Verdict with Ted Cruz - September 06, 2023


House Subpoenas Mayorkas, Press Covers-Up for Biden & Dems Want Mask Mandates AGAIN


Episode Stats


Length

40 minutes

Words per minute

172.56258

Word count

7,052

Sentence count

495

Harmful content

Misogyny

5

sentences flagged

Toxicity

13

sentences flagged

Hate speech

5

sentences flagged


Summary

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

The House of Representatives has subpoenaed the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service over an alleged tip-off to the Biden Transition Team regarding a Hunter Biden Tax Probe interview in 2020, and is also accusing the agencies of obstructing the congressional investigation.

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.
00:00:02.540 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.420 Welcome.
00:00:06.140 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:08.980 Hope you had a great Labor Day weekend with your family and friends.
00:00:12.080 And Senator, we've got a lot to talk about, including some shocking new news
00:00:16.120 that deals with a Comer subpoena of Mayorkas,
00:00:21.540 the Secret Service over a tip-off of the 2020 Hunter Biden tax probe interview.
00:00:28.100 Now, I want you to remind people about this,
00:00:30.960 because this is something we've gone in depth with Comer on on this show.
00:00:34.540 We did that two-part series with him.
00:00:36.960 James Comer talked about how interesting this was,
00:00:41.100 that there was a tip-off that you would actually let people know
00:00:44.760 in advance of what you were trying to gain from them when it comes to an investigation.
00:00:50.080 Well, this is something we've discussed at length on Verdict,
00:00:53.040 which is the allegations from two separate whistleblowers,
00:00:57.460 or senior career IRS employees,
00:01:01.420 that the Biden Justice Department, the Biden administration,
00:01:05.620 were in effect obstructing justice,
00:01:07.440 that they were blocking for Hunter Biden,
00:01:10.560 they were preventing any investigation of Joe Biden.
00:01:13.340 And one of the aspects of it is when the investigators wanted to go and interview Hunter Biden.
00:01:18.200 Now, that's a typical part of an investigation. 0.98
00:01:20.120 You go and try and interview the target of the investigation and see if, frankly, they'll say something dumb. 0.93
00:01:27.180 Well, in this instance, unfortunately, in the Biden administration, 0.93
00:01:30.780 the political higher-ups at the Department of Justice,
00:01:34.880 allegedly, according to the whistleblowers,
00:01:37.120 gave a heads-up to the Secret Service and said,
00:01:39.420 hey, these guys want to investigate Hunter and enabled him to prepare.
00:01:43.480 They also gave heads-up to Hunter's lawyers when they wanted to execute a search warrant
00:01:48.480 on finding documents and evidence of criminal activity.
00:01:53.280 And so what has happened this week is that James Comer and the House of Representatives
00:01:57.520 has subpoenaed the Department of Homeland Security,
00:02:00.560 and they're seeking documents, they're also seeking depositions.
00:02:05.380 So there were a total of six subpoenas sent on Tuesday,
00:02:08.300 one directed at Secretary Mayorkas for documents,
00:02:11.680 and the remaining five for depositions,
00:02:14.720 two to Secret Service officials and three to DHS officials.
00:02:18.260 So right now, these subpoenas are not seeking to question Mayorkas directly,
00:02:22.900 but rather people that report to Mayorkas.
00:02:25.100 But the entire focus of it is to what extent is the Biden administration
00:02:30.920 blocking using government resources to protect Hunter Biden?
00:02:35.560 And remember, the critical question is to protect Joe Biden from investigation.
00:02:39.400 And this is yet another example of the only source of this investigation going forward
00:02:46.540 being the Republican House of Representatives,
00:02:48.400 because the Democrat Senate has zero interest in finding out what happened
00:02:53.120 and whether or not Joe Biden has taken bribes from foreign nationals.
00:02:58.060 And most of the corporate media, likewise, has no interest.
00:03:00.840 So it is the House of Representatives that's driving this forward,
00:03:03.760 and they're doing it even more so this week.
00:03:07.200 I want people to hear this is how this news broke.
00:03:09.740 And it's not shocking, but it certainly is going to be significant.
00:03:13.340 So breaking news to tell you about here.
00:03:15.440 Foxnews.com has just discovered that the chairman of the House Oversight Committee,
00:03:20.320 James Comer, has subpoenaed the DHS secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas,
00:03:24.640 and several other DHS and Secret Service officials wanting testimony
00:03:29.920 related to the Secret Service's alleged tip-off of the Biden transition team
00:03:34.560 regarding a Hunter Biden tax probe interview back in 2020,
00:03:40.160 also accusing the agencies of obstruction of the congressional investigation.
00:03:45.160 Six subpoenas in total were sent out, one directed to Mayorkas for documents
00:03:50.340 and five for depositions, two to Secret Service officials and three to DHS officials.
00:03:56.620 Comer told Fox News Digital, quote,
00:03:58.820 the Department of Justice initiated the Biden family cover-up,
00:04:02.340 and now DHS under the leadership of Secretary Mayorkas is complicit in it.
00:04:07.400 He went on to say investigators were never able to interview Hunter Biden
00:04:10.580 during the criminal investigation because Secret Service headquarters
00:04:14.180 and the Biden transition team were tipped off about the planned interview.
00:04:18.220 We'll keep following this.
00:04:19.800 I love how they broke this story.
00:04:21.520 So my next question is, if you were getting to ask the question, Senators,
00:04:25.180 what would you want to know and what would you ask if you're on the House side
00:04:29.180 and these people are able to be brought in,
00:04:32.240 and what would you hope those answers would be from them if they are actually truthful?
00:04:36.220 Well, look, the central question here is to what extent did the Biden administration
00:04:42.420 engage in obstruction of justice?
00:04:44.540 To what extent did they block the criminal investigation into the misconduct of Hunter Biden
00:04:50.220 and, more importantly, Joe Biden?
00:04:51.900 We've got multiple whistleblowers that allege they did so considerably.
00:04:57.400 Here's what I think is going to play out, Ben.
00:04:59.960 I think we're going to see the House of Representatives impeach Alejandro Mayorkas.
00:05:04.240 That's something, as you know, I've been calling for for almost the entirety of the Biden administration.
00:05:09.240 I think Mayorkas has presided over the worst disaster at our southern border in our nation's history. 0.77
00:05:14.780 I think he is responsible very directly for implementing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris' directives
00:05:20.180 that have produced body bag after body bag,
00:05:23.560 that have produced chaos and misery and suffering and death,
00:05:26.500 and that has been utterly lawless.
00:05:27.760 I think that will happen, number one.
00:05:29.800 Number two, I think what should happen,
00:05:32.100 but frankly I'm less confident that it will happen,
00:05:35.180 is I think the House ought to pursue the impeachment of Merrick Garland,
00:05:39.160 that I think the serious, credible allegations of obstruction of justice
00:05:43.900 and of lying under oath under Merrick Garland,
00:05:46.120 they merit a special counsel being appointed in the Department of Justice.
00:05:49.700 They also merit the House of Representatives opening an impeachment inquiry into Merrick Garland.
00:05:54.680 That I am less confident that they will go forward with than I am about Alejandro Mayorkas.
00:06:00.460 I think the pressure on going after Mayorkas is greater, unfortunately, 0.99
00:06:04.840 than the pressure on going after Merrick Garland.
00:06:07.880 The third thing that I think the House will do
00:06:11.380 is formally open an impeachment inquiry on Joe Biden.
00:06:15.560 At this point, the evidence that Joe Biden personally solicited and received bribes
00:06:21.860 from foreign nationals, whether it is Ukrainian oligarchs or Russian oligarchs
00:06:26.460 or senior Chinese communist officials, that evidence is considerable.
00:06:31.240 It's not proven conclusively, but at this point,
00:06:34.340 the weight of the evidence is such that I think the only responsible thing for the House to do
00:06:39.520 is open an impeachment inquiry.
00:06:41.320 To do so, we'll take a full vote on the floor of the House.
00:06:44.620 I think we'll get that vote.
00:06:45.760 And I think the Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, wants that inquiry to open up.
00:06:50.220 Now, I'll tell you one of the real consequences.
00:06:53.020 If and when the House opens an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden,
00:06:58.400 it is going to increase dramatically the likelihood that we will get access
00:07:03.560 to the some 5,400 emails that Joe Biden sent using fake email addresses,
00:07:11.160 using pseudonyms.
00:07:12.280 And those include emails sent to his son, Hunter Biden, who is not and was not a federal government
00:07:18.060 employee.
00:07:19.160 Those include emails that allegedly concern Ukraine while Hunter Biden was getting paid millions
00:07:24.200 of dollars from corrupt Ukrainian oligarchs in order to try to secure favors from his father.
00:07:32.080 And the reason that opening an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden is so important is right now,
00:07:40.060 the House is seeking access to those 5,400 emails from the National Archives.
00:07:47.340 And the National Archives is following a statute called the Presidential Records Act.
00:07:52.500 And so in order to hand those emails over, the National Archives needs the permission of Barack Obama
00:07:58.740 and Joe Biden.
00:08:00.360 Now, I'm going to quantify right now the precise statistical likelihood that Barack Obama and
00:08:05.380 Joe Biden will give permission to hand over those emails.
00:08:08.680 That exact likelihood is 0.000%.
00:08:13.800 They're not going to do so.
00:08:16.140 Actually, Biden gets asked twice.
00:08:17.740 He gets asked both as the former vice president and as the current president.
00:08:21.120 So he can say no twice.
00:08:23.520 Now, why does an impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden matter?
00:08:26.900 It matters because under the terms of the Presidential Records Act, special access to
00:08:33.360 presidential records is allowed to Congress, quote, to the extent of matter within its jurisdiction
00:08:41.380 to any committee if such records contain information that is needed for the conduct of its business
00:08:47.480 that is not otherwise available.
00:08:48.980 So in other words, if and when the House formally votes to open an impeachment inquiry into Joe
00:08:56.860 Biden, it suddenly has explicit statutory authorization to get access to all 5,400 of those emails from
00:09:06.720 Joe Biden's fake email addresses.
00:09:09.500 And again, as we've discussed on this podcast many times, there is no legitimate reason for
00:09:15.180 Joe Biden to have fake email addresses.
00:09:17.080 There's no legitimate reason for him to have burner phones, which he allegedly also had.
00:09:22.240 And so I think the odds are quite good.
00:09:25.080 Number one, that we see impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas.
00:09:28.280 But number two, that we see the House formally open an impeachment inquiry into Joseph Robinette
00:09:33.880 Biden Jr.
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00:11:09.540 Senator, Democrats, I do believe, are now starting to worry about the idea of impeachment.
00:11:14.380 The reason why you can see it is on the Sunday morning shows.
00:11:18.780 Congressman Khanna, Ro Khanna had this to say when he was talking with one of those guys
00:11:24.680 that, you know, hates, obviously, Donald Trump, Jim Acosta, on CNN, about the evidence to go
00:11:31.060 after impeachment.
00:11:32.280 Listen.
00:11:32.440 And House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says Republicans could soon vote on a formal impeachment inquiry
00:11:37.840 into President Biden, something obviously the former president has pressed Republicans
00:11:42.700 to do on Truth Social.
00:11:44.420 What do you make of this?
00:11:45.680 Is this a serious threat?
00:11:47.040 Are we going to be talking about impeachment here in the coming months?
00:11:49.480 What's going on?
00:11:50.240 Unfortunately, I think it is a serious threat from the extremes.
00:11:54.440 But this is not what the American people want.
00:11:57.560 This is not what Republicans or Democrats in my constituency are asking for.
00:12:01.900 And there is no evidence to justify it.
00:12:05.280 So I think what people want is to solve their issues.
00:12:08.280 Child care.
00:12:09.180 The fact that the rents cost too much.
00:12:11.220 The fact that wages haven't kept up with the cost of living.
00:12:14.700 That's what they want us to do in Congress.
00:12:16.680 And I think it would be a political mistake for the Speaker to go down that road.
00:12:23.080 I mean, you hear that saying there's no evidence to justify Biden impeachment.
00:12:27.060 This is actually when I know that there's a good chance that Democrats are fearful of
00:12:31.740 what we could find out through impeachment.
00:12:33.800 Well, one of the things that's striking, Jim Acosta is such a propaganda puppet joke.
00:12:42.740 You notice his question.
00:12:44.200 His question does not discuss any facts.
00:12:46.080 It doesn't discuss any evidence.
00:12:47.580 He says, my God, do you think Democrats will dare do this?
00:12:52.140 Oh, my goodness.
00:12:53.140 Rather, Republicans, will they dare come after us?
00:12:56.640 Like, that's not a journalist.
00:12:59.680 And what does he do?
00:13:00.980 He lets the Democrat congressman say, well, there's no evidence.
00:13:04.440 Really?
00:13:05.060 What is a text from Hunter Biden to a senior communist Chinese official saying,
00:13:10.460 I'm sitting next to my father.
00:13:12.300 Pay me millions of dollars or my father will retaliate against you.
00:13:15.820 You know what that is?
00:13:16.580 That is called evidence.
00:13:17.900 So the statement there is no evidence is blatantly false.
00:13:23.200 But if Jim Acosta were a reporter, he would point that out.
00:13:28.240 What about the evidence of not one but two career IRS employees, senior supervisory officials at the IRS who came forward?
00:13:36.680 And they're not Republicans.
00:13:38.800 They're probably Democrats who came forward and said, we've seen obstruction of justice and lying under oath.
00:13:44.640 This administration is covering up investigation of Joe Biden's criminality.
00:13:48.820 Is that not evidence?
00:13:50.100 What about a confidential human source coming forward saying Joe Biden and Hunter Biden solicited and received five million dollars apiece from a foreign oligarch?
00:13:58.680 Now, none of those perhaps conclusively prove bribery.
00:14:05.860 But it is absurd to say they are no evidence on their face.
00:14:12.440 They are evidence. 0.99
00:14:14.140 And if CNN had even a tiny scintilla of journalistic integrity, number one, they'd fire Jim Acosta because he's a clown. 0.84
00:14:22.460 But number two, they would actually talk about facts rather than clutching their pearls and say, how dare anyone inquire into dear leader?
00:14:31.280 Senator, this goes perfectly, by the way, to your point that you just made.
00:14:34.820 And for many that may not have seen this, the Washington Post, Philip Bump, who's a raging liberal, walked out on an interview when he was asked a tough question.
00:14:45.580 Now, this is supposed to be a journalist, asked a tough question about Joe Biden and the Biden crime family.
00:14:52.060 Take a listen.
00:14:52.980 What do you take from the text message to his adult daughter, Hunter's text message, I have to give 50 percent of my income to Pop?
00:15:00.120 I have no idea what that means.
00:15:01.620 I don't.
00:15:02.120 I have no idea what that means.
00:15:02.960 Well, it's it's it's I know it's circumstantial evidence and you prefer that.
00:15:06.480 What could I have no idea?
00:15:08.100 I don't know.
00:15:08.860 Well, I appreciate your.
00:15:09.900 Has anybody asked her?
00:15:11.940 I don't know.
00:15:12.740 I don't know.
00:15:13.260 Don't you think somebody should ask her?
00:15:14.800 OK, like I'm not.
00:15:16.420 I just said I don't know and I don't know what to make of it.
00:15:18.340 So I have nothing to say about it.
00:15:19.580 Yeah, but I'm going to say.
00:15:20.560 Yeah, but you say there's no evidence, no evidence.
00:15:21.780 But then there's a text message where he says, I give Pop 50 percent of my money.
00:15:26.080 That's that's evidence.
00:15:27.600 OK, well, OK, fine.
00:15:28.920 Fine.
00:15:29.520 So evidence.
00:15:30.500 I appreciate you having me on.
00:15:31.620 It doesn't that something like that.
00:15:33.940 Who do you think is the more?
00:15:34.860 I said I listen to that.
00:15:35.780 I'm saying I feel you want me to leave, like just walk out in the middle of this.
00:15:40.340 You can that way you can.
00:15:41.300 You can go.
00:15:41.880 Is this a standard?
00:15:42.940 Really?
00:15:43.060 This is the way The Washington Post handles people who disagree with I agree to be on
00:15:47.360 for 45 minutes and then I get on for an hour and 15.
00:15:50.340 Yeah.
00:15:50.520 That after a while, I go.
00:15:51.680 Thanks, Matt.
00:15:52.780 Isn't it amazing the timing there?
00:15:54.120 I got to go.
00:15:54.900 Got to go right now.
00:15:55.860 Right.
00:15:56.160 Can't answer that question.
00:15:57.820 You're trying to get me to just look like I'm walking off the set.
00:16:00.380 No, he's trying to get me to answer a question.
00:16:01.940 So, all right.
00:16:03.960 Number one, the person questioning him is a guy named Noam Dorman, who it's he's on a
00:16:09.880 podcast and and he's not a conservative.
00:16:14.240 Noam Dorman is is is is actually a liberal.
00:16:17.380 He's the owner of Comedy Cellar.
00:16:19.820 And so I'm sure Philip Bump figured, OK, Philip Bump is this left wing hack for The Washington
00:16:25.700 Post.
00:16:26.220 I'm sure he thought, OK, I'm going to be in a little love fest.
00:16:29.100 No one's going to ask me anything hard.
00:16:30.580 And Philip Bump uses his entire job as being the apologist for the regime.
00:16:34.400 So when when Dorman asks him about the text message of Hunter expressing frustration that
00:16:43.180 he has to give half of what he makes to Pop, notice Bump says, I don't know what I mean.
00:16:47.940 I don't know what it means.
00:16:48.540 And then, OK, you don't know what it means.
00:16:50.500 That's not complicated.
00:16:51.560 It's not subtle.
00:16:52.380 It's not difficult to figure out.
00:16:53.720 And then he says, it's circumstantial evidence.
00:16:56.420 Mr. Bump, you are using words.
00:16:58.400 You do not know what they mean.
00:16:59.860 What does the word circumstantial mean?
00:17:02.120 No, actually, it is direct evidence.
00:17:03.840 It is direct evidence.
00:17:05.200 It is the statement from Hunter saying he gave 50 percent of his money to Pop.
00:17:09.860 That is direct evidence.
00:17:11.460 Circumstantial is he has twice as much money one day and then he goes to see his dad.
00:17:15.840 And the next day, he has half as much.
00:17:17.380 That would be circumstantial evidence that he gave Pop half the money.
00:17:21.020 When he says, I had to give Pop half the money, that is direct evidence.
00:17:25.740 It may not be true.
00:17:26.760 He could could could be telling something that is false, but it is not, in fact, circumstantial
00:17:31.420 evidence.
00:17:31.740 And and if you actually listen to more of that, that interview, in fact, let me read
00:17:38.180 from the transcript of this interview.
00:17:40.600 So Bump gets very upset when he's being pressed and he says, quote, I just I'm going to lose
00:17:46.880 my mind.
00:17:47.520 I'm going to lose my mind.
00:17:48.780 And Dorman presses him and asks, quote, is there nothing we can talk about?
00:17:54.560 Half the country believes this stuff.
00:17:57.220 Bump comes back with, quote, I know because half the country doesn't actually dig into the
00:18:01.900 issues.
00:18:03.400 Dorman then presses him, says, well, here's your chance to disabuse people.
00:18:08.040 They don't read The Washington Post and and Bump comes back and says, there's just no point
00:18:15.440 because all you want to do is have me here as the punitive expert so you can present me
00:18:20.360 with things that have been debunked multiple times that I've written about.
00:18:25.000 Dorman asks a very reasonable question.
00:18:26.920 What's been debunked?
00:18:29.840 Bump, these these claims I've written about this, this this argument about his dad calling
00:18:36.220 him, I've written about this.
00:18:38.100 Did you read what I wrote?
00:18:40.340 Dorman says, it's not debunked.
00:18:43.260 Neither of us were there.
00:18:45.240 Bump, well, I've debunked it in the standpoint that I've already addressed this and presented
00:18:51.280 the counter arguments to it.
00:18:53.160 I want you to pause for a second and think in the view of The Washington Post, debunked
00:19:00.280 means he's addressed it and presented the counter arguments to it.
00:19:05.540 In other words, if he repeats the talking points of the Biden regime, it's been debunked.
00:19:11.820 The fact that there are counter arguments doesn't mean it's debunked.
00:19:16.580 It means he's simply arguing the other side.
00:19:18.940 And then Bump goes on.
00:19:22.060 And here's what he says.
00:19:23.720 He says, well, Dorman says, quote, I have two issues here.
00:19:30.020 One is Joe Biden's behavior and one is the issue of the press.
00:19:34.940 The press actually bothers me more than Joe Biden.
00:19:38.300 Mind you, this is a Democrat saying this.
00:19:39.820 And here's Bump's response, quote, because you don't listen to the press.
00:19:43.700 I'm sitting here and I'm telling you you're wrong about these things and you don't listen
00:19:47.520 and you continue to insist upon things that are, you know, parsing of language.
00:19:52.020 It's just it's it's this. 0.92
00:19:55.480 This is why I keep saying it's silly.
00:19:58.380 Dorman says, well, it's a shame because this is a good conversation.
00:20:02.600 And Bump says it's not a good conversation because you refuse to listen to what I'm saying
00:20:07.220 to you.
00:20:07.620 You asked me on to present evidence.
00:20:09.760 I keep telling you.
00:20:11.940 Dorman then comes back and says, well, what about what independent journalist Matt Taibbi
00:20:16.580 has reported?
00:20:17.880 And Bump says, well, no, no.
00:20:19.940 Taibbi has an agenda.
00:20:21.300 And Dorman asks, well, do you have an agenda?
00:20:25.780 And Bump admits and listen to this.
00:20:27.920 Listen to his explanation.
00:20:29.320 Bump says, quote, I do have an agenda.
00:20:32.140 My agenda is to do my best to try and present accurate information to the public.
00:20:36.620 And I have an institution behind me to hold me to account when I don't do that, which
00:20:41.200 I think is an important consideration.
00:20:43.000 It really is stunning that, number one, when confronted with facts, a supposed journalist
00:20:51.300 doesn't actually address those facts.
00:20:53.340 When confronted with evidence, he doesn't address the evidence.
00:20:56.320 In fact, he denies the evidence exists.
00:20:58.740 And he claims that because he has parroted the talking points of the White House, even
00:21:03.540 when contradictory, even when contrary to objective facts, that means claims have been
00:21:09.800 debunked.
00:21:10.460 This is why journalism is corrupt.
00:21:13.060 You know, it's striking.
00:21:14.480 The Washington Post, its motto is democracy dies in darkness.
00:21:20.100 I got to say today, the Washington Post, that motto has become a mission statement.
00:21:24.140 It seems like their objective is to kill democracy by ensuring on darkness in every circumstance.
00:21:30.760 One other thing that I do have to laugh about when he acts like he has an institution
00:21:34.280 behind him that's like, you know, checking on him, as he described it right with like, you
00:21:38.280 know, I'm held a higher standard.
00:21:39.820 This is the same Washington Post, to be clear, that still has not, at least to my knowledge,
00:21:46.360 is a week or two ago when we were talking about this, has still not updated and fact-checked
00:21:51.440 their own reporting on Russia collusion with Donald J. Trump, which they now know is a lie.
00:21:56.560 Well, not only that, one of the leading Russia, Russia, Russia cheerleaders was Philip Bump.
00:22:01.740 He was eager to say over and over and over again things that now have been debunked that
00:22:06.820 are now completely false.
00:22:08.260 He was completely taken in by the so-called P-tape that we know was paid for by the DNC
00:22:14.180 and the Hillary Clinton campaign and is false.
00:22:16.840 But you know what?
00:22:17.920 The Washington Post won a Pulitzer for their false reporting.
00:22:20.640 And I have to say, given that that reporting played a pivotal role in the election results
00:22:26.540 of 2020, you know, it is admirable how they engage in election interference and then do not
00:22:33.240 admit when they're wrong.
00:22:34.420 They don't issue a correction.
00:22:35.520 And then in the case of Philip Bump, they get angry when anyone points out just how wrong
00:22:42.300 they were and when anyone actually points to real facts or real evidence.
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00:24:47.100 Senator, I also want to deal with COVID.
00:24:49.120 We were talking about the lies, and they seem to be coming back now.
00:24:54.140 The White House now letting everybody know that Joe Biden is going to start wearing a mask indoors,
00:25:00.000 this after Joe Biden has come down with COVID,
00:25:02.460 even though Joe Biden has tested negative for COVID yesterday and the day before and the day before that.
00:25:08.900 President Biden tested negative last night for COVID-19 and tested negative again today.
00:25:14.020 He's not experiencing any symptoms.
00:25:17.180 As far as the steps he is taking, since the president was with the first lady yesterday,
00:25:22.040 he will be masking while indoors and around people in alignment with CDC guidance.
00:25:27.880 And as has been the practice in the past,
00:25:31.340 the president will remove his mask when sufficiently distanced from others indoors and while outside as well.
00:25:37.960 Now, the funny part is, Senator, this is said from the podium at the White House.
00:25:41.400 This moments later, the president is on stage in a ceremony.
00:25:45.320 He's not the appropriate distance that the White House says is appropriate from other people.
00:25:50.260 And then he takes his mask off that they just said to everybody he's going to be wearing
00:25:53.760 if he's in closed quarters with a lot of different people.
00:25:56.580 And you add that in with a D.C. area elementary school.
00:26:01.260 Montgomery County, Maryland, is now reinstating a mask mandate.
00:26:05.860 And the mask mandate isn't just for those little masks.
00:26:08.260 No, no, no. N95 masks for all their third graders.
00:26:11.900 Because a few kids tested positive for COVID,
00:26:15.360 they sent out a letter telling parents that these masks, these N95 masks,
00:26:20.820 are going to be mandated in class.
00:26:23.800 These masks, they say, have been distributed.
00:26:25.660 And students and staff in identified classes and or activities
00:26:29.560 will be required to mask while in school for at least the next 10 days,
00:26:34.920 except, of course, while eating and drinking.
00:26:36.820 And the mask will become optional, they claim, after the, quote, outbreak has dissipated.
00:26:43.920 Here it is.
00:26:44.960 Mask mandates coming back.
00:26:46.700 Look, this is utterly absurd.
00:26:48.740 Mask mandates are wrong.
00:26:51.180 And for the left, this has become a, it's a combination of a number of things.
00:26:56.300 Number one, it's an article of faith.
00:26:58.380 Number two, it's a virtue signal.
00:27:00.020 It shows just how self-righteous they think they are.
00:27:03.380 You know, as I was walking down the halls of the Capitol today,
00:27:06.760 one very prominent Democrat senator was walking along with his N95 mask, 0.61
00:27:11.020 and behind him was a staffer wearing his N95 mask.
00:27:14.060 And it shows virtue.
00:27:16.780 But number three, it's about control.
00:27:18.660 And this is all about controlling people, whether it's mask mandates,
00:27:23.600 whether it's vaccine mandates, whether it's having the 437th booster.
00:27:27.960 Enough is enough is enough. 1.00
00:27:30.300 This is crap. 0.98
00:27:31.780 And no, look, I recognize, and by the way, a year from now, 0.99
00:27:35.680 we are going to see the most deadly COVID variant ever seen, the election variant.
00:27:39.940 And before the election, they're going to need to shut everything down
00:27:43.500 because they want to have mail-in balloting for everyone
00:27:47.180 because they think it helps elect Democrats.
00:27:49.480 Enough is enough is enough. 1.00
00:27:51.040 If you want to wear a damn mask, fine. 1.00
00:27:53.460 But don't be a hypocrite and don't try to force other people to. 1.00
00:27:57.260 And, all right, listen. 0.97
00:27:59.460 So many of the people who listen to this podcast are conservatives,
00:28:03.320 but some are not.
00:28:04.280 Some are open-minded.
00:28:05.200 Some want to hear both sides.
00:28:06.520 So maybe you think, all right, I'm not going to trust Cruz.
00:28:09.580 I'm not going to trust Ferguson on this.
00:28:12.300 All right, if you don't trust me, listen to CNN,
00:28:16.480 left-wing CNN confronting Dr. Fauci this past weekend
00:28:20.800 about his false claims about masks.
00:28:23.960 Give a listen.
00:28:24.880 There is a perception out there by many, how many I don't know,
00:28:29.300 that they don't work and that the data concludes
00:28:32.080 that they didn't work in the first go-round.
00:28:34.460 Respond to that on masks.
00:28:36.060 Yeah, well, that's not so.
00:28:39.400 I mean, when you're talking about at the population level
00:28:41.980 that the data are less strong than knowing that
00:28:45.120 if you look on a situation as an individual
00:28:47.940 protecting themselves or protecting them from spreading it,
00:28:52.400 there's no doubt that masks work.
00:28:54.560 Different studies give different percentages of advantage of wearing it,
00:28:58.800 but there's no doubt that the weight of the studies,
00:29:01.940 and there have been many studies,
00:29:03.180 indicate the benefit of wearing masks.
00:29:06.060 I'm going to refer to one of them.
00:29:09.140 You've heard about it before.
00:29:10.340 I heard about it from a number of radio callers.
00:29:13.180 Brett Stevens in The Times talked about Cochran.
00:29:15.460 Put that on the screen.
00:29:16.840 The most rigorous and comprehensive analysis of scientific studies
00:29:19.960 conducted on the efficacy of masks
00:29:21.740 for reducing the spread of respiratory illness,
00:29:24.220 including COVID-19, was published last month.
00:29:27.080 Its conclusions, said Tom Jefferson, the Oxford epidemiologist,
00:29:31.040 who is the lead author, were unambiguous.
00:29:32.980 There is just no evidence that they, masks, make any difference.
00:29:37.500 He told the journalist Mayan Demasi, full stop.
00:29:41.040 But wait, hold on.
00:29:42.100 What about the N95 masks as opposed to the lower quality?
00:29:45.540 Surgical or cloth masks makes no difference.
00:29:48.380 None of it, he said.
00:29:49.640 Well, what about the studies that initially persuaded policymakers to impose mask mandates?
00:29:54.180 They were convinced by non-randomized studies, flawed observational studies.
00:29:59.560 How do we get beyond that finding of that particular review?
00:30:03.300 Yeah, but there are other studies, Michael, that show at an individual level, for individual,
00:30:09.940 when you're talking about the effect on the epidemic or the pandemic as a whole,
00:30:16.300 the data are less strong.
00:30:17.900 But when you talk about as an individual basis of someone protecting themselves
00:30:22.220 or protecting themselves from spreading it to others,
00:30:25.900 there's no doubt that there are many studies that show that there is an advantage.
00:30:29.840 When you took it, the broad population level, like the Cochran study,
00:30:34.140 the data are less firm with regard to the effect on the overall pandemic.
00:30:39.420 But we're not talking about that.
00:30:41.180 We're talking about an individual's effect on their own safety.
00:30:45.680 That's a bit different than the broad population level.
00:30:48.520 I mean, you hear him there.
00:30:49.940 And even he's being questioned, Fauci, by a guy who's not conservative at CNN.
00:30:55.460 And it's for kind of, she's like, well, hold on.
00:30:57.300 I'll read for you what they say.
00:30:59.300 And yet Fauci's still sitting there saying, no, no, no, these things work.
00:31:02.300 You're somehow still wrong.
00:31:04.080 Well, look, two things.
00:31:05.600 Number one, Fauci himself knows what he's saying is wrong.
00:31:10.640 And if you go back to the beginning of COVID, February 5th, 2020,
00:31:15.580 Sylvia Burwell, who was the Secretary of Health and Human Services for three years under Barack Obama,
00:31:21.020 emailed Fauci and asked if she should wear a mask.
00:31:24.740 And by the way, his whole defense was, well, individually, it makes sense, just not for society.
00:31:29.940 Here's what Fauci wrote on February 5th of 2020, quote,
00:31:34.300 Masks are not, are really for infected people to prevent them from spreading infection to people who are not infected,
00:31:40.360 rather than protecting uninfected people from acquiring infection.
00:31:44.480 Fauci continues,
00:31:45.280 The typical mask you buy in the drugstore is not really effective in keeping out virus,
00:31:50.240 which is small enough to pass through material.
00:31:53.040 It might, however, provide some slight benefit to keep out gross droplets if someone coughs or sneezes on you.
00:32:00.320 And he added, quote,
00:32:02.360 I do not recommend that you wear a mask, particularly since you are going to a very low risk location.
00:32:09.340 That's what he said in 2020.
00:32:12.340 Then he decided that it was politically beneficial to mandate that everyone had to wear a mask.
00:32:19.360 And yet now, look, the second point I'd make, the fact that CNN is turning on this,
00:32:25.320 in the height of the pandemic, the words that you just played from CNN, they would not utter.
00:32:29.840 There was no brooking dissent from whatever St. Fauci said.
00:32:35.840 Whatever the mandate was, mask today, not mask tomorrow, mask the next day, you couldn't disagree.
00:32:42.100 The fact that even CNN is turning, I think, is significant.
00:32:45.680 I think if the Biden administration tries another round of shutdowns and mask mandates,
00:32:51.100 I think a lot of the country is going to say no and hell no.
00:32:54.280 I'll tell you, the state of Texas has zero interest in shutting down.
00:32:57.580 And I think you're going to see resistance, not just in Texas, but all over the country.
00:33:06.120 Yeah, I think you're right.
00:33:06.880 And the other thing that worries many people is this,
00:33:09.080 the president and this idea that we could go back into some sort of government shutdown.
00:33:13.580 There was that awkward interview that he did with Kamala Harris,
00:33:16.700 far away from him, the social distancing, back in the early days of COVID in his administration,
00:33:22.080 sitting next to, you know, far away from David Muir's interview,
00:33:24.600 him in a weird triangle, and he said he would have no problem if the scientists told him to
00:33:29.640 to shut down our entire economy.
00:33:31.520 I would be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives,
00:33:34.520 because we cannot get the country moving until we control the virus.
00:33:39.720 That is the fundamental flaw of this administration's thinking to begin with.
00:33:44.020 In order to keep the country running and moving and the economy growing
00:33:48.480 and people employed, you have to fix the virus.
00:33:52.520 You have to deal with the virus.
00:33:54.080 So if the scientists say, shut it down?
00:33:56.180 I would shut it down.
00:33:57.280 I would listen to the scientists.
00:34:00.440 I mean, that's apparently still on the table.
00:34:03.160 And if they're bringing the masks back, I mean, how far away are we from having another fall
00:34:07.700 where they start shutting things down?
00:34:09.260 And what should the American people do?
00:34:10.740 Look, the Democrats want to shut it down.
00:34:15.340 They want to impose mandates. 0.96
00:34:17.080 And I got to say, one of the biggest lies of that exchange is I would listen to the scientists.
00:34:22.160 The only scientists that he listens to are the ones who say what he wants to hear.
00:34:26.240 You know, the very last podcast we did, we did a two-part episode with an interview with Dr. Phil.
00:34:31.000 And one of the interesting things, look, Dr. Phil has been the number one ranked daytime TV host for a decade.
00:34:37.880 And he talked about how the data are that the school shutdowns from COVID cost many, many more lives than the virus would have cost.
00:34:49.220 In other words, listen to the scientists.
00:34:51.500 The Democrats aren't listening to the scientists because if they did, they'd look at the harm from the shutdowns.
00:34:56.100 They'd look at the harm from businesses shut down.
00:34:57.840 They'd look at the harm from churches shut down.
00:34:59.860 They'd look at the harm from school shut down.
00:35:01.540 The kids who face learning loss for the rest of their life.
00:35:04.580 They'd look at the mental health numbers that have gone up.
00:35:07.480 They'd look at the kids who didn't go to school and didn't have physical wellness checks, didn't have mental health checks, didn't have daily food because for low-income kids, for many of them, their principal source of food is at school.
00:35:20.160 They didn't have the counselors who could observe whether kids are subject to physical abuse or sexual abuse because when they shut down schools, they sent them at home.
00:35:28.340 And the data, what Dr. Phil told us, and if you didn't listen to those two podcasts, you've got to go back and listen to them.
00:35:34.860 But what Dr. Phil said on this podcast was that the data show that many, many more lives were lost because of the shutdowns.
00:35:42.620 But the Democrats don't want to listen to the scientists.
00:35:45.140 They have a political agenda.
00:35:46.700 So they'll cherry-pick whatever scientists repeat the politically favored outcome that support the result they want anyway.
00:35:55.540 I want to ask you one last question about states and what states need to do to prepare for this.
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00:37:29.780 Senator, last question for you.
00:37:31.380 What do you think states should be doing?
00:37:33.120 Because Texas has banned the mask mandates as COVID restrictions are being imposed in other states.
00:37:38.740 There was a Newsweek headline.
00:37:39.960 It says,
00:37:40.240 A ban on COVID-19 restrictions and imposed a mandate to wear face masks in public spaces went into effect in Texas
00:37:46.500 after a number of institutions across the U.S. reinstated the policy due to a rise in new infections
00:37:52.480 fueled by the emergence of two new variants of the virus.
00:37:55.620 Now, that's the gist of this.
00:37:57.700 But Texas is saying, hey, we're going to stand up to this type of insanity.
00:38:02.240 Do other people need to be calling their legislators and asking for the same thing?
00:38:06.620 Look, absolutely, yes.
00:38:08.140 Listen, states need to embrace common sense.
00:38:11.300 States need to defend liberty.
00:38:12.940 States need to defend individual choice.
00:38:15.620 If someone wants to wear a mask, knock yourself out.
00:38:17.980 You can still, you know, I flew from Texas to D.C. today.
00:38:22.820 There were still a handful of people in the airport that choose to wear a mask.
00:38:25.740 OK, if you want to wear a mask, that's fine.
00:38:27.420 You've got an individual choice.
00:38:28.780 You can wear a ski mask if you want.
00:38:31.760 That's your choice.
00:38:33.100 But government shouldn't be forcing people to wear a mask.
00:38:36.420 Airlines shouldn't be forcing people to wear a mask.
00:38:39.280 Airports shouldn't be forcing people to wear a mask.
00:38:42.320 Restaurants shouldn't be forcing people to wear a mask.
00:38:44.480 Nobody should be forcing anyone to wear a mask, and even more so, governors and states need
00:38:50.680 to say not just no, but hell no to the shutdowns.
00:38:54.260 We will look back in the future, years in the future, we will look back and say, what in
00:39:00.940 the hell did America do shutting much of the country down for a year or more?
00:39:06.640 Many parts of the country, almost all Democrat parts of the country, shut businesses down,
00:39:12.100 shut churches down, shut schools down.
00:39:14.940 Many schools, tens of millions of kids were out of school for over a year, and the consequence
00:39:21.600 was cataclysmic.
00:39:23.260 It is, without exaggeration, the most catastrophic public policy decision of our lifetimes.
00:39:30.520 And so states need to say, we're not going down that road again.
00:39:34.720 No, we're not going to do it.
00:39:36.440 Look, you know the school shutdowns were bad when Randy Weingarten, the head of one of the
00:39:39.920 big teachers unions, is now suddenly claiming, I wasn't for school shutdowns, despite the
00:39:44.780 fact that she fought relentlessly for school shutdowns and caused Democratic politicians 0.99
00:39:49.420 to jump on a string when she demanded it.
00:39:52.920 Now even she's running away from it. 0.60
00:39:55.800 States need to stand up and say, we're not shutting anything down.
00:39:58.920 Look, if there's another public health crisis, and at some point there will be, protect people
00:40:04.220 who are vulnerable, work to provide treatment options, give people advice on how to keep
00:40:09.220 safe, but respect their individual liberty and don't engage in arbitrary shutdowns and
00:40:15.440 mandates.
00:40:16.160 The mandates are wrong.
00:40:18.440 Say no to the mandates.
00:40:20.080 Yeah, great point.
00:40:20.900 Senator is always going to be back with you after the holiday.
00:40:23.520 Don't forget, if you missed our two-part series with Dr. Phil, make sure you go back and listen
00:40:28.980 to that.
00:40:29.220 And also, as you know, hit that subscribe auto-download button.
00:40:33.180 We do the show Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays.
00:40:35.200 And in between those days, make sure you download my podcast, Ben Ferguson Podcast.
00:40:39.600 I will keep you updated on my podcast in those in-between days as well.
00:40:43.180 So download the Ben Ferguson Podcast as well.
00:40:45.340 We'll see you back here in a couple of days.
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