Verdict with Ted Cruz - ELECTION NIGHT 2022 RECAP!

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.540 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.400 Senator, it is right now 1130 at night.

00:00:10.180 For everyone that's listening this morning, we have been doing a live verdict before this.

00:00:16.520 I want to do a recap.

00:00:18.060 I think it's pretty clear now that if we were going to be waiting up for a official result

00:00:22.340 in a lot of these races, we would not get any sleep at all.

00:00:25.520 Let's kind of recap where we are at this moment.

00:00:28.620 I think you would agree with me that the highlight of the night is we're taking back the House.

00:00:34.820 The concerning moment of the night is the Senate is still very much, it's even at this point.

00:00:42.000 And that concerns all of us.

00:00:44.240 This was a map that was designed in this midterm for Democrats.

00:00:49.340 They had the advantage.

00:00:50.920 There's a lot of tribalism in this country we can see now.

00:00:54.640 Shocking that Fetterman is still in this one.

00:00:56.780 It's shocking what we're seeing in Arizona right now.

00:00:59.660 But let's focus on the one exciting point.

00:01:02.040 In the House races, we are going to have a substantial red wave in the House. 0.97

00:01:07.260 That means Nancy Pelosi is going to retire and we won't have to deal with her anymore. 0.97

00:01:12.780 But we're also going to have subpoena power in the House to get some stuff done that needs to be looked at.

00:01:16.700 Well, I think that's right.

00:01:18.760 I think it is a good election tonight, but I also think it could have been much better.

00:01:23.240 So it is a red wave, but it's not as big a wave as it should have been.

00:01:28.620 Frankly, given the disaster from the Democrats, this should have been a massive red wave.

00:01:34.980 And we're going to take the House, but at this point it's not clear how big a majority.

00:01:41.180 I had hoped it would be a 40, 50 vote majority.

00:01:45.380 I think it will be substantially smaller than that.

00:01:47.860 We are losing a number of close House races that were winnable that we didn't win.

00:01:55.120 The Republicans at this moment have 175 seats.

00:01:59.020 Democrats are 138 in the House.

00:02:01.360 There's 121 at 1131 at night central time that are still up there.

00:02:07.120 And again, we're going to win back the House.

00:02:09.600 That's going to be great.

00:02:10.660 Senator, I want to get into some predictions in just a moment.

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00:04:00.260 You look at the Senate right now, and this is the part that is very concerning.

00:04:05.000 It's 47-47 as we speak.

00:04:07.560 We're headed for probably a runoff in Georgia.

00:04:10.600 For people that don't understand this, if you don't get above 50 percent.

00:04:14.240 Right now in Pennsylvania, Fetterman has a 40,000 vote lead with 82 percent in.

00:04:20.960 And that's concerning.

00:04:22.240 That is very concerning.

00:04:23.600 What does that tell you about the mistake that was made with, and I say mistake because

00:04:28.380 I think Oz was the easier candidate to beat, in my opinion, in the general?

00:04:32.840 Look, I went all in for Dave McCormick in the primary.

00:04:36.240 I leaned in vigorously.

00:04:37.720 Part of the reason I went all in is I thought he was the strongest conservative who could win.

00:04:41.320 I think if McCormick had been the nominee, he would have won decisively.

00:04:46.700 I hope Oz wins as we're sitting here late at night.

00:04:50.180 I supported Oz once he was the nominee.

00:04:52.280 I wanted him to win.

00:04:53.500 I think Fetterman is a spectacularly bad candidate.

00:04:57.300 He's radical.

00:04:58.080 He's extreme.

00:04:59.040 He's on the bleeding left.

00:05:00.840 He's going to join, if he becomes the senator, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the cuckoo

00:05:07.080 caucus of the Democrat Party.

00:05:09.960 That is not good.

00:05:12.480 That's not, I think, where a lot of Pennsylvanians are.

00:05:16.860 But there were...

00:05:19.400 What is the takeaway?

00:05:20.480 A guy that has clearly cognitive issues, has had this stroke, I hate that for him sincerely,

00:05:28.360 but can't even get through debates, says goodnight at the beginning of the debate, cannot understand

00:05:32.880 questions, basic questions.

00:05:34.340 This is a guy you wouldn't want to be the pilot of your plane or your Uber driver.

00:05:38.080 You probably wouldn't hire him for a lot of jobs right now.

00:05:40.340 It's because of the medical issues.

00:05:43.180 And yet he's leading, as we speak at 1133 at night, in a race that is so important that

00:05:49.560 could really deal with who's in charge of the Senate.

00:05:52.360 Look, the 2,386,595 people who, as of now, have voted for Fetterman, they only care about

00:06:01.720 one vote he casts.

00:06:02.540 And that's for Chuck Schumer.

00:06:05.060 They don't care that he can spell his name.

00:06:08.000 They don't care that he knows what's going on.

00:06:10.500 They want him to vote for Chuck Schumer because we are so deeply divided and tribalized.

00:06:19.220 That's their team.

00:06:21.000 For the same reason that there were no Philadelphia residents rooting for the Houston Astros.

00:06:27.180 Why?

00:06:27.580 Because their team is the Phillies.

00:06:28.740 Of course, like, you know, it's not complicated.

00:06:31.460 If you're a Philly guy, you root for the Phillies.

00:06:37.020 Across the country, and this is true on both sides, this is true red and blue, where people

00:06:44.440 right now put on their jersey and they're not focused on, if you could pull those Democrat

00:06:52.660 voters, I'd love to see a room with 10 of those Democrat voters and be like,

00:06:56.300 okay, do you agree with Fetterman voting over and over and over again to release murderers?

00:07:02.280 Do you agree with that?

00:07:03.240 Yeah.

00:07:03.560 Do you agree with Fetterman saying we should release one third of the criminals in prison

00:07:09.880 in Pennsylvania?

00:07:10.640 Do you agree with that?

00:07:12.160 Like, his positions have been radical.

00:07:14.740 And yet, at least in this election, and we've been moving more and more in that path, radical

00:07:26.100 or not, and by the way, I think many, if not most, of those Democrats who voted for him

00:07:31.380 don't actually agree with those views.

00:07:32.840 But, they don't really know about them.

00:07:36.780 The corporate media doesn't cover them.

00:07:39.360 And their view is just, I'm on Team Democrat.

00:07:42.540 Yeah.

00:07:42.940 So, I vote Democrat, and that's where we are.

00:07:46.840 However, if you're going to win, you've got to make the election about issues and not personalities.

00:07:55.240 And by the way, this is a broader point.

00:07:58.060 I think too many of these Republican races became personality battles.

00:08:02.440 I, when you have first-time candidates who've never run, who are celebrities, or, you know,

00:08:19.620 coming from outside, they have no record, they have no voting record, they've not been involved

00:08:25.160 in issues, they've not, they've never taken a stand on anything.

00:08:28.700 They frequently make major mistakes.

00:08:33.840 And, you know, experience matters.

00:08:36.680 Yeah.

00:08:36.780 Like, actually knowing what you're doing matters.

00:08:38.840 Matters.

00:08:39.660 Listen, you were a serious competitive tennis player.

00:08:42.020 You played at Ole Miss.

00:08:43.660 You know, if I wandered out on the tennis court for a competitive Division I game, I'd get crushed.

00:08:52.980 And it doesn't matter that on my iPhone I have a tennis game that if I flick my finger,

00:08:57.860 I can, I have a wicked backhand on my iPhone.

00:09:01.340 But it actually, experience does matter.

00:09:03.900 And practice does matter.

00:09:05.480 And spending, you know, when you were seven years old, you were going to tennis camp and

00:09:09.260 practicing and, you know, hitting a backhand over and over and over and over again so that

00:09:13.280 it became routine.

00:09:14.200 I mean, if you look at some of these races with first-time candidates, what they became

00:09:24.540 was personality battles.

00:09:28.080 The single best political advice I've ever gotten came from Heidi.

00:09:34.300 And it came years ago, right when I was getting started.

00:09:37.080 And she said, remember, it's not about you.

00:09:40.020 It's about them.

00:09:41.880 It's about their lives.

00:09:43.060 It's about their kids.

00:09:43.960 It's about their family.

00:09:44.840 It's about their future.

00:09:45.640 You can tell a bad candidate if they stand up there and say over and over again the word

00:09:54.620 I, I, I, I.

00:09:57.280 You know, I remember back in 2008, the Iowa caucuses, Hillary Clinton was supposed to have 0.97

00:10:02.940 a coronation.

00:10:04.960 And this unknown senator from Illinois stuns the world by beating her.

00:10:10.700 And I'm watching the TV speeches that night and Hillary Clinton gets up and her concession

00:10:17.700 speech, such as it was, every third word was I, I, I.

00:10:25.040 And over her right shoulder, Bill Clinton was standing, the best natural politician of his

00:10:29.860 generation.

00:10:31.140 And you could see Bill Clinton physically wince.

00:10:34.720 It was like he was being punched.

00:10:36.560 I remember, I remember watching it.

00:10:38.280 It was the difference between Hillary and Bill Clinton was just night and day. 1.00

00:10:40.900 It's like, how did he not coach her more?

00:10:42.960 He was in agony.

00:10:44.340 I mean, it was, he was in actual pain.

00:10:47.400 Every time she said I, you could see the pain in his eyes.

00:10:52.280 You cut to Barack Obama and his speech that night.

00:10:55.140 Every third word was we, we, we.

00:10:59.660 And watching that, my reaction is that guy's going to win.

00:11:02.040 And I will say in, in too many of these races, it became about the personality and not about 1.00

00:11:11.620 the issues that impact the kitchen table, the kids, the family, the safety, the security

00:11:18.100 that impact the people.

00:11:20.620 That's what we need to make races about. 0.99

00:11:22.780 There's some good news tonight.

00:11:23.880 One of your dear friends, one of your closest friends in the Senate, we were concerned about

00:11:27.320 this race, talked about it on this show.

00:11:29.920 You went out there for Mike Lee.

00:11:31.620 That race has now been called for Mike Lee.

00:11:34.120 You got to be happy about that personally.

00:11:36.940 Look, I'm very happy.

00:11:38.140 If Mike Lee had lost tonight, it would have been cataclysmic.

00:11:42.000 I literally would have been in tears if Mike Lee had lost.

00:11:45.760 He is by far my closest friend in the Senate.

00:11:47.940 He is a smart, principled conservative.

00:11:50.440 He's also the single most frequent guest on Verdict.

00:11:53.580 I think Mike has been three times on Verdict.

00:11:55.740 There's no other person that has been that many times on Verdict.

00:12:00.520 His race was close.

00:12:03.200 Public polling had it three points.

00:12:05.040 At one point, it had him down.

00:12:07.140 He ended up winning by, as of tonight, 12 points.

00:12:10.620 He ended up winning pretty decisively.

00:12:13.140 And I think what happened was Republicans came home.

00:12:17.600 That even the sort of – so the reason he was in danger is all the Ds were voting for

00:12:24.480 McMullen and the sort of wobbly R's who want to be nice and aren't sure and think Mike is really conservative. 1.00

00:12:32.200 They were flirting with McMullen and I think the tribalism prevailed and they said, okay, I'm not voting for the guy the Democrats support.

00:12:42.680 I'm coming home.

00:12:43.480 I'm glad of it there.

00:12:47.900 I'm not glad of it in the New York gubernatorial race.

00:12:50.720 I wish Lee Zelda had won.

00:12:52.680 He ran an amazing campaign, by the way, with not near the resources that the Democrats had.

00:12:57.840 You and I talked about this on the live portion earlier.

00:13:00.160 And I think it's important to recap.

00:13:02.940 If there's any big takeaway from these midterm elections is that Democrats are doing a hell of a lot better job of fundraising and funding their candidates.

00:13:13.460 Republicans are holding back great candidates by not raising as much money as we need to to be competitive and win some of these races.

00:13:22.280 And that may be one of the biggest takeaways from these midterms is it is time for Republicans to go out there and to get in this game and write more checks and to give more money to candidates.

00:13:33.520 Because Democrats are doing an amazing job of that.

00:13:36.000 Republicans are are are letting too many candidates kind of hang out to dry for too long before at the last minute they go.

00:13:41.780 All right, let's give a little extra cash here.

00:13:43.660 Well, the damage is already done.

00:13:44.860 Democrats are far better at fundraising nationwide than we are.

00:13:48.340 We should learn from this now getting ready for the presidential in the big election, 2024.

00:13:53.720 Look, we also need Republicans to step up and answer the call.

00:13:59.720 And we need serious candidates with experience.

00:14:08.340 You look at the best candidates this cycle.

00:14:11.480 Adam Laxalt in Nevada, who I backed early.

00:14:14.780 Adam was the attorney general in Nevada.

00:14:19.760 He ran for governor, did not win governor, but he's smart, experienced, talented.

00:14:25.080 He has a record.

00:14:26.160 He ran a disciplined campaign sitting here tonight.

00:14:28.440 We don't know if he'll win or lose, but he was the best candidate to win in Nevada.

00:14:31.980 If Adam doesn't win in Nevada, nobody could have won.

00:14:34.440 And he was by far the best candidate to win in Nevada.

00:14:37.160 Another one of the really good candidates this cycle was Eric Schmidt in Missouri.

00:14:42.220 Same thing, he was the attorney general in Missouri, smart, disciplined, had been on the ballot, had a very conservative record, knew the pitfalls, knew the questions, knew the ways you can step on a landmine and blow up.

00:14:56.760 If we end up, if the Democrats keep control of the Senate, which is entirely possible as we sit here tonight, I don't think it'll happen, but it's possible.

00:15:07.760 You know, one person who could have altered that single-handedly is Chris Sununu, the governor of New Hampshire.

00:15:13.420 Yeah.

00:15:13.820 Chris Sununu, a very popular governor.

00:15:15.580 If he had run for Senate, he would have won.

00:15:17.160 And he made the decision, I like being governor.

00:15:20.380 It's a better job.

00:15:22.020 You know my reaction?

00:15:24.340 So what?

00:15:25.720 It's a better job?

00:15:26.860 That's good for you?

00:15:27.700 How about for the country? 0.87

00:15:28.600 How about for the 300 million people that are getting screwed by these left-wing socialists? 0.78

00:15:34.360 Look, Arizona. 0.95

00:15:35.400 Right now, I hope we pull out Arizona.

00:15:37.720 Yeah, let's talk about Arizona, because Arizona is one that you and I talked about a lot.

00:15:41.700 You've been out there.

00:15:43.000 This was a race that was obviously personality-driven, to go back to that theme for a moment.

00:15:48.580 And what we're seeing in Arizona is not what we wanted to see, at least at this point tonight, as we are recording this at 1143 in the evening.

00:15:56.640 And I will say, if you followed traditional standards for how you win Arizona, the obvious candidate to run was Doug Ducey, the incumbent Republican governor, relatively popular in the state.

00:16:15.220 If you're talking about who could beat an incumbent Democrat with a ton of money, Ducey was the obvious choice.

00:16:21.460 So why did Ducey not run?

00:16:23.720 Ducey didn't run because Donald Trump hates him.

00:16:26.640 And if Ducey had run, Trump would have carpet-bombed him into oblivion.

00:16:30.380 They would have had a civil war, and we would have lost.

00:16:32.940 So as a result, Ducey didn't win.

00:16:35.580 If we end up losing Arizona, I think we ought to look back and say, well, was there a candidate who could have won, and why didn't they run, and is that good?

00:16:47.580 You look at Colorado.

00:16:48.740 I think Colorado was a winnable state, although given the tribalism that played out, it may have been less winnable than possible.

00:16:54.560 Then initially it was perceived.

00:16:58.640 I think Bennett was a very weak incumbent.

00:17:00.420 I think he was vulnerable.

00:17:01.880 But you look at the Republican candidate, Joe O'Day.

00:17:05.160 He's a business guy.

00:17:06.580 Never run for office.

00:17:07.620 Didn't know anything about politics.

00:17:09.500 Nice guy.

00:17:10.320 Met him.

00:17:10.700 I liked him.

00:17:11.160 I supported him.

00:17:11.880 What killed him?

00:17:15.020 One, he was massively outspent.

00:17:17.240 But secondly, he went on one of the Sunday shows, and they asked him, hey, what do you think about Trump running in 24?

00:17:25.360 And he said, well, I would actively oppose that.

00:17:28.000 I think that's a bad idea, and I would campaign against him, and he listed several other people that he would support.

00:17:32.120 Now, in a normal universe where you had someone trying to run in Colorado, trying to appeal to moderate or independent or liberals in the Denver suburbs, that's not an insane answer for someone to say in a state like that.

00:17:51.220 But the reaction of Trump should have been obvious.

00:17:56.620 At this point, Trump's reactions are entirely predictable and consistent.

00:18:01.840 Yes.

00:18:02.560 He does not waver in his response.

00:18:04.440 The next day, Trump turned around and punched him in the face and told people, don't vote for the guy.

00:18:09.840 And the race was lost at that point.

00:18:12.160 Now, look, I wish O'Day, when asked that question, that's not a hard question for O'Day to dodge.

00:18:20.000 To simply say, you know, I'm focused on 22, and the voters can worry about that in the future.

00:18:27.660 But it is an example where the fact that you had a candidate who'd never run, who didn't understand, how are they going to try to get me to step on a landmine?

00:18:37.320 The reason that's a landmine in Colorado is whatever answer he gave pissed off a big chunk of voters he needed.

00:18:44.720 He needed all the Trump hardcore supporters to be with him to have a prayer.

00:18:47.800 But he also needed to not alienate the rest of the voters.

00:18:52.380 And so that combination, I think, was unfortunate.

00:18:57.760 You look at one of the other things.

00:18:59.800 There you go. Sununu won by 14 points as governor, while at the same time we lose the Senate race.

00:19:08.380 That's shocking.

00:19:09.060 If the Democrats keep the Senate by one seat, Chris Sununu single-handedly could have changed that.

00:19:14.540 Which, it's amazing it's going to come down to that.

00:19:16.700 You look at Georgia now, we're seeing a little bit of a lead for Warnock.

00:19:20.520 I don't think either person at this point in the night, it looks pretty clear they're not going to get to the 50 plus one that you're going to need to when that's going to go back to runoff.

00:19:28.960 This could also be for the control of the Senate. 0.54

00:19:31.060 It could all come down to Georgia, which is not a place we want to necessarily go back to.

00:19:38.380 Look, right now it looks like we're headed to a runoff in Georgia.

00:19:42.940 Oh, this is good.

00:19:43.800 Wisconsin right now, it looks like Ron Johnson has a three-point lead with 88% in, a 74,000-vote lead.

00:19:52.320 That's positive.

00:19:53.180 I think Ron will hold on.

00:19:56.480 That's another seat we need him to hold on.

00:19:58.920 I think he will.

00:20:01.720 Fetterman is up 62,000 votes with 83% in.

00:20:06.460 And so, how we deal with that.

00:20:10.480 All right, Warnock.

00:20:12.580 Warnock is up right now.

00:20:14.520 Yeah.

00:20:14.900 Almost 30,000 votes with 95% in, but they're both below 50% right now, so it looks like we're headed to a runoff.

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00:20:53.580 When you look at this, the media is obviously going to go really, really crazy and analyzing how much the Donald Trump endorsement helped or hurt.

00:21:05.000 What is the takeaway from this, from that?

00:21:08.440 Because they're going to spend weeks on this, saying, was he an asset or did he take away?

00:21:14.620 You look at, he went all in in that race in Michigan for Tudor Dixon.

00:21:17.980 She lost there.

00:21:19.100 That was called pretty early in the night.

00:21:20.540 No, he didn't.

00:21:21.280 He didn't put money behind it.

00:21:22.640 Well, that's true.

00:21:23.300 Look, going all in when you have $100 million in the bank, go spend money.

00:21:27.700 Tudor Dixon had no money.

00:21:28.860 Yeah.

00:21:29.060 And, I mean, it was a massive differential in spending.

00:21:36.500 Look, going all in is not sending out a tweet.

00:21:40.640 Look, did it help or hurt?

00:21:42.020 Both.

00:21:42.540 It helped enormously.

00:21:44.100 J.D. Vance would not be a senator without Donald Trump.

00:21:47.040 Period.

00:21:47.560 Full stop.

00:21:48.900 J.D. Vance was losing that primary.

00:21:50.780 Trump came in, endorsed him, and it catapulted Vance to the lead.

00:21:54.760 Now, it's clear that Trump's endorsement has a much bigger impact in a Republican primary than in a general election.

00:22:02.220 That much is clear.

00:22:04.520 With Vance, it turned out, and he's one of the exceptions.

00:22:08.960 He'd never run before.

00:22:10.660 He was a first-time candidate, and yet he proved more disciplined than some of the other first-time candidates.

00:22:17.220 And I will say, you and I have talked at length about the nationwide, month-long, 17-state bus tour I did.

00:22:24.160 I spent an entire day with J.D. Vance.

00:22:26.340 I'd met J.D. before, but I didn't really know him.

00:22:30.260 And he really impressed me.

00:22:32.640 For one thing, when I came to Ohio, we gave him a day and said, use it.

00:22:37.220 And we told that to other candidates.

00:22:38.820 Yeah.

00:22:39.700 His campaign did a better job of using my time.

00:22:44.200 So they had three rallies all over the state in different parts of the state.

00:22:47.680 They had a big fundraiser where they raised a bunch of money that they had me come to.

00:22:51.300 On the bus in between each of the different stops, they had me on the phone nonstop to talk radio host all over the state.

00:22:58.300 So they systematically, one call after the other.

00:23:00.220 Now, you're particularly sympathetic to being on the phone with talk radio hosts.

00:23:03.900 Absolutely.

00:23:04.240 But it was impressive.

00:23:08.520 The first rally we did was at 9 or 9.30 in the morning.

00:23:12.140 They had a packed house.

00:23:13.020 They had hundreds of people come out early in the morning or relatively early.

00:23:16.800 Yeah.

00:23:17.260 That's unusual.

00:23:18.620 There are a lot of campaigns that can't do that.

00:23:21.760 And so Trump won the primary for him, hands down.

00:23:25.960 But I will say Vance ran a disciplined, effective campaign and won the general.

00:23:31.740 And one of the lessons I think we need to take is to win, to win in 22 and to win in 24.

00:23:42.480 We've got to be united.

00:23:43.860 We've got to have there are disparate parts of the Republican Party where if we're at war, the Democrats win.

00:23:54.620 Now, that doesn't mean that within the party we shouldn't press the party.

00:23:58.060 Look, I have famously battled Republican leadership for years, and I fully expect going forward to continue doing so.

00:24:05.340 We should have vigorous fights about what we should stand for and what we should do.

00:24:10.460 And I'm going to press harder than anyone for.

00:24:13.620 We're the Republican majorities to act like it and deliver on our promises.

00:24:19.880 By the way, we just saw Wisconsin narrow.

00:24:22.120 It's now a 30,000 vote margin.

00:24:24.420 That's less than ideal.

00:24:26.760 And Fetterman's up 62,000 votes.

00:24:29.060 Which is just shocking to me in Pennsylvania that Fetterman, a guy that had the worst debate, I think, in history, modern political times, is actually winning by 62,000 votes as we do this at 1152 Central Time at night over Dr. Oz there.

00:24:46.200 And I will say, by the way, in Pennsylvania, the Democrats have gone out of their way to say, remember, the votes won't be done on election night.

00:24:52.840 We're going to be counting for days to come.

00:24:55.460 So who the heck knows what kind of cluster is going to unfold in Pennsylvania.

00:25:03.620 But the degree to which both Pennsylvania and Arizona, I don't know if the counting, and it may be true in Nevada also, that the counting could continue for some time.

00:25:14.680 I have a feeling we're going to be doing another verdict, a special one on Wednesday, because that's how long it's going to take to figure out what all this actually is going to look like.

00:25:22.840 But a clear lesson is when you go into a general election, you've got to unite the clans, to use a Braveheart reference.

00:25:35.840 You've got to bring everyone together.

00:25:38.660 If we're divided, we lose.

00:25:43.060 Another clear lesson is you need effective, serious candidates.

00:25:50.820 It's my philosophy is the strongest conservative who can win.

00:25:54.760 And you've got to have resources that if we send our candidates in and they're being outspent three to one or five to one or ten to one, they will lose.

00:26:03.500 And at the end of the day, we need to ask ourselves, do we want to lose our country because we're not funding these people?

00:26:09.260 Because the differential is is deeply concerning.

00:26:13.800 So so those those are two significant takeaways.

00:26:17.280 Well, let's talk about the mindset for for everyone that's hearing this.

00:26:22.120 I think there's a lot of people that are going to be waking up and be a little bit depressed that this is the outcome.

00:26:29.460 It is still significant that we're going to take back the House.

00:26:33.820 Yes.

00:26:34.360 That is something that is going to hold this administration accountable.

00:26:38.060 It's going to be able to investigate this administration.

00:26:40.700 It could lead to things like a possible impeachment and Mayorkas and other things like that that are very important. 0.86

00:26:46.100 And accountability for Fauci and what he did with getting a function, research and funding and Wuhan Institute of Virology and all of the things that happened there.

00:26:57.300 Let's not overlook that.

00:26:58.820 That is a big moment.

00:27:00.000 We should celebrate it.

00:27:01.760 And for people that might be a little bit down, don't be because that is huge for this country.

00:27:06.500 Fully agree.

00:27:08.120 Senate wise.

00:27:10.860 I mean, this is that's where you serve.

00:27:14.920 What's your takeaway?

00:27:16.860 I don't know.

00:27:20.640 Looking at it right now, 96 percent in in Georgia.

00:27:24.560 Warnock's ahead.

00:27:25.440 Walker's behind.

00:27:27.840 Neither are over 50.

00:27:29.680 If that goes to a runoff, it could be control of the Senate. 0.97

00:27:35.880 Pennsylvania right now.

00:27:38.620 Fetterman's winning.

00:27:40.260 Yeah.

00:27:40.600 If we lose Pennsylvania.

00:27:42.260 Let's suppose we lose Pennsylvania and we win Nevada.

00:27:48.320 And by the way, we don't have any numbers right now from Nevada.

00:27:50.620 So I think I think Laxalt is a good candidate.

00:27:54.160 But we've seen tribalism, Democrats returning to their team.

00:28:00.680 I don't know that Adam wins Nevada.

00:28:02.680 I hope he does.

00:28:03.520 I want him to.

00:28:04.440 I've campaigned with him repeatedly.

00:28:05.720 I think he's a good candidate.

00:28:07.100 But the results in other states are not suggesting the kind of red tsunami that there's some Nevada numbers that we just got in there.

00:28:18.880 This is obviously with with hardly any.

00:28:21.380 This is maybe the first place coming in that's reporting there with 0.14 percent coming in at 1159.

00:28:28.200 And these are going to change a lot because you're talking about one polling place or two coming in there.

00:28:32.660 But like you said, you look at tribalism.

00:28:34.880 That doesn't make you as hopeful there as we would have been a couple hours ago.

00:28:38.240 Yeah. So listen, if we are looking at a scenario where we lose Pennsylvania and we win Nevada, then we're back to the runoff in Georgia determining control of the Senate.

00:28:58.580 That's not what we thought.

00:28:59.800 Assuming we don't win Arizona.

00:29:00.820 And I guess there's an outside chance.

00:29:02.420 But we're looking at the numbers right now.

00:29:04.100 And Kelly's up 16 points.

00:29:05.520 And now 50 percent is in maybe.

00:29:08.880 But that's a big margin.

00:29:10.260 That's a big.

00:29:10.680 I mean, when you're talking about 228,000 vote differential, that's that is significant.

00:29:16.660 That would be a lot to overcome.

00:29:18.520 Now, you can't overgeneralize because it depends.

00:29:21.840 Like there can be really blue counties and really red counties.

00:29:25.600 And maybe the blues are all in and the reds haven't come.

00:29:29.440 So I've seen swings, but swings are typically in the five point range and not the 17 point range.

00:29:36.280 Yeah.

00:29:36.880 This is this is not the night we were hoping for in the Senate.

00:29:41.440 I think we can agree with that.

00:29:42.800 There's the newest Nevada numbers.

00:29:44.780 We just got a big dump that came in.

00:29:46.500 Thirty three percent reporting there.

00:29:48.620 Adam at 42 percent.

00:29:51.760 She's at now at 54 percent up on the screen there.

00:29:56.980 That is significant.

00:29:57.780 They just called Fetterman.

00:29:58.980 And and this in Pennsylvania.

00:30:01.660 This is not the news we're wanting. 0.99

00:30:03.740 Damn it. 0.98

00:30:04.140 And Fox News has just called the Fetterman race as the winner there. 0.99

00:30:09.140 Forty nine point four to Oz at forty eight point two.

00:30:12.820 That is a gain for the Democrats there.

00:30:16.660 That now changes everything in the Senate, Senator.

00:30:19.480 We've got to win Georgia and Nevada to take control of the Senate and not lose Wisconsin. 0.91

00:30:27.240 I think you and I both thought at dinner we'd be fifty two, fifty three.

00:30:32.800 That's gone.

00:30:34.060 I was at fifty three, fifty four.

00:30:35.620 That that ain't happening.

00:30:39.100 Maybe we get to fifty one.

00:30:40.700 But we could easily be with the Democrat Senate that losing Pennsylvania changes the math profoundly.

00:30:52.360 Now that they're calling it this way, the biggest mistake in Pennsylvania was picking odds.

00:30:59.020 I did rallies all over the state of Pennsylvania with McCormick.

00:31:02.700 I went all in.

00:31:04.480 And by the way, people may not realize this.

00:31:06.020 That was a very, very, very slim loss in number of votes that night.

00:31:10.880 It was a few thousand votes.

00:31:11.720 Yeah, a couple thousand votes.

00:31:12.680 And McCormick would have won tonight.

00:31:14.240 So it may be that that primary gave the Democrats the Senate.

00:31:20.380 If that's the outcome, that's hard to stomach.

00:31:26.480 Hard to stomach.

00:31:27.440 If you go back and look at that primary, it was a very divided primary.

00:31:32.620 And there were forces that were involved that were very influential in picking odds.

00:31:39.240 That may have been one of the biggest mistakes for control of the Senate.

00:31:43.600 Again, now everyone calling Pennsylvania now for Fetterman.

00:31:47.900 Look.

00:31:48.340 That's not good.

00:31:56.840 Yeah.

00:31:57.200 It's not good for the country.

00:31:58.600 One thing I know for sure, we'll be doing another podcast, I think, on Wednesday because it's not going to end.

00:32:05.480 We're not going to know tonight, I think, for sure as we're doing this at midnight.

00:32:09.420 But by the way, Ben, since this is airing tomorrow morning.

00:32:11.740 Yes.

00:32:12.060 Some of the folks watching it tomorrow morning will not have participated in our live event tonight.

00:32:19.960 They may wonder why the hell we're drinking White Claws.

00:32:21.960 Yes, that's very true.

00:32:23.020 We should end on at least an entertaining note.

00:32:25.400 We are both having a White Claw.

00:32:27.460 Will you ever drink another one of these the rest of your life?

00:32:30.260 I doubt it.

00:32:31.100 This is the only White Claw in my life.

00:32:32.740 This is the only one I'm not going to do as well.

00:32:34.260 I have ever drunk.

00:32:35.060 It was mango.

00:32:36.280 I like mango, but I tend, if I'm going to drink an alcoholic beverage, a beer is quite fine, or a glass of wine.

00:32:43.080 I think hard seltzer is not my thing.

00:32:45.200 Well, in honor of you taking two shots of White Claw this week and blocking one, I figured it was entertaining.

00:32:51.840 Why not?

00:32:52.140 So I had two cans, full cans, unopened cans of White Claw thrown at me.

00:32:57.600 By the way, Ben, I'm going to say, so this is now an empty can because I've drunk it, so I'm going to throw it at you right now.

00:33:05.060 But that, by the way...

00:33:06.240 I'm not going to throw this one at you because mine's like 90% full.

00:33:10.540 I'm like the kid that's just holding the fake beer in college, right?

00:33:13.200 Yeah, no, well, then please don't throw it at me because I don't wish to smell a mango.

00:33:17.980 Yes, yes.

00:33:18.920 Like, okay, that will really, you come home to Heidi, you walk into the bedroom, and your husband stinks of mango.

00:33:25.140 I don't even know what you accuse him of.

00:33:26.860 Like, what are you, maybe I ran to Cancun.

00:33:29.160 You ran to Cancun.

00:33:29.860 That would be the only thing.

00:33:30.760 Where were you really tonight on election night?

00:33:32.700 But, yes, in the victory parade for the Astros, where there were over a million people came out in Houston, there were some angry Democrats.

00:33:44.600 Actually, I think every Beto supporter in the state came out, even though Beto lost by 12 points statewide.

00:33:50.300 They were at the parade, and they were yelling and convinced their guy was going to win.

00:33:53.860 And, you know, one guy flung two full and unopened cans of White Claw, which I think the fact that it was White Claw is highly revealing.

00:34:03.820 Yes.

00:34:06.220 First one missed, landed in the vehicle.

00:34:08.140 The second one was headed at me, and I blocked it with my arm, knocked it down in the vehicle.

00:34:12.580 I wasn't hurt at all, but the fellow was arrested and is facing charges.

00:34:17.720 And I will say I put out a statement thanking the police, who did a fabulous job keeping me safe, arresting him.

00:34:26.780 But I did say I'm glad the clown who threw his White Claw at me had a noodle for an arm, because if he, you know, if he could throw a 90-mile-an-hour fastball, I might have been in the hospital rather than here with you on the verdict stage.

00:34:41.520 That's very true. 0.53

00:34:42.560 As we sign off tonight, Senator, biggest race you're happy that we won tonight, at least.

00:34:47.560 I want to get that.

00:34:48.360 Mike Lee, Mike Lee, Mike Lee.

00:34:51.700 Biggest House race you're excited about for you?

00:34:54.400 You busted your tail on the bus tour.

00:34:56.280 There's got to be one that you're going, I love that victory.

00:34:58.700 So I haven't seen all the results.

00:35:00.400 I need to go through the House victories.

00:35:02.020 I'm very glad Monica Dela Cruz won. 0.65

00:35:03.660 That's a big deal in the Valley.

00:35:05.060 History.

00:35:05.740 It is a seat that has been Democrat for over 100 years.

00:35:10.300 And so the Valley is turning red.

00:35:12.720 It didn't fully turn red this time.

00:35:14.540 I thought it was this time.

00:35:16.400 But it is moving that direction.

00:35:18.660 I think that's a good thing.

00:35:19.980 Biggest shock race of the night for you?

00:35:24.800 Pennsylvania.

00:35:25.760 That's mine, too.

00:35:26.860 I was hoping you were going to say that.

00:35:28.600 Look, I think Fetterman is such a radical candidate.

00:35:38.880 And I'm sad that the party tribalism of Democrats in Pennsylvania trumped reason and rationality.

00:35:50.520 It's going to be very telling for the presidential election.

00:35:55.580 Pennsylvania, this one tonight, for me, just tells me there is such a small number of voters that are willing to switch tribes, even with a terrible economy.

00:36:07.420 And maybe it's more on the Democratic side, right, than the Republican side.

00:36:10.440 But it is shocking to me that with how bad things are in this country and in Pennsylvania, that you still can't get people to vote for what may be best for their community. 0.98

00:36:20.760 Instead, it's just I'm a Democrat, damn it. 0.97

00:36:22.780 And I'm going to always be a Democrat. 0.99

00:36:24.420 And I'll vote for the most incompetent human being out there if they have a D next to their name.

00:36:30.080 And that concerns me about the presidential because it's no longer three, four percent of independents that you've got to swing, right?

00:36:35.900 The swing voters.

00:36:36.700 It may be down to half a percentage point in some of these states.

00:36:41.600 Look, this election was a turnout battle and we'll see where turnout comes out.

00:36:50.080 But we're going to have to process the numbers.

00:36:56.620 I don't know how much of it was that ours didn't turn out as much as they needed to.

00:37:00.740 And I don't know how much of it was that D's, despite everything being in the crapper, showed up and pulled the lever D anyway and said, you know, you know, give me more cowbell.

00:37:10.780 That's just what I need.

00:37:12.100 You know, it's, you know, to mix my metaphors.

00:37:14.220 I just did Christopher Walken.

00:37:15.480 But let's go to Animal House.

00:37:17.020 Thank you, sir.

00:37:17.580 Can I have another?

00:37:18.280 Apparently they really like getting smacked with the board and want more of it.

00:37:23.120 And that we need to do a better job making clear the stakes of these elections in people's lives.

00:37:37.700 We mentioned before this can't be a personality battle.

00:37:40.240 It needs to be about substance and policy and how people can have a better life or a worse life because that's what the stakes are.

00:37:50.720 As we end tonight, 12.05 a.m. Central Time after 1 o'clock Eastern Time, if there's any, I like to leave people with one thing that you can hold on to.

00:38:01.440 Nancy Pelosi will no longer be the Speaker of the House.

00:38:04.360 Yes, if there's anything that can get you fired back up, even if you're upset about where some of these races went, at least Nancy Pelosi will retire and we will not have to deal with her ever again.

00:38:14.760 And my side bet is she will become a constituent of Ron DeSantis, which is particularly amusing because I think she'll retire to Florida and live on the beach, which is irony personified.

00:38:29.760 Hey, if we made any history tonight, you drink a White Claw and I drink one one tenth of a White Claw tonight, Senator.

00:38:38.520 I enjoyed sitting down with you doing this tonight live on Verdict.

00:38:41.500 For everybody watching, I'll say it to you.

00:38:43.820 Make sure you download the Verdict wherever you get your podcasts.

00:38:47.640 We do it three times a week.

00:38:49.420 Two of them are audio only.

00:38:50.900 So if you're watching this, make sure you download the podcast.

00:38:53.860 For all of the people listening Wednesday morning with this podcast, I have a feeling we'll probably be putting out another one, letting you know after we get some of the more of these numbers in.

00:39:03.100 So just download hit that subscribe auto download button on your phone and then you'll automatically know when that next episode of ours drops.

00:39:11.520 Senator, God bless America tonight.

00:39:13.820 The people have spoken in many places.

00:39:15.740 We may not like what they said everywhere, but at least this is the greatest country in the world and people got to vote today.

00:39:22.460 And that always makes me happy.

00:39:24.260 Thank you, sir.

00:39:24.940 And it was it was fun doing this with you tonight.

00:39:28.000 This is an iHeart podcast.

00:39:30.620 Guaranteed human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - November 09, 2022

ELECTION NIGHT 2022 RECAP!

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