Verdict with Ted Cruz - October 7-One Year Later, How It Changed the World, plus Democrats Fleeing their Party, Rep. Shawn Thierry's Journey

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.620 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.560 Welcome. It's Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.

00:00:06.840 It's nice to be with you in person today on a somber day, October the 7th.

00:00:12.220 It's the one year anniversary of the horrific attack,

00:00:15.280 the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

00:00:18.380 And it is one of those moments I think we should pause

00:00:21.800 and really look at what's happened over the last year.

00:00:24.520 Well, that's exactly right.

00:00:25.740 Today is a horrific memorial.

00:00:27.560 It has been one year since the mass murder that took the lives of 1,195 Israelis.

00:00:34.520 It was utterly horrific.

00:00:36.300 It has changed Israel forever. 0.99

00:00:38.360 It has changed America forever.

00:00:40.440 It has changed, I believe, the world forever.

00:00:42.320 We're going to examine what happened on October 7th, one year ago,

00:00:45.740 and what has happened in the year since then.

00:00:48.640 We're also, in today's pod, going to have an interview with a special guest, Sean Thierry.

00:00:54.100 Sean is a member of the Texas State House, and she's an elected Democrat, or at least she was.

00:01:00.740 She was an elected Democrat, elected from Houston.

00:01:03.660 She was elected four terms to the House of Representatives as a Democrat,

00:01:08.060 and she finally said enough is enough.

00:01:10.860 She left the Democrat Party.

00:01:12.440 She has changed to being a Republican.

00:01:15.160 She's going to tell her story because her story is something we're seeing across the country.

00:01:19.240 As the Democrat Party is getting more and more radical, people are saying,

00:01:24.100 I can't take it anymore.

00:01:25.780 I want to get back to sanity.

00:01:27.740 We're going to break down that as well.

00:01:29.520 Yeah, it's a really cool and interesting story that I think inspires other Democrats to lead their party as well.

00:01:35.500 Yeah.

00:01:35.660 We're going to talk about that.

00:01:36.980 There are so many of you that have asked about what you can do to help the people in Israel,

00:01:41.380 and right now, this is a moment where I'm going to ask a lot of you to get involved,

00:01:46.060 especially on this one-year anniversary, with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

00:01:51.100 As I said a moment ago, October the 7th is the one-year mark of the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

00:01:57.600 1,200 Israelis were murdered and more than 250 taken hostage, many of them still being held hostage.

00:02:04.620 Yet the war in Israel is raging on today, with Iran firing a massive barrage of nearly 200 ballistic missiles earlier this month.

00:02:13.620 Israel and her people are facing attacks from enemies on all sides,

00:02:17.140 and the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is on the ground,

00:02:20.460 providing food, shelter, and safety for those in need during the crisis.

00:02:26.220 Now, since the war started, thousands of reservists, everyday Israeli citizens,

00:02:30.840 have left their families to serve their country.

00:02:32.800 Soldiers have been injured and their families need support,

00:02:36.260 and your gift of $150 helps the fellowship provide food and other necessities for these families to help them survive.

00:02:45.240 Thanks to a generous fellowship supporter, your gift will be matched, meaning it's doubling in impact.

00:02:53.280 Join us and let those families know that listeners like you stand with Israel.

00:02:58.560 You can call to make your $150 gift now to 888-488-IFCJ.

00:03:05.600 That's 888-488-4325.

00:03:10.000 Or you can go online to supportifcj.org to give.

00:03:14.700 That's one word, supportifcj.org, or 888-488-IFCJ.

00:03:23.020 Senator, as we sit here, it's shocking that it's the one-year anniversary from a standpoint that they still have hostages.

00:03:31.480 And I think we should start with that because this is a day for those family members.

00:03:35.440 I can't imagine what they've gone through in the last year,

00:03:37.280 but to even think it's been an entire year since they've seen their loved ones.

00:03:41.400 It's been a year of living hell.

00:03:43.120 As I mentioned, 1,195 people were murdered on that day.

00:03:49.160 The estimates are not exactly clear, but the best estimate is 251 hostages were taken on October 7th.

00:03:57.760 Now, of those 251 hostages, we estimate that 97 remain in Gaza,

00:04:06.100 plus an additional four hostages who were captured before October 7th.

00:04:10.360 And to review what has happened, 70 hostages have died, either on October 7th or in the month since then.

00:04:19.580 34 of the hostages who remain in Gaza are dead, according to Israeli officials.

00:04:26.240 And Hamas has released 109 of the hostages.

00:04:30.380 Eight of the hostages were rescued by the IDF,

00:04:34.720 including the recent rescue of an Arab-Israeli Muslim on August 27th.

00:04:39.160 37 of the deceased hostages have been returned to Israel.

00:04:45.120 And on August 31st, the IDF retrieved the body of American hostage Hirsch Goldberg Pollan

00:04:51.140 and five Israelis who were executed by Hamas and Southern Rafa

00:04:57.180 after surviving for what was 11 months in captivity.

00:05:00.600 There are thought to be four American hostages still alive.

00:05:06.660 The fifth was Goldberg Pollan, and he was one of the six people murdered and recovered on August 31st.

00:05:14.240 The four American hostages thought to still be alive are number one, Keith Siegel.

00:05:20.500 Keith is a grandfather born in California.

00:05:22.620 He was last seen in a video released by Hamas in April.

00:05:26.720 He was gaunt and weeping.

00:05:29.620 The second American hostage, believe, still held is Eden Alexander, who grew up in New Jersey,

00:05:36.180 and also Sagi Dekel Chen, a father of three,

00:05:40.880 both of whom were spotted alive in late 2023 by other hostages.

00:05:45.660 So we don't know that they're still alive.

00:05:47.500 It's been some time since they've been spotted alive.

00:05:50.520 The fourth, Omer Nutra, is a New York native,

00:05:55.260 was shown being pulled out of a tank by Hamas gunmen in a blurry clip recorded on October 7th.

00:06:03.460 So again, it's been a full year since Omer has been seen.

00:06:09.200 And as for the total number of Americans, last month the FBI unsealed a complaint against Hamas leaders

00:06:16.800 for the October 7th crimes and others.

00:06:21.100 And the charges were filed in February, but they were kept under seal.

00:06:25.620 And the precise language of the Department of Justice complaint is, quote,

00:06:29.660 As of the date of this complaint, at least 43 American citizens were among those murdered.

00:06:37.900 And at least 10 American citizens were taken hostage or remain unaccounted for.

00:06:43.880 Wow.

00:06:44.020 And look, I wanted to go through those numbers because it's easy.

00:06:48.800 And a lot of the news coverage will elide over what actually happened.

00:06:52.800 1,200 people murdered.

00:06:55.000 251 hostages.

00:06:56.300 It is truly horrific.

00:06:57.900 As you noted, it was the worst single-day mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust.

00:07:04.400 It's also one of the worst terrorist attacks in American history.

00:07:09.020 Americans are hostages right now.

00:07:11.960 I have to say, I do not understand why Joe Biden and Kamala Harris do not talk about the American hostages,

00:07:17.760 why they don't lean in, and instead why they lean in repeatedly urging Israel to stop killing the terrorists

00:07:25.640 instead of demanding that the hostages be released.

00:07:28.300 But it was an act of horrific evil.

00:07:33.820 And I will say, look, I remember in the days after October 7th, I reached out and I called and texted a lot of friends of mine.

00:07:44.020 And I just asked him, I said, hey, I don't know if you have family in Israel, if you have people in harm's way.

00:07:51.980 I got to say, Ben, it was stunning to me the number of people I reached out to in the aftermath of October 7th who were directly connected to someone.

00:07:59.400 Yeah, the Jewish community, it's amazing how much of a connection there is between people in America and people that are in Israel.

00:08:06.100 I probably reached out to 25 or 30 of my friends, and more than half of them had a direct connection of someone where they'd say,

00:08:16.020 yeah, my sister was there, yes, my wife was there, my college roommate was there.

00:08:22.840 It is, the Jewish community in America and the Jewish community in Israel are in many ways deeply interconnected.

00:08:32.120 And the trauma and horror and evil of that day, October 7th will go down as one of the darkest days in history.

00:08:42.600 There's another aspect of this, too, and it's amazing how in this country, and I think even the Democratic Party,

00:08:48.980 has really defended Hamas, and they've defended the people that did this.

00:08:55.080 And you look at how they've treated these hostages, and the reports have come out.

00:08:58.580 You hope that if someone's taken hostages, at least they're treated humanely.

00:09:02.860 Yeah, and they're not.

00:09:03.700 And that's not happening.

00:09:04.880 And I think that's part of the story that people need to understand the brutality of these terrorists.

00:09:09.700 They are starving, these hostages.

00:09:11.180 The bodies that have been found and returned, they talk about that it looks like they've taken a lot of abuse

00:09:18.700 and malnourished and living conditions that are just horrific, not clean at all.

00:09:24.240 Well, and they are using rape as a weapon of sexual violence. 0.94

00:09:29.880 On October 7th, and sadly in the time since then, they have targeted and repeatedly raped women and young girls.

00:09:36.580 I will tell you, and I've talked about this on the podcast, watching videos of October 7th, watching what happened, 0.71

00:09:44.580 watching the dehumanization of Jews by the Hamas terrorists, that they don't view them as human beings.

00:09:53.680 And I think I shared with you that listening to the audio from that video, that repeatedly the Hamas terrorists were referring to the Jews that they were murdering as it.

00:10:03.260 Not even he or she, but it.

00:10:05.680 They mutilated the bodies. 0.70

00:10:07.680 They would often cut the genitals, burn the faces. 0.92

00:10:11.860 A lot of the degradation was focused on sexual violence. 0.98

00:10:15.580 And it is a level of evil.

00:10:20.800 You know, in ordinary life, you don't encounter that grotesque evil the way October 7th was.

00:10:27.780 But I'll tell you, I'm reminded of the book of Genesis, when Joseph has been sold into slavery by his brothers, and then when he re-encounters his brothers.

00:10:38.220 Yeah.

00:10:38.360 What Joseph says to them is, is what you intended for evil, God intended for good.

00:10:45.240 And I think that principle is right, that what man means for evil to result, God can use for good.

00:10:52.980 And I do think in the past year, there are two significant consequences of October 7th, both of which have been very, very good.

00:11:03.720 One is clarity.

00:11:06.280 This October 7th in the aftermath, I don't think, to my mind, there is no gray.

00:11:15.740 This is a battle between good and evil.

00:11:17.620 This is a battle between civilization and barbarism.

00:11:20.260 And everyone has to decide where you stand.

00:11:23.560 Do you stand with the people of Israel, or do you stand with the Hamas terrorists?

00:11:27.840 And that clarity, I think, has been incredibly valuable in the political world for elected officials to decide, who do I stand with?

00:11:35.780 It also has been incredibly valuable on college campuses.

00:11:40.180 It has unmasked and revealed vicious, vicious anti-Semitism.

00:11:44.360 That clarity is important.

00:11:47.060 If we're going to combat evil, we have to see and understand and know who we're dealing with and have it be out in the open.

00:11:53.560 And I think that clarity has been enormously consequential and enormously beneficial.

00:11:59.340 But I think, secondly, a second very good consequence of the horrific evil of what happened on that day is Israel's stated commitment to utterly and completely eliminate Hamas. 0.65

00:12:12.340 And eliminating Hamas, and they have made incredible progress eliminating Hamas, and now eliminating many of the leaders of Hezbollah as well. 0.87

00:12:21.700 Eliminating Hamas and eliminating Hezbollah is unequivocally good for the national security of Israel, and it is unequivocally good for the national security of America. 0.89

00:12:31.240 And so both of those consequences have real and lasting effect in Israel, in America, and across the world.

00:12:37.620 Let's talk about—there was something I'll never forget.

00:12:41.300 You saw it before I did, and I was asked to come watch the videos of the attack on this day.

00:12:49.480 You saw it with, I think, several other senators, if I'm not mistaken.

00:12:51.920 Yeah, about 50 senators.

00:12:52.980 About half the Senate went and watched it.

00:12:54.440 And I was asked to go to Israeli consulate and watch and to have a briefing.

00:13:00.040 And I will never forget what I witnessed.

00:13:04.140 I think you're probably the same.

00:13:05.580 But it also was this attack—

00:13:07.960 It made you physically sick.

00:13:09.120 Yes.

00:13:09.440 Like, it made you want to vomit watching.

00:13:12.640 And this is not Hollywood sort of play acting.

00:13:16.480 These are real people being murdered by people filled with genocidal hate.

00:13:23.560 It was Nazi tactics for Nazi purposes carried out that day.

00:13:28.900 I watched it, and I watched it, and I never wanted to see it again.

00:13:32.380 I'm glad that I saw it because you understand who you're up against.

00:13:36.560 And I also made it very clear that they trained with the help of Iran.

00:13:41.840 Yes.

00:13:42.940 And without Iran's funding, I don't think it would have happened a year ago today. 0.90

00:13:46.740 And now we see Iran doing exactly what we knew they were doing all along, directly now trying to take out Israel. 0.89

00:13:54.020 That's another aspect of—when you talk about good and evil, and evil can show what's happening, and then there can be good that comes from it.

00:14:01.740 I think anyone that doesn't understand now the threat to the world from Iran, you're blind. 1.00

00:14:07.960 We saw what they did with these ballistic missile attacks just days ago.

00:14:12.900 What happens next now with that?

00:14:14.760 Because that's a large part of this story.

00:14:16.740 Look, I think it is one of the most consequential elements of this election in November.

00:14:22.640 We're right about 30 days away, just over 30 days away from the election.

00:14:27.740 And if Donald Trump is reelected, if we have a Republican Senate and a Republican House,

00:14:33.400 the billions of dollars that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the Democrats have flowed to Iran, that stops in January.

00:14:39.700 Over four years, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have flowed over $100 billion to Iran.

00:14:48.600 It's a massive amount of money.

00:14:50.940 Ninety percent of the budget for Hamas comes from Iran.

00:14:53.900 Ninety percent of the budget for Hezbollah comes from Iran.

00:14:56.640 So in a very real sense, the death squads that carried out horrific rapes and murders on October 7th were paid for by this White House.

00:15:06.520 I got to say, I don't understand.

00:15:09.720 I mean, we spent a lot of time in this podcast talking about the ideology of the hard left.

00:15:14.520 But I genuinely don't understand why you would send billions of dollars to people who want to murder you.

00:15:21.340 Because the Ayatollah is not subtle. 0.89

00:15:25.160 They are not. 0.98

00:15:25.960 The Ayatollah chants death to America and death to Israel. 0.98

00:15:30.240 He refers to Israel as the little Satan and America as the great Satan. 0.97

00:15:36.520 And we should be absolutely clear that if he could murder you or me or any of us, he would. 0.92

00:15:43.040 And to be clear, the Ayatollah in Iran is actively trying to murder Donald Trump right now and is paying for hitmen and assassins to try to carry that out. 0.80

00:15:51.340 And yet there is something in the ideology of the far left that giving him billions of dollars to enable him to wage genocidal war against Israel and kill Jews and to target Americans somehow makes sense to this White House.

00:16:05.900 I am aware of their positions.

00:16:09.460 And look, in public discourse, I try to you try to show grace to those on the other side and understand them.

00:16:19.200 I genuinely have a hard time if you ask me to articulate their argument.

00:16:25.440 What is it?

00:16:26.080 I don't know how to think that way to say, hey, this person wants to murder me.

00:16:31.200 Let's give him a bunch of money.

00:16:32.480 I don't get that.

00:16:33.280 Final question on this.

00:16:34.780 And it comes up to the issue of the Iran nuclear site.

00:16:38.360 Iran is clearly trying to get a nuclear weapon.

00:16:40.620 There was a report that came out that they could be days away, weeks away, as in not less than a month.

00:16:45.840 It's been interesting to see how the American media has framed this.

00:16:50.440 It's like they've asked the White House their thoughts on, do you take out this site?

00:16:54.960 You know what they want to do.

00:16:56.320 You know what they're chanting.

00:16:57.600 And they've said they've kind of punted and said, well, this is up to Israel if they want to do that. 0.51

00:17:03.140 You look at that rhetoric and you look at the White House kind of just not really taking a stand on this.

00:17:07.860 I think a nuclear Iran is a threat to the world. 1.00

00:17:10.100 Yes.

00:17:10.300 They're obviously a threat to Israel, but they're a threat to the world. 1.00

00:17:12.900 When you look at this position of we'll punt to Israel, is that a good foreign policy from Biden-Harris?

00:17:20.520 Well, and understand it's also a dodge.

00:17:23.520 Of course it is.

00:17:24.480 Listen, this White House, Kamala Harris doesn't want to do anything to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. 0.98

00:17:30.200 Today, a year after October 7th, they're still not enforcing the oil sanctions.

00:17:35.040 Today, Iran is selling two million barrels of oil a day.

00:17:38.720 They could stop that if they wanted to.

00:17:40.700 And what was it when, I think it's important to remind people, how many barrels of oil was Iran selling when Donald Trump was in office at the end of his presidency?

00:17:48.460 300,000.

00:17:49.260 And that's why they were broke.

00:17:50.640 And that's why you were seeing unrest in the country, because without oil money, they are broke.

00:17:55.200 The regime was near collapse.

00:17:57.780 And Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, life preserver, gave them a massive subsidy.

00:18:04.300 I mean, it is.

00:18:06.080 They gave them CPR.

00:18:06.940 Yes, yes, they were their lifeline.

00:18:11.020 And look, saying that's up to Israel to decide, you know, I'm reminded of many, many years ago when Obama was president.

00:18:18.560 There was an article in The Atlantic by Jeffrey Goldberg, and it got a lot of attention at the time.

00:18:23.380 And what got attention is it was an insult from an unnamed senior official in the Obama White House, who, what got all the attention, he referred to Benjamin Netanyahu, who was the prime minister of Israel then as well.

00:18:41.820 And he used an epithet that because this is a kid-friendly show, I won't repeat other than to say it was poultry manure, and he was a little more colorful than that.

00:18:52.080 And that got all the attention.

00:18:54.380 And I remember at the time that article came out, I thought it wasn't news at all.

00:18:58.520 It was obvious.

00:18:59.580 Yeah.

00:18:59.720 That's what the Obama White House thought of Netanyahu.

00:19:02.380 They treated him that way every day.

00:19:03.760 So I was like, what's the news in this?

00:19:05.540 They're saying what they obviously believe.

00:19:07.480 The most consequential element of that article to me was a different quote attributed to the same senior advisor in the White House.

00:19:15.840 And by the way, there's a lot of speculation in Washington that that, quote, senior advisor was named Barack Obama, that it was the president pretending to be a senior advisor.

00:19:23.960 I don't know that for sure, but that's the diplomatic chatter in Washington.

00:19:30.220 But the quote was something to the effect of, the very best thing is, we have delayed Israel from acting militarily for so long that they no longer have the military capacity to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear arsenal. 0.66

00:19:49.960 That was the sentence that was chilling. 0.99

00:19:51.680 Look, this White House, they're not stupid. 0.97

00:19:54.560 They know the endgame of what they're playing is a nuclear Iran. 0.99

00:19:58.440 And I think ideologically they believe America has no right to stop the Ayatollah from getting nuclear weapons.

00:20:04.300 I think that makes no sense at all.

00:20:06.280 And it is one of the many ways in which Americans are much less safe today because of the weakness of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

00:20:14.240 And tragically, 1,200 Israelis lost their lives a year ago today because of that weakness.

00:20:22.800 They need prayers.

00:20:23.780 They need our support.

00:20:24.720 This one-year anniversary, there's a lot of people today that are suffering.

00:20:28.000 We need to pray for those hostages as well.

00:20:30.900 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:20:32.920 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:20:36.920 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:20:40.840 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:20:42.040 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:20:43.300 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:20:46.960 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers.

00:20:50.560 All at different stages of their journey.

00:20:52.760 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:20:55.980 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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00:22:43.300 All right.

00:22:43.640 So, Senator, this is a new trend.

00:22:45.960 I love this trend for once.

00:22:47.960 We are seeing elected officials who are Democrats switching to the Republican Party.

00:22:53.900 And one of them is right here in Texas and our guest tonight.

00:22:58.080 Well, that's exactly right.

00:22:59.340 And as you know and as our viewers know, we had Eric Johnson, who's the mayor of Dallas.

00:23:03.500 He was an elected Democrat for years.

00:23:05.800 He was an elected Democrat state rep, an elected Democrat mayor.

00:23:08.740 And then he shifted to be a Republican.

00:23:10.220 We had him as a guest on this podcast.

00:23:11.840 He told his story.

00:23:13.300 We now have another guest.

00:23:14.720 Sean Theory is with us today.

00:23:16.180 Sean is a state representative in Texas.

00:23:19.220 She was an elected Democrat, first elected in 2017, then elected again in 2018 and 2020.

00:23:24.620 In 2022, she's been an elected Democrat her entire career in politics until just recently

00:23:30.440 when she publicly announced enough was enough and she switched to the Republican Party.

00:23:36.220 And so, Sean, welcome to VERDICT.

00:23:38.160 We're very glad to have you with us.

00:23:39.980 Thank you, Senator.

00:23:40.680 Thank you for having me.

00:23:41.860 It's a pleasure.

00:23:42.680 You know, you and I were sitting down talking and I said, listen, I want you to tell your story.

00:23:49.380 Tell your story to our listeners, to our viewers in VERDICT.

00:23:52.160 So let's just start with, tell us your personal story, where you grew up, and what drew you

00:24:01.460 to the world of politics, what drew you to running for the state legislature?

00:24:05.200 Sure.

00:24:05.680 Thank you, Senator.

00:24:06.780 Well, I'm a native Houstonian, born and raised here.

00:24:10.540 Pretty uneventful story, but just grew up a Christian.

00:24:16.440 Both parents married at home and hardworking folks.

00:24:20.580 And I always say my parents were Democrats because I believe they felt like that was

00:24:25.520 the party of, you know, middle-class folks.

00:24:28.320 My mom was a teacher, an English teacher. 0.72

00:24:31.360 My dad worked for the city of Houston.

00:24:33.440 And so we were Democrats thinking that that was just the party of middle-class, hardworking

00:24:39.620 people.

00:24:40.780 And I went away to college at Howard University.

00:24:43.980 I came back, went to law school here at Thurgood Marshall School of Law.

00:24:47.460 And really, I always had a heart for public service.

00:24:51.560 My parents kind of raised us that way from being in Girl Scouts all the way through doing

00:24:56.100 things at my church.

00:24:58.020 And so folks asked me to run.

00:25:01.200 And I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it because I knew that I didn't really like the politics

00:25:07.340 of politics.

00:25:07.920 But I did have a heart for public service.

00:25:11.200 So when the seat for state rep, House District 146 became available in 2016, I said, well,

00:25:19.100 okay, I'll do it.

00:25:20.240 And I won.

00:25:21.740 And I really just kind of jumped right in.

00:25:25.460 The moment I got elected, I started writing legislation to help women in childbirth, maternal

00:25:31.040 mortality legislation, helping the elderly, doing work to prevent human trafficking, should

00:25:37.360 I say.

00:25:38.460 And just never really always thought of it in terms of party.

00:25:43.960 I always looked at it in terms of people.

00:25:46.820 But as time went on, I started to notice session after session, the Democratic Party moving

00:25:54.620 further and further away from mainstream values.

00:25:57.740 And I kept quiet, but it was something that always kind of troubled my soul.

00:26:04.380 And I was hoping that I could continue to be the voice of reason, which I was a lot of

00:26:09.400 times.

00:26:09.720 I was always kind of the moderate voice in the room and kind of became known as that in

00:26:14.580 the ledge, text ledge.

00:26:15.660 I was known as a consensus builder.

00:26:18.060 And I don't want to be too much of a spoiler alert.

00:26:21.480 We can talk about it.

00:26:22.500 But this past session, the Democrats really started pushing policies that were so contrary

00:26:31.580 to the well-being of children.

00:26:35.160 And just our country overall, I said, as you said at the top, enough is enough.

00:26:40.840 I said, you know, get me off the bus now.

00:26:43.700 And I made a very personal decision.

00:26:46.040 It was very difficult because I knew the attacks that I would receive.

00:26:50.580 But just like my good friend, Mayor Eric Johnson, I did what I know is right for me, where I

00:26:57.600 can look myself in the mirror every day.

00:26:59.700 What do they treat you like afterwards?

00:27:01.200 I mean, when you leave the party, I think people don't understand in politics, that is

00:27:06.260 like a really bad day because all of these people you build these consensus with now,

00:27:12.220 you're the enemy to them.

00:27:13.280 Well, mine was a little anticlimactic on some level because I took a stance, honestly, during

00:27:19.900 session a year and a half ago.

00:27:22.000 I spoke out against child sex chain surgeries.

00:27:25.980 This legislation where we had was to decide what is the appropriate age, this sounds weird,

00:27:33.300 for a child to have a sex chain surgery, which most people would say, well, why would a child

00:27:39.360 be doing that anyway?

00:27:40.180 But that's what we were dealing with because it was happening in the state of Texas.

00:27:43.940 Girls and boys as young as 11, 12, 13 were getting their bodies mutilated.

00:27:50.580 Also, we're taking drugs like Lupron to stop them from going through puberty.

00:27:55.460 And so the bill, which seemed very reasonable, just set the age of consent to 18, which is

00:28:03.000 the age of consent for most things in Texas, if not 21, honestly.

00:28:07.140 And so I said, well, I'll support that.

00:28:10.620 We need some safeguards.

00:28:12.800 And you wouldn't believe my former party, the Democratic caucus, went crazy.

00:28:19.300 They started pulling me to the side saying, Sean, you cannot do it. 0.50

00:28:23.980 We're going to kill this bill.

00:28:25.700 And because I would not agree that children should undergo this type of harm, which, by the

00:28:32.860 way, many of my colleagues privately told me they know it's wrong.

00:28:37.540 But because I wouldn't co-sign with that, I started getting attacked right then and there.

00:28:42.160 So I've been going through it for a year and a half.

00:28:44.440 Yeah.

00:28:44.620 And look, this is an issue that, you know, it's amazing that this is an issue now.

00:28:49.420 I mean, even a few years ago, there was no one in the political arena that was talking

00:28:54.400 about little children, 8, 9, 10, 11-year-old kids being sterilized, being permanently surgically

00:29:03.000 altered.

00:29:03.800 And look, my view, which I think is the common sense view of the vast majority of Texans,

00:29:09.420 is that a child doesn't have the emotional maturity to make that decision, that no 8-year-old

00:29:15.560 or 10-year-old can decide, I never want to be a father, I never want to be a mother, and

00:29:20.240 go in and make it so that I can never, never have children, that I think it is a very reasonable

00:29:26.940 position to say, if you're going to do something with those sorts of consequences, you need

00:29:32.840 to be an adult and have the emotional maturity to make that decision.

00:29:37.340 That, that's a very common sense view, and yet, when you articulated that, you know, one

00:29:45.160 of the things that struck me when you and I were talking is you said that a lot of your

00:29:48.460 Democrat colleagues in private agreed, but they were scared to say it.

00:29:53.740 Yes, the party has just been completely, I'll say it now, completely hijacked by radicals

00:29:59.100 who have a chokehold on elected Democratic officials who have told them, you will fall lockstep

00:30:05.320 in line with this ideology, and if you do not, we will put millions of dollars into

00:30:10.560 a primary to get you un-elected.

00:30:12.480 So in other words, you're being held hostage for your job.

00:30:15.040 Absolutely.

00:30:15.540 So the Democratic Party says, you don't go along with this, we'll find somebody that

00:30:19.180 will, we'll run against you and beat you at that sale. 0.88

00:30:22.040 And threatened with money, with real money.

00:30:23.680 Real money, and I'm living proof of it, but I like to say I'm a positive testimony because

00:30:28.700 I tell people losing a seat is one thing, but losing your soul is another.

00:30:32.960 And I did not lose my soul, but they put in over a million dollars in a race against

00:30:38.540 me, and they absolutely found someone.

00:30:40.620 And this is a primary and a state rep race in Texas, over a million bucks.

00:30:44.680 What was it before when you ran?

00:30:46.060 Like, what was a normal amount of money to put in perspective compared to a million?

00:30:48.480 I don't think I've ever had anybody spend over $50,000 running against me.

00:30:52.400 And if you're listening to this right now, or you're watching this, when you think about

00:30:57.400 going from $50,000 race to a million dollars against you, that's a political assassination

00:31:04.320 on your career. 0.96

00:31:05.980 That's saying, we're just going to buy a winner and make sure you're a loser because that's 0.98

00:31:11.420 how much we want to punish you and make sure everybody else stays in line. 0.78

00:31:14.380 Exactly.

00:31:15.180 I always tell folks, it was literally to make an example out of me and to warn others,

00:31:20.120 don't get any bright ideas.

00:31:21.500 Don't stand up there and speak out and tell the truth for your constituents, because we

00:31:26.340 will, Sean Theory, you and put over a million dollars in your race.

00:31:30.420 But I said it on the House floor, you know, I always say sunlight is the best disinfectant

00:31:36.120 senator.

00:31:36.720 And so I did rip the lid off of it, and I exposed the harms, and I exposed the hypocrisy.

00:31:41.780 You talked about 18 being such a reasonable age.

00:31:45.320 Every policy that the Democrats put forth is usually to raise the age.

00:31:49.660 This is the only area where not only do they not want to set the age, they want no age.

00:31:56.520 They want to raise the age from 18 to 21 to have a gun.

00:32:00.680 We raised the age from 18 to 21 to buy tobacco cigarettes, which everyone, you know, agreed.

00:32:06.720 We raised the age from 18 to 21 to work in a sexually oriented business. 0.99

00:32:12.480 We have acknowledged, they said they're the party of science.

00:32:15.480 They said the frontal lobe of the brain is not developed until almost 25.

00:32:20.660 Why on earth are Democrats saying, as you said very well, Senator, that a child as young

00:32:26.780 as nine who hasn't even entered puberty has the capacity to sign away their future in terms

00:32:34.780 of being castrated and sterilized?

00:32:36.620 What is this?

00:32:37.680 So, tell us the sort of things, what did your then fellow Democrats say to you as this is

00:32:45.660 all going down?

00:32:46.700 What sort of conversation did y'all have?

00:32:48.740 Well, I guess the cat kind of got out of the bag that there was a potential dissident who

00:32:54.940 wasn't going along with the program.

00:32:56.840 And so they started pulling me to the side, usually in like groups of three, then groups

00:33:01.100 of six, and telling me, you know, Sean, what's going on here?

00:33:05.700 A lot of these are your friends, right?

00:33:07.620 I mean, these are the colleagues, but they're colleagues, some friends.

00:33:13.580 The friends were the ones that really just came with the warning.

00:33:17.040 They said, Sean, listen, because I was pulling out papers and showing what Lupron does, showing

00:33:21.460 that it causes early onset osteoporosis and that some of these cross-sex hormones.

00:33:26.820 And tell our viewers and listeners, what is Lupron?

00:33:29.620 So give some of those details.

00:33:30.660 Sure.

00:33:31.280 So Lupron is the drug that they want to give children in America to stop them from going

00:33:36.660 to puberty.

00:33:37.660 It is prescribed for men who have prostate cancer.

00:33:43.660 It is a chemotherapy drug.

00:33:45.160 Wow.

00:33:45.300 This is a drug we are giving children that do not have cancer.

00:33:50.580 The only other use for it, it gets even grosser, that they want to give it to children. 0.97

00:33:56.380 This drug is given as a chemical castration drug to child rapists, to pedophiles.

00:34:02.080 And they're giving it to kids because they say, or the parents say, they want to transition

00:34:08.060 at the age of eight or nine or 10.

00:34:10.160 And by the way, if the kids, when they get older, they change their mind, much of this

00:34:16.000 is irreversible.

00:34:17.560 If you have a teenage girl who has a double mastectomy, you don't get your breasts back. 1.00

00:34:22.820 That's right.

00:34:23.260 That's right.

00:34:23.640 Like that's permanent and forever.

00:34:25.860 It's too late.

00:34:26.960 And that's what the Lupron is for.

00:34:28.740 It is to put you on the trajectory for a sex change, to make it easier.

00:34:32.680 Because if your body never develops in the first place, it's that much easier to start

00:34:37.320 mutilating and amputating body parts.

00:34:39.960 So I started to meet.

00:34:41.720 Now, you talked about transitioning.

00:34:44.000 There's a group of young people called D-transitioners. 1.00

00:34:47.680 These were the kids.

00:34:48.920 They're now, many of them are grown, that went through this, that have deep regret.

00:34:54.300 And they visited the Capitol as well.

00:34:56.620 Unfortunately, their voices were shut out by these radical activists.

00:35:00.680 They didn't want us to listen to these kids.

00:35:02.980 I met a young lady who had a double mastectomy and a full hysterectomy. 1.00

00:35:09.340 She's only 26.

00:35:11.380 She said, rep theory, crying in the hallway to me.

00:35:14.440 I have the biological profile now of a 72-year-old woman.

00:35:18.860 A biological profile of a 72-year-old woman?

00:35:21.780 She's in full menopause.

00:35:23.860 She's 24.

00:35:25.760 She said, my bones hurt me so badly.

00:35:29.800 She was on so much testosterone.

00:35:31.580 So now, she said, I realized I never really wanted to be a boy.

00:35:37.300 She said, I was love-bombed.

00:35:39.640 And I said, tell me more about that.

00:35:41.560 And she said, I was a lonely child, a girl.

00:35:44.000 She said, I think I'm gay.

00:35:46.100 She said, but I don't want to be a man.

00:35:48.080 And she said, but I watched a lot of YouTube. 0.87

00:35:50.840 And she met these transgender ideologists who love-bombed her. 1.00

00:35:56.080 And then she told her mom. 0.71

00:35:57.840 Her mom was scared.

00:35:58.720 She took her to her gender clinic somewhere outside of Austin. 1.00

00:36:03.880 Despite what they tell you, she said in 30 minutes, they had a letter authorizing for her to get on all of these hormones. 1.00

00:36:11.980 Wow.

00:36:12.440 30 minutes?

00:36:13.420 And they always say that there's all this profiling that's done and all these interviews and mental.

00:36:19.000 You know, they look at everything.

00:36:20.540 30 minutes.

00:36:21.360 Here's your letter. 0.99

00:36:22.160 Go change sex. 1.00

00:36:24.120 Of a child. 0.99

00:36:24.860 Absolutely.

00:36:26.080 And, Senator, here's the part that really got me.

00:36:29.240 She said that they told her mother because her mom thought she was doing the right thing.

00:36:33.000 Her mom wasn't one of those women that was pushing it on her kid. 1.00

00:36:36.100 Right.

00:36:36.720 You can either have a dead daughter or a living son threatening her mother that she would kill herself.

00:36:44.640 And she said, I never said that.

00:36:46.720 She said, she goes, but then I started to believe that.

00:36:48.920 And so when I was talking to the detransitioners, they even took a photo of me. 1.00

00:36:54.040 I think it's on Twitter somewhere.

00:36:55.620 And it said, look at Rep Theory, you know, meeting with these.

00:36:59.140 They called the detransitioners a hate group.

00:37:02.560 These were LG.

00:37:03.440 They're saying, we've already done this.

00:37:06.140 Listen to us.

00:37:07.000 And then they called them a hate group.

00:37:08.200 Yeah.

00:37:08.360 That I was meeting with a hate group.

00:37:10.460 That I was anti-LGBTQ.

00:37:12.740 What's amazing is there's no compassion for these kids and the life-altering decisions that I think in many instances it's adults who are foisting it on them. 0.64

00:37:25.440 So let me ask you, if you listen to the media, if you listen to the conventional wisdom, Republicans are a bunch of intolerant bigots.

00:37:38.020 You were a four-time elected Democrat representative.

00:37:41.860 You flipped over to the Republican Party.

00:37:45.380 What has the reaction on both sides been?

00:37:48.720 And what have you found?

00:37:50.920 Well, the reaction was, one, very welcoming.

00:37:54.000 From the governor of Texas to the speaker of the House to all of my colleagues to just regular folks writing me on Facebook and inboxing me and saying, welcome, Rep Theory.

00:38:05.100 Praise God.

00:38:06.220 You know, we're so grateful to have you.

00:38:08.000 So there was none of this boogeyman racism that people, that the Democrat Party is using to fearmonger, I think, half of America.

00:38:17.480 But I knew that because I served with these folks.

00:38:21.060 And, you know, all of this talk of calling people bigots and Nazis and white supremacists, it was always so bizarre to me because I would sit with my colleagues who were saying those things and they would be in the members' lounge five minutes later sharing ice cream.

00:38:38.320 Yeah.

00:38:38.840 With these very folks that they were calling Nazis.

00:38:41.460 And then they actually started calling me a Nazi.

00:38:43.700 And I'm like, me?

00:38:44.620 I'm a black woman. 0.98

00:38:45.720 I'm a Nazi. 0.97

00:38:46.240 Okay.

00:38:46.740 I'm a Nazi now. 0.88

00:38:48.060 So, Senator, I knew, you know, that that was just a bunch of crazy talk.

00:38:52.400 The Democrats had been, like I said, from the moment I stood up on that bill, I started getting death threats the night before because the cat got let out the bag.

00:39:02.900 The Rep Theory is probably going to vote in favor of setting the age.

00:39:07.260 Did any other Democrats cross over and vote for the bill?

00:39:10.020 Three others.

00:39:11.640 Three others.

00:39:12.900 So, four.

00:39:13.780 And they told me, each one of them said, they would not have done it but for hearing my speech.

00:39:19.300 I gave a 12-minute speech on the House floor.

00:39:21.540 I think it's on YouTube.

00:39:22.620 And it's gone viral.

00:39:23.460 It went viral.

00:39:24.560 The letter I wrote explaining it got over 2.5 million views on Twitter.

00:39:28.500 But if you watch it, my hands were shaking.

00:39:31.900 My voice was cracking because I was so sleep-deprived.

00:39:35.360 Because for days, you know, they had just been harassing me and pounding me and threatening me and trying to change my mind.

00:39:42.160 Be true in submission.

00:39:42.960 Just like a cult.

00:39:45.500 And there was one colleague who you said could be a friend.

00:39:49.340 And I remember he pulled me to the side.

00:39:51.560 And he said to me, Sean, hold your nose.

00:39:56.120 You better hold your nose and vote with us if you want to make it back here.

00:40:01.000 And I just looked him in the face and said, I can't do that.

00:40:05.720 I can't do it.

00:40:07.500 A lot of people listening are going to ask, are you a cautionary tale?

00:40:10.380 Are you safe now in your elected position?

00:40:13.860 What's the end of the story for your career when it comes to this position that clearly you won four times?

00:40:20.260 Well, I did not win my seat for re-election.

00:40:22.800 I went to a runoff.

00:40:24.020 That's a question that everybody listening right now is like, what happened?

00:40:26.380 They beat her in the Democrat primary.

00:40:28.720 With a million bucks.

00:40:29.360 A million dollars worked.

00:40:30.740 They found a candidate who said she was a dual identity queer black woman that had never run for office. 0.92

00:40:36.940 I'd never seen her in the district one time volunteering, doing anything.

00:40:40.720 It never served.

00:40:41.640 Put the money behind that candidate. 0.52

00:40:42.960 And even though nobody knew her, she won.

00:40:46.860 However, I always say there's a comma, not a period there.

00:40:51.900 Okay.

00:40:52.680 As I said, again, that's a temporary pit stop.

00:40:57.240 My dad who passed away, I shared, we were talking about our fathers when we sat down and talked.

00:41:02.580 And before my dad passed away, it must have been very fortuitous of him for no reason at all.

00:41:06.940 He was in the hospital.

00:41:07.700 And he looked at me and he said, Sean, I want you to promise me one thing.

00:41:12.020 I was like, of course, Daddy.

00:41:13.400 And he said, don't ever let the power and the prestige of the position cause you to sell your soul.

00:41:21.060 Amen to that.

00:41:22.460 And I didn't.

00:41:24.500 And I stayed with that.

00:41:25.500 So I think people need to look at it and say, you can survive it.

00:41:28.860 I'm still here.

00:41:30.280 They censored me, but they did not silence me.

00:41:33.380 So I think that the good news is you can survive it.

00:41:37.880 I've switched parties, not because I'm so much politically ambitious, but because I'm a citizen.

00:41:42.440 I'm an American and I want to do what's right for my country.

00:41:45.700 And so now I'm speaking out.

00:41:47.080 I'm using whatever platform I have to educate Americans.

00:41:51.060 And Senator, so many folks, and I'll even say African-American voters, have come to me and said,

00:41:56.880 Rep. Theory, if only I had known, I didn't even know the Democrat Party was up to this.

00:42:01.680 Rep. Well, Sean, thank you for your courage.

00:42:05.140 And thank you for sharing your story.

00:42:06.720 Stories are powerful.

00:42:08.120 A lot of what we try to do on this podcast is tell stories, stories that impact people's lives, stories that are reality.

00:42:15.300 As you know, the media has their own narrative that they want to convince people of.

00:42:19.960 And it's part of the reason we've seen things like podcasts grow so much is people are hungry for the truth.

00:42:25.580 And so I appreciate you coming and joining us.

00:42:28.300 And thank you for standing up.

00:42:29.800 Thank you.

00:42:30.280 I can't wait to see what's next.

00:42:32.020 I love how you describe that.

00:42:33.780 It's like a comma.

00:42:35.060 The story has not been fully written.

00:42:37.640 I wish you well.

00:42:38.480 I'm excited.

00:42:39.320 You ever want help?

00:42:40.240 I'm on your team on this one.

00:42:41.720 Amen.

00:42:42.220 Thank you.

00:42:42.740 Only I'd say God is going to continue to order my footsteps.

00:42:45.660 I love it.

00:42:46.240 I love it.

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00:44:03.400 Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

00:44:06.180 Make sure you hit that subscribe or auto download button wherever you get this podcast.

00:44:10.660 And if you're watching this video on YouTube or Facebook, wherever you're watching it, please share it as well

00:44:16.420 so other people can hear this incredible story that we just gave you.

00:44:19.620 Pray again for the people of Israel on this anniversary of the attack, the one-year anniversary.

00:44:24.160 Pray for those hostages as well.

00:44:26.420 And the senator and I will see you back here on Wednesday.

00:44:30.780 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:44:32.100 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - October 07, 2024

October 7-One Year Later, How It Changed the World, plus Democrats Fleeing their Party, Rep. Shawn Thierry's Journey

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