Verdict with Ted Cruz - October 02, 2020


James Comey, Incompetent or Corrupt？


Episode Stats


Length

27 minutes

Words per minute

174.63625

Word count

4,861

Sentence count

341

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) joins host John Avlon (R) to discuss the impact of James Comey's testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on the Trump administration's counter-espionage efforts, and whether or not the former FBI Director was either incompetent or corrupt.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.520 Guaranteed human.
00:00:04.940 This investigation of the president was corrupt.
00:00:07.940 The FBI and the Department of Justice were politicized and weaponized.
00:00:12.280 And in my opinion, there are only two possibilities.
00:00:15.420 That you were deliberately corrupt or woefully incompetent.
00:00:19.480 And I don't believe you were incompetent.
00:00:23.500 This has done severe damage to the professionals and the honorable men and women at the FBI
00:00:29.660 because law enforcement should not be used as a political weapon.
00:00:34.120 And that is the legacy you have left.
00:00:43.780 This might be my favorite aspect of the show.
00:00:46.260 I mean, this is what we've been seeing since impeachment all the way back.
00:00:49.900 What was it?
00:00:50.960 Eight, nine months ago now is we get the first look and the first talk with Senator Cruz
00:00:57.020 after all of these extraordinarily consequential events.
00:01:00.980 Senator, you have just come from a hearing with former FBI Director James Comey.
00:01:06.020 James Comey is not just a controversial figure, but he has, in your words, either incompetent or worse.
00:01:15.980 Let's, if you wouldn't mind, take us through the hearing.
00:01:19.040 Well, yeah, so he was testifying about his leadership at the FBI and his role in the investigation of President Trump,
00:01:27.240 of his campaign, of Michael Flynn, of Carter Page.
00:01:30.400 And I got to say, you know, you know, Comey at this point just blames everything on, oh, mistakes were made.
00:01:38.000 The passive voice was used.
00:01:40.760 Nobody is an actor.
00:01:42.020 It just happened to happen.
00:01:44.820 Oh, oops, some things were sloppy.
00:01:47.580 And I got to say, I thought too many Republican senators were willing to credit him with, oh, you just didn't know what was going on.
00:01:56.980 Baloney.
00:01:58.460 Comey knew exactly what was going on.
00:02:01.180 Comey, I believe, bears very direct responsibility for politicizing the FBI, for politicizing DOJ.
00:02:10.220 And Obama and Biden used Comey and used Brennan to turn DOJ, CIA, FBI, and the political weapons to go after Trump.
00:02:24.280 And I think Comey was complicit.
00:02:27.600 The hearing today, which I just came from, I spent most of the morning over at the hearing, he's very good at dodging and weaving.
00:02:34.340 He's slippery.
00:02:35.040 He doesn't like to answer a direct question.
00:02:39.680 So, you know, he talked about, well, anytime, anytime the FBI is thought of as less than competent or honest, that's a problem.
00:02:50.820 And I pointed out that in, according to the inspector general report, they made 17 material misstatements to the federal court.
00:02:57.820 And he's like, oh, well, yeah, that's competent and honest.
00:03:02.040 And he said, well, it was honest at least.
00:03:04.760 And I said, well, no, one of those was when an FBI lawyer who worked for you fraudulently altered a document from the CIA.
00:03:11.920 He emailed the CIA and said, hey, is Carter Page a source for you?
00:03:15.800 Because he's talking to the Russians.
00:03:16.920 But if he's talking to the Russians on behalf of the CIA, that's very different than if he's running around with Russian agents.
00:03:22.880 CIA said, oh, yeah, he's a source for us.
00:03:25.880 And the FBI lawyer fraudulently altered that that email and added the words is not a source, literally turned it to the opposite of what it said.
00:03:36.780 I mean, reversed its meaning 180 degrees, and they used that as the basis for a submission to the federal court.
00:03:44.680 Comey, being slippery as he is, said, no, no, no, that's not what the inspector general concluded.
00:03:51.080 And fortunately, I had the IG report right in front of me, so I pulled it over and read the damn quote from the report.
00:03:57.100 And he just he had nothing to say on that.
00:04:00.880 I like this dichotomy that you drew between incompetence and corruption.
00:04:05.680 I think even I and I think for so many people who are listening who don't have the time to go through all of the aspects of what this means for spying on the Trump campaign and the Russian collusion narrative and on and on and on.
00:04:20.460 And it's complicated. It's hard to figure out.
00:04:22.680 It is hard to figure out. And we know that bureaucracies are incompetent a lot of the time.
00:04:26.920 So I think even a lot of us who are pretty conservative will say, OK, maybe we'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
00:04:31.660 But what you're pointing to here is, one, the language that Comey uses, this passive voice, which he always uses, is designed to push away any sort of guilt.
00:04:41.380 And we can we can read in the report that there was flagrant, intentional dishonesty.
00:04:47.620 Yeah. A couple of additional observations.
00:04:52.320 Comey at the hearing today and at the press all the time makes all these aspersions, like he said at the hearing, I think the Russians have something on Trump.
00:05:00.480 And mind you, he has no basis. He was leading the FBI.
00:05:03.560 It used to be that that you actually have something based on evidence rather than just making making wild accusations.
00:05:11.520 But but listen, I know James Comey not well, but I've dealt with him for a number of years.
00:05:16.740 I think Comey was deeply, deeply political, small people, political in the maneuvering.
00:05:25.280 And I think Comey had delusions of grandeur.
00:05:29.380 He worked in the J. Edgar Hoover building, which is the headquarters of the FBI.
00:05:32.540 And I think he thought he was J. Edgar Hoover.
00:05:35.100 I mean, Hoover famously abused the power of head of the FBI and basically blackmailed people, had, you know, all sorts of incriminating information on lots of players.
00:05:46.400 And I think Comey, look, Comey played a role in 2016 in torpedoing Hillary at the end and then in exonerating Hillary and going back and forth.
00:05:55.860 And I think he was playing politics and then I think he felt guilty about the role he played in Hillary.
00:06:01.660 And I think he hated Trump and he was perfectly happy to have the FBI be a political weapon.
00:06:11.720 And there needs to be accountability.
00:06:13.480 People need to go to jail for breaking the law.
00:06:15.720 And to date, they haven't.
00:06:17.200 And and I hope they do.
00:06:19.680 Will they be held to account?
00:06:21.420 I mean, I know there we're having hearings at the Senate.
00:06:23.780 We're having the investigation from the DOJ into into all the mess that happened.
00:06:28.340 Is there going to be some consequence to all of this or or are the nefarious players just going to run out the clock?
00:06:35.500 Look, I pray they will.
00:06:37.420 I don't know.
00:06:39.160 I think Bill Barr is doing a terrific job.
00:06:41.580 I think if anyone can ensure some accountability, it's Barr.
00:06:45.000 That being said, it's been four years and there hasn't been much of any.
00:06:48.760 And, you know, one of the things I asked Comey about is is he testified under oath and under penalty of perjury that he had never leaked to the press and that he'd never authorized anyone to leak to the press concerning this.
00:07:00.840 Andrew McCabe, who was his deputy, has publicly stated that he leaked to the press and that Comey authorized him to do so.
00:07:08.060 And he knew about it.
00:07:09.180 And so I asked Comey about it.
00:07:10.720 I read read the two statements.
00:07:12.460 I said, look, these are directly contradictory.
00:07:15.140 They can't both be true.
00:07:16.960 So who's telling the truth?
00:07:18.660 And Comey, again, under oath, reiterated that he'd never leaked and never authorized anyone to leak.
00:07:24.280 McCabe's coming before the Judiciary Committee next week.
00:07:26.640 And you better believe I'm going to ask him the same thing.
00:07:29.220 One or the other is lying.
00:07:31.100 And doing it in front of the Judiciary Committee is perjury that is punishable by prison term.
00:07:37.120 Well, we'll obviously have to cover that next week.
00:07:39.160 You know, I want to get to the debates a little bit.
00:07:41.500 And actually, this ties directly in one line that President Trump came back to last night is he said there was an attempted coup.
00:07:49.280 The previous administration spied on my campaign.
00:07:53.120 They drove up this whole ridiculous narrative.
00:07:56.380 They tried to impeach me over absolutely nothing.
00:07:59.140 And so it's not a minor issue.
00:08:00.580 It's not enough to just say, oh, well, that was a few years ago.
00:08:03.280 We'll move on.
00:08:04.180 You know, this is an issue that gets to the heart of the integrity of our political system.
00:08:08.640 And there was a little bit of a parallel, I felt, at the debate, which is that it's supposed to be the two people who disagree, right, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and a neutral moderator.
00:08:18.860 There are supposed to be neutral, nonpartisan elements to our government.
00:08:22.680 And the moderator, just like a lot of elements of the government, turned out to be a partisan Democrat weighing in on the side of Joe Biden.
00:08:30.420 Yeah, I think Chris Wallace did an abysmal job.
00:08:35.320 I think he's consistently been a really bad presidential debate moderator because he's biased and he's condescending and he thinks it's all about him.
00:08:46.420 And so you saw, you know, before the debate, he said he wanted to be invisible.
00:08:50.320 But that disappeared when the debate started where he, you know, there was a lot of stomping his foot and, you know, I'm in charge here.
00:08:57.760 Listen to me.
00:08:58.720 You know, it reminded me of South Park, you know, respect my authority.
00:09:01.720 I mean, that was Chris Wallace.
00:09:04.280 The Eric Cartman debate, yeah.
00:09:06.220 Yes.
00:09:06.560 And – but he was also – look, a lot of people get confused because Wallace is on Fox News and so they assume he must be a Republican, a right of center.
00:09:17.700 He's a liberal Democrat and he's been – in the entire time I've been in the Senate, I've seen Wallace do it over and over again that he attacks conservatives, that he carries water for the left.
00:09:29.800 You saw with the questions, you know, one of his questions to Trump was the New York Times hit piece on the taxes, which, you know, conveniently two days before the debate, entirely designed to be the attack on the debate.
00:09:43.220 Now, mind you, the New York Times doesn't actually release the tax documents, so it's purely the Times' characterization of them.
00:09:52.220 But Wallace does none of that to Biden.
00:09:55.260 Apparently, there are no issues with Biden.
00:09:57.260 Did you know that?
00:09:57.940 There are no criticisms of Joe Biden.
00:09:59.800 Lucky guy, huh?
00:10:01.640 You know, at times, Wallace's questions were almost like, you know, Mr. Vice President, are you more handsome or brilliant?
00:10:08.320 Like it was – and his little – his laughter, his snide comments, there is zero doubt for whom Chris Wallace is voting, that he is voting for Joe Biden.
00:10:23.460 And that's not a good thing for a moderator.
00:10:25.860 Now, you know, we were talking about Senate Judiciary Committee a minute ago and how the witnesses testify under penalty of perjury.
00:10:32.600 I think it's a good thing that neither of the candidates last night were testifying under penalty of perjury.
00:10:38.440 There were some exaggerations perhaps in there or worse.
00:10:42.040 It was wild and woolly.
00:10:44.440 I don't think there's ever been a debate like this in the history of presidential debates.
00:10:49.100 At times, it was ugly.
00:10:50.840 I drew an analogy to the Detroit Pistons basketball team in the 1990s in that there were a lot of hard fouls and missed shots.
00:11:01.360 And, you know, Trump at times was Bill Lambert coming with his massive arm and slamming Joe across the head.
00:11:08.460 Now, Joe was rabbit punching back and, I mean, it was – at times, it almost became Jerry Springer and I expected someone to grab a chair and like throw it at the other.
00:11:22.180 It was disappointing, I felt.
00:11:23.780 I have to say it was obviously a two-on-one debate, Wallace and Biden against Trump to begin with.
00:11:31.440 But I think a lot of people were dispirited because you felt on the substance Trump had much more than Joe Biden.
00:11:37.860 And even on the attacks, Joe Biden's attacks were just to call Trump a clown and a racist and tell him to shut up, man, and come on, man.
00:11:46.400 But it was so childish.
00:11:48.920 And I understand maybe the president's strategy was to off-foot Biden a little bit, but I felt there were too many interruptions.
00:11:55.200 I felt that was counterproductive.
00:11:57.200 It was just dispiriting, I felt, for both camps.
00:11:59.520 What do you think the upshot of it is going to be for both campaigns, and how do you think that they can do better next time?
00:12:08.100 Yeah, look, I don't think the debate moved many votes last night.
00:12:12.100 I think the people that came in supporting Trump left supporting Trump.
00:12:16.060 The people that came in supporting Biden left supporting Biden.
00:12:19.400 I don't think there were a whole lot of undecided voters whose views were changed.
00:12:24.100 Both candidates had good moments in the debate.
00:12:26.040 Trump, I think his best moment was when he called out Biden and he explained that Biden is supporting shutting down the economy, shutting down small businesses, shutting down restaurants, destroying jobs, shutting down schools.
00:12:40.640 And Trump contrasted that, says he wants people to open, go back to work, go back to school.
00:12:45.860 That was really important, and Biden didn't have a good response to that.
00:12:50.280 Biden was trying to run away from his positions.
00:12:53.640 I thought that was a very positive exchange.
00:12:56.940 I also thought Trump was particularly good when on law enforcement, you know, Joe made reference to being supported by law enforcement.
00:13:05.120 And Trump said, really, name one, name one law enforcement organization in all of America supporting you.
00:13:11.240 And Joe just kind of blinked wide eyed and had no idea.
00:13:15.760 And then, of course, Chris Wallace jumped in and bailed Joe out.
00:13:19.800 Wallace should have shut up and stayed out of it right then.
00:13:22.280 And Trump should have been quiet.
00:13:25.680 Yeah.
00:13:26.160 And pressed it.
00:13:27.400 It's one very powerful thing in a negotiation, in an interview, is silence.
00:13:36.000 Silence.
00:13:36.660 People hate silence.
00:13:37.500 People want to fill silence with space.
00:13:40.540 And, you know, the question Trump asked, name one law enforcement agency in the entire country that has supported you.
00:13:47.680 I think if Trump had just simply looked at him and waited and there had been two, three, four, five, six seconds of silence as Biden had no answer, it would have been really powerful.
00:14:00.960 That being said, the point was made nonetheless.
00:14:03.420 The point was made, and it was too bad that Chris Wallace jumped in.
00:14:06.400 I mean, obviously, I guess that was what he was there for, was to go in and help the Democrat.
00:14:10.920 But there is this basic rule in politics, I don't need to tell you this, which is that when your opponent is destroying himself, don't get in the way.
00:14:19.700 There's no reason to interrupt that.
00:14:23.080 Well, and by the way, another quick example, you know, Joe Biden, he tried a couple of times to run away from some positions of the left.
00:14:31.480 He pretended he didn't support packing the court or actually technically he said he wouldn't answer that question, which means, yes, he supports packing the court.
00:14:38.280 He did help himself, I think, when he came out strongly and said that he opposed defunding the police, although I think both Wallace and Trump should have pressed back on him hard.
00:14:50.540 And I thought it was interesting that he ran away from the Green New Deal and said, I don't support the Green New Deal.
00:14:56.200 Well, if Wallace were actually being a fair and impartial moderator, the natural follow-up question to that is, what aspects of the Green New Deal do you not support?
00:15:07.400 Your running mate is a co-sponsor of it.
00:15:10.280 I mean, there was no substance.
00:15:12.560 So he was able to say, no, no, no, no, I don't support that.
00:15:16.820 But with no details and he wasn't pressed one iota.
00:15:19.500 And the first question of the debate actually is what we were talking about on the last episode.
00:15:25.900 The first topic dominated the beginning was the Supreme Court.
00:15:30.060 And it was on this issue of court packing and it was on other aspects of the Supreme Court.
00:15:36.380 Coincidentally, you happen to have a book out on this subject, One Vote Away.
00:15:40.140 But I do think it kind of vindicates what we were saying on the previous episode, which is that however it is today, however it came to be, the Supreme Court is the dominant issue in the presidential elections.
00:15:54.080 No, I think that's right.
00:15:55.700 It was the number one question in the debate.
00:15:58.140 The book, One Vote Away, it came out yesterday.
00:16:01.080 It's actually done really well.
00:16:02.800 We did a podcast yesterday and we asked folks, thank you for going online to Amazon or wherever and buying it.
00:16:10.140 We've been in the top ten national bestsellers on Amazon.
00:16:14.560 Actually, right now on Amazon's bestseller list for political conservatism and liberalism, which is sort of an odd list if you're, I guess, a righty or lefty.
00:16:25.560 The book is right now number one.
00:16:27.740 And I got to say, I think verdict listeners, you guys are a huge part of why that is.
00:16:33.860 Thank you.
00:16:34.400 That really, it makes a difference.
00:16:36.420 And I think you'll find the book really interesting and informative and helpful, hopefully for the same reason that you find verdict helpful.
00:16:47.400 Right.
00:16:47.760 Well, it's actually, I think it would be a good contrast to the debate, which is that I am professionally obligated to watch every minute of that debate.
00:16:55.860 And if I were not professionally obligated to do it, I would not have.
00:16:59.300 I didn't feel it was productive.
00:17:01.620 It was difficult often to watch and listen to.
00:17:05.120 But it's different.
00:17:06.840 When you're talking about the book, you actually do leave.
00:17:09.420 I'm not just shilling for your book.
00:17:10.920 I really am enjoying it.
00:17:11.920 Because for this reason, you leave with actual information.
00:17:16.560 So you can say, OK, this is this is ammo I can use, frankly, when I'm having these debates with my friends and I'm at the water cooler or I'm wherever at a dinner party.
00:17:26.620 Well, and, you know, the debate last night, the first question, actually, Wallace asked a good first question.
00:17:31.300 It was a neutral moderator question where he said, Mr. President, your position on the Supreme Court vacancy is as follows.
00:17:39.580 Vice President Biden, your position is as follows.
00:17:41.900 And he fairly neutrally characterized both sides.
00:17:44.960 And he said, tell us why why you're right.
00:17:47.440 And then so he just teed up the issue and then let them engage.
00:17:50.260 That was actually a pretty good beginning.
00:17:52.300 It was it was not as biased as some of his later questions.
00:17:56.100 Um, I got to say the president's response, he essentially said, well, I'm president and I got elected, so I get to nominate and we won.
00:18:08.400 And I wish I wish the president had focused on why it matters, why the Supreme Court matters, what's at stake.
00:18:20.320 I wish the president had focused on the issues really at the core of the book, One Vote Away, that he talked about free speech or religious liberty of the Second Amendment.
00:18:30.700 You know, when I was a college debater, we used to think all the time when you were in an opposition of focusing on harms.
00:18:39.300 In fact, I, you know, I would say harms, harms, harms.
00:18:42.060 How does it impact you?
00:18:43.520 And a little bit of the back and forth between Trump and Biden.
00:18:47.140 It was about them.
00:18:49.060 And and and I really think it would have been more effective for it to be about you at home.
00:18:54.720 If you're the soccer mom at home watching this debate.
00:18:58.560 Um, OK, yes, people elected the president.
00:19:02.120 And by the way, Biden had a huge created a huge opening because he came and said, well, the American people deserve to have a say.
00:19:11.420 They get to vote on a president.
00:19:12.860 They get to vote on the Senate and they deserve to have a say.
00:19:15.960 That was his reason why we shouldn't vote on him.
00:19:18.540 And Trump had a natural response of, you know what?
00:19:21.120 Joe is absolutely right.
00:19:22.600 The American people deserve to have a say.
00:19:24.540 And they did.
00:19:25.380 They elected me in 2016.
00:19:28.100 I told him what kind of justice I was going to appoint.
00:19:30.840 They elected a Republican Senate.
00:19:32.700 They told him what kind of justice we were going to confirm.
00:19:35.360 And Joe, there's a reason the American people that they want free speech.
00:19:39.580 They don't want the government prohibiting you criticizing politicians.
00:19:43.020 They want religious liberty.
00:19:45.560 They want to be able to worship.
00:19:47.300 They want the Second Amendment. 0.99
00:19:49.020 And Joe, your justices would take away Second Amendment rights from Americans.
00:19:53.260 It was a great opportunity that Joe kind of stuck his chin out there and asked to be clobbered, not in a personal attack, but really a substantive, your vision for America is not what what the American people want.
00:20:10.000 And it's not how they voted in 2014 in the Senate and 2016 in the Senate and the presidency or in 2018 in the Senate.
00:20:18.580 That's a great insight.
00:20:20.440 I mean, I saw that missed opportunity there.
00:20:22.460 I felt you could have hit it.
00:20:23.300 But I like the framing that you've just described, which is it's not about me.
00:20:27.380 It's about you.
00:20:28.280 And don't forget, that was a huge help to President Trump in the general election in 2016 when Hillary's slogan was, I'm with her.
00:20:35.420 And he said, forget that, I'm with you, completely flips there.
00:20:38.640 He says, I'm with you.
00:20:39.440 And in the spirit of that, as a matter of fact, I do want to get to some mailbag questions from you, not you, Senator, but you out there.
00:20:46.720 And this does relate to the debate.
00:20:50.580 This question is from Brandon.
00:20:52.960 What changes could be made to make the debates more effective or, I'll add, listenable?
00:20:59.080 Um, look, at some level, it's impossible if the two are going to yell at each other.
00:21:08.580 President Trump in particular want like is looking for a brawl.
00:21:13.740 I actually think he would be better off sort of ratcheting down a little bit and engaging in a more more of a conversation and discussion.
00:21:23.220 Um, but I think it would be benefited from having moderators.
00:21:28.460 I think rather than pretending people are unbiased, we ought to just admit.
00:21:33.040 So I'd have a Republican moderator, a Democratic moderator. 0.88
00:21:36.780 I'd have a, you know, how about have Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow moderate a debate together?
00:21:43.140 And everyone will know which hat they're wearing or, um, you know, or Mark Levin or, or Rush Limbaugh or Michael Knowles or Ben Shapiro.
00:21:53.380 I mean, I mean, can you imagine Ben moderating a debate and fine, get some whatever smart, lefty, lefty Ben Shapiro and Chris Hayes.
00:22:00.560 That would actually be an interesting debate.
00:22:03.460 Now, everyone gets that, that Shapiro would ask questions.
00:22:06.880 He's coming from a perspective and Hayes is coming from a perspective and they would ask questions to advance their perspectives.
00:22:12.980 I think that actually be a more honest debate and interesting debate because it would expose the weaknesses of both sides and help people make, make an intelligent decision.
00:22:23.140 Absolutely.
00:22:23.840 I totally agree.
00:22:24.700 This idea of when can we get back to a perfectly balanced, neutral, objective press that probably never existed.
00:22:30.360 That I think is missing the point.
00:22:31.860 Let's just be honest about it.
00:22:33.160 And that way you get to some fairness.
00:22:35.200 Now, this, this question is going to come from the opposite end of watching or listening to last night's debate.
00:22:40.960 For Margo, what does Senator Cruz do for fun to take a break from politics?
00:22:49.680 Play basketball.
00:22:51.920 I love hoops.
00:22:53.920 The past, I played two hours of hoops yesterday, played two hours of hoops two days ago.
00:22:59.360 I can barely walk because I turned 50 in a couple of months.
00:23:02.260 So four to five hours of hoops is a bit too much.
00:23:06.220 Um, I like playing tennis.
00:23:08.660 I love movies.
00:23:09.740 I'm, I'm, I, I used to go to the movies at least once a week.
00:23:15.480 I mean, I, I, I love being in the big movie theater.
00:23:18.720 Um, play with my kids.
00:23:22.320 I mean, the, the girls are, are nine and 12.
00:23:24.560 So, so free time at home is family time.
00:23:28.320 We play games.
00:23:29.280 I'm, I'm, I love to play games, play, uh, poker, um, play backgammon with Catherine.
00:23:36.700 She likes backgammon. 0.83
00:23:37.740 We play Monopoly, play Domino's.
00:23:40.900 Um, Domino's is, is, is a Cuban favorite.
00:23:45.360 So every Thanksgiving and Christmas, the family will get around Cubans, by the way, play double 1.00
00:23:49.800 nine dot double sixes.
00:23:51.680 And, and, and my college and law school roommate guy named David Panton, who's Jamaican in Jamaica,
00:23:58.200 they play a lot of Domino's as well.
00:24:00.280 They play double sixes.
00:24:01.340 And David came, came to visit, uh, the house a couple of months ago when, when Heidi was
00:24:07.300 out of town.
00:24:07.760 And so we just had kind of a boy's weekend hanging out and a couple other guys came over
00:24:12.020 and we played Domino's at the dining room table.
00:24:15.340 And, um, and, and that particular time, David's a very good Domino's player.
00:24:19.240 I happened to win that particular night.
00:24:21.180 Uh, and, and so I, I called up my dad.
00:24:24.920 My dad is a very good Domino's players too.
00:24:27.280 And I called up and I said, dad, and my father knows David really well.
00:24:31.040 And I said, dad, you really need to, to comfort David right now.
00:24:34.800 Um, and, and, and actually I want to ask you to pray for him because, you know, he just
00:24:39.480 flew all the way to Houston and he just got, got humiliated at Domino's and, and, and he's,
00:24:46.540 he's hurting.
00:24:47.140 And so dad, and I have him on, on FaceTime and I said, you know, dad, I'm asking you to,
00:24:51.120 to commiserate.
00:24:53.220 And my father had just finished playing Domino's with my cousin and, and my dad happened to have
00:24:59.320 won too.
00:24:59.740 And so my father was having, he said, you know what, we ought to get David and Marino
00:25:04.220 together and then, and they can commiserate on, on, on what it's like to, to, to, to need
00:25:09.840 to study Domino's more.
00:25:11.000 So it was not, we weren't showing a whole lot of compassion at that moment.
00:25:14.600 Senator, I've got to tell you, while I'm picturing you playing Domino's at the table,
00:25:18.560 all I'm picturing is you guys lining them all up and then you push one down and they all
00:25:21.540 that's, that's, I don't know how to play Domino's.
00:25:23.440 That's all I know how to do with them.
00:25:24.800 But it creates a much funnier image.
00:25:27.120 You, I noticed you left one thing off the list, which is my favorite hobby that, that
00:25:32.380 we've ever done together.
00:25:33.920 The cigars, where are the cigars?
00:25:35.640 It doesn't make the top 10.
00:25:38.220 So when I play poker, I love to smoke cigars.
00:25:41.540 Okay.
00:25:41.780 Um, all right.
00:25:43.600 A funny Heidi story.
00:25:45.400 When Heidi and I were engaged, um, I used to host a regular poker night and my buddies
00:25:51.620 would come over at the dining room table and we'd, we'd play poker and we'd smoke cigars
00:25:55.620 sitting at the dining room table.
00:25:57.280 And, and they were like, man, your girlfriend or your fiance is amazing.
00:26:02.100 Like, I can't believe she let you smoke inside.
00:26:04.840 And I'm just like, yeah, yeah, that's like, you know what I'm, you know, that's, that's
00:26:08.680 just how cool it is.
00:26:09.700 She's amazing.
00:26:11.460 And, um, we got married May 27th, 2001.
00:26:15.600 We're coming up on our 20th anniversary.
00:26:17.840 We literally get back from the honeymoon.
00:26:20.080 I'm getting ready to host a poker game.
00:26:21.620 She says, get the damn cigars outside. 1.00
00:26:23.900 You are never to smoke it inside again.
00:26:25.360 And I never have.
00:26:26.260 It's been 20 years since I've been able to smoke a cigar inside.
00:26:29.180 So, um, so, so sometimes the engagements rules are different from the marriage rules.
00:26:36.260 And I can see that it's sort of, uh, it changes like that.
00:26:40.420 I suppose, I suppose marriage is about sacrifice.
00:26:42.860 Good though, to be able to take a moment to relax, uh, even if you have to do it outside
00:26:46.960 now to have a little bit of fun, uh, because a lot to celebrate.
00:26:50.000 Congratulations on the book, uh, going so far up, uh, up the list and, uh, be sure for
00:26:54.260 everyone to go out there and get a copy of one vote away.
00:26:58.160 I promise it will be a substantive distraction from all the madness that you're going to be getting
00:27:03.340 in the media for the, for the next couple of months of the presidential cycle.
00:27:07.000 We're going to be back forgetting about our relaxation.
00:27:09.620 We're going to be back talking about all of that, obviously a lot coming up, but in the
00:27:12.840 meantime, I'm Michael Knowles.
00:27:14.300 This is verdict with Ted Cruz.
00:27:24.340 This episode of verdict with Ted Cruz is being brought to you by jobs, freedom, and security
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