Ep. 13 - The Stakes of 2020
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
170.78198
Summary
The Impeachment is over. Now the real political risk begins. Ted Cruz explains why impeachment is a bad idea, and why you should vote against it. Ted Cruz is running for re-election to the Senate in 2020.
Transcript
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But actually, we were talking about this a little bit last episode.
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Impeachment was always going to end the way it was going to end.
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It was never going to end in the removal of the president.
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In some ways, I wonder if impeachment was kind of the safe period for conservatives in politics.
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We are told every single election cycle, this is the most important election of our lifetimes.
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I want to know from your vantage on the inside, in the Senate, what is really at stake in 2020?
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Look, I think it is an unbelievably consequential election on a lot of fronts.
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Look back over the last year, over the last three years.
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Do you like the abuse of the Department of Justice and the FBI and targeting the president and attacking the president and impeaching him for partisan purposes?
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Do you like the squad and AOC attacking Israel, embracing socialism, and going nuts?
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If you do, well, depending on what happens in November, we'll either get a lot more of it or a lot less of it.
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I mean, obviously, they've run far to the left.
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I mean, just beyond more crazy AOC tweets and speeches.
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If the Democrats are rewarded in November, if they have a good election day.
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Everything we've seen now gets amplified, and it gets amplified tenfold.
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And by the way, if it doesn't work, they stop doing it.
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If they get punished, look, it's a little bit like when your dog takes a crap on the sofa.
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If you whack him with the newspaper, he'll stop doing that.
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Politicians need to be whacked with newspapers more.
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I think that's an issue that everybody could get behind in the whole country.
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Except the problem is the newspapers work for the Democrats, so they're not going to whack them.
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And we could take a total digression and go Joe Pesci, good fellows and whacking politicians,
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Now we're going to get banned from Twitter, which is actually something I want to ask you
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Why do you think it was that Barack Obama was never impeached?
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Well, I don't know why, because the Bill Clinton impeachment didn't go well.
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So Bill Clinton's president, Republicans impeach him.
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Bill Clinton loves it because the American people say, look, this guy's actually focusing
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And who are these crazy Republicans that are focused on just a partisan fight?
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Well, so fast forward to the Obama administration.
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Listen, there were grassroots activists asking all the time, impeach Obama.
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I never thought we should impeach Obama, but I would get asked.
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I mean, the first thing I've ever been elected to in my life is Senate.
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So I'm running, I'd be with activists and they'd say, why don't we impeach Obama?
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And, you know, I'd usually say, I wouldn't necessarily argue with them just because it's
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It's not a good idea to get in a fight with like grassroots activists.
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But I just, the answer I would usually give is, you know what?
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The better solution is beat him at the ballot box.
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That rather than use impeachment, trust democracy or trust the democratic republic we have.
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We're not a pure democracy, but trust the democratic checks.
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So what that means, and by the way, every Republican had accepted in Congress, it was
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If the Democrats win doing this, every bad behavior gets amplified.
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So that's the broader meta level, but it's a very real level.
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That's an important point because what you're saying garbage will get, and not just a little
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worse, a lot worse, like the vindictive, personal, nasty, abuse my power, use everything
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for partisan gain, rip the State of the Union speech.
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Look, fast forward to where they go if this gets rewarded.
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The point that is so interesting here is that I thought we had the final impeachment vote
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But actually what you're saying is the really important impeachment vote, the vote that is
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going to tell us what future impeachments will look like or what future behavior from the
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In November, listen, the Senate acquitted President Trump about 4.30 in the afternoon.
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Five and a half hours earlier at 11 a.m., Jerry Nadler announces they're subpoenaing John
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And if they win in November, all of that gets amplified.
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Every politician says it's the most important election.
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And listen, if it's your rear end on the election, they need it.
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They're actually not necessarily lying when they say that.
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Look, you remember what Reagan said against Jimmy Carter, where he said, you know, recession
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And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his job.
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I mean, all of that is very real if it impacts you.
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But if you look at substantively, I mean, think back to the State of the Union.
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Think back to the president reciting all the incredible gains in the economy that, frankly,
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if you had predicted three years ago, no one would have believed you.
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What actually has me worried about 2020 are the big changes, the changes that are more radical
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than we've seen before, the changes that won't be so easy to undo.
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So listen, I think the very first priority Democrats will have is stay in power forever.
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So I think they will look at structural changes.
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How do they structurally make it so they can never lose?
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They haven't, but they've rarely had the majorities.
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And you mean majorities in House, Senate, presidency?
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So for example, all right, we wake up January 2021.
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I think one of the first things that happens is they end the filibuster.
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So the filibuster is one of these terms that everybody kind of knows what it means.
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What has it meant for American political history?
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So look, historically, the filibuster meant unlimited debate.
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It meant you could stand up and talk as long as you want, what I did in 2013 on Obamacare.
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And when people think of filibuster, they think of Jimmy Stewart standing up and doing this long filibuster.
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What it means is a practical matter, though, in the Senate is that to take up any legislation, you need 60 votes.
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Even you're not controlling the Senate, but you've got enough votes that you can slow things down.
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So that's how the Senate has operated on legislation.
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It has been a tool over and over again to just slow things down.
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So when Obama was president, there was a period.
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So there was a brief period where they had a Democratic supermajority.
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That's when they were ramming things through when they had 60 votes.
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And that 60th vote, you remember who got elected?
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Because it was, holy cow, we've got to stop this 60th vote.
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And it was basically a referendum on Obamacare.
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And the people of Massachusetts said, give us a Republican.
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And when it does happen, they can get through major transformational legislation like Obamacare.
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So when they fell to 59, there were some old bull Democrats who wouldn't end the filibuster.
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It was just, it was a different Democratic Party in 2009 than it is in 2020.
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The Democratic caucus in the Senate, every one of them would vote to end the filibuster.
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By the way, we saw them do that with Harry Reid when they ended the filibuster on judges.
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This is what makes me very nervous about it because for so long, the filibuster was sacred because whatever party had the majority knew that eventually one day they'd be in the minority.
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So, all right, let's assume you're Chuck Schumer's political strategist.
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You want to, number one, change the electorate.
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But not just illegal immigration, make everyone here illegally citizens.
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I've seen estimates as high as 18, 20 million people here illegally.
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But I think right at the top of the priority list is make as many illegal aliens as possible, citizens and voters instantaneously.
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Because those new voters are much more likely to vote for Democrats.
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I think they're convinced they will vote Democratic.
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And by the way, that's not true with Hispanic voters generally.
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I mean, in Texas, I get over 40% of the Hispanic vote in Texas.
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The Democrats have gone all in on gambling that illegal aliens are going to vote Democrat.
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So that's a big structural change, ending the filibuster.
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And then through that, if they control everything, you get amnesty for maybe tens of millions of people.
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Florida turns bright blue and never votes Republican again.
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If Republicans lose Texas, we're never becoming president again.
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If they do just that, let's assume they do nothing else.
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They enact the filibuster and they make 12 million illegal alien citizens.
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And you don't think Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders want to do that?
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If they take the Senate, let's assume they have 51, 52 Democratic senators.
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I think high on their list, get more Democratic senators.
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How do you get, are you going to annex Greenland?
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I have to admit it was a very interesting idea.
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They can make the District of Columbia a state.
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You want a state guaranteed to elect Democrats for all eternity.
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D.C. as a state would be the most liberal state in the country.
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Joe Lieberman proposed it right before he left the Senate.
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And so if you're Chuck Schumer, you make D.C. a state and suddenly you get two brand new Democratic senators.
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You get debate whether if Puerto Rico is a state, would they elect Republicans?
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I don't know the answer to that, but I can tell you that the Democratic Party thinks they'd elect Democrats.
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So you could have a situation with some real probability that you add four Democratic senators in the U.S.
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And then suddenly you're trying to say, how do you get the Senate back?
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And instead of being down 51-49, you're down 56-49.
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Let's take a big priority of Democrats right now, and I think one of the first bills they would pass if they take control, which is national instantaneous voter registration.
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So right now, voter registration is done by the states, and you've got to sign up for it.
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State and local level, and there are a lot of state and local levels that combat voter fraud.
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They want to put the states and local governments out of the election business.
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And make everyone immediately an eligible voter because they don't – it's the same reason they fight photo ID.
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You want to talk about structurally ensuring they stay in power.
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You know, we're seeing them do this at the local level where I am in California, where I am when I'm not in Washington.
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They pass these laws, motor voter laws, so you get instantaneous registration at the DMV.
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Oh, and by the way, I wouldn't put it past them to have electronic voting, to have, number one, a holiday, a mandated federal holiday on Election Day, and electronic voting.
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Because, you know, we've seen how well that worked in Iowa.
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They'll have the same guy, Robbie Mook, who – what a name.
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He was Hillary Clinton, I guess, her campaign manager.
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And he was behind that app that completely botched the Iowa caucuses.
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So instead, we'll just have the entire elections run through an app.
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If it's not Democratic operatives running the app, it'll be big tech.
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Because we can trust big tech to be in charge of our elections.
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They would never censor conservatives, have a political bias.
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And as bad as they are now, in a Democratic – in a Bernie Sanders administration, they would – I am not exaggerating when I say this podcast could very well be off the air.
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Well, because social media, these big tech companies, they go after conservatives even when the Republicans have the Senate, when you can grill them, drag them to the Capitol.
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Which you have – in particular, you've done a lot.
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And the Department of Justice and the executive branch.
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Look, big tech right now doesn't want DOJ to break them up under the antitrust laws.
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You get Bernie Sanders in power, they're going to come in.
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Look, a lot of the Democrats – do you remember when Mark Zuckerberg testified in the Senate and there were like 45 senators?
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It was the Commerce Committee and Judiciary Committee.
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I was one of them that grilled Mark Zuckerberg.
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Just about every senator grilled him, both Democrats and Republicans.
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But if you listened, it was like two ships passing in the night.
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Because what the Democrats were saying was, why the hell did you let Donald Trump win?
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So they weren't – what the Republicans were saying is, why are you censoring people?
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What the Democrats were saying is, why didn't you censor –
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The Republicans were kind of meandering around like, so what's this internet thingy again?
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It was not the most effective cross-examination in the history of the Senate.
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But the Democrats were calling for more censorship.
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They were saying, you let these crazy conservatives speak, and look what happened.
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And they'll put it in the frame of, let's stop lying.
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And so they'll tell Big Tech – Big Tech's already going down this road, but imagine it accelerated with the federal government.
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They define as a lie anything they disagree with.
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And that means you can't disagree – did you ever read 1984?
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Mr. Waugh was our teacher, and he assigned 1984 in 1984.
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We're all like, all right, that's kind of cool.
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They're always just saying we're at war with Eurasia.
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They switch it to – and suddenly what was said in the past is no longer operative.
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And then throw in, all right, economic policies, not just repealing the tax cuts, massive new taxes.
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Who do you think – who do you think will be EPA administrator?
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If you have a President Sanders or a President Warren, why wouldn't they put someone like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in?
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So I – when I asked you what was at stake here, I was kind of hoping you would just tell me they're going to raise your taxes.
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And I'm going to hate that, but I'll get over it.
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This is sufficiently terrifying that before all of this happens and they shut down everybody who writes into the mailbag –
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Look, the Democrats are talking about packing the Supreme Court.
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In other words, expanding it from nine – the number they're talking about is to 15 justices.
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At the end of all of – I am – the thought of Supreme Court Justice Barack Obama alone would be enough.
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So before all of this happens and before we have to go, I want to get to a mailbag question before all of our listeners are censored.
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From Bill, what is the most important thing for you to accomplish in the Senate after all of this impeachment stuff blows over?
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Yes, between now and Election Day, we're going to confirm judges, keep confirming good, effective judges.
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And the most important thing I'll do is defend the principles of liberty.
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It's why I'm trying to engage – is take on socialism, fight back on the forces that are trying to strip our liberty, defend free enterprise, and defend the Constitution.
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More broadly, in terms of policy, the legislation I'm most proud of having passed is legislation that I introduced as part of the tax cut bill that expanded school choice.
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I think school choice, it is the most important civil rights issue facing America.
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For a lot of people, it's their only ticket out of poverty.
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And, you know, President Trump, during his State of the Union, called on Congress to pass my school choice legislation that it's $100 billion in federal tax credits for businesses and for individuals that contribute to scholarship-granting organizations, that are giving scholarships to kids K-12, and also to adults in vocational training.
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$100 billion, you want to talk about transformational.
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And if we empower kids to choose the school that's best for them, that has the ability to change the world.
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But, unfortunately, now the Democrats have the House, the Republicans have the Senate, so there's not going to be a lot of legislating.
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That won't happen between now and Election Day, but if we have a good election in 2020, I think it can happen going forward.
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Then there's a chance that we could – I mean, and I guess that gets to the whole point.
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Last question is just a personal question from Alex.
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Does it bother you that the impeachment vote could have been taken three minutes after the start of all of this, and it would have produced the same results?
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There was a lot of debate early on and online about should we do a motion to dismiss at the outset.
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And I thought that was an ill-advised strategy.
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Number one, if we'd done a motion to dismiss at the outset, I think we probably would have lost it.
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I think some of the wobbly Republicans that we had to work to get, they weren't there at the outset of this.
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But number two, we all saw that the House was a kangaroo court.
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I don't think it actually would have served the Constitution or the country for the Senate to be seen as a kangaroo court or, in fact, be one.
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And so just throwing it out on day one, I think we had a responsibility to say we're going to do a fair trial.
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When the House votes out articles of impeachment, we're going to have a fair trial.
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And the other reason why I like it, just personally, is because by dragging it out, it actually was very instructive.
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I guess that's the whole point of this podcast was to be instructive on what is really happening, what impeachment means, how it works.
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Unfortunately, this episode of the podcast has instructed me of all the many horrors that could befall us after November.
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So I'm probably not going to sleep between now and our next podcast.
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But it's a lot to think on, and it's important to know what the stakes really are.