Verdict with Ted Cruz - March 17, 2022


Masks on a Plane


Episode Stats

Length

41 minutes

Words per Minute

176.28761

Word Count

7,311

Sentence Count

617

Misogynist Sentences

11

Hate Speech Sentences

15


Summary


Transcript

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00:00:02.560 Guaranteed Human.
00:00:04.020 It is the two-year anniversary today of the COVID lockdowns.
00:00:11.020 Two long years.
00:00:13.120 We all thought it was going to be a couple of weeks.
00:00:15.240 Then we thought maybe it goes until Easter at the latest.
00:00:18.940 Well, two Easters have come and gone.
00:00:21.140 We're coming up on the third now.
00:00:23.320 And while in some ways it seems like the COVID measures are going away,
00:00:27.580 in other ways they seem to be in place.
00:00:29.540 You still have to wear a mask on an airplane.
00:00:32.620 The National Emergency Authorization has not gone away.
00:00:36.300 But Biden has actually said that he'll veto it if the House and the Senate vote to take it away.
00:00:42.380 Dr. Fauci has gone into witness protection, but he's still around in his post at NIAID.
00:00:48.280 Will COVID ever be over?
00:00:51.640 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.
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00:04:34.660 Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz.
00:04:36.500 I'm Michael Knowles.
00:04:38.060 Senator, please, you're on Capitol Hill.
00:04:41.340 Tell me, is there ever going to be an end to the COVID lockdown measures?
00:04:47.300 Yes, but it's going to happen over Democrats' dead bodies.
00:04:50.660 They don't want it to happen.
00:04:52.480 They are.
00:04:53.400 The Biden White House is fighting tooth and nail.
00:04:56.700 As you noted, Joe Biden just extended the airline mask mandate for another month.
00:05:03.140 Why?
00:05:03.780 Because they want a virtue signal.
00:05:05.060 It makes zero sense.
00:05:07.200 It is asinine.
00:05:08.700 But there is good news.
00:05:09.660 So the good news is the Senate voted today, I just finished voting, on a resolution to
00:05:16.360 end the airline mask mandate.
00:05:18.880 And that resolution in the Senate, it passed.
00:05:21.460 It passed with a big bipartisan margin.
00:05:25.940 It passed with eight Democrats who voted for it.
00:05:28.680 Here, I'll read you the Democrats.
00:05:30.260 You have Bennett from Colorado, who's on the ballot.
00:05:33.100 You have Cortez Masto from Nevada, who's on the ballot.
00:05:36.480 You have Maggie Hassan from New Hampshire, who's on the ballot.
00:05:40.380 You have Kelly from Arizona, who's on the ballot.
00:05:44.180 You have Sinema from Arizona, who's on the ballot.
00:05:48.500 You have Jackie Rosen from Nevada, who's helping out Cortez Masto, who's on the ballot.
00:05:55.000 You have John Tester in Montana because he realizes he doesn't live in a communist state.
00:05:59.460 And we have Joe Manchin from West Virginia because he realizes he doesn't live in a communist state.
00:06:04.800 I'm noticing a theme here, Senator.
00:06:06.700 It is people who realize this is idiotic.
00:06:10.020 Now, every other Democrat voted for the mandate.
00:06:12.780 They all lined up like lemmings to jump off the cliff.
00:06:18.260 Look, on the face of it, the airline mask mandate makes no sense whatsoever.
00:06:24.400 And everyone knows it.
00:06:26.040 Everybody does.
00:06:27.440 You think about what we're told.
00:06:28.820 OK, you're sitting on an airplane, which has got fancy filtration systems.
00:06:34.300 Apparently, they clean out ninety nine point nine percent of the particles in the air.
00:06:38.380 The rules are you must have a mask on.
00:06:41.700 Everyone will die if you don't.
00:06:43.160 Yeah.
00:06:43.260 Until you pick up a Diet Coke.
00:06:46.060 When you have a Diet Coke in your hand, no mask needed.
00:06:49.740 You can laugh.
00:06:50.580 You can spit.
00:06:52.100 You can you can do whatever you want.
00:06:53.440 Everything is safe.
00:06:54.740 You put the Diet Coke down.
00:06:56.280 I just recently had a flight with a really intense flight attendant who would literally,
00:07:01.180 as you set your drink down, like put your mask on in between sips.
00:07:04.980 And it was kind of like, dude, just just relax.
00:07:08.020 Just breathe, breathe.
00:07:09.400 You're going to be fine.
00:07:10.140 I never quite understood it.
00:07:11.700 You'd be sitting there and they'd say it is urgent.
00:07:13.780 It's federal law.
00:07:14.840 It's important to the health and survival of everyone.
00:07:17.620 You must have the mask on unless we hand you a cookie, in which case, if you get the cookie,
00:07:21.620 then you have to eat it.
00:07:22.840 So I'm really pleased to hear that the Democrats came out and a good number of them, especially
00:07:27.680 the ones on the ballot, voted to get rid of the mask mandate.
00:07:30.780 And then all the Republicans, I assume, were were on board with getting rid of the mandate.
00:07:35.420 Well, yes and no.
00:07:37.860 All the Republicans were on board except Mitt Romney.
00:07:41.700 So you can still sort of say yes.
00:07:45.160 I can't defend the guy on this.
00:07:47.540 I'm sorry.
00:07:48.880 This is idiotic.
00:07:50.600 I'm going to give you a crazy suggestion.
00:07:53.160 How about we have the same rule for Americans across the country who get on airplanes that
00:08:01.820 we have for members of Congress at the State of the Union address?
00:08:05.980 We had the State of the Union address two weeks ago.
00:08:09.220 535 members of Congress.
00:08:10.420 We're all sitting on the floor of the House.
00:08:12.480 I don't think there were five people wearing masks in the entire House chamber.
00:08:17.920 Joe Biden wasn't, although his speech might have been better if he was.
00:08:22.240 Kamala Harris wasn't sitting right behind him.
00:08:24.340 By the way, she didn't have anything to say.
00:08:25.680 Nothing prevented her from wearing a mask.
00:08:27.600 Nancy Pelosi wasn't.
00:08:29.040 And just about every other Democrat in the chamber wasn't.
00:08:32.220 We're sitting right next to each other.
00:08:33.620 We're in a closed environment.
00:08:34.780 But none of them were wearing it.
00:08:38.080 So why is it that a grandmother flying to visit her grandkids has to put a mask on when
00:08:45.120 Chuck Schumer or Kamala Harris or Nancy Pelosi don't?
00:08:49.140 It is stupid.
00:08:50.080 It is theater.
00:08:50.860 By the way, you know, just a week before the State of the Union, Pelosi was demanding that
00:08:57.880 she said no one will be allowed in the House chamber unless they have tested negative A
00:09:03.620 and B, unless they're wearing an N95 mask.
00:09:07.120 And I was like, you can kiss my hindquarters.
00:09:10.180 I am not going in there with an N95 mask.
00:09:12.720 So I hadn't decided whether I was going to just skip the whole thing altogether or whether
00:09:18.900 I was going to go in without a mask and see if the House would try to remove me.
00:09:23.560 That actually would have been kind of fun.
00:09:25.340 Dragged out by the police.
00:09:26.480 Yeah, that would have been great.
00:09:28.200 But then what I assume happened is someone in Pelosi's office looked at the polling and
00:09:35.520 said, holy crap, this is really unpopular.
00:09:37.760 Do we want Biden's whole speech to be seen with Pelosi and Kamala both wearing masks behind
00:09:43.780 him the whole time?
00:09:44.880 Right.
00:09:45.040 People won't like that.
00:09:46.780 And suddenly the science changed, not the medical science, the political science changed
00:09:51.760 and they got rid of the mandate.
00:09:54.240 This is garbage and it's time to get rid of it.
00:09:57.360 Well, if that's the case, so it passes the Senate and you've got a lot of Dems who sign
00:10:01.720 on to it.
00:10:03.480 It's going to go to the House now.
00:10:05.120 Is the House going to take it up?
00:10:06.280 Is the House going to vote for it?
00:10:07.480 Is Biden going to sign it?
00:10:09.100 Look, I assume Pelosi won't take it up, that she'll just leave it and won't allow a vote
00:10:13.760 on it.
00:10:14.840 Presumably it would pass the House.
00:10:16.120 If you got eight Democratic senators who voted for it, there are a lot more Democrats
00:10:21.480 in the House who would love to cast this vote.
00:10:23.760 But Pelosi is listening to the crazies in her party.
00:10:26.860 What this may do, it was such a strong bipartisan vote that what it may do is cause Biden not
00:10:34.440 to extend this damn thing beyond April 18th.
00:10:37.040 It was supposed to expire this week on March 18th.
00:10:40.060 They extended a month, seeing eight Democrats, including almost every Democrat on the ballot,
00:10:45.520 although Raphael Warnock didn't vote for it.
00:10:47.240 He's on the ballot in Georgia.
00:10:48.500 Apparently he thinks Georgians like wearing masks on planes.
00:10:52.020 You know, I'll let him explain that, but it may put political pressure on the White House
00:10:58.140 to change.
00:10:58.520 Look, I'll give another example.
00:11:00.620 The NBA, the Brooklyn Nets, Kyrie Irving, fantastic player, not allowed to play, hadn't
00:11:07.760 been playing for months.
00:11:09.560 Why?
00:11:10.040 Because the idiotic New York rules say you have to be vaccinated to play and Kyrie chose not
00:11:16.160 to be vaccinated.
00:11:17.380 Now, what this week, it truly illustrated the idiocy because New York revoked its requirement
00:11:27.060 that you had to be vaccinated to go to the games.
00:11:30.120 So the fans, Kyrie went to the game as a fan.
00:11:33.280 He's wearing, you know, civilian clothes.
00:11:35.480 He's there as a fan.
00:11:36.280 By the way, no more mask mandates.
00:11:37.500 So he doesn't have a mask on.
00:11:38.720 He's not vaccinated as a fan.
00:11:41.360 Perfectly okay for him to be sitting in the stadium.
00:11:43.880 He hugs his teammates on the courtroom.
00:11:46.760 Perfectly okay for him to hug his teammates as a fan.
00:11:49.720 Apparently he bought a ticket just like you or I would.
00:11:52.000 He went and bought a ticket.
00:11:54.400 But New York's rules are so idiotic that as a fan, he can be unvaccinated, not wear a
00:11:59.660 mask.
00:12:00.020 But as a player, he's not allowed to play because they say if your work is an indoor performance,
00:12:06.500 you must be vaccinated.
00:12:07.980 I don't know, Michael, explain the science to me.
00:12:09.940 Is there something about touching the leather on a ball?
00:12:12.820 Is it like the reverse of the Diet Coke that if you touch the leather on a ball, suddenly
00:12:18.380 it's deadly and everyone's going to die?
00:12:20.000 Is that how it works?
00:12:21.020 Yeah, I think it must be.
00:12:22.780 Well, I am glad to see.
00:12:24.960 I've just noticed it anecdotally that the tide seems to be turning.
00:12:28.420 Even my most liberal COVID neurotic friends and relatives.
00:12:33.320 But both of them?
00:12:34.300 But all two of them.
00:12:36.040 No, they really have.
00:12:37.620 I mean, I come from New York.
00:12:38.840 I know a lot of people who are pretty on the left.
00:12:41.180 You're a New York Yalie.
00:12:42.860 I assume you have have many liberal neurotic.
00:12:46.120 Look, I'll tell you how crazy it is.
00:12:47.780 I just did something 20 minutes ago that you would never believe I did.
00:12:51.620 Yeah.
00:12:52.160 I retweeted Trevor Noah.
00:12:55.340 I hope with some mocking derisive comment.
00:12:57.820 No, no, no.
00:12:58.420 I said, I agree with Trevor Noah.
00:13:01.400 And I said, this is a sign of the apocalypse because he was talking about Kyrie Irving.
00:13:04.540 And he said, this stuff makes no sense.
00:13:06.760 I mean, he was just it was a rant about how idiotic it was.
00:13:11.200 And when you've lost Trevor Noah as a leftist, you've lost everybody.
00:13:15.480 And I got to say, I did a press conference today in which I made a direct appeal to Kyrie.
00:13:21.920 Come to Houston.
00:13:23.320 I'm a diehard Rockets fan.
00:13:24.940 You know, in Texas, we actually are not insane, unlike Manhattan.
00:13:30.240 Kyrie, you can start tomorrow for the Rockets.
00:13:33.460 I have no authority to make that offer.
00:13:35.160 And yet I feel confident if you if you walk in and put on a Rockets uniform, they're going
00:13:40.320 to let you play.
00:13:40.980 He is a hell of a ball player and the idiocy, by the way, Kevin Durant just this week said
00:13:46.220 it's the dumbest rule I've ever seen.
00:13:47.560 He's allowed to sit in the stands, but not to dribble a basketball.
00:13:52.000 Trevor Noah asked a great question, Michael.
00:13:53.820 I'd be interested in your thoughts.
00:13:55.180 He said, OK, so how does it work?
00:13:56.980 He can buy a ticket.
00:13:57.860 He can go as a stand.
00:13:58.800 He doesn't have to wear a mask.
00:13:59.700 He can hug them.
00:14:01.360 But he can't touch a basketball.
00:14:03.340 What happens if at halftime they call him in to make the halftime shot to win a car?
00:14:07.460 Can he touch a basketball then as a fan, but not a player?
00:14:10.280 It just is garbage.
00:14:13.200 And by the way, the NBA just fined him $50,000 because he went into the locker room.
00:14:17.740 It is dumb.
00:14:19.740 And the good news is it is so asinine that that I think they.
00:14:26.340 I believe the these mandates are on their way out because even the craziest Democrats
00:14:31.780 realize how unpopular it is.
00:14:35.140 Everyone but the loons.
00:14:36.820 Well, and Mitt Romney realize how bad it is.
00:14:40.280 That's I used to say that Senator Romney was my favorite Democrat, but I think those
00:14:44.580 Democrats who voted against the masks, they probably take the cake now.
00:14:47.840 Yeah.
00:14:48.060 The way you know it, the way you know it, Senator, that that the public opinion is moving in this
00:14:53.200 direction is, of course, that Anthony Fauci has gone into the witness protection program.
00:14:58.200 I actually have a documentary series out today on the Daily Wire about Dr. Fauci's history,
00:15:05.440 not just during COVID, but going all the way back to the 80s, the way he's amassed all of
00:15:10.480 this power, the way that the most dangerous place in Washington is the space between Fauci
00:15:15.420 and a television camera.
00:15:17.180 They used to say that about Chuck Schumer.
00:15:18.800 Now you see that really with Fauci.
00:15:20.740 The fact that this man has held on to power for so long, we don't know very much about
00:15:25.160 him.
00:15:25.580 That series is out now.
00:15:26.520 It's Fauci unmasked.
00:15:28.080 I think they know.
00:15:29.200 And I think that's why they're going to bench the man.
00:15:31.440 They're trying to get through the midterms.
00:15:32.980 And then what happens after the midterms, I guess, is anyone's guess.
00:15:36.540 So, look, I think we should be understated.
00:15:39.040 I don't think we should engage in hyperbole.
00:15:41.760 And I know you have no desire to make a shameless pitch on this podcast.
00:15:46.540 Never.
00:15:46.980 But if I hear you right, you're saying that if you don't go immediately watch your documentary
00:15:52.400 on Dr. Fauci, that you will go to your grave as a poor, ignorant fool, unable to deal with
00:15:58.860 the universe and with really a lacking in basic awareness of anything happening on Earth.
00:16:03.780 Is that about right?
00:16:05.000 Senator, that is the subtlety that I have come to expect from you.
00:16:08.700 And it happens to be 100 percent correct.
00:16:11.860 You've put it very well.
00:16:12.960 This is the time.
00:16:14.120 Head on over to Daily Wire to go watch Fauci unmasked.
00:16:16.800 I just wanted us to be as shameless on this as you're and my friend Ben Shapiro.
00:16:21.940 And if he can brand just about everything on Earth, then surely we can pitch your documentary.
00:16:28.680 That's really all I want to do is get one over on Ben.
00:16:31.700 So I really I appreciate your help and I appreciate the help of all of the verdict listeners.
00:16:36.440 I did want to get your thoughts on this regarding Senator Romney, not not even the mask vote,
00:16:41.600 but he got into a tiff with a former Democrat Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.
00:16:46.920 Tulsi Gabbard had published a video about a United States program.
00:16:51.080 It's run out of the Pentagon to work with Ukraine on certain biological research facilities, as often happens when this program was exposed or being discussed in the media.
00:17:03.060 We were told it was a crazy tinfoil hat conspiracy theory.
00:17:05.920 It doesn't exist.
00:17:06.800 Then we found out it does exist, but we don't have the United States didn't have very much to do with it.
00:17:11.120 Then we found out the United States actually has had this program.
00:17:13.840 It goes back to a treaty from 2005, but the research was totally not dangerous whatsoever.
00:17:19.300 Now we find out hearing from the Pentagon and the State Department, actually, there are some very dangerous pathogens in these labs.
00:17:25.240 And if the Russians get their hands on them, this could be a really big problem in Ukraine.
00:17:29.640 So Tulsi Gabbard made a video basically to that effect.
00:17:32.720 And Senator Romney came out and said that she was a traitor who was peddling false Russian propaganda.
00:17:40.720 He accused an American service member, Tulsi Gabbard, and former member of Congress of treason.
00:17:46.840 That was unfortunate.
00:17:48.620 Tulsi came back and just body slammed it.
00:17:51.620 I mean, it was brutal.
00:17:54.020 Now she, she popped back and said, you have one of two choices.
00:17:59.960 I either respond and refute the facts I'm laying out or immediately apologize and resign from the Senate, which was probably not terribly understated either.
00:18:11.880 Um, you know, I will say on this issue, there is some subtlety here in that Tulsi is absolutely correct that there are bio labs in Ukraine, that there are labs that are studying pathogens, that are studying infectious diseases.
00:18:33.540 Now that shouldn't surprise anybody.
00:18:35.300 I mean, Ukraine is a first world country.
00:18:36.820 Um, you know, every first world country has labs that are bio labs that are studying pathogens.
00:18:42.220 You know, Ukraine is entitled to have a CDC, uh, just like France is or the, or the United Kingdom is that that's what, you know, developed countries have as they have medical research into dangerous diseases.
00:18:54.000 So of course, Ukraine has labs that are studying infectious diseases that presumably have all sorts of infectious diseases they're studying.
00:19:02.100 Um, and the point that, that you and I have made and others have made that when you have labs with infectious diseases, the dangerous pathogens, it's a really bad idea for Russia to be firing missiles and having their tanks shoot at them.
00:19:17.540 Just like it's a really dangerous idea for Russia to be firing missiles and having their tanks shoot at nuclear reactors.
00:19:22.780 Like nuclear reactors being hit by missiles is just bad.
00:19:27.240 It's just a bad, bad, bad idea.
00:19:30.420 Same thing.
00:19:31.260 If you have a bio lab that is studying dangerous pathogens, dropping a bomb on it is a really bad idea.
00:19:39.040 You don't want dangerous diseases to escape.
00:19:41.420 There is a slight nuance here in that there are folks online in the Twitter sphere that are, that are referring to these labs as bio weapons labs.
00:19:51.860 Now, bio weapons labs are different than bio labs.
00:19:56.080 And that one word, it's a small word, but it makes a world of difference.
00:19:59.580 Bio weapons labs suggest that they're studying how to use biological weapons to kill people, kill civilians, kill soldiers.
00:20:07.080 I have seen no evidence of bio weapons labs in Ukraine.
00:20:12.040 That's not to say they don't exist, but if they do, I haven't seen any evidence of it.
00:20:16.420 Um, I think that's what Romney was jumping on.
00:20:20.380 And, and I think it would have been perfectly fine to respond like a reasonable person and say, well, of course, Ukraine has bio labs.
00:20:28.040 Um, and it would be dangerous if Russian missiles or, or, or bombs hit them.
00:20:33.180 Um, the evidence at this point is not clear that Ukraine has bio weapons labs.
00:20:38.360 And so we should be cautious in terms of what we say.
00:20:41.120 That's actually how a rational person would engage.
00:20:44.540 But in this hyper politicized shirts and skin tribal, I hate anyone who disagrees.
00:20:52.460 Instead, we just scream traitor, traitor, traitor off with their heads.
00:20:55.660 And I think that's really, it'd be better if everyone refrained from doing that.
00:20:59.680 Right.
00:20:59.780 There is obviously a ton of nuance here.
00:21:01.620 I was wondering if you had any updates on what's going on in Ukraine and Russia.
00:21:06.120 The situation seems to be changing constantly.
00:21:08.720 Everyone is pumping propaganda into the air.
00:21:11.020 So sometimes it's hard to know what exactly to believe.
00:21:14.580 Now, one of the big points of contention here has been NATO membership.
00:21:19.140 Yeah.
00:21:19.260 A lot of the Russian propaganda says the whole reason for the war is because NATO is going eastward.
00:21:24.300 Ukraine has said they wanted to join NATO.
00:21:26.540 NATO has said, no, the reason for the war is because you, Vladimir Putin, are rolling tanks into Ukraine and you want to recreate the Soviet Union.
00:21:33.580 Zelensky himself in Ukraine had been saying that he wants to join NATO.
00:21:37.980 He had been signaling this for years.
00:21:40.640 Now, just today, he's come out and said that he's cooling on the idea of Ukraine joining NATO.
00:21:47.220 You're right.
00:21:48.280 That's a shift from where he's been in the past.
00:21:50.080 Listen, personally, I am not a fan of Ukraine becoming a member of NATO.
00:21:54.700 I agree.
00:21:55.080 And the reason is, look, being a member of NATO is a big deal.
00:21:59.940 And NATO is a military alliance.
00:22:03.780 It's a treaty that under Article 5 of NATO, an attack on one nation is an attack on all the member nations.
00:22:11.280 And it's an obligation, so, for example, if Russia invades France, we have a treaty obligation under NATO, the NATO treaty, to treat the invasion of France as if it were an invasion of the United States.
00:22:26.140 And under the most traditional interpretation, that means to respond, defending France militarily.
00:22:33.300 That is a big deal to make that obligation.
00:22:36.500 And I'm not a big fan of extending treaty obligations to send American servicemen and women into harm's way.
00:22:44.320 I think NATO is a very important alliance with the current NATO members.
00:22:50.080 You know, I can tell you in 2014, I traveled to Ukraine and I traveled to Poland and Estonia right after the Maiden Square, right after, you know, there was a Russian puppet who was in charge of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people rose up and threw him out.
00:23:10.640 And the Ukrainian secret police, like, shot protesters.
00:23:16.260 I walked through the Maiden Square, had a 16-year-old girl, a Ukrainian, who was one of the protesters, who walked me through the Maiden Square and said, all right, here's where this friend of mine was shot.
00:23:25.120 And you could see the marks of bullets where they had hit.
00:23:29.140 And they just sat there.
00:23:30.500 It was like Tiananmen Square.
00:23:31.540 They sat there executing protesters.
00:23:34.680 But it led to, effectively, a revolution in Ukraine where they ended up with a democratically elected government that is much more pro-America, much more pro-Europe, much more pro-West, rather than a Russia puppet government.
00:23:51.240 But on that trip, when I was there in Ukraine, meeting with leaders who wanted to be friends with America, as I said, I also went to Poland and Estonia, both of which are NATO members.
00:24:02.240 And I asked Poland, I asked in Estonia, I said, all right, what is your confidence if Russia invades you, invades Poland, invades Estonia?
00:24:13.700 What is your confidence that NATO will vigorously act under Article 5 to defend you?
00:24:19.620 And I got to tell you, in both nations, the blood drained out of their face.
00:24:23.260 And they had little to no confidence, as it is, that NATO would defend them.
00:24:28.940 I think they basically believed they'd get a stern press release and maybe some, like, you know, cyber response or something, but not a robust military response.
00:24:41.540 In both Poland and Estonia, Russian tanks in the street are not a distant memory.
00:24:47.720 People who were alive during the Cold War remember Russian tanks in their street.
00:24:51.860 And so it is already, defending NATO is already a serious obligation.
00:25:01.880 There are NATO members that feel less than secure.
00:25:04.300 And I think expanding it to former Soviet republics is a bridge too far.
00:25:10.240 We can support Ukraine.
00:25:11.680 We're providing them with military weapons.
00:25:13.880 We ought to provide them with more military weapons.
00:25:15.760 We ought to use economic power to take away Putin's revenue.
00:25:18.680 But we don't have a treaty obligation right now to send American servicemen and women into Ukraine.
00:25:24.740 And I think that's good.
00:25:25.720 I think that would be a bridge too far.
00:25:27.300 I agree.
00:25:28.040 And frankly, before this latest really full-scale invasion by Russia of Ukraine, even when they had just invaded Crimea, had Ukraine joined NATO at that point, presumably that would have triggered Article 5.
00:25:40.640 That would have been the fastest route to a world war that we've ever seen.
00:25:44.440 And so I entirely agree with your take, and one hopes that this shift in strategy is maybe pointing the way at some point toward a resolution of this conflict and an end to the bloodshed.
00:25:57.640 Now, turning domestically for a moment, Joe Biden is trying to blame all of his problems at home on Vladimir Putin.
00:26:06.040 He's doing this especially, we talked last episode about gas prices, and he's trying to do this with inflation broadly.
00:26:11.740 Now, Senator, I know it's wrong.
00:26:15.160 I know that he's lying.
00:26:17.260 I don't believe him for a second.
00:26:18.780 But I can't quite explain why he's wrong.
00:26:21.600 And now Joe Biden is enlisting TikTokers to spread his talking points to the masses of Americans.
00:26:29.520 So how is it the case that inflation is not all Vladimir Putin's fault?
00:26:33.700 Well, listen, I will say on this issue, like so many others, the White House has been nothing short of incoherent.
00:26:40.260 But as I count them, there are five shifting explanations they've had for inflation.
00:26:47.080 So the first explanation they had a year ago is they said there is no inflation, doesn't exist.
00:26:53.600 Janet Yellen, actually, I think it was March of last year, almost exactly a year ago, said there is no inflation.
00:26:59.320 I'd be highly surprised if there was inflation.
00:27:01.480 It just doesn't exist.
00:27:03.240 Pay no attention to your lying eyes.
00:27:05.120 Those numbers going up in front of you, they don't exist.
00:27:07.820 That didn't last very long.
00:27:11.240 Then explanation number two is they said, OK, there's inflation, but it's transitory.
00:27:16.780 It's just briefly here for a moment.
00:27:20.100 You know, I sat down.
00:27:21.140 I had a coffee with several other senators and Jay Powell, the head of the Federal Reserve.
00:27:26.240 And at the time we pressed him on inflation.
00:27:28.940 And this was spring of last year.
00:27:31.120 And that was Jay Powell's answer.
00:27:32.280 It's transitory.
00:27:33.200 It just it's going to be here for a minute.
00:27:35.360 So, yeah, prices are up, but we're not worried about it.
00:27:37.920 It's going to go away.
00:27:39.020 And we were like, well, baloney.
00:27:41.400 Then the third explanation, they get progressively more asinine.
00:27:47.500 So if there's a asininity meter, I don't know, is that what you would call it, an asininity meter?
00:27:52.860 I believe there's an asininity scale.
00:27:54.640 Yeah.
00:27:54.800 So it climbs the asininity.
00:27:56.540 So it doesn't exist.
00:27:58.100 Transitory.
00:27:58.680 That's two.
00:27:59.260 Number three was Ron Klain saying it's a high class problem.
00:28:04.180 Yes.
00:28:04.380 Yes, it exists.
00:28:05.360 We're not saying it's transitory, but it's high class.
00:28:07.900 It's it's just the people eating Grey Poupon who are worried about it.
00:28:12.080 It's it's not regular Americans.
00:28:14.640 You know, it's it's just rich guys, which is a weird explanation because it's actually the opposite.
00:28:20.880 Yeah.
00:28:21.460 Rich guys don't care.
00:28:24.000 You know, the gazillionaires, the people who run the Democratic Party now, the Silicon Valley billionaires.
00:28:30.440 What difference does it make to them?
00:28:32.500 John Kerry, when he flies in his court, his private jet all over the world,
00:28:36.040 he doesn't care on prices.
00:28:38.180 He's got more money than he knows what to do with.
00:28:40.180 It's it's it's the seniors on a fixed income who care about it.
00:28:43.620 So high class problem was really an asinine explanation.
00:28:47.860 But then they managed to beat it.
00:28:51.200 And it explanation number four, they said, yes, inflation exists.
00:28:57.080 It's not transitory, not high class anymore.
00:29:00.080 Everyone's facing it.
00:29:01.680 But explanation number four is inflation is a good thing.
00:29:06.460 It's a sign of just how good the economy is.
00:29:09.920 Hot diggity damn.
00:29:11.120 We're just booming and inflation.
00:29:13.240 You ought to pop a champagne.
00:29:14.740 Of course, you can't afford a bottle of champagne.
00:29:16.060 But if you can afford a bottle of champagne, pop the cork and celebrate.
00:29:19.460 Maybe a can of beer.
00:29:20.580 You know, one beer.
00:29:21.500 You could pop a beer and celebrate because it is so good that you ought to be thrilled.
00:29:27.980 It's not happening and it's good that it is.
00:29:30.020 Right.
00:29:30.280 Yes, that was explanation number four.
00:29:33.880 Now, at this point right now, the polling shows inflation is the number one concern of
00:29:37.640 Americans.
00:29:38.080 I just saw that polling today.
00:29:39.900 So the Biden White House is like, oh, crap, this is a problem.
00:29:44.140 And so explanation number five is Putin did it.
00:29:48.600 Yeah.
00:29:48.660 And that is and they are pushing this through every outlet of propaganda, which means number
00:29:56.480 one, the corporate media and the corporate media is shilling.
00:29:59.080 CNN is, you know, Brian Stelzer was saying Putin is causing the inflation.
00:30:04.060 You might think it's Joe Biden, but no, no, no, it's Vladimir Putin.
00:30:08.680 And as you noted, these clowns got these tick tock influencers to push the story that all
00:30:17.160 the inflation you see, it's it's Putin.
00:30:19.460 And unfortunately, these tick tock influencers are more than happy to just yap these talking
00:30:25.660 points.
00:30:27.520 They presumably don't understand what they're OK.
00:30:29.900 One of two things is the case.
00:30:31.120 Either they don't understand what they're saying or they do understand and they're deliberately
00:30:36.060 lying because the talking points are absurd.
00:30:39.300 Inflation has been rising.
00:30:41.660 We just last month, it was seven point nine percent.
00:30:44.560 The highest in 40 years.
00:30:47.940 Steve Ratner, who was the top economic advisor for Obama in the White House, Steve Ratner tweeted
00:30:53.900 out, said, look, these inflation numbers are before the invasion in Ukraine and they have
00:31:01.100 you know, the Ukraine numbers.
00:31:03.780 Russia has very little to do with this.
00:31:06.440 This is Biden's inflation.
00:31:08.040 He needs to own it.
00:31:08.900 Now, when you got Obama's economic advisor saying this is Biden's inflation, that's pretty
00:31:14.660 compelling.
00:31:15.300 And people get it right now.
00:31:17.540 Can they blame it on the lockdowns?
00:31:20.040 Can they say, well, you see, because we had to lock down the country, which is obviously
00:31:25.500 a debatable point in and of itself, but because we had to lock down the country, we didn't
00:31:29.800 have as much commerce going on.
00:31:31.260 But now there's a lot more and demand is up.
00:31:33.280 So anyway, if it's not Putin's fault and it is really happening and it's not good, then
00:31:38.180 just blame it on the lockdowns.
00:31:39.840 Is that I've heard some of that chatter from the White House, too.
00:31:42.420 So look, they could.
00:31:44.020 And that's actually a more plausible explanation.
00:31:47.580 But they're the ones at fault for the damn lockdown.
00:31:51.480 Look, I'm from Texas.
00:31:52.940 We opened up.
00:31:53.880 Florida opened up.
00:31:55.520 You know, red states.
00:31:56.980 And by the way, these Democratic totalitarian petty dictators.
00:32:03.340 Is there anything they hate more than the fact that states like Texas and Florida exist?
00:32:09.540 Because if you didn't have a handful of red state oases that said, screw you, we're not
00:32:16.640 shutting down our restaurants, we're not shutting down our bars, we're not shutting down our
00:32:19.860 stores, and we're especially not shutting down our schools, then the whole country would
00:32:25.000 be like New York and California.
00:32:26.420 It would just be, you know, quietly accept the rules.
00:32:30.900 And we've seen the contrast, which is powerful.
00:32:33.300 So look, did the lockdowns contribute to inflation?
00:32:37.020 I'm sure they did.
00:32:37.840 Um, but these idiots are the ones that forced the lockdown.
00:32:42.480 So either way, it's their screw up.
00:32:44.620 Yep.
00:32:44.980 Right.
00:32:45.540 Before we go, I agree.
00:32:46.820 That is that is actually a very good answer.
00:32:48.660 You should put that on TikTok.
00:32:49.880 There we go.
00:32:50.560 We should make a verdict TikTok channel.
00:32:52.260 Can you dance?
00:32:53.180 I'll listen.
00:32:54.420 If we can get to a million subscribers on verdict, I will dance on TikTok.
00:32:59.620 I do want to get to this question.
00:33:01.140 It is, I think, on everyone's mind.
00:33:02.820 It's from the mailbag.
00:33:03.840 This comes from midsize dog.
00:33:05.080 I don't think that's his Christian name, but it comes to us from at least the pseudonym.
00:33:09.400 Who would win in a fight?
00:33:11.500 Putin or Elon Musk?
00:33:13.360 Oh, my.
00:33:14.880 Well, that question is is slightly different than.
00:33:20.660 Um, then I guess Elon Musk challenged Putin to wrestle.
00:33:26.380 And if it was simply wrestling, look, I like Elon.
00:33:30.760 I respect Elon.
00:33:33.260 But Elon is a tech gazillionaire.
00:33:36.380 Putin is a KGB thug.
00:33:38.240 So let me put it this way.
00:33:40.120 If Elon wants to go like getting jello and wrestle Putin, what he does in his own free
00:33:45.040 time for fun is his own business.
00:33:47.440 Yeah.
00:33:47.600 I wish we hadn't introduced the jello.
00:33:50.480 I'm not willing to wager anything because I think what Elon said is he wants to resolve
00:33:54.160 the Ukraine war with him wrestling Putin.
00:33:56.640 And I love Elon, but I don't have enough confidence that he wins that wrestling match
00:34:01.480 to stake the fate of Ukraine on it.
00:34:04.320 Now, you asked the question slightly differently, though, which is who would win in a fight.
00:34:09.460 And so a fight is different from wrestling.
00:34:11.760 On one level, Putin has nuclear weapons and the Russian army, which is not nothing, although
00:34:17.940 right now grandmas in Ukraine are throwing Molotov cocktails on them.
00:34:22.760 But, you know, Elon might be able to send killer robots and self-driving cars and like
00:34:29.920 satellite laser beams to come after Putin.
00:34:32.760 So a broader fight, Elon might have a shot in the broader fight.
00:34:36.960 But wrestling match, I'm not willing to go with Elon just yet.
00:34:41.440 True.
00:34:41.680 When you fight dirty, including space lasers, all bets are off.
00:34:45.840 What I want to know, what I want to know, and I want Elon to answer this, does he have
00:34:50.820 sharks with lasers on them?
00:34:52.300 Sharks with frigging lasers.
00:34:53.760 That would be really cool.
00:34:55.320 Putin wanders by the ocean.
00:34:57.020 A shark with a frigging laser comes out.
00:34:59.120 And if he does not yet, Senator, put a patent on that.
00:35:02.300 Get that.
00:35:02.820 Don't let Elon get that idea for free.
00:35:04.840 That's a good, that's a good idea.
00:35:06.500 A summit asks, will the U.S. dollar remain the global reserve currency?
00:35:12.140 Probably.
00:35:13.620 I hope so.
00:35:15.980 There's no doubt as we're putting sanctions on Russia, Russia's trying to find alternatives.
00:35:20.440 China wants their currency to replace it.
00:35:23.360 At the end of the day, reserve currency is about who people are confident in and who they
00:35:28.060 want to bet on.
00:35:28.720 Um, you know, I'm reminded of Bill Clinton's former chief of staff, a guy named Erskine
00:35:34.020 Bowles, a couple of decades ago, referred to the U.S. economy as the prettiest horse
00:35:40.880 in the glue factory.
00:35:42.860 In other words, there are lots of problems and reasons he was pessimistic about, um, the
00:35:48.140 U.S. economy.
00:35:48.840 But we were still much, much stronger than everybody else.
00:35:51.940 Um, at the end of the day, that dynamic is there.
00:35:55.340 China has a serious and, and growing and dangerous economy.
00:36:00.260 But there aren't a lot of people eager to tie themselves to China.
00:36:03.980 China engages regularly in torture and murder and genocide and concentration camps and theft
00:36:10.020 and oppression.
00:36:10.580 And you got to be pretty dumb to say, hey, that's the model I want.
00:36:15.240 Um, you know, it, it, uh, at the end of the day, doing business with America is better.
00:36:22.660 Um, now if you keep seeing Democrats print money, and by the way, Democrats with, with Republican
00:36:29.620 complicity, I mean, I mean, on any massive spending bill, you get all the Democrats and half the
00:36:33.660 Republicans.
00:36:34.060 So there are, there are some big government Republicans, uh, that, that, that, that bear some
00:36:38.780 blame as well, but if we keep debasing the currency, it's one of the reasons for the
00:36:43.100 rise of crypto is that people are putting their money in crypto because Bitcoin is the
00:36:48.220 new digital gold and, and money flows to gold and silver and to assets, hard, hard currency
00:36:54.480 when you don't trust that the paper currency will retain its value.
00:36:58.460 And, and so that, uh, the more Biden and the Democrats devalue our currency, the more vulnerable
00:37:06.560 it gets, and the more people will flee to alternatives.
00:37:08.900 And some of those will include foreign currency, whether the Euro or, or the Chinese Yuan.
00:37:16.160 Final question from Shania.
00:37:20.000 Pineapple on pizza.
00:37:21.180 Yes or no?
00:37:23.280 Okay.
00:37:23.840 This is a terrible deviation from orthodoxy, but I like me some Hawaiian pizza.
00:37:29.680 Ham and pineapple.
00:37:30.820 It's tasty.
00:37:32.540 I like the damn thing.
00:37:33.760 I recognize you're Italian, you're, you're rolling over in your grave.
00:37:37.760 It's a mortal sin, I believe.
00:37:39.260 Yeah.
00:37:40.100 Yeah.
00:37:40.340 But, but tell me, all right, have you tried it?
00:37:42.740 I listen, I was young once I was young and irresponsible.
00:37:46.160 I tried a little.
00:37:47.220 And tell me, was it good?
00:37:49.060 I know there's something to it there.
00:37:50.440 Look.
00:37:50.600 Oh, okay.
00:37:51.280 I've got a bigger admission.
00:37:52.540 I've got Michael Knowles defending pineapple on pizza.
00:37:55.020 That's a much bigger deal.
00:37:56.700 Not all.
00:37:57.480 Listen, there are some things we need to constrain our base appetite, Senator.
00:38:01.000 That is a conversation for another episode.
00:38:04.200 And Michael, let me just jump in because I made a promise today that I've got to keep.
00:38:08.040 Okay.
00:38:08.780 So on the steps of the Capitol, I met with a junior high class from Roma, Texas.
00:38:15.360 That's down in the Rio Grande Valley in Star County.
00:38:18.500 There was a group of probably, I don't know, 30, 30 or 40 junior high kids, eighth grade kids
00:38:23.940 who were on their eighth grade trip to Washington.
00:38:26.600 And I talked with them in the Capitol, great kids, and was visiting with them, was asking
00:38:32.240 questions.
00:38:32.780 And they're asking, they asked about Ukraine and what was going on.
00:38:35.460 They asked smart, intelligent questions.
00:38:37.140 These are smart kids.
00:38:39.580 And, and I mentioned the podcast.
00:38:41.660 I said, look, if you want to know what's going on, one vehicle is you can listen to the podcast.
00:38:46.080 And I tried to do my best to explain what's actually happening.
00:38:48.920 And one of the kids said, well, will you mention us on the podcast?
00:38:53.180 And I said, I'll tell you what I will.
00:38:55.940 So I'm honoring my promise because I'm going to keep my word on that.
00:38:59.840 I will tell you one thing that was fascinating.
00:39:02.100 So these are kids from South Texas.
00:39:05.540 South Texas historically has been overwhelmingly Democrat.
00:39:09.620 It is 80 to 90% Hispanic.
00:39:11.880 It's voted Democrat for a hundred years.
00:39:14.180 Maybe a third of the kids there were wearing make America great red hats and we're wearing
00:39:22.580 Trump shirts.
00:39:23.800 I mean, it was stunning.
00:39:25.640 Wow.
00:39:26.160 And, and I got to say, this is something that is happening.
00:39:28.820 It's happening in Texas, but it's happening across the country, which is Hispanic voters
00:39:33.820 are moving to the right massively in South Texas, which has been Democrat a long, long time.
00:39:40.860 I think in November, South Texas is going to go Republican and we're going to elect several
00:39:46.600 Hispanic Republicans.
00:39:48.680 There are two I've endorsed, Cassie Garcia, who is an Hispanic woman.
00:39:52.700 She, she was on my staff for 10 years.
00:39:54.600 I know Cassie very, very well.
00:39:56.100 She's fantastic.
00:39:57.940 And then Monica De La Cruz, who was another Hispanic woman.
00:40:00.940 They're both running against Democrats in South Texas and seats that have been Democrat
00:40:04.900 forever.
00:40:05.840 And I'm predicting now, both of them are going to win and, and, and it is a sea change.
00:40:10.660 If you can imagine the nightmare for Nancy Pelosi and for AOC to have Hispanic women who
00:40:19.000 are conservative Republicans from the Rio Grande Valley standing up and saying the policies
00:40:23.960 you're enacting are insane.
00:40:25.680 I think that's the, the, the kind of red wave we're going to see in November and shout out
00:40:31.720 to the kids from Roma.
00:40:32.720 Well, that's a shout out to them.
00:40:35.040 You might've lost us some of the Italian vote with your offensive comments about pizza,
00:40:39.280 but if we can pick up much more of the Hispanic vote, people realize these left-wing policies
00:40:44.580 are driving us off a cliff.
00:40:45.880 That would be a wonderful thing.
00:40:48.340 A little bit to hold on hope for, but we've got to leave it at that.
00:40:51.260 I'm Michael Knowles.
00:40:52.320 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.
00:40:53.540 This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is being brought to you by Jobs, Freedom, and Security
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