Verdict with Ted Cruz - October 14, 2023


Acting President Blinken Calls Out Israel, Universities go All In on Defending Hamas & Ted Cruz Supports Jim Jordan the Week In Review

Topics
anti-Semitism on American campuses
Hosted by
Ted Cruz
Mentioned
Steve Scalise Joe Biden Jim Jordan Verdict Kevin McCarthy Ben Ferguson Tony Blinken Congresswoman Tlaib Jennifer Stewart Caitlin Clark Cori Bush Jonathan Greenblatt Tim Hernandez Rashida Tlaib Abraham Russell Omar
Terror Threat in America, Biden Admin's Daily Efforts to Undermine Israel & the Latest on the Speaker of the House CNN is Hamas's Air Force. As is MSNBC & ABC. Here's the Evidence

Episode Stats


Length

31 minutes

Words per minute

155.32

Word count

4,962

Sentence count

388

Harmful content

Misogyny

7

sentences flagged

Toxicity

30

sentences flagged

Hate speech

15

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Ted Cruz and Ben Ferguson discuss the latest in the war in Gaza, including the blin' out of Tony Blinken, the colleges defending Hamas, and the support for Jim Jordan for the speakership at the Republican National Convention.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.540 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.440 Welcome.
00:00:06.240 It is the Verdict with Ted Cruz.
00:00:08.020 Weekend review.
00:00:09.060 Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:10.360 And these are the big stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week.
00:00:14.960 Number one, de facto president of the United States of America,
00:00:18.700 Anthony Blinken, decided to go on TV and tell the world what Israel should be doing. 0.90
00:00:25.080 Yes, calling them out and giving them certain things and bars they must hit
00:00:30.600 instead of actually calling out the Hamas terrorists who have been beheading little children.
00:00:36.940 Number two, colleges, including professors and Ivy League schools,
00:00:42.620 have now gone all in to defend Hamas.
00:00:46.400 Yes, Hamas. 0.85
00:00:48.060 So what's going to happen at these universities?
00:00:50.280 We talk about that.
00:00:51.480 And finally, Senator Ted Cruz with story number three,
00:00:55.400 endorsed Jim Jordan for the speakership as Steve Scalise is out.
00:01:00.500 It is the Weekend Review with Ted Cruz and it starts right now.
00:01:05.040 Secretary Blinken, who's the most outspoken so far from the administration,
00:01:09.120 he went on TV not really condemning that much Hamas or what they're doing,
00:01:14.280 but actually calling out Israel saying, quote,
00:01:17.160 quote, we're looking to Israel to apply the highest standard to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza.
00:01:23.720 We're not we're not we're not saying anything about the Americans that have been taken.
00:01:27.120 The Americans have been killed or all the atrocities of war crimes you just mentioned.
00:01:30.240 No, no, we're going to put Israel on notice, as you just described it. 0.52
00:01:34.500 You better not screw this up.
00:01:36.800 If this is a prolonged attack,
00:01:39.400 what kind of humanitarian crisis are you expecting here and impact on civilians?
00:01:46.920 Well, we've seen this, unfortunately, repeat itself,
00:01:50.200 although the magnitude, the scale of what Hamas did here is something we haven't seen before.
00:01:55.700 But in prior instances, those who have suffered along with the victims of terrorism are civilians,
00:02:05.240 including in Gaza and whatever Israel does in Gaza.
00:02:10.260 As always, we look to it to do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties,
00:02:15.020 something, of course, that Hamas doesn't do. 0.80
00:02:16.680 On the contrary, not only does it not seek to avoid them, it deliberately targets civilians.
00:02:20.480 Yeah, it's gunning down Israelis in the streets, in their homes.
00:02:23.720 And as I said, dragging them across the border in Gaza.
00:02:25.980 So there's absolutely no no comparison.
00:02:29.440 But we look to Israel, as always, 0.99
00:02:32.300 to apply the highest standards when it comes to avoiding civilian casualties and anything it may do in Gaza.
00:02:37.760 It's amazing the but there at the end.
00:02:39.140 But right way, we'll say all this is bad.
00:02:41.400 But but Israel, you better be better than everybody else. 0.95
00:02:45.100 Well, and I got to say, Ben, listening to that, I have mixed sentiments. 0.95
00:02:47.880 On one level, frankly, Tony Blinken is better than most of the clowns in this Biden administration. 0.76
00:02:54.540 He at least acknowledges that Israel is bending over backwards to try to avoid killing civilians 0.95
00:03:00.960 and that Hamas is deliberately killing civilians.
00:03:03.820 That that's something that that's a tiny shred of truth.
00:03:07.480 Now, what he doesn't do is acknowledge that Israel historically has gone to incredible lengths
00:03:14.080 to avoid civilian casualties.
00:03:17.060 And the reason Palestinian civilians are killed is because Hamas wants them to be killed,
00:03:23.280 because they deliberately put their military assets in a place where it is impossible
00:03:28.320 to take out their military assets without killing killing Palestinian civilians.
00:03:33.880 That the Palestinian deaths are what Hamas wants, 1.00
00:03:38.620 because they know the useful idiots in the media will use it against Israel. 1.00
00:03:42.800 Now, let me give an example of some of the the vicious rhetoric coming. 1.00
00:03:47.260 In this case, this is what the statement that Congresswoman Cori Bush put out
00:03:51.840 as these atrocities are ongoing.
00:03:54.720 Quote, I am heartbroken by the ongoing violence in Palestine and Israel,
00:03:59.180 and I mourn the over 250 Israeli and 230 Palestinian lives that have been lost today
00:04:04.380 and the thousands injured following attacks by Hamas militants on Israeli border towns
00:04:09.800 and Israeli military bombardment of Gaza.
00:04:13.340 I strongly condemn the targeting of civilians and I urge an immediate ceasefire
00:04:17.180 and de-escalation to prevent further loss of life.
00:04:20.840 Our immediate focus must be on saving lives, but our ultimate focus must be on a just
00:04:25.480 and lasting peace that ensures safety for everyone in the region.
00:04:29.500 Violations of human rights do not justify more violations of human rights,
00:04:33.640 and a military response will only exacerbate the suffering of Palestinians and Israelis alike.
00:04:41.860 As part of achieving a just and lasting peace, we must do our part to stop the violence and trauma
00:04:48.460 by ending U.S. government support for Israeli military occupation and apartheid.
00:04:56.760 I am continuing to closely monitor the situation, and my office is ready to support the residents of the 1st District
00:05:04.420 with family members and loved ones in the region.
00:05:08.480 So literally, while Israel's 9-11 is unfolding, this Democrat squad member accuses Israel of apartheid,
00:05:19.660 a total lie, and calls for ending U.S. government support for Israel's military.
00:05:25.920 In the middle of a war, and she simultaneously, what does she call for?
00:05:31.500 An immediate ceasefire of the military response.
00:05:35.580 In other words, Israel, never mind that terrorists are murdering your civilians,
00:05:41.440 are targeting your civilians, are kidnapping your civilians.
00:05:45.400 We in America call for you to stop the ceasefire and do nothing in response.
00:05:52.160 You know, I've got to say, how many Democrats are condemning this viciously anti-Semitic, anti-Israel statement
00:05:59.920 that sadly was echoed by multiple members of the squad,
00:06:04.240 and the degree to which the far left tolerates and even celebrates this vicious anti-Semitism,
00:06:12.820 it gets worse and worse every day.
00:06:15.160 Is Joe Biden, and I want to end with this, he's a guy that, you know, he called a lid at 11.34 a.m.
00:06:22.300 For people that don't understand what a lid is, that means basically the day's over, right?
00:06:25.760 That's the way they tell the media, hey, he's doing other things now.
00:06:29.240 He's not making any more public statements.
00:06:31.300 We haven't heard from a president saying don't harm Americans.
00:06:34.220 He hasn't said that Israel has got our, you know, our unwavering support
00:06:38.400 and we will do whatever we have to do to get Americans back.
00:06:40.880 And he's sitting there and saying nothing publicly here.
00:06:46.880 While all of this is going on, is he the worst president in our lifetime
00:06:52.440 when it comes to a policy of clearly not standing with Israel?
00:06:56.600 Because he's not.
00:06:58.320 He's not even standing with Americans in Israel.
00:07:01.080 Unequivocally, for the last two and a half years,
00:07:03.380 the Biden administration has engaged in a systematic, granular, day-to-day effort
00:07:08.100 to undermine the nation of Israel.
00:07:11.320 You know, within the first couple of weeks of,
00:07:13.820 or first couple of months of the Biden administration coming into office,
00:07:17.180 the State Department put out written guidance prohibiting employees at state
00:07:22.360 from referring to the Abraham Accord.
00:07:25.060 The Abraham Accords were the historic peace treaty
00:07:28.180 that the Trump administration negotiated between Israel and numerous Arab countries.
00:07:34.080 Instead, the Biden administration State Department was ordered to refer to them as
00:07:39.460 normalization agreements.
00:07:41.540 They couldn't use the word Abraham.
00:07:43.780 They couldn't acknowledge the historic nature of it.
00:07:46.500 Now, I called that out.
00:07:48.280 And in fact, I brought out the documents that demonstrated it was the Biden White House
00:07:52.760 that directed state to do that.
00:07:54.740 And they were so embarrassed by that they backed away from it.
00:07:57.100 So now they use the terms, the frequency with which.
00:08:01.320 So one of the things they did, they changed the office of Israel and Palestinian affairs.
00:08:09.340 They changed the name of it to the office of Israeli and Palestinian affairs.
00:08:15.600 Wow.
00:08:16.180 Why?
00:08:16.880 Because they didn't want to acknowledge the nation of Israel exists.
00:08:20.520 And they wanted to put Israel's claims of sovereignty on the same level of parity
00:08:25.760 as the Palestinian terrorists that are right now committing these atrocities.
00:08:30.360 Beyond that, the Biden administration is the first government in U.S. history
00:08:34.440 to implement a policy of BDS, of boycott, divestiture, and sanctioning.
00:08:39.540 In particular, cutting off funding for scientific research, cancer research, no less,
00:08:45.580 in Judea and Samaria, what they call the occupied territories, portions of Israel
00:08:52.280 that now the federal government is boycotting and saying we will not fund
00:08:57.760 because their view is the same as these squad members.
00:09:01.240 They view Israel as illegitimately occupied territory.
00:09:05.420 And so the harm that is coming from the Biden administration is horrific.
00:09:09.820 And let me just ask you this as we wrap up.
00:09:12.440 You know, we've seen Joe Biden light up the White House in rainbow colors
00:09:19.540 in support of a transgender agenda.
00:09:24.660 We've seen the White House in blue and gold in support of Ukraine.
00:09:31.360 What's the White House done for Israel?
00:09:33.880 It's not blue and white.
00:09:35.300 No.
00:09:36.820 I would even go some further.
00:09:38.320 What has the White House done for any Americans that are being harmed right now in Israel?
00:09:41.320 Do we know the names of any Americans who are hostages?
00:09:43.900 Do we know the names of any Americans who have been killed?
00:09:46.220 Has the president spoken about it?
00:09:47.740 Has the president gone on national television?
00:09:49.760 Has the president said if you harm one American, you will face real repercussions?
00:09:53.840 No.
00:09:54.060 What they've said is do not retaliate Israel.
00:09:58.220 Don't strike back at the terrorists.
00:10:00.720 This administration funded the atrocities.
00:10:05.120 Please understand, do not forget, the $50 billion that Joe Biden and the ideologues in this administration flooded to Iran.
00:10:17.520 That money funded these attacks.
00:10:20.700 Now, by the way, the Biden White House is defensive of that.
00:10:23.680 They say, no, no, no, no, no.
00:10:25.080 Our money technically went to other endeavors.
00:10:28.660 Well, money is fungible.
00:10:29.980 If you send $50 billion in there, they can spend other money to fund the terror attacks.
00:10:35.100 And by the way, the some $40 billion that is from oil sales, that is completely available to be spent.
00:10:45.520 And in a very real and direct sense, it funded this attack, as did the money that the Biden administration sent to Gaza, that they stated in writing they knew would go to Hamas for terrorism.
00:11:01.460 Well, congratulations to the Biden White House.
00:11:04.760 It's done exactly that.
00:11:06.760 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.
00:11:12.860 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them. 0.98
00:11:19.960 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:11:23.680 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:11:24.860 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:11:26.080 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:11:29.860 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:11:35.580 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:11:38.560 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:11:42.860 Now on to story number two.
00:11:46.900 Let's talk about this from an internal and inside of the U.S. perspective for a minute as well.
00:11:53.980 Colleges, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Black Lives Matter, standing with these terrorists.
00:12:02.240 You have federally elected leaders around the country that are standing with these terrorists.
00:12:09.260 You have a Colorado state representative, Tim Hernandez, who said this today.
00:12:14.480 I think it's despicable what they're protesting for.
00:12:16.680 Congratulations.
00:12:17.080 And what you're protesting for.
00:12:18.260 Congratulations.
00:12:18.980 And the fact that you can't condemn women and children and elderly people being murdered in the streets.
00:12:23.840 What about it?
00:12:26.000 Do you condemn it?
00:12:27.240 I already said.
00:12:28.740 Why can't you say yes?
00:12:29.940 Because I already gave you my answer.
00:12:31.380 You didn't give an answer.
00:12:32.140 And I think anybody who would watch this would understand what your actual position is here. 0.92
00:12:36.100 There are three people that are going to watch your bull**** video, Russell. 0.90
00:12:38.060 This is a man who's at a protest against Israel, who's been elected to the state legislature. 0.96
00:12:44.660 You put that and you combine that with the squad, Senator.
00:12:47.880 I will give a little credit.
00:12:49.300 The White House, at least today, understood that they needed to stand up against Omar and Tlaib and others.
00:12:57.180 The White House press secretary did say that what they had said was repugnant and disgraceful.
00:13:02.820 Their statements on Israel.
00:13:04.360 But you combine these younger leaders with what we're now witnessing on college campuses at Harvard, at University of Penn.
00:13:13.020 And it scares me for this country.
00:13:15.940 There was a conversation even about this on CNBC.
00:13:20.180 Even CNBC, who deals with financial issues like what the hell is going on on college campuses.
00:13:25.060 And this is what they said.
00:13:27.120 Let me ask you a question.
00:13:28.460 Let's say you're the president of Harvard University.
00:13:31.100 Yeah.
00:13:31.300 If you've looked at what's happening at Harvard, there are students who have gathered.
00:13:34.260 Mind-boggling.
00:13:34.700 Mind-boggling, right?
00:13:35.620 But students who are gathering to support the Palestinians, to support Hamas, frankly.
00:13:40.200 Very, very, very specifically to support Hamas and what's happening.
00:13:45.140 What is the role of the president of a university, or frankly, the president of a company, when they have either students or employees or others who want to view and express that position?
00:13:59.200 Which I find disgraceful.
00:14:02.980 But I wonder.
00:14:04.580 Well, I think there are a few things.
00:14:05.880 What the answer is supposed to be.
00:14:06.940 So, look, the first thing that I would do if I was the president of Harvard University, I would say we are clearly not educating students.
00:14:12.460 For students to think that, again, you know, murder at scale is somehow legitimate, that occupation causes terror.
00:14:23.540 I mean, there are no Israelis in Gaza, for goodness sakes. 0.92
00:14:26.460 It's a silly turn of phrase.
00:14:28.980 But to your question, what would I do?
00:14:30.600 Well, number one, I would say we need to revisit our entire core education, because they're clearly not teaching morals or values.
00:14:36.340 That's number one.
00:14:37.200 And then, number two, the president of Harvard, like the president of UPenn, like the president of any of his institutions, needs to stand up and speak out and say, this is disgraceful and wrong.
00:14:45.860 But they're not doing that, Senator.
00:14:48.140 They're not saying it's wrong.
00:14:49.700 They're waiting days to even respond.
00:14:51.520 And that's only after famous alumni and donors finally came down to them to the point where they're like, you have to give a statement.
00:14:58.460 And they put out a basic statement on paper.
00:15:01.560 Well, let me say, the voice you were just hearing there was Jonathan Greenblatt.
00:15:05.260 He's the head of the Anti-Defamation League.
00:15:07.120 And I'm glad he's speaking out.
00:15:08.460 He actually was speaking clearly and effectively there.
00:15:10.940 The ADL has a long history of calling out anti-Semitism in recent years.
00:15:16.420 It has been far too willing to basically act as a defender for the Democrat Party and as a partisan.
00:15:22.140 And so I'm glad they're standing up and speaking with clarity here.
00:15:25.220 It's important.
00:15:26.480 But look, what happened at Harvard, you have 35 student groups that put out a statement.
00:15:32.380 I want you to understand what they said.
00:15:33.680 I'm going to read you from the joint statement by Harvard-Palestine solidarity groups on the situation in Palestine.
00:15:40.060 Note, notice the situation in Palestine, not Israel.
00:15:42.760 They don't even acknowledge Israel exists.
00:15:45.300 We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence. 0.92
00:15:57.640 That's the opening sentence.
00:16:00.260 It is Israel's fault that Hamas terrorists are murdering children. 0.99
00:16:05.840 It is Israel's fault that Hamas terrorists are raping women and little girls in the streets and parading them through the street. 0.99
00:16:13.260 It is Israel's fault that they are kidnapping toddlers and holding them hostage. 1.00
00:16:17.880 It is Israel's fault that they are using those toddlers as human shields. 0.98
00:16:21.980 They're using women and men as human shields. 0.97
00:16:24.000 It is Israel's fault that Hamas terrorists are murdering civilians indiscriminately, walking house by house by house. 0.99
00:16:30.480 And if you're a Jew, they murder you. 1.00
00:16:33.660 What a ridiculous, outrageous situation. 1.00
00:16:36.740 And look, that statement they put out. 0.94
00:16:40.860 Initially, for the first couple of days, Harvard said nothing.
00:16:44.540 It was the only statement from the Harvard campus that anyone seemed to be aware of.
00:16:49.320 Then Harvard put out an initial statement that was the most milquetoast, lukewarm statement of,
00:16:55.500 Well, we want to be a safe space for people to have all sorts of views.
00:17:00.280 You know, the pro-genocide mass murder view and the anti-genocide mass murder view.
00:17:05.400 No, I'm sorry.
00:17:06.160 That's not a topic of reasonable debate.
00:17:08.980 Beheading babies is always, always, always wrong. 0.62
00:17:12.060 Period. 0.99
00:17:12.540 Full stop.
00:17:13.980 Finally, on Tuesday, the president of Harvard was guilted into condemning.
00:17:19.640 We stand against Hamas's beheading babies.
00:17:25.480 It took five days of getting pounded.
00:17:28.440 I got to say, listen, I'm an alumnus of Harvard Law School.
00:17:32.780 It is embarrassing that our universities, the problem is they become petri dishes.
00:17:39.920 They become incubators for radical left-wing views.
00:17:43.300 And other than a Hamas headquarters, there are few places with more vicious anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel than America's elite universities today.
00:17:56.780 You talk to Hillel students, you talk to Jewish students on campuses, they're afraid.
00:18:02.320 They're afraid of violence.
00:18:03.440 They're afraid to wear a yarmulke.
00:18:04.760 They're afraid to be publicly identified as Jewish because they risk violence.
00:18:08.800 They risk swastikas being spray-painted on their student center.
00:18:14.420 They risk attacks from the radical left.
00:18:18.900 And the radical left, more and more, embraces, cherishes, and nurtures anti-Semitism.
00:18:27.060 And schools like Harvard, sadly, are the breeding grounds for this hatred.
00:18:31.940 And they can't figure it out enough to say genocide is bad.
00:18:36.880 That should not be a controversial proposition. 0.97
00:18:40.520 Well, and even members in Congress, Rashid Tlaib, was asked directly to her face what she thought about women being raped and babies getting their heads cut off. 0.91
00:18:51.620 She wouldn't answer the question. 0.86
00:18:53.460 Take a listen to this. 0.69
00:18:54.560 You can't comment about Hamas terrorists chopping off baby's heads. 0.97
00:19:08.560 Do you condone what Hamas has done chopping off baby's heads, burning children alive, raping went through the street? 0.93
00:19:37.320 You have no comment about children's heads being chopped off?
00:19:50.960 Congressman, why do you have a Palestinian client outside your office if you do not condone what Hamas terrorists have done to Israel? 0.67
00:20:00.560 Do Israeli lives not matter to you?
00:20:02.780 I mean, Senator, that was whoever that reporter was. 0.69
00:20:07.360 God bless her for continuing to ask a basic question.
00:20:11.140 Children were burned alive. 0.85
00:20:13.080 Babies' heads were cut off.
00:20:14.460 And I got to say, if you haven't seen the video of that clip, you ought to Google it and watch it.
00:20:21.900 Because watching the video is even more disturbing.
00:20:24.700 So Congresswoman Tlaib is walking down the hallways in Congress. 1.00
00:20:29.140 So the steps you hear the whole time are she's walking, she's walking, she's walking.
00:20:32.820 And this reporter just asked her, do you not have a comment on chopping babies' heads off? 0.98
00:20:37.360 How hard is it for a Congresswoman to say, we should not chop the heads off babies, we should not burn children alive, we should not rape women in the streets? 0.99
00:20:47.600 That is not, in a normal, sane world, a controversial proposition. 0.96
00:20:52.740 And yet, her politics are so radical, she cannot bring herself to say that.
00:21:00.100 She has in front of her office, she has a Palestinian flag. 0.96
00:21:03.380 It's interesting, she has a Palestinian flag and she has a transgender flag, which is ironic because Hamas would murder anyone who's gay or transgender.
00:21:10.200 So, like, the two flags are utterly in conflict, but in today's modern left, that nobody bothers with intellectual coherence.
00:21:18.960 They embrace their ideology and don't worry about it.
00:21:21.900 But I got to say, it is stunning.
00:21:24.640 Like, she walks a long, long way.
00:21:27.360 In the end of that video, she gets on an elevator and the door closes. 0.65
00:21:31.100 And, you know, she asks, do Israeli lives matter?
00:21:34.300 And by the way, Congresswoman Tlaib conspicuously avoids using the word Israel.
00:21:39.580 She refers to Palestine.
00:21:40.780 Look, today's radical left in the Democrat Party does not acknowledge Israel's right to exist.
00:21:49.840 And I got to say, it's not just Congresswoman Tlaib.
00:21:52.820 It's Cori Bush.
00:21:54.880 It's AOC.
00:21:56.460 It is the hard left of the Democrat Party.
00:22:00.640 And by the way, it's the Biden State Department whose response initially to this was,
00:22:05.980 Israel stand down, do not engage in any military action, following the worst attack on Israel in 50 years, following Israel's 9-11, do nothing.
00:22:17.620 That is, sadly, the view of today's radical left.
00:22:22.620 And for the Democrats who don't agree with it, I hope that they find the courage to call out the members of their own party that are saying things that are disgraceful.
00:22:33.240 As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing.
00:22:42.340 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them. 0.98
00:22:49.700 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:22:53.420 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:22:54.600 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:22:55.820 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:22:59.600 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:23:05.320 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:23:08.300 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:23:14.100 I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.
00:23:18.800 Steve Scalise, who got the majority of the votes in the conference to become the Speaker of the House,
00:23:24.480 he has now made big breaking news by saying this about dropping out of the race.
00:23:31.060 I know we've been following this.
00:23:32.520 It's been quite a journey.
00:23:34.400 And there's still a long way to go.
00:23:36.680 So I just share with my colleagues that I'm withdrawing my name as a cabinet for the Speaker-designee.
00:23:44.600 If you look at over the last few weeks, if you look at where our conference is, there's still work to be done.
00:23:51.720 Our conference still has to come together.
00:23:55.260 And it is not there.
00:23:56.380 There are still some people that have their own agendas.
00:24:00.120 And I was very clear.
00:24:01.160 We have to have everybody put their agendas on the side and focus on what this country needs.
00:24:08.140 This country is counting on us to come back together.
00:24:11.320 This House of Representatives needs a Speaker, and we need to open up the House again.
00:24:17.240 But clearly, not everybody is there.
00:24:21.780 And there's still schisms that have to get resolved.
00:24:25.100 This is not that surprising to me, Senator, because it was clear he wasn't going to have the votes.
00:24:33.220 Just like with Kevin McCarthy, he didn't have the votes.
00:24:37.100 That means, is this now a pathway for Jim Jordan to become the Speaker?
00:24:40.920 Because you also came out and endorsed Jim Jordan, saying you believe he's the most fiscally conservative, the best guy for this job.
00:24:47.580 Well, that's right, I did.
00:24:50.640 And it's worth going back and explaining why I did that, because we had talked on the podcast previously that I intended to stay out of the House leadership election.
00:24:59.980 And that's what I've done the 11 years I've been in the Senate.
00:25:02.600 I've stayed out of every House leadership election we've ever had.
00:25:05.800 And my standard position has been that questions of House leadership are for the House members to decide.
00:25:12.480 And that's what I had said on the podcast repeatedly.
00:25:15.900 I'd said it to reporters in Capitol Hill repeatedly.
00:25:18.900 That was a position I was very comfortable with.
00:25:21.340 And then a couple of days ago, Jim Jordan called me, and he made a very direct ask.
00:25:30.740 He asked for my support.
00:25:33.220 Now, Jim is a friend.
00:25:34.140 He's a good friend.
00:25:34.980 I know Jim very well.
00:25:36.240 Jim has been a guest on this podcast.
00:25:37.640 We had him on two consecutive episodes doing a deep dive into the fantastic work that he's doing as focusing on the weaponization of the Department of Justice and the FBI and government.
00:25:51.320 And Jim is someone I've worked with the entire time I've been in the Senate.
00:25:56.180 He is a strong conservative.
00:25:57.540 And he asked for my support, and he leaned in hard on it.
00:26:02.500 And I thought about it, and I thought carefully.
00:26:04.860 And my general philosophy on political endorsements, and I make endorsements all over the country, in Senate races, in House races, in gubernatorial races, in school board races, all sorts of races,
00:26:17.440 is that I support the strongest conservative who can win, and both of those are important.
00:26:26.960 I want a proven record that you're a real conservative, and I want a path to victory.
00:26:31.100 I'm not interested in tilting at windmills.
00:26:32.800 I'm not interested in a candidate that does not have a path to victory.
00:26:36.900 And as I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that Jim was that person, that he would be certainly the most conservative speaker we'd ever had,
00:26:48.000 but that he had a real and viable path to win, that he had real and meaningful support.
00:26:52.300 Now, obviously, his chief rival and the only two declared candidates at the time for speaker were Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise.
00:27:01.960 And Steve is a friend as well.
00:27:04.400 Steve and I are good friends.
00:27:05.400 We've spent a lot of time together.
00:27:07.520 I like Steve.
00:27:08.740 Steve is a conservative.
00:27:11.240 And Steve, look, the statement that you just played, that was not an easy statement for Steve to give.
00:27:18.880 And I respect that he gave it.
00:27:20.940 I think it was heartfelt.
00:27:23.720 Steve is obviously hurting, but I think he's also trying to do the right thing.
00:27:29.240 And I'll tell you, before I endorsed Jim Jordan, when I hung up the phone with Jim, before I put out the endorsement, I picked up the phone and I called Steve.
00:27:39.900 And the first thing I did is just ask Steve how he was doing health-wise.
00:27:45.540 He's dealing with a rare form of blood cancer.
00:27:48.020 And I've been concerned and praying for him.
00:27:51.380 And he told me he is doing better and the treatment is proceeding very well.
00:27:56.120 But I gave him the heads up just man-to-man.
00:27:59.240 I said, listen, you're my friend, Steve.
00:28:01.540 I'm going to make this endorsement of Jim.
00:28:04.560 He asked me to do it.
00:28:06.380 And Jim and I have been very close.
00:28:08.700 And I'm going to endorse him.
00:28:09.920 But I told Steve at the time, and I believe this, I said, listen, I think you'd make a terrific speaker.
00:28:14.200 And I think Jim would make a terrific speaker.
00:28:16.700 So do not take this endorsement as a negative comment on you, but rather just a statement of that I think Jim Jordan is the strongest conservative who has a path to win.
00:28:30.960 And Steve was very gracious about it and we're friends.
00:28:33.900 And I certainly anticipate continuing to work with Steve in the years ahead.
00:28:38.080 Now, what happened this week is the House Republican Conference met and they had a closed-door meeting and they had a vote.
00:28:46.640 And Scalise won the vote by a vote of 113 to 99.
00:28:50.520 So Jordan got 99 votes.
00:28:52.520 Scalise got 113.
00:28:54.720 And actually the press coverage was saying, well, that's it.
00:29:00.240 Scalise is the speaker.
00:29:01.160 And what happened subsequently is there were a number of House Republicans who did not vote for Scalise who said over the hours and days that followed that they were not going to vote for Scalise.
00:29:16.920 And they dug in, apparently.
00:29:18.180 And it did not appear that Steve had a path to 218.
00:29:23.560 And so I think he's pulling out because he, at least at this point, doesn't see a path to 218.
00:29:29.700 Does that mean Jim Jordan is going to be the choice?
00:29:32.320 I don't know.
00:29:33.840 With a House majority of just four votes, any five Republicans can say no and veto anyone.
00:29:41.320 And, look, Jordan got 99 votes in the conference.
00:29:45.220 That tells you there were over 100 Republicans who didn't vote for him.
00:29:51.300 I hope Jim can earn the support of his colleagues and unify.
00:29:55.740 I will say, listen, it's a tough time.
00:29:57.800 I mean, one of the things that's playing out in the House is there are a lot of raw emotions.
00:30:02.480 People are angry.
00:30:04.040 You have the individuals who voted last week to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker.
00:30:12.900 I think those individuals have strong feelings.
00:30:17.640 But I also think McCarthy and his core allies are very, very angry.
00:30:24.580 And so, look, anytime you have people that are emotional and angry, it's hard for them to come together.
00:30:32.100 Now, for folks worried that this chaos will last forever, I don't think it will.
00:30:37.560 I think we will have a speaker.
00:30:38.880 And I think we'll have a speaker relatively soon.
00:30:42.340 I don't know how long it will take.
00:30:44.020 I still think we'll have a speaker by the end of this week, so by the end of Friday or Saturday.
00:30:50.940 But I don't know.
00:30:52.060 It may bleed into next week.
00:30:54.120 And it is possible, if Scalise doesn't have the votes and if Jordan doesn't have the votes, that someone else will emerge as a third option that is some sort of compromise candidate.
00:31:07.680 And there are a couple of names that are floating around, but it's not clear at this point what will happen.
00:31:19.380 But I will say to anyone concerned, we will have a speaker of the House.
00:31:25.160 The Republicans will come together.
00:31:27.100 It just may take a little more time and a little more opportunity for emotions to cool.
00:31:33.100 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:31:39.000 Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day.
00:31:42.660 You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.
00:31:46.020 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.
00:31:49.760 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.
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