Verdict with Ted Cruz - February 16, 2022


Exclusive Preview： Welcome to The Cloakroom


Episode Stats

Length

30 minutes

Words per Minute

186.04395

Word Count

5,606

Sentence Count

317

Misogynist Sentences

5

Hate Speech Sentences

28


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.660 Guaranteed human.
00:00:04.280 Hey, Verdict fans.
00:00:05.460 I want to give you a sneak peek of my new series
00:00:07.460 with Senator Ted Cruz.
00:00:08.580 It's called The Cloak Room on Verdict Plus.
00:00:10.760 The only place you're going to be able to find these episodes
00:00:12.920 is on Verdict Plus.
00:00:14.320 So what are you waiting for?
00:00:15.860 Go to verdictwithtedcruz.com slash plus,
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00:00:23.980 That is verdictwithtedcruz.com slash plus.
00:00:26.980 Use my promo code, cloakroom,
00:00:28.520 to get one month free on an annual subscription.
00:00:31.560 Without further ado, here is The Cloak Room.
00:00:34.880 Hello and welcome.
00:00:36.100 I am so excited to introduce today
00:00:37.900 The Cloak Room on Verdict Plus.
00:00:40.340 This is only for Verdict Plus subscribers.
00:00:42.580 If you are a member, go ahead and become a subscriber
00:00:44.920 so that you can see all the cool stuff
00:00:46.620 that we're going to be talking about over here.
00:00:48.120 This is a brand new series with Senator Ted Cruz.
00:00:50.580 It's co-hosted by me, Liz Wheeler.
00:00:52.440 Basically, what's going to happen is
00:00:53.940 I'm going to pick his brain like I would in a strategy session.
00:00:56.800 It is a behind-the-scenes peek into details
00:00:59.480 of what goes on in D.C.,
00:01:00.660 just like The Cloak Room of the actual Senate.
00:01:03.340 Today, we're going to talk about
00:01:04.400 how to apply a constructed foreign policy
00:01:06.880 to a situation, a real-life situation like Ukraine.
00:01:10.020 We're also going to talk about Whoopi Goldberg,
00:01:11.620 and we're going to talk about Tom Brady.
00:01:13.100 Again, if you are a member of the Verdict Plus community already,
00:01:17.080 then become a subscriber so that you can join us.
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00:01:27.560 Senator, I'm pretty excited about this.
00:01:29.460 Yeah, I think this is going to be awesome.
00:01:31.760 And in fact, it may be a good thing to start.
00:01:34.400 Do you know what the actual Senate Cloak Room is?
00:01:37.160 I do, but I have to tell you,
00:01:38.720 I don't know a lot of details,
00:01:40.260 except it has this sort of cloak and dagger connotation.
00:01:44.800 It's a back room, right?
00:01:46.480 Where you guys go to have your off-the-floor,
00:01:48.400 off-the-record conversations?
00:01:49.840 So, you know, if you turn on C-SPAN,
00:01:51.840 you see the floor of the Senate.
00:01:53.080 And so that's where there are 100 desks,
00:01:55.360 and that's where we go to vote,
00:01:56.620 and that's where when we're speaking on the Senate,
00:01:58.220 we debate, and that's all on C-SPAN.
00:02:00.300 And if you look at someone who's speaking,
00:02:02.480 and you're kind of in the middle of the floor of the Senate,
00:02:05.060 behind you are a couple of doors.
00:02:08.180 And there are two cloakrooms, actually.
00:02:09.600 So there's a Republican cloakroom
00:02:10.940 and a Democratic cloakroom.
00:02:12.940 And the Republican cloakroom,
00:02:14.220 to the surprise of nobody,
00:02:15.360 is behind where all the Republicans sit,
00:02:16.800 and the Democrats are behind where all the Democrats sit.
00:02:18.720 So you go through those doors,
00:02:19.920 and basically the cloakroom is a room in the back there.
00:02:23.480 There are a bunch of couches.
00:02:24.620 There are leather chairs like this.
00:02:26.820 There's still a bunch of ashtrays.
00:02:28.340 I don't think anyone has actually smoked
00:02:29.860 in the cloakroom for decades,
00:02:32.040 but there's still ashtrays from back in the days
00:02:34.500 when they did.
00:02:35.500 And then you go around the corner,
00:02:37.860 and there are a bunch of phone booths.
00:02:41.340 And the phone booths are where you can go,
00:02:43.620 and you can get on your cell phone and call someone.
00:02:45.320 You can call your staff.
00:02:46.000 You can call whoever you want
00:02:46.880 if you want to have a private conversation.
00:02:48.920 And so people gather and talk in the cloakroom.
00:02:51.480 There are TVs up there.
00:02:52.500 There's cloakroom staff that is sort of paying attention
00:02:55.240 to what's happening on the floor.
00:02:56.380 But it's basically the room in the back
00:02:58.500 of the Senate floor where you gather
00:03:01.800 when you're not on the floor,
00:03:03.000 but you're not back in your office,
00:03:04.420 which is far away.
00:03:05.620 So let me ask you this.
00:03:06.720 Is this like a normal staffing room,
00:03:09.300 or is this where you go
00:03:10.300 when you really want to be off the record,
00:03:12.040 and you want to wheel and deal, if you will?
00:03:14.720 Is this where shady deals are made?
00:03:16.820 You know, I wouldn't say shady deals,
00:03:18.720 but it's just kind of like
00:03:19.660 if you're having a whole series of votes,
00:03:22.420 it's where you'll go hang out.
00:03:23.920 There's usually a little bit of food in there,
00:03:25.960 like they're peanuts,
00:03:26.940 and it actually goes back and forth,
00:03:28.700 like in the Republican cloakroom.
00:03:31.220 The Georgia senators would want Georgia peanuts there.
00:03:34.240 There'd be North Carolina peanuts.
00:03:35.540 There'd be a little back and forth.
00:03:37.820 There's some candy in there that you kind of grab,
00:03:41.500 but it's mostly,
00:03:42.720 it's also where they put things like condolence books.
00:03:45.980 Like we just had a few weeks back,
00:03:48.640 Johnny Isakson,
00:03:49.540 who had been the Republican senator from Georgia,
00:03:51.940 he passed away.
00:03:53.300 So we had a condolence book where we all went in
00:03:55.560 and each of us signed something to Johnny's family
00:03:58.140 and just thanks him for his service.
00:04:00.680 So the cloakroom is a place
00:04:01.720 you'll find something like that.
00:04:03.020 But it's kind of where you sit around and hang out.
00:04:06.300 People will tell jokes.
00:04:08.560 People will talk about sports.
00:04:10.240 I mean, it's where you get senators
00:04:12.540 hanging out in a more relaxed context.
00:04:16.040 So it's really behind the scenes,
00:04:17.820 which means that this series on Verdict Plus
00:04:20.460 is very aptly named
00:04:21.440 because that's exactly what it is behind the scenes.
00:04:23.540 So one of the things that is going to be unique
00:04:26.040 to this series is I want to talk about the philosophy
00:04:28.620 of the political philosophy
00:04:30.820 and sometimes the moral philosophy
00:04:32.300 of some of the things that are happening in our nation.
00:04:34.540 So not just the practicalities,
00:04:35.840 which are also important.
00:04:36.800 And we discuss those all the time in a public area,
00:04:39.740 but the philosophy.
00:04:40.540 And so what I mean by this
00:04:41.380 is Whoopi Goldberg on The View this week
00:04:43.740 said that the Holocaust was not about race.
00:04:46.360 And she faced an immediate backlash for this,
00:04:49.200 as she should.
00:04:50.300 And she ended up apologizing for this.
00:04:52.960 And she just said,
00:04:53.760 I apologize.
00:04:54.360 I was wrong about this.
00:04:55.160 I stand corrected, I think were her words.
00:04:57.340 So my question to you is,
00:04:58.820 obviously not was she wrong?
00:05:00.140 Of course she was wrong.
00:05:00.960 Obviously the Holocaust was about race.
00:05:02.980 Obviously the Democratic Party
00:05:04.340 is a little bit too cozy to anti-Semites.
00:05:07.640 And so they tend to play footsie a little bit
00:05:10.740 with these folks.
00:05:11.760 My question to you is,
00:05:13.140 given the cancel culture
00:05:15.180 that's become pervasive in our nation,
00:05:17.040 when should we accept the apologies
00:05:20.200 of people in the public eye
00:05:22.360 who make really nasty comments like this,
00:05:26.040 like the claim that the Holocaust is not about race?
00:05:27.740 Oh, look, I think when it comes to public comments
00:05:31.740 on left or right,
00:05:33.000 we should be pretty forgiving,
00:05:34.860 particularly when someone says,
00:05:36.380 I misspoke.
00:05:37.580 I'll tell you one reality of living a life
00:05:39.820 where you have a TV camera pointed at you all day long,
00:05:42.060 which you do and I do,
00:05:43.740 is if you say enough millions of words,
00:05:47.120 some of them are going to come out wrong.
00:05:48.840 Um, and so, you know,
00:05:52.500 look, is the left,
00:05:55.680 are there too many anti-Semites
00:05:57.840 among the hard left,
00:05:59.140 people like the squad who hate Israel?
00:06:00.940 Yes.
00:06:01.560 I have no indications
00:06:02.400 that that describes Whoopi Goldberg.
00:06:04.160 I certainly don't know anything.
00:06:05.660 It was a dumb thing to say.
00:06:09.060 Um, but she said it was a dumb thing to say.
00:06:11.260 So I'm going to give her credit
00:06:11.940 for sort of backing.
00:06:13.100 I mean, you know,
00:06:13.520 the Holocaust is one of the most grotesque evils
00:06:16.720 in the history of humanity.
00:06:18.460 And it is driven by the explicitly racist ideology
00:06:21.940 of Hitler and the Nazis
00:06:24.180 that viewed Jews and viewed others,
00:06:28.320 but Jews in particular,
00:06:29.380 as an inferior race and as subhuman.
00:06:32.940 And in fact, we've talked about on Verdict
00:06:35.640 how that justification of this group of people
00:06:40.800 does not qualify as people
00:06:43.100 in the history of mankind
00:06:46.520 has almost always been
00:06:48.640 a predicate for horrific evil,
00:06:51.340 whether it is the Holocaust
00:06:52.580 and the Nazis believing
00:06:53.920 that Jews did not qualify as human beings,
00:06:56.680 whether it was the justifications of slavery
00:06:59.420 and believing that African-Americans
00:07:01.160 were not people but were property,
00:07:03.700 or whether it is the justifications behind Roe
00:07:06.380 that unborn children are not children,
00:07:08.480 that any time you take a human being
00:07:11.540 and say they're not a human being,
00:07:15.000 that history is shown
00:07:17.240 is usually the predicate to terrible evil.
00:07:21.220 And so, you know,
00:07:24.440 I'm glad that we'll be apologized for that,
00:07:28.140 but as a general matter,
00:07:29.120 I don't think we ought to be silencing people
00:07:31.960 for stumbling over what they say
00:07:35.500 or saying something stupid.
00:07:36.440 No, and that's why I think
00:07:37.960 this is a good discussion, actually,
00:07:39.500 because, I mean, like you said,
00:07:40.960 we both work in the public eye here.
00:07:43.140 Every one of us has said something
00:07:44.580 that came out wrong
00:07:45.760 for whatever reason
00:07:47.500 or misspoke or made an error,
00:07:49.280 and correcting that
00:07:50.260 or apologizing for that is fine,
00:07:51.640 but there's also the matter
00:07:52.820 of someone betraying their true colors, I guess,
00:07:56.140 or betraying a poisonous ideology,
00:07:57.740 one that is as poisonous
00:07:58.760 as you just described,
00:08:00.080 and perhaps that's good for people to know.
00:08:02.500 But like I said,
00:08:03.180 the philosophy of cancel culture
00:08:04.600 is sometimes interesting to discuss,
00:08:07.920 as I think it is here.
00:08:10.020 I want to move along these topics
00:08:11.740 kind of quickly, though,
00:08:12.700 because this one,
00:08:14.240 are you ready?
00:08:14.660 I mean, when I warned you
00:08:15.800 that we were going to nerd out
00:08:17.000 on this series,
00:08:18.020 this is exactly what I meant.
00:08:19.200 So you gave a speech
00:08:20.220 in the spring of 2019
00:08:21.640 about foreign policy.
00:08:23.660 Now, this wasn't about
00:08:25.200 a particular real-life event
00:08:27.800 that was happening around the world.
00:08:28.940 This was a presentation
00:08:30.380 of foreign policy philosophy,
00:08:32.260 and this is something
00:08:34.080 that I think is a lost art in the Senate.
00:08:36.200 It used to be that all senators
00:08:37.140 had a constructed foreign policy.
00:08:39.400 Now, most politicians,
00:08:40.520 even in the highest offices in our land,
00:08:42.540 don't have a constructed foreign policy,
00:08:44.680 and I think that's why we're seeing,
00:08:46.720 when it comes to Russia and Ukraine,
00:08:48.560 why we're seeing this differing of opinion,
00:08:53.040 this spectrum among conservatives.
00:08:54.860 Some people are very interventionist,
00:08:56.280 some people are very isolationist,
00:08:57.740 and there's this disagreement
00:08:59.360 on how to handle
00:09:00.460 what's happening in the world right now
00:09:02.020 because people don't have
00:09:02.960 a preconstructed philosophy
00:09:04.960 on foreign policy,
00:09:06.540 and you do.
00:09:07.940 Yours is,
00:09:08.500 and you say it's not actually
00:09:09.600 a middle ground
00:09:10.440 between isolationism
00:09:11.600 and interventionism.
00:09:12.820 You say it's actually like a triangle.
00:09:14.440 It's a third point.
00:09:15.480 So, first of all,
00:09:16.400 can we talk just for a minute
00:09:17.840 about what your philosophy,
00:09:19.980 all world real-life events aside,
00:09:21.800 what your philosophy
00:09:22.640 on foreign policy is?
00:09:24.380 Yeah.
00:09:24.560 Look, I'm happy to,
00:09:26.420 and, you know,
00:09:28.400 the conventional wisdom
00:09:29.500 looking at Republican foreign policy
00:09:31.160 is that it's binary,
00:09:33.580 that they're one of two approaches,
00:09:35.900 that you're either
00:09:37.140 what's typically called
00:09:38.260 an interventionist
00:09:39.280 or a neocon,
00:09:40.460 which is,
00:09:41.680 your approach is,
00:09:42.680 we've got to go defend democracy,
00:09:44.160 we've got to go use our military,
00:09:45.480 we've got to invade countries,
00:09:46.580 we've got to get engaged
00:09:47.260 in nation building.
00:09:48.840 There have been a lot of Republicans
00:09:50.400 who have embraced that,
00:09:52.160 that that had its assent
00:09:54.200 under the presidency
00:09:55.020 of George W. Bush,
00:09:56.380 but there have been people
00:09:57.880 from John McCain
00:09:59.240 and Lindsey Graham
00:10:00.160 to Marco Rubio
00:10:02.300 and Tom Cotton
00:10:03.220 that are explicitly interventionist.
00:10:08.240 On the other side
00:10:09.400 are the isolationists,
00:10:10.660 and the most notable proponents
00:10:12.620 of that are Ron Paul
00:10:13.660 and Rand Paul,
00:10:14.380 both of whom,
00:10:15.140 but there are others,
00:10:15.880 particularly in the House,
00:10:16.640 there are several other people
00:10:17.440 who I think would fall
00:10:18.300 into the more isolationist camp.
00:10:21.840 And it used to be
00:10:23.100 that if you're a Republican,
00:10:24.280 you had to be one of the two.
00:10:26.060 I think both of those are wrong.
00:10:27.780 I disagree strongly
00:10:29.300 with both of those.
00:10:30.400 And as you noted,
00:10:31.420 I've described my views
00:10:32.540 as a third point on the triangle.
00:10:37.300 I describe myself
00:10:38.680 as a non-interventionist hawk.
00:10:42.160 Now, what does that mean?
00:10:44.000 It means that the central touchstone
00:10:46.600 for all U.S. military involvement
00:10:48.660 and for foreign policy
00:10:49.980 should be protecting
00:10:51.880 the vital national security interest
00:10:53.700 of the United States.
00:10:55.860 What does that mean
00:10:56.700 as a practical matter?
00:10:57.520 It means we should be
00:10:58.080 very, very reluctant
00:10:58.980 to engage in military conflict.
00:11:01.900 But we should also be focused
00:11:04.940 on the purpose and the objective.
00:11:06.580 So let's make it specific
00:11:07.540 because that's very abstract.
00:11:08.580 So let's make it,
00:11:09.540 let's bring it to concrete matters.
00:11:12.040 And let's take a couple of
00:11:13.640 foreign policy disputes in the past,
00:11:16.060 and then I'll actually do one
00:11:17.700 that is going on right now
00:11:18.940 in a discussion we had today
00:11:20.380 that illustrates this at this point.
00:11:22.280 Yeah, apply it to Ukraine.
00:11:24.500 So let me, let me,
00:11:26.140 let me first start with history
00:11:27.480 and then go to Ukraine.
00:11:30.600 When Barack Obama was president,
00:11:33.020 he wanted to attack Syria
00:11:36.960 when Bashar Assad crossed Obama's red line
00:11:40.740 and used chemical weapons.
00:11:41.900 Obama drew a red line,
00:11:42.900 said if you use chemical weapons,
00:11:44.280 we're going to attack you.
00:11:45.600 Assad did,
00:11:46.340 and Obama says,
00:11:46.880 let's go attack.
00:11:48.980 I was in the Senate at the time
00:11:50.440 and my view was,
00:11:51.240 okay, I'm going to keep an open mind.
00:11:52.280 I want to hear
00:11:52.880 how the commander-in-chief
00:11:53.980 justifies this.
00:11:55.080 Explain to me
00:11:56.260 the vital U.S. national security interest
00:11:59.400 in attacking.
00:12:00.320 And I pressed the Obama administration
00:12:03.360 both publicly
00:12:04.120 and in classified settings.
00:12:05.880 I said, okay,
00:12:07.520 at the time,
00:12:08.560 there were nine major rebel groups.
00:12:11.400 Bashar Assad is a monster.
00:12:13.480 He killed 400,000 of his own citizens.
00:12:15.440 He's a bad, bad guy.
00:12:17.360 But I said, all right,
00:12:18.000 if we attack him
00:12:18.940 and you topple him,
00:12:21.200 he has a big chemical weapons stash
00:12:22.820 and they fall into the hands of the rebels.
00:12:24.640 There were, at the time,
00:12:25.340 nine major rebel groups.
00:12:27.260 Seven of them were affiliated
00:12:28.540 with radical Islamic terrorists.
00:12:30.080 They were people like Al-Qaeda,
00:12:31.380 Al-Nusra.
00:12:32.980 And I said, well,
00:12:34.220 if chemical weapons fall into the hands
00:12:36.460 of people like Al-Qaeda and ISIS
00:12:37.880 who want to kill us,
00:12:39.280 that's worse for America.
00:12:41.180 I don't want people
00:12:42.220 who want to kill us
00:12:43.080 to have weapons to kill us.
00:12:45.520 The Obama administration
00:12:46.800 could not give a coherent answer
00:12:48.520 in terms of how they prevent
00:12:49.760 that from happening.
00:12:50.720 So I opposed military intervention
00:12:53.040 in Syria
00:12:53.560 because I said,
00:12:54.140 it's not protecting America.
00:12:55.460 It's not protecting our lives.
00:12:57.260 Rand Paul and I agreed on that.
00:12:58.560 We were both on the same page on that.
00:12:59.980 Now, Rand and I were
00:13:00.660 for very different reasons.
00:13:01.960 Rand just from the beginning
00:13:03.080 said, nope, nope, absolutely not.
00:13:04.720 Now, I could have imagined
00:13:07.320 a military mission
00:13:09.740 that I would have supported
00:13:10.700 if Obama had said,
00:13:11.740 look, there's a chemical weapons cache here.
00:13:13.840 It's big.
00:13:14.560 It's significant.
00:13:15.320 We're going to come in
00:13:15.960 and either destroy it
00:13:16.920 or seize it and take it away
00:13:18.140 so they can't be used
00:13:19.440 against us or our allies.
00:13:21.040 I could have seen a mission
00:13:22.160 focused on protecting America
00:13:25.040 that might have made sense.
00:13:26.680 That was not what Obama did.
00:13:28.280 On the other hand,
00:13:30.340 Iran,
00:13:31.780 the Ayatollah Khamenei
00:13:33.020 getting a nuclear weapon
00:13:34.200 I think is an existential threat
00:13:36.500 to the United States.
00:13:37.500 I think the risks are too high
00:13:38.880 that the Ayatollah
00:13:40.120 who chants death to America
00:13:41.420 and death to Israel
00:13:42.340 would use a nuclear weapon
00:13:44.460 and that's why I'm the leading opponent
00:13:47.320 of the Iran nuclear deal.
00:13:48.800 It's why I've said if need be,
00:13:50.240 if Iran is on the verge
00:13:51.380 of getting a nuclear weapon,
00:13:52.960 we should do whatever it takes
00:13:55.360 to stop it,
00:13:56.000 including military force.
00:13:57.100 Now, to be clear,
00:13:58.600 when I say military force,
00:14:00.480 I don't mean go invade Iran
00:14:02.720 and spend 20 years there
00:14:04.000 trying to turn it
00:14:04.760 into a liberal democracy.
00:14:07.040 I mean, bomb living crap out of it
00:14:08.980 and level what they're doing
00:14:10.200 and leave.
00:14:11.580 Like, the focus should be
00:14:13.020 protecting America.
00:14:14.640 And another way of phrasing it, Liz,
00:14:17.460 is peace through strength,
00:14:18.580 which is what Reagan's philosophy was,
00:14:20.980 that if you're strong enough,
00:14:22.720 you don't have to use military force.
00:14:24.960 Biggest country Ronald Reagan
00:14:27.180 ever invaded was Grenada.
00:14:29.540 Because he was so strong,
00:14:31.400 our enemies didn't want to mess with us.
00:14:33.060 And by the way,
00:14:34.580 Trump's foreign policy
00:14:36.000 was very much with me
00:14:37.920 on that third point in the triangle,
00:14:39.360 where you think about it,
00:14:41.780 he wanted to withdraw
00:14:43.240 from foreign conflicts.
00:14:44.440 He didn't want to leave
00:14:45.420 our soldiers and sailors
00:14:46.680 and airmen and Marines
00:14:47.660 in foreign theaters
00:14:48.860 getting shot at.
00:14:49.820 But at the same time,
00:14:50.880 he was strong
00:14:51.980 and took out, for example,
00:14:53.920 General Soleimani,
00:14:56.120 the leading state sponsor
00:14:57.280 of terrorism in Iran.
00:14:58.560 And so that's peace through strength
00:15:01.980 or being a non-interventionist talk.
00:15:03.860 Yeah, and President Trump
00:15:04.900 called it America first.
00:15:06.220 You call it national interest.
00:15:07.580 It's essentially,
00:15:08.280 as you say, the same thing.
00:15:09.560 Yes.
00:15:09.860 Here's where it becomes
00:15:10.680 a little more nuanced.
00:15:11.520 So here's my question here.
00:15:12.520 As it applies to Russia
00:15:14.520 building up or amassing troops
00:15:16.580 on the border of Ukraine,
00:15:18.340 how do you determine,
00:15:19.600 under your foreign policy philosophy,
00:15:22.200 how do you determine
00:15:23.200 what the national interests
00:15:25.160 of the United States are
00:15:26.980 in either aiding Ukraine
00:15:28.980 or becoming militarily involved
00:15:31.120 in Ukraine?
00:15:31.480 Because there certainly
00:15:32.240 are arguments to be made
00:15:33.600 that the United States
00:15:34.600 has an interest
00:15:35.260 in helping enforce
00:15:36.180 international law
00:15:37.120 or defending a country's right
00:15:38.720 to self-determination.
00:15:40.020 On the other hand,
00:15:40.820 there are also arguments
00:15:41.700 that that's not a vital
00:15:43.040 national security interest
00:15:44.600 to the United States
00:15:45.400 to do that.
00:15:45.940 So what are the elements
00:15:46.740 that you use to determine that?
00:15:48.380 How do you apply it to Ukraine?
00:15:49.720 So in Ukraine,
00:15:50.460 I think under no circumstances
00:15:52.940 should we send the U.S. military
00:15:54.940 to fight Russia and Ukraine?
00:15:57.220 I don't think that's our job
00:15:58.380 to go fight Russia.
00:15:59.260 I don't want to send the military.
00:16:01.060 If Biden or anyone else
00:16:02.000 supports it,
00:16:02.540 I will oppose it.
00:16:04.220 I'm not willing to risk
00:16:05.520 our sons and daughters
00:16:06.340 in that military conflict.
00:16:08.560 Now, given that,
00:16:09.900 that doesn't mean, though,
00:16:11.140 that I'm willing to walk away
00:16:12.280 from Ukraine and abandon it.
00:16:13.720 There are all sorts of tools
00:16:15.200 that America has
00:16:16.260 short of sending in the Marines.
00:16:18.420 What I can't stand
00:16:19.040 about the neocons
00:16:19.780 is their solution
00:16:20.440 to everything is invade.
00:16:22.860 We've talked a lot
00:16:23.860 on Verdict about Nord Stream 2
00:16:25.460 and the sanctions
00:16:26.200 that I drafted
00:16:27.040 that were targeted sanctions
00:16:28.180 that shut down that pipeline.
00:16:30.200 Using our economic might
00:16:31.740 to target the bad guys
00:16:32.880 is a great and powerful tool.
00:16:35.500 I think we also ought
00:16:36.420 to be providing lethal weaponry
00:16:38.780 to the Ukrainians.
00:16:39.620 Look, the Ukrainians
00:16:40.260 want to defend themselves.
00:16:41.320 I'm happy to help arm them.
00:16:43.380 So if the Ukrainians
00:16:44.240 want to fight the Russians,
00:16:45.640 have at it.
00:16:46.700 I'm just not willing
00:16:47.580 to risk Americans
00:16:48.620 in that fight.
00:16:49.460 And, you know,
00:16:51.280 I mentioned there's
00:16:52.280 sort of a real-time
00:16:53.240 application of it.
00:16:54.240 So today,
00:16:55.300 we were having lunch.
00:16:56.800 Every Tuesday,
00:16:57.480 Wednesday, and Thursday,
00:16:58.280 all the Republican senators
00:16:59.180 have lunch.
00:16:59.760 And we spent a lot of the time
00:17:00.960 talking about Ukraine.
00:17:02.960 And one of the Republican senators
00:17:05.060 asked several other senators,
00:17:07.100 said,
00:17:07.680 how would you justify
00:17:09.560 in 30 seconds or less
00:17:11.720 how it's in our interest
00:17:13.520 to defend Ukraine?
00:17:14.700 And I got to say,
00:17:16.680 one of my colleagues
00:17:17.440 who will remain nameless,
00:17:19.140 but he is someone
00:17:20.020 who is a prominent neocon,
00:17:23.380 gave this talk about,
00:17:25.720 well,
00:17:26.460 we have these norms now
00:17:29.720 that we don't allow countries
00:17:31.240 to invade other countries.
00:17:33.200 And if they do,
00:17:34.620 we've got to protect those norms
00:17:36.280 and protect the international order
00:17:38.020 and prevent the ability
00:17:39.300 of one country
00:17:39.980 to invade the other country.
00:17:41.240 And I'm sitting there at lunch
00:17:43.740 going,
00:17:45.000 what a load of shit.
00:17:47.540 Like,
00:17:47.840 I disagreed with every word he said.
00:17:50.620 And like,
00:17:51.020 I literally had to stake,
00:17:52.500 I didn't argue with him
00:17:53.800 at the moment.
00:17:54.200 I just sort of clenched my fists
00:17:56.100 and let him talk.
00:17:58.820 But about 15 minutes later,
00:18:01.040 I got up
00:18:01.720 and I went back to the question
00:18:03.100 that one of my colleagues had asked.
00:18:05.680 And I said,
00:18:06.100 listen,
00:18:06.380 I don't agree with any of
00:18:07.700 what so-and-so said
00:18:08.980 about the justification.
00:18:09.760 You want to know
00:18:10.480 why we have an interest in Ukraine?
00:18:12.560 Because Vladimir Putin
00:18:13.740 wants to rebuild
00:18:14.600 the Soviet Union
00:18:15.460 and the Soviet Union
00:18:16.400 was a formidable
00:18:17.540 and terrifying enemy of America.
00:18:20.280 It is in our interest
00:18:21.220 not to have the Soviet Union rebuilt
00:18:23.160 because I don't want
00:18:23.860 Putin and Russia stronger
00:18:25.040 because they hate America
00:18:26.320 and want to defeat us.
00:18:27.240 I want to keep Putin
00:18:28.040 and Russia weaker.
00:18:29.460 And so allowing Putin
00:18:30.780 to reassemble the Soviet Union
00:18:32.500 is really bad
00:18:34.120 because it threatens
00:18:35.760 the safety and security
00:18:36.880 of the United States.
00:18:37.740 So we ought to use
00:18:38.560 what tools we can
00:18:40.000 to prevent Putin
00:18:41.640 from getting stronger.
00:18:42.640 By the way,
00:18:43.460 we ought to prevent
00:18:44.220 the Chinese communists
00:18:45.500 from getting stronger.
00:18:46.340 We ought to prevent
00:18:46.800 North Korea
00:18:47.320 from getting stronger.
00:18:48.140 We ought to prevent
00:18:48.620 Cuba from getting stronger.
00:18:49.900 We ought to prevent Iran
00:18:50.740 from getting stronger
00:18:51.520 because our enemies
00:18:53.240 getting stronger
00:18:54.080 threatens us.
00:18:55.580 But I'm not interested
00:18:57.060 in sending the Marines
00:18:57.940 to any of those places
00:18:59.220 to fight the bad guys.
00:19:00.920 I want to use other tools
00:19:02.340 to weaken our enemies
00:19:04.120 and strengthen our friends
00:19:05.300 because that protects
00:19:06.200 American lives.
00:19:06.980 Well, this is one
00:19:07.900 of the interesting things,
00:19:08.820 I think,
00:19:09.360 about having a preconstructed,
00:19:11.840 meaning a well-considered
00:19:13.680 foreign policy philosophy
00:19:14.800 because then you can take
00:19:15.580 the tenets of that philosophy
00:19:16.760 and you can apply it
00:19:17.900 to real-life circumstances
00:19:18.900 instead of letting
00:19:19.700 the emotions
00:19:20.320 of whatever conflict
00:19:21.500 is happening
00:19:22.080 on that day
00:19:23.100 and that time
00:19:23.780 sway whether you think
00:19:25.080 that you should send in
00:19:26.040 the United States military
00:19:27.240 to crush whoever it is.
00:19:28.860 And the other thing
00:19:29.980 I think worth noting here
00:19:31.240 is that the same thing
00:19:32.640 happened in Afghanistan,
00:19:33.560 actually,
00:19:33.860 where we got to this point
00:19:35.500 where the choices
00:19:36.440 almost seemed like
00:19:37.120 a lose-lose.
00:19:38.020 Either in Ukraine,
00:19:39.000 for example,
00:19:39.520 it's a lose
00:19:40.300 if we send in our troops
00:19:41.440 and it's a lose
00:19:42.260 if we allow Putin
00:19:42.920 to take over Ukraine
00:19:43.660 to try to rebuild
00:19:44.480 the Soviet Union.
00:19:45.500 And it is worth noting,
00:19:46.740 too,
00:19:46.940 that it doesn't have
00:19:47.900 to be that lose-lose.
00:19:49.120 It doesn't have to be
00:19:49.680 that binary decision,
00:19:51.340 but we're at this place
00:19:52.740 where we're at this
00:19:53.420 binary lose-lose
00:19:54.400 because elections
00:19:56.020 have consequences,
00:19:56.900 because Biden also
00:19:58.280 doesn't have a well-constructed
00:19:59.820 foreign policy philosophy
00:20:00.820 and he's allowed it
00:20:01.780 to get to this point.
00:20:02.520 Well, it's even worse
00:20:04.380 than that
00:20:04.780 because Biden's
00:20:06.020 foreign policy
00:20:07.460 is weakness.
00:20:09.180 If you look
00:20:10.160 at what he's doing,
00:20:11.660 every enemy to America
00:20:13.160 he's showing weakness to,
00:20:14.520 he believes in appeasement.
00:20:15.960 I mean,
00:20:16.280 it is the left-wing
00:20:17.880 Democratic Party
00:20:18.740 believes.
00:20:19.900 The enemies of America,
00:20:21.020 they think everyone
00:20:21.780 wants to get along.
00:20:22.780 They're all nice
00:20:23.520 and if you just give in
00:20:24.760 to Russia,
00:20:25.760 to China,
00:20:26.280 to North Korea,
00:20:26.940 to Iran,
00:20:27.800 they're all right.
00:20:28.540 It's why Biden
00:20:29.240 is perfectly fine
00:20:30.200 with Iran getting
00:20:30.820 a nuclear weapon
00:20:31.520 because they're like,
00:20:32.220 oh,
00:20:32.620 they'll be fine
00:20:33.320 with a nuclear weapon.
00:20:34.080 They don't understand evil.
00:20:36.060 And so you look at Russia,
00:20:38.220 one of Biden's first acts
00:20:39.980 was surrendering
00:20:41.520 on Nord Stream 2
00:20:42.380 and waiving the sanctions
00:20:43.800 that had worked,
00:20:45.160 that had stopped Putin.
00:20:47.160 I wrote them,
00:20:48.120 I authored them,
00:20:49.040 Trump signed them
00:20:49.720 in the law,
00:20:50.160 they worked.
00:20:51.160 Biden came in
00:20:51.800 and just gave them away,
00:20:52.780 just gave Putin this gift.
00:20:55.340 And I got to tell you
00:20:56.760 right now,
00:20:57.920 the Biden administration
00:21:00.420 is so panicked
00:21:01.420 about the Ukraine invasion,
00:21:02.560 which they've caused,
00:21:04.260 that they are in
00:21:05.480 full-on appeasement mode.
00:21:06.780 So they are in the process,
00:21:08.120 I fear,
00:21:08.740 of dismantling NATO,
00:21:10.120 where they're offering
00:21:11.760 to Putin,
00:21:13.120 you want us to pull
00:21:14.120 our troops out of Europe,
00:21:15.140 you want us to abandon
00:21:16.080 the Baltics,
00:21:16.700 you want us to abandon
00:21:17.460 Poland,
00:21:17.960 you want us to abandon
00:21:18.660 Romania,
00:21:19.220 you want us to abandon
00:21:19.940 Estonia and Lithuania
00:21:21.180 and Latvia,
00:21:22.320 we'll pull out,
00:21:23.220 we'll pull missiles out,
00:21:24.100 we'll pull troops out,
00:21:24.960 we'll stop exercises,
00:21:26.600 we will abandon Europe
00:21:29.000 if you just promise
00:21:31.020 to be nice to us,
00:21:31.860 Mr. Putin.
00:21:33.260 And weakness
00:21:35.180 invites conflict.
00:21:38.540 It's the left believes
00:21:39.700 if you're weak,
00:21:40.380 you don't have military conflict.
00:21:41.720 I actually think weakness
00:21:42.880 makes military conflict
00:21:44.660 more likely.
00:21:45.680 Why do you think
00:21:46.640 our enemies
00:21:48.640 didn't attack us
00:21:50.000 when Donald Trump
00:21:50.720 was president
00:21:51.320 because they thought
00:21:52.080 he was bat crap crazy
00:21:53.380 and he'd like
00:21:54.360 blow them off
00:21:55.120 the face of the planet
00:21:55.960 and he was strong enough
00:21:57.220 that enemies of America
00:21:59.160 didn't want to mess with us.
00:22:00.380 Why is it
00:22:01.060 that we're facing
00:22:02.020 a Russian invasion
00:22:02.880 of Ukraine?
00:22:03.540 Why is it that China
00:22:04.520 is preparing
00:22:05.260 to invade Taiwan?
00:22:06.460 Because they think
00:22:07.240 Biden's so weak
00:22:08.320 that they run all over him
00:22:09.940 and so I think
00:22:10.560 the leftist weakness
00:22:11.760 creates more military conflict.
00:22:14.920 It does.
00:22:15.300 Weakness emboldens
00:22:16.340 authoritarians
00:22:17.240 and dictators.
00:22:18.000 We can see that
00:22:18.480 with what's happening
00:22:19.160 with the behavior
00:22:20.680 of Vladimir Putin
00:22:21.400 and the Chinese
00:22:22.000 honestly
00:22:22.340 and the North Koreans.
00:22:23.640 Okay, that's our nerdy
00:22:24.360 deep dive into foreign policy
00:22:25.680 and now we're going to do
00:22:26.340 a hard pivot
00:22:27.040 into Tom Brady.
00:22:29.440 Quarterback Tom Brady
00:22:30.200 announced his retirement
00:22:31.080 this week
00:22:32.320 and I got to tell you
00:22:32.980 I'm not a huge football fan
00:22:33.940 myself
00:22:34.300 but my husband
00:22:35.020 is a diehard
00:22:36.560 lifelong
00:22:37.460 Patriots
00:22:38.340 slash Tom Brady
00:22:39.860 fan
00:22:40.420 to the point
00:22:40.880 that I had to ask him
00:22:41.780 when Tom Brady
00:22:42.300 left the Patriots
00:22:43.100 and went to the Bucs
00:22:43.860 whether he was going
00:22:44.740 to root for the Patriots
00:22:46.000 or whether he was going
00:22:46.780 to root for Tom Brady
00:22:47.400 at the Bucs
00:22:47.920 and you know
00:22:48.740 I have to say
00:22:49.700 his answer was Tom Brady
00:22:50.740 here.
00:22:51.340 However,
00:22:51.960 the controversy here
00:22:53.080 is that Tom Brady
00:22:54.060 when he announced
00:22:54.620 his retirement
00:22:55.100 he thanked the Bucs
00:22:56.140 organization
00:22:56.700 and all the Bucs fans
00:22:57.560 and his teammates
00:22:58.080 and he didn't thank
00:22:59.340 Patriot Nation.
00:23:00.280 He didn't thank
00:23:00.840 his old teammates.
00:23:01.800 He didn't thank
00:23:02.200 his old coach.
00:23:02.800 He didn't thank his fans.
00:23:03.960 He later did on Twitter
00:23:05.100 but only after backlash.
00:23:07.600 What do you make of that?
00:23:08.740 Was that a deliberate diss
00:23:10.800 you think?
00:23:11.920 I don't know
00:23:12.520 that it was a diss
00:23:13.260 to the fans
00:23:13.960 and in fact
00:23:14.620 I doubt that it was.
00:23:16.180 I mean Tom Brady
00:23:17.180 is so beloved
00:23:18.260 in New England
00:23:18.940 that I can't believe
00:23:22.740 he was dissing
00:23:23.400 his fans up there.
00:23:24.940 Was it a diss
00:23:25.660 to his old team?
00:23:26.640 Was it a diss
00:23:27.280 to Bill Belichick?
00:23:28.200 I'm sure it was.
00:23:29.300 That was quite deliberate
00:23:31.560 and look
00:23:32.040 there was always
00:23:32.800 I always liked Brady
00:23:33.660 I always thought
00:23:34.140 he was a heck
00:23:34.640 of a quarterback.
00:23:36.080 You know
00:23:36.280 there's a constant
00:23:37.380 debate in sports
00:23:38.560 over the GOAT
00:23:39.540 the greatest
00:23:40.440 of all time.
00:23:42.460 In basketball
00:23:43.700 the debate
00:23:44.420 is between
00:23:44.880 Michael Jordan
00:23:45.600 and LeBron James.
00:23:46.960 I am emphatically
00:23:47.940 on Team Jordan
00:23:48.860 in that
00:23:49.180 although some of that's
00:23:49.860 generational.
00:23:50.520 I'm 51.
00:23:51.280 I grew up
00:23:52.540 watching Jordan dominate
00:23:53.760 and I'm not
00:23:54.400 a big LeBron fan
00:23:55.340 although he's
00:23:55.780 ridiculously talented.
00:23:57.180 I will concede
00:23:57.660 his talent
00:23:58.120 but I think Jordan
00:23:59.180 had more heart
00:23:59.980 and was more
00:24:00.480 of a champion.
00:24:02.960 In football
00:24:04.220 the GOAT
00:24:05.520 you could argue
00:24:06.220 different players
00:24:07.140 some might say
00:24:08.040 Joe Montana
00:24:09.000 he was certainly
00:24:10.040 someone that had
00:24:10.640 a strong claim
00:24:11.400 to it.
00:24:12.980 Brady was
00:24:13.740 unbelievably winning
00:24:14.920 with the Patriots.
00:24:16.420 I mean he would win
00:24:17.080 over and over
00:24:17.740 and over again
00:24:18.360 but you could give
00:24:19.420 all these sorts
00:24:20.140 of excuses.
00:24:20.920 He had an amazing
00:24:21.900 supporting cast
00:24:22.860 around him.
00:24:23.380 Bill Belichick's
00:24:24.020 a great coach.
00:24:25.060 He had great receivers.
00:24:26.260 I mean he just had
00:24:26.980 an amazing team
00:24:28.160 around him.
00:24:29.640 So some credited
00:24:30.860 Brady's success
00:24:32.000 to well look at
00:24:33.120 everyone he's playing
00:24:33.860 with.
00:24:34.900 And Brady did
00:24:35.560 something that's
00:24:36.160 phenomenal which is
00:24:37.100 he left the Patriots
00:24:38.160 and he went
00:24:38.560 and joined
00:24:38.920 Tampa Bay
00:24:39.540 and he basically
00:24:40.400 said to hell
00:24:41.040 with you guys
00:24:41.720 I'm out of here.
00:24:43.420 The Patriots
00:24:44.080 said you're too
00:24:44.720 damn old
00:24:45.220 you can't win
00:24:45.900 and he went
00:24:46.280 and joined
00:24:46.660 Tampa Bay
00:24:47.260 and won the
00:24:48.140 Super Bowl
00:24:48.620 with him.
00:24:49.260 Like it was
00:24:50.360 one of the
00:24:51.300 biggest
00:24:51.760 hoss moves
00:24:53.280 I've ever seen
00:24:54.860 to like leave
00:24:55.840 you got all
00:24:56.500 your stars
00:24:57.020 I'm going
00:24:57.420 to Tampa Bay
00:24:58.200 watch me
00:24:59.200 do it again.
00:25:00.920 Gronk came
00:25:01.600 out of retirement
00:25:02.380 to play with him
00:25:03.160 which was awesome
00:25:04.100 and it was
00:25:06.920 spectacular
00:25:08.060 I tweeted
00:25:09.200 at the time
00:25:09.800 I just tweeted
00:25:10.440 an emoji
00:25:11.880 of a goat
00:25:12.460 like you go
00:25:13.620 and win with
00:25:14.440 another team
00:25:14.960 and do it again
00:25:15.740 and not in
00:25:17.740 like when LeBron
00:25:19.560 James left
00:25:20.620 Cleveland to go
00:25:21.400 to Miami
00:25:21.860 it was a temper
00:25:22.660 tantrum of a
00:25:23.440 spoiled star
00:25:24.220 you know he did
00:25:24.660 this whole show
00:25:26.260 of who gets
00:25:27.200 LeBron
00:25:27.720 like oh piss
00:25:28.840 off like you
00:25:29.620 know you're not
00:25:30.120 all that.
00:25:31.700 Brady was very
00:25:32.340 different.
00:25:32.760 He went
00:25:33.540 and just
00:25:34.320 won
00:25:36.240 and so I'm
00:25:37.220 a huge Brady
00:25:37.920 fan
00:25:38.380 I'm sure
00:25:40.440 the diss
00:25:41.160 was meant
00:25:41.740 to Belichick
00:25:43.380 and the Patriots
00:25:44.500 themselves
00:25:44.840 but I would
00:25:46.520 be astonished
00:25:47.300 if Brady
00:25:47.780 had anything
00:25:48.520 but respect
00:25:50.260 and adoration
00:25:51.200 for the fans
00:25:52.100 who loved him
00:25:53.640 and who continue
00:25:54.220 to love him.
00:25:55.160 And I will say
00:25:55.980 based on the
00:25:56.920 experience of my
00:25:57.660 own household
00:25:58.380 at least
00:25:58.980 you are correct
00:25:59.560 about one thing
00:26:00.160 the fans
00:26:01.060 do not take it
00:26:01.940 personally
00:26:02.380 they forgive
00:26:03.240 him for tweeting
00:26:03.840 about it
00:26:04.340 after and consider
00:26:05.500 it just a diss
00:26:06.040 to the team
00:26:06.520 and not to them.
00:26:07.660 All right
00:26:07.820 Senator we have
00:26:08.280 one mailbag
00:26:08.840 question from
00:26:09.460 one of our
00:26:09.980 Verdict Plus
00:26:10.740 subscribers.
00:26:11.940 This is from
00:26:12.960 the Steve42
00:26:13.960 Steve asked
00:26:15.040 what are
00:26:15.460 Senator Cruz's
00:26:16.020 thoughts on
00:26:16.720 conservatives
00:26:17.520 and the Republicans
00:26:18.540 finding a way
00:26:19.060 to unify for
00:26:19.840 the 2022
00:26:20.320 and 2024
00:26:21.140 elections.
00:26:22.460 Republicans
00:26:22.740 have an amazing
00:26:23.340 ability he says
00:26:24.080 to snatch defeat
00:26:24.980 from the jaws
00:26:25.480 of victory
00:26:25.940 with these golden
00:26:26.800 opportunities on the
00:26:27.580 horizon.
00:26:28.020 How do they
00:26:28.340 not just F it up?
00:26:29.880 Look it's a very
00:26:31.220 good question
00:26:31.800 and you know
00:26:32.520 there's an old
00:26:33.280 cartoon back
00:26:34.440 before you and
00:26:35.180 I were were
00:26:35.900 born Pogo
00:26:37.520 had a line
00:26:39.160 this cartoon
00:26:39.760 from the 50s
00:26:40.420 we had met
00:26:40.940 the enemy
00:26:41.400 and they is
00:26:42.300 us.
00:26:44.640 There's a lot
00:26:45.300 of truth to
00:26:45.840 that.
00:26:46.120 We managed
00:26:46.740 to shoot
00:26:48.140 each other
00:26:48.620 listen 22
00:26:49.520 I think we're
00:26:51.380 going to be
00:26:51.680 fine.
00:26:52.220 I think we're
00:26:52.640 going to win.
00:26:53.260 I think Republicans
00:26:53.880 are going to retake
00:26:54.480 the house with a
00:26:55.280 big margin.
00:26:55.960 I think it's
00:26:56.240 going to be like
00:26:56.700 a tidal wave
00:26:57.340 year and I'm
00:26:58.620 getting more
00:26:59.060 and more
00:26:59.320 confident we're
00:26:59.900 going to retake
00:27:00.360 the Senate
00:27:00.720 also.
00:27:02.220 The one
00:27:03.160 danger that
00:27:03.860 could screw
00:27:04.380 it up is a
00:27:05.360 civil war
00:27:06.240 between Trump
00:27:07.540 and Senate
00:27:08.020 Republicans.
00:27:08.760 I don't want
00:27:09.100 to see that
00:27:09.560 happen.
00:27:09.960 I hope that
00:27:10.500 doesn't happen
00:27:11.240 because that's
00:27:12.120 if we're
00:27:13.940 just and
00:27:15.680 that means we
00:27:16.580 need some
00:27:16.940 restraint on both
00:27:17.800 sides.
00:27:18.300 We need there
00:27:20.500 are some Senate
00:27:21.200 Republicans that
00:27:22.060 desperately want
00:27:22.740 Donald Trump to
00:27:23.380 go away.
00:27:23.900 He's not going
00:27:24.500 away.
00:27:24.860 That is delusional
00:27:25.880 and the Senate
00:27:27.720 Republicans who want
00:27:28.540 it need to
00:27:28.920 shut up and
00:27:30.320 stop provoking
00:27:31.460 him and then I
00:27:32.080 hope that
00:27:32.960 President Trump
00:27:33.680 exercises some
00:27:34.580 restraint and
00:27:35.300 doesn't unload
00:27:36.160 on the Senate
00:27:38.340 Republicans he's
00:27:39.080 irritated with.
00:27:39.740 If we avoid
00:27:40.460 going to war
00:27:41.340 with each
00:27:42.260 other we'll
00:27:43.560 win in 22.
00:27:45.540 After we win
00:27:46.480 in 22 then we
00:27:47.720 need to actually
00:27:48.260 do something.
00:27:48.980 If we have
00:27:49.340 majorities we've
00:27:50.080 got to actually
00:27:50.620 deliver on our
00:27:51.300 promises and
00:27:51.980 fight.
00:27:52.820 Are we going to
00:27:53.660 be able to pass
00:27:54.360 great new
00:27:54.920 legislation?
00:27:55.700 No because
00:27:56.020 Biden will veto
00:27:56.940 it but we
00:27:58.140 need to have
00:27:58.560 some backbone
00:27:59.160 to fight
00:27:59.580 against Biden
00:28:00.300 and there
00:28:00.920 will be
00:28:01.280 Republicans
00:28:02.220 wanting to
00:28:02.880 roll over
00:28:03.360 and surrender?
00:28:04.300 Yes.
00:28:05.280 Do I expect
00:28:06.160 that I'm going
00:28:06.580 to be fighting
00:28:07.040 tooth and nail
00:28:07.760 against them?
00:28:08.640 Yes.
00:28:11.660 There is a
00:28:12.740 difference of
00:28:13.340 philosophy.
00:28:14.740 Republican
00:28:15.220 leadership in
00:28:15.960 Congress often
00:28:16.700 believes the
00:28:17.280 way you win
00:28:17.920 is don't rock
00:28:19.520 the boat,
00:28:20.020 don't make an
00:28:20.560 issue, don't
00:28:21.320 cause too much
00:28:22.640 fuss.
00:28:25.740 Look, on the
00:28:26.660 Biden Supreme
00:28:27.220 Court nomination
00:28:27.960 I've had several
00:28:28.660 of my Republican
00:28:29.260 colleagues say
00:28:29.900 it would be good
00:28:30.720 if this just
00:28:31.220 went through
00:28:31.620 quickly and we
00:28:32.220 just let it
00:28:32.640 happen and
00:28:33.080 didn't make a
00:28:33.900 mess and I'm
00:28:34.340 like are you
00:28:34.740 out of your
00:28:35.080 mind?
00:28:35.840 He's going to
00:28:36.320 nominate a
00:28:36.860 leftist who
00:28:37.340 wants to
00:28:37.640 destroy the
00:28:38.140 Constitution and
00:28:39.080 we need to
00:28:39.520 fight like
00:28:40.100 hell.
00:28:40.460 Now we may
00:28:40.820 not be able
00:28:41.100 to beat it,
00:28:41.860 beat the
00:28:42.200 nominee, we
00:28:42.640 may not be
00:28:43.080 able to beat
00:28:43.680 the nomination
00:28:44.220 but just
00:28:46.900 stand up and
00:28:47.720 fight for what
00:28:48.340 you believe in so
00:28:49.240 that even now
00:28:50.580 is a fight.
00:28:51.140 Once we have
00:28:53.500 majorities it'll
00:28:54.160 be a bigger
00:28:54.600 fight but I
00:28:55.300 think the way
00:28:55.920 we win in
00:28:56.840 24 is fighting
00:28:58.800 for something
00:28:59.320 that matters
00:28:59.960 and that,
00:29:01.400 you know,
00:29:03.800 if Donald
00:29:05.780 Trump doesn't
00:29:06.340 run for
00:29:06.680 president we'll
00:29:07.360 have a big
00:29:07.940 crowded primary
00:29:09.060 in 24.
00:29:10.040 Look, I think
00:29:10.480 primaries are
00:29:11.040 good and healthy.
00:29:11.680 We'll have a
00:29:11.980 discussion about
00:29:12.620 what's the
00:29:13.020 right direction
00:29:13.640 to go.
00:29:14.960 The advice I
00:29:16.300 give candidates,
00:29:17.260 the advice I
00:29:18.100 give both
00:29:19.320 House members
00:29:19.860 and senators
00:29:20.400 is real
00:29:20.800 simple.
00:29:21.600 Do what you
00:29:22.000 said you
00:29:22.300 would do.
00:29:22.660 Just follow
00:29:23.560 through on your
00:29:24.160 promises.
00:29:24.700 Whatever you
00:29:25.240 told the
00:29:25.760 voters you
00:29:26.160 do, do
00:29:27.420 it.
00:29:28.980 Too often
00:29:29.780 politicians don't
00:29:31.040 do that,
00:29:31.600 particularly
00:29:31.960 Republicans.
00:29:33.440 And if we
00:29:34.680 do what we
00:29:35.100 said we
00:29:35.420 would do,
00:29:35.760 I think
00:29:35.980 that's a
00:29:36.300 path to
00:29:36.640 winning.
00:29:37.100 Yeah, and
00:29:37.460 like you
00:29:37.920 said, I
00:29:38.220 agree 100%
00:29:38.920 force that
00:29:39.660 veto.
00:29:40.720 Show the
00:29:41.080 American people
00:29:41.600 not only that
00:29:42.820 you're doing
00:29:43.260 what you
00:29:43.580 promised and
00:29:44.460 that Biden
00:29:45.160 is vetoing
00:29:45.720 it, but it
00:29:46.000 also puts on
00:29:46.600 record all of
00:29:47.600 these squishy
00:29:48.100 Republicans who
00:29:48.840 won't vote for
00:29:49.880 a conservative
00:29:50.260 agenda and
00:29:50.800 the Democrats
00:29:51.340 who are voting
00:29:51.720 against what
00:29:52.080 people want.
00:29:52.520 It's a very
00:29:52.800 powerful tool.
00:29:54.020 Senator Cruz,
00:29:54.540 this was a
00:29:55.060 really fun
00:29:55.600 inaugural discussion
00:29:57.640 for this series.
00:29:59.180 Thank you for
00:29:59.740 sitting down.
00:30:00.100 We're going to
00:30:00.300 do this again.
00:30:00.920 this is The
00:30:02.120 Cloak Room on
00:30:03.220 Verdict Plus.
00:30:04.640 This is an
00:30:05.060 iHeart Podcast.
00:30:07.160 Guaranteed
00:30:07.680 Human.