← Verdict with Ted Cruz
Verdict with Ted Cruz
President Trump in the Texas Hill Country, Meeting w First Responders & Families who Lost Loved Ones
00:32:54
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- [00:00]
Podcast Host
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:06]
Ben Shapiro
Senator, it's nice to be back with you in studio. We're here in Texas. It has been a very tough last week. You spent a lot of time with victims, families. You spent a lot of time with first responders. You spent time with local elected officials and even with the president. United States of America in Kerrville. There's such sad stories that have come out of this tragedy, but also a lot of hope for just humanity and seeing people come together.
- [00:31]
Ted Cruz
Well, it's been just over a week since the horrific flooding in Kerr county and throughout the hill country had a devastating impact. We are still searching at this point for bodies. To date, 129 people have been confirmed killed in that flooding. Many of those were children. There are an additional 173 people that we know of that are still missing. Search and rescue teams are out searching right now. Unfortunately, the hill country is right now, as you and I speak, under another flash flood warning. So they've suspended some of the searches because there's heavy rains that are occurring there right now. I can tell you. I just today spoke with a family whose little girl's remains were discovered yesterday. We're at a stage now we're far enough away that if you have someone missing, the odds are becoming almost unavoidable that at this point, it's a search for remains and in some instances, partial remains. The damage that was done from a massive wall of water, from trees and cars and debris is horrific. And we're in the process of picking up and coming back together. On Friday, I joined President Trump in going to the hill country. We flew down together on Air Force One. The president and I met with first responders, met with families. We had a roundtable. It was powerful. The first lady came as well. We're going to take you inside. What happened there, what we learned, and what's going to happen next.
- [02:06]
Ben Shapiro
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- [04:17]
Ted Cruz
Well, listen, I was very glad he decided to come, and I'm glad he decided to come when he did, which was Friday, a week after there had been some discussion about his coming earlier, say Monday or Tuesday. And the reason he decided not to is that when he comes in, they shut down the airspace and the president coming to town, it shuts down the roads. It's a huge logistical nightmare. I think the White House made the right decision that when you have active search and rescue going a million different directions, it's not helpful to have the president come in right in the middle of it a week later, after much of the search and rescue has happened. That's the right time when everyone is dealing with the grief for him to come in. And so I met him at Andrews Air Force Base, and we took off from there. I will say on kind of a lighter note, there was a moment as we were getting ready to take off of the plane that I sent you.
- [05:06]
Ben Shapiro
A picture, and I appreciate that picture.
- [05:09]
Ted Cruz
So I was in the conference room on Air Force One. The president was boarding. We're getting ready to take off, and there's a TV screen right there in the conference room. And boom. Whose smiling mug was there? But you were on Fox News that morning. You were talking on Fox News. And so I pulled out my phone and snapped a picture of you on Air Force One. You joined us for the morning. I was glad of it.
- [05:30]
Ben Shapiro
We flew together. Just you were there in real life, and I was on the screen. I'll take whatever I can get. I showed the picture of my kids, by the way, and they were like, that's Air Force One. I was like, that's Air Force One. Daddy hasn't been there in 24 years, but still the coolest plane in the world. So.
- [05:42]
Ted Cruz
So we flew down Friday morning. The president was on the plane. Melania, the first lady, came on the plane. And then we also had John Cornyn joined us, Wesley Hunt joined us. And then there were several cabinet members who came Brooke Rollins, a Texan, the head of Secretary of Agriculture, Scott Turner, another Texan, secretary of hud. We also had Kelly Loeffler, the administrator of the Small Business Administration. So we all flew down, spent quite a bit of time talking with the president, talking with the president about what was going on on the ground, just how bad it was. And then when we landed, President Trump took a helicopter tour and examined some of the devastation and met some of the first responders on the ground. We flew in Chinook helicopters down to Kerrville, where we met with first responders and we heard the latest in terms of, of the search and rescue, how they're systematically going through different areas with helicopters, with drones, with ground search and rescue, with dogs that are searching. They put in place a burn ban because there's debris everywhere, but you don't want to accidentally burn the remains of someone who was killed. So they're holding off before any debris can be burned. They've got to clear through it and make sure that there are no remains within it. They usually send in a cadaver dog to make sure of that. And then we sat and did a roundtable with President Trump and with local leaders. And I will tell you, I think the president, first lady did a really effective job. Here's President Trump early on in that roundtable. Talking about the federal response and all the heroic rescues we saw here. Give a listen.
- [07:31]
Podcast Host
My administration is doing everything in its power to help Texas, and I can tell you that. And the governor will be the first to tell you that. When the, when the request was made for the emergency funds, Christi, I think we. We gave it within about two minutes, maybe less. And they had everything they needed. Right? Right. Immediately. So We've deployed over 400 first responders and assisted or enabled more than 1500 rescues. Amazing. 1500 customers in border protection and the US Coast Guard have deployed numerous search and rescue crews, and they're all over the territory.
- [08:08]
Ben Shapiro
It really is amazing to see how the government came together. You witnessed it when you were down there Sunday, Monday. You get to witness it again later in the week. But he's not exaggerating when he says everyone's working together to try to find people and help those that were devastated by this flood.
- [08:26]
Ted Cruz
Well, that's right. And it very much is a cooperative effort between the local government, both the city and county and the state government and the federal government. And I will say Texas, unfortunately has a lot of experience dealing with natural disasters, hurricane, and I think between hurricanes and floods and tornadoes and wildfires, the Texas Emergency Response Team just has a lot of experience. It's not our first rodeo. And so they respond very effectively in terms of marshaling assets. I can tell you, in the first few hours of this flood, when I was talking to the governor and the lieutenant governor and Nim Kidd, who heads the Texas Department of Emergency Management, all of them at the time, they said they had every federal asset they needed. I spoke with President Trump that first day and I said, this is bad. We're going to need real help. He said, anything Texas needs. Yes, yes, yes is the answer. And so we had that commitment. We had the resources surged on the ground. And a little bit later in the roundtable, here's an observation the president made about what he had seen in Texas.
- [09:34]
Podcast Host
You know, two words, unity and competence. If you were to ask me two words that I've seen here, one is unity. The unity has been unbelievable. And then the competence, the competence of the Coast Guard and some of the people within the Coast Guard that saved a lot of lives. They went out and they saved a lot of lives. But there were others other than the Coast Guard. But I would say competence and unity. The, the, the way everyone has just pulled together, it's rare that you see this Mr. President, again. I've been to so many, and I've seen bickering and Fighting and, you know, just. It doesn't work the same way. This has been amazing. This is. And this is the biggest, because I've never seen one like this. Neither has anybody else.
- [10:14]
Ben Shapiro
By the way. He's right. I go back and I remember when I was at the White House when Katrina happened, we saw that bickering he's mentioning, and I listened and watched it firsthand. On August 26, August 27, August 28, hurricane hits the 29th. The devastation where you had, just because of politics, you had certain people in the mayor's office and in the governor's office and then the White House and the reserves. And it was like, why there are people that are hurting. And I'm so thankful that he mentioned this because this is where we got so many things right this past week.
- [10:44]
Ted Cruz
Well, and I'll tell you, in visiting with, with some of the senior officials in the state who deal with emergencies over and over and over again, one of them told me, said, of everything we've seen, this is the worst. And I gotta say, I agree with that. And I've been on the ground for many, many disasters, tragedies, tragedies with very significant loss of life. So you're grieving, but I gotta say, there's just something different about little kids.
- [11:12]
Ben Shapiro
Amen.
- [11:13]
Ted Cruz
The little girls in the bubble in camp, the eight and nine year old third graders whose lives were lost. Every one of us as parents, every loss of life is a tragedy. But this touches really deep the roundtable. The president asked me to express my thoughts. Here's what I had to say to the president on Friday. Mr. President, I wanted to say thank you for being here. First lady, thank you for being here where we are right now. The Hill country is a very special part of this state. It is universally considered the most beautiful part of the state. You've got rolling hills, you've got these incredible, peaceful, wonderful rivers. The Guadalupe River. Just about all of us have been swimming in that river, floating in that river. And one of the things that's really special about Kerr county is there are 40 summer camps here. This is a place where all across Texas our kids go. The governor's daughter came every year to camp here. Both of you know our girls really well. Heidi, the week before this flood, was here in Hunt, picking up our daughter Catherine from camp. And Camp mystic, that faced such devastating loss, is an institution in this state. It's 100 years old, was founded in 1926. And I'll tell you, in Texas, it's not just here that the hurt is felt. It's every part of the state. Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, West Texas, East Texas. Texans have gone. And what's amazing is you see at the closing ceremonies of these camps, you see multiple generations. You'll see grandmothers and moms and little girls who have all gone to the same camp and the pain that the state is feeling. And on Monday, I went and walked through Camp Mystic. In the center of the camp is a cabin called the Bubble Inn where the littlest girls were staying. And in front of the Bubble Inn are right now 17 small white crosses in the ground. And each cross has the name of another little girl who lost her life. The final cross has the name of Dick Eastland, the camp director who gave his life trying to save his girls. And the water rose in that camp and in that cabin 8ft high, you can see the water line 8ft high. It blew the windows out of the cabin and it swept those girls out. I will tell you, I've never seen anything more horrible in my life. And I just sat there crying. I saw mom and dad come up to one of those crosses, drop to their knees and kiss that cross. And the mom was weeping. I also want to tell you, and you said this, you talked about unity. The way this community, the way the state is coming together is incredible. There are stories of heroism. I met a mom and dad who had a 14 year old boy at Camp La Junta, a boys camp. Their 14 year old son was awakened at 3 in the morning. The water was rising. The counselor said, let's go save the little boys. And they went down to the 7, 8, 9 year old boys and pulled them out of their camps and through the crashing water. And this mom and dad were crying now their son survived. And I said, look, your son will always have this trauma. You will always have this trauma. But at the same time, your son will always know when he was 14 years old, that there are little boys and one day there are men who are alive because he had the courage as a 14 year old to risk his life to save them. And so we are grateful you're here. And I will say something Chip referenced. Very true. There's a video of a school bus full of campers from mystic after this crisis, riding past the devastation. And they are singing Christian hymns. And I promise you, there's not a person here who can watch that video and not weep tears of sorrow, but, but also tears of joy. So we are grateful for the response. Governor, the first responders, everyone who's come together and to all the moms and dads just know we love you. That the, the agony. My street at home, every house has a green ribbon around it for the girls at mystic. And that's true in a lot of streets all throughout Texas. And we will come through this one way or the other. I'll tell you, the Hunt Store right now, the sign says Hunt Store. Except today it doesn't. It says Hunt Strong. They redid the sign. That's the spirit of who we are.
- [15:45]
Podcast Host
Thank you, Ted, very much.
- [15:47]
Ben Shapiro
The heroes that have come out of this, that 14 year old, I have three boys. I know that my dad, when he was raising me, wanted me to be a strong young man that would do what that 14 year old did. I want to raise my boys to be the same way. But for that family to know their son made a difference and literally saved people's lives is an incredible, I think, story of the good that has come out of such a horrific event. You also met other heroes. One that went viral this past week was a guy that was saving literally more than, I think it was 164 lives.
- [16:19]
Ted Cruz
165. Yeah. Scott Ruskin, he's a Coast Guard swimmer. And here you can see I met Scott when I was down in the hill country. He's 25 years old. And you know, we've talked before about how the Coast Guard swimmers, these guys are badass. I mean, they're. The analogy I use. It's like a Navy SEAL and a California surfer combined together, you know, and it's so accurate.
- [16:47]
Ben Shapiro
I mean, it's so accurate.
- [16:48]
Ted Cruz
So Scott's comment, like in the press this week was, I'm just a dude.
- [16:52]
Ben Shapiro
Yeah, I'm just a dude doing a.
- [16:53]
Ted Cruz
Job, which is a very swimmer thing to say. But the early morning of the flooding, they put him on the ground at Cap mystic and he spent three and a half hours there with the girls on a field that was the highest point of mystic. And he loaded 165 girls onto helicopters and they evacuated them on helicopters. They had about 15 girls per helicopter. And the girls, you know, you got to picture this scene. It's pitch black. It's still nighttime. The rain is still coming, pelting down. The girls are in their pajamas, they're missing shoes. Many of them are crying, they're scared. Some of them are looking for their friends. Some of them are looking for their younger sisters who they can't find. They're terrified. Some of them were singing Christian hymns and Scott was comforting each of them, putting them. When I talked to him, he'd just gotten off the phone with a mom and dad who had called him with their daughter. And they said, you saved our daughter's life. They said she was scared out of her mind. And you held her hands. You picked her up and loaded her into a helicopter. And as you did, you held her hands. You told her, it's going to be all right. You're going to be okay. And this hero, hero and, you know, laid back swimmer, he was reduced to tears. That heroism was happening day after day after day.
- [18:26]
Ben Shapiro
You look at the last little over a week and you talk about, we're still trying to find people. You talk about, you know, I say this not really sarcastically. Finally the government got it right. The response was incredible. And seeing people work together, seeing how strong the people are in Texas. What was your takeaway, even from Monday to Friday? Being there and seeing how quickly people are still actively helping. They're still out there searching. They're still trying to help their fellow man and woman in Texas.
- [18:57]
Ted Cruz
Look, they're working hard and you've got volunteers coming in like crazy. You got people coming in from all over the state that are contributing. The community foundation in Kerr county has received over $30 billion in contributions in just a week. They've already distributed over $5 billion as they're trying to give money just to help, help people get back on their feet, right on the ground and listen. There's also lots of confusion. I will say I've spoken now to quite a few parents and people who lost loved ones, and there's frustration early on. It's hard to get information. I'll tell you the moms and dads who had girls missing at Mystic. I would be getting phone calls and texts. Do you know anything about where my daughter is? And you want to answer, yes. And the frustrating thing is that you don't. And so you'd say, look, I'll try to connect you with the head of emergency management. I'll try to connect you with the sheriff, like the people on the ground. But in many cases, they're just out search teams looking. And until they find the remains, there's nothing to be told other than we're still looking. That frustration was real, I'll tell you. There was an article just came out in Texas Monthly about what happened. And I want to take a few minutes and actually read a significant portion of the article. The article is by a fellow named Aaron Parsley, and it's entitled the River House Broke. We rushed in the river, and he's telling a firsthand story about his family that had a house right along the Guadalupe River. I want you just to listen to this. Rosemary, the four year old woke up first. She told my brother in law Lance, that there was something on the roof. Seven of us were at my family's river house on the Guadalupe between Ingram and Hunt. For the fourth, our little stretch of river is wide, green, cool, deep and slow. It's some of the best swimming anywhere and one of the most beautiful spots in Texas as far as I'm concerned. I've spent many peaceful afternoons there, floating and staring up at the cypress trees that tower over the water. The house, a one story cabin on stilts about 50 yards from the river up the steeply sloped yard, was built right after the 1987 flood that devastated this region, killing 10 teenagers. Concrete pillars put our family's place a few feet above what officials consider the 100 year floodplain. More than once I tried to imagine the waters rising that high, but it seemed impossible. I woke around 3am to the sound of thunder and rain. My only thought was I hope it stops so I can go on an early morning run. Shortly before 4:30, I would later learn, Rosemary climbed down from the top bunk of the kids bedroom and went to get her father. Lance stepped out of bed to see what was causing all the pounding and creaking. I stirred about that time too and heard what I figured was the kids running around the house, excited by the storm. What's going on? I asked. We're in trouble, dad said. Big trouble. I looked past them. The river was as high as the deck, 20ft above the ground. We talked through our options. Getting under the roof was impossible. We had no ladder and the eaves were about 8ft above the deck. Patrick weighed whether we could all climb through a window onto the live oak whose branches were near the back of the house, then realized it wasn't reachable. Lance called 911, but the dispatcher said he didn't know when anyone could get to us. As we reassembled in the kitchen, the vinyl flooring under our feet started to bubble. Then water began to pool. My dad walked into the bedroom and saw the carpet floating off the floor. The river's musty scent permeated the house mixed with what smelled like freshly chopped wood. My sister sat Rosemary and Clay on the kitchen island countertop. Rosemary was 4 and Clay was 20 months old. We discussed whether we could get them higher, maybe even on top of the cabinets in the small space below the ceiling. Then the roof over the porch crashed down and we heard glass shatter in my father's room, just off the kitchen. Rosemary asked, why did the window break? Clay started to cry. When the sliding glass doors opened and water poured in, Lance ran to it, shoved it closed, and held it shut. The pendant lamps began to swing wildly over the kitchen counter. The house was shifting. It lurked sharply, and we all struggled to stay on our feet. It felt like walking down the aisle of a plane during strong turbulence. We're moving, we're moving, patrick said. The realization was terrifying. The rushing, still rising, water had lifted the house off its pillars. It was afloat. And then it wasn't. I saw part of the deck rip away. I heard windows break from every corner. Cracks split the walls. We crashed into something, probably a tree. I don't know how long. It took 10 seconds, maybe 15, for the house to come apart. Alyssa managed to keep both kids on the countertop while one hand on each, still trying to reassure them. As the house came undone, she grabbed one in each arm. This is the part that will forever haunt me. If I or anyone else had been closer to them, we would have helped her. We would have grabbed one of the kids. But we simply didn't know that we were about to be plunged into the water. We simply didn't know. As we were thrust into churning water, into darkness, our disintegrating house sucked us down into the river. The last thing I remember from inside the house was seeing the refrigerator coming at me. Patrick saw the countertop tear away from the kitchen island with Alyssa and the kids on it. As the river carried me downstream, I struggled to stay above water. I was surrounded by branches, by twisted metal, by uprooted trees, by countless smaller objects, bottles of sunscreen, books, couch cushions, coolers that came from inside our home or somebody else's. I realized I had lost my shoes and my phone. I grabbed at every branch and every tree that was still standing. A few snapped off in my hands, leaving me with a fistful of leaves. I managed to briefly hold onto one, perhaps for a few seconds, until the force of the water and the constant assault from debris ripped me away. I latched onto a tree with branches large enough to support me and pulled myself out of the water. My breathing was frantic, but my mind was focused. I considered the possibility of death. I thought, if I survive, I'll be the only one. The tree began to crack, creak, and moan. Then it slowly fell into the river, and so did I. I reached for another tree and climbed as high as I could. A couple of feet above the rushing water. I stepped up to a higher branch, and then another. If this tree collapsed, I wasn't sure if I would fight to stay above the water again. I pleaded with the tree to hold me, to withstand the power of the river. Please, I whispered. Please. Over the roar of the water and the crackling of the trees, I heard screaming. It was guttural, primal. Who's there? I called. I'm in a tree, too. We have to hang on. Someone will help. It's Alyssa, my sister screamed. I'm with Rosemary. Clay is God. The memory of those words will never leave me. A combination of profound relief and unbearable sadness overwhelms me now, even as I type this, Alyssa and I kept yelling to each other, though neither of us could clearly make out what the other was saying. Be strong for Rosemary, I implored. You have to survive this. Intermittently I could hear just one word, Clay, as Alyssa cried out for her son. Then I noticed Patrick running along the riverbank. I couldn't believe he was there, fully dressed, wearing his tank top and shorts, his shoes somehow still on. He had lost only his wedding ring, he told me later. Patrick, I'm here. I yelled. For the first time, I thought we had a shot at surviving. Patrick was the first normal thing since the house broke apart. It was like being alone on an alien planet and another human being randomly arrives. And then Lance came jogging up after him. They'd ended up in the same pecan tree, about 200ft away from the riverbank and about 2,000ft from where our house once stood. Lance has a watch with a flashlight that he turned on after Rosemary woke him up. Patrick said he spotted the beam after he climbed into the tree. They're only a few yards apart, close enough that they could talk without yelling. Lance kept repeating, my son, my daughter. There's no way in the river's roiling churn. With Rosemary clinging to her neck while she paddled with one arm, Alyssa had somehow managed to push her daughter onto a branch, which Rosemary hugged with her arms and legs lying flat. Alyssa stayed in the water just below her, gripping the tree's trunk, and as the waters receded, she stood uncomfortably on a branch below her. Alyssa would tell me five days later that Rosemary wanted to play I Spy. While they waited in the tree, Patrick waded into the water to intercept a blue kayak that was floating by. An older couple watching from a house on a nearby hill brought Lance and Patrick an inflatable inner tube, and they decided the tube was the better option to catch Rosemary. More control, softer landing. After that Rosemary's rescue happened quickly. Patrick and Lance rigged the inner tube with a green garden hose they found and tied it around a downed tree. Lance waded into the water, positioning the tube beneath his daughter. I stood downriver, ready to catch Rosemary if she missed the target and got caught in the stream. Alyssa urged us to hurry, saying she didn't think she could hold onto the tree much longer. She had to pry Rosemary's hands from the branch. Rosemary, terrified, started to cry. Then my sister cradled her daughter and dropped her 20ft into the river where her father was waiting. She landed directly in the middle of the inner tube, and we all cheered. Lance carried his daughter to shore. My sister jumped into the water right after, and I grabbed her, put my arm around her, and together we walked to safety. Alyssa collapsed on the riverbank, crying out for Clay. Rosemary became calm when she reached dry land, but her face had a blue cast. We were all shivering. We told Rosemary how brave she'd been and that she was now safe and it was going to be okay.
- [31:11]
Ben Shapiro
That's the reality of what it was like for so many down there. And it happened. That article describes it, I think, perfectly.
- [31:19]
Ted Cruz
So quickly, I want you to take a look at this picture. This is Rosemary and Clay. Rosemary survived, Clay did not. This family, like so many Texas families, is rejoicing at the lives that were saved and is forever grieving at the lives that were lost. And this family, like so many Texas families, needs their friends, their loved ones to hold them tight. They need God's blessing and mercy and grace. And I will tell you, everyone in Texas is standing with this family, is standing with all of the parents at mystic, is standing with all the little girls who lost friends. Just today, I was visiting with parents who had two daughters at Mystic. One survived, one did not. They talked about the surviving daughter and the guilt and grief that every one of the survivors feels. Survivors, guilt. Why did my friend. Why did my sister die and I didn't? And those girls. It's going to take a whole lot of love and a whole lot of time for them to walk through that grief. We'll do that. That's who Texans are. But these are hard times.
- [32:38]
Ben Shapiro
There are so many different organizations doing amazing work helping those in Texas. If you can help, make sure you help. There's a lot of them. Pick the one that connects with you and your family and your heart. But there are people that need help, and if you can do that, that'd be amazing. The center and I will see you back here again real soon.
- [32:59]
Podcast Host
This is an I heart podcast.