Verdict with Ted Cruz - Election Recap： Victory for Trump and the Senate

00:00:00.000 Welcome. It is a fabulous day in America. It's Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you, and Senator Donald Trump trumped them all.

00:00:11.500 The Democrats, the globalists, the deep state, the fake news, the fake polls, even the assassins. And now we have a very different day in America.

00:00:22.240 It is an extraordinary day in America. You and I are here at 1.11 p.m. on Wednesday, right after the election.

00:00:32.960 And last night was simply a spectacular night. It was an election that defied all the pundits, that defied all the analysts, and that transforms America and transforms the world.

00:00:47.520 I'm reminded of 1984. It's morning in America again. It is that again. I believe God has answered our prayers for our nation, and I am so grateful.

00:00:58.240 Donald Trump has been re-elected president in what has to be the most remarkable comeback in political history.

00:01:06.280 I'm also very, very grateful that Republicans have taken a majority of the Senate, and we've got a real chance of it being a sizable majority in the Senate.

00:01:15.500 That included me getting re-elected, which didn't suck at all, and we'll talk about that as well.

00:01:24.500 And it looks like we've got a real shot at Republicans holding the House.

00:01:28.180 That is the one that is not clear and determined right now, but hopefully we will hold the House as well.

00:01:34.640 That'll make a big, big difference if we do. It is an incredible day.

00:01:40.400 Yeah, it really is. And we get to finally talk about your race. I'll explain that in a moment.

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00:03:15.420 Senator, there's just one headline that I do have to start with because this is just such a fun one for me.

00:03:22.240 And we can explain why we haven't actually talked about your race on verdict.

00:03:26.460 Because everywhere I go, people are like, why are you guys not talking about this race against Allred? 0.94

00:03:30.780 And I can explain it in person.

00:03:32.400 I couldn't talk about it on the show.

00:03:33.780 You couldn't either.

00:03:35.280 But let's just put it in perspective here.

00:03:37.860 Republicans were closer to flipping New York than Democrats were to flipping Texas,

00:03:44.980 even though the entire Democratic machine came after you and tried to unseat you.

00:03:51.200 That didn't work.

00:03:52.140 It was a massive victory for you last night.

00:03:54.320 Almost a 10-point victory.

00:03:55.920 Congratulations.

00:03:56.700 A million-vote difference between you and your opponent.

00:03:58.900 So let's just tell people for a second here why this is something we haven't talked about here.

00:04:04.360 Yeah, look, we had an incredible victory at my race last night.

00:04:08.220 You and I were both at the victory party past three in the morning.

00:04:11.580 It was a remarkable outcome.

00:04:13.640 And regular listeners of the podcast, you guys have noticed that a word I have never once said on this podcast is Allred.

00:04:23.080 I've never mentioned Colin Allred.

00:04:24.440 I've never talked about my race even once.

00:04:26.820 We have talked about issues.

00:04:28.240 We talk about issues a lot.

00:04:29.800 We have talked about the presidential race.

00:04:32.640 We've talked about Senate races.

00:04:33.900 We've talked about other races.

00:04:34.900 But we have never talked about my race.

00:04:36.880 And that was because if we had talked about my race on this podcast, it would have prompted complaints to the FEC.

00:04:44.380 I don't think they would have succeeded, but it would have prompted complaints.

00:04:46.840 And we decided that we didn't want to unnecessarily give a basis for a complaint.

00:04:52.020 And so we just didn't talk about the race at all.

00:04:53.600 I've got to say, it was mildly schizophrenic, however, because I'd go and do any other interview.

00:04:59.200 I'd go on Fox News.

00:05:00.260 I'd go on talk radio.

00:05:01.400 I'd go do something else.

00:05:02.760 I'd go on a different show, and I'd talk about my race all the time because I was in the middle of the race.

00:05:08.460 Yeah, you'd get to go on my show, and we could talk about it, but not on verdict.

00:05:12.640 And I know our listeners found that odd, and it was just it was avoiding in any potential legal peril.

00:05:19.220 We just didn't talk about it.

00:05:20.240 But now that it's over, the race is done.

00:05:22.820 And wow, what a night we had last night.

00:05:27.100 As you noted, we won by nearly 10 points.

00:05:30.260 We won by a million votes.

00:05:33.400 I mean, it was an extraordinary victory.

00:05:36.180 It was a victory across the board.

00:05:38.640 And one of the amazing, amazing outcomes was what happened in South Texas and what happened with Hispanics. 0.99

00:05:50.620 And NBC News is reporting that I won Hispanics statewide by six points.

00:05:56.740 That is a big, big deal.

00:06:00.620 You want to talk about a transformation.

00:06:02.700 And we saw South Texas counties and a region of the state that has been bright blue for 100 years is rapidly, rapidly turning red.

00:06:14.760 We had major victories throughout South Texas to win Hispanics statewide by six points is transformational.

00:06:23.740 And I believe what we did in South Texas with this election and what Donald Trump did in South Texas with this election, I think is generationally transformative.

00:06:34.080 And in fact, my prediction is in the next year, we will see many, many elected South Texas Democrats switching parties, leaving their party and joining the Republican Party.

00:06:46.120 And I think once it starts, it's not going to be one or two.

00:06:49.080 It's going to be an avalanche.

00:06:50.200 I think they're all looking around and you hear these conversations down in the valley.

00:06:55.100 Wait, are we all Republicans now?

00:06:58.740 And it is it's a big, big deal for Texas.

00:07:02.480 And it's a big deal nationally.

00:07:04.700 It's nationally as well.

00:07:06.140 Well, and I want to go back to something that happened and it goes back to what we've talked about here. 1.00

00:07:12.680 Why Donald Trump won last night, why you won last night came down to the basic issues, which is it's the economy, stupid. 0.99

00:07:20.540 It is safety. 0.99

00:07:21.820 It is about saying yes to our kids instead of having to say no, whether that's when you go to the grocery store or if they want to go outside in front of your house and play.

00:07:30.620 These were the basic issues and the elitist in the media and the Harris campaign refused to stop dictating to Americans and actually listen to Americans.

00:07:41.620 And you went all over the state and we listened to voters.

00:07:45.340 And what their concerns were was, I don't feel like I'm secure.

00:07:50.100 I don't feel like that we're heading the right direction.

00:07:52.880 I don't feel like my kids are safe.

00:07:55.100 I don't feel like my grandparents or my parents are safe.

00:07:58.220 And I want to live in a society where I can say yes to my kids at the grocery store, yes to going to events, yes to having that birthday party instead of saying no, no, no all the way.

00:08:09.760 And as Fox News described it, they said the most important issue facing the country with exit poll data was the economy.

00:08:19.000 39% said it was economy.

00:08:21.440 20% then said it was immigration, which also deals with fentanyl and deals with a crime.

00:08:26.980 Here's how they described it.

00:08:28.520 Fox News voter analysis could tell the story of this night and tell the story of the election.

00:08:33.640 Just a reminder, different than exit polls, we ask voters, over 120,000 of them, all over the country, all 50 states, leading up to and on Election Day, different from exit polls.

00:08:46.240 And right now I can start to begin to give you our key findings and takeaways from what we ask voters.

00:08:52.740 This is really to give you an idea of not only how they voted, but why.

00:08:57.060 Early in the evening, we can't reveal how they broke down to the candidates, but we can reveal how they're feeling.

00:09:02.860 We asked about the direction of the country.

00:09:05.100 This number is key.

00:09:06.560 Those who feel like the country right now is moving in the wrong direction, 7 out of 10 American voters.

00:09:12.760 This is 10 points higher than it was in 2020, just four years ago.

00:09:17.520 If you were to break this down, also new technology, our heat map, you can see some of those darker areas on the heat map, especially those sunbelt states.

00:09:26.380 This is where they don't like how the country is heading or where it's heading.

00:09:30.560 And that could be very revealing as we continue to watch the election results throughout the night.

00:09:35.620 Another top finding.

00:09:37.120 We know the economy has been key and Americans just haven't been feeling good about their finances.

00:09:43.360 We asked about their family's financial situation.

00:09:46.280 And look at this.

00:09:47.340 While 13% say they're getting ahead, 56% holding steady, 31% of respondents said they feel like they're falling behind.

00:09:56.380 That's more than 3 in 10 voters.

00:09:58.340 Also, perspective, that's 13 points worse than it was just four years ago when it was at 18%. 1.00

00:10:05.440 You listen to that, Senator, and it's the economy, stupid. 1.00

00:10:09.200 That is what mattered. 1.00

00:10:10.360 And the Democrats did not listen to the American people.

00:10:14.140 Well, it was certainly the economy.

00:10:16.060 But more broadly, it was also it was the border.

00:10:19.400 It was inflation.

00:10:20.780 It was safety and crime.

00:10:23.360 And it was chaos.

00:10:24.740 I mean, listen, the Biden-Harris record is a train wreck.

00:10:30.340 Everything they've done.

00:10:31.340 There's a reason Kamala never talked about anything they've done.

00:10:33.580 She ran as the change candidate because she sure as heck couldn't run on her record. 0.99

00:10:37.660 And you know what?

00:10:38.240 The American people said, to hell with that.

00:10:40.840 We want change.

00:10:41.960 As you just played, seven in ten Americans said, we want to change the path we're on.

00:10:45.840 Well, we just did.

00:10:46.980 And you look at the results of Trump's win, the seven swing states, as we sit here today

00:10:55.340 at now 1.22 p.m., Trump has won five of those seven swing states.

00:11:01.600 He won North Carolina.

00:11:03.280 He flipped Georgia.

00:11:04.720 Georgia went for Biden.

00:11:05.740 This time it went for Trump.

00:11:07.260 He flipped Pennsylvania.

00:11:08.740 Pennsylvania went for Biden.

00:11:10.000 This time it went for Trump.

00:11:11.440 He flipped Wisconsin.

00:11:13.220 It had previously gone for Biden.

00:11:14.980 This time it went for Trump.

00:11:16.060 And he flipped Michigan.

00:11:19.100 Previously it went for Biden.

00:11:21.040 This time it went for Trump.

00:11:22.140 And right now Trump is leading in Arizona and Nevada, the other two.

00:11:26.300 So they haven't called those states yet.

00:11:28.260 But there's a very real possibility that Trump will win seven out of seven swing states,

00:11:33.240 winning everywhere.

00:11:35.300 The current count is he has 291 electoral votes.

00:11:39.120 He only needs 270 to win.

00:11:40.740 Kamala Harris has 223.

00:11:42.440 And I'll tell you, every bit as astonishing and powerful and transformational is Trump won the popular vote,

00:11:51.080 as of the current count, by nearly 5 million votes.

00:11:55.640 The current count, according to CNN, is 71,883,795 votes for Trump and 67,006,864 votes for Kamala.

00:12:07.080 That is 50.9 percent compared to 47.4 percent.

00:12:11.800 That is historic.

00:12:13.860 A big, big transformation.

00:12:17.020 And it is changing America.

00:12:21.580 The stock market is exploding, going crazy.

00:12:24.180 Bitcoin is soaring.

00:12:25.280 Like, people are jubilant, and it is changing the world.

00:12:30.300 And the reason why they're jubilant is because they understand now what's coming back.

00:12:33.860 No one in uncertainty is what causes markets to have instability.

00:12:41.160 Everyone, not just in this country. 0.97

00:12:43.520 And also crazy-ass socialists destroying your companies, taxing you out of existence, 0.88

00:12:47.480 putting in crushing regulations that destroy your ability to make a profit. 0.96

00:12:51.560 All of that hurts, too.

00:12:52.340 Yeah, but you look at where we are.

00:12:55.060 I don't know if we've ever had this moment before where it is so crystal clear,

00:12:59.780 the agenda of Donald Trump, that is going to be brought to Washington, D.C.

00:13:04.020 There is a clear mandate to drain the swamp.

00:13:06.280 There's a clear mandate to change the way government works.

00:13:08.500 There's a clear mandate to work with Congress on securing the border.

00:13:12.220 There's a clear mandate in the Senate.

00:13:13.680 It looks like there's going to be a clear mandate in the House.

00:13:15.940 And there's a mandate that obviously investors are responding to.

00:13:21.180 There's also a clear mandate that's coming to the border and other countries and the Middle East and oil and gas and all of these things.

00:13:30.140 And that's the reason why I think you're seeing these massive gains on Wall Street is there's just a moment today where Americans took a deep breath.

00:13:37.560 They went out and they voted.

00:13:39.080 They declared what they wanted. 0.99

00:13:40.900 Damn be the media and their lack of influence and trying to lie to you, trying to take out Trump, as we mentioned in the beginning. 0.98

00:13:47.500 There is a mandate now to go back to what this country looked like in 2016 when Donald Trump went in the White House, 0.99

00:13:53.840 except this time it's even more clear what he's going to do.

00:13:56.900 Well, and we're going to see a number of big changes early on.

00:14:00.740 The biggest thing that we will see immediately is the border.

00:14:04.760 And I have said this before, but I'm going to say it again.

00:14:07.800 We will secure the border and it's going to be fast.

00:14:10.940 It's not going to take a year and I don't think it's going to take six months.

00:14:13.800 I think we will do it in January and February.

00:14:16.820 And the reason I say that is that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did all this damage through unilateral executive action,

00:14:23.100 which means Trump can undo it through unilateral executive action.

00:14:28.100 And the most important determinant is what happens when you arrest an illegal immigrant. 0.69

00:14:33.820 And if you put them on a plane and you fly them home, the numbers plummet and they plummet immediately.

00:14:38.360 And on January 20th, that's going to happen.

00:14:40.200 And in fact, I think we're going to see the numbers.

00:14:42.200 We may see the numbers fall even before Trump is sworn in, although there might there might also be a surge in November and December.

00:14:50.760 I am worried that we'll see a surge of illegals trying to rush across the border right before Trump gets here.

00:14:55.700 But but as soon as Trump is in office, we are going to see the border be secured.

00:15:00.800 You were at our election night party last night.

00:15:04.180 We had a packed house.

00:15:06.400 We had we had north of a thousand people, their incredible energy in the middle of my my victory speech.

00:15:12.340 The crowd began chanting, build the wall, build the wall, to which I responded.

00:15:16.660 We will. We are going to do that now.

00:15:19.040 Whether Congress goes along is a different question because the Democrats are still going to have enough votes in the Senate to filibuster legislation.

00:15:27.720 And it will be interesting to see if congressional Democrats have learned anything from this ass kicking.

00:15:35.700 Let's be clear. That's what this election was, was an ass kicking across the board. 0.97

00:15:41.780 And I'll be very curious next week. I'll be in in in D.C. 0.75

00:15:45.860 I'll see my colleagues. I'll be very curious if any Democrats are looking around going maybe being wild eyed, leftist, communist, America hating lunatics is not a path to victory. 0.95

00:15:58.900 I don't know if they'll say that or not. They might double down and, you know, you know, start, you know, dig in even harder. 0.79

00:16:07.500 I don't know. They do hate Trump's guts. So they're probably just losing their minds right now. 0.85

00:16:13.600 Well, they're losing their minds on social media. And by the way, didn't the Democrats want to get rid of the filibuster?

00:16:18.280 Can we go back to that just for a second?

00:16:19.800 Oh, they absolutely did. Now they all love it. And now I will say, let's not take for granted that we know the outcome in the House.

00:16:29.300 And that right now is the most consequential question that is outstanding.

00:16:34.080 Ben, it is a big, big difference, whether Republicans, whether we keep the majority in the House or we lose it.

00:16:42.080 And the House is still very much in the balance. It could go either way.

00:16:45.920 Mike Johnson, the speaker, is saying that that he thinks that we'll hold on to the House, that the votes are there.

00:16:50.840 But there's still a bunch of races that are outstanding. We don't know right now.

00:16:55.000 And let me tell you why it's such a big deal.

00:16:57.760 Let's say the Democrats take a majority in the House by one vote.

00:17:01.180 I don't want that to be the case. But if that happens, it decreases by a factor of 100 what we can accomplish in the next two years.

00:17:11.700 And here is why. Because I mentioned securing the border. Trump can do that unilaterally.

00:17:16.960 We'll also see big national security victories. I think we will see in the next year both of the wars come to an end.

00:17:23.700 I think the Ukraine war will come to an end. Russia will suffer a loss.

00:17:27.120 There'll be some negotiated outcome that is a loss for Russia, but it will end.

00:17:32.160 And I believe the war in Israel will end as well. And Israel will defeat Hamas as a result of that.

00:17:37.720 All of that Trump can do essentially unilaterally as commander in chief.

00:17:43.440 However, for legislation to pass, you've got to get it through the House and Senate.

00:17:47.960 And the big kahuna is the 2017 tax cuts that are expiring. Most of them are expiring next year.

00:17:56.300 If we have both the House and Senate, we will be able to take up what is called budget reconciliation.

00:18:02.000 Budget reconciliation, the most important thing about that is it is an avenue around the filibuster.

00:18:07.720 So it is a way that we can pass budget and tax and economic legislation without the Democrats being able to stop it.

00:18:16.820 And so if we have the House, we'll do a budget reconciliation.

00:18:21.580 We will extend the tax cuts. I think we'll make them bigger and bolder.

00:18:25.960 And beyond that, I think we will see serious reg reforms.

00:18:30.720 I think we will see advances on energy.

00:18:33.220 I think budget reconciliation opens a lot of legislative victories if we can do it.

00:18:39.420 If the Democrats have the House, even by one vote, they'll refuse to do reconciliation.

00:18:45.000 And so it will mean, look, we'll have to negotiate something on the tax cuts, but they become – the economic policy becomes massively less good if the Democrats have the House.

00:18:59.720 So I am hopeful that we have it.

00:19:01.900 I hope we actually have a decent majority in the House, although I think that's probably unlikely.

00:19:05.480 I think it is if we have a majority, I think it is likely that it's going to be an excruciatingly small majority in the House.

00:19:11.580 So that will be frustrating and have its own challenges, but it is a binary flip of the switch.

00:19:17.120 If the Democrats have the House, our ability to legislate grinds to a halt.

00:19:24.880 Yeah, no doubt about it.

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00:21:20.640 Senator, let's also just talk about, I think, the silent majority was sick and tired of being dictated to and yelled at and called Hitler and called garbage. 0.62

00:21:32.680 I think that played into this race.

00:21:35.140 For the first time, a Republican has won the popular vote in two decades, 20-plus years.

00:21:41.060 If that doesn't feel like vindication, I don't know what is.

00:21:44.940 But this was a moment where Americans stood up to the media.

00:21:48.620 They stood up to the Taylor Swift's and the Beyonce's and the George Clooney's of the world and all these radicals in the media and said,

00:21:57.480 No, no, no, I'm not going to be quiet. I'm not going to be told I'm a racist or a bigot because I stand up for my traditional values.

00:22:03.340 And you're not going to bully me anymore. This is massive.

00:22:07.580 I think you're exactly right. 1.00

00:22:09.460 It turns out it is a bad electoral strategy to insult and condescend and treat the voters like crap. 0.99

00:22:17.040 And that's what the Democrats, look, in the last two weeks, you had Kamala Harris launch their strategy of calling Donald Trump Hitler. 1.00

00:22:25.600 You then had Joe Biden calling half of America pieces of garbage. 0.96

00:22:30.300 And you then had Mark Cuban on behalf of Kamala Harris, her top surrogate, go out and insult women and say there are no smart and strong women voting for Donald Trump. 0.97

00:22:40.240 That combination, look, I got to tell you, I've run in a lot of elections.

00:22:46.000 I've never found that insulting the voters is a smart electoral strategy.

00:22:51.100 And it was a little bizarre to see the Democrats go all in on that.

00:22:55.520 Yeah, it didn't work. And it was a failure there.

00:22:58.140 Let's talk about what happens in the Senate, because I think this goes back to how important it was with your race and the fact that you were able to win by such a large margin over Allred.

00:23:08.720 There was an incredible amount of money. We didn't get to talk about this on verdict, as we mentioned earlier, but there was an incredible amount of money.

00:23:15.520 And Chuck Schumer, you were his number one target. They came after you.

00:23:19.160 They basically kind of pulled away from this race a little bit financially after you just wiped him during the debate.

00:23:26.160 Congratulations on that. Something we didn't get to talk about on the show.

00:23:28.900 But if people are bored and they're junkies like I am and you want to watch one hell of a debate, go watch Senator Cruz and they all were debating.

00:23:34.860 It was unbelievable. And that shifted the race financially.

00:23:39.160 But the amount of money that came in from outside to try to turn Texas into a liberal state.

00:23:45.900 But at the end of the day, Republicans are closer to flipping New York than than Texas.

00:23:51.780 And that is a data point as well that I think you've got to look at.

00:23:55.600 Yeah, no, no, that's exactly right.

00:23:57.560 I will say the debate. The debate was ridiculous fun.

00:24:01.140 I loved that debate. I had a lot of fun doing it.

00:24:03.960 And I think it went well.

00:24:06.620 I will look this race. 0.99

00:24:09.540 Chuck Schumer was explicit that I was his number one target in the country.

00:24:14.280 And they flooded cash into the state of Texas.

00:24:18.520 This race was the single most expensive Senate race in the entire country.

00:24:22.980 It will end up being nearly a quarter billion dollars.

00:24:27.960 Nearly two hundred and fifty million dollars will have been spent on both sides in this race.

00:24:33.740 That ain't cheap.

00:24:36.240 Schumer poured well over a hundred million into the race.

00:24:40.520 And I got to say, one of my more fun things that I enjoyed doing last night at the election night speech is I took the opportunity to thank Schumer.

00:24:49.220 I said, thanks, Chuck.

00:24:50.900 We may have won a couple more Senate seats tonight because you you wasted so much money in the state of Texas.

00:24:56.580 So I appreciate that.

00:24:57.800 And and and it I got to say, I guarantee you, there are some Democrats who are who are second guessing that who are questioning, did that make any sense just to pour the money into Texas and and lose the states they lost?

00:25:12.120 You talk about the Senate agenda moving forward.

00:25:14.520 Obviously, the border is going to be something very quick.

00:25:16.620 But there are some new ideas that have come out of this Trump campaign that connected with voters.

00:25:21.580 A great example is Elon Musk and Trump talking about, hey, retired people should be completely tax exempt.

00:25:28.000 They've already paid their taxes.

00:25:29.180 We need to stop taxing Social Security benefits.

00:25:32.240 Some of these common sense things.

00:25:34.700 What are the chances that some of these ideas that connected with the American people?

00:25:39.320 No taxes on tips is another example.

00:25:41.340 We'll turn into a reality if we have the House and Senate or is that still going to be a really tough thing to get done?

00:25:49.120 Look, if we have the House, I think we'll get it done.

00:25:51.760 No taxes on tips.

00:25:53.640 I'm the author of that legislation in the Senate.

00:25:56.560 When I introduced it, it was interesting.

00:25:58.680 It's bipartisan legislation.

00:26:00.540 Both of the Democrat senators from Nevada joined almost immediately.

00:26:04.020 They told me 25 percent of the workers in Nevada are tipped workers.

00:26:07.920 And so they jumped on immediately.

00:26:12.760 If we have the House, I think it will be part of the tax cuts.

00:26:16.180 No taxes on tips.

00:26:17.660 I also think we'll get it done.

00:26:19.400 No taxes on Social Security.

00:26:21.020 That is a little bit harder to do because in terms of the budgetary cost, it's not cheap.

00:26:25.780 And so the negotiations back and forth, there'll be some bumps on that.

00:26:30.320 But the president is pushing for it.

00:26:31.880 I'm strongly in favor of it.

00:26:33.160 I think we'll get it done as part of the tax cuts.

00:26:35.360 Because both of those are big, big, important policy ideas.

00:26:40.140 And listen, in terms of the Senate, let's break down where we stand on the Senate right now.

00:26:44.100 So we went into last night with the Democrats having a 51-49 majority.

00:26:50.200 As of right now, Republicans have 52.

00:26:53.040 So we have three pickups that are clear.

00:26:56.120 One of them is West Virginia.

00:26:57.640 We knew that was 100 percent.

00:26:58.800 And so Jim Justice, the governor, is going to now be the senator.

00:27:04.160 He's going to replace Joe Manchin.

00:27:05.740 The Democrats basically conceded West Virginia.

00:27:08.120 Once Joe Manchin wasn't running, there wasn't a Democrat alive who could win West Virginia.

00:27:11.900 They conceded that.

00:27:13.160 The two others that we have won are Montana and Ohio.

00:27:17.980 Montana was John Tester.

00:27:19.300 Montana's a bright red state.

00:27:20.880 And Tim Sheehy just beat Tester.

00:27:23.520 That's a victory we thought was quite likely.

00:27:26.680 And it happened.

00:27:27.940 Montana is too red a state to be represented by a Democrat.

00:27:33.220 Ohio, likewise.

00:27:34.400 Sherrod Brown was beaten by Bernie Moreno last night.

00:27:38.480 That's a great victory.

00:27:39.820 That was a hard-fought victory.

00:27:41.800 I'll tell you, Sherrod Brown and John Tester are two of the very best politicians in the country.

00:27:46.720 You don't get elected counter to the way your state generally votes unless you're really, really talented.

00:27:54.340 And, you know, John Tester with a flat-top haircut and eight figures, he seemed like a big old fat Montana rancher that just was a regular guy.

00:28:02.160 And it got him elected even when Trump was carrying the state and Republicans were carrying the state in past years.

00:28:08.080 Same's true in Ohio where Sherrod Brown seemed like just a regular guy at the Union Hall.

00:28:13.600 And there were voters in Ohio that were voting Donald Trump, Sherrod Brown.

00:28:17.640 Now, both Brown and Tester vote like communists.

00:28:21.380 They vote like Chuck Schumer.

00:28:23.980 But they're very good character actors.

00:28:26.840 And when they're back at home, they pretended not to.

00:28:29.360 Those two victories ensure that we have the majority in the Senate.

00:28:34.400 And then on top of that right now, we have four other possibilities.

00:28:38.260 We had one hard loss.

00:28:40.380 We did not win Wisconsin.

00:28:41.760 We were leading a good chunk of the night.

00:28:43.880 Eric Hovde was narrowly leading Tammy Baldwin.

00:28:47.800 Wisconsin's now been called for the Democrats.

00:28:50.160 So assuming those numbers are right, it looks like we did not win Wisconsin in the Senate, although Trump won Wisconsin in the presidential.

00:28:58.860 Right now, we have a shot at winning Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, and Arizona.

00:29:06.360 And all of those are uncalled right now.

00:29:09.240 And here are the numbers.

00:29:10.520 Pennsylvania, right now, Dave McCormick, the Republican, is leading 48.9% to 48.5%.

00:29:19.740 So it's really, really close.

00:29:23.920 Michigan.

00:29:25.560 Michigan right now, the Democrat is leading 48.6% to 48.3%.

00:29:31.640 So we are down by 0.3%.

00:29:34.880 Both Pennsylvania and Michigan, 97% of the vote is in.

00:29:39.600 Nevada.

00:29:41.160 Nevada right now, the Republican, Sam Brown, is leading 47.5% to 47%.

00:29:49.020 That would be a flip.

00:29:51.540 If we won Nevada, 88% of the vote is in there.

00:29:55.300 And then Arizona.

00:29:57.640 Arizona right now, this is probably the furthest distance we have to climb.

00:30:03.620 The Democrat is leading 50.4% to 47.7%.

00:30:09.260 So it's three points that we need to pick up.

00:30:12.540 Almost three points.

00:30:14.280 Now, only 63% of the vote is in in Arizona.

00:30:18.060 And it's Maricopa County.

00:30:19.640 It's the suburbs of Phoenix that are still counting.

00:30:23.600 So, look, it is certainly possible that we win Arizona.

00:30:27.900 Trump has won Arizona.

00:30:29.380 But three points is a bigger margin to close than the other states.

00:30:32.680 And so all four of those, we're going to wait and see.

00:30:35.560 Let's talk finally about the takeaways from the media.

00:30:39.420 And I'll go back to what I said earlier.

00:30:42.020 Donald Trump trumped them all.

00:30:43.940 He trumped the Democrats.

00:30:45.320 He trumped the globalists.

00:30:46.520 He trumped the deep state.

00:30:48.600 He trumped the news media.

00:30:50.040 They're still having meltdowns this morning.

00:30:53.920 The view, the girls on The View, the ladies on The View came out wearing black like it was a funeral. 1.00

00:30:59.440 Mental health crisis.

00:31:01.540 MSNBC's O'Donnell trashes the founding fathers.

00:31:04.480 Called the Electoral College voter suppression this morning.

00:31:08.520 Joy Reid at MSNBC said Florida extreme right-wing fascist state now officially.

00:31:14.060 Van Jones came out and started playing the race card and the gender card.

00:31:19.540 Jon Stewart had a total meltdown on his show.

00:31:23.180 And this is just what we're seeing in the moments after a Trump victory.

00:31:30.460 It's like they didn't learn their lesson.

00:31:33.260 I mean, you would think they would take away and go, okay, what did we do wrong?

00:31:36.780 They're not stopping.

00:31:38.040 You know, look, we'll see what happens.

00:31:42.200 I think there right now, there's a lot of blaming of Kamala for being a terrible candidate. 0.95

00:31:47.060 There's a lot of blaming of Joe Biden for having been essentially unconscious for several years.

00:31:56.940 I don't see the Democrats right now taking responsibility for, gosh, we advocated an agenda that was horrible for America.

00:32:06.580 You know, there used to be Senate moderates among the Democrats.

00:32:12.520 I don't know of any Senate moderates left.

00:32:16.020 The only two arguable ones were Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.

00:32:19.580 They're both gone.

00:32:21.020 And so that dynamic, you know, you look at, I would love to see some Democrats recalibrate and say, let's move to the middle.

00:32:32.320 Well, but I think right now they're just emoting.

00:32:36.120 They're just engaged in a combination of rage and shock and disbelief.

00:32:43.980 Look, you know, you and I talked about Mark Halperin, who used to be the head of political news at ABC, did an interview with Tucker Carlson,

00:32:51.820 where Halperin said that he thought there would be real mental health crises and violence from the left if Trump won.

00:33:00.700 That he was laying out the case that those of us not afflicted with Trump derangement syndrome do not understand just how much of a meltdown this will be.

00:33:12.680 Look, I hope we don't go there, but I do think I don't see many Democrats willing to repent and change their ways.

00:33:24.040 No, I couldn't agree with you more.

00:33:26.360 I want to want to ask you another question also about Elon Musk in just a second.

00:33:30.960 But first, let me tell you about my friends over at Berna.

00:33:33.940 If you want to be able to protect yourself and your family, but maybe you work at a place where you can't carry a firearm,

00:33:41.120 or maybe you have a child that's 18 or a mother or a grandmother that doesn't feel comfortable carrying a gun,

00:33:47.140 well, you've got to check out Berna.

00:33:49.600 Now, I have this, and I'm a gun owner.

00:33:51.600 I had to pull the trigger and use a firearm to protect my life.

00:33:54.680 But I love knowing that a Berna is an option now.

00:33:58.880 It is a less lethal pistol launcher.

00:34:01.360 Berna can save two lives, and it is a great complement to owning a firearm.

00:34:06.620 If you or your family is in a situation where you feel threatened, then you can start with less lethal.

00:34:12.500 It is legal in all 50 states.

00:34:15.100 There are no permits or background checks needed, and I own this, and I got them from my wife, my sister-in-law, my mother-in-law, my mom, and my sister.

00:34:24.120 The Berna is the answer because it's designed to be easily used by all age groups 18 and older.

00:34:29.780 The Berna launcher has powerful deterrents like tear gas and kinetic rounds with a 60-foot range.

00:34:39.080 One shot can incapacitate attackers for up to 40 minutes.

00:34:42.780 It is used by government agencies and law enforcement around the country.

00:34:46.640 And more than a half million units have been sold with more than 14,000 four-and-a-half-star reviews.

00:34:52.180 So if you want to know that you can always protect yourself and you want to have options, especially for young people, 18 and older, maybe you've got a daughter that's living by herself, visit Berna, that's B-Y-R-N-A, .com, slash verdict.

00:35:10.160 You're going to get 10% off your purchase, B-Y-R-N-A, .com, slash verdict, for 10% off your purchase.

00:35:19.720 That's Berna.com, slash verdict, 10% off, B-Y-R-N-A, .com.

00:35:25.180 All right, let me ask you this question.

00:35:26.960 You've actually met and chatted with Elon Musk.

00:35:30.320 There is something different that's happening right now, and that's the people around Trump.

00:35:34.720 So there's a very good chance that Elon Musk could be involved in the Trump administration on a real level.

00:35:41.700 We see him bring in people like RFK Jr.

00:35:43.960 We see him bring in different minds that traditional politicians have not done.

00:35:49.260 How significant could it be to have a guy like Elon Musk coming in and looking at accountability and efficiency with the United States government, which is clearly bloated?

00:36:00.460 And this is something he's really good at.

00:36:03.000 Yeah, look, Elon is extraordinary.

00:36:05.520 I know him well.

00:36:06.520 He's become a friend.

00:36:07.380 I've spent a lot of time with Elon.

00:36:09.900 I'll tell you, there are smart people you encounter in life.

00:36:14.080 Elon is next level. 0.96

00:36:15.680 I mean, there's just – the guy is frigging brilliant. 0.60

00:36:19.020 And he knows how to run a company.

00:36:21.200 Like, you look at the incredible success he has, whether it's Tesla, whether it's SpaceX, whether it's the boring company, whether it is X.

00:36:32.020 Like, he has an ability to run a – and by the way, many of those companies are, like, really precise manufacturers.

00:36:41.740 You look at SpaceX, where they're manufacturing rocket ships with precision within, like, a tenth of an inch or less.

00:36:50.400 I mean, it is – and I've been down to, like, their factory in Boca Chica down by Brownsville in the southern tip of Texas.

00:36:56.440 I mean, it is remarkable.

00:36:57.580 They're churning out a rocket ship a month, and they just built it out of nothing.

00:37:01.420 I mean, it is – it's incredible.

00:37:04.720 And Elon is all in.

00:37:06.880 We saw him pour himself into this election at the end.

00:37:10.640 I think it made a difference.

00:37:11.680 I think he made a difference in Pennsylvania, where he really devoted a lot of time and energy and money and personal credibility.

00:37:18.300 And I think it will be significant, his impact on the federal government.

00:37:22.660 Now, there are structural impediments to having efficiency in government.

00:37:28.460 And so I don't think people should think we're suddenly going to be in nirvana and everything will be solved because in a company, Elon can walk in and fire anyone he wants.

00:37:40.200 And, by the way, when he bought Twitter, he fired a whole bunch of the folks there and all the woke radicals.

00:37:45.320 He basically said, bye-bye, you're out of here.

00:37:47.800 In the federal government, that is much, much harder to do.

00:37:50.500 You've got civil service protections that enables career bureaucrats to burrow in. 1.00

00:37:56.560 I think we will see the Trump administration take on the career bureaucracy in a way that has never, ever happened before.

00:38:04.160 That's a big deal.

00:38:05.180 I expect Elon to play an important role in that.

00:38:07.500 But I don't want to understate the legal barriers, the bureaucratic barriers, that it is not like just coming into a company where you have the ability to give anyone a pink slip.

00:38:21.720 The bureaucracy will fight back.

00:38:24.240 And, by the way, in the first Trump term, we saw the deep state wage war on Donald Trump.

00:38:29.900 I very much hope the team coming in understands much, much better just how dangerous the foe is they're facing of the radical leftists who burrowed into the federal government and that they're better, better prepared and ready to take them on.

00:38:46.880 Yeah, no doubt about it.

00:38:48.200 And, by the way, saving free speech by buying X.

00:38:50.920 Just so people know how biased I would say the media is, and I'm talking about the media you have control over, Facebook.

00:39:00.820 We were comparing last night many conservative influencers, and, Senator, you're going to find this interesting.

00:39:07.060 From October the 9th through November the 5th, the reach that I had on Facebook was down 83.6% as a conservative on Facebook in the month leading up to election day.

00:39:26.020 And there were quite a few other conservatives.

00:39:28.980 I was talking earlier with Meghan McCain about this, and we opened up our analytics, our insights on our public pages.

00:39:36.900 And, again, I'm looking at it right now, 83.6%.

00:39:41.320 That's how much they turned off the faucet to free speech of conservative influencers on Facebook, on Meta, on Instagram in the last 30 days before the election.

00:39:53.440 So the liberals had free flow of intel and information and their side, and conservatives were throttled almost 85%.

00:40:02.900 I just think that's interesting to see what Elon Musk did to save.

00:40:07.620 Freedom of speech on X, he didn't do that there.

00:40:10.640 He let everybody talk.

00:40:12.140 God bless America when it comes to that.

00:40:14.140 Your final thoughts to all the listeners of Verdict, all those that came out and voted for you.

00:40:18.680 I know you want to say something to them as well.

00:40:20.780 Look, to the listeners of Verdict, you guys are amazing.

00:40:23.800 You're the most informed.

00:40:24.900 You're the most engaged.

00:40:26.120 You care about our nation.

00:40:27.640 You're fighting to save our nation.

00:40:29.840 And everyone in Texas who worked so unbelievably hard.

00:40:33.740 Look, this was a battle, I believe, about keeping Texas, Texas, my race.

00:40:38.720 The money, the media, everything that came in against us.

00:40:42.700 If you live in Texas, by the way, thank God the ads are over.

00:40:47.460 I mean, you couldn't turn on your TV without every second or third ad being an attack ad just hammering the living daylights out of me.

00:40:55.040 And the people of Texas, I'll tell you, it was inspirational.

00:40:57.520 You came out on the road with me.

00:40:58.720 We did a 53-stop bus tour all across the state of Texas, over 9,000 miles we covered.

00:41:06.420 We did rallies everywhere.

00:41:08.000 And it was incredible.

00:41:09.680 The people, and you're just ordinary people, students, senior citizens, single moms, Hispanics, African-Americans, just Texans standing up and saying, we want to keep Texas, Texas.

00:41:23.280 We want low taxes, low and reasonable regulations, lots of jobs.

00:41:27.680 We want security.

00:41:28.660 We want the border secure.

00:41:30.760 We want to support law enforcement.

00:41:32.080 We want criminals in jail.

00:41:33.340 We want to defend our freedom.

00:41:34.860 We want free speech, religious liberty, the Second Amendment.

00:41:37.200 All of that was on the ballot last night, and I want to say it is breathtaking, the Texans that came out for me.

00:41:43.960 And nationally, the people who supported the campaign, who contributed to the campaign, thank you, thank you, thank you.

00:41:50.300 And the people who supported Donald Trump, who supported Senate candidates and House candidates across the country, you helped change America, and I believe pull it back from the brink of destruction.

00:42:05.180 And I just want to say thank you to the incredible patriots who together saved America last night.

00:42:12.220 I will say this, too.

00:42:14.720 The work has just begun.

00:42:16.800 I promise you we're going to be fighting hard for you guys.

00:42:19.540 This is just the beginning.

00:42:21.300 Don't forget we do this show Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

00:42:23.980 Share this podcast wherever you can on social media, especially now that it works for conservatives again.

00:42:29.480 Share it.

00:42:30.520 Share it everywhere.

00:42:31.940 And don't forget, grab my podcast, the Ben Ferguson podcast.

00:42:35.140 I'll keep you up to date on those in-between days as well.

00:42:38.840 So grab that, and the Senate and I will see you back here on Friday morning.

00:42:44.480 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:42:47.000 Guaranteed human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - November 07, 2024

Election Recap： Victory for Trump and the Senate

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