Verdict with Ted Cruz - September 28, 2024


Hard Look at Swing State Polling, SCOTUS on Presidential Immunity & How The Filibuster Effects the Supreme Court Week In Review


Episode Stats


Length

33 minutes

Words per minute

157.64336

Word count

5,248

Sentence count

385

Harmful content

Misogyny

8

sentences flagged

Toxicity

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Ted Cruz and Ben Ferguson take a deep dive into polling numbers in swing states and discuss where things stand with just 2 months until Election Day. Plus, the Supreme Court is dealing with presidential immunity and what that means for future presidents.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.
00:00:04.260 Welcome.
00:00:05.020 It is Verdict with Ted Cruz.
00:00:06.780 Weekend review.
00:00:07.900 Ben Ferguson with you as always.
00:00:09.880 And there are some major stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week.
00:00:14.780 First up, what does it look like state by state right now, especially in the swing states
00:00:20.220 when it comes to polling with this presidential election?
00:00:22.960 We're going to break that down for you so you know where we stand right now.
00:00:26.380 Just a couple less than two months away from election day.
00:00:30.960 Also, the Supreme Court is now dealing with presidential immunity.
00:00:36.180 So what does it mean for the sitting president?
00:00:38.600 And what does it mean for future presidents after the Supreme Court took a look at this issue?
00:00:43.340 We'll explain that for you.
00:00:45.100 And finally, Kamala Harris comes out. 1.00
00:00:48.060 She wants to end the filibuster. 0.99
00:00:50.580 So what would that look like?
00:00:52.080 And would it mean that they would pack the Supreme Court?
00:00:54.700 We break that down for you as well.
00:00:57.100 It is the week in review, and it starts right now.
00:01:01.640 All right, Senator.
00:01:02.140 So let's go through these states.
00:01:03.540 And this is when I say to Verdict listeners, grab your pen and paper, because this is where
00:01:07.440 on election night, you're going to love watching the results come in with these different states
00:01:14.040 and the knowledge that we're about to give you.
00:01:16.820 All right.
00:01:17.420 So let's start with Arizona.
00:01:18.620 Arizona, the best way typically to consume polling numbers is to look to the real clear
00:01:23.580 politics average.
00:01:25.000 And so, look, there are variations among polls.
00:01:27.860 Some polls are more accurate than others.
00:01:29.640 But the way most political professionals do is they look to the polling average.
00:01:34.280 And the theory is the average is sort of it averages out the ups and the downs.
00:01:39.820 So if you look to the real clear politics average in Arizona right now, this is a race between
00:01:44.880 Gallego, the Democrat, and Carrie Lake, the Republican.
00:01:48.000 Right now, Gallego is leading by 4.3 points.
00:01:51.380 So that's the average.
00:01:52.600 That's the average of the last four polls that have been done in that race.
00:01:56.320 Trump has a good chance of winning Arizona.
00:01:59.080 So right now, Trump is outperforming Carrie Lake in that state.
00:02:03.080 But four points is very winnable.
00:02:05.040 She can win that race. 1.00
00:02:06.280 But according to the average right now, the Democrats are ahead.
00:02:09.820 Let's move to Michigan.
00:02:11.700 So if you look at Michigan, the two candidates are Slotkin, the Democrat, and Mike Rogers,
00:02:17.520 the Republican.
00:02:18.680 In Michigan, the real clear politics average is the Democrat at 5.1%.
00:02:24.340 So again, five points is pretty close.
00:02:26.900 But it does show an advantage right now for the Democrats.
00:02:29.860 And that's an average of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 polls in the last month.
00:02:36.280 The Democrat is ahead by an average of 5.1%.
00:02:39.120 All right, let's go to Montana.
00:02:42.260 Montana, I mentioned, is the brightest spot in terms of the pickup.
00:02:46.080 This is a battle between John Tester, the Democrat, the incumbent, and Tim Sheehy, the Republican.
00:02:53.240 And Sheehy is ahead on an average of 5.2 points.
00:02:58.920 So that's sizable.
00:03:00.740 It's not decisive.
00:03:01.740 Tester could still come back and win it.
00:03:03.300 But that's been a consistent lead.
00:03:05.760 If you look at the last four polls, Sheehy plus 6, Sheehy plus 7, Sheehy plus 6, and Sheehy plus 2.
00:03:11.820 So that's been a consistent lead.
00:03:14.340 All right, let's look to Nevada.
00:03:16.300 So Nevada, the numbers are bumpier.
00:03:19.680 The incumbent is Jackie Rosen.
00:03:21.740 She's a Democrat.
00:03:23.000 Sam Brown is a Republican.
00:03:25.060 The real clear politics average is Rosen by 8.8%.
00:03:29.560 So that's a pretty sizable lead.
00:03:33.200 Nevada is another state where Trump is very competitive.
00:03:36.340 And so he could win Trump.
00:03:38.380 It may be that the polling numbers are understating where Brown is.
00:03:42.220 But 8.8% is, there's some distance to be closed on the average polling there.
00:03:49.020 All right, let me ask you this real quick before you move forward, because it's a question I know everybody's asking in their head.
00:03:53.300 All right, you just mentioned this state, and then you mentioned Arizona earlier, where Trump is leading, but Carly Lake is not there. 0.98
00:03:59.440 How often do you see a presidential election cycle, historically, where the Republican wins in the state, but the person next down the ballot in the Senate race loses,
00:04:14.200 where people walk in and go, yes for Trump and no for the Senate candidate.
00:04:17.200 Does that happen very often?
00:04:19.260 Yeah, that happens with some regularity, and Trump in most states is going to get more votes than the down-ballot Republicans.
00:04:28.680 For one thing, there are people that come in that just vote president and leave.
00:04:32.760 And then there are also, there will be some voters in every one of these states who votes for Trump at the top of the ticket, and then for a Democrat Senate candidate.
00:04:42.240 I wish they didn't. It is frustrating as all get-out, but there exists.
00:04:47.200 And to be fair...
00:04:48.380 Because there's a weird way you're, like, voting against your own interests of what you're saying you want for the country with the president.
00:04:53.020 Well, he needs the votes in the House and Senate to get that agenda done.
00:04:56.360 Yeah, and there tend to be more crossover voters who do Trump in a Democrat Senate candidate than there are crossover voters who vote Kamala Harris in a Republican Senate candidate.
00:05:05.740 It just, at the end of the day, it has tended to be a one-way ratchet.
00:05:11.820 All right, let's go to Ohio.
00:05:13.660 Ohio is the next closest after Montana, and the two candidates are Sherrod Brown, the Democrat who's the incumbent, Bernie Moreno, the Republican.
00:05:23.600 The RealClearPolitics average is the Democrat up by 3.6%.
00:05:27.840 So the last three polls were plus two, plus five, plus four.
00:05:32.240 So Ohio is definitely winnable.
00:05:35.640 Trump is extremely likely to win Ohio.
00:05:37.660 He could win Ohio by double digits, but right now, Brown is polling substantially ahead of where Kamala Harris is in Ohio.
00:05:46.240 And so Ohio is a state where there are a number of voters right now who say they're voting for Donald Trump and yet a Democrat senator who will fight to undermine everything Trump does every single day in the Senate, which is why I wish voters wouldn't do that.
00:06:00.000 I don't think that makes sense, and I think it ends up working against yourself, but nonetheless, there are some voters that do.
00:06:06.420 All right, Pennsylvania.
00:06:08.220 So Pennsylvania is probably the most important battleground in the country.
00:06:12.940 It is the state most likely to decide the presidential race.
00:06:17.960 The incumbent is Bob Casey.
00:06:19.500 He's a Democrat.
00:06:21.380 Dave McCormick, the Republican, a very good friend of mine who I've endorsed and campaigned with multiple times across Pennsylvania.
00:06:28.480 The RealClearPolitics average is 4.9%.
00:06:32.940 And so starting from, so back in August, there was a tie, then Casey plus 1, then Casey plus 7, then Casey plus 8, then Casey plus 4, then Casey plus 9, then Casey plus 5, then Casey plus 5, then Casey plus 9.
00:06:49.300 And then the Washington Post, the most recent poll, showed it as a tie.
00:06:53.660 So look, there's some variability on that.
00:06:57.080 So the last two polls were Casey plus 9 and a tie.
00:07:01.200 I mean, that's a big delta between those two.
00:07:03.920 Yeah.
00:07:05.280 That's the head scratcher.
00:07:07.440 And so it's why you tend to look to the average, because the average kind of takes out the highs and lows.
00:07:14.160 And so 4.9%, you would say right now the Democrats have an advantage, but 4.9%, you can definitely close between now and Election Day.
00:07:23.580 And I think the issue set favors us.
00:07:27.500 All right.
00:07:28.020 Maryland.
00:07:29.720 Maryland is a state that shouldn't be a battleground.
00:07:32.300 It's a very blue state.
00:07:33.640 It is going to go for Kamala Harris by double digits. 0.94
00:07:40.400 And yet you've got Larry Hogan.
00:07:42.140 Larry Hogan, the former governor there, is a Republican, very popular governor, running against a Democrat, also Brooks.
00:07:49.440 The RealClearPolitics average is 6.8%.
00:07:52.880 But again, there's been a lot of variability on this.
00:07:56.560 So back in August, there was a poll that was a tie, and then Democrat plus 5, Democrat plus 7, and then there was one just recently, Democrat plus 15.
00:08:07.740 So Maryland is a race that is winnable, but to do that, Hogan is going to have to outperform Trump by 20 points or more.
00:08:16.600 That ain't easy to do.
00:08:18.480 That is a big, big delta.
00:08:22.440 He was the governor there.
00:08:23.780 He was very popular.
00:08:25.180 And he's the only Republican who has a prayer to win in Maryland, but Maryland is not an easy state for a Republican to win.
00:08:34.880 And the final battleground is Wisconsin.
00:08:38.640 Wisconsin is Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat who's the incumbent.
00:08:42.960 Eric Hovde is the Republican running against her.
00:08:46.280 The RealClearPolitics average is Democrat 4.6%.
00:08:51.040 So again, close, winnable, but right now the Democrats have the advantage.
00:08:55.720 Although it's interesting, if you look at the polls going back to August, it was Democrat plus 6, Democrat plus 5, Democrat plus 8.
00:09:04.380 But then the last four polls have been Democrat plus 3, Democrat plus 3, Democrat plus 4, Democrat plus 3.
00:09:12.000 So the race has tightened in the last couple of weeks, and it's about a three and a half point differential in the last four polls, which means Wisconsin is very winnable.
00:09:23.760 And look, every one of these states that I mentioned is winnable by the Republicans.
00:09:27.520 But for us to win, the numbers need to shift four or five points, and to do that, we've got to focus on the issues, and the issues are the same issues as the presidential.
00:09:40.260 The economy, inflation, illegal immigration, and crime, and if we focus on those, I think we've got a real shot at winning every one of those. 0.83
00:09:48.760 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.
00:09:55.220 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them. 0.98
00:10:02.260 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:10:05.980 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:10:07.160 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:10:08.400 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:10:12.160 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:10:17.880 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:10:20.880 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:10:25.220 Now on to story number two.
00:10:29.740 I want to move on also to something else that you mentioned earlier, and it's happened today.
00:10:35.200 Set the stage for everybody in Congress and explain exactly what was going on, and it dealt with presidential immunity.
00:10:43.560 Well, Senate Democrats for two years have been engaged in a relentless assault on the Supreme Court and trying to undermine the Supreme Court.
00:10:53.580 And so today, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the Supreme Court's decision on presidential immunity.
00:10:59.460 And the whole purpose of the hearing was to say that the Supreme Court's decision is ridiculous, that it's out of bounds, that it basically said Trump is a king, that he's unaccountable, that it's some bizarre decision.
00:11:12.980 And they're trying both to attack Trump and to delegitimize the Supreme Court.
00:11:19.900 And so among the witnesses testifying was Michael Mukasey, who was the former attorney general of the United States under George W. Bush, and he was a federal judge for nearly 20 years before that, and he was one of the witnesses.
00:11:33.560 And so I took the opportunity to actually question the former attorney general and to lay out the utterly false narrative the Democrats were putting forward.
00:11:45.920 Give a listen to my questioning of Attorney General Mukasey.
00:11:49.580 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:11:51.060 The nub of the Democrats' argument today is that the concept of presidential immunity is somehow unprecedented, is somehow remarkable.
00:12:00.360 That claim is utterly ahistorical and disconnected from the entire constitutional history of the Republic.
00:12:07.580 General Mukasey, before 2023, how many times has a president of the United States been indicted?
00:12:14.560 None.
00:12:15.480 Before 2023, how many times has a former president of the United States been indicted?
00:12:19.620 None.
00:12:20.900 In the last two years, how many times has President Donald J. Trump been indicted?
00:12:25.860 Four times, I believe.
00:12:27.080 Now, many presidents of both parties have engaged in controversial actions, and yet none of them have been indicted.
00:12:36.660 Let me ask you, General Mukasey, if a private citizen were to erect an internment camp and to forcibly kidnap American citizens,
00:12:47.240 to single them out because of race, and to imprison them based on their race, would that private citizen be subject to criminal prosecution?
00:12:55.760 Would.
00:12:56.060 When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt did the exact same thing and erected Japanese internment camps, was FDR prosecuted?
00:13:04.520 It was not.
00:13:05.140 Let me ask you, similarly, if a private citizen were, say, to detonate a nuclear weapon over a city and kill over 140,000 people,
00:13:16.420 and then if that private citizen, a few days later, detonated another nuclear bomb over another city and killed 75,000 people,
00:13:25.280 could that private citizen be criminally prosecuted?
00:13:28.220 He would.
00:13:28.680 Was President Harry Truman prosecuted for detonating nuclear weapons over Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
00:13:36.460 He was not.
00:13:37.340 All right, how about this?
00:13:38.880 If a private citizen launched a weaponized drone and killed a United States citizen, could that private citizen be criminally prosecuted?
00:13:49.140 He would.
00:13:49.920 Was President Barack Obama criminally prosecuted when he killed United States citizens using drones without notice and without due process?
00:14:00.280 He was not, although as far as due process is concerned, I believe the comment of my successor to that question was that Anwar al-Awlaki got, quote,
00:14:10.500 all the process that was necessary.
00:14:12.600 Well, although I suspect he might disagree with that assessment, were he able to present his case.
00:14:19.040 Right.
00:14:20.320 All right.
00:14:22.900 Let's contrast that with the rules that govern other federal officials.
00:14:29.620 You were a judge for 19 years.
00:14:31.820 As a federal judge, did you have immunity from your official acts?
00:14:37.580 My official act?
00:14:38.700 Yes.
00:14:38.980 Do federal prosecutors have immunity from their official acts?
00:14:43.580 They do.
00:14:44.620 Now, the distinction between official acts and personal acts is not a terribly shocking distinction.
00:14:51.380 Under the decision of Trump versus United States, if any president walks onto the sidewalk and just shoots a citizen, is that president liable to be prosecuted?
00:15:03.200 He is.
00:15:03.720 How about this?
00:15:05.720 If a president steals funds from his campaign, does that president face criminal liability?
00:15:12.160 He does.
00:15:13.500 How about this?
00:15:14.620 If a president sexually assaults, let's say, an intern in the Oval Office, is the president subject to criminal prosecution for that?
00:15:24.880 He could be.
00:15:25.460 So, that distinction, again, is not a shocking distinction.
00:15:32.620 The founding fathers vested the executive power in a single president of the United States.
00:15:39.740 What we have seen in the last two years is we have seen Democrats deliberately weaponizing the Department of Justice and our legal system to target their political opposition.
00:15:54.080 It is not an accident that every indictment against President Trump was brought by a Democrat and was brought after he announced his campaign for president of the United States.
00:16:07.220 Understand, the target of those indictments was not ultimately President Trump.
00:16:12.840 It was the voters.
00:16:13.460 It was prosecutors who were terrified that the voters would choose to re-elect President Trump.
00:16:20.180 One of the great things about the United States is we're not a banana republic.
00:16:24.220 Since 2000, the nation of Pakistan has had six former prime ministers prosecuted and convicted.
00:16:31.220 Brazil has had three former presidents arrested and imprisoned.
00:16:34.440 Last year, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega arrested, charged, and imprisoned 40 political opponents.
00:16:42.360 General Mukasey, you were Attorney General of the United States.
00:16:44.840 Is it the proper role of the Department of Justice to prosecute and target the political opponents of whoever happens to be president of the United States?
00:16:53.600 It is most assuredly not.
00:16:55.640 Thank you.
00:16:56.020 He says it most certainly is not.
00:17:00.100 But the reality is Donald Trump keeps getting attacked by the left and they keep trying to lock up their political opponent.
00:17:08.160 Yeah, no, that's exactly what they're doing.
00:17:09.940 And their claim that the ruling that a president can't be criminally prosecuted for his official acts is contrary to the law.
00:17:18.660 It's why I use the examples I used.
00:17:21.460 It's why I use, look, the Japanese internment camps. 0.97
00:17:24.020 Presidents can do a lot of things.
00:17:26.020 In exercising their official power that ordinary citizens cannot.
00:17:31.020 And we would want our commander-in-chief.
00:17:33.420 Our commander-in-chief can send our troops into combat.
00:17:36.980 Can use lethal force.
00:17:39.000 And they do regularly.
00:17:41.120 And so the Supreme Court naturally said, well, we don't want a situation where each new president who comes in,
00:17:48.180 the first order of business is let's criminally prosecute the last guy for the things he did as president that I disagreed with.
00:17:55.160 And so, you know, the hearing was really a dog and pony show by the Democrats to mischaracterize the Supreme Court decision.
00:18:05.280 So I thought it was important to explain the actual law in the real context.
00:18:09.800 Let me let me ask you another question about this.
00:18:14.020 Will there be a correction?
00:18:15.520 I mean, if Donald Trump is the president next time, will there be a correction?
00:18:20.860 Or once the cat's out of the bag, is there any way of getting it back to where we were before, as you described it, 2023?
00:18:27.860 I don't know.
00:18:31.040 I certainly hope we are not in a world where we are a banana republic, where it is routine to prosecute your predecessors.
00:18:38.540 I don't know.
00:18:40.300 But I do think the Democrats have gone down a road that it's very hard to turn around and come back from.
00:18:46.580 Yeah, it is going to be very, very tough, to put it mildly, to turn this thing around.
00:18:53.260 And I think once they realize they can do this, I don't see Democrats being responsible moving forward with it.
00:18:58.680 That's my biggest concern.
00:18:59.980 So is there anything we can do to protect former presidents?
00:19:03.740 Or does something need to change with the law?
00:19:07.060 Look, the biggest thing we can and should do is reelect Donald Trump as president.
00:19:11.280 The elections have consequences.
00:19:12.860 We're six weeks away from Election Day.
00:19:15.700 The outcome of this election matters immensely.
00:19:19.420 As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic,
00:19:23.640 you can go back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing.
00:19:28.780 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00
00:19:30.560 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.
00:19:35.000 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:19:38.720 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:19:39.920 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:19:40.880 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:19:44.960 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers.
00:19:48.480 All at different stages of their journey.
00:19:50.660 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:19:53.900 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:19:57.940 I want to get back to the big story, number three of the week you may have missed.
00:20:03.600 You look at the Democrats.
00:20:06.520 They have, for the last several years, really been trying to undermine the Supreme Court.
00:20:11.400 They have leaked from the Supreme Court, the Roe v. Wade decision, for example.
00:20:17.120 The Democrats have been trying to intimidate Supreme Court justices.
00:20:22.960 And we saw just how hostile they allowed people to get towards the Supreme Court justice in their homes.
00:20:30.500 I mean, the media has been undermining the Supreme Court as well.
00:20:35.300 And acting like the Supreme Court is this outdated body that should be changed.
00:20:41.300 So when you say that we're one vote away and this is what would happen,
00:20:45.920 they're the ones that have been doing all the things you would do for this possible opportunity if it actually arises.
00:20:54.740 And you can say, yeah, like we've been saying this for years.
00:20:57.180 We think the Supreme Court should be packed, right?
00:20:59.840 Yeah, look, that's correct.
00:21:01.960 And here's the math.
00:21:03.760 Today, there's a 51-49 Democrat majority in the Senate.
00:21:08.120 However, of those 51, there are two Democrats, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema,
00:21:13.280 who have both voted against ending the filibuster.
00:21:17.000 So Chuck Schumer tried to end the filibuster.
00:21:19.460 They had a vote on it.
00:21:21.340 And 49 Democrats voted to end the filibuster.
00:21:25.400 Had either Manchin or Sinema flipped, they would have had the votes.
00:21:29.620 But the two of them are the only things that stopped it.
00:21:33.920 Now, I'm going to tell you something we know for an absolute certainty in January of next year.
00:21:39.720 Neither Manchin nor Sinema will be there.
00:21:42.440 Very true.
00:21:43.200 Both of them, their terms are done.
00:21:45.260 Neither of them are running for re-election.
00:21:46.940 It's 100%.
00:21:47.740 They will be gone.
00:21:49.120 That means that Schumer is going into this election with 49 votes to end the filibuster.
00:21:56.980 If he picks up one anywhere, he gets to 50.
00:22:02.100 And if Tim Waltz is the vice president, he has everything he needs to end the filibuster.
00:22:09.020 And I want to make a point here also.
00:22:12.140 You notice none of the things I listed were economic.
00:22:16.480 I didn't list in the calamity, in the parade of horribles.
00:22:21.300 I didn't list 70% marginal tax rates.
00:22:25.240 I didn't list massively confiscatory death taxes.
00:22:30.080 I didn't list wealth taxes that tax you on unrealized capital gains.
00:22:38.040 I didn't list banning fracking and shutting down oil and gas exploration in the United States.
00:22:44.240 I didn't list nationalization of mineral rights.
00:22:48.660 Look, to be honest, the economic stuff, the socialism, that follows like night follows day.
00:22:55.000 Because the Democrats' top priority, the four things I listed, are all about seizing control and making it permanent.
00:23:02.420 Making it impossible that Democrats ever lose.
00:23:07.140 And, you know, there's something deeply Freudian about how Democrats behave.
00:23:11.980 Because they talk incessantly about saving democracy.
00:23:15.780 And yet, today's Democrats are profoundly anti-democratic.
00:23:20.120 Their number one priority is making it so the voters can never, ever, ever, ever, ever vote them out of power.
00:23:26.460 And once they're in power, look, on the economic stuff, the only constraints are just how crazy are Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren willing to go.
00:23:37.360 But it is, look at countries like Venezuela.
00:23:40.960 Once you get one party locked in power with no ability to constrain them, the country goes downhill incredibly quickly.
00:23:51.780 And I think terrible policies, look, policies, I didn't mention gun confiscation, going after the Second Amendment, going after religious liberty, going after the First Amendment.
00:24:04.380 They pack the Supreme Court.
00:24:05.860 You're not going to have the courts backstopping any of the rights in the Bill of Rights.
00:24:10.420 All of that happens as a matter of course.
00:24:13.640 Schumer's first focus is power.
00:24:16.820 And if he can lock in power forever, that really is the end of our democracy.
00:24:22.560 And ironically, it's the number one priority of today's Democrats.
00:24:26.660 Let me go back to a very consequential vote.
00:24:29.840 And I just want to remind people perspective on this filibuster in the 60 plus.
00:24:36.260 When we go back to Obamacare, what was the number on Obamacare?
00:24:40.260 How many votes did that pass with?
00:24:42.760 Do you remember?
00:24:43.300 Well, the way they passed Obamacare was through a special budget procedure called budget reconciliation.
00:24:50.720 And budget reconciliation is the most important exception to the filibuster.
00:24:56.700 Budget reconciliation comes from a law called the Budget Act of 1975.
00:25:01.360 And it's a special procedure for adopting a budget.
00:25:04.460 And under that statute, it is exempt from the filibuster.
00:25:09.580 So you can pass it with a majority.
00:25:11.400 That's how they did Obamacare. 0.99
00:25:13.300 Because they did it using budget reconciliation.
00:25:16.440 By the way, the Trump tax cuts were passed using budget reconciliation.
00:25:23.100 So they were not subject to the filibuster.
00:25:25.340 No Democrat voted for the Trump tax cuts.
00:25:27.880 If you look at things like the Orwellian-named Inflation Reduction Act,
00:25:32.760 that was passed by the Democrats using budget reconciliation.
00:25:35.760 So there are things that can be done that typically involve spending and taxing.
00:25:42.380 That can be done with just 50 votes.
00:25:45.100 But the structural changes to our republic, things like the federal takeover of all elections in this country,
00:25:55.220 or adding two new states to the union, or granting immediate voting rights to every illegal alien in America,
00:26:01.820 that cannot be done through budget reconciliation.
00:26:06.220 Packing the Supreme Court cannot be done through budget reconciliation.
00:26:09.740 The statute lays out specific categories of what can and can't be done through reconciliation.
00:26:15.800 So the sort of simplest way to think about it is spending and taxes you can get around the filibuster.
00:26:24.820 Everything else, as a general matter, you can't.
00:26:27.260 See, and that's why I want to remind people, because we were talking about that during the time,
00:26:31.700 and it came up that, you know, the 60 votes and how important it is, and it's a hard threshold.
00:26:36.340 If you change it, and you think about how consequential, for example, Obamacare was,
00:26:41.120 and during that time when there was almost a supermajority, and yada, yada, yada,
00:26:45.040 and you go, okay, there's a reason why it was set up this way.
00:26:48.320 The entire United States of America's history changes if you get rid of this.
00:26:52.380 Am I wrong?
00:26:53.940 You are absolutely right.
00:26:55.300 Look, if Schumer ends the filibuster, no Republican ever wins again.
00:27:02.260 It is one-party rule.
00:27:05.100 And so ask yourself, how has Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro been for Venezuela?
00:27:10.920 That will be, and listen, some people listening might say, oh, come on, that's too much.
00:27:16.660 You shouldn't compare Kamala Harris to Nicolas Maduro.
00:27:20.580 Well, if their policy is to lock themselves and their party into power forever,
00:27:27.420 and to disempower the voters from ever, ever, ever being able to take them out of power,
00:27:33.380 that is exactly what Chavez and Maduro have done.
00:27:37.220 That's what Castro have done.
00:27:38.620 It is the strategy of dictators.
00:27:40.840 And it is a shocking thing that today's Democrats no longer believe in order to save democracy,
00:27:49.520 they're willing to destroy democracy.
00:27:52.140 Senator, let me ask two questions to wrap this up.
00:27:57.060 There may be people that say, look, if there is a, let's say they get it and they get rid of the filibuster,
00:28:03.820 it'll come back in a couple years, maybe there's like a little bit of an overreaction here.
00:28:09.440 I go back in history, and I'm a student of history, you are, and you love history as well.
00:28:14.700 When consequential things usually happen within our government, a great example is Obamacare.
00:28:20.380 Once it's done, it is extremely hard to undo it.
00:28:23.940 And so if people think, well, maybe they do it and we'll get it back.
00:28:26.700 Maybe they throw four more people on the Supreme Court, but we could get it back to nine if we really wanted to.
00:28:30.940 How impossible would it be to undo some of the things you talked about if it actually went into effect because the Democrats win in November?
00:28:40.400 Well, understand that the four things I listed are all structural.
00:28:44.880 So once they happen, you can't undo them.
00:28:48.320 If you have 20 million illegal immigrants voting, Democrats win. 0.65
00:28:52.540 Texas isn't the only state that turns blue.
00:28:55.420 North Carolina turns blue.
00:28:57.880 Georgia turns blue.
00:28:59.280 Arizona turns blue.
00:29:00.460 I mean, you have suddenly swing states that are not swing states anymore.
00:29:05.320 This is why the Democrats, they're just focused on power.
00:29:09.560 You look at, if it's right, D.C. will elect Democrats for all eternity if it becomes a state.
00:29:15.520 Puerto Rico, I don't think it's 100% correct that Puerto Rico would only elect Democrats.
00:29:21.100 We have seen Republicans elected in Puerto Rico, although partisan politics doesn't line up in Puerto Rico exactly like it does in the mainland.
00:29:28.520 But if the Democrats are correct that that's four new Democrats in the Senate, it is very difficult to see a map that ever again elects a Republican majority in the Senate.
00:29:39.760 So there will never be an opportunity to reverse it.
00:29:44.080 And by the way, you can look to what happened with the Supreme Court.
00:29:48.860 So if you look at Supreme Court nominations, Harry Reid exercised the nuclear option, the same method for ending the filibuster for legislation.
00:30:01.680 Harry Reid exercised the nuclear option to end the filibuster for judicial nominations.
00:30:07.380 And he did so, when he did so, I remember I was on the Senate floor, and he did exactly what I said.
00:30:14.700 He asked for a ruling from the chair.
00:30:16.340 He appealed the ruling of the chair, and all the Democrats voted with him, and they overturned it.
00:30:21.320 And so to confirm a judge, you only need now 50 votes plus the vice president.
00:30:28.060 And I remember being on the Senate floor, I turned to Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, and all the Democrats were voting like lemmings to end the filibuster. 0.54
00:30:38.240 And I told her then, I said, you realize the consequence of this.
00:30:43.220 We are going to get more justices like Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.
00:30:47.900 And that is unequivocally correct.
00:30:52.160 And in fact, if you want to know why Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch were confirmed, it is because the Democrats ended the filibuster for judicial nominations.
00:31:03.980 If they hadn't, there is no chance on earth Kavanaugh or Amy Coney Barrett gets confirmed because it would have taken 60 votes.
00:31:11.120 And there weren't going to be 60 votes for any nominee that had a proven record of being conservative.
00:31:16.620 So it changed markedly the kinds of judges that Trump could nominate.
00:31:24.560 Once the change is made procedurally, it never, ever, ever goes back.
00:31:30.220 Final question for you, and that is, you look at what you just said in this show, and it changes my perspective. 0.99
00:31:40.480 And I do this with you three days a week and talk politics every day because the easy issue, right, is the economy stupid. 0.85
00:31:49.700 And that's the number one issue most voters say. 0.99
00:31:52.840 Number two, they say the border.
00:31:54.220 This issue to me now, after we've gone through it, is even bigger than those two issues when it comes to the future of this country.
00:32:02.240 Is that a fair take?
00:32:04.800 In terms of long-term future, yes.
00:32:08.060 It is absolutely a fair take.
00:32:09.940 It is, as I said, the single thing that keeps me up at night, that we are that close to losing our entire country.
00:32:17.440 And I think almost everyone is oblivious to it.
00:32:21.540 Look, you and I are both Texans.
00:32:23.240 How many Texans do you know that realize that we could be three months away from Texas becoming California, becoming a bright blue state?
00:32:34.180 By the way, if that happens, I'll make a crazy prediction that I hope and pray never comes true.
00:32:39.220 If the Democrats end the filibuster, if they grant voting rights to every illegal alien in America, every illegal alien in Texas, Beto O'Rourke would be the next governor of the state of Texas.
00:32:50.760 I don't think that's an exaggeration.
00:32:52.300 I think that is actually quite likely.
00:32:54.620 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:32:59.460 Don't forget to download my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast every other day if you're not listening to Verdict, or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.
00:33:06.500 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.
00:33:10.220 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.
00:33:13.900 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:33:16.780 Guaranteed Human.