Verdict with Ted Cruz - Biden Stuns Nation by Deciding to Pull from 2024 Race

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.460 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.440 Joe Biden has officially dropped out of the presidential race.

00:00:09.760 Welcome.

00:00:10.240 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you on this special podcast.

00:00:15.700 Senator, you predicted this 10 months ago.

00:00:19.180 It has now become a reality.

00:00:21.180 Your initial reaction.

00:00:23.020 Well, today is an historic day.

00:00:25.020 We are 106 days out from the presidential election.

00:00:28.120 And the Democrat nominee for president, the sitting Democrat president, is out.

00:00:33.340 He will not be on the ballot.

00:00:34.600 He will not be the candidate.

00:00:36.260 At this point, the Democrat Party is in utter disarray.

00:00:39.880 Chaos is erupting.

00:00:41.700 We're going to break down exactly what is likely to happen next.

00:00:45.180 We're going to walk all through the steps to expect in the 160 days between now and Election Day.

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00:02:03.760 All right, Senator, so let's start with what's happened over the last week.

00:02:08.680 Democrats witnessed an incredible GOP convention.

00:02:11.460 You and I were there.

00:02:12.620 It's the most, I think, unity I've ever seen the Republican Party at a convention.

00:02:17.180 Undoubtedly.

00:02:17.860 And they were, I think, really concerned after the convention of a big bump.

00:02:23.360 How do you reset a race?

00:02:24.740 You get in your new candidate.

00:02:26.380 And I think they clearly saw that.

00:02:27.980 We saw the big five Democratic families and the media coalesce behind forcing him to get out.

00:02:34.160 I think some sort of deal had to happen to make sure that Joe Biden and his family are going to be taken care of.

00:02:39.400 Kamala Harris was the obvious choice. 0.98

00:02:41.880 That's now who he's endorsed.

00:02:43.360 And other Democrats seem to be jumping on board.

00:02:46.340 Well, listen, I think this was inevitable, as I said, as of the night of the debate.

00:02:51.960 But I think the momentum of it accelerated, number one, with the assassination attempt on President Trump.

00:02:58.900 Number two, with the very successful presidential convention we just had in Milwaukee, I think Democrats were in absolute panic.

00:03:07.680 They were in panic.

00:03:08.720 Earlier today, poll numbers came out of Michigan that had Trump leading Biden in Michigan by seven points.

00:03:14.420 You want to talk about something to put Democrats in cold sweats.

00:03:18.220 If they're losing Michigan by seven points, go ahead and pull the curtains down, roll up the rug.

00:03:23.020 It's all over.

00:03:24.780 That's why they did this.

00:03:27.120 That would have happened regardless, even if the debate had been, even if the convention, rather, had been bumpy.

00:03:33.160 Even if Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania had not happened, I believe we would still have Biden out of the race.

00:03:39.680 But the Democrats, we saw each of the major constituencies of the Democrat Party line up against Joe Biden and force him out.

00:03:48.080 He did not want to go.

00:03:49.100 He did not go willingly.

00:03:50.660 But one after the other, starting with Democrats in Congress, Nancy Pelosi came out against him.

00:03:57.880 Chuck Schumer came out against him.

00:03:59.540 Hakeem Jeffries came out against him.

00:04:01.220 And it was all self-interest.

00:04:02.600 All the Democrats in Congress were looking at their polls saying, holy cow, we're about to lose.

00:04:07.080 And they all lined up against him.

00:04:08.380 But you also saw you saw Barack Obama quietly coming out against him.

00:04:12.840 He put out a quick tweet in support of him.

00:04:14.560 But he also signed off on George Clooney representing Hollywood, abandoning him, saying, Joe, get out.

00:04:21.120 We saw the corporate media uniformly pushing him out.

00:04:25.040 We saw the donors pushing him out.

00:04:27.280 And the pressure became too much to bear.

00:04:29.900 One senator after another senator after another senator on the Democrat side.

00:04:34.880 Biden didn't have a choice.

00:04:36.460 But I will say it was very savvy of them to wait until after this convention.

00:04:40.700 Yeah.

00:04:41.160 But let's just first go with the news.

00:04:43.700 So today, here's what Joe Biden put out this afternoon.

00:04:48.280 This is the letter he put out.

00:04:49.620 He tweeted it out.

00:04:51.540 This screenshot is from 1246 p.m.

00:04:54.500 Interestingly enough, it had 95.9 million views already.

00:04:59.420 Yeah.

00:04:59.580 I just checked a minute ago where about two hours later, it was up to 161 million views.

00:05:05.080 This is his resignation letter.

00:05:07.220 And rather than you and me read it, which would be fine, but we'd have to say words that are demonstrably untrue, things claiming that Biden had actually done something well, that his record was something other than the train wreck it is.

00:05:20.220 Rather than you or me read it, I think we're better off engaging in a bit of schadenfreude.

00:05:25.740 And so watching Jen Psaki on MSNBC, former White House press secretary, Joe Biden's press secretary, having to carry the water. 0.69

00:05:34.560 And I got to say, look, since I said that there are a number of lies about his record, Jen Psaki is actually quite accomplished at reading lies.

00:05:40.880 But for those of you watching, this is a video pod.

00:05:43.800 So this is one.

00:05:45.080 We do this podcast three days a week.

00:05:46.940 All three of them are on audio.

00:05:48.360 Typically, one a week is on video.

00:05:50.640 This is one of the video and audio pods.

00:05:52.380 And I will say, if you're listening on audio, I'd encourage you to go to YouTube and watch it on video, because to watch Jen Psaki's face, you cannot fully appreciate the agony without watching it as she's reading these words.

00:06:06.540 And as we're watching the Democrat Party light itself on fire here, give a listen, give a watch.

00:06:16.300 We have breaking news here.

00:06:18.280 President Biden has announced he will stand down from the race.

00:06:21.560 I'm going to read the statement here.

00:06:23.640 Her expression, which is actually frozen on the screen right now.

00:06:27.280 She's about to cry.

00:06:28.380 Yeah.

00:06:28.600 I mean, she's like, what has just happened to my world?

00:06:30.920 No, no, no.

00:06:31.300 It is that.

00:06:34.640 All right.

00:06:35.040 Go ahead and keep playing.

00:06:36.440 We also have Tim Miller, who's going to be joining us shortly over the past.

00:06:41.360 My fellow Americans over the past three and a half years, we have made great progress as a nation.

00:06:46.380 Today, America has the strongest economy in the world.

00:06:50.060 We've made historic investments in rebuilding our nation, in lowering prescription drug costs for seniors and in expanding affordable health care to a record number of Americans.

00:07:01.160 We've provided critically needed care to a million veterans exposed to toxic substances past the first.

00:07:08.960 Thank you so much.

00:07:09.720 I'm just going to read off the paper here past the first safety law in 30 years, appointed the first African-American woman to the Supreme Court and passed the most significant climate legislation in the history of the world.

00:07:21.380 I mean, really?

00:07:23.760 That's I mean, she just goes straight into it and is like totally lost.

00:07:27.760 Like what just happened to us?

00:07:29.600 Well, Joe Biden has suspended, as you and I predicted 10 months ago, as you and I predicted a month ago on the debate.

00:07:38.460 And he will not be on the ballot.

00:07:40.920 That has never happened before.

00:07:43.540 You know, the closest analog is the 1968 Democrat Convention, which was in Chicago as well.

00:07:50.040 That is the last time you had an incumbent Democrat president in that case, Lyndon B. Johnson.

00:07:55.620 Yeah.

00:07:56.180 Not run for reelection.

00:07:57.640 Now, Lyndon B. Johnson, why did he not run for reelection?

00:07:59.980 A big part of it is he'd lost the support of the American people.

00:08:03.220 He'd lost the support of Republicans, of independents and Democrats.

00:08:05.680 And when you lose all of them, there ain't nobody left.

00:08:07.940 It was the middle of the Vietnam War.

00:08:10.900 Unlike Joe Biden, it was not that he was too old.

00:08:13.280 It was just that he was physically worn down and tired and he'd lost the American people.

00:08:17.520 And so LBJ didn't run.

00:08:19.280 And you had you want to talk about an incredibly contentious election.

00:08:23.240 In that election, there was a guy named Robert F. Kennedy who was running.

00:08:26.940 That tragically is the election cycle where Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in the course of the cycle.

00:08:32.340 But he was for a period the rising star.

00:08:35.240 You ended up having LBJ's vice president, Hubert Humphrey, got the nomination.

00:08:42.300 But it was an incredibly close and contested race because you had you had a challenge from the left and a challenge from the left over Vietnam.

00:08:54.080 A chaotic convention.

00:08:57.340 And outside, you had rabid protesters engaged in violence and rioting.

00:09:04.020 I think we may literally be seeing history repeating itself.

00:09:07.400 Let's talk about and there's two aspects of what I'm about to ask you.

00:09:10.560 Number one, we see early on, I think the front runner is Kamala Harris. 0.99

00:09:16.420 We see people coalescing behind her.

00:09:19.100 But the real question is, how did she get that support so quickly from this president?

00:09:24.820 What is the deal that's being done behind the scenes?

00:09:27.760 Was this the White House staffers making sure, hey, I want to stay in and keep my power.

00:09:32.680 I have a better chance keeping it with Kamala than going with somebody else.

00:09:35.740 All these people in jobs and around Biden and Harris are like, hey, I can keep my power if she's the person.

00:09:42.460 Or was it, hey, he's he's saying, OK, I trust you, Kamala, to take care of me, protect my son, possibly give out clemency or pardons that may be needed down the road.

00:09:51.940 How did the sausage get made on this deal?

00:09:53.880 All right. Well, let's go back to Biden's resignation letter.

00:09:57.500 Put that back up there.

00:09:58.380 If you look at the resignation letter that when he put it out earlier today, he says, and I'm going to finish reading from from where we cut off on Jen Psaki.

00:10:09.480 It's been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president. 0.99

00:10:11.900 And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, the damn Democrats drove out of office. 0.99

00:10:16.180 No, you didn't say that. 0.99

00:10:17.280 He says, I believe it is in the best interest of my party.

00:10:21.220 Notice his party first.

00:10:22.660 Yep.

00:10:22.760 And the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.

00:10:30.520 I will speak to the nation later this week in more detail about my decision.

00:10:34.740 For now, let me express my deepest gratitude to all those who work so hard to see me reelected.

00:10:41.600 I want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner in all this work.

00:10:48.100 And let me express my heartfelt appreciation to the American people for the faith and trust you have placed in me.

00:10:54.340 Now, interestingly enough, in this resignation letter, you notice what he doesn't do.

00:10:59.620 I fully endorse.

00:11:00.640 He doesn't mention endorsement at all.

00:11:02.180 He says, I want to thank Kamala Harris.

00:11:04.460 And he's silent.

00:11:06.460 Now, he puts that out.

00:11:07.820 And I'm assuming when he puts that out, the powers that be in the White House and in the Democratic Party freaked the hell out.

00:11:14.760 Yeah, lost their minds.

00:11:15.620 Lost their minds.

00:11:17.120 And so shortly thereafter, look at the tweet he put out as a follow-up.

00:11:20.560 Like, it says something.

00:11:22.180 Your resignation letter, it's kind of odd to need a follow-up.

00:11:25.460 And then a quick follow-up at that.

00:11:27.020 Very quick follow-up.

00:11:28.220 But there was enough time.

00:11:30.000 That other one was 1246.

00:11:31.360 This is 113.

00:11:32.480 So, you know, time passed.

00:11:34.620 And then he sends out another tweet.

00:11:35.820 My fellow Democrats, I've decided not to accept the nomination to focus all my energies on my duties as president for the remainder of my term.

00:11:42.340 Notice that was in his letter.

00:11:43.840 Yep.

00:11:44.040 My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my vice president.

00:11:49.440 And it's the best decision I've made.

00:11:52.560 Today, I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year.

00:11:57.240 Democrats, it's time to come together and beat Trump.

00:12:00.060 Let's do this.

00:12:02.140 So, delayed reaction.

00:12:03.740 So, at this point, Kamala is clearly the frontrunner.

00:12:08.860 Joe Biden is explicitly supporting her.

00:12:10.860 In the time that followed, Bill Clinton came out in support of her.

00:12:16.520 Hillary Clinton came out in support of her.

00:12:19.220 Alex Soros has come out in support of her.

00:12:21.380 Alex, by the way, may be one of the most important actual endorsements because it's follow the money.

00:12:25.460 Well, and look, George Soros has been the most important donor behind not just the Democrat Party, but the radical leftists, the cultural Marxists, the anti-Semitic protesters on campus.

00:12:40.240 Soros has been funding all of that.

00:12:41.740 But, according to multiple reports, George Soros' mental condition and mental deterioration is at least where Biden's is, if not substantially worse.

00:12:52.720 And it's the son, Alex Soros, is the one that's now making the decision.

00:12:56.640 So, understand, when Alex Soros tweets out that he's behind Kamala Harris, what he's saying is the money is behind Kamala Harris.

00:13:04.140 You're going to see a lot of that.

00:13:05.620 Now, interestingly enough, there are some other Democrats who are not quick to get on board.

00:13:12.760 So, for example, take a look at what Gavin Newsom tweeted.

00:13:15.840 President Biden has been an extraordinary history-making president, a leader who has fought hard for working people and delivered astonishing results for all Americans.

00:13:23.620 He will go down in history as one of the most impactful and selfless presidents.

00:13:27.480 Thank you, Joe Biden.

00:13:29.040 Yeah, there's not much of an endorsement there, is there?

00:13:31.060 Whose name's not there?

00:13:32.040 Yeah, Kamala.

00:13:33.040 And interesting enough, now look, Gavin is not lacking in ambition.

00:13:40.960 That's a very PC way of putting it.

00:13:43.520 I like that.

00:13:45.400 He's like, let's go to the convention and let's have this thing out.

00:13:48.260 It'll be interesting.

00:13:49.240 And by the way, earlier today, there was all sorts of chatter that Hillary Clinton was going to make a play for this.

00:13:55.440 It is interesting that she and Bill came out very quickly and said, let's get behind Kamala.

00:14:03.860 You're going to see lots of chatter.

00:14:06.040 There are Democrats talking about wanting to have a, you know, open convention, a sort of mini primary battle, have the delegates decide.

00:14:15.160 Under DNC rules, initially, the delegates will vote.

00:14:19.420 It's being speculated that Biden will release his delegates and say, vote for whom you want.

00:14:24.300 And there may be a process.

00:14:25.600 They may do a process where Kamala runs and a handful of other people run and they have a first ballot.

00:14:33.040 But under the DNC rules, the so-called superdelegates, those include things like governors, things like senators, they don't vote until the second ballot.

00:14:41.620 So the first ballot is the actual elected delegates.

00:14:44.200 And if they were elected to support Joe Biden, if they've been released, I don't know.

00:14:48.180 They can do whatever they want.

00:14:48.860 They can do whatever they want.

00:14:52.520 I think at the end of the day, there's going to be a little bit of noise.

00:14:55.760 There's going to be a little bit of squawking. 0.78

00:14:57.360 But I stand by my prediction from day one that there is one person and one person only for whom the Democrats will be willing to push Kamala Harris aside, and that is Michelle Obama.

00:15:07.800 It doesn't appear right now that Michelle is willing to get in.

00:15:11.380 Now, that could be an August surprise.

00:15:14.300 We've got nearly a month until the Democrat convention.

00:15:18.240 Can we just talk horse trading so people understand what this is going to look like for the next 30 days behind the scenes?

00:15:24.440 Delegates now have the power to pick who the president could be.

00:15:28.240 Yep.

00:15:29.100 And by the way, why is that? 0.99

00:15:30.680 Because the Democrat Party, look, they knew that Joe Biden was mentally incompetent. 0.96

00:15:35.400 They knew a year ago. 0.97

00:15:36.260 They ran him anyway.

00:15:37.160 They had the voters, all the Democrat voters come vote for him, even though they knew he was mentally incompetent, that he couldn't do the job now, he couldn't do the job then.

00:15:43.840 But they wanted power.

00:15:45.300 The only thing that changed is with the debate, it became untenable.

00:15:49.280 The American people realized this guy is not capable of doing the job anymore.

00:15:54.500 It was only because they feared they were going to lose that the Democrats have abandoned him.

00:15:58.940 But the consequence of that is the Democrats were perfectly fine with Democrat primary voters being completely disenfranchised.

00:16:05.600 You will not get to select the Democrat nominee.

00:16:08.520 Yeah.

00:16:08.740 This person will be elected by no one in the public.

00:16:11.740 It will all be done with horse trading that could happen behind the scenes.

00:16:14.860 A handful of elites, a handful of special interests, which actually is pretty typical of who the Democrat Party is.

00:16:21.380 Actually true.

00:16:21.820 I mean, the irony is that they engage in Freudian projection at an historic level where everything they accuse their opponents of is what they're doing.

00:16:31.120 But Democrat primary voters will have no say in who the nominee is.

00:16:35.420 It will be power brokers in Chicago.

00:16:37.740 So so let's just paint behind the scenes so people understand the corruption that can come out of this.

00:16:43.780 If you need delegates to get the nomination and you coalesce in smaller groups and then you go forward and say, hey, I'm so and so I'm representing 35 people in this state, California.

00:16:56.300 You can't win without us.

00:16:57.900 I would like this and this person would like this and this person would like this and this person would like this and their kids would like these jobs in the White House.

00:17:06.540 If you give us this, you get all of our votes.

00:17:09.320 That is exactly what we've seen happen at state level.

00:17:12.900 We've seen corruption happen in a way when they're replacing a seat.

00:17:15.820 Hey, Rod Lagojevich went to jail for basically selling a Senate seat.

00:17:19.560 This is going to happen now.

00:17:21.140 A hundred thousand times over.

00:17:22.640 And by the way, put on top of that, the big labor unions and the big money players in the Democrat Party and the Sierra Club and the pro abortion groups and all of the different.

00:17:34.640 The Democrat Party today is is a coalition of rent seekers, of people who make their money suckling off the teat of government.

00:17:44.580 That's who they are.

00:17:45.860 And it is all about power and influence.

00:17:48.000 Many of them, the reason they were willing to back someone who was obviously not mentally competent to be president is because they all stayed in power.

00:17:55.300 Now, suddenly, Joe Biden is going to be gone.

00:17:57.940 And so they're all desperately scrambling.

00:18:00.280 How do I keep my power?

00:18:01.880 And we're going to see that play out.

00:18:04.340 What I think will happen at the end of the day, I think, number one, the Democrats are too much of racial and gender bean counters to push an African-American woman aside for a white guy.

00:18:14.980 So anyone looking at Gavin Newsom or anyone else, I just don't think that's going to happen.

00:18:18.040 Yeah, I agree.

00:18:18.700 That's why I think Michelle Obama is the only person who could push her aside.

00:18:23.700 And at least right now, it does not seem Michelle is trying to do that.

00:18:27.540 If it's not Michelle, I think we will see Kamala Harris. 1.00

00:18:30.960 And I think the real battle is going to be who the VP is.

00:18:33.800 I want to ask you about the VP.

00:18:34.960 But before we get to that, is it fair to say that this might be the most corrupt picking of a presidential candidate in modern political history because of the time that people have to build their power and to basically, in essence, sell their vote?

00:18:51.360 And it's perhaps now to be fair, it hasn't happened yet, but it's all going to be behind closed doors.

00:18:56.360 That's that's not going to be the voters.

00:18:58.420 It's not going to be in public.

00:18:59.540 It's one thing if you campaign look at some level, you could say all campaigns are in a way about buying votes.

00:19:05.860 If you campaign and say, I'm for Medicare for all for socialized medicine, you're saying the Democrats are big on being the Santa Claus party.

00:19:12.860 We'll give you free stuff if you vote for us.

00:19:15.640 That's one thing.

00:19:17.080 Different level.

00:19:17.740 It's a totally different.

00:19:18.900 If you make a public promise in the press that I will support a law that that that has broad effect.

00:19:25.520 You know, Joe Biden, I'm going to give away a trillion dollars to to people who have student loans.

00:19:29.920 Yeah. Vote for me.

00:19:30.820 I'm buying your vote.

00:19:31.660 That is very different from, you know, Ben, you control a pocket of votes.

00:19:36.600 You ever thought of being secretary of the Navy?

00:19:39.000 Yeah.

00:19:39.360 You like votes.

00:19:40.220 Yeah. Or I hear there's a great house in this country and an ambassadorship.

00:19:43.660 There's really fun.

00:19:44.880 I mean, it's we're going to see that happening every day.

00:19:49.980 Now, mind you, you're going to get competing people making those promises.

00:19:53.640 Yeah. And in terms of the vice president, that's going to be part of the negotiation is who Kamala teams up with to try to lock down, lock down the the power brokers in the Democrat Party. 1.00

00:20:08.600 And one question is, does she try to quickly buy off whoever she thinks her most formidable adversary is? 0.73

00:20:14.360 Possibly.

00:20:14.760 Does she try to get all of the potential adversaries to compete, wooing for her affection? 1.00

00:20:22.860 More likely.

00:20:24.600 But it's going to take an entire month playing out for us to see.

00:20:27.880 Well, and can you promise someone the vice presidency so they don't challenge you?

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00:21:57.680 Let's talk about VP.

00:22:00.060 Forget what we just went through. 0.99

00:22:01.620 Holy crap. 0.99

00:22:02.900 Somebody who was never on a ballot. 0.99

00:22:05.940 Yep.

00:22:06.540 That no one's ever voted for for vice president is all of a sudden going to become the vice president of the United States of America.

00:22:13.080 Possibly.

00:22:13.720 Certainly will be the nominee for the Democratic Party.

00:22:16.860 How do they pick?

00:22:18.220 I don't think a lot of people understand this.

00:22:19.920 Like, it's confusing enough picking the now Kamala Harris or whoever it's going to be. 0.89

00:22:24.720 But let's say it is Kamala.

00:22:26.280 It's a little bit more orderly.

00:22:28.420 How the hell are we going to get the vice presidential pick for the Democratic Party?

00:22:31.740 How does that work?

00:22:33.000 Look, they're going to decide who brings the most to the ticket.

00:22:36.980 Often you look at geographic concerns.

00:22:39.540 Will someone put a state into play?

00:22:41.200 Will someone be beneficial?

00:22:42.840 Sometimes you look to things like, is someone a great fundraiser?

00:22:45.840 Will they bring a bunch of donors?

00:22:47.020 Will they bring other interest groups on board?

00:22:48.960 Sometimes you look to neutralize someone who's a potential opponent.

00:22:52.100 In this instance, I think the Democrats are 100% about race and gender.

00:22:58.200 It's how they think.

00:22:58.960 It's how they're wired.

00:23:00.100 They don't look at individuals.

00:23:01.160 It's DEI.

00:23:02.060 So, it is DEI. 0.99

00:23:03.840 I think the VP nominee will be a boring white guy. 0.98

00:23:07.080 That's my prediction. 0.99

00:23:08.040 And they actually have a number of boring white guys. 0.94

00:23:10.980 So, they have a broad array to pick from. 0.95

00:23:13.640 So, who picks it?

00:23:14.800 Is it the person who gets the nomination?

00:23:16.800 Yeah, it's Kamala.

00:23:17.100 Or is it?

00:23:17.660 So, there's no voting by the delegate so people understand the process.

00:23:21.060 It will be, my guess is Kamala will announce who her VP is going to be before they vote. 0.99

00:23:28.740 It could conceivably be afterwards.

00:23:30.440 It depends.

00:23:31.560 If there's a real contested battle.

00:23:34.780 At the convention.

00:23:35.820 Then maybe she doesn't announce it until after she's the nominee.

00:23:40.480 Typically, the way it happens is the nominee is sewn up before the convention.

00:23:44.520 It's been a long time since we've had a contested convention.

00:23:47.480 And there's been uncertainty as to who the nominee is going to be.

00:23:52.500 If the vote is really contentious and it's a drag-out knockdown at the convention, you're saying there's a legit possibility that whoever comes away with it will barely survive that.

00:24:03.620 They get the nomination.

00:24:04.380 They say, hey, in a week or two, I'll tell you who my VP is going to be?

00:24:06.720 No, no, no.

00:24:07.140 I think it would be at the convention.

00:24:08.420 I think it would be immediately thereafter.

00:24:10.080 And if there is a real fight, I mean, one thing that has happened, you know, you could go to whoever's number two and say, look, I'll make you VP if you drop out and endorse me.

00:24:18.640 And that could be how you lock up the votes.

00:24:20.620 I don't think it'll come to that.

00:24:22.180 I actually think people will coalesce around Kamala more quickly than that.

00:24:26.240 Who's the frontrunner then right now in your mind?

00:24:27.960 I mean, obviously, this could change in a couple weeks.

00:24:30.100 But if Kamala is the person.

00:24:31.800 I'm going to give you two names.

00:24:33.020 And why?

00:24:34.520 Josh Shapiro.

00:24:35.720 Okay.

00:24:36.060 And tell people that don't know Josh who he is.

00:24:38.200 He is the governor of Pennsylvania.

00:24:40.120 He is widely perceived as a moderate.

00:24:42.940 He is Jewish.

00:24:44.040 He was attorney general in Pennsylvania.

00:24:48.960 I think what is compelling is, number one, Shapiro has strong polling numbers in Pennsylvania.

00:24:56.020 If the Democrats can win Pennsylvania, the path to Trump winning becomes much, much harder.

00:25:01.880 He's also perceived as a moderate.

00:25:05.440 And I think actually naming a Jewish Democrat would help tamp down some of the anti-Semitic that they've been dealing with the last several months.

00:25:14.160 Yes.

00:25:14.400 And so I think all of that, if you're sitting there around Kamala, that's attractive.

00:25:20.120 A second choice that I think is also very attractive as a VP is Mark Kelly.

00:25:24.600 Mark Kelly is senator from Arizona.

00:25:27.400 Yeah.

00:25:27.820 Mark Kelly is a Navy veteran.

00:25:30.160 Mark Kelly is a former astronaut.

00:25:31.900 He's been to space.

00:25:33.400 He's also got a fame factor to him.

00:25:34.960 Yeah, and Mark Kelly is also affable, and he seems reasonable.

00:25:40.000 He doesn't seem crazy.

00:25:41.920 When you talk with him, I like Mark Kelly personally.

00:25:45.260 He's someone – he's like a Joe Manchin.

00:25:47.360 It won't be Joe Manchin, but he's someone who his affect, his demeanor is very affable.

00:25:52.840 And if you met him on the street, you wouldn't think the guy was a Democrat.

00:25:56.480 You wouldn't think that he voted with a loony left on almost everything because he seems like a normal guy.

00:26:01.740 Anyway, I think that would be very attractive.

00:26:05.180 In Arizona, it is not as vital a swing state as Pennsylvania.

00:26:09.680 It doesn't have nearly as many electoral votes.

00:26:11.840 But Arizona is certainly a battleground state, and Mark Kelly on the ballot could help.

00:26:17.180 I would put those two as the top two.

00:26:19.800 I've got to ask, then, where's Gavin Newsom?

00:26:21.500 Is he number three if you're going for a white guy?

00:26:24.760 The argument they would say is – some would say is he brings you California, but the reality is they got California anyway.

00:26:30.320 Exactly.

00:26:30.640 So if they go Gavin Newsom, it's a combination of two things.

00:26:34.080 One, money.

00:26:35.480 Okay.

00:26:35.960 And Newsom's got a bunch of donors who love him who will write checks.

00:26:39.280 And California is the ATM of the Democrat Party.

00:26:42.880 And so now Kamala is a Californian, so she's got a lot of that money behind her also. 1.00

00:26:49.260 But it neutralizes him too, right?

00:26:51.320 Wouldn't that be the perk?

00:26:52.220 Because then she doesn't have to worry about him in four years?

00:26:54.580 Potentially, although she doesn't worry about him in four years.

00:26:57.380 If she's the incumbent president, he's not going to primary her.

00:27:01.160 If she gets this and gets elected, Newsom doesn't get to run for eight years.

00:27:05.140 That's just – it just –

00:27:06.180 That's how it's going to work.

00:27:07.180 Knocks that down the road.

00:27:09.560 Look, Newsom, I think, is perceived as too liberal.

00:27:14.200 My guess is they're not going to be that worried about money.

00:27:16.880 And the other reason you would go with Newsom is he's talented.

00:27:19.380 I mean, he is a snake oil salesman par excellence.

00:27:23.400 He's a communicator.

00:27:24.400 He's slick.

00:27:25.440 He can take –

00:27:25.960 He'd be a great campaigner because people would show up to see him in the Democratic Party.

00:27:28.840 That's important too, right?

00:27:30.140 I mean, you have an event and your VP is popular.

00:27:34.480 That's good for your campaign.

00:27:36.740 Look, and in many ways he would overshadow Kamala.

00:27:40.180 It reminds me, back in the 1988 election, I remember Saturday Night Live was making fun.

00:27:47.000 We were getting really close to the election and you had George Bush and Dan Quayle.

00:27:51.120 And look, people had ridiculed Dan Quayle enormously.

00:27:53.940 And so what SNL did is the ballots, is the parties have requested they be printed.

00:27:59.980 And the Republican side had Bush in giant letters and Quayle in tiny little letters. 0.76

00:28:03.680 And then on the Democrat side, you had Michael Dukakis who rode in a tank with a helmet and looked ridiculous.

00:28:09.700 And then Lloyd Benson, who was a Texas senator, who was moderate, well-received, was going over well.

00:28:15.720 SNL did the ballot of Dukakis, tiny little letter, and Benson.

00:28:19.620 Yeah.

00:28:21.160 That could happen with Kamala. 0.98

00:28:22.820 One thing Kamala could be worried about is the risk that Gavin would overshadow her.

00:28:27.740 And that's why I think Shapiro or Kelly are more likely.

00:28:31.020 I'd be surprised.

00:28:32.340 I don't think she needs the money. 0.70

00:28:35.900 And I think the downside she would perceive is greater.

00:28:39.120 All right.

00:28:39.360 Let's talk about the media because what we're going to see right now, and this is my biggest concern.

00:28:45.080 You and I talked about this in Milwaukee.

00:28:47.340 If Biden dropped out, now it's Biden has dropped out.

00:28:50.740 It's a complete reset.

00:28:52.680 Yes.

00:28:53.060 Of this presidential campaign.

00:28:55.300 The polls, and I want to be very clear to our audience, this is my opinion.

00:28:58.660 I don't know if you agree with me or not.

00:28:59.780 I want to know your take on it, are completely meaningless and worthless right now.

00:29:04.300 The only poll that's going to matter is the first poll after we find out who the Democrats actually pick.

00:29:10.160 Because it's a reset.

00:29:10.840 Even that poll's not going to matter.

00:29:12.820 And listen, this is something you and I talked about in our last podcast.

00:29:17.220 We did two podcasts live from the convention.

00:29:20.800 I love the convention.

00:29:22.100 It was a blast.

00:29:22.820 It's the best Republican convention I've ever seen.

00:29:26.300 More unity than I've ever seen.

00:29:27.920 However, I was very worried at the convention, and I expressed this to you at the time, which

00:29:33.820 is I am afraid people were overconfident at the convention.

00:29:37.260 There was an air of celebration.

00:29:40.460 It was we've won.

00:29:41.620 We're on to victory.

00:29:43.000 This is a landslide.

00:29:44.220 Trump's coming back in.

00:29:45.380 We've got a huge Republican majority.

00:29:47.120 You heard people talking about 55, 56 Republican senators, huge Republican House.

00:29:52.560 Like people were planning, people were talking about, all right, who's going to be Secretary

00:29:56.540 of State?

00:29:56.900 Who's going to be Secretary of Defense?

00:29:57.920 Like they're handing out-

00:29:59.200 Already moved on.

00:30:00.040 Yeah.

00:30:00.580 We won, and now what's next?

00:30:02.160 And that's not the case.

00:30:03.380 And my view, and I was trying to say this is, look, there's a time for celebration.

00:30:08.340 Celebrate after Election Day.

00:30:10.000 Celebrate after we've won.

00:30:11.220 Now is not the time for celebration.

00:30:13.160 Now's the time for hard work.

00:30:14.420 Now's the time for rolling up your sleeves and going to win.

00:30:17.280 And my assumption is coming out of the convention, Republicans will get a little bounce.

00:30:22.200 You know, historically, it's about four points is what you get out of your convention.

00:30:25.920 I think it was a strong convention.

00:30:27.240 So let's assume that happens.

00:30:29.620 The Democrats, and I will give them credit for one thing, their timing of releasing it

00:30:33.340 right after the convention.

00:30:35.120 Perfect timing to do this because it resets the whole race. 1.00

00:30:40.460 It almost doesn't matter what the bounce was out of the convention.

00:30:44.180 And here's the problem.

00:30:45.080 For the next month, all of the news is going to be dominated

00:30:50.240 by who the Democrat is going to be.

00:30:52.840 The Democrats are about to have a month-long convention.

00:30:55.660 Instead of a week, why do you get a bounce out of a convention?

00:30:58.260 You get a bounce out of a convention because you have four days of driving the news,

00:31:01.800 the earned media every night of your people on TV, pitching all of the benefits of your

00:31:07.320 nominee, all the benefits of your record, all the benefits of your agenda.

00:31:10.920 Instead of a four-day convention, the Democrats are about to have a month-long convention

00:31:14.240 where every news story will be focused on who the nominee is going to be.

00:31:18.880 And they're also going to be doing a combination of, number one, praising Biden.

00:31:23.540 You know, it's not graceful.

00:31:25.620 Two, he's on his way out.

00:31:27.960 People don't want to criticize him anymore.

00:31:29.400 They're going to say he did this for America.

00:31:30.840 He's historic.

00:31:31.840 He's one of the greatest presidents in the history of the universe.

00:31:34.040 I mean, you're going to hear all of that effusively.

00:31:37.920 And then they're going to talk about what an historic president Kamala Harris would be.

00:31:41.540 And it's going to be a month long.

00:31:44.360 We're going to see.

00:31:45.820 Multi, I would argue, multi-billion dollar in-kind contribution.

00:31:49.300 And by the way, Republicans, I worry, vastly underestimate Kamala Harris.

00:31:56.160 They don't think very highly of her.

00:31:57.980 They don't think she's terribly bright.

00:31:59.860 When you or I bring up Kamala Harris's name in Republican circles, people laugh.

00:32:04.640 It's immediately a punchline.

00:32:05.820 I think people are underestimating what billions of dollars of free media, of the entire corrupt corporate media complex, pitching her as a combination of Mother Teresa, Oprah, and Gandhi. 0.98

00:32:21.740 And save the party.

00:32:23.520 It's going to be—

00:32:24.160 And young and vibrant.

00:32:25.920 And it's historic.

00:32:26.980 I mean, it is going to be—

00:32:29.920 Now, I still think Trump wins in November.

00:32:34.140 But this is not a layup.

00:32:36.060 It is not given.

00:32:37.160 And what's coming in front of us—

00:32:38.580 Look, if you're a Democrat, what makes you nervous is chaos.

00:32:41.220 And this much chaos 100 days out is scary.

00:32:44.920 But you know what?

00:32:46.820 Even more scary is going to an election where you're almost certain to lose, which is where Biden was.

00:32:51.180 So from their perspective, chaos and a chance to win or certain loss, they'll take chaos.

00:32:57.680 But Republicans need to understand just how dangerous this is.

00:33:00.660 It's all perspective in life.

00:33:02.420 And I said this earlier.

00:33:03.320 It's like you're on the greatest cruise ship in the world, and that cruise ship's going down, and a crappy little fishing boat shows up, and it saves your life.

00:33:10.660 You love that crappy fishing boat the rest of your life.

00:33:13.260 It doesn't matter how bad it looks, how ugly it was. 0.73

00:33:15.620 You just got your life saved.

00:33:17.540 And that's Kamala Harris.

00:33:18.640 Not a good candidate when she ran. 0.93

00:33:20.180 I'm so confident that you do not have a career as a Democrat politics ad maker.

00:33:24.500 I can see the ad now. 0.98

00:33:26.020 Kamala Harris, the crappy fishing boat to save your life. 1.00

00:33:29.020 To save your life. 0.86

00:33:29.700 But it's perspective.

00:33:30.780 I mean, that's what they're dealing with.

00:33:32.420 I'm not sure that fits in a bunch of people.

00:33:33.340 I know, right?

00:33:33.880 But she didn't even make it—I mean, I go back to when she was running.

00:33:36.920 She got zero delegates.

00:33:38.220 Correct.

00:33:38.720 And she was a terrible candidate. 0.53

00:33:40.220 But when you're now in the position of that boat sinking, and I'm the only one that doesn't have a hole in the boat,

00:33:46.300 I'm pretty appealing to everybody on that boat, and I love you, and I'm willing to swim to you,

00:33:52.520 and I'm willing to hug you and kiss you and say thank you for saving my life.

00:33:56.260 It's all perspective.

00:33:57.400 And that's what the media is going to do to her is say she just saved us from guaranteed defeat. 1.00

00:34:03.620 She is a savior to the Democratic Party.

00:34:05.740 We love her, and they're all going to be energized.

00:34:08.900 That terrifies me.

00:34:10.360 Yeah, energized, and once she's the nominee, unified.

00:34:14.960 You know, one thing to keep in mind, people are focused on, oh, money, and Trump has a money advantage.

00:34:20.700 Put yourself in the mindset of a Democrat gazillionaire, of a Democrat activist, of a Democrat union boss,

00:34:28.880 of a Democrat special interest leader.

00:34:31.280 Remember, a week ago, you were depressed, you were demoralizing, you were contemplating America run by Hitler. 0.94

00:34:39.240 And by the way, if you're one of those people, you think Donald Trump is Adolf Hitler.

00:34:42.400 Yeah.

00:34:43.060 But like you were just, I don't even know if I want to show up and vote.

00:34:46.200 It's terrible.

00:34:46.760 It's horrible.

00:34:47.700 And now, to go back to the sinking cruise ship, you've been thrown a lifeline.

00:34:53.920 I think we're going to see jubilation on the Democrat side.

00:34:58.040 That's dangerous, too.

00:34:59.120 You know, jubilation, what happens is donors pull out their checks, and they write really big checks when they're jubilant.

00:35:04.120 Massive.

00:35:04.720 What happens is activists go, and they work harder.

00:35:07.740 They turn more people out.

00:35:09.520 And that, particularly if the Republicans are overconfident, we cannot be overconfident.

00:35:16.220 That combination is dangerous.

00:35:17.840 And you know what it reminds me of?

00:35:20.060 Potentially, I hope this is not right, but it reminds me of a few years ago, the A&M versus Alabama game.

00:35:25.380 I was there at the A&M versus Alabama game.

00:35:27.500 Alabama, at the time, was the number one team in the country.

00:35:29.800 You had me at sports analogy.

00:35:31.020 I'm all in now.

00:35:32.120 A&M.

00:35:32.640 A&M had started off as a top 25 team.

00:35:35.320 It had a good team, but it had lost two games in a row to opponents it wasn't supposed to lose.

00:35:41.620 I think maybe Mississippi State.

00:35:42.920 Yeah, it was bad.

00:35:43.780 It was bad.

00:35:44.400 And so we came into the game, and I was there in College Station, and I remember saying to my buddies I was at the game with, I said, you know what? 0.98

00:35:52.280 I think A&M has a real chance to win this game because I think Alabama is feeling like we're the number one team in the country, and these A&M guys suck.

00:36:01.440 Look, they're losing to teams that are not contenders. 0.89

00:36:05.540 This is easy.

00:36:06.360 We're playing a junior high team.

00:36:08.220 And I think the Aggies were pissed off.

00:36:10.360 They were at Kyle Field, and they were defending their home, and they were mad because everyone was dismissing them as a joke.

00:36:15.780 And they're like, wait a second, we're a top-tier football team, and they ended up winning that game.

00:36:21.940 It was awesome.

00:36:23.220 41-38 was the final score.

00:36:25.540 Kyle Field erupted.

00:36:27.780 I don't want to see the Democrats playing the role of A&M in that dynamic.

00:36:32.380 And so my message to Republicans is do not behave like this is in the bag because that's one of the easiest ways to ensure it's not in the bag.

00:36:40.820 I want to ask you a strategy question on if you are the Trump team, what do you do when you just start acting like you're running against Harris?

00:36:48.680 Before you answer that, I want to tell you about our friends over at Preborn and the incredible work that they are doing and how you can get involved.

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00:38:22.860 Senator, if you are Donald Trump, you now know that Biden is gone.

00:38:28.700 The number one question that the campaign's got to ask is, how do you campaign against somebody for the next month that you don't know who it's going to be?

00:38:37.440 So, look, I'd say 40 percent you campaign against Kamala Harris.

00:38:41.460 You assume it's Kamala.

00:38:42.920 And 60 percent you campaign against the Democrats record.

00:38:46.080 And I will say I've been concerned in recent weeks and months that we've spent too much time attacking Joe Biden for his mental diminishment.

00:38:55.320 And not enough time making the case, as you and I often do, that the Biden-Harris Democrat record has been a train wreck.

00:39:03.380 And I say Democrat record because it's not just Joe Biden.

00:39:05.800 It's Kamala Harris.

00:39:06.700 And it's every single Democrat in Congress, every Democrat senator, every Democrat House member.

00:39:10.780 They voted repeatedly in favor of the spending and the debt that is causing inflation.

00:39:15.380 They voted repeatedly in favor of Biden's war on oil and gas and energy that is causing energy prices to skyrocket.

00:39:21.700 They voted repeatedly in favor of open borders that's endangering our families across this country.

00:39:26.360 They voted repeatedly in favor of letting violent criminals out of jail that is, again, endangering our families.

00:39:31.520 They voted repeatedly in favor of appeasing our enemies and undermining our allies.

00:39:38.160 And so from the Trump's campaign, I would assume it's Kamala, but also make the broader point it is their agenda that has failed the American people.

00:39:47.880 The classic question in any election, are you better off now than you were four years ago?

00:39:51.880 It doesn't matter what fill-in-the-blank Democrat they drop into that slot.

00:39:57.320 They're going to be defending the same disastrous failed record.

00:40:00.680 And so I hope the Trump campaign and I hope Republicans generally make that case substantively on the merits.

00:40:08.600 It's going to be interesting.

00:40:09.940 We're going to cover it all.

00:40:11.540 Make sure you share this podcast with your family and friends.

00:40:14.840 Share the video on social media from YouTube.

00:40:17.780 It's also up on Facebook.

00:40:19.200 You can share it there as well so that you can have other people hear what we were saying here today.

00:40:24.540 When this type of news breaks, we do a podcast as fast as we can.

00:40:29.160 It's an emergency pod.

00:40:30.380 Yes, sir.

00:40:30.520 Let me make a final statement.

00:40:31.900 I like this.

00:40:32.780 I'm going to place the odds that Joe Biden pardons Hunter Biden at 100.0%.

00:40:41.220 Hunter Biden will get a pardon as a result of this decision today.

00:40:46.880 It will not happen until after Election Day.

00:40:48.600 That's what I was going to ask.

00:40:49.340 When's it happening?

00:40:49.740 He's not going to do it.

00:40:50.640 He's not going to do it before Election Day, but he's going to stick around.

00:40:54.220 And after Election Day, I believe it is now 100% that Joe Biden will pardon Hunter.

00:40:59.400 I have a feeling that might be part of our next show.

00:41:01.840 It might be.

00:41:03.100 Don't forget, we do this Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

00:41:04.880 Hit that subscribe auto download button.

00:41:07.240 The center and I will see you back here in a couple of days.

00:41:11.080 This is an iHeart podcast.

00:41:13.960 Guaranteed human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - July 22, 2024

Biden Stuns Nation by Deciding to Pull from 2024 Race

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