Verdict with Ted Cruz - It's The Economy And Crime Yet Biden And The Democrats Keep Refusing To Admit Their Policies Are Destroying America!

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.540 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.860 Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:07.400 Ben Ferguson with you today.

00:00:09.540 And if you heard the president while he was eating his ice cream,

00:00:13.760 he wants you to know that you're crazy if you think the economy is bad. 0.70

00:00:18.680 Take a listen.

00:00:19.820 Our economy is strong as hell.

00:00:22.500 The internal.

00:00:23.880 It's strong as hell. I'm eating an ice cream cone.

00:00:26.520 That's your president.

00:00:27.400 Joining me now, Senator Ted Cruz.

00:00:29.780 Senator, when you saw this, I'm sure you had to be shocked.

00:00:32.620 Like, what world is he living in?

00:00:34.880 Look, I want to say all the history teachers in America,

00:00:37.980 they must have smiled because it's nice to see the president of the United States

00:00:41.820 giving a shout out to Marie Antoinette.

00:00:43.800 She does not get enough credit.

00:00:46.180 And when she said, let them eat cake, that was widely ridiculed.

00:00:49.760 But Joe Biden feels that same sentiment towards the American people.

00:00:53.320 He has his ice cream cone.

00:00:54.760 And so, you know, if you're having trouble feeding your family,

00:00:57.580 if you can't afford to fill your truck, well, that's your problem.

00:01:01.640 It is absurd.

00:01:04.300 And it demonstrates just how out of touch this administration is.

00:01:07.340 Let me give you just some basic stats.

00:01:09.340 Since Joe Biden became president, fuel oil is up 58 percent.

00:01:14.800 Airline fares are up 43 percent.

00:01:17.660 Eggs are up 31 percent.

00:01:20.380 Gas is up 18 percent.

00:01:23.040 Electricity is up 16 percent.

00:01:25.140 Milk is up 15 percent.

00:01:27.120 Groceries are up 13 percent.

00:01:29.040 Baby food is up 12 percent.

00:01:31.240 Meat, poultry, and fish are up 8 percent.

00:01:33.620 And inflation overall is up 8.5 percent.

00:01:37.580 And Joe Biden says the economy is doing great just so long as you don't have to buy anything.

00:01:42.500 CBS News said it even came out on CBS this morning.

00:01:47.660 And I think this tells you that they see what's about to happen in this country.

00:01:52.480 They had a report that said 65 percent of Americans say the economy is getting worse under Joe Biden.

00:01:58.140 And that is a plurality of Americans are now blaming Democrats.

00:02:02.280 Listen.

00:02:03.500 Worsening views of the economy, Nate.

00:02:05.600 Look at this.

00:02:05.920 Two-thirds of people say it is getting worse.

00:02:08.200 And let me show you why.

00:02:09.240 One of the ways people interact with the economy is gas prices, right?

00:02:12.460 You're paying more.

00:02:13.340 You're seeing those big signs up.

00:02:14.960 Back in August, there was some optimism.

00:02:17.080 Majority said, well, okay, they're going down.

00:02:18.800 But look at this.

00:02:20.060 Now 63 percent say gas prices are going up in their area.

00:02:24.520 So I ask people, okay, well, let's turn to politics here.

00:02:26.740 Who do you blame for this?

00:02:27.940 What's the reason?

00:02:29.120 Well, look, there's more folks now who say that Democratic policies have harmed the economy than helped it.

00:02:35.200 It's not the only reason they see for this, but they're reasoning out of results, right?

00:02:38.780 They're feeling a pinch.

00:02:39.940 Party's in power.

00:02:40.720 Okay.

00:02:41.120 Must be doing something wrong.

00:02:42.620 And then by contrast, they think, well, Republican policies more likely would help.

00:02:48.140 I love the last part of that, Senator.

00:02:50.400 They said that the majority of Americans now say Republican policies would, in fact, help.

00:02:56.440 Now, the Democrats are out there.

00:02:58.320 And the talking point that they're giving Americans is, if you vote for us, we're going to fix the problem with inflation.

00:03:05.460 How is that possible when they're the ones that created this economic crisis and they're the ones that are in charge of the House and the Senate and the White House?

00:03:13.240 Why would you give them a second chance when they've already destroyed the economy with the first chance?

00:03:18.400 Well, Ben, you're exactly right.

00:03:20.560 And I will point out that that Raphael Warnock got asked that exact question on the campaign trail.

00:03:25.540 So it said, look, Democrats have been in charge of the White House, the Senate, the House, all of the levers of government.

00:03:31.420 You haven't fixed inflation.

00:03:33.080 Inflation got much worse on your watch.

00:03:35.060 Why should anyone trust you?

00:03:36.280 And he sat there like a deer in headlights, silent. 0.99

00:03:39.400 And then finally, the only answer he could stammer out is, well, well, we're still in the middle of a covid pandemic, which is complete garbage. 0.94

00:03:48.060 And I would point out one person who said the pandemic was over was Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. 0.91

00:03:53.880 on a TV interview.

00:03:55.260 So their talking points are shattered.

00:03:58.500 But but it is interesting.

00:03:59.980 You know, just today, Biden tweeted out.

00:04:03.400 I'm going to read you what he tweeted.

00:04:04.440 He tweeted, quote, if Republicans in Congress get their way, prices will go up and inflation will get worse.

00:04:12.280 It's that simple.

00:04:13.560 And I got to give them credit for one thing.

00:04:15.900 And it's utter chutzpah, which is what he is saying is so bizarrely counterfactual.

00:04:22.800 Two years ago, when you did have a Republican president in office, we had two dollar gasoline.

00:04:29.620 Now, in a lot of parts of the country, it's five, six, seven dollars a gallon.

00:04:33.260 Two years ago, you could get a home mortgage at two, three percent.

00:04:37.820 Now it's six, seven percent and heading up two years ago.

00:04:40.980 The price of everything was much, much lower.

00:04:44.640 And the cause of it, this is where Democrats are counting on economic ignorance, they hope, from the voters and active complicity from the media.

00:04:57.660 Where does inflation come from?

00:05:00.220 It has one source and one source only.

00:05:02.760 Milton Friedman put this beautifully a long time ago.

00:05:05.800 Inflation comes when the federal government spends too much money.

00:05:08.900 When it prints money, it doesn't have.

00:05:10.840 When it spends money, it doesn't have.

00:05:12.500 And I'll explain it in a really intuitive way.

00:05:14.520 Look, all dollars are, are a measure of value so that we can know the relative value of one good versus another.

00:05:23.760 Think before we had currency, we had barter.

00:05:26.580 And if you, if you were growing chickens and I was growing wheat and you decided you wanted some wheat, you brought three chickens and I gave you a bushel of wheat.

00:05:34.440 That was less than convenient to carry three chickens with you.

00:05:38.040 So, Dan, although I will say for the record, Ben usually has three chickens on him wherever he goes.

00:05:44.600 You got, you got to have that backup cash when you need it, my friend.

00:05:48.040 Look, I mean, how do you think you made it through Greek life at Ole Miss?

00:05:51.460 I mean, three chickens are helpful.

00:05:54.020 I'm going to let you get away with that one, okay?

00:05:56.580 But just know it will come back one day when we're talking Ivy League stuff.

00:06:00.600 I understand.

00:06:01.460 I'm going to hold back.

00:06:02.320 But look, money then arose, all right, if we have a standard, let's say a coin, maybe we know that, that it is one coin for a bushel of wheat and two coins for a chicken.

00:06:15.780 And the coin is just a relative unit of measurement of one good versus another.

00:06:20.180 And so let's fast forward to today.

00:06:22.660 Suppose the price of an apple is a dollar and the price of a banana is two dollars.

00:06:29.480 The dollar is giving you the relative value of how much more apples there are, how much more people like bananas.

00:06:39.520 If you double the number of dollars in the world, if you suddenly print twice as many dollars,

00:06:44.940 as a simple rough back of the envelope math, suddenly an apple will be worth two dollars and a banana will be worth four dollars because they're twice as many dollars.

00:06:54.760 And what the money is showing is just the relative value of one good or another.

00:06:59.400 Why do we have rampant inflation?

00:07:01.300 Because the Democrats have run the printing presses like crazy and they've spent over 12 trillion dollars and that's produced the inflation.

00:07:11.120 And what they're counting on is that some voters who may not pay attention may not know that and the media will lie to them about it.

00:07:19.280 But I think the voters are a lot smarter.

00:07:21.860 You know what you just played a moment ago.

00:07:23.620 People have basic common sense.

00:07:25.480 They recognize this stuff wasn't happening until the Democrats took over.

00:07:29.860 And it really is making life harder for people across the country right now.

00:07:33.880 You mentioned the lie a moment ago.

00:07:35.840 This was literally at the White House press briefing.

00:07:38.840 And this is what they said today.

00:07:41.240 When we talk about inflation, gas prices, that's been something that the American people have seen for the past several months, several weeks, and as costs have been coming down.

00:07:52.300 That's a lie.

00:07:53.540 The costs have not been coming down.

00:07:55.320 And even Bloomberg today, Senator, said the odds of a recession hit 100 percent in a blow to this idea that prices are coming down.

00:08:05.520 They said today, they described this as a blow to the president's economic messaging ahead of the November elections because they said the U.S. economy is effectively certain to enter a recession in the next 12 months according to model projections from Bloomberg economists.

00:08:22.620 That is clear.

00:08:24.280 We are headed there.

00:08:25.680 And yet she says from the White House podium today, no, no, no.

00:08:28.760 Prices are actually coming down.

00:08:30.480 Where is my question to her?

00:08:32.200 Where are they coming down?

00:08:33.260 So there are a couple of things going on there.

00:08:36.240 Number one, even Bloomberg, which is acknowledging that it's 100 percent we're headed to a recession, even that is pro-Biden-Democrat spin.

00:08:45.040 Why?

00:08:45.860 Because we are in a recession right now.

00:08:48.520 Right now we are already in a recession.

00:08:50.620 Why?

00:08:50.940 What is a recession defined as?

00:08:52.400 What has it been defined as for a long, long time?

00:08:56.780 Two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth.

00:08:59.520 We've already had that.

00:09:00.300 We are in that this instant.

00:09:03.500 The Biden White House tried to redefine what the word recession means, but even under their redefined terms, now nobody can credibly say, okay, well, even under their redefined terms, which is basically when a bunch of government economists sit around in a room and say, yep, this is a recession.

00:09:18.240 They've gotten to the point that even the people who are on their payroll can't lie about it anymore and say anything other than this is a recession because of the policies we've seen.

00:09:29.260 Now, secondly, what Corrine Jean-Pierre is saying is she's focusing on gas prices.

00:09:34.220 And what happened is for the first year plus of the Biden administration, gas prices spiked enormously, grew more than 100 percent, went from $2.38 when Biden came in to $4.5 and in places like Nevada and California to $6 and $7 a gallon.

00:09:54.820 Now, it is true that in the summer, gas prices dropped a little bit.

00:10:00.020 They had a little bit of a decline.

00:10:01.880 And the Biden White House immediately took a big victory lap and said, see, they're not as horribly high as they were a couple of months ago.

00:10:09.300 They're still much, much, much higher than they were when Biden became president.

00:10:13.500 Now, even that little dip has turned around.

00:10:16.120 They're going back up again.

00:10:17.500 And listen, as we talked on the last podcast, Biden has been rendered utterly naked and exposed when the Saudis made clear that he went and said, will you please give us a price break on oil for one month until Election Day?

00:10:35.060 The day after Election Day, jack the hell out of it.

00:10:38.020 We don't care.

00:10:38.800 We're good with $10 gasoline.

00:10:40.440 He didn't say that part, but that's implied.

00:10:42.140 And it makes clear that when the White House press secretary is talking, she's just spinning and she's not focused on it is not a policy objective for this administration to lower the price of gasoline going forward.

00:10:56.940 What's a policy objective is to have a momentary dip right before Election Day so that they hope voters are fooled that this is something other than exactly what Joe Biden and the Green New Deal Democrats want, which is gasoline unaffordable because they want you to sell your truck and buy a little Prius.

00:11:17.240 And they're going to make your life miserable until you do that.

00:11:19.780 You mentioned policies.

00:11:21.620 One of the big policies that the president talked about today is a last-its effort, I think, to buy votes.

00:11:28.320 And there's so many American senators that I think are still confused on the legality of this student loan forgiveness program.

00:11:37.480 They announced this website.

00:11:39.380 They announced so you can get started on it.

00:11:41.580 And I know many conservatives don't understand, one, how does the president have the power to do this without Congress being involved?

00:11:50.540 And two, can the president decide, because based on what they've been told, they truly believe the president can't just forgive this private debt, which is what student loan debt is.

00:12:01.480 It's my debt, not the public's debt.

00:12:04.960 Yet they've started this website.

00:12:07.000 They're moving forward with this.

00:12:08.900 It's going to add to inflation and our deficit.

00:12:12.640 How are they able to do this if, in fact, it is illegal?

00:12:15.880 Or does the president have the right to decide what debts he wants to pay off in the private sector?

00:12:21.640 Yeah, so there are two different questions that are both relevant.

00:12:25.500 Number one is what Biden is doing legal.

00:12:28.380 And number two, will the judiciary, will the court step in and stop it? 0.73

00:12:33.440 And those are separate questions.

00:12:35.140 The first question, I think the answer is clearly no, that the actions of the Biden administration are contrary to federal law.

00:12:43.280 Now, the way the Biden administration justified this student loan giveaway is they based it on a statute that Congress passed after 9-11,

00:12:53.920 20-plus years ago, that gave the Secretary of Education some authority to forgive debts for soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines and their families.

00:13:04.880 So for people that were actually fighting al-Qaeda, that were going and enlisted and were fighting to defend this nation against terrorism,

00:13:13.160 Congress passed a bill called the HEROES Act that gave some authority to forgive their student loan debts.

00:13:18.480 What the Biden Department of Justice did, and an opinion that I've read that the opinion is from the Office of Legal Counsel,

00:13:24.960 which is the office in the Department of Justice charged with giving authoritative legal determinations for the entire executive branch.

00:13:32.940 And it has been headed by some of the greatest legal minds in history, including Antonin Scalia, including William Rehnquist,

00:13:40.440 including my former boss, Chuck Cooper, including Ted Olson, who was George W. Bush's Solicitor General.

00:13:46.820 All of them have headed OLC.

00:13:50.100 They, the Biden OLC concluded that under this statute,

00:13:55.820 they could interpret essentially the families of servicemen and women to mean everybody.

00:14:01.040 And that's the really weak legal hook they've used to argue that he can forgive student loans for everyone making under $125,000 a year.

00:14:10.280 Now, I believe if the Supreme Court gets before it the straightforward question,

00:14:16.060 does Joe Biden have the statutory authority to forgive what could be a trillion dollars or more of debt to the United States?

00:14:24.400 And one point on this, you said they're private debts.

00:14:26.840 Unfortunately, one of the things the Democrats did under Obama is they nationalized the student loan industry.

00:14:33.480 So they used to be, when you and I took student loans, and by the way, I had a ton of student loans.

00:14:37.820 I repaid my students.

00:14:39.080 And I paid them off.

00:14:39.620 Yeah, I paid it.

00:14:41.040 I was, I think, 38, 39 years old when I paid them off.

00:14:45.220 I paid them for nearly 20 years.

00:14:47.760 I had about $100,000 in student loans.

00:14:49.880 When you and I took them out, you would take them from a private bank.

00:14:54.840 Under Obama, the federal government essentially federalized it all.

00:14:58.660 So it's the U.S. taxpayers.

00:15:00.640 It's that to whom the debt is owed.

00:15:04.720 And so essentially what Biden is doing is giving away somewhere between $500 billion and a trillion dollars,

00:15:12.020 and the estimates vary.

00:15:13.120 That will drive inflation. 0.88

00:15:15.200 It will make costs higher for everyone.

00:15:17.880 I think if the Supreme Court gets to the question, is it legal, I think they will conclude no.

00:15:23.200 I think it would be a 6-3 ruling clearly under the terms of the statute.

00:15:27.200 Biden can't do it.

00:15:28.240 Now, here's the challenge.

00:15:29.960 It is not clear any court will determine the merits of the question,

00:15:35.400 because it is a real challenge to find a plaintiff that has standing to bring the lawsuit.

00:15:43.140 And this is where it gets a little bit complicated, but the basic principle is,

00:15:47.160 under the Constitution, our judiciary exists to resolve what are called cases and controversies.

00:15:52.980 So actual disputes.

00:15:53.980 It's got to be a real fight.

00:15:55.800 The judiciary, you can't go to the court and just say,

00:15:58.860 hey, answer this legal question for me.

00:16:00.420 I'd like to know the answer to is what the president did on Tuesday legal or not.

00:16:04.900 Our courts don't do that. 0.99

00:16:07.100 It's got to be an actual case or controversy.

00:16:09.660 That usually means something like a civil suit.

00:16:12.320 Say, you and I get in a car wreck.

00:16:13.780 I hit your car.

00:16:14.640 You sue me.

00:16:15.380 Okay, that's an actual case or controversy.

00:16:19.040 And if I've hit your car, you are a plaintiff with a concrete injury.

00:16:24.740 In order to have standing, you have to have a concrete and particularized injury.

00:16:31.100 There are a bunch of lawsuits that have been filed,

00:16:33.300 but the real challenge is, are the courts going to conclude any of the plaintiffs who brought the lawsuit

00:16:39.040 have an injury to them in particular, not an abstract, this is illegal and I don't like it,

00:16:45.920 but I, Ben Ferguson, have been hurt by that decision.

00:16:48.940 If they can get over standing, I think the courts will strike it down,

00:16:52.140 but I also think there's a chance that they don't find a plaintiff who has standing,

00:16:57.380 and that's clearly what the Biden administration is rolling the dice and gambling on.

00:17:01.380 Okay, so then that, here's my next question.

00:17:03.180 I would argue, and this is where I love that you're an attorney that understands this

00:17:07.920 and a senator that understands the laws.

00:17:10.940 I would say, well, I was hurt because I worked my tail off to pay my student loans off.

00:17:15.880 When I got married, I said to my wife, we're going to pay her student loans off.

00:17:20.040 It hurt our family significantly economically because that money that we paid off,

00:17:26.000 I'd love to have it back now if my tax dollars, in theory, were going to pay it off anyway.

00:17:31.700 Is that a damage or is that pretty much good luck,

00:17:34.600 but the court would not say that's a reason to bring it forward to a court of law to say,

00:17:40.660 your damages are, you are a responsible American, you paid off your student debt.

00:17:46.440 So as a general matter, the answer is no,

00:17:49.120 that courts would not conclude that's a sufficient injury for standing.

00:17:52.560 And for a long time, the courts have said there is not taxpayer standing,

00:17:57.500 which means you or I, because we're taxpayers, we can't go file a lawsuit and say,

00:18:02.720 hey, the government is spending money on X and X is illegal.

00:18:06.600 Because if you could, everyone would have standing to challenge just about everything.

00:18:11.680 And so it starts to become much more a system where courts are just resolving legal questions

00:18:16.420 rather than actual disputes and cases and controversies.

00:18:21.280 So the argument that you and I and millions of people have that we were responsible and paid

00:18:27.280 off our debts and it's not fair what's happening here, as a general matter, the courts have not

00:18:33.880 concluded someone has standing to say, hey, it's not fair that the government gave that person a

00:18:38.780 benefit that they didn't give me unless there is a reason for that distinction that somehow violates

00:18:46.680 the law. So there are different groups that potentially have standing.

00:18:50.720 Number one, you could find plaintiffs that, say, have student loans right now and that have earned

00:18:58.600 $126,000, so they're ineligible.

00:19:00.880 And they perhaps could argue this is an illegal benefit to someone similarly situated that

00:19:08.840 advantages them over themselves. That's a tough standing argument. I wouldn't say it's

00:19:17.520 impossible, but a lot of courts would throw that out. That's one possible plaintiff. 0.86

00:19:22.340 Another possible plaintiff would be either an individual or a group of students, either current

00:19:27.280 students or people who are applying to colleges, who say the effect of this trillion-dollar giveaway

00:19:34.560 is it's going to drive up the cost of tuition for everyone. The universities are going to say,

00:19:39.880 great, let's charge them even more. That is true as an economic matter. It is going to drive up the

00:19:46.220 cost of tuition for everyone. The question is, would a court determine that that was specific and

00:19:52.380 concrete enough to give you standing? The best theory I've heard for who might have standing to

00:19:59.380 challenge this is the loan processors. So they're private companies that are in the business of

00:20:05.340 processing these loans. And with a trillion dollars of debts disappearing, those loan processors will

00:20:13.500 make significantly less money. That is a concrete injury sufficient to give standing.

00:20:20.380 The question now is a political one. If your business is being a loan processor and the federal

00:20:27.120 government is your principal client, suing the federal government is a good way to piss off your

00:20:33.280 principal client. So the question is going to be, are there going to be loan processors willing to

00:20:38.360 bring those lawsuits? I hope so, but that's still very much up in the air.

00:20:42.580 So then that brings me to my final question. And this is the one where everybody's saying,

00:20:45.960 all right, let's say that we can't go down the legal road the way you described it,

00:20:50.220 and it's probably not going to work. Then the question is, if you become the majority in the

00:20:55.940 Senate and we gain control of the House, is there a way to stop this or is the damage already done?

00:21:03.220 Well, it's a good question. I certainly think we should tee up a vote and get everyone on record

00:21:09.700 on this because I got to say, as a matter of fairness, this decision really is reverse Robin

00:21:16.220 Hood. You know, Robin Hood famously took from the rich and gave from the poor.

00:21:20.060 What Joe Biden and the Democrats are doing is exactly the opposite. They're taking from the

00:21:24.220 poor and working class and giving to the rich. They're taking from truck drivers and welders and 0.85

00:21:29.220 cops and firefighters and waiters and waitresses and blue collar workers. Everyone who didn't go to

00:21:35.340 college, they're saying, you know what, we're going to take a trillion of your tax dollars

00:21:38.380 and we're going to give it to a 23-year-old Brown University graduate who majored in, you know,

00:21:48.100 French poetry. And we're just going to give that money to college graduates who are significantly

00:21:55.860 richer than you are. Why? Because Biden and the Democrats want to buy their votes. And there's a

00:22:01.860 there's a real unfairness there. So I hope when we have a majority, we tee up a vote and get

00:22:07.860 everyone on record on it. Whether Congress is able to reverse it is going to be a harder challenge

00:22:14.280 because presumably any legislation, number one, would face a Democrat filibuster in the Senate.

00:22:20.580 So even if we take a majority, we're not going to have 60 in the Senate. So the Democrats would be

00:22:24.660 able to filibuster it. And even if we passed it, Biden would be able to veto it. And so

00:22:29.860 we can tee it up as a fight next year with majorities. But we need to win the White House

00:22:36.820 before we have the ability to actually make a meaningful impact on this decision.

00:22:43.800 It's frustrating for many Americans because it is buying votes. And that's the part that's so

00:22:49.240 frustrating because you're supposed to be illegal to do it. And yet this president is somehow pulling

00:22:54.180 it off this way and trying to get rid of a trillion dollars in debt.

00:22:59.140 Canadian women are looking for more. More out of themselves, their businesses, 1.00

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00:23:27.120 you listen to your podcasts.

00:23:29.920 Senator, I want to get to two other stories that we've highlighted here over the last couple of

00:23:35.340 episodes. And for people that are listening right now, make sure you go back and listen. You may not

00:23:40.100 realize this. We're doing three podcasts a week. So make sure you hit that subscribe or download

00:23:45.080 button. Most importantly, please write us a five-star review wherever you're listening to this

00:23:49.920 podcast as well. But these two stories that we talked about, number one, the Dems not wanting to

00:23:56.160 debate. And this scares me for our democracy that we're going to just have Democrats that realize

00:24:01.100 debating is not going to help them in an election. It's only going to hurt them because they can't

00:24:06.460 stand up and defend their own stances on the issues. But there's an interesting thing that happened

00:24:12.420 in a race that you've gotten involved in where you had a Democrat the very last minute who had

00:24:17.880 agreed to debate just said, screw it. I'm out. I'm not debating. And the reason why she didn't want

00:24:23.500 to debate was also another issue that we just talked about. Give us more detail into this. Democrats

00:24:29.160 running from the debate stage. Well, yeah, we had two of the stories on our last podcast intersect.

00:24:35.080 We talked about Democrats refusing to debate since we did that podcast. Yet another Democrat is backed

00:24:41.380 away from from a debate. Abigail Spamberger, who is an incumbent Democrat in Virginia,

00:24:46.340 very vulnerable Democrat. I think she's going to lose in November. Her opponent is a candidate named

00:24:51.780 Yesli Vega. Yesli is someone who I know well. Yesli is a fantastic candidate. Let me tell you about

00:24:56.300 Yesli Vega. Yesli is the daughter of immigrants from El Salvador. Yesli's brother was shot and nearly

00:25:05.960 killed by MS-13. So when it comes to illegal immigration, she knows firsthand just how horrific

00:25:13.640 it is. It is personal to her. Yesli is married to a soldier. The two of them were stationed abroad in

00:25:19.740 Korea. She is the mom of two teenage kids and she's a police officer. When her brother was shot,

00:25:27.100 she was so upset she went and signed up. She's been a cop for over a decade and she is a fireball.

00:25:32.440 She is a fighter. So Abigail Spamberger, the incumbent Democrat, didn't want to debate her 1.00

00:25:37.220 but agreed to, accepted a debate. And then the other story we talked about last week, this Virginia

00:25:45.840 delegate who introduced legislation in the Virginia legislature to make it a felony if a parent refuses

00:25:55.060 refuses to transition your child from one sex to another, refuses to give surgery, refuses to accept 0.91

00:26:04.120 if your little boy or little girl comes in and says that they want to be the opposite, if a parent says

00:26:09.800 no, I'm not going to take you to a doctor and sterilize you and engage in permanent life-altering

00:26:17.720 surgeries. The state of Virginia, if this legislation passed, would make that a felony and lock the

00:26:25.020 parent up. Well, that left-wing Democrat happens to be a big surrogate for Abigail Spamberger and 1.00

00:26:31.240 suddenly Abigail Spamberger is going, oh crap, if I go to a debate, they're going to ask me about this 1.00

00:26:36.920 crazy position and I've either got to distance myself from my supporter or defend this lunacy. And so 0.97

00:26:42.820 what did she do? She's trying to back out of the debate. And I got to say, there's a reason 0.99

00:26:49.960 Democrats don't want to debate. They can't defend their policies because they're indefensible. The

00:26:56.880 idea that you would lock parents up for refusing to mutilate your child, it defies words. And so that's

00:27:11.400 why this Democrat doesn't want to justify it. When you see them not debating, and I do think this is

00:27:18.340 a trend early on, your initial reaction is, oh, look, they can't even defend themselves. This is

00:27:23.800 great. But I think what we're seeing and where we're moving forward is I worry about a day when

00:27:27.940 a Democratic candidate's running for the White House and says, I'm not going to debate the Republican.

00:27:32.080 And then we lose all debates in this country and debates swing elections. When you were running for

00:27:37.920 president, one of the things that I think, and when you're running for the Senate, the debates were

00:27:42.480 your place to shine and they make people's political careers. And when you're up against

00:27:48.780 big money and big donors, the debate stage cannot hide you, right? You can have your messaging,

00:27:55.160 you can buy a million ads, you can spend a hundred million dollars on ads, but the debate stage is what

00:28:00.780 I refer to as the grand equalizer. It's a moment where you can't hide behind the TV screen to the

00:28:08.700 voters any longer. And you're exposed your weaknesses if you're not a great candidate.

00:28:13.340 And now we're at a point in this country where I'm worried it's going to be totally normal for

00:28:17.020 Democrats to say we will never debate a Republican again.

00:28:21.120 Look, I am very concerned about that. And you're right. The next step is for Democrats to elevate that

00:28:26.360 to the presidential level. Joe Biden basically hid in the basement the entire campaign, but he did at

00:28:30.980 least show up to the debates. He didn't take that final step. And I will say there's another factor.

00:28:36.660 Listen, I've done a lot of debates, a lot of political debates in my time. And going back to the

00:28:40.940 presidential race, in any campaign, but particularly a national campaign, a presidential campaign,

00:28:47.740 the corporate media has enormous power. And on any given day, whatever message the corporate

00:28:53.520 media tries to carry, decides to carry, that dominates the airwaves. And that typically favors,

00:29:01.020 it favors whoever the candidate is with the most name ID, whoever the candidate is that conventional

00:29:06.160 wisdom is, is supposed to win, or whoever the candidate is that the corporate media wants to win.

00:29:12.280 For any other candidate, it is incredibly difficult to break through that giant wall of constant

00:29:19.780 narrative set by the corrupt corporate media. Debates are one of the very, very few moments

00:29:25.540 where you can break through, where you can actually have a message heard that the corporate media doesn't

00:29:32.860 want you to hear. And it's why this is very differential on a partisan line. Listen, if you're

00:29:39.240 a Democrat, the media carry your water every day. They carry your message. They are your propagandists,

00:29:45.380 particularly today. So many Democrats never face difficult questions. The only place they might

00:29:52.980 face a difficult question is on a debate stage where at least their opponent can ask the question.

00:29:59.940 Ideally, a moderator will too, but a lot of the moderators are wildly biased. But on a debate stage,

00:30:05.660 at least the opponent can turn directly to a Democrat candidate and say, you voted for X,

00:30:11.080 you did Y, your position is hurting people. Give me your answer. And so the decision to say

00:30:18.540 we're going to avoid debates is Democrats saying we will not answer questions.

00:30:25.640 That's a really dangerous shift going forward because there really is nothing like a debate

00:30:31.040 to cut through whatever the established corporate media narrative is.

00:30:36.060 Which brings me to my last question. There's a big debate that you're going to be having on Monday.

00:30:42.060 The View took a shot at you today saying the only time conservatives will come on our show is when

00:30:49.400 they want to sell a book. Yes, you have a book out. That's exactly why, by the way,

00:30:53.880 The View is having you on their show. But I want people to listen to what The View said today.

00:31:00.580 And then I want to get your reaction to it. And set your DVR because this coming Monday,

00:31:06.240 Senator Cruz is going to be on The View. It will be fireworks. I've got my money on you.

00:31:10.780 Listen to this.

00:31:11.580 And hey, you know, we don't turn people away.

00:31:15.620 Except if they're election deniers, right?

00:31:19.040 Well, no, I think we don't turn election deniers away either because, as you said,

00:31:24.140 people need to hear where people are coming from. And if that's what...

00:31:27.760 See, this is the problem with it. We have tech news coming on next week.

00:31:31.200 We have to give you the... I think he's been careful enough.

00:31:34.480 I don't. He was just spreading the big lie.

00:31:37.360 But the problem... Yes, take him on. But you see, you haven't been here before.

00:31:41.900 What tends to happen when your guys come is they don't come to talk to us oftentimes.

00:31:47.380 They come to sell a book. They don't like to come to just talk to us.

00:31:50.840 They also choose a... That's what I want from you all.

00:31:52.600 Can I share one quick thing? No, you can't.

00:31:55.100 Can you do it really fast? Do it really, really fast.

00:31:58.240 Just real quick. There's talk in Trump world that Carrie Lake is going to be his running mate. 0.87

00:32:01.700 That's how much the Trump base loves her, which is horrifying. But go ahead.

00:32:05.500 I love that last point I left in there because the fake Republican on the panel

00:32:09.840 is telling you that Carrie Lake is horrifying. 0.99

00:32:13.460 And then you hear Ana Navarro there saying, oh, I'm going to bring it on.

00:32:17.800 Senator, you're not one to shy away from a grand debate.

00:32:21.420 That's why you're going on the show.

00:32:24.380 Yet they accuse you and others of shying away from the debate

00:32:28.640 when you're literally showing up to debate the entire hostile panel.

00:32:33.120 Well, I do find it amusing that their comment is, let's take him on.

00:32:37.100 Yes, let's take him on.

00:32:38.480 You know, that's the fair and impartial journalism we have today.

00:32:41.800 They are rich, out-of-touch leftists, and I fully expect that they're just going to scream

00:32:48.120 and yell at me for the entire interview. That's fine.

00:32:50.200 I assume none of them will have read my book.

00:32:53.600 None of them care to read the book.

00:32:55.420 None of them care to hear an opposing point of view.

00:32:58.840 And their objective is just going to be to attack,

00:33:03.420 and I assume to attack in a pretty nasty manner.

00:33:05.760 That's fine. I'm actually eager to have conversations about actual substance and facts

00:33:12.640 because I think the American people deserve that,

00:33:15.780 and we'll see if any of that happens on Monday.

00:33:17.840 I hope it will.

00:33:18.880 I can't say I'm filled with excessive optimism

00:33:22.820 that we will have a civil, respectful conversation on the merits,

00:33:28.000 but one can always hope.

00:33:30.460 Look, I think these debates are important.

00:33:33.060 Set your DVR.

00:33:34.120 You will see Senator Ted Cruz do what he does so brilliantly.

00:33:38.440 Senator, it's always a pleasure hanging out with you,

00:33:41.240 and for everybody listening, reminder, we do this three days a week now,

00:33:45.500 so make sure you hit that subscribe or auto-download button

00:33:49.140 so that you get every episode of Verdict as it comes out,

00:33:53.460 and we will see you back here in a couple of days.

00:33:56.680 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:33:59.580 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - October 19, 2022

It's The Economy And Crime Yet Biden And The Democrats Keep Refusing To Admit Their Policies Are Destroying America!

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