Verdict with Ted Cruz - Inside the Senate Vote on the New Majority Leader

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.660 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.380 Welcome.

00:00:06.060 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:09.320 Senator, you're back in Washington, D.C.

00:00:12.100 My oh my, how things have changed since the last time you were in D.C.

00:00:15.580 before Election Day.

00:00:17.700 Well, I've been back in D.C. the entire week.

00:00:20.540 I'm actually back in Texas right now.

00:00:22.140 You and I are talking.

00:00:23.020 It's 11 o'clock Thursday night.

00:00:24.300 I just got back to Texas this evening.

00:00:25.880 But this was the first week back in D.C. since the election.

00:00:30.320 And I got to say, it's a remarkable time that there is an enormous energy.

00:00:36.320 There's an enormous enthusiasm.

00:00:38.580 People are really excited.

00:00:39.840 People are excited about President Trump coming back in the White House.

00:00:43.160 People are excited about the new administration.

00:00:45.120 People are excited about a Republican Senate and a Republican House.

00:00:49.080 And it's interesting.

00:00:50.500 You look at the Democrats.

00:00:52.220 The Democrats are shell-shocked.

00:00:53.940 They have a difficult time believing what has happened.

00:01:00.000 And they're just kind of looking around like, you know, okay, wow, we're in a whole new world.

00:01:05.580 And so it was a really good week.

00:01:08.960 It was a consequential week.

00:01:11.580 We got back.

00:01:13.200 We had the very first thing we did is dove into leadership elections for the new majority leader.

00:01:19.780 And the very first majority leader was elected in 18 years.

00:01:25.220 And so on the podcast today, I'm going to bring you inside of that.

00:01:29.040 I'm going to tell you about what's going on in the Senate.

00:01:31.940 We're going to break all of that down.

00:01:33.360 We're also going to break down a major terrorist arrest that happened in your and my hometown, Houston, Texas.

00:01:40.100 So we're going to talk about all that.

00:01:41.720 Yeah.

00:01:41.840 Big show for sure.

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00:03:19.820 So, Senator, let's talk about, you mentioned it in the opening there, the mood.

00:03:24.980 You've gone back to Washington and been from the majority to the minority.

00:03:29.980 It's not fun.

00:03:31.040 But when you lose the White House, you lose the Senate, and you thought you might be able to pick up the House Democrats, and you don't get that either.

00:03:41.660 And the Republicans have a very secure apparatus around you.

00:03:46.840 That's a really bad day for Democrats when they go back to Washington.

00:03:50.820 Yeah.

00:03:50.960 And I can tell you in the Senate, at least, the Senate Democrats were walking around just shell-shocked.

00:03:55.420 They were not expecting what happened on Election Day.

00:03:58.740 And it's tough.

00:04:00.900 Now, I've been there. 0.98

00:04:01.820 I've been there when we had the majority and lost it, and that sucks. 0.75

00:04:05.500 But this was just a thumping across the board.

00:04:09.180 We also had this week.

00:04:10.760 This week is the orientation for newly elected senators.

00:04:13.460 So, we had Jim Justice from West Virginia.

00:04:16.240 He was there.

00:04:17.040 We had Tim Sheehy from Montana.

00:04:19.780 He was there.

00:04:20.560 We had Bernie Moreno from Ohio.

00:04:22.420 He was there.

00:04:23.060 And we had Dave McCormick from Pennsylvania.

00:04:25.400 He was there.

00:04:26.140 So, we've got four new Republican senators, all of whom were there.

00:04:30.560 And that's what flipped the Senate.

00:04:32.760 So, it was good to see them.

00:04:33.860 They were excited to be there, and then they're starting the whole process of orientation.

00:04:38.660 I will tell you, the Senate's an interesting place.

00:04:40.560 So, you get elected, and you show up, and you have a week of orientation, and you do all

00:04:45.440 these different little sessions where they talk about the ethics rules.

00:04:49.140 They talk about all the ways it operates.

00:04:51.380 They talk about staffing up your office.

00:04:53.540 And you're put in a little basement office as a newly elected senator-elect.

00:04:58.760 And, you know, it's kind of an interesting place because the Senate, there are 100 senator

00:05:05.720 offices.

00:05:06.840 There are 100 senators.

00:05:08.340 You would think it would be fairly quick and efficient to assign each one of the senators

00:05:14.600 the senator offices.

00:05:16.060 Well, this is an aspect where, I mean, there are a lot of ways in which the U.S. Senate is

00:05:19.960 not even like a high school.

00:05:21.460 It's like a junior high.

00:05:22.720 It's basically mean girls. 1.00

00:05:25.000 And one of the ways is the new senators basically get hazed, where you get stuck down in a tiny

00:05:32.020 basement office for several months.

00:05:34.440 And mind you, there are fully empty Senate offices once we get to January, and the old guys have

00:05:40.340 left.

00:05:41.000 They're fully empty Senate offices, but it takes several months to assign them.

00:05:46.300 And so the new guys are there.

00:05:48.340 They're kind of looking around.

00:05:49.780 They're sort of blinking starry-eyed.

00:05:51.620 And I remember it well. 0.87

00:05:52.880 You're like, holy crap, what am I doing here?

00:05:55.420 And you go to the initial lunches.

00:05:58.640 And one of the first things you have to do as a senator is you have to decide, okay, what

00:06:04.400 committees do I want to be on?

00:06:06.380 And so you send a formal letter to the leader of your party saying, here are the committees

00:06:12.220 I want to be on.

00:06:13.820 And each senator, actually senators, it's a lot better.

00:06:18.580 The committee assignment process in the Senate is much, much better than the House.

00:06:22.400 The way it operates is that every newly elected senator is guaranteed two what are called A

00:06:31.180 committees and one B committee.

00:06:34.540 And you can, with some regularity, be on even a fourth or a fifth committee as well.

00:06:40.440 So the A committees are the major committees that have the broadest jurisdiction.

00:06:46.840 The B committees are less consequential committees.

00:06:50.760 They have less authority.

00:06:53.120 And the way it works is you can accrue seniority on two A committees and one B committee.

00:07:01.760 So for me, my two A committees are the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

00:07:07.660 and the Senate Judiciary Committee.

00:07:10.460 And so when I first got elected in 2012, as a brand new baby senator, I sent in a letter

00:07:15.360 and said, okay, here are the two A committees I want, Commerce and I want Judiciary.

00:07:19.420 And my B committee is the Rules Committee.

00:07:23.100 And so I have seniority on the Rules Committee as well.

00:07:26.860 Now, you can also, with some frequency, get a third A committee.

00:07:32.500 And the third A committee, you're on, but you don't accrue seniority.

00:07:37.140 So you're not climbing up the ranks.

00:07:39.360 You're not in the line to be a chairman.

00:07:41.200 So my third A committee for the first six years in the Senate was the Senate Armed Services Committee.

00:07:46.580 So I was on Senate Armed Services, a great committee.

00:07:49.120 I enjoyed it very much.

00:07:50.200 And then I shifted over to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

00:07:54.680 Foreign Relations is my third A committee.

00:07:56.400 So I don't accrue seniority.

00:07:58.000 So I will never be chairman of foreign relations because I have no seniority on the committee.

00:08:01.760 And you're only allowed to accrue seniority on two A's and one B.

00:08:05.600 But because I chose Judiciary and Commerce, that's why in this new Senate I will be the chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation because I accrued enough seniority that I am now the most senior Republican on the Commerce Committee. 0.88

00:08:22.980 And by the way, that is a huge damn deal.

00:08:25.900 The Commerce Committee has jurisdiction. 0.90

00:08:28.220 That's what I was going to ask you is people ask, they say, okay, they see chairmanship, and they're like, does that mean more TV time?

00:08:35.300 Does that mean that you're a spokesman in a sense for the committee?

00:08:38.280 No.

00:08:38.520 Or does that mean you actually have power?

00:08:40.560 So explain what that looks like.

00:08:42.080 It is massive and transformational.

00:08:45.000 And I'll confess, I didn't fully understand that until – all right, so for the last two years, I've been the ranking member on the Senate Commerce Committee.

00:08:55.080 Now, what does it mean to be the ranking member?

00:08:56.640 You're the senior Republican, but you're in the minority.

00:08:59.620 That is a massive shift.

00:09:01.740 So the last two years have been enormously consequential, and I'm about to be the chairman of the Commerce Committee because we're in the majority.

00:09:08.160 Now, what does it mean?

00:09:09.640 When you're – and the Commerce Committee is an A committee.

00:09:11.960 It is a major committee.

00:09:15.120 So when you become the ranking member, which I did two years ago of the Commerce Committee, one of the consequences is your budget goes up dramatically.

00:09:23.140 So to give a sense, as a senator from a large state, a state like Texas, I had for the first 10 years in the Senate about 65 staff members.

00:09:33.300 So I have roughly 30 to 35 in D.C. and 30 to 35 in Texas.

00:09:39.260 So that's the divide.

00:09:41.960 You have about half in D.C.

00:09:43.520 They're your policy staff, your communications staff, your administrative staff.

00:09:48.160 That's in D.C.

00:09:49.120 And then in Texas, I've got regional offices all over the state in the major cities, and I've got constituent service teams in Texas that help 30 million Texans.

00:09:58.140 So if you're a veteran and you're dealing with the VA and you've got issues, you call into my constituent service team, and we help veterans.

00:10:05.080 We help seniors with Social Security.

00:10:06.800 We help people whose passports have expired.

00:10:09.320 We get people who are, like, getting ready to take a family vacation tomorrow, and they realize, oh, crap, my passport's expired, and we help them get a passport.

00:10:17.520 So you, as a senator, and you get a little bit larger budget, a little bit larger staff if you're a large state, and Texas obviously is a large state.

00:10:27.700 So for 10 years, I had, like I said, between 60 and 65 staff members.

00:10:33.120 When I became the ranking member of the Commerce Committee, my staff expanded by about a third.

00:10:39.860 So I have roughly 100 staff members now.

00:10:42.040 So I have, I think, 38 staff members on the Commerce Committee.

00:10:45.200 So it dramatically changes your effectiveness because, I mean, literally my D.C. staff more than doubled, and what it means is that I've got staff members now for every subcommittee on the Commerce Committee.

00:11:00.020 So, for example, I've got on my team a railroad lawyer who is an expert in the law concerning railroads.

00:11:09.820 I've got an expert on aviation because, look, the Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over aviation.

00:11:15.560 It has jurisdiction over communications.

00:11:17.360 It has jurisdiction over railroads.

00:11:19.920 It has jurisdiction over space.

00:11:22.120 It has jurisdiction over just a vast array.

00:11:25.040 And I will say it is a force multiplier.

00:11:28.480 When you have that team, you're able to engage on, you know, I would say 5X or 10X as many issues.

00:11:39.180 Because every other member of the Commerce Committee, when I was on the Commerce Committee for 10 years, I had like one or two staffers that were on commerce.

00:11:46.340 If you have one or two staffers versus 38, it just limits how deep you can dive into issues, how many things you can engage in.

00:11:55.260 When you've got an expanded team, you can engage in oversight.

00:11:58.420 You can put out reports.

00:12:00.140 You just have the ability to drive much more of an agenda.

00:12:03.460 There's a second aspect of it, which is when bills are being attached to other moving vehicles.

00:12:11.900 So, for example, you have something like the National Defense Authorization Act.

00:12:15.540 The NDAA passes every year.

00:12:17.760 It authorizes our entire military.

00:12:20.120 It's a hugely consequential bill.

00:12:23.960 Because it passes every year, it is often basically a Christmas tree where you will get dozens or even hundreds of other bills attached to it that have nothing to do with defense.

00:12:36.720 And it's just a moving vehicle that people attach their bills.

00:12:39.760 And that's where the pork – is that where the pork gets pulled in and that's where the abuse gets pulled in or no? 0.99

00:12:46.620 It's actually not really about pork.

00:12:49.720 Pork happens more in an appropriations bill and an omnibus bill, which is doing spending.

00:12:56.080 But this is just a vehicle for different bills that are often good and reasonable ideas.

00:13:04.540 And different people will attach them to a moving vehicle.

00:13:08.260 But the way the Senate operates is any bill that is within the Commerce Committee jurisdiction cannot be attached to the NDAA or to anything else without the sign-off of the chairman, who's been Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington for the last two years, and the sign-off of the ranking member.

00:13:31.800 So I have an absolute veto.

00:13:33.860 If any other senator has any bill within our jurisdiction that they want to attach to a moving vehicle, they cannot do so without my sign-off.

00:13:44.320 That gives an enormous amount of leverage.

00:13:47.420 And so the last two years, like I passed a ton of legislation because, frankly, I used that leverage to say, hey, that's great.

00:13:55.800 You want your bill to move?

00:13:57.300 I want you to agree to my bill on this.

00:13:58.920 I want you to agree to doing this.

00:14:00.020 And so it gives you the ability, because you can shut anything down within the jurisdiction of your committee, it gives you the ability to negotiate some major victories for Texas, some major free market victories, some major victories for job creation.

00:14:17.700 And so that was a huge shift, and I will say, when you become the chairman, okay, I've only been the incoming chairman for a couple days, so I don't really know.

00:14:30.820 I will have much more of an assessment of that six months from now, but I think it is 5x, if not 10x, more consequential.

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00:15:09.760 So the question is, for everybody listening, is, okay, what will get done because of this, right?

00:15:17.160 This is part of the payoff of the election, getting the Senate to be in the majority with the Republicans.

00:15:22.400 So paint the picture for people to understand, not only is this, yes, powerful, but what does this now mean that we can get done that maybe in the last Congress there was no chance in hell of certain things getting done?

00:15:34.920 Yeah, so look, my number one priority in the Senate is jobs.

00:15:38.760 I'm focused on jobs, jobs, jobs, economic growth.

00:15:41.580 I want more jobs.

00:15:42.460 I want more jobs in Texas.

00:15:43.940 I want more opportunity in Texas.

00:15:45.340 I want higher wages in Texas.

00:15:47.180 If you want jobs, the two most effective levers to produce jobs are tax reform and regulatory reform.

00:15:54.020 That every time you reduce taxes, you simplify the tax code, you reduce and repeal job-killing regulations, small businesses expand, and you get more jobs.

00:16:04.600 The Commerce Committee, as I said, has jurisdiction over 40% of the U.S. economy.

00:16:10.560 So if you care about jobs, there are very few positions in Washington that have greater leverage, greater ability to impact jobs in the state of Texas than chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.

00:16:24.980 And so what will get done?

00:16:26.780 So, for example, one of my big priorities is going to be spectrum.

00:16:29.980 So right now, there's an enormous amount of spectrum that the government owns and controls, that they keep off the market.

00:16:36.840 I want to move it to the private sector.

00:16:39.000 Why?

00:16:39.880 Because when you move spectrum to the private sector, it creates tens or even hundreds of thousands of jobs, and it unleashes tens or hundreds of billions of dollars of investment.

00:16:53.200 That spectrum enables 5G, enables expanding wireless, enables new technology apps.

00:16:59.120 That is, if you care about jobs opening up spectrum for the private sector and the way the government does it, it has an auction for the spectrum.

00:17:07.900 So you free up an area of spectrum, and then you have a public auction, and companies pay billions of dollars to the federal government to acquire a portion of spectrum and then to market something to consumers.

00:17:20.400 And so it ends up being a massive area of investment and expansion of jobs.

00:17:26.980 That's going to be a huge priority.

00:17:28.640 Another huge priority for me is artificial intelligence.

00:17:32.400 The Democrats want to regulate the hell out of artificial intelligence.

00:17:35.420 They want to create essentially a European-style prior approval system where any innovation in AI, you've got to go to the federal government first.

00:17:45.760 That's a terrible idea.

00:17:47.140 It's an idea that is almost perfectly designed to ensure that America loses the battle for AI and we fall behind the rest of the world.

00:17:56.360 Well, as chairman of the Commerce Committee, I'm not going to let that happen.

00:17:59.300 I want to maintain a very light-touch regulatory environment where innovation is driven from the private sector because I think AI – and we'll talk about this more.

00:18:08.620 We'll have additional podcasts that go deeper into AI, but I think AI has a potential, and in fact, I think it will be the same sort of transformational technology that the development of the Internet was 25 years ago.

00:18:23.440 And in fact, several months ago, I wrote an op-ed with Phil Graham, former senator from Texas, and I did something that would surprise some people, but Phil and I together, we praised a Democrat president.

00:18:35.420 We praised Bill Clinton.

00:18:36.640 So Bill Clinton was president during the really formation of the Internet, and Bill Clinton signed an executive order that was a very light-touch regulatory footprint on the Internet and the growth of it.

00:18:52.300 And it allowed private companies to develop and innovate.

00:18:56.740 And the consequence of that – so it's actually striking.

00:19:01.560 In 1993, the economy of the United States of America was almost exactly the same size as the economy of the European Union.

00:19:12.120 Wow.

00:19:12.900 The EU took a dramatically different approach.

00:19:16.040 They took a prior approval approach where they said, okay, our government has to approve whatever you're doing on the Internet.

00:19:22.700 Now, fast forward 30 years.

00:19:26.240 What are the consequences?

00:19:27.900 Today, the American economy is 50% larger than the EU.

00:19:34.900 So we went from essentially 100% to 150%.

00:19:39.440 The biggest driver of that is the rise of technology.

00:19:44.140 You look at the Internet, virtually every major big tech company in the world is headquartered in the United States and is driving massive job creation.

00:19:51.860 Now, big tech also has abuses, and I focused on that a lot.

00:19:54.940 That's going to be a big focus of the Commerce Committee as well.

00:19:56.900 But that job creation, that wealth creation, that innovation is hugely consequential.

00:20:03.180 What Biden did, he entered an EO, an executive order on AI, that basically modeled what the European Union did.

00:20:11.940 It was a heavy-handed government prior approval mechanism that I think if that stayed the law, it would cede leadership to the rest of the world,

00:20:22.600 and we would fall behind China and the rest of the world in the development of AI.

00:20:26.740 I think that would be catastrophic because AI is going to be every bit as transformative a technology as the Internet was, and I want America to lead that battle.

00:20:36.620 And so that is a big, big consequence for the Commerce Committee.

00:20:41.560 Two other areas I'll mention that are going to be huge priorities.

00:20:44.260 Energy.

00:20:45.380 Energy is massively important.

00:20:47.380 You want to reduce inflation.

00:20:49.540 Energy is an input to just about every aspect of inflation.

00:20:52.240 You want jobs.

00:20:53.660 America is the energy superpower of the world.

00:20:56.600 We need to be energy-dominant.

00:20:59.000 And Donald Trump, that's a huge priority for him, and that's going to be a huge priority for me as chairman of the Commerce Committee.

00:21:05.940 And I'll say one other topic, and we'll talk about this also in a subsequent podcast, but sports and college athletics.

00:21:13.860 You and I both love college sports.

00:21:16.440 Right now, the current world of college sports is the Wild West, name, image, and likeness, open transfer portals.

00:21:25.940 It is, I think, endangering the future and viability of college athletics.

00:21:32.360 I think Congress needs to step in and legislate.

00:21:34.940 When the Democrats were in the majority, it just wasn't a priority for them.

00:21:38.320 It will be a priority.

00:21:39.740 We are going to address it.

00:21:40.840 And as chairman, I can convene hearings.

00:21:44.120 I'm in charge of every hearing the Commerce Committee has.

00:21:46.720 I invite the witnesses for the hearings.

00:21:49.780 I can call up markups.

00:21:51.720 I can decide what bills get marked up and what bills don't.

00:21:55.000 And it gives you the ability to drive an agenda that is just qualitatively different.

00:21:59.860 That's going to be a very interesting topic, especially my ears perk up as a former college athlete, because there does have to be a happy medium.

00:22:09.260 But you're right.

00:22:10.300 It has become the Wild West.

00:22:11.660 So how do we make it where you also are protecting the athletes and sports, the integrity of the game?

00:22:17.540 And that's going to be something very fun to watch as we continue this next year.

00:22:21.460 I also want to ask you about the Senate election, because my oh my, did that blow up on social media.

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00:23:56.900 Promo code verdict.

00:23:58.060 So let's deal with the Senate vote real quick.

00:24:00.440 I got angry.

00:24:01.700 When I get angry, I tweet in all caps because there was a list that was put out, and this list was such a joke because it had so many things that were wrong.

00:24:11.960 It had Thune voting for Cornyn.

00:24:14.960 The list was, as I said, a lie.

00:24:17.400 I thought it was a lie to divide the Republican Party.

00:24:20.480 It was a lie to get Republicans to go after one another.

00:24:24.480 It wasn't an accurate list.

00:24:27.480 There was a lot of them that were accurate, but that was like Captain Obvious accuracy.

00:24:31.400 Like, of course, this person was going to vote for this one, X, Y, and Z.

00:24:35.080 But the list itself, when you got down to it, was a list that I think was just put out there to rile up and anger conservatives feeling like, oh, they're already getting screwed after this election day.

00:24:46.860 And they're not listening to conservative voters.

00:24:49.400 They're not listening to MAGA supporters.

00:24:50.940 They're not listening to Trump supporters.

00:24:52.700 And at the end of the day, it was a lie.

00:24:54.960 And it was done just to divide.

00:24:56.700 And it made me furious.

00:24:57.840 Your reaction.

00:24:59.180 All right.

00:24:59.780 So let's get into the Senate vote for who was going to be the majority leader.

00:25:04.960 And this was a vote that really, I think, took up a lot of oxygen on social media.

00:25:12.000 And there were a lot of people that had a lot of opinions about it.

00:25:15.280 So let's just talk about what actually happened and how the debate went.

00:25:21.360 And people were saying it isn't even fair.

00:25:23.960 Is that a fair assessment?

00:25:25.480 I don't think so.

00:25:26.360 From what I saw, I want you to tell everybody how this went down.

00:25:30.580 Sure.

00:25:30.920 So there were three candidates who were running for majority leader.

00:25:33.840 And this is the first time we've had a majority leader election in 18 years.

00:25:37.480 That was when Mitch McConnell was elected 18 years ago.

00:25:39.920 Um, we had a, a contested and a new leader elected, uh, this week.

00:25:45.120 The three candidates were John Thune.

00:25:47.280 John Thune is the current, uh, Republican whip.

00:25:50.880 So the number two official, uh, he was running, uh, John Cornyn was running my fellow Texas

00:25:57.940 Senator who was the previous, uh, Republican whip.

00:26:01.540 He had been the whip before Thune and, and the Republican conference has term limits in

00:26:06.440 place.

00:26:06.760 So John Cornyn spent six years as the whip and after six years, he had to step down as

00:26:10.980 whip.

00:26:11.260 So he was whipped for six years and then Thune was, is the current whip.

00:26:14.840 And he's, he, um, so the two of them were running.

00:26:17.720 And then the third candidate running was Rick Scott, Rick Scott, Senator from Florida.

00:26:22.720 Um, and, and it, it was a, a very contested election.

00:26:26.760 Uh, a lot of the Trump MAGA world got behind Rick Scott, got very vocally behind Rick Scott.

00:26:32.480 Um, I supported Rick Scott, uh, I publicly supported Rick Scott and, and, and I will tell

00:26:39.440 you that the, the, the, the dynamics of the election.

00:26:42.120 So, so the way it works is you go into the election happens in the old Senate chamber.

00:26:48.320 So the old Senate chamber is where the Senate used to meet, uh, before the current Senate

00:26:53.760 chamber was built.

00:26:54.620 It's a much smaller room.

00:26:55.880 It's a historic room.

00:26:57.500 It's where many of the great lions of the Senate, like, like, uh, met and, and debated.

00:27:03.980 And, and, and so, so that's where we always have our leader elections and you're in there

00:27:08.520 and it's, it's, it's, it's senators are in there.

00:27:10.960 And, and what happens is you have each of the three nominees, there are nominating speeches.

00:27:17.520 There's a Senator who stands up and nominates one of the three people.

00:27:20.620 There's a second Senator who stands up and gives a seconding speech.

00:27:24.000 And then the person who's being nominated gives a speech.

00:27:27.200 And so for each of the three, you had those speeches and it took quite a while.

00:27:32.780 I mean, the, the speeches, Senate senators are not known for their brevity.

00:27:35.980 Uh, so they were pretty long-winded speeches.

00:27:39.240 Uh, and then we had a few questions and Senator to ask several questions on Tuesday night before

00:27:44.780 the vote.

00:27:45.540 We also had a forum that, that where we asked vigorous questions of all three of the candidates.

00:27:51.620 Um, and then you vote, you vote and it's by secret ballot.

00:27:55.840 They hand out these little, little cards and you check, you checked either Thune, Cornyn,

00:28:01.540 or Scott.

00:28:02.120 So I checked Scott, I voted.

00:28:04.040 And the way it works is that everyone votes and you have to get a majority to be elected,

00:28:11.160 but whoever is third gets eliminated.

00:28:15.380 So we had the first vote and, and on the first vote, Rick Scott was third.

00:28:19.560 And so Rick Scott was eliminated.

00:28:21.460 And then there was a second round of balloting just between Thune and Cornyn.

00:28:25.700 And on the second round of balloting, Thune won.

00:28:28.980 And so Thune is now the majority leader now.

00:28:31.940 So what is that?

00:28:32.980 What is the, the purpose of the secret ballot?

00:28:35.220 Is that just so people can vote their conscience and there's not so much, you know, hoopla?

00:28:40.140 Or is it to keep it more efficient?

00:28:41.680 What's the, what's, or is it just tradition?

00:28:43.760 What's behind that?

00:28:44.660 Look, some of it is because you've got to work with these people.

00:28:47.700 Remember, the Senate's a small place.

00:28:50.160 There are 53 of us.

00:28:52.340 And, and so, you know, if you're voting against the person who's your leader, that is a small and awkward dynamic.

00:29:01.980 So I would have liked the, the, the, the, the ballot to be public.

00:29:05.440 I would have absolutely supported making it public.

00:29:08.480 It's, it's why I announced that I was voting for Rick Scott, because I wanted to tell the voters, but most of the senators don't.

00:29:15.720 So I don't know.

00:29:16.660 I know, I know some of the senators, some of the senators chose to say who they were voting for, but I'd say at least half the senators, I have no idea how they voted.

00:29:23.920 They didn't say, they haven't publicly said.

00:29:25.940 And, and there is a dynamic when you're dealing with a small enough group of people that you've got to, after the election, you've got to turn around and work not just with whoever won, but whoever lost.

00:29:37.400 So I think that's some of the history.

00:29:39.580 It's always, to the best of my knowledge, it has always been a secret ballot.

00:29:45.320 And, and because of that dynamic and the other Senate leadership votes are, are secret ballot as well.

00:29:52.040 And, and look, two years ago in 2022, we had the first contested leadership ballot, uh, in, in 16 years.

00:30:02.900 And, and two years ago, Rick Scott challenged Mitch McConnell and I was the point of the spear.

00:30:09.380 So the, the beginning of that battle two years ago, the very first thing that happened is I stood up and I made a motion to delay the election for a month.

00:30:20.080 So we were voting, by the way, we did a great show on this.

00:30:24.460 It's all coming back to me now that you can go back and listen to, because I think if I'm not mistaken, we did it like at two in the morning, um, after the voting had taken place.

00:30:33.680 And you'd come out and told this story.

00:30:35.360 I would encourage everybody, if you want to go back and listen to this episode, like you said, it's like two years ago.

00:30:40.740 And it was a, it was a big fight then.

00:30:42.580 And like you said, you were the one leading that, uh, the tip of the spear on it.

00:30:45.980 Yep.

00:30:46.100 And it was two years ago.

00:30:48.160 It is always the week after the election.

00:30:50.560 Now, by the way, Republican leadership does that because the people who vote are the senators who will be the senators for the next two years.

00:30:58.300 So the brand new baby senators who were just elected, they vote.

00:31:02.100 The senators who are retiring or leaving the Senate, they don't vote.

00:31:05.680 Um, and, and part of the reason they do that is because they want the brand new baby senators not to know what they're doing, to be just in their basement office, not to know where the men's room is. 0.85

00:31:20.140 And, and they don't want newly elected senators to rock the boat. 1.00

00:31:23.700 It's, it's designed, it's actually a pretty cynical thing.

00:31:26.920 It's designed not to, not to challenge the status quo.

00:31:30.240 So two years ago, I made a motion, look, 2022 should have been a fantastic election for Republicans.

00:31:38.000 We should have won the Senate.

00:31:39.380 We should have, we should have grown our majority in the house.

00:31:41.800 It should have been a fantastic election.

00:31:43.440 And it was a lousy election.

00:31:45.540 And, and I stood up and said, listen, we ought to delay this, this vote by, by a month. 0.97

00:31:49.940 And we ought to spend the month next month talking about why we got our asses kicked, like what's going wrong. 0.91

00:31:57.100 And I, I turned to Mitch McConnell. 0.87

00:31:58.480 I said, listen, for the last two years, we had a handful of Republicans team up with the Democrats to pass the Democrats priorities.

00:32:05.260 Now, maybe that's a good idea.

00:32:07.900 Someone here can make the argument why that's a good idea. 0.88

00:32:10.140 I think it's dumb as hell, but if you want to make the argument, it's a good idea. 0.88

00:32:13.380 We ought to talk about it. 0.99

00:32:14.100 What I can tell you that is objectively true is the Democrats never do that.

00:32:18.460 Like when we had Trump was president, we had a Republican Senate, Republican House.

00:32:22.920 There was not a single bill we passed that consisted of all the Republicans and a handful of Democrats joining us.

00:32:29.360 They opposed everything.

00:32:30.800 And by the way, for the next two years, I think they will as well.

00:32:33.700 So I said, look, we ought to debate.

00:32:35.740 Whatever we did didn't work.

00:32:37.760 We ought to debate it.

00:32:38.780 And so I laid out, I gave a 45 minute speech.

00:32:41.040 I looked at Mitch McConnell and I said, tell me over the next two years, what are you willing to fight over?

00:32:47.660 I said, listen, you and I may disagree.

00:32:50.400 There are a lot of things I think we should fight over.

00:32:52.660 They're not for you.

00:32:53.600 But is there anything?

00:32:55.780 Is there one thing you're willing to fight on over the next two years?

00:32:59.600 By the way, Mitch refused to answer that question.

00:33:02.340 We ended up after I made the motion to delay the vote.

00:33:05.360 I ended up getting 16 votes for that motion.

00:33:08.200 I needed 25.

00:33:09.260 So we had 49 Republicans.

00:33:12.120 So I needed 25 for a majority.

00:33:13.760 So I fell nine votes short.

00:33:16.680 Those 16 votes were the first votes ever cast against Mitch McConnell.

00:33:20.800 And that was very consequential.

00:33:22.680 After that, Rick Scott, because I failed to delay the election, Rick Scott ran against Mitch.

00:33:31.500 I voted for Rick.

00:33:32.460 I was quite vocal about it.

00:33:33.920 And Rick got 10 votes.

00:33:36.360 And so that's what happened.

00:33:37.560 I was one of those 10.

00:33:38.440 And by the way, after the votes, Mitch McConnell exacted retribution on the senators who opposed him.

00:33:46.340 So, for example, the Commerce Committee.

00:33:49.140 Both Rick Scott and Mike Lee used to be on the Commerce Committee.

00:33:52.460 And Mitch McConnell uses authority as the GOP leader to throw them both off the Commerce Committee.

00:33:59.200 Eric Schmidt from Missouri, who also voted against Mitch.

00:34:02.060 Eric Schmidt wanted to be on Judiciary, and Mitch used his authority to orchestrate blocking him from being on Judiciary.

00:34:08.960 So there were real punitive measures that were implemented attacking the people that dared stand up to McConnell.

00:34:19.860 So this time around, Rick Scott did better than he did two years ago.

00:34:24.760 Two years ago, he got 10 votes.

00:34:26.100 This time, he got 13 votes.

00:34:27.540 So we picked up three more votes.

00:34:29.680 I don't know who those three more votes were. 0.66

00:34:32.760 I was one of those 13, as I'd been one of those 10.

00:34:36.300 But Rick did not prevail.

00:34:38.200 And then ultimately, Thune prevailed on the second ballot.

00:34:42.120 And so Thune will be the majority leader going forward.

00:34:45.480 So let's talk about Thune for just a second.

00:34:48.080 What do people need to know about him that maybe they don't know?

00:34:52.120 Yeah, listen, I like John Thune.

00:34:54.200 I've worked with him.

00:34:55.680 I've worked with Thune.

00:34:56.740 I've worked with Corn.

00:34:57.460 And I've worked with Rick Scott.

00:34:58.460 I mean, the Senate is a small place.

00:35:00.580 It's a collegial place.

00:35:01.940 If you want to actually accomplish anything, you've got to deal with and work cooperatively with your colleagues.

00:35:07.980 John Thune is from South Dakota.

00:35:10.620 You know, he's a tall, good-looking college athlete.

00:35:13.780 He was a college basketball player.

00:35:15.960 You know, Thune and I, you know, used to – he works out every morning in the gym, and he's very fit.

00:35:26.760 I would work out at the same time he was, and it was kind of embarrassing because he would lift a lot more weight than I could lift, and he would be like pumping iron.

00:35:34.800 And it's sort of humbling to watch Thune because he's just – you know, he's a man in his early 60s who's in really good shape.

00:35:43.120 Look, Thune – I was not surprised Thune won because he's very well-liked by his colleagues.

00:35:52.360 Thune is affable.

00:35:53.480 He's a good guy. 0.92

00:35:55.040 He's just – he's not a jerk.

00:35:57.080 He's not – he's – everyone likes him.

00:35:59.580 It's just – I mentioned before the Senate is a little bit like a junior high.

00:36:05.640 You know, Thune would win the class president election.

00:36:09.800 It's – and a lot of it is the kind of small little personal dynamics that play out on that.

00:36:16.120 But as I said, I was not surprised Thune won.

00:36:18.320 I will say a lot of the Trump world was freaking out saying, oh, Thune hates Donald Trump, and he's going to oppose everything Trump wants to do.

00:36:27.000 I think those concerns were overstated.

00:36:30.360 Listen, John Thune is majority leader, and every senator is excited that we have a Republican White House, Republican Senate, Republican House, and we are really focused on delivering results and delivering on our promises to the voters.

00:36:46.300 And so I think Thune, as leader, is going to focus on working very closely with President Trump to confirm his cabinet appointments, to move forward.

00:36:57.180 Now, it doesn't necessarily mean that the Senate is going to be a rubber stamp for 100 percent of everything that comes from the White House.

00:37:05.440 And it's not the Senate's job to be a rubber stamp for everything that comes from the White House.

00:37:09.900 Because under the Constitution, the Senate is supposed to have a role, a role of nominations, advice and consent, a role of check and balance.

00:37:18.800 But I can tell you the sort of folks – and I had multiple calls from Trump's team very worried, okay, is Thune going to fight us in everything we're doing?

00:37:28.780 And I was like, okay, no, I – so today I had an hour-long meeting with Thune as the new majority leader and with all the committee chairs.

00:37:41.780 And the entire meeting was talking about, okay, how are we going to move forward with tax reform, with extending the Trump tax cuts, with regulatory reform, with unleashing energy, with securing the border?

00:37:56.280 How are we going to move the legislative agenda so we can deliver big, big wins in the next year?

00:38:04.800 And that was the focus from Thune and every committee chairman.

00:38:09.680 So I think – I understand.

00:38:12.880 Look, I voted for Rick Scott because I think Rick was offering the greatest change.

00:38:17.980 But at the end of the day, to prevail, you've got to be able to get a majority of the Republican senators, and Rick did not.

00:38:24.540 Yeah, great point.

00:38:25.780 And I love that you explained it the way that you did because there were so many people that had questions and want to know how it went down and what happened.

00:38:32.760 And I hope that answered a lot of those questions.

00:38:35.540 If you've got a daughter, if you've got a granddaughter, you've got a son, a grandson, maybe they're 18, but they're not 21.

00:38:43.020 Maybe they're at school right now, and they can't have a firearm.

00:38:46.360 But you want to know they can protect themselves.

00:38:48.460 Maybe you have a wife or a mother-in-law or a sister-in-law, and you say, I want them to be able to have something to protect themselves more than just pepper spray.

00:38:56.660 Well, maybe they don't feel comfortable carrying a firearm yet, or maybe they can't carry a firearm where they work.

00:39:03.200 That is where a company comes in that can help you tremendously.

00:39:08.080 It is called Berna.

00:39:10.260 Berna is not only an incredible, less lethal pistol launcher, but it can actually save two lives when it's used.

00:39:19.580 It's a great complement to owning a firearm.

00:39:22.780 Now, I've had to use a firearm to save my life.

00:39:24.820 I had to pull the trigger, and I can tell you, knowing that you can protect yourself is so important.

00:39:30.420 And that's why I have bought these for so many of my family members.

00:39:34.100 It is legal in all 50 states.

00:39:36.480 There are no permits or background checks needed.

00:39:39.580 And like I said, not only do I own these, but my family has them as well.

00:39:44.880 Berna is designed for easy use by all age groups 18 and older.

00:39:49.060 It is a launcher that has powerful deterrents like tear gas and kinetic rounds.

00:39:54.820 With a 60-foot range, putting much more distance between you and a threat than tear gas or pepper spray or a taser.

00:40:04.480 And that's why I love the Berna launcher.

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00:40:14.560 Over a half million units have been sold, and they have more than 14,000 four-and-a-half-star reviews.

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00:40:39.260 That's b-y-r-n-a dot com slash verdict.

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00:40:48.960 Finally, Senator, there was some news, and I'm glad that this is a successful story in the sense that we've got a terrorist. 0.69

00:40:57.100 But it's also a very concerning story coming out of Houston of a man planning an attack, an ISIS-style attack,

00:41:06.500 and the FBI has arrested a man for direct ties to ISIS and a terror plot.

00:41:11.760 Well, that's right.

00:41:12.500 It was a very disturbing story.

00:41:14.040 A Texas man was arrested on Thursday after he attempted to support ISIS and plan a terrorist attack on American soil,

00:41:24.640 and all of this happened in Houston, Texas.

00:41:28.180 It's a 28-year-old by the name of Anas Saeed,

00:41:31.820 and he was searching for ways to commit violent acts on behalf of the Islamic State in Houston.

00:41:37.320 He's been charged with attempting to provide material support to a terrorist group.

00:41:42.800 He was arrested at his apartment complex, and he said while in custody, he admitted to researching how to conduct an attack on local military recruiting centers.

00:41:56.600 He offered his home as a sanctuary for ISIS operatives.

00:41:59.860 He bragged that he would commit a 9-11-style attack if he had the resources, and he was attempting to produce ISIS propaganda.

00:42:07.280 And this is a very dangerous world, and I will say it has gotten only more dangerous after four years of weakness from Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the White House.

00:42:20.800 I am glad that this alleged terrorist was arrested, that a terrorist attack was stopped,

00:42:26.940 and I think it is critically important going forward that we be vigorous.

00:42:30.960 I am deeply worried.

00:42:32.680 We've talked a lot of this podcast about my belief that we are at a greater risk of a major terrorist attack today than we've been any time since 9-11.

00:42:43.960 And this arrest this week just underscores that risk.

00:42:47.240 Yeah, and this is the reason why it was such an election-year issue.

00:42:51.500 And again, this is good news that the person was caught, but it's also concerning to see this happening after an Afghan man in Oklahoma plotted an Election Day terror attack in the U.S.

00:43:01.520 on behalf of ISIS, the Justice Department saying that as well.

00:43:04.480 So we're seeing more of these headlines.

00:43:06.640 Let's hope we keep getting them before they're able to act.

00:43:09.580 Don't forget we do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

00:43:12.100 Hit that subscribe or auto-download button so you do not miss an episode.

00:43:17.220 And also, grab my podcast on those in-between days, the Ben Ferguson podcast.

00:43:21.740 I'll keep you updated on the latest breaking news there as well.

00:43:24.680 And the senator and I will see you back here on Saturday for our Week in Review.

00:43:30.980 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:43:33.580 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - November 15, 2024

Inside the Senate Vote on the New Majority Leader

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