Verdict with Ted Cruz - Media Reporting on a Story They Once Buried, DOJ Pulls Plug on ABA & Kamala’s Word Salad on Colbert Week In Review

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.500 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.240 Welcome.

00:00:06.120 It is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:07.760 Weekend Review.

00:00:08.860 Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:10.020 And here are some big stories you may have missed that we've been talking about recently.

00:00:14.740 First up, Joe Biden's decline was nothing but a full-blown cover-up.

00:00:20.540 We're talking about that cognitive decline.

00:00:23.500 And guess what?

00:00:24.280 The media was in on it.

00:00:26.120 We'll explain exactly just how corrupt the media was.

00:00:29.160 And now how they're being held accountable.

00:00:32.020 Also, in a big move, the American Bar Association is finally going to have no role in judicial nominations.

00:00:39.020 Why?

00:00:39.640 Well, corruption.

00:00:40.840 And we'll explain that as well.

00:00:42.660 And finally, Kamala Harris has written a book explaining how Trump is a threat to democracy.

00:00:50.440 And where did she do it?

00:00:51.660 On a show that's been canceled.

00:00:53.860 We'll have the highlights of what she had to say.

00:00:56.120 It's the Weekend Review, and it starts right now. 0.99

00:00:59.980 Senator, it is a very big week for putting out books that are full of crap. 0.99

00:01:05.020 It truly is stunning. 0.98

00:01:07.420 So Jake Tapper from CNN has a book along with Alex Thompson from Axios.

00:01:12.920 The book is entitled Original Sin, President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. 0.99

00:01:21.700 And when you talk about full of crap, I really don't think you're being fair to crap. 0.98

00:01:26.500 Like, this is like a book, Arsonist Discovers a Fire He Started. 0.99

00:01:34.280 This is like a book, Tony Montana, the drug dealer, says cocaine is bad for you.

00:01:40.660 Like, yes, Jake, there was a cover-up.

00:01:44.240 An absolute, complete, total cover-up.

00:01:47.640 It was knowing.

00:01:48.920 It was deliberate.

00:01:50.600 And you did it.

00:01:52.640 You, Jake Tapper, and CNN were 24-7 engaging the cover-up.

00:01:59.040 You knew about his mental decline, and you refused to tell anybody.

00:02:03.020 All right, so let's go back to this lie that I think the part that blows my mind the most is the fact that Tapper is actually probably going to get a bestseller out of this.

00:02:13.020 Everyone in the media is praising him for this incredible reporting, and this is the guy that literally helped cover up the cognitive decline and dismissed anyone who had brought it up on his show.

00:02:23.000 So, look, the book, as I understand it, was originally written by Alex Thompson.

00:02:27.300 Alex Thompson is not nearly as well-known as Jake Tapper.

00:02:29.800 Yep.

00:02:30.180 And he had a contract with a book publishing company.

00:02:32.600 He wrote the book, and then the book publishing company decided to cancel it and said,

00:02:36.680 No, we're not going to publish this book after all.

00:02:38.880 In other words, the book publishing company engaged in yet another cover-up because they didn't want anyone to know.

00:02:44.560 And so Thompson sought out Tapper and convinced Tapper, Hey, join with me.

00:02:48.220 You're a big, famous guy.

00:02:49.140 They'll publish it if your name's on it.

00:02:51.020 And Tapper said yes.

00:02:53.100 And I got to say, so there are lots of –

00:02:56.020 Never let a crisis go to waste, right?

00:02:57.660 That's exactly – look, and particularly a chance to make some good money.

00:03:00.180 I mean, hey, what's journalism all about if not monetizing your own hypocrisy and your own cover-up?

00:03:05.820 Look, Tapper, some of the facts that are coming out in this book.

00:03:09.180 In 2023 and 2024, Tapper and Thompson report, Biden's physical deterioration was so severe that his advisors discussed the possibility he would need to use a wheelchair if he won re-election.

00:03:23.760 That's how bad it was.

00:03:25.480 And yet, every time anyone tried to bring up those facts, Jake Tapper and the rest of the corporate media covered it up.

00:03:35.860 But don't take my word for it.

00:03:37.200 Listen to Jake Tapper in his own words.

00:03:39.660 This is a collection of Tapper over the years.

00:03:41.740 And this goes back to 2020.

00:03:43.880 The very beginning is him talking to one of the Trump family members, Laura Trump, and he actually, like, ends the interview.

00:03:50.480 Like, you can't even say this on my show.

00:03:53.100 So this montage starts in 2020, then goes to 21, 22, 23, and then 24, all throughout.

00:03:59.760 Listen, Tapper, for five years, covered this up aggressively.

00:04:03.060 Give a listen.

00:04:04.660 How do you think it makes little kids with stutters feel when they see you make a comment like that?

00:04:09.660 It's very clearly a cognitive decline.

00:04:12.280 That's what I'm referring to.

00:04:13.580 It makes me uncomfortable.

00:04:14.620 You are, you are no, I can't, it's so amazing.

00:04:18.420 It's so amazing to me that, that.

00:04:19.820 And try and figure out an answer.

00:04:21.500 A cognitive decline.

00:04:22.760 Biden embraces his stutter, talking about it, while Trump mocks it, exaggerates it, belittles it.

00:04:27.920 He's sharp physically.

00:04:29.380 I mean, mentally.

00:04:30.760 Yeah.

00:04:30.900 I think the question is physically, right?

00:04:32.760 Right.

00:04:32.960 Or so?

00:04:33.480 Right.

00:04:33.740 Right.

00:04:33.980 And the guy who's his chief opponent is only three or four years younger than him.

00:04:37.280 I mean, you have questioned President Biden's age, mental fitness, ability to lead of those supporting Biden.

00:04:42.800 You said, quote, shame on all of you, pretending everything is okay.

00:04:45.300 You're leading us and him into a disaster.

00:04:47.280 Do you worry that you damaged him at all?

00:04:49.460 I don't doubt that you got hugs and handshakes behind closed doors today.

00:04:53.820 And maybe even publicly, some of them, because they like you personally.

00:04:58.200 But I've heard a lot of really nasty stuff about you from your Democratic colleagues.

00:05:02.680 I mean, just like, what is he thinking, exercising narcissism.

00:05:07.380 I mean, false claims to The Wall Street Journal about President Biden's mental fitness and acuity.

00:05:13.060 He's 81, and his memory, you know, it doesn't seem great.

00:05:16.580 It's not horrible.

00:05:17.500 But I don't understand the outrage.

00:05:19.620 Quote, behind closed doors, Biden shows signs of slipping, unquote.

00:05:23.780 The Wall Street Journal is owned by News Corp, which is run by the Murdochs.

00:05:27.240 Beyond the headline, there is some critical nuance here.

00:05:29.420 The article is mostly based on observations of Republicans, with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy the only one going on the record.

00:05:36.980 They do note in the article that most of the criticism comes from Republicans.

00:05:40.640 Have you heard any concerns from anyone who has met with President Biden about him seeming a little slower?

00:05:47.920 No.

00:05:48.100 The Russians are trying to do, to make us and the public not trust our election integrity. 1.00

00:05:53.760 Joe Biden has dimension, all this stuff.

00:05:55.940 Let's just stop there and give the title of the book again, Senator, so people understand what they just heard and now what he's writing.

00:06:06.620 Because if you just look at the title of the book, you understand the debauchery of journalistic scumbaggery.

00:06:13.940 The title of the book is Original Sin, President Biden's decline, its cover-up, and his disastrous choice to run again.

00:06:23.980 And understand, Jake Tapper, when he was saying that, he was lying.

00:06:28.800 He knew he was lying.

00:06:30.460 Everyone else on CNN knew he was lying.

00:06:32.820 They knew they were lying.

00:06:34.360 Everyone on MSNBC knew they were lying.

00:06:36.500 Everyone on ABC, NBC, CBS knew they were lying.

00:06:39.020 Everyone at the New York Times knew they were lying.

00:06:41.040 Everyone at the Washington Post knew they were lying.

00:06:43.960 Everyone knew this.

00:06:45.140 Look, one of the facts in his book, he says at a fundraiser in June of 2024, Joe Biden didn't recognize George Clooney, who he's known for decades.

00:06:54.540 George Clooney, by the way.

00:06:55.600 He had to be introduced, like, Ocean's Eleven.

00:06:58.120 What, is there a casino you're robbing?

00:06:59.480 I don't understand.

00:07:00.540 Like, Biden had no idea.

00:07:01.700 This is the same fundraiser, you remember, where Barack Obama had to lead Biden off the stage because he was just confused and staring out in space.

00:07:09.180 And Tapper and the rest of them just lied to us and said, A-OK, no problems here.

00:07:14.060 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.

00:07:20.580 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them. 0.98

00:07:27.120 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:07:30.840 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:07:32.040 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:07:33.260 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:07:37.000 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:07:42.760 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:07:45.740 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:07:51.520 Now on to story number two.

00:07:53.860 All right, Senator, so let's dive into this other issue that really is an interesting one.

00:08:00.340 You've got a lot to say about the Trump Justice Department telling the American Bar Association that it will no longer comply with ratings for judicial nominees.

00:08:11.840 Now, explain the politics behind this.

00:08:14.340 The ABA has had a lot of power, and they're basically now saying, we're not going to let you guys have that power because there's been a lot of bias coming out of the American Bar Association.

00:08:25.280 Well, the American Bar Association, it's a national organization of lawyers, and it is a left-wing advocacy group.

00:08:33.440 It is not fair.

00:08:34.380 It is not impartial.

00:08:35.740 It is a radical left organization.

00:08:38.160 And the ABA has had a formal role in judicial selection for 75 years.

00:08:45.300 It started rating judicial nominees in 1953.

00:08:50.420 And until 2001, the ABA actually had a formal role evaluating judicial nominees before they were nominated.

00:08:59.760 So a president, a Department of Justice, an administration would share with the ABA, hey, we're thinking of nominating Ben Ferguson to be a federal judge.

00:09:09.300 And they'd go and research and interview former clients, and at some point people would say, wait, Ben's not even a lawyer.

00:09:17.060 How the hell is he going to be a judge like he probably should go to law school first?

00:09:21.500 And by the way, that point is not crazy.

00:09:25.120 But they engaged that they would do a formal role, and they would rate the qualifications of judicial nominees.

00:09:34.020 Now, here's the problem.

00:09:35.320 For decades, the ABA's qualification measures were wildly biased.

00:09:43.140 So, for example, Robert Bork.

00:09:45.160 Robert Bork, Ronald Reagan nominated Robert Bork to the Supreme Court in 1987.

00:09:50.420 Robert Bork was, by any measure, one of the most qualified federal judicial nominees in the history of this country.

00:09:57.120 Robert Bork had been the Solicitor General of the United States, the Chief Lawyer for the United States in front of the Supreme Court of the United States.

00:10:04.960 Robert Bork had been one of the most renowned and respected law professors for decades.

00:10:11.680 Robert Bork had been a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

00:10:15.880 And so a remarkable career.

00:10:19.960 And yet the ABA, when they evaluated Robert Bork, they concluded he was, quote, not qualified to be a judge.

00:10:26.480 They also concluded the same thing for Frank Easterbrook.

00:10:29.540 Again, brilliant, brilliant judge, brilliant professor, one of the greatest judges to have ever served on the Court of Appeals, Frank Easterbrook.

00:10:37.600 The ABA concluded he was not qualified.

00:10:40.080 Also, Edith Jones.

00:10:41.840 Edith Jones is a judge on the Fifth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals down in Texas. 1.00

00:10:46.600 I know Judge Jones well.

00:10:47.800 She's a phenomenal jurist, one of the best and most conservative judges in the entire country.

00:10:54.520 The ABA rated her not qualified.

00:10:57.720 Well, the breaking news is this week the Trump Justice Department announced the ABA will no longer have a role in judicial selection.

00:11:06.160 They will no longer have a role in vetting.

00:11:08.140 They're out.

00:11:09.260 And the Department of Justice said, you know what?

00:11:11.540 They can chime in like any other left-wing advocacy group, but they don't have a role in this process.

00:11:17.140 This is going to have, I think, a big impact on the quality.

00:11:22.220 Pam Bondi informing the ABA that they'll no longer enjoy the special access to judicial nominees.

00:11:27.480 And the left, by the way, when that news came out, they totally freaked out.

00:11:32.640 And I think that also shows just how much they were depending on the ABA to get rid of good candidates that were maybe more conservative.

00:11:39.920 Yeah, and so Pam Bondi sent a letter to the president of the ABA, and she said, quote,

00:11:47.100 While the ABA is free to comment on judicial nominations along with other activist organizations, there is no justification for treating the ABA differently from such other activist organizations, and the Department of Justice will not do so.

00:12:01.500 And so previously, the Office of Legal Policy, which is the office within the Department of Justice that handles judicial selections, they had previously directed judicial nominees to provide a waiver to the ABA to let the ABA access non-public information, including bar records.

00:12:23.780 And so no longer is the Department of Justice going to tell judicial nominees, give the ABA special access.

00:12:29.580 That is over. And moreover, Pam Bondi says, quote, nominees will also not respond to questionnaires prepared by the ABA and will not sit for interviews with the ABA.

00:12:42.160 In other words, you can be like every other whack job organization on the left, but you're not going to have any special access whatsoever.

00:12:50.880 This is something I've called for a long time.

00:12:53.720 I have for years, for more than a decade, advocated that the ABA is wildly biased, and it should not have a special role in the process, and I want to commend President Trump and Pam Bondi.

00:13:05.620 It's the right thing to do.

00:13:07.180 Senator, we hear a lot about bias and bias against conservatives, but my other question is, were they also biased in advocating for liberals?

00:13:15.960 Absolutely. They are a hard-left advocacy organization masquerading as a nonpartisan professional organization.

00:13:25.180 And Joe Biden, over the last four years, nominated over and over again radicals and zealots, many of whom were wildly unqualified.

00:13:32.740 And the ABA was more than happy to stamp them with a rating of qualified.

00:13:37.940 And one example is Charnel Bejelkingren, who was wildly unqualified, and yet the ABA happily deemed her qualified.

00:13:48.860 And rather than me lay out how bad she was, I want you to listen to this cross-examination from my colleague John Kennedy to this judicial nominee in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

00:13:58.960 Here, give a listen.

00:13:59.460 Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and congratulations to all of you.

00:14:08.340 Judge, on the far end, tell me what Article 5 of the Constitution does.

00:14:16.360 Article 5 is not coming to mind at the moment.

00:14:19.760 Okay. How about Article 2?

00:14:22.020 Neither is Article 2.

00:14:24.040 Okay. Do you know what purposivism is?

00:14:27.220 In my 12 years as an assistant attorney general and my nine years serving as a judge, I was not faced with that precise question.

00:14:39.220 We are the highest trial court in Washington State, so I'm frequently faced with issues that I'm not familiar with.

00:14:46.980 And I thoroughly review the law, our research, and apply the law to the facts presented to me.

00:14:53.360 Well, you're going to be faced with it if you're confirmed.

00:14:56.900 I can assure you of that.

00:15:02.980 He was dumbfounded at the end there.

00:15:05.000 Like, I can't believe you don't know this.

00:15:06.640 Well, and let me underscore how simple the first two questions are that he asked.

00:15:13.580 So, the Constitution has seven articles.

00:15:17.040 It's not a very long document.

00:15:19.760 Article 5 is the article that lays out the process for amending the Constitution.

00:15:24.720 It's fairly basic.

00:15:26.520 That was his opening question.

00:15:27.760 She had no idea what Article 5 was.

00:15:30.220 Article 2 is even more fundamental.

00:15:32.240 So, the first three articles of the Constitution, Article 1 creates the Congress, Article 2 creates the President and the Executive Branch, and Article 3 creates the Federal Judiciary.

00:15:42.340 To not know what Article 2 is is stunning.

00:15:46.020 To give you a sense, you will flunk constitutional law and not graduate law school if you don't know what Article 2 is.

00:15:53.360 She was being nominated to be what is called an Article 3 judge.

00:15:58.240 I assume she had no idea what Article 3 was.

00:16:01.960 And nevertheless, the ABA said she's qualified to be an Article 3 judge, even though she has no idea what it is.

00:16:08.560 I'm very glad the ABA no longer has a role in making those determinations.

00:16:13.240 As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing.

00:16:21.960 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:16:24.020 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:16:27.980 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk Podcast.

00:16:31.840 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:16:33.100 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:16:34.340 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:16:38.080 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:16:43.840 So, if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:16:47.060 Listen to the Honest Talk Podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:16:51.120 I want to get back to the big story, number three of the week you may have missed.

00:16:58.380 Kamala Harris now.

00:17:00.100 She's coming out on her book tour.

00:17:02.220 Not a joke.

00:17:02.880 She kicked it off and joined The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to do it.

00:17:06.800 Harris coming out, swinging, blasting the SCOTUS for forgetting what, quote, democracy and the rule of law is, quote, unquote, supposed to be.

00:17:16.040 She also talked about her new book and the, quote, horrors of January 6th on The Late Show with Colbert as well.

00:17:23.080 I mean, this was one of those interviews.

00:17:24.420 Play a little bit from her announcement video on her new book because I have to say, it's almost like a Saturday Night Live skit.

00:17:31.320 Give it a play.

00:17:32.680 Yeah, it is.

00:17:33.180 This is her real announcement of her real book launch.

00:17:35.720 Just over a year ago, I launched my campaign for President of the United States, 107 days, traveling the country, fighting for our future, the shortest presidential campaign in modern history.

00:17:49.660 It was intense, high stakes, and deeply personal for me and for so many of you.

00:17:56.560 Since leaving office, I've spent a lot of time reflecting on those days, talking with my team, my family, my friends, and pulling my thoughts together.

00:18:07.820 In essence, writing a journal that is this book, 107 days.

00:18:14.000 With candor and reflection, I've written a behind-the-scenes account of that journey.

00:18:19.320 I believe there's value in sharing what I saw, what I learned, and what I know it will take to move forward.

00:18:28.540 In writing this book, one truth kept coming back to me.

00:18:32.900 Sometimes, the fight takes a while.

00:18:36.380 But I remain full of hope.

00:18:38.880 And I remain clear-eyed.

00:18:41.160 I will never stop fighting to make our country reflect the very best of its ideals.

00:18:47.080 Always on behalf of the people.

00:18:50.940 So thank you for being in this fight with me.

00:18:53.620 I am forever grateful.

00:18:55.280 And I cannot wait for you to read this.

00:18:58.140 And I'll see you out there.

00:18:59.560 Take care.

00:19:01.240 I mean, it is Saturday Night Live worthy.

00:19:03.800 It's also one of the funniest things ever because she's basically saying,

00:19:07.120 Oh, by the way, I'm not going to run for governor in California.

00:19:09.840 That came up as well.

00:19:11.340 And it's like, here's my book on how bad my campaign sucked, but I'll rewrite the history on that.

00:19:16.220 And, oh, by the way, I'm basically saying I'm probably going to run again.

00:19:19.440 Well, you know, the script that she's reading there, that's clearly a script she's reading from a teleprompter.

00:19:25.240 And I just sort of love, with candor and reflection, a behind-the-scenes tale.

00:19:32.380 And, look, it's so clearly written by a book publicist.

00:19:35.080 The chances that there is anything resembling candor or reflection in this book are 0.0%.

00:19:42.380 There is not.

00:19:43.840 This is a sanitized, whitewashed version of how, you know, the good ship lollipop was derailed by evil Donald J. Trump, by evil voters.

00:19:59.220 Oh, those voters.

00:20:01.220 And I've got to say, it's interesting how little candor and reflection Kamala has.

00:20:08.860 I want you to listen to her with Stephen Colbert.

00:20:11.640 And if there is an even less gracious, kind, balanced, normal person on TV than Stephen Colbert, I don't know who that is.

00:20:22.820 This is one partisan shrill to another, but listen to how neither one of them has learned anything from the 2024 election.

00:20:31.840 Give a listen.

00:20:32.740 This is a time for people to, you know, I mean, look, we designed our democracy with three independent, co-equal branches of government.

00:20:42.600 I mean, when you see that the president of the United States is trying to get rid of the Department of Education, and Congress has the role and responsibility to stand in the way of that, and they're just sitting on their hands, and then they go on recess because they don't want to deal with transparency?

00:20:59.160 And the Supreme Court says that he can ignore a law that established it.

00:21:05.260 Yeah, but the Supreme Court, we knew what they were doing.

00:21:08.420 Remember, I talked about it in 107 days.

00:21:10.860 I don't put that in the book, by the way.

00:21:13.820 This is an exclusive.

00:21:15.040 This is an exclusive for the Stephen Colbert show.

00:21:19.020 But the Supreme Court basically gave whoever would be president, when I was in the campaign, I talked about it, immunity.

00:21:28.840 Immunity.

00:21:30.220 We talked about it.

00:21:31.980 So we're not surprised what the Supreme Court is doing.

00:21:34.960 And God thank those members of the court who write brilliant dissents and remind us of what the democracy and the rule of law is supposed to be.

00:21:47.040 You know?

00:21:49.520 You hear that, and it's like, what are you even talking about?

00:21:52.560 There's so much in what she's saying that is incoherent and wrong.

00:21:58.020 Let's start off where she's saying, okay, the president is trying to abolish the Department of Education and Congress is refusing to do its jobs. 0.79

00:22:08.640 No, we actually agree with abolishing the Department of Education.

00:22:12.920 This was something that the president campaigned on.

00:22:16.020 And the reason the American people agree with abolishing the Federal Department of Education is not because education doesn't matter, but precisely the opposite.

00:22:23.720 Because it matters so much that people are ticked off that a bunch of left-wing woke bureaucrats that you and Joe Biden appointed tried to take over schools, tried to indoctrinate kids, tried to push Marxist ideology in our children, and tried to convince them that boys were girls and girls were boys, and tried to let boys compete in girls sports.

00:22:41.280 And force this on schools, and the red tape, and the bureaucracy, and the waste, and the ideology from the Department of Education is precisely why President Trump is working to abolish it.

00:22:54.720 And I've actually had Democrat senators say to me very much what Kamala does.

00:22:59.160 Well, we're just, the Senate is irrelevant because you're not stopping this.

00:23:03.380 It's like, no, the Senate is relevant.

00:23:05.360 In fact, we're voting on it.

00:23:06.860 I had one senator say this to me when we voted to shut down NPR and PBS.

00:23:11.900 She was like, how can you be doing this?

00:23:13.940 The Senate's not doing our job.

00:23:15.300 I'm like, no, we're precisely doing our job.

00:23:17.720 The American people are not interested in spending billions of dollars to fund left-wing propaganda.

00:23:23.660 The irony is Kamala frames what she's saying as a defense of democracy.

00:23:28.760 What she's mad at is democracy.

00:23:31.260 What she's mad at is the American people elected Donald Trump.

00:23:34.400 What she's mad at is the American people elected a Republican House.

00:23:37.780 What she's mad at is the American people elected a Republican Senate. 0.97

00:23:41.040 And she's really, really mad that President Trump and the Republican Senate and the Republican House are doing what they said they would do.

00:23:49.120 In other words, they are honoring and respecting democracy by carrying out the campaign promises they told the American people.

00:23:55.520 And that infuriates them.

00:23:57.640 And the irony of her claiming that she believes in democracy.

00:24:03.700 This was an administration, the Biden-Harris administration, that repeatedly indicted her political opponent, Donald Trump.

00:24:12.960 This was an administration Democrats across the country tried to remove Trump's name from the ballot because nothing says protecting democracy like stopping the voters from voting for your opponent.

00:24:23.900 And so when she says, well, gosh, we must defend democracy.

00:24:36.100 What she means is we need radical left-wing policies.

00:24:41.280 And if the voters don't like them, to hell with the voters, we want them anyway.

00:24:47.700 That's what she's saying.

00:24:48.940 And by the way, when she's denouncing the courts, what she's really saying is she wants radical unelected judges to ignore the will of the voters,

00:24:57.360 to ignore democracy, and to force her very unpopular policies on the American people anyway, 1.00

00:25:03.440 doing things like she doesn't want illegal immigrants, Venezuelan gang members, murderers and rapists and child molesters. 0.99

00:25:11.780 She doesn't want them arrested. 0.98

00:25:13.520 She doesn't want them deported.

00:25:14.980 And she wants these radical judges that she was responsible, along with Joe Biden for appointing,

00:25:20.100 to stand up and say, we don't care what the American people voted for.

00:25:24.780 We are going to decree release more illegal immigrants into your neighborhood because that's who the Democrat Party represents today. 1.00

00:25:33.560 By the way, you mentioned represent the Democratic Party.

00:25:37.140 Kamala Harris was asked a question by Stephen Colbert, and it's one that went viral.

00:25:42.260 It is the biggest question that's being asked in the political world right now.

00:25:46.900 Who is in charge of the Democratic Party?

00:25:49.940 And I want you to hear this word salad and get your take on it.

00:25:54.120 Take a listen.

00:25:55.780 Who's leading the Democratic Party?

00:25:58.000 I'm just curious.

00:25:58.860 There are lots of leaders.

00:26:00.340 There's generally a leader of the Democratic Party.

00:26:03.420 You know, like, oh, that's the leader of the Democratic Party.

00:26:05.360 Who comes to mind?

00:26:06.820 I think there are a lot of...

00:26:08.900 I'm not going to go through names because then I'm going to leave somebody out and then I'm going to hear about it.

00:26:13.340 But let me just...

00:26:14.440 Let me say this.

00:26:15.440 I think it is a mistake for us who want to figure out how to get out and through this and get out of it to put it on the shoulders of any one person.

00:26:29.560 It's really on all of our shoulders.

00:26:32.320 It really is.

00:26:35.980 All of our shoulders.

00:26:37.260 It's not a great answer, is it?

00:26:39.600 Well, look, look, I actually have a little bit of sympathy for her because there's no way to answer that.

00:26:44.280 The real answer is there is no leader of the Democrat Party.

00:26:47.260 They are leaderless.

00:26:48.180 They are rudderless. 0.99

00:26:49.040 They are running around like chickens with their heads cut off. 0.61

00:26:51.640 Look, who would you say?

00:26:52.880 You could say Chuck Schumer, but Chuck Schumer is not leading anything.

00:26:57.180 He's utterly terrified of AOC.

00:26:59.760 Whatever AOC and the squad demands, that's what Schumer does.

00:27:02.380 So she's not going to say Chuck Schumer because the audience would laugh.

00:27:04.960 If she said Chuck Schumer, they'd laugh.

00:27:07.100 If she said Akeem Jeffries, most of them would say, who's that?

00:27:10.260 Like, he's not leading anything.

00:27:11.600 He's just in the House.

00:27:12.720 And in both the Senate and House, Schumer and Jeffries are essentially just embodying rage and hatred to Donald Trump.

00:27:20.580 They don't have an agenda beyond open borders and lawlessness and hatred of Donald Trump.

00:27:25.920 That's the entirety of the Democrat Party.

00:27:28.500 And then beyond that, you've got all their ambitious governors.

00:27:31.400 You know, Gavin Newsom is desperately trying to be super liberal and super moderate and whatever you want and slick and all around.

00:27:37.180 And suddenly he knows boys aren't girls until tomorrow and then boys are girls.

00:27:41.300 But she can't say him either.

00:27:43.460 And so there is no answer she can give because this is a rudderless party.

00:27:47.980 And to the extent there is a leader, it is the pro-Hamas contingent.

00:27:52.840 It is AOC.

00:27:54.100 It is Ilhan Omar.

00:27:55.540 It is the extreme left-wing squad that is driving the rest of the party and that everyone else in the party is terrified of.

00:28:05.560 Yeah, it's amazing.

00:28:07.540 It is actually fun for once to watch the Democratic Party from top to bottom being just complete and utter disarray.

00:28:18.020 Because let's be honest, you've got to play one more clip.

00:28:21.180 You've got to play the clip when Colbert asked if she was running for governor.

00:28:25.300 Yeah, this is amazing.

00:28:26.460 Take a listen.

00:28:26.960 Yesterday, you made an announcement that you're not running for the governor of California.

00:28:31.680 Correct.

00:28:32.200 You said you're going to sit this one out.

00:28:35.080 Why are you sitting this out?

00:28:35.960 Are you saving yourself for a different office that might be?

00:28:38.540 No, no, no.

00:28:40.300 Obviously, people project onto you their hopes and dreams.

00:28:43.000 And honestly, it's more perhaps basic than that.

00:28:48.700 Listen, I am a devout public servant.

00:28:51.720 I have spent my entire career in service of the people.

00:28:56.680 But to be very candid with you, I had to defend my decision to become a prosecutor with my family.

00:29:02.980 Why is it then when we think we want to improve a system or change it that we're always on the outside on bended knee or trying to break down the door?

00:29:11.400 Shouldn't we also be inside the system?

00:29:13.840 And that has been my career.

00:29:15.540 Recently, I made the decision that I just, for now, I don't want to go back in the system.

00:29:21.000 I think it's broken.

00:29:22.880 I think it's broken.

00:29:24.280 You can't make that up either.

00:29:26.180 But you know what's broken about it.

00:29:28.460 What is that?

00:29:30.420 That she lost.

00:29:32.360 That's her whole definition of whether the system is working or it's broken.

00:29:36.820 It is broken because the American people voted for Donald Trump and not for Kamala Harris.

00:29:41.260 It is broken because the American people voted for a Republican Senate and not a Democrat Senate.

00:29:45.760 It is broken, in her view, because the American people voted for a Republican House and not a Democrat House. 0.67

00:29:51.300 In her view, democracy, the system only works when she and other left-wing lunatics are in power. 1.00

00:29:59.540 That's how she defines whether it's working or whether it's broken.

00:30:04.180 It is purely, it is 100% about power.

00:30:09.480 And look, part of why, to be honest, you and I, we don't listen to Stephen Colbert, and we very rarely listen to Kamala Harris.

00:30:17.580 The reason why we're playing this exchange is because it really does show that there's not a moment of reflection, you know, what she had in her book promo about candor and whatever.

00:30:29.340 There's none of that.

00:30:31.080 She continues four years of a disastrous agenda.

00:30:37.660 Open borders, 12 million illegal immigrants, the worst illegal immigration in our nation's history. 0.82

00:30:42.180 She takes no responsibility for that, doesn't acknowledge that.

00:30:44.820 Abandoning all of our friends and allies, going from peace and prosperity to two simultaneous wars across the globe, she takes no responsibility for that.

00:30:53.280 The Democrat Party becoming rabidly anti-Semitic, her funders funding violent anti-Semitic riots on college campuses, she takes no responsibility for that.

00:31:04.640 There's not at all an acknowledgement of, gosh, people voted for Donald Trump in significant part

00:31:14.240 because they were really, really, really unhappy with the radical policies that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris put in place.

00:31:23.020 No acknowledgement of that at all.

00:31:24.960 And their view, the system is broken.

00:31:27.420 Why?

00:31:28.400 Because the democracy is functioning.

00:31:30.380 To her mind, if the voters can vote her out, the system is broken.

00:31:35.420 That is the essence of the contempt that today's Democrat Party has for for big D democracy.

00:31:43.540 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:31:49.640 Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day.

00:31:53.300 You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.

00:31:56.560 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.

00:32:00.400 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.

00:32:04.120 This is an iHeart podcast.

00:32:06.760 Guaranteed human.

00:32:07.440 Guaranteed human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - August 09, 2025

Media Reporting on a Story They Once Buried, DOJ Pulls Plug on ABA & Kamala’s Word Salad on Colbert Week In Review

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript