Verdict with Ted Cruz - July 02, 2026


BONUS POD： Democrats Double Down on Trans Athletes Ahead of Midterms

Topics
transgender athlete laws transgender sports debate
Hosted by
Ted Cruz
Mentioned
Joe Getty J.B. Pritzker Ben Ferguson Donald Trump Jared Isaacman Lindsay Hecox Brett Baer Zoran Mom Donnie Patriot Mobile
Understanding the Historic Supreme Court Victories & Losses this Week Happy Birthday America： Celebrating What is Extraordinary about our Great Nation

Episode Stats


Length

15 minutes

Words per minute

161.5

Word count

2,460

Sentence count

178

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged

Hate speech

5

sentences flagged


Summary

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

On this episode of The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson, Ben Ferguson talks about the 4th of July and what he plans to do in Washington, D.C. on the holiday. Plus, the Supreme Court may have ruled to protect women s sports, but now we re finding out what Democrats plan to do next.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
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00:00:36.180 On Newt World Podcast, we're celebrating America's 250th birthday.
00:00:40.680 And I ask my guests how they're spending their 4th of July.
00:00:44.540 Brett Baer.
00:00:45.520 I will be working. I'll be in Washington because it's a big, big day.
00:00:50.300 Jared Isaacman.
00:00:51.200 I plan to be flying in an F-5 fighter jet painted in Freedom 250 colors along with four other fighter jets flying over the nation's capital.
00:00:59.200 Listen to Newt's World on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:01:06.380 Why should you listen to Armstrong and Getty on demand?
00:01:10.060 We're not boring.
00:01:11.020 A lot of news is boring.
00:01:12.020 And tedious.
00:01:12.900 And depressing.
00:01:13.480 And makes you angry.
00:01:14.860 You don't want to live your life like that.
00:01:17.140 Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong.
00:01:18.200 He's Joe Getty.
00:01:18.840 We're Armstrong and Getty.
00:01:19.960 We try to bring you the truth.
00:01:21.100 And help you figure out this crazy modern world.
00:01:23.500 How about something about a comedic tone?
00:01:28.000 We have a winner.
00:01:29.200 Yes. Listen to Armstrong and Getty On Demand on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:01:37.220 Zoran Bob Donnie said in an interview this week that he was open to being the poster child for socialist candidates.
00:01:43.920 Are you worried about more socialist candidates across the United States?
00:01:46.240 Well, I think it's a big threat to our nation, actually, because it's not socialism, it's really communism.
00:01:51.440 They use the word social democrat because it sounds so nice, but it's really communism you're talking about.
00:01:56.960 I think it's the biggest threat to our nation.
00:01:59.300 There is maybe since our founding.
00:02:01.640 I think this is the biggest threat to our nation.
00:02:04.300 People will smile when I say that, but the smart people are going to say, you know, he's probably right.
00:02:08.980 You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:02:12.920 Good Thursday morning. Nice to have you with us on the 47 Morning Update.
00:02:16.200 And we've got one big story for you.
00:02:17.940 The Supreme Court may have ruled to protect women's sports, but now we're finding out what Democrats plan to do next.
00:02:25.060 And it's going to be central to their midterm election strategy. 1.00
00:02:29.540 Get ready for another fight.
00:02:31.980 All right, I want to take a moment.
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00:04:19.260 that's patriot mobile.com slash ben 47 or call 972 patriot today it's a 47 morning update and
00:04:28.340 it starts right now story number one the supreme court they may have settled one legal question
00:04:34.480 but politically, we're now seeing exactly what the Democrats are ready to do
00:04:40.040 when it comes to allowing men in women's sports.
00:04:44.340 Now, the Supreme Court ruled that states like Idaho and West Virginia
00:04:48.020 can, in fact, enforce laws preventing transgender girls from competing in girls' sports.
00:04:53.980 And Democrats, well, they immediately began making it clear
00:04:57.280 they've got no intention of backing down.
00:05:00.660 Instead, now they're preparing to make it one of their main defining issues
00:05:05.280 heading into the midterm election cycle.
00:05:08.020 J.D. Pritzker saying this on CNN about the ruling.
00:05:11.600 The Supreme Court also today allowed states to ban transgender athletes
00:05:16.160 from joining women's and girls' teams.
00:05:19.000 Do you think the court was right on that, or do you think they were wrong?
00:05:22.800 Well, look, we believe that people have a right to live the life that they were born to,
00:05:28.380 the life that they want to. And in Illinois, anyway, we protect LGBTQ plus rights. We protect
00:05:36.520 trans kids. Remember, in Illinois, trans athletes, we literally in high school have
00:05:42.580 three trans athletes. We have 133,000 athletes in total in our high schools, and three of them
00:05:50.360 are trans. Why is the Republican Party focusing on this issue? Why have they passed laws in,
00:05:56.980 And I think 27 states that have restricted or banned outright trans kids being athletes in schools.
00:06:06.560 It seems to me like, you know, they're just again, they're trying to foment on an issue that, frankly, I think we ought to be talking about bigger things.
00:06:14.960 I know in the state of Illinois, we have much bigger challenges as they do all across the country with things like they've cut SNAP benefits.
00:06:22.380 They've cut Medicaid. They've made life harder for people, raised prices.
00:06:25.940 These are all things that we're having to deal with in our states, and they're trying to distract with something that has very little impact.
00:06:33.440 Now, to be clear, J.D. Pritzker is saying that somehow Republicans are the ones that did this, even though it was Democrats that were allowing boys in women's sports.
00:06:43.780 Then he says it's nothing but a distraction, and he wasn't done there.
00:06:48.040 He also, again, laying the groundwork for what Democrats truly believe in, and that is destroying women in the games that they play and the scholarships that they receive and the awards they receive.
00:07:01.440 But Republicans are using it and political campaigns, political messaging on the issue itself.
00:07:08.160 Do you think the court was right?
00:07:09.720 I think that we ought to be protecting trans kids.
00:07:13.380 So you think they were wrong?
00:07:14.300 I can tell you this, that those trans kids, you know, the I'm sure you've seen the statistics that depression and other mental health challenges are following these kids because of the way they're being treated in some communities.
00:07:28.600 We ought to be sympathizing with the parents.
00:07:30.940 We ought to be trying to help them help their children and not putting barriers in the way of children just being kids.
00:07:37.580 Yeah. And Justice Kavanaugh was writing that he doesn't think that transgender athletes should be vilified or ostracized.
00:07:44.280 When you look at the numbers, though, there was a Reuters Ipsos poll that found that 67 percent of Americans agree with the transgender athlete ban.
00:07:53.860 Do you find yourself in agreement with those 67 percent of Americans? 0.80
00:07:57.060 I think that, first of all, this is a decision that gets made by a family.
00:08:02.100 That's a decision that's been handled by schools and school districts for a number of years now.
00:08:07.920 I think we ought to let it happen at the local level, as it has been.
00:08:11.960 The three in Illinois have been just fine.
00:08:15.160 Isn't it interesting how Democrats used this issue and pushed this issue and demanded this issue,
00:08:21.340 And now they're trying to downplay it while also making it a very clear central point going into the midterms.
00:08:27.760 Now, for Republicans, this decision represents years of, well, campaigning and fighting.
00:08:33.240 And finally, it paid off.
00:08:34.960 Donald Trump made protecting women's sports a signature issue because of people like Pritzker.
00:08:41.580 Now, let's be clear.
00:08:42.860 When Donald Trump was running, he said, not only am I going to sign executive actions,
00:08:47.580 Not only am I going to pressure athletic organizations, but I'm also going to make the logical argument that biological women deserve a level playing field.
00:08:57.600 More than half the states, and you heard JB talk about this just a second ago, more than half of the country has already passed laws that were then up for grabs with the Supreme Court, banning men from competing in women's sports.
00:09:12.680 Now, the political battle is now going to move to the campaign trail.
00:09:17.020 Democratic leaders and activist organizations, they're already out there arguing and targeting the very small number, they say, of transgender student-athletes.
00:09:28.060 Well, it is discrimination, and the treatment of transgender youth is terrible, even though this law and the Supreme Court ruling has nothing to do with how you actually treat a person.
00:09:39.140 They're also promising to continue the legal challenges everywhere they can.
00:09:43.580 Now, support of the ruling is also, well, very different.
00:09:47.860 Many conservatives say this is a victory for common sense because you should absolutely protect women's sports.
00:09:55.660 There should be fairness in athletics.
00:09:57.840 And they point to all of the scholarships, what President Trump did well, the roster spots, the championships,
00:10:04.960 the athletic record books that are changed when a man competes with women,
00:10:08.860 and biological differences, it matters in competitive sports.
00:10:13.580 And that's exactly why this made it all the way to the Supreme Court.
00:10:18.120 But to be clear, what Democrats are now going to do
00:10:21.640 is they're going to say that you've dehumanized trans athletes.
00:10:26.240 If you want to start a trans league, you can absolutely do it.
00:10:30.420 No one is stopping you.
00:10:31.940 Yes, trans athletes can compete.
00:10:35.500 But women should not be forced to compete with men.
00:10:41.940 Now, I want to take you back to some of the arguments that were made.
00:10:45.060 The first case, I was there for those oral arguments, dealt with Idaho.
00:10:49.640 And I want you to hear the back and forth of what actually happened
00:10:53.240 and why the court got to the decision they have right now.
00:10:56.640 You'll cut this part off.
00:10:57.500 Idaho's law classifies on the basis of sex because sex is what matters in sports.
00:11:02.940 It correlates strongly with countless athletic advantages like size, muscle mass, bone mass, and heart and lung capacity.
00:11:10.920 Tragically, but not surprisingly, male athletes have even injured female athletes in many sports.
00:11:16.640 If women don't have their own competitions, they won't be able to compete.
00:11:21.060 And I don't know how you can say sex classification is not being challenged. 0.85
00:11:27.040 There's no question here that a male who identifies as a female, but it's a male, is being excluded from a female sport, correct? 0.71
00:11:36.120 That's correct. 0.51
00:11:36.680 All right. By its nature, that's a sex classification. And all sex classifications, we have said repeatedly in our case law, require intermediate scrutiny.
00:11:47.660 There are an awful lot of female athletes who are strongly opposed to participation by trans athletes in competitions with them.
00:12:00.340 What what do you say about them? Are they are they bigots? 0.99
00:12:05.580 Are they deluded in thinking that they are subjected to unfair competition?
00:12:11.420 No, Your Honor, I would never call anyone that.
00:12:13.380 On the preliminary record in this case, and as the experts below agreed, circulating testosterone after puberty is the main determinant of sex-based biological advantage that HB500 sought to address.
00:12:26.320 And on this record, Lindsay Hecox has mitigated that advantage because she has suppressed her testosterone for over a year and taken estrogen.
00:12:34.000 HB 500 thus fails heightened scrutiny as applied to Lindsay and transgender women like her 0.91
00:12:39.000 who have no sex-based biological advantage as compared to birth sex females. 0.94
00:12:44.260 So it's going to come to this court and we have to decide for the whole country to constitutionalize this.
00:12:53.040 I guess given that half the states are allowing it, allowing transgender girls and women to participate,
00:13:00.560 about half are not why would we at this point just the role of this court jump in and try to
00:13:06.480 constitutionalize a rule for the whole country while they're still as you say uncertainty and
00:13:12.500 debate so here's what we know from all of that back and forth the supreme court justices came
00:13:19.140 out and they said we must protect women's sports from men now this is going to become a defining 0.91
00:13:26.240 issue for the midterm elections elections are typically shaped by multiple factors including
00:13:32.380 the economy immigration inflation and international events but both parties here clearly see the
00:13:38.920 transgender policy as an issue that energizes important parts of their base their coalitions
00:13:44.480 and one thing is actually certain now the supreme court issued its ruling but the political debate
00:13:51.500 at least from the side of radical Democrats, is only intensifying.
00:13:57.120 Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:14:01.260 Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now.
00:14:06.580 And for more in-depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast,
00:14:11.040 and we will see you back here tomorrow.
00:14:14.100 On News World Podcast, we're celebrating America's 250th birthday.
00:14:17.860 And I ask my guests how they're spending their 4th of July.
00:14:22.220 Brett Baer.
00:14:23.140 I will be working.
00:14:24.680 I'll be in Washington because it's a big, big day.
00:14:27.880 Jared Isaacman.
00:14:28.920 I plan to be flying in an F-5 fighter jet painted in Freedom 250 colors along with four other fighter jets flying over the nation's capital.
00:14:36.800 Listen to Newt's World on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:14:44.180 Why should you listen to Armstrong and Getty on Demand?
00:14:47.860 We're not boring.
00:14:48.640 A lot of news is boring.
00:14:49.620 And tedious.
00:14:50.500 And depressing.
00:14:51.080 And makes you angry.
00:14:52.460 You don't want to live your life like that.
00:14:54.740 Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong.
00:14:55.800 He's Joe Getty.
00:14:56.440 We're Armstrong and Getty.
00:14:57.560 We try to bring you the truth.
00:14:58.720 And help you figure out this crazy modern world.
00:15:01.120 How about something about a comedic tone?
00:15:05.640 We have a winner.
00:15:07.120 Yes.
00:15:08.120 Listen to Armstrong and Getty on demand on the iHeartRadio app,
00:15:11.140 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.