Give $45 right now and you can rush life saving essentials to the vulnerable in Israel under fire. 888-488-IFCJ. That's 888488 IFCJ. Or go online to IFCJ.org that's IFCJ.org all right, so center, you wake up Sunday and you get the news. The president's like, all right, we had these 20 hours of talks. They're not going well. We were about the only problem is that last 5% dealt with Iran getting nuclear weapons. We say no to that. And now the president is saying, we're going to do this blockade with the straight of Hormuz. They're not going to hold us or the rest of the world hostage anymore. This is a very bold move. I want to get your initial reaction to it.
- [07:57]
Ted Cruz
Well, I have to say, none of this, I think is surprising. If you go back to our last pod on Friday, we laid out that the President had drawn a series of red lines. His red lines were, number one, Iran must have no enrichment whatsoever. Number two, Iran must give up all of its already enriched uranium. Number three, Iran had to agree to completely open the Strait of Hormuz. And actually, number four was Iran had to stop funding terrorism across the globe. Those were the demands. Those were the red lines. As you and I discussed on the pod, I emphatically agree with all four of those red lines. Those are the right things to insist upon. The President asked J.D. vance and Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to go and negotiate. So they went to Islamabad. They negotiated with multiple officials from Iran that they had Pakistan was hosting and was intermediating. Apparently the negotiations went 20 hours. I got to say it was not surprising. They didn't go anywhere. It was very interesting that J.D. vance was the person asked to lead this and that JD has been the most vocal opponent of military action against Iran. And so the fact that the President asked him to lead it, I'm not sure what the thinking was there, but it's an interesting statement. Here's what the President put out. He put out two lengthy truth socials which said as follows. Iran promised to open the Strait of Hormuz and they knowingly failed to do so. This caused anxiety, dislocation and pain to many people in countries throughout the world. They say they put mines in the water even though all of their navy and most of their mine droppers have been completely blown up. They may have done so, but what ship owner would want to take the chance? There is great dishonor and permanent harm to the reputation of Iran and what's left of their quote unquote leaders. But we are beyond all of that. As they promised, they better begin the process of getting this international waterway open and fast. Every law in the book is being violated by them. I had been fully debriefed By Vice President J.D. vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on the meeting that took place in Islamabad through the kind and very competent leadership of Field Marshal Aseem Munir and Prime Minister Shabazz Sharif of Pakistan. They are very extraordinary men and continuously thank me for saving 30 to 50 million lives in what would have been a horrendous war with India. I always appreciate hearing that the amount of humanity spoken of is incomprehensible. The meeting with Iran began early in the morning, lasted throughout the night, close to 20 hours. I could go into great detail and talk about much that has been gotten. But there is only one thing that matters, and this is in all caps, Iran is unwilling to give up its nuclear ambitions. In many ways the points that were agreed to are better than us continuing our military operations to conclusion. But all of those points don't matter compared to allowing nuclear power to be in the hands of such volatile, difficult and unpredictable people. My three representatives, as, as all of this time went by, became not surprisingly, very friendly and respectful of Iran's representatives, Mohammad Bagr Gallaghaf, Abbas Argachi and Ali Baghari. But that doesn't matter because they were very unyielding as the, as to the single most important issue and as I have always said right from the beginning and many years ago, again in all caps, Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. And then here's the second truth socially sent. So there you have it. The meeting went well. Most points were agreed to, but the only point that really mattered, nuclear, was not. Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the finest in the world, will begin the process of blockading any and all ships trying to enter or leave the Strait of Hormuz. At some point we will reach an all being allowed to go in, all being allowed to go out basis. But Iran has not allowed that to happen by merely saying there may be a mine out there somewhere that nobody knows about but them. This is world extortion and leaders of countries, especially the United States of America, will never be extorted. I have also instructed our navy to seek and interdict every vessel in international waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas. We will also begin destroying the mines the Iranians laid in the straits. Any Iranian who fires at us or at peaceful vessels will be again in all caps blown to hell. Iran knows better than anyone how to end this situation which has already devastated their country. Their navy is gone, their air force is gone. Their anti aircraft and radar are useless. Khamenei and most of their leaders are dead, all because of their nuclear ambition. The blockade will begin shortly. Other countries will be involved with this blockade. Iran will not be allowed to profit off this illegal act of extortion. They want money and more importantly, they want nuclear additional. And at an appropriate moment we are fully locked and loaded and our military will finish up the little that is left of Iran. President Donald J. Trump those are remarkable, detailed and I think absolutely clear messages from the President of the United States. And I gotta say, if you're An Iranian mala. If you're the ayatollah, you are not happy to read one word of that.
- [14:30]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah. And the president reiterated some of that as well when he called in to Maria Bartaromo on Fox Sunday on her show Sunday Futures. And the transparency here, I do think, is one of the things that I just love about this president. And he said publicly the same things that he's saying privately. And he's making it clear that what they're doing is unacceptable. Now the question becomes what's next? And, and this has also been part of the politics of this. You know, Democrats really honed in and obsessed over if Donald Trump hit the bridges and the tunnels and then hit the power infrastructure, the electrical grid, the power plants, that they were going to declare that he has committed war crimes. And, and, and, and by the way, we talked about this on verdict. That's not true. It's not accurate. But regardless, this does seem to be another, I've exhausted every mean, every measure possible before I go there. And if he does this the way he's saying he's going to do it, this is just another example of the president trying to give diplomacy but also having accountability at the same time. You come to the meetings, you screw with us for 20 hours, you won't agree, fine. Here's another step forward.
- [15:44]
Ted Cruz
Look, this is a massive hammer to the Iranian economy. The vast majority of the revenue Iran takes in is from selling their oil. They sell the bulk of that oil to China. So this blockade, shutting down all of the ships, and there's an entire ghost fleet that has been built up of ships that have been taking Iranian oil to China. That ghost fleet will not be able to travel through the Strait of Hormuz, will not be able to carry any Iranian oil. It means there's going to be no Iranian oil being sold, no money coming in. It also means there have been reports that China might be sending weapons to Iran. I don't know if that's true or not. But by shutting down the straight, it also means there that there are going to be no incoming material to Iran through the Strait of Hormuz. That puts enormous pressure on Iran. Now, it also puts a lot of pressure on China because they rely on that oil from Iran. They're not going to be able to get that oil from Iran anymore. And it puts significant pressure on Europe. You know, I will say one of the amazing things that has happened in this military conflict is Europe has shown how much they have changed. And Western Europe, look, Western Europe, I think, is basically on A suicide pact. They have brought in such a massive Muslim immigration that the leaders in Western Europe are terrified to stand up. Even against an Ayatollah who is screaming death to America. They're terrified to stand up. I, I'm sure you've seen the meme online that shows Muslim countries standing with America and it lists every Arab country in the Middle East. The Saudi Arabia and the UAE and Bahrain, they're all standing with us. And then Muslim countries opposing us. And you've got France and the United Kingdom and Germany and Italy. And Western Europe has not crowned itself in glory, to put it mildly. Eastern Europe has. Look, Eastern Europe, you know, if you remember back when George W. Bush was president, Don Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense at the time, made a reference to Old Europe, meaning Western Europe and New Europe. And he said Old Europe is a lot less relevant than New Europe. The Eastern European countries that were under Soviet domination and that are eager to stand with America. One of the most far reaching consequences of this military action, the fact that our European allies said we want nothing to do with America in this conflict, that's gonna have consequences, that's gonna have real consequences for decades. And those consequences are not good for Europe. And they're frankly not good, they're not good for the world. It is unfortunate and I gotta say I was surprised to see even it joining that, that, that, that group saying, no, we won't stand with America on this conflict, but the Strait of Hormuz shutting down is going to put real pressure on, on Europe, real massive pressure on Iran and very significant pressure on China.
- [18:53]
Ben Ferguson
You know, let's talk about the oil coming out there because I don't think people understand how Iran gets their oil out. And these in these black ships that you described it, when there are these, when there have been these, these, you know, basically, hey, we're not going to let your oil come out into the market this way. And we're going to, and we're going to put, you know, all these restrictions. You sell that all Venezuela had done this and others where they sell it in the black market, they get a little less for it, but they find a buyer, they put it in these ships that are unmarked in essence, and they keep it. And we all know it's happening and it's happening. Iran has operated in that space for quite a long time with, with all of the sanctions that have been on them. But as it was described to me by an old trader that was talking to, as we were watching the masters, they said, you literally can decimate financially Iran, if you, if this actually happens, because this is the way, the only way that they get a substantial amount of oil out of the country. There's no way to put it on 18 wheelers and get it out in a big way to Europe. There's no way to get it out. Right. Driving it somewhere. It's either this or nothing. And, and the, the, the regime relies on these tankers 24,7 moving their currency, which is oil, and then turning that into cash for them to keep their government propped up. If you shut this down, he said, this is a country that, in essence, can go bankrupt in a very short window of time.
- [20:20]
Ted Cruz
Well, and let's back up a little, little bit of history on this. So at the beginning of the Trump administration, Iran was selling roughly 1 million barrels a day of oil. President Trump, in the first term, there was a massive battle within the Trump administration about whether to withdraw from the Obama Iran nuclear deal. It was a disastrous deal. Both State and Defense urged him not to withdraw from the deal. I vigorously urged the president to pull out. I probably talked to him in the Oval Office on Air Force One 20 or 30 times about pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal. He agreed with me. He overruled his own Secretary of State, his own Secretary of Defense. In the first term, he pulled out of the deal. Once he pulled out of the deal, there were a series of waivers that remained in place. There were seven civilian nuclear waivers that allowed Iran to conduct what they called, quote, civilian nuclear research with the Russians. It wasn't civilian at all, but they claimed that it was. And then there was an oil waiver that specifically allowed them to sell oil. After President Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, we had a second battle to end the civilian nuclear waivers and to end the oil waiver on both of those. Again, the State Department opposed ending those waivers. On both of those. I led the charge to end those waivers. When it came to the oil waiver, the Department of State and the Department of Energy had a sharp disagreement. State said, if you end the oil waiver, the price of oil will skyrocket, and that'll drive up the price of gasoline at the pump. The Department of Energy and Trump won, which you would think the Department of Energy would know something about. Well, energy, yeah. Said, said, no, that's ridiculous. There's plenty of global supply. We could enforce these sanctions, and it's not going to materially affect the price. I leaned in aggressively with the president and said, end the oil waivers. Again. He agreed with me. Overruled State yet again. And we now know who was right. The Department of Energy was right and State was wrong. Because when he ended the oil waivers, Iran's exports fell from a million barrels a day to about 300,000. So they fell 70%. That was a massive blow. And so under Trump won. By the end of Trump 1, the Iranian economy was in free fall because down to 300,000 barrels a day was starving them of cash. Joe Biden came in and almost immediately just stopped enforcing the sanctions. What they had, by the way, they
- [22:56]
Ben Ferguson
had, don't forget that. I want just everybody listening to remind them every time that, that, that Biden administration was challenged on the point you just made, they said we haven't lifted the sanctions. The sanctions are still there. But it was very clear what they said was we just want to say on paper they're sanctions. So you can't criticize us. They were not enforcing the sanctions. That's the key point that Americans need to understand because the Biden administration, they did it time and time again. From the podium, Jen Psaki, remember, we have not gotten rid of sanctions. That is a lie. That is not true. That's the, that's the right wing lying to you. And it was true, by the way. They had not like gotten rid of sanctions. They just said we're not going to enforce them, so they're meaningless.
- [23:36]
Ted Cruz
Well, they stopped enforcing them. And what they allowed to grow was this ghost fleet of ships, some 400 ships, some 400 tankers, many of them flagged under the flag of Panama. And when I've met with the government of Panama multiple times, I've leaned on them to stop flagging the ghost ship that is taking Iranian oil to China. But the result of Biden not enforcing the sanctions, Iran's oil Exports grew from 300,000 barrels a day to what do you think they hit under Joe Biden?
- [24:09]
Ben Ferguson
I'm going to go all the way back up to a million, two million.
- [24:13]
Ted Cruz
They, they doubled where they had. The consequence of that going from 300,000 barrels a day to 2 million barrels a day was more than $80 billion that the Biden administration flowed into Iran in a very real way. The Biden administration, by not enforcing the oil sanctions, funded Hamas and Hezbollah because 90% of Hamas and Hezbollah is money comes from Iran. And that $80 billion in a real sense paid for the death squads on October 7th. What President Trump is doing with this blockade is shutting down the ghost fleet. That is incredibly potent. I don't know what the resolution of this will be, but you're right. It's an intermediate step. It is another way of inflicting enormous leverage on Iran. It's not as significant as taking out the power plants and the bridges, which the President may still do. It also shuts down Iran was trying to say, hey, we're going to charge a toll of 2 billion bucks a ship and suddenly make revenue. I love that. The President said, you know what? Any ship that pays that toll will not be allowed to traverse the seas. And by the way, for 60 plus years since World War II, the seas have been free and open and navigable because the United States protects the waterways. It's the Pax Americana that we have had in place. And the President is saying, you know what? We don't have to enforce the waterways. We've done that for the good of the world. It helps America, but it helps the entire world. But we're certainly not going to do it if Iran is sitting there extracting a toll on every ship traveling through this waterway.
- [26:05]
Public Ad Read
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- [27:06]
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- [28:06]
Martha Stewart
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- [29:20]
Ben Ferguson
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- [29:45]
Ted Cruz
for healing, learn more and sign the
- [29:47]
Ben Ferguson
pledge@workingwithcancerpledge.com I want to ask you one other question about this. I've been getting this question a lot and it's the question of okay, how's the President? Wind this thing down. Number one two what is the definition of success? I answered it this way. I said there's two different definitions. Success. One is to make sure that Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon. That for me is the number one priority. I said a bonus, obviously, success barrier. The second Tier for me would be if the regime falls. There's a lot of conversations of, well, can Democrats say the President failed if he doesn't get the regime to fall, but make sure they don't get nuclear weapons and then Democrats will use that against us. And I'm like, look, as long as they don't get a nuclear weapon, that is the ball game for me. First and foremost, I would love for the regime to fall, but that takes an extended amount of time. Is that worth it to. To make that, in essence, the new objective? Now, the President said early on he wanted regime change. Yes. Doesn't mean exporting democracy, but. But explain to everyone listening, what is your definition of success here? And is it both now that both are one in the same, or is it a two tier system?
- [31:09]
Ted Cruz
So let's be clear, whatever happens, the Democrats and the media are going to say President Trump failed. It doesn't matter. On day one of this military conflict, they said it's a failure. Every day since then, they said it's a failure. They are rooting for it to fail. It is. I got to say, I am so disappointed in my, my colleagues. It used to be that politics ends at the water's edge. They are now so filled with partisan hate hatred that they are rooting against the American military. It's sad. In terms of success, I'd say success is threefold. Number one is the military success. Taking out the ballistic missiles, the drones, the air force, the air defenses, the Navy, the ayatollah and the military leaders, that is almost entirely achieved. The success of that has been astonishing. It took Iran 40 years to build up its military. It took us 39 days to utterly and completely destroy it. That is a massive victory, and that is essentially already been achieved. The second major objective is the nuclear objective. No enrichment. Handing over the enriched uranium, I think that is incredibly important. President Trump is right to insist on that red line and, and he should continue to insist on the red line. Now, the question of regime change. The Trump administration has been very reluctant to use the words regime change. And there's a reason for that, which is they're really nervous. After the Iraq war, people are really leery. They don't want to see another Iraq war. This is not Iran, is not Iraq. There is zero chance that we are going to see hundreds of thousands of US Troops invading and occupying for years to come. That's simply not in the cards. President Trump's not going to order that. That is not contemplated. I am quite willing to use the words regime change and Actually, the way I've been putting it is regime collapse. This is a regime that hates America. That is a radical, theocratic regime that for 47 years has been actively murdering Americans, funding terrorists who are murdering Americans, calling for death to America. The reason they want nuclear weapons is to murder Americans. And what I urge President Trump at the outset of this conflict is the regime has never been weaker. And if we do not take this opportunity to collapse this regime, we will regret it for decades to come. I still think that is an objective now. Will we achieve it? I don't know that that's not an easy goal to achieve, but I think we should be trying. It's one of the reasons I have repeatedly been urging, fund, fund the protesters, fund the Kurds on the ground, fund the Balachi's fund. There are groups that are armed and trade. Look, the Kurds, the peshmerga, are trained fighters. And by the way, Turkey, one of the reasons, one of the reasons against arming the Kurds is Turkey is arguing, don't do it. You know what? I don't give a dam what Turkey is arguing. That's very nice for Erdogan. Some other time. I'll talk to you about in Trump. 1. When Erdogan came to D.C. and met with President Trump in the Oval Office and the President had me and four other senators, we were in about a two and a half hour, three hour meeting with Erdogan. At the end of the day, we ought to be arming rebel groups in Iran to topple the regime. We're not going to send our sons and daughters to bleed and die for it. But we certainly should be assisting the Iranian people in getting these lunatics out of power, because Americans will be much, much safer without this regime and control of Iran.
- [35:00]
Ben Ferguson
So for you, to be clear, you would say regime change is certainly something that you think is extremely important in the way that you just described it.
- [35:08]
Ted Cruz
Yes, it is a major objective. Now, if it's not, if we end up shutting down enrichment, getting the enriched uranium, that is a massive victory. Look, on the face of it, taking out the military, what we've achieved, the goal the Trump administration stated was goal number one. The military victories which we've achieved, taking out the ayatollah and the senior leadership is a big, big deal. So we have already achieved a massive victory. To finish the job. Where the President is focused, is preventing a nuclear weapon. He is right to do that. And I think we ought to be using every lever point we have to try to collapse this regime, because that would Be much better for the Iranian people, but much, much, much better for the American people and our safety and security as well.
- [35:56]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. It's going to be very interesting to see how this blockade works. We're going to keep covering it here and we'll keep you up to date on it. I want to move on to this other story. Uh, the headline that broke on Sunday evening. And I'm gonna read this headline from cnn. Eric Swalwell ends campaign for California governor after sexual misconduct allegations. He said Sunday would withdraw from the California governor's race in the wake of allegations of sexual misconduct that led to a nearly immediate campaign collapse as staffers quit on him. Prominent Democrat supporters now urging him to drop out. He then put out a statement on X saying, I am suspending my campaign for governor to my family, staff, friends and supporters. I'm deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I've made in my past. Then he says, I will fight the serious false allegations that have been made. But that's my fight. Not a campaigns. After that, we found out even more about what's happening, and that is the Manhattan District Attorney's office has opened a criminal investigation into sexual assault allegations. The key claim is a former staffer alleges assault in 2024 in apparently New York and another earlier incident in 2019. Prosecutors are reportedly reviewing evidence, asking for additional witnesses to come forward, as the AP put it. And that is the most serious legal exposure right now because it could lead to criminal charges. And then you have multiple sexual misconduct allegations. At least four women have accused Swalwell of misconduct ranging from sexual assault, rape allegations, unwanted contact, sending explicit images. And one alleged allegation claims the accuser was too intoxicated to consent. He has denied all those allegations, calling them false and politically motivated. What's even more shocking is now, I think it's 50 of his former staffers have come out against him saying he needs to resign and basically defending one another saying he's a terrible guy. There's two parts of this story center One, how the hell the Democratic Party protect this guy for this long? And two, why are all the Democrats now turning against him? It's because they're afraid they're going to lose the governor's race in California.
- [38:15]
Ted Cruz
Well, just a week ago, this guy was the front runner among the Democrats to be the next governor of California. I was actually in California this weekend. I spoke at the California Republican Convention. So I was there when this was breaking. And you could see, look, it was clear when this story Broke. Everyone knew Swalwell's gubernatorial campaign was over the instant it broke. The breadth and volume of this. This is not just one allegation. It's multiple allegations. It's allegations of a pattern of misconduct, a pattern of repeated sexual harassment of multiple employees. 1. One staffer who was interviewed by CNN alleged that twice she got very, very drunk with him and that he had sex with her not only without her consent, but over her vigorous resistance and. Objection. If that is true, that is rape. That is criminal conduct. That is criminal conduct for which anyone who commits it should. Should be prosecuted and go to jail. There are a number of points that are obvious. Number one, this was so widespread to see 50 Swalwell staffers come out against him. Strongly suggest everybody knew. Now, you asked me right before we recorded this podcast, did I know this? Look, to be honest, I don't hang out with Democrat House members. I'm not particularly privy to the gossip among Democrats.
- [39:49]
Ben Ferguson
Are true that you alienate yourself from Democratic radical House members. I just gladly cleared that up.
- [39:55]
Ted Cruz
Those are not my peeps. So I have no idea what the gossip was about this guy. But given how widespread this is, that the allegations, I think it is impossible that. That it was not common knowledge that there were not a lot of Democrats who knew this guy was doing this, that this was a pattern of conduct. And that suggests that they all covered it up. They all looked the other way when he was an attack dog attacking Republicans, attacking President Trump, attacking Brett Kavanaugh. They were perfectly happy to have him be the attack dog. And you're right, what has changed is the Democrats are in a panic because you've got multiple Democrats running for governor in California and you have two Republicans running for governor in California. And California has this weird jungle primary where there's not a Democrat primary and a Republican primary. Everyone runs on the same ballot, and the top two vote getters make it to the general election. And so there was a possibility, not a likelihood, but a possibility, that the top two vote getters could be the two Republicans. And I will say for Democrats, their heads would explode if they went to the general election. And it were a hundred percent certainty that the next governor of California was gonna be a Republican. But there were multiple polls that had come out that showed the two Republicans as one and two. And part of the reason is that you had multiple Democrats splitting the vote and you had Eric Swalwell and Katie Porter, both a former House member and current House member, slugging it out. You've also got Tom Steyer, the billionaire who is spending millions and millions of dollars trying to buy the nomination. And so you had Democrats splitting their votes. That was helping the Republicans. And suddenly I think Democrats saw a partisan value to getting rid of Swalwell and they took him out ruthlessly. Now, now, Ben, I want to point to you the tell. You can tell any Democrat if they're just being a partisan hack by the following tell. Are they calling for him to suspend his gubernatorial campaign?
- [42:10]
Ben Ferguson
Yep.
- [42:11]
Ted Cruz
Or are they calling for him to resign from Congress?
- [42:14]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, it's just a gubernatorial campaign. That's the tell.
- [42:17]
Ted Cruz
They don't want him to resign. No, no, no, no, don't resign. Because look, Republicans barely have a two vote majority. They want Swalwell there. They don't want to jeopardize their majority. Also, they're perfectly happy to have a serial sexual harasser, even a rapist, as long as they get partisan advantage. Now the momentum is shifting. It would not surprise me if Swalwell is out of Congress by the end of the week because this is getting a lot of them.
- [42:44]
Ben Ferguson
You talk about the second tell. The other tell is those that are calling for him to resign are saying, well, he should resign and a Republican should also resign that has allegations against him in the Republican side. So they get rid of one of the Republicans. And that's the only reason why they're saying it now is, well, all right, I'll call for both of them to resign.
- [43:02]
Ted Cruz
Look, and by the way, I could see that potentially happening. The Republican, the facts around him are really pretty ugly. He's not running for reelection because they are so ugly and disturbing. And so it would not shock me to see both of them resign. And that's an outcome I could see the House getting to. But it's been fascinating that virtually every Democrat who's come out with this big, bold statement, they've said suspend the campaign, but they haven't said resign from Congress.
- [43:32]
Ben Ferguson
Now, yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how this ends, but I think you are not far off. I think they want to finish him off and be done with him. And they knew all this. And the only reason why they, they defended him indefinitely. They, they, they pushed him to be the guy in California and then they turned on him when they realized that a Republican could win. That is the only reason why we're hearing about any of this. And, and also the media, you just want to talk about hypocrisy center, the way that the media, the, the liberal media, I mean, this was on the morning shows. The, the, the Meet the Press, the Face the nations that whatever the hell the other one's called. Like they were. CNN was wall to wall on this. They were covering it like it was a Republican who had done something, but it was a Democrat, one of their own. And they were like, yeah, we got to get rid of him because if we don't get rid of him, what happens next? Well then the Republican can win. So you know, who cares about the victims here? This is all about the politics as you described it a moment ago.
- [44:31]
Ted Cruz
It is. And I'll point out There is a second Democrat House member, Shelia Chirflies McCormick of Florida, who should also be expelled from Congress. She has the Ethics committee, which is bipartisan, declared her guilty on 25 out of 27 ethics charges from stealing up to $5 million of FEMA money. So she is likely going to jail for stealing millions of taxpayer dollars. And yet the Democrats are amazingly silent. You've got an alleged serial sexual harasser and potentially even serial rapist and an embezzler and thief. And they're sitting there going, oh, we're great having both of them there because you know, partisan power matters more than anything. And by the way, the press on the coverage of trophies McCormick. Almost all the press coverage, there's actually very little coverage. But what little there is, they almost all leave out that she's a Democrat. They just that fact. Nevermind. Just, just, just nothing to see here.
- [45:46]
Ben Ferguson
Just some random person in Congress. Yeah, that's how it works. Don't forget we do this show Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Hit that subscriber auto download button. Please write us a five star review. It helps us reach more people. And if you are a YouTube person you love watching on YouTube, you can watch almost every episode of Verdict with ted Cruz on YouTube. Hit the subscribe button to the channel as well as we are really making sure we get a lot of video out there for you guys and the Senator and I will see you back here on Wednesday morning.
- [46:15]
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Martha Stewart
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Ben Ferguson
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Ben Ferguson
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Ted Cruz
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