Verdict with Ted Cruz - March 26, 2025


Let's Create a Signal Thread...What Could Go Wrong？ plus Dems in Crisis, Embracing Rage & Violence


Episode Stats


Length

36 minutes

Words per minute

163.61288

Word count

5,953

Sentence count

545

Harmful content

Misogyny

12

sentences flagged

Toxicity

19

sentences flagged

Hate speech

8

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is joined by Ben Ferguson (D-NJ) to discuss a story about a journalist who was inadvertently included in a group of conversations between President Trump's National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and a reporter from The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.620 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.380 Welcome.
00:00:06.060 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:08.960 It's nice to have you with us on this Wednesday morning.
00:00:11.460 And there's a big controversy and a big story that the media has just,
00:00:16.260 I mean, they've gone all in on that deals with conversations that were had,
00:00:21.420 Senator, on the Signal app.
00:00:23.020 A lot of people in government use it.
00:00:24.860 I use this app.
00:00:25.840 It's encrypted.
00:00:26.680 That's why they use it.
00:00:27.800 And a journalist that was inadvertently put on apparently one of those text
00:00:31.940 message threads.
00:00:33.660 Well, the media are a flutter with what they're calling SignalGate,
00:00:39.360 which is this text thread on the app Signal.
00:00:43.700 And it was about the military strikes against the Houthis who have been attacking
00:00:48.020 shipping in the Suez Canal.
00:00:53.060 Now, and inadvertently, the National Security Advisor added this journalist,
00:01:00.320 Jeffrey Goldberg, who then wrote an article.
00:01:02.460 And I got to say, it's an astonishing article.
00:01:04.640 The media are going crazy and they're using it as an excuse to attack President Trump,
00:01:09.120 to attack his national security team.
00:01:11.280 Now, we're going to break down what exactly was going on there.
00:01:15.000 What did they do anything wrong?
00:01:17.440 What were they talking about?
00:01:18.680 What happened?
00:01:19.380 And why does it matter?
00:01:21.000 We're going to break it all down.
00:01:22.060 We're also going to talk about what has happened to the Democrat Party.
00:01:26.640 They're getting angrier and angrier and angrier.
00:01:29.780 And they are embracing violence every day.
00:01:32.560 They're calling for violence.
00:01:34.120 They are the party of rage.
00:01:37.520 And finally, we're going to talk about the media coverage about how the Democrats are in a,
00:01:42.660 quote, deep, dark hole.
00:01:45.980 That's not me.
00:01:46.840 That's Axios.
00:01:48.120 One of the most mainstream corporate media outlets there is that says the Democrats are in the deepest hole in 50 years.
00:01:58.720 We're going to break that down.
00:02:00.160 How when a party decides it doesn't stand for anything,
00:02:02.980 when a party gets so radical that it abandons the voters,
00:02:06.120 when a party is formed only around one idea, which is hatred for Donald J. Trump,
00:02:12.360 that turns out not to be a successful electoral strategy.
00:02:15.580 We're going to talk about that as well.
00:02:17.280 Yeah, the gig seems to be up.
00:02:18.580 Certainly the American voters on that.
00:02:20.340 And there's some polling data we'll also give you in a minute as well that you don't want to miss.
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00:03:55.480 So, Senator, when this story broke, it was very clear the media thought this was the moment
00:04:01.520 where they could turn the tables on Donald Trump, his administration.
00:04:05.140 I think there was even some dreams of maybe someone gets fired 60 days into this administration,
00:04:10.100 the cabinet, because of this journalist's report that I got on a text thread
00:04:15.860 with all these important people in Trump administration world,
00:04:19.280 and now I'm going to tell you what I saw.
00:04:22.500 Well, look, what happened is there was a text thread,
00:04:28.140 and it was using the app called Signal.
00:04:30.300 Now, Signal is an encrypted app.
00:04:33.300 A lot of people in government use it.
00:04:34.860 You use it.
00:04:35.500 I use it.
00:04:36.080 A lot of journalists use it.
00:04:37.380 It's a way to communicate in an encrypted way that is less likely to be intercepted.
00:04:43.020 And there was a group chat that was created by President Trump's national security advisor,
00:04:48.880 Michael Waltz, about the upcoming strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
00:04:56.200 And bizarrely, included in the group was a journalist named Jeffrey Goldberg,
00:05:02.640 who was at the Atlantic magazine.
00:05:04.180 And Jeffrey Goldberg is a liberal.
00:05:05.480 He's a well-known journalist.
00:05:07.460 And I have no good explanation for why Jeffrey Goldberg was at it.
00:05:14.020 He's the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic.
00:05:15.760 And it was a screw-up.
00:05:16.980 And let's start with that.
00:05:19.960 It was clearly a screw-up.
00:05:21.760 It was embarrassing.
00:05:23.100 It's sort of comparable to a butt dial.
00:05:26.960 You know, look, I've inadvertently sent texts to the wrong person.
00:05:30.740 And I'm sure you have.
00:05:32.760 In this instance, it was clear it was a mistake.
00:05:36.340 He was not meant to be added to this group.
00:05:38.600 And suddenly, bizarrely, he is getting texts about an upcoming military strike.
00:05:43.260 So that was bad.
00:05:44.440 At the end of the day, though, what is striking, although you're seeing the shark circle
00:05:50.720 and trying to attack the president and the national security team, is the underlying substance of what's being discussed is actually quite good. 0.97
00:05:59.260 So the substance of what's being discussed, the Houthis are radical Islamic terrorists. 0.89
00:06:05.420 They're based in Yemen. 0.73
00:06:07.060 And they are funded by Iran.
00:06:09.200 They are Iran proxies. 0.81
00:06:10.920 And they have been for months, for years, attacking shipping in and around the Suez Canal.
00:06:19.500 And they've been shutting down a massive amount of shipping at the Suez Canal.
00:06:25.480 And that has had a real consequence to Americans.
00:06:29.400 So listen, when you go to the grocery store, when you go to the department store, you are paying significantly higher prices.
00:06:37.140 Because the Houthis have been shutting down shipping through the Suez Canal, which makes shipping and transportation costs much, much higher.
00:06:46.500 And I've got to say, for four years, Joe Biden and the Democrats, they didn't do a damn thing.
00:06:51.220 They let radical Islamic terrorists engage in acts of terrorism and shut down shipping, slow down shipping.
00:07:00.340 And what has happened in the first two months of the Trump administration is President Trump gave an instruction to his team.
00:07:07.880 He said, open up the shipping lanes.
00:07:11.000 Let's go after the Houthis. 1.00
00:07:12.520 And by the way, we carried out a military strike, hit the Houthis, and did real damage.
00:07:19.640 And so this entire text chain is the national security leadership of the Trump administration talking about this upcoming strike.
00:07:28.280 And the strike was a massive success.
00:07:31.820 So on substance, we ought to be thrilled.
00:07:34.560 We actually have a commander in chief who's standing up for America, who's defending American shipping, who's defending American interests, who's fighting terrorists who hate America.
00:07:44.640 All of that is a massive contrast from what happened under Joe Biden.
00:07:49.180 What was the mistake?
00:07:50.600 The mistake was, inadvertently, they added this journalist who then wrote this sort of breathless bombshell story about, I was on this text about the war plans.
00:08:00.300 And again, it was a screw up.
00:08:02.640 It was embarrassing.
00:08:03.600 But the underlying substance, every one of us ought to be really happy about.
00:08:08.540 You mentioned that this was one of those moments that, look, the press wanted to go ballistic on.
00:08:14.160 There was also really, I think, a smart move by the White House to have no problem having a conversation about this.
00:08:22.500 The president didn't run away from it.
00:08:24.760 There was no no comment.
00:08:25.980 There was there was a lot of, like, openness and conversation like, hey, we're more than happy to talk about this.
00:08:33.020 I actually think the American people appreciate that, because usually when there's screw ups, everybody just disappears from, you know, accountability or even answering questions or saying we can't talk about this time or it deals with classified.
00:08:45.980 There's always a million excuses.
00:08:47.300 The president didn't use any of those.
00:08:48.860 Like, let's talk about it.
00:08:49.960 And he did it in front of the journalists, in front of this entire cabinet as well.
00:08:55.540 Yeah.
00:08:56.200 So let me make a couple of comments on this.
00:08:58.840 Number one, during four years of Biden's presidency, he hid from the press.
00:09:03.940 He didn't do press conferences.
00:09:05.220 He didn't take questions.
00:09:06.700 And it's not complicated why his his mental condition was so deteriorated that nobody trusted him to take questions.
00:09:15.140 Donald Trump is taking questions.
00:09:16.580 It seems like every day he's answering hard questions.
00:09:19.300 And so today at the White House, he was asked about reporters, about about what happened here.
00:09:24.680 And we're going to play a segment.
00:09:26.500 And this is a lengthy segment.
00:09:28.920 But but it's worth listening to because the president explains what's going on.
00:09:34.780 I think his answers here are terrific.
00:09:36.600 And it's worth really listening to what he says.
00:09:39.700 So give a listen.
00:09:40.760 Mr. President, are you going to change any of the practices that your national security officials used after a reporter was inadvertently added to a group chat about attacks on Yemen?
00:09:50.360 Well, I think it's a question I've been asked now and I've given a few answers and they've all been the same.
00:09:58.840 We have an amazing group.
00:10:00.420 Our national security now is stronger than it's ever been.
00:10:03.680 We have had a very, very successful, numerous attacks on that area.
00:10:09.180 These are people that shoot down ships.
00:10:11.180 Not only our ships, ships all over the world.
00:10:13.260 They're shooting down right out of the water and damaging them badly or they're going down.
00:10:18.140 They're also shooting anything that happens to be flying in the area.
00:10:21.420 We hit them very, very hard.
00:10:23.860 There was no classified information, as I understand it.
00:10:27.800 They used a a app, if you want to call it an app, that a lot of people use, a lot of people in government use, a lot of people in the media use.
00:10:37.840 And I think I'll ask Mike.
00:10:39.880 Mike is here.
00:10:40.440 Do you want to respond to that?
00:10:42.020 Yes, Mr. President, you asked about lessons.
00:10:44.320 I think there's a lot of the lessons, there's a lot of journalists in this city who have made big names for themselves, making up lies about this president, whether it's the Russia hoax or making up lies about Gold Star families.
00:10:57.760 And this one in particular, I've never met, don't know, never communicated with.
00:11:02.100 And we are and we are looking into and reviewing how the heck he got into this room.
00:11:07.340 But I'll tell you what, the world owes President Trump a favor.
00:11:10.720 Under Biden, global shipping was shut down, pinprick attacks, months between them, our destroyers being fired upon dozens of times.
00:11:20.300 President Trump took decisive action with his national security team, took out the head missileer, knocked out missiles, knocked out headquarters, knocked out communication sites.
00:11:31.560 And for once, as we hear, as you all hear from every one of our allies, thank God for American leadership again.
00:11:39.400 Thank God for American strength.
00:11:41.960 You're welcome, all of them.
00:11:44.140 And look, we had a national security team that was coordinating these efforts, as Director Radcliffe testified today.
00:11:53.300 His first day on the job, he was introduced to this app on his government systems at the CIA and at the State Department and otherwise.
00:12:02.700 So, look, this journalist, Mr. President, wants the world talking about more hoaxes and this kind of nonsense rather than the freedom that you're enabling.
00:12:13.560 And a key part of our sovereignty is open sea lanes and knocking the crap out of terrorists, which is exactly what your team and Pete Hegseth, a good friend and fellow veteran, is leading the charge on.
00:12:24.200 We had a very, very successful evening, and we've had numerous successful evenings and days in that area.
00:12:34.540 The hoodies are absolutely on the run.
00:12:37.620 The worst of them have been killed. 0.96
00:12:40.620 This should have been done a long time ago by Biden, but Biden was an incompetent president. 0.98
00:12:45.420 He couldn't do anything.
00:12:46.400 He didn't know where he was going.
00:12:48.800 He had no clue.
00:12:49.680 This guy had no clue.
00:12:50.580 This should have been done a long time ago as they shoot missiles at ships, randomly shoot missiles at ships, and they make their own missiles.
00:12:59.140 You know, this is not an incompetent group of people.
00:13:01.280 They make their own missiles.
00:13:02.920 They get the missiles also from Iran.
00:13:05.640 It's an offshoot of Iran, another offshoot.
00:13:08.040 You have Hamas. 0.92
00:13:09.320 You have Hezbollah. 0.69
00:13:10.200 You have the hoodies.
00:13:11.100 You got a lot of stuff going on with Iran.
00:13:12.880 And we sent a letter to Iran.
00:13:15.600 You're going to have to be speaking to us one way or the other pretty soon because we can't let this happen.
00:13:21.060 But that's an app that a lot of people use.
00:13:24.340 And somebody got on.
00:13:25.300 I mean, it happened to know.
00:13:26.380 The guy's a total sleazebag.
00:13:28.120 The Atlantic. 0.71
00:13:28.840 The Atlantic is a failed magazine.
00:13:31.400 It does very, very poorly.
00:13:32.800 Nobody gives a damn about it.
00:13:34.480 It gives this gives it a little bit of a shot.
00:13:37.320 And I will tell you this, that they've made up more stories and and they're just a failing magazine.
00:13:44.760 The public understands that he's a very good man.
00:13:47.200 That man is a very good man right there that you criticize so strongly.
00:13:52.280 He's a very good man and he will continue to do a good job.
00:13:58.040 In addition to him, we had very good people in that meeting.
00:14:02.080 And those people have done a very, very effective job.
00:14:06.260 And you're going to see it.
00:14:07.000 And it goes on, by the way.
00:14:08.140 It's going to go on.
00:14:09.860 And I think the Hooties wish that it didn't happen. 0.95
00:14:14.360 But that's what it's all about.
00:14:15.720 We have to create a safe country, a safe world.
00:14:18.280 And that's what we're doing.
00:14:19.220 Do you plan to ban the use of senior officials using signal moving forward?
00:14:26.780 The use of signal to communicate from senior officials.
00:14:30.020 I don't know anything about signal.
00:14:31.720 I wasn't involved in this, but I just heard about it.
00:14:34.220 And I hear it's used by a lot of groups.
00:14:37.560 It's used by the media a lot.
00:14:39.840 It's used by a lot of the military.
00:14:42.240 And I think successfully.
00:14:44.280 But sometimes somebody can get onto those things.
00:14:46.520 That's one of the prices you pay when you're not sitting in the situation room with no phones on, which is always the best, frankly.
00:14:54.520 But, you know, you the best is to be there.
00:14:57.860 In fact, oftentimes I've been in the fact just last week I was in the situation room with something very important.
00:15:04.300 And we had a couple of people hooked up by line.
00:15:06.700 And I said, cancel the line.
00:15:08.640 Sorry, fellas.
00:15:09.640 What you do is we'll tell you all about the meeting because I know people do get on those lines, whether it's signal or anything else.
00:15:15.880 Yeah.
00:15:15.980 Are you going to change any procedures as a result of this?
00:15:19.700 Well, I mean, look, we look at everything.
00:15:21.460 And, you know, they've made a big deal out of this because we've had two perfect months.
00:15:25.700 We're bringing we are bringing in business.
00:15:28.460 We have another one announced tomorrow, a big one, very big.
00:15:31.980 Like in the history of our country, nobody's ever seen anything like it.
00:15:35.300 And I think probably a lot of people are saying it's they started by saying it was the greatest first month that a president has ever had.
00:15:43.060 And I think that's true.
00:15:44.440 And now they say it's the best second month and they had to find something.
00:15:47.900 And this certainly will look at this.
00:15:50.580 But the main thing was nothing happened.
00:15:54.120 The attack was totally successful.
00:15:56.640 It was, I guess, from what I understand, took place during and it wasn't classified information.
00:16:03.180 So this was not classified.
00:16:04.520 Now, if it's classified information, it's probably a little bit different.
00:16:08.140 But I always say you have to learn from every experience.
00:16:11.360 I think it was very unfair the way they attacked Michael.
00:16:15.240 He's a good person.
00:16:17.660 The person that was on just happens to be a sleazebag.
00:16:20.400 So maybe that's just coincidence.
00:16:21.760 I don't know.
00:16:22.580 I love it.
00:16:23.220 Maybe he's just, you know, a sleazebag.
00:16:24.980 You can't make it up.
00:16:26.960 Well, look, I got to say, I love President Trump's answer to this because he's very candid.
00:16:32.280 He's very real.
00:16:33.000 He admits it was a screw up.
00:16:34.620 It was a mess up to add the journalist.
00:16:36.400 But one of the things that's most important is he strongly defends Mike Waltz.
00:16:42.180 Mike Waltz is Donald Trump's national security advisor.
00:16:45.420 Mike is a friend of mine.
00:16:46.940 He's a very good man.
00:16:49.100 Mike is a veteran.
00:16:50.660 He was in special forces.
00:16:51.780 He received four bronze stars while serving combat tours in Afghanistan and the Middle East and Africa.
00:16:58.840 And he's smart.
00:17:00.420 He's serious.
00:17:01.140 And I got to say, there are people who hate President Trump that are trying to use this mess up to attack Mike Waltz.
00:17:09.180 And I was really glad the president stood strongly with Mike Waltz.
00:17:13.340 He's doing a very good job.
00:17:15.540 I had dinner with Mike just a few weeks ago.
00:17:18.180 He is a smart, serious leader focused on defending this nation from our enemies.
00:17:24.840 I also like that the president focused on the underlying substance.
00:17:30.540 Look, what we did was a great victory for America.
00:17:34.520 Joe Biden had let four years go by of the Houthis attacking American shipping companies, hurting American interests.
00:17:42.260 And President Trump, he's been in office just over two months, and he's already standing up, taking out terrorists, fighting for American interests.
00:17:50.220 That is a huge, substantive victory.
00:17:53.240 I want to make another point.
00:17:54.180 There are some observers that are looking at the Trump administration and are writing stories saying the Trump administration is isolationist.
00:18:05.360 They're not willing to engage and defend American interests.
00:18:08.980 That is wrong.
00:18:10.820 Donald Trump is not an isolationist.
00:18:13.460 America first is not an isolationist philosophy.
00:18:16.920 If you look at the first term of President Trump, he took out General Soleimani from Iran.
00:18:24.740 That was incredibly important.
00:18:26.420 General Soleimani had murdered over 600 American servicemen and women.
00:18:31.340 He fought and was vigorous taking out enemies of America.
00:18:35.180 And it's worth noting, in the first few months of Trump's first term, he took out ISIS.
00:18:40.600 ISIS had a caliphate larger than the state of Indiana.
00:18:44.300 And he utterly decimated and destroyed ISIS.
00:18:49.460 So Donald Trump, his record, he is not an isolationist.
00:18:52.760 And this is a good illustration of this.
00:18:54.840 The Houthis are a proxy of Iran.
00:18:57.880 They were attacking America. 0.58
00:18:59.820 Joe Biden was too weak to fight back.
00:19:02.320 And Donald Trump, in his first two months, is already fighting back.
00:19:05.960 And the media wants to change the subject from the substance of protecting America to attacks on the administration.
00:19:14.220 I'm very glad.
00:19:15.640 I'm really happy with the president's defense of Mike Waltz and the president's substantive defense of his policy defending America.
00:19:23.040 You mentioned attacks.
00:19:24.780 I want to move to this other subject.
00:19:26.860 And it deals, unfortunately, with the issue of actual attacks and violence coming from the Democratic Party and the crazies within it.
00:19:36.560 Threatening violence, not only against you, but many others.
00:19:41.000 And even mocking Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
00:19:44.700 And I want to get your reaction to that.
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00:21:39.120 All right, so Senator, there's been a lot of violence.
00:21:42.540 We've witnessed this.
00:21:43.920 It's been directed towards Elon Musk, threats against Elon Musk.
00:21:48.660 Threats now are expanding to Tesla dealerships.
00:21:51.740 We're finding incendiary devices, bombs, and dealership, for example, in Austin, Texas.
00:21:56.760 And then there's people now that are threatening you.
00:21:59.220 This seems to be the Democratic Party's playbook now.
00:22:02.480 If there's someone we don't like, we go after them.
00:22:04.900 We go after their businesses.
00:22:06.240 We try to destroy what they built.
00:22:07.840 We try to financially ruin them.
00:22:09.260 All of this is what they did to Donald Trump.
00:22:10.920 And we saw that the rhetoric literally almost cost Donald Trump his life in that first assassination attempt that actually got him.
00:22:20.320 And now they don't seem to be backing down at all.
00:22:24.120 Well, the Democrats today are the party of rage.
00:22:27.100 They're the party of anger.
00:22:28.060 And I will say there's a House member in Texas, Jasmine Crockett, who this week has been a rough week for her. 0.99
00:22:35.660 She has been unhinged.
00:22:38.080 She has called for violence against me.
00:22:40.700 She has denigrated and mocked Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, because he is in a wheelchair, because he has a disability.
00:22:48.680 And it really does show who today's Democrats are.
00:22:52.820 And I want you to listen to what she said, first about me and then about Greg Abbott.
00:22:58.200 Give a listen.
00:23:04.360 Just in case the slow people listening decide to clip this up later, I just want to say that I have never promoted violence whatsoever.
00:23:13.980 I think that you punch.
00:23:15.820 I think you punch.
00:23:16.580 I think you're OK with you.
00:23:18.040 You OK with punching.
00:23:19.500 You know, I think and I love Colin.
00:23:22.960 And I think towards the end, he started to punch a little harder.
00:23:25.800 But like it's Ted Cruz. 0.95
00:23:27.800 I mean, like this dude has to be knocked over the head like hard. 0.98
00:23:32.000 Right. 0.86
00:23:32.560 Like there is no niceties with him like at all.
00:23:35.440 Like you you go clean off on him.
00:23:37.540 Right.
00:23:37.760 I hear that.
00:23:40.780 And I just shake my head, Senator, because, of course, when the fire is of the spotlight is on her, she's like, oh, I've never called for violence.
00:23:50.000 And then you play the clip right there.
00:23:51.740 It's very clear what she's saying.
00:23:54.380 Look, I got to admit, I've never met this woman, Jasmine Crockett.
00:23:58.280 I don't know her.
00:23:59.360 She's a new congresswoman from Texas. 0.87
00:24:03.340 She seems really angry.
00:24:05.080 She seems really radical.
00:24:07.000 She seems to be the darling of the radical left because she calls for crazy things. 0.93
00:24:11.600 I will tell you, look, I've been in the Senate 13 years.
00:24:17.920 It's an incredible privilege.
00:24:20.040 I'm blessed.
00:24:21.200 I jump out of bed every day excited because I get to fight for Texas.
00:24:24.900 I get to fight for America.
00:24:25.940 I will tell you one of the downsides of this job.
00:24:29.760 I have literally hundreds of death threats against me.
00:24:33.560 And by the way, I want to be clear.
00:24:35.540 You and I, we spend a lot of time together.
00:24:37.740 We travel.
00:24:38.920 There are a lot of people that come up and encourage.
00:24:40.680 But, man, some of the things that people say and I've had the threats, not like you've had threats, but it's like part of the business now, which is the worst part about it, is that if you're in politics and you're conservative, there are people that want you to die.
00:24:56.160 And come after you.
00:24:57.160 But you and I, we went to a game and people were screaming the F-bomb in front of your daughter who was with us.
00:25:04.960 And there were several times it happened.
00:25:07.240 And it's like there is no just like you're a dad in that moment.
00:25:11.140 You're a father.
00:25:11.880 I'm a dad when I'm out my son and someone gets in my face to the H-E-B and starts screaming exos at me in the cereal aisle.
00:25:18.240 It's like, what is wrong with these people?
00:25:20.000 And yet it seems to be getting worse, not better.
00:25:22.460 Yeah, look, there are a lot of people that are just unhinged and filled with hate.
00:25:28.360 And I'll tell you, look, I'll give you an encouragement.
00:25:31.640 Listen, the folks that listen to Verdict, you guys are amazing.
00:25:34.360 I'm so grateful for you.
00:25:36.040 You're incredibly engaged and you're passionate.
00:25:39.020 You're fighting to save this country.
00:25:40.460 I will tell you, when I travel around, the ratio of positive to negative comments, it is more than 90% positive.
00:25:51.340 It's probably 95% or even 98% positive.
00:25:54.360 So it's encouraging.
00:25:56.080 When I'm out at an airport, when I'm out at a shopping mall, people say nice things.
00:26:00.180 They say thank you.
00:26:01.180 They say I appreciate you.
00:26:02.540 And that's gratifying.
00:26:03.620 That makes me happy.
00:26:04.560 There are regularly people who don't and people on the left.
00:26:10.340 Now, I got to say, many of them on the left, when they say something negative, they'll like screw up their courage.
00:26:17.160 They'll run up and they'll go, F you.
00:26:19.740 And they'll just yell at me.
00:26:22.120 And it's very funny.
00:26:23.320 It's like, wow, you spent a long time thinking about that.
00:26:28.160 That was the best you could come up with.
00:26:29.880 That was very clever.
00:26:32.920 And my standard response, and unfortunately it happens often enough that I have to have a standard response.
00:26:39.660 My standard response is I say, God bless you.
00:26:43.340 And I got to tell you, it infuriates them.
00:26:45.920 And, you know, there's a principle in the Bible that if you repay hatred with kindness, that it is like piling hot coals on their heads.
00:26:57.920 So I'll say, God bless you, and I'll smile.
00:27:00.320 I'll be very happy.
00:27:01.260 Like when they say, F you, my response is, God bless you.
00:27:05.120 And there was one time in Houston where this, like, liberal woman screamed, F you, and I said, God bless you. 0.99
00:27:11.900 And she's like, I don't want your God's love.
00:27:16.460 And I said, that's okay.
00:27:17.560 Jesus loves you anyway.
00:27:20.000 And it drove her nuts.
00:27:21.940 Like she almost had an aneurysm when I said that.
00:27:26.200 And I try to be smiling and show a contrast.
00:27:32.760 And I will say just a couple of days ago I had a young woman who was screaming F you. 0.93
00:27:37.520 And I did say something to the effect of, you're very charming, your mother, but must be very proud.
00:27:45.080 How'd that turn out?
00:27:46.520 Oh, she just stormed off. 1.00
00:27:47.980 And I'm sure as she was driving home, she's thought of 50 different responses, but she didn't say any of them.
00:27:53.940 She's just like, yeah, I randomly scream F you at people at the airport. 0.74
00:27:58.400 I'm a great person. 0.99
00:27:59.580 But, listen, when you have people on the left encouraging, listen, Jasmine is saying you need to hit him in the head and hit him really hard. 0.83
00:28:09.060 I'll be honest, Ben, I really hope someone doesn't hit me in the head really hard. 0.95
00:28:13.180 Like I would prefer not to have my brains bashed in.
00:28:16.120 This is the part where I think it's a bigger issue that concerns me.
00:28:20.500 It's the dog whistles that come from the leadership of the Democratic Party.
00:28:25.060 Donald Trump, you had two assassins who tried to kill him. 0.81
00:28:29.220 Yeah.
00:28:30.040 We've got Democrats who are firebombing Tesla and radical leftists and no Democrat is condemning it.
00:28:36.840 They are calling for violence.
00:28:38.380 These are the same people that had Antifa and Black Lives Matter riots.
00:28:43.440 And so the threat of violence is very real.
00:28:46.120 We had at the at the baseball practice, we had a radical leftist, a Bernie Sanders supporter who came and said he asked someone, hey, are those Republicans there?
00:28:55.000 They said yes.
00:28:55.620 And he came with a rifle and shot people and had it was pure happenstance that Steve Scalise, who was a member of House leadership, was there because he had a security detail.
00:29:07.460 And that security detail shot and killed this radical leftist if let's say Scalise had been 10 minutes late that morning.
00:29:17.640 Let's say he'd been delayed.
00:29:19.100 He'd been taking his kids to school.
00:29:20.800 He'd been doing something else.
00:29:21.740 And he was delayed.
00:29:22.940 That radical leftist would have murdered over a dozen House members and two U.S. senators.
00:29:29.580 We came incredibly close to a massacre because of the active solicitation of violence.
00:29:37.340 And let me be clear, this is on one side.
00:29:40.320 The left is calling for violence.
00:29:42.760 I categorically oppose violence.
00:29:45.700 I don't want anyone to engage in violence against leftists.
00:29:48.660 I'm not calling for this nutcase Jasmine Crockett to face any violence. 0.99
00:29:52.520 No, no, no.
00:29:53.920 Now, I think her views are anathema.
00:29:56.400 And I want you to play what she said like a day or two later, attacking Greg Abbott, because it is equally noxious.
00:30:04.460 Listen to this.
00:30:05.100 We're in these hot-ass Texas streets, honey.
00:30:11.760 Y'all know we got Governor Hot Wheels down there.
00:30:14.440 Come on now. 0.98
00:30:17.080 And the only thing hot about him is that he is a hot-ass mess, honey. 0.99
00:30:22.500 So, yes. 0.99
00:30:25.200 Yes, yes, yes.
00:30:26.180 I mean, you listen to that.
00:30:31.340 It's like, one, what do you think is going to come of that?
00:30:34.860 The other thing is the backdrop behind her is she's literally speaking at the Human Rights Campaign.
00:30:41.120 And that's what she's preaching.
00:30:42.920 And people are laughing and clapping as she's on stage for, again, Human Rights Campaign. 0.56
00:30:48.260 Do you know why Greg Abbott is in a wheelchair?
00:30:51.400 Yeah.
00:30:51.740 If I remember the story correctly, he was running at the park and a random tree limb fell on his head and paralyzed him.
00:30:59.780 Broke his back.
00:31:00.860 And I'll tell you, I worked for him five and a half years.
00:31:03.360 Greg Abbott is a dear friend.
00:31:05.300 He's been a boss, a mentor.
00:31:06.900 And he would tell a joke.
00:31:09.000 Like, when I first went to work for him, he would tell a joke.
00:31:12.360 He'd get up and say, okay, I know what you're thinking.
00:31:14.960 How slow was that guy running to get hit by a tree?
00:31:19.780 And, like, the first time he jokes about it, you're not sure what to say.
00:31:24.220 Like, wait, am I allowed to laugh about it?
00:31:26.080 And he would tell jokes about it.
00:31:28.600 And you could be like, okay, I mean, I guess if you can joke about it, I can laugh about it.
00:31:32.680 But, you know, it was tragic.
00:31:35.980 And he's been paralyzed for 20-plus, maybe 30-plus years, a long time, in a wheelchair.
00:31:42.360 And she's sitting there at supposedly the human rights campaign.
00:31:46.220 Now, it's a leftist radical group that is obsessed with LGBT.
00:31:50.800 I mean, that's really what they exist to.
00:31:52.820 But they're cheering, yes, Governor Hot Wheels, he's disabled in a wheelchair.
00:31:58.900 Ha, ha, ha. 0.89
00:32:00.140 What the hell's wrong with these people? 0.99
00:32:02.000 I mean, that is nasty and hateful, and it's who today's Democrat Party is. 0.99
00:32:10.380 Yeah, it really is.
00:32:12.240 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00
00:32:14.440 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.
00:32:18.600 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:32:22.280 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:32:23.480 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:32:24.760 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:32:28.460 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers.
00:32:32.000 All at different stages of their journey.
00:32:34.260 So, if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:32:37.460 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:32:41.560 Which brings me to a final thing I want to talk about with you.
00:32:47.160 And this is one of those.
00:32:49.880 It seems like this used to be more effective at dividing the country.
00:32:56.820 That's what I think Crockett, for example, loves to do.
00:32:59.900 We divide.
00:33:00.960 And then hopefully I can conquer by division. 1.00
00:33:04.420 And that doesn't seem to be working now with the American people.
00:33:09.700 That's why it seems like the president, I think, truly has a majority support on virtually every issue that he's talking about right now.
00:33:17.480 And overwhelming support.
00:33:19.040 It's 65%, 75% approval ratings in certain categories.
00:33:23.720 Because the Democratic Party does seem to be floundering.
00:33:27.500 And I'm talking about the entire party.
00:33:29.660 I think part of that is because the Democratic Party isn't really a Democratic Party anymore.
00:33:34.220 They're Marxists and socialists and communists masquerading around.
00:33:38.160 And so now people are looking at them for what they are.
00:33:40.660 And Ben, you're not the only person making that point.
00:33:44.900 I'm not the only person making that point.
00:33:47.020 Just this week, there was an article in Axios.
00:33:49.580 And Axios may be the sort of most insidery, Washington, D.C., swampy media outlet there is.
00:33:58.180 And the lead reporters there, Jim VandeHein and Mike Allen, they write a column that is really worth reading because it's astonishing.
00:34:07.140 It is entitled, Behind the Curtain, Dem's Dark, Deep Hole.
00:34:15.000 And here's what they write.
00:34:16.440 They say, top Democrats tell us their party is in its deepest hole in nearly 50 years.
00:34:23.540 And they fear things could actually get worse.
00:34:27.120 And they lay out a series of bullet points.
00:34:29.820 The party has its lowest favorability ever.
00:34:33.340 However, no popular national leader to help improve it.
00:34:38.760 Insufficient numbers to stop most legislation in Congress.
00:34:42.700 A durable minority on the Supreme Court.
00:34:47.020 Dwindling influence over the media ecosystem with right-wing, with right-leaning podcasters like Ted Cruz and Ben Ferguson.
00:34:55.260 I may be adding that to what I'm saying.
00:35:00.180 And social media accounts ascendant.
00:35:03.460 And that clearly is about verdict with Ted Cruz and all of our incredible listeners.
00:35:08.460 Another bullet point.
00:35:09.860 Young voters are growing dramatically more conservative.
00:35:14.580 A bad 2026 map for Senate races.
00:35:17.620 Democratic Senate retirements could make it harder for the party to flip the House, with members tempted by statewide races.
00:35:27.480 There are only three House Republicans in districts former Vice President Harris won in 2024.
00:35:37.240 A dim sign for a Democratic surge. 0.53
00:35:40.540 There were 23 eight years ago in seats Hillary Clinton won. 0.99
00:35:48.620 And, thanks to the number of people fleeing blue states, the math for a dem to win the presidency will just get harder in 2030.
00:36:00.940 Amen, amen, amen.
00:36:03.520 Amen to that.
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