Verdict with Ted Cruz - Election Night： Paxton Defeats Cornyn—What Happened, Why & What’s Next

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00:00:50.940 Welcome.

00:00:51.620 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.

00:00:53.400 Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:54.740 And Senator, it is election night.

00:00:56.140 We're doing a dual pod right now for our show and my show as well.

00:01:00.220 There is one big takeaway.

00:01:01.960 It was a great election night in general for conservatives all over the country.

00:01:06.220 Well, we had election night in Texas, and it was a big election.

00:01:09.540 It was a consequential election.

00:01:11.080 We had the runoff for the U.S. Senate race.

00:01:13.920 And we now know with absolute certainty that come January,

00:01:18.320 I'm going to be serving with a new senator from the state of Texas.

00:01:21.640 We had the Republican runoff between my current colleague, John Cornyn, and his challenger, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

00:01:29.420 And Paxton won decisively a big double-digit victory.

00:01:34.740 We're going to break down what happened at election night and what it means for Texas.

00:01:39.340 We're also going to break down what's next in the general election.

00:01:42.660 Who is the Democrat nominee, this James Tallarico guy?

00:01:46.740 And I'll warn you, it ain't pretty.

00:01:48.800 We're going to get into that in detail right now.

00:01:51.640 Yeah, he's definitely a radical, and we're going to let all of America understand exactly who he is.

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00:03:37.340 So Senator, this is one of those 0.95

00:03:38.940 that is a very interesting case study

00:03:41.580 in traditionally, if you are an establishment,

00:03:46.340 if you are an incumbent,

00:03:48.560 you have a massive advantage.

00:03:50.060 You have a lot of fundraising that comes in.

00:03:52.300 You've got a lot of Washington money that comes in.

00:03:54.460 You have special interest money.

00:03:55.640 Like, you've got a lot of advantages and usually a bigger microphone.

00:03:59.200 What we have learned so far through this whole process around the country is just because you have that,

00:04:04.860 if Donald Trump decides that he wants to go against you and wants to back another America First candidate he believes will serve the interests of his agenda better,

00:04:14.860 you could be in serious trouble.

00:04:16.680 We watched it happen in Louisiana.

00:04:18.240 we've now seen it happen in Texas. Well, I think that's right. There was an awful lot going on in

00:04:23.340 this race. Let's start off just with the results. So we're sitting here. It's right now, 1143 p.m.

00:04:29.320 Tuesday night, election night. And as of right now, this is with 92% of the results in. Ken

00:04:36.260 Paxton is getting 64% of the vote. John Cornyn is getting 36%. So that is, as of right now, 858,547

00:04:46.180 votes for Ken Paxton oh just bumped up 862,150 votes for Ken Paxton to 484,625 for John Cornyn so

00:04:57.080 that is nearly a 30-point victory a 28-point victory we'll see what the final numbers are

00:05:02.100 when all the votes are tallied but but that that is a massive win uh and that represents that is a

00:05:09.180 that's a bloodbath for any incumbent I don't care if you're Republican or Democrat and that's how

00:05:13.340 the media is treating it as well. Well, and it represents a sea change. So John Cornyn has been

00:05:19.300 in the Senate for 24 years. He has been an institution in the Senate. He was the majority

00:05:26.020 whip of the Senate, so he was the number two elected Republican in the Senate. He served that

00:05:31.540 position for six years. John Cornyn ran for majority leader. When we took the majority,

00:05:37.400 When Mitch McConnell stepped down as majority leader, John Cornyn ran against John Thune, and it was a close election.

00:05:46.760 John Cornyn obviously did not prevail, but it was a vote that was decided by just a couple of votes.

00:05:51.660 And so John Cornyn, in a different universe, would have been the majority leader of the United States Senate right now.

00:06:01.520 And instead, he has faced an election where he lost by 28 points.

00:06:07.400 Now, there were a number of factors at play there, and I will say Donald Trump endorsed and endorsed late, and there's no doubt it had a very significant impact.

00:06:18.660 That being said, most of the polling that was in this race, even before the Trump endorsement, showed that Paxson was going to win and was likely to win with a sizable victory.

00:06:30.660 And so I think the Trump endorsement certainly grew that margin of victory and made it the dramatic, the nearly 30-point victory that it was.

00:06:40.120 But I think one of the factors that caused President Trump to endorse is he was looking at the same polling everyone else was looking at that showed Paxton with a significant lead in the race to begin with.

00:06:52.780 There are a lot of reasons for this, but in many ways, this race played out as a traditional

00:06:58.980 conservative versus establishment primary. And that's a primary I know a lot about.

00:07:06.020 My race 14 years ago, when I was elected to the Senate, was very much the same dynamic,

00:07:11.880 where I was running against David Dewhurst. He was the sitting lieutenant governor. He had

00:07:17.400 universal name id he had over 200 million dollars so he wrote a 35 million dollar check

00:07:24.580 uh to his own campaign and i'd never been elected to nothing like like literally the last thing i

00:07:31.920 was elected to was student council yeah so i was at two percent in the polls i was ahead of you

00:07:37.480 technically because i did win like i think class president freshman year in college so i even had

00:07:42.080 more credentials than you did at that moment i just i just want to make sure that the audience

00:07:45.520 understands that right now it was an impossible race and yet what we saw when i was elected in

00:07:51.680 2012 is we saw the conservative grassroots come together uh and we ended up uh going from two

00:07:59.940 percent in the polls to winning by double digits in the primary and winning by double digits we won

00:08:04.300 the the primary by by 14 points and we won the general by 16 points and so it was an amazing

00:08:10.500 victory of the conservative grassroots against the person everyone thought was the unbeatable

00:08:16.860 frontrunner uh this cornyn paxton race had similar dynamics the money in this race was massive so

00:08:24.480 this is now shattered records yeah for the single most expensive senate race in american history

00:08:30.520 in a primary in a primary and we're talking more than usually just spent a general election

00:08:36.140 by a lot. So just in phase one of the primary, over $100 million was spent. I think when you

00:08:44.200 tally the runoff, it will end up being well north of $150 million spent in this primary.

00:08:50.200 And the overwhelming, the 90 plus percent of that was spent supporting John Cornyn. So Paxton spent

00:08:57.440 relatively little money and won by an overwhelming margin. Now, one of the consequences of this is

00:09:05.600 the Democrats, they are looking to attack Ken Paxton. He is a conservative. Both Ken and John

00:09:12.700 are friends. I've served with John Cornyn 14 years. He and I are very different senators,

00:09:17.880 but we've worked well together and we've worked in a cooperative and collegial way. That's part

00:09:24.660 of how you represent your state. And at the same time, Ken Paxton has been a friend of mine for a

00:09:32.200 long time. Both Paxton and Cornyn I've supported previously. I've campaigned with them previously.

00:09:36.920 I've campaigned for them previously. Paxton objectively, I believe, has been the most

00:09:44.760 conservative state attorney general in the country, is a strong record as a conservative

00:09:49.240 state AG. And that was a big part of why he prevailed. And that was driving his momentum

00:09:57.660 long before President Trump made his endorsement.

00:10:01.300 That being said, there are a lot of nasty personal attacks

00:10:04.760 that have been leveled at Ken Paxton,

00:10:07.020 and the odds are precisely 100.0%

00:10:11.020 that we will see millions and millions of dollars

00:10:15.720 of attack ads in the general election

00:10:17.540 bringing up every one of those personal attacks

00:10:21.640 and going after him viciously.

00:10:24.600 The Democrats are not going to play nice

00:10:26.720 because they see a chance.

00:10:28.260 The Democrats believe they have a chance to win the general.

00:10:31.580 And I got a message to Republicans in Texas and nationwide.

00:10:36.880 Do not take this general election for granted.

00:10:40.060 Aim into that.

00:10:41.080 It is easy to say it's Texas, it's red, we're going to win.

00:10:43.960 And I believe we are going to win.

00:10:45.840 But I also think the Democrat nominee, James Tallarico, is a dangerous candidate.

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00:12:37.260 before we get to before we get to james i want to just go back and let people understand the

00:12:43.860 basis for why you have that warning you have been in the same position in many ways that ken's

00:12:50.780 walking into you have a democratic party that is very energized you have a democratic party that

00:12:57.200 is well funded you have a democratic party that sends massive amounts of cash into texas

00:13:02.540 against a conservative and and you were the number one target maybe twice in your career I think it

00:13:10.580 may be fair to say by Democrats wanting to get rid of you and the majority of the money coming

00:13:17.240 into that race was from outside interest groups outside the state mass amounts of money coming

00:13:21.920 from places like California and New York and the reason why you you said you're warning the way

00:13:26.740 that you just said it is because they do get better at this over time not worse at it they

00:13:32.480 start to realize where they messed up where they maybe spent money they shouldn't have spent and

00:13:36.020 they get smarter and smarter that's part of the reason why you're saying this warning not just in

00:13:40.180 texas but around the country yeah look i i have been there before both of my re-elects i i was

00:13:47.240 chuck schumer's number one target in the country and so they've they've thrown everything in the

00:13:51.280 kitchen sink trying to take take me out and i've been there they're getting ready to do that to

00:13:55.840 Ken Paxton. And actually, there is potentially a real analogy between 2026 and 2018. 2018 was my

00:14:03.380 first reelect. 2018 was two years after Donald Trump was first elected president. In 2018,

00:14:10.960 you had several things going on. Number one, the left was enraged. They hated Donald Trump. So they

00:14:18.340 were energized, and they showed up in massive, massive numbers in 2018. And also two years into

00:14:26.400 the administration, without Trump on the ticket, there was some complacency. And so across the

00:14:32.000 country, Republican turnout was not nearly as high as it had been. And those two together are

00:14:37.540 a dangerous combination. What did that mean in 2018? Let me give you just what we faced.

00:14:43.880 in that year, the Democrats more than doubled their turnout in Texas. They drove Democrat

00:14:52.340 turnout from 1.8 million all the way up to 4 million, more than 2x. Now, my campaign, as you

00:15:04.380 know, and you know my campaign team well, we're obsessively numbers and data driven. We saw all

00:15:09.820 of that happening. We saw the surge in Democrat turnout, Democrats who had never shown up coming

00:15:15.060 out to vote. And so we set out to drive up Republican turnout. I did a 50-stop bus tour

00:15:23.620 across the state, spent six weeks barnstorming the state, spent a lot of time in rural Texas,

00:15:29.520 in deep East Texas, in West Texas, in the panhandle. You've got conservative voters there

00:15:34.860 who historically don't show up in midterms. They typically stay home. And I was ringing

00:15:39.520 the bell saying look if you stay home we will lose the state of texas yeah we ended up driving

00:15:47.160 by the way i was around that campaign and it was we were nervous when by the way when did you

00:15:53.780 actually feel good in that year about like having a victory that day i if i remember correctly till

00:15:59.780 the very end there was not a lot of like swagger in the campaign like oh hey we got this thing

00:16:04.260 Well, and there's a reason for that. So we drove Republican turnout from 2.8 million all the way

00:16:11.120 up to 4.2 million. Yeah. So I won by 0.2. I won by 200,000 votes out of more than 8 million votes

00:16:21.880 cast statewide. The margin was 2.6%. And look, a lot of observers, I'll tell you the Beto O'Rourke

00:16:32.100 campaign i was running against beto o'rourke and he was particularly the first time he ran which

00:16:36.220 was against me he he was a remarkable candidate charismatic became a national phenomenon that

00:16:43.200 2018 race at the time was the single most expensive senate race in u.s history that's

00:16:47.900 how much they wanted to take me out um to give you a sense of the kind of financial mismatch

00:16:53.960 because i was out spent three to one in that race uh in the third quarter of 2018 i raised

00:16:59.500 3-1, by the way. In politics, you don't usually win when you're down 3-1, just so people understand

00:17:06.580 how much outside influence money came in. So let me give you a little bit of the math. Third

00:17:12.240 quarter of 2018, I raised $12 million in hard money. People going to my website, contributing

00:17:18.880 money. That was, at the time, the record for the most hard money any Senate candidate had raised

00:17:26.180 in a single quarter in the history of the state of texas wow do you know do you know how long my

00:17:30.840 record lasted i'm gonna guess like three seconds two hours it took two hours there we go so so my

00:17:39.360 record was 12 million it was the most the old record had been like eight or nine million so i

00:17:43.440 had beaten the old record by a decent margin my record was 12 million two hours later beto o'rourke

00:17:49.280 reported his numbers what do you think he raised that quarter i see i if i remember it was it like

00:17:54.440 almost double what you had no it was 38 million it was more than three x i had 12 he had 38 in

00:18:02.900 one quarter that was the kind of dynamic we were facing and i gotta tell you the beto campaign was

00:18:09.480 shocked to lose they believe they had won that race they went into election night thinking they'd

00:18:14.060 won they had confetti cannons on the stage because they're looking at the numbers and they're saying

00:18:20.180 okay, we've more than doubled turnout, game over.

00:18:23.400 And they had unlimited spending power against you

00:18:27.620 because the entire Democrat machine from D.C. to California

00:18:31.480 was in to take you out.

00:18:33.080 So if you've got unlimited funds and you double the turnout,

00:18:36.800 in theory, you should absolutely win that race.

00:18:40.060 So 2026 has a lot in common with 2018.

00:18:43.840 It's two years into the beginning of another Trump presidency.

00:18:47.580 The left is highly energized.

00:18:49.280 They're raising a ton of money. They hate Ken Paxton just like they hate me. They're going to

00:18:55.140 raise a mountain of money against him. And I guarantee you, leftists are going to be energized

00:19:00.020 and show up to vote. And the challenge is much the same as 2018. I called Ken tonight. I

00:19:05.200 congratulated him. He was obviously very happy. And I said, listen, I'm all in. You have my total

00:19:11.460 support. I'm going to do everything I can to help you, to help you raise money, to help you turn

00:19:15.700 people out to help you with the grassroots we've got to win uh because the race is is dangerous and

00:19:22.300 and and the left is coming after him and and their candidate is very reminiscent of beto o'rourke now

00:19:29.200 now james tallarico he he was a state rep but and he's someone whose substantive views are really

00:19:37.380 extreme you know last podcast we did uh we highlighted graham platner the the the communist

00:19:43.860 with a Nazi tattoo in Maine, who is the Democrat nominee in Maine. And we talked about just how

00:19:50.740 extreme and crazy the Democrat party is. Well, James Tallarico is absolutely extreme. We're 0.90

00:19:57.540 going to break that down in just a minute, but I will tell you what makes Tallarico dangerous

00:20:01.500 and that worries me is he packages it in this very nice, aw shucks demeanor. And he sounds

00:20:11.680 like a preacher. He went to seminary, so he is a licensed preacher, and much of what he says,

00:20:21.600 he quotes biblical verses, and what worries me is someone who's not paying attention much to

00:20:27.940 politics might turn on the TV and look at him and say, oh, he seems like a nice young man.

00:20:34.940 And for me, I would rather my wolves come in wolves clothing rather than look like a sweet,

00:20:40.640 inoffensive, nice young man who happens to be an extreme radical left winger, I'd rather

00:20:46.720 they be out in the open and let you know exactly who they are.

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00:21:17.100 Turn someday into right now with Body by Jake Radio.

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00:21:45.940 Have a great day.

00:21:47.100 let's dive into who this guy is here because you go back to 2022 james uh tallarico said

00:21:59.100 it is existential all right to reduce meat consumption what was that word again

00:22:05.000 existential i you're gonna mock me out you're gonna mock me on the show tonight aren't you

00:22:09.580 i've been talking a long time today okay okay okay try that word there's a there's a tea in

00:22:14.860 Go ahead, go ahead.

00:22:15.940 I'll take the master class from you.

00:22:17.840 You go ahead and say the word that I'm having a problem with tonight.

00:22:20.840 I'm just, I'm more than happy at midnight for you to say that word on my behalf.

00:22:24.960 That would be existential.

00:22:27.940 Existential, there we go.

00:22:29.140 There we go.

00:22:29.600 I can copy the word from you.

00:22:31.780 It's not that he has extrasensory abilities.

00:22:34.520 That's something different.

00:22:35.660 If he had ESP, that would be a different story.

00:22:39.080 The lickings I take, it's unbelievable.

00:22:40.960 So, so back to 2022 and James, this is a guy that in, in Texas, I said this on, on Harris Faulkner show on Fox today, when they were talking about the prime, like in Texas, we like meat in Texas.

00:22:55.380 We are ranchers.

00:22:56.620 We are farmers.

00:22:57.800 We're not vegans.

00:22:59.320 We don't do this like mystery, fake meat stuff.

00:23:02.400 Like that's just not who we are, but this is what he doesn't want you to know about him back in 2022 as a principal.

00:23:10.340 Oh, by the way, while saying this, he was wearing a mask, the COVID mask for the press conference.

00:23:16.460 Here he is in his own words. Take a listen.

00:23:18.920 We have, I think, heard more and more issues of animal welfare.

00:23:24.100 I think not just because it's the right thing to do and the moral thing to do, but also it's, as all of you know, necessary to fight climate change.

00:23:31.620 It is now existential that we try to reduce our meat consumption and that we try to respect animals in all aspects of society.

00:23:39.840 And so I am proud to say that our campaign has officially become a non-meat campaign.

00:23:46.520 So we are only buying vegan products from our local vegan businesses.

00:23:54.500 Some of you may know Big Nonas.

00:23:55.980 They were little Nonas, and then they opened up Brick and Mortar, some of their Big Nonas.

00:23:59.840 But we just got our pizza from there today.

00:24:02.320 And so the point is, I think all of us, not just policymakers, but but everyone has to take personal responsibility in this effort.

00:24:11.400 I've never in my life heard a vegan campaign being like propped up, much less like you want to do that in Seattle.

00:24:18.500 That actually may work. You want to do it in San Francisco that it may actually work.

00:24:22.380 You want to do this up in New York City. I'm not even sure it would work there, actually, because they actually like normal food there.

00:24:27.820 But saying our campaign as a responsible candidate is a vegan campaign like that in Texas.

00:24:34.140 And this goes back to, like, everyone needs to know who this guy is.

00:24:38.020 Well, look, and I get that you're taking this very personally because because you owned a barbecue restaurant.

00:24:44.680 And oh, yeah. So he's taking a direct assault on your livelihood.

00:24:48.740 Just wait till he comes out for banning guns and banning radio.

00:24:52.980 I mean, I mean, you know, Ben, Ben will lose his mind.

00:24:56.060 I will. That is that is a fact. You know, it's it's it's actually ironic that that in 2018, when I was running against Beto of our 50 stop bus tour, my guess is a third of those stops were barbecue restaurants.

00:25:09.580 If you're traveling little towns around the state, a lot of times barbecue restaurants are where you'll do a rally.

00:25:14.360 And we were at one barbecue restaurant. I think it was in Columbus, Texas, a little town kind of halfway between Houston and Austin.

00:25:20.720 and were there, and PETA was there protesting me.

00:25:26.060 They had signs out and they were protesting people

00:25:28.040 for the ethical treatment of animals.

00:25:29.260 They were protesting against me.

00:25:30.860 And I joked at the time, I said, look, thank you.

00:25:33.800 I'm really glad PETA is here.

00:25:35.220 And then they've underscored the stakes of this campaign,

00:25:37.880 which is if you elect Beto O'Rourke,

00:25:40.880 he's gonna ban barbecue.

00:25:43.360 And look, it was a laugh line there.

00:25:45.860 I didn't realize that fast forward to 2026,

00:25:48.500 You're going to have someone who literally believes barbecue is immoral.

00:25:53.260 And listen, if someone chooses to be vegetarian or vegan or what have you, to be clear, my wife, Heidi, is vegetarian.

00:25:59.600 That's a choice you can make.

00:26:00.680 I am an enthusiastic carnivore.

00:26:03.420 Yes, you and I had barbecue tonight, literally.

00:26:05.520 That's like at a campaign event.

00:26:07.200 We had jalapeno sausage.

00:26:09.240 It was good stuff.

00:26:10.720 Jalapeno cheddar.

00:26:12.260 And there was some sort of, I don't know, what was the veggie?

00:26:14.520 Was that like celery or something?

00:26:16.380 It was jalapeno cheddar or something else.

00:26:18.500 It was in the sausage.

00:26:20.700 Did you not eat the sausage?

00:26:21.500 Oh, was it?

00:26:22.200 Oh, I didn't have the sausage.

00:26:23.660 But I also had the chicken.

00:26:24.840 I had some of the brisket.

00:26:25.880 You know, I was like carnivore all, like everything.

00:26:28.320 I thought you got down to the salad part.

00:26:30.620 You can admit it.

00:26:31.600 Did you look at the salad part?

00:26:32.960 There were some nice greens there for you, sir.

00:26:34.860 Okay, so you went with the girly meats.

00:26:37.020 Like you said, I went to the barbecue restaurant and I had turkey.

00:26:41.440 It was there and I ate it.

00:26:43.220 I feel good about it, too.

00:26:44.560 Look, I think you're prepared to volunteer for Tallarico's campaign.

00:26:47.540 I mean, if you're boycotting the sausage, that's not far.

00:26:52.220 No, I ate the sausage.

00:26:53.260 It was good.

00:26:53.680 I just didn't notice the green in there.

00:26:55.160 I look over that stuff.

00:26:56.540 I look for just pure, is that meat?

00:26:58.320 Is that cheese?

00:26:59.000 I'm all in.

00:27:00.020 All right.

00:27:00.480 So, look, it's the self-righteous way in which he lectures that.

00:27:06.580 Yes.

00:27:06.960 And it's saying, you know, all of you are morally inferior to me.

00:27:11.640 And I'm going to give you an example.

00:27:13.460 We're going to play some of these.

00:27:14.480 But I'm going to give you an example of some of the things he said.

00:27:16.640 he has said god is non-binary yeah i want now that's pretty out there he has also said we've

00:27:24.720 got the montage on that you want to play that real quick because i we will it we will in a second

00:27:28.980 but we will in a second but but i want to just walk through some of it he has also said they're

00:27:33.320 not just just two sexes there are actually six biological sexes six what day what day in creation

00:27:40.980 did god do the six sexes i'm just curious was that on like the eighth day in the bible we just

00:27:45.160 add that in there. I just want to know when that happened. And by the way, your former employer,

00:27:49.480 CNN, when they were covering a story about, I couldn't resist that, about Paxton hitting him

00:27:54.860 for saying there's six biological sexes. CNN put a chyron on the bottom of the screen.

00:28:00.040 Paxton falsely claims Tallarico said there's six biological sexes. He's on video. We're going to

00:28:06.340 play it for you. And are you going to believe CNN or your own lying ears? He has said that the Bible 0.91

00:28:14.320 justifies abortion, that he is pro-abortion because of the Bible. 0.96

00:28:19.260 And by the way, he's a pastor, so he's got to be right, right?

00:28:22.020 Because he's a pastor, so therefore he would never lie about what the Bible says.

00:28:25.180 He has said Jesus was a radical feminist. 0.99

00:28:28.960 He has said white men are the greatest domestic terrorist threat in our country. 1.00

00:28:35.060 You're Hispanic, so you don't have to worry about being white. 0.99

00:28:37.460 I'm the one that's the target there. 0.79

00:28:39.380 Well, he has said that illegal immigrants are his, quote, constituents. 0.99

00:28:44.320 He has posted tips to evade ice,

00:28:48.440 and he said we should approach the southern border

00:28:51.240 like our front door and put a welcome mat on it.

00:28:54.840 Yes.

00:28:55.560 When he was a school teacher,

00:28:57.780 he made his sixth graders write Obama memoirs,

00:29:02.740 and he has said fascism will be wrapped in the flag

00:29:08.900 and carrying the cross.

00:29:10.800 Listen to some of the greatest hits from James Tallarico.

00:29:13.580 This is the guy you voted for.

00:29:15.540 Our southern border should be like our front porch.

00:29:18.600 There should be a giant welcome mat out front. 1.00

00:29:20.920 There are many more than two biological sexes. 0.85

00:29:25.240 In fact, there are six.

00:29:26.380 God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. 0.99

00:29:32.800 God is non-binary. 1.00

00:29:35.280 Oh, really? 0.99

00:29:36.260 God is non-binary.

00:29:38.320 And by the way, the six sexes, just for seeing in clarity, as you mentioned, 0.80

00:29:43.120 you're exactly right we have the tape so your headline you might want to like you know fix it

00:29:48.340 alter it change it whatever it is but these are just some of the highlights of what this guy

00:29:52.620 believes in and again they are trying to make him and i do think it's the most dangerous part as you

00:29:57.260 mentioned earlier he's he looks like he's a really nice guy who's a pastor soft-spoken he's very

00:30:06.200 charismatic that's what makes him so dangerous until you actually go to his own words and his

00:30:11.940 own posts and his own speeches center that's when you find out what a radical he actually is

00:30:18.160 well yes but look at least the guy loves america loves the american flag and well wait wait no

00:30:25.120 let's actually listen to his own words i want you to listen to what he said about the american flag

00:30:30.660 this again is his own words give a listen i often think when reclaiming symbols i think about the

00:30:36.660 american flag i think the confederate flag is a symbol of treason and terrorism but the american

00:30:41.640 flag is such a complicated symbol for most of us and in many ways like jesus like the cross

00:30:46.620 it's been co-opted and and um and and uh and in some ways that's true meaning has been betrayed

00:30:53.820 by the way he said that center in a church that the american flag is a complicated symbol for most

00:31:01.740 of us it the american flag has never been complicated for me i don't know maybe maybe

00:31:07.180 you look at it differently. Well, and he says the American flag is a complicated symbol

00:31:11.780 like Jesus and like the cross. Those are the three examples he gives of complicated symbols.

00:31:19.000 I don't think any of the three are complicated. And the idea that you're running to be a U.S.

00:31:25.760 senator and you look at the American flag and think it's a complicated symbol.

00:31:29.260 you know yes if you are a leftist yes if you are a marxist yes if you are someone who has

00:31:38.360 has bought into cultural marxism and believes america is irredeemably racist believes that we

00:31:44.300 are a nation of oppressors oppressing victims and that his goal is to overthrow the oppressors and

00:31:51.420 And that is, listen, Graham Plattner in Maine is more explicit about his left wing.

00:31:59.300 The guy with the Nazi tattoo, the SS tattoo, right?

00:32:00.700 Just to remind people who we're talking about right now.

00:32:02.520 This is a guy that actually mocked and made fun of an American soldier being shot,

00:32:08.820 saying he should have died, and then refused, doubled down on it.

00:32:12.380 And the same guy that has an SS tattoo. 0.96

00:32:16.220 Yes, and look, and who is also an open racist. 0.96

00:32:20.420 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

00:32:33.240 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.

00:32:42.560 Here's something Tallarico said in another church about his own race, about being white. Give a listen.

00:32:48.520 for me prophetic voices like jesus have helped me reckon with my own whiteness my own masculinity my

00:32:55.900 own certainty my own ego it's a never-ending process and it's a painful process i gotta give

00:33:03.780 him self-awareness credit there senator like when he says it's helped him deal with his masculinity

00:33:07.980 i think he's nipped that problem in the bud going vegan and talking the way he does like by the lord

00:33:13.940 heard those prayers. I mean, if he was working on the masculinity issue, he has nailed it.

00:33:19.800 There's no doubt about that. If you listen to what he's saying, and he's in a church,

00:33:23.280 behind him, if you're watching the video, he has a giant cross behind him, what he calls

00:33:28.180 that, what is it, complicated image of the cross, like the American flag and like Jesus.

00:33:34.320 And he said the prophetic voices like Jesus helped him deal. Let's take the racist aspect,

00:33:40.440 his own whiteness, which is a hard thing to reckon with.

00:33:45.500 You know, look, I'm sorry, in my book, being white is not something to be ashamed of,

00:33:52.080 is not a symbol that you are a bad human being. 0.99

00:33:55.520 But in the leftist world, white equals evil. 0.96

00:33:59.200 This is the Marxist dichotomy. 0.98

00:34:01.120 It's why I'm saying he's a wolf in sheep's clothing. 0.87

00:34:04.460 What he's saying there, everyone white is an oppressor. 1.00

00:34:08.020 You're all evil. 1.00

00:34:08.840 You're all illegitimate. 1.00

00:34:09.840 That is the same thing. Everyone who is black, you're all oppressed and you should overthrow 1.00

00:34:16.060 your evil oppressors. That is the same garbage that says America is a racist history from day 1.00

00:34:21.000 one. That is who we are is irredeemably racist. It is a lie. Now play the second clip of him 1.00

00:34:27.220 talking about his masculinity. No need to sit and cry over your whiteness or your masculinity.

00:34:34.620 right use it yep use it to do something yeah um let's be productive wait which one is it now i'm

00:34:40.440 i'm a little confused are we masculine on monday wednesday friday but tuesday thursday sunday where

00:34:46.500 we just we just like turn that completely off which one is it i just want to know okay and this

00:34:51.820 is where you really ought to be watching this in video because look tallarico is a little dude

00:34:56.760 yeah he is um you know he he may be the least likely person on planet earth to be complaining

00:35:03.460 about his overwhelming masculinity.

00:35:07.060 Look, Ben, you're a big dude.

00:35:09.020 I'm pretty sure you could hip check this guy

00:35:11.240 into the next zip code.

00:35:13.980 He also, in another clip that I don't have,

00:35:16.100 explained that he never played sports at all growing up. 0.99

00:35:18.500 I believe that. 0.83

00:35:19.840 I believe that, yes, yes.

00:35:21.400 I believe that as well.

00:35:22.900 I will say, if you were listening to him speak

00:35:26.080 and you were assembling 1,000 adjectives to describe him,

00:35:33.460 masculine would not be one of them would not be on that list i i'm just saying i don't think

00:35:38.580 anyone would and yet he described that he was crying over his masculinity that he was too

00:35:45.560 too masculine it made him cry by the way this wasn't fair to everybody else senator if you're

00:35:52.040 crying over your masculinity it may not be your masculinity you're crying over like like i'm just

00:35:56.960 saying that there's almost something definitionally false. But this guy is extreme, which means

00:36:05.160 the Democrats love him. I want you to pause what you're doing for just one minute, and I want you

00:36:10.740 to hear about Alejandra. She lives in a remote community with very few resources and little to 0.98

00:36:17.400 no health care. So when Alejandra gets sick, her parents have no real options, no doctors in their

00:36:24.620 community and no money for real medical care by the third day her body was shutting down she woke

00:36:32.080 up and just long enough to tell her mom i can't take the pain anymore i can't keep going her

00:36:39.600 parents drove hours to find a doctor who tried everything but she needed a private hospital

00:36:45.500 and that was impossible for her family to afford and that is when compassion international stepped

00:36:52.540 in now through compassion Alejandra was treated and against all odds she survived she lived because

00:37:00.540 someone just like you took action right now unfortunately there are children just like

00:37:06.560 Alejandra who won't survive unless someone like you steps in compassion international partners

00:37:13.000 with local churches providing children with the support that they need critical medical care plus

00:37:20.180 food education and the hope of the gospel all in jesus name so help a child just like alejandra

00:37:28.900 today you can visit compassion.com that's compassion.com and i gotta say center i i want

00:37:37.120 as we wrap up the show i do want to ask and i when i look at this race and i look at talarico

00:37:42.600 and i look at everything you and i just talked about quickly and we're going to keep talking

00:37:45.980 about him throughout now until until November I can promise you because there's more that's

00:37:51.020 going to come out there's more crazy things going to say but I do like the fact that I feel like

00:37:56.140 there is a little bit of sanity coming back into the political world where you now can just talk

00:38:02.460 about this individual and what he believes and you can look at voters in Texas and you can just say

00:38:08.200 this is not what we believe in we do not believe in mutilating children he's obsessed by the way 0.89

00:38:14.640 with transgenderism. And transgender children in particular. He is described, I forget the exact

00:38:23.040 phrase, but people near his heart or most near his heart are transgender children. Yes. And look,

00:38:31.680 if you think you ought to be sterilizing and mutilating little boys and little girls,

00:38:36.000 that is an extreme out there position. That's not where most Texans are, but it is where

00:38:40.880 talarico is it is and i and i i do find a little bit of comfort in knowing that like how do you

00:38:46.460 run against a guy like this in in a place like again texas and i think other republicans around

00:38:52.560 the country should should actually look at this sometimes winning is just saying this is not who

00:38:57.500 we are we're not for that we we don't we're not a bunch of vegans okay we we're normal people that

00:39:03.240 eat meat and and we're not going to shame you for that there's not six genders uh in the world

00:39:09.000 Certainly, Jesus is not advocating for that either.

00:39:12.320 And even if you can quote Scripture, if you take it out of context in this way,

00:39:18.440 and you take—I think part of just being a Christian I find so offensive about Tallarico

00:39:22.960 is the fact that he's sitting there saying he's an expert, 0.64

00:39:26.320 and yet he seems to be taking the Bible and using it for evil instead of for good

00:39:30.880 and all these radical ideals that clearly God is not in favor of.

00:39:35.100 God is not in favor of mutilating children.

00:39:37.120 He's not in favor of there being six different genders. 0.99

00:39:39.580 Like, that's not what he's about. 0.97

00:39:41.880 And remember, even the devil can quote Scripture.

00:39:45.160 If you look back to when the devil was tempting Jesus in the garden right before he was crucified,

00:39:50.900 the devil repeatedly quoted Scripture at him, and Jesus rebuked him.

00:39:55.500 And so the fact that he quotes Scripture does not mean he is being truthful about what the Bible is saying.

00:40:00.360 and if he's twisting it and using it for evil ends that are precisely the opposite of what the

00:40:05.920 Bible is saying, that is not honorable or righteous or truthful. And, you know, listen,

00:40:12.920 I'll say the Paxton campaign has started calling him low T Tallarico, which I think is pretty darn 1.00

00:40:18.900 funny. But I want to give a caution. It's a caution I gave at the beginning. Do not take

00:40:25.560 this general election for granted. Here's what Tallarico tweeted tonight, right after the primary

00:40:30.260 results. Quote, I want to thank Senator John Cornyn for his years representing our state.

00:40:36.100 We don't agree on everything, but we're, we both still believe in public service.

00:40:40.840 To Senator Cornyn's supporters, you have a place in our campaign. Yeah, that's very savvy. He's

00:40:47.600 making a very open pitch to more moderate Republicans. Vote for me. Look, I'm a nice,

00:40:54.600 sweet, gentle, inoffensive guy wouldn't hurt a fly. And if you're not paying attention,

00:41:02.860 if you don't know his record, if you're not listening to what he said, you can be deceived.

00:41:07.720 And so we need to, I think this campaign, an awful lot of it is going to be putting his own words in

00:41:13.240 front of the voters because they do reveal who he is, but he's really good at being slick and

00:41:19.120 pretending to be something he's not. That in politics is dangerous. Yeah, no doubt. I love

00:41:24.440 when we get to do a pod like this.

00:41:26.080 Don't forget, you can download Verdict with Ted Cruz

00:41:28.180 wherever you get your podcasts three days a week.

00:41:30.060 You can also grab my podcast,

00:41:31.780 the Ben Ferguson podcast as well,

00:41:33.860 each and every day, wherever you get your podcasts.

00:41:36.180 And the Senate and I will see you back here

00:41:37.440 on Verdict on Friday.

00:41:39.240 And to all the Republican candidates who had a big night,

00:41:41.500 congratulations.

00:41:42.260 Running for office is hard,

00:41:43.400 and it's really fun when you get some Ws on the board.

00:41:45.680 So that is fun.

00:41:46.720 And we'll see you back here Friday morning.

00:41:48.860 Turn someday into right now with Buddy by Jake Radio.

00:41:52.380 non-stop workout music and expert tips 24 7 hey head over to iheart.com search body by jake radio

00:41:58.600 and stream it for free right now awesome health and wellness tips 24 hours a day seven days a

00:42:04.200 week remember stick to the fight when your heart is hit it's when things seem worse that you must

00:42:08.260 not quit don't quit body by jake radio where hope meets momentum search body by jake radio

00:42:14.240 and stream it for free have a great day

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Verdict with Ted Cruz - May 27, 2026

Election Night： Paxton Defeats Cornyn—What Happened, Why & What’s Next

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