Verdict with Ted Cruz - JD Vance Joins Live at CPAC-Wuhan virus, Politicized AG & Blue-Collar GOP

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.620 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.660 Welcome to his verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you,

00:00:07.860 and our guest, J.D. Vance, live from CPAC.

00:00:12.040 There we go.

00:00:15.300 This is going to be fun for everyone listening to the show later.

00:00:19.800 You guys have a vote today, and you both have to go back.

00:00:25.140 We decided we're going to make this work.

00:00:27.300 We'll have J.D. on with us as well.

00:00:28.960 So, Senator, let's just talk about, like, you guys have really good jobs,

00:00:32.860 but I've learned you guys have no idea what your schedule is.

00:00:35.620 How is that possible in government?

00:00:37.620 It's actually, it is.

00:00:38.940 You got the joke.

00:00:39.880 All right, I like that.

00:00:41.140 It is a bizarre thing in the Senate.

00:00:43.020 You have utterly no control over your schedule.

00:00:45.160 The Senate majority leader decides when to call a vote.

00:00:48.220 And, look, Chuck Schumer is really bad at it.

00:00:53.320 So you have literally no idea what's happening.

00:00:56.160 He'll come in, decide to have a vote, maybe not decide to have a vote.

00:00:59.640 So on Thursday nights, typically we fly into D.C. Monday mornings.

00:01:03.340 We fly home Thursday nights.

00:01:05.860 But we don't know if we're home or not.

00:01:07.360 So I would call home.

00:01:08.660 I remember, you know, when my girls were little, I'd call home,

00:01:11.400 and they'd say, well, Daddy, are you going to be home tonight?

00:01:15.300 And I'd say, I have no idea.

00:01:17.360 And actually, Caroline referred to Mitch McConnell for years as that mean man.

00:01:26.060 Because she would say, she'd ask, Daddy, are you coming home?

00:01:29.880 And I said, well, it depends on when Mitch calls the vote.

00:01:32.920 She said, is that mean man going to let you come home tonight?

00:01:35.460 Which I told Mitch that, and to his credit, he laughs pretty hard.

00:01:38.460 He thinks that's funny.

00:01:39.860 But is that not a bizarre aspect of this job?

00:01:43.440 It really is.

00:01:45.080 So my version of this is, you know, when I first got sworn in early January,

00:01:50.200 and I would go home and do a lot of radio interviews with people,

00:01:52.280 and they'd say, what's the most interesting part of the job?

00:01:54.120 What's the thing you didn't expect?

00:01:55.240 And I'd talk a little bit about the schedule,

00:01:56.960 and I think they wanted me to have some brilliant policy solution or idea.

00:02:00.340 And what I always just sort of blurted out almost accidentally was,

00:02:04.240 these guys don't work very hard, right?

00:02:06.820 So the very first day we're sworn in, we're then sent on a three-week recess.

00:02:11.760 And that really frustrated me because, you know, I'm a new senator.

00:02:14.220 I want to get to work.

00:02:14.960 I want to work with my good friend Ted here.

00:02:17.500 And then I kind of realized, actually,

00:02:19.620 the Democrats not working very hard for the next two years

00:02:22.260 is maybe not the worst thing in the world.

00:02:23.980 So that's an accurate, accurate statement there.

00:02:27.420 Every day the Schumer Senate is not in session is a day they're not destroying America.

00:02:32.960 That's right.

00:02:33.980 So you're saying more three-week vacations is what are needed, basically.

00:02:37.880 I like it.

00:02:38.880 I want to get into policy.

00:02:41.160 And, J.D., you're new to the Senate.

00:02:44.640 You're in the minority now, not the majority.

00:02:47.200 Yep.

00:02:48.140 And that's obviously coming with interesting things.

00:02:50.860 But what we have seen come out is the issue of COVID and the media getting it wrong

00:02:57.600 and having to admit they got it wrong on the Wuhan Lab Institute,

00:03:02.200 on the fact that we weren't crazy.

00:03:05.620 And on this podcast, three years ago, we said, you said,

00:03:11.540 this is pretty clear from data that we have coming in.

00:03:14.020 There's a very good chance this is we're being lied to by China. 0.92

00:03:18.160 Well, and let's reflect for a second.

00:03:20.860 So three years ago, this podcast was here at CPAC, on the stage.

00:03:28.000 And three years ago, thank God, we're finally allowed to gather again by our nation's capital.

00:03:35.340 Yeah.

00:03:35.780 Yeah. 1.00

00:03:35.940 You look at the idiots who had shut the country down. 1.00

00:03:41.900 And, listen, CPAC has an interesting mark to my mind as of really the beginning of the pandemic 1.00

00:03:48.500 because we did the podcast, did Verdict here at CPAC.

00:03:54.480 I flew home, and actually, I had a campaign fundraiser at an Eagles concert, which, and I love the Eagles.

00:04:04.420 I will confess that was my idea.

00:04:06.160 It's like, all right, if you've got to have people write checks to the campaign,

00:04:08.760 let's at least go to a cool concert, enjoy it.

00:04:10.780 And so we're sitting there Saturday early evening, and I get a phone call from Matt Schlapp.

00:04:17.160 And Matt's like, yeah, Ted, I need to tell you.

00:04:20.060 So a good friend of ours who was at CPAC with you has this thing called COVID.

00:04:26.760 And, yeah, you guys were piling around, and this is kind of a problem.

00:04:32.620 I'm like, oh, really?

00:04:33.860 And so I ended up quarantining for two weeks as a result of Matt's call.

00:04:38.480 Thank you.

00:04:40.100 But I will tell you, the worst part was not that.

00:04:42.600 It was Heidi coming down the stairs dressed to the nine.

00:04:45.560 She was ready to go to the Eagles concert.

00:04:48.940 And I'm like, okay, sweetheart.

00:04:50.700 I love that we have a studio audience because if you didn't hear that on the audio of this,

00:04:53.920 all the ladies are in the audience here. 1.00

00:04:57.460 Okay.

00:04:58.740 She comes down ready to go.

00:05:01.740 And I'm like, okay, sweetheart, we can't go.

00:05:05.260 And she gets mad.

00:05:06.500 She's like, these people paid thousands of dollars to, like, go hang out at this fundraiser.

00:05:10.860 You can't stand them up.

00:05:12.320 And at this point, very few people knew much of anything about what COVID was.

00:05:16.640 But I'm like, look, this is potentially a deadly virus.

00:05:19.300 We don't know.

00:05:20.000 And I promise you, they will be happy that we're not exposing them to it at the outset.

00:05:25.340 So we called and explained it to them.

00:05:26.560 And they had a great time at the concert.

00:05:27.840 And we stayed at home.

00:05:29.000 And Heidi was mad at me.

00:05:30.220 So it is worth pointing out that three years later, we've discovered that the virus, if you're

00:05:38.680 really old, if you're really sick, it can be deadly.

00:05:41.320 But for young, healthy people, we've discovered the health impacts are much lower than we thought.

00:05:45.960 And what's interesting is the breaking news that we all know now, that now two different

00:05:52.740 cabinet agencies in the Biden administration, the Department of Energy and the FBI, have

00:05:58.000 both concluded that it is likely that the COVID virus came from a Chinese government lab.

00:06:04.260 Now, as everyone here knows...

00:06:06.300 Finally, these two departments are doing some good work.

00:06:08.920 I like this.

00:06:09.100 It is shocking.

00:06:10.180 Finally.

00:06:10.420 But as everyone here knows, for two years, that was derided as a conspiracy theory, tinfoil

00:06:19.780 hat-wearing, nutty theory that you weren't allowed to say that you'd get banned on social

00:06:25.600 media for saying.

00:06:26.980 And I have to point out, this podcast, three years ago, in March of 2020 and in April of

00:06:33.320 2020, we did two extended pods laying out the evidence then, three years ago, that this

00:06:39.940 came from a Chinese government lab.

00:06:41.840 And in fact, we walked through what convinced these guys today.

00:06:46.300 Yeah.

00:06:46.780 Almost all of it you knew three years ago, but politics wouldn't let them say it.

00:06:51.700 And so I will say, and miraculously, they didn't censor our podcast.

00:06:55.380 They censored just about everything else, but they didn't try to censor verdict.

00:06:59.440 I do think it's only appropriate we're back in D.C.

00:07:01.480 that we remind the amazing media of what they were saying to the American people.

00:07:06.500 I want to play clip two.

00:07:08.500 Take a look at this.

00:07:09.340 This is your media, not pushing any narrative at all.

00:07:13.820 Tom Cotton a couple of days ago spouting a conspiracy theory that the Chinese made this

00:07:20.660 virus up.

00:07:21.460 You have the lab in a lab.

00:07:23.300 Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh with zero proof suggesting a Chinese bioweapon lab

00:07:28.780 is to blame.

00:07:29.600 We know that it's been debunked that this virus was man-made or modified or anything like that.

00:07:34.580 Dr. Anthony Fauci rejected the conspiracy that coronavirus was man-made in a lab in Wuhan,

00:07:40.340 China.

00:07:41.140 And yet this week, Donald Trump is still pushing the debunked bunkum, despite his own intelligence

00:07:46.100 community's findings that that is simply not true.

00:07:48.340 If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what's out there now, it's very,

00:07:56.940 very strongly leaning towards this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated.

00:08:03.320 Well, Brett, I'm really sorry that the lab leak has become such a distraction for so many

00:08:08.180 people, because frankly, we still don't know.

00:08:10.520 There is no evidence really to say most of the scientific community, myself included,

00:08:15.200 think that is a possibility.

00:08:16.880 But far more likely, this was a natural way in which a virus left. 0.96

00:08:21.080 So, the first few hosts there were actually trying out for dumbest cable television hosts. 0.95

00:08:27.280 That's what that was. 0.89

00:08:30.060 So, sorry, I have my own COVID ruined my wife's life story, so I'm going to tell that briefly.

00:08:36.140 So, we were in the heat of the primary campaign, and what turned into a very, very intense campaign.

00:08:41.160 And, you know, my wife was 39 weeks pregnant, so we're, you know, very bad at family planning.

00:08:47.280 So, my wife gets COVID, and she actually, I got, for me, it was like a mild cold.

00:08:52.480 For her, she got actually pretty sick, which maybe has something to do with the fact she was 39 weeks pregnant.

00:08:57.860 Nine days afterwards, she starts going into labor.

00:09:01.080 And we called the hospital, and they said, try to wait another few hours, because if you come in now, you're going to have to wear the full mask, body gear set up, complete quarantine.

00:09:13.060 Your husband can't be in the room with you, but if you wait a few hours, then you've reached the quarantine period.

00:09:17.400 This was in December of 2021.

00:09:20.280 So, we ruined, I mean, all of us have a crazy COVID story.

00:09:24.180 I think mine is better than most.

00:09:26.080 In other words, there were a lot of people, of course, who were prevented seeing loved ones in their final moments, and that is heartbreaking.

00:09:31.780 But the failure to be honest about this virus with the American people ruined a lot of lives. 0.51

00:09:36.960 And the fact that they called us conspiracy theorists for stating the obvious, I mean, credit to you guys for talking about this.

00:09:44.140 Credit to Tom Cotton for talking about this.

00:09:45.920 But it was, I mean, look, there were always two options, right?

00:09:49.180 Like, one was a bat that had COVID flew into a guy's soup, and it sort of wafted into his nose, and he got human COVID.

00:09:56.720 Totally plausible, by the way.

00:09:58.100 Totally reasonable.

00:09:58.760 That's not a conspiracy theory at all.

00:09:59.400 Or it was made two miles down the road in the Wuhan Institute of Virology that studied bat coronaviruses.

00:10:06.260 It was always the most reasonable baseline assumption.

00:10:09.920 The fact you were censored for it is crazy.

00:10:11.540 And by the way, the good news is that CPAC is serving bat soup for lunch. 1.00

00:10:18.760 It's delicious.

00:10:21.600 So look, what JD said is exactly right.

00:10:24.740 What are the facts that we knew within a couple of months of this pandemic beginning?

00:10:28.540 What are the facts we laid out on this podcast?

00:10:31.700 Number one, the Wuhan Institute for Virology, which studies viruses, not just viruses, studies coronaviruses.

00:10:39.620 Not just coronaviruses, studies coronaviruses derived from bats.

00:10:45.100 By the way, the bats in question that carry these coronaviruses do not occur naturally in Wuhan, China.

00:10:51.500 The closest you can find these bats to Wuhan are in caves that are 900 miles away.

00:10:59.000 Now, where is the Wuhan Institute for Virology?

00:11:01.540 It is literally a couple hundred yards from the wet market where the first outbreak occurred.

00:11:09.620 You could drive a golf ball.

00:11:12.280 Well, I couldn't.

00:11:13.300 I was about to say, I could drive the golf ball.

00:11:16.800 You could drive it in a golf cart.

00:11:18.280 Yes.

00:11:18.660 To the spot of the crime.

00:11:22.100 That's fact number one.

00:11:24.000 Fact number two.

00:11:25.120 In November of 2019, not one, not two, three scientists, employees at the Wuhan Institute for Virology, check themselves into the hospital with serious illnesses that may well have been the beginning of the pandemic.

00:11:43.820 Fact number three.

00:11:46.080 When the pandemic erupted, we discovered that China had been stockpiling protective medical equipment several months before the pandemic, and China ordered the Wuhan Institute for Virology to destroy the samples.

00:12:05.340 Now, look, in a court of law, and I'm sorry, you have two lawyers here.

00:12:11.980 You did something really wrong.

00:12:13.820 In a court of law, in a civil case or a criminal case, if someone destroys evidence, a judge will instruct the jury.

00:12:23.920 You are entitled to draw an inference from the destruction of evidence that that evidence was incriminating, that there's a reason they destroyed the evidence.

00:12:32.840 In this case, it ain't complicated what the reason was, that the Chinese government said, destroy all the samples.

00:12:40.380 We don't want any evidence.

00:12:41.560 I think now and then it was overwhelmingly likely that COVID escaped from a Chinese government lab, and I think it is significantly more likely than not that it was, in fact, altered in that lab through gain-of-function research, that it was a natural virus, that they made more dangerous, more deadly, and that's why China doesn't want culpability for it. 0.86

00:13:04.380 And I will say this, if you want to know the facts on what's going on, on this issue and everything else, I want to encourage everyone here, take out your cell phone.

00:13:14.820 Take out your cell phone.

00:13:16.360 He's not joking.

00:13:17.320 You can take out your cell phone.

00:13:18.620 And text the word verdict to 24005.

00:13:25.380 Let me give that to you again.

00:13:27.060 The number is 24005.

00:13:30.760 All right, now that's awesome.

00:13:32.780 My phone here.

00:13:33.680 Text the word verdict to 24005.

00:13:36.500 What you will get is a link to subscribe to this podcast.

00:13:40.760 We do it three days a week.

00:13:42.280 Which, to quote your dad, remind people that means it's free.

00:13:44.200 So you all know my dad.

00:13:45.500 This is awesome, by the way.

00:13:46.560 But my dad is 83, and he points out, he says, look, don't say subscribe.

00:13:50.720 People are thinking it's like a magazine subscription.

00:13:52.960 You've got to pay for it.

00:13:53.760 No, it's free, and you get it three days a week.

00:13:57.480 And this is, we've had now on verdict over 50 million downloads.

00:14:02.080 We had 700,000 unique viewers last month.

00:14:06.980 We are beating CNN every week of the year.

00:14:10.800 Which is getting easier and easier.

00:14:13.840 I kind of like that.

00:14:15.220 I got to ask.

00:14:15.740 This just says Ted Cruz is awesome again and again.

00:14:17.800 I wrote that.

00:14:19.520 This is propaganda.

00:14:20.320 That's part of my job.

00:14:20.800 What is going on here?

00:14:21.500 I write each one of those earlier today.

00:14:22.840 That's automatic now.

00:14:24.040 All right.

00:14:24.340 I want to ask you guys this.

00:14:25.460 You and I have talked about this on the pod before, Senator.

00:14:27.360 But I want to know, and I think most people at CPAC would agree, you want some accountability,

00:14:32.900 specifically with Dr. Fauci.

00:14:36.100 I think there's a lot of people who believe you lied to Congress.

00:14:39.080 Is there going to be any accountability?

00:14:40.760 And you can keep it short, but is there going to be any accountability for him looking, saying,

00:14:44.420 I did not, we did not fund gandalfunction research.

00:14:46.780 It was not this Wuhan.

00:14:48.240 This is, it was not the Institute of Virology.

00:14:50.420 I mean, he's gone all in on this.

00:14:52.360 Will there be any accountability?

00:14:53.320 Because you were on the House side as well.

00:14:54.640 He was looking, and I, in my opinion, lying to the American people.

00:14:59.140 Look, there should be accountability.

00:15:02.600 It's that simple.

00:15:03.500 I mean, look, he clearly, Tony Fauci lied under oath.

00:15:06.620 He lied to the American people.

00:15:08.120 And it's not just that.

00:15:09.140 He compelled and persuaded the FBI to censor information about the pandemic as it was unfolding.

00:15:16.700 He tried to shut down, he used his government power to shut down the functioning of the First

00:15:21.740 Amendment so that we could not have an honest and open debate about where COVID came from

00:15:26.180 and what to do about it.

00:15:27.600 And I think it's absolutely disgraceful what Tony Fauci did.

00:15:30.620 Now, the question, and Ted is a much smarter lawyer than I am, is if we actually want to

00:15:35.600 say he committed perjury, is that Merrick Garland who has to make that decision?

00:15:39.740 Which I know you met him yesterday.

00:15:40.860 I was going to say, I'm not optimistic that Merrick Garland is going to do the right thing

00:15:44.000 here.

00:15:45.260 Let's go to Merrick.

00:15:46.160 Go ahead.

00:15:46.600 But let's go to Merrick Garland after that.

00:15:48.380 So, look.

00:15:49.960 Follow the money.

00:15:51.960 Amen.

00:15:52.420 That's right.

00:15:52.920 That's exactly right.

00:15:54.320 So, someone just called out, follow the money.

00:15:57.340 And the money, look, Dr. Fauci is the most, has done more damage than any bureaucrat in the

00:16:03.680 history of our nation.

00:16:05.380 That's right.

00:16:07.640 And was the highest paid.

00:16:08.880 He led policies that destroyed people's lives, that hurt tens of millions of kids across

00:16:16.360 this country, that destroyed businesses, and he lied repeatedly over and over and over

00:16:22.760 again.

00:16:23.060 Now, one of the consequences is he elevated politics above science and medicine.

00:16:28.080 There has been no person who has done more to destroy trust in the scientific and medical

00:16:33.560 community than Dr. Anthony Fauci.

00:16:38.880 Who told millions of Americans lies willingly, knowingly, glibly, supremely arrogantly.

00:16:46.660 Should there be an accountability in any sane system, he would be prosecuted for lying

00:16:51.740 under oath, and he would go to jail for lying under oath to Congress.

00:16:56.880 Now, unfortunately, I can quantify with mathematical precision the likelihood that the Biden Department of Justice will prosecute him, and the odds are 0.000%.

00:17:12.580 They will not do it.

00:17:15.380 This is a lawless Department of Justice.

00:17:18.200 Will there be accountability?

00:17:19.640 There will be accountability.

00:17:20.660 Number one, we have a majority in the House, and I am confident in the House that we're going to use that majority and use it to hold Dr.

00:17:29.560 Fauci and the others who lied accountable.

00:17:31.860 And we need to have hearings on the origins of COVID.

00:17:34.740 We need to have hearings to follow the money. 0.98

00:17:37.160 We need to have hearings examining and laying out the facts about how Fauci misled the American people and the corruption that drove that.

00:17:45.700 You mentioned, Garland, a second ago, there were some fireworks yesterday on Capitol Hill, and I want to play a clip of you talking with the AG, and I'm going to call for clip five, because this was about two systems of justice in this country.

00:18:03.540 I think it's very clear there are two systems of justice.

00:18:05.720 You asked him about this.

00:18:06.840 Take a look.

00:18:08.240 I sent 70 United States Marshals.

00:18:10.600 Let me try again.

00:18:11.140 And has the Department of Justice brought even a single case under this statute?

00:18:15.780 It's a yes, no question.

00:18:16.800 It's not a give a speech on the other things you did.

00:18:19.820 The job of the United States Marshals is to defend the lives of the justices.

00:18:26.440 And that's our number one priority.

00:18:28.180 Why are you unwilling to say no?

00:18:29.780 The answer is no.

00:18:30.640 You know it's no.

00:18:31.360 I know it's no.

00:18:32.060 Everyone in this hearing room knows it's no.

00:18:34.320 You're not willing to answer a question.

00:18:35.840 Have you brought a case under this statute?

00:18:37.420 Yes or no?

00:18:37.840 As far as I know, we haven't, and what we have done is defended the lives of the justices with over 70 U.S. Marshals.

00:18:43.960 How do you decide which criminal statutes the DOJ enforces and which one it doesn't?

00:18:48.400 The United States Marshals know that they have full...

00:18:51.080 I recognize you want to give a separate speech.

00:18:53.460 No, I don't want to give a... 0.88

00:18:54.040 How do you decide which statutes you enforce and which ones you don't?

00:18:57.560 The Marshals on scene make that determination in light of the priority of...

00:19:02.860 The Marshals do not make a determination over whether to prosecute you.

00:19:06.260 The Attorney General make a determination and you spent 20 years as a judge and you're perfectly content with justices being afraid for their children's lives.

00:19:15.640 And you did nothing to prosecute it.

00:19:17.480 Let's shift to another...

00:19:18.040 That is...

00:19:18.500 Can I answer the question?

00:19:19.680 No, you cannot.

00:19:20.760 You have refused to answer the question.

00:19:22.020 I am answering your question.

00:19:23.540 The Attorney General does not decide whether to arrest...

00:19:25.860 How did you choose not to enforce this statute?

00:19:28.240 The Marshals on scene...

00:19:29.500 The Marshals don't make that decision.

00:19:30.700 They do make the decision of whether to make an arrest.

00:19:33.220 To prosecute someone?

00:19:33.860 No, they don't.

00:19:34.480 If they make an arrest...

00:19:36.020 The Marshals do not have prosecution.

00:19:37.400 If they make an arrest, then it goes to the Marshals.

00:19:39.020 Let's change topics because our time is limited.

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00:20:18.720 He had his coffee.

00:20:24.840 So, getting to host a podcast with you is fun for me because I know your habits.

00:20:32.620 How many Diet Dr. Peppers did you have, Senator, before you got into that questioning yesterday?

00:20:38.440 Eleven.

00:20:38.960 Eleven.

00:20:39.400 Okay, there we go.

00:20:40.100 So, you look at that moment, and I think it was all-encompassing of what the American, I think, especially conservatives like they're up against, which is there's two systems of justice here.

00:20:50.700 If you're a conservative, we'll come after you with a full strength of law.

00:20:54.560 We'll break down doors.

00:20:55.560 We'll bring people to come after you.

00:20:56.620 You know the story of a man, and you can pick it up from here and remind people of how they treat conservatives compared to when you're intimidating judges of the Supreme Court over issues like Roe v. Wade where they're trying to flip votes.

00:21:09.580 So, look, Merrick Garland, I believe, is the most partisan and politicized attorney general our nation has ever seen.

00:21:17.120 And what is happening at the Department of Justice is heartbreaking because it has turned into the political weapon for the Democrats to attack their enemies and protect their friends.

00:21:32.220 And it is astonishing.

00:21:35.500 Look, Garland spent all day before the Judiciary Committee in testimony.

00:21:39.120 He will not answer a straight question at all.

00:21:41.360 And he looks at you, number one, you know, we were talking about Fauci and Supreme Arrogance.

00:21:46.940 You know, Merrick Garland can compete in that category with Fauci, and that's impressive.

00:21:51.100 That's hard to do.

00:21:51.880 That's when you're going pro.

00:21:53.260 Garland looks at you like, how dare you ask me a question?

00:21:58.340 And the guy was a judge for 24 years.

00:22:00.900 And you look at that hearing.

00:22:02.620 So, for example, what we were talking about, as you guys know, when the Dobbs opinion was released, when it was leaked.

00:22:09.300 Hundreds of left-wing protesters, radical left-wing protesters went to the homes of six Supreme Court justices and engaged in angry, violent protests.

00:22:22.620 And by the way, left-wing groups were not only giving out the home addresses of justices.

00:22:27.760 They were giving where the justices worshipped, what churches they went to.

00:22:31.020 They were giving where their kids went to school.

00:22:33.060 And angry protesters at your home, when your kids are sleeping in their bedroom, is inherently threatening.

00:22:40.040 There is a statute, 18 U.S.C. 1571, that makes it a crime, a federal crime, to protest at the home of a judge in an effort to influence the outcome of a case.

00:22:53.100 It's the same.

00:22:53.920 It's similar to jury tamper.

00:22:55.720 You can't go to a juror's house and protest to try to get a not guilty verdict.

00:23:00.060 But this Department of Justice refuses to enforce the law.

00:23:04.700 And it was clear for that hearing that Merrick Garland's political staff had written one sentence.

00:23:10.940 This is your political talking point.

00:23:13.320 The marshals decide whether or not to arrest someone.

00:23:16.440 That's true.

00:23:16.940 There were marshals there and the marshals didn't arrest someone.

00:23:19.540 But under our system of justice, marshals are essentially police officers.

00:23:25.000 They have zero prosecution authority.

00:23:30.220 The only prosecution authority in the federal law is in the Department of Justice with the prosecutors.

00:23:36.840 Merrick Garland is the one who made the decision.

00:23:40.200 We're not going to prosecute here.

00:23:41.840 And by the way, these numbnuts put up pictures of themselves on social media. 0.69

00:23:48.080 We're not talking master criminals. 0.55

00:23:49.700 They've confessed to the crime.

00:23:52.700 They could be found easily.

00:23:56.040 But Merrick Garland agrees with the protesters.

00:24:00.440 He doesn't like the Dobbs decision.

00:24:02.120 He supports Roe versus Wade.

00:24:03.860 And what is shocking for someone who spent 24 years as a judge is that he's perfectly willing to be complicit with a left-wing violent mob threatening the lives and families of the justices because he supports their political agenda.

00:24:17.820 That is incredibly dangerous.

00:24:21.240 Yeah, let's take stock for just a second of who Merrick Garland has gone after and who he's refused to go after.

00:24:27.620 He's gone after a pro-life father of seven at his home, arrested him like a hardened criminal.

00:24:34.660 He's gone after parents peacefully protesting at their children's school board meetings.

00:24:39.580 He's had the FBI investigate traditional Catholics as being domestic terrorists, and he won't use the Department of Justice to go after people who are harassing the children of Supreme Court justices. 0.98

00:24:52.420 The guy is a disgrace. 0.98

00:24:53.720 He needs to go. 1.00

00:24:55.640 How much you just ran.

00:25:00.220 You were out there with the voters.

00:25:02.200 You're talking to them.

00:25:03.080 How concerned, and tell a little bit about your story.

00:25:07.180 I mean, you're what I would refer to as blue-collar conservative.

00:25:10.580 You come in.

00:25:11.420 You run for this thing.

00:25:12.720 How concerned are the American people about these type of issues when you were talking to them that, hey, this government that I'm supposed to trust is supposed to protect me.

00:25:21.880 It's supposed to protect my rights.

00:25:23.480 Where I'm supposed to be innocent until proven guilty are now being accused of things just because of politics.

00:25:28.260 And they can ruin your life.

00:25:29.600 They can come in and literally ruin your life.

00:25:31.100 Yep.

00:25:31.940 Look, one of the things Ted said when he was out on the campaign trail campaigning with me to this blue-collar conservatism point that I stole, Ted.

00:25:39.260 I hope you won't mind it.

00:25:40.940 But I gave you credit, though, so it's borrowing.

00:25:44.860 He would talk about how if you look at who's voting Republicans.

00:25:48.720 I mean, we're the party of soldiers and sailors, of nurses, of construction workers, of people who go to work, pay their taxes, raise their children, and just want to live in safe communities.

00:25:59.640 That is our base right now, and I love that, right?

00:26:02.820 We should be proud of that base, and we should be working hard to serve that base.

00:26:07.140 And, you know, I've got to say, a lot of our elites, a lot of the leaders, I think, of the establishment of the Republican Party, they're ashamed of our new base.

00:26:14.340 I know Ted and I aren't, and that's something that's very, very good that's happening in our party.

00:26:18.100 It's a great thing.

00:26:18.980 But, look, if you think about those people, middle-class people who go to work, they do their thing, they try to just live a good life in the country that their parents and grandparents built, they know that when the Department of Justice acts unfairly, they're the very kind of people who suffer.

00:26:36.000 They know that the very thing that makes this country special is that whether you're powerful or not, whether you're rich or poor, we all have equal justice under law, or at least we did until Joe Biden's gang of thugs moved into the White House.

00:26:49.940 And let me say something on that, which is, you know, J.D. is a brand-new senator, and he's one of the people I am incredibly excited that is now a member of the U.S. Senate, because, thank you, as J.D. mentioned, I campaigned with him all over the state of Ohio.

00:27:18.300 He's a hell of a candidate.

00:27:20.160 He was powerful and effective on the stump.

00:27:24.200 He worked his tail off.

00:27:26.020 But, you know, J.D.'s personal story is a story that describes who the Republican Party is.

00:27:33.100 I mean, J.D. grew up in Appalachia, grew up in working-class environments, in rough working-class environments, was a Marine who went to Yale Law School.

00:27:46.440 That's right.

00:27:48.300 And I will tell you, there's a long history on verdict of making fun of Yale University.

00:27:55.460 It's deserved.

00:27:56.480 For a long time, Michael Knowles and I did it together, and I tried to make fun of Yale on a regular basis.

00:28:01.480 So we're just continuing that trend.

00:28:03.340 But, as you guys all know, J.D. wrote a New York Times number one bestseller, Hillbilly Elegy, which is a fantastic book.

00:28:18.800 It is actually, it's probably the best explanation.

00:28:23.020 You can combine them at checkout at Amazon.com, just so you know.

00:28:26.780 Justice Corrupted, this book.

00:28:28.460 You can literally put them together.

00:28:29.800 Yeah, for the record, I wasn't hawking my own book.

00:28:31.980 I know.

00:28:32.580 I was like, you might as well never win, get both, right?

00:28:35.000 Yeah, exactly.

00:28:35.760 And while Ted talks about how great I am, let's extend the clock a little bit.

00:28:38.840 We're running a little low on time.

00:28:40.100 I want to make sure Ted has plenty of time to go on.

00:28:42.260 But look, what J.D. did so powerfully, because I am going to go on, is described the pathologies that have been just hammering working men and women in this country,

00:28:55.700 or not even working men and women, people who are not working.

00:28:58.680 And whether the opioid crisis and addiction, the destruction of manufacturing jobs, the loss of fathers at home raising kids,

00:29:15.520 and it is a powerful explanation of the damage that's been done, and it's a really clarion call.

00:29:22.400 I've got to tell you, you know, this is no longer the party of the country clubs, and there are some of our colleagues in the Republican conference who are really confused who this guy is,

00:29:36.080 and that's why I'm so excited that he's come.

00:29:39.760 Give us your thoughts on, all right, you've been in the Senate two months.

00:29:45.580 Yep.

00:29:46.800 Vacation for three, so let's, you know, half of it we've been on vacation.

00:29:50.880 But what do you see as the future of the Republican Party as it concerns, how are we different from the Republican Party of 20 years ago?

00:30:03.080 Yeah, I mean, that's a big question.

00:30:05.480 I guess the way that I think about it is we are the party of wage earners, we're the party of taxpayers,

00:30:12.080 and we're the party of the people who fight and hopefully win America's wars.

00:30:16.440 That's really how I think about it.

00:30:17.600 And what that means is because we have a different coalition than maybe we had 30 years ago,

00:30:25.300 we've got to think a little bit about different issues differently.

00:30:28.460 I think the old Republican Party would have maybe seen Merrick Garland applying equal justice in our country unequally

00:30:35.600 and would have said, well, you know, they're in power, the Democrats get to do what they want to do.

00:30:39.260 I think you and I, our attitude is, look, if we don't stop this dead in its tracks,

00:30:42.980 we're going to lose the very thing that makes life livable for our own voters and for our own people.

00:30:47.320 That's unacceptable.

00:30:48.800 I think for too long, I mean, look, even going back 20, 30 years,

00:30:52.720 the Republican Party was okay with trade deals and with negotiations with China,

00:30:57.820 most favored nation status with China that destroyed the manufacturing base that, by the way,

00:31:03.240 hollowed out our ability to make our own weapons on the national security side,

00:31:07.320 but also destroyed a lot of good middle-class jobs in the state that I came from.

00:31:11.560 We're not doing that anymore.

00:31:12.660 We're not playing that game anymore.

00:31:13.960 We are the pro-America party, not the pro-China party.

00:31:16.720 That's changed.

00:31:17.580 And, you know, I guess I think the final way I think about this is the Democrats' approach

00:31:29.460 to people who are struggling in the heartland is, it's fine if you lose your job,

00:31:34.340 we'll just give you welfare, but we believe in the dignity of work

00:31:37.900 and of moms and dads supporting their families,

00:31:40.480 and we want policies that are going to make that easier to happen.

00:31:42.360 And I'll tell you, we're seeing that divide play out.

00:31:49.620 There are lots of issues on which the blue-collar shift in the party is playing out.

00:31:54.720 Immigration is front and center. 0.52

00:31:56.200 That's right.

00:31:56.800 There used to be Chamber of Commerce Republicans that were all for open borders

00:32:02.080 because they looked at it and saw cheap labor.

00:32:04.600 That's exactly right.

00:32:05.440 And that's not where the American people are.

00:32:08.520 That's not where the Republican Party should be, and that change matters.

00:32:16.340 Look, we saw recently we almost had a massive rail strike.

00:32:22.260 And we almost had a massive rail strike,

00:32:24.740 and there was a dispute between management and the unions,

00:32:27.340 and it ended up coming to an impasse because Biden and Pete Buttigieg screwed it all up.

00:32:32.380 Right.

00:32:33.040 And it came to an impasse.

00:32:34.780 That happens a lot these days.

00:32:36.180 But the assumptions was kick it to Congress,

00:32:40.260 and Congress will rule with management, and that'll be it.

00:32:43.780 And I got to tell you, and it was the Biden administration

00:32:46.240 that was pressing to overturn what the unions wanted.

00:32:48.940 The unions wanted paid sick leave.

00:32:50.700 Actually, the rule in the railroads was if you wanted sick leave,

00:32:54.940 you had to put in for it several days in advance.

00:32:58.140 Which is really helpful if you know, hey, I'm planning to get sick next Wednesday.

00:33:04.120 Like, I'm not sure exactly how that works.

00:33:07.600 And so I looked at it, and my first view is,

00:33:10.280 why is Congress getting in the middle of it?

00:33:11.840 This ought to be freely negotiated between management and the unions.

00:33:14.800 We have no business getting in the middle and resolving it.

00:33:17.080 And so initially, we had a vote to delay and give them more time to negotiate a mutually agreed-upon solution.

00:33:26.080 That vote was rejected.

00:33:28.180 And so at the end of the day, there were a handful of us that said to heck with this

00:33:32.160 and voted with the workers, because I thought the workers' demands were really reasonable.

00:33:36.120 And I said, look, we're not a rubber stamp for what management wants.

00:33:40.440 That is a new dynamic in the Republican Party.

00:33:43.940 And I think J.D. being there is a big part of getting it viscerally,

00:33:48.960 which is something we need going forward.

00:33:51.220 And I've got to say also, everyone here is horrified at the derailment in East Palestine.

00:33:58.300 That's right.

00:33:58.980 And J.D. has been fantastic going back there.

00:34:04.360 On leadership, yeah.

00:34:05.600 Like, going back there, you know, he went and did a video of him poking water with a stick 0.64

00:34:11.300 and all sorts of crazy, scary crap came up. 0.57

00:34:14.980 And by the way, Joe Biden, completely AWOL. 0.98

00:34:18.900 Pete Buttigieg, what the hell does this guy got to do to get fired?

00:34:23.180 Like, at this point, it's a bar game.

00:34:26.960 Like, what else could he do?

00:34:28.200 And I got to say, J.D. standing up and the Democrats don't give a damn about East Palestine

00:34:36.460 because it's a blue-collar, red, red place. 0.99

00:34:42.660 And they're like, to hell with you. 0.99

00:34:44.040 If you were a bunch of transgender tech workers, 0.98

00:34:47.840 you'd have the entire Biden cabinet down there for a listening session and sit in to feel their pain.

00:34:56.960 But J.D., and by the way, J.D. alongside Donald Trump, came there and guilted the administration.

00:35:07.580 And that was powerful as hell.

00:35:09.300 Thank you.

00:35:10.140 I've never said this, by the way, in a podcast before.

00:35:13.140 You guys have a vote coming up that you're about to head off to.

00:35:17.520 See, the nice thing is, Ben, being a radio guy, he's very docile.

00:35:21.420 So we have screens up here that say, please wrap up.

00:35:25.380 We're just ignoring it.

00:35:27.360 Look, we're having fun, right?

00:35:28.720 We're having fun.

00:35:29.900 I like that you're...

00:35:31.160 I need a raise.

00:35:32.380 I need a raise.

00:35:33.880 I need a raise for this.

00:35:36.200 All right.

00:35:36.480 I will ask last question, and I'm sure Matt's not going to fire me over this.

00:35:41.020 I will ask one last question.

00:35:42.320 I do think it's an important one.

00:35:45.220 What does the Republican Party need to do over the next two years to unify and find good candidates?

00:35:52.160 And the reason why I say this is the Democratic Party is very unified right now.

00:35:55.980 They are so unified they will elect a dead guy in Pennsylvania on purpose,

00:36:00.540 and they will elect Fetterman, who clearly they took advantage of.

00:36:04.400 I think that's evil what they did to him, in my opinion.

00:36:07.780 And you look at where Biden is right now.

00:36:10.360 If he is their guy, which I expect him to be their guy, as long as he has a heartbeat, they'll vote him in.

00:36:16.680 That's how unified they are as a party right now, which is scary.

00:36:20.360 But what does the conservative movement need to do for the next two years quickly?

00:36:23.260 Let me offer my views, because I just came off an election.

00:36:26.240 And look, the thing that I was really caught off guard by when I won my primary is that, yes,

00:36:31.360 some arms of the establishment said maybe this wasn't our number one choice.

00:36:34.760 But look, he won, and we need to keep the seat red.

00:36:37.500 And so we're going to support J.D. Vance.

00:36:39.420 There are a lot of folks in the establishment wing, when they don't get their preferred candidate,

00:36:43.460 who whine, who will not help, who will not lift a finger to help candidates.

00:36:47.100 And look, there are going to be a lot of candidates that win Republican primaries that aren't going to be my first choice.

00:36:51.720 They may be, you know, a little bit more moderate than I am, a little bit more established than I am.

00:36:56.300 Who cares?

00:36:57.560 When you have a candidate win the primary, we've all got to get on board and support him.

00:37:02.660 From the president on down, no more whining from the establishment.

00:37:06.220 Let's help our candidates win.

00:37:08.720 And look, to be very clear, the D.C. establishment basically abandoned the Senate candidate in Arizona,

00:37:15.460 basically abandoned the Senate candidate in New Hampshire.

00:37:17.960 And that was disgraceful.

00:37:18.720 That's disgraceful.

00:37:19.480 We need to win, and that means getting behind people who are ready to fight and taking it seriously.

00:37:24.580 I support the strongest conservative who can win, and we need to win.

00:37:29.140 We need to take back the Senate.

00:37:30.340 We need to grow our majority in the House.

00:37:32.020 Yes.

00:37:32.140 And we need to send Joe Biden back to his beach house in Delaware.

00:37:35.460 Amen to that.

00:37:36.020 There it is.

00:37:38.540 Thank you guys for being here at CPAC.

00:37:41.480 Thank you all.

00:37:42.100 Being a poll verdict.

00:37:42.700 Make sure you download it.

00:37:43.840 We'll see you soon.

00:37:44.680 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:37:48.440 Guaranteed human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - March 03, 2023

JD Vance Joins Live at CPAC-Wuhan virus, Politicized AG & Blue-Collar GOP

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