Ted Cruz and Ben Fergusons discuss the latest on the government shutdown, including the TSA getting paid, the impact on the border patrol agents, and the impact of the shutdown on the economy and the economy as a whole. Ted and Ben also talk about how to get your dog back to the way he used to be, and how you can do the same.
00:00:57.840uh dc time uh late thursday night early friday morning and at this point the reason i'm having
00:01:04.840to time stamp this is we still do not know for certain what the final resolution of this is
00:01:10.660going to be we think we know but it could change so so right now the entire day they've been trying
00:01:18.660to negotiate a deal with the democrats and the democrats have repeatedly moved the goalposts
00:01:24.920And I will say where we ended up is actually where I urged the Republican conference to be two weeks ago.
00:01:33.500Two weeks ago, I stood up and I told my colleagues, I said, and I talked about this on the podcast as well, but I stood up and told my colleagues, I said, listen, our Democrat colleagues are nuts.
00:01:56.420At that point, we'd had a shutdown of DHS for a couple of weeks.
00:02:00.540We'd had TSA agents who hadn't been paid, Coast Guardsmen who hadn't been paid, Secret Service officers who hadn't been paid, FEMA officials who hadn't been paid, over 200,000 federal workers at DHS who were not being paid.
00:02:14.360And what I told my Republican colleagues is I said, I think if it's up to the Democrats, they'll leave everything shut down forever.
00:02:23.420They'll literally for the rest of the year, they'll be fine, never opening the Department of Homeland Security.
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00:04:39.740get back to those core points that you were about to mention well number one we have had four major
00:04:45.680terrorist attacks in the last three weeks all four by radical islamic terrorists the department of
00:04:52.880homeland security exists to prevent terror attacks there's obviously military conflict in the in the
00:04:59.880Middle East. The terror threat is heightened. And yet every Democrat but one, every Democrat but
00:05:06.180John Fetterman, has voted now eight times to defund the entire Department of Homeland Security,
00:05:12.360the purpose of the Department of Homeland Security. DHS was created in the wake of 9-11
00:05:19.000to prepare for and prevent terror attacks. And I think the Democrats would have left it shut
00:05:26.620the entire year they don't care it was the most reckless irresponsible action we've ever seen
00:05:34.020you look at what was happening at the airports the chaos at the airports was out of control
00:05:39.220and here's what i told my colleagues i said in my view the democrats in the senate will never
00:05:45.880ever vote to fund ice again they've just lost their minds they are an open border party so they
00:05:51.820are willing to defund the Border Patrol and defund ICE. And that's who they are. And I said,
00:05:56.760there's not going to be any wearing them down on this, because they're going to be that today,
00:06:01.500they're going to be that next week, they're going to be that next month, they're going to be that
00:06:04.380next year. That is where the Democrats are. They've gone to crazy town. And so I told my
00:06:11.260colleagues, here's what we should do. We should fund as much of DHS as the Democrats are willing
00:06:16.580to do, and that probably is going to mean pulling out ICE and maybe CBP, Customs and Border Patrol.
00:06:22.820So we should fund it. We should fund TSA. We should open up the airports. We should end the
00:06:27.720chaos. Now, the immediate response to that will be the Democrats have succeeded in defunding ICE.
00:06:34.040Well, no, they haven't, because we're the majority, damn it. So let's act like it.
00:06:37.840The instant we do that, and we do that, we turn on the lights on DHS. We get TSA agents paid again.
00:06:44.560we start a reconciliation process. Now, as regular listeners of this pod know,
00:06:51.680reconciliation is the major exception to the filibuster rule. And to ordinarily fund
00:06:57.440government, you need 60 votes, which means we need seven Democrats. That's how Democrats have
00:07:02.780been able to force this shutdown for 42 days. However, reconciliation, you only need 50 votes.
00:07:10.280And what I argued to my colleagues, we had to take up reconciliation and we ought to fund ICE and CBP.
00:07:17.900And I said, listen, I don't think the Democrats will ever again fund ICE.
00:07:22.280So in my view, we should fund them for 10 years.
00:07:25.20010 years is the maximum budget window that you can do under reconciliation.
00:07:28.700I said, let's put 10 years of funding in place right now because these lunatics would say we're not arresting murderers anymore.
00:07:35.500We're not arresting gangbangers or child rapists anymore.
00:07:40.740And then I said we also need to show them that their obstructionism, their political terrorism doesn't yield rewards.
00:07:51.120So Elizabeth Warren, I'm sure, is going to be running out crowing that she succeeded in defunding ICE.
00:07:57.540So what I've argued to my colleagues on reconciliation, we need to up the ICE budget.
00:08:02.560What I suggested is increase it by 10% so that we can say to Elizabeth Warren and the other crazies, congratulations, your entire temper tantrum, here's what you accomplished.
00:08:12.580You increased the funding for ICE by 10%, and we now have 10 years of funding locked in.
00:08:17.820At this point, at now 2.30 in the morning, it appears that's exactly what we're doing.
00:08:23.500There is a proposal that's circulating. It hasn't yet passed, but it's expected to pass any moment that will do exactly that. Fund all of DHS except for ICE and much of CBP. That's what I suggested two weeks ago. We're going to break down more of it in just a minute.
00:20:20.260Democrats support voter ID. Here's Chuck Schumer again. Our objection as Democrats is not to
00:20:28.780photo ID. Here's Dick Durbin. Quote, they say it show a voter ID. I'm not opposed to that.
00:20:36.740They ask you for an ID at the airport, don't they? That's reasonable. All right, here's Caitlin
00:20:42.180Collins at CNN asking Cory Booker. Quote, if it was just a clean vote on voter ID specifically,
00:20:49.000is that something you would support? Cory Booker, yes, and New Jersey has voter ID laws. I've got to
00:20:55.240show my driver's license. Chris Coons, Democrat from Delaware, quote, who could be against requiring
00:21:02.140ID to vote? Raphael Warnock, Democrat from Georgia, quote, I think you should have to prove that you
00:21:09.540are who you say you are before you vote. I support voter ID. Alyssa Slotkin from Michigan, quote,
00:21:16.140quote, voter ID, which hopefully all Americans are in agreement about. Kirsten Gillibrand from New
00:21:22.440York, quote, the IDs that we all have in our wallets should be good enough to vote. They always
00:21:27.860have been. Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat from Rhode Island, quote, well, the voter ID part is probably
00:21:33.900fine. We have voter ID here in Rhode Island. Ruben Gallego, Democrat from Arizona, quote,
00:21:39.820if people want to adopt the Arizona way, which is strict voter ID, I think that would be fine.
00:21:45.620Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both Democrats from Virginia, quote, we support reasonable steps that help maintain trust in our elections, including the voter identification requirements we already have in Virginia.
00:21:58.300Jack Reed, Democrat from Rhode Island, quote, if the polls simply required every American to show an ID at the polls, then I would not be ringing such a loud alarm.
00:26:23.700They all just voted to effectively abolish the police in the immigration context.
00:26:28.100What are the Republicans supporting policy-wise?
00:26:32.120The Republicans are supporting common-sense principles, low taxes, low regulations, lots and lots of jobs, small businesses doing well, securing the border, supporting law enforcement, protecting our families.
00:27:05.600On the rhetoric, there is a fair point to be made that both sides can use overheated rhetoric.
00:27:12.720I think the Democrats do so routinely when they call ICE, for example, Nazis and Gestapo, and they call for doxing and going after the families of law enforcement officers.
00:29:37.460This is how you kind of described what's happening
00:29:40.240Watergate was about a handful of files in a single office
00:29:44.000This reached into tens of thousands of private communications, emails, records, and personal data, toll records, bank records, donor lists, law firm records, and other personal files relating to every major conservative organization were subpoenaed.
00:30:04.160Senator, that sums it up. This was a 100 percent weaponization of our Department of Justice to go
00:30:11.100after Donald Trump and anyone they thought was important to him. They could help him win the
00:30:15.760White House again. Well, that clip was from a hearing I chaired this week of the Senate Judiciary
00:30:21.200Committee that was examining Arctic Frost. It was releasing yet more documents that showed the
00:30:26.680massive scope of the abuse of power. Look, Watergate at the end of the day was a handful of
00:30:33.260Cuban burglars who broke into an office of the DNC, and it was a failed burglar. They didn't
00:30:38.180even succeed. And it resulted in the president of the United States resigning in disgrace. It
00:30:43.420resulted in more than 40 people being criminally prosecuted, many of them going to jail.
00:30:48.280by any measure arctic frost was orders of magnitude worse you had nearly 200 subpoenas
00:30:57.020you had more than 400 individuals and groups that were targeted the biden department of justice
00:31:02.340issued subpoenas to get the phone records for more than 20 percent of the republicans in the
00:31:08.940senate including yours truly yeah it was a massive abuse of power and the amazing thing is the
00:31:17.240Democrats don't care at all. And one of the points I made at the hearing, there are a bunch
00:31:22.520of Democrat senators sitting there at the hearing, and I pointed out not one of them
00:31:26.280is going to say a word. They don't care about abuse of power. For them, partisanship and partisan
00:31:32.860control is all that matter. And I contrasted it with what happened at Watergate. Here, listen to
00:31:37.720what I had to say. Fifty years ago, this nation was confronted with an abuse of power. And it
00:31:43.180responded not with indifference, but with accountability. I'll tell you one of the big
00:31:47.340differences of Watergate versus Arctic Frost. When Richard Nixon and his corrupt attorney
00:31:53.300general and his corrupt administration abused their law enforcement powers to go after their
00:31:59.000political opponents, Republican senators stood up to the president of their own party and defended
00:32:05.140the rule of law. Where is even a single Democrat senator who has said one word about this abuse of
00:32:11.640power. You're right, by the way. They're all silent on it because they don't care as long
00:32:15.720as it was spying on you, literally. Yeah, and look, I will say what happened in Watergate,
00:32:21.300what actually ended it when Richard Nixon resigned is it was a group of senior Republican senators
00:32:26.680that drove the 16 blocks up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House and sat in the Oval Office,
00:32:32.200and they said, Mr. President, you have a choice. You either resign or we will impeach you,
00:32:38.820convict you and remove you from office. And it was a moment of real political courage for those
00:32:44.620senators to do that. I'm not a Richard Nixon fan. I think he was utterly corrupt. As you know, Ben,
00:32:52.180I've written four books. The third book I wrote was called Justice Corrupted, How the Left Has
00:32:57.360Weaponized the Legal System. And the opening chapter of that book is a deep dive into Watergate,
00:33:02.440And it details the just absolute corruption and abuse of power.
00:33:07.400What Richard Nixon tried to do, Barack Obama and now Joe Biden succeeded in doing.
00:33:14.740And one of the real differences is Republicans were willing to stand up and say, no, this goes too far.
00:33:23.200There are no Democrats willing to do so.
00:33:25.480And all right, so there was a witness that the Democrats had called who was a former senior agent of the FBI, and he gave this whole testimony about how the FBI is utterly beyond politics and it's impartial and it has no partisan agenda at all.
00:33:42.200And I actually cross-examined him quite a bit, and I said, look, I agree with what you're saying.
00:33:46.800That's what the FBI is supposed to be, and that's what DOJ is supposed to be.
00:33:50.640And I'm an alumnus of the Department of Justice.
00:33:53.480I served in the George W. Bush Department of Justice, and it has a more than century-long tradition of being outside of politics, not partisan at all.
00:34:04.820And I said one of the worst things that Barack Obama and especially Joe Biden did is they corrupted it and turned DOJ and the FBI into partisan tools.
00:34:14.420And this witness didn't want to admit it, but here's one question I asked him. Give a listen.
00:34:19.360menendez is currently incarcerated in prison for corruption and if you've got evidence of
00:34:25.100criminal conduct of one individual the department of justice has an obligation to investigate that
00:34:30.940would you agree that's qualitatively different than a fishing expedition targeting 20 of the
00:34:38.260republicans in the senate would you agree that's qualitatively different i'm not familiar with the
00:34:43.460details of either investigation so i wouldn't want to speculate well let me ask you this would
00:34:47.780you be troubled if tomorrow the trump department of justice issued a subpoena for the phone records
00:34:54.460of every democrat that sits on the judiciary committee not not if it was based on factual
00:34:58.980evidence specific unarticulable facts well let me be clear i'd be damn troubled and that would
00:35:04.560be an abuse of power and i'm going to predict not a single democrat's going to say even a word
00:35:09.720about the abuse of power on their side and that double standard is troubling senator lee
00:35:15.620senator you're absolutely right there in the point that you were making
00:35:19.400yeah it really is amazing that that nobody and by the way the entire hearing
00:35:26.560the democrats were completely silent like when it came their turn to question they just said
00:35:31.760orange man bad they just said we hate donald trump they didn't acknowledge it look one of
00:35:36.920the things that happened in arctic frost is not only did you have jack smith um getting subpoenas
00:35:43.140for the phone records of 20 percent of the republicans in the senate and by the way also
00:35:47.600getting subpoenas and and wiretapping uh cash patel who was then a private citizen now is the
00:35:54.460director of the fbi uh they they tapped the phones of suzy wiles who was then the campaign manager
00:36:01.900she was running donald trump's campaign i mean this was a political opposition effort and by the
00:36:08.480way they they taped her conversations with her lawyer which is which is illegal on any level
00:36:14.700if you look at the subpoenas they issued for the for the senators they also went to judge
00:36:19.880bozberg who is a extraordinarily partisan left-wing judge he's the favorite judge for
00:36:26.520these radical groups that have been getting nationwide injunctions against various trump
00:36:30.080policies i chaired a hearing several months ago calling for judge bozberg to be impeached and
00:36:35.720removed from office because he is so extreme. In Arctic Frost, for every single senator that
00:36:42.380Jack Smith subpoenaed, he signed an order ordering the phone companies not to disclose to us
00:36:48.100that they were subpoenaing our phone record. And in that order, he concluded the court finds
00:36:54.260that we will destroy evidence if we know about it. Now, there is zero basis in fact
00:37:00.400to make that finding. Look, I'm a member of the bar. My integrity matters a great deal to me.
00:37:07.740I'm not going to destroy evidence, and there are no facts that could be introduced that would
00:37:11.000suggest I could. There's also a federal statute prohibiting nondisclosure orders for Senate
00:37:17.300records, and yet Judge Boesberg violated the law. That was the kind of abuse of power we saw in
00:37:22.800Arctic Frost, and it was truly unprecedented. It makes Watergate seem mild by comparison.