Verdict with Ted Cruz - Botching the Border

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.420 A record number of unaccompanied minors at the southern border of the United States.

00:00:09.940 Minors that we were told would not be held in detention facilities anymore,

00:00:13.820 now overflowing those facilities.

00:00:17.120 A crisis, you might call it at the border,

00:00:20.220 but the Biden administration would not call it a crisis.

00:00:23.100 We'll get into what's really going on.

00:00:24.580 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:30.000 Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:33.760 I'm Michael Knowles.

00:00:35.880 Senator, there is one issue above all that is dominating right now.

00:00:40.260 It happens to have a lot to do with your state.

00:00:42.960 There is no transparency whatsoever on this.

00:00:46.360 You're having liberal reporters telling people that they had greater access under Trump, under Obama.

00:00:53.400 Right now they're being shut out.

00:00:55.500 What is going on at the border?

00:00:57.340 Well, it's a crisis.

00:00:57.980 And it's not complicated to call it that.

00:01:01.880 We are seeing the volume of illegal crossings rising dramatically.

00:01:06.980 Last month, in the month of February, we had over 100,000 illegal immigrants detained.

00:01:12.280 We are seeing in particular a crisis with children.

00:01:15.940 We're seeing unaccompanied children, the numbers rising and rising and rising.

00:01:19.820 We're seeing detention facilities that are overcrowded, that are packed, that are at, you know, six, seven hundred percent capacity.

00:01:31.600 And it keeps getting worse.

00:01:33.700 And there are several things to understand about it.

00:01:37.260 Number one, why it's happening.

00:01:40.360 This is the direct result of a series of decisions the Biden administration has made.

00:01:45.700 So Joe Biden gets elected.

00:01:47.180 He gets sworn in on January 20th.

00:01:49.260 Within days, he announces we're stopping construction of the wall.

00:01:53.200 Yeah.

00:01:53.280 So border wall done.

00:01:57.320 Within days, the Biden administration returns to catch and release.

00:02:01.940 Now, what is catch and release?

00:02:03.460 Catch and release is the policy.

00:02:04.780 It was the policy during the Obama administration where when an illegal immigrant was caught, they'd be given a court date sometime in the future.

00:02:14.940 And let go and said, hey, come to court.

00:02:17.760 And lo and behold, a whole bunch of them never show up.

00:02:20.180 This is not complicated to figure out.

00:02:22.500 One of the most significant things the Trump administration did was end catch and release.

00:02:28.280 But the most important thing that the Biden administration did is they ended the remain in Mexico policy.

00:02:37.580 Now, what is the remain in Mexico policy?

00:02:39.600 It was one of the biggest foreign policy and immigration victories of the entire Trump administration.

00:02:47.560 And the Trump administration negotiated a deal with the government of Mexico.

00:02:53.060 So the vast majority of the immigrants crossing illegally into this country are not Mexicans.

00:02:58.200 Right.

00:02:58.580 They're Central Americans now who are crossing through Mexico.

00:03:01.420 So there are illegal immigrants in Mexico crossing Mexico's southern border illegally to get to the United States.

00:03:06.780 So they're largely coming from Guatemala, El Salvador, a couple other countries.

00:03:12.140 Nicaragua and countries that have a lot of violence, that have a lot of criminal activity, that have a lot of poverty.

00:03:18.560 And so they're fleeing that in large numbers.

00:03:20.660 The remain in Mexico policy was an agreement with Mexico where if these folks come and want to apply for asylum in the United States, they stay in Mexico while the case is proceeding.

00:03:30.580 Right.

00:03:30.720 And what the Biden administration did is it took that really important international agreement and it essentially ripped it up, said, nope, we don't want to remain in Mexico.

00:03:41.460 We want them here and we want to let them go.

00:03:44.100 And that consequence, we are seeing massive numbers of illegal immigrants being released into the United States.

00:03:52.040 And in turn, look, if you're sitting at home in Guatemala and you're trying to decide whether to come when you see people being released, when you see people getting to stay, that's when you jump in a caravan and head north.

00:04:04.060 Well, you know, there was a liberal journalist, Martha Raddatz, on a liberal network, ABC, interviewed an illegal alien.

00:04:10.800 His face was covered because he's obviously committing a crime.

00:04:13.320 And she said, would you have done this under Trump?

00:04:15.380 He said, no way.

00:04:16.700 I'm doing this because Biden said that basically I would not face any consequences.

00:04:21.760 He said, the primary reason I'm fleeing is my country is no good and it's violent and I want to get out of there.

00:04:26.620 But I would never have done this if not for the Biden administration.

00:04:30.220 Well, what we're seeing is really the mirror image of what we saw in late 2016 and early 2017.

00:04:36.480 When Trump was elected, we saw illegal crossings plummet by two-thirds.

00:04:42.800 And it plummeted by January and February of 2017.

00:04:46.800 And at the time, Trump had just been sworn in.

00:04:48.920 To be honest, he hadn't done anything yet.

00:04:50.480 I mean he literally was just moving in.

00:04:53.760 And it is actually an astonishing thing.

00:04:56.500 Think back to the presidential debates, the race of 2015, 2016.

00:05:02.280 If any Republican had said, if you elect me, the sheer act of electing me will drop illegal immigration by two-thirds.

00:05:12.020 You'd have been laughed out of the room like every reporter would have laughed at you.

00:05:15.800 Everyone would have said that is absurd.

00:05:17.900 So Trump, January, February 2017, hadn't hired new border patrol agents.

00:05:22.580 He hadn't built a wall.

00:05:23.880 He hadn't done anything.

00:05:24.660 And the numbers plummeted and the reason they plummeted is that people believed Trump was going to enforce the law.

00:05:32.180 And so if you're making the decision, do I leave my country, do I pay thousands of dollars to a human trafficker, do I engage in a life-risking journey only to be apprehended and sent home?

00:05:43.120 No, I think I'll just stay here.

00:05:44.260 We're seeing the mirror image of that now.

00:05:47.180 Right now, people making that same calculation are looking at Joe Biden saying, you know what?

00:05:51.640 If I get there, I get to stay.

00:05:53.680 So olly olly oxen free, let's go.

00:05:55.940 Right, right.

00:05:57.460 Because, you know, this is a very basic matter.

00:06:00.240 But when you incentivize certain behavior, you get more of it.

00:06:03.080 When you disincentivize certain behavior, you get less of it.

00:06:06.040 You know, Michael, if you say things like that, you're going to identify yourself as a conservative and they're going to require you to wear like a patch or something.

00:06:14.500 Liberals don't understand incentives.

00:06:16.160 It's one of the most fundamental divides between left and right is the concept of incentives.

00:06:23.220 So let's take kids and kids in cages. 1.00

00:06:26.580 Remember, for four years, we heard the press harping on kids in cages, kids in cages, kids in cages under Trump.

00:06:33.040 Well, the cages were built by Barack Obama.

00:06:36.860 To quote the former president, who built the cages, Joe, right?

00:06:40.280 A lot of these photos that had gone viral, they were from the Obama administration.

00:06:44.060 During the Obama administration.

00:06:44.840 And here's why.

00:06:45.480 So if you go back to what broke the system was DACA, which now the press loves, the Democrats love.

00:06:54.960 It was President Obama's illegal executive amnesty.

00:06:58.220 And what had happened there, if you go back and remember, and this feels like a long time ago, this is 2012.

00:07:02.160 But if you remember, Obama had been asked over and over and over again by immigration activists, will you just declare amnesty?

00:07:10.080 Use an executive order, declare amnesty.

00:07:11.880 And Obama said repeatedly, I can't do that.

00:07:14.280 It's against the law.

00:07:15.420 He said, I'm not a king.

00:07:16.840 I'm not an emperor.

00:07:17.800 That's how Obama put it.

00:07:18.780 I'm not a king.

00:07:19.280 I'm not an emperor.

00:07:20.880 And then one day he woke up and he was an emperor.

00:07:23.880 And he issued a lawless order, directed his administration, never mind federal immigration law.

00:07:30.320 We're not going to follow it anymore.

00:07:31.840 If you came to this country as a kid, we're going to grant you amnesty. 1.00

00:07:35.980 Now, the year before he did that, there were roughly 6,000 unaccompanied minors came into this country.

00:07:42.560 So 6,000.

00:07:44.160 Significant number.

00:07:44.860 The next year, you know how many there were?

00:07:48.740 More, I'm going to guess.

00:07:50.160 93,000.

00:07:51.120 Wow.

00:07:51.380 I didn't realize it was that high.

00:07:52.640 And it goes back to what you just said, incentives, which is kids and parents realized, okay, the president just announced if you came as a kid, you get to stay.

00:08:05.440 What's going to happen?

00:08:06.360 Well, let's send a whole bunch of kids. 0.99

00:08:07.720 And actually, the Obama Department of Homeland Security, they interviewed a number of these kids.

00:08:12.760 They asked them, why are you coming?

00:08:15.060 And the kids said, because I get a permiso, which is if I come, I get to stay.

00:08:21.580 Fast forward to today, we're seeing the exact same thing.

00:08:24.520 You're seeing the Obama administration or rather the Biden administration.

00:08:29.160 Tomato, tomato.

00:08:30.520 No, it's worse.

00:08:32.320 It's tomato versus like massive bright red tomato paste.

00:08:36.240 Like, it's all the bad ideas of Obama on crack.

00:08:40.680 Like, because, and they don't understand incentives.

00:08:46.400 Yeah.

00:08:47.340 Or perhaps they do understand incentives, but actually they desire this sort of behavior because they think it gives them advantage.

00:08:53.740 You know, it reminds me of years ago, I was reading a newspaper article, and I think it was a city council member in San Francisco who said, I don't understand.

00:09:02.920 We have the most generous homeless benefits in the country.

00:09:06.240 And we keep getting more and more homeless people.

00:09:08.100 It's so strange.

00:09:09.240 I remember reading it going, yeah, you're right.

00:09:11.100 You don't understand.

00:09:12.240 Like, if you pay people to do something, they'll do it.

00:09:15.640 Right.

00:09:15.860 And we're saying this with these kids.

00:09:18.400 But, you know, to play devil's advocate a little bit, to give the devils their due in the Biden administration, Jen Psaki said something the other day that I was sort of exasperated when she said it because they said, okay, you said you wouldn't put the kids in cages and you're putting the kids in cages.

00:09:34.360 And you're letting some of them go, but you have to separate them because you've got to verify that the adults that they're with actually are their relatives.

00:09:40.920 And the things you're doing, it's basically just what the Trump administration did, except it would seem to be to a much greater degree.

00:09:47.620 And she said, well, there just aren't a lot of options.

00:09:51.020 I said, well, where was that kind of understanding when President Trump was doing that?

00:09:56.460 And I guess, though, I would want to take her question seriously.

00:10:00.080 What are you going to do when there aren't a lot of options?

00:10:03.140 So, look, there are some Democrats.

00:10:05.540 I think there are a lot of Democrats across the country who want to genuinely be compassionate.

00:10:10.780 And I understand that that's the right instinct.

00:10:12.860 I mean, it's not a little kid's fault.

00:10:14.600 Right.

00:10:15.260 And so, you know, Jen Psaki has also said, you know, we're just – we're not going to lock up kids.

00:10:20.740 Now, never mind that they are locking up kids.

00:10:23.440 To a much greater degree, actually.

00:10:24.740 To a massive degree.

00:10:25.600 It comes down to incentives.

00:10:28.940 Look, during the Obama administration, I remember traveling down to Texas.

00:10:32.960 And a lot of, you know, of our 2,000-mile border that we have with Mexico, 1,200 of those miles are along the border of the state of Texas.

00:10:40.520 So we've got more than half the border is in Texas.

00:10:43.240 And I remember visiting, going to Lackland Air Force Base outside of San Antonio where they were housing.

00:10:49.140 They had built facilities, built the early cages for kids.

00:10:53.160 This is the Obama administration.

00:10:54.300 I was there visiting, and I remember I was talking to an official from the Health and Human Services Department.

00:11:00.300 And mind you, this is the Obama administration, so it's the Obama HHS.

00:11:04.920 And this official described to me how the cartels were putting guns to the heads of little kids and forcing children to cut off the fingers or the ears of other kids.

00:11:20.020 And what would happen is a family in Nicaragua or Honduras or Salvador would give $3,000, $4,000, $5,000 to a human trafficker.

00:11:30.320 These human traffickers are not nice people.

00:11:34.060 They're not, they don't love children. 0.99

00:11:37.200 They are vicious, horrific, criminal cartels. 0.97

00:11:41.660 Yeah.

00:11:41.740 And what they would do, once the family had given $3,000, $4,000, $5,000 to the cartel, to the trafficker, they would then deliver to the family their child's finger or ear.

00:11:53.080 And say, give us another $3,000.

00:11:56.900 And they would extract more money from the parents.

00:11:59.020 And so the Obama HHS official told me that they were getting, number one, kids that were horribly deformed, had fingers cut off or ears cut off.

00:12:07.640 And they were getting other kids who were psychologically traumatized because they had a gun put to their forehead.

00:12:12.820 It wasn't even the traffickers that were cutting off the fingers and ears.

00:12:15.760 It was the other kids.

00:12:18.020 And my view, the Democrats say we need to grant amnesty.

00:12:22.180 We need to let kids come because we're compassionate.

00:12:25.240 I'm sorry.

00:12:28.280 If you're creating a system that is incentivizing tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands, and the Biden Department of Homeland Security is projecting over 100,000 kids coming in the country unaccompanied, little boys, little girls.

00:12:42.880 If you're putting little boys and little girls in the hands of human traffickers, you're not compassionate.

00:12:47.160 You're not humane. 1.00

00:12:48.200 You are a monster. 1.00

00:12:49.340 And every one of those kids that is sexually assaulted and those – 1.00

00:12:55.040 I remember, you know, I think it was Huffington Post some years ago with Fusion published a survey.

00:13:01.680 I believe the number was between 60 and 80 percent of women and girls who crossed the border illegally were raped or sexually assaulted along the way.

00:13:10.060 It is – it's staggering, and it's not humane or compassionate.

00:13:16.400 And I will say I get frustrated with Democrats who virtue signal about how much they love immigrants, that they support a policy that involves a bunch of immigrant children being physically and sexually abused. 0.62

00:13:29.140 It is grotesque.

00:13:30.220 And the real compassionate policy is what we have had, which is to say we're going to enforce the law, we're not going to do catch and release, and if you come here illegally, we're going to send you home.

00:13:41.340 And the reason that is compassionate is you don't end up with kids being handed over to traffickers.

00:13:46.840 Those numbers dropped dramatically, and we're seeing that, and it seems like Biden and the Democrats don't understand cause and effect.

00:13:54.980 There's the question of the justice in and of itself of saying a people has a right to have its own borders.

00:14:00.220 But then there is this secondary effect, which is you're going to see those numbers plummet.

00:14:06.040 You know, obviously that's a good argument.

00:14:07.360 And 6,000 to 93,000, we're not talking a small effect.

00:14:10.380 Right.

00:14:10.880 I mean we're talking orders of magnitude.

00:14:13.340 And so I'll tell you on Friday of this week, I'm going down to the border, and I'm bringing a number of senators.

00:14:19.740 Right now the current number is 17 senators are coming down.

00:14:22.540 So I invited John Cornyn, my colleague from Texas.

00:14:26.600 I invited the other Republican senators.

00:14:28.760 We've got a total of 17 senators coming down.

00:14:31.020 We're going to go and tour the facilities where they're detaining the kids.

00:14:35.120 We're going to tour.

00:14:35.840 We're going to meet with the Border Patrol.

00:14:37.200 We're going to meet with the Border Patrol Union.

00:14:38.660 I know those guys very, very well.

00:14:40.960 We're going to go out on a boat with Texas DPS on the Rio Grande.

00:14:47.160 And let me tell you something amazing.

00:14:48.580 The Biden administration has refused to allow any reporters to attend.

00:14:55.180 Which was – this was not true during the Trump administration.

00:14:58.880 You got all that flack from the press.

00:15:00.720 The press had much better access under the Trump administration.

00:15:03.820 Trump administration, the press had access to all these facilities.

00:15:06.860 Obama administration.

00:15:08.080 Yeah.

00:15:08.380 The press had access.

00:15:09.340 Look, the Biden administration is already worse than the Obama administration on this front.

00:15:13.140 You know the picture of kids in cages that for four years was blamed on Trump?

00:15:17.640 Right.

00:15:18.180 That was actually a picture taken during the Obama administration.

00:15:21.260 Right.

00:15:21.560 It's because they actually – you know, Biden promised to have the most transparent administration ever.

00:15:27.000 We sent a letter.

00:15:28.620 And here's the ridiculous justification the Biden administration is doing.

00:15:33.100 They say, well, we'd love to have reporters there, but we can't because of COVID.

00:15:37.560 Oh, because of COVID.

00:15:39.700 So you've got facilities with hundreds of illegal immigrants packed into them at many hundreds of percent greater than their capacity.

00:15:46.820 Right.

00:15:47.120 You've got kids almost stacked upon each other.

00:15:50.120 And their view is there's no risk of COVID there.

00:15:53.660 But one reporter, if you are – so ABC News wants to embed with us, wants to come.

00:15:59.940 And we invited – and ABC News offered to bring a TV camera and be a pool camera.

00:16:03.820 Now, what is a pool camera?

00:16:04.880 A pool camera is what they call a TV camera that will share its footage with all the other networks.

00:16:09.940 So they could literally have one reporter and one cameraman.

00:16:12.700 Yeah, yeah.

00:16:13.760 No, that would be a risk.

00:16:15.040 And there is a risk for COVID.

00:16:17.800 And it's such an obvious lie.

00:16:20.500 Yeah.

00:16:21.780 You know, Alejandro Mayorkas, who's the secretary of Homeland Security, he went on the Sunday shows this weekend.

00:16:27.380 And he repeated the obvious lie.

00:16:29.160 Well, it's just because of COVID.

00:16:30.220 We intend to do it.

00:16:31.180 And look, some of the press is getting agitated.

00:16:36.340 So this week I have been a vigorous defender of the press, which is an odd position for me to be in.

00:16:42.360 This is very strange.

00:16:43.380 I'm biting my tongue on all the great jokes I could make about the press right now because I actually do sort of defend them against the Biden administration.

00:16:50.540 So I actually believe in a free press.

00:16:52.080 I believe in the First Amendment.

00:16:53.280 Right, right.

00:16:53.720 And what the Biden – if Trump had done what the Biden administration had done, the press would be lighting themselves on fire.

00:17:00.640 Yeah, of course.

00:17:01.540 Instead, they're just shilling for and defending the Trump administration.

00:17:05.640 Let me give you the most absurd part about all of this.

00:17:07.540 So they're releasing thousands upon thousands of illegal immigrants into my home state of Texas.

00:17:12.280 They're setting up detention facilities.

00:17:15.060 Downtown Dallas, the convention center, they're detaining illegal immigrants.

00:17:18.940 Midland, Texas, they're detaining illegal immigrants, much against the wishes of the community.

00:17:23.200 Right.

00:17:23.300 They're releasing them.

00:17:24.900 Here's an amazing stat in Harlingen, Texas.

00:17:27.800 The illegal immigrants they're releasing are testing positive for COVID-19 at a seven times greater rate than the U.S. population.

00:17:39.200 I also did not realize it was that severe.

00:17:41.600 All I noticed was that the administration is now admitting that it is releasing people into the United States who have not been – illegal aliens who have not been tested for COVID.

00:17:54.900 And you saw the DHS secretary was sort of backed into a corner on this, and he said, well, it is the official policy to test.

00:18:01.700 I said, right, but are you doing that?

00:18:04.060 Well, we are doing our best, and it's an admission.

00:18:07.300 It's all but an admission that they are releasing people in the midst of this pandemic where we're not allowed to leave our homes in some cases.

00:18:13.160 And they're releasing them in Texas, my home state.

00:18:14.820 Right.

00:18:15.340 And the communities in Texas are not happy about that.

00:18:17.960 And it's one of the things that is frustrating about watching the Biden administration is the absolute hypocrisy on COVID.

00:18:24.760 Yeah.

00:18:25.220 So they're perfectly willing to release illegal immigrants who may be criminals into Texas, into the United States, even if they may have COVID-19 and not test them. 0.87

00:18:35.700 But yet they won't allow a single reporter with a camera to see anything on the border because that reporter might have COVID.

00:18:44.620 And you know what?

00:18:45.360 I'm willing to bet even if that reporter tested negative that day and had been vaccinated, they'd still say, no, it's not the COVID risk that they're worried about.

00:18:55.060 It is the risk.

00:18:56.680 We don't want anyone to see the Biden cages.

00:18:58.700 I have to ask you this with regard to being able to go out and do things once we're vaccinated.

00:19:03.920 His Royal Highness, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has come out and suggested that, sure, we all get vaccinated.

00:19:11.060 We're still going to have to wear the mask, socially distance, not gather.

00:19:15.720 Maybe we can have a few friends over for the 4th of July.

00:19:18.720 Senator, we're now on day, what, 372 of 15 days to slow the spread.

00:19:24.300 When can we return to normal?

00:19:26.760 Come to Texas.

00:19:27.460 You can do it right now. 1.00

00:19:29.100 Look, it is asinine and insane. 0.99

00:19:33.160 So I've been vaccinated. 0.99

00:19:35.620 Members of Congress were offered the vaccine early in January.

00:19:39.520 I actually didn't take it then.

00:19:41.300 There were a number of members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, who got the vaccine early and ostentatiously.

00:19:49.040 I didn't.

00:19:49.860 I didn't think it was right.

00:19:51.040 Look, I'm relatively young.

00:19:53.020 I'm healthy.

00:19:53.740 Healthy guy.

00:19:54.180 I didn't want to cut in line.

00:19:55.380 And so my view at the time is I said, we need to wait and let seniors, let frontline workers get the vaccine first. 0.54

00:20:02.940 And I don't want to hurry.

00:20:06.160 Ultimately, in the last couple of weeks, I went ahead and got the vaccine.

00:20:08.900 It had been, you know, there had been tens of millions of vaccines administered.

00:20:12.180 Many of the seniors, many of the frontline workers had gotten it.

00:20:14.480 And, you know, I mean, I do have my mom is 86.

00:20:17.300 My dad, my dad actually turned 82 today.

00:20:20.280 And so given my parents, I said, and given that I'm out a lot as a senator, I went ahead and got the vaccine.

00:20:25.140 In the Senate, I think it's the case that all 100 senators have the vaccine.

00:20:33.240 Now, I think Rand Paul may may not have gotten it, although Rand had COVID.

00:20:37.760 So he so he's got the natural immunity from having had it.

00:20:41.880 CDC's guidance today is that people who are vaccinated can gather in small groups. 0.57

00:20:46.620 The most asinine thing is senators still gather all wearing masks.

00:20:50.140 And it's just like, OK, wait, this may be the safest place on the planet. 0.96

00:20:54.120 Like every person here has been vaccinated.

00:20:56.440 But it's a virtue signal.

00:20:58.620 And you get Democrats that are wearing two masks and it's coming three, four, five.

00:21:04.280 They're just going to walk around with bags on their hands.

00:21:06.120 I mean, and it is.

00:21:09.600 And I'm not one of the like, there are people who are crazies who say it's all a hoax.

00:21:15.880 It doesn't make any sense.

00:21:16.740 Do nothing.

00:21:17.340 It's going to give you 5G, which, frankly, I could use the better cell service.

00:21:21.200 If I became a hotspot, that'd be perfectly fine.

00:21:24.460 This is look, this is serious disease.

00:21:27.280 We've had over half million Americans killed.

00:21:29.560 We've had over 47,000 Texans killed.

00:21:31.880 I think we need to treat it seriously.

00:21:33.260 But we have, for God's sakes, has there been an infectious disease?

00:21:37.020 Certainly not in our lifetime that we've treated this seriously.

00:21:39.620 And it has become this irrational zealotry and a means of control. 1.00

00:21:47.380 I've got to say, if you've had the vaccine, the idea that you must wear a mask forever is idiotic. 0.99

00:21:52.440 The whole point of getting the vaccine is to go back to normal. 0.99

00:21:56.320 Well, this gets back to incentives.

00:21:57.160 If you're going to say, all right, we want you all, 300 plus million Americans, you need to all get the vaccine.

00:22:04.720 But also, nothing about your life can change once you get the vaccine.

00:22:08.540 It doesn't make any sense.

00:22:10.260 And look, I think a lot of people, there are people on the extremes.

00:22:14.460 There are people that are like, shut down everything and they're terrified to breathe.

00:22:18.020 There are people who are like, doesn't matter.

00:22:20.640 Licking doorknobs and things like that, right?

00:22:22.160 Doorknobs are delicious, but most people are somewhere in the middle of like, take reasonable precautions, but let's not be nuts about it.

00:22:32.660 If you look at how this is playing out, those who want government control don't want to let go of it.

00:22:41.600 And I think a lot of people recognize there's an irrationality to it.

00:22:45.320 So, for example, restaurants.

00:22:47.360 You know, when Houston opened up, Heidi and I began going out to eat at restaurants.

00:22:51.300 We tried to do it pretty regularly because we want to support the small businesses in our community.

00:22:56.060 And the rules, you're walking along, you got to wear a mask.

00:23:01.560 And I guess the virus is somehow connected to the tension in your thigh muscles.

00:23:08.220 Because under the rules in a restaurant, if you and I stood up, we'd have to put on a mask.

00:23:13.180 You're dangerous then.

00:23:13.960 But as soon as we sit down, you can take off the mask.

00:23:18.340 No, it's true.

00:23:19.040 And we can be here for three hours sitting right here, and there's no risk of the virus.

00:23:22.620 It gets absorbed into your hamstring is what happens.

00:23:25.060 I think it's because your thighs are no longer tense.

00:23:28.160 Or maybe it's an altitude thing.

00:23:29.420 At three feet, the virus can't transmit, but at six feet, it can't.

00:23:32.840 Thinner up there, yeah. 0.99

00:23:34.480 Like most people realize, come on, this is crap. 1.00

00:23:36.840 Of course. 0.99

00:23:37.180 I mean, airplanes.

00:23:40.500 So, you know, I flew from Houston to D.C. today.

00:23:43.740 So on the airplane, I got to get on the plane.

00:23:47.400 I'm on the plane.

00:23:48.340 I'm wearing my mask.

00:23:49.080 I got to wear my mask.

00:23:49.900 I'm sitting next to someone.

00:23:50.920 They're wearing their mask.

00:23:52.000 But there's the drink exception.

00:23:54.380 So I had a cup of coffee.

00:23:54.800 You got in trouble for the drink exception.

00:23:56.520 Oh, my.

00:23:57.200 They went nuts. 0.51

00:23:57.980 So when I drink my coffee now, I hang my mask from my ear.

00:24:01.580 So it's like visibly there.

00:24:03.560 But I want you to think of the logic of this.

00:24:05.700 If I'm sitting there, I've got to get the mask because it's going to kill people.

00:24:08.960 Yeah.

00:24:09.340 But if I have a cup of coffee in my hand.

00:24:11.140 The coffee absorbs the virus.

00:24:13.360 I think it does.

00:24:14.380 And it works for a Coke.

00:24:16.440 It works for orange juice, water.

00:24:17.820 It's liquid.

00:24:18.700 The virus doesn't like liquid.

00:24:21.220 Or food.

00:24:22.160 Yes.

00:24:22.480 Liquid or solid.

00:24:23.280 It only likes...

00:24:23.920 Like at some point, everyone's going, this doesn't make any sense.

00:24:28.720 Oh, it's an obviously arbitrary exercise in power.

00:24:32.200 And it does actually get to something that I guess relates, but it gets to this abuse

00:24:36.920 of power more broadly that I have to ask you about.

00:24:38.620 It's from the mailbag.

00:24:39.680 Question from Prudence who asks, if H.R.1 passes, so H.R.1, you've referred to it as the

00:24:46.640 Corrupt Politicians Act.

00:24:48.640 If H.R.1 passes, is there any legal case to fight back against it?

00:24:55.340 So not a political case to defeat it before it passes, but let's say, God forbid, it happens.

00:25:00.160 Because can you fight it in court?

00:25:02.080 Of course.

00:25:03.120 And if the Corrupt Politicians Act passes, there will be lots of legal cases challenging

00:25:07.400 it.

00:25:08.260 But I got to say, if it passes, we're going to lose all those cases.

00:25:12.500 Don't tell me that.

00:25:13.360 I thought we'd end on a high note.

00:25:14.540 Don't count on the courts to save us.

00:25:16.240 And here's why.

00:25:16.980 Yeah.

00:25:18.120 If the Corrupt Politicians Act passes, it will pass because the Democrats have ended

00:25:23.980 the filibuster.

00:25:25.000 The filibuster is the rule that requires 60 votes to pass legislation.

00:25:29.100 If they've ended it and dropped it to 50 votes, that's the only way they'll pass the Corrupt

00:25:33.080 Politicians Act, designed to keep Democrats in power for the next 100 years.

00:25:38.080 If that happens, they will then add two new states to the union.

00:25:42.400 They'll add the District of Columbia.

00:25:43.540 They'll add Puerto Rico.

00:25:45.300 That's because Democrats believe they will elect four Democratic senators.

00:25:49.240 D.C. clearly will.

00:25:50.800 Puerto Rico might or might not.

00:25:52.300 Republicans, we'd fight for Puerto Rico and try to win.

00:25:54.480 But if Democrats are right, that that elects four new Democratic senators, they will then

00:26:00.460 pack the United States Supreme Court.

00:26:02.860 They will add four left-wing judicial activists to the Supreme Court, take it from nine justices

00:26:08.440 to 13.

00:26:09.460 If that happens, the odds are 100.000% that the packed left-wing Supreme Court will uphold the

00:26:20.340 Corrupt Politicians Act because the Democrats will only appoint left-wing activists who will

00:26:27.000 uphold the Corrupt Politicians Act.

00:26:28.840 So the key then, now that you've taken away that hope that we might be able to fight in

00:26:34.460 court, but I think rightly so, if you have to fight it before it's passed, then that

00:26:40.680 requires keeping the filibuster and that requires winning over one of the moderate, semi-moderate

00:26:48.100 Democrats.

00:26:48.580 So where we stand right now in the Senate, there are 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats, so it's

00:26:52.380 evenly divided.

00:26:53.480 That means that any tie vote, the vice president, Kamala Harris, breaks the tie.

00:26:56.980 Of the 50 Democrats, if all of them vote together, they can end the filibuster.

00:27:03.840 They can do what's called the nuclear option.

00:27:05.660 Now, what does that mean?

00:27:06.720 Look, the filibuster is written into the rules of the Senate, that it takes 60 votes to go

00:27:12.960 forward.

00:27:14.060 But the way you exercise the nuclear option is the majority leader, Chuck Schumer, moves

00:27:21.020 to proceed to a bill.

00:27:22.600 You have a vote.

00:27:23.580 The vote is 50-50.

00:27:25.680 Vice president votes yes.

00:27:27.980 And the presiding officer rules that 51 votes, not being 60, you can't proceed to it.

00:27:36.980 Yeah.

00:27:37.780 And in the Senate rules, any senator can appeal the ruling of the chair.

00:27:44.760 So what would happen is Chuck Schumer would appeal the ruling of the chair and would say,

00:27:49.520 hey, the chair just ruled that we need 60 votes to proceed to this.

00:27:52.400 I appeal the ruling of the chair.

00:27:54.720 And if all 50 Democrats vote in favor of the appeal, and if the vice president votes in

00:28:00.840 favor of the appeal, that's 51 votes.

00:28:02.720 You can appeal the ruling of the chair with 51 votes.

00:28:05.680 And under the Senate, that becomes a precedent.

00:28:08.420 So it breaks the rules of the Senate that are written because you have 51 votes to appeal

00:28:14.020 the ruling of the chair.

00:28:14.840 That becomes the new precedent that it no longer takes 60, even though that's what's written

00:28:18.560 in the rules.

00:28:19.860 It takes 51.

00:28:20.880 Of the 50 Democrats, only two have suggested that they wouldn't end the filibuster.

00:28:29.200 The two have suggested are Joe Manchin, he's a Democrat from West Virginia, and Kirsten

00:28:34.480 Sinema, who is a Democrat from Arizona.

00:28:36.960 Right now, both of them are making lots of noise, like we're going to stand up and not

00:28:43.280 end the filibuster.

00:28:45.840 I got to admit, I am very skeptical.

00:28:49.940 Let's take Joe Manchin.

00:28:51.960 So Joe, he was the governor of West Virginia, has been senator.

00:28:57.600 Joe is a very nice, affable, likable guy.

00:29:01.360 He was a college football quarterback.

00:29:04.260 Just like me and you.

00:29:05.220 Yeah, exactly.

00:29:05.640 College football quarterback.

00:29:06.380 You know, we were the geeks in the debate club.

00:29:10.140 He was the star quarterback.

00:29:12.400 Exactly the same.

00:29:14.200 Everybody likes Joe.

00:29:15.560 You can't not like Joe.

00:29:16.980 He just has a personality that is easy and affable.

00:29:21.180 When I first got elected to the Senate, I remember Jim DeMant told me, he said, Ted,

00:29:26.900 Joe Manchin is like a purple unicorn.

00:29:30.620 He will always, always, always be there for you until you need him.

00:29:36.380 I can tell you in nine years in the Senate, I do not know of a single issue of consequence

00:29:44.400 on which Joe Manchin was the deciding vote.

00:29:48.340 So basically what Joe has done is if Republicans are going to win, if we had 51 votes, he might

00:29:53.620 give you a 52nd.

00:29:54.500 So he might make it bipartisan.

00:29:55.600 But he's not going to be that 51st.

00:29:58.920 He has never on any issue that matters in the nine years I've served with it, I've never

00:30:03.600 seen him willing to stand up to Chuck Schumer.

00:30:05.680 What about Sinema?

00:30:06.860 She hadn't been there that long.

00:30:07.980 She's only been there a couple of years.

00:30:09.380 I like her.

00:30:09.940 She's very nice.

00:30:10.780 I haven't seen her stand up to Schumer.

00:30:13.740 Now, who knows?

00:30:14.920 She hadn't been there long enough that we don't have as long a track history with her.

00:30:18.580 But I don't know what Schumer has, the degree to which Democrats are terrified to cross him.

00:30:26.880 And so here's my concern, is that Sinema caves and Manchin finds a cute game to pretend he didn't cave.

00:30:36.160 It seems like he's already setting that up.

00:30:37.840 So he's talking about the talking filibuster.

00:30:41.000 Now, the talking filibuster is to say, well, any senator can speak as long as they want,

00:30:47.300 but at the end of the talking filibuster, we're going to vote.

00:30:49.780 And insisting on the talking filibuster is a way to break the filibuster.

00:30:53.860 Right.

00:30:54.800 By the way, if they insist on a talking filibuster, I'm going to spend some time talking.

00:31:00.800 You have a little bit of a track record on this.

00:31:02.980 I have, I think, the fourth longest in history, 21 hours.

00:31:08.140 Could we do verdict from the Senate floor?

00:31:09.960 They won't let us do that.

00:31:11.660 But, you know, last time I read Green Eggs and Ham, I will tell you, a friend of a very

00:31:18.460 dear friend of mine suggested, said, if the Democrats force the talking filibuster, Republicans

00:31:24.440 should stand up and read the Bible from cover to cover.

00:31:30.600 I think many on the other side of the aisle would go screaming out of the room.

00:31:34.120 It actually is a great way to clear Democrats off the floor.

00:31:37.660 But look, we'll see what happens.

00:31:40.440 But insisting on the talking filibuster is frankly a game to say, I haven't ended the

00:31:45.040 filibuster.

00:31:45.520 But at the end, when eventually you collapse and can talk no longer, then you vote and

00:31:51.700 it's 50 and you pass the Corrupt Politicians Act and you pack the Supreme Court and you

00:31:55.440 do lasting structural damage to the country.

00:31:57.740 You know, it would seem to me, you have seen a lot of these things coming and we've talked

00:32:02.180 about it on the show.

00:32:02.920 You can go back and see the tape.

00:32:04.340 And a lot of them have really come to pass and they seem closer to passing right now.

00:32:08.940 We're focused on that crisis on the border.

00:32:10.700 It seems to me there is a crisis just as serious, maybe much more serious, with the

00:32:16.100 Corrupt Politicians Act, with other legislation they're trying to force through.

00:32:19.840 By the way, Michael, is there a way for people to subscribe or like this show?

00:32:23.000 Oh, you're talking about this?

00:32:24.480 Well, speaking of crises that we're facing in the private sector here, we're certainly

00:32:28.720 going to be booted off of all the platforms at a certain point.

00:32:31.240 But in the meantime, that's actually a wonderful recommendation.

00:32:34.500 You can subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, YouTube, any...

00:32:40.700 and every social platform that will still have us to verdict.

00:32:44.280 We also really appreciate it when you leave a five-star review.

00:32:46.780 Can they give six?

00:32:47.600 You can try.

00:32:49.320 It will not be successful, but you can try.

00:32:51.300 Don't turn it into one because you think that's like five plus one.

00:32:54.220 No, you've got it.

00:32:55.040 I would say, just to be safe, maybe go with the five.

00:32:57.720 And thank you to everybody who has been listening.

00:33:01.060 And, you know, we're going to keep bringing this to you.

00:33:04.180 Even I, I hate to admit that I didn't know all of this going in.

00:33:07.920 And by the way, we had a big announcement last show.

00:33:10.760 Oh, are you referring to what happens once they do boot us off of these social platforms?

00:33:15.140 We will be taking verdict on the road.

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00:33:23.820 We will be coming to six campuses around the country.

00:33:26.360 But we have not yet decided which campuses we will be going to.

00:33:30.420 So we already did one event in Miami.

00:33:32.260 That was a ton of fun.

00:33:33.380 We have six live events that are going to be going on over the next year.

00:33:36.160 Please submit either to mailbagatverdictpodcast.com or, you know, just tweet one of us which

00:33:41.520 schools you believe that we should go to.

00:33:44.560 We would appreciate that while you subscribe.

00:33:46.520 By the way, some people have written in to me.

00:33:48.120 I'm not kidding, Senator.

00:33:49.240 They subscribe.

00:33:50.200 And then for some reason, they're unsubscribed.

00:33:53.140 And they don't either.

00:33:53.540 Keep doing it again.

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00:33:56.360 Screw the big tech overlords and don't let them unsubscribe.

00:33:59.080 Absolutely.

00:33:59.900 We will see you next time.

00:34:00.980 I'm Michael Knowles.

00:34:01.820 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

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Verdict with Ted Cruz - March 25, 2021

Botching the Border

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