Verdict with Ted Cruz - August 29, 2020


Live at the RNC


Episode Stats


Length

1 hour

Words per minute

172.1892

Word count

10,407

Sentence count

742

Harmful content

Misogyny

9

sentences flagged

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Ted Cruz was in the midst of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida when Hurricane Harvey made landfall near the Texas-Louisiana border. He went down to survey the damage and meet with local officials. Ted Cruz joins us to talk about what he did and why he felt it was the right thing to do.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.540 Guaranteed human.
00:00:04.160 We have just wrapped up the Republican National Convention.
00:00:09.520 And I have to tell you, it is really refreshing to see American flags
00:00:13.620 that are not on fire after the past several weeks and months.
00:00:17.600 Nice to see a little bit of patriotism.
00:00:19.860 I don't think there could have been a starker contrast
00:00:22.520 between the two parties as we head into November.
00:00:26.060 And we will get into all of it with someone who
00:00:28.900 knows all of the players, knows all of the issues,
00:00:31.960 and is deeply involved in everything that we're looking forward to,
00:00:36.480 not just in November, but moving forward afterward.
00:00:39.600 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.
00:00:46.440 Welcome back to Verdict.
00:00:47.880 I'm Michael Knowles.
00:00:48.700 This is a very special episode.
00:00:50.500 We simply could not wait to get this stream out tonight.
00:00:54.880 So this one is going live.
00:00:56.640 It occurred to us with everything that's going on.
00:00:59.600 We hadn't even been able to cover the DNC.
00:01:03.020 And obviously, the RNC took place.
00:01:05.040 Senator, I have to tell you that I accidentally spread fake news earlier today.
00:01:09.260 I told people on our previous stream when I was on Daily Wire,
00:01:13.780 I said that you were in Washington right now.
00:01:16.280 But your schedule is so hectic that turns out you're not even in Washington.
00:01:19.940 Well, that's true.
00:01:22.000 I'm in the great state of Texas, although when I woke up this morning,
00:01:25.120 I didn't know where for sure I would be.
00:01:28.340 You know, we obviously had a hurricane late last night that made landfall
00:01:32.240 right at the Texas-Lusiana border.
00:01:35.480 And so I had been planning this morning to fly up to Washington
00:01:39.660 and be at the White House for the president's acceptance speech.
00:01:42.500 But we were obviously monitoring the hurricane closely.
00:01:46.380 And so I got up this morning about 6 a.m.
00:01:49.640 and talked to my team.
00:01:50.700 The hurricane had made landfall late last night.
00:01:54.220 And we were assessing where the damage was.
00:01:56.720 And we made the decision, which frankly, I thought was pretty likely.
00:02:00.080 But we made the decision that I needed to go and survey the damage
00:02:03.400 and meet with the local officials.
00:02:04.900 And so went down and jumped on a Coast Guard helicopter
00:02:11.920 and flew to East Texas, flew to Orange, Texas,
00:02:16.060 which is right near the border with Louisiana,
00:02:18.680 and then went up and did a tour of the areas that were impacted by the hurricane.
00:02:24.920 And, you know, I got to say, Texas, at least, we are blessed.
00:02:30.240 We were really spared what could have been much, much, much worse
00:02:34.520 at about two or three in the morning last night.
00:02:37.720 The hurricane shifted course and moved east about 30 miles.
00:02:42.840 And it ended up hitting Louisiana much, much worse.
00:02:46.140 But it had the effect also of sparing much of Texas.
00:02:51.360 And so there was some wind damage in Far East Texas.
00:02:55.400 There was some flooding.
00:02:57.040 But it was really Louisiana that took the brunt of the hit.
00:03:00.300 And I have to say, having been through multiple hurricanes,
00:03:05.400 including, obviously, Hurricane Harvey, which was the most devastating,
00:03:09.360 certainly, of my lifetime, I think everyone was grateful that this was not
00:03:14.580 nearly as bad as it could have been.
00:03:16.320 I'm so pleased to hear it because, obviously, we've all been, you know,
00:03:21.480 focused on national politics and this issue and that issue and these rioters
00:03:25.920 and that you forget that a natural disaster can strike and kind of puts everything on pause.
00:03:30.680 So it's I'm you certainly did the right thing by going down, surveying the damage,
00:03:35.040 even even if it might have been more fun to be at the Republican Party in D.C.
00:03:39.240 But but you were able to watch some of the convention.
00:03:42.580 So I was.
00:03:43.280 And it did lead lead to right now we're revisiting what was really the birth of verdict,
00:03:49.260 which is we're doing an episode at nearly midnight, you know, for the same reason,
00:03:55.360 because all of Washington was going late, late into the night.
00:03:59.640 And the president just finished his speech not long ago.
00:04:02.580 And I jumped in the car and drove over to the studio.
00:04:04.660 And now we're live.
00:04:05.800 And I have to say, this is something that maybe people don't know about you,
00:04:09.960 but I have seen it up close many times.
00:04:12.880 You're nocturnal.
00:04:14.020 You never sleep.
00:04:14.980 You seem to have more energy at two in the morning than you do at two in the afternoon.
00:04:19.220 I am a night owl and I hate mornings.
00:04:21.960 Like if I ever had to do a morning show, I think it'd kill me.
00:04:26.680 Yeah.
00:04:26.960 But but but, you know, a midnight show, I'd be I'd be all on board with that.
00:04:31.580 Yeah, that's maybe maybe we'll just set it there all the time.
00:04:34.240 I don't know how happy my wife would be about that, but that's OK.
00:04:37.300 We'll do it.
00:04:37.920 We'll do it for the show.
00:04:38.900 Actually, speaking of that, speaking of the origins of verdict, our first question in from
00:04:42.400 Laurel is a simple question, but I think a lot of people maybe don't know the answer.
00:04:47.260 What is a verdict?
00:04:51.180 So a verdict in legal sense, obviously, is is the judgment of the court.
00:04:59.500 And it's the judgment of a jury, typically of guilt or innocence in a criminal case or the judgment of whether the plaintiff or defendant prevails in a civil case.
00:05:13.140 And and it is what I'm not going to intrude on you.
00:05:16.280 I was going to say what it's from in the Latin, but but but let me not step on the great Michael Knowles to tell us what is it in the Latin, Michael?
00:05:23.460 Well, in the Latin, since you bring it up, Senator, it means a true saying ver like for truth and dict like dictum, you know, a saying.
00:05:33.120 And so we try to obviously speak the truth on the show.
00:05:36.020 And, Senator, you know, in our in our absolutely populist appeal, every so often we have to get into Latin etymology.
00:05:42.720 We have to cover everything, everything on the program.
00:05:45.460 E pluribusudum, baby.
00:05:46.600 Yeah.
00:05:47.920 So, you know, as you know, right now, if if you are watching this on YouTube, send your questions in.
00:05:54.740 You put your questions into the live chat.
00:05:56.720 We will, of course, answer them live.
00:05:59.340 We've got another question.
00:06:00.520 This is from Stephen, and I don't know that I know the answer to this.
00:06:05.280 How does an average citizen go about proposing legislation to their elected representatives?
00:06:14.700 Well, there are lots of avenues of communicating.
00:06:17.240 What one can certainly do is is call either your representative or you can call your senator.
00:06:21.980 You can go by and try to visit with with their staff.
00:06:25.860 And typically either a representative or senator will have staff both in D.C. and in the home district.
00:06:33.180 You can you can write something.
00:06:36.680 You can write an op ed and suggest that you find some way to come up with a good idea.
00:06:42.480 And and, you know, I'll give an interesting example of that.
00:06:46.440 So so look, we know actually how legislation gets proposed.
00:06:50.360 You remember the schoolhouse rock?
00:06:51.920 I'm just a bill, you know, sitting on the steps of Capitol Hill.
00:06:56.100 And I will not injure anyone's ears by trying to sing it because I can't carry a tune to save my life.
00:07:03.980 But an interesting story of a bill that was proposed by some New Jersey high school students and it somehow came to the attention.
00:07:17.240 And I don't remember exactly how of Alabama's Senator Doug Jones, a Democrat.
00:07:23.880 And it was a bill to take the records from cold cases, civil rights cases from the 1950s or 60s.
00:07:32.820 So a church bombing, a Klan murder or something, but but a case that had never been solved.
00:07:37.840 And and the idea of the New Jersey high school students was to put these records, make them public and let citizen journalists go try to solve the case.
00:07:47.640 Yeah, 50, 60, 70 years later. And and somehow Doug heard about this.
00:07:54.140 And so he was giving a floor speech on the Senate floor as a brand new freshman.
00:07:58.820 He was talking about that. He'd introduced a bill to do this, that he'd heard that idea.
00:08:02.720 He liked the idea. And and I was presiding.
00:08:05.900 And so the way it works in the Senate is the majority party gets to preside.
00:08:10.040 And it typically rotates between the more junior senators, either first term or second term senators.
00:08:16.140 You typically preside for maybe an hour a week. So I just happened.
00:08:20.080 I was in the chair and and Doug was was standing there and he was talking about this idea.
00:08:26.300 And I try to listen when people give floor speeches, by the way, a speech on the Senate floor usually is to an empty cavernous room and C-SPAN and no one's listening.
00:08:35.400 But I listened to what Doug was saying, thought it was an interesting idea.
00:08:39.860 And so I went down afterwards and said, hey, let's do this together.
00:08:42.020 We teamed up together, worked together and passed the bill into law.
00:08:45.260 So it started with New Jersey high school students and it ended up being a good idea and getting passed into law.
00:08:52.580 Well, so this is a hugely important aspect of it.
00:08:56.520 And then I know some people have asked about the deep state, you know, or the administrative state or the bureaucracy, which seems like it makes a lot of laws for people.
00:09:06.200 But they're they're not accountable. You can't call your senator.
00:09:08.760 You can't call your congressman. And I know this is an issue you've talked about quite a lot.
00:09:12.060 Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, it's one of the massive problems of the administrative state and for that matter of judicial activism.
00:09:19.180 Right. You have government officials that are completely unaccountable.
00:09:23.920 Federal judges have life tenure. And so if they're if they're enacting policy, you don't have a constraint over them.
00:09:29.820 Bureaucrats, many of their views is they will outlast every elected official.
00:09:35.820 They're the permanent government. And whoever is coming and going is just sort of a temporary irritant.
00:09:40.740 Yeah. And and it's one of the great virtues of our Constitution is accountability.
00:09:48.060 And so I think it's really important to have as much decision making as possible in the elected parts of government.
00:09:56.160 And also, I mean, that's really separation of powers at the federal level, but also as much decision making and policies at the state or local level,
00:10:06.400 because all of that increases accountability. It empowers the people.
00:10:11.040 Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. A question in from Daniel. Could you guys explain the Hatch Act?
00:10:20.340 Somewhat, although I'm not an expert in it. The general principle on the Hatch Act is it restricts many, many federal employees from from engaging in politics.
00:10:32.780 Yeah. And and so there are some exceptions to it. Some are allowed to do so.
00:10:37.280 But as a general matter, the kind of run of mill, run of the mill, federal employee, the Hatch Act bars them from engaging in politics because the idea behind it is they don't want to politicize our government.
00:10:50.020 It also prohibits using official assets. So, you know, I can't I can't do a political thing in my Senate office.
00:11:04.880 I'm not I'm not allowed to do that. That would be a violation. It's actually, I think, not technically the Hatch Act for for Congress.
00:11:10.620 It's the Senate ethics rules, but it's the same principle. Yeah. And the reason everyone is asking is there's lots of chatter about the president's speech tonight on the White House and whether that violated the Hatch Act.
00:11:22.220 The short answer for me is, I don't know. I haven't studied that question.
00:11:25.260 The the argument that it doesn't violate the Hatch Act, as I understand it, is there portions of the White House that are considered the president's residence that are separate from the official part.
00:11:37.520 So as I understand the argument, he would not have been able to give that speech in the Oval Office.
00:11:42.120 But but the South Lawn is is essentially his residence. It's also covid. And so these are extraordinary times.
00:11:49.820 But but but to be fair, I haven't studied the legal arguments on either side. So so I don't know who that who has the better of that argument.
00:11:56.160 Right. And there was a moment during the president's speech where he said this is the White House.
00:12:01.740 Really, though, I think of it as a home. And perhaps that that was a nod at this controversy.
00:12:07.520 The Democrats are cooking up a question from Nietzsche. Nietzsche says, hello, I'm a young conservative and plan to open up a business later in my life, then use that money to campaign for Congress.
00:12:18.000 Wow. There's a it's a full plan. So my question to Senator Cruz is, what are your best campaign suggestions?
00:12:23.520 Get involved in an issue you care about and fight for it rather than just run for office and have all these ideas.
00:12:35.420 Go fight for something that matters and build a record.
00:12:38.960 And so that when you do run, you can point to what you've done and you've said, look, you want to know what I believe.
00:12:46.000 Look at what I've been fighting for. And so you can be engaged in in whatever issue motivates you, get your get your blood boiling.
00:12:55.180 Go and build a record on that. Yeah. Yeah.
00:12:57.480 From Paul, what is the deepest reason why the Democrats won't disavow Antifa or the rioters?
00:13:04.860 What philosophical hangups keep them from taking a stance against political violence?
00:13:09.680 You know, I got to say for Paul, that that is a great question.
00:13:15.580 I don't know for sure. You know, a couple of weeks ago, I chaired a hearing on Antifa violence and mob violence, and we heard really chilling testimony about all of the assaults, the assaults on police officers, the violence.
00:13:29.460 Seven Democratic senators participated in that hearing and not a one of them was willing to denounce Antifa.
00:13:38.560 And there's it's interesting. The Democrats.
00:13:42.340 They have a message disciplined to them. I mean, look, part of it is Democrats believe in government, they're collectivist.
00:13:48.340 And so when they have orders, they follow orders. I mean, it's yes, comrade.
00:13:52.060 And they all say the same damn thing. You know, Republicans, we can barely agree on what time of day it is.
00:13:58.260 I mean, we bicker like crazy. And look, a little bit is that you've got some individualists.
00:14:02.660 So you've got, you know, any party that has Susan Collins and Rand Paul in it is a party with a lot of diversity because they and everyone else.
00:14:10.960 There's a lot of disagreement. So for whatever reason, at that hearing, it was clear the Democratic talking points had gone out that whenever Antifa or BLM violence is is raised,
00:14:23.640 simply attack and say it's right wing violence, it's a problem.
00:14:27.940 That was their talking point. And so they'd say, well, what about the Klan? What what about Nazis?
00:14:33.360 And look, of course, my response is the Klan and Nazis are ignorant, bigoted racists and that they commit violence.
00:14:39.520 We should lock them up in jail. Like, I don't have a problem denouncing them.
00:14:43.000 How about you? How about Antifa? Right.
00:14:45.000 And crickets. I don't know how much of it is fear that that, you know, right now, the Democratic Party, it's driven by angry voices.
00:14:56.700 Um, and maybe they're scared to take them on.
00:15:02.720 Um, I don't know how much of it is in the Democratic Party.
00:15:06.580 There's kind of a a glorifying of 1960s protests.
00:15:13.260 And, you know, it's sort of part of the the self-narrative of a lot of Democrats is we're back at Berkeley and we're, you know, protesting against Vietnam.
00:15:23.780 You know, his famous story of of Reagan when he was governor driving through Berkeley during protests.
00:15:29.300 And there were a bunch of hippies who were yelling and screaming in a protest.
00:15:32.820 And they they they either held up a sign or they chanted, we are the future.
00:15:38.800 And Reagan grabbed a pad of paper and he scrawled on it and held it up to the window and said, I'll sell my bonds.
00:15:47.520 So maybe that's some of it that they identify with protesters.
00:15:51.020 But I also think some of it is there's a woke identity politics that that particularly because much of this violence arose in the context of questions of racial justice.
00:16:06.000 I think Democrats are terrified to say anything criticizing someone who they perceive as a racial justice warrior, even if they're committing horrific and organized acts of violence.
00:16:21.700 So so I don't know what's driving it, but some combination of those factors.
00:16:26.100 I do know the end result, which is, you know, we went through a Democratic convention last week where we've got cities on fire, police officers being attacked, being murdered.
00:16:36.660 And the Democrats are unable or unwilling to bring themselves to condemn it.
00:16:41.600 Yeah, that's right. And I think you make a great point.
00:16:43.640 It hadn't really occurred to me in all of this madness, but this this glorification of the 1960s protests and rioting and violence in some cases is still there, even with these boomer Democrats who who don't don't ever seem to have really left Berkeley.
00:17:00.400 Maybe they did physically, but not mentally.
00:17:02.020 You know what's weird, Michael?
00:17:02.980 Yeah.
00:17:03.180 Even though they glorify protesters, leftists today don't believe in free speech.
00:17:09.920 Right. Right.
00:17:11.200 It's a very weird.
00:17:14.260 You know, look, I'm passionate about free speech and I believe you've got a right to advocate any view you want, no matter how how idiotic.
00:17:22.980 Look, I defend people who attack me because you've got a right to do it.
00:17:26.240 What you don't have a right to do is violence.
00:17:28.120 And what's strange about today's left is when it comes to someone speaking on college campus or speaking in their job or speaking anywhere else and saying some view that is inconsistent with their orthodoxy, they'll get you fired.
00:17:43.140 They'll silence you.
00:17:44.280 I mean, they're perfectly happy to stifle free speech.
00:17:46.520 But when it comes to, you know, there was a CNN still shot that was making the rounds on Twitter today of of, you know, a building just totally in flames.
00:18:02.100 And the chyron at the bottom was was and I may be getting this slightly wrong, but was something to the effect of although fiery, largely peaceful protest.
00:18:11.380 And it's literally all on frigging fire, like fire is not peaceful.
00:18:16.240 This is not a complicated concept.
00:18:18.580 If you light someone on fire, you're not being peaceable to them.
00:18:22.800 And this this didn't used to be a controversial notion.
00:18:26.860 This is also the second time the mainstream media have done this.
00:18:29.400 We now have screenshots on MSNBC and CNN of reporters standing in front of whole buildings on fire.
00:18:36.360 And they say it's mostly peaceful.
00:18:37.580 It's mostly ignore.
00:18:39.220 There's nothing to see here.
00:18:40.180 Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
00:18:42.100 Just for the sake of argument, let me ask you the phrase burn it all down.
00:18:47.040 Is that ever a peaceful notion?
00:18:49.680 Like like why does one burn things down?
00:18:52.760 And it's look, we just see CNN as a propagandist.
00:18:56.420 We see much of the mainstream media as propagandist right now.
00:18:59.400 Right.
00:18:59.780 That's right.
00:19:00.500 And, you know, speaking of burning, I mean, I think the Democrats are caught in this this issue, which is that they've encouraged the protests.
00:19:06.980 They've encouraged the riots in some cases.
00:19:08.960 And when you play with fire, you might get burned.
00:19:12.220 And I think they're seeing that probably in the polling.
00:19:14.640 Speaking of polling, Dean wants to know this is an important issue.
00:19:19.160 It keeps coming up as people talk about the election.
00:19:21.640 How does the GOP win over more suburban women voters? 1.00
00:19:28.220 Look, it's a great question.
00:19:30.340 We've talked a lot on verdict about what I think are the two broadest demographic trends of the U.S. politically, which is number one, blue collar voters moving right.
00:19:40.420 That's moving midwestern states, more Republican.
00:19:43.680 Yeah.
00:19:44.020 And number two, suburban voters, especially suburban women moving left. 0.93
00:19:48.500 That's moving big suburban states like Georgia, like Texas, like Arizona are all getting more purple.
00:19:54.680 You know, it's interesting.
00:19:55.640 I think there's a very real possibility this week and last week we may look back on them as a real turning point in this campaign.
00:20:05.240 And I don't mean it for the traditional reason.
00:20:08.580 Look, we kind of expect conventions to have a bounce.
00:20:12.060 I mean, that's sort of traditionally one side has their convention.
00:20:15.620 They get a bounce.
00:20:16.240 Their numbers go up in the polls.
00:20:17.360 The other side has their convention.
00:20:18.580 They get a bounce.
00:20:19.160 Their numbers go up in the polls.
00:20:20.460 I'm actually not focused on the conventions as much, although I think the Democratic convention was was very ineffective last week.
00:20:26.360 Yeah.
00:20:26.540 And I think the Republicans did a very good job with with our convention this week.
00:20:30.380 But but I actually think it was a broader turning point.
00:20:33.880 The violence we saw in places like Kenosha.
00:20:37.060 And I think as we've seen this violence continue, not just in in the immediate aftermath of George Floyd's death, but continuing week after week after week.
00:20:53.680 I do think there are a lot of folks who may not even be all that political.
00:20:58.800 Who are seeing this and understandably saying this.
00:21:02.500 This is a little scary.
00:21:03.540 You know, I know you've seen and our viewers are really engaged.
00:21:08.300 I suspect a lot of our viewers have seen the video of these angry leftist mobs screaming at people having dinner.
00:21:18.840 You know, there's one of this woman having dinner and they're demanding put your fist in the air. 1.00
00:21:23.380 Yeah.
00:21:23.980 For black power. 0.96
00:21:25.400 And it's I mean, it's screaming angry.
00:21:29.260 If you don't salute what we demand, we're going to berate you.
00:21:33.780 And there's a real threat of or worse.
00:21:36.780 There's a I mean, the threat of violence is in the air.
00:21:41.600 And and I do think and you know why I think it may be something of a turning point is we're suddenly seeing Democrats react like they touched a hot stove.
00:21:51.760 Yeah, they're suddenly realized, oh, crap, people don't like it when their cities are on fire and like people are threatening violence to them.
00:21:59.060 And it's it's been even the past couple of days where it seems like we may have reached a little bit of a tipping point on this.
00:22:06.340 We'll see if we have.
00:22:08.280 But.
00:22:11.820 But I do think.
00:22:14.100 The angry radicals are getting more and more extreme.
00:22:16.960 And I feel confident the Joe Biden campaign is sitting there right now saying, what the hell do we do about this?
00:22:26.480 This is dangerous.
00:22:27.340 That's right.
00:22:27.800 And, you know, it's it's good in some ways to make wonkish arguments about tax rates or trade policy or or what have you.
00:22:35.980 There is a place for that.
00:22:37.480 When the country is on fire, that's not what people are thinking about.
00:22:40.860 They're thinking about who's burning down the country, who's trying to put water on those fires, who, you know, wants to tear down George Washington and who wants to look forward to an American future.
00:22:50.580 That resonates with people, even if even if you don't have your nose in white papers from think tanks and that sort of thing.
00:22:57.240 Question from people want to be prosperous.
00:22:59.460 But but but even more fundamentally, people want to be safe.
00:23:02.580 Yes.
00:23:03.140 Yes.
00:23:03.400 You know, and I do think that the basic contrast between the two conventions on the Republican side, the kind of core message is we'll keep you safe.
00:23:18.380 And we're going to fight for you to have a job.
00:23:20.480 And the Democratic side, not promising to keep anyone safe.
00:23:25.740 And on the economy, they don't really have a message either other than we hate Trump.
00:23:30.540 Yeah.
00:23:30.680 And so we're going to raise taxes and have massive regulations.
00:23:33.100 But trust us, it'll be great for the economy.
00:23:35.340 And, you know, I think a lot of people are pretty, pretty smart and realize, well, that doesn't sound like it's great for the economy.
00:23:43.480 Yeah.
00:23:44.060 Yeah, that's right.
00:23:44.580 And when you have when you have Democrats, you know, led by the future of the Democratic Party, as DNC Chairman Tom Perez calls AOC, talking about the Green New Deal, this ninety three trillion dollar plan by by some estimates.
00:23:57.500 I don't think people look at that and say this is going to lead to prosperity now.
00:24:02.380 So let me actually disagree with with Perez on one thing.
00:24:06.960 I don't think she's the future of the Democratic Party.
00:24:08.820 I think she's the president.
00:24:10.540 I think you're right.
00:24:12.200 You know, a couple of weeks ago, I was up in Alaska, which, by the way, was very cool.
00:24:16.600 Yeah.
00:24:16.720 And Heidi and I and the girls went up there and I went up there to campaign for Dan Sullivan, who is the senator from there.
00:24:22.840 He's a good friend and he's up for reelection.
00:24:24.880 And I was campaigning for him.
00:24:27.620 And one of the we did several events for Dan.
00:24:29.920 And one of the things I said at each of the events is I said, you may not realize it, but AOC is on the ballot in Alaska.
00:24:37.940 And I mean, people are really kind of puzzled and startled.
00:24:40.480 What do you mean she's on the ballot in Alaska?
00:24:42.160 I said, listen, if if this is a bad election, if if Democrats win and if they take the Senate and that's a real possibility.
00:24:53.340 Chuck Schumer will be majority leader.
00:24:55.180 But as a practical matter, Chuck Schumer has seen all of these Democrats being primaried from the left and losing.
00:25:02.580 And Schumer is up in 2022.
00:25:05.660 And if he becomes majority leader, he is going to be utterly terrified of being primaried by AOC.
00:25:13.820 And for all intents and purposes, that will make AOC effectively the Senate majority leader, because whatever she demands, he's going to be so scared of that primary challenge that I think he'd be more than happy to jump to her tune.
00:25:27.800 And it was kind of an interesting point for Alaskans to think about.
00:25:31.280 And I was saying, look, Alaska is a great bellwether where if Sullivan loses and Alaska has elected both Democrats and Republicans, it's a state that has shown it can vote either way.
00:25:42.340 If Alaska loses and there are a number of states for which this is true, there's a real possibility Schumer's majority leader and AOC is is driving the train and setting the agenda.
00:25:53.960 And the Democratic Party today, not tomorrow in the future, you know, as a native New Yorker, I'm not even an Alaskan.
00:26:00.780 I have no excuse that hadn't occurred to me.
00:26:03.560 But there has been chatter that AOC could primary Chuck Schumer.
00:26:07.140 And you're right. Effectively, what that means is AOC is going to be calling the shots even more than she already is.
00:26:13.280 And she obviously is already wielding a lot of influence. 1.00
00:26:15.580 Schumer is a political being, which means like his only objective will be to stop that.
00:26:22.120 And so just as a practical matter, that means he's going to be terrified.
00:26:26.940 He does not want to let her out outflank him to the left in any respect.
00:26:31.800 You know, minority leader, that's much less of a problem.
00:26:33.900 But if he actually controls a Senate majority, yeah, that's that could be very dangerous.
00:26:39.660 They do have a saying in New York, I think, even still with the riots and all the mayhem that the most dangerous place in the state of New York is between Chuck Schumer and a television camera.
00:26:48.840 So I think that is the issue.
00:26:51.260 I have heard that, although I will confess a affinity for TV cameras is not a unique sin in Washington among Chuck Schumer.
00:27:02.860 That's that's true.
00:27:04.520 I can imagine it's maybe an occupational hazard down there.
00:27:07.560 A question from Matt.
00:27:10.700 Hey, guys, love your work.
00:27:12.540 How do we know that the right is correct and that true political reality doesn't lie somewhere in the middle of the political scale?
00:27:21.460 I guess what Matt's asking is, you know, as you, Senator, you're probably one of the most conservative guys in all of Washington, D.C.
00:27:28.300 Why should we be strong conservatives and not squishes? 0.99
00:27:31.360 Um, well, look, I would say don't don't accept my word for it.
00:27:37.320 Don't accept it on faith.
00:27:39.600 Test the propositions.
00:27:41.040 Read both sides.
00:27:42.100 Study both sides.
00:27:44.220 You know, spend time listening to what the left says, listening to what the right says.
00:27:48.740 And even, you know, how do we know the right is correct?
00:27:51.500 One of the things and we talked about this before, there's a lot of diversity on the right in terms of what is even whether you're, uh, uh, you know, a paleo conservative, a neoconservative, a libertarian, half these things.
00:28:04.300 I don't even, I barely know what they mean, but, but, but there are sharp differences of opinion when it comes to foreign policy within the whole world on the right.
00:28:14.580 Uh, when it comes to the role of government within the whole world on the right, what I would say is take the time to think through and analyze the issues.
00:28:28.120 Um, one side, the left, though, right now, doesn't want you to do that.
00:28:34.280 But the fact that they're willing to use coercion, to silence views that contradict, look, I mean, you know, you, you look at college campuses where they won't allow conservative speakers to come.
00:28:46.760 When I was in school, uh, when I was in law school at Harvard, there, there were more openly Marxist professors on the faculty than there were Republicans.
00:28:57.320 Yeah.
00:28:57.560 And it wasn't even close. There was one open Republican on the faculty, Charles Freed, um, who, who worked in, in the Reagan administration as solicitor general.
00:29:08.280 Um, I, I worked as a research assistant for him. And by the way, Charles Freed, who at the time was the lone Republican on the faculty voted for Barack Obama.
00:29:16.800 So, so, so, so that, uh, he ended up, even he ended up voting democratic.
00:29:22.560 Wow.
00:29:22.700 There were and are multiple open Marxists. And, and, you know, it's, it's interesting. One, one person who listens to our podcast, Michael, um, is Heidi.
00:29:36.160 And, and, and look, you and I are both married. The fact that my wife actually listens to what we say, A, is complimentary, but, but I'll tell you, she kind of chewed us out recently and said, you guys are getting too dogmatic and preaching to the choir too much.
00:29:49.780 Hmm. And, and, and, and she, the reason she listens to it is she says, listen, I'm really busy.
00:29:57.280 And what she said, and it's the same thing we've heard a lot on this show is she says, I learned things from the show, but spend a little more time.
00:30:05.800 And she actually brought up like, you know, you talked about several of the organizers of BLM or avowed Marxists.
00:30:14.920 She said, a lot of people don't know what Marxists are. And, and, and, and it reminds me, we spent a lot of time early in impeachment kind of tapping the brakes and saying, okay, what is this?
00:30:25.860 What is, what does this mean? And look, Marxism is, is a philosophy. It was propagated by Karl Marx, obviously.
00:30:31.240 It's the, the foundation of communism. But, but it, it, it advocates, it, it, it, it, it views history through a lens of class warfare and a battle of the proletariat versus the bourgeoisie, the working people versus the property owners.
00:30:50.840 And, and, and, and it calls for a revolution. Um, Marxism, it's an approach to history. It's an approach to government, but it, it, and it advocates socialism as its economic system.
00:31:05.620 So socialism is just the economic arm of Marxism. It's, it's, but Marxism also consistently says we need actually a phrase, I think it was Lenin used, a dictatorship of the proletariat.
00:31:20.840 Which is inevitably to get to Marxism, you have to have a totalitarian government come in and take the property from the people who have it.
00:31:29.820 And, and what happens every single time is the Marxists who have power live like kings and everyone else lives in misery.
00:31:38.440 And, and so when someone is a Marxist, they, they are advocating for the principles reflected in, in the communist manifesto that Karl, Karl Marx wrote, um, that, that, that, that advocated for, for, for, for Marxism.
00:31:50.260 Anyway. So, so, so, so I give, I'm not going to necessarily tell you the right is always correct on everything. Uh, what I am going to say is, is that I believe if you look at the evidence, free enterprise is much more successful, uh, than socialism in terms of, of lifting people's economic welfare, combating poverty, producing prosperity.
00:32:14.000 And I also believe that our constitutional liberties, uh, are important. And, and, and, and that includes the, the pluralism and diversity of thought that free speech and religious liberty and all the rest allows.
00:32:30.920 That, that, that, that, that if you don't agree, go make your case and convince your fellow citizens.
00:32:36.220 That's right. And, and look at the evidence, you know, as you say, these socialists never seem to get to that Marxism where everybody's free and equal.
00:32:44.020 I was reminded of an expression I once heard, uh, someone asked the difference between socialism and communism.
00:32:49.900 And, uh, they said, well, Christians go to heaven and socialists go to communism.
00:32:55.900 And the problem is you don't get heaven on earth. So it never, never seems to materialize.
00:32:59.780 I do also want to see, I'd get, I'd give a simpler answer, which is the differences in AK 47.
00:33:05.580 Um, it's more visual.
00:33:07.100 Socialism is the economic system, but, but inevitably it gets enforced.
00:33:11.120 Yeah.
00:33:11.560 In communism with brute force and oppression.
00:33:15.620 I also want to, uh, remind all of our viewers right now, we have a lot of viewers right now live, uh, to click that subscribe button, ring the bell.
00:33:24.240 We really appreciate it. That way you will get notifications so long as big tech does not shut us down, which I'm sure is, is always a possibility.
00:33:31.080 Uh, you can also head over to Apple podcasts and if you would like, if you were so inclined to leave a five-star review, we would really appreciate that.
00:33:38.040 It helps us get over a little bit of the hurdle that is sometimes imposed on, uh, non-leftist outlets out there.
00:33:45.420 Uh, we're also on Google play stitcher, probably my space. I don't know. We're just all over the place on the internet for now.
00:33:51.560 We really appreciate it. We we've got, uh, a lot of views at this point. Uh, you know, the, the show hit number one, uh, unexpectedly in the first couple of weeks of it.
00:34:00.280 And we just appreciate all of our listeners sticking around a question from then Ray lol.
00:34:06.440 Something tells me that's not the name that, uh, your parents gave you Vin Ray, but I like it anyway.
00:34:11.860 Hey, Senator, why do you think it took tonight's speech to mention David Dorn on the mainstream media, despite the mainstream media's support for black lives matter?
00:34:23.780 Um, because the media are hypocrites and they're pitching a, an ideological message.
00:34:29.660 Um, and Dorn speech was incredible and powerful. So, and Dorn is the widow of David Dorn, a retired St. Louis police officer, uh, who was murdered in the riots.
00:34:43.780 Um, and, and, and he is African-American and, and, and when, when you have people screaming black lives matter, uh, apparently David Dorn's is not included because, because he was murdered in the violence, uh, by the rioters.
00:34:59.400 And, and, and, and his wife, her speech, it's one of the things I think the RNC did better than the DNC is it told real stories.
00:35:08.000 I'm actually glad they had a lot fewer politicians on the RNC. 0.91
00:35:11.100 Yeah.
00:35:11.280 Um, I, I, I, I, you know, I, I think listening, uh, to, to an Ann Dorn or a Clarence Henderson or, or, or, or the, the stories that were told were, were really powerful.
00:35:24.740 And, and, and her story, now she's a police sergeant as well.
00:35:30.180 And, and she told the story of, of, of waking up and finding out he'd been murdered, that he'd gone.
00:35:36.280 And he was, he was retired and was working security at a pawn shop and the alarm went off and he went, went, went to the pawn shop and was, was murdered by the, uh, rioters and looters.
00:35:47.520 And in any sane conversation, we ought to be talking about the victims of this violence and, and, and, and those that, that, uh, have, have been murdered.
00:36:03.300 But, but, but the media doesn't want you to know that.
00:36:05.880 And, and, and it's part of it is, we've talked about this before.
00:36:10.020 Donald Trump has broken the media.
00:36:11.820 Yeah, that's right.
00:36:13.700 It, it, you used to see the media, CNN is a great example where they try to be balanced.
00:36:20.280 Um, they're not anymore.
00:36:22.860 You know, it's interesting.
00:36:23.900 I watched the president's speech tonight at home, um, on, on CNN.
00:36:29.000 I don't know why, but that just happened to be what I turned on.
00:36:31.740 And did you, did you watch it on CNN or do you remember what network you watched?
00:36:35.380 No, Senator, I, I, I assume you must live in an airport if you were watching it on CNN.
00:36:39.380 That's the only place I ever see CNN live.
00:36:41.760 No, I was actually watching it on C-SPAN because we were doing the stream, but sometimes I will click on just to see the left-wing commentary on it.
00:36:49.520 So what was fascinating on CNN is, is when they were airing the president's speech, um, when he got to talking about, uh, coronavirus and COVID-19,
00:36:59.720 they put up at the bottom, a chart of the number of cases of COVID-19 in the U S and the number of people who've died on COVID-19.
00:37:08.200 And then they began doing a, a real time, what I guess they were pitching is fact checking of the president's speech.
00:37:17.280 And so it was denominated facts first.
00:37:20.960 And so, and they just did this during the COVID-19 portion of the speech.
00:37:24.900 I mean, he spoke 70 minutes and it was just during the, you know, kind of, I don't know, eight, 10 minutes that he was talking about, about the pandemic.
00:37:31.580 And so the first one said something like for months, you know, facts first for months, the president dismissed the seriousness of this crisis.
00:37:40.300 So the first one was really tendentious.
00:37:42.980 It was political.
00:37:44.500 It was, um, and I don't remember the second one was equally political.
00:37:50.840 And, and so like the first, I almost turned it off.
00:37:53.580 It was really ticking me off.
00:37:55.480 Like, have you ever seen a, a, a network covering either political party's nominee putting at the bottom, what they call fact checking, disputing what he said, right?
00:38:09.140 Like it was really like, who in the hell do they think they are?
00:38:13.420 Like you're literally listening to the nominee's speech and they're going to put under him, but you know, it was fascinating.
00:38:19.120 So, so, so that's in part an answer to why they, they don't want to say the name of David Dorn.
00:38:27.540 They don't like telling that story.
00:38:29.040 They don't like telling the story of the other officers assaulted, attacked, and murdered.
00:38:33.940 But an interesting flip side, they did include one, I guess you'd call it a pro-Trump fact check.
00:38:41.580 And I guess somebody felt like, okay, we can't only put fact checks saying we disagree with the president.
00:38:47.040 And the pro-Trump one they put up was fascinating.
00:38:51.000 It was when, when the president was talking about Joe Biden's going to shut down the entire economy.
00:38:57.020 And they said, facts first, Joe Biden said he would shut down the United States if scientists recommended it to him.
00:39:04.340 And I got to say that fact check, I don't think CNN realizes how devastating that fact check.
00:39:15.300 And it's true, but, but you rarely get journalists acknowledging things that are true.
00:39:19.020 I mean, Biden did say that.
00:39:20.260 Yeah.
00:39:20.480 But I think that is an absolutely devastating omission that, yes, Joe Biden wants to shut down the entire economy and take away your job.
00:39:29.760 And they're like, yep, that's what he said.
00:39:31.740 And so it was an interesting, I don't know how that slipped through.
00:39:34.820 I'm wondering if some CNN intern got fired for it, maybe. 0.99
00:39:38.600 But, but, but somehow they put it up on air.
00:39:40.900 That is amazing.
00:39:41.740 Although I do wonder if it was just so obvious.
00:39:45.060 It was undeniable.
00:39:46.420 The man said it himself.
00:39:48.020 And so they have to get that out there.
00:39:49.980 But, but just the whole idea of the fact check, which is very rarely factual.
00:39:55.280 It's always just based in a political opinion.
00:39:57.680 You know, the left always points to Fox, which, which as far as I can tell, has left-wing voices on it.
00:40:04.340 It's much more balanced than CNN or MSNBC, even though it certainly tilts rightward.
00:40:09.420 But you wouldn't ever see Fox having a running chyron, just contradicting a candidate of either party.
00:40:17.200 Yeah.
00:40:17.860 And, and, and look, I, I think there are reasonable criticisms one can make of Fox.
00:40:23.020 You know, earlier the question was given, how do we know the right is right?
00:40:27.560 I certainly would not advise someone go listen to Fox News and whatever they say, believe it.
00:40:32.540 Certainly.
00:40:33.080 Um, go, go educate yourself, go read on the other side.
00:40:37.360 And, you know, I try to, I try to, unfortunately, anything resembling objective journalism has almost disappeared.
00:40:45.960 Yeah.
00:40:46.140 And so you have to view things almost through the lens of, all right, let's get partisans on both sides.
00:40:51.880 So, so for years I used to read every day, I would read, uh, the Washington Post on politics and I'd read national review.
00:40:59.120 And the two side by side would give you some modicum of that.
00:41:05.240 Um, sorry for like a daily wire is a great place to do.
00:41:08.420 So I don't mean to be pitching competitors, but, but you know, read folks on both sides.
00:41:14.180 And to be honest, the truth is usually somewhere in the middle that people are pitching something, but, but getting educated on both sides helps them to assess what's right.
00:41:25.520 And what is it?
00:41:26.320 No, that's right.
00:41:27.100 And of course, I mean, of course the daily wire is the one news source in all of history that is perfectly balanced.
00:41:32.560 Give you to know, I'm joking.
00:41:33.540 I would get this question often.
00:41:34.840 They'd say, how do I get an objective perspective?
00:41:37.180 And I said, forget about that idea.
00:41:38.960 Just read both.
00:41:39.700 You want to read the daily wire.
00:41:40.640 It's good.
00:41:40.980 And then go read, I don't know, the Huffington Post or Vox or something and figure out where the truth lies.
00:41:47.060 Have I ever told you my idea for running a newspaper?
00:41:50.320 I don't think so.
00:41:51.380 So, so I've thought about this for a long time.
00:41:54.300 Like if I woke up one day and they made me the editor of the New York Times and, you know, they just fired the New York Times.
00:42:01.260 So, so, you know, I'm sure they're going to call me soon.
00:42:03.320 Yeah.
00:42:04.560 But, but actually they fired the editorial page editor of the New York Times.
00:42:07.680 More on the news side.
00:42:08.880 But I think, oh, if I was, if I was editor of either, I think what I would do is rather than purport to be objective, I would consciously try to frame a dialectic.
00:42:21.040 I'd consciously try to frame and say, you know what, we're going to have conservative voices and liberal voices.
00:42:26.120 So on our op-ed pages, they're going to battle it out and you're going to get to listen to both.
00:42:30.920 And by the, actually the Post used to do that.
00:42:33.260 They used to have some pretty good conservatives and they still do it more than the Times does.
00:42:38.460 Yeah.
00:42:38.640 But, but instead I would just embrace the dialectic and say, you'll be smarter and more informed if you listen to smart conservatives and smart liberals and assess it.
00:42:47.020 And here's the piece on, on the news media side.
00:42:50.820 I do the same thing on news stories and where a lot of the bias of journalism comes in is what stories get greenlit.
00:42:58.820 What gets decided this is news and this isn't.
00:43:01.720 That's right.
00:43:02.120 So frankly, if, if I owned a newspaper, if I was the editor of a newspaper, I'd probably have a conservative news editor and a liberal news editor, both with the authority to greenlight stories.
00:43:13.960 And, and I, and I'd allow some of that same dialectic, um, and, and have real conservatives and liberals.
00:43:20.580 So they would, you know, and you would get, hopefully in, in that clash, you'd get somewhere closer to truth.
00:43:28.680 That's a great idea.
00:43:29.760 And it's funny you mentioned that the Washington Post used to be a little more balanced back when it was, I would read the Washington Post certainly much more than I do now.
00:43:37.620 It's a great idea, but certainly no one in the mainstream media is going to take that advice.
00:43:41.680 It's too good.
00:43:42.580 It's too, uh, too insightful.
00:43:44.800 Now, Michael, let me, let me do something that will surprise you.
00:43:47.240 And, and, and this is connected to the last two questions we've gotten.
00:43:50.340 Yeah.
00:43:50.520 I'm going to defend the owner of the Washington Post and defend big tech, which is, excuse me, sir.
00:43:57.240 Where, where have you put Senator Cruz?
00:43:58.820 I, we got to get Senator Cruz back here.
00:44:01.020 I don't know if you saw like protesters set up a guillotine outside of the home of Jeff Bezos.
00:44:10.060 And, and look, I, I've got lots of criticisms of the Washington Post.
00:44:14.560 I think Bezos, big tech, I have lots of criticisms of the Amazon has been less noxious than some of the other players, but there are lots of reasons to criticize Bezos.
00:44:25.140 Yep.
00:44:26.080 But setting up, and, and I'm not talking a mock guillotine.
00:44:29.720 I'm, you know, I mean the, the, the, the, if you haven't seen the video of it, it is chilling.
00:44:33.600 It is by all appearances, a full working guillotine with a razor sharp blade.
00:44:39.580 And, and, and, you know, that's just deranged.
00:44:44.940 I mean, that is a terrorist threat and this is outside, as I understand it, his personal home.
00:44:50.400 Yeah.
00:44:51.380 Um, this is another manifestation of, of, of the mob that we're seeing.
00:44:58.360 You know, you don't get to threaten people with murder.
00:45:02.080 When you put a guillotine in front of someone's house, you're not saying I disagree with your views.
00:45:07.580 You're saying I'm going to murder you.
00:45:09.940 The reason you're putting it there is you're threatening to put their head and neck into it.
00:45:14.000 And, and that, um, uh, I just think, think that was deranged.
00:45:20.400 It absolutely was.
00:45:21.780 And it's, it's funny.
00:45:22.620 I, I had the same impulse.
00:45:24.580 I suppose that you had, nobody has been tougher on big, big tech than you have.
00:45:28.800 Senator you've, you've really gone after them when a lot of your, uh, fellow Republicans have not.
00:45:33.420 But you look at that and you say, guys, that, what are you doing?
00:45:37.520 I can't, I can't believe the left is now making me defend Jeff Bezos and Amazon Washington Post.
00:45:42.660 But, but that's where they've put us.
00:45:44.340 You know, it's a, it's a strange moment right now.
00:45:47.560 No, no one who is, who is alive has lived through a political moment like this.
00:45:52.260 A question comes in from Tyler specifically about the election results.
00:45:56.620 Right now, an estimated 80 to a hundred million people are going to vote by mail in the election.
00:46:01.640 I assume a huge number of them are not going to make their, their ballots hit the deadline.
00:46:06.520 So they're going to come in late.
00:46:08.020 We are very likely not going to know who won the election on election night.
00:46:12.620 So his question is, what happens if the election results are delayed beyond January 20th?
00:46:19.460 President Pelosi, or does Trump remain in office or what, what are we looking at?
00:46:23.920 Um, there's a lot of uncertainty on that.
00:46:28.780 Um, I, I think number one on election day, if the race is at all close, you're going to see
00:46:34.500 delays because of mail-in voting, but you're also going to see litigation, uh, Bush versus Gore.
00:46:40.120 Look, I, I was very involved in litigating Bush versus Gore 20 years ago.
00:46:44.540 I was a young campaign staffer, young lawyer working for the George W. Bush campaign in 2000.
00:46:49.580 So I was down in Tallahassee as part of the legal team during Bush versus Gore.
00:46:53.920 Yeah.
00:46:54.400 I think there's a very real chance this year we'll see a Bush versus Gore in
00:46:58.780 10, 20, 30, 50 jurisdictions.
00:47:03.360 Wow.
00:47:04.180 Um, it's been reported that Biden has already hired 600 lawyers, uh, to contest elections.
00:47:11.080 Um, and what that means is if it's at all close, there's a very good chance.
00:47:16.000 We don't know the answer.
00:47:18.160 Um, if you get to January 3rd, um, it could be thrown if, if, if there is uncertainty, it
00:47:28.380 could be thrown to Congress, which means the house of representatives chooses the president.
00:47:33.680 And it means that, that, that the Senate chooses the vice president.
00:47:38.160 Now here's, what's interesting.
00:47:39.360 Huh?
00:47:40.560 It doesn't work by simple majority in the house.
00:47:44.260 So it's not whoever has a majority chooses the president.
00:47:47.660 It's rather each state gets one vote.
00:47:51.000 So each congressional delegation gets a single vote.
00:47:54.360 So California gets one vote.
00:47:57.320 And right now in the current Congress, um, I, I think the number is that there are 26 Republican
00:48:03.860 states that were Republicans have a majority that have delegation 22 that Democrats have
00:48:09.240 a majority and, and two that are tied.
00:48:11.120 I think it's Pennsylvania and Michigan are tied.
00:48:14.680 Um, the reason they can, Dems can still have a majority is they rack up huge numbers in states
00:48:19.300 like California and, and New York.
00:48:21.200 So they have more than 218, but they don't have a majority of the states.
00:48:26.100 Right.
00:48:27.120 What that means is there's a real incentive.
00:48:32.060 Uh, if Democrats have the majority to prevent it from going to the house.
00:48:36.820 Huh?
00:48:38.440 Um, and there is an argument.
00:48:41.120 That come January 20th, if, if, if Congress hasn't exercised its authority to select the
00:48:47.940 president, select the vice president, there is an argument that they are, are, are putting
00:48:52.620 forward that on January 20th, Donald Trump and Mike Pence cease being president and vice
00:48:58.200 president and third in line of succession is Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the house.
00:49:02.820 And, and, and if they would lose otherwise, I fully expect the Democrats to do
00:49:11.100 everything they can to prevent any constitutional mechanism for having a Republican president.
00:49:19.060 So I fully expect them to try to delay to January 20th and argue that Nancy Pelosi has now become
00:49:24.380 president that that is, and we are in such uncharted legal territory, constitutional territory.
00:49:32.280 Uh, these questions, if we get there are going to be hotly, hotly contested.
00:49:40.420 Senator, when I saw this suggestion of president Pelosi floating around social media, I thought,
00:49:46.480 Oh, this is just one of those hokey, crazy things that goes around social media.
00:49:50.100 I kind of dismissed it.
00:49:51.740 And now you've made me feel so, so much more worried about this, this election in November.
00:49:59.740 Well, I, I, I will say if we get to Congress choosing the president and vice president,
00:50:05.740 we will be doing verdict live every night, just as we did an impeachment.
00:50:09.940 And I hope and pray that does not happen.
00:50:12.680 I don't wish this to become a nightly midnight report from insanity, which, which is what that
00:50:18.700 would be.
00:50:19.060 So, so let's, let's hope we don't find that out, but look, Democrats are already setting
00:50:24.220 the foundation for, in their view, one of two outcomes in this election.
00:50:28.900 Yeah.
00:50:29.760 Either they win, which they might, or the election is illegitimate.
00:50:34.580 Yes.
00:50:35.120 Yeah.
00:50:36.080 If Donald Trump wins, if Republicans win, the odds are now 100.0% that Democrats and the media
00:50:44.460 are going to say the election was stolen from.
00:50:46.580 Yes, that's right.
00:50:47.380 And, and, and, you know, you saw recently Hillary Clinton said under no circumstances
00:50:51.280 should Joe Biden concede.
00:50:54.140 Um, I, I, I mean, it's, if this is the political equivalent of the rage bomb, it's, we will not
00:51:02.480 accept the will of the people.
00:51:05.080 We won't accept the outcome of the election.
00:51:07.300 And, you know, there's a weird Freudian projection.
00:51:10.300 Remember a couple of weeks ago, there was a little news boomlet of all these Democrats and
00:51:14.360 reporters saying, will Trump accept it if he's lost?
00:51:18.560 Right.
00:51:18.920 Right.
00:51:19.460 And the absurd thing is, look, the, the ones who still don't accept it, Hillary Clinton
00:51:23.500 still thinks she's, she's president. 0.95
00:51:25.440 Yep.
00:51:26.000 They haven't accepted the last election and they're, they're making very explicit.
00:51:30.580 They don't intend to accept this one either.
00:51:32.480 And so, and, and their tell is they accuse the other side of doing it.
00:51:36.580 And I, I think that Hillary Clinton is actually just saying out loud what a lot of Democrats
00:51:41.500 are thinking, because do you remember in 2016, she said, Donald Trump is said he might not
00:51:47.080 accept the results of the election.
00:51:48.740 This is a threat to our democracy.
00:51:50.620 And then what happens?
00:51:51.920 Hillary is the one who doesn't accept it.
00:51:53.780 And it's not just her.
00:51:54.760 Stacey Abrams still thinks she's the governor of Georgia. 1.00
00:51:57.780 That's governor.
00:51:58.440 Abrams.
00:51:58.980 Yes.
00:51:59.180 As governor, I, I want to be respectful, uh, former president Al Gore still believes he
00:52:05.120 won in 2000 on that recount.
00:52:07.560 This seems to be a trend with democratic politicians.
00:52:11.680 Um, well, if there's no such thing as truth, and this is actually a Marxist concept.
00:52:17.260 Yeah.
00:52:17.900 Um, then you can dictate truth is what you say it is.
00:52:22.160 And, and, and, and, and that's, um, when you have a compliant media, let's go back.
00:52:29.180 Back to the CNN image of buildings on fire and they call fiery yet peaceful protests that
00:52:38.680 that that's like hot yet cold.
00:52:42.520 Like, I I'm sorry, but those are antonyms.
00:52:47.140 You don't get to have two things directly contradictory other than one of them is your
00:52:53.400 political narrative.
00:52:54.560 Yes.
00:52:55.300 Yeah, that's right.
00:52:56.120 And there's also this idea that they know the science of history, actually another Marxist
00:53:00.700 concept that, you know, they're on the right side of history.
00:53:03.420 And so if you know how history is supposed to go and something happens to, to get in the
00:53:08.000 way of that, well, clearly that's illegitimate by definition.
00:53:11.420 This actually raises a question from Daniel and maybe, maybe we'll end on this question,
00:53:17.000 uh, because it will give us so much to stew on until, until our next episode.
00:53:21.640 Do you think that the democratic party has become so radical that the party will split
00:53:27.360 into two completely separate parties?
00:53:29.320 You know, the BLM organization is behaving in some ways like a political party.
00:53:33.800 He asks, you know, will there be one party of the liberals and one party of the leftist
00:53:40.600 socialists?
00:53:41.240 So I actually don't think that, I think what we're witnessing is a leftist takeover of the
00:53:46.720 democratic party.
00:53:47.660 Yeah.
00:53:48.320 Um, and there are no, there are no moderate Democrats left.
00:53:56.760 Um, they've been driven out of the party.
00:53:59.720 Um, there used to be, there used to be conservative Democrats.
00:54:02.920 So I mean, I mean, point me to, to a conservative Democrat today and, and, and look, some of it
00:54:09.760 is, we talked about this before, how Democrats are collectivists.
00:54:13.380 They believe in government power.
00:54:14.620 They believe that they are, I mean, there's a herd discipline.
00:54:19.440 When do you see Democrats disagreeing on a vote in the Senate?
00:54:22.920 Yeah.
00:54:23.240 Pretty much never.
00:54:24.140 Yeah.
00:54:25.140 Um, whereas Republicans we do all the time, um, for good and for ill.
00:54:29.960 Sometimes we're frustrated.
00:54:31.340 How come we can't have the, the, the discipline and cohesion they do.
00:54:34.820 I'd rather our problems of, of individualism.
00:54:38.300 Um, the Republican party splintering is always a, a potential threat.
00:54:42.360 Yeah.
00:54:42.980 The, the democratic party, I think one of two things will happen.
00:54:46.900 If they win, I think you will see the leftist take over the party completed that, that, that,
00:54:51.580 that essentially Joe Biden has seated the party to Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and
00:54:58.220 AOC.
00:54:58.640 You know, you look at president Trump did a nice job tonight about talking about the, the,
00:55:03.360 the Biden Bernie manifesto that they wrote together, laying out the most radical socialist
00:55:09.720 agenda of, of any major party nominee in modern times.
00:55:14.580 Yeah.
00:55:15.080 Um, so, so I think the, if the Democrats win, the left completes its takeover.
00:55:21.120 Um, and by the way, one illustration of that, and this goes back again to the, the sort of
00:55:27.840 origin story of a verdict.
00:55:30.020 Um, when we voted on impeachment in the Senate, every single Democrat voted to impeach.
00:55:37.940 And you remember when I, in particular, when Joe Manchin, so people will point to Joe Manchin or Doug
00:55:43.560 Jones, Doug Jones from Alabama, Joe Manchin from West Virginia.
00:55:47.300 They're both pointed to as, Oh, they're conservative Democrats.
00:55:50.640 Well, both voted to convict, uh, the president and I had interesting reactions.
00:55:54.860 I had different reactions to both of them.
00:55:56.520 Um, so when Doug Jones voted to convict, that didn't surprise me actually, because I think
00:56:00.960 Doug Jones knows he's going to lose.
00:56:02.460 Tommy Tuberville, the Republican nominee is going to beat him.
00:56:05.780 And I think Doug's decided he's going to go down in a blaze of glory and be a liberal
00:56:10.180 hero back home.
00:56:11.160 And if Biden wins, he'll be in the cabinet.
00:56:12.800 Right.
00:56:13.320 And, and, and so he, he knows he ain't winning in November and he's just, let's go.
00:56:18.580 Um, Manchin is different.
00:56:23.180 So Manchin.
00:56:26.520 You recall voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh.
00:56:29.820 Yeah, that's right.
00:56:30.840 And it was one brief moment of apostasy and it probably reelected Joe.
00:56:35.660 Um, he got reelected that cycle and that vote may have saved his bacon.
00:56:41.380 When he voted to convict the president, my reaction, I sit next to David Perdue on the
00:56:46.000 Senate floor.
00:56:46.360 I turned to, turned to David and said, huh, Manchin's not running again.
00:56:51.140 He's done.
00:56:52.300 And, and, and that's how I interpreted that vote is Manchin.
00:56:56.380 And Mitch, Joe's never really liked the Senate.
00:56:58.540 He was governor before he liked being governor a lot more than, than being in the Senate.
00:57:02.480 Yeah.
00:57:03.120 But I think when he voted there, the sort of last vestiges of dissent in the democratic
00:57:08.980 party, he just decided to heck with it.
00:57:11.740 I'll, I'll vote with the rest of them.
00:57:13.280 Because look in West Virginia, impeaching the president is extraordinarily unpopular.
00:57:21.180 If you're actually looking to get reelected in West Virginia, that's a dumb vote.
00:57:26.020 And, uh, the different scenario in terms of the future of the democratic party, if the
00:57:34.520 Democrats lose, if Trump is reelected, I think there's a real possibility of that.
00:57:38.740 Obviously I hope that happens.
00:57:40.080 Yeah.
00:57:40.640 Um, I think Democrats will lose their mind even more than they have now.
00:57:46.160 Um, I think the press will lose their mind even more than they have now, but you might
00:57:50.240 see in the wake of a Trump reelection, some sort of reassessment in the democratic party
00:57:57.860 and a resurgence of more reasonable voices.
00:58:01.460 There will at least be some Democrats that will have the thought, holy crap, being wild 0.90
00:58:06.700 eyed socialists and standing with the mob, burning our cities to the ground may not be
00:58:10.520 the most appealing electoral platform.
00:58:13.080 Uh, if they win, they're not going to say that, but if they lose, they might say that.
00:58:18.300 Um, but I don't think it's going to be a splittering party.
00:58:20.800 I think it's going to be a battle for who controls the party.
00:58:23.760 That's right.
00:58:24.080 You, you always hear this is the most important election of our lifetimes.
00:58:27.740 And, and in, in some ways it's always true because, you know, things progress down a
00:58:32.280 certain path and, and certain dangers can become more pronounced.
00:58:36.060 Uh, but, you know, we've talked on this show on an earlier episode about what could happen
00:58:40.480 if the Democrats win, particularly if the Democrats take the Senate, you know, you could have,
00:58:45.180 uh, Puerto Rican statehood, you could have DC statehood, you could have the end of the
00:58:48.540 filibuster, you have a real surge of a, of a democratic power grab, uh, really puts the
00:58:54.800 stakes into perspective, really puts the conventions into perspective.
00:58:57.740 And Senator, I know that you could stay up all night and, and keep talking and then
00:59:01.860 show up for work, you know, at 7am.
00:59:04.760 I, I am not like that.
00:59:06.240 I cannot do that.
00:59:07.100 So I have got to, I think, end it here.
00:59:09.680 Uh, we will have another episode soon.
00:59:11.220 I hope that all the people who are watching right now on YouTube, please head on over.
00:59:16.120 First of all, ring that bell, subscribe on YouTube, then go over to Apple podcasts, subscribe
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00:59:26.420 So go please subscribe.
00:59:27.440 We so appreciate it.
00:59:28.560 Be sure to write into the mailbag.
00:59:29.760 You can do that on Twitter by tagging either the Senator or me with hashtag verdict.
00:59:34.520 You can do that by writing in to mailbag at verdict podcast.com.
00:59:38.940 Thank you for the excellent questions, Senator.
00:59:41.180 Thank you for staying up and giving us insight into all the questions that I can't answer.
00:59:46.440 A pleasure as always.
00:59:47.800 And in the meantime, I'm Michael Knowles.
00:59:49.680 This is verdict with Ted Cruz.
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