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- [00:00]
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- [00:30]
Ted Cruz
Ch ch ch.
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- [01:29]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz. Ben Ferguson with you on Inauguration Day. Sit back, stretch out, America. Donald Trump is back and it's going to be a glorious Monday. And Senator, you're right there in the middle of all of it.
- [01:44]
Ted Cruz
Well, I am. Today is a momentous day. At noon today, January 20th, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. Will cease to be President of the United States and Donald John Trump will will become the 47th president of the United States. We will see a new administration come into office. We will see the entire direction of the country, the path we're on, change. We're gonna break down everything that's been happening on inauguration today and throughout the weekend. I've been up here all weekend, so we're gonna bring you inside. What it's like on an inauguration weekend. That's what we're gonna start with. Then we're gonna talk about TikTok, TikTok the band went into effect on Sunday. TikTok went down. It's now back up. What's going to happen next? What does it mean? We're going to break that down, all of that in this verdict.
- [02:33]
Ben Ferguson
Want to tell you real quick about our friends over at the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. On January 27, just a few days away, the International Holocaust Remembrance Day will be here. And that is the day we remember the great evil of the Holocaust when millions of Jews were slaughtered during the Nazis reign of terror. Now today, unfortunately, the rise in global anti Semitism and the constant attacks on Israel show us that it's more important than ever to remember the atrocities of the Holocaust to ensure that it never, ever, ever happens again. And that's why I have partnered with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews with the work they do is just truly unbelievable. Not only do they provide food and shelter and safety to Jews in Israel and around the world, including those remaining Holocaust survivors. And that is where your donation today will help provide that food, water, medicine and other basic necessities to the Jewish community, including bomb shelters and armored ambulances that have saved countless lives throughout the last year and a half. And your gift will also send a message that you stand with the Jewish people against this growing anti Semitism and hatred. So to give and show your support right now to the Jewish people, you can do it by going to supportifcj.org that's one word, support ifcj.org you can also call 888-4488 ifcj. That's 888-488 ifcj 888-488-4325 or support ifcj.org center all right, I got to be honest with you. I'm having fomo. Anna and I were going to come up for the inauguration and then we saw the temps, and then we saw that they canceled it being outside. And then it was a question of all right, do we come, do we not? You're there. I've seen your pictures. You're hanging out with family. You even got a picture with Snoop Dogg and your daughter, the crypto ball. It looks like it's been an amazing weekend celebrating democracy and Donald Trump coming back into office.
- [04:47]
Ted Cruz
Well. Well, it has. And I guess we gotta start, Ben, with, you know, why do you hate America?
- [04:54]
Ben Ferguson
I set you up pretty well for that one, right?
- [04:57]
Ted Cruz
You know, you could choose to be here celebrating a new day in America, celebrating changing the course, or you could stay and say, you know, I'm, I'm really cold.
- [05:07]
Ben Ferguson
See, I can blame you for this. Anna said, is, is, is Senator Cruz going to make sure we go with him to see Snoop Dogg? That's the, that's what I want to do. And I said, he hasn't offered, honey, so technically it's your fault. I'm going to go back hard.
- [05:19]
Ted Cruz
You didn't ask. I, I would have happily brought you in. So particularly because it's already passed, that that's the easiest is to offer things in the hypothetical after the effect. So look, look, the whole weekend, we started with Friday. So Friday the Senate was in session this week. And so we voted, we voted actually on the Lake and Riley Act. We got a bunch of Democrats who voted for it as well. So we actually moved forward with the Lake and Riley act. And it may show that Democrats are a little bit scared of the election results, particularly their open border policies. Then Friday night we had, I started the festivities with the party that Donald Trump Jr. Hosted. And there were a bunch of folks there, a bunch of cabinet members there. It was good to celebrate. And then went from there to the Crypto Ball. And the Crypto ball was remarkable. It was a big black tie gala and the performer was Snoop Dogg. And you know, it's interesting, in the first term, Snoop Dogg was not a fan of Donald Trump, but this administration, he is performing at one of the inaugural galas, the Crypto Ball. And you know, I'll tell you, my daughter Caroline, as you know, she's, she's not particularly into politics, but, but I did ask her, hey, you got any interest in seeing Snoop Dogg perform? And she was all over that.
- [06:38]
Ben Ferguson
That's so fun.
- [06:39]
Ted Cruz
So it was very, you know, look, it's good as a dad, cool dad.
- [06:42]
Ben Ferguson
For like a couple of hours.
- [06:44]
Ted Cruz
And so it was a good chance, you know, and I told her, I said, I'm pretty sure I can get you backstage. And it turned out I could. And, and so Caroline was up there and we went back, back to Snoop's bus and, and he was there with his entourage. We hung out with him for a few minutes. He was very kind, took a picture with Caroline and that, that was, it was very nice and very gracious. I'm not going to say we were partying with Snoop, but we got to meet him and he took a picture with Caroline. So that, so that was fun.
- [07:11]
Ben Ferguson
So what is the demeanor like? And, and does it feel like it did eight years ago after 16, or does it feel very different this time? And explain the difference.
- [07:25]
Ted Cruz
There's real excitement, there's A greater mandate. Look, in 2016, almost nobody believed Trump would win, including Trump. And it was. Everyone was kind of a little shocked. And the Trump team had never done this before, and so they were trying to figure out what to do. The difference. Now this team is hitting the ground running 100 miles an hour instead of 2 miles an hour, like it is night and day. You look at the cabinet members have all been announced. We've already had hearings on half the cabinet members. They are hitting the ground running. I think today you are gonna see somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 executive orders that are gonna come down. And the election results were so overwhelming for Trump to win the popular vote, for Trump to win. Of the seven swing states, all seven, with a big majority in the Senate, 53 Republicans, a majority in the House, there's a clear mandate. And so I will say there's an excitement in the air. You also don't have the same anger and resistance that we had in 2017. It was such a resounding result that the left really is in shock. But there's not the disbelief there was in 2017. In 2017, they thought, this is a clear aberration. It makes no sense, and it will be over very, very soon. They now recognize, wow, this is what the voters wanted. And so the feel is fundamentally different. You know, after Friday, on Saturday, I went then had meetings, went and spoke to the Texas State Society, which was great to see all the folks up from Texas, and then went to a party that was hosted by Peter Thiel and David Sacks, and that was kind of a tech artificial intelligence party. And as you know, Peter Thiel and I have been friends for 25 years, so that was fun to see a lot of the techies. I then went to the Hispanic Inaugural Ball, which was massive. Couple thousand people. The excitement there was enormous.
- [09:41]
Ben Ferguson
And by the way, I want people to understand these balls. It is not easy to get tickets. I want to be clear year. It is tough for even people and insiders. So when. When it's a big deal, it's like. I mean, it's a really cool thing to get to do. I've done an inauguration. It's amazing, but it is when people like, oh, I'm gonna go to D.C. like, if you don't have an invite, it is. It is very different than that. If you're there and you're in the know. And that's one of the things I think is actually the excitement around it, is that you may not get one of these every four years. It can be Eight years in between like we saw with Obama. So when they get to celebrate your team winning, it's a big celebration. These are five star events.
- [10:17]
Ted Cruz
Yeah. Now look, I have to admit it's not my favorite thing to do. I don't really like going to black tie big galas. I would much rather sit around the table with some good friends with, with some scotch and a cigar and play poker. That I'd take that a thousand out of a thousand times as compared to 2,000 people in a giant auditorium all pressing up and crazy. That's not really my scene. But at the same time I got a job to do and so I'm, I, you know the Hispanic Inaugural Ball, I was one of the honorary co chairmen of the ball and so I had an obligation to be there and talk to the folks there and congratulate everyone and the enthusiasm that's there is enormous. I went from there to the America First Policy Institute ball which is, you know, AFPI is a big think tank that now that came out of Trump world. So was there and then, and then on Sunday actually started the day by having breakfast with President Trump and he had breakfast with all of the Republican senators. But in classic Trump manner that breakfast lasted two and a half hours.
- [11:22]
Ben Ferguson
And where was it? Where did you guys meet?
- [11:24]
Ted Cruz
At the Blair House. So the Blair House is across the street from the White House.
- [11:28]
Ben Ferguson
And this is part of history of the inauguration I love.
- [11:31]
Ted Cruz
Yeah. So Blair House is, it is typically where the President resides before he's sworn in. So Trump got up to DC Last night, he took Air Force One from Mar A Lago up to D.C. and then went to Blair House. And Blair House is also where visiting heads of state will stay. So if the British Prime Minister is in town, the US Government will put him up in Blair House. And it's a very nice residence right across from the White House. So that's where Trump is until he's sworn in and moves into the White House. And we had, we literally arrived at 9:30 for breakfast and we left shortly before noon. I mean and it was, he basically just kind of talked stream of consciousness for two and a half hours and we all talked back and forth and had a really. And he was in great spirits. And then on Sunday night, the big thing that is Sunday night is black tie and boots, which is the Texas State Society Ball. That is always a huge, it's typically the hottest ticket in town. Actually the Texas Ball has always been considered probably the top ball and most fun. And it's, it's Packed. And, and, and then you get to Monday morning. And Monday morning is, is, is, is the real shebang when, when, when Trump takes the oath of office. That'll happen noon today.
- [12:49]
Ben Ferguson
So let's talk about also the big change. And there was everybody saying, hey, was it the weather? Was it security? Was it both? The end of the day, we're not outside for the inauguration. It is indoors. It is something that's. We've. It's happened before. Not that long ago, Ronald Reagan had one of his indoor. Because of weather. At the time. When you found out about this, how much does that change things? Because, for example, every, every office gets X number of tickets for the inauguration. There's a lot of people coming up, and then all of a sudden it's like, hey, these tickets are basically something you can frame, but they're worthless now because we're moving indoors. So who gets on the list indoors? Because it's a lot smaller.
- [13:31]
Ted Cruz
Yeah. So I'll tell you how I found out about it. It actually was Friday afternoon, as it so happened. I was in the office of the speaker of the House, and I spent an hour in the Speaker's office with the speaker and me and Lindsey Graham, the three of us talking about the issue we did a podcast on last week, which is whether to do one reconciliation bill or two reconciliation bills. And as we talked about on that podcast, the speaker disagrees with Lindsey and me. And with just about every senator, he thinks one bill makes sense, I think two bills make sense. So we were spending about an hour talking about that. And I gotta say, as I was walking into the meeting with the speaker, we were talking about the inauguration and the fact that we were all expecting to be freezing our asses off sitting outside. You know, typically for an inauguration, you're out on the steps of the Capitol, you're outside, and Monday is projected to be very, very cold, to be in the teens. And I'll tell you what I was telling the speaker, look, I just wanna make sure that they don't, like, Secret Service doesn't drag us out there two hours early and have us just sit there and freeze way before the President gets there. And I'm like, you know, come on, Mr. Speaker, you can get this done. We can get out there right before it starts instead of having to, like, turn into ice boxes and have a bunch of octogenarians getting pneumonia. Well, while we're meeting with the speaker, we get. He gets handed a note card and said, oh, well, problem solved. Trump just decided to move it indoors. So it was Trump's call. He made the decision. And so now the swearing in will occur in the rotunda of the Capitol. That is the same thing that happened in 1985 for Reagan's second term. In 1985, just like this year, it was very, very cold on Inauguration Day, and so they did it indoors. So that's what's gonna happen here. But what it means is the number of people that will be physically present plummets. They're, they're anticipating about 600 people will be in the Rotunda. Now, I'll give you some quick math. There are 535 senators and members of the House. If you got 600 total, there ain't a whole lot more people than, than the members of Congress and an additional 65, 70 people. So. So virtually everyone who was planning to go there were thousands and thousands of seated seats that people had flown up for tickets. There were many, many more, thousands of standing room only seats that would, that would extend for blocks and blocks. And I do feel really bad for all the folks who came up here who were planning to see it. I mean, it's an expensive trip to fly to D.C. they were excited and they found out, well, okay, now we're not going to get to see it. You know, what most people are doing is going somewhere where there's a TV and it's warm to go watch it. I can tell you I had a bunch of our top supporters that flew up here. And so we've tried to, we've been talking with them and trying to help folks find warm places. We've got some folks that, we've got a sports bar where they're going to come watch it there. But a lot of people were left just in the cold. I will say this, though, if it had been outside, you would have people, particularly in the standing room only seats, who might be out there six hours or more. And I did.
- [16:54]
Ben Ferguson
And that's one thing people don't, I don't think understood because I had someone calling like, hey, we got seats. We're gonna go. And, you know, it should be fine. We'll just get there right before. And I'm like, it doesn't work that way. There's incredible security protocol. And you're out there for hours. I remember it during 04, it's just I had, I had a seated seat right up at the front, and that seat was frozen solid when we sat down. It was a solid, basically sitting on an ice cube. And so even if you think, oh, well, you have a seat, then you can sit down. I would have actually preferred to be standing so you could move around a little bit. Because when it's cold in D.C. and windy, it is cold and windy.
- [17:30]
Ted Cruz
And look, a lot of people would be getting there at like 6 and 7 in the morning. And the swearing in doesn't happen till noon. So that's a lot of hours to be out in the cold and wind and ice. You know, Heidi's in town for it. Caroline's in town for it. I had advised them they were going to have heavy jackets and wrap up. I'll tell you, I bought a new set of long johns. I went on Amazon and ordered some long johns. And actually, we had. There were hundreds of tickets that I gave out of Texans who wanted to come and asked me to. And so we gave out hundreds of tickets. And one of the things I had my team do with everyone that was gonna get a ticket is. Is. Is I got them hand warmers and feet warmers. I figured, all right, if they're gonna be freezing, you know, the things that you take skiing that, like, you can put in your gloves or put in your. Your boots and warm your feet and hands. I thought that was a nice thing to give the Texans who were coming up here. But I will say this, because they canceled it, number one. Look, I'm glad you've got a bunch of members of Congress who are in their 80s. I mean, you could easily have had someone catch pneumonia and die. Yeah, I'm sure Trump was thinking of William Henry Harrison, who was president. He gave a speech on a very cold Washington day at inauguration speech, and he died 30 days later. He is the shortest president in U.S. history. And you know, Trump, at 78, I'm sure that precedent occurred to him. You know, I can't think it would be very healthy for Joe Biden, at his age and in his health, to have him sit a couple hours out in the freezing cold. And for that matter, the thousands of people standing there, we probably would have had some people get frostbite. We might have had some serious health issues. So I do think that was a major factor behind President Trump's decision to move it indoors.
- [19:15]
Ben Ferguson
So here's to put it in perspective. Your family that's up there for it, do they get to go in the rotunda for the swearing in?
- [19:21]
Ted Cruz
No.
- [19:22]
Ben Ferguson
So just. And I knew the answer, but it was just to put in perspective, that's how different it's gonna be, that even senators own family members who thought they were going to watch the inauguration, they're going to be watching it on TV as well.
- [19:34]
Ted Cruz
So. So what works to each member of Congress has a spouse ticket. And the spouse ticket, when it's outside, they're seated nearby, and you get one ticket for that. Those tickets are not even going to be in the rotunda. They're going to be in the Capitol Visitor Center. So. So they will be watching it on TV nearby, but they won't be physically. They're able to see it.
- [19:55]
Ben Ferguson
That's incredible. So let's talk about afterwards what's gonna happen, because you, you mentioned this earlier, that this Trump administration is just operating at a different level of sophistication than 2016. It is a different level of readiness. And this is gonna be a huge day for the country, specifically for people that voted for change and voted for safety and security and secure borders. The number of things that we're gonna get done right away after Trump is sworn in is significant.
- [20:31]
Ted Cruz
It is. You know, this is something I talked about. So I did two other podcasts this weekend. I went on with Bari Weiss on the Free Press podcast and talked with her. And then I also went on the all in podcast. Both of them, I talked about Verdict and urge listeners of those podcasts to come over here and subscribed Verdict. But, you know, we talked about what to expect today. And shortly after the president has sworn in, we are going to see a flurry of executive orders. And I think we're going to see something on the order of magnitude of 100 executive orders signed today that is massive. Those orders are prepared, they're drafted. The lawyers are putting the finishing touches on them right now. I don't know everyone that's coming out. We can predict a lot of them. There are going to be executive orders focusing on securing the border. Catch, Catch and release is going to end when illegal immigrants are apprehended. They will be detained, they will be deported. You're going to see law enforcement going after and apprehending and arresting criminal illegal aliens, murderers, rapists, gang members. All of that you're going to see early on, I'm confident you will see executive orders undoing the Biden administration's war on American energy, the war on Texas oil and gas. I think we'll see that unwind. I'm confident we'll see executive orders unwinding DEI initiatives throughout the federal government. I'm confident that Joe Biden's artificial intelligence executive order will be rescinded. The flurry of it will be enormous. And the phrase that's being used is shock and awe. And I Think that's exactly what it is. And I'll tell you, Ben, in my view, I think there is a fixed quantum of outrage. And I actually call that quantum, the arsenic quantum. And so you and I both remember the first term of George W. Bush, Bush 43. So when Bush 43 came in in 2001, one of the first things the Bush administration did is it rescinded an EPA reg that had regulated how much arsenic can be in water, and it changed it from one microscopic amount of arsenic to a different microscopic amount of arsenic. And for six weeks, the press lost their mind and their hair was on fire. And they said, the evil Republicans are trying to poison our children with arsenic. Now, I think today when Trump issues all of these executive orders, you're going to see the same outrage, except instead of all directed at arsenic, it's going to be at all 100. And I actually think, don't think the outrage gets any greater. That's how much outrage there is, which is why I'm expecting today to be an extraordinary day. I hope and believe these orders are focused on delivering on our promises and carrying through on the mandate from the election. And if and when they do that, that's a very good thing.
- [23:29]
Ben Ferguson
There's also a difference aspect of this, this winning a second time after losing. And that is if these hundred executive orders that are signed today make the media mad, the press mad, they lose their mind. I think there's a lot of Americans. But good. He's doing exactly what I sent him back to Washington to do. And you didn't have that type of mandate feel, I think, in 16 like you do now.
- [23:57]
Ted Cruz
Absolutely. If CNN is happy at what happens today, then the incoming team will have screwed up badly. But I feel absolutely confident. I think the odds that CNN will be happy are 0.0%. So that's a good thing.
- [24:13]
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- [25:13]
Ted Cruz
On January 27, it is international Holocaust Remembrance Day. We remember the great horrors, the evil of the Holocaust. Millions and millions of Jews were slaughtered during the Nazi reign of terror. Now today we are witnessing the rise of global anti Semitism, the constant attacks on Israel, showing us that it is more important than ever to remember the atrocities of the Holocaust and to ensure it never happens again. We have proudly partnered with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Now they provide food, shelter, safety to so many Israelis in Israel as they fight against radical Islamic terrorism in our time, including those remaining Holocaust survivors. Your donation today will help provide food, water, medicine and other bare necessities to Jewish communities. Go to their website. It's supportifcj.org, that's supportifcj.org or call toll free 888-488ifcj 888488 ifcj today.
- [26:13]
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- [26:42]
Ben Ferguson
Let's move to TikTok for a second because this has actually been a big conversation around the inauguration, elections having consequences, laws having consequences, Supreme Court getting involved. So can we take it back to square one so that people that maybe weren't paying attention to TikTok, maybe don't use it. They understand TikTok is extremely important to a younger generation. And there are a lot of Americans that make a living on TikTok. There are a lot of people that supports their businesses. There is a lot of things on TikTok that you can say are very good. There are a lot of things you can also say are very bad. But explain what happened with TikTok and why it was Shut down.
- [27:24]
Ted Cruz
Well, Congress passed a law last year dealing with TikTok. TikTok is owned and controlled by a company called ByteDance. ByteDance is a Chinese company and it's a Chinese company that is under the direct control of the Chinese Communist government. The Chinese Communist government uses TikTok and uses it in a way that I think poses a very real national security risk to the United States. There are some hundred and seventy million Americans that use TikTok, overwhelmingly young people, teenagers, young adults, young professionals. And the Chinese Communist government uses it, number one, to engage in espionage, to monitor what those Americans are doing, what they're saying potentially where they are. They have the potential to monitor their locations. But number two, the Chinese Communist government uses TikTok aggressively to push propaganda. To push propaganda that is number one, pro China. And they suppress content, things like Tiananmen Square, they suppress content about the 1 million Uyghurs that are in concentration camps in China. They suppress content about Hong Kong or China or Taiwan. But, but they also push anti American content. They push anti capitalist content, they push communist content, they push socialist content. They also push harmful content to young people. They push substance abuse, they push self harm, they push suicidal ideation. I gotta say that the same company that owns TikTok, they had, they have a TikTok version in China that's very different from the TikTok in America. The Chinese kids that are on TikTok, they're getting videos on math and calculus and they're limited in the number of hours they can do it, but it's developing the kind of skills that are gonna make them really effective in life. You know, the Chinese kids are getting calculus and our kids are getting chewing tide pods. Uh, that ain't good. It, the Chinese Communist government is not doing it because they love our kids and they want to see a good outcome. Uh, we also see heavily skewed political propaganda. So for example, anti Semitism, anti Israel, pro Hamas, pro Hezbollah propaganda is, is rampant on TikTok and, and at a, at a complete differential, wildly different ratios than on other social media platforms. And so, given China's malevolent use of TikTok, Congress passed a bipartisan bill designed to force China to divest from TikTok. And the terms of the bill said that that Tik Tok had to shut down by January 19th unless it had been sold and was no longer under the ownership or control of the Chinese communist government. Now TikTok has done next to nothing to comply with the efforts to sell itself. In fact, they brazenly Said, we will not sell. Instead, they've tried to do a couple of things. Number one, they've tried to engage in litigation, they filed lawsuits. They went all the way to the US Supreme Court. They argued at the US Supreme Court. And TikTok lost unanimously. The Supreme Court said, no, your First Amendment argument is not valid. So the First Amendment protects the free speech rights of Americans, but it doesn't protect the Chinese Communist government. And the Supreme Court unanimously concluded, this law is focused on national security. It's not trying to suppress any Americans free speech. It is trying to prevent a hostile government from being able to engage in espionage and propaganda in the United States. So they devoted a lot of time to litigation, a lot of time to lobbyists. They've had lobbyists descend on Capitol Hill trying to lobby against the ban. Well, Saturday night at midnight, TikTok turned itself off. Uh, and I will tell you, there were teenagers and young people all across the country that expressed enormous dismay when it shut down. But they shut it down. And so TikTok for most of Sunday was shut down. And then Sunday afternoon they turned it back on. And they turned it back on because Trump had indicated that he intends to to give. Give TikTok another 90 days. The statute has a provision that the President can extend the ban for 90 days in order to help facilitate a sale of TikTok. And Trump has said that's what he intends to do. Look, my view on this, if in the next 90 days TikTok follows through and sells the company to a non Chinese buyer, a non Chinese government controlled buyer, ideally to an American company, that will be a very, very good thing. The objective of this law, it's important to understand the objective of this law was never to ban TikTok. The objective of this law was to force the Chinese Communist government to end its ownership and control of TikTok. I don't know if that's going to happen. I hope it's going to happen. I am not certain what Trump is going to end up doing, but at least right now he's indicating that he intends to exercise the 90 day extension to give TikTok time to consummate the sale. And so we'll see what happens in the next 90 days.
- [32:51]
Ben Ferguson
One last thing about TikTok, your opinion, if it is a threat to national security and to our way of life, and that's why you say it's so important for it to be sold to a non Chinese controlled company.
- [33:06]
Ted Cruz
Absolutely. That's why you had overwhelming bipartisan support for this legislation. Because what China is doing with TikTok is really harmful and it's a way to spy on Americans and it's also a way to really inject harmful content. They're trying to drive our country in directions that tears America down and they're not doing it. You know, this is not complaining about, well, gosh, Hollywood producers are not making wholesome movies anymore. This is an adversary that is deliberately pumping propaganda to our children. And we would be a foolish nation if we said, hey, we're great with the Chinese Communists having an open pipeline to our kids. That's why Congress acted. And as I said, I don't know what President Trump will do, but certainly my counsel to him will be use this law as leverage and let's force China to sell TikTok.
- [34:04]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, it's going to be really interesting to see how this happens. Let me ask you one final question on this Inauguration Day.
- [34:10]
Ted Cruz
Didn't you just have a final question?
- [34:12]
Ben Ferguson
I got no. This is, overall, though, this is.
- [34:14]
Ted Cruz
Are you like a used car salesman? One more thing, one more thing. Would you, would you like some undercover coverage?
- [34:21]
Ben Ferguson
Hey, I'm not there. I get my bonus question. That's my story and I'm sticking with it. When you look at where we are January 20, 2025, how much, how excited are you for what we're about to witness compared to January 20th of 2017 because of how prepared we are this time?
- [34:43]
Ted Cruz
Much more excited because I think we're much more prepared. We're hitting the ground running. As I said, the initial Trump team, they'd never done this before. The initial Trump White House had never worked in the federal government. I think there's just a much greater level of experience and also awareness of the deep state awareness of the career bureaucrats who fight against a common sense, free market, freedom oriented agenda. And look, as I look at this array of Cabinet nominees, I'm really excited. And I think the most consistent characterization of these or characteristic of these nominees is that they're change agents, they're disruptors, and they're going into these agencies to change and disrupt how they operate. I think that's a very good thing. Now, listen, there are going to be moments of chaos. They're going to be mistakes that are made. The old Silicon Valley phrase of, you know, move fast and break things. I think that's what we're going to see. They're going to move fast and some things, some things won't work. But I'm excited because I think the overwhelming majority of what's accomplished will be very very good for the country.
- [35:51]
Ben Ferguson
Well, it's going to be a really fun rest of the day for everybody. Watch it, enjoy it. It is history and I can tell you, I really think also verdict is going to be really fun this year. I think we're going to have a lot of guests that that because of this victory and get to cover a lot more victories than we've ever got to do before. So get ready for that as well. Don't forget we do the show Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Friday we have that weekend review on Saturday. On those in between days, grab my podcast, the Ben Ferguson Podcast. I'll keep you up to date during those other big news days. There's going to be a lot of them, so we'll have all that for you as well. And the center and I will see you back here Wednesday morning.
- [36:32]
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