Verdict with Ted Cruz - July 22, 2026


Behind the Scenes at the World Cup Final, and in the Oval Office on AI


Episode Stats


Length

38 minutes

Words per minute

188.68

Word count

7,212

Sentence count

426

Harmful content

Misogyny

9

sentences flagged

Toxicity

9

sentences flagged

Hate speech

10

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Ted Cruz and Ben Fergusons discuss the importance of caddying for a pro golfer. Senator Ted Cruz s son, Bradley, won the 2019 U.S. Women s Open and is a two-time PGA Tour Player of the Year.

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 .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
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00:00:19.540 Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.
00:00:21.820 Ben Ferguson with you as well.
00:00:23.600 Senator, you had one heck of a weekend as I was carrying 100 pounds of golf equipment
00:00:29.440 in Orlando, Florida, for seven hours and 15 minutes,
00:00:32.780 if anyone was counting on how long that round lasted.
00:00:35.860 You were at the World Cup living it up with your...
00:00:38.820 By the way, I just want to be clear.
00:00:40.540 Your daughter picked a better sport watching World Cup
00:00:43.260 than mine carrying a bag in the sun.
00:00:45.180 Congratulations, you won on that one.
00:00:46.980 Okay, I need to ask, what the hell was 100 pounds?
00:00:49.840 Is your son, like, playing golf with anvils?
00:00:53.400 Like, how exactly does that work?
00:00:56.140 So, this is what is in the bag.
00:00:58.100 It's all the stuff, the ball is normal, that's all there, right?
00:01:01.240 Then you have the push cart, but then you have like seven or eight bottles of water
00:01:05.660 plus enough to eat when you're missing a meal to keep them, like, keep eating
00:01:10.820 because you're out there so long.
00:01:12.220 And when you put all that together with the rain gear and the umbrellas
00:01:16.320 and the ice and the food, it is literally a hundred and something pounds, I kid you not.
00:01:21.840 So is there some rule in, like, kids' golf that you can't have a golf cart?
00:01:27.180 You're not allowed to.
00:01:28.320 At World Championships, the caddy and the player must walk the entire 18 holes. 0.98
00:01:34.200 Just because there's, like, some mean jerk in charge of the whole thing? 0.96
00:01:38.260 Like, why exactly? 0.99
00:01:40.060 So, it's very interesting.
00:01:41.720 If you, your spectators can use a cart.
00:01:44.980 When you get there, there is, it is straight up, like,
00:01:48.060 if you want to say you're a World Champion, you're going to walk the whole thing,
00:01:51.520 and there will be no one to help you.
00:01:53.380 And if you want to quit, you can quit.
00:01:54.940 But the strongest survive, it was, I mean, it was a strongest survive scenario.
00:01:58.780 So that's how it works.
00:02:00.340 So if you're ever bored and you want to caddy, it's a great workout, I assure you.
00:02:05.840 All right.
00:02:06.300 So, Ben, I can give you the precise odds of that.
00:02:09.100 That would be 0.00%.
00:02:11.200 I will not be caddy.
00:02:14.080 I will cheer you on.
00:02:15.720 By the way, how did Bradley do?
00:02:18.720 So he came in.
00:02:19.500 He played 10 and unders in the Under Armour Worlds.
00:02:22.240 And so he got the invite.
00:02:23.340 So we did it.
00:02:23.820 He's nine.
00:02:24.360 so he's one of the youngest kids, he came in 43rd in the world,
00:02:27.780 which was awesome for him.
00:02:29.080 Wow, that's awesome.
00:02:30.360 And by the way, the difference between 9 and 10 is big.
00:02:32.680 I mean, like at this age, a year is massive.
00:02:35.620 It's massive.
00:02:36.520 So our goal was to try to make it in the top 50 in the world
00:02:40.480 because there was 109 kids that got in, and he came in 43rd.
00:02:45.660 So I was like, dude, now next year you get to come back.
00:02:48.980 You automatically will get to come back,
00:02:51.020 and next year you'll play the same course, the same distance.
00:02:52.960 Does the top 50 get in automatically?
00:02:55.040 Yeah, yeah.
00:02:55.420 So he'll get in automatically.
00:02:56.280 That's the cutoff.
00:02:57.520 That's the cutoff.
00:02:58.280 So that was the best part.
00:02:59.400 So he is back.
00:03:00.240 And I told him, and he was disappointed.
00:03:02.120 He wanted to be in the top 20, and it was these other kids.
00:03:05.740 Some of them had, like, two-year graduating years.
00:03:07.740 They have where you're from.
00:03:09.100 So the other kids, the kids that want, is it their drive?
00:03:11.860 Do they hit the ball further?
00:03:13.060 Yeah, they're just so much bigger.
00:03:13.900 Is it their short game, or is it their putting?
00:03:15.740 Like, where is the differential?
00:03:17.880 It's a mature.
00:03:18.820 You can see the maturity.
00:03:19.660 So definitely just how far they hit the ball is way –
00:03:23.360 like in a year, Bradley will probably hit the ball another 25 to 35 yards further.
00:03:28.020 Minimum off the tee could be as much as 50.
00:03:30.600 And so when you're hitting that much farther,
00:03:32.940 you're now hitting eight irons in pitching wedges and nine irons in the green,
00:03:36.940 whereas then if you're back, you're hitting in not near as accurate of shots.
00:03:41.620 You're hitting five irons or hybrids in, and it's all the difference in the world.
00:03:45.280 Since I don't play golf, everything you said there sounded like the teacher on Charlie Brown.
00:03:52.160 Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah.
00:03:54.520 Like some different clubs and the bally goes into the holy. 0.88
00:03:59.080 You know what I learned?
00:03:59.840 By the way, do you want to know what I learned on this adventure?
00:04:04.040 So you've got to get your kid to drink enough water to survive.
00:04:07.540 Bradley hates energy drinks.
00:04:09.880 He does not like anything flavored.
00:04:12.260 There are electrolyte gummies, folks.
00:04:14.640 I have found them, they work, and he would eat the gummies all day.
00:04:18.120 So there's your tip.
00:04:19.240 If you've got a kid that doesn't like Gatorade.
00:04:20.520 What I just heard is that Ben is feeding his son marijuana gummies.
00:04:26.400 Yeah, that's what you heard from Colorado, right?
00:04:28.300 Yeah, and mile-high gummies.
00:04:29.700 And I've got to say, as a nine-year-old, he's the most mellow golf player you've ever seen.
00:04:34.860 Yeah, man, the course looks great.
00:04:38.460 It was fun.
00:04:39.660 By the way, we had Vertic listeners there.
00:04:41.880 It was nice.
00:04:42.840 You told me that.
00:04:43.640 You had several that are like, hey, I listened to the pod.
00:04:48.180 Yeah, it was quite fun.
00:04:49.380 They're like, when's Ted coming out?
00:04:50.800 Somebody yelled that across the fairway during the practice round.
00:04:53.380 Like, I don't know who they were.
00:04:54.720 They were older kids and a dad.
00:04:56.740 And he yelled, he's like, where's Ted at?
00:04:58.140 I was like, I don't know.
00:04:59.520 And then we just kept walking and laughed.
00:05:01.260 I was in New York City this weekend, and I was sitting at like a hotel bar late at night.
00:05:08.000 And I had a whole family came up, and they said, we love Verdict.
00:05:10.280 We listen to it all the time.
00:05:11.320 And I was like, awesome.
00:05:13.640 Now, you got to go to the World Cup this weekend, which is awesome.
00:05:17.400 I want to hear all about that.
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00:07:01.300 All right, Senators, so let's talk about you got not only like two cool things.
00:07:06.040 One, you got to go to the World Cup, but two, you got to take one of your daughters with you, which is like, that's like core memories you got to make.
00:07:13.760 Yeah, so look, Sunday I went to the World Cup finals.
00:07:17.320 They were in New York.
00:07:18.320 Actually, New Jersey.
00:07:19.160 It was kind of funny.
00:07:20.140 It was in New Jersey, but the branding was all New York slash New Jersey.
00:07:23.660 I felt bad for New Jersey because we weren't actually in New York, but somehow New York got top billing.
00:07:30.560 It's where everybody stayed that came to the game.
00:07:32.580 That's the reality, right?
00:07:33.660 You stay in New York City, then you go over to New Jersey, and then you get out of there as fast as you can.
00:07:37.840 So it was really fun, and I had two tickets, so Heidi and I were going to go.
00:07:42.520 And then I asked my two girls, Caroline and Catherine, hey, do you all want to go to the World Cup?
00:07:46.760 They both wanted to go.
00:07:48.160 But my youngest daughter, Catherine, and you know both are girls, she's 15.
00:07:52.460 And Catherine and I, we do sporting events.
00:07:55.520 Like going back, all right, let me tell some history on this.
00:08:01.100 going back to 2017 2017 the world series between houston astros and the dodgers so i i was blessed
00:08:11.640 i went to game three four and five of the world series game three i took my dad i mean what a
00:08:16.920 great chance take your dad to world series that's just really cool that's incredible game four i 0.94
00:08:22.900 took heidi total and complete waste i i adore my wife by the way she would say that right yes yes 1.00
00:08:31.500 She's my best friend in the world. 1.00
00:08:33.500 But in, like, the third inning, she turned to me and said,
00:08:36.160 did they score a touchdown?
00:08:38.960 And I said, I am offended that you are in this stadium taking a seat
00:08:44.880 that should be taken by a real baseball fan.
00:08:49.380 All right, so game five.
00:08:52.360 I invite initially my daughter, Caroline.
00:08:55.640 And Caroline was nine at the time, and I adore Caroline.
00:08:58.360 She is an incredible kid. 0.99
00:09:00.020 she is brilliant but but she is god help her just like her dad she she is a pain in the ass and i 0.98
00:09:07.360 say that i am too i love it but but i say hey sweetheart do you want to go to to the world 0.96
00:09:13.960 series she said sure but she said but i'm going to root for the dodgers and and you're like why
00:09:23.320 oh wait i know the answer to this keep going yeah so heidi is a native californian and so she grew
00:09:28.380 up in California rooting for the Dodgers um but secondly Caroline just at night and at 18 today
00:09:36.580 just sort of likes to screw with her dad like like she she knew that would piss me off so she liked 0.75
00:09:41.740 that answer and my response to Caroline said sweetheart I love you but I'll be damned if I'm 0.95
00:09:49.780 gonna take you to the game if you're gonna root for the Dodgers you can root for anyone you want
00:09:53.820 But I ain't taking you.
00:09:55.560 And Catherine, it was the day after her seventh birthday,
00:09:59.060 and she looks up with those big brown eyes.
00:10:01.020 She blinks twice, and she goes, Daddy, I'll root for the Astros.
00:10:05.380 And I said, sold.
00:10:07.060 Sold.
00:10:07.540 And the smartest answer of her life.
00:10:09.820 So I took Catherine, and if you remember game five of the 2017 World Series,
00:10:15.840 that's the game that went to 1.30 in the morning.
00:10:17.580 It was an unbelievable game.
00:10:19.680 And Catherine and I are jumping.
00:10:21.920 we're hugging and i told her she it was a day after she turned seven and i said sweetheart you
00:10:28.500 don't really appreciate this now but you are going to tell your grandkids you were at this game you've
00:10:36.300 just witnessed the greatest game in the history of the houston astros it was amazing and what that
00:10:41.840 started is a tradition look the the astros one made it to the next seven alcs's yep we made it
00:10:50.720 to four world series that'll never i don't know if it'll ever happen again okay we made it to four
00:10:55.700 world series and we won two and i told catherine i said you don't understand this doesn't happen
00:11:01.740 this is like a freakish perfect storm and that game five of the 2017 world series started a
00:11:10.720 tradition where catherine and i have gone to almost every single home playoff game of the
00:11:16.900 Astros for the last eight years and it's just what she and I do we don't make it to a lot of
00:11:22.500 regular season games because there's so many of them and it's hard but but you get you get to
00:11:27.320 playoff time and and I would yeah and and listen we're often in DC I'm in session and during the
00:11:36.800 playoffs I'll get on a plane I'll fly home I'll take her to the game I'll go to sleep I'll wake
00:11:42.840 up at 4 in the morning, get on a plane to the
00:11:44.760 crack of dawn and come back to D.C. and I'll just
00:11:46.640 do that. And so I feel
00:11:48.920 immensely grateful.
00:11:50.180 Like from age 7 to age 15
00:11:52.880 I've been able to go
00:11:54.780 to, I don't know, 40
00:11:56.620 playoff games with Catherine.
00:11:58.820 I mean, it's been
00:12:00.420 it has been the daddy
00:12:02.780 daughter tradition. So on the World Cup
00:12:04.620 I said, okay, we got tickets to the finals
00:12:06.900 and Heidi wanted to go. She's like, alright,
00:12:08.660 this sounds like fun.
00:12:10.600 And Caroline wanted to go, actually. But then
00:12:12.720 katherine really really wanted to go and i'm gonna give heidi props she said you know what
00:12:19.160 i'd like to be there but katherine really wants to go and she also said look she's 15 in a couple
00:12:24.960 years she's gonna go off to college she's gonna be gone this is a daddy-daughter moment so i took
00:12:30.560 katherine we had a blast the game did you watch the game it was good yeah i watched it yeah it
00:12:37.440 It was a really good game.
00:12:39.040 Now, listen, I'm not going to pretend that I'm a huge soccer fan.
00:12:43.220 I haven't watched a bunch of World Cup games.
00:12:44.820 You're a soccer fan during four years.
00:12:45.500 That's like, and there's nothing wrong with that.
00:12:47.240 Like, I could care less World Cup happens.
00:12:49.480 Okay, I care.
00:12:50.700 And by the way, this World Cup, A, we're hosting, but B, I loved cheering on the American team.
00:12:57.000 And it was really fun.
00:12:58.560 I loved seeing these foreigners, these Europeans coming to America, these Japanese coming to America,
00:13:04.460 and falling in love with our country.
00:13:06.140 That was the patriotic aspect.
00:13:09.260 Did you follow Freddie online?
00:13:11.200 Oh, yeah.
00:13:11.820 I think the whole world did if you were online because it was the best part of the whole thing.
00:13:16.220 Look, Freddie is this German tourist who came to go to the games.
00:13:20.500 And he drove from, like, Louisiana to Arkansas to Texas.
00:13:24.080 And he tweeted about it. 1.00
00:13:26.360 Like, he encountered a Buc-ee's. 1.00
00:13:28.320 And he's like, oh, my God, what is this thing? 0.99
00:13:31.720 And it was the most beautiful.
00:13:34.460 I've never met Freddie.
00:13:35.520 I don't know the guy. I don't imagine I'll ever meet him.
00:13:38.200 But I loved his genuine love for America and watching that.
00:13:43.660 There's another great thing that I had fun on Twitter retweeting these things.
00:13:47.620 There was another great moment when the team from Norway landed at DFW and there were like 20 Fort Worth cops that were sitting on the tarmac.
00:13:57.920 And as the team came down, they were all doing the row.
00:14:01.160 And it was so cool.
00:14:02.960 like these Fort Worth police officers welcoming the Norway team.
00:14:08.620 That was an amazing thing.
00:14:10.260 So I've enjoyed cheering on the Americans in the World Cup.
00:14:13.980 And then in the final, you know, it's interesting.
00:14:16.540 I had a bunch of people ask, all right, who are you rooting for?
00:14:18.680 And I'll admit I was a little conflicted.
00:14:21.800 Look, Argentina, yes, and I'll tell you why.
00:14:24.840 Argentina, I want to know.
00:14:26.580 Who are you rooting for?
00:14:27.860 Spain, Spain.
00:14:28.700 Because I lived there in a summer in Alicante and fell in love with the people there.
00:14:33.220 And I was like, this is amazing.
00:14:34.940 So here's why I was conflicted.
00:14:37.060 A, Argentina, Messi is one of the greatest soccer players to ever live.
00:14:40.700 And I just love excellence.
00:14:42.180 It's sort of like Michael Jordan.
00:14:43.460 Like watching someone, Messi is, by any measure, you could argue who the top one is.
00:14:49.240 But Messi's in the top five.
00:14:50.520 Any way you look at it, he's in the top five.
00:14:53.300 And so I like excellence.
00:14:55.680 But I actually made the decision going into the game.
00:14:57.800 I'm going to root for Spain, and the reason is my dad, as you know, was born in Cuba,
00:15:03.260 but my grandfather, my abuelo, was born in the Canary Islands, which is part of Spain,
00:15:08.060 the Canary Islands.
00:15:08.860 My grandfather was born in the Canary Islands, and then he came to Cuba.
00:15:12.380 He was born in 1900.
00:15:13.740 He came to Cuba in 1901.
00:15:15.980 And so my family, going back before, is Spanish in tradition.
00:15:20.000 So I said, all right, I'm going to root for Spain.
00:15:23.420 But look, I didn't feel strongly.
00:15:25.260 It was just sort of like, all right, who do you want to root for?
00:15:27.380 I guess, okay, since my family has origins in Spain, let's root for Spain.
00:15:33.400 I got to say the game.
00:15:35.700 Number one, Spain dominated the game.
00:15:39.720 And I'm not a—
00:15:40.480 It was, I mean, from their defense to their offense to everything in between,
00:15:45.780 they were a fine-oiled machine.
00:15:48.660 And you could tell they got their mojo going and actually improved during the tournament.
00:15:53.500 Yes.
00:15:53.820 Not all teams did that, by the way.
00:15:55.400 Like, you had some spotty games for some of the teams or spotty halves.
00:15:58.900 They just kept getting better.
00:16:01.680 Well, and look, as I said, I'm not a big soccer fan.
00:16:06.300 I don't watch a lot of games.
00:16:07.680 But in high school, I played soccer.
00:16:09.060 So in high school, I played basketball, which was my main sport.
00:16:11.980 I played soccer and football.
00:16:13.100 So I like all three, and I enjoyed it.
00:16:14.840 You know, I was a right midfielder, and so, you know, you play offense and defense.
00:16:19.720 And I liked it.
00:16:20.160 Like, soccer was a fun sport to play.
00:16:21.920 Did you play soccer as a kid?
00:16:23.500 I mean, when I was, you know, church ball, as they called it.
00:16:26.360 Kindergarten, first, second, third grade, and then I was out.
00:16:29.160 Look, you were a tennis guy. 0.98
00:16:30.640 You're kind of a poofter, so that's okay. 1.00
00:16:32.320 I was not going to be a soccer player. 1.00
00:16:34.140 I have a hard time getting excited about sports where no one wins a lot.
00:16:37.460 I understand.
00:16:38.400 I will tell you, my high school team, we would slide tackle a ton.
00:16:44.700 And I had one guy who was on my team who actually got two yellow cards,
00:16:48.920 which you're not allowed to.
00:16:49.680 You're supposed to get a red card and get thrown out.
00:16:51.160 but the refs forgot they gave him two yellow cards because our team was violent we weren't that good
00:16:56.020 but we were violent and he wore two yellow bracelets in sort of celebration of getting
00:17:02.020 two yellow cards and not being thrown out of a game and we had another guy mike who's a buddy of
00:17:06.580 mine who was a a defender who would slide tackle was his cleats in the air and he would rip like
00:17:15.080 like guys shins and he went for the pain he became a marine marine he was a tough guy
00:17:21.540 but anyway so i look i i like soccer playing as a kid but i'm not a big fan but but i will say the
00:17:28.300 game what was amazing is number one the spanish offense dominated and and they just 80 of the
00:17:38.080 game was played while the spanish offense was on offense on the argentinian side of the field and
00:17:43.900 Just score after score.
00:17:45.720 And let me say, the Argentinian goalie.
00:17:48.200 How much of the audience could you tell was like Argentinian or was actually like Spain?
00:17:52.880 Like not Americans there picking a team, but like authentic, genuine fans of the country.
00:17:59.520 There were a bunch of both.
00:18:01.420 I don't know that it felt in the stadium like one was more dominant than the other.
00:18:05.280 There were a bunch of Spanish fans wearing Spanish colors, but there were a bunch of Argentinian fans.
00:18:10.120 So it was a pretty, it felt pretty even. 0.99
00:18:14.000 But look, the Spanish, they were just taking shots on a goal, shots on a goal.
00:18:19.000 And the Argentinian goalkeeper, that guy played an incredible game. 0.86
00:18:25.980 I mean, the saves that he had, frankly, at the end of the regular period,
00:18:31.700 it should have been 3-0 or 4-0 Spain.
00:18:35.240 Like the number of shots on goal, and it was impressive.
00:18:38.340 That goalkeeper almost single-handedly kept Argentina in the game.
00:18:44.000 And I was really hoping.
00:18:45.480 I wanted Spain to win, but I really wanted Messi to score a goal.
00:18:49.320 And it's kind of like, all right, you're watching.
00:18:50.920 I assume this is his last hurrah.
00:18:53.160 And it was sort of like if you go see a game of Michael Jordan
00:18:56.680 or Tom Brady at the end of their career,
00:18:59.000 you want Jordan to win the game.
00:19:00.800 You want Tom Brady to throw the great touchdown pass.
00:19:04.620 by the way I did see so I've been to one Super Bowl game in my life and it was the Super Bowl
00:19:11.340 I would say what was the game Houston and it was New England versus Atlanta and it was my it was
00:19:18.680 in my hometown so I'm like all right let's go to that and look I frankly didn't care between New
00:19:24.800 England and Atlanta neither of them have been the Texans or even the Cowboys I'd be rooting for them
00:19:28.840 but it was not a Texas team so I was kind of indifferent and I came in and I said look I
00:19:33.900 I don't care who wins, but I want a really good game.
00:19:35.900 I want it close.
00:19:36.760 I want it exciting.
00:19:37.880 And it ended up being the first Super Bowl game in history that went to overtime.
00:19:42.040 And if you remember, that was the overtime game where Tom Brady came back and won it.
00:19:47.560 And it was really cool.
00:19:48.720 Like, Brady, I think, is unequivocally the GOAT.
00:19:52.760 I used to think Montana was.
00:19:54.800 And when Brady moved from New England to Tampa Bay, it was just the most studly move.
00:20:00.460 And then he won again.
00:20:01.340 It was like, all right, I've got an amazing team.
00:20:03.900 I've got a fantastic, you know, supporting cast.
00:20:07.940 Let me go somewhere else and I'm going to win here.
00:20:09.580 And it was just like, all right, that qualifies.
00:20:13.340 So I was thrilled to watch Brady do that overtime drive down the field.
00:20:19.780 And I have to admit, watching it, you're kind of like, yeah, they're going to win.
00:20:22.860 Like you just, it reminded me of.
00:20:25.760 You could tell there was momentum and it was hard to see how they would lose the game.
00:20:30.340 So 20 years ago, I was very fortunate to go to the Rose Bowl game
00:20:36.360 that was Texas versus USC, and it was the national championship.
00:20:40.780 And Heidi and I went, and this is long before I was in the Senate.
00:20:43.940 I was just, you know, I was a lawyer.
00:20:45.380 I was SG, and I went with a good buddy of mine who had tickets who invited me.
00:20:49.260 And we went there.
00:20:50.040 By the way, this is the only argument I've won in 25 years of marriage.
00:20:55.140 So we're going there.
00:20:57.260 By the way, I believe this.
00:20:58.840 I believe that this is the only one.
00:21:00.340 I will stand by you.
00:21:01.580 I think that's probably very accurate, but keep going. 0.50
00:21:04.520 So we're going there, and Heidi's a native Californian.
00:21:07.940 She's got a bunch of family down in Southern California.
00:21:11.000 And she said, okay, we're going to wear USC red.
00:21:15.480 And I said, sweetheart, I love you. 0.56
00:21:18.800 But if you do that, I'm throwing you out of the truck. 1.00
00:21:22.800 And Heidi just doesn't care about sports. 1.00
00:21:25.600 It's not a thing that matters to her. 0.99
00:21:27.560 and so she she recognized that i did care and so i dressed my darling california wife
00:21:33.900 in burn orange from head to toe and we saw i i think unquestionably one of the greatest
00:21:41.200 college football games ever i i think it may be the greatest where we're like vince young the
00:21:45.420 comeback you know we're down four minutes and 15 seconds and we're down and just like brady
00:21:50.780 you knew that game Vince Young was like a man among boys yep and it was extraordinary so that
00:22:00.140 that was and Brady reminded me of that like the overtime I had the same feeling where it's just
00:22:05.640 like Patriots gonna win so I was hoping Messi would do that like like I would have loved to
00:22:11.140 have been the swan song the end of an incredible career Messi scored I still wanted Spain to win
00:22:16.340 but I wanted Messi to score.
00:22:18.300 You know, he had one good shot on goal from the right side of the field,
00:22:23.040 but it went, I think, high into the right, and he didn't get it.
00:22:26.640 But it was an awesome time.
00:22:29.680 Do you know the coolest part of the whole thing?
00:22:32.080 What was that?
00:22:33.440 So where we were sitting, two boxes over, there were a bunch of rap stars.
00:22:41.360 Like Drake was there, and I don't even know,
00:22:44.640 bunch of rap stars that i've never heard of because i rap's not my thing so i don't know
00:22:48.820 that world but katherine was just like a gog she likes rap i i don't like rap it's not my thing
00:22:56.860 but she was like oh that's so-and-so that's so-and-so and she took a couple pictures and
00:23:01.200 she was so excited and she's like dad can we oversee them and i'm like sweetheart i can take
00:23:06.740 you a lot of places my biggest fan i'm just like there are places i've got a little bit of stroke
00:23:12.960 Like a box full of rap stars, that's just not my all power to them.
00:23:21.920 Yeah, this is not a Republican convention.
00:23:21.960 Yeah, this is not a place where Ted Cruz comes knocking on the door
00:23:27.380 and they're like, yeah, we're thrilled to see you.
00:23:29.460 Come on in.
00:23:30.540 But Catherine was ecstatic.
00:23:34.760 She left and said, all right, this was the coolest day of my life.
00:23:40.380 and so there you go okay so you got dad you got you got core memories and you got dad points that
00:23:46.020 will last you maybe a day and a half maybe two by the way by the way do you know who we met at
00:23:50.940 at the game who drew barrymore yeah oh yeah yeah he's amazing so so it it made me feel a little
00:24:00.860 bad because katherine didn't know who drew barrymore was and i'm like oh god i feel old
00:24:04.320 like like she like you and i grew up with her i mean she was an et oh yeah like she was and and
00:24:09.080 i'd never met her and and look you know she's she's a terrific actress but to be honest republican
00:24:15.400 politicians are not necessarily all that popular among hollywood actors she was the nicest person
00:24:23.820 and she was charming we had a great conversation and she was real and fun and i like i i really
00:24:30.300 liked her like that's the way by the way that's the way it should be like i i meet you know you
00:24:33.940 and i we were very blessed by the way drew is huggy so like every person she met she'd go and
00:24:38.560 hug them so like she hugged me and I'm like well crap Drew Barrymore is hugging me and it was
00:24:42.460 it wasn't fake it was just kind of a real she's an expressive nice person and we had we probably
00:24:49.380 spent 20 minutes talking together and it was really cool all right so I asked her I think
00:24:54.720 did I tell you when I was in New York the other day there was a and I promised I would not use
00:24:59.440 her name did I tell you who I met walking in and out of the hotel very very famous actress and she
00:25:04.960 walked over and she said you do a great job on tv I don't always agree with you but you always make
00:25:11.520 me laugh just don't tell anybody I told you that and I promise I would same thing like with the
00:25:16.680 Barrymore thing so kind shockingly nice spent multiple minutes having this conversation and
00:25:24.060 then it was like by the way don't out me or tell anybody that we like met him this way and I was
00:25:27.960 like I understand you got to keep your street credit in Hollywood but same thing with Barrymore
00:25:32.200 It's nice when you meet somebody like that, and they're actually really, really kind.
00:25:36.040 Well, and I asked her, I said, all right, what's your favorite movie you did?
00:25:40.360 And, you know, and her response was interesting.
00:25:43.400 She said E.T., and she was a little girl, but she was awesome in E.T.
00:25:46.980 And then she said Charlie's Angels.
00:25:49.240 And I actually hoped Catherine, I'm actually bummed.
00:25:51.760 Catherine didn't know Charlie's Angels.
00:25:53.160 That was a good movie.
00:25:53.900 That was well done.
00:25:54.420 It was a great movie.
00:25:55.720 And then Drew said all the Adam Sandler movies, and she mentioned 50 First Dates.
00:26:01.680 And I told her, I said, look, I said, that's I liked Fifty First Dates.
00:26:06.920 That was a sweet movie. It was touching.
00:26:10.400 I have not met Adam Sandler. I've heard he's a conservative.
00:26:14.140 I have friends who know him. So I'm like one connection away.
00:26:18.120 But I just like Adam Sandler. He's funny. He's a good guy.
00:26:21.900 And that movie, it's just look. All right.
00:26:25.140 I'm going to this is going to weaken my like bro creds.
00:26:28.680 But I kind of like some rom-coms.
00:26:31.960 And like 50 First Dates, it was a neat premise.
00:26:36.080 By the way, if you haven't watched 50 First Dates, it's about...
00:26:40.320 It's hysterical and cute.
00:26:42.540 It is hysterical and cute.
00:26:46.580 And it's about someone who has memory loss.
00:26:50.580 Frontal lobe memory loss.
00:26:52.340 Every day they forget what happened the day before.
00:26:54.140 and so you end up with
00:26:56.800 Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore
00:26:58.560 having a first date every day
00:27:00.220 and like waking up
00:27:01.780 not remembering their whole
00:27:04.460 history and it's just
00:27:05.840 it's a cute and fun show and I like
00:27:08.420 I was happy she said that was one of her favorite
00:27:10.460 because that's what I would say
00:27:12.400 was my favorite of her movies
00:27:24.140 So you went from that back to D.C. straight to the Oval Monday morning for a very interesting meeting on A.I. at the White House.
00:27:38.960 Talk about that a little bit.
00:27:40.800 Yeah, so I took Amtrak and came from Manhattan down to D.C. on Monday, and then I had a meeting at the Oval Monday afternoon.
00:27:47.680 By the way, that is what we call welcome back to your real life when you go from the World Cup, Drew Barrymore, to Amtrak, to D.C.
00:27:53.840 I just that's a that's an interesting step down really quick.
00:27:57.380 And that's probably got on purpose doing that.
00:27:59.200 But keep going.
00:27:59.900 Yeah.
00:28:00.360 Yeah.
00:28:00.640 Look, look, it was.
00:28:01.840 And so the meeting in the Oval, I was with the president.
00:28:05.520 I was with Marsha Blackburn, senator from Tennessee.
00:28:09.240 And I was with Scott Besson, the Treasury secretary and Kevin Hassett, the head of the National Economic Council and several other members, the White House staff.
00:28:16.320 And we were talking about AI, artificial intelligence.
00:28:19.520 and and it was a discussion about what to do about it and and listen marcia has a a package of bills
00:28:26.820 that she's pitching and and and it's a package of bills it's kids safety bills it it's requiring
00:28:33.860 app stores to to verify ages it's a bill called no fakes which which deals with preventing people
00:28:41.780 from pirating and copying people's voices and images.
00:28:47.860 And so she was pitching to the president,
00:28:51.080 you should support my package of bills.
00:28:53.940 And I'm chairman of the Senate Committee
00:28:56.420 on Commerce, Science, and Transportation,
00:28:58.120 which has jurisdiction over a ton of stuff, including AI.
00:29:02.100 And so we're going to have a markup
00:29:03.680 in the next couple of weeks on a bunch of AI bills.
00:29:06.720 And Marsha wants her bill to be one of them.
00:29:09.180 And so she laid it out. 0.99
00:29:10.200 and I gotta say a lot of discussion she's pushing the president back my bill back my bill back my
00:29:15.280 bill and I stayed quiet for much of the meeting the meeting was like hour hour and a half long
00:29:20.200 and then I said at the end I said listen if Marsha introduces the bill I'll mark it up I'll put it up
00:29:27.480 on on on the committee for a vote and I said I expect I'll support it all to be honest I'd never
00:29:33.440 read the bill until she handed it to me so I like she handed me a hundred page bill and I I didn't
00:29:38.120 know what was in it. But I said, look, from what she's described in it, I anticipate I'll support
00:29:42.140 it. But I also said, it was kind of near the end of the meeting, but I said, because they had handed
00:29:49.120 the president a truth social post supporting the bill. And I said, look, someone needs to tell you
00:29:57.040 this bill has very little, if any, chance of passing. And like Trump was surprised. And I
00:30:06.420 just said look there are different elements of it right now there are no democrats backing this bill
00:30:10.920 uh it's not clear that every republican on the committee will back the bill maybe they will they
00:30:16.620 might and i said let me be clear i'll mark it up and i expect to vote for it so so i'm not the
00:30:21.980 opposition here but i just want you to know that at this point there's opposition from democrats
00:30:29.120 in the senate there's opposition potentially from some republicans in the senate and there's strong
00:30:33.940 opposition on aspects of the bill from republican leadership in the house and and so i just said i
00:30:39.780 don't want you to be surprised you lean in and say let's go pass this bill and then it doesn't
00:30:44.880 pass and so trump said all right well then i'm not going to support it i don't want to support
00:30:48.360 something that doesn't have a path to passage and and so we're going to mark up a series of bills
00:30:53.800 i've told marcia if she wants me to mark up her bill we will i don't know if she will ask for it
00:30:58.620 not ask a politics question on this yeah how much of of of her bill is her pushing because she's
00:31:06.500 running for governor and really trying to get tennessee's hands on a lot of ai and ai infrastructure
00:31:12.040 and ai in the state not blame you for that but like is that part of this hardcore push where
00:31:17.380 you're in the senate you're going i understand both sides of this or am i reading the room wrong
00:31:21.360 so listen there are different components of it so let's take the different elements of the bill
00:31:25.900 The first bill is COSA, and COSA is a kid's safety bill.
00:31:29.620 It's a good bill.
00:31:30.980 I have supported it.
00:31:32.020 I've voted for it.
00:31:33.020 In the last Congress, it passed the Senate 93 to 3.
00:31:36.220 So I'm all for COSA.
00:31:37.840 I'm a yes, I want it to pass.
00:31:40.180 Here's the problem.
00:31:41.260 After it passed the Senate 93 to 3, it went to the House, and the House refused to take it up.
00:31:49.020 Why?
00:31:49.460 Because the Speaker of the House and Steve Scalise, the majority leader, opposed the bill.
00:31:55.440 And the bill puts what's called a duty of care on the tech companies, that if there's content that harms kids, they can be sued.
00:32:05.140 And the House leadership doesn't support that.
00:32:08.100 And so, look, frankly, what I told Marsha a year and a half ago is I said, listen, I'll back COSA again.
00:32:13.000 We can pass it again.
00:32:13.820 I'm fine with that.
00:32:15.620 But it will never become law until you sit down with Johnson and Scalise and work out an agreement.
00:32:21.480 because if they refuse to take up the bill you want to pass it again we can do it you'll get
00:32:26.160 100 and nothing it doesn't matter if they're not going to take it up if the house won't take it up
00:32:31.400 it's not going to become in the u.s code and so i i said what you need to do is sit down and
00:32:37.300 negotiate a compromise and it won't be everything you want but you need to find something the house
00:32:41.660 is willing to pass that hasn't happened so that's a real impediment i i'm going to vote for cosa i
00:32:47.560 I want COSA to pass, but right now the house is not going to take it up.
00:32:54.080 There's a second component, which is called the App Store Accountability App, which is putting liability on an App Store for age verification.
00:33:04.920 Now, there are a couple of problems with that.
00:33:06.840 Number one, there are tech companies like Meta, like Facebook that support it.
00:33:13.000 But Apple and Google hate it because they're the App Stores.
00:33:16.120 And they're like, wait, you're making me liable.
00:33:18.520 So Apple and Google don't like it.
00:33:20.340 And so they're both – the tech companies are divided.
00:33:22.700 They're lobbying on both sides.
00:33:24.740 And there's a competing bill that is called the Parents over Platforms Bill, which is frankly the Apple and Google bill.
00:33:34.100 And there are several Republicans on the committee that support that bill.
00:33:38.480 And so I said, look, this is just a pissing match between giant tech companies.
00:33:43.380 I'd like to see age verification.
00:33:45.260 I support age verification. I'm pushing for it. But every Democrat opposes age verification. 0.99
00:33:51.140 So I said, listen, it's a simple math. If you lose all the Democrats and if you're losing some Republicans, I don't see how this passes.
00:33:59.500 Like, it's just a math like like I'm not opposed to it. I will vote yes.
00:34:04.980 But how do you get to the votes to pass it? There is additionally her bill.
00:34:11.140 no fakes now no fakes i'm on the judiciary committee judiciary committee has already
00:34:15.040 passed no fakes it was a voice vote i was fine with it no fakes has a lot of good elements to
00:34:20.700 it so no fakes is protecting say you have a musician and someone uses ai to create a fake
00:34:27.020 song for a musician and makes you liable for that in politics by the way this is coming
00:34:32.880 it hasn't really happened yet but it's coming soon you're going to see someone create ai and
00:34:38.660 take a video of a politician a fake video and and be like we should eat live kittens
00:34:46.340 and and it's going to be you're not going to be able to tell that it's fake like like it's going 0.91
00:34:51.480 to appear to be the real public campaign that has to respond to a ridiculous absurd video
00:34:56.120 right and by the way amy klobuchar last year had a video of a hearing where where she said a bunch
00:35:01.800 of things that were derogatory that she would never have said but it looked entirely real
00:35:08.220 And she had to respond to that. That's going to explode a lot.
00:35:11.680 So finding some protections to say, look, someone can't use your name, image and likeness and create a counterfeit that nobody knows is fake.
00:35:22.140 I'm quite supportive of that. When the judiciary passed this bill, there were several Republicans, Mike Lee, Eric Schmidt and myself, who raised free speech concerns because the way the language is written is quite broad.
00:35:37.100 So, for example, Trump sent out the meme of Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer wearing sombreros singing.
00:35:45.860 Yes.
00:35:46.280 Now, that was parody.
00:35:48.200 It wasn't real.
00:35:50.340 And I've retweeted it and amplified it.
00:35:53.580 But there is an argument that under the language of no fakes, that could be banned.
00:36:00.040 Now, there is some language saying bonafide satire is okay, but there's a lot of gray area.
00:36:07.500 You think of Spencer Pratt and the hysterical ads he put out with Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass just like doing horrible things to people of California.
00:36:20.400 I have a concern that under the language of no fakes, the tech platforms would take down those ads because they'd say,
00:36:28.540 you're using gavin newsom's image in a way that he has not approved and so
00:36:34.540 my point was look i'd love to see this get done but i also want to protect free speech
00:36:40.840 so my point to the president was hey if you want to endorse this great i've got no problem with it
00:36:46.820 but you need to know that i don't see a path that this actually gets to pass in the senate take 60
00:36:54.680 votes given that i don't know of a single democrat supporting this bill and there may be republicans
00:37:01.980 opposing this bill the math doesn't work and so the president decided not not to support it listen
00:37:09.380 i i still expect that we will take up in the next couple of weeks a series of ai bills and by the
00:37:16.340 way we will do a podcast when we do that markup where we talk about the ai bills we pass but what
00:37:21.720 i'm trying to do right now is find all right let me use a kamala harris phrase the venn diagram
00:37:28.020 that is the intersection of what bills could make a positive impact protecting people from
00:37:35.840 some of the harms of ai yep but at the same time that have a real path to passage uh and so we'll
00:37:43.680 move several bills on that but but i'm trying to find exactly the right intersection right there
00:37:48.920 And so we had that conversation and the president agreed with me.
00:37:52.800 It's going to be very interesting to see AI is changing the world.
00:37:55.460 We've talked about a lot here.
00:37:56.480 We'll keep talking about it.
00:37:57.920 Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
00:37:59.980 Hit that subscribe or auto download button.
00:38:02.320 I love that you got to go to the World Cup and I love you got to have those memories with your daughter.
00:38:05.740 What a fun time for you guys.
00:38:07.180 And I'm glad you're back in D.C. getting to fight with the commies there.
00:38:10.640 And we will see you guys back here in a couple of days.