Verdict with Ted Cruz - Come and Vax It ft. Liz Wheeler, LIVE at Texas A&M University

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.340 Guaranteed human.

00:00:16.420 Wow.

00:00:17.720 Wow.

00:00:18.080 You know, there is something about this school

00:00:28.820 that it can make even me good at football.

00:00:31.740 That's amazing.

00:00:32.480 I can't get over that.

00:00:33.720 Wow.

00:00:34.740 Wow.

00:00:37.340 Incredible.

00:00:39.940 Now, Michael, you're not from Alabama, are you?

00:00:42.200 No, I am not.

00:00:43.140 I can tell you 100% I am not.

00:00:45.780 What?

00:00:46.220 Did something happen?

00:00:49.100 The earth shook.

00:00:54.900 Wow.

00:00:58.820 And, Michael, welcome to College Station.

00:01:02.320 Thank you.

00:01:09.420 You know, Senator, we were obviously, we were in Madison, Wisconsin last night.

00:01:14.900 It was a little chilly there, okay?

00:01:17.480 Not just the weather, the politics.

00:01:19.580 A little bit chilly.

00:01:21.100 But here, the sweet air of freedom in Texas.

00:01:23.840 They were Stan Menshevichs.

00:01:24.660 They were.

00:01:25.120 They were.

00:01:25.960 It is good to be here in this great free state at this fabulous university with all these

00:01:31.460 wonderful conservative students.

00:01:33.760 Thank you so much for having me.

00:01:37.260 Should we do a podcast?

00:01:43.760 Michael, this is the freest place in America.

00:01:47.800 I believe it.

00:01:48.600 I believe it.

00:01:50.960 Well, I'm glad that we can do that, because there is a lot to talk about.

00:01:54.820 And the left, and the media, and big tech, and Dr. Fauci want to shut us up and muzzle us

00:02:00.860 and not let us talk.

00:02:02.540 But I think we can do it here tonight.

00:02:04.060 Should we do a podcast?

00:02:04.980 All right.

00:02:05.120 Let's do it.

00:02:05.600 All right.

00:02:07.460 All right.

00:02:08.000 Who's this Brandon guy?

00:02:17.180 Is that a football thing?

00:02:18.280 No, I don't think it's a football thing.

00:02:20.160 Is it?

00:02:20.860 I keep hearing, though, everybody loves this guy.

00:02:23.700 Brandon is clearly winning the Heisman Trophy.

00:02:25.960 It was 529 years ago, Christopher Columbus discovered America.

00:02:38.560 Just this week, Katie Couric admitted she covered up the truth about Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

00:02:45.980 And this past weekend, Texas A&M kicked Alabama's ass.

00:02:51.860 This is Verdict with Michael Knowles.

00:03:03.400 Hey, all right.

00:03:12.440 Welcome back to Verdict to everyone out there in the online audience.

00:03:17.020 There are a lot, a lot of people in this room here at Texas A&M.

00:03:20.080 And there are many, many more of you out there in the online audience.

00:03:24.320 I think, actually, Senator, because of this magnificent athletic victory by Texas A&M that

00:03:30.000 just happened, we ought to focus a little bit about sports because some of the biggest

00:03:34.560 cultural battles right now in the entire political scene actually revolve around sports.

00:03:39.340 Well, most importantly, let me ask you, where were you Saturday night?

00:03:43.620 On the historic night.

00:03:45.760 I, you know, I was, if I want to have a cool answer, I was at home.

00:03:49.480 I was just at home.

00:03:50.720 Where were you, Senator?

00:03:52.060 I was here watching a spectacular football game.

00:04:05.000 And look, it's easy in hindsight to claim it, but I can tell you I told several buddies

00:04:09.660 going in, I said, look, I think that the Aggies have a real chance.

00:04:15.420 It had been a tough couple of weeks, tough couple of losses for A&M.

00:04:20.020 Alabama was on top of the world.

00:04:21.700 They're like a pro team.

00:04:24.460 Everyone thought they were going to win.

00:04:26.640 They were overconfident.

00:04:27.880 And they were playing here at home in Kyle Field.

00:04:31.100 It was dangerous.

00:04:33.260 And from the opening kickoff, the Aggies were dominant.

00:04:38.340 And it was spectacular.

00:04:40.960 And watching everyone storm the field at the end.

00:04:46.960 All right.

00:04:47.440 How many people here stormed the field?

00:04:48.840 By the way, I saw the officers at first.

00:04:54.100 They were trying to stop people.

00:04:55.360 They pushed people back.

00:04:56.460 And then they just said, ah, screw it.

00:04:57.940 We can't give it.

00:04:58.620 It's a lost cause.

00:05:00.120 But the one thing they did is they stood around the goalposts.

00:05:04.140 There were six or seven guys that looked like the offensive line of the Texans.

00:05:09.560 And they're like, whatever you do, you ain't pulling the goalpost down.

00:05:12.540 So that they succeeded in holding off.

00:05:15.500 But it was spectacular.

00:05:20.300 And I was with some friends who looked down and said something colorful that I'm going

00:05:25.200 to edit and make PG.

00:05:26.880 Okay.

00:05:27.680 But the comment as we looked at tens of thousands of students on the field was, nine months from

00:05:35.200 now, there may be a whole lot of babies born.

00:05:38.520 Yeah.

00:05:40.500 Winning is a great aphrodisiac.

00:05:42.540 I've heard that.

00:05:43.420 I have.

00:05:43.660 I suspect it was a good Saturday night.

00:05:46.260 You know, I'm hoping, Senator, I'm hoping that there is a political lesson here that

00:05:51.080 sometimes you're up against daunting odds.

00:05:54.580 It seems like there is this dominant, call it a ruling class, and you from the great land

00:05:59.800 of freedom, you have no way to fight back.

00:06:01.880 And then sometimes you score a big victory.

00:06:04.180 And I think that's what we all hope will happen for conservatives who have suffered a string

00:06:08.280 of devastating losses.

00:06:09.700 But we still hold out a lot of hope.

00:06:11.900 And you're seeing, actually, that spirit of freedom right now being kept alive by some

00:06:17.200 professional athletes in the face of these radical Joe Biden mandates.

00:06:21.200 Look, I got to say right now that Kyrie Irving may be one of the most important people on the

00:06:27.560 face of the planet right now.

00:06:28.920 If you think about what he's doing, he's taking a stand against forced vaccination mandates.

00:06:36.400 And he's doing it at real cost.

00:06:38.040 I mean, we're talking $100 million or more that he's putting at risk.

00:06:43.680 Look, you and I aren't gambling $100 million.

00:06:45.820 I don't know that there's anyone here that has been willing to say, I care about principle

00:06:50.500 enough that I'll give away $100 million and not play.

00:06:55.060 And has there ever been a more profoundly hypocritical and revealing reaction than the

00:07:02.280 media's reaction?

00:07:03.260 As Kyrie Irving is taking this stand, the entire corporate media is treating him like he is Darth

00:07:10.860 Vader.

00:07:11.340 They are attacking him.

00:07:12.460 They are demonizing him.

00:07:13.840 And it's night and day.

00:07:15.140 It's the exact opposite.

00:07:16.720 Colin Kaepernick, when he dropped to a knee during the national anthem, he was a saint.

00:07:24.360 He was the greatest hero.

00:07:26.180 He was Martin Luther King.

00:07:28.740 And by the way, he made, what, tens of millions of dollars for doing so and got hosannas everywhere.

00:07:34.040 And it was very profitable.

00:07:35.500 And at that point, he couldn't throw a football to save his life.

00:07:37.800 Kyrie Irving, that man can play ball.

00:07:44.040 Well, you know, he can dribble.

00:07:45.420 Okay, I'm one of the, like, six people on planet Earth that saw the movie Uncle Drew.

00:07:50.060 Did any of y'all see Uncle Drew?

00:07:52.020 I mean, that guy can, I told you there's six.

00:07:55.720 There are five of them.

00:07:58.180 That's Shaq, isn't it?

00:07:59.960 Chris Webber is in it.

00:08:01.220 But Kyrie can dribble like crazy.

00:08:04.820 He's a hell of a ball player.

00:08:06.280 And by the way, he's on the nets with KD and Harden.

00:08:09.800 And by the way, that, as a Rockets fan, that is very painful that Harden is up there with him.

00:08:14.840 But he's putting it all on the line.

00:08:19.000 And what does it say?

00:08:20.160 The ESPN is a giant corporation that is a leftist advocacy organization for the hard left of the Democratic Party.

00:08:28.520 And they are flooding the zone.

00:08:30.260 Every show on ESPN is what a villain Kyrie Irving is because he's willing to sacrifice himself because he says,

00:08:37.680 it's not right that people are fired because they don't want to get vaccines.

00:08:42.900 You and I, when we flew down from Wisconsin here today, when I was on the plane, I was on United,

00:08:50.400 a flight attendant pulled me aside.

00:08:52.160 She said, you know what?

00:08:53.660 I'm one of the United employees who's not going to get vaccinated.

00:08:58.160 She said, I've been at United 29 years.

00:09:01.800 I'm getting ready to get fired.

00:09:04.480 Kyrie Irving is fighting for her.

00:09:06.760 That is courage.

00:09:08.940 And the media is despicable.

00:09:10.240 These are two really, really important points.

00:09:12.900 One is, when you are speaking truth to power, very often...

00:09:18.200 Power doesn't like it.

00:09:19.040 The power doesn't like it.

00:09:20.180 And so when everyone was saying that Colin Kaepernick, he's this great lone voice speaking truth to power,

00:09:25.400 every single ruling power was applauding him and encouraging him and giving him more fame and more money

00:09:31.560 because he wasn't speaking truth to power.

00:09:33.720 He was a tool of the dominant ruling class line.

00:09:37.760 Kyrie Irving is genuinely speaking truth to power.

00:09:40.560 And the second point, and this, I think, is a keen observation,

00:09:44.700 everyone is looking at this story about Kyrie Irving as if it's about public health

00:09:49.780 or it's just about mandates or it's just about government power.

00:09:54.420 It's a story, as you say, about the media and the media's dishonesty.

00:10:00.100 And, frankly, the way the media have lied about this guy and about this issue,

00:10:05.120 it shows you what an important stand he's making.

00:10:08.740 Look, it is...

00:10:11.320 When you tell the powerful what they want to hear, it makes them happy.

00:10:15.740 It's also not courage.

00:10:17.560 It's when you tell them what they don't want to hear,

00:10:20.280 that's when they censor you, that's when they shut you down,

00:10:22.840 and that's when they demonize you.

00:10:24.640 The degree to which...

00:10:26.140 And one of the things that I never understood about the media,

00:10:29.460 I used to think five, six years ago that you turn on the TV,

00:10:33.060 you watch some host, and there's some lefty host,

00:10:37.140 and they're saying ridiculous things, and you're like, oh, what a jerk.

00:10:40.400 What I didn't understand, I don't blame the talent anymore.

00:10:45.540 Our media companies are controlled by the corner office.

00:10:49.100 It is the network executives that make a decision.

00:10:53.060 Jeff Zucker at CNN makes a decision.

00:10:55.960 Flood the zone.

00:10:57.300 This is the message, and every host echoes that message.

00:11:01.280 And I guarantee you, that is happening at ESPN.

00:11:04.580 The word has gone out.

00:11:06.120 Pound Kyrie Irving because he's dared disagree with the corporate orthodoxy.

00:11:11.060 Right, of course.

00:11:12.020 And you're seeing this increasingly.

00:11:14.760 We've always known, as you say, that these news networks,

00:11:17.220 sometimes they seem like jerks, sometimes they get the story wrong.

00:11:20.740 Maybe you chalk it up to just an accident.

00:11:22.820 But they'd never knowingly lie.

00:11:24.180 No, never.

00:11:24.720 They would never do that.

00:11:26.020 And then, and then, what happened this week?

00:11:28.880 And this was amazing.

00:11:29.900 It's not just left-on-right dishonesty.

00:11:33.160 It's not just the left-wing media lying about conservatives.

00:11:37.040 The left-wing media even lie about their left-wing icons

00:11:40.800 when the left-wing icons disagree with the agenda.

00:11:44.660 And you saw it this week with Katie Couric

00:11:47.200 and an interview that she had with RBG, Ruth Bader Ginsburg,

00:11:52.000 the fetid, iconic, notorious RBG.

00:11:55.500 Katie Couric said, yeah, RBG said something I didn't like,

00:11:58.080 so she's an old batty loon, and I took it out.

00:12:00.440 I'm only slightly paraphrasing.

00:12:01.980 That's basically what she said.

00:12:02.520 But it's even worse than that.

00:12:04.800 So 2016, Katie Couric is interviewing Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

00:12:09.320 And Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she asked,

00:12:10.860 it's when Colin Kaepernick is doing his kneel down,

00:12:13.600 and she asked Ruth Bader Ginsburg, what do you think about it?

00:12:16.560 And she said, I think it shows contempt for the government

00:12:20.300 that has given him all of the freedoms we have in this country.

00:12:24.640 And that was news.

00:12:25.980 This was a big deal.

00:12:27.260 We were having a national argument.

00:12:29.440 This is a sainted lion of the left.

00:12:32.000 And Katie Couric realized, oh, crap, this is not the narrative

00:12:36.920 that my propagandists want me to push.

00:12:42.240 And so what did she do?

00:12:43.320 She just edited it out.

00:12:44.640 And she didn't edit it out because it wasn't news.

00:12:47.820 She edited it out because it was news.

00:12:51.540 And she said, I want to protect Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

00:12:54.620 That's what she used, protect her.

00:12:56.520 From herself.

00:12:57.340 From herself.

00:12:58.020 From not being woke enough.

00:13:00.720 Because Katie Couric, and the media will say this,

00:13:02.880 doesn't matter how lefty you are if you're not woke enough

00:13:05.960 for the immediate minute.

00:13:08.300 They will erase you.

00:13:09.380 And by the way, it broke today.

00:13:10.640 David Brooks, another opinion columnist of the New York Times.

00:13:14.680 A supposedly sort of conservative New York Times columnist.

00:13:19.600 Well, all right.

00:13:20.660 So Katie Couric called David Brooks and said, hey, what should I do?

00:13:24.900 Ruth Bader Ginsburg just said that kneeling during the National Anthem

00:13:28.680 shows contempt for the country.

00:13:30.560 And David Brooks said, oh, you need to edit that out.

00:13:33.180 No, no, no, no.

00:13:33.700 That's not the message the old gray lady is trying to push.

00:13:38.100 This is, they're not journalists.

00:13:41.960 They are professional liars.

00:13:45.600 And by the way, lie is not too hard a term because another story that just broke this

00:13:51.440 week is Joe Rogan had a heck of an interview on a podcast.

00:13:56.600 Yeah.

00:13:57.840 Joe Rogan.

00:13:59.340 Tell us about what happened.

00:14:00.500 So this was the most magnificent interview I've seen in quite some time.

00:14:06.420 In fact, Michael said he was so impressed he's going to shave his head like Rogan.

00:14:09.380 I was thinking about it.

00:14:10.520 I'm going to take up MMA and I don't know.

00:14:13.380 He smokes things that I don't know if I can.

00:14:14.660 I stick to cigars, okay?

00:14:15.880 I try not to go far past that.

00:14:18.040 But here's the story that you heard.

00:14:20.080 Because we're talking about the difference between the gray lady, all the news that's

00:14:22.600 fit to print, and all the news that fits the narrative, which is what the left really

00:14:26.160 pushes.

00:14:26.440 So here's the story you saw in the mainstream media.

00:14:30.520 Crazy, kooky, right-wing radical Joe Rogan is so paranoid about coronavirus that he ate

00:14:38.060 horse dewormer to protect himself against the woo flu.

00:14:43.380 Okay.

00:14:43.740 And by the way, you're at A&M.

00:14:45.000 They've got a lot of folks that know about ag, know about horses and cattle.

00:14:49.160 We're all going to be really safe from them.

00:14:50.820 So now, the only problem with this story is that it was completely, 100% false, the idea

00:15:04.060 that ivermectin is horse dewormer.

00:15:06.080 It's like calling aspirin horse medicine.

00:15:09.280 They make aspirin for horses.

00:15:10.780 That's not what I take when I have a headache.

00:15:12.340 They make it for humans.

00:15:13.520 Ivermectin has been used to treat many, many humans for quite a long time.

00:15:16.600 And actually, the man who discovered it won a Nobel Prize.

00:15:19.540 So it's a well-established drug.

00:15:22.660 Hold on.

00:15:23.160 Repeat that, because that's a fascinating fact.

00:15:25.940 So the media had a week-long orgy of disinformation.

00:15:32.540 Kind of like on that football field with the game.

00:15:34.940 I don't know.

00:15:35.540 Not on the field.

00:15:36.260 Not as fun.

00:15:36.620 Not as fun.

00:15:37.040 Not on the field.

00:15:37.700 This isn't Berkeley.

00:15:40.160 I mean...

00:15:40.820 But for a week, the network bigwigs, the corner offices, said the message of the day is ivermectin

00:15:52.860 is bad, and any yokel who is taking it is taking horse dewormer, and every station pounded

00:16:00.840 it over and over and over again.

00:16:03.280 And Joe Rogan...

00:16:04.020 Joe Rogan's got $100 million.

00:16:06.380 I mean, the interview is spectacular, because he's got CNN's top doctor on.

00:16:11.340 Sanjay Gupta.

00:16:12.360 Yeah.

00:16:12.660 And he's like, why did you guys say this?

00:16:15.120 This is crap.

00:16:16.240 It has literally been given to over 1 billion people worldwide.

00:16:21.920 B, 1 billion people worldwide.

00:16:25.500 The discoverer, the inventor, won the Nobel Prize for discovering it.

00:16:30.260 He held up his prescription.

00:16:31.640 He said, look, a doctor prescribed this.

00:16:34.240 Not a veterinarian.

00:16:35.300 A human doctor prescribed this for me.

00:16:38.540 And it was really striking.

00:16:40.160 It's worth watching this interview, because Sanjay Gupta's like, oh, well, let's change

00:16:43.160 the subject over here.

00:16:44.200 Oh, look, shiny object.

00:16:45.200 Oh, look, squirrel.

00:16:46.240 Yeah.

00:16:47.540 And Rogan wouldn't let him get away with it.

00:16:49.460 And I think there's really an important lesson for all of us here on this, because Rogan

00:16:52.840 said, does it bother you that your network lied about this and said, I took a horse dewormer

00:16:57.080 when I obviously didn't?

00:16:58.260 And he says, oh, well, oh, maybe he shouldn't.

00:17:00.180 Okay, let's try to move on.

00:17:01.140 He says, no.

00:17:02.740 Does that make you feel a little concerned that your network lied?

00:17:07.340 He said, well, I didn't see that.

00:17:08.520 He goes, you're the top medical doctor.

00:17:10.720 What do you mean you didn't see that?

00:17:11.760 And you didn't lie just once.

00:17:13.000 Lied repeatedly.

00:17:14.200 Jim Acosta was the first, and they said it over and over and over again.

00:17:19.740 And I'll tell an interesting story.

00:17:21.480 So the New York Times a few months ago was doing this kind of big feature piece on Texas

00:17:26.380 and how Texas has changed.

00:17:28.900 And the reporter, the Capitol Hill reporter, he came up and talked to me, and he said,

00:17:32.600 you know, hey, talk to me about Texas.

00:17:34.920 And I gave him a quote.

00:17:36.920 I said, Texas is no longer just home to oil and gas wildcatters.

00:17:42.740 We're now also home to Tesla and Joe Rogan.

00:17:46.540 So the New York Times reporter used the quote, but only the first half of it.

00:18:02.060 So it's actually, it's the final quote in his story, which is Cruz, Texas is no longer

00:18:07.040 just home to oil and gas wildcatters, period.

00:18:10.340 And he just ends the quote.

00:18:11.340 And so I saw the reporter, Jonathan Martin is his name.

00:18:15.860 Everyone calls him J. Martin.

00:18:17.200 And I saw him, I said, J. Martin, what the hell are you doing?

00:18:19.740 I mean, that was a money quote.

00:18:21.500 Yeah, yeah.

00:18:23.000 And here was his comment.

00:18:24.520 It was fascinating.

00:18:25.500 He said, New York Times readers don't know who Joe Rogan is.

00:18:31.640 And I got to say what it sounded to me like, he didn't say it, but it sounded to me like

00:18:39.600 he included the full quote in the story and his editor edited out the second part because

00:18:45.140 they didn't like that message.

00:18:47.140 And it's an example, whether it's the New York Times or CNN, listen, CNN, top brass,

00:18:53.360 ought to be answering questions.

00:18:54.780 They claim to be journalists.

00:18:55.880 journalists, why did they repeatedly and deliberately lie over and over and over again?

00:19:01.140 Same thing Katie Couric did.

00:19:02.980 The press lies and post Donald Trump.

00:19:08.740 They hate Trump so much that they justify the lying.

00:19:12.800 Right.

00:19:13.180 The republic, our democracy is at stake.

00:19:16.080 So we get to lie to you.

00:19:16.860 To save democracy, we will lie.

00:19:18.220 Right.

00:19:18.960 Journalism, you know, journalism dies in darkness.

00:19:22.920 And we're testing that because the journalists have plunged us into darkness.

00:19:27.280 Yeah.

00:19:27.760 You know, one problem that conservatives have had is this problem that you're describing,

00:19:34.200 which is investigative journalism is expensive.

00:19:37.520 It loses money all the time.

00:19:39.640 And it is subsidized by left-wingers who are pushing their stories.

00:19:43.960 So very often, the conservative news outlets are actually using left-wing reporting because

00:19:49.700 there are good reporters at the New York Times.

00:19:51.640 There are actually good reporters at the Washington Post.

00:19:54.260 There aren't so many good editors.

00:19:55.860 There aren't so many good executives.

00:19:57.660 I mean, those are the guys who are really deciding what stories go in, what stories stay

00:20:01.240 out, and how to twist the stories and mess up your quotes.

00:20:04.140 But some of the reporters can be pretty good.

00:20:07.880 Recently, we are beginning to fight back against this.

00:20:11.540 There was a story that just broke.

00:20:13.200 And I want to bring out a special guest to discuss this.

00:20:16.240 There was a story that it was, it's actually, I hate to toot our own horn, but you know,

00:20:20.640 I guess I'll, I suppose I'll do it.

00:20:22.320 No, you don't.

00:20:22.860 No part of you hates horn tooting.

00:20:27.580 That's going in my bio now.

00:20:28.880 So the Daily Wire just broke a major, major news story, which is that in Loudoun County,

00:20:37.840 there is, oh, you've seen the story, I see.

00:20:40.500 In, in Loudoun County, a girl, a young girl suffered a vicious, horrible sexual attack

00:20:48.940 in a girl's bathroom from a guy who is apparently gender bending and will sometimes wear a skirt.

00:20:56.280 And the story is pretty clear.

00:20:58.600 There are dangers to letting boys in the girls' room.

00:21:01.600 And this is something that anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows.

00:21:05.140 But the media and the ruling class won't let anybody say it.

00:21:08.560 They're actually censoring people now.

00:21:10.660 They're censoring our friend Stephen Crowder because he just read the story.

00:21:13.300 Why don't we bring it, bring out our guest and we'll, we'll talk about this.

00:21:15.840 All right.

00:21:16.360 We've got a special guest.

00:21:17.980 You may have heard of her.

00:21:19.600 She is the host of the Liz Wheeler Show.

00:21:22.860 She is the, a wonderful new partner of Young America's Foundation, has her own YAF tour coming.

00:21:29.340 She, I guess I kind of gave away the answer, didn't I?

00:21:31.120 Our friend Liz Wheeler.

00:21:32.820 Conservative, this is your wake-up call.

00:21:42.460 Fight back against this destructive Marxist ideology.

00:21:46.420 Big tech is essentially using left-leaning organizations who claim to fast-check

00:21:50.940 to silence anybody who disagrees with their radical leftist ideology.

00:21:54.920 They tell us that if we don't do something, if we don't pass the Green New Deal, that our

00:21:59.620 Earth is going to die in 12 years.

00:22:02.040 They said the Arctic would no longer enjoy ice.

00:22:05.020 If they've gotten every single thing wrong in the past, why would we believe them?

00:22:08.780 This is our time.

00:22:09.600 This is our opportunity.

00:22:10.580 Why would we let that go?

00:22:12.020 If you let these hypocritical, tyrannical politicians take an inch, even with the excuse of an emergency,

00:22:18.180 they will take a mile.

00:22:19.480 So let them take nothing from you.

00:22:21.720 Period.

00:22:24.920 Oh, hello!

00:22:30.200 Thank you so much for having me.

00:22:32.380 What a great crowd.

00:22:33.560 What a great show so far.

00:22:34.780 Well, thank you.

00:22:35.620 It's great to have you here.

00:22:36.780 You've got a lot going on, so I'm glad you could make time for us.

00:22:39.760 You've got the new show.

00:22:41.040 You've got the new partnership with YAF.

00:22:43.080 You've got the new baby.

00:22:44.400 I guess that's a pretty big one.

00:22:46.180 And now you're joining us.

00:22:47.700 Yes, she deserves the applause.

00:22:50.520 Yeah, I'm super excited to be here.

00:22:52.360 We're thick into launching the new show.

00:22:54.360 We launched it this May, the Liz Wheeler Show.

00:22:57.280 We're about 60 episodes in, and, you know, torching the mainstream media, owning the libs, dropping the facts.

00:23:02.400 These are my favorite hobbies.

00:23:04.040 Oh, my gosh.

00:23:04.940 So, Liz, we really wanted to bring you out, because you followed this story pretty closely.

00:23:08.960 There have been a lot of problems in Loudoun County, even beyond this.

00:23:11.960 But I think this story really highlights the problem.

00:23:15.760 And actually, just today, the Washington Post, the mainstream media had been silent about it.

00:23:22.220 The Washington Post was forced to publish a story about this reporting, which originally was from a conservative group.

00:23:28.000 So what happened in Loudoun County?

00:23:30.420 Yeah, what happened in Loudoun County is, unfortunately, what's been happening across the country, and that is those who claim to care about women are ignoring the safety and security of biological women when it comes to the issue of transgender bathrooms or gender-neutral bathrooms.

00:23:44.280 Obviously, those on the left are worried about being called transphobic, and so they don't point up the fact that, you know, women are women, meaning biological women are women, and we want privacy in locker rooms.

00:23:55.300 We want privacy in the bathrooms.

00:23:56.720 And when you open it up to these gender-neutral policies, then what happens is some terrible creeps, some perverts, some predators take advantage of that.

00:24:05.420 And that's what happened in Loudoun County.

00:24:06.620 What happened in Loudoun County is they instituted a transgender bathroom policy, and a ninth-grade girl was raped by a man allegedly wearing a skirt in a gender-neutral bathroom.

00:24:18.300 And because this was a very hot-button topic, the transgender bathrooms in this particular school district, of course, because we all have our eyes on Loudoun County, the school essentially tried to cover it up.

00:24:29.000 They denied that it happened, even though the suspect is going to plead guilty to assorted sexual assault charges.

00:24:37.620 They tried to cover it up completely.

00:24:39.740 They tried to silence the parent who was exposing this.

00:24:41.800 It's really, truly terrible, all because they didn't want to stand up for women because it contradicts their transgender narrative.

00:24:48.420 Well, Liz, when you say they tried to silence the parent, I mean, it's not like they arrested him or anything.

00:24:54.540 They did arrest him.

00:24:55.700 Oh, wait a second.

00:24:56.400 Wait, no, come on.

00:24:57.900 Why would anyone arrest a parent?

00:24:59.380 That doesn't make any sense.

00:25:00.320 Yeah, and this is maybe one of the most interesting parts of this story, one of the most corrupt parts of this story, because the father, and you all might be familiar with the father involved in this story.

00:25:09.960 Do you remember the video that went around from Loudoun County of the father?

00:25:13.560 He's a bald guy.

00:25:15.060 He was very irate.

00:25:16.380 But they arrested Joe Rogan?

00:25:18.800 Now, this is news.

00:25:20.220 Soon enough.

00:25:20.760 Soon enough, they will, but not yet, thankfully.

00:25:22.660 They arrested him and dragged him out of the school board meeting, and he became, you know, labeled by the left the poster child of what the left wants to say are angry Republican parents who are opposing critical race theory or transgender policy in school.

00:25:35.740 They arrested him, and the prosecutor is actually trying to throw him in jail, even though, at most, this would be a misdemeanor.

00:25:41.240 I mean, you're the prosecutor here.

00:25:42.860 It probably shouldn't be anything.

00:25:44.100 Meanwhile, the suspect, who allegedly raped this girl, went back to school and committed another offense, another sexual assault, and the school tried to deny the whole thing to parents.

00:25:56.580 So I want to unpack this, because I think this is shocking and shameful, and it captures an awful lot of what is happening.

00:26:03.560 Number one, you have a predator who allegedly raped a teenage girl in a bathroom, a biological man who went in wearing a skirt and raped this little girl.

00:26:15.440 The father was, understandably, the father of the girl was, understandably, really pissed off, because the school didn't report it.

00:26:24.320 The school covered it up.

00:26:25.580 The school was not acknowledging it.

00:26:27.380 So the father went to a school board meeting, and I want you to think for a second, if you're the father of a girl who's been raped at school, you would be horrified, you would be pissed, and if the school was covering it up, you'd be saying, what the hell's wrong with you, people?

00:26:41.840 You'd be turning over tables, and what we're seeing here are two scandals.

00:26:47.500 Obviously, the main scandal, the crime that allegedly took place, but then, as you mentioned, this extra scandal of the school board covering it up,

00:26:55.900 because that sort of an incident doesn't fit the narrative.

00:26:59.940 What we are told by the ruling class is that men going into the girls' room never poses any threat whatsoever, and reality just happens to contradict that.

00:27:09.080 But it's even worse, because then the corruption folds in upon itself.

00:27:13.360 Because when this happened, and the father is outraged and expresses his outrage, he gets arrested.

00:27:18.900 And he then gets held up as the poster child and gets accused of being a domestic terrorist.

00:27:29.420 And incidents like this, the Attorney General of the United States under Joe Biden, Merrick Garland, points to him and other parents who are unhappy about what's being taught to our kids about the nonsense in our schools.

00:27:41.220 And Joe Biden's Attorney General calls that dad, and other parents who are pissed off, calls them domestic terrorists.

00:27:49.220 So you get the government going after parents trying to protect their kids, and you get the media obscuring it all in blackness.

00:27:58.860 And I want to pause and say something that you said to begin with.

00:28:01.720 Look, the facts of a violent sexual assault on campus, that's news.

00:28:08.300 That's real news.

00:28:10.500 It wasn't the Washington Post that broke it.

00:28:12.080 It wasn't the New York Times that broke it.

00:28:13.420 It wasn't CNN or ABC or CBS.

00:28:15.580 It was the Daily Wire.

00:28:17.180 Because it raises this question, you know, from all of the stories we've been discussing, they've got this common thread.

00:28:32.300 They've got this thread of the media lying, covering things up, distorting things.

00:28:36.500 And so very few right-wing organizations do any kind of investigative work because of structural challenges.

00:28:41.820 So if just this one organization, with just this one reporter, uncovered just this one major, major news story,

00:28:51.520 what else is out there that is not being reported on, that is being actively suppressed?

00:28:56.240 What else do we as conservatives have to uncover?

00:29:05.760 And I've got to say, it is a powerful thing.

00:29:08.820 Look, I love everyone at the Daily Wire.

00:29:12.440 And I've spent a lot of time with you guys.

00:29:14.900 He's about to tell us who he likes best.

00:29:17.300 You know, I don't know why Ben Shapiro slanders you so much.

00:29:22.840 You know, in an arm wrestling match, you'd take Ben two out of three times.

00:29:27.440 Thank you very much.

00:29:28.500 Finally, finally someone gives me the credit.

00:29:33.520 But look, you know, the Daily Wire's headquarters in L.A.,

00:29:37.940 I want you to understand, this is not some media conglomerate with a skyscraper.

00:29:43.620 This is basically six guys in a van.

00:29:46.900 It used to be in a parking lot in L.A.

00:29:49.240 It started in a pool house.

00:29:50.560 It actually started in a pool house.

00:29:51.960 And then, so it started in a bath house.

00:29:55.700 Okay, wait, that's a different story.

00:29:58.080 The New York Times is already writing that up.

00:29:59.760 They're writing it down.

00:30:01.480 You guys are now in Nashville, so you fled Looney Town and you came to America.

00:30:07.380 We wanted them to come to Texas.

00:30:09.160 We actually made a hard pitch for Texas.

00:30:12.480 But you know why I didn't come?

00:30:14.300 Because all my exes live in Texas, which is why I hang my hat.

00:30:19.900 I'll excuse myself now.

00:30:21.380 Good night.

00:30:22.940 So, true story, Michael had never heard that song.

00:30:27.080 And so, when he moved to Nashville on the podcast, on Verdict,

00:30:31.920 I pulled out my phone and played All My Exes Live in Texas.

00:30:35.760 What is he doing?

00:30:36.840 And he was fascinated.

00:30:38.200 And he's like, that's why I hang my hat in Tennessee.

00:30:40.660 He's like, oh, okay.

00:30:41.320 Yes, and that is, I think, what's got to be the focus here.

00:30:46.520 What conservatives have noticed in recent years,

00:30:49.580 I mean, they've kind of always known it, but they've really seen it,

00:30:52.360 is that the media are not just skewed.

00:30:55.540 They are the opposition party.

00:30:57.520 They are the apparatus of the left.

00:31:00.480 And they are the group that needs to be undermined.

00:31:03.320 They don't have credibility.

00:31:04.660 They don't have authority.

00:31:05.600 And we need to build those institutions and do it ourselves,

00:31:08.660 which I guess is the purpose of this podcast.

00:31:10.660 It's the purpose of the Liz Wheeler Show.

00:31:12.720 It's the purpose of coming to campuses all around the country.

00:31:15.660 And it's why we get to speak directly to people who are being lied to.

00:31:20.520 You know, it is an interesting comment, though.

00:31:22.680 One of the reasons why you're seeing the rise of alternative means of communication

00:31:26.900 is because the media is so corrupt.

00:31:30.040 You know, CNN's ratings have dropped.

00:31:32.380 They're getting about 800,000 viewers a show.

00:31:35.220 I mean, it's pitiful.

00:31:38.280 And to give a sense, look, this podcast, we started this podcast last year.

00:31:43.400 Within weeks, Verdict became the number one ranked podcast in the world.

00:31:49.380 Actually beating Joe Rogan.

00:31:50.880 I hate to take a shot, you know, but he got us again in the end.

00:31:54.220 But...

00:31:54.820 And we've had over 30 million downloads since we started doing this.

00:32:02.540 This is a powerful tool we get for a given episode.

00:32:06.780 Yesterday, we had 100,000 people live streaming

00:32:09.480 when we were up at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

00:32:12.940 We'll get on an episode anywhere from 250,000 to 500,000, 600,000 people

00:32:18.200 downloading a particular episode.

00:32:20.420 So this podcast is nearly up to CNN's ratings.

00:32:25.940 That's a little ridiculous, given that it's us, our chairs, our shag carpet,

00:32:30.380 and our friend, the cactus.

00:32:31.620 Yes, yes.

00:32:33.200 And don't you think one of the reasons for that, too,

00:32:35.500 is that it used to be that conservative media was somewhat of a niche, right?

00:32:38.680 That people who really wanted good reporting,

00:32:40.960 people who wanted good analysis, good commentary,

00:32:42.540 would go to more right-leaning websites.

00:32:43.980 But then the last four or five years,

00:32:46.160 we've seen the media organizations that used to claim to be nonpartisan,

00:32:50.080 they used to claim to be straight news.

00:32:51.260 They don't even try to pretend that they're not biased anymore.

00:32:55.300 I mean, we saw that during the election.

00:32:56.420 We saw it with the Hunter Biden laptop story.

00:32:59.040 We saw it with the Russia collusion story.

00:33:00.700 No, no, no.

00:33:01.080 Hunter Biden didn't have a laptop.

00:33:02.840 No, no.

00:33:03.180 He had four, right?

00:33:04.260 He had four that the Russians have now.

00:33:06.260 It was a Russian laptop, right?

00:33:08.580 Well, I mean, it had to be bad

00:33:10.080 because Silicon Valley prevented anyone from even tweeting it

00:33:12.860 and shut down the New York Post for two weeks over it.

00:33:15.480 So clearly it was fake, right?

00:33:16.960 It must have said fake on the sticker on the back.

00:33:18.920 In Hunter Biden's defense, he doesn't have the laptop anymore, okay?

00:33:22.740 He did lose the thing a few times, actually.

00:33:26.140 But yes, I think this point is really important.

00:33:29.020 And actually, getting to these other people we've been talking about,

00:33:31.200 I mean, we mentioned Rogan, but Kyrie Irving,

00:33:34.220 and increasingly a lot of other people.

00:33:36.740 I don't think that Kyrie Irving is some rock-ribbed conservative.

00:33:40.860 Joe Rogan was a Bernie bro.

00:33:42.160 But there are a lot of people who maybe they don't check every single box.

00:33:45.700 Can you repeat that?

00:33:47.060 So Joe Rogan endorsed Bernie Sanders for president.

00:33:50.820 Right.

00:33:51.580 Because you and Bernie have so much income.

00:33:53.000 And yet he's not woke enough.

00:33:54.580 They'll still slander him as taking horse to warm up.

00:33:59.500 They'll still go after Ruth Bader Ginsburg when she goes off the script.

00:34:05.620 And so I do think, you know, to your point, Liz, and to your point, Senator,

00:34:09.900 when you're getting hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people,

00:34:11.840 a million people perhaps, on episodes of so-called alternative media,

00:34:16.500 why is that?

00:34:17.200 It's because it's not just the handful of rock-ribbed conservatives.

00:34:20.420 It's because a lot of people with common sense and common decency

00:34:23.540 who have maybe a little bit heterodox views

00:34:26.200 and dissent from the left-wing establishment, they just want the truth.

00:34:30.260 Well, I don't know if you saw a couple of weeks ago,

00:34:32.000 it was one of the left-leaning organizations.

00:34:35.220 I can't remember if it was Planned Parenthood or Emily's List

00:34:37.960 or one of these things.

00:34:38.840 They tweeted out a quote from Ruth Bader Ginsburg,

00:34:41.620 a quote about women,

00:34:43.580 and they edited out the word women.

00:34:46.560 Yeah.

00:34:47.140 They, like, removed women from Ruth Bader Ginsburg's quote

00:34:50.120 and made it persons

00:34:51.740 because apparently you're not allowed to say women.

00:34:56.860 Like, this is, and by the way, this is,

00:34:58.840 look, they made votive candles out of Ruth Bader Ginsburg,

00:35:03.740 and they are editing her statements

00:35:06.800 for being insufficiently woke post-mortem.

00:35:09.660 Well, you know what they said?

00:35:10.500 So what they did,

00:35:11.960 the line that Ruth Bader Ginsburg said

00:35:14.140 was a reproductive choice

00:35:15.920 is essential to a woman's right in health and safety.

00:35:19.060 And they changed the woman's right to people's right.

00:35:22.480 So you've got all of these,

00:35:23.360 all of those other birthing people

00:35:24.800 who aren't women, I guess.

00:35:25.860 So I've got to tell you,

00:35:27.500 two weeks ago at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing,

00:35:31.260 Cory Booker, and Cory's a friend.

00:35:32.900 He's actually, he's a good guy.

00:35:34.680 He was talking, and he's talking,

00:35:36.480 this is on C-SPAN,

00:35:37.300 it's a live public hearing,

00:35:38.360 and he makes a reference to,

00:35:39.420 I think he makes a reference to mothers.

00:35:41.820 And then he stops and corrects himself and says,

00:35:44.200 oh, I mean birthing people.

00:35:47.320 And I, like, I went up to him afterwards

00:35:49.380 on the Senate floor.

00:35:50.240 I'm like, dude, really?

00:35:51.120 Like, really, are your people that nuts

00:35:54.720 that saying mothers is, like, unacceptable?

00:36:00.720 And I won't say what he said,

00:36:01.840 because I'll keep his comments private.

00:36:04.680 But, you know.

00:36:06.000 Well, I have something to say to him.

00:36:07.640 I gave birth eight months ago,

00:36:09.260 and I can assure you,

00:36:10.760 I'm not a birthing person.

00:36:12.080 I'm a woman.

00:36:12.600 It is fascinating, though,

00:36:21.320 to see, to see this strain.

00:36:23.660 I mean, first we had radical feminism, right?

00:36:25.860 And, which was kind of,

00:36:27.160 of the man-hating strain.

00:36:28.520 And now we have this new strain of wokeism

00:36:30.840 that's actually trying to erase

00:36:32.220 the very essence of womanhood.

00:36:33.540 I mean, it ties into the Loudoun County story,

00:36:35.640 how, you know, they're saying,

00:36:36.800 well, biological women don't really count.

00:36:38.880 Anybody who identifies as a woman

00:36:40.180 maybe wears a skirt,

00:36:41.280 counts as a real woman.

00:36:42.720 And they're doing the same thing

00:36:43.720 with those of us who give birth.

00:36:46.200 Women.

00:36:46.860 I mean, what could be more fundamental

00:36:48.100 to being a woman

00:36:48.780 than your ability to create new life

00:36:51.360 and give birth to that life?

00:36:52.640 And now, apparently,

00:36:53.780 that's not good enough for the woke folks.

00:37:02.100 You know, I was there

00:37:03.820 when Heidi gave birth to both our daughters.

00:37:06.520 And I got to say,

00:37:07.620 I don't think there's a man on the planet

00:37:09.500 that could go through that.

00:37:11.260 I said to my husband,

00:37:12.600 when my daughter was maybe five or six weeks old,

00:37:14.700 it was right at the time

00:37:15.460 that there was that hospital in the UK

00:37:16.860 that was telling nurses

00:37:18.200 to call it chest feeding

00:37:19.520 and human milk.

00:37:20.820 What?

00:37:21.420 And I suggested to him

00:37:22.960 about three or four a.m.

00:37:24.120 that maybe he try out the chest feeding.

00:37:26.300 And turns out that's just not possible.

00:37:29.420 I was really...

00:37:29.720 Do you remember the Robert De Niro movie

00:37:31.160 where he's the CIA agent?

00:37:32.320 And he's, you know...

00:37:34.260 Anyway, he says,

00:37:35.180 anything with nipples you can milk?

00:37:38.240 And he says,

00:37:38.600 I have nipples.

00:37:39.180 Can you milk me?

00:37:41.380 Forget a De Niro movie.

00:37:42.660 It's Monty Python.

00:37:43.680 I mean, there's actually...

00:37:44.480 This is a Monty Python sketch.

00:37:46.140 I remember when my baby was born

00:37:47.680 almost at the same time...

00:37:48.680 Two days apart, right?

00:37:49.420 Two days apart.

00:37:50.420 I wanted to be really old school.

00:37:52.140 I didn't even want to be in the room.

00:37:53.340 I wanted to be downstairs in the lobby

00:37:55.060 smoking cigarettes

00:37:56.380 like a guy from the 50s.

00:37:57.820 Tell me you were in the room.

00:37:59.560 I was guilted into being in the room.

00:38:01.420 It was very painful for me.

00:38:02.540 It is.

00:38:03.100 It was very painful to hear that.

00:38:04.640 It is an incredible, spectacular,

00:38:07.900 like, holy crap moment.

00:38:10.780 Like, giving birth...

00:38:12.700 Like, I wanted to go home

00:38:14.080 and just tell my mom,

00:38:15.020 thank you, like...

00:38:16.060 I did actually do that.

00:38:18.300 Afterward, I was like,

00:38:19.280 how did you do that five times?

00:38:22.440 Now, actually,

00:38:23.640 this is a little bit of a hard segue,

00:38:25.380 but I don't want to miss

00:38:26.240 the opportunity here

00:38:27.240 because, you know,

00:38:28.220 my baby, being my child,

00:38:30.300 he is a little bit

00:38:31.000 of the Italian persuasion.

00:38:33.000 And you referenced a certain...

00:38:34.120 Not just persuaded,

00:38:34.920 downright convinced.

00:38:35.740 The Italian is downright convinced.

00:38:38.260 I can't help but notice

00:38:40.180 you mentioned

00:38:40.620 a certain famous Italian.

00:38:42.580 You might even call him

00:38:43.400 an Italian-American

00:38:44.200 at the top of the show.

00:38:45.320 A man that we were all

00:38:46.660 supposed to celebrate this week.

00:38:48.600 A man who I was told

00:38:49.900 when I was a little boy

00:38:50.820 discovered America.

00:38:52.260 And a man whose name

00:38:53.480 we are no longer

00:38:54.540 allowed even to mention

00:38:55.840 Mr. Christopher Columbus.

00:39:00.480 You remember him?

00:39:02.860 The round of applause

00:39:04.140 is for your segue.

00:39:06.200 That was something.

00:39:07.320 Thank you so much.

00:39:08.520 I've got to say,

00:39:09.400 number one,

00:39:09.840 that was a very natural segue.

00:39:11.120 It, it, it, it, as, as our wives

00:39:16.900 birth children, so Columbus

00:39:18.960 birthed the new world.

00:39:20.340 Wow.

00:39:23.560 That's why he's the senator

00:39:24.800 and I'm the podcaster.

00:39:27.280 But this, I actually do think this,

00:39:29.220 it ties in with the education issues.

00:39:30.920 It ties in with the lies

00:39:31.960 from the media.

00:39:32.580 Because Christopher Columbus,

00:39:34.400 who, when I was a kid,

00:39:35.440 we celebrated Columbus Day,

00:39:36.600 he was a great American hero,

00:39:38.140 he discovered America.

00:39:40.140 Now he is considered

00:39:41.180 one of the worst villains

00:39:42.480 in the history of the world

00:39:43.500 whose statues have to be torn down

00:39:45.140 and whose, whose memory

00:39:46.680 has to be erased.

00:39:48.860 How did that happen?

00:39:50.660 This is not a segue,

00:39:52.540 but did you see what

00:39:53.360 Senator Elizabeth Warren

00:39:54.380 tweeted on Columbus Day?

00:39:56.180 Don't tell me.

00:39:56.640 I, I, I,

00:39:57.240 Happy indigenous people.

00:39:58.540 Yeah, yeah, that's,

00:40:00.300 Pocahontas herself,

00:40:01.600 ladies and gentlemen.

00:40:02.000 She is one,

00:40:02.960 she is one one-thousandth

00:40:05.860 and thirty-second correct.

00:40:07.080 Mm-hmm.

00:40:07.540 Mm-hmm.

00:40:09.960 Very fair-minded of you, Senator.

00:40:12.640 Credit where credit is due.

00:40:15.840 It also, you know,

00:40:16.660 frankly, this ties in even, too.

00:40:18.240 The idea that Elizabeth Warren,

00:40:19.800 she lies for her whole career,

00:40:21.340 she pretends to be an Indian,

00:40:22.640 she goes about her liawatha,

00:40:24.320 you know, prancing around,

00:40:25.660 and then she gets called out for it.

00:40:28.360 And then, just poof,

00:40:29.460 as though nothing happened.

00:40:30.400 She's even...

00:40:30.780 Nothing to see here.

00:40:31.360 She has the audacity

00:40:32.400 to say Happy indigenous people's day.

00:40:34.100 This woman who has made a career

00:40:35.420 lying about being an Indian,

00:40:36.600 she's the whitest woman

00:40:37.480 ever walked the face of the earth.

00:40:39.780 But, but it doesn't matter

00:40:40.900 because the ruling class...

00:40:41.760 No, she saw an episode

00:40:42.560 of The Lone Ranger.

00:40:45.860 Clearly that qualifies.

00:40:47.200 She did, that's true.

00:40:48.400 That's what began her love affair

00:40:50.140 with masks, you know,

00:40:51.100 her supportive masking

00:40:51.980 was from The Lone Ranger.

00:40:53.380 So you're saying

00:40:53.920 she just puts it

00:40:54.580 in the wrong spot?

00:40:55.060 She put it in the wrong spot.

00:40:56.760 I will tell you

00:40:58.020 as just a quick aside

00:40:59.560 that's relevant to nothing.

00:41:02.840 You know, Nancy Pelosi

00:41:04.380 has a mask mandate in the House.

00:41:08.100 And, you know,

00:41:09.560 Dan Crenshaw,

00:41:10.480 the congressman from Texas.

00:41:13.680 I told Dan

00:41:19.880 he should tell Nancy

00:41:21.040 he's already wearing

00:41:22.000 a mask over his eyes.

00:41:24.700 And, and he earned that mask.

00:41:26.740 I mean, he really earned that one.

00:41:27.920 That's, that's earned.

00:41:29.080 That mask stands for something real.

00:41:30.620 Not the filthy Fauci cloth,

00:41:32.780 of course.

00:41:33.200 It's actual virtue.

00:41:34.200 Yes, it does.

00:41:35.000 But I, I think, you know,

00:41:36.600 that this,

00:41:37.120 what it all comes down to

00:41:39.000 with the Columbus issue

00:41:40.180 is kind of being seen

00:41:42.600 throughout all these other stories.

00:41:44.340 Columbus,

00:41:45.460 at least in my understanding,

00:41:46.940 stands for America.

00:41:48.500 He is an embodiment

00:41:50.480 of Western civilization

00:41:51.280 in a way.

00:41:52.080 Devoutly religious,

00:41:53.300 intrepid,

00:41:54.200 self-made,

00:41:55.220 doggedly determined,

00:41:56.620 willing to explore

00:41:57.700 uncharted territory,

00:41:59.180 bring the gospel,

00:42:00.300 bring civilization

00:42:00.940 to a new land.

00:42:02.080 He is America,

00:42:03.200 and so the left

00:42:04.140 hates his guts.

00:42:05.980 All right, so we've got

00:42:06.860 a couple experts here

00:42:07.880 and listen,

00:42:08.440 one of the reasons

00:42:09.140 why I think people

00:42:09.940 like Verdict,

00:42:11.000 why they subscribe to Verdict,

00:42:12.260 why they listen to Verdict

00:42:13.120 is they learn things.

00:42:14.640 They learn things

00:42:15.320 that are helpful

00:42:16.280 when they're talking to friends,

00:42:17.300 when they're talking to family,

00:42:18.300 when they're engaged

00:42:19.840 in the back and forth of life.

00:42:21.420 So, so help me on this.

00:42:23.600 And I want to ask both of you,

00:42:24.680 if I hear,

00:42:25.940 as my girls hear at school

00:42:28.160 every year,

00:42:29.780 that Christopher Columbus

00:42:31.180 was a murdering,

00:42:33.000 genocidal,

00:42:34.260 evil psychopath

00:42:35.260 who slaughtered

00:42:36.780 the Native Americans,

00:42:38.260 spread deadly disease,

00:42:39.760 and should be viewed

00:42:41.000 with shame and horror.

00:42:44.560 What facts is that narrative

00:42:46.340 leaving out?

00:42:47.580 Ladies first.

00:42:48.460 Oh, thank you.

00:42:49.220 I don't mind if I do.

00:42:50.560 Okay, the genocide trope here.

00:42:53.460 This is factually incorrect.

00:42:55.320 So there were about

00:42:55.760 20 million Native Americans

00:42:57.500 living in North America

00:42:58.420 in 1492 when Columbus,

00:43:00.400 you know,

00:43:00.720 discovered our wonderful nation.

00:43:03.040 And tragically,

00:43:04.420 about 95% of them

00:43:05.840 did die in the centuries

00:43:07.640 following Columbus landing

00:43:09.260 in the United States,

00:43:09.920 but they did not die

00:43:10.820 from genocide.

00:43:12.080 You know,

00:43:12.880 I want to give him credit.

00:43:13.940 He landed in the Caribbean.

00:43:15.360 He found it actually

00:43:15.880 much nicer land,

00:43:16.940 you know,

00:43:17.220 but then obviously

00:43:17.880 a lot of other explorers

00:43:19.280 came to these lands.

00:43:20.380 Right.

00:43:20.780 Yes,

00:43:21.240 obviously disease spread.

00:43:22.660 That's what happened.

00:43:22.920 Just so you guys know,

00:43:23.820 Michael and I have

00:43:24.280 a friendly competition

00:43:25.060 about who knows

00:43:25.620 the most Christopher Columbus facts.

00:43:26.840 This is a years-long

00:43:28.680 friendly feud,

00:43:30.060 just so you're aware

00:43:30.900 of what's going on here.

00:43:32.680 Disease.

00:43:33.800 Yes,

00:43:34.080 and to your point,

00:43:35.480 what sort of a genocide

00:43:37.300 are we talking about

00:43:38.640 when there are still

00:43:41.000 indigenous peoples?

00:43:42.100 I mean,

00:43:42.380 there are still descendants.

00:43:43.440 There was a lot of intermarriage

00:43:44.680 between the Spaniards

00:43:45.920 and the Native peoples.

00:43:47.320 So were there atrocities committed?

00:43:48.780 Of course,

00:43:49.140 there's no question about that.

00:43:50.160 But let's start

00:43:51.260 with the simple fact

00:43:52.380 that if you're measuring

00:43:55.260 whether someone

00:43:56.240 is good or evil,

00:43:58.220 culpability matters.

00:43:59.840 If you deliberately

00:44:01.440 murder someone,

00:44:03.360 that is far more culpable

00:44:05.160 than if you have

00:44:06.300 a car accident

00:44:07.320 and accidentally

00:44:08.240 take a light.

00:44:09.200 Right.

00:44:10.000 In the case

00:44:11.100 of Christopher Columbus

00:44:12.200 and the explorers,

00:44:13.900 is it true

00:44:15.080 that they had germs

00:44:16.560 and diseases

00:44:17.240 that were not present

00:44:19.900 in North America?

00:44:21.640 Yes.

00:44:22.720 Did they know

00:44:23.280 what a germ was?

00:44:24.380 Right.

00:44:24.960 No,

00:44:25.400 it was 1492.

00:44:27.620 But like,

00:44:28.360 they had no idea

00:44:29.200 what a germ is.

00:44:30.060 And if you're measuring

00:44:31.000 culpability,

00:44:32.680 to be carrying

00:44:33.660 invisible things

00:44:35.000 that you don't know exist

00:44:36.460 that unbeknownst to you

00:44:38.300 cause disease

00:44:39.340 is a tragic outcome,

00:44:42.240 but not one

00:44:43.320 for which you can

00:44:44.440 reasonably blame him

00:44:46.760 as having made

00:44:48.200 any decision

00:44:49.020 to cause that.

00:44:49.900 It also happened

00:44:50.640 literally years

00:44:52.020 and years

00:44:52.340 and years

00:44:52.640 after he was here.

00:44:53.600 That wasn't even

00:44:54.180 something that,

00:44:54.940 you know,

00:44:55.720 he brought.

00:44:56.440 This was,

00:44:56.960 you know,

00:44:57.120 like I said,

00:44:57.480 it's tragic for sure.

00:44:58.880 It's an act of God,

00:44:59.900 if you will.

00:45:00.320 It's nature.

00:45:01.020 It's, you know,

00:45:01.620 health.

00:45:02.100 It's germs.

00:45:02.640 But it's not true

00:45:03.360 that he committed genocide.

00:45:04.780 And the accusations

00:45:05.640 against his character,

00:45:06.580 I actually find this,

00:45:07.700 you know,

00:45:07.980 quite amusing.

00:45:08.540 It's a little bit

00:45:09.040 reflective of our

00:45:10.000 current times,

00:45:10.500 I think.

00:45:11.080 There was a thesis,

00:45:12.860 if you will,

00:45:13.260 written about

00:45:13.720 Christopher Columbus

00:45:14.520 that maligned his character.

00:45:16.720 And it was written

00:45:17.240 by a man named

00:45:17.880 Francisco de Babadilla.

00:45:19.700 Am I butchering

00:45:20.160 the Italian here?

00:45:20.700 A little bit,

00:45:21.280 but that's with Spanish.

00:45:22.020 But it's okay.

00:45:22.760 It's, you know,

00:45:23.420 who cares?

00:45:24.120 You can butcher their names.

00:45:25.160 As long as it's not the Italian.

00:45:26.420 The Italian man was Columbus's

00:45:28.320 chief political rival.

00:45:30.420 So the equivalent now

00:45:31.460 would be like

00:45:31.960 if Hillary Clinton

00:45:32.720 wrote the history

00:45:33.460 about Donald Trump's

00:45:34.420 presidential campaign.

00:45:35.220 It would be fair.

00:45:36.080 It would be clearly fair.

00:45:37.560 Absolutely unbiased.

00:45:38.120 Clearly accurate.

00:45:40.020 And that's where

00:45:40.780 we get this idea,

00:45:41.560 or that's what's taught

00:45:42.160 in schools right now,

00:45:43.060 that Christopher Columbus

00:45:43.860 had this terrible character

00:45:44.740 based on what was written

00:45:47.220 by his chief political rival.

00:45:48.720 That's not exactly

00:45:49.500 an accurate view of history.

00:45:51.560 By the way,

00:45:51.920 there are other accounts

00:45:52.960 from the Times,

00:45:53.960 and it's not as though

00:45:55.040 they're just hagiographies.

00:45:56.080 They paint the realities

00:45:57.040 of what happened,

00:45:57.720 but one, for instance,

00:45:58.740 by Bartolome de las Casas,

00:46:00.060 the first resident bishop

00:46:01.000 of the Americas,

00:46:02.080 considered one of the greatest

00:46:03.060 defenders in history

00:46:04.400 of the Native Americans.

00:46:05.360 See why I asked them.

00:46:07.320 But de las Casas

00:46:09.420 remained an admirer of Columbus

00:46:11.160 for his entire life,

00:46:12.140 and Carol Delaney,

00:46:13.060 who's a Columbus historian

00:46:14.180 from Stanford,

00:46:15.380 she points out that

00:46:16.140 much of what Columbus

00:46:17.280 is accused of doing,

00:46:18.520 there were murders,

00:46:19.260 there was enslavement,

00:46:20.080 there was...

00:46:20.860 were crimes committed

00:46:21.940 by other people,

00:46:23.340 and in fact,

00:46:23.980 by politicians

00:46:24.820 who outfoxed

00:46:25.980 Columbus,

00:46:26.960 and in many cases,

00:46:28.580 Columbus was the one

00:46:29.280 arguing for leniency

00:46:30.600 and trying to have

00:46:31.500 a more humane policy.

00:46:32.640 So I will tell you guys,

00:46:33.940 you're both new parents.

00:46:36.060 When your kids get older,

00:46:37.300 our girls are 10 and 13,

00:46:40.000 and they start going to schools,

00:46:41.340 and even in Houston, Texas,

00:46:42.900 they engage in this propaganda.

00:46:46.120 And listen,

00:46:46.720 when I sit down with my girls,

00:46:47.920 I still remember fourth grade,

00:46:49.180 my eldest daughter

00:46:49.840 came home with her friend

00:46:50.860 and said,

00:46:51.120 oh, Christopher Columbus

00:46:52.040 is evil and genocidal.

00:46:54.360 I was like,

00:46:54.700 ooh, genocidal,

00:46:55.280 that's a big word.

00:46:56.420 Fourth grade, wow.

00:46:59.440 But,

00:47:00.040 and I sat down

00:47:00.900 and I said,

00:47:01.300 look,

00:47:01.540 I'm not vested

00:47:03.060 in convincing you

00:47:04.440 Christopher Columbus

00:47:05.720 is the greatest man

00:47:06.760 to ever live.

00:47:07.420 I don't have a particular

00:47:08.720 dog in that fight.

00:47:10.080 But I did ask her,

00:47:11.420 I said,

00:47:11.680 you know,

00:47:11.960 we do have a federal holiday

00:47:13.680 named Columbus Day.

00:47:15.720 Do we typically name

00:47:19.100 federal holidays

00:47:20.160 after genocidal maniacs?

00:47:22.360 Do we have a Pol Pot Day?

00:47:24.380 Yeah.

00:47:25.160 Milosevic Day,

00:47:26.120 you remember,

00:47:26.520 I always,

00:47:26.920 that's my favorite piece

00:47:27.680 to be here.

00:47:28.040 Do we have a Stalin Day?

00:47:29.220 I mean,

00:47:29.440 that ought to pause

00:47:31.200 for a second

00:47:32.020 and make you think,

00:47:33.740 well, okay,

00:47:34.980 presumably someone

00:47:36.260 saw something of value

00:47:38.220 to make it

00:47:40.000 a federal holiday.

00:47:41.960 And,

00:47:42.240 and what is depressing

00:47:44.200 about in K-12 education,

00:47:47.680 in colleges,

00:47:48.300 in universities,

00:47:49.280 in media,

00:47:49.940 in journalism,

00:47:51.060 is they are telling

00:47:52.120 a narrative

00:47:52.700 and your first reaction

00:47:55.860 on this, Michael,

00:47:56.480 I think was really important

00:47:57.360 because you said,

00:47:58.600 Christopher Columbus,

00:48:00.540 whether you hate Columbus

00:48:01.740 is a proxy

00:48:02.480 for whether you hate America.

00:48:03.860 Yeah.

00:48:04.580 And,

00:48:04.940 and when this was really

00:48:06.100 struck me

00:48:07.000 was last year

00:48:08.600 at Thanksgiving

00:48:09.260 when my girls

00:48:10.160 came with their friends

00:48:11.000 and they were saying,

00:48:11.980 Thanksgiving is another holiday.

00:48:14.200 that celebrates

00:48:15.080 the pilgrims

00:48:15.820 oppressing the Indians.

00:48:17.700 I'm like,

00:48:18.120 what?

00:48:18.360 Okay,

00:48:18.620 what Thanksgiving is that?

00:48:20.260 Like,

00:48:20.780 no,

00:48:21.040 it's not.

00:48:22.180 And,

00:48:22.340 and,

00:48:22.520 and let me be clear.

00:48:23.340 Look,

00:48:23.580 when I was in school,

00:48:25.620 did they teach

00:48:26.700 a little bit

00:48:27.600 of a sanitized history?

00:48:28.960 Probably.

00:48:29.300 were there atrocities

00:48:32.400 and,

00:48:32.960 and murders

00:48:34.160 and,

00:48:34.680 and horrible mistreatment

00:48:36.740 of Native Americans?

00:48:37.920 Undoubtedly.

00:48:39.420 But it wasn't one-sided.

00:48:41.300 There were also,

00:48:43.420 you know,

00:48:43.820 I love asking lefties

00:48:45.040 a simple question.

00:48:46.000 You know,

00:48:46.460 tell me,

00:48:47.260 from whence derives

00:48:49.620 the verb

00:48:50.420 to scalp?

00:48:52.840 Right.

00:48:53.640 Like,

00:48:53.820 we know what this word means

00:48:55.500 and,

00:48:56.260 and it was warfare

00:48:57.740 and conquest

00:48:58.380 and so people on both sides

00:48:59.900 did things that were not great.

00:49:01.400 If you want to teach history

00:49:02.640 with warts and all,

00:49:04.460 that's great.

00:49:05.600 But,

00:49:06.280 the thing to understand

00:49:07.840 about those that want to teach

00:49:09.380 Columbus was evil

00:49:10.360 and those who want to teach

00:49:11.460 Thanksgiving was evil,

00:49:13.080 what they're really vested

00:49:14.520 in teaching

00:49:15.240 is that

00:49:17.080 the western settlement

00:49:18.580 of the new world,

00:49:19.700 the founding of the United States,

00:49:21.780 the Declaration of Independence,

00:49:23.240 the Constitution,

00:49:25.140 all of those

00:49:26.320 were bad.

00:49:27.680 All of those

00:49:28.500 were a force for evil.

00:49:30.180 This was a nation

00:49:31.240 that,

00:49:31.900 that,

00:49:32.220 that began

00:49:32.900 with evil

00:49:34.140 and has perpetrated evil

00:49:35.500 ever since.

00:49:36.580 And,

00:49:36.840 and,

00:49:37.040 and I don't know

00:49:37.900 that there is a proposition

00:49:39.200 on the face of the planet

00:49:40.420 I disagree with more.

00:49:42.220 America has been

00:49:43.060 the greatest force for good

00:49:44.720 in the history of the world.

00:49:51.740 This is such a good point.

00:49:54.080 Is it because

00:49:54.860 you hit on something here

00:49:57.280 when you mentioned

00:49:57.900 that the Indians,

00:49:58.780 they could,

00:49:59.220 they could fight pretty hard too.

00:50:00.780 I think it diminishes

00:50:02.240 the native,

00:50:03.480 the indigenous peoples

00:50:04.280 when we pretend

00:50:05.420 that they're just

00:50:06.060 passive creatures

00:50:07.720 and they're all

00:50:08.780 savage.

00:50:09.380 I mean,

00:50:10.120 you know,

00:50:10.440 you,

00:50:10.540 it's patronizing.

00:50:11.640 The left views them

00:50:12.500 in this patronizing view

00:50:14.300 instead of like

00:50:15.520 they were human beings.

00:50:17.240 Yes.

00:50:17.380 There were good people

00:50:18.160 and bad people

00:50:18.880 and people kind of in between.

00:50:19.960 You know,

00:50:20.160 when Columbus arrived

00:50:21.080 at San Salvador,

00:50:21.860 very religious man,

00:50:23.260 named the island,

00:50:23.840 he landed at San Salvador,

00:50:25.020 he encountered

00:50:26.120 the Taino people

00:50:26.940 who were by all accounts

00:50:27.860 a very amiable,

00:50:28.920 lovely people

00:50:29.400 and they invented cigars

00:50:30.780 so I have a particular

00:50:31.780 soft spot for them.

00:50:33.140 So,

00:50:33.500 so he encounters

00:50:34.520 the Taino people.

00:50:35.360 Some of the Taino

00:50:36.180 had scars on their bodies.

00:50:37.820 They had scars

00:50:38.400 on their bodies

00:50:39.000 because of another

00:50:39.860 indigenous peoples,

00:50:41.120 the Carib people

00:50:42.100 from whom we get

00:50:42.960 the word cannibal.

00:50:43.780 They were cannibals.

00:50:45.100 They bred babies

00:50:45.940 to be eaten

00:50:46.540 and it's well attested

00:50:47.560 to historically.

00:50:48.200 There was ritual cannibalism

00:50:49.680 in North America

00:50:50.400 with the Iroquois.

00:50:51.440 The Aztec civilization

00:50:52.860 slaughtered 80,000 people

00:50:54.720 in four days

00:50:55.900 by ripping their beating hearts

00:50:57.120 out of their chests

00:50:57.880 to their gods

00:50:59.260 that they were worshipping.

00:51:00.440 Now,

00:51:00.800 I'm not saying,

00:51:01.840 just as you point out,

00:51:03.260 that all of these people

00:51:04.300 were awful and terrible

00:51:05.040 and did terrible things

00:51:05.820 and I'm also not saying

00:51:07.060 like the left does

00:51:07.720 that they were all

00:51:08.380 the most wonderful

00:51:08.980 innocent people in the world,

00:51:10.100 merely passive victims

00:51:11.140 of the West.

00:51:12.240 I think it's much more respectful

00:51:13.880 to say

00:51:14.500 they're people.

00:51:16.020 They were people

00:51:16.620 and they lived in cultures

00:51:17.660 and some of those cultures

00:51:18.880 had bad ideas

00:51:19.680 and some had good ideas

00:51:20.760 and we who are here today,

00:51:23.200 regardless of the morality

00:51:24.540 of any of these men,

00:51:25.940 we owe our civilization

00:51:27.560 to them.

00:51:28.900 We owe our country to them.

00:51:30.320 Do you like America?

00:51:31.520 Do you like being here

00:51:32.420 in this free land

00:51:33.220 that we're all in?

00:51:34.180 Well,

00:51:34.420 then maybe have a little gratitude

00:51:35.700 to your forefathers,

00:51:37.080 but instead,

00:51:37.740 we stand on their shoulders

00:51:39.060 and we think

00:51:40.120 that we're flying.

00:51:41.300 Thank you.

00:51:46.620 I want to talk

00:51:48.080 about Columbus all night.

00:51:49.120 I want to defend this guy

00:51:50.160 and defend America,

00:51:51.280 but we should get

00:51:51.800 to some questions.

00:51:52.600 Yeah,

00:51:52.800 do you guys want to do

00:51:53.280 a question and answer now?

00:51:55.060 Oh, yeah, you do.

00:51:56.800 All right,

00:51:57.480 so the rules of the game,

00:51:58.520 you guys are familiar

00:51:59.140 with this.

00:52:00.080 Nobody crowd in the aisle.

00:52:01.780 Everyone's question

00:52:02.420 has to be a one-part question,

00:52:04.020 not a two-part question,

00:52:05.380 not a three-part question.

00:52:06.620 It has to be

00:52:07.300 in question form.

00:52:09.260 You can start lining up

00:52:11.000 behind the microphone

00:52:12.160 to do that.

00:52:13.620 So I have a question

00:52:14.320 on the in question form.

00:52:15.560 Can someone stand up

00:52:16.680 and say,

00:52:17.580 you're a miserable SOB,

00:52:19.320 aren't you?

00:52:21.440 Does that count?

00:52:22.760 Yes,

00:52:23.120 but you will have to answer

00:52:23.980 if they ask that question.

00:52:26.080 Just checking.

00:52:27.420 Okay,

00:52:27.820 and we're going to do

00:52:28.220 something fun

00:52:28.800 while you guys line up.

00:52:30.400 Also,

00:52:30.680 if there's anybody

00:52:31.140 who disagrees

00:52:31.880 with what we say,

00:52:32.840 we'll have a producer

00:52:33.540 bring you to the front

00:52:34.240 of the line.

00:52:34.440 So where are the mics

00:52:35.100 going to be?

00:52:35.580 Who's going to have the mics?

00:52:36.380 The mics are right here.

00:52:37.420 Yep,

00:52:37.780 right here in the front.

00:52:38.320 You guys can line up.

00:52:39.800 And while the students

00:52:41.300 are lining up,

00:52:42.000 while you're lining up

00:52:42.740 to ask questions,

00:52:43.900 we're going to do

00:52:44.500 something kind of fun.

00:52:45.680 Kind of new.

00:52:46.920 This is something

00:52:47.460 you guys haven't done before.

00:52:48.560 It comes from Verdict Plus,

00:52:50.500 which is your new

00:52:51.140 all-access portal

00:52:52.340 if you want to see

00:52:52.920 behind the scenes.

00:52:53.500 You and I actually

00:52:54.000 just did a little fun

00:52:55.440 behind the scenes sneak peek

00:52:56.500 before we came out here.

00:52:58.060 But everybody

00:52:58.640 who is part of that

00:53:00.120 all-access community

00:53:01.600 submitted some questions

00:53:02.820 for a lightning round.

00:53:04.320 All right,

00:53:04.700 fire away.

00:53:05.360 Well,

00:53:05.640 I have to say,

00:53:06.240 first,

00:53:06.700 this is like a one word,

00:53:08.300 two word,

00:53:09.180 maximum three word.

00:53:10.300 We're talking lightning round.

00:53:11.320 Are you suggesting

00:53:12.660 sometimes we go on

00:53:14.080 a little bit long

00:53:14.820 on the answers?

00:53:15.380 No,

00:53:15.560 I'm suggesting

00:53:16.100 that giving a lightning round

00:53:17.080 to the two of you

00:53:17.680 may be the hardest job

00:53:18.700 that I've ever gotten.

00:53:20.360 Okay,

00:53:20.640 you guys ready?

00:53:21.280 Yes.

00:53:21.780 Obviously,

00:53:22.340 Senator goes first.

00:53:24.220 Favorite ice cream flavor?

00:53:25.780 Coconut.

00:53:27.020 Interesting.

00:53:29.480 I like coconut.

00:53:30.440 You get two people

00:53:31.880 applauding for that answer.

00:53:33.600 If you go down

00:53:34.280 to the Caribbean

00:53:34.780 and get fresh coconut,

00:53:35.960 it's awesome.

00:53:37.040 Okay,

00:53:37.380 I'll take your word for it.

00:53:39.680 Chug-a-chug-a-chip.

00:53:40.820 No,

00:53:41.040 I'm joking.

00:53:41.640 Coffee.

00:53:41.940 Coffee ice cream.

00:53:42.840 Coffee.

00:53:44.060 In which subject

00:53:45.220 were you worst at school?

00:53:47.120 Handwriting.

00:53:48.300 Oh,

00:53:48.560 interesting.

00:53:50.400 And to this day,

00:53:52.060 I still print all caps.

00:53:53.500 My cursive is miserable.

00:53:55.740 We can attest to that.

00:53:56.820 We've seen his notes.

00:53:58.640 Okay,

00:53:59.360 favorite superhero?

00:54:00.860 Wait,

00:54:01.100 I don't answer

00:54:01.620 my worst subject?

00:54:04.040 In which subject

00:54:04.940 were you worst at school,

00:54:06.260 Michael?

00:54:07.200 He was the kid

00:54:08.140 who always raised his hand

00:54:09.340 and asked the teacher,

00:54:10.920 shouldn't you be teaching

00:54:12.020 X, Y, Z?

00:54:12.120 I'm sorry,

00:54:12.340 he doesn't understand

00:54:13.100 the question.

00:54:13.560 What do you mean

00:54:13.840 being bad in the subject?

00:54:15.920 Answer the question.

00:54:17.320 My worst subject

00:54:18.360 was gym class.

00:54:20.760 Until tonight

00:54:21.420 with those footballs, baby.

00:54:22.620 Now we're coming back.

00:54:24.020 That's right.

00:54:27.360 All right,

00:54:27.920 you get this one.

00:54:28.520 Favorite superhero?

00:54:29.820 Batman.

00:54:31.020 Favorite superhero?

00:54:33.340 Spider-Man.

00:54:34.620 Oh.

00:54:36.420 I think he got you

00:54:37.300 on that one.

00:54:37.580 It's a Spider-Man crap.

00:54:38.100 Yeah,

00:54:38.360 he got you on that one.

00:54:39.340 Cats or dogs?

00:54:40.780 Dogs.

00:54:41.140 Dogs.

00:54:44.340 Cats or dogs?

00:54:45.140 Yeah,

00:54:45.320 cats or dogs.

00:54:45.780 I'm a people person.

00:54:49.780 I have a baby

00:54:50.600 and a pet fish.

00:54:52.620 Favorite saint?

00:54:53.380 Oh, where do I begin?

00:54:56.240 One word answer.

00:54:57.420 Does Mary count?

00:54:58.900 Yeah.

00:54:59.800 It's kind of cheating,

00:55:00.840 it's kind of cheating,

00:55:01.620 but I guess.

00:55:02.140 Two Catholics on this stage

00:55:03.240 who counts.

00:55:03.920 Our wonderful mother,

00:55:05.160 Our Lady.

00:55:05.880 Favorite saint?

00:55:06.940 I'm Southern Baptist.

00:55:07.740 I'm a Southern Baptist.

00:55:12.660 The New Orleans saints,

00:55:14.080 right?

00:55:14.380 Is that,

00:55:14.980 that's your favorite?

00:55:16.020 The saints still pray for you.

00:55:18.140 Okay.

00:55:18.320 So actually,

00:55:19.040 quick aside,

00:55:20.000 yesterday,

00:55:21.400 after the show in Madison,

00:55:23.100 he got a question

00:55:23.880 about something

00:55:24.520 about the saints.

00:55:25.380 I didn't understand

00:55:26.040 the question

00:55:26.600 and I said to him,

00:55:28.460 you know,

00:55:28.940 where do the saints

00:55:29.820 come from,

00:55:30.420 something like that?

00:55:31.060 He gave this very learned

00:55:32.640 answer about Catholic theology

00:55:35.060 and my answer was,

00:55:36.820 well,

00:55:37.400 I thought the saints

00:55:38.380 were good

00:55:38.720 once they got Drew Brees,

00:55:39.860 but that,

00:55:40.840 he cuts right to the chase,

00:55:43.280 you know,

00:55:43.460 gets to the heart

00:55:44.060 of the question.

00:55:45.340 All right,

00:55:45.600 this is a really serious one

00:55:46.740 and I think it's really

00:55:47.400 going to dig deep.

00:55:49.040 Tell us something

00:55:49.800 about both of your character.

00:55:51.880 Have you ever worn

00:55:52.640 socks with sandals?

00:55:54.120 No.

00:55:55.820 I'm not a socks

00:55:56.840 with sandals guy.

00:55:59.560 I'm worried about

00:56:00.560 what Michael's answer

00:56:01.340 is going to be.

00:56:02.300 Not only would I not

00:56:03.220 wear socks with sandals,

00:56:04.240 I would not wear

00:56:04.820 socks with loafers.

00:56:05.900 I'm very anti-sock.

00:56:08.040 It's not very,

00:56:09.000 I'm a Northeasterner,

00:56:10.300 no socks.

00:56:10.900 That's a weird take.

00:56:11.980 You are literally

00:56:12.760 wearing plaid socks

00:56:14.420 right now.

00:56:15.660 With Oxford shoes,

00:56:16.700 of course.

00:56:16.920 Okay.

00:56:17.200 All right,

00:56:17.440 last lightning round question

00:56:18.580 then we're going to get

00:56:19.140 to the controversial stuff.

00:56:21.160 All right,

00:56:21.360 what's your favorite book?

00:56:23.900 Look,

00:56:24.340 it's trite to say the Bible

00:56:25.440 but you'd have to start

00:56:26.880 with that.

00:56:28.660 Atlas Shrugged

00:56:29.560 is amazing.

00:56:32.000 All right,

00:56:32.460 so I'll go the Bible

00:56:33.180 and then Atlas Shrugged.

00:56:34.100 Okay,

00:56:34.360 you can have more than

00:56:35.080 one word for that answer

00:56:36.300 because that's a good answer.

00:56:37.800 All right,

00:56:38.260 Michael.

00:56:38.580 Okay,

00:56:38.800 we're saying the Bible

00:56:39.580 is,

00:56:40.160 that's sad.

00:56:40.640 We're talking about

00:56:42.200 second book,

00:56:42.920 second favorite.

00:56:44.560 I'll give you one novel

00:56:45.460 and one non-fiction.

00:56:46.820 Yeah,

00:56:47.000 that's fair.

00:56:48.180 Crime and Punishment

00:56:48.900 by Dostoevsky.

00:56:52.060 And then I'm going to give you

00:56:52.920 a really esoteric answer.

00:56:54.340 Poetic Diction

00:56:55.020 by Owen Barfield.

00:56:56.660 If you haven't read it,

00:56:57.880 which I suspect

00:56:58.640 not a single person

00:56:59.480 in this room has,

00:57:00.440 not a lot of people

00:57:01.320 have found it,

00:57:01.780 it's a great book,

00:57:02.380 you should go read it.

00:57:03.220 I'm going to lose $5

00:57:04.120 because I thought he was

00:57:04.980 going to say his own book.

00:57:05.780 Lost that bet.

00:57:08.480 Speechless,

00:57:09.000 ladies and gentlemen.

00:57:10.200 Okay,

00:57:10.940 before we get to

00:57:11.800 the question and answer,

00:57:12.700 a big round of applause

00:57:13.580 please for

00:57:14.700 the Young America's Foundation

00:57:15.840 for putting on

00:57:16.460 this amazing event.

00:57:17.240 And for the Logan family

00:57:25.620 sponsoring this event,

00:57:26.900 the Logan family

00:57:27.660 brought this event to life.

00:57:28.960 Thank you to the Logan family.

00:57:30.080 Thank you as always

00:57:31.040 to the Logan family,

00:57:32.040 supporting these tours

00:57:32.980 throughout the years.

00:57:34.120 Wonderful,

00:57:34.720 wonderful.

00:57:35.020 And I've got to say,

00:57:36.120 Michael,

00:57:36.600 Liz is already

00:57:37.720 more professional

00:57:38.420 than you and I.

00:57:39.900 We're doing this thing

00:57:41.000 and we didn't even

00:57:41.560 get around to thanking

00:57:42.520 our hosts and our sponsors.

00:57:45.300 Thank you for

00:57:47.240 classing up the joint.

00:57:48.020 She does.

00:57:48.700 My pleasure.

00:57:49.340 My pleasure.

00:57:49.860 It's my honor to be here.

00:57:51.320 All right,

00:57:51.540 are we ready for questions?

00:57:52.920 So step right up here.

00:57:54.280 First,

00:57:54.640 introduce yourself

00:57:55.380 and if you want

00:57:56.240 to address your question

00:57:57.120 specifically to the Senator,

00:57:58.960 to Michael,

00:57:59.520 or to me,

00:58:00.680 go ahead and address it directly.

00:58:03.120 What's your name?

00:58:03.960 Howdy.

00:58:04.360 I'm Ben Crockett

00:58:05.300 from College Station,

00:58:06.240 Texas,

00:58:06.700 and my question

00:58:07.380 is for the Senator.

00:58:08.500 Senator Cruz,

00:58:09.460 your training is in the law,

00:58:11.480 and so my question is,

00:58:12.400 what is the most important case,

00:58:14.780 in your opinion,

00:58:15.320 of the first half

00:58:16.600 of the 20th century?

00:58:19.580 First half of the 20th century.

00:58:22.700 Take it out with the easy ones.

00:58:24.260 All right,

00:58:24.560 that's a tough,

00:58:25.400 so you've just excluded

00:58:27.000 Brown versus Board of Education,

00:58:29.740 which was 1954.

00:58:37.900 I don't have a good answer

00:58:39.140 for first half

00:58:39.800 of the 20th century,

00:58:40.560 and I'll tell you

00:58:41.100 a strange thing

00:58:42.080 about how my brain,

00:58:44.740 how I remember things.

00:58:45.700 I don't remember dates.

00:58:46.940 I'm terrible at dates.

00:58:49.060 When I was clerking

00:58:50.860 for Chief Justice Rehnquist,

00:58:52.140 it was interesting.

00:58:53.160 His brain,

00:58:54.720 like everything

00:58:55.580 was filed chronologically

00:58:57.460 in a way

00:58:59.620 that if you mentioned,

00:59:00.860 you know,

00:59:01.180 1977,

00:59:03.060 he had this perfect recall

00:59:05.160 of what happened in 77,

00:59:06.780 every case that occurred,

00:59:08.260 what was happening where,

00:59:09.640 and it was a remarkable thing,

00:59:11.880 and what was cool about it,

00:59:13.000 so when I clerked for him,

00:59:13.880 he'd been on the court

00:59:14.580 for 25 years,

00:59:16.300 and he would think

00:59:17.260 of a case,

00:59:17.920 for those of y'all,

00:59:19.360 some may be in law school,

00:59:20.800 some may be thinking

00:59:21.360 of law school,

00:59:22.440 you have a case

00:59:23.280 that's a name,

00:59:24.000 you know,

00:59:24.200 Smith versus Jones,

00:59:25.260 and you think of it

00:59:26.000 as a case

00:59:26.600 that stands

00:59:27.660 for some legal proposition.

00:59:30.300 For the Chief,

00:59:32.060 it was a memory,

00:59:33.600 and he would be like,

00:59:35.620 oh yes,

00:59:37.320 Smith versus Jones.

00:59:39.340 That was the case

00:59:43.020 where Thurgood

00:59:44.440 wanted to do

00:59:45.720 such and such,

00:59:47.200 but we didn't agree

00:59:49.620 with him on that,

00:59:51.140 and he was literally

00:59:52.680 remembering the conference

00:59:54.540 where they discussed

00:59:56.120 the case,

00:59:56.840 and so that,

00:59:58.020 but for whatever reason,

00:59:59.960 my brain is terrible

01:00:01.140 at tagging things

01:00:02.360 based on dates,

01:00:03.360 so that's a lousy answer

01:00:04.420 to a great question.

01:00:06.360 Let me do a quick

01:00:07.500 follow-up to that,

01:00:08.140 because I know

01:00:08.540 you'll have a great answer

01:00:09.320 for this.

01:00:10.040 If we're talking

01:00:10.620 21st century,

01:00:12.140 what do you think

01:00:13.120 is the most important case

01:00:14.260 that has shaped

01:00:14.780 ongoing legal precedent

01:00:16.440 from the constitutional

01:00:17.600 perspective that we've seen

01:00:18.740 in the past 20 years?

01:00:22.820 The past 20 years,

01:00:25.180 I would say

01:00:26.240 there are a couple

01:00:26.840 of cases

01:00:27.320 that were really pivotal.

01:00:29.260 Number one

01:00:30.060 is the Obamacare case

01:00:34.540 where Chief Justice Roberts

01:00:37.120 really flipped on everything

01:00:39.940 that he believes and knows,

01:00:41.940 and John Roberts

01:00:43.760 is someone I've known

01:00:44.740 25 years.

01:00:45.840 He was also a Rehnquist clerk.

01:00:47.340 He's an amazingly

01:00:48.360 talented litigator.

01:00:50.020 He was the best

01:00:52.300 Supreme Court litigator

01:00:53.360 of his generation,

01:00:54.260 election, and when the first

01:00:56.100 Obamacare decision came down,

01:00:59.220 John made, I think,

01:01:00.700 a very cynical decision

01:01:02.220 to make a political decision.

01:01:04.240 And so I remember

01:01:05.980 reading the opinion,

01:01:06.900 and it was a remarkable opinion,

01:01:08.440 where the first 80%

01:01:09.740 of the opinion

01:01:10.260 is fantastic.

01:01:11.100 It's a challenge

01:01:11.620 to Obamacare,

01:01:12.940 and all of the

01:01:14.360 jurisprudential rulings

01:01:16.000 on the Commerce Clause

01:01:18.140 where he concludes

01:01:18.940 that Congress

01:01:19.480 doesn't have the authority

01:01:20.480 under the Commerce Clause

01:01:21.580 to force people

01:01:23.800 to purchase health insurance.

01:01:25.720 On the spending clause,

01:01:27.840 all of his rulings

01:01:29.580 are really strong,

01:01:31.760 solid, principled,

01:01:32.940 and then at the very end

01:01:34.720 he has a sleight of hand

01:01:35.820 where he defines

01:01:38.360 a tax,

01:01:41.780 a penalty, rather,

01:01:43.120 as a tax.

01:01:43.940 And he says

01:01:44.480 what Obamacare described

01:01:46.000 as a penalty.

01:01:46.700 He says,

01:01:46.940 well, if we just call it a tax,

01:01:48.760 then it's okay.

01:01:50.300 And the law said repeatedly

01:01:51.560 it's not a tax.

01:01:52.460 The Obama said repeatedly

01:01:53.820 it's not a tax.

01:01:54.600 The Congress said repeatedly

01:01:55.480 it's not a tax.

01:01:56.540 And all Roberts had to do

01:01:57.660 was this little sleight of hand

01:01:58.780 and magically he upheld it.

01:02:00.520 And what's been widely reported

01:02:02.120 is that that

01:02:03.960 he initially voted

01:02:06.100 with what was then

01:02:08.520 the majority of the court

01:02:09.460 to strike down the law

01:02:10.600 and then he changed his vote

01:02:11.920 and flipped.

01:02:13.020 And I've got to say

01:02:13.760 I think that started

01:02:14.780 John Roberts

01:02:15.820 down a path.

01:02:17.960 He knew what he was doing.

01:02:19.240 He's too good a lawyer.

01:02:20.360 This was not

01:02:21.060 that he screwed up.

01:02:23.160 This was,

01:02:23.820 and look,

01:02:24.280 to give him the benefit

01:02:24.880 of the doubt,

01:02:25.400 I think he thought

01:02:26.280 he was preserving

01:02:28.200 the court

01:02:30.080 from a political battle

01:02:31.360 but it will go down

01:02:32.800 as one of the most

01:02:33.600 political decisions

01:02:34.820 in the history of the country.

01:02:36.580 But isn't that the irony

01:02:38.120 that in trying

01:02:40.020 to keep the court

01:02:41.040 above politics,

01:02:42.780 he thrust the court

01:02:44.240 more into politics

01:02:45.260 than it had been

01:02:45.980 in decades,

01:02:46.720 if ever before.

01:02:47.280 And since then

01:02:48.360 he's done it repeatedly.

01:02:50.360 It was,

01:02:51.220 you know,

01:02:51.460 when you start

01:02:52.240 giving up your principles

01:02:53.320 a little bit,

01:02:54.360 it's a very quick

01:02:55.260 slippery slope

01:02:56.000 and he has now

01:02:56.760 been doing it

01:02:57.420 over and over

01:02:58.120 and over again.

01:02:59.200 You know,

01:02:59.400 since Michael

01:02:59.860 got a book plug,

01:03:00.720 I'd be an idiot

01:03:01.220 if I didn't get a book plug.

01:03:03.760 Last book I wrote

01:03:04.760 is a book called

01:03:05.360 One Vote Away,

01:03:06.500 How a Single Supreme Court

01:03:07.620 Seat Can Change History.

01:03:09.300 And the book

01:03:10.060 goes through

01:03:11.160 critical constitutional rights.

01:03:13.700 Each chapter

01:03:14.280 tells war stories

01:03:15.300 about the court.

01:03:16.320 And so I talk

01:03:16.940 about John Roberts

01:03:17.700 quite a bit.

01:03:18.240 I talk about

01:03:18.700 the Obamacare case.

01:03:20.000 I talk about

01:03:20.660 other decisions

01:03:21.480 and I take people

01:03:22.540 inside those conference rooms

01:03:24.700 that Rehnquist

01:03:25.740 would talk about

01:03:26.520 about how

01:03:27.420 the major decisions

01:03:28.900 protecting free speech,

01:03:30.740 protecting religious liberty,

01:03:31.940 protecting the Second Amendment,

01:03:33.640 almost all of those decisions

01:03:35.320 are five to four

01:03:36.580 that we're one vote away

01:03:38.040 from either losing

01:03:39.220 our liberties

01:03:39.820 or preserving them.

01:03:41.300 Right.

01:03:41.660 Because to be,

01:03:42.980 to choose to be

01:03:44.000 apolitical

01:03:45.120 is still a political decision.

01:03:46.860 Just like to choose

01:03:47.460 to be an atheist

01:03:47.960 is still a religious decision.

01:03:49.720 And John Roberts

01:03:50.360 should know better.

01:03:51.580 He should know that.

01:03:52.360 He should understand it.

01:03:53.060 And he does know better.

01:03:54.020 That, that, that's the thing

01:03:55.380 that makes it harder.

01:03:57.920 Yeah.

01:03:58.180 I think so.

01:03:58.880 Okay, we got to get

01:03:59.440 to the next question

01:04:00.080 or else we're going to be

01:04:00.780 debating Supreme Court

01:04:01.600 until, uh, done.

01:04:03.700 Please step up

01:04:04.240 and introduce yourself.

01:04:04.960 Hi.

01:04:05.500 Great shirt.

01:04:06.700 Thank you.

01:04:07.280 By the way,

01:04:07.760 would you briefly model

01:04:08.720 the shirt for the,

01:04:09.540 for the crowd?

01:04:10.840 That's a great looking.

01:04:16.660 All right.

01:04:17.260 So I'm Jackson

01:04:18.440 and my question

01:04:20.220 was kind of about

01:04:21.000 the Loudoun County thing.

01:04:22.320 Yeah.

01:04:22.640 because like,

01:04:24.120 you know,

01:04:24.380 not just like that situation,

01:04:25.880 but we also have

01:04:26.420 a lot of crazy stuff

01:04:27.460 going in public schools

01:04:28.840 like pornographic books

01:04:30.360 in the library

01:04:30.900 and stuff like that.

01:04:32.080 And I was just wondering,

01:04:33.300 like,

01:04:34.560 since like we're,

01:04:35.620 most of us here,

01:04:36.300 I think our students

01:04:37.020 that go to these schools,

01:04:38.140 like what can we do?

01:04:40.180 Like, can we do something

01:04:41.080 about that?

01:04:41.560 Because like,

01:04:42.160 those are our schools.

01:04:44.180 Michael,

01:04:44.600 you want to take

01:04:45.020 the first crack at this?

01:04:45.820 Sure.

01:04:46.200 I think there actually

01:04:47.320 is quite a lot

01:04:47.980 that you can do.

01:04:48.640 I don't think

01:04:49.700 that you're going

01:04:50.300 to solve this problem

01:04:51.360 by snapping your fingers.

01:04:53.040 And frankly,

01:04:53.700 I don't think

01:04:54.200 you're even going

01:04:54.740 to solve this problem.

01:04:55.760 Is it over?

01:04:56.280 Yeah, did we do it?

01:04:56.920 Please, I hope it works.

01:04:58.800 And now it's like

01:04:59.320 we're in like

01:04:59.620 a beat poetry cafe

01:05:00.620 or something,

01:05:01.480 which is what a lot

01:05:03.240 of public schools

01:05:03.740 seem like these days.

01:05:04.840 I don't think,

01:05:06.680 and I also don't think

01:05:08.100 that it's going

01:05:08.640 to be won

01:05:09.760 by pretending

01:05:10.740 that a third grade classroom

01:05:12.040 is some free marketplace

01:05:13.100 of ideas.

01:05:13.960 That has never been the case.

01:05:15.420 William F. Buckley Jr.

01:05:16.460 launched the modern

01:05:17.640 conservative movement

01:05:18.560 making fun

01:05:19.740 of that radical view

01:05:21.000 of academic freedom

01:05:22.100 that pretends

01:05:23.020 that teachers

01:05:23.480 have the right

01:05:24.040 to teach any manner

01:05:25.060 of pornography

01:05:25.680 or obscene craziness

01:05:27.620 that they want to.

01:05:28.280 They obviously

01:05:28.580 don't have that right.

01:05:29.900 I think the way

01:05:30.760 that we begin

01:05:31.280 to fix this

01:05:31.900 is one,

01:05:32.680 students can speak up

01:05:33.700 and students should

01:05:34.380 also speak to their parents

01:05:35.360 and parents should go

01:05:36.180 speak to the school boards

01:05:37.140 and you're seeing it

01:05:37.840 notably in Loudoun County

01:05:39.100 right now,

01:05:39.680 but you're seeing it

01:05:40.220 at school boards

01:05:40.740 around the country

01:05:41.460 and it's ordinary Americans

01:05:43.160 of all stripes,

01:05:44.080 of all shapes,

01:05:45.000 of all persuasions,

01:05:46.460 they are showing up

01:05:47.300 and saying

01:05:47.540 we do not want

01:05:48.440 this stuff in our schools.

01:05:49.860 Our schools are going

01:05:50.960 to educate students.

01:05:52.520 They're going to teach them

01:05:53.100 that some things are true

01:05:54.000 and some things are false

01:05:55.240 and some are good

01:05:56.100 and some are bad

01:05:56.800 and we have a right

01:05:58.160 to have a say

01:05:58.760 over how our children

01:05:59.940 are raised,

01:06:00.720 especially when

01:06:01.420 what the schools

01:06:01.880 are teaching

01:06:02.300 is so often false

01:06:04.140 and evil

01:06:05.140 and ugly

01:06:06.060 and wrong

01:06:06.740 and destructive

01:06:07.400 for the individual

01:06:08.420 and destructive

01:06:09.060 for the country

01:06:10.000 and so they need

01:06:10.800 to assert that

01:06:11.440 political right

01:06:12.240 and learn this

01:06:13.000 magical word

01:06:13.940 that conservatives

01:06:14.700 haven't known

01:06:15.220 very much recently

01:06:16.020 which is

01:06:16.880 no,

01:06:18.380 no,

01:06:19.240 enough,

01:06:20.160 enough of this.

01:06:21.480 We're not going

01:06:22.400 to have it anymore

01:06:23.140 in our school.

01:06:25.300 And if I may jump in too,

01:06:27.500 I think before you get

01:06:28.920 to the age

01:06:29.500 that you're a parent

01:06:30.140 and you're going

01:06:30.700 to these school board meetings

01:06:31.920 or you're running

01:06:32.420 for school board

01:06:33.040 or you're challenging

01:06:33.620 what you're seeing

01:06:34.100 in your children's classroom,

01:06:35.020 if you're a college student,

01:06:36.380 the best thing

01:06:36.840 that I think

01:06:37.280 that you can do

01:06:37.860 is get involved

01:06:39.180 and get educated yourself

01:06:41.060 on a personal level

01:06:42.040 so that you are equipped

01:06:43.500 to do this battle,

01:06:45.560 to be part of this culture war.

01:06:46.960 So read as many books

01:06:48.000 as you can,

01:06:48.860 educate yourself

01:06:49.460 on all the issues,

01:06:50.700 learn the arguments

01:06:51.420 of the other side

01:06:52.160 so that you can debunk them,

01:06:54.360 delve into your faith,

01:06:55.800 find communities

01:06:56.620 of like-minded people,

01:06:58.240 make sure

01:06:58.760 that you are preparing yourself

01:07:00.440 to be a contributing member

01:07:02.080 of society,

01:07:02.860 of the community,

01:07:03.800 get married,

01:07:04.560 have children,

01:07:05.480 raise them to be

01:07:06.420 good Christian children

01:07:08.080 who are patriots,

01:07:10.220 who love America.

01:07:17.000 Outbreeding them

01:07:17.820 is always a fun strategy.

01:07:19.540 It's an effective strategy

01:07:20.940 and a fun one.

01:07:21.700 Hence the A&M victory

01:07:22.980 over Alabama.

01:07:23.800 Yeah, that's right.

01:07:26.720 And I mean,

01:07:28.100 that's pretty much

01:07:28.760 the conglomerate.

01:07:29.340 That's a lot of advice.

01:07:30.340 Well, and I'll say on this,

01:07:32.180 look, I think it varies

01:07:33.500 depending on age.

01:07:34.800 And so what's appropriate

01:07:36.100 in elementary school

01:07:37.640 is very different

01:07:38.440 from what's appropriate

01:07:39.220 in high school.

01:07:40.020 Yeah.

01:07:41.320 You know, as kids get older,

01:07:43.520 as kids get into high school,

01:07:45.380 I'm actually a believer

01:07:46.480 that more is better.

01:07:47.620 So I don't want folks

01:07:48.880 going through the libraries

01:07:49.940 and pulling out,

01:07:51.100 you know,

01:07:51.340 you see people pulling out

01:07:52.300 like Huckleberry Finn

01:07:53.300 because it contains language

01:07:54.880 that they deem offensive.

01:07:56.340 I'd rather kids read

01:07:57.680 a variety of stuff

01:07:59.000 that good, bad,

01:08:00.900 and more information.

01:08:02.480 And certainly as you get

01:08:03.200 to college,

01:08:04.240 part of it is

01:08:04.940 our schools shouldn't

01:08:05.960 be indoctrinating children.

01:08:08.200 Education is about teaching,

01:08:10.280 not ensuring

01:08:11.800 that you subscribe

01:08:13.640 to a political view.

01:08:16.160 And, you know,

01:08:17.140 when it comes to schools

01:08:18.360 that are putting,

01:08:19.780 you know,

01:08:20.600 sexually graphic pornography

01:08:23.400 in the curriculum

01:08:25.520 or in the libraries,

01:08:26.540 look, the last I checked,

01:08:28.180 high school kids

01:08:28.880 don't need the schools

01:08:29.840 to be like telling them

01:08:31.480 sex exists.

01:08:32.600 Like, they...

01:08:33.920 It's out there.

01:08:35.320 I mean, they've seen it.

01:08:36.220 They've seen it.

01:08:36.980 You know,

01:08:37.780 when I was in college,

01:08:40.720 I went to Princeton,

01:08:41.400 actually dated a girl

01:08:42.080 from A&M.

01:08:43.300 They're very different campuses.

01:08:46.180 But there was a popular shirt

01:08:48.220 at Princeton

01:08:49.340 that said,

01:08:51.180 sex kills.

01:08:52.560 And on the back,

01:08:53.260 it said,

01:08:53.620 come to Princeton,

01:08:54.260 live forever.

01:08:54.640 On that note,

01:09:00.840 before we get to your question,

01:09:03.560 you guys may have noticed

01:09:04.320 that there's a hat

01:09:05.320 hanging on the cactus

01:09:06.140 right here behind the senator.

01:09:07.800 It's...

01:09:08.240 It's...

01:09:08.820 I don't know what it's doing there,

01:09:10.100 but if you guys are interested

01:09:11.300 in Verdict merch,

01:09:13.820 we have new Verdict merch.

01:09:15.560 You can go to

01:09:16.040 verdictwithtedcruise.com

01:09:17.400 slash shop.

01:09:18.480 And if you use the promo code live,

01:09:20.140 you probably all have

01:09:20.720 a little card on your seat,

01:09:21.840 right, that you got?

01:09:22.480 If you use the promo code live,

01:09:23.620 you get 10% off

01:09:24.560 of our new merch store,

01:09:25.640 and it's all kinds of,

01:09:26.660 what, like cactus paraphernalia?

01:09:28.120 Mostly cactus paraphernalia.

01:09:29.980 A little bit with me

01:09:31.080 and the senator,

01:09:31.760 but mostly it's the star

01:09:33.240 of the show.

01:09:33.860 Honestly, really,

01:09:34.340 their faces aren't on the merch.

01:09:35.660 The cactus is upstaging them,

01:09:37.280 so I don't know

01:09:38.320 what to tell you.

01:09:38.740 It's pretty cool.

01:09:39.440 It's a little depressing.

01:09:40.420 We've been doing this

01:09:41.100 for two years.

01:09:42.020 We've been trying to, like,

01:09:43.280 have some interesting content

01:09:44.640 and be worth listening to,

01:09:46.640 and we've gotten

01:09:47.460 completely upstaged

01:09:48.680 by a succulent.

01:09:49.520 Yeah.

01:09:51.240 But just FYI,

01:09:52.360 in case anybody missed that

01:09:53.520 at the beginning of the show,

01:09:54.740 who is your question directed to?

01:09:56.660 What is your name?

01:09:58.200 My name is Dalton Flatt.

01:09:59.300 I'm from Southeast Kansas.

01:10:00.440 I'm a senior agricultural

01:10:01.480 economics student

01:10:02.400 here at A&M,

01:10:03.240 and my question is directed

01:10:04.400 towards all three of y'all.

01:10:05.660 What was the defining moment

01:10:07.180 that made you decide

01:10:08.880 that this is something

01:10:09.520 that you wanted to do

01:10:10.260 for the rest of your lives?

01:10:12.700 Politics, you mean?

01:10:14.260 Yes, sir.

01:10:15.340 So this sounds like

01:10:16.900 a Kamala Harris bogus answer,

01:10:18.560 but it's actually real.

01:10:20.620 You know, freedom!

01:10:21.660 It wasn't that,

01:10:22.640 but it was similar.

01:10:25.360 I had momentarily

01:10:26.520 forgotten about that.

01:10:27.400 It's similar.

01:10:29.100 When I was a kid...

01:10:29.640 Wait, can we pause

01:10:30.340 and reflect that she hired

01:10:31.940 child actors to come in?

01:10:34.480 Like, who the hell does that?

01:10:36.540 Like, that's weird.

01:10:39.820 I'm sorry.

01:10:40.640 No, you're right.

01:10:41.200 Your answer on your

01:10:41.900 formative moments.

01:10:43.020 You know, actually, Senator,

01:10:44.440 when she put out that video,

01:10:45.540 that was the moment

01:10:46.020 I decided to get out of politics.

01:10:47.940 I said I didn't have to this.

01:10:49.260 When I was a little kid,

01:10:50.700 I was like two or three years old,

01:10:52.080 my grandfather taught me a phrase.

01:10:54.420 I'm not joking or embellishing.

01:10:56.280 He taught me this phrase,

01:10:57.320 read my lips,

01:10:58.340 no new taxes from George Bush,

01:11:00.680 and I would recite it.

01:11:01.980 It was one of the first sentences

01:11:03.180 I was reciting,

01:11:04.300 and he taught me

01:11:04.800 it's a grand old flag,

01:11:05.620 and when I was six years old,

01:11:07.640 I'm dating myself,

01:11:09.060 Bob Dole was running

01:11:09.860 for president,

01:11:10.640 and I don't know

01:11:11.280 where I got this from,

01:11:12.400 but I freaking loved Bob Dole.

01:11:15.520 I was the most enthusiastic

01:11:17.440 Dole supporter,

01:11:18.760 and I campaigned for him

01:11:20.240 around my first grade classroom.

01:11:21.740 I got my mother to go...

01:11:23.780 She was going to vote for Clinton.

01:11:24.660 I got her to vote for Dole

01:11:26.220 and let me pull the lever.

01:11:27.840 I was committing election fraud

01:11:29.500 when I was six years old.

01:11:31.160 These days, it's perfectly fine.

01:11:32.420 How are you not a Democrat?

01:11:33.520 I mean...

01:11:34.240 By the way,

01:11:35.460 I will tell you...

01:11:36.580 So I don't know Dole personally,

01:11:38.360 but I'll tell you

01:11:38.840 my favorite Bob Dole story,

01:11:40.760 which was during the Iraq War,

01:11:43.380 so 91.

01:11:45.760 Dole's in the Senate,

01:11:46.920 and I guess some...

01:11:48.280 I don't know if it's

01:11:48.820 the Iraqi foreign minister

01:11:50.160 or some highfalutin person

01:11:52.460 from the Iraqi government

01:11:53.360 had come by his office

01:11:54.360 to meet with him,

01:11:54.960 and we're in the middle

01:11:55.460 of the Gulf War,

01:11:57.400 and Dole apparently walks out

01:11:59.820 into the hallway in the Senate.

01:12:02.920 She has people crowding around.

01:12:04.200 He goes,

01:12:05.140 are there any military men here?

01:12:07.660 And two young men step forward.

01:12:09.880 They go,

01:12:10.480 yes, sir.

01:12:10.920 We're both United States Marines.

01:12:12.620 He goes, good.

01:12:14.200 There's an Iraqi in my office.

01:12:15.720 Go kick his ass.

01:12:18.980 True story.

01:12:19.820 Love him.

01:12:20.260 Oh, that's great.

01:12:21.360 Bob Dole wouldn't say that.

01:12:22.660 Bob Dole would not.

01:12:23.320 So those were my moments.

01:12:26.360 Senator?

01:12:27.560 So look, mine were at the same age.

01:12:30.220 It was two and three,

01:12:31.280 and it was listening to my dad

01:12:33.480 talking about being

01:12:34.800 a freedom fighter in Cuba,

01:12:35.960 and it was...

01:12:36.760 I grew up with hearing stories

01:12:38.600 of him being in prison,

01:12:40.320 him being tortured,

01:12:41.320 him coming to America

01:12:42.420 seeking freedom,

01:12:43.660 and it inspired me.

01:12:45.300 I mean, from when I was this tall,

01:12:47.620 all I ever wanted to do

01:12:48.920 was fight for freedom.

01:12:52.280 Pretty good.

01:12:55.620 A good thing to fight for.

01:12:57.440 Sometimes when you know, you know.

01:12:59.060 When you're called,

01:12:59.880 you're just called.

01:13:00.880 I mean, I was the little kid

01:13:01.780 that carried around one of those...

01:13:03.340 Remember those multicolored cassette,

01:13:05.560 like children's cassette recorders?

01:13:08.120 I carried it around

01:13:08.660 interviewing people

01:13:09.340 when I was like four or five.

01:13:10.360 Wow.

01:13:10.680 I made my sisters answer my questions

01:13:12.500 and like hounded them

01:13:13.760 if they didn't answer

01:13:14.640 things about the house,

01:13:16.000 so that might be

01:13:17.220 where some of my questioning came from.

01:13:19.440 The conservative part, I think,

01:13:21.520 as I think it is for a lot of people,

01:13:23.460 is from my personal experience.

01:13:25.060 I mean, I'm very Catholic.

01:13:26.740 I'm very pro-life,

01:13:27.580 and so when you compare the two parties...

01:13:29.580 When you compare the stances

01:13:33.560 of the two parties,

01:13:34.560 it's a pretty obvious choice

01:13:35.720 which party, you know,

01:13:36.640 respects the dignity of human life

01:13:38.140 from conception to natural death

01:13:39.800 and which party seeks to destroy it,

01:13:41.720 so that's an easy thing.

01:13:42.960 When it comes to the more, I guess,

01:13:45.100 almost intellectual side,

01:13:46.440 the economic side,

01:13:47.460 I mean, in high school,

01:13:48.580 I was diagnosed

01:13:49.020 with a pretty serious health problem.

01:13:51.200 It's similar to an autoimmune disease,

01:13:52.820 and there's no known treatment,

01:13:54.660 so I had to turn to, you know,

01:13:56.060 alternative lifestyle stuff.

01:13:57.440 Not that you guys want to know my life story,

01:13:59.280 but that costs a lot of money.

01:14:00.900 Anybody who, you know,

01:14:02.180 has dealt with that knows.

01:14:03.280 It's not covered by insurance,

01:14:04.340 and I just realized that,

01:14:05.800 thank God that my father,

01:14:08.040 a small business owner,

01:14:09.120 had been responsible with his money,

01:14:10.920 and that he had saved,

01:14:12.160 instead of the government

01:14:12.980 telling him what to do with his money,

01:14:14.660 he was able to make that decision for himself

01:14:16.840 that really saved my life,

01:14:19.040 enabled me to have the life

01:14:20.420 that I have right now,

01:14:21.980 and in a nation that didn't,

01:14:23.700 that didn't have free market or capitalism,

01:14:26.400 that wouldn't be the case.

01:14:27.160 I wouldn't be here right now,

01:14:28.160 so how could I be anything

01:14:29.180 other than conservative?

01:14:30.000 Yes, my name is Bailey Cole.

01:14:40.100 I'm from San Antonio, Texas.

01:14:43.360 In a very weird what-if scenario,

01:14:46.460 if Texas were to secede,

01:14:48.960 or any other state for that matter,

01:14:50.400 what do you think would be

01:14:59.160 the best course of action,

01:15:01.240 or how do you think

01:15:01.840 the federal government would respond?

01:15:06.260 I think I know which side he's on.

01:15:08.100 I don't know.

01:15:10.260 So look, I gotta say,

01:15:11.500 and it was kind of interesting,

01:15:12.360 I was talking with Michael and Liz

01:15:14.140 before the show,

01:15:15.160 and they were asking,

01:15:16.280 so is the question of Texas secession

01:15:18.680 going to come up?

01:15:20.400 And I said, yeah, probably.

01:15:25.620 And listen,

01:15:27.600 I understand the sentiment

01:15:29.440 behind the question.

01:15:30.840 I'm not there yet.

01:15:32.520 And we actually had a debate

01:15:33.520 over drinks last night

01:15:36.060 after the show.

01:15:37.540 Listen, I think Texas

01:15:38.940 has a responsibility to the country,

01:15:41.940 and I'm not ready to give up on America.

01:15:43.940 I love this country.

01:15:50.400 And I think without Texas,

01:15:57.440 look, Texas, we're brash,

01:16:00.260 we're not shy,

01:16:01.760 we're sometimes larger than life,

01:16:04.300 but Texas is right now

01:16:07.540 an amazing force

01:16:09.600 keeping America from going off the cliff,

01:16:13.060 keeping America grounded

01:16:15.060 on the values

01:16:17.020 that built this country,

01:16:18.960 on the values of freedom.

01:16:20.260 I think we have a responsibility.

01:16:22.100 Now, listen,

01:16:23.860 if the Democrats end the filibuster,

01:16:26.560 if they fundamentally destroy the country,

01:16:29.340 if they pack the Supreme Court,

01:16:30.780 if they make D.C. a state,

01:16:32.120 if they federalize elections

01:16:34.000 and massively expand voter fraud,

01:16:36.860 there may come a point

01:16:37.980 where it's hopeless.

01:16:38.740 We're not there yet.

01:16:40.800 And if there comes a point

01:16:42.100 where it's hopeless,

01:16:43.800 then I think we take NASA,

01:16:45.560 we take the military,

01:16:46.680 we take the oil.

01:16:58.620 Take me.

01:16:59.580 Please take me.

01:17:00.520 I don't want to be trapped.

01:17:01.800 What about Joe Rogan?

01:17:02.980 Are you going to take him?

01:17:04.320 Joe Rogan,

01:17:05.180 he might be the president of Texas.

01:17:11.720 All right,

01:17:12.300 let's get to the next question.

01:17:13.660 By the way,

01:17:14.160 an interesting aside.

01:17:16.200 So, Heidi and I,

01:17:17.860 the church we go to in Houston

01:17:19.080 is First Baptist Church in Houston.

01:17:22.840 And...

01:17:23.320 There are like four Baptists

01:17:25.140 in the audience.

01:17:26.400 There are more Baptists.

01:17:28.660 So, I discovered something.

01:17:31.680 Our church was founded

01:17:34.500 by American missionaries

01:17:37.560 coming to a foreign country.

01:17:39.780 And so, Texas was our own nation

01:17:43.000 from 1836 to 1845.

01:17:47.380 We were the Republic of Texas.

01:17:49.500 And during those nine years,

01:17:51.700 at some point during it,

01:17:53.180 missionaries came from the United States

01:17:55.360 to this foreign nation,

01:17:57.300 the Republic of Texas,

01:17:58.520 and they founded the First Baptist Church.

01:18:00.860 It was a missionary church.

01:18:02.140 Wow.

01:18:02.440 Senator Cruz,

01:18:13.860 my name is Rich Richeski.

01:18:15.320 I'm a father of five.

01:18:16.900 And I guess my question,

01:18:19.760 I guess it's for all three,

01:18:21.040 but I think conservative ideas

01:18:23.120 have a lot to offer this country.

01:18:25.760 When I was growing up,

01:18:26.760 you probably remember

01:18:27.400 the McLaughlin Group.

01:18:28.640 Oh, yeah.

01:18:28.940 Favorite show of mine.

01:18:29.940 I'm just curious,

01:18:30.780 what is it in American culture,

01:18:33.020 political commentary,

01:18:34.780 in the media

01:18:35.960 that prevents a show

01:18:37.780 from that coming up again

01:18:39.740 where we can really see

01:18:41.060 direct engagement

01:18:42.480 of conservative ideas

01:18:44.680 with liberal ideas?

01:18:47.220 I do have an answer to it,

01:18:48.680 and it's a very direct one.

01:18:49.860 Jon Stewart prevented that.

01:18:51.500 And the way Jon Stewart

01:18:52.500 prevented that

01:18:53.100 was he went on Crossfire,

01:18:55.080 the CNN show.

01:18:55.740 Actually, Tucker Carlson

01:18:56.600 was the conservative host

01:18:57.720 of that at the time.

01:18:58.700 And he so viciously

01:19:00.100 made fun of them,

01:19:01.180 specifically Tucker,

01:19:02.140 that they canceled the show.

01:19:03.380 And that was the last

01:19:04.220 one of those shows

01:19:05.140 where you had a really

01:19:06.360 open dialogue and debate

01:19:08.840 between someone on the left

01:19:09.780 and someone on the right.

01:19:10.980 Now, maybe the culture

01:19:11.660 was already trending

01:19:12.440 in that way,

01:19:13.120 but that was kind of

01:19:13.880 the kill shot.

01:19:14.780 You really haven't seen

01:19:15.660 anything like it since.

01:19:17.240 And the kind of snark,

01:19:18.780 and a lot of that

01:19:19.780 came from Stewart

01:19:21.380 because he's a pretty talented

01:19:22.660 television comedian.

01:19:24.120 He's a funny guy.

01:19:24.880 And he's a funny guy.

01:19:25.880 And so, because he wanted

01:19:27.100 to be such a political player,

01:19:28.580 I think he,

01:19:29.700 through his talent

01:19:30.400 and through his relative success,

01:19:32.440 really transformed that.

01:19:33.860 And I hope something,

01:19:34.780 I agree with you entirely,

01:19:36.200 I hope something like that

01:19:37.360 comes back.

01:19:38.380 But I put out feelers,

01:19:40.380 I invite left-wingers

01:19:41.180 on my show all the time,

01:19:42.600 and very rarely

01:19:43.120 do they agree to do it.

01:19:44.740 So, 25 years ago,

01:19:47.760 there was a show

01:19:49.180 that was actually

01:19:49.720 the first TV show

01:19:50.500 I ever went on.

01:19:51.480 It was a show called

01:19:52.200 Debates, Debates.

01:19:53.940 And it was on PBS.

01:19:56.500 And it was on, you know,

01:19:57.580 hundreds of stations

01:19:58.240 across the country.

01:19:59.060 And it would have

01:19:59.680 three people on one side

01:20:01.940 debating three people

01:20:02.920 on the other.

01:20:03.480 And so the first time

01:20:04.280 I had a chance to do it,

01:20:05.680 I was a brand new

01:20:06.500 baby lawyer.

01:20:07.140 I was practicing law

01:20:08.040 in D.C.

01:20:09.460 and they asked me,

01:20:11.620 the first topic was,

01:20:14.160 should we grant amnesty

01:20:15.680 to America's political prisoners?

01:20:19.760 By which they went,

01:20:21.200 he met people like

01:20:22.380 Mumia Abu-Jabbal

01:20:23.400 and, you know,

01:20:24.040 people who murdered

01:20:24.640 police officers

01:20:25.540 that they call

01:20:26.500 political prisoners.

01:20:27.420 And someone called me

01:20:28.200 and said,

01:20:28.760 okay, are you willing

01:20:29.740 to defend the conservative

01:20:31.140 principle on the side of this?

01:20:33.260 And I remember talking

01:20:34.060 to the producer

01:20:35.000 and saying,

01:20:35.360 okay, so let me get

01:20:35.960 this straight.

01:20:36.420 you want me to defend

01:20:38.840 the proposition

01:20:39.640 that violent criminals

01:20:42.960 should be punished.

01:20:46.860 Controversial.

01:20:47.580 Yes, yes,

01:20:48.420 I am comfortable

01:20:49.160 with that position.

01:20:51.080 And I did,

01:20:51.740 I don't know,

01:20:52.060 like 15 or 20 of these shows.

01:20:53.540 And it was, you know,

01:20:54.260 it was really low budget.

01:20:55.940 It made verdict look

01:20:57.280 totally Hollywood.

01:21:01.320 And the guy who produced,

01:21:02.780 it was a guy named

01:21:03.120 Warren Stiebel,

01:21:03.880 who was also the producer

01:21:04.720 of Firing Line.

01:21:05.520 And, you know,

01:21:07.580 William F. Buckley

01:21:08.600 would droop in the chair

01:21:10.000 and have his,

01:21:11.440 you know,

01:21:12.100 voice of,

01:21:13.620 he'd use these

01:21:14.380 polysyllabic words

01:21:15.660 that you'd have to go

01:21:16.360 look up to be like,

01:21:17.220 I don't know what that means,

01:21:18.720 but man,

01:21:19.340 that sounds smart.

01:21:20.400 And by the way,

01:21:21.040 to be honest,

01:21:22.220 Michael Knowles

01:21:23.200 is the reincarnation

01:21:24.300 of William F. Buckley.

01:21:25.160 Thank you very much,

01:21:26.480 Senator.

01:21:26.800 I've been trying

01:21:27.520 for it my whole life.

01:21:30.780 And Senator,

01:21:32.100 if you had not

01:21:33.040 compared me

01:21:33.520 to William F. Buckley Jr.,

01:21:34.520 I would have smashed

01:21:35.900 you in your face,

01:21:36.740 you would have stayed.

01:21:37.360 No, I would not have.

01:21:38.100 I would never.

01:21:38.940 But Buckley would do this.

01:21:40.240 You know,

01:21:40.360 he had this very urbane show.

01:21:41.900 He would only occasionally

01:21:42.580 threaten to punch somebody

01:21:43.440 in the face.

01:21:44.500 Like Gore Vidal.

01:21:45.380 Like Gore Vidal.

01:21:46.240 And frankly,

01:21:46.820 you know,

01:21:47.040 he might have deserved it.

01:21:48.240 But you don't really

01:21:49.260 see that anymore.

01:21:50.160 Well,

01:21:50.480 and then there was,

01:21:51.680 if you remember,

01:21:52.140 there was a show

01:21:52.880 called Hannity and Combs.

01:21:55.000 And you had Sean Hannity

01:21:56.520 and poor Alan Combs,

01:21:57.780 who was the liberal.

01:21:59.160 And it was like

01:21:59.880 the Harlem Globetrotters.

01:22:01.160 Like Alan Combs

01:22:03.100 was there

01:22:03.780 to get his ass

01:22:05.240 kicked every night.

01:22:06.740 It was sort of like

01:22:07.920 Alabama on Saturday.

01:22:12.620 I'm going to keep going there.

01:22:14.140 I'm just going to keep going there.

01:22:16.100 But,

01:22:16.700 and it ultimately,

01:22:19.540 it wasn't great TV

01:22:20.720 because Sean just

01:22:22.260 mopped the floor with him.

01:22:23.300 So then they just made it

01:22:24.260 Hannity.

01:22:24.780 I wish there was

01:22:27.680 more discussion.

01:22:28.540 There ought to be

01:22:29.480 more balanced

01:22:30.480 discussion.

01:22:33.420 You know,

01:22:34.020 we try to do

01:22:34.940 some of that

01:22:36.020 on this show.

01:22:37.260 So,

01:22:37.580 so one of the people

01:22:38.620 that listens to Verdict

01:22:39.620 is,

01:22:40.040 is Heidi,

01:22:41.680 my wife,

01:22:42.180 which is amazing

01:22:43.460 that,

01:22:43.780 that she does it.

01:22:45.020 And she like will run

01:22:45.920 on the treadmill

01:22:46.400 and listen to it

01:22:47.120 because she says,

01:22:47.700 hey,

01:22:47.840 I learned stuff.

01:22:49.080 But sometimes

01:22:50.240 she will say,

01:22:52.200 and she'll call Michael

01:22:53.240 and she'll yell at him.

01:22:53.600 I'll see the number come up.

01:22:54.640 I'll say,

01:22:55.240 ah,

01:22:55.420 that wasn't a good episode,

01:22:56.500 I guess.

01:22:57.080 No, no, no.

01:22:57.340 Uh-oh.

01:22:57.960 She will be unvarnished

01:22:59.760 and she'll be like,

01:23:00.320 all right,

01:23:00.500 that one sucked.

01:23:01.980 And,

01:23:02.220 and it's inevitably,

01:23:03.380 she's like,

01:23:03.820 when you get too dogmatic,

01:23:05.260 when you and Michael

01:23:05.940 are like,

01:23:06.300 yeah,

01:23:06.880 yeah,

01:23:07.480 yeah,

01:23:08.040 just like,

01:23:08.620 you know,

01:23:08.840 start pounding the table.

01:23:10.560 Like she said,

01:23:11.260 what's much more interesting

01:23:12.480 is,

01:23:12.940 is explain something to me.

01:23:14.440 Let's go through an issue,

01:23:16.860 understand what the other side is,

01:23:18.600 understand why someone

01:23:19.900 would believe that.

01:23:21.160 And this is something

01:23:21.860 the left never does.

01:23:23.500 And so I do think

01:23:25.160 it's something

01:23:25.680 conservatives need to do more

01:23:27.460 is explaining

01:23:28.820 and helping people

01:23:29.900 think through

01:23:30.700 and decide for themselves

01:23:32.240 and,

01:23:33.100 and hopefully this podcast

01:23:34.420 plays a role in that.

01:23:35.580 Yeah,

01:23:36.640 I think so.

01:23:37.360 And I think maybe this is

01:23:38.620 a little bit cynical.

01:23:39.980 I hope not.

01:23:40.700 But when you're analyzing

01:23:42.060 why it's so difficult

01:23:42.940 for conservatives and liberals

01:23:44.520 to get together and debate,

01:23:45.540 it's because a lot of liberals

01:23:46.780 refuse to debate.

01:23:48.300 And the reason that they

01:23:48.940 refuse to debate

01:23:49.640 is because when you present

01:23:51.640 conservative arguments,

01:23:53.240 it,

01:23:53.540 they almost always win,

01:23:54.800 right?

01:23:55.120 Conservative principles

01:23:56.280 of limited government,

01:23:57.380 of,

01:23:57.920 you know,

01:23:58.220 individual rights

01:23:59.140 make people more prosperous

01:24:01.120 and happy

01:24:01.700 and freer

01:24:02.460 and they're better

01:24:03.500 for the community

01:24:04.080 and the family

01:24:04.560 and the country

01:24:05.140 and leftists know this

01:24:06.960 because their goal

01:24:07.780 is not really

01:24:08.560 to better our nation.

01:24:09.740 Their goal is to

01:24:10.480 accumulate more power

01:24:11.840 and so they don't,

01:24:12.500 they don't want to debate

01:24:13.500 us anymore

01:24:14.180 because we've learned

01:24:15.420 their tactics,

01:24:16.140 we've learned what to do,

01:24:16.920 but we do invite them

01:24:17.820 and we are respectful

01:24:18.880 when,

01:24:19.720 when we trounce them.

01:24:21.520 We're very respectful,

01:24:22.480 we're very nice to them.

01:24:23.780 But they have a fundamentally

01:24:24.740 different vision

01:24:25.440 of our country

01:24:25.980 and they don't always

01:24:26.720 want that exposed

01:24:27.380 because most people,

01:24:28.540 most voters

01:24:29.060 on the right and the left

01:24:30.120 don't agree

01:24:31.000 with the radical leftist

01:24:31.960 politicians

01:24:32.520 in Washington, D.C.

01:24:33.500 and that's the left's

01:24:35.020 what they want

01:24:35.760 kept secret.

01:24:36.800 They don't want

01:24:37.360 their voters to know

01:24:38.520 that they actually,

01:24:39.440 the politicians

01:24:39.860 don't represent the voters.

01:24:41.300 And we ought to be able

01:24:42.220 to discuss issues

01:24:43.220 and disagree

01:24:43.940 without getting personal

01:24:45.700 and nasty,

01:24:46.380 without calling someone

01:24:47.260 an SOB

01:24:47.940 to just say,

01:24:49.580 well,

01:24:49.780 that doesn't make any sense

01:24:50.980 and I think

01:24:51.980 if we had more discussion

01:24:53.120 based on actual facts

01:24:54.520 and substance,

01:24:55.980 I think it'd be better

01:24:56.860 for everyone.

01:24:57.740 Yeah,

01:24:58.160 and that's what we do,

01:24:59.020 that's why we always invite

01:24:59.820 students to disagree too.

01:25:01.700 So this will be

01:25:02.480 the very last question.

01:25:04.100 Hopefully we've saved

01:25:04.940 the best for last.

01:25:06.560 What is your name

01:25:07.180 and to whom

01:25:07.900 is your question directed?

01:25:09.440 Good evening,

01:25:09.980 my name is Elkanan Geller

01:25:11.060 and my question

01:25:11.660 is directed

01:25:12.040 towards the senator.

01:25:13.400 You have endorsed

01:25:14.380 Governor Abbott

01:25:15.140 in the 2022

01:25:15.980 gubernatorial election.

01:25:18.400 Out of the four candidates

01:25:22.720 running,

01:25:23.740 who do you think

01:25:24.720 is most closely aligned

01:25:25.900 with your beliefs?

01:25:26.800 Governor Abbott

01:25:27.380 has been governor

01:25:27.940 for eight years

01:25:28.760 and he has been

01:25:29.840 a major disappointment

01:25:30.700 for most conservatives,

01:25:32.400 shying away

01:25:33.000 from many important issues.

01:25:34.900 I understand

01:25:35.620 that you have

01:25:36.080 a debt of gratitude

01:25:36.680 for him

01:25:37.140 for your solicitor

01:25:37.840 general appointment,

01:25:38.760 but do you feel

01:25:39.480 that your friendship

01:25:40.460 is more important

01:25:41.900 than the future

01:25:42.820 of the state of Texas?

01:25:44.940 Well, look.

01:25:45.380 That's a spicy question

01:25:46.560 for the last one.

01:25:47.040 I love that question.

01:25:51.440 All right,

01:25:52.080 so let me say

01:25:52.640 thank you for asking

01:25:53.540 that question.

01:25:54.200 It is a good question.

01:25:55.080 Let me start by saying

01:25:57.140 I think primaries

01:25:58.580 are a good thing.

01:25:59.520 I think elections

01:26:00.120 are a good thing.

01:26:01.020 I think candidates

01:26:01.960 having to justify

01:26:03.400 their record,

01:26:04.640 having to justify

01:26:05.440 what they believe

01:26:06.380 to the voters

01:26:07.000 is right at the heart

01:26:07.780 of democracy.

01:26:09.860 As you noted,

01:26:10.800 I've endorsed Greg Abbott

01:26:12.040 and I went to

01:26:13.360 a large Tea Party gathering

01:26:15.640 that was in East Texas

01:26:16.740 of a lot of the folks

01:26:18.620 who worked very, very hard

01:26:19.660 to elect me

01:26:20.280 who I know very well.

01:26:22.160 And I will say this,

01:26:23.280 that was a gathering

01:26:23.920 about this size,

01:26:24.680 about 800 people.

01:26:26.260 And that particular room

01:26:28.120 was overwhelmingly

01:26:29.320 not supporting Abbott,

01:26:30.560 which I knew.

01:26:31.400 They were vocally

01:26:32.960 and aggressively

01:26:33.580 supporting other candidates

01:26:35.480 in the race.

01:26:35.960 And I know the other candidates.

01:26:37.020 They're good people.

01:26:38.160 They're friends.

01:26:38.900 I like and respect them.

01:26:41.160 And I stood up

01:26:42.640 and I explained to them

01:26:44.060 why I was supporting Abbott.

01:26:45.540 And I said,

01:26:45.860 look, let me tell you

01:26:46.600 my personal history

01:26:47.900 with Abbott,

01:26:49.940 which is in 2002.

01:26:52.760 I first met Greg Abbott

01:26:54.180 in November of 2002.

01:26:56.520 So he had just been

01:26:58.360 elected attorney general.

01:27:00.220 And I was at the time,

01:27:02.040 I was a young lawyer.

01:27:03.400 I was serving

01:27:03.820 the George W. Bush

01:27:04.620 administration in D.C.

01:27:05.860 and I got a call

01:27:07.400 from a friend of mine.

01:27:08.560 And the friend said,

01:27:09.580 hey, Abbott just got elected A.G.

01:27:11.720 I said, yeah,

01:27:12.260 I knew that.

01:27:13.140 I wasn't brain dead.

01:27:15.560 And he said,

01:27:16.300 well, he's looking

01:27:16.860 for a solicitor general.

01:27:18.900 Are you willing

01:27:19.700 to have your name considered?

01:27:21.860 And so I kind of thought

01:27:23.060 about it for a minute.

01:27:23.720 I said, well,

01:27:24.000 let me talk to Heidi.

01:27:24.740 Let me give us a day

01:27:26.040 to think about it.

01:27:27.320 I talked to Heidi.

01:27:28.180 She said, sure,

01:27:29.000 go for it.

01:27:30.700 And so I said, sure.

01:27:32.180 And so I sent in a resume.

01:27:34.900 And I got a call

01:27:35.980 a week or two later,

01:27:37.000 come down,

01:27:37.500 fly down to Austin

01:27:38.220 to interview.

01:27:38.740 I'd never met him before.

01:27:40.160 We did an interview.

01:27:42.360 Frankly, I didn't think

01:27:43.200 there was any chance

01:27:44.000 I'd get the job.

01:27:45.540 I was at the time,

01:27:46.920 I was 31 years old.

01:27:49.120 I was just a few years

01:27:50.260 out of law school.

01:27:50.920 I'd only argued

01:27:51.480 two cases in my life,

01:27:53.280 one in the district court,

01:27:54.480 one in a court of appeals,

01:27:55.460 never argued

01:27:55.960 in the Supreme Court.

01:27:57.720 And I assumed Abbott

01:27:59.280 would hire someone

01:28:00.920 who he'd known 20 years.

01:28:04.300 And that would be okay.

01:28:05.520 That's the way of the world.

01:28:06.520 I wouldn't, you know,

01:28:07.080 I mean, I would understand that.

01:28:08.140 But I assumed

01:28:08.700 I'd have no prayer.

01:28:10.240 A couple weeks later,

01:28:10.980 I get a call.

01:28:11.580 He offers me the job.

01:28:13.420 And no one was more

01:28:15.000 astonished than Heidi.

01:28:18.780 Heidi literally admitted to me

01:28:20.660 that she encouraged me

01:28:21.880 to apply because she said,

01:28:24.240 there's no way on earth

01:28:25.380 you will possibly get this job.

01:28:27.520 So sure, sweetheart,

01:28:28.760 you should do this.

01:28:31.200 So I came down

01:28:32.460 and I worked with Greg Abbott.

01:28:34.780 It's not just a debt of gratitude.

01:28:36.340 Understand,

01:28:36.880 this is not just

01:28:37.460 personal friendship.

01:28:38.920 I worked side by side

01:28:40.240 with him for five and a half years

01:28:41.500 from the beginning of 2003

01:28:44.220 to the middle of 2008.

01:28:46.360 And in those five and a half years,

01:28:48.160 so when I started,

01:28:50.220 I'm brand new in the job.

01:28:52.100 Here are the marching orders

01:28:53.000 he gave me.

01:28:53.620 He said, look across the country.

01:28:56.560 If we can defend

01:28:58.200 conservative principles,

01:28:59.480 if we can make a difference

01:29:00.660 and go fight

01:29:01.560 to defend conservative principles,

01:29:03.300 go do it.

01:29:04.840 And for, at the time,

01:29:05.820 I just had turned 32,

01:29:07.680 I was like, holy cow,

01:29:09.280 what a job mandate.

01:29:10.380 So for five and a half years,

01:29:12.100 we were fighting

01:29:13.240 for conservative principles

01:29:14.480 over and over and over again.

01:29:15.440 I'll tell you,

01:29:15.940 during those times,

01:29:17.080 I went into Abbott,

01:29:19.200 Heller versus District of Columbia,

01:29:20.600 one of the big landmark cases

01:29:22.340 before the Supreme Court.

01:29:24.140 We defended the Second Amendment,

01:29:25.800 the right to keep and bear arms.

01:29:27.000 I went into Abbott,

01:29:27.800 I said, look,

01:29:28.580 let's go into the Court of Appeals,

01:29:29.980 let's fight for this.

01:29:31.260 He said, absolutely.

01:29:32.680 He had my back.

01:29:34.120 We went to the Supreme Court,

01:29:35.440 won a 5-4 landmark case.

01:29:37.780 Defending the Ten Commandments monument

01:29:39.340 on the state capitol grounds.

01:29:40.760 Really, really important case.

01:29:42.140 A huge case.

01:29:43.760 We won a landmark 5-4 case.

01:29:47.240 Medellin versus Texas,

01:29:48.420 which is probably the biggest case,

01:29:50.900 I argued,

01:29:51.860 at the Supreme Court.

01:29:53.500 That was a case

01:29:54.600 where the World Court

01:29:55.840 and the United Nations

01:29:57.420 issued an order

01:29:59.300 to the United States

01:30:00.520 to reopen the convictions

01:30:02.160 of 51 murderers

01:30:04.460 across the country.

01:30:05.900 And it was the first time

01:30:06.980 a foreign court

01:30:07.900 had ever tried to bind

01:30:09.940 the U.S. justice system.

01:30:11.260 And the case took a weird turn

01:30:12.640 because the President

01:30:14.520 of the United States,

01:30:15.420 George W. Bush,

01:30:17.580 issued an order

01:30:18.760 for the state courts

01:30:21.020 to obey the world courts.

01:30:24.820 And I went to Abbott

01:30:26.000 and I said,

01:30:26.420 look, we're standing up

01:30:27.700 against George W. Bush,

01:30:31.040 who is a Texan,

01:30:32.080 who is a Republican,

01:30:33.200 who is the President

01:30:34.060 of the United States,

01:30:35.000 and I'll tell you,

01:30:35.640 Abbott didn't waver,

01:30:36.980 and he said,

01:30:37.520 go and fight

01:30:38.380 and do the right thing,

01:30:39.580 and we stood up

01:30:40.480 to the world court

01:30:41.560 and the United Nations

01:30:42.440 and the President

01:30:42.980 of the United States,

01:30:43.840 and we won

01:30:45.060 a 6-3 decision

01:30:46.560 striking down

01:30:47.580 the world court's order

01:30:48.520 and striking down

01:30:49.280 the President's order.

01:30:51.620 Throughout all of that,

01:30:53.280 I saw Abbott

01:30:54.360 stand for conservative principles

01:30:56.700 over and over again

01:30:58.260 in big fights

01:30:59.900 that other politicians

01:31:02.200 would shy away from.

01:31:03.900 Other conservative politicians

01:31:05.120 would shy away from.

01:31:05.960 What I said

01:31:09.040 and what I explained

01:31:09.700 to this Tea Party group

01:31:10.620 is, number one,

01:31:11.660 and by the way,

01:31:12.380 then when I turned around

01:31:13.400 and ran for office,

01:31:14.600 Abbott has been a mentor

01:31:15.700 to me for 20 years,

01:31:18.520 has supported me,

01:31:19.620 has campaigned for me,

01:31:20.800 has been with me.

01:31:21.840 As I said to this group,

01:31:23.380 I said, look,

01:31:23.900 I would be an ungrateful jackass

01:31:26.720 if I didn't support Greg Abbott.

01:31:30.000 But I also,

01:31:31.280 he is a good man,

01:31:34.420 he is a decent man,

01:31:36.440 and he has fought

01:31:38.820 for conservative principles

01:31:40.280 for decades.

01:31:42.500 Now, listen,

01:31:43.300 as governor,

01:31:43.820 do I agree with every decision

01:31:44.940 he's made?

01:31:45.760 No.

01:31:46.540 And I think during COVID

01:31:47.680 in particular,

01:31:48.560 these have been challenging times

01:31:50.260 for governors.

01:31:51.220 I don't agree with everything

01:31:52.140 he's made,

01:31:52.800 and that's why we have elections.

01:31:54.700 That's why we have debates

01:31:55.900 to discuss what decisions

01:31:58.040 made sense

01:31:58.740 and what decisions didn't.

01:32:00.480 But I'm supporting Greg Abbott

01:32:02.000 because I've got

01:32:03.100 two decades of history

01:32:05.260 by his side,

01:32:06.920 and I've seen him

01:32:07.740 fight for Texas

01:32:08.640 and fight for conservative principles

01:32:10.700 over and over and over again.

01:32:18.780 That's a good answer.

01:32:20.080 That's an answer right there.

01:32:21.880 That's a comprehensive answer

01:32:23.180 of somebody who's thought

01:32:23.960 through their position.

01:32:25.660 You know,

01:32:26.420 I would have just said

01:32:27.480 the Ten Commandments case

01:32:28.420 was enough for me,

01:32:29.040 but the Medellin case,

01:32:29.760 I mean,

01:32:29.880 that's really important stuff,

01:32:31.340 and I think your point,

01:32:32.740 Senator,

01:32:32.980 is so important.

01:32:33.980 We have primaries

01:32:34.800 for a reason.

01:32:35.700 We have elections

01:32:36.400 for a reason.

01:32:37.420 We at least used to have

01:32:38.440 election integrity measures,

01:32:39.580 but we're getting them

01:32:40.420 back in place.

01:32:41.300 We're fighting.

01:32:42.600 We're fighting.

01:32:43.720 They want more questions.

01:32:45.700 I wish we could stay here

01:32:46.740 all night.

01:32:46.840 Hey, can I actually

01:32:47.600 break in for a second?

01:32:48.260 If you want to ask

01:32:48.940 more questions,

01:32:49.880 you can go to

01:32:50.520 verdictwithtedcruise.com

01:32:51.880 slash plus.

01:32:53.120 It's the all-access portal,

01:32:54.480 and we will,

01:32:55.420 Senator Cruz and I,

01:32:56.060 will be taking

01:32:56.760 live questions there

01:32:57.920 on a fairly regular basis,

01:33:00.540 and pro questions,

01:33:02.300 con questions,

01:33:02.840 anything.

01:33:03.300 So we don't have

01:33:04.540 all the time in the world.

01:33:05.300 You can actually get

01:33:06.080 a free one-month trial.

01:33:07.860 Again,

01:33:08.180 on your little card,

01:33:09.180 there's a promo code live,

01:33:10.400 so if you use that promo code,

01:33:11.680 you can,

01:33:12.280 you don't even have to pay

01:33:13.340 for the first month.

01:33:14.000 You get that for free,

01:33:14.780 and we'll be taking questions.

01:33:15.940 So we want to take

01:33:16.640 all the questions

01:33:17.200 that we possibly can,

01:33:18.600 so please,

01:33:19.080 we invite you to join us there.

01:33:20.440 Yeah,

01:33:20.680 and I want to thank

01:33:21.920 everyone who came out tonight,

01:33:23.280 because I think

01:33:23.640 you are embodying

01:33:25.200 that spirit of making

01:33:27.420 your voices heard,

01:33:28.660 of making our democracy,

01:33:30.380 which we hear much about,

01:33:31.420 of making it actually work,

01:33:32.720 of fighting for a better country.

01:33:34.400 I, of course,

01:33:34.860 want to thank our friend

01:33:35.500 Liz Wheeler

01:33:36.360 for coming out here.

01:33:41.160 It's my honor,

01:33:42.480 my honor,

01:33:43.120 my privilege.

01:33:44.500 And, Michael,

01:33:45.420 let me say,

01:33:46.120 there's only one way

01:33:47.600 to wrap up a verdict

01:33:48.740 at Texas A&M,

01:33:50.420 and that is,

01:33:51.120 quite simply,

01:33:52.580 gig'em.

01:33:53.140 Gig'em.

01:33:53.760 Thank you, everybody.

01:33:54.540 Thank you so much.

01:33:58.000 Thank you.

01:34:05.860 This is an iHeart Podcast.

01:34:08.760 Guaranteed human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - October 18, 2021

Come and Vax It ft. Liz Wheeler, LIVE at Texas A&M University

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