Verdict with Ted Cruz - An Orgy Of Spending

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.500 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.380 Bernie Sanders' budget bill is threatening to bankrupt the nation.

00:00:08.880 As it so happens, our intrepid co-host has just returned from Las Vegas,

00:00:14.100 where he was pursuing what I consider to be a much more sober financial strategy,

00:00:19.100 and that is gambling.

00:00:20.640 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:27.960 Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:30.000 I'm Michael Knowles.

00:00:31.000 Senator, I know you've just come in from Vegas.

00:00:33.700 You were just there in recent days.

00:00:35.980 And usually people would say, you know, you've got to be careful with your money.

00:00:40.780 This is not a good—but I think compared to what they're doing in Washington,

00:00:43.640 you were positively responsible.

00:00:45.500 Well, that's right.

00:00:47.160 And, you know, Reagan used to joke about that Congress spends like drunken sailors,

00:00:52.560 and the thing he would say is, actually, they're worse than the sailors

00:00:56.740 because at least the sailors are spending their own money.

00:00:58.860 So in Vegas, what I was doing was actually was filming Poker After Dark.

00:01:04.980 So it's a TV show that's on NBC Sports where you play poker, and I was—it was a charity game.

00:01:13.800 So I was playing—it actually was not personally impacting my bank account but was playing for charity.

00:01:20.800 But it was very cool because I was playing with a number of poker pros.

00:01:25.700 I was playing with Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth.

00:01:29.340 So Doyle, Texas Dolly, is 88 years old.

00:01:34.240 He's a two-time winner of the main event in the World Series of Poker, legendary poker player.

00:01:40.360 Phil Hellmuth also won the main event.

00:01:42.800 Phil has 15 bracelets altogether.

00:01:45.760 He's won 15 times.

00:01:47.280 Actually, Doyle's won 10.

00:01:49.180 So between the two of them, they have 25 bracelets.

00:01:51.860 And I got to—I played poker my whole life, and so I got to say it was a real bucket list event to sit down and play with those guys.

00:02:02.480 I'm not allowed to say what the outcomes were because the show will air probably in a couple of months.

00:02:08.380 But it was a lot of fun.

00:02:10.360 And interestingly, Michael, someone else who played was—Clay Travis played, but also Mr. Beast played.

00:02:19.780 Now, you may not know who Mr. Beast is, or maybe you do.

00:02:23.800 Mr. Beast is a YouTuber who gives away money, and he's young.

00:02:30.620 He's in his mid-20s.

00:02:32.340 He's got something like 65 million followers on YouTube.

00:02:36.000 And the interesting thing, Michael, so when Mr. Beast was coming, our girls, Caroline and Catherine, they didn't care at all about the poker players.

00:02:47.780 They certainly didn't care that Dad was playing.

00:02:49.800 That was totally boring.

00:02:51.560 But Mr. Beast, oh, my goodness, they lost their minds.

00:02:54.800 What do you mean you're going to play with Mr. Beast?

00:02:56.940 So Caroline and Catherine flew to Vegas with me because they wanted to meet Mr. Beast, and they got to meet him.

00:03:03.260 And he was nice.

00:03:04.940 He was gracious.

00:03:05.940 He actually filmed a little video with them.

00:03:08.960 And I got to say, you're a new dad.

00:03:11.720 You will understand in a few years how ridiculously difficult it is to do anything that a 13-year-old or a 10-year-old thinks is cool.

00:03:22.060 And so the fact that they got to meet Mr. Beast and I got to play with Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth was ridiculously crazy fun.

00:03:29.960 Now, Mr. Beast seems like a pretty cool guy if he's giving out money willy-nilly.

00:03:35.340 I'm curious about how that kind of activity would relate to Mr. Bernie, who also seems ready to be doling out a lot of money.

00:03:44.300 Unfortunately, he's doling out my money and your money and everybody else's money.

00:03:48.900 But something tells me that no matter how wealthy Mr. Beast is, 65 million subscribers is a lot, Washington is about to give away more.

00:03:57.380 Now, look, this is an orgy of spending, the likes of which our country has never seen before.

00:04:07.620 And as a Yalie, I know that I piqued your interest when I said orgy, but it's a different kind.

00:04:16.040 And I got you. 0.98

00:04:16.900 I think you actually spit up on yourself, Michael.

00:04:19.140 That was impressive.

00:04:19.940 Look, the Bernie budget, think about it.

00:04:26.380 Last year, Joe Biden campaigned across the country as a moderate, reasonable centrist.

00:04:34.220 You know, his basic message was he was competent, no more mean tweets, nothing scary, just back to the calm.

00:04:43.140 Yes, return to normal, calm, quiet yesteryear.

00:04:46.040 And there were some Americans who pulled the lever.

00:04:48.900 That was attractive to some people and they voted for it.

00:04:52.440 Well, fast forward to today and Biden and Harris have given the party over to the radicals so much so that it is literally Bernie Sanders who is writing the budget.

00:05:04.380 Bernie is the chairman of the budget committee in the Senate.

00:05:07.280 He has written it.

00:05:08.180 It is three and a half trillion dollars.

00:05:09.900 It's already been bumped up to four point two trillion.

00:05:12.240 So 700 billion just just as a first plus up, it may well get bigger.

00:05:18.540 It is massive in spending.

00:05:22.540 Four point two trillion, by the way, to put it in context, is right about what the United States spent to win World War Two.

00:05:30.540 That's what Bernie's trying to spend in the next couple of months in his budget on one bill, on one bill, doesn't count the billions they've already spent.

00:05:40.760 This is this is another four point two billion.

00:05:42.900 It is funded by trillions in new taxes.

00:05:47.120 They're raising taxes on everything.

00:05:49.020 Families, individuals, small businesses, big businesses, capital gains, the death tax, all of them going up by by trillions.

00:05:58.160 And and this bill.

00:06:01.500 Bernie himself has has said this is the most far reaching transformational bill considered by the Senate in a generation. 0.87

00:06:10.880 Look, when a wild eyed, crazy socialist tells you, holy cow, this is big. 0.91

00:06:17.120 That ought to scare you. 0.99

00:06:18.940 And and we're.

00:06:20.780 In September, Congress is going to try to ram it through.

00:06:24.640 And it's my hope is we can stop it.

00:06:28.180 I am leading the fight to stop it.

00:06:30.640 There are two ways we can stop it.

00:06:32.480 Number one, in the Senate.

00:06:34.140 We got to get one Democrat to break from the herd. 1.00

00:06:36.660 And the two most likely are Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.

00:06:40.340 We're going to try real hard to get them to say, hold on a second.

00:06:43.280 Let's not do this.

00:06:44.220 I hope that happens.

00:06:46.300 I'll confess I'm not all that optimistic, but I hope it happens in the Senate.

00:06:50.380 I'm very concerned that Joe and Kyrsten are just going to give Schumer what he wants, that they're going to negotiate some piddling concession.

00:06:59.360 So, all right, we'll jack up the corporate tax rate a percentage point lower than you were going to.

00:07:04.980 Yeah, look at the victory we've gone.

00:07:06.740 And then they'll go along.

00:07:07.740 I think the better prospect for defeating this is in the House.

00:07:14.100 The House, there are, I think, 13 House Democrats who were elected in districts that Donald Trump won.

00:07:22.420 And I think it is incredibly important in the next 30 days, in the next 60 days, that those House Democrats hear from their constituents, that they get phone calls, that they get lit up in the mail on the phone with their constituents saying, very simply, do not vote for Bernie's budget.

00:07:42.560 Don't bankrupt the country.

00:07:43.860 And so I'm going to be leading the fight to make that happen.

00:07:46.300 So you're saying the political battle here is it's not exactly going to be Republicans versus Democrats.

00:07:51.940 It's not even going to be over the much coveted Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema vote.

00:07:57.280 But it's going to be Democrats versus Democrats in the House, the radicals or even the kind of, I guess, the leftist mainstream now versus the sort of quasi-moderates.

00:08:08.000 So I hope so.

00:08:11.100 On the pessimistic side, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have demonstrated a remarkable ability to crack the whip and force their members to just salute and, like lemmings, jump off the cliff.

00:08:25.000 And so maybe they'll do it again here.

00:08:26.880 Maybe they'll get the Democrats to all obey.

00:08:28.720 That being said, the best situation to get someone to defy their leadership is when their political life or death hangs in the balance.

00:08:40.300 And for these Democrats in purple or red districts, I think voting for Bernie's budget ought to be completely disqualifying.

00:08:51.020 And so putting the heat on them that you're going to be out of a job, you're going to be out of Congress, you're voted out of office if you do this.

00:08:59.100 What we need to do is foment revolt within the Democrats.

00:09:03.860 And sadly, as you said, it's not going to be really a Democrat-Republican fight because all the Republicans are going to vote no on this.

00:09:13.420 In the Senate, all 50 R's are a no.

00:09:16.620 Even the wobbliest Republicans are going to be no on this.

00:09:19.380 In the House, it's probably the case that all the Republicans are a no as well.

00:09:23.660 I think this will be a shirts and skins exercise. 0.71

00:09:28.000 But if we are going to have a prayer at beating this, it's going to be causing a half dozen House Democrats to say,

00:09:38.220 I'm not willing to fall on my sword to pass Bernie Sanders' budget.

00:09:42.980 That's not what my constituents sent me to do.

00:09:45.560 That will take courage, and betting on Democrats to have courage is usually a bad bet.

00:09:51.700 But it's the only path we have.

00:09:54.160 Now, in terms of the politics of this, the hope, of course, is that you just terrify these Democrats into thinking that they're going to get thrown out of office if they spend.

00:10:04.600 But I just wonder, are we sort of past that?

00:10:09.280 I mean, at this point, are we hemorrhaging so much money and printing so much money and keeping interest rates so low that does big spending really motivate people to the polls in the way that it once did?

00:10:22.840 Or are we just sort of in for a penny, in for a pound at this point in terms of the actual political ramifications?

00:10:29.180 So I don't know that big spending has the same force that it did.

00:10:33.960 I'm very concerned about it.

00:10:35.560 I assume you're concerned about it.

00:10:37.420 But I don't know that spending alone has the force.

00:10:40.720 I do think trillions in new taxes has force.

00:10:43.440 I also think inflation has force.

00:10:47.260 And so where I think spending has a bite right now is people across this country are seeing gas prices go up dramatically.

00:10:55.000 They're seeing food prices go up dramatically.

00:10:58.200 They're seeing lumber prices go up dramatically.

00:11:00.420 They're seeing the price of homes go up dramatically.

00:11:03.160 And I think people connect this crazy spending binge in Washington with the inflation that when you spend trillions and print trillions of dollars of new money and you borrow trillions of dollars, that it causes inflation.

00:11:17.200 And so I think both of those, the trillions in taxes and the inflation have real bite.

00:11:21.860 I also think socialism has bites, that there's still, I believe, a large majority of Americans that want us to be a free enterprise economy and not a socialist economy.

00:11:35.420 And the fact that this is Bernie Sanders' socialist budget, I think is a bridge too far for a lot of voters.

00:11:45.580 Now, whether the Democrats who are representing some of those voters in districts that Donald Trump carried, whether those Democrats are more scared of Nancy Pelosi than they are of their constituents, we'll find that out.

00:11:58.680 I certainly hope so as well.

00:12:00.540 That actually ties in with a mailbag question we got.

00:12:03.680 I wanted to go a little heavy on the mailbags.

00:12:05.560 I feel like we have not been doing enough mailbag and we, I get these great questions.

00:12:10.040 So, and actually for the record, I always want to do mailbag and Michael always says, no, we shouldn't do mailbag.

00:12:16.140 Who cares?

00:12:16.900 I don't want, I don't care at all what they say.

00:12:19.520 Frankie F writes in, he says, with Tesla announcing that they are set to put out a prototype of a humanoid robot to perform repetitive and dangerous jobs that people ordinarily don't want to do, is this the end of the world?

00:12:34.080 No, he didn't say that.

00:12:34.680 He asked, do you think there are any merits to UBI, universal basic income, or what will the labor force be like in the future?

00:12:43.700 So, if you're going to, if you're going to train all these little Terminator bots to do all of our jobs and take over the world, do we need to pay the people from the government, like Andrew Yang proposed, like, like other people have proposed in recent years, to sit at home and not work?

00:12:56.640 So, let me take each piece of that question, because they're somewhat disparate.

00:13:04.020 Look, the march of technology is frightening and disconcerting, and it's frightening and disconcerting because it displaces a lot of workers.

00:13:14.000 And that's been true, you know, from the locomotive engine, to the horse and buggy, to the automobile.

00:13:24.340 We've seen massive dislocations, and those dislocations cause real pain.

00:13:32.340 Progress is often difficult to go through.

00:13:37.840 So, when it comes to automation, you know, the fear that robots are going to take all our jobs isn't new.

00:13:46.660 I mean, I remember back in the 70s and 80s that we were worried that robots were going to take, you know, Japanese robots were, the Japanese car industry was going to defeat American cars, robots were going to unemploy everyone.

00:13:59.240 We've been hearing that for a long time.

00:14:00.880 You know, it's interesting, this past week, I went and toured a General Motors factory plant in Texas, in Arlington.

00:14:11.040 And it's a massive factory plant where they produce all of their big SUVs.

00:14:18.000 So, they produce the Suburban, and they produce the Yukon, and the Tahoe, and they produce the Cadillac Escalade.

00:14:25.500 And so, I saw the assembly lines where all these are put together, which, by the way, is so totally cool, like being on an assembly line, and the mechanics.

00:14:36.160 They're producing one truck a minute, so it's so cool to see them just rolling off.

00:14:41.420 It takes about 23 hours to build a truck, but they're rolling off the line at about one a minute.

00:14:46.360 And all of that's in Texas.

00:14:49.080 Now, there are a crap ton of robots on that factory floor that are doing jobs that used to be done by people.

00:14:57.760 So, you have robots, massive robots that are moving things, that are turning the chassis over and back, that are rotating, that are welding.

00:15:08.460 But there are still thousands of jobs that are essentially directing the robots.

00:15:17.440 And it's a different sort of job.

00:15:19.660 It's not – there are fewer of the kind of hard-lifting jobs that used to be on an automobile assembly plant or a truck assembly plant than they are.

00:15:33.500 That many of the things that require brute force now are automated.

00:15:39.340 But other steps, either directing the automation or engage in kind of small, more meticulous things, you have men and women on the line that are working.

00:15:49.980 I think the same is true.

00:15:52.380 So, for example, on robots, we're going to move in the next 5, 10, 20 years, we're going to move to self-driving cars.

00:16:02.260 The exact timing of that is not clear.

00:16:06.460 But when it happens, it's going to displace millions of workers, whether they are taxicab drivers, whether they're truck drivers.

00:16:13.660 There are a lot of people who make a living right now, Uber drivers, who when you have self-driving cars, that job, at some point, our grandkids are not going to know what the job of being a driver is.

00:16:29.200 That is disconcerting.

00:16:30.760 I don't think the answer, though, is UBI.

00:16:34.680 I don't think the answer is the government just sending everyone a check.

00:16:38.740 I think the answer is a workforce developing skills that are needed going forward.

00:16:44.040 That doesn't mean, as John Kerry dismissively says, learn to code.

00:16:48.180 But it does mean that the needs of the economy differ, and you develop different skills in response to that.

00:17:00.040 And, look, I will say UBI, the idea of paying everyone just a check every month.

00:17:06.340 If it were combined with eliminating the welfare state, with eliminating all of the other expenditures, I could actually envision a world in which UBI made sense.

00:17:20.220 It's not all that different from an idea that Milton Friedman proposed a long time ago, that the problem is any proposal for new spending in our government is always additive.

00:17:32.500 It's never replacing, it's never getting rid of all the other stuff.

00:17:36.100 It's just one more payment that is redistributing from people who are working and productive in society to people who are not.

00:17:43.620 And so in anything resembling the practical political context in which something could be adopted, it would be a bad idea.

00:17:52.980 And so I'd much rather deal with automation and robots by school choice and education and workforce development and training and helping people get jobs that are needed.

00:18:05.100 And as I said, I just saw the GM plant, there are a crap ton of people that are needed to run the robots, and that need is not going away anytime soon.

00:18:14.500 That's true, and we could be spending our time working on our firearm skills for when the robot Armageddon war happens.

00:18:20.440 So I think that would be a good use of time.

00:18:22.020 There is something also just inhuman about paying people to go away.

00:18:27.080 You know, I mean, I guess the premise of a lot of social safety net programs is that you're giving people a leg up, you're helping them improve themselves.

00:18:34.040 But if UBI just means paying people not to complain, well, the robots do all of our work.

00:18:39.380 I agree.

00:18:39.840 It's not going to have a great effect on society.

00:18:42.100 Now, speaking of putting people out of work, we have a question from Nick who says,

00:18:47.680 Senator, are Republicans considering invoking the 25th Amendment on President Biden?

00:18:55.960 So Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, suggested that on TV about a week ago.

00:19:01.400 To be honest, I think the real answer is no.

00:19:05.880 I think it's being suggested.

00:19:08.060 It actually wouldn't be Republicans who invoke it.

00:19:10.900 It's the president's cabinet who invokes it.

00:19:13.620 So Republicans can't invoke it.

00:19:17.880 And my take, I think that is exceedingly unlikely.

00:19:20.860 It, there was a lot of talk about the 25th Amendment being invoked by Donald Trump.

00:19:28.080 And it's a little, on Donald Trump, Democrats pushed that and the media pushed that.

00:19:33.660 And I think it is a species of the weaponization of our constitutional structures.

00:19:39.620 Listen, the 25th Amendment is designed, if the president has a stroke and is completely incapacitated,

00:19:48.520 that then you do have the capacity to make sure you have a president able to function.

00:19:52.900 Biden has lost a step, to be clear.

00:19:56.100 But the Republicans who are talking about using the 25th Amendment,

00:19:59.340 they don't like the policy steps he's implementing.

00:20:01.560 I don't like the policy steps he's implementing.

00:20:03.460 I think they're terrible for the country.

00:20:04.880 But, but I don't think the 25th Amendment is the mechanism to deal with that.

00:20:09.060 The real mechanism to deal with that is, number one, fighting through the political process,

00:20:14.020 but, number two, winning elections.

00:20:16.440 Right.

00:20:16.680 And there's also the practical question of, if, if the 25th Amendment were invoked by the cabinet,

00:20:22.720 then you'd have President Harris.

00:20:24.720 I'm not exactly clamoring for that, and I don't see anyone else doing so either.

00:20:28.840 No, look, I think that's right.

00:20:30.460 And you heard Rick Scott a week ago called for the 25th Amendment.

00:20:36.280 Lindsey Graham has been calling for impeachment over Afghanistan.

00:20:41.680 Listen, we just came through four years of the Democrats abusing the Constitution,

00:20:49.140 and I don't think Republicans should behave likewise.

00:20:54.120 I think we should beat them in elections, not abuse the constitutional structures.

00:20:59.560 And, you know, when verdict launched in the midst of an impeachment,

00:21:06.160 you and I talked about then the Democrats are ensuring that the next Democratic president,

00:21:12.520 Republicans will want to impeach.

00:21:13.900 Well, we're already seeing, seeing that happen.

00:21:16.620 And I think, by the way, those drumbeats will grow.

00:21:18.740 My prediction is in the next six months or year,

00:21:22.100 you're going to see a lot more Republicans call for impeachment.

00:21:24.820 You're going to see a lot more Republicans call for the 25th Amendment

00:21:27.440 because there's a gravitational pull when one side weaponizes the constitutional structure.

00:21:35.040 It becomes very difficult for the other side to resist that temptation.

00:21:39.840 Well, speaking of weaponizing our constitutional structure, 0.98

00:21:43.380 we just, I don't know if you saw, there was just recently a tweet from Michael Hayden.

00:21:47.160 This is the former director of the CIA, former director of the NSA,

00:21:51.220 and someone had tweeted at him and said,

00:21:54.980 hey, how about we send all of these MAGA, un-vaxxed people, 0.99

00:21:59.460 just send them all to Afghanistan, you know? 1.00

00:22:01.400 So we'll get an airplane of refugees from Afghanistan to America, 0.98

00:22:05.020 and we'll load it up with all those terrible conservatives 0.86

00:22:07.400 and send it back to Afghanistan. 0.92

00:22:09.480 And Michael Hayden, who was in very serious positions of power,

00:22:13.860 specifically with regard to surveillance, said, that's a good idea.

00:22:18.260 And the question we got from Kyle Hunter is,

00:22:20.800 how dangerous is it to democracy when the top persons in intelligence

00:22:24.540 and in the military are openly political?

00:22:28.220 Is Congress ever going to engage in any real oversight of these people?

00:22:32.620 Yeah, I think it's incredibly dangerous.

00:22:34.940 It is indicative of the deep state.

00:22:37.680 The Washington elites despise many of the American people.

00:22:43.880 They look down on many of the American people as the unwashed masses.

00:22:48.540 They despise Donald Trump.

00:22:50.280 It's why the deep state was at war with the Trump presidency

00:22:53.240 every single day of the Trump presidency.

00:22:56.900 You know, it's interesting.

00:22:58.160 Just this weekend, I was on the phone with a New York Times reporter

00:23:02.280 who was writing a story on COVID.

00:23:07.200 And his thesis was, you know,

00:23:09.840 what is it among Republican primary voters

00:23:12.760 that leads them to oppose vaccinations?

00:23:17.520 And I was articulating all of the abuses of power

00:23:22.040 we've seen from Democrats, whether Andrew Cuomo,

00:23:25.220 whether Gavin Newsom,

00:23:26.320 whether it is Joe Biden mandating

00:23:30.540 that every soldier, sailor, airman, and Marine must be vaccinated,

00:23:34.080 whether it is de Blasio mandating to go to a restaurant,

00:23:37.140 you've got to have a vaccine.

00:23:39.680 And it was funny.

00:23:40.500 The New York Times reporter said,

00:23:41.700 look, look, look, I don't want to talk about

00:23:43.000 what the Democrats are doing.

00:23:43.800 I want to focus on the Republicans.

00:23:45.060 I'm like, oh, really?

00:23:45.960 That's a surprise.

00:23:47.380 And he's like, well, what is it?

00:23:49.180 And I said, look, I get that you want to tell the story.

00:23:52.260 You want to paint us all as these Alabama yokels 0.89

00:23:57.260 in overalls with hay sticking out of our teeth

00:24:02.400 that say, we don't believe in the science-y thing.

00:24:06.680 And I get for the New York Times,

00:24:08.340 that's a very attractive narrative

00:24:10.420 for your readers sitting on the Upper East Side

00:24:13.700 to smile and think condescendingly

00:24:17.740 about the people to whom they are intellectual

00:24:21.680 and moral betters.

00:24:22.760 But it is a lie, it's a fundamental lie.

00:24:25.980 And listen, I think among most Republicans,

00:24:29.680 my view on vaccines, we've talked about it before,

00:24:31.900 I believe in vaccines.

00:24:32.800 I've been vaccinated.

00:24:33.840 My family's been vaccinated.

00:24:35.740 But I also believe in individual freedom and choice.

00:24:37.880 You ought to have the right

00:24:38.780 to make your own health care decisions.

00:24:40.760 And the government shouldn't force you

00:24:42.260 to make those decisions.

00:24:43.300 Your employer shouldn't force you

00:24:44.580 to make those decisions.

00:24:45.560 And that used to be a mainstream view.

00:24:50.000 And what I was telling the New York Times reporter,

00:24:51.480 which he didn't really believe,

00:24:53.420 is I said, look, you got to understand,

00:24:55.460 it's not just crazy right-wingers who believe this.

00:24:58.840 It's a whole lot of people that are like,

00:25:00.780 why are you, there's a reason why vaccine mandates,

00:25:04.560 70, 80% of the American people oppose them.

00:25:07.540 And yet the I-95 corridor

00:25:10.380 of the smarty pants, deep state elite 1.00

00:25:15.700 thinks we're all idiots for disagreeing with, 1.00

00:25:22.520 Hayden's tweet sounds like something 1.00

00:25:25.180 Dr. Fauci would say.

00:25:26.660 And it's the same, it's the same disease,

00:25:30.280 which is terminal condescension, 0.79

00:25:35.020 ignorance and contempt

00:25:36.840 directed at the American people.

00:25:39.060 And I think it's really, really dangerous

00:25:40.680 when you combine that with power.

00:25:42.700 You mentioned Gavin Newsom and Andrew Cuomo.

00:25:46.680 And I have a question from John,

00:25:49.680 which is, Andrew Cuomo is out.

00:25:53.560 Gavin Newsom may soon be out.

00:25:56.300 The media are turning on Joe Biden.

00:25:59.260 Does this mean we're going to do well in 2022?

00:26:03.580 Well, I will say at the outset that,

00:26:05.720 you know, Schadenfreude is not a pretty sentiment,

00:26:10.940 but at times it is unavoidable.

00:26:14.220 And Schadenfreude, all right, let me turn to the linguists.

00:26:17.120 What does Schadenfreude mean, Michael?

00:26:19.040 Schadenfreude is what we are engaging in right now

00:26:21.880 and probably will be for the next few moments.

00:26:24.040 It is the supreme delight at the pain,

00:26:26.840 specifically of Gavin Newsom and Andrew Cuomo.

00:26:29.400 It is indeed.

00:26:30.840 And I will say it's good to have confidence in your co-host

00:26:33.000 because we didn't pre-plan that.

00:26:34.660 So it really would have made me wonder

00:26:37.500 about the quality of a Yale education 0.89

00:26:39.080 if you said, I don't know, damned if I know, 0.89

00:26:41.180 some big German word. 0.93

00:26:42.680 So look, it is delicious.

00:26:47.300 A year ago, the media was lionizing

00:26:50.600 St. Cuomo and St. Newsom.

00:26:53.660 I mean, they were, look,

00:26:57.160 they paid Andrew Cuomo five and a half million dollars

00:27:00.440 for his books that nobody read.

00:27:03.160 They gave him an Emmy.

00:27:04.380 And now to have Cuomo gone

00:27:07.860 and a real chance that Newsom is gone,

00:27:10.740 yes, that ought to be very encouraging for 2022,

00:27:14.640 that despite the propaganda from the media,

00:27:18.780 the American people are saying,

00:27:20.440 hey, this stuff is crazy.

00:27:22.720 And I think both of them, I think Cuomo,

00:27:26.820 look, Newsom may or may not go.

00:27:29.000 I probably handicap the odds

00:27:32.020 of his being recalled at 40, 60.

00:27:35.280 I think it's more likely that he's not.

00:27:38.340 But 40 is real.

00:27:39.980 And actually, let me ask you,

00:27:41.140 as a California resident,

00:27:42.520 you know California politics better than I do.

00:27:45.200 What do you think happens to Newsom?

00:27:46.560 So I think that they're going to pull every trick in the book.

00:27:51.000 There was actually one woman who received her ballot 1.00

00:27:53.640 and it seemed that from the envelope,

00:27:56.920 there was a little hole cut out,

00:27:58.320 two little holes cut out.

00:27:59.240 And you could see it,

00:28:00.500 just the placement of the question,

00:28:02.520 will you vote to recall yes or no?

00:28:04.240 If you filled in the yes bubble,

00:28:06.040 it was visible within that hole.

00:28:08.520 Now, is this affecting every ballot?

00:28:10.260 I don't know.

00:28:10.920 I mean, this is just one woman posting her own ballot. 1.00

00:28:13.280 But having experienced lots of shenanigans

00:28:16.400 by the Democrats in California,

00:28:17.720 wouldn't put it past them at all.

00:28:19.980 Right now, the top choice to replace him is Larry Elder.

00:28:24.780 Larry Elder is a great, more libertarian,

00:28:27.360 but sort of libertarian conservative radio host.

00:28:29.780 He's got a lot of name recognition.

00:28:31.720 He is raising a good amount of money.

00:28:34.480 They can't call him a white supremacist.

00:28:36.220 Actually, they can.

00:28:37.320 Larry Elder is very much a black guy, 0.85

00:28:39.120 but the LA Times just called him a white supremacist. 0.83

00:28:41.920 So, you know, never underestimate

00:28:43.800 the depths to which they will sink.

00:28:46.180 But he's really offering a plausible alternative

00:28:49.200 to Gavin Newsom.

00:28:51.060 The Jenner candidacy was not really going anywhere.

00:28:55.400 There were a few other Republicans

00:28:56.780 who were just not,

00:28:59.300 they didn't have the name recognition.

00:29:00.740 They didn't have the support.

00:29:01.900 Larry Elder really does.

00:29:03.000 Now California is actually trying to go after him

00:29:05.660 and say he didn't file his financial disclosures

00:29:07.680 the right way.

00:29:08.120 I mean, they're really pulling at every stop,

00:29:09.880 which makes me think the odds are not great.

00:29:12.600 But the fact that you can have a state

00:29:14.320 where the Democrats, registered Democrats,

00:29:16.420 outnumber the Republicans in such a serious way,

00:29:19.700 and yet the recall polling is 48, 52.

00:29:25.320 I mean, it's within the margin of error.

00:29:26.960 That's astounding.

00:29:28.100 Well, you look at the policies

00:29:29.440 that have been implemented

00:29:30.420 by these blue state politicians,

00:29:32.920 shutting down millions of small businesses,

00:29:35.520 destroying restaurants,

00:29:36.520 destroying bars, destroying stores,

00:29:39.360 destroying jobs.

00:29:40.520 And by the way,

00:29:41.680 maintaining a blatant double standard,

00:29:43.820 allowing the giant corporations to stay open

00:29:47.760 while destroying the small businesses.

00:29:50.220 That double standard has been massive.

00:29:52.580 Shutting down schools,

00:29:53.860 tens of millions of kids,

00:29:56.200 many of whom have fallen way,

00:29:59.120 way behind in reading and writing

00:30:02.180 and arithmetic and science and art and history.

00:30:05.260 And what all of this is being done 0.95

00:30:10.920 by people who are demonstrably hypocritical about it. 0.93

00:30:15.340 You know, we just saw images of Nancy Pelosi 0.95

00:30:18.100 at this she-she fundraiser

00:30:21.180 with all these rich California liberals,

00:30:24.660 none of them wearing masks.

00:30:27.240 You know, Obama just had his birthday party

00:30:30.740 with all these rich Hollywood liberals,

00:30:33.280 none of them wearing masks.

00:30:34.780 And of course, the exception-

00:30:36.120 Senator, I was going to correct you,

00:30:38.900 but yes, there was one exception, right?

00:30:40.900 The waiters and waitresses,

00:30:42.600 the people clearing the tables.

00:30:44.860 And you know, it just like Nero and Caligula,

00:30:48.520 there is one rule for the rulers

00:30:51.040 and another rule for the subjects.

00:30:54.400 And it is obvious

00:30:57.360 the people implementing these policies

00:30:59.360 understand they're a crock.

00:31:02.420 I can tell you in the Senate

00:31:03.900 on things like the mask mandate,

00:31:06.660 when Democratic senators are talking

00:31:09.260 in the hallway just to themselves,

00:31:10.920 they take their masks off.

00:31:12.380 And then suddenly when there's a camera around,

00:31:14.820 they put their mask on

00:31:15.920 because, you know, the virus is only contagious

00:31:18.500 when there's a TV camera there.

00:31:20.880 If there's no TV camera,

00:31:22.380 virus is not contagious.

00:31:23.700 I mean, it's just, 0.98

00:31:25.280 it's obvious crap. 0.99

00:31:28.060 And it's performance theater. 1.00

00:31:29.940 The same Nancy Pelosi,

00:31:32.040 who is whining and dining

00:31:34.660 rich liberals without masks,

00:31:36.980 is actively fining members

00:31:39.840 of the House of Representatives $500

00:31:41.760 if they don't wear a mask,

00:31:44.120 even if they've been vaccinated.

00:31:45.600 And I think that double standard,

00:31:48.160 it's not just Republicans who are pissed.

00:31:50.660 I think there are a lot of independents pissed.

00:31:52.700 And I think there are Democrats

00:31:53.940 who are like, 0.93

00:31:54.940 these guys are petty tyrants 0.91

00:31:57.300 and enough is enough. 0.67

00:31:59.520 And that is very encouraging for 22

00:32:02.900 and it's very encouraging for 24.

00:32:04.840 There is no question that the Democrats

00:32:07.040 who are most vocal about fear-mongering on COVID

00:32:10.440 and pushing the mask mandates

00:32:11.780 and pushing the vax mandates,

00:32:13.400 there is no question,

00:32:14.920 and pushing the mask mandates,

00:32:15.940 even with the vax mandates,

00:32:16.940 there is no question

00:32:18.100 that they do not believe

00:32:20.120 what they are saying.

00:32:21.000 They simply are not taking coronavirus

00:32:24.620 as seriously as they want you to.

00:32:26.640 If they were,

00:32:27.600 then Gavin Newsom wouldn't show up

00:32:28.920 to the French laundry

00:32:29.680 when he locked down the restaurants

00:32:30.980 and sit shoulder-to-shoulder maskless.

00:32:33.040 Nancy Pelosi wouldn't show up to her event. 0.99

00:32:34.760 Obama wouldn't have his birthday party.

00:32:36.500 And I think the people know that.

00:32:37.980 So if they do get booted out of office,

00:32:40.080 and one can hope that that happens,

00:32:42.600 there's one final question

00:32:43.860 that we've just got a minute for,

00:32:45.780 a very important question

00:32:46.760 from the Twitter user NeverWrittenWord.

00:32:50.280 Senator, what's your favorite drink?

00:32:52.940 McAllen 18 Neat.

00:32:54.760 McAllen 18 Neat, a very fine choice.

00:32:58.060 You know, once inflation jacks up

00:33:00.440 the price of everything,

00:33:01.580 we might have to downgrade to the 12.

00:33:03.560 We might need to downgrade

00:33:04.840 to sort of whatever we can find.

00:33:05.900 Well, you said favorite.

00:33:06.520 You didn't say if I could afford it.

00:33:07.820 You just said favorite,

00:33:09.540 you know, preferably with a good cigar.

00:33:11.740 And I will confess I have enjoyed

00:33:13.920 a McAllen 18 Neat and a good cigar

00:33:16.200 with our co-host.

00:33:21.160 And a final question.

00:33:23.460 So as a former California voter,

00:33:25.780 do you know if anyone in the recall,

00:33:28.100 you know, with Larry Elder doing pretty well,

00:33:29.620 have they started to use the phrase

00:33:31.380 respect your elders?

00:33:33.260 Oh, man.

00:33:34.680 Senator, when we get off this call today,

00:33:37.540 I think I have to call Larry.

00:33:39.380 This is really good stuff.

00:33:40.880 That slogan might put him over the edge.

00:33:42.980 And then I hope that we can pop open

00:33:44.880 a bottle of McAllen 18.

00:33:46.800 Ideally, if someone else is buying,

00:33:48.480 we can light a cigar to toast

00:33:50.860 to that schadenfreude.

00:33:51.940 If really, if the people really have woken up

00:33:54.440 and start booting some of these petty tyrants 1.00

00:33:56.900 out of office.

00:33:57.820 But we'll just have to hold that for another time.

00:33:59.820 I'm Michael Knowles.

00:34:00.560 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:34:02.020 This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz

00:34:13.540 is being brought to you by Jobs Freedom and Security Pack,

00:34:17.000 a political action committee

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Verdict with Ted Cruz - August 30, 2021

An Orgy Of Spending

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