Verdict with Ted Cruz - Musk becomes Liberal's Public Enemy #1, Georgia Election Turning Heads & College Sports Bill a Reality Week In Review

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00:02:04.420 Welcome to this verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:02:06.760 We can review Ben Ferguson with you.

00:02:08.860 And here are some of the stories that you may have missed that we talked about this past week.

00:02:12.340 First up, Elon Musk becomes enemy number one by the Democrats.

00:02:17.820 Why? Because he's successful and has become the first trillionaire in the world's history.

00:02:23.200 So what do they want to do?

00:02:24.740 Well, they want to steal all his money, and we break that down for you.

00:02:28.260 Also, a big election night result in Georgia.

00:02:31.660 And what does it mean looking ahead to the midterms?

00:02:34.220 We break it down for you.

00:02:35.700 And finally, a bill that is actually moving through Congress

00:02:39.020 that is now quite possibly going to save college sports forever.

00:02:44.240 It's the Weekend Review, and it starts right now.

00:02:48.180 By the way, that's the liberals.

00:02:49.640 All they're going to hear from this show, I want to be very clear, 20 minutes in,

00:02:52.800 is you said that Elon Musk should be carved into Mount Rushmore.

00:02:56.360 That will be the headline.

00:02:57.200 I just want to predict that right now, but keep going.

00:02:59.140 It may well be, although what I said is if the leftists believed what they said,

00:03:04.000 they should carve a entity.

00:03:05.080 They should be doing it.

00:03:06.460 Because there is literally no human being who has existed in the history of humanity

00:03:11.580 who has done more for electric vehicles than Elon Musk.

00:03:15.440 But you know what?

00:03:16.820 They hate him now.

00:03:18.100 You know how he could change that?

00:03:20.240 Do you know whose wealth they're not calling to confiscate?

00:03:23.660 George Soros?

00:03:25.040 Oh, of course not.

00:03:25.960 No, no, if you're a leftist, if you pay, he's a massive billionaire.

00:03:30.160 By the way, he made his money on arbitraging currency, on essentially betting and bankrupting lots of people.

00:03:36.700 He made his money in a very, very cynical way, shorting the British pound and causing enormous devastation.

00:03:43.820 That's quite different from how Elon made his money building companies that employ thousands of thousands of people,

00:03:50.440 innovating and transforming the world but you know what the left loves george soros because he funds

00:03:55.960 their marxist ideology look at look at platner who we've talked about platner's biggest donors

00:04:01.100 are four different multi-billionaires this and they'll sit up there saying the oligarch no oligarchs

00:04:07.440 is on their side and those signs are literally being paid for by billionaires that's like

00:04:11.900 hypocrisy 101 and by the way bernie sanders and aoc's no oligarch tour they flew in private jets

00:04:19.820 from stop to stop to stop.

00:04:21.140 So you get off your private jet 0.89

00:04:22.500 and say, oligarchs are terrible.

00:04:25.440 And I don't know if you saw,

00:04:26.900 it was very funny,

00:04:27.560 but Bernie was doing an interview

00:04:29.260 and asked, well, Bernie,

00:04:31.540 how did you become a millionaire?

00:04:33.580 And he said, oh, by writing

00:04:35.040 anti-capitalist books.

00:04:37.320 Yeah, so capitalism caused him

00:04:40.280 to become a millionaire,

00:04:41.800 which he was writing books against.

00:04:43.840 Look, there's a principle here

00:04:45.320 that I think is really important

00:04:46.900 for folks listening to Verdict

00:04:48.020 to understand.

00:04:48.660 the beauty of free enterprise is the way you succeed is by making others succeed let's take

00:04:56.020 tesla as an example if elon made crappy cars they didn't work they were ugly if they were slow

00:05:04.280 they broke down a lot uh nobody would buy them and you know what if nobody buys his cars he

00:05:11.200 doesn't make any money he goes broke like like free enterprises is is ruthlessly efficient if

00:05:16.600 you can't solve a problem and improve people's lives, not only do you not make money, you go

00:05:21.280 out of business. How do you make a ton of money? You make a product people like, that is better

00:05:26.280 than the alternatives on the market, that people are willing to pay for and they're happy for.

00:05:30.880 You look at whether it is SpaceX, whether it is XAI, whether it is Starlink, whether it is Tesla,

00:05:39.360 whether it is the boring company. The boring company is just getting started, but the ability

00:05:43.620 to build tunnels, I think that's another one, that he's filling a need that doesn't exist in

00:05:51.380 the market. And I think for those who, in terms of connecting, say, a busy downtown where there's

00:05:58.000 a ton of traffic, the ability to tunnel down and suddenly double your usable space, that is a

00:06:04.240 transformational technology. Now, Ben, do you remember why he created the Boring Company?

00:06:09.440 Why was that?

00:06:10.100 because Elon has a unifying theme with all of his companies, and it is going to Mars.

00:06:20.000 He's filling a need that doesn't exist in the market, and I think for those who, in terms of

00:06:25.920 connecting, say, a busy downtown where there's a ton of traffic, the ability to tunnel down and

00:06:31.540 suddenly double your usable space, that is a transformational technology. Now, Ben, do you

00:06:37.620 remember why he created the boring company why was that because elon has a unifying theme with

00:06:45.400 all of his companies and it is going to mars and he is by the way that's when we interviewed him

00:06:54.100 we talked about this him saying getting a person to mars was like a life dream goal of his look 0.99

00:07:00.180 not just getting a person to mars building a civilization on mars because unlike the marxist

00:07:06.960 who have all of these apocalyptic language about how climate change is going to destroy us. 0.54

00:07:12.360 Mind you, their solution is, so put us in charge of your life.

00:07:16.380 Let us be dictators because of climate change.

00:07:18.860 Elon's solution is okay.

00:07:21.200 Elon's solution is, okay, if the Earth is going to be destroyed,

00:07:25.060 I don't know if it is or not, but if it's going to be,

00:07:26.900 let's go build a new civilization.

00:07:28.600 And that's what he's working to do in each of his companies.

00:07:31.420 Look, SpaceX, Starship is designed to actually get us to Mars,

00:07:35.260 not just get humans to Mars, but get enough equipment, get enough materials that we could

00:07:39.880 build a civilization. Tesla electric vehicles are designed to power transport on Mars. The

00:07:46.480 Boring Company is designed because to build a civilization, to build a city on Mars, you need

00:07:50.760 to dig tunnels. And so he, there wasn't, nobody was doing that. And so he built a whole company

00:07:55.720 to do that. XAI, the AI will be needed to build the Mars civilization. We asked him in the

00:08:01.980 interview uh said what do you want to be remembered for and and he said and he said getting mankind

00:08:07.320 to mars and and i asked him i said i said do you want to die on mars and and he said yes

00:08:15.600 and there was a long pause by the way which was really funny he said on mars not getting to mars

00:08:20.220 right there was he wanted to distinguish that very clearly if i remember right well what he said he

00:08:24.380 what he said is yes hopefully not on impact yes there you go which i thought was was quite good

00:08:30.560 and and that look that's how you innovate with capitalism you create a solution and and what is

00:08:38.960 the reaction of the left it is envy and and we've heard Bernie Sanders we heard Elizabeth Warren I

00:08:44.620 want you to listen to Jimmy Kimmel uh to to really embody the leftist envy and contempt give a listen

00:08:51.400 first ever trillionaire in the history of the world this man our first trillionaire the richest

00:08:56.380 man in the world is also one of the weirdest people we've ever seen on this planet this

00:09:00.800 obscenely wealthy weirdo has the ability and means to blow up the moon if he chooses and also to put

00:09:06.580 a lot of other people's money in his pockets you listen to that just just the disdain there it is

00:09:12.980 a coordinated effort which goes back to my final question senator and i'll make a prediction here

00:09:17.700 i believe that the democratic party if they gain power again in the house senate certainly the

00:09:24.540 White House, they will go after Elon Musk and every one of his companies and every one of his

00:09:31.220 government contracts because of what he did with Doge and the fact that he was an ally of President

00:09:36.280 Trump, even though they've had their own little fights, they will move to destroy him and make

00:09:43.120 sure that there's no part of our U.S. government that uses anything that he touches. You are

00:09:48.700 absolutely right and understand these are not the the marxist of the like sit in the faculty lounge

00:09:55.160 and muse abstract theories these are the marxist of the stalinist kind of the kind that go and

00:10:00.320 crush their enemies if the left takes over if if aoc or gavin newsom or some other leftist becomes

00:10:07.460 president you will see every single federal government agency weaponized and targeting

00:10:14.680 Elon Musk. You will see them denying him licenses to launch satellites, denying him

00:10:20.200 canceling his contracts, the EPA shutting down his launches, Tesla being investigated by OSHA,

00:10:26.700 by the IRS, Elon personally, they will make it their mission. This cannot stand is what Bernie

00:10:33.540 said. They want to destroy him for daring to demonstrate that free enterprise works. And I

00:10:40.540 I want you to think back again to what Jimmy Kimmel said, which is he makes obscene amounts of money by getting other people's money.

00:10:51.580 And let me just ask a very simple question, Jimmy.

00:10:54.820 How?

00:10:56.260 How does he get other people's money?

00:10:58.240 And he does it one of two ways.

00:11:00.280 One, he does it by running a business that's very profitable.

00:11:02.900 So he builds a car people really like, and they decide, I like this car better than all the other

00:11:08.740 cars, and it's really good, and it's fast, and it's super environmentally clean, and it looks

00:11:14.160 cool, and it's self-driving, so I want to buy it. So he produces a product people really like and

00:11:20.920 want, which, by the way, is also much, much better for the environment, which you hypocrites claim to 0.97

00:11:26.360 care about. But there's a second way. How did he make so much money this week? Well, he sold 550 0.97

00:11:32.860 million shares of stock. And you know what unified every single person who bought that stock?

00:11:39.340 They all wanted to make money. They did so voluntarily. Nobody forced them.

00:11:44.940 550 million decisions of people who said, I would like to purchase at least a share of SpaceX.

00:11:51.800 I want to buy that. And by the way, it's not just gazillionaires. It's lots of moms and pops,

00:11:59.320 lots of ordinary people. And you know what? You and I, we probably don't know this, but you and

00:12:04.920 I are both probably, and most of our listeners are probably SpaceX stockholders too, because

00:12:10.080 many of the purchasers were pension funds, 401ks. So if you're in a widely diversified mutual fund,

00:12:16.980 which most of my retirement savings are in mutual funds. Many of them bought SpaceX as part of their

00:12:22.840 portfolio. So the people who purchased, he is literally making Americans rich all across the

00:12:30.200 country. And if you're really good at that, you make a bunch of money too. Leftists hate that.

00:12:36.140 They want to destroy you. And they also want to take the money. They want government in charge of

00:12:40.560 it. And they want the only way you can make money is for government to give you a check every month.

00:12:44.160 So you've got to go vote to re-elect the Marxists and keep them in power.

00:12:48.000 I want to say to Elon Musk, to Gwen Shotwell, to everyone at SpaceX, congratulations.

00:12:53.760 This was an historic week.

00:12:55.980 God bless capitalism.

00:12:58.720 God bless liberty.

00:12:59.680 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.

00:13:14.160 This is Newt English, former speaker of the House and a proud American citizen.

00:13:40.040 I'm celebrating America's 250th birthday on my podcast.

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00:13:52.260 brett bear i will be working because it's a big big day i'll be in washington and have all kinds

00:13:59.300 of coverage through the day of america 250 rachel compass duffy there's nothing like american music

00:14:05.300 we're the home of rock and roll we're the home of rap we're the home of pop music eric metaxas

00:14:09.880 Jared Isaacman. I plan to be flying in an F-5 fighter jet painted in Freedom 250 colors along

00:14:16.020 with four other fighter jets flying over the nation's capital. The story of the national

00:14:21.140 anthem and the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. Join me and let's celebrate

00:14:26.640 America's 250. Listen to Newt's World on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

00:14:33.340 get your podcasts. Why should you listen to Armstrong and Getty On Demand? We're not boring.

00:14:39.680 A lot of news is boring and tedious and depressing and makes you angry.

00:14:43.680 You don't want to live your life like that.

00:14:45.980 Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong.

00:14:47.000 He's Joe Getty.

00:14:47.680 We're Armstrong and Getty.

00:14:48.780 We try to bring you the truth and help you figure out this crazy modern world.

00:14:52.340 How about something about a comedic tone?

00:14:56.780 We have a winner.

00:14:58.320 Yes.

00:14:59.320 Listen to Armstrong and Getty on demand on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:15:05.780 Now on to story number two.

00:15:07.980 But there is a story that is not being covered, that is an important story,

00:15:11.800 and that is there was actually an election in Georgia.

00:15:14.980 You were involved in it.

00:15:16.200 You went down to Georgia.

00:15:17.040 Was that yesterday or the day before?

00:15:18.560 Every day is running together now with the flight times

00:15:21.460 and, you know, whatever time it is in the morning as we speak.

00:15:24.160 But you were just there and made an endorsement there,

00:15:26.900 or a couple actually, in Georgia.

00:15:28.520 What has happened there, and what does this mean for the control of power in D.C.?

00:15:33.240 Yeah.

00:15:33.440 so it was yesterday and and and there was a the georgia primaries were tonight tuesday night

00:15:40.980 in georgia and in the governor's race you had a guy named rick jackson who's a very successful

00:15:47.380 businessman who was running against burt jones who's the lieutenant governor and early on

00:15:53.000 president trump had endorsed burt jones and just a few days ago i endorsed rick jackson

00:15:59.340 and that that caused the press to like the the the tongues to wag and be like oh this is a big

00:16:06.140 conflict um i will say look my approach on on endorsements is number one i endorse the most

00:16:14.560 conservative candidate who can win yeah and so i want to see proven evidence that you're conservative

00:16:20.900 but i also want to see that you can win that you got a path to victory not just in the primary but

00:16:24.820 the general. Number two, I tend to get involved in races late. That's my philosophical approach

00:16:32.400 is that I try to get involved right before election day, hopefully at a time when the

00:16:38.000 election is close and my involvement can make a difference. It can move someone into victory.

00:16:44.860 And so I jumped in this race just a few days ago. Yesterday, the day before the election,

00:16:50.000 I flew down to Georgia, to Atlanta, did a big rally with Rick.

00:16:55.280 And I got to say, so Rick's story, let me tell you a little bit about the guy.

00:16:58.800 And I did not know him until the last few days, but I looked at his record.

00:17:03.780 I examined it.

00:17:04.500 I talked to people who knew him, and I made the decision to endorse it.

00:17:08.140 So his story, he grew up in a broken home in the projects in Atlanta.

00:17:16.080 Poverty, dysfunction.

00:17:17.500 as a young boy he ran away from home he ended up going into the foster home system

00:17:24.720 as a child he had five foster families so that's what he came out of he then went on to college

00:17:35.040 spent i think a little over a year in college dropped out of college could not did not succeed

00:17:39.460 in college and he went and got a job this is a cool story so he went and interviewed to work

00:17:46.300 for a company that was engaged in healthcare sales.

00:17:49.360 He did the interview.

00:17:50.540 He did pretty well.

00:17:51.980 And then the guy interviewing him said,

00:17:53.360 I'm sorry, look, we only hire people

00:17:55.580 who have college degrees.

00:17:57.020 You dropped out of college. 0.99

00:17:58.100 We're not going to hire you.

00:17:59.640 And Rick said, okay, that's fine.

00:18:01.640 He said, can I ask you just out of curiosity,

00:18:04.100 what did the job pay?

00:18:06.540 And the guy said, well, it paid $1,500 a month

00:18:10.840 plus 33% of all the sales you make.

00:18:14.880 And Rick came back.

00:18:16.360 He said, I'll tell you what.

00:18:18.920 How about if you don't pay me the $1,500 a month?

00:18:22.020 Don't pay me anything.

00:18:23.440 But just give me the 33% of the sales.

00:18:27.360 And the guy kind of laughed.

00:18:28.760 He said, well, that sounds like a good deal.

00:18:30.580 I don't have anything to lose on that, do I?

00:18:32.200 So he hired him, even though he didn't have a college degree.

00:18:34.880 He came in and was a monster salesman.

00:18:38.960 Ended up making so much money that within two years,

00:18:42.600 he bought the company that had hired him wow and he ends up building this company

00:18:49.980 into a massive multi-billion dollar health care company in georgia he's one of the biggest

00:18:58.160 employers in the state of georgia incredibly successful businessman self-built from nothing

00:19:05.580 yeah he now has been an incredibly generous philanthropist he's decided look i don't want

00:19:11.860 to take he's worth several billion dollars he's very successful and he said i don't want to take

00:19:16.440 this money with me so i'm going to give it away and make a difference to the world around me

00:19:20.680 so for example on foster care he has given millions to help foster kids in georgia so so

00:19:28.740 kids that are in foster care he'll come in and say you know what i'm going to pay for you to

00:19:32.800 college i'm going to pay for your expenses i'm going to help you get started because he's been

00:19:37.240 there, look, so many foster kids, they've been subject to horrible conditions. They've often

00:19:43.440 been subject to abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse. They're the kids that it seems sometimes

00:19:50.300 society gives up on. And he understands firsthand, look, you can be in that circumstance and you can

00:19:57.060 make something of your life and make a real difference. And so he's invested in these kids

00:20:02.020 that have every disadvantage. I'm going to help them achieve their dreams. He's also funded

00:20:09.100 Christian ministries all over the world. For example, he's funded a Christian orphanage in

00:20:15.620 China that my understanding is it's the lone orphanage that's able to teach Christianity

00:20:21.260 in China. So he's putting, look, you and I are both Christians. It's one thing to have empty

00:20:28.200 words. It's one thing to say you have faith. It's another thing to put your faith to action,

00:20:34.420 to put, to invest and make a difference. And Rick decided, okay, I'm going to run for governor

00:20:40.120 because I think I can make a difference. And I looked at his record and I said,

00:20:45.820 this guy has an incredible, I mean, an inspirational life story, and I think he can win.

00:20:51.820 And so I endorsed him. I went down, we did a big rally in Georgia, and I'm going to give you some

00:20:57.220 fun uh behind the scenes story so as we're coming in i fly down there on monday we're going to the

00:21:03.320 rally and trump had endorsed his opponent this guy named burt jones i i don't know burt jones

00:21:09.600 i'm sure he's a perfectly decent and fine man he's the lieutenant he endorsed early right like

00:21:14.260 so people understand yes he endorsed early before rick was in the race and so i understand look

00:21:20.880 that's a key point yeah he went for who he thought at the time the other guy wasn't in yet

00:21:25.100 Yeah, Jones was lieutenant governor. He was running. And so Trump endorsed early. Rick wasn't in the race. So so Rick was actually at the White House, a big fundraiser this weekend. And, you know, Trump was saying, hey, this guy's great. He's awesome. He's incredibly successful. I didn't know him, but he was like praising him vocally at this fundraiser this weekend.

00:21:45.180 As I'm flying in, I'm headed to the event and we get the news that Donald Trump Jr. is going to endorse Rick Jackson.

00:21:57.060 Now, that's a big deal because the main argument against him, what everyone was pounding him is that Trump, Trump the dad, had endorsed his opponent.

00:22:06.060 You know, tons of campaign ads saying Trump picked the other guy.

00:22:09.400 Then we get the news that Don Jr. was going to endorse Rick.

00:22:12.420 And it was actually fun. As I'm headed to the event, the campaign said, hey, do you want to announce Don Jr.'s endorsement?

00:22:20.680 And listen, Don Jr.'s a buddy of mine. I know him very well.

00:22:24.760 And I was like, yeah, sure. And I said, look, I just want to help your campaign.

00:22:28.620 So if it's helpful for me to announce it, I'm happy to. If it's not like it's your call, but I'm more than happy to.

00:22:34.160 and uh they ended up deciding that don jr the actual endorsement statement was not going to

00:22:42.240 use the word endorse but was going to praise him as like he's a great patriot i know him well and

00:22:47.500 he's fantastic and he's america first and the timing ended up working out i said sure i'm happy

00:22:54.220 to announce it but then they didn't end up approving the statement for another two hours

00:22:58.980 and it just look it takes some time when you're right before an election and you're trying to

00:23:02.480 decide going through a political operation it takes some time to approve it so i said i'm happy

00:23:06.880 to announce it it wasn't finalized so i did not in fact announce it from the stage but right after i

00:23:13.920 left uh don jr tweeted out the support and and tonight uh rick ended up winning uh the margin

00:23:23.000 as of tonight 99 is in is 52.6 to 47.4 it's a great victory and and i think so one of the cases

00:23:35.120 i made to the voters we had a big big rally in georgia and i said listen that rick's life story

00:23:40.920 is incredible he's campaigning on a promise number one to immediately freeze property taxes in

00:23:48.700 georgia that's big number two on income taxes to cut the georgia income tax in half and ultimately

00:23:57.940 to work to abolish it all together and what rick has said is he said if he doesn't succeed in

00:24:04.060 freezing the property taxes and cutting the income tax in half he will not run for re-election he

00:24:09.360 will serve one term if he fails in that he's not running for re-election and i made a point to

00:24:14.020 everyone i said listen i've got a crazy secret here rick is rich like everyone laughs i'm like

00:24:22.260 yeah look this is an incredibly successful dude he could play golf every day he could sit on the

00:24:28.400 beach and drink daiquiris and live a life of leisure and i said listen to run for office 0.97

00:24:34.040 you got to be nuts you got to be certified crazy yeah you get attacked constantly there's so much 0.86

00:24:41.220 And Rick is doing this. The case I made, I said Rick is doing this because he believes in Georgia. 0.98

00:24:47.000 He believes in the country. He believes he could make a difference.

00:24:49.940 And listen, Georgia used to be bright red. The unfortunate reality is it's purple now.

00:24:57.720 And the Democrats right now, the Democrats are leading in the polling for the governor's race.

00:25:02.880 I think Rick will win. I think Rick will keep Georgia red.

00:25:06.420 And I also made the case, I said, listen, by y'all coming out and voting for Rick, we're going to help John Ossoff get a job in the private sector.

00:25:16.260 John Ossoff is the very liberal Democrat who represents Georgia.

00:25:20.360 He may be the senator who is most out of step with the values of his state because he's a very liberal Democrat.

00:25:27.180 Georgia's not a very liberal state.

00:25:29.480 But he's got a ton of money, and he's right now leading in the polls a lot.

00:25:33.640 And I said, listen, if you want to win the Senate seat here in Georgia, the best way to do it is have a gubernatorial candidate who's running an incredible campaign, who's mobilizing voters across the state, who, by the way, I mean, Rick has put massive millions and millions of dollars in the campaign.

00:25:52.340 So he's going to he's funding it himself. And if you end up with a gubernatorial candidate at the top of the race, who's turning out a ton of voters, that's how you have a chance to win the Senate race also.

00:26:06.140 And I got to say, I'm gratified that the voters of Georgia agreed and we had a big, big win in Georgia tonight.

00:26:13.420 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.

00:26:22.600 Vous avez le désir d'aider, de faire une réelle différence?

00:26:25.880 Le Collège La Cité vous offre le programme Dépendance et santé mentale.

00:26:29.440 Acquérir les compétences essentielles pour accompagner et soutenir les personnes

00:26:32.680 confrontées aux défis de santé mentale et de dépendance.

00:26:35.680 Construisez une carrière enrichissante au service des communautés francophones de tout le pays.

00:26:39.860 Donnez des soins de qualité en français. C'est possible avec La Cité.

00:26:43.080 Visitez CollègeLacité.ca dès maintenant.

00:26:45.540 Une initiative du Consortium National de Formation en Santé soutenue par Santé Canada.

00:26:49.480 This is Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House and a proud American citizen.

00:26:56.400 I'm celebrating America's 250th birthday on my podcast, Newt's World, with 15 special episodes.

00:27:03.680 And I've got some great guests, Walter Isaacson, Jonathan Turley, Brett Baer.

00:27:09.660 I will be working because it's a big, big day.

00:27:12.780 I'll be in Washington and have all kinds of coverage through the day of America 250.

00:27:18.580 Rachel Kompas-Duffy.

00:27:19.860 There's nothing like American music.

00:27:21.560 We're the home of rock and roll.

00:27:22.860 We're the home of rap.

00:27:23.840 We're the home of pop music.

00:27:25.060 Eric Metaxas.

00:27:26.440 Jared Isaacman.

00:27:27.500 I plan to be flying in an F-5 fighter jet painted in Freedom 250 colors,

00:27:31.700 along with four other fighter jets flying over the nation's capital.

00:27:35.640 The story of the national anthem and the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

00:27:41.120 Join me and let's celebrate America's 250.

00:27:44.000 Listen to Newt's World on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:28:14.400 Yes.

00:28:15.420 Listen to Armstrong and Getty On Demand on the iHeartRadio app,

00:28:18.520 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:28:22.000 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of America.

00:28:26.200 The soul of this country is found in the stories of those who defended it.

00:28:30.840 I'm J.R. Martinez, a U.S. Army veteran.

00:28:33.740 I know that true valor isn't just a word.

00:28:35.960 It's a choice made in a split second.

00:28:39.720 That's why I'm honored to bring you a brand new season of Medal of Honor,

00:28:43.160 Stories of Courage from Pushkin Industries and iHeart Podcast.

00:28:47.840 You'll fly into the heart of a rescue mission with Air Force pilot James Fleming in Vietnam.

00:28:53.640 I'm going to put you out in the middle of hell. 0.93

00:28:56.240 If you have to come home, I'll bring you home. 1.00

00:28:58.600 That's my duty.

00:28:59.400 It's my honor.

00:28:59.900 We'll also travel back to 1926 to witness Richard Byrd's historic flight over the North Pole.

00:29:07.340 These are more than just stories of combat.

00:29:10.160 They are testaments to leadership, community, and the human spirit.

00:29:14.660 Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:29:21.880 I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.

00:29:26.260 All right, so Senator, let's move into this is something you've been really working on.

00:29:30.320 This is the most like jock bro I've ever seen you since I've known you,

00:29:33.780 and it's really been fun for me because usually you're geeking out over like Supreme Court stuff.

00:29:38.440 I feel like our friendship has moved to another level because now we've got to talk sports and NIL so much.

00:29:44.580 And the college sports bill, it is now reality.

00:29:48.040 Let's walk us through how this was done and what it means for sports fans and saving many sports that were getting canceled around the country that were non-money-making sports.

00:29:57.040 So this week was a very, very big week for college sports because the Senate Commerce Committee, which I chair, passed my legislation to protect college sports.

00:30:08.220 Senate, and it passed with a big bipartisan vote. The vote was 19 to 9. So we got a bunch of

00:30:14.360 Republicans, a bunch of Democrats. We got more than two-thirds of the committee voted for it.

00:30:18.240 That's really important. It has momentum now going to the Senate floor. I think it's going to pass

00:30:23.080 on the Senate with a big bipartisan vote, and it's going to go to the House, and President Trump

00:30:27.360 is eager to sign it. Now, what's going on in college sports? Listen, college sports

00:30:32.800 is in crisis right now uh every week you see another story about a program being canceled

00:30:39.480 women's sports being canceled track and field being canceled olympic sports being canceled

00:30:43.660 non-revenue sports tennis being canceled yeah and what is happening is is you've got total chaos

00:30:50.880 with the transfer portal you've got athletes transferring two three four five times you have

00:30:56.340 essentially no rules on eligibility uh they're all being decided by lawsuits it got so ludicrous

00:31:02.780 You had the Brendan Sorsby case where even though he was gambling on his own games, you had a hometown judge say, no, he can still play anyway.

00:31:12.600 Now, thankfully, Texas Tech backed away from that decision.

00:31:16.240 I'm glad Tech made that decision to back away.

00:31:18.300 That was an indefensible decision.

00:31:20.020 But it illustrated the chaos we have.

00:31:23.180 You have people that are 26, 27 years old still playing college sports and 28-year-olds playing against 18-year-olds, which is not fair, not right.

00:31:32.780 Um, and athletic programs, they're almost all losing millions of dollars.

00:31:41.520 Many of them are losing tens of millions of dollars because the cost keeps spiraling out of control.

00:31:47.300 And, and then if Congress doesn't act, I think five years from now, there will be 30 to 50 competitive college football programs, basically a mini NFL.

00:32:00.760 Yeah, that's what it'll be.

00:32:01.560 It'll be a franchise.

00:32:02.600 If you're an SEC school, you'll own a franchise.

00:32:04.840 Yeah, and I think all of the other programs go under.

00:32:08.480 And what that means, by the way, that's not just college football going under.

00:32:12.280 The way athletics works in colleges is football pays for everything else.

00:32:16.780 And so if football goes under, it means those schools, they lose women's sports, 0.99

00:32:20.520 they lose their entire athletic program.

00:32:23.460 It means our Olympic athletes are just devastated,

00:32:27.460 and the college programs where they develop their skills right now go away.

00:32:32.620 And I think that would be a terrible outcome, and it would also be a terrible outcome.

00:32:37.620 Do you know right now there are more than 500,000 college athletes competing at any given time?

00:32:45.360 Yep.

00:32:45.700 If we allow this chaos to continue to play out, hundreds of thousands of those slots will disappear.

00:32:52.860 Those scholarships will disappear.

00:32:55.160 And sports has been an avenue for millions of young men and women to go to school.

00:33:00.920 Let's be clear.

00:33:01.720 The 500,000 you just mentioned, and this is the part I want people to understand,

00:33:04.560 the majority of college athletes, like 90, I think I saw a study,

00:33:08.560 and you may know the number, but I want to say it was 98% or 99% of college athletes

00:33:13.140 do not play football or basketball.

00:33:17.060 So if you think about college sports, it is all the other sports,

00:33:21.600 the majority of them are not revenue making sports football barely is on most campuses

00:33:26.320 sometimes and depending on what school you're at if you're at a basketball school then that will be

00:33:30.880 your revenue sport outside that almost all the others lose money yep if you don't fix this

00:33:36.280 everything goes away and then many of those football programs that one percent of the student

00:33:41.420 body or or basketball which is i mean most basketball teams they have i think scholarships

00:33:45.720 i want to say it's nine in d1 maybe it's 11 scholarships i can't remember it always they're

00:33:50.040 always moving it around but for men like that's not many people folks if you don't fix this you

00:33:55.500 have a university that now has doesn't even have an identity in sports yeah look look my philosophy

00:34:00.520 in addressing this was was number one i didn't worry too much about the the powerhouse programs

00:34:06.100 the big big programs listen in texas university of texas and texas a&m i love them both i go to

00:34:12.440 games every year i cheer them on they're incredible institutions to be honest ut and a&m they are

00:34:18.440 going to survive and thrive regardless of what happens uh they would survive the mini nfl and

00:34:25.320 they'd continue to win national championships uh but i worried about all of the other programs to

00:34:31.240 be honest if we don't act i'm not convinced any other program in texas survives and and if you

00:34:36.420 can imagine a texas without smu without tcu without baylor without texas tech without rice with without

00:34:43.480 University of Houston, that would be a tragic outcome. And so my focus was on maintaining the

00:34:53.340 entire ecosystem. But secondly, my focus was not on the superstar athletes. If you're Michael

00:34:58.960 Jordan, if you're Arch Manning, you know what? You're going to get millions of dollars. You're

00:35:03.500 going to be on the Wheaties box. You're going to do great. 99% of college athletes will never play

00:35:11.480 in the NFL will never play in the NBA but yet athletics is their ticket to college look it was

00:35:18.760 for you playing tennis is how you went to Ole Miss and I'll be honest with you I'm not sure I would

00:35:23.420 have gone to college if it wasn't for having the scholarship which came through tennis to pay for

00:35:30.480 college my family did not have a lot of means and my dad was the first to admit and it was like if

00:35:35.460 you want to go to college if you want to go to good school you're gonna have to get there and

00:35:40.220 earn it sports was my way in it wasn't going to be the academic road and that's another avenue you

00:35:45.040 can go but but sports was and for many of my friends it was a savior to a better life afterwards

00:35:51.160 a better member of society by the way we pay a lot more taxes when you're successful so it's a

00:35:56.660 great reinvestment in the country from that standpoint as well you want your kids to go to

00:36:00.100 college but for so many i had roommates they would have never gotten into college if it wasn't and

00:36:05.860 gotten their family many i had two different roommates they were the first kid in their

00:36:09.660 families to ever go to college it completely changed the trajectory of their family tree

00:36:13.840 and it was because of athletics well and and some people have said well why is congress getting

00:36:19.740 involved in college sports and and the reason is it's federal laws that congress has passed

00:36:25.060 that created this chaos it's why all of the rules got thrown out because they're being sued under

00:36:30.440 existing federal law and every rule keeps getting thrown out and so congress created the problem

00:36:36.380 which means only congress can fix it because only congress can can can alter that federal law

00:36:41.720 and and if we don't act we can see the crisis unfolding around us and and and for millions of

00:36:48.440 young men and women many college athletes are coming from economically disadvantaged

00:36:53.600 circumstances many of them are african-american or hispanic uh over years and decades we're talking

00:36:59.780 about millions of young men and women who this may be their only path to go to a going to college

00:37:05.400 and getting an education, but B, learning the disciplines that come from being in organized

00:37:10.860 sports of teamwork and hard work and discipline and sportsmanship. And look, I didn't have the

00:37:17.220 skills to play college sports. I would have loved to, but I played high school sports and it was,

00:37:20.660 you know, being on, I played basketball and football and soccer and being on a team in high

00:37:24.220 school. Those are really important skills. And it's amazing. I actually asked this at our Senate

00:37:29.380 Republican lunch. I said, all right, how many people around this table played college sports?

00:37:34.220 And I would say about 20 percent of the Republicans in the Senate raised their hand and they were college athletes.

00:37:40.520 I mean, that's true. And that's true. You find that with CEOs.

00:37:43.260 You find that the discipline and nobody in the Senate played professional sports, but the discipline of and the skills you learn set you up for success in life.

00:37:55.660 Let me ask you one final question on this. Who was behind this that surprised you the most?

00:37:59.840 Nick Saban was one that I was excited to see, that the African-American University of Memphis, my hometown football coach, he got behind this and had some great testimony there in front of you guys.

00:38:09.660 I was proud of that as well. But who shocked you that was behind this?

00:38:13.040 So the support we've seen has been overwhelming.

00:38:15.560 Twenty four conferences have endorsed this bill.

00:38:19.220 They represent those conferences, represent over 200 different colleges and universities are enthusiastically supporting the bill.

00:38:27.060 The NFL endorsed the bill. The NBA endorsed the bill. Major League Baseball endorsed the bill. The NFL Players Association endorsed the bill. The NBA Players Association endorsed the bill. The College Football Association endorsed the bill. We've had Nick Saban has endorsed it. John Calipari led over 100 college coaches who endorsed the bill.

00:38:49.060 The U.S. Olympic Committee endorsed the bill.

00:38:51.640 So we've seen just enormous support.

00:38:55.420 And I will say the primary opposition came from the leadership of the Big Ten and the SEC.

00:39:02.740 And look, the SEC is really important in Texas, obviously, UTA and M.

00:39:06.560 I think they're great.

00:39:08.620 If Congress doesn't act, I believe the SEC and Big Ten want to create a super league

00:39:14.840 where they're the only football that exists and everyone else goes out of business.

00:39:17.860 Yeah, billion-dollar franchise organizations.

00:39:20.280 That's what they would have.

00:39:21.180 And that is a terrible outcome.

00:39:22.960 We explicitly prohibit a Super League in the bill

00:39:25.880 because I want to keep all the other programs alive.

00:39:29.040 That's where the resistance has come from.

00:39:31.340 I think we're going to end up having a big, big bipartisan vote on the Senate floor.

00:39:36.320 My objective is to do this, get it done, get it passed.

00:39:39.620 The president's eager to sign it and do all of that before school starts this fall.

00:39:43.940 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:39:49.280 Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day.

00:39:52.940 You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.

00:39:56.140 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.

00:40:00.040 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.

00:40:02.740 On Newt World Podcast, we're celebrating America's 250th birthday.

00:40:06.800 And I ask my guests how they're spending their 4th of July.

00:40:10.660 Brett Baer.

00:40:11.580 I will be working.

00:40:12.920 I'll be in Washington because it's a big, big day.

00:40:16.400 Jared Isaacman.

00:40:17.440 I plan to be flying in an F-5 fighter jet painted in Freedom 250 colors

00:40:21.620 along with four other fighter jets flying over the nation's capital.

00:40:25.300 Listen to Newt's World on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:40:32.700 Why should you listen to Armstrong and Getty On Demand?

00:40:36.160 We're not boring.

00:40:37.160 A lot of news is boring.

00:40:38.120 And tedious.

00:40:39.020 And depressing.

00:40:39.600 And makes you angry.

00:40:40.780 You don't want to live your life like that.

00:40:42.920 Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty.

00:40:44.980 We're Armstrong and Getty.

00:40:46.080 We try to bring you the truth.

00:40:47.240 And help you figure out this crazy modern world.

00:40:49.620 How about something about a comedic tone?

00:40:54.060 We have a winner.

00:40:55.620 Yes.

00:40:56.640 Listen to Armstrong and Getty on demand on the iHeartRadio app,

00:40:59.720 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:41:02.760 As America marks its 250th anniversary,

00:41:05.600 we're looking back at two and a half centuries of rebellion and liberty

00:41:09.080 through the eyes of the heroes who defended it.

00:41:11.340 The whole thing about this country is freedom.

00:41:14.880 If we're not careful, we could lose that.

00:41:16.880 On Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage,

00:41:19.500 we bring you the defining moments of valor

00:41:21.660 that went above and beyond the call of duty.

00:41:24.960 Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app,

00:41:27.860 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - June 20, 2026

Musk becomes Liberal's Public Enemy #1, Georgia Election Turning Heads & College Sports Bill a Reality Week In Review

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