Verdict with Ted Cruz - It All Comes Down To This

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.500 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.140 It all comes down to this, the final impeachment vote on whether or not to remove President

00:00:11.040 Trump from office.

00:00:13.140 And straight from the Capitol, we have one of the judge slash jurors.

00:00:17.780 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:26.240 The final vote has happened.

00:00:28.120 Can I get a drumroll, please?

00:00:30.740 The president has not been removed from office.

00:00:34.020 Senator, you are so shocked and excited by this news that you're sitting there tweeting

00:00:37.820 during the intro.

00:00:38.820 Well, well, I am.

00:00:40.160 I was just just reading a second ago a tweet that says in other Democratic comments, Representative

00:00:45.840 Sheila Jackson Lee suggests that the Russians may be behind the Iowa Democratic Caucus app

00:00:52.020 debacle.

00:00:52.680 She mentions Russia as she tells FBI Director Chris Wray.

00:00:56.720 I hope the Iowa Democrats will ask for an FBI investigation on the app.

00:01:02.460 And so I just retweeted it and made a very simple observation.

00:01:06.040 Well, Bernie did honeymoon in the Soviet Union.

00:01:09.560 So your mind is now past impeachment.

00:01:13.340 The impeachment vote has happened and it turned out the way that we all knew it was going to

00:01:17.740 turn out.

00:01:18.120 This was the inevitable outcome.

00:01:19.740 Yeah.

00:01:19.880 We knew this in October.

00:01:22.340 We knew this in November.

00:01:23.440 We knew this in December.

00:01:24.400 We knew this in January.

00:01:25.400 We know this in February.

00:01:26.560 And we will know this 100 years from now.

00:01:29.620 This impeachment was always a partisan circus.

00:01:32.780 And it was always going to end with acquittal.

00:01:34.380 Right.

00:01:34.500 But it wasn't about convicting the president.

00:01:38.520 That wasn't the Democrats objective.

00:01:41.260 It was about appeasing their base that hates him.

00:01:44.580 Do you think impeachment and the Democratic reaction to the state of the union last night

00:01:49.380 are the same thing?

00:01:51.160 Huh?

00:01:52.000 It's like it's a different part of the identical phenomenon.

00:01:56.380 Nancy Pelosi ripping the speech in half.

00:01:58.700 Right.

00:01:58.900 Is the same thing as impeachment.

00:02:01.340 It is all a giant FU apologies to Donald Trump.

00:02:06.280 That's what that's what this whole thing was.

00:02:08.400 But then what did they get out of it?

00:02:11.300 I guess if we always knew how it was going to end and it was always a partisan circus.

00:02:15.680 Was there a political victory?

00:02:18.080 When you throw blood to the mob, it satiates the mob, at least briefly.

00:02:23.840 Right.

00:02:23.980 Or if nothing else, it gets messy.

00:02:25.280 I mean, this was beginning of last year.

00:02:29.360 You had famed centrists like Nancy Pelosi saying, no, no, no, no, we can't do impeachment.

00:02:37.380 It can't be partisan.

00:02:38.620 It'll never succeed.

00:02:39.560 Even Nancy Pelosi didn't want to do impeachment. 1.00

00:02:41.420 You had that wonderful rock of moderation, Jerry Nadler, saying, no, no, no, no, we can't

00:02:47.940 do we can't do impeachment if it's partisan.

00:02:51.440 So what changed?

00:02:52.720 What changed is their base got angrier and angrier and angrier.

00:03:01.460 And ultimately, listen, I view Nancy Pelosi almost like a hostage tied up in a basement

00:03:07.880 somewhere.

00:03:08.460 A little ironic because we are, in fact, in a basement right now.

00:03:10.680 But look, she was telling AOC, she was telling the squad, she was telling the fired up Bernie

00:03:20.380 Sanders, Bernistas, no, no, no.

00:03:25.140 And they just couldn't fight him anymore.

00:03:27.240 And so all of impeachment.

00:03:28.680 One of the reasons I think Pelosi was so pissed last night is I think the Democrats have done

00:03:36.420 real political damage to themselves in the last three months.

00:03:39.960 And they've strengthened President Trump.

00:03:42.600 I mean, you know, if I were Donald Trump, I would send a letter to the FEC today, the

00:03:50.140 Federal Election Committee, saying, dear FEC, I'd just like clarification.

00:03:54.620 Do I have to declare Nancy Pelosi's actions as an in-kind contribution to my re-election

00:03:59.560 campaign?

00:03:59.980 It has helped his numbers.

00:04:01.140 So then I guess this is just what's confusing to me.

00:04:04.080 What you're saying is Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats had to go along with impeachment because

00:04:10.140 their fired up base demanded it.

00:04:12.000 But the impeachment has damaged the Democrats and it was always going to damage the Democrats.

00:04:18.360 I think that's right.

00:04:19.880 And I think that their base has radicalized and they have no choice but follow them off

00:04:26.760 the cliff.

00:04:27.260 Now, there were some surprises today.

00:04:29.340 We had been talking about obviously the president was going to be acquitted, but there were some

00:04:33.860 swing votes in play.

00:04:35.240 Mitt Romney was the biggest one, but also Doug Jones of Alabama, who's a Democrat, also

00:04:40.980 Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

00:04:44.200 There were a few other votes in play.

00:04:46.580 It was a completely party-lined vote, except for Mitt Romney.

00:04:51.280 Well, let's take each piece of that.

00:04:53.400 So this weekend, as you and I talked about, I thought there were anywhere between 50 and

00:04:58.520 56 votes for not guilty.

00:05:01.160 We ended up at 52.

00:05:04.620 Sorry about that.

00:05:06.320 It's been a long week.

00:05:07.600 It has.

00:05:08.780 We ended up at 52.

00:05:10.020 So the six votes that were in play, three Republicans, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, 1.00

00:05:15.320 Mitt Romney, and three Democrats, Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, Doug Jones.

00:05:23.580 I was right that Collins would vote to acquit.

00:05:26.420 I was right that Murkowski would vote to acquit.

00:05:28.960 I was wrong on Mitt.

00:05:30.520 So last podcast we did, I told you I thought Mitt would be a not guilty.

00:05:34.760 I also told you I thought Joe Manchin would be a not guilty.

00:05:38.400 Joe Manchin, Democrat from West Virginia.

00:05:39.760 From West Virginia.

00:05:40.900 And I said Sinema might be that she was a plausible not guilty. 0.98

00:05:45.900 And I also told you Doug Jones won't be.

00:05:49.020 And Jones, I was exactly right.

00:05:51.660 Jones is running in Alabama.

00:05:53.040 It's a bright red state.

00:05:54.540 Voting for impeachment is a terrible vote for Doug Jones.

00:05:58.120 And I think he doesn't care.

00:05:59.500 He's like the end of Dr. Strangelove.

00:06:02.920 The guy on top of the bomb with a cowboy hat cheering as it falls.

00:06:08.180 That's Doug Jones.

00:06:09.180 He's like, I'm losing. 0.98

00:06:10.520 And damn it, I am going to be praised by every liberal in Alabama. 0.98

00:06:15.020 And there are a few of them. 0.98

00:06:15.720 There are not many.

00:06:16.960 But he's going to be there here.

00:06:18.360 Senator, do you know how I know that you are new to political podcasting?

00:06:22.060 Is that you are actually holding up your predictions against reality?

00:06:25.980 Normally, we just move right along.

00:06:27.920 Doesn't matter.

00:06:28.500 No accountability.

00:06:29.520 Mitt Romney was the big story.

00:06:30.860 Yeah.

00:06:31.300 Mitt Romney comes out.

00:06:32.380 We actually surprised me.

00:06:33.340 We have a clip of it.

00:06:34.760 Mitt Romney declaring why he's going to vote against President Trump.

00:06:39.280 As a senator juror, I swore an oath before God to exercise impartial justice.

00:06:47.140 I am profoundly religious.

00:06:51.040 My faith is at the heart of who I am.

00:06:55.760 The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the president committed an act

00:07:01.840 so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a high crime and misdemeanor.

00:07:11.340 Yes, he did.

00:07:12.400 Your reaction?

00:07:16.760 Look, I think he's wrong.

00:07:18.340 I think he is very mistaken.

00:07:21.460 And I think that's unfortunate.

00:07:23.020 I think that is a bad decision.

00:07:25.980 I think it's bad for the country.

00:07:28.440 I think it's bad for Mitt.

00:07:30.400 And I don't think it's consistent with the Constitution.

00:07:32.160 Now, that being said, every senator has to make up his or her mind.

00:07:37.460 And that is what Mitt has done.

00:07:39.720 But I think that's a very unfortunate decision.

00:07:42.820 Do you think Senator Romney's decision to be the only vote to cross party lines,

00:07:48.820 to vote against the president on actually on only one charge on abuse of power?

00:07:53.500 He voted to acquit the president on the other charge, obstruction of Congress.

00:07:56.560 But do you think Senator Romney's decision influenced some of those other swing votes on the Democratic side?

00:08:03.020 You know, that's an interesting question.

00:08:04.700 And maybe, you know, when we started voting, so we voted a day at four.

00:08:09.340 So we all came to the Senate floor.

00:08:10.740 We got there a few minutes early.

00:08:12.460 Mitch McConnell was giving a speech about how impeachment was all nonsense.

00:08:18.200 Yeah.

00:08:19.180 Four o'clock, the vote comes in.

00:08:22.560 The chief justice comes and takes the seat, reads the first article.

00:08:26.060 Now, the way we vote, every one of us stands up and votes either guilty or not guilty.

00:08:32.720 Right before that started, it was interesting.

00:08:35.160 Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema hugged each other.

00:08:37.960 And I have to say, Sinema, who I like, I work with her. 1.00

00:08:42.780 She looked pale.

00:08:44.880 She looked haggard.

00:08:46.260 I mean, it was noticeable.

00:08:48.100 And I will say another Republican senator was speculating with me if Chuck Schumer had taken them back in his office and strapped them to a chair and taken out a rubber hose on them.

00:09:02.260 It seemed as though it was in their personal political interest to vote to acquit the president.

00:09:08.360 So what's interesting is is is is when Manchin cast his vote, I leaned over to David Perdue.

00:09:13.400 It's next to me on the on the Senate floor.

00:09:15.060 And I said, well, Manchin just announced he's not running for reelection.

00:09:18.800 That's what it seems like.

00:09:19.800 Look, West Virginia, this may be a worst vote for worst vote for Manchin than it is for Doug Jones.

00:09:26.100 I'd put West Virginia and Alabama side by side in terms of where the voters are on that.

00:09:31.160 And I'm actually not shocked that that Manchin would do that because I because I don't think he actually really likes the Senate.

00:09:37.220 He used to be governor of West Virginia.

00:09:38.760 He liked being governor more.

00:09:41.020 And this was a vote.

00:09:43.240 I don't know how much Schumer pounded them.

00:09:45.780 I actually wonder the Democrats are much better at party discipline.

00:09:50.580 I don't know what Schumer threatens.

00:09:52.580 I don't know if he did.

00:09:53.340 This is pure speculation.

00:09:58.440 But it wouldn't shock me.

00:10:00.440 So Romney announced earlier this afternoon he was going to be a guilty.

00:10:05.040 And if Schumer hadn't gotten Manchin and or Sinema to flip, then I suspect Romney coming over.

00:10:12.660 Schumer would have said, hey, you can't vote the other way because we need the messaging.

00:10:17.700 I haven't even seen what the Democrats have said, but I'm sure they're all saying it was a bipartisan vote.

00:10:22.920 Well, that's what changes.

00:10:23.940 This is why the Romney vote matters is not because it was going to.

00:10:27.180 No, it doesn't.

00:10:28.020 You don't think so.

00:10:28.460 There are 535 members of the United States Congress throughout this entire.

00:10:36.460 Show.

00:10:37.760 It was a diplomatic choice of words.

00:10:40.160 I said the second half of the word.

00:10:41.800 They got one Republican.

00:10:44.820 One out of 535.

00:10:46.860 So you'll forgive me for not being terribly excited that they got one.

00:10:51.620 This was a partisan endeavor from day one.

00:10:54.640 And the fact that Mitt decided to do what he did.

00:10:58.040 Listen, I don't really want to pound Mitt, frankly, because everyone else on Earth is landing on him so hard.

00:11:02.440 I don't know if you've checked Twitter recently, but it's tough on him.

00:11:05.140 But I will say, you know, one reaction I have.

00:11:10.420 So I'm reminded of another difficult moment on the Senate floor.

00:11:15.100 By the way, an interesting observation.

00:11:16.820 Mitt, I think, sits at the same desk that I sat in as a freshman.

00:11:21.660 Looking at that image of that clip, that's the same image that's behind me when I'm doing the Obamacare filibuster.

00:11:26.740 He's really junior.

00:11:29.640 He's in the back corner.

00:11:31.960 Those were very different speeches.

00:11:33.780 Very different.

00:11:35.180 But I was reminded of another deeply disappointing moment on the floor, which was in 2017 when we voted on Obamacare repeal.

00:11:47.560 And you'll recall we came one vote short of Obamacare repeal.

00:11:51.980 Now, there's nothing I have bled more than taking on and trying to repeal Obamacare.

00:11:57.040 And I haven't given up on that yet, just to be clear.

00:11:59.660 But you'll recall three Republicans voted against it.

00:12:02.380 And the last one was John McCain from Arizona, who put his put his fist out and sort of wiggled it for a minute and thrust his thumb down.

00:12:10.000 And that was that was about two in the morning.

00:12:11.920 So actually, we should have been podcasting.

00:12:13.380 Yeah, that's two in the morning.

00:12:14.120 That's not that's our time.

00:12:15.560 That's podcast.

00:12:16.080 OK, we need to own to 2 a.m.

00:12:19.020 You know, it's 2 a.m.

00:12:20.380 Do you know where your senator?

00:12:21.340 They have got to let you get to your second job.

00:12:23.400 That is exactly right.

00:12:24.440 So.

00:12:26.140 I remember at that moment and listen, John McCain and I, we became friends.

00:12:31.800 I respect and admire him personally, certainly for his heroism, for his serving his country.

00:12:39.260 But I had to turn and walk off the Senate floor because if I had spoken to him that night,

00:12:45.500 it would not have been language suitable for the floor of the United States Senate.

00:12:49.720 It was an infuriating vote.

00:12:51.320 But but I want to draw a distinction.

00:12:54.020 Let me contrast.

00:12:55.220 So someone else did the two other no votes that night were Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. 1.00

00:13:00.320 I had a very different sentiment about McCain's vote than I did about Collins's vote.

00:13:05.880 Why?

00:13:06.540 Look, I didn't like how Susan voted. 0.99

00:13:09.140 But Susan was honest with her voters.

00:13:11.880 Susan, when she campaigned and when it was elected in Maine, she never campaigned saying

00:13:16.080 she opposed Obamacare.

00:13:17.180 Right.

00:13:17.380 She's she's a moderate.

00:13:18.540 She's the voters of Maine knew what they were getting.

00:13:21.220 She she wasn't out there on the stump saying, if you elect me, I will vote to repeal Obamacare. 0.75

00:13:26.700 Yeah.

00:13:27.180 And so I disagree with her on that issue.

00:13:30.380 But but but I think being honest with your voters and doing what you told them to is is

00:13:35.120 right at the heart of what we're supposed to do.

00:13:38.660 Yeah.

00:13:39.880 What was so infuriating about McCain's vote, he had just just been reelected and he had run

00:13:44.720 ads all across Arizona.

00:13:46.180 John McCain leading the fight to repeal Obamacare.

00:13:52.760 That's why it was so infuriating.

00:13:58.120 And I got to say about Mitt.

00:14:01.500 This ain't how he campaigned to get elected to Senate.

00:14:04.500 I noticed that if Mitt had wanted to tell the people of Utah, elect me and I will be a

00:14:12.580 check on Donald Trump.

00:14:13.980 I will stand up to Donald Trump.

00:14:15.860 I will be a statesman.

00:14:17.500 And you know what?

00:14:18.000 If the people of Utah had elected elected him for that, God bless him.

00:14:23.220 But that's not what that's not what he told the voters.

00:14:25.600 And it's a pattern.

00:14:28.620 The rage across this country.

00:14:32.460 Washington doesn't doesn't get the rage across this country. 0.89

00:14:36.720 That rage is what elected Trump is.

00:14:39.900 People were tired of their elected officials telling him one thing lying to their face on

00:14:44.360 the campaign.

00:14:44.900 It just flat out lying and then doing exactly the opposite.

00:14:48.340 And that I don't have a problem.

00:14:51.560 I don't have a problem with a Bernie Sanders voting like a socialist.

00:14:55.280 Look, his policies are loony and would destroy the country and the world.

00:14:57.840 Right.

00:14:57.920 But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how'd you like the play?

00:15:01.440 But he tells the people of Vermont that.

00:15:03.980 I don't know.

00:15:04.820 They're cold.

00:15:05.400 They're smoking pot.

00:15:06.180 And they say, that sounds good to us.

00:15:07.460 Like, I don't know.

00:15:09.480 But it's at least honest.

00:15:10.800 I think we need more honesty in politics.

00:15:14.100 And this was not what the people of Utah were talking about.

00:15:22.160 You know, this actually brings us to another point, kind of wrapping up impeachment.

00:15:26.480 You've talked a lot about Hunter Biden, Burisma, this corruption on the Democratic side.

00:15:32.120 And other senators have gone along with this.

00:15:35.020 But you always wondered if it was just maybe a little more opportunistic.

00:15:37.840 What we've just heard, this is breaking news, Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson have

00:15:43.720 sent letters to the Secret Service requesting information on Hunter Biden's travel records.

00:15:49.220 Obviously, you have been leading the charge to get to the bottom of this kind of corruption.

00:15:55.680 Are there going to be enough other senators to go along with this, to get to the bottom

00:16:00.880 of the Biden potential corruption?

00:16:04.240 Or is this just going to be forgotten?

00:16:05.800 I hope so.

00:16:09.740 Let me say a couple of things on that.

00:16:11.940 One, in the Senate and in the House, I think the political appetite for any further investigation

00:16:19.160 diminished dramatically because Joe Biden is in free fall.

00:16:24.280 No, he's fourth in Utah.

00:16:25.560 He's falling in New Hampshire.

00:16:26.860 Iowa, actually, not Utah.

00:16:28.040 In Utah, I'm sorry.

00:16:29.400 I was still so fixated on Senator Romney.

00:16:31.240 Yes, in Iowa.

00:16:31.840 Look, they're both states with four letters and lots of vowels, but different.

00:16:38.400 Beautiful, but very different.

00:16:39.600 I can't believe they say we don't know geography.

00:16:41.500 You know, I don't know why they say that about us conservatives.

00:16:43.520 Biden taking fourth in Iowa, or who knows?

00:16:52.260 I mean, we still don't have results because they still can't count the votes, but it is

00:16:56.620 catastrophic for him.

00:16:58.100 Yeah.

00:16:58.220 What's going on behind the scenes, his donors are in panic, his supporters are in panic,

00:17:07.120 his grassroots activists are in panic, his campaign staffers are in panic.

00:17:11.180 Yeah.

00:17:11.460 When you're built on being inevitable, placing fourth is kind of a problem.

00:17:17.620 Because that's the whole pitch for the Biden campaign is he's the most electable guy.

00:17:21.320 If he doesn't win elections, then that whole argument goes away.

00:17:24.300 And remember, we talked about in a previous podcast how when the House managers threw Joe

00:17:30.760 Biden under the bus, one Republican senator speculated it was because the Democratic super

00:17:35.600 delegates had soured on Biden.

00:17:37.840 Right.

00:17:38.320 And we saw some of that, some of the fruit of that playing out in Iowa.

00:17:43.300 What that means, they're not going to be a lot of Republicans in the Senate agitating for

00:17:47.820 investigating further because Biden, Biden is politically speaking, a dead man walking right

00:17:54.120 now.

00:17:54.660 Right.

00:17:55.320 Right.

00:17:55.660 That being said, look, rule of law matters.

00:17:59.580 Biden was the vice president of the United States.

00:18:01.560 The evidence we've walked through on Burisma and corruption.

00:18:05.280 When I'm back at home, home in Texas and doing town halls and I've done town halls in Texas

00:18:10.620 and all across the country, people are understandably frustrated.

00:18:14.760 A question you get all the time, how come nobody's held accountable?

00:18:18.600 How come people break the law?

00:18:20.660 People violate their criminal.

00:18:22.880 There are no consequences.

00:18:23.920 They get off scot-free.

00:18:26.120 What happened to the millions of dollars Hunter Biden made?

00:18:29.680 By the way, no one has ever answered the question that was asked during the trial.

00:18:33.560 What exactly did Hunter Biden do for the million bucks a year?

00:18:37.800 The managers are like, we don't want to answer that.

00:18:41.120 So my view is absolutely, yes, there should be an investigation.

00:18:46.440 Now, who should investigate?

00:18:48.920 To be honest, there's a game of musical chairs in the Senate.

00:18:52.060 Because no one wants to do it.

00:18:53.340 Where no committee chairman wants to do it.

00:18:56.020 It's got to be a committee chairman.

00:18:58.060 I don't care if it's judiciary, foreign relations, or intel.

00:19:02.300 Well, I'm on two of those three, and I am urging the chairman to call them and to investigate.

00:19:09.080 But right now, you're not seeing any chairman rushing into that breach.

00:19:12.440 Right.

00:19:12.780 And they control the gavel.

00:19:14.580 They control the ability to investigate.

00:19:17.280 But let me say, secondly, where's DOJ?

00:19:22.000 Right.

00:19:22.620 The Justice Department could investigate here.

00:19:24.020 We do have a United States Department of Justice that has these people called assistant U.S. attorneys, and they have grand juries, and they're FBI agents.

00:19:34.680 When they're not fraudulently launching a case against the president and doctoring evidence to the FISA court to get wiretaps, you've got evidence here of a million bucks a year to the son of the vice president with the vice president bragging about getting the prosecutor fired. 0.97

00:19:51.260 By the way, I don't know, so in my Senate speech yesterday, every senator got 10 minutes to explain, and I quoted from what podcast listeners here know that I've affectionately referred to as the son of a bitch clip. 0.99

00:20:03.100 And Joe Biden on video saying, son of a bitch, he got fired. 0.99

00:20:07.020 What I've actually asked my team to research, that may be the first time in history son of a bitch has been said on the Senate. 1.00

00:20:14.040 So you did not set the milk precedent that you participated in, but you may have set the son of a bitch precedent. 0.97

00:20:20.360 Okay, that's really, and I'll confess what I asked my team, that they're like, oh, come on, someone had to have said it. 0.98

00:20:27.380 I said, look, the Senate's pretty old school.

00:20:30.060 I'm not even sure we've had a malarkey on the Senate.

00:20:33.540 No, there's been a lot of malarkey, but maybe not a mention of malarkey.

00:20:36.600 By the way, Michael, you did mention, I missed this tweet, but you told me that Don Jr.

00:20:43.840 Don Jr. tweeted about the Iowa caucuses.

00:20:47.880 I'm sorry, we were told there'd be no malarkey.

00:20:51.120 That's funny.

00:20:52.000 I didn't see Don's tweet, but that's really funny.

00:20:54.560 Spot on.

00:20:55.480 Before we go, obviously, wrapping up impeachment, we need to get to some of the mailbag questions.

00:21:00.820 Our listeners have been incredible.

00:21:03.380 Now, just, what, we've been doing this for two weeks, over two million audio downloads, and a ton of listens on YouTube.

00:21:13.060 First question from Nicholas.

00:21:15.860 Is the Verdict podcast going to continue, or was this a short-lived gem of a listen?

00:21:22.540 We ain't going anywhere.

00:21:24.040 All right, I still have a job.

00:21:25.620 This is great.

00:21:26.240 We will keep on going, and we're going to keep doing the same thing, which is trying to get to the bottom of issues, trying to engage in substance.

00:21:37.280 You know, this podcast was built on a proposition that you can attest, a lot of people laughed at us for saying.

00:21:44.220 Yes.

00:21:44.920 Which is that people really care about substance.

00:21:48.200 They want to understand things.

00:21:49.420 Now, look, people have jobs, they have kids, they have lives, they don't necessarily have time to spend days and days and days studying every issue.

00:21:57.860 You've got to deal with other stuff.

00:21:59.660 But they do want to understand, all right, what's really going on?

00:22:02.540 What are the facts?

00:22:03.800 And I've got to admit, when it comes to cable TV, I don't turn on the cable news stations.

00:22:10.680 I get very little from people screaming at each other.

00:22:15.320 Three-minute sound bites, yelling over each other.

00:22:17.380 And just the talking points, blah, blah, blah, wah, wah, wah.

00:22:20.360 It's like Charlie Brown and the teacher talking.

00:22:22.480 You can predict what they're going to say.

00:22:24.000 Yeah, it just, it doesn't.

00:22:26.700 So what we're going to try to do, we're going to try to address, number one, timely pressing issues right now.

00:22:32.720 Yeah.

00:22:33.740 But number two, also issues that matter, whether raised by the presidential campaign, raised by what's going on in the Senate, raised in the Supreme Court,

00:22:43.300 or just issues that matter, socialism versus free enterprise.

00:22:47.580 What's that all about?

00:22:48.360 Those are sort of great bumper stickers.

00:22:50.460 You can get all jazzed about them.

00:22:53.140 But what does it mean?

00:22:54.220 And I'm hoping that we do it with a combination of facts and insight and perhaps some perspectives that you don't necessarily get elsewhere, but also having fun.

00:23:06.420 I mean, we're going to, you know, cut up and laugh and enjoy ourselves.

00:23:11.380 And hopefully that means our listeners will stay with us.

00:23:13.600 Right.

00:23:14.060 Before we go, someone has a new job recommendation for you.

00:23:17.960 You've already got two.

00:23:19.160 Maybe you could have a third.

00:23:20.080 From Lisa, thoughts on a Supreme Court seat?

00:23:24.160 I think, Ted, would be great.

00:23:27.240 Well, look, I appreciate Lisa saying that.

00:23:30.620 And that's a question that I get sometimes.

00:23:34.340 I will tell you that the short answer is that I'm not interested in doing that.

00:23:39.680 Really?

00:23:40.020 Why not?

00:23:40.400 You've worked in the Supreme Court.

00:23:41.620 You clerked.

00:23:42.380 You have argued cases before the Supreme Court.

00:23:44.860 I respect.

00:23:46.260 I admire the Supreme Court.

00:23:47.760 I think it's massively important.

00:23:50.080 You know, the big reason, and when I've said this to people, they sometimes don't believe me, but I think a principled federal judge stays out of policy fights, stays out of political fights.

00:24:04.240 If I were a judge, that's what I'd do.

00:24:06.680 If I found myself on the Supreme Court, I would follow the law and I would follow the Constitution.

00:24:11.940 Even if it doesn't go along with your particular preference on any given issue.

00:24:15.940 And I don't want to stay out of policy fights.

00:24:17.660 I don't want to stay out of political fights.

00:24:19.800 I want to be right in the middle of them.

00:24:22.340 And the right place in our constitutional system for that is the Senate.

00:24:26.220 I mean, the Senate was established for that.

00:24:29.060 And so, listen, I would like to be part of nominating and confirming two, three, four, five strong principled constitutionalists to the Supreme Court and to the lower courts as well.

00:24:41.340 So I think it matters massively.

00:24:44.480 But I don't want to pull out of the fray.

00:24:46.560 It's too much fun.

00:24:47.140 And frankly, when I look at the Senate and, you know, no disrespect to my colleagues, but I don't see a whole lot of people leading the fight.

00:24:57.660 Right.

00:24:57.780 And if we're going to win people's hearts and minds, we've got to be prepared to engage and fight.

00:25:03.060 And that's what I want to do.

00:25:05.700 And, you know, I'll tell you one part of it also.

00:25:08.060 So I so this is not an entirely theoretical question for both of the last two Supreme Court vacancies for Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

00:25:19.640 The president and I had very serious conversations about the seat extended, especially for the first one, the Gorsuch seat that was Scalia seat.

00:25:28.420 We had the president and I and his team and I talked for probably two hours about it.

00:25:35.200 Wow.

00:25:35.320 And I don't want to overstate it.

00:25:38.020 He didn't offer me the job, but it was a really serious.

00:25:41.920 He didn't talk to me about it, you know, so this is a little bit.

00:25:45.040 That may be the next one.

00:25:45.940 Maybe the next one.

00:25:46.860 You know, I can see you as a Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

00:25:48.900 I mean, it'd be a good look for you.

00:25:52.760 And I'll tell you, I wrestled with it.

00:25:55.400 I thought about it.

00:25:56.260 I actually spent several weeks with Heidi.

00:25:58.940 I mean, we were praying about it.

00:26:00.500 I mean, that that's I revere Antonin Scalia.

00:26:04.360 And to have the possibility of filling his spot, like, holy cow, that it's one thing to say it theoretically.

00:26:13.660 But when it was being discussed for real, you really have a all right, let's think about this humbling experience.

00:26:19.080 And I came very much to peace.

00:26:22.580 So I told the president in both instances, I'm not interested.

00:26:26.280 I don't want the position.

00:26:28.080 No, thank you.

00:26:28.820 He didn't offer it to me, but I made very clear I didn't want it.

00:26:31.680 When I was thinking about it for the during the first discussions, one of the things that happened, my my pastor came over to the house.

00:26:42.820 It was I forget.

00:26:44.020 It was a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and spent a couple of hours talking through with me. 1.00

00:26:48.480 And I got to say, among my close friends, almost everybody was saying, you're an idiot. 1.00

00:26:53.880 I wasn't going to say it, but I got a lot of that. 1.00

00:26:58.400 It was interesting my pastor's take on it.

00:27:02.180 He said he understood because I was from the very beginning very hesitant and pretty sure I didn't want to do it.

00:27:06.900 But I was agonizing because it was becoming a more real possibility.

00:27:11.580 And and my pastor used an analogy.

00:27:15.120 He said, you know, if someone came to me and offered me the opportunity to be the leading theologian in the world, to go to some divinity school and drive theological thought across across the planet.

00:27:27.920 But I'd have to give up being a pastor.

00:27:30.620 And I couldn't meet with the members of the church.

00:27:33.480 I couldn't visit them when they're sick.

00:27:35.040 I couldn't.

00:27:35.800 He said, you know what?

00:27:36.720 I'd turn that down.

00:27:37.660 And it matters a lot.

00:27:38.840 I want good theologians to think.

00:27:41.180 And but but my calling, my passion is to be a pastor.

00:27:45.180 And I have to admit that that analogy resonated with me.

00:27:51.440 And and and and and I want to be fighting for conservative principles in the Senate.

00:27:58.540 Winning these fights and also, you know, one of the things Ted Kennedy did, Ted Kennedy was a lion of the Senate.

00:28:04.940 And he raised up he trained generations of left wingers who went and populated all of government, did enormous damage to the country.

00:28:14.880 Right.

00:28:16.540 I'm working very hard to train young conservatives, libertarians to go and fight for the Constitution.

00:28:22.180 That's a lot of fun.

00:28:23.060 And I'd rather do that.

00:28:23.860 Not just in the Senate, but here.

00:28:24.940 I'm glad you're staying in the fight in both places.

00:28:27.700 And we've got a lot more to get to because we've got the final verdict on impeachment.

00:28:32.320 But I'm glad to say we don't have the final verdict podcast.

00:28:35.920 And we will be back with a lot more to look not just backward on this farce of an impeachment trial, but to look forward at what is at stake coming up.

00:28:45.440 Thank you so much to everybody who has made this podcast such a big success.

00:28:49.380 Please head on over if you don't mind and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts and leave a five star review.

00:28:56.800 And we'll be back with a whole lot more.

00:28:58.440 I'm Michael Knowles.

00:28:59.180 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:29:08.380 This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is being brought to you by Jobs Freedom and Security Pack,

00:29:14.140 a political action committee dedicated to supporting conservative causes, organizations and candidates across the country.

00:29:21.240 In 2022, Jobs Freedom and Security Pack plans to donate to conservative candidates running for Congress and help the Republican Party across the nation.

00:29:30.820 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:29:33.100 Guaranteed human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - February 06, 2020

It All Comes Down To This

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript