Verdict with Ted Cruz - DEBATE NIGHT!

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.340 Welcome.

00:00:06.180 It is a special post-debate verdict with Ted Cruz and Ben Ferguson podcast.

00:00:12.400 We get to do these on big nights jointly like this.

00:00:15.760 Depending on where you're listening to us right now, you get us both.

00:00:19.180 Senator, your initial reaction, we're doing this right now.

00:00:23.100 Midnight Eastern, you watch the debate, I watch the debate.

00:00:27.180 What were your big takeaways?

00:00:28.240 Well, tonight was a big and consequential debate, but I have to say it, before we get into it and this entire podcast, we're going to analyze the debate in depth and say what it showed about where the race is, where President Trump is, where Kamala Harris is.

00:00:45.400 But I do want to point out it is exactly midnight as you and I are recording, which means it has just become September 11th.

00:00:53.260 And for our listeners who are downloading this, you'll be downloading this today during September 11th.

00:01:00.160 And so I just want to start by acknowledging that 23 years ago, the worst terrorist attack in our nation's history happened.

00:01:07.540 And you and I both lived through 9-11.

00:01:13.200 We had friends who lost their lives in 9-11.

00:01:16.220 We saw the agony.

00:01:19.060 And we have talked on this podcast many times about my view that today we have a greater risk of a major terrorist attack than we have had any time since September 11th, 2001, because of the disastrous policies of the last four years.

00:01:35.440 And so I want to acknowledge that at the front end.

00:01:38.180 And then we're going to walk through right now what the biggest takeaways are from the debate tonight.

00:01:46.180 Yeah, I'm so glad that you mentioned the front end.

00:01:49.260 And you also have a story to talk about that deals with those that lost their lives as we were pulling out of Afghanistan.

00:01:56.680 We're going to chat about that coming up in just a little bit.

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00:03:55.880 Senator, this was a obviously important debate for Kamala Harris.

00:04:01.300 It was really a rollout in a sense where she could be challenged.

00:04:06.180 What we quickly saw, though, was a three-on-one debate against Donald Trump.

00:04:12.320 And ABC News, what an in-kind donation they gave.

00:04:15.980 Yeah, the ABC moderators did not do a good job.

00:04:19.540 They clearly were biased towards Kamala Harris.

00:04:22.960 We saw that from their live, quote, fact-checking, where repeatedly they'd follow up what Trump said by contradicting him, by disputing him.

00:04:30.520 In many instances, their fact-checks were wrong, and they never could be bothered to fact-check a word that came out of Kamala Harris's mouth.

00:04:37.820 It was very one-sided on that front.

00:04:40.560 But look, ABC News was the least consequential part of tonight.

00:04:45.380 What tonight illustrated is that Kamala Harris is utterly incapable of defending her own record.

00:04:53.160 And what we saw tonight, this was her stump speech, and this was her DNC convention speech, cut into soundbites and repeated.

00:05:05.360 She memorized a series of vignettes, a series of little segments, and just repeated those talking points ad nauseum.

00:05:14.060 And it really became clear with the very first question of the night.

00:05:19.180 And the first question of the night that David Muir asked her is the question that you and I in Monday's podcast said is the single most important question of the debate and really of every election, which is, are you better off than you were four years ago?

00:05:33.680 And to Muir's credit, he started with that question.

00:05:37.700 Are people off today than they were four years ago under Trump?

00:05:41.040 Now, interestingly enough, Kamala refused to answer it at all.

00:05:44.540 She didn't say yes.

00:05:45.920 She didn't say people's lives are better.

00:05:47.380 She said nothing at all.

00:05:48.820 Instead, she had a little memorized set piece about how I was raised in a middle-class family.

00:05:55.100 I was raised with a mom who loved me and struggled.

00:05:57.720 And she just talked about her bio and gave just empty platitudes.

00:06:04.820 That continued for the entire night.

00:06:07.620 And so, look, we saw this evening why it is that Kamala's campaign team keeps her hidden in Joe Biden's basement.

00:06:18.980 Why they just bring her out, have her read from a teleprompter, and then they tackle her and throw her back in the basement.

00:06:25.340 Because, all right, let's take the very simple question.

00:06:27.500 She didn't say, yes, you're better off than you were four years ago.

00:06:30.180 Why?

00:06:30.520 Well, you really can't.

00:06:31.560 Like, it's impossible to defend on every front inflation.

00:06:35.500 All right, let's just take inflation and the economy.

00:06:38.260 Her policies and Joe Biden's policies have been disastrous.

00:06:44.320 America, the working people of America, have seen the price of just about everything go up.

00:06:48.840 From food, to electricity, to rent, to lumber, to health care, to gasoline, to mortgages, everything go up.

00:06:57.840 And critically, this is where her record matters.

00:07:02.400 Kamala Harris was the tie-breaking vote multiple times on the floor of the Senate

00:07:06.720 on trillions of dollars of the out-of-control spending from this administration that has caused this inflation.

00:07:15.220 She was literally, without her vote, the trillions of dollars that we borrowed and the trillions of dollars

00:07:21.720 that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ran the printing presses on that drove this inflation,

00:07:27.380 that doesn't happen.

00:07:28.780 And she can't defend that.

00:07:30.160 She doesn't have a good answer.

00:07:31.560 When it comes to energy and gas prices, people are hurting because of gas prices.

00:07:36.940 Well, it is her policies and Joe Biden's policies that has waged war systematically

00:07:42.840 on oil and gas production and American energy.

00:07:46.040 And she can't defend that either.

00:07:48.900 And so instead, she simply says, well, we're going to lower energy prices.

00:07:53.620 We're going to lower gas prices.

00:07:54.960 And with no acknowledgment that, wait a second, she is, in fact, the sitting vice president.

00:08:01.180 And who knows where the heck the actual president is besides passed out asleep on a beach?

00:08:06.400 When you see, I think, the strategy, and now it actually, I think, makes more sense, right?

00:08:11.740 Like, just hide her, buy ads, get the media to cover for you and protect you at all costs.

00:08:19.120 And maybe that is a winning strategy, which comes to, obviously, the next big question.

00:08:24.720 Should there be another debate?

00:08:26.480 Do you believe there will be another debate?

00:08:28.480 They were obviously in the Harris camp implying that there was a big victory tonight, saying,

00:08:33.860 that was fun, let's do it again, and threw out another date, signaling from her campaign.

00:08:39.620 They want to tee it up again and go toe-to-toe with Donald Trump again.

00:08:44.500 Is that the right move for her?

00:08:46.760 Well, listen, I think Trump should absolutely accept that offer for another debate.

00:08:50.620 He should jump on it and say, let's go.

00:08:52.520 I think the debate is a valuable opportunity to calmly litigate her actual record.

00:09:01.040 And let me say this, though.

00:09:03.620 Even if Trump does follow that advice and does accept the debate, I think there's very little chance it happens.

00:09:11.500 I think Kamala's team will back out on it.

00:09:13.300 I think they're mostly just puffing out their chest and boasting right now with the offer of another debate.

00:09:18.460 I think there is no world in which they let her do a second debate.

00:09:23.160 I think it's back to the basement.

00:09:25.220 And if I were to predict, we're not going to see Kamala emerge from the basement until Election Day.

00:09:30.420 It's like the groundhog.

00:09:32.640 Until she sees her shadow on Election Day, she doesn't get to come out of the basement.

00:09:36.100 Other than to show up at a rally here and there and read from the teleprompter the same speech.

00:09:42.040 But they want to keep her absolutely controlled and repeating.

00:09:47.820 And listen, I will say, the Democrat Party has very good message masters.

00:09:53.020 They have very good.

00:09:53.840 This is the party of Hollywood.

00:09:55.040 This is the party of storytellers.

00:09:56.980 Her memorized set pieces, some of them are pretty effective.

00:10:00.720 They're disconnected from reality.

00:10:02.600 They don't acknowledge any facts on Earth.

00:10:05.460 But if you just listen to them, they are calmly reassuring.

00:10:11.060 They sound nice.

00:10:12.800 And it's why, look, this is the same reaction I had with her convention speech.

00:10:16.820 It's dangerous as hell.

00:10:18.080 Because if you're not paying close attention, what she says sounds nice unless she is forced to confront her actual own record.

00:10:28.000 And in the entire debate, the ABC moderators never once pointed out that her record is exactly the opposite of what she said on the debate stage over and over again.

00:10:38.320 So when I watch the debate, the question I always ask myself is, okay, if I was going in tonight voting for Donald Trump, was I convinced by Kamala Harris that I should switch my vote?

00:10:48.660 The answer honestly is no.

00:10:49.940 And if I'm a Kamala Harris voter and was going into the night watching Kamala Harris saying I'm going to vote for her, am I going to switch my vote to Donald Trump tonight?

00:10:59.620 Honestly, probably not.

00:11:01.480 Does that mean that this is a draw, in essence, where, hey, Donald Trump's team, they walk out of this going, okay, maybe we could have done a little better on this, that, or the other.

00:11:12.140 Maybe we'll work on that for the next debate.

00:11:13.800 But we didn't do any harm.

00:11:14.920 And we got out some good points.

00:11:16.740 Because Kamala's team probably says, hey, we survived the night.

00:11:20.540 We had you in hiding in the basement.

00:11:22.620 Is this one of those debates that we both said was one of the most important ever, but could, in theory, be a draw?

00:11:27.860 Because, really, if the barometer is I'm trying to change hearts and minds, did anyone's mind change tonight?

00:11:36.960 Well, Kamala's team and all of her cheerleaders in the corporate media are going to relentlessly hype that she won, that she won, that she won.

00:11:44.140 And, by the way, they were going to say that whatever happened.

00:11:46.120 And she could literally fall to the ground and start screaming and wailing and kicking her feet in the air, and they would say she won.

00:11:51.140 So that was going to be the narrative regardless.

00:11:54.420 I will say what we learned is she doesn't have a good answer to her own record.

00:12:00.200 The Trump campaign needs to continue to prosecute the case.

00:12:03.700 So let's take, for example, there was a whole back and forth on abortion.

00:12:07.960 And Trump said accurately that she supports late-term abortions into the eighth and ninth months of pregnancy.

00:12:16.480 And she just said over and over again, no, I don't, no, I don't, that's false, that's false.

00:12:20.120 And the moderators sat there like potted plants.

00:12:24.540 Well, it so happens that Kamala actually has a record.

00:12:28.120 And in particular, she has voted for legislation on the floor of the Senate to strike down every single restriction on abortion in the country and to legalize abortion in the eighth and ninth months up to the moment of birth.

00:12:43.260 That is her actual voting record, what she has voted for.

00:12:46.560 There was another exchange where Trump points out that the governor of Virginia, the former governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, had advocated for post-birth abortion.

00:12:56.800 And she flat-out lied and said, no, no, he didn't, no, he didn't.

00:13:00.820 Let's play that, because we have that clip, and this is why I love doing this show, is we get to play it.

00:13:06.560 This is Northam on the radio, on WTOP, saying what she said and the media said never happened.

00:13:15.720 If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen.

00:13:20.100 The infant would be delivered.

00:13:22.220 The infant would be kept comfortable.

00:13:24.880 The infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired.

00:13:29.940 And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mothers.

00:13:33.880 I mean, where's the fact check from ABC News on that, Senator?

00:13:38.340 Yeah, and understand, Ralph Northam, he was a Democrat, governor of Virginia.

00:13:43.620 He was also someone whose medical school yearbook featured a picture of a Klansman.

00:13:49.840 That's another part of Ralph Northam's background.

00:13:53.000 But he was also an OB-GYN.

00:13:55.040 So he was actually talking about as a doctor who presumably has done that.

00:13:58.760 He was describing the approach, and that is delivering a baby, the baby is alive, is breathing, is outside the mother's womb, and he's talking about just letting the baby die.

00:14:08.800 And again, this is where records matter.

00:14:11.940 Kamala has a record on this.

00:14:13.600 So when she says, that's ridiculous, that's no, no, no, no, no, that's not true.

00:14:16.960 Well, Kamala Harris voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, and that was a bill that we voted on on the floor of the Senate that said if during the course of an attempted abortion, the child is delivered, the child is born, and this happens, and the child is alive and breathing and outside the womb, that the doctor cannot just let the baby die.

00:14:40.660 And she voted no.

00:14:44.420 Now, as you noted, ABC didn't fact-check her on that.

00:14:47.800 Her voting record is very clear, and this was a pattern over and over and over again on energy.

00:14:55.880 So her big trick now on energy is she's run away from her long-held position opposing fracking.

00:15:03.160 Okay, fine.

00:15:03.980 So she's like, yeah, I just flip-flopped on that.

00:15:05.820 But what ABC didn't point out is, well, wait a second, your repeated statements about banning fracking, that's not the only thing you've done on energy.

00:15:14.720 First week in office, you and Joe Biden shut down the Keystone Pipeline.

00:15:19.640 Joe Biden, when he was campaigning for president, promised to shut down drilling onshore on federal lands and offshore.

00:15:25.320 You put in over 90 different regulations and executive orders attacking oil and gas production in the United States.

00:15:32.600 That has had a very direct effect, driving up costs.

00:15:37.080 Your administration banned new permits exporting liquid natural gas.

00:15:42.780 Like, her record on energy is terrible.

00:15:46.420 And she has no answer to that.

00:15:48.400 And by the way, Trump did a good job on this point of saying, listen, you banned the Keystone Pipeline and gave a giant gift of Vladimir Putin by allowing him to complete the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which caused the war in Ukraine.

00:16:03.080 And that's something you and I have talked about in this podcast a lot.

00:16:05.880 It was my legislation in the Senate that sanctioned Nord Stream 2 and shut it down.

00:16:10.960 Trump signed my legislation and Putin literally stopped building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline the day that Trump signed my sanctions legislation in the law.

00:16:21.360 Nord Stream 2 was a dead hunk of metal at the bottom of the ocean until Joe Biden and Kamala Harris came into office.

00:16:26.660 And they demonstrated weakness and they waived the sanctions on Nord Stream 2.

00:16:32.760 And it was a multi-billion dollar gift to Russia and it caused the war in Ukraine.

00:16:39.580 None of that does she have an answer for.

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00:17:14.200 We just got in the official number.

00:17:16.800 ABC News fact-checked Donald Trump seven times.

00:17:20.820 Not one time in the debate did they fact-check Kamala Harris.

00:17:26.040 Not once.

00:17:27.200 So that's the official tally now.

00:17:30.280 It's seven times on Trump.

00:17:32.120 That's three on one.

00:17:33.820 And I do think that's going to have a turnoff, I would hope, to some of those voters, maybe in the middle.

00:17:40.820 The undecideds, which very much can be the deciding factor in this election.

00:17:45.520 Will that play with undecideds, do you think?

00:17:48.080 Did they see the bias that you and I saw?

00:17:50.600 They saw that some, but I think they also go in expecting the media to be biased.

00:17:55.620 So I don't think anyone is surprised that ABC is a left-wing mouthpiece for the Democrats.

00:18:01.960 That's been the case, sadly, for a long time.

00:18:04.320 For ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, all of them have been mouthpieces for the Democrats.

00:18:09.440 So, yes, they saw it, but again, they're not surprised.

00:18:13.760 Look, the critical thing that we saw tonight is she doesn't have a good answer on the chaos at our southern border.

00:18:21.440 Kamala Harris was the border czar.

00:18:24.780 She is directly responsible for the worst level of illegal immigration in our nation's history.

00:18:30.620 She is directly responsible for the people who have died.

00:18:37.260 853 migrants died last year crossing illegally into this country.

00:18:40.420 She is responsible for the people, the women who have been brutally raped.

00:18:46.380 She's responsible for the children who have been brutalized.

00:18:49.680 She's responsible for the little boys and little girls who have been horribly assaulted by human traffickers.

00:18:54.660 She's responsible for the 110,000 Americans who died last year of drug overdoses.

00:18:59.760 She is responsible for the murderers that she and Joe Biden had in their custody.

00:19:07.120 Murderers like the illegal alien murderer of Lake and Riley that she and Joe Biden had in custody and they released.

00:19:13.140 Murderers like the illegal alien murderer of Rachel Morin.

00:19:17.620 That illegal alien was in her custody.

00:19:19.540 She released him.

00:19:21.580 Murderers like the illegal alien murderers of Jocelyn Nungary.

00:19:26.140 Both of them were in her custody and she and Joe Biden released them.

00:19:29.660 And so that record, she was not forced tonight to answer for any of that record.

00:19:36.020 And that, but it demonstrated that she does not have a good response.

00:19:44.180 And that's what I think the next two months the Trump campaign has to prosecute systematically based on the facts.

00:19:52.360 Here is her record.

00:19:54.500 Here is what she has done and it hasn't worked.

00:19:57.780 It has failed and the American people are worse off as a result of the failures of her extreme policies.

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00:21:38.040 You mentioned Donald Trump's got to bring up some more of this stuff, and I think you and I have talked about this, but let's just remind people.

00:21:46.440 Since Kamala Harris took office, total prices are up over 20%.

00:21:49.780 Car insurance up 54%.

00:21:51.480 Hotels are up, say, when you rent a hotel, 51.2%.

00:21:55.780 Gas is up 50.50%.

00:21:57.820 Fuel oil is up 49.1%.

00:22:00.680 Transportation up 32.9%.

00:22:02.040 Electricity is up 31.7%.

00:22:06.000 Baby food's up over 30%.

00:22:08.180 Eating out up 25%.

00:22:10.640 Airfare up 23%.

00:22:12.200 Rent up 22%.

00:22:13.480 And groceries are up about 22% as well.

00:22:17.920 That's what they've got to focus on every single one of the surrogates, not all this other in the weed stuff.

00:22:24.860 I really do believe they've got to keep it simple for the American voter, especially if you're trying to go after undecideds.

00:22:33.920 Sure.

00:22:34.260 And that's what we talked about in Monday's pod, that the focus needs to be on harms, harms, harms.

00:22:40.580 How are people's lives worse off because of the horrible policies that Kamala Harris is directly responsible for?

00:22:50.400 And that's true on inflation.

00:22:52.020 She was literally the tie-breaking vote behind the trillions of spending that unleashed this inflation.

00:22:59.140 It's true on energy.

00:23:00.580 She and Joe Biden, it has been their executive orders and their regulations that have driven up energy prices.

00:23:07.120 And it's true on the border.

00:23:08.880 And let me play, there was one of the best exchanges with something Trump said on the border where he made the point that, listen, she could secure the border today.

00:23:19.400 And listen to this, what he said to her right now.

00:23:23.020 I would say we would both leave this debate right now.

00:23:26.880 I'd like to see her go down to Washington, D.C. during this debate because we're wasting a lot of time.

00:23:33.080 Go down to, because she's been so bad, it's so ridiculous.

00:23:35.620 Go down to Washington, D.C. and let her sign a bill to close up the border because they have the right to do it.

00:23:42.520 They don't need bills.

00:23:43.580 They have the right to do it.

00:23:44.780 The president of the United States, you'll get them out of bed.

00:23:47.440 You'll wake them up at four o'clock in the afternoon.

00:23:49.540 You'll say, come on, come on down to the office.

00:23:51.580 Let's sign a bill.

00:23:53.140 It was a great moment in the debate.

00:23:55.020 Yeah, look, that point is very powerful.

00:23:58.320 And understand, this invasion at our southern border, it is happening right now.

00:24:03.800 Today, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of illegal immigrants crossing the border right now today.

00:24:11.500 Today, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are apprehending hundreds, if not thousands, of illegal aliens, and they're going to release them tomorrow.

00:24:18.800 There are criminals they're going to release tomorrow.

00:24:22.800 There are murderers they're going to release going forward.

00:24:25.540 There are rapists, there are child molesters, and they keep on doing it.

00:24:29.080 And the point Trump is making, and listen, his campaign needs to follow this up by explaining, by really explaining, look, when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris came into office,

00:24:40.780 they inherited the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years.

00:24:44.820 Donald Trump, I worked hand-in-hand with President Trump to secure the border, and we had incredible success.

00:24:52.140 When Trump was president, the border was secure.

00:24:55.720 And it was unilateral executive actions that caused this crisis.

00:25:01.100 Three decisions that Biden and Harris did in the very first week.

00:25:05.340 Number one, they immediately halted construction of the border wall.

00:25:09.000 Number two, they reinstated the disastrous policy of catch and release.

00:25:12.560 And number three, they pulled out of the incredibly successful Remain in Mexico agreement.

00:25:17.400 All three of those, they could reverse tomorrow.

00:25:22.120 And so the point, like literally, go down to the White House right now and do it.

00:25:26.780 That is absolutely right.

00:25:28.300 It is also right that if, and I pray when, Trump is re-elected, that he will reverse all three of those decisions on January 20th of next year,

00:25:39.260 and we will see the border crisis end, and it will end quickly.

00:25:42.440 And so that point was very effective.

00:25:45.260 Let me say also, Ben, I thought the foreign policy portion of the debate was particularly strong for Trump.

00:25:52.460 And it was very weak for Kamala Harris.

00:25:54.520 At one point, she looks over at Trump and says,

00:25:57.300 well, you know, everyone knows that he was weak and ineffective on foreign policy.

00:26:01.460 And I got to say to me, that was a laugh line.

00:26:05.560 And listen, if you look across the globe, we had peace and prosperity when Trump was president.

00:26:12.160 We had no foreign wars.

00:26:13.720 And in fact, we saw peace breaking out in the Middle East.

00:26:17.080 We saw the Abraham Accords being signed.

00:26:19.120 We saw Arabs and Israelis coming together.

00:26:21.880 And I think it is absolutely the case that if Trump were still in the White House today,

00:26:27.960 the war in Ukraine would not have happened and the war in Israel would not have happened,

00:26:31.560 that it was Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's weakness that caused those wars.

00:26:38.220 And critically, and Trump did a good job of this too, laying out that, listen,

00:26:42.160 Kamala Harris has flowed over $100 billion to Iran.

00:26:47.440 Iran provides 90% of the funding for Hamas, 90% of the funding for Hezbollah.

00:26:53.220 Kamala Harris, in a very real sense, paid for the death squads that carried out the atrocities on October 7th.

00:27:01.400 And Kamala has no answer to that.

00:27:05.720 And tonight showed that powerfully.

00:27:08.340 You know, I also think, and you go to the end of the debate,

00:27:10.640 that one of the best parts was actually Donald Trump and his closing argument.

00:27:15.680 And it goes back to the campaign strategy that I think he needs to have moving forward.

00:27:21.600 And that is to make sure he makes this about what she has done in comparison to what she claims she wants to do while she's in charge.

00:27:33.380 Like, you're in charge.

00:27:34.820 You're in charge.

00:27:35.920 You're in charge.

00:27:37.120 Is it in Trump?

00:27:38.260 So she just started by saying she's going to do this.

00:27:40.860 She's going to do that.

00:27:41.780 She's going to do all these wonderful things.

00:27:43.600 Why hasn't she done it?

00:27:46.060 She's been there for three and a half years.

00:27:48.640 They've had three and a half years to fix the border.

00:27:51.740 They've had three and a half years to create jobs and all the things we talked about.

00:27:56.940 Why hasn't she done it?

00:27:59.200 She should leave right now, go down to that beautiful White House, go to the Capitol,

00:28:04.320 get everyone together and do the things you want to do.

00:28:06.540 But you haven't done it and you won't do it because you believe in things that the American people don't believe in.

00:28:13.040 It's a great line.

00:28:14.700 And I wish it would have been used even more.

00:28:17.420 Yeah, that that was the closing was Trump's best, best part of the entire debate.

00:28:21.500 And that was exactly the right message.

00:28:24.100 It's a message that the Trump campaign should amplify every day between now and Election Day.

00:28:29.240 Listen, you and I have talked about how Kamala is trying to engage in this divorced from reality campaign where she pretends she's not in office, that she's not the incumbent.

00:28:39.360 She disavows all responsibility for the mess that is happening.

00:28:44.040 And in fact, she's she's behaving as if Donald Trump is the incumbent president and she's the change candidate.

00:28:50.180 She is in office right now.

00:28:53.220 Joe Biden is in office right now and on every single level on inflation, on crime, on illegal immigration, on foreign policy, on safety and security.

00:29:05.840 The world was much, much better when Trump was president than it is today.

00:29:11.360 And that that needs to be emphasized every day between now and Election Day.

00:29:15.700 The 2024 election is upon us.

00:29:18.420 And I can tell you one thing, the war on masculinity in America today is more blatant than ever.

00:29:23.780 And I want you to know that now is the time to choose strength and vitality over weakness and complacency.

00:29:29.540 The problem is men's testosterone levels are off a cliff historically at an all time low.

00:29:36.040 And isn't that exactly what the liberal elites want?

00:29:39.220 A weak and docile underclass, especially of men.

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00:31:10.720 Senator, final question, I think, for you and really for me when I was watching this tonight.

00:31:15.760 And it's a, OK, where do we go from here?

00:31:19.380 I'm in favor of another debate.

00:31:21.020 I think you you cover that earlier, right?

00:31:23.220 You agree Trump should do another one.

00:31:25.560 Number one.

00:31:26.040 Yes.

00:31:26.580 But I don't think she will.

00:31:28.200 I think she'll back out.

00:31:29.160 So your prediction is she's done.

00:31:31.440 Yep.

00:31:32.520 Number two.

00:31:33.800 If you're Donald Trump, what do you learn for tonight and what do you take into your big campaign rallies from this?

00:31:40.480 And what is your messaging to your surrogates tomorrow on the surrogate call?

00:31:44.060 I think the message is she cannot defend her record and her record is a failure.

00:31:50.520 The American people are worse off.

00:31:53.120 But but listen, I think it's important to remember also this is not about Donald Trump and it's not about Kamala Harris.

00:31:59.300 It is about the American people.

00:32:01.360 It is about it is about young young couples who are going out and buying their first home and they're discovering that a seven and a half percent mortgage rate is much, much worse than a two and a half percent mortgage rate.

00:32:13.640 That you get about half the house that that's happening right now.

00:32:17.400 Today, people are hurting.

00:32:18.480 It's about a single mom who's trying to make ends meet and she can't afford to buy groceries anymore because the prices have gone so high.

00:32:26.120 And when she tries to fill up her tank to go to work, it just about breaks her.

00:32:30.900 It's about the people who are suffering.

00:32:35.220 Look, today on September 10th, there was a ceremony in the Capitol where the Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to the 13 servicemen and women who were murdered in Afghanistan from the absolutely disastrous and incompetent withdrawal from Abbey Gate.

00:32:55.960 And I'll tell you, the families were there and it was a beautiful ceremony.

00:33:00.020 And the families, I spoke to many of the families.

00:33:02.900 I thanked every one of them that I could to say thank you for your service and sacrifice.

00:33:08.940 I'm sorry.

00:33:10.740 But I also, to many of them, had a follow-up conversation where I said there needs to be accountability.

00:33:17.500 There has been zero accountability.

00:33:20.040 That, the focus for the campaign every day from now to Election Day needs to be the difference between Trump's record and Kamala's record.

00:33:31.500 And critically, bringing it home to the voters how their lives were much better when Trump was president than they have been under Kamala.

00:33:40.900 And that her policies are failures and they're hurting the American people.

00:33:46.260 That's got to be the central message.

00:33:47.600 Yeah, as you mentioned a second ago, on this anniversary of 9-11, I think it's important that we also take a step back.

00:33:57.220 Remember how important it is that you have competent leaders that understand how important it is to protect and defend the homeland, to protect and defend freedom.

00:34:05.880 And also, just a moment to say thank you to all of those that serve this country, to all of those that wear the uniform, to all of those that have given the ultimate sacrifices and their families.

00:34:18.320 There were so many people that died on 9-11.

00:34:20.420 But there was also the second part, and that was so many that died because they wanted to protect and defend us after 9-11 that gave the ultimate sacrifice.

00:34:32.140 And I said to everybody listening, say thank you to a veteran.

00:34:35.500 Text them.

00:34:36.160 Everybody knows a veteran.

00:34:37.840 Tell them thank you.

00:34:38.620 I had the privilege of playing golf today with some of those that actually took out some of the worst terrorists in the world, some special operators.

00:34:50.180 And they were amazing guys.

00:34:52.660 And I say to them, thank you, because without you giving up years of your life and risking your life and losing your brothers in uniform, we wouldn't have the freedoms we have today.

00:35:04.000 And that's what we need to remember, I think, during this election season as well.

00:35:07.300 So don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, Friday on Verdict.

00:35:11.040 I do my show, Ben Ferguson Podcasts, every single day.

00:35:14.280 So grab our podcast, hit that subscribe or auto-download button wherever you listen to these podcasts.

00:35:20.300 It's always fun when we get to do a joint podcast.

00:35:22.240 The Senator and I will see you back here in a couple days, and I'll see you back here tomorrow on the Ben Ferguson Podcast as well.

00:35:28.980 And again, God bless America, and thanks to all of our veterans that are listening.

00:35:32.740 You guys are the heroes.

00:35:35.020 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:35:37.300 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - September 11, 2024

DEBATE NIGHT!

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