Verdict with Ted Cruz - August 08, 2025


Media’s Role in Biden’s Decline ＂Only Good Four Hours a Day＂


Episode Stats


Length

34 minutes

Words per minute

188.26584

Word count

6,576

Sentence count

557

Harmful content

Misogyny

5

sentences flagged

Toxicity

14

sentences flagged

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson have a new book that is full of crap, and it's sure to go down in history as one of the worst books ever written on the subject of President Joe Biden. Ted and Ben are here to debunk it.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.480 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.160 Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:09.640 And Senator, it is a very big week for putting out books that are full of crap. 0.99
00:00:14.920 It truly is stunning. 0.98
00:00:17.300 So Jake Tapper from CNN has a book along with Alex Thompson from Axios.
00:00:23.320 The book is entitled Original Sin, President Biden's Decline,
00:00:27.180 Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. 0.99
00:00:31.780 And when you talk about full of crap, I really don't think you're being fair to crap. 0.99
00:00:37.220 Like this is like a book, Arsonist Discovers a Fire He Started. 0.99
00:00:44.180 This is like a book, Tony Montana, the drug dealer, says cocaine is bad for you.
00:00:50.640 Like, yes, Jake, there was a cover-up.
00:00:53.700 An absolute, complete, total cover-up.
00:00:57.540 It was knowing.
00:00:58.840 It was deliberate.
00:01:00.520 And you did it.
00:01:02.560 You, Jake Tapper, and CNN were 24-7 engaging the cover-up.
00:01:09.040 You knew about his mental decline, and you refused to tell anybody.
00:01:13.180 It's shocking just how bad it was.
00:01:16.100 And by the way, we have the receipts just to remind people.
00:01:19.200 No, no, you're going to hear the proof momentarily.
00:01:21.700 Yeah, and we're going to get to that because I want everyone, and this is why we do this show.
00:01:26.080 This is why we do this podcast.
00:01:27.940 You're going to want to share this on social media because it's so big.
00:01:31.260 But first, I want to talk to you about starting my day.
00:01:34.280 I do it every morning with an amazing cup of Crockett coffee.
00:01:38.480 If you want unbelievable coffee every morning, then I got to introduce you to Crockett coffee.
00:01:44.080 And I just had my first cup a few moments ago.
00:01:46.700 I've got a cup of coffee every moment when I'm doing this show.
00:01:50.080 Crockett coffee is roasted perfection in small batches on purpose by experts that love the taste of amazing coffee.
00:01:57.600 It's roasted in our nation's heartland and delivered fresh to your home or office.
00:02:01.920 And if you want to drink coffee every morning that makes you feel like you're outside by a campfire,
00:02:07.660 then you got to check out the aroma of Crockett coffee.
00:02:11.960 It brews in your home or your office, and you're going to love it.
00:02:15.560 Now, this is premium coffee.
00:02:17.460 If you want an average cup of coffee, do not order Crockett coffee.
00:02:21.460 There is also one other thing I love.
00:02:23.860 It is owned by great conservatives, fellow patriots, Buck Sexton and Clay Travis.
00:02:29.500 They came up with this idea, and they're two guys that never sell out.
00:02:34.560 So if you're ready to have a great cup of coffee, then choose between the fresh ground, the whole bean, or the K-cups.
00:02:41.260 And if you're interested in mushroom coffee and the positive benefits that come with that, you can also check that out at Crockett coffee.
00:02:47.880 Now, I want to save you some money right now.
00:02:49.900 Go online to CrockettCoffee.com.
00:02:53.060 Use my name, Ben.
00:02:54.740 You're going to get 20% off your first order.
00:02:57.100 That's CrockettCoffee.com.
00:02:59.560 Use my name, Ben.
00:03:00.420 You're going to get 20% off your first order.
00:03:02.680 You are going to love your coffee every morning.
00:03:05.340 Try it.
00:03:05.780 You'll be hooked just like I am.
00:03:07.000 And you're going to go, man, I love supporting great conservatives who are willing to go out there and start new businesses for conservatives just like you.
00:03:15.520 CrockettCoffee.com.
00:03:16.960 Promo code Ben.
00:03:17.980 Get you 20% off your first order.
00:03:20.420 Try it right now.
00:03:21.580 All right.
00:03:22.060 So let's go back to this lie that I think the part that blows my mind the most is the fact that Taft River is actually probably going to get a bestseller out of this.
00:03:31.500 Everyone in the media is praising him for this incredible reporting.
00:03:34.640 And this is the guy that literally helped cover up the cognitive decline and dismissed anyone who had brought it up on his show.
00:03:41.440 So look, the book, as I understand it, was originally written by Alex Thompson.
00:03:45.760 Alex Thompson is not nearly as well-known as Jake Tapper.
00:03:48.260 Yep.
00:03:48.600 And he had a contract with a book publishing company.
00:03:51.060 He wrote the book.
00:03:51.860 And then the book publishing company decided to cancel it and said, no, we're not going to publish this book after all.
00:03:57.320 In other words, the book publishing company engaged in yet another cover-up because they didn't want anyone to know.
00:04:03.000 And so Thompson sought out Tapper and convinced Tapper, hey, join with me.
00:04:06.660 You're a big famous guy.
00:04:07.580 They'll publish it if your name's on it.
00:04:09.460 And Tapper said yes.
00:04:11.560 And I got to say, so there are lots of –
00:04:14.360 Never let a crisis go to waste, right?
00:04:16.120 That's exactly – look, and particularly a chance to make some good money.
00:04:18.620 I mean, hey, what's journalism all about if not monetizing your own hypocrisy and your own cover-up?
00:04:24.240 Look, Tapper, some of the facts that are coming out in this book.
00:04:27.620 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.
00:04:42.200 That's how bad it was.
00:04:43.940 And yet, every time anyone tried to bring up those facts, Jake Tapper and the rest of the corporate media covered it up.
00:04:54.300 But don't take my word for it.
00:04:55.660 Listen to Jake Tapper in his own words.
00:04:58.120 This is a collection of Tapper over the years.
00:05:00.120 And this goes back to 2020.
00:05:02.340 The very beginning is him talking to one of the Trump family members, Laura Trump, and he actually, like, ends the interview.
00:05:08.940 Like, you can't even say this on my show.
00:05:11.520 So this montage starts in 2020, then goes to 21, 22, 23, and then 24, all throughout.
00:05:18.200 Listen, Tapper, for five years, covered this up aggressively.
00:05:21.520 Give a listen.
00:05:23.100 How do you think it makes little kids with stutters feel when they see you make a comment like that?
00:05:27.980 It's very clearly a cognitive decline.
00:05:30.720 That's what I'm referring to.
00:05:32.020 It makes me uncomfortable.
00:05:33.060 You are no.
00:05:34.860 You have.
00:05:35.660 This is so amazing.
00:05:36.840 It's so amazing to me that.
00:05:38.240 And try and figure out an answer.
00:05:39.940 A cognitive decline.
00:05:41.180 Biden embraces his stutter, talking about it, while Trump mocks it, exaggerates it, belittles it.
00:05:46.380 He's sharp physically.
00:05:47.840 I mean, mentally.
00:05:49.200 Yeah.
00:05:49.360 I think the question is physically, right?
00:05:51.240 Right.
00:05:51.420 Or so.
00:05:51.940 Right.
00:05:52.200 Right.
00:05:52.420 And the guy who's his chief opponent is only three or four years younger than him.
00:05:55.720 Exactly.
00:05:55.960 I mean, you have questioned President Biden's age, mental fitness, ability to lead of those
00:06:00.400 supporting Biden.
00:06:01.300 You said, quote, shame on all of you, pretending everything is OK.
00:06:03.740 You're leading us and him into a disaster.
00:06:05.740 Do you worry that you damaged him at all?
00:06:07.900 I don't doubt that you got hugs and handshakes behind closed doors today and maybe even publicly
00:06:14.080 some of them because they like you personally.
00:06:16.640 But I've heard a lot of really nasty stuff about you from your Democratic colleagues.
00:06:21.120 I mean, just like, what is he thinking, exercise in narcissism.
00:06:25.840 I mean, false claims to The Wall Street Journal about President Biden's mental fitness and
00:06:30.860 acuity.
00:06:31.500 He's 81 and his memory, you know, it doesn't seem great.
00:06:35.040 It's not horrible.
00:06:35.740 But I don't understand the outrage.
00:06:38.060 Well, behind closed doors, Biden's shows signs of slipping.
00:06:41.700 Unquote.
00:06:42.180 The Wall Street Journal is owned by News Corp, which is run by the Murdochs.
00:06:45.680 Beyond the headline, there is some critical nuance here.
00:06:47.880 The article is mostly based on observations of Republicans, with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy,
00:06:52.720 the only one going on the record.
00:06:55.420 They do note in the article that most of the criticism comes from Republicans.
00:06:59.080 Have you heard any concerns from anyone who has met with President Biden about him seeming
00:07:05.380 a little slower?
00:07:06.360 No.
00:07:06.540 The Russians are trying to do to make us and the public not trust our election integrity. 1.00
00:07:12.200 Joe Biden has dimension, all this stuff.
00:07:14.380 Let's just stop there and give the title of the book again, Senator, so people understand
00:07:21.540 what they just heard and now what he's writing, because if you just look at the title of the
00:07:28.000 book, you understand the debauchery of journalistic scumbaggery.
00:07:32.920 The title of the book is Original Sin, President Biden's decline, its cover-up, and his disastrous
00:07:40.680 choice to run again.
00:07:42.440 And understand, Jake Tapper, when he was saying that, he was lying.
00:07:47.240 He knew he was lying.
00:07:48.900 Everyone else on CNN knew he was lying.
00:07:51.300 They knew they were lying.
00:07:52.800 Everyone on MSNBC knew they were lying.
00:07:54.960 Everyone on ABC, NBC, CBS knew they were lying.
00:07:57.460 Everyone at the New York Times knew they were lying.
00:07:59.480 Everyone at the Washington Post knew they were lying.
00:08:01.420 Everyone knew this.
00:08:03.580 Look, one of the facts in his book, he says at a fundraiser in June of 2024, Joe Biden
00:08:09.100 didn't recognize George Clooney, who he's known for decades.
00:08:12.980 George Clooney, by the way.
00:08:14.040 He had to be introduced like Ocean's Eleven.
00:08:16.580 What, is there a casino you're robbing?
00:08:17.920 I don't understand.
00:08:19.000 Like, Biden had no idea.
00:08:20.160 This is the same fundraiser, you remember, where Barack Obama had to lead Biden off the
00:08:24.820 stage because he was just confused and staring out in space.
00:08:27.640 And Tapper and the rest of them just lied to us and said, A-OK, no problems here.
00:08:32.660 You go back, Senator, to what you just said a moment ago.
00:08:35.260 And it's a great point here.
00:08:37.040 And it's one about the fact that they were at this fundraiser and the president didn't
00:08:43.620 know, like, who George Clooney was.
00:08:45.820 You have Barack Obama having to walk him off stage.
00:08:48.320 Like, that was when everyone in his realm that they were even trying to, I think, insulate,
00:08:53.600 protect him from.
00:08:54.280 They all knew then, like, this is a disaster.
00:08:56.800 And yet they still went full speed ahead with it.
00:08:59.260 No, that's exactly right.
00:09:00.820 You know, the Babylon Bee had a great headline that summed up this book.
00:09:04.320 So the Babylon Bee's headline was, quote, Jake Tapper uncovers startling evidence that
00:09:09.700 Biden's decline was covered up by Jake Tapper.
00:09:13.280 And that's exactly what his book is.
00:09:16.260 And listen, listen to this week, Chuck Schumer, because it wasn't just Jake Tapper that was
00:09:21.520 lying.
00:09:22.300 Every Democrat was lying.
00:09:23.460 Every Democrat senator, every Democrat governor, every Democrat House member.
00:09:26.440 They all knew Biden was seriously declining mentally, and they all covered it up.
00:09:31.880 Schumer was one of the most shameless because he gave his own personal guarantee about how
00:09:37.860 quick Biden was.
00:09:39.400 And listen this week when finally the media confronts him about his lies.
00:09:43.720 Listen to what Chuck Schumer says.
00:09:44.960 You said in June of last year, in my meeting with President Biden, I found him being commanding
00:09:51.480 and impressive and building influence to make progress on key priorities.
00:09:55.780 But in that same month, Biden apparently did not even recognize George's will be a fundraiser.
00:10:01.280 Were you being straight with the American public?
00:10:03.120 Look, we're just looking forward.
00:10:05.520 I mean, it's the best answer I've ever heard from a politician said.
00:10:09.280 We're just looking forward.
00:10:10.200 Hey, we got to go.
00:10:11.360 We're just looking forward.
00:10:12.300 And I'm walking off stage like we're just looking forward.
00:10:15.480 I mean, so, Governor, tell me about the dead body that we found in your house.
00:10:19.320 We're just looking.
00:10:19.720 We're just looking straight forward.
00:10:21.100 Tell me about the cocaine in the White House.
00:10:23.480 Let's just use that one in the White House.
00:10:24.900 We're just looking forward.
00:10:25.720 We're just moving.
00:10:26.300 We're just moving forward, guys.
00:10:28.200 Schumer.
00:10:28.740 Not not the tiniest bit of accountability.
00:10:31.180 Not the.
00:10:31.900 Oh, yeah.
00:10:32.220 We're moving forward.
00:10:33.060 Not just we're moving forward.
00:10:34.380 Of course, we're moving the Democrats in 2025.
00:10:37.200 You know, it reminded me back, if you remember, when Mitt Romney ran for president against Barack Obama.
00:10:43.400 Yes.
00:10:43.840 And Harry Reid went and lied and claimed that Mitt Romney hadn't paid income taxes.
00:10:49.380 And he just flat out lied.
00:10:50.420 Yeah, right.
00:10:50.820 And he did it on the Senate floor.
00:10:52.040 You know why he did it on the Senate floor?
00:10:53.440 Because you can't argue back with him, right?
00:10:54.920 Well, that's true.
00:10:55.720 But there's another reason he did it on the Senate floor.
00:10:57.620 Because the Constitution has a provision called the Speech and Debate Clause that immunizes members of Congress for speech and debate on the Senate floor.
00:11:05.220 He did it so no one could sue him.
00:11:06.760 So Mitt Romney couldn't sue him for defamation because he was lying.
00:11:11.160 And he didn't say it on TV.
00:11:12.480 Interesting.
00:11:13.220 And after the election, they asked Harry Reid about, wait, you were lying.
00:11:18.740 You had no evidence.
00:11:19.880 And Harry Reid, who was then the Democrat Senate Majority Leader, he said, well, Romney didn't win, did he?
00:11:25.600 Like, it's the same thing as Chuck Schumer.
00:11:28.080 We're just looking forward.
00:11:29.220 All right, listen to now Biden's National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, who worked with Biden every day in the White House and so knew to an absolute certainty that Biden was severely mentally declining.
00:11:43.500 But listen to what Jake Sullivan said.
00:11:46.060 What happened in that debate was a shock to me.
00:11:48.040 I think it was a shock to everybody.
00:11:49.660 And I've made that point before.
00:11:51.240 Just finally, do you think, in retrospect, given everything that's happened, everything we've talked about today, it was a mistake for President Biden to try to run again?
00:11:59.580 One of the things about being National Security Advisor is that you're mercifully insulated from politics and political decision-making.
00:12:09.460 I was insulated from it to the point where, while I was National Security Advisor, my spouse was running for Congress, and I had strict rules about what I could even do to support my spouse, let alone be involved in political decision-making, political calls in the White House.
00:12:25.660 So I have not weighed in on those issues and would not weigh in on those issues.
00:12:29.180 Let's just be clear.
00:12:30.760 I've known National Security Advisors. 1.00
00:12:32.560 That is the biggest load of crap I've ever heard. 0.99
00:12:34.200 I'm just going to point out something really funny. 1.00
00:12:37.080 There's something about Democrat men that makes them weenies.
00:12:40.580 Yeah.
00:12:40.960 So he says, my spouse was running for Congress.
00:12:44.960 So he is actually married to a woman.
00:12:47.000 Yep.
00:12:47.660 Ben, can you imagine any circumstance in which you refer to your wife as my spouse?
00:12:52.280 I don't know a man who refers to his wife as my spouse.
00:12:57.160 Who's running for Congress.
00:12:58.040 My wife, who is running for Congress.
00:12:59.760 The love of my life.
00:13:01.460 The way normal human beings would communicate, but not Democrat apparatchiks.
00:13:07.420 Yours would be my smoking hot wife who's running for Congress. 1.00
00:13:10.040 You better believe it.
00:13:11.160 And by the way...
00:13:11.940 Do I know you well or do I know you well?
00:13:13.380 Any chance to praise...
00:13:16.380 Praise your wife, not your spouse, right?
00:13:18.580 Yes.
00:13:18.700 Yes. 0.58
00:13:19.000 My smoking hot wife is exactly the way to put it. 1.00
00:13:24.060 I set you up for success there.
00:13:25.500 I just want to know.
00:13:26.160 Well done.
00:13:26.260 If there's anything you should clip from this pod and send to your wife, be like, go to this
00:13:30.380 minute mark in the pod, honey.
00:13:31.880 You made the pod again.
00:13:32.500 Actually, look, as you know, Heidi listens to the podcast.
00:13:35.320 So that'll be...
00:13:36.040 She'll be listening.
00:13:36.740 Let's see.
00:13:37.240 See, this is a litmus test.
00:13:38.740 One day, I said something about my wife in my show, and I wanted to see if she heard
00:13:43.400 it.
00:13:43.720 And her friends texted her, like, Ben said something about you.
00:13:46.620 And she was like, what'd you say about me?
00:13:47.820 I was like, well, if you listened to the show, you would have known.
00:13:49.640 It was like a great...
00:13:50.560 Yeah, that was a mistake.
00:13:52.380 Don't do that.
00:13:53.220 I told you so.
00:13:54.040 You will only pay the price for that.
00:13:55.660 Yeah, I'm just saying.
00:13:56.600 I'm just saying.
00:13:57.820 I want to ask you on a very serious note here.
00:14:01.740 You look at the hypocrisy, but the most disturbing thing for me coming out of this book and out
00:14:07.620 of the Axios reporting is that the cabinet members worried about his capacity specifically
00:14:15.580 in a crisis.
00:14:17.860 Now, there's been interesting reporting, and I just want to put it in perspective.
00:14:22.060 He has the bad debate.
00:14:23.400 There was real conversations, we were told, and there's reporting on this about the possibility
00:14:28.680 of invoking the 25th, not because they were afraid, I go back to the, you know, worried
00:14:34.360 about the capacity in a crisis.
00:14:36.280 They just didn't want to lose the election.
00:14:38.200 It was all politics.
00:14:39.220 They were perfectly fine having someone with dementia who was not capable of decision-making
00:14:43.740 as president, as commander-in-chief.
00:14:45.980 So this Jake Tapper comedy book includes the revelation that multiple cabinet members were
00:14:52.180 worried that he could not be relied on at a time of crisis because his mental diminution
00:14:56.960 was so, so great.
00:14:58.760 One cabinet secretary said Biden's top aides, quote, shielded him in every meeting.
00:15:03.420 From October 2023 on, quote, the cabinet was kept at bay.
00:15:07.740 Another quote, for months we didn't have access to him.
00:15:10.460 There was clearly a deliberate strategy by the White House to have him meet with as few
00:15:13.520 people as necessary.
00:15:14.640 Another cabinet secretary says at one rare meeting during the time, that cabinet secretary
00:15:20.100 was, quote, shocked by how the president was acting.
00:15:22.680 He seemed disoriented, and out of it, his mouth agape.
00:15:26.920 They knew.
00:15:27.960 They were worried.
00:15:28.900 And you know what?
00:15:29.680 If our enemies attacked us, this was the commander-in-chief that the Democrats and CNN
00:15:34.600 and the lying corporate media was telling us could protect us.
00:15:38.340 And look, I don't know that I'd trust him to operate the remote control on the television
00:15:42.260 set.
00:15:42.540 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their 1.00
00:15:47.580 elected leaders, and the world around them.
00:15:49.640 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:15:53.280 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:15:54.540 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:15:55.780 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:15:59.540 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their
00:16:04.660 journey.
00:16:05.260 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:16:08.260 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcast.
00:16:12.540 By the way, are they going to put this under fiction or nonfiction?
00:16:16.980 That's what I want to know when you go to the store, right?
00:16:18.860 If you go look for it.
00:16:20.240 Well, sadly, I think they'll put it under nonfiction, which they should, because it
00:16:24.100 is true that Joe Biden has had a massive mental deterioration.
00:16:27.560 What they should put under fiction is what Jake says on TV every day.
00:16:30.980 That's the fiction part.
00:16:32.140 The irony is this may be the one true thing Jake Tapper has written or said in the last
00:16:37.320 five years.
00:16:37.680 Hold on.
00:16:38.380 The guy from Axis, right? 0.98
00:16:39.300 It's actually true.
00:16:40.140 It was someone else who wrote it and Tapper put his name on it.
00:16:42.540 Yeah.
00:16:42.800 But by accident, he told the truth, except for the fact that he didn't admit that he's
00:16:47.100 been lying to the country the entire time Biden was in the White House.
00:16:50.520 So let's go back to the cabinet members, because this is the big question.
00:16:54.920 I was doing Fox and I Waters World.
00:16:57.100 Kayleigh McEnany was filling in from White House Press Secretary, and she was talking
00:17:00.780 about that when when some of this was starting to break and I and I said, look, the headlines
00:17:04.900 are amazing.
00:17:05.480 But I said, the real question that I think we should all be asking, and I want your take
00:17:09.480 on this is if all this is true and I have no reason to believe it's not, who the hell
00:17:15.480 was the president of the United States of America who was running the country?
00:17:19.400 Was it 30 people that were elected by no one?
00:17:22.760 I don't think it was one person.
00:17:25.300 I think there's a very good chance that the FBI was the president of the FBI and the DOD
00:17:30.400 was the president.
00:17:31.020 I mean, who the hell was running the country?
00:17:33.020 I don't think so, actually.
00:17:34.140 All right.
00:17:34.400 That's what I want to ask you.
00:17:35.200 I've been asked that question probably a thousand times, and I'm going to give you
00:17:39.400 the most terrifying answer you can imagine.
00:17:42.180 I don't know.
00:17:43.720 OK.
00:17:44.080 I genuinely don't know.
00:17:46.100 I think it was Barack Obama.
00:17:49.280 I think it was Barack Obama.
00:17:50.840 Barack Obama.
00:17:51.340 Certainly his minions.
00:17:52.220 Barack Obama is the only president in modern times who at the end of his presidency stayed
00:17:56.240 in D.C., bought a big house in Calorama every night, their cars in the driveway, and all
00:18:01.300 of his little apparatchik minions are in the White House, and I think it was a combination
00:18:06.440 of the children who were staffers.
00:18:08.340 When Joe Biden's White House was filled with staffers, I want people to understand this.
00:18:12.880 This is well reported, but this is really important right now for this story.
00:18:16.280 It was well reported on that Biden and his team were the one that placed everyone in
00:18:22.280 the positions of power in the Biden—I mean, Obama, I should say, excuse me.
00:18:25.280 Obama and his team placed everyone basically in positions of powers in the Biden administration.
00:18:30.020 So look, in four years of the Biden presidency, I'm in the Senate the whole time.
00:18:35.280 How many times do you think I spoke with Joe Biden while he was president?
00:18:38.820 I would say one to three.
00:18:40.480 Zero.
00:18:42.000 And I was saying one to three because I thought they were protecting him.
00:18:44.020 So you're saying as a senator—that's not normal.
00:18:46.080 People need to understand that.
00:18:47.060 Not a single time, and that is bizarre.
00:18:49.360 How many times with Obama, for example?
00:18:50.780 Lots of times.
00:18:51.580 I mean, I spoke with Obama regularly with Trump.
00:18:54.740 I speak with him often every week, sometimes multiple times a week.
00:19:00.300 It is part of the job of being a senator to work with the president, to talk with the president,
00:19:04.920 even the president of the opposing party.
00:19:07.700 Were there ever big laws with Obama, for example?
00:19:09.700 I'm trying to really paint a picture here of how insane it is you didn't talk to him for four years.
00:19:14.060 It's bizarre.
00:19:15.280 And the thing to understand is we all know Joe Biden.
00:19:18.740 He was in the Senate for 40 years.
00:19:21.620 He was a man of the Senate.
00:19:22.680 When I was first elected to the Senate in 2012, Joe Biden swore me in.
00:19:27.040 In fact, I'll tell you—
00:19:27.880 Without the cognitive decline.
00:19:28.800 And he was fine.
00:19:29.560 No, when he was vice president, 13 years ago, he did not have cognitive decline.
00:19:33.400 And in fact, it was funny.
00:19:34.920 So my girls, you know my daughters, they're 14 and 17.
00:19:38.360 When I was sworn in, they were two and four.
00:19:40.520 They were little bitty.
00:19:42.000 And my two-year-old, Catherine, Biden leaned over to pick her up.
00:19:46.680 And she screamed. 1.00
00:19:47.740 She screamed really loudly. 1.00
00:19:49.480 And Biden said, it's okay, it's okay.
00:19:51.400 It's a Democrat, but it's okay.
00:19:53.280 And that was actually quite funny.
00:19:54.680 And I laughed.
00:19:55.500 And you know how Time Magazine does little quotes of like the quotes of the week?
00:19:58.820 Yeah.
00:19:58.960 That next week, the quote of the week was, it's okay, it's okay, it's a Democrat, but
00:20:03.880 it's okay, Vice President Joe Biden to Catherine Cruz, age two.
00:20:07.860 And I've said, you know, when Catherine is married, hopefully a long, long time from now,
00:20:13.400 I intend to read that quote at her wedding and say, even at age two, Catherine knew,
00:20:18.880 if a Democrat tries to pick you up, scream loudly.
00:20:21.400 I like that one.
00:20:24.600 So where do we go from?
00:20:26.420 And by the way, when I say I didn't speak with him for four years, that was true of virtually
00:20:31.360 every Republican senator.
00:20:32.840 So we would sit down.
00:20:33.660 Were there that many Democrat senators?
00:20:35.080 A little more.
00:20:36.380 The Democrats talked to him a little more.
00:20:37.840 Early on, because they were insulating him from what the book's saying from like everyone.
00:20:41.180 So they talked to him a little more.
00:20:44.340 When the Senate's in session, Republican senators have lunch together every Tuesday, Wednesday,
00:20:48.300 and Thursday.
00:20:48.740 So we talk at lunch.
00:20:49.580 They're working lunches.
00:20:50.740 They're very productive.
00:20:51.840 We would sit at lunch and talk about how weird it was that none of us had spoken to
00:20:56.700 Biden, had been to the White House to see him.
00:20:58.900 And we all knew him.
00:20:59.960 They were clearly hiding him.
00:21:02.000 I actually remember one of my colleagues, John Kennedy, a good friend, senator from Louisiana.
00:21:06.020 He was one of the few who had seen Biden one time.
00:21:08.760 And he actually told us all the story.
00:21:10.260 We're sitting at the table.
00:21:11.360 He said, look, he had passed a bill.
00:21:13.240 He said it was a fairly minor bill, but it was a bipartisan bill that had passed.
00:21:17.500 And Biden did a bill signing.
00:21:19.540 And so they brought him over.
00:21:20.500 Traditionally, you go to the White House.
00:21:21.400 Yeah.
00:21:21.540 They brought him over because they wanted to say, look how bipartisan we're.
00:21:24.360 So Kennedy was in the Oval and Biden was there.
00:21:27.500 And Kennedy started striking up a conversation with Biden.
00:21:30.600 And John knew him like we all did.
00:21:33.260 And Biden asked, so, John, you ever seen the cabinet room?
00:21:37.140 And John Kennedy being John Kennedy, he said, I lied and said, no.
00:21:42.220 And he said, come on, let's go.
00:21:43.420 Yeah.
00:21:43.640 And he knew where that was going.
00:21:44.700 You say no to that question.
00:21:45.780 Yeah.
00:21:46.000 And so he takes him in there and he said, Biden begins telling stories from like 40 or 50 years ago.
00:21:52.240 And Kennedy said, the White House staff comes in freaking out.
00:21:56.980 Mr. President, you got to go.
00:21:57.780 You got to go. 0.99
00:21:58.260 And Biden yells at him, shut up. 0.99
00:21:59.840 I'm telling stories.
00:22:01.220 And he said he went on for like 30, 40 minutes.
00:22:04.080 And it was like listening to your grandfather.
00:22:06.620 Tell the same stories over and over again.
00:22:08.060 Tell the same stories.
00:22:08.940 Like 50 years ago, they can remember.
00:22:11.200 But don't ask him what's happening today.
00:22:13.040 And that was, and he was literally at my lunch table.
00:22:16.080 I remember he was the only one of us who had seen Biden since he's been president.
00:22:20.080 And that was his one experience with it.
00:22:22.360 Will there be anything now that the media's accept this as fact?
00:22:25.960 They're reporting on it as fact.
00:22:27.780 Cabinet members were worried about his capacity in a crisis.
00:22:31.120 That's what they've said.
00:22:33.140 Is there going to be any oversight slash investigation?
00:22:37.260 Should there be from Congress?
00:22:38.920 And I know that's a weird question because there's some people like, look, we won.
00:22:41.740 Let's move on.
00:22:42.440 But, like, I do actually, as an American citizen, want to know who was running the United States of America that was elected by no one.
00:22:50.680 I want to know who was calling the shots that was elected by no one.
00:22:53.500 Because whether I win or lose an election, my vote should not be canceled out by some sort of dictator or tyrant within an administration that no one knows who's running a government.
00:23:02.960 And, by the way, there's a related question to that, Ben, which is we've seen the stories that apparently a substantial number of official things that Biden signed were signed by the Autopan.
00:23:12.060 So was he even making the decision to sign them, right?
00:23:14.480 And he didn't even seem to know, like, some of the pardons.
00:23:17.080 And I actually think you'll have this litigated.
00:23:19.320 I'm not aware of any court that's ever decided.
00:23:22.560 Is a pardon – does a pardon have to actually be signed by the president?
00:23:26.980 So, look, every elected official has an Autopan.
00:23:29.300 I have an Autopan.
00:23:30.160 And so for things like constituent correspondence, if you write in to your senator, you'll get a response back.
00:23:35.960 And we try to respond substantively, and the Autopan will sign it.
00:23:38.760 And I get millions of those letters, so I couldn't physically sign them all.
00:23:42.080 All I'm thinking about right now is where that Autopan is and how much fun I can have.
00:23:45.200 But keep going.
00:23:45.940 But, look, it's fine for something like correspondence.
00:23:49.620 A birthday wish.
00:23:51.160 But the question is for something that has legal force of law.
00:23:54.800 And I actually want to know, did they use the Autopan to sign any legislation?
00:23:58.440 Because it's not clear to me legislation that the president didn't sign has legal force.
00:24:03.320 The Autopan is not the commander-in-chief and the chief executive.
00:24:06.680 Judges, for example.
00:24:07.680 If he did an Autopan, which means he – I'm truly convinced that he didn't know what was going on.
00:24:13.400 He didn't know who he was appointing.
00:24:14.760 He probably didn't know who he was pardoning.
00:24:16.700 And if that's happening –
00:24:18.000 The pardons are where it will be litigated.
00:24:19.580 Okay.
00:24:20.400 And that will be –
00:24:21.160 And why is that so different?
00:24:22.780 Because, look, it's interesting.
00:24:24.660 Like a pardon under the Constitution, all you have to have is a document from the president that said, you know, I pardoned Ben Ferguson.
00:24:33.400 And suddenly – actually, only if it's a federal offense.
00:24:36.340 So he can't do it for a state offense.
00:24:37.280 If it's a federal offense, yeah.
00:24:38.840 The abuse I take.
00:24:40.060 The abuse I take.
00:24:41.680 But it literally – there's no pomp and circumstance.
00:24:45.040 It doesn't have to have gold leaf on the paper.
00:24:47.500 It doesn't have to be an official.
00:24:48.980 It's just a piece of paper.
00:24:50.720 With a signature.
00:24:51.460 With those words in his signature.
00:24:52.900 That is legally a pardon.
00:24:55.160 But if you don't actually have a signature – listen, I've been in the Oval dozens of times, probably more, when President Trump is signing things.
00:25:03.740 Sure.
00:25:03.840 He pulls out – he actually – so have you seen the president's signing pen?
00:25:07.820 Oh, yeah.
00:25:08.180 I've got one of the big Sharpies with his signature on the Sharpie.
00:25:11.340 It's huge.
00:25:11.520 Like most presidents use like a Sharpie to have a signing pen.
00:25:15.260 But President Trump's – it's a marker that's probably, what, 10 inches long.
00:25:20.260 And maybe –
00:25:20.540 And it's gold.
00:25:21.360 It has like gold.
00:25:22.180 It's signature and gold on it.
00:25:23.380 And like an inch in diameter.
00:25:24.220 Like it's – it is massive.
00:25:26.420 But he signs one after the other, after the other, after the other, because that's what gives it legal force of law.
00:25:32.120 Well, if you have a president that's mentally incompetent and you have staffers running thing, it makes you wonder – Dr. Fauci's pardon.
00:25:41.540 Did Biden sign it? 0.87
00:25:42.780 I don't know.
00:25:43.180 Yeah.
00:25:43.480 And if it's the auto pen, which I'm sure they can figure that out.
00:25:47.020 It will be – it's an interesting question.
00:25:49.900 You know, I'll say a few more of these quotes from the cabinet members.
00:25:54.420 The cabinet members in this book described – said – one said, quote,
00:26:00.660 The staff did him wrong.
00:26:02.200 If you were with him every day and you knew this was going to be a problem, why didn't you go to him and say something?
00:26:07.640 Another said, quote, Access dropped off considerably in 2024.
00:26:11.460 And I didn't interact with him as much.
00:26:13.040 A third said, quote, Yes, the president is making the decisions, but if the inner circle is shaking them – shaping them in such a way, is it really a decision?
00:26:22.540 And here was another cabinet secretary.
00:26:24.760 I don't think he has dementia, but the thing is he's an old man.
00:26:28.140 The president can give you four to six good hours a day when he got tired.
00:26:31.480 Sloppy isn't the right word, but his guard was down.
00:26:34.520 That would be the commander-in-chief of the United States.
00:26:36.540 Now that it's over, now that everybody knows the cognitive decline, now that the books are being written,
00:26:42.880 they're telling you they may have only gotten four hours a day out of the president of the United States of America.
00:26:47.300 That is maybe one of the most shocking statements I've ever heard about any president.
00:26:51.300 Yeah, look, it's – he was not mentally capable to do the job.
00:26:55.940 They knew it and they lied about it.
00:26:57.320 And by the way, Jake Tapper's whole premise that, gosh, little old me, Jake, was deceived.
00:27:02.400 They just didn't tell me the truth.
00:27:03.800 I just didn't know.
00:27:04.820 Well, Jake, if you listened to Verdict, we were telling you the facts, and we were telling you the facts early on.
00:27:11.960 Here, I want you to go back to January of 2024.
00:27:14.780 I want you to listen to a segment of Ben and me and the podcast back in January of 24 talking about Biden's deterioration.
00:27:22.160 Give a listen.
00:27:23.300 You and I and kind of anyone with eyes and common sense have been observing for a long time that Joe Biden's cognitive decline is massive.
00:27:32.820 But it's easy for some observers to dismiss that and say, you know, these guys are biased, they're partisans, they don't like Biden, so what they're saying is not true.
00:27:43.500 In this instance, the people speaking are the Biden Department of Justice and not any Department of Justice.
00:27:54.280 This is a Department of Justice that has proven itself the most politicized and partisan Department of Justice in history.
00:28:00.680 And they have argued, so for example, I'm going to read you a paragraph from the report.
00:28:07.560 In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden's memory was worse.
00:28:12.400 He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended.
00:28:20.960 Quote, if it was 2013, when did I stop being vice president?
00:28:26.200 And forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began.
00:28:31.240 Quote, in 2009, am I still vice president?
00:28:35.220 He did not remember even within several years when his son Bo died and his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him.
00:28:51.760 Among other things, he mistakenly said he, quote, had a real difference of opinion with General Carl Eitkenberry when, in fact, Eitkenberry was an ally whom Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.
00:29:12.000 All of that was authored by the Biden Department of Justice, and when they are describing the sitting president as a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory, the natural question for anyone to say is, holy crap, if he's not competent to stand trial, why is he the commander-in-chief with the authority to send our sons and daughters into harm's way?
00:29:38.520 Why does he have access to the nuclear codes? 0.90
00:29:41.220 Understand, the description here, they say you couldn't charge him with a crime because he's not aware of enough to have the requisite mental intent, and yet Joe Biden tonight, if he so desired, could literally exterminate humanity from the face of the planet.
00:29:57.960 As commander-in-chief, if he gave the order, launch the nuclear weapons now, unless the military refused to obey the commander-in-chief, Joe Biden could exterminate every life on this planet, and if he's not mentally competent to stand trial, that is terrifying.
00:30:18.340 So that was a year and a half ago.
00:30:21.020 Yeah, a year and a half ago.
00:30:22.180 A year and a half ago on this podcast, and understand, the entire basis of Tapper's book is he couldn't possibly know about, known about this mental decline.
00:30:29.180 The Department of Justice, and this would be the Biden Department of Justice, went into court.
00:30:33.860 So the Robert Herr report, remember, they did not prosecute Biden.
00:30:37.660 And when was that?
00:30:38.400 I wonder, do you remember the time frame on that?
00:30:39.900 That was early 24.
00:30:41.940 Yeah, early 24.
00:30:42.940 We covered it a lot.
00:30:43.900 And that was them interviewing him in 23.
00:30:46.420 Right.
00:30:46.860 So in 23, when they were interviewing Joe Biden, they then in 24 told America, he's so bad off, we can't even charge him with anything.
00:30:55.940 So they concluded if they charged him, he would be found not competent to be convicted.
00:31:02.640 That is a stunning look.
00:31:03.660 There's a standard.
00:31:04.220 There are people that are not competent to be tried.
00:31:06.340 If you have dementia, if you're, like, mentally ill, that you're not able, the legal standard is you have to form what's called mens rea, which is intent.
00:31:14.980 And they said, well, he's so old and senile, we can't charge him.
00:31:18.480 So that's why they said, oh, yeah, he clearly violated the law.
00:31:21.140 He committed a felony.
00:31:22.440 Remember, he kept classified materials everywhere, including his garage next to his antique car.
00:31:27.500 Not a joke.
00:31:28.180 That's real.
00:31:29.140 And they said he was guilty of that, but they couldn't charge him because he was incompetent to stand trial.
00:31:34.600 I want you to listen in 2023 to me laying out his mental decline and MSNBC, Morning Joe, making fun of me for it.
00:31:43.680 This is like one of their big intros, May 4th, 2023.
00:31:47.020 2011, when Republicans in the House stood strong on the debt ceiling, again, because Democrats had had majority of the Congress for two years, had passed trillions in irresponsible spending, and Republicans stood strong and said, we will not raise the debt ceiling without serious fiscal reform.
00:32:07.520 What happened?
00:32:08.040 Then Vice President Joe Biden came and negotiated a deal, a deal called the Budget Control Act.
00:32:15.820 Vice President Biden sat down with House Republicans and reached a meaningful compromise.
00:32:22.500 President Joe Biden needs to do the same thing.
00:32:25.260 And I'll say, sadly, the reason he hasn't so far, I believe, is because his mental faculties are too diminished right now.
00:32:36.540 You know, you know, hold on, hold on, hold on.
00:32:39.720 What?
00:32:40.580 He has such a point.
00:32:42.060 Yes. 0.67
00:32:42.420 His mental faculties are so diminished.
00:32:45.000 Yeah.
00:32:45.240 That he passed more bipartisan, signed more bipartisan legislation.
00:32:50.420 I didn't even know he was doing it.
00:32:51.960 Last year than any president since LBJ.
00:32:58.340 My God, if he were as cogent as he had been in 2011.
00:33:01.680 I think that's what he could have done.
00:33:02.520 He could have been.
00:33:03.900 He could have gone back to FDR. 0.90
00:33:06.080 What else he did without apparently realizing what he was doing?
00:33:10.360 He, like, held NATO together to fight Russian aggression in Ukraine.
00:33:16.800 And just amazing.
00:33:18.160 And my God, I know he only increased the 800-mile border NATO with Russia.
00:33:25.100 But I guess he, you know, he thought he was.
00:33:27.300 I hate it when that happens.
00:33:28.280 You know, it reminds me of Ronald Reagan when he was speaking at Harvard, a Eureka College grad.
00:33:33.620 And he's sitting there talking to the grads and he's making fun of his education at the end.
00:33:37.680 And he goes, you know, sometimes I just sit here with a presidential seal in front of him.
00:33:42.540 And I wonder what I could have been with a good education.
00:33:48.040 Tim Cruz, go back and read Reagan.
00:33:51.160 You'll learn a lot.
00:33:52.920 Go back and read Reagan, he says, by golly.
00:33:55.280 I mean, I love this.
00:33:56.480 And by the way, we do know who was doing it now.
00:33:58.100 It was either A and AutoPen or a bunch of old staffers.
00:34:00.500 For many of you listening to us around the country on the radio, if it's your first time, so nice to have you guys with us.
00:34:06.480 Don't forget, all the audio that you heard in this show will be in the podcast.
00:34:10.760 So share the podcast wherever you are.
00:34:12.400 And we do this show as a podcast three days a week as well.
00:34:14.940 So download Verdict with Ted Cruz wherever you get your podcast.
00:34:18.340 And we'll see you back here on this radio station next week.
00:34:22.160 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:34:25.020 Guaranteed human.
00:34:25.780 And we'll see you back here on this radio station.