Verdict with Ted Cruz - May 30, 2026


Democrat Party says Adios to the Middle, Texas BBQ vs. Vegan Politics & NIL Bill Takes Aim at College Sports Chaos Week In Review


Episode Stats


Length

35 minutes

Words per minute

181.76

Word count

6,438

Sentence count

434

Harmful content

Misogyny

8

sentences flagged

Toxicity

33

sentences flagged

Hate speech

33

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Ted Cruz and Ben Ferguson discuss the radical candidates the Democratic Party is running in the midterms and why they should be worried about them. Plus, the NIL College Sports Bill and how it could change college sports for the better.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
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00:00:32.180 I heart radio.
00:00:35.640 Welcome in his verdict with Ted Cruz week in review.
00:00:38.700 Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:39.680 And here are the big stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week.
00:00:43.100 First up, the policies of the left in the upcoming midterm elections.
00:00:47.400 Well, they're totally radical.
00:00:48.760 We'll explain it all exactly what they're running on.
00:00:51.400 Also, one of those radicals is in Texas and he's running for the U.S. Senate.
00:00:55.680 His name, James Tallarico.
00:00:58.240 So what has he said in his past?
00:00:59.920 We've got the receipts.
00:01:01.500 And finally, if you love college sports, you're going to need to know about the NIL college sports bill
00:01:07.000 and how it could fundamentally change sports for the better.
00:01:10.860 It's the Week in Review, and it starts right now.
00:01:14.080 I want to move the midterms and talk about something that I actually think is very, one, interesting,
00:01:19.920 But two, why every time when I'm having to debate this on TV, it's, oh, the Republicans are in trouble.
00:01:26.960 Donald Trump's in trouble.
00:01:28.140 The midterms are going to be a bloodbath.
00:01:29.640 They're going to be a disaster.
00:01:30.960 And I keep saying the same thing over and over again.
00:01:33.520 Look at who the Democrats are running.
00:01:36.140 There are radicals in the Democratic Party that they are running instead of what I would argue would be the easiest way to win if you think you have an advantage.
00:01:45.360 And that would be to run moderate Democrats that are that are like not crazy and hate law enforcement and want to abolish ICE and want to get rid of, you know, law and order and basic things in America, like waste, fraud and abuse, for example.
00:01:59.700 And the funds that we've seen have been stolen through Medicare, Medicaid and hospice.
00:02:03.360 And the list goes on and on as keeps growing.
00:02:05.660 But right now, I'm not that sour on the midterms, Senator, because I see who they're running.
00:02:12.440 And I think that's their biggest liability.
00:02:14.160 And some of these are in very big races where I'm sitting there going, if you're saying you wouldn't have taken this risk with this candidate, but I also think it tells you about the Democratic Party.
00:02:23.620 They're not saying they want to run these radical extremist candidates that have said insane things in their past.
00:02:29.920 Yeah, look, I got to say you're right that this is potentially a bumpy political environment in November, although I'm still optimistic.
00:02:37.080 I'm optimistic we hold and grow our majorities in both the House and Senate.
00:02:40.560 I don't think that is off the table at all.
00:02:42.640 I think it's very much in flux right now. But I will say that the Democrats are helping us
00:02:49.480 by nominating some of the craziest loons I've ever seen. Listen, and parties can do a lot to
00:02:56.480 affect their outcome in the general. If you nominate strong candidates who are widely
00:03:00.280 appealing, who are attractive, who have real records of success, that can be formidable.
00:03:05.000 And if you nominate lunatics who scare the voters, that can hand the election to your
00:03:10.920 opponents. And I got to say, I think there's no candidate in the country that better embodies 0.96
00:03:16.360 just how bat crap crazy the Democrats have gotten than Graham Plattner. Graham Plattner, 0.98
00:03:21.740 their nominee for Senate in Maine. Now let's start off. Look, Maine is one of the obvious
00:03:28.580 pickup opportunities for the Democrats. Maine is a blue state. Susan Collins, the Republican
00:03:33.120 Senator, is the only Republican elected in all of New England. And so in a state that votes 0.90
00:03:39.180 by a large margin against Donald Trump,
00:03:42.080 if you're the Democrats,
00:03:43.560 that's an obvious place to say,
00:03:44.860 all right, let's target a pickup there. 1.00
00:03:46.740 And in fact, Janet Mills, 1.00
00:03:48.320 Democrat governor,
00:03:49.540 relatively popular in the state,
00:03:51.540 was running.
00:03:52.880 And yet the party has gone so crazy
00:03:55.400 that their own governor
00:03:56.700 was deemed not crazy enough.
00:03:59.720 And instead they went with Graham Plattner.
00:04:02.820 Look, the governor might have been...
00:04:04.220 By the way, I wish you were joking,
00:04:05.580 but you're really not. 1.00
00:04:07.140 I mean, if you're a...
00:04:09.180 Extreme Democrat three, four years ago, you're now moderate in the Democratic Party.
00:04:13.920 So who is Graham Plattner? He has described himself as a communist. It used to be the
00:04:21.520 socialist were the extremes. I cannot think of another major Democrat nominee who is self-described
00:04:28.200 as a communist, but Graham Plattner, that's how he described his own political and economic
00:04:33.560 philosophy. Graham Plattner had, and you've heard this because at this point most people had,
00:04:39.180 had a Nazi tattoo on his chest, not just a Nazi tattoo, a Totenkamp.
00:04:44.480 What is a Totenkamp? 0.59
00:04:45.440 It is a Nazi skull and crossbones that was the symbol of the SS
00:04:51.580 that ran the concentration camps in Germany and throughout Europe in the World War II. 0.51
00:05:02.480 That's what he put on his chest. 0.62
00:05:03.700 So you've got an actual communist Nazi is their nominee. 0.70
00:05:10.540 And by the way, we've seen Democrats rushing up to Maine to support him.
00:05:14.840 Bernie Sanders.
00:05:15.640 Bernie Sanders this week is up there campaigning because, you know, the communists and the Nazis standing together.
00:05:22.440 But I got to say it is amazing. 0.59
00:05:24.860 You might think, OK, a Nazi communist, that's pretty out there.
00:05:27.700 That's going to be tough to defend. 0.90
00:05:30.040 This guy's oppophile. 1.00
00:05:31.980 I don't know who's doing the oppo research on him, 0.92
00:05:34.020 but he's having more fun than anybody has ever had in the history of politics
00:05:37.600 because every day something comes out, and I'm going to repeat some of it,
00:05:42.520 but I'm going to give a caution that most of what's in his oppo file I can't repeat
00:05:46.280 because this is a family-friendly podcast, and this guy is so profane.
00:05:51.180 He's so obscene.
00:05:52.980 So one of the most recent comments that he put on Reddit that just came out was, 0.99
00:05:59.380 quote, you don't have much experience with Latin American hookers, do you? That would be the 1.00
00:06:04.780 Democrat nominee for Senate in Maine. Uh, what else did he say? Uh, he, he, he also, he attacked
00:06:12.320 a veteran, an army combat veteran who received the Purple Heart. He did this online and he called him
00:06:19.320 a dumb MF-er, although he did not abbreviate MF-er. And he said this army combat veteran 0.91
00:06:26.700 didn't deserve to live yeah this guy wants to be a united states senator and and and by the way
00:06:34.820 just today he was questioned by it about it and asked if he wanted to apologize give a listen to
00:06:42.900 what he said about when he was given the opportunity to apologize for for calling an 0.81
00:06:48.360 army combat veteran and a purple heart recipient a dumb mfer who didn't deserve to live here was 0.91
00:06:54.340 Plattner's response. I was wondering if you regret the post about the Purple Heart veteran. 1.00
00:07:02.220 If you think you need to apologize to him.
00:07:07.340 What you would say to voters who might be upset by it.
00:07:11.500 I think towards the infantry. Any attempt to say that I disrespect veterans is slanderous and
00:07:19.740 Do you think you owe him an apology?
00:07:22.100 Do you know how many of my friends have purple hearts?
00:07:25.680 Do you know how many of my friends got married?
00:07:27.320 I'm sure a lot.
00:07:28.080 Yeah, a lot of them.
00:07:29.080 Thank you.
00:07:29.700 Thank you.
00:07:30.460 I mean, that's what you call a double down there, sir.
00:07:32.920 So no apology.
00:07:35.760 Doubling down, by the way, he also has some bizarre things.
00:07:39.500 He talks about how women who are raped, it's their fault. 0.99
00:07:43.280 He attacks African-Americans. 1.00
00:07:45.640 He says they're cheap or they don't tip. 0.98
00:07:48.180 uh oddly enough he also wrote about okay this is bizarre fantasies about how every time he sees a 0.96
00:07:56.640 port-a-potty he wants to go inside the port-a-potty and and masturbate in the port-a-potty look this
00:08:02.640 is weird this is not mainstream this guy is extreme and you know what elizabeth warren 0.98
00:08:10.240 says about someone who says all that she likes him vote for him send money even more she says
00:08:16.380 quote, he's my kind of man. Oh, that's right. Yeah. That was her quote from this. Yeah. He's
00:08:22.420 my kind of man. A guy with a Nazi tattoo is a communist who says he likes to do that in a 0.52
00:08:28.120 porta potty. There you go. And understand, look, the Democrats are so extreme. He can attack and 0.99
00:08:34.680 mock and insult women. He can attack African-Americans. He can attack Jews. He can 1.00
00:08:40.500 attack veterans and they don't care they all circle the wagons he's our guy because he's a
00:08:46.700 democrat and and they're unwilling there is nothing too much by the way they love to call
00:08:51.920 every republican a nazi and and yet when they have a guy that puts a nazi tattoo on his own chest
00:08:57.320 they're good with that um and and they're not backing off and and and not only that but you
00:09:02.580 look at the corrupt corporate media just this week what did time magazine do they put them on
00:09:08.600 the cover they put them on the cover and it's entitled party crasher now i gotta say time
00:09:16.220 magazine it's interesting because they they have a long history of putting nazis on their cover
00:09:23.320 they were fond of putting adolf hitler on their cover um i did have some fun online when i said
00:09:28.460 hey hey grok what is a totenkampf and and does time have any history of putting nazis on their
00:09:34.780 cover. And you can read the whole response that came up to that. But the short answer is yes.
00:09:40.920 And I got to say, having seen this guy's like daily drip of oppo between now and November is
00:09:48.380 going to be interesting because because I guarantee you there's a lot more coming.
00:09:51.920 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen
00:09:55.580 to the full podcast from earlier this week. Canadian women are looking for more, more of 1.00
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00:10:58.960 Now on to story number two.
00:11:03.360 Let's dive into who this guy is here because you go back to 2022.
00:11:09.220 James Tallarico said it is existential, all right, to reduce meat consumption.
00:11:16.440 What was that word again?
00:11:18.100 Exessential.
00:11:19.040 You're going to mock me on the show tonight, aren't you?
00:11:21.860 I've been talking a long time today, Senator.
00:11:24.360 Okay, try that word.
00:11:25.640 There's a T in there.
00:11:27.280 Go ahead.
00:11:28.200 I'll take the master class from you.
00:11:30.100 You go ahead and say the word that I'm having a problem with tonight.
00:11:34.040 I'm more than happy at midnight for you to say that word on my behalf.
00:11:37.260 That would be existential.
00:11:40.260 Existential.
00:11:40.860 There we go.
00:11:41.440 There we go.
00:11:41.900 I can copy the word from you.
00:11:44.260 It's not that he has extrasensory abilities.
00:11:46.780 That's something different.
00:11:47.940 If he had ESP, that would be a different story.
00:11:50.840 the lickings i take it's unbelievable so so back to 2022 and james this is a guy that in in texas i
00:12:00.080 said this on on harris faulkner's show on fox today when they were talking about the prime like
00:12:04.880 in texas we like meat in texas we are ranchers we are farmers we're not vegans we don't do this like
00:12:12.840 mystery fake meat stuff like that's just not who we are but this is what he doesn't want you to
00:12:19.200 know about him back in 2022 as a principal by the way while saying this he was wearing a mask the
00:12:26.460 covid mask for the press conference here he is in his own words take a listen one we have i think
00:12:33.180 heard more and more issues of animal welfare i think not just because it's the right thing to do
00:12:38.620 and the moral thing to do but also it's as all of you know necessary to fight climate change it is
00:12:44.320 now existential that we try to reduce our meat consumption and that we try to respect animals
00:12:50.700 in all aspects of society. And so I am proud to say that our campaign has officially become a
00:12:57.400 non-meat campaign. So we are only buying vegan products from our local vegan businesses. Some
00:13:06.980 of you may know Big Nonas. They were little Nonas and then they opened up brick and mortar, 0.96
00:13:11.260 another big notice but uh we just got our pizza from there uh today and so um the point is i think 0.99
00:13:16.720 all of us um not just policymakers but but everyone has to take personal responsibility
00:13:21.520 um in this effort i've never in my life heard a vegan campaign being like propped up much less
00:13:29.240 like you want to do that in seattle that actually may work you want to do it in san francisco that
00:13:33.680 it may actually work you want to do this up in new york city i'm not even sure it would work
00:13:37.800 there actually because they actually like normal food there but saying our campaign as a responsible
00:13:43.240 candidate is a vegan campaign like that in texas and this goes back to like everyone needs to know
00:13:48.740 who this guy is well look and i i get that you're taking this very personally because because you
00:13:54.800 owned a barbecue restaurant and oh yeah so he he's taking a direct assault on your livelihood
00:14:00.260 uh just just wait till he comes out for banning guns and and and banning radio i mean i mean you
00:14:05.980 that Ben will lose his mind.
00:14:08.580 I will.
00:14:09.400 That is the fact.
00:14:11.140 You know, it's actually ironic
00:14:13.580 that in 2018 when I was running against Beto
00:14:16.760 of our 50-stop bus tour,
00:14:18.720 my guess is a third of those stops
00:14:20.580 were barbecue restaurants.
00:14:21.800 If you're traveling little towns around the state,
00:14:24.040 a lot of times barbecue restaurants
00:14:25.640 are where you'll do a rally.
00:14:26.800 And we were at one barbecue restaurant,
00:14:28.540 I think it was in Columbus, Texas,
00:14:30.040 a little town kind of halfway
00:14:31.760 between Houston and Austin.
00:14:33.720 And we're there.
00:14:35.180 and PETA was there protesting me.
00:14:38.360 They had signs out
00:14:39.300 and they were protesting people
00:14:40.320 for the ethical treatment of animals.
00:14:41.540 They were protesting against me.
00:14:43.160 And I joked at the time.
00:14:44.760 I said, look, thank you.
00:14:46.100 I'm really glad PETA is here.
00:14:47.500 And then they've underscored
00:14:48.620 the stakes of this campaign,
00:14:49.940 which is if you elect Beto O'Rourke,
00:14:53.160 he's going to ban barbecue.
00:14:55.560 Yeah.
00:14:55.760 And look, it was a laugh line there.
00:14:58.120 I didn't realize that fast forward to 2026,
00:15:00.740 you're going to have someone
00:15:01.920 who literally believes barbecue is immoral 0.78
00:15:05.540 And listen, if someone chooses to be vegetarian or vegan or what have you, to be clear, my wife, Heidi, is vegetarian.
00:15:11.880 That's a choice you can make.
00:15:12.960 I am an enthusiastic carnivore.
00:15:15.700 Yes, you and I had barbecue tonight, literally.
00:15:17.800 That's like at a campaign event, we actually ate barbecue.
00:15:19.700 We had jalapeno sausage.
00:15:21.520 It was good stuff.
00:15:23.000 Jalapeno cheddar.
00:15:24.540 And there was some sort of, I don't know, what was the veg?
00:15:26.720 Was that like celery or something?
00:15:28.680 It was jalapeno cheddar or something else.
00:15:30.900 It was in the sausage.
00:15:32.980 Did you not eat the sausage?
00:15:33.800 Oh, was it?
00:15:34.460 Oh, I didn't have the sausage.
00:15:35.920 But I also had the chicken.
00:15:37.100 I had some of the brisket.
00:15:38.120 You know, I was like carnivore all, like everything.
00:15:40.600 I thought you got down to the salad part.
00:15:42.900 You can admit it.
00:15:43.860 Did you look at the salad part?
00:15:45.240 There were some nice greens there for you, sir.
00:15:47.140 Okay, so you went with the girly meats.
00:15:49.120 Like you said, I went to the barbecue restaurant, and I had turkey.
00:15:53.400 It was there, and I ate it.
00:15:55.500 I feel good about it, too.
00:15:56.820 Look, I think you're prepared to volunteer for Tallarico's campaign.
00:15:59.820 I mean, if you're boycotting the sausage, that's not far.
00:16:04.500 No, I ate the sausage.
00:16:05.560 It was good.
00:16:05.980 I just didn't notice the green in there.
00:16:07.460 I look over that stuff.
00:16:08.840 I look for just pure, is that meat?
00:16:10.620 Is that cheese?
00:16:11.280 I'm all in.
00:16:12.320 All right.
00:16:12.780 So, look, it's the self-righteous way in which he lectures that.
00:16:18.860 Yes.
00:16:19.440 And it's saying, you know, all of you are morally inferior to me.
00:16:23.920 And I'm going to give you an example.
00:16:25.760 We're going to play some of these.
00:16:26.760 But I'm going to give you an example of some of the things he said.
00:16:28.920 he has said god is non-binary yeah i want now that's pretty out there he has also said we've
00:16:37.000 got the montage on that you want to play that real quick because i we will it we will in a second
00:16:41.220 but we will in a second but but i want to just walk through some of it he has also said they're
00:16:45.600 not just just two sexes there are actually six biological sexes six what day what day in creation
00:16:53.260 did god do the six sexes i'm just curious was that on like the eighth day in the bible we just
00:16:57.440 add that in there. I just want to know when that happened. And by the way, your former employer,
00:17:01.760 CNN, when they were covering a story about, I couldn't resist that, about Paxton hitting him
00:17:07.140 for saying there's six biological sexes. CNN put a chyron in the bottom of the screen.
00:17:12.320 Paxton falsely claims Tallarico said there's six biological sexes. He's on video. We're going to
00:17:18.620 play it for you. And are you going to believe CNN or your own lying ears? He has said that the Bible 0.91
00:17:26.600 justifies abortion, that he is pro-abortion because of the Bible. 0.96
00:17:31.560 And by the way, he's a pastor, so he's got to be right, right?
00:17:34.300 Because he's a pastor, so therefore he would never lie about what the Bible says.
00:17:37.460 He has said Jesus was a radical feminist. 0.99
00:17:40.820 He has said white men are the greatest domestic terrorist threat in our country. 1.00
00:17:47.620 You're Hispanic, so you don't have to worry about being white. 0.99
00:17:49.740 I'm the one that's the target there. 0.79
00:17:51.660 Well, he has said that illegal immigrants are his, quote, constituents. 0.99
00:17:56.600 He has posted tips to evade ice,
00:18:00.740 and he said we should approach the southern border
00:18:03.520 like our front door and put a welcome mat on it.
00:18:07.120 Yes.
00:18:07.840 When he was a school teacher,
00:18:09.900 he made his sixth graders write Obama memoirs,
00:18:15.020 and he has said fascism will be wrapped in the flag
00:18:21.180 and carrying the cross.
00:18:23.080 Listen to some of the greatest hits from James Tallarico.
00:18:25.880 This is the guy you voted for.
00:18:27.820 Our southern border should be like our front porch.
00:18:30.900 There should be a giant welcome mat out front. 1.00
00:18:33.200 There are many more than two biological sexes. 0.85
00:18:37.520 In fact, there are six.
00:18:38.660 God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. 0.99
00:18:44.800 God is non-binary. 1.00
00:18:47.580 Oh, really? 0.99
00:18:48.520 God is non-binary.
00:18:50.600 And by the way, the six sexes, just for seeing in clarity, as you mentioned, 1.00
00:18:55.400 You're exactly right. 0.99
00:18:56.800 We have the tape.
00:18:57.900 So your headline, you might want to like, you know, fix it, alter it, change it, whatever
00:19:01.880 it is.
00:19:02.300 But these are just some of the highlights of what this guy believes in.
00:19:05.680 And again, they are trying to make him.
00:19:07.840 And I do think it's the most dangerous part, as you mentioned earlier.
00:19:11.140 He's he looks like he's a really nice guy who's a pastor, soft spoken.
00:19:17.720 He's very charismatic.
00:19:19.440 That's what makes him so dangerous until you actually go to his own words and his own
00:19:24.620 post and his own speeches, Senator, that's when you find out what a radical he actually is.
00:19:30.800 Well, yes, but look, at least the guy loves America, loves the American flag. And well,
00:19:36.400 wait, wait, no, let's actually listen to his own words. I want you to listen to what he said about
00:19:41.880 the American flag. This again is his own words. Give a listen. I often think when reclaiming
00:19:47.880 symbols, I think about the American flag. I think the Confederate flag is a symbol of treason and
00:19:52.460 terrorism but the american flag is such a complicated symbol for most of us and in many
00:19:57.100 ways like jesus like the cross it's been co-opted and and um and and uh and in some ways that's true
00:20:05.160 meaning has been betrayed by the way he said that senator in a church that the american flag is a
00:20:11.200 complicated symbol for most of us it the american flag has never been complicated for me i don't
00:20:18.700 know, maybe you look at it differently. Well, and he says the American flag is a complicated symbol
00:20:24.080 like Jesus and like the cross. Those are the three examples he gives of complicated symbols.
00:20:31.280 I don't think any of the three are complicated. And the idea that you're running to be a U.S.
00:20:37.940 senator and you look at the American flag and think it's a complicated symbol.
00:20:41.560 you know yes if you are a leftist yes if you are a marxist yes if you are someone who has
00:20:50.640 has bought into cultural marxism and believes america is irredeemably racist believes that
00:20:56.400 we are a nation of oppressors oppressing victims and that his goal is to overthrow the oppressors
00:21:03.560 And that is, listen, Graham Plattner in Maine is more explicit about his left wing.
00:21:11.580 The guy with the Nazi tattoo, the SS tattoo, right?
00:21:12.980 Just to remind people who we're talking about right now.
00:21:14.800 This is a guy that actually mocked and made fun of an American soldier being shot,
00:21:21.100 saying he should have died, and then refused, doubled down on it.
00:21:24.700 And the same guy that has an SS tattoo. 0.96
00:21:28.480 Yes, and look, and who is also an open racist. 0.96
00:21:32.700 I mean, he has mocked African-Americans. He wears a Nazi tattoo and is demeaning to Jews. He's demeaning to women. He says women rape victims are asking for it. 0.96
00:21:45.520 Plattner is at least out in the open about who he is. But Tallarico, let's take the racism of the Democrat Party and listen.
00:21:54.860 Here's something Tallarico said in another church about his own race, about being white. Give a listen.
00:22:00.820 for me prophetic voices like jesus have helped me reckon with my own whiteness
00:22:06.320 my own masculinity my own certainty my own ego it's a never-ending process and it's a painful
00:22:13.980 process i gotta give him self-awareness credit there senator like when he says it's helped him
00:22:19.360 deal with his masculinity i think he's nipped that problem in the bud going vegan and talking
00:22:24.620 the way he does like by the lord heard those prayers i mean if he was working on the masculinity
00:22:29.600 issue. He has nailed it. There's no doubt about that. If you listen to what he's saying, and he's
00:22:34.680 in a church, behind him, if you're watching the video, he has a giant cross behind him, what he
00:22:40.100 calls that, what is it, complicated image of the cross, like the American flag, and like Jesus.
00:22:46.360 And he said the prophetic voices like Jesus helped him deal, let's take the racist aspect,
00:22:52.720 his own whiteness, which is a hard thing to reckon with.
00:22:57.800 You know, look, I'm sorry.
00:22:59.000 In my book, being white is not something to be ashamed of,
00:23:04.360 is not a symbol that you are a bad human being. 0.99
00:23:07.800 But in the leftist world, white equals evil. 0.96
00:23:11.500 This is the Marxist dichotomy. 0.98
00:23:13.400 It's why I'm saying he's a wolf in sheep's clothing. 0.87
00:23:16.740 What he's saying there, everyone white is an oppressor. 1.00
00:23:20.300 You're all evil. 1.00
00:23:21.120 You're all illegitimate. 1.00
00:23:22.120 That is the same thing. Everyone who is black, you're all oppressed and you should overthrow 1.00
00:23:28.340 your evil oppressors. That is the same garbage that says America is a racist history from day 1.00
00:23:33.280 one. That is who we are is irredeemably racist. It is a lie. Now play the second clip of him 1.00
00:23:39.500 talking about his masculinity. No need to sit and cry over, you know, your whiteness or your
00:23:46.380 masculinity. Right. Use it. Use it to do something. Yeah. Let's be productive. Wait,
00:23:51.460 Which one is it now?
00:23:52.500 I'm a little confused.
00:23:53.820 Are we masculine on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, but Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday?
00:23:58.720 We just like turn that completely off.
00:24:01.320 Which one is it?
00:24:02.200 I just want to know.
00:24:03.360 And this is where you really ought to be watching this in video because, look, Tallarico is a little dude.
00:24:09.620 Yeah, he is.
00:24:10.540 You know, he may be the least likely person on planet Earth to be complaining about his overwhelming masculinity.
00:24:19.340 Look, Ben, you're a big dude.
00:24:21.180 I'm pretty sure you could hip check this guy into the next zip code.
00:24:26.300 He also, in another clip that I don't have,
00:24:28.380 explained that he never played sports at all growing up. 0.99
00:24:30.780 I believe that. 1.00
00:24:32.140 I believe that, yes.
00:24:33.460 Yes, I believe that as well.
00:24:35.160 I will say if you were listening to him speak
00:24:38.360 and you were assembling 1,000 adjectives to describe him,
00:24:45.960 masculine would not be one of them.
00:24:48.140 Would not be on that list.
00:24:49.220 I'm just saying, I don't think anyone would, and yet he described that he was crying over his masculinity, that he was too masculine, it made him cry, by the way.
00:25:01.360 It just wasn't fair to everybody else, Senator, it wasn't fair.
00:25:03.700 If you're crying over your masculinity, it may not be your masculinity you're crying over.
00:25:08.560 Like, I'm just saying that there's almost something definitionally false.
00:25:12.480 but this guy is extreme which means the democrats love him as before if you want to hear the rest
00:25:21.240 of this conversation on this topic you can go back and download the podcast from early this
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00:25:56.940 to your podcasts turn someday into right now with buddy by jake radio non-stop workout music and
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00:26:19.920 body by jake radio where hope meets momentum search body by jake radio and stream it for free
00:26:26.000 have a great day i heart radio i want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may
00:26:34.320 have missed you mentioned something i want to i want to clarify you said that you get two transfers
00:26:38.700 This is the first time in my life I've ever wanted to be a witness in anything in government and the Senate or the House.
00:26:44.220 As a witness, I would ask this question to the body, so I'll ask it to you.
00:26:48.940 If I go to a school freshman year and the coach recruits me, he quits, disappears, leaves, whatever, I get to transfer.
00:26:56.800 What if I go to another school and then that coach takes another job?
00:27:00.160 Do I get another transfer?
00:27:01.580 Yes.
00:27:02.080 Anytime your coach quits, it's not fair to you to punish you.
00:27:05.140 If you were recruited for a coach and the coach leaves.
00:27:06.820 It's not just a minimum of one.
00:27:07.680 It's unlimited there.
00:27:08.480 Right, right. In that exception, because that's a legitimate reason to leave. And that's not going to happen as a widespread matter. That's not going to lead to, you know, every starting basketball player being recruited away at the end of every season from a team, which is what we're seeing sometimes now.
00:27:23.940 Yeah. Oh, no. I mean, I laugh. There's football teams now where there was like zero members from the prior year on the football team. And that's a football team, which is huge.
00:27:32.060 Yeah.
00:27:32.260 So who is against this legislation and where's the pushback coming from?
00:27:37.300 Well, I have to say, so we introduced it this week, and there's been surprisingly little pushback.
00:27:42.480 It has been very well received.
00:27:43.960 As I said, people were astonished that we could get there.
00:27:46.780 Things are so broken down and partisan that they just believe there was no way Democrats and Republicans could come together.
00:27:53.040 And I got to say, pretty liberal guy like you and him.
00:27:55.880 Don't y'all are not usually one on one like this.
00:27:58.220 Well, actually, Chris and I work on a number of things together.
00:28:01.140 Maria Cantwell is my lead partner on this.
00:28:03.140 She's the ranking member on commerce.
00:28:04.500 and we literally have been negotiating for the last month we've been spending six to eight hours
00:28:09.940 a day in a room negotiating directly provision by provision it has been painstaking but but
00:28:16.220 and we had to reach middle grounds where there are provisions in there that don't go as far as
00:28:21.180 I would like but don't go as far as she would like and and that's how you have to get there
00:28:24.680 but but our opposition is coming from two two places number one the extreme far left and number
00:28:31.060 too big money. And let me break that down. The extreme far left to date, only one senator out of
00:28:36.840 100 has publicly criticized that. That's Chris Murphy, the very liberal senator from Connecticut,
00:28:42.200 who's blasted this, says this doesn't do enough for athletes and it just helps millionaires.
00:28:47.200 And it's, look, the far left is listening to union bosses and trial lawyers that want a system
00:28:56.580 where, number one, there are constant lawsuits.
00:28:59.620 Every university is being sued nonstop.
00:29:01.520 Every conference is being sued nonstop.
00:29:03.460 Every league is being sued nonstop.
00:29:05.620 And number two, every student athlete is an employee.
00:29:10.360 They're unionized.
00:29:11.240 They're union members.
00:29:12.060 They're paying union dues.
00:29:13.180 Those union dues are going to fund Democrat candidates.
00:29:16.820 Both of those are terrible outcomes for college sports.
00:29:20.020 And a whole lot of the programs,
00:29:22.000 the historically black colleges and universities,
00:29:23.860 have said if that happens,
00:29:24.840 they'll shut down their entire athletic department. I mean, that's the consequence.
00:29:29.060 That would end up taking away athletic opportunity for over time, millions of kids. So that's a
00:29:35.860 terrible outcome. But that's one area of pushback is the very far left. The other area of pushback
00:29:41.520 is big money. And, you know, I mentioned that we're on a path to consolidation in 30 to 50
00:29:46.880 schools. In college football, there are two conferences that account for more than two
00:29:52.020 thirds of the revenue, and that is the SEC and the Big Ten. That's where the eyeballs are. They
00:29:57.460 generate massive revenue because, look, that's where most of the best football in America is
00:30:02.140 being played is the SEC and Big Ten. Not exclusively, but very heavily those two conferences.
00:30:07.540 There has been a lot of talk in those two conferences about merging and forming a Super
00:30:13.900 League. Now, I think that would be a terrible outcome. You'd end up with the rich getting
00:30:17.980 richer but all of the rest of college sports would be left behind it would basically transform the
00:30:23.520 other schools into into essentially i would describe as division two you wouldn't be able
00:30:28.660 to compete at the same level you wouldn't have the same quality players anybody that cared about
00:30:33.260 football and wanted to play at the highest level and play for national championship would go to
00:30:36.520 the super conference right like right now you want to go to the sec and if you're from the north
00:30:40.400 northeast you may want to go in in other schools but in general that's the holy grail you do what
00:30:45.440 you just described and have them two come together. Every other school in America is a loser now. 0.75
00:30:49.800 And by the way, it's even worse than that because they lose essentially all of their TV revenue,
00:30:54.520 which funds the rest of their athletic department. So the other schools cancel all the non-revenue
00:30:58.660 sorts. They slash athletics altogether. They eliminate scholarships. So you end up with
00:31:03.980 millions of kids over time not being able to go to school to play sports. And it's not just
00:31:11.220 those kids, because an awful lot of eyeballs, people learn about a school by watching March
00:31:16.760 Madness, by watching sports, and they end up applying to the school. And, you know, a Gonzaga,
00:31:22.480 you know, I mean, and they end up, it drives, when your school does well in athletics,
00:31:27.900 your applications soar, your donations from alumni soar, and so you end up badly damaging
00:31:33.500 a bunch of schools, not just in sports, but altogether, and hurting universities. So what
00:31:38.740 does this bill do? Number one, it explicitly prohibits a Super League. It prohibits the Big
00:31:44.020 Ten and the SEC from combining. It just says, no, that's bad for sports. It's bad for athletes.
00:31:49.000 It's bad for football. That is prohibited. Now, you know what? The leadership of the SEC in
00:31:54.880 particular is not happy about prohibiting a Super League. But secondly, so the way I looked
00:32:00.620 at this problem, there are two elements. There's a cost element and a revenue element. On the cost
00:32:05.380 side, you want to slow down the out-of-control spiraling that is bankrupting most of the programs
00:32:10.420 so that the programs can stay vibrant and kids can keep having these opportunities. But on the
00:32:15.080 revenue side, we looked hard for how do we grow the revenue that is available to fund college
00:32:20.560 sports. And what we do is we allow colleges to join together and negotiate for media rights
00:32:26.940 jointly. That, I believe, will significantly increase the revenue. So, for example,
00:32:32.800 The number one source of eyeballs and revenue in TV is the NFL.
00:32:37.340 It's massive.
00:32:38.100 The number two is college football.
00:32:40.200 And yet, amazingly, even though a lot more people watch college football than the NBA,
00:32:45.380 the NBA makes billions more in its media contracts.
00:32:48.920 And there's a reason.
00:32:50.360 The NBA negotiates as one unit.
00:32:52.500 You don't have the Houston Rockets negotiating against the Knicks and fighting each other.
00:32:56.840 And yet, in college conferences, that's what you have.
00:32:59.280 So this allows conferences to come together.
00:33:01.660 it's voluntary, so no one's forced to come together. Yeah, no one's forced to. But it lets
00:33:05.660 them come together and negotiate jointly for media rights. I believe that would expand by
00:33:11.500 billions of dollars, the money coming in, which means that there's more money for the other
00:33:16.640 sports. And we write in that if you do this, if you get joint media rights, you must maintain
00:33:22.420 every single roster spot and every single scholarship spot for women's and men's sports,
00:33:27.700 for Olympic sports, for track and field, for tennis, for all the non-revenue sports,
00:33:32.660 you've got to maintain them if you're getting a lot more money through football.
00:33:36.100 And so it's designed to be a win-win for everyone.
00:33:39.560 But look, the leadership of the SEC has said that they're not interested.
00:33:44.680 And look, Greg Sankey, I know well.
00:33:46.340 Tony Petitti, who leads the Big Ten, I know him well.
00:33:49.420 I've talked to both of them, and I've said, listen, this is voluntary.
00:33:52.400 It only works if you guys choose to participate.
00:33:55.040 That means the other schools have to offer you a good enough deal that y'all are making a lot more money and so are they.
00:34:01.420 That is a win-win for everyone.
00:34:03.620 That's the outcome I hope we see because I want to see college sports continue to be an amazing thing for athletes, for students,
00:34:11.820 continue to be an amazing thing for universities, and a great thing for fans.
00:34:15.800 Look, it is an awesome thing to cheer on your school.
00:34:18.840 And you asked about the Lane Kiffin rule.
00:34:20.740 It provides that coaches cannot be hired away during the season or during the playoffs.
00:34:26.360 We adopt the same rule as the NFL, which is you've got to wait until the offseason,
00:34:30.920 because it's not fair to do what happened to the fans of Ole Miss,
00:34:34.020 to take their coach right going into the playoffs.
00:34:36.700 That's just wrong.
00:34:37.480 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:34:42.540 Don't forget to download my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast every other day
00:34:46.140 you're not listening to Verdict, or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.
00:34:49.640 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.
00:34:53.320 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.
00:34:56.100 Turn someday into right now with Body by Jake Radio.
00:34:59.920 Nonstop workout music and expert tips 24-7.
00:35:02.680 Hey, head over to iHeart.com.
00:35:04.640 Search Body by Jake Radio and stream it for free right now.
00:35:08.180 Awesome health and wellness tips 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
00:35:11.620 Remember, stick to the fight.
00:35:12.900 When your heart is hit, it's when things seem worse that you must not quit.
00:35:16.280 Don't quit.
00:35:16.740 Body by Jake Radio, where hope meets momentum.
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00:35:23.000 Have a great day.
00:35:23.800 I heart radio.