Verdict with Ted Cruz - Jill Biden’s ‘Stroke Scare’ sent Joe to Waffle House, U.S. Shipyards Roar Back to Life & Is NIL Killing College Athletics Week In Review

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00:01:05.800 Welcome to this verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:01:07.740 Weekend Review, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:01:09.820 And here are some of the stories that you may have missed that we talked about this past week.

00:01:13.240 First up, Joe Biden wants you to buy her new book.

00:01:17.060 She also is trying to rewrite history and tell you that her husband was totally fine

00:01:21.900 even though she thought he was having a stroke during the debate with President Trump.

00:01:26.780 So why did she take him to a campaign event right afterwards and then to Waffle House?

00:01:31.280 We'll dive into that in just a moment.

00:01:33.480 Also, in a big move for America's national security,

00:01:37.180 we're bringing shipbuilding back to the United States of America

00:01:40.460 instead of relying on foreign countries would put our national security in major risk.

00:01:45.980 And lastly, Senator Cruz authoring legislation that could save college sports

00:01:51.820 And the President of the United States of America is saying he's all in for it as well.

00:01:56.280 It's the Week in Review, and it starts right now.

00:01:59.240 I want to move finally on to Joe Biden, and you want to talk about a dumpster fire of interviews.

00:02:03.460 Joe Biden's out there. I was like, is she, I literally was searching.

00:02:07.240 I'm like, is she promoting a book? Does she write an autobiography?

00:02:10.580 She's out there doing all these interviews, trying to rewrite history,

00:02:14.260 but also wants you to feel sorry for her and her husband,

00:02:17.500 saying that his bad night, she was terrified he was having a stroke.

00:02:20.760 The only problem is after she thought he may be having a stroke in that debate with Donald Trump, she had no problem taking him to a campaign event and then to a Waffle House and said on TV with him saying there, I'm so proud of you.

00:02:30.940 You did such a great job tonight. 0.98

00:02:32.400 It's either I'm like, all right, well, it's either senior abuse or your pathological liar or both.

00:02:37.640 Well, you and I did an emergency podcast the night of that debate.

00:02:41.420 We did it immediately as the debate concluded.

00:02:44.260 And we told verdict listeners at the time, you've just watched the single most consequential presidential debate in American history.

00:02:50.240 And the reason is, and you and I predicted that night as the debate ended, this debate will change the names on the ballot in November.

00:02:58.620 This debate was such a disaster, such a train wreck.

00:03:01.680 The Democrats will do what we're worried they're going to do with Graham Plattner, which is pull him off and put someone else on.

00:03:08.220 The Democrats are really, Republicans are lousy at this, by the way.

00:03:11.020 Republicans almost never managed to do this.

00:03:13.200 The Democrats are ruthlessly efficient.

00:03:15.760 and and we saw that debate we saw it went badly but it turns out apparently jill biden thought

00:03:23.180 it went even worse than we did give a listen to what she said she thought when she was watching

00:03:28.240 the debate were you horrified as you saw it unfold i wasn't horrified i was frightened

00:03:36.300 because I had never, ever seen Joe like that before or since.

00:03:45.260 Never.

00:03:45.880 Or since.

00:03:46.540 Yes.

00:03:47.360 Or since.

00:03:47.820 Never seen him like that.

00:03:48.540 Never.

00:03:49.440 No.

00:03:50.480 What happened?

00:03:51.800 I don't know what happened.

00:03:53.240 I mean, as I watched it, I thought, oh, my God, he's having a stroke.

00:03:57.100 And it scared me to death.

00:03:58.940 senator if you think that your spouse is having a stroke a why would you leave him on stage

00:04:09.160 b why would you then take him to a campaign event afterwards and c why would you then go to waffle

00:04:15.360 house and send it to a doctor and d uh if this is the worst it ever was and the whole world saw that 0.98

00:04:21.780 exact moment it's never been anywhere close before after you're either a pathological liar a or b 1.00

00:04:27.620 you're either a pathological liar who's crazy. You pick which one you want to be. 1.00

00:04:32.660 Look, Ben, this is an area where I think the American people have a great sense of intuition

00:04:38.900 of judging whether someone's speaking the truth or lying. You asked the right question. What would

00:04:45.020 you do if you believed your spouse, your spouse of many decades, was having a stroke? And the answer

00:04:52.000 every one of us would give, the answer you would give, the answer I would give, the answer everyone

00:04:56.200 would give is you take your doctor, your spouse to the hospital immediately, regardless of what

00:05:02.260 they're doing, regardless of what they're doing, they're having a stroke. And look, maybe you don't

00:05:06.740 rush out and pull them off national TV. I don't know about that, but at a minimum. So suppose you

00:05:11.840 just, just, just, you're scared, but you don't, as soon as it was over, how do you not say we're

00:05:16.940 going to the emergency room? We're going to go, okay, you don't want a big public, public brouhaha.

00:05:21.760 all right, get a doctor. When you're watching it, he's having a stroke, get a doctor here right now.

00:05:26.980 The instant he steps off stage, I want him being examined. Like that, anyone who is watching their

00:05:34.020 spouse and thinks they're having a stroke would do that. She didn't do that. She went to the

00:05:38.760 campaign party. She cheered and celebrated. I'm actually not critical. Like you're giving

00:05:43.540 harsh criticism because she said he did great. Look, she's a campaign spouse.

00:05:51.760 Every campaign spouse is going to say that.

00:05:53.980 I'm understanding of that. 0.98

00:05:56.380 If I do a terrible job at a debate, I don't really want Heidi to go, wow, he really crapped the bed like that.

00:06:03.360 And I understand that.

00:06:04.980 But my point is the pathological lying aspect of this.

00:06:09.120 I don't believe for a second that she's telling the truth and she says it's the worst it's ever been.

00:06:12.760 It only happened that one time.

00:06:13.960 It happened to be the one and a half hours that was on national television during a presidential debate.

00:06:18.160 I don't believe her, number one.

00:06:20.520 And number two, if you are, I mean, Senator, let's go to a debate night with you.

00:06:26.340 If I thought as one of your friends that you're having a stroke and you could make it till the end,

00:06:31.720 I would immediately do what you just said.

00:06:33.840 And I'm not your spouse.

00:06:35.320 And I think your team would.

00:06:36.520 But second of all, I think you'd also, if you thought there was a medical issue there,

00:06:40.380 you probably would actually let people know because they did.

00:06:43.620 Remember, they made up an excuse.

00:06:44.600 They lied and said he had a cold.

00:06:46.580 Like, if you thought something was bad, that's your alibi to get out of a terrible debate,

00:06:50.980 which is why I think they didn't actually say it, is because this was the cognitive normal for him.

00:06:56.540 And so I think it's another part of the pathological lying of the Democratic Party in the cover-up

00:07:00.380 is that they're like, no, no, no, she says this one time, no, it wasn't.

00:07:03.680 This is the guy that wasn't running the country.

00:07:05.800 Somebody else was in the White House, and then they lied and covered it up,

00:07:09.320 and now she's saying it only happened one time.

00:07:11.140 I don't believe her for a moment.

00:07:12.960 Well, and in fact, listen to a reporter ask asking her about whether this had been going on for a long time.

00:07:21.000 Give a listen.

00:07:22.620 Did you ever see signs that he was falling into cognitive decline?

00:07:29.020 No, no, no.

00:07:31.880 Truly, no.

00:07:34.760 I mean, that's just totally insane.

00:07:37.420 Everyone saw it.

00:07:38.660 There was examples that you could actually give that were caught on tape.

00:07:43.000 And then I go back to what she said.

00:07:44.820 It was the worst I ever saw.

00:07:45.760 I thought he was having a stroke, but I didn't do anything when he was having the stroke.

00:07:48.660 And I never saw anything like this ever again.

00:07:50.840 This is why I think so many Americans have distrust for politicians.

00:07:54.780 And why you should even be asking more questions now about who the hell was running the country.

00:07:58.880 Was it Joe Biden?

00:07:59.780 I don't know.

00:08:00.800 And by the way, I'll say again, I am more forgiving of Jill Biden of the spouse.

00:08:07.960 But every Democrat aide knew that he was in massive mental decline, that he was not capable of doing the job.

00:08:17.060 Every reporter knew that.

00:08:18.860 ABC knew that.

00:08:19.880 CBS knew that.

00:08:20.740 NBC knew that.

00:08:21.600 CNN knew that.

00:08:22.660 MSNBC knew that.

00:08:23.660 They all knew that.

00:08:25.300 And where were these questions, by the way, when the campaign was going on?

00:08:28.480 Right.

00:08:28.880 Every Democrat senator, every Democrat House member, they all knew that.

00:08:32.780 The four years Joe Biden was president.

00:08:34.660 Do you know how many times I spoke with him in person in those four years?

00:08:38.280 I'm going to guess one or zero.

00:08:40.160 Zero.

00:08:40.760 Not a single time.

00:08:42.240 That is weird.

00:08:44.060 It is a regular part of the job of being a senator to talk to the president.

00:08:48.520 When Obama was president, I talked to him regularly.

00:08:50.740 When Trump is president, I talk to him sometimes every week or sometimes even every day.

00:08:55.440 You know, last time I talked to Trump was three days ago.

00:08:58.320 It is weird.

00:08:59.640 And by the way, it was not just me.

00:09:01.440 almost every single Republican senator did not speak to him at all during his presidency. We

00:09:08.440 would sit around at lunch and talk about how weird it was that the White House would not let

00:09:13.600 us talk to the president. And understand, we all knew him. Joe was a man of the Senate for 40 plus

00:09:19.900 years. So every one of us had a personal relationship with Joe Biden. And the fact

00:09:25.240 that they wouldn't let him speak to us was a screaming alarm bell, that his mental capacity

00:09:32.180 has diminished so much that they couldn't let us see it. And it's why the debate was so high risk,

00:09:38.060 because there you had the TV cameras going and you couldn't have an aide step in and save him.

00:09:42.840 But, well, by the way, what do the Biden staff say about Jill Biden's comments about thinking

00:09:49.300 he was having a stroke. Well, an Axios reporter said, quote, ex-Biden aides simply don't believe

00:09:57.600 Jill Biden. And there's your sign. Well, there's your sign. No kidding. But I'll tell you,

00:10:05.240 and this story links back to the story we started with. Number one, Democrats in the party and the

00:10:13.600 media do not care about anything other than power. That sounds too harsh. But they were willing to

00:10:21.460 have for four years and potentially for eight years, someone who was senile, who was unable

00:10:27.380 to put together coherent thoughts as the commander in chief. Understand, Joe Biden could have pushed

00:10:34.120 a button, launched our nukes, and annihilated mankind from the face of the planet. And yet

00:10:40.940 Democrats say, you know what? If he's there, we get to run things. So, you know, what does it

00:10:46.400 matter if our enemies look at the commander in chief and think he's a addled old man who can't

00:10:51.920 operate the TV remote control? That level of cynicism, frankly, it's the same thought process

00:10:58.360 that says, what does it matter if someone is a commie, Nazi, misogynist, racist? What does it 0.81

00:11:06.160 matter. My party gets to stay in power, so that's good by me. There is, look, I think it is number

00:11:15.600 one, we keep, and by the way, Swalwell, they were fine. Someone's a repeat sexual predator. They 0.99

00:11:22.020 were great with him until there was a political problem, and then with all three, they immediately

00:11:28.340 jettisoned them and throw them out the back. I'm going to try to be restrained and say that

00:11:36.020 is not the behavior of a party that gives a damn about principle now if you want to hear the rest

00:11:42.620 of this conversation you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week every

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00:12:18.100 Why should you listen to Armstrong and Getty on demand?

00:12:21.500 We're not boring.

00:12:22.480 A lot of news is boring.

00:12:23.460 And tedious.

00:12:24.340 And depressing.

00:12:24.940 And makes you angry.

00:12:26.120 You don't want to live your life like that.

00:12:28.660 Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong.

00:12:29.660 He's Joe Getty.

00:12:30.340 We're Armstrong and Getty.

00:12:31.420 We try to bring you the truth.

00:12:32.480 and help you figure out this crazy modern world.

00:12:34.960 How about something about a comedic tone?

00:12:39.360 We have a winner.

00:12:40.960 Yes.

00:12:41.960 Listen to Armstrong and Getty on demand on the iHeartRadio app,

00:12:45.060 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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00:13:15.100 Have a great day.

00:13:15.900 I heart radio.

00:13:19.840 Now on to story number two.

00:13:21.780 I want to move Senator on to another really interesting story.

00:13:25.140 It deals with national security, especially what's happening in the Middle East and Iran right now.

00:13:29.620 And something that we've highlighted and talked about on the show in the past,

00:13:34.000 and that was that shipbuilding was not happening in the United States of America.

00:13:38.360 That is a national security issue, and it was a very clear national security issue that was brought up.

00:13:44.660 You were one of those sounding the alarm on it because when you're dependent on your ships being made overseas

00:13:49.080 and you have things that happen, whether it's COVID, right, that's not even a war,

00:13:53.720 but with COVID and all of these issues that we're now seeing in the Middle East,

00:13:57.260 we needed to bring shipbuilding back to the United States of America, and now we are seeing that

00:14:02.120 actually happen. Yeah, another one of the major provisions of the working families tax cut

00:14:07.020 was the funding for the Coast Guard. And the way it works in the Senate, when you're writing a

00:14:12.080 bill in reconciliation, which is the process we used to pass the working families tax cut,

00:14:17.740 each committee chairman writes the portion of the bill that is within his or her jurisdiction.

00:14:23.840 I'm the chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

00:14:27.400 We've got jurisdiction over about 40 percent of the U.S. economy.

00:14:31.420 Every single provision that was in my jurisdiction, I was responsible for writing, and I did write.

00:14:37.500 One of the subjects that is within the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committee is the Coast Guard.

00:14:43.000 The Coast Guard falls within our jurisdiction.

00:14:45.500 We funded more than $24 billion, billion with a B, into the Coast Guard.

00:14:54.000 That is the largest single investment in the history of the United States in the Coast Guard.

00:14:58.980 I want to give you a sense of the order of magnitude of that.

00:15:02.180 The annual budget of the Coast Guard is between $11 and $12 billion.

00:15:06.580 In one year, we invested more than double the annual budget of the Coast Guard to rebuild their fleet,

00:15:13.140 to rebuild, to purchase new ships, to purchase new helicopters, to purchase new capital and

00:15:18.720 infrastructure. One of the biggest elements of our investment was Arctic ice cutters. So if you look

00:15:27.280 at the Arctic, near the North Pole and all around the Arctic, that is a major national security

00:15:34.680 contested domain. Russia and China are both killing us in the Arctic. And the United States

00:15:42.460 has fallen way behind and we put in the funding to build new arctic ice cutters and the trump

00:15:50.220 administration signed a contract to purchase 11 new arctic ice cutters and in particular to build

00:15:56.660 many of them here in the united states so i started this week monday morning down in galveston texas

00:16:02.560 and in galveston we had a groundbreaking for a brand new shipyard where there's over a billion

00:16:08.760 dollars being invested. It's going to create more than 2,000 jobs to build Arctic ice cutters. And

00:16:14.940 not only is that important for that investment, those new jobs, but that's an expertise that

00:16:20.520 doesn't exist in the United States. We're going to see more commercial ships built in the United 0.61

00:16:25.620 States and in Texas and Galveston and Port Arthur because of this investment. I spoke at the

00:16:31.200 groundbreaking. Give a listen to what I had to say at the groundbreaking. And I was very proud

00:16:36.260 when President Trump announced that $3.5 billion was going to Davie Defense

00:16:41.780 to build five Arctic security cutters and to build them here in the Texas Gulf Coast.

00:16:55.560 That is going to produce over 2,000 high-paying jobs here on the Texas Gulf Coast.

00:17:06.260 And mark my word, that's just the beginning

00:17:11.540 because that is going to fuel a renaissance of shipbuilding

00:17:15.840 right here on the Texas Gulf Coast.

00:17:24.000 A final observation about Galveston.

00:17:26.960 Folks here are really particular about Galveston.

00:17:30.360 It's a thing.

00:17:31.660 You will learn there's a phrase that folks from Galveston will tell you

00:17:36.100 which is B-O-I, born on the island. And it's a little bit, there's an old line that you never

00:17:42.900 ask anyone if he's a Texan. If he is, he'll tell you. And if he's not, you don't want to embarrass

00:17:50.100 the guy. I love, by the way, that line there, Senator, because it is, by the way, totally

00:17:56.580 accurate. But this is a really big, I think, moment, as you described it, for national security.

00:18:02.360 It also makes us not dependent on foreign countries and foreign workforces for things that deal with national security

00:18:10.900 This is part of what you've been advocating for with America First policy is with the Trump administration as well

00:18:16.240 And being able to do this and do it quickly 0.86

00:18:19.560 And also to get these cutters back into the Arctic where we need them from a national security standpoint 0.96

00:18:25.260 This is a big win all the way around and it produces American jobs 0.66

00:18:30.200 and not just a few. As you mentioned, you've got thousands, and then you have the support jobs

00:18:34.540 around those jobs as well. Well, that's right, and let me tell you a little bit of history. Look,

00:18:41.460 you're a relatively new Texan. You're from Memphis, so this is a bit of history that I shared at the

00:18:47.020 press conference that you may not know and that everyone in Galveston knew, but maybe other people

00:18:54.600 don't so galveston used to be the largest city in texas wow galveston was called the queen of the

00:19:04.280 gulf coast galveston was also called the wall street of the southwest and galveston was called

00:19:13.080 the ellis island of the south and just like ellis island when people came as immigrants they would

00:19:18.200 come to Galveston. That was the port of entry where vast numbers of people came to America

00:19:25.120 through Galveston. And what happened is in 1900, there was a devastating hurricane that killed

00:19:31.940 between 8,000 and 12,000 people in Galveston. And they didn't have the technology to have any early

00:19:37.680 warning signs. So the hurricane just hit and destroyed the city. And it remains the single

00:19:44.320 most devastating natural disaster in u.s history but a really cool fact that i pointed out

00:19:50.500 and i bet you you don't know this ben in 1836 galveston was the capital of the republic of

00:19:58.860 texas the republic of texas we were our own nation and galveston was our capital right when

00:20:03.920 we became our own nation and and so i said look it's really special that we're seeing thousands

00:20:09.320 of new manufacturing jobs coming to Galveston, shipbuilding jobs. And I mentioned in the clip

00:20:15.760 we just played, the phrase BOI. And by the way, you'll meet people from Galveston who are fifth,

00:20:22.240 sixth, seventh generation BOI, born on island. And what I called for at the press conference,

00:20:27.240 I said, listen, every Arctic ice cutter you build there, I turned to the CEO of the company Davies

00:20:32.460 that's going to be building them. And I said, I hope and expect on every one of those Arctic

00:20:37.300 ice cutters somewhere in the interior on the hall, you will engrave the simple letters BOI

00:20:44.260 because those Arctic ice cutters will have been born on the island of Galveston.

00:20:50.160 And that's an awesome thing, but it's an awesome thing for American jobs. You look at

00:20:54.720 what President Trump is fighting to do, what I'm fighting to do, it is bring jobs back to

00:21:00.120 American manufacturing jobs. And I'll tell you a little bit, let me bring you a little bit inside

00:21:04.320 the story. So the bill we wrote, we had the funding for what was likely to be five to six

00:21:10.940 Arctic ice cutters. And there was a battle. There was a battle that went to the White House

00:21:17.440 about where that contract would go. And that battle was principally between Texas and Louisiana.

00:21:24.060 Now, I love Louisiana. My parents met in New Orleans. My mom went to high school in Baton

00:21:27.780 Rouge. Louisiana is a great state. And to be clear, Louisiana is the home of the Speaker of

00:21:33.060 the House, Mike Johnson, and Steve Scalise, the House Majority Leader. They're both very good

00:21:37.500 friends. They were understandably fighting for their state and wanted the shipbuilding in

00:21:42.500 Louisiana. I was fighting for Texas, and I will tell you, it was a knife fight at the White House.

00:21:47.940 I spoke repeatedly to the President of the United States. I spoke to the senior staff in the White

00:21:52.480 House over and over and over again, and it was a real fight. We didn't know who was going to win

00:21:57.020 Texas or Louisiana, and I want to give the President real props here. Look, we all know

00:22:02.080 before he was in the White House, the president was a businessman and he is very committed to

00:22:07.500 getting more for less. So the proposal, the legislation that had been passed was funding

00:22:13.860 to build five to six new ice cutters. Trump said, that's not enough. I don't want five to six. I want

00:22:20.260 11. And so they found new funding that had been appropriated by Congress. And what they ended up

00:22:26.040 doing was approving both. So there's several ice cutters being built in Louisiana. There's several

00:22:30.320 being built in texas and it was a win-win and it's a great example he he went to the the ship

00:22:37.080 building companies and he said i want you to cut your prices and deliver more ships and they did

00:22:42.980 and this was not staff driven this was you know trump is a builder so he i mean he likes things

00:22:50.080 like negotiating a contract and he leaned in and instead of five to six ice cutters we're getting

00:22:55.640 11 instead of just one place, Louisiana or Texas. We're getting both, and we're getting thousands

00:23:00.560 and thousands of new jobs, and we're going to be able to compete with and protect our national

00:23:05.000 security in the Arctic against Russia and China. It is a win-win all around. As before, if you want

00:23:11.780 to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast

00:23:16.520 from earlier this week to hear the entire thing. Every day in Ontario, a shelter worker will help

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00:23:49.440 Why should you listen to Armstrong and Getty On Demand?

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00:23:59.980 Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong.

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00:24:46.480 Have a great day.

00:24:47.400 I want to get back to the big story, number three of the week you may have missed.

00:24:55.580 Well, this week I chaired a hearing on college sports and saving college sports.

00:25:01.360 And we've talked before on Verdict about how college sports is in crisis right now.

00:25:05.040 It is chaos.

00:25:05.960 You've got an out-of-control transfer portal with athletes transferring three, four, five times.

00:25:11.500 You've got people playing until they're 26, 27, 28 years old.

00:25:15.300 You've got people with six, seven years of playing time.

00:25:19.220 You have virtually every athletics program in the country losing money and losing millions or even tens of millions of dollars.

00:25:26.400 Schools are going broke.

00:25:27.380 They're canceling programs every week.

00:25:29.740 You're seeing women's sports getting canceled.

00:25:31.540 You're seeing Olympic sports getting canceled.

00:25:34.100 You're seeing your favorite tennis getting canceled.

00:25:36.800 That happened at Arkansas just a few weeks ago.

00:25:38.680 So and it is if we don't act, we are going to see much of college sports decimated and destroyed.

00:25:48.720 And so last week I introduced bipartisan legislation with Maria Cantwell.

00:25:53.920 Maria Cantwell is a Democrat from Washington State.

00:25:56.160 She is the ranking member, the senior Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee. 0.95

00:25:59.780 I'm the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.

00:26:01.240 This week we had a big hearing and we heard testimony from leaders in college athletics about the urgency of solving the crisis now.

00:26:11.220 One of our witnesses was Coach Nick Saban, the legendary coach of Alabama.

00:26:17.120 And Coach Saban's testimony was was incredibly powerful.

00:26:20.940 And give a listen to a little bit of Coach Nick Saban on why Congress needs to pass our Protect College Sports Act.

00:26:28.940 All right, let's play for you, Nick Saban. Part of what he had to say in front of your committee hearing, it truly was impressive to hear him talk about sports, especially in front of Congress. Take a listen.

00:26:39.360 Let me give you the history. My first year we had collective at Alabama, 2.7 million. Next year, 7 million. Next year, 10 million. I retired. Next year, 17 million. Next year, 24 million.

00:26:51.720 Now you have schools that have close to $40 million rosters.

00:26:56.320 So if we continue to do that, we're going to lose Olympic sports.

00:27:00.400 We're going to lose non-revenue sports.

00:27:02.100 We're going to lose scholarships.

00:27:03.740 And basically what's going to happen is we're going to have football and basketball succeed,

00:27:07.900 and we'll have club sports for everything else.

00:27:11.220 He's not wrong, by the way, Senator.

00:27:12.920 I was in one of those non-money-making sports, tennis, right?

00:27:16.040 You had a lot of friends that you get to know that are in those Olympic sports, for example.

00:27:20.460 that would all disappear. And when you think about having a college roster at 80 million,

00:27:24.780 if you're a student athlete, that in theory sounds great, but that's only in two sports. Really,

00:27:29.420 the majority of that 80 are, you know, he's talking about Alabama. I mean, there's not

00:27:33.180 that much in basketball, I promise you at Alabama. So unless you pick football, you're left behind.

00:27:38.880 And that's the reason why you're taking this action now and why Saban was saying what he was

00:27:43.000 saying at the time. Well, and there's only a handful of powerhouses that generate and can

00:27:48.840 dominate football. And so what if we don't act, I think within five years, we will see 30 to 50

00:27:56.400 colleges that have a football program and they'll basically be an NFL. Yeah. And the rest of the

00:28:02.600 schools, their programs will be obliterated. And there are a lot of reasons that's tragic. One is

00:28:07.940 just sports brings us together. Sports is so much fun. Look, we're divided on so many issues today.

00:28:13.860 We scream at each other. It really is hard to find common ground, and yet you can go cheer on your alma mater, and you can be there with people of different parties, people of different races, people of different religions, and you're all standing together.

00:28:26.720 That's really important. Every bit as critical as that is college sports is an amazing avenue for education for millions of young men and women.

00:28:39.060 And until I really started diving in to this topic and working to save college sports, I hadn't really focused on how college athletics is something that is unique in the United States.

00:28:51.500 No other country has anything remotely resembling what we have here with college sports.

00:28:57.500 There are today more than a half million college athletes right now.

00:29:02.660 Now, every year, athletics enables kids, many kids from low-income homes, many minority kids who otherwise might not have had a chance to go to college.

00:29:16.820 It enables them to go to college to study, to get a degree, to learn skills, to learn hard work and discipline and teamwork and sportsmanship.

00:29:24.660 Sportsmanship. Accountability. Just showing up. I can't tell you how much I learned from just the

00:29:30.500 accountability, which, by the way, it made me a better person. It made me better in business. It

00:29:34.520 made me better in my job that I did afterwards. There are so many young men when I was at Ole

00:29:39.620 Miss that said they literally believe they would either have been dead, they would have been in a

00:29:44.860 gang if it wasn't for sports keeping them out of trouble in high school. And then they said if it

00:29:49.800 wasn't for college and getting that college education, they would have immediately been

00:29:53.500 into bad stuff on the streets. They said that sports actually saved their life, and not only

00:29:58.180 saved their life, a lot of them, they were the first member of their family to ever go to college,

00:30:02.820 and they went because they were an incredible athlete. It gave them the opportunity. It gave

00:30:06.740 them a free education that seemed unattainable, and it completely changed their family's

00:30:11.320 trajectory in life. I think that's one of the most important things about college sports that

00:30:15.580 people don't talk about. That is exactly right, and the status quo is unsustainable. If Congress

00:30:22.880 doesn't act, we will end up with hundreds of thousands of those college athletic positions

00:30:29.500 going away. And those kids, many of them having no chance to go to school, to go to college,

00:30:36.960 to get those skills, those life skills that set them up for success. And look, the way I approach

00:30:41.280 this, I didn't worry too much about the top 1%. I didn't worry about the Michael Jordans or Arch

00:30:48.920 Mannings. I worried about the 99% of college athletes who are never going to play pro ball,

00:30:53.500 but it's giving them opportunity. I had a ton of people, Senator, that were calling me. I had

00:30:58.500 friends and people I've known in the past come out of the woodwork because they knew how important

00:31:02.200 this bill was. They knew how important it was to you asking me questions. There was a lot of people

00:31:06.660 saying they're just not going to be able to get this done. There's no way you'll get bipartisanship

00:31:09.420 here. That seems to not be true. And they said, well, there's no way even though he'll be able to

00:31:13.420 get the White House behind it. That also doesn't seem to be true either. There is a lot of growing

00:31:17.960 bipartisan support here to get this thing done? Well, there is. And I worked for months. Maria

00:31:24.140 Cantwell and I negotiated. We sat in a conference room six, eight hours a day negotiating provision

00:31:29.160 by provision by provision. We introduced it with Cantwell and myself, a Democrat and Republican,

00:31:35.360 and also with Eric Schmidt, a Republican from Missouri, and Chris Coons, a Democrat from

00:31:41.300 Delaware. So we had two Democrats, two Republicans on the bill. And we've seen phenomenal support

00:31:46.520 for it. So the ACC has come out emphatically in support of it. The Big 12 has come out emphatically

00:31:53.260 in support of it. Condoleezza Rice at Stanford has come out emphatically in support of it. At

00:31:59.400 the hearing, Pete Bavacqua, the athletic director at Notre Dame, testified strongly in support of

00:32:05.120 it. Gordon Gee testified at the hearing. Former president of West Virginia University, also

00:32:10.500 Vanderbilt, has been a president of actually five universities. He testified that this is a crisis

00:32:15.980 And this bill is the only hope to save college sports.

00:32:20.220 And we've had already we've had over 130 signatures from leaders at more than 65 universities come out in support of the bill.

00:32:31.240 And importantly, this week, President Donald J. Trump came out strongly in support of the bill.

00:32:36.240 He sent a truth social that I want to read to you.

00:32:39.580 Here's what he said.

00:32:41.020 College sports, a great American institution that produces our many athletes, leaders, and Olympic dominance, is a total mess.

00:32:48.180 And everyone is saying that it must be fixed.

00:32:50.800 After unending lawsuits and crazed rulings, there are virtually no limits anymore.

00:32:54.960 And soon most colleges won't have sports because each and every one of them will be bankrupt, never to be heard from again.

00:33:02.640 Women's sports and the Olympics itself are in the most danger from this catastrophic situation.

00:33:08.860 College sports are turning into pro sports, except with absolutely no rules, a result no one wants.

00:33:16.080 University presidents, conference commissioners, student athletes, coaches, and athletic directors all complained to me that it has become a disaster.

00:33:24.940 After years of no action and that schools were losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year, they compared it to a freight train that can't be stopped.

00:33:35.940 That is why a few months ago I convened a roundtable, bringing together a world-class team of some of the best sports executives, student athletes, and political leaders in our country.

00:33:46.540 The goal was to find a bipartisan solution to fix the problem.

00:33:51.120 Based on these meetings and the expertise of the leading authorities, I signed an executive order.

00:33:55.500 But I always said that the best solution was to get a bipartisan act through Congress to my desk in order in order to save a long and embarrassing road through hell for these institutions.

00:34:10.260 I'd like to thank Senators Ted Cruz, Eric Schmidt, Maria Cantwell and Chris Coons, among others, for introducing the Protect College Sports Act.

00:34:19.820 This law resolves many of the most urgent issues challenging our universities and student-athletes,

00:34:25.360 stops the chaos, and most importantly, it may be the last chance to save college sports

00:34:32.140 and colleges themselves before it's too late.

00:34:35.380 The House has worked long and hard on this issue as well,

00:34:38.040 and I'm very grateful to Speaker Mike Johnson and Leader Steve Scalise

00:34:41.560 for their work to fix this very major problem.

00:34:44.000 I urge the House and Senate to come together to pass a final bipartisan law that I can sign this

00:34:51.200 summer that reflects the views and input of both chambers. And in all caps, we have to save college

00:34:59.440 sports. Thank you for your attention to this matter, President Donald J. Trump. The support

00:35:05.340 we're seeing is really significant, and I think we're going to see, I hope and believe, a big

00:35:11.520 bipartisan vote in the Senate behind this bill. What's the timeline now? And how much is there

00:35:16.860 going to be people pushing since now this has become so, you know, such a big discussion to

00:35:21.920 try to change things at the last minute? Is that going to be a problem? And what does that look

00:35:25.400 like? Oh, look, that is going on. And there are there are a handful of people that are criticizing

00:35:31.280 and throwing rocks. But I'll tell you, most people are shocked that we could actually find a

00:35:36.280 bipartisan compromise. And listen, one of the natures of that, that means that I had to give

00:35:43.160 quite a bit and the Democrats had to give quite a bit to find a common ground because we can't

00:35:48.940 pass this bill unless you get at least 60 votes in the Senate. That means you need at least

00:35:53.900 seven Democrats. There are only 53 Republicans. And my objective, frankly, is to get a lot more

00:35:59.600 than 60 votes. I'd like to see a big bipartisan vote come out of the Senate. The House has

00:36:05.740 tried several times to fix this problem. And unfortunately, every time they try to take up

00:36:10.980 a bill, it's failed in the House. And so I think the Senate has got to step in because the clock

00:36:17.200 is ticking. And I will say that there's a real risk also of the biggest players coming together

00:36:24.680 to form a Super League. And I think that would be disastrous for everybody else and not good

00:36:31.620 for fans. Let's take my home state of Texas. Look, my home state of Texas, if Congress does

00:36:37.160 nothing, in three to five years, I am certain that the University of Texas will survive and

00:36:43.440 I'm certain A&M will survive. They're so big. They have such a big donor base and alumni base

00:36:48.540 that they'll survive no matter what happens. But it's not at all clear that the other players in

00:36:54.020 Texas survive. It's not clear that TCU or SMU or University of Houston or Rice or Texas Tech or

00:37:00.820 Baylor, all of the different programs in Texas, they could go under in the status quo. And I think

00:37:06.600 that would be a terrible outcome if we lose historic programs all over Texas, not just

00:37:12.460 football. But when you lose football, football pays for all the other sports. So when you lose

00:37:17.400 football, you end up losing the entire array of sports. That would be tragic, and we can't let

00:37:23.540 it happen. Yeah, you're absolutely right there. If people want to get behind this legislation,

00:37:28.700 Is this one of those where they talk to their senators and their congressmen?

00:37:31.620 Who do they need to contact quickly?

00:37:33.200 Look, the first order of business is your senator and urging your senator, whether your

00:37:38.640 senator is a Republican or Democrat, urging your senator, get behind this bill, the bipartisan

00:37:43.020 Protect College Sports Act.

00:37:45.580 There's an urgency.

00:37:46.840 I am hoping to move quickly on this.

00:37:48.840 I'd like to get a big vote in the Senate.

00:37:50.560 Once we get it out of the Senate, then the next step will be the House.

00:37:53.260 But calling your senator, going on social media, speaking out and saying that sports, college sports should be saved.

00:38:01.380 That's really valuable.

00:38:02.900 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:38:07.720 Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day.

00:38:11.380 You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.

00:38:14.620 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.

00:38:18.480 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.

00:38:20.900 why should you listen to armstrong and getty on demand we're not boring a lot of news is boring

00:38:26.560 and tedious and depressing and makes you angry you don't want to live your life like that

00:38:31.400 hey i'm jack armstrong he's joe getty we're armstrong and getty we try to bring you the

00:38:35.400 truth and help you figure out this crazy modern world about something about a comedic tone

00:38:39.780 we have a winner yes listen to armstrong and getty on demand on the iheart radio app apple

00:38:48.480 Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:39:18.480 Great day.

00:39:19.080 I heart radio.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - June 06, 2026

Jill Biden’s ‘Stroke Scare’ sent Joe to Waffle House, U.S. Shipyards Roar Back to Life & Is NIL Killing College Athletics Week In Review

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