Verdict with Ted Cruz - Oil & Gas(lighting)

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00:00:04.360 President Joe Biden was dragged kicking and screaming into banning Russian oil.

00:00:10.740 At the same time, a Polish plan to send fighter jets to help the Ukrainians was just nixed,

00:00:16.400 apparently, by the Pentagon.

00:00:18.200 And how are we going to fix the energy crisis?

00:00:20.320 Well, the answer from the White House is we're going to go buy oil from Venezuela and Iran.

00:00:26.120 Doesn't seem to solve very much.

00:00:27.900 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

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00:04:15.060 Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:04:16.820 I'm Michael Knowles.

00:04:18.360 Senator, you have had a very, very busy week.

00:04:21.880 The entire world has had a very, very busy week.

00:04:25.380 I want to get to Ukraine.

00:04:26.640 I know that you and other senators met with President Zelensky.

00:04:30.680 I know that you met with President Biden's new Supreme Court nominee.

00:04:35.260 There's a lot to get to, but first I want to get to the thing that hits closest to home, $4.17 national average for gasoline per gallon, over $5 per gallon in California.

00:04:48.920 The answer is we stop taking the Russian oil.

00:04:51.980 We start taking the Venezuelan oil.

00:04:53.880 We don't drill for any oil at home.

00:04:56.420 What is going on in the energy sector?

00:04:58.400 Well, on energy, we've seen since pretty much the instant Joe Biden became president, we've seen the price of energy going up and up and up.

00:05:07.640 We've seen the price of oil going up and up.

00:05:09.500 We've seen the price of natural gas going up and up.

00:05:11.560 We've seen the price of gasoline going up and up.

00:05:13.880 And that's not a surprise.

00:05:15.580 That is cause and effect.

00:05:16.940 Biden came in with an aggressive agenda designed to weaken and decripple domestic energy production.

00:05:24.540 You know, it's interesting right now, the White House's talking point, in fact, Biden said this today, they realize that they're exposed on inflation, that people are unhappy with inflation.

00:05:34.900 And in particular, they're unhappy with how prices have skyrocketed at the gas pump.

00:05:40.100 And so their talking points now is it's all Putin.

00:05:42.520 It's Putin's fault.

00:05:43.340 All of it is Putin.

00:05:44.880 Well, there is the little problem of facts.

00:05:48.620 Literally Biden's first day in office, he shut down the Keystone Pipeline.

00:05:52.600 That was 11,000 jobs destroyed with a stroke of a pen.

00:05:56.480 8,000 of those jobs were union jobs.

00:05:59.400 Also, the first day in office, he halted all new leases on federal lands.

00:06:04.600 Now, that's both onshore and also offshore.

00:06:07.880 So he just shut down new production.

00:06:10.760 Also, early on in the administration, he halted development of ANWR.

00:06:15.420 ANWR is a tiny little strip up in Alaska where there are vast oil reserves, massive reserves.

00:06:22.680 As part of the 2017 tax cut, Congress authorized the development of ANWR.

00:06:27.840 Joe Biden gets in and shuts it down.

00:06:30.440 All of those had their intended effects.

00:06:32.940 And if you look at last year, we saw the rig counts, the number of rigs that are drilling

00:06:37.720 for oil, that are drilling for natural gas, plummet.

00:06:40.980 That was by design.

00:06:42.580 And by the way, the Biden White House also wrote, their OMB wrote into their rules that

00:06:48.400 no federal funds will go to any infrastructure that benefits directly or indirectly oil and

00:06:56.520 gas, which among other things has Texas ports freaked out because if the standard is directly

00:07:01.680 or indirectly, every port in Texas, every road in Texas, every highway in Texas benefits directly

00:07:07.320 or indirectly oil and gas.

00:07:09.060 This has been a relentless war on oil and gas.

00:07:13.020 And so now the chutzpah of Biden to say, oh, the reason gas is higher is because of Putin 1.00

00:07:19.000 is just utter crap. 0.99

00:07:21.520 Before Putin invaded Ukraine, gasoline prices had risen 48 percent under Joe Biden. 0.99

00:07:30.760 And it's a simple cause and effect.

00:07:33.120 When you reduce supply.

00:07:35.360 Price goes up.

00:07:36.780 And in this instance, in 2019, the United States, under President Trump's policies, became

00:07:43.020 energy independent.

00:07:44.640 We were a net energy exporter.

00:07:46.960 We are the largest producer in the world of oil and natural gas.

00:07:51.380 Last year in 2021, we lost our status of energy independence.

00:07:55.880 We're now a net energy importer because Joe Biden actively, aggressively worked to throttle

00:08:02.620 production.

00:08:03.940 And you know what?

00:08:04.420 He's still doing it, even with the crisis in Europe that he created, even with the mess

00:08:09.380 in Ukraine that he created.

00:08:10.960 He's still not willing to green light U.S.

00:08:14.580 production.

00:08:15.460 And it's it.

00:08:16.960 So he's trying instead to play a political blame game of saying the consequences of his

00:08:23.460 policies.

00:08:24.100 It's all because of Putin.

00:08:24.960 Now, OK, I think you have totally disabused people of the Putin ate my homework excuses

00:08:31.320 that we're getting from Joe Biden.

00:08:32.820 Everything that's gone wrong, it's all Putin's fault.

00:08:35.000 Russia, Russia, Russia, where we heard that before.

00:08:36.980 That's right.

00:08:37.660 That has been the constant refrain of the last many years at this point.

00:08:41.580 But what do you make of the White House talking point?

00:08:44.740 Jen Psaki in particular has been pushing this, that regardless of Keystone, regardless of all

00:08:51.320 these other energy policies that Biden has put into place, these oil companies have plenty

00:08:56.820 of opportunities to drill.

00:08:58.280 They've got lots of leases that they're not using.

00:09:00.600 And so they can use those up first before we worry about Anwar, before we start talking

00:09:05.520 about projects like the Keystone pipeline.

00:09:07.800 Is this is this a case where we should, as the Democrats seem to be suggesting, blame the oil

00:09:13.840 industry?

00:09:14.260 It's not it's not the government.

00:09:15.740 Look at the industry. 1.00

00:09:16.780 So it's utterly asinine. 0.97

00:09:18.320 And I had a reporter in the Capitol ask me about this today and I couldn't help but laugh 0.96

00:09:22.660 and mock it and said, you know, it's almost like the White House's talking points are being

00:09:27.520 written by an 18 year old intern fresh from his college socialism class who has no idea how oil

00:09:34.160 and gas is produced, no idea how actually markets work.

00:09:37.960 So their theory is the oil companies can drill for oil and gas.

00:09:42.840 They can get it.

00:09:43.620 And mind you, it's trading at 130 bucks a barrel, but they don't want to.

00:09:48.400 That is OK. 0.99

00:09:49.360 There's a technical term for that, which is a dumb ass theory. 0.98

00:09:54.200 That's it's an economics term, right? 1.00

00:09:55.960 Yeah, like it is truly idiotic. 0.99

00:09:59.980 Look, there are all sorts of leases that are granted, but many of them are granted for projects 0.99

00:10:03.820 that are not viable for all sorts of different reasons.

00:10:06.440 And so you look at any producer, they analyze.

00:10:09.180 And if there is a viable project that the cost of production is less and significantly less

00:10:16.300 than the projected revenue it'll produce, that's when they greenlight the project.

00:10:20.900 And the problem is that that the Biden administration has taken a lot of those projects

00:10:25.940 off.

00:10:26.720 One of the reasons that projects don't get greenlit is because there aren't pipelines

00:10:31.280 to deal with with the output.

00:10:33.560 So let's say you want to drill for natural gas and you've got a bunch of resources there.

00:10:37.220 Well, if you can't build a natural gas pipeline, it doesn't do any good to drill for natural

00:10:41.460 gas.

00:10:41.740 You drill for natural gas and you can't get it anywhere.

00:10:43.800 It's ironic that Psaki says, well, Keystone doesn't matter.

00:10:49.060 Look, Keystone wasn't a drilling permit.

00:10:51.180 It was a pipeline to bring the oil from the Canadian tar sands down to the United States.

00:10:57.420 And by nixing the pipeline, it prevents us from accessing that oil.

00:11:03.780 And by the way, one of the administration's talking points is they say, OK, we're finally

00:11:11.860 going to boycott Russian oil and gas.

00:11:13.820 And let me point out, I've been calling on them to boycott Russian oil and gas.

00:11:17.080 When they first put sanctions in, Biden exempted oil and gas.

00:11:21.200 Never mind that Putin's major source of revenue is oil and gas.

00:11:25.520 He literally exempted the thing that was funding the war on Ukraine.

00:11:31.060 But when he did finally, when you had Republicans and Democrats just pounding the heck out of

00:11:36.480 the White House, finally, this week, Biden gave in and announced a boycott of Russian oil

00:11:42.280 and gas.

00:11:43.160 But they're justifying, they're saying, well, the Russian oil and gas is heavy, sour, crude,

00:11:51.200 so we need to go to Venezuela where you have the same type of crude.

00:11:56.440 Well, look, Venezuela is Nicolas Maduro, who is a dictator, who has illegitimately seized 0.70

00:12:01.580 power, who murders and tortures his citizens. 0.83

00:12:05.560 You know where else you have heavy, sour, crude?

00:12:08.520 In Canada, in the tar sands.

00:12:10.800 It's literally what Keystone was going to bring to the United States that Biden shut down.

00:12:17.160 And so I got a crazy suggestion.

00:12:19.660 Why don't we rely on oil from our friends?

00:12:23.540 The last I checked, the Canadians aren't invading anybody.

00:12:26.620 They're really nice.

00:12:27.700 They're kind of cold, but they're really nice.

00:12:29.660 And they're not invading anybody.

00:12:31.560 And so instead of running around, it's bizarre.

00:12:34.580 This Biden White House, they want, they're down in Venezuela.

00:12:37.200 Last week, they had administration officials down in Venezuela trying to open up and buy

00:12:44.040 oil from Venezuela.

00:12:45.400 They're in Vienna right now negotiating an Iran deal, trying to buy oil from Iran.

00:12:50.980 And apparently they think that sending billions of dollars to Maduro and the Ayatollah, while

00:12:56.540 both of them hate America, while the Ayatollah is funding terrorism against America and chanting 0.89

00:13:02.020 death to America, that's a better idea to them than importing Canadian oil and gas or even 1.00

00:13:09.000 worse from their perspective, actually allowing Americans to develop our own damn resources 1.00

00:13:15.580 and create jobs in our own damn countries. 0.99

00:13:18.140 It is bizarre. 0.99

00:13:19.580 This is the part that is really hard to wrap your head around, because I agree with you.

00:13:24.340 Even considering Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister Castro up there in Canada, who is not exactly

00:13:31.780 a wonderful leader.

00:13:34.040 Don't be making paternity jokes about Canada there.

00:13:38.040 No, I would never.

00:13:39.220 I never meant to insinuate in any way that Fidel Castro is obviously the father of Justin Trudeau.

00:13:44.860 I would never say such a thing.

00:13:46.200 I'm glad you didn't insinuate that.

00:13:47.880 Good.

00:13:49.260 Still, I would rather deal with the Canadians than the Venezuelans or the Iranians. 1.00

00:13:54.540 How is it the case that you can say Russia bad, so we're not going to buy oil from Russia.

00:13:59.940 Instead, we're going to buy it from the Ayatollah.

00:14:02.140 And I guess then my question is, if we're dealing with oil at all, why would we not do it here?

00:14:08.800 And is the argument the White House is making that really we just need to get America off

00:14:14.980 of oil entirely and on to windmills and, I don't know, unicorn tears and whatever sustainable

00:14:22.720 source of energy they want to go with.

00:14:24.320 Is that a legitimate alternative?

00:14:27.240 So it's not.

00:14:29.080 We don't have nearly enough production to provide for our energy needs.

00:14:33.720 It's unreliable.

00:14:35.140 For example, at times of freeze and bad weather, solar and wind work very unreliably.

00:14:40.880 And it's also terrible for the environment.

00:14:44.500 So you look at, for example, the Europeans.

00:14:46.480 The Europeans have gone very, very green and they're hurting the environment. 1.00

00:14:51.380 Why?

00:14:52.000 Because they shut down, like they've shut down their nuclear plants, many of their nuclear

00:14:55.200 plants.

00:14:56.200 And now they've realized that the wind and solar is very unreliable.

00:15:00.720 So they're opening coal plants.

00:15:02.180 They're literally going backwards.

00:15:03.540 You know, if you look in recent years at the country on planet Earth that reduced carbon

00:15:09.900 emissions the most, more than any other country on Earth, it is the United States.

00:15:14.620 Why is that?

00:15:16.000 The principal reason is the widespread substitution of natural gas for coal and the production of

00:15:22.120 electricity.

00:15:23.140 You know, everyone likes to say, get a Tesla.

00:15:24.940 I mean, that's what Biden said.

00:15:26.020 Buy a Tesla.

00:15:27.200 Well, the last I checked, the electricity you put in your Tesla, it's not coming from those

00:15:31.780 unicorn tears.

00:15:32.480 It's not coming from pixie dust.

00:15:34.460 It's coming from a power plant.

00:15:36.800 And those power plants, by and large, they're either burning coal or they're burning natural

00:15:41.580 gas.

00:15:41.960 And by the way, if you replace a coal plant with a natural gas plant, it pollutes much,

00:15:47.760 much less.

00:15:48.300 It releases much, much less carbon.

00:15:50.520 So if the environmentalist actually meant what they said, they would be the most full-throated

00:15:56.400 advocates of natural gas on the planet.

00:15:59.460 Because, number one, the United States, and in particular, Texas, is the Saudi Arabia of 1.00

00:16:04.380 natural gas.

00:16:05.020 They're the largest reserves on planet Earth.

00:16:07.180 We've got enough natural gas to literally provide for the world.

00:16:10.860 And to do that would enable much of the world to shift from coal to natural gas, which would

00:16:16.640 produce massive reductions in pollution and greenhouse gas.

00:16:21.980 But they don't want to do that.

00:16:23.460 They just hate natural gas and they want to see it go out of business.

00:16:27.200 And they're okay with developing countries relying on coal instead and polluting more

00:16:33.560 in the hope that one day in the future they'll erect a windmill.

00:16:38.840 I mean, it really is irrational.

00:16:40.600 And by the way, if the only criterion you cared about was the environment, you didn't

00:16:46.340 care about inflation, you didn't care about jobs, you cared about nothing else but the

00:16:50.180 environment, on that criterion, the Biden administration is an absolute failure.

00:16:56.320 You shut down the Keystone Pipeline, they transport the oil either using trucks and

00:17:02.160 trains to the south to the United States or on ships to the west to China.

00:17:06.300 Both of those pollute more and they got a higher risk of spills.

00:17:10.440 And the results of Biden, the United States and the world are polluting more and emitting

00:17:16.060 more greenhouse gases as a result of their supposedly green policies.

00:17:20.700 And here's one other point.

00:17:22.760 What has Biden done?

00:17:24.840 Reduced U.S. energy production and shifted more of our energy consumption to foreign oil

00:17:31.900 and gas to foreign oil and gas from countries like Russia, from the Middle East, all of which

00:17:37.840 are dirtier.

00:17:38.920 So I want you to understand they're shifting from relatively clean production in the United

00:17:43.980 States that pollutes less to overseas production that pollutes more and emits more carbon.

00:17:49.860 But it but it lets John Kerry feel good about himself as he boards his private jet and flies

00:17:54.440 all around lecturing us on the need to go into poverty.

00:17:57.880 Well, listen, John Kerry, he's special.

00:18:00.040 He really is special.

00:18:01.860 Well, now, isn't that special?

00:18:04.800 OK, no, I want to get to your meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky.

00:18:09.720 Are you old enough to remember Dana Carvey and the church lady?

00:18:12.640 Of course, it was the last time SNL was funny.

00:18:14.620 OK, just barely, though.

00:18:16.360 I was I was I was a wee lad at the time.

00:18:18.640 But but those were the halcyon days when SNL actually told jokes.

00:18:22.260 All right.

00:18:22.520 Let me ask you this.

00:18:23.500 Which which was better?

00:18:24.440 Are Carvey's Carvey's impression of George Herbert Walker Bush or Carvey's impression of

00:18:30.700 Ross Perot?

00:18:31.360 Wow.

00:18:31.780 You know, I am partial to the Bush impersonation.

00:18:35.800 I also love that Bush invited him to the White House to do it at the White House Christmas

00:18:39.800 Party, but Ross Perot was great, too.

00:18:41.800 And still, I think neither of them hold a candle to Norm MacDonald's Bob Dole.

00:18:46.020 Norm MacDonald's Bob Dole was inspired.

00:18:48.100 But I got to say, when Bush 41 is on with Dana Carvey and Carvey used to do, you know,

00:18:52.560 Bush would go, not going to do it.

00:18:53.800 Not going to.

00:18:54.180 And the way Carvey would do it.

00:18:55.200 He'd go, nagada, nagada.

00:18:57.320 And like Bush, like, what's nagada?

00:18:59.160 That's not English. 1.00

00:19:00.040 I don't say that. 0.62

00:19:01.060 And then by comparison, Ross Perot, he just said, there's a giant sucking sound from Mexico, 0.96

00:19:07.180 a sucking sound.

00:19:08.780 It was side-splittingly funny.

00:19:11.160 This has nothing to do with anything.

00:19:14.840 Well, there is a connection because Dana Carvey's nagada was almost as incoherent as the Biden

00:19:23.520 energy policy, which is why I have only one more question to ask before we move on to your

00:19:28.400 meeting with President Zelensky.

00:19:29.600 And I just want it so that I have ammo the next time that a leftist gives me a talking

00:19:35.980 point.

00:19:36.360 I want to be able to answer that.

00:19:37.860 What Jen Psaki and the White House and Joe Biden are all saying right now is the reason

00:19:42.080 that it won't matter, even if we have American domestic energy production, sorry, specifically

00:19:48.240 oil and natural gas production, is, listen, oil and natural gas, those are still global markets.

00:19:56.040 And so the price of gasoline at the pump, it's going to vary based on what's going on in Russia,

00:20:02.160 based on what's going on in Saudi Arabia, based on what's going on in Iran, no matter

00:20:05.700 what we do on the American side of oil production.

00:20:08.820 And so because of that, we've just got to ditch oil entirely and move on to windmills and solar

00:20:14.420 and pixie dust.

00:20:16.060 So look, for an administration that hates oil and gas, they sure do a lot of gaslighting. 1.00

00:20:25.380 Because their arguments are just asinine. 0.72

00:20:30.620 I mean, I really want Biden or Psaki or Harris to try to just address economics 101, your first 0.95

00:20:40.660 econ class in college.

00:20:42.240 And they explain the most basic rule of economics, which is supply and demand.

00:20:46.700 You've got supply and demand and where the two intersect is the price.

00:20:49.460 And so if supply goes up, then the price goes down.

00:20:55.800 If, on the other hand, demand goes up, then the price goes up.

00:20:59.960 And the intersection between those two determines where the price is.

00:21:04.080 What has Joe Biden presided over?

00:21:08.080 Supply going down, going down dramatically, but not just supply.

00:21:12.780 If you look at futures, futures are priced not just present supply, but the expectations of

00:21:18.460 future supply, when you put in regulatory zealots that are talking about the methane rule, that

00:21:24.620 are talking about going after fracking, that are expressing a manifest hostility to oil and

00:21:31.560 gas, people don't want to invest in the future.

00:21:35.200 And so people are anticipating not just current supply, they're anticipating future supply of

00:21:39.420 American production is going to be reduced because these guys are zealots.

00:21:43.340 So, for example, if you want to defeat Russia, if you want to stop the Russian war with Ukraine,

00:21:52.740 there are two tools you rely on.

00:21:54.480 Number one is weapons for Ukraine.

00:21:56.040 And we'll talk about that in a minute when we talk about Zelensky.

00:21:58.980 But number two is energy. 0.77

00:22:02.000 If you look at Putin, the source of his power is that he is a petro tyrant.

00:22:08.360 He earns his revenue.

00:22:09.700 In fact, I was looking at some of the stats.

00:22:11.020 So Russia is the number three oil producer in the world.

00:22:15.560 It's responsible for a little more than 10 percent of the global supply of oil.

00:22:19.900 In 2020, Russia produced 10.5 million barrels per day in total petroleum liquid fuels.

00:22:27.360 Russia is also the second largest producer of dry natural gas.

00:22:31.120 In 2020, it produced 22.5 trillion cubic feet.

00:22:36.340 Now, the United States imported roughly 8 percent of our oil from Russia.

00:22:42.920 It's about 672,000 barrels that we brought in.

00:22:47.360 And so that's what we just boycotted.

00:22:48.940 Although, interestingly enough, the oil companies had already cut off the Russian imports.

00:22:52.780 I think they anticipated this and recognized in the face of this war, there was no upside to bringing in Russian oil.

00:22:59.100 So we were already seeing that Russian oil drop.

00:23:02.460 But if you look at Putin's source of power, both present day and future, what he is counting on is that Europe is addicted to his oil and gas.

00:23:14.000 He's counting on that massively that no matter what he does, he invades Ukraine, he invades Poland, he invades Estonia or Latvia or Lithuania, invades Finland.

00:23:24.640 And as we talked about in an earlier pod, his speech suggested he wanted to invade all of those countries.

00:23:30.220 He's counting on Europe is like a crack addict.

00:23:33.060 It has to have that Russian gas. 0.73

00:23:34.540 It has to have that Russian gas.

00:23:35.920 That's the source of his power.

00:23:38.180 If you want to really weaken Putin, if you want to get the oligarchs to rise up, the old KGB guys to rise up and say, enough already, Vladimir, you're out of here.

00:23:47.600 The best way to do so is threaten the long term revenues of Russia from oil and gas. 0.80

00:23:54.740 Now, how do you do that?

00:23:55.480 One step and the right step is cutting off U.S. purchases.

00:24:00.040 But today, Biden's undersecretary of state, Toria Nuland, was testifying in front of foreign relations.

00:24:06.060 And I asked her, I said, look, is Europe going to cut off oil and gas?

00:24:11.660 And she basically said no.

00:24:13.560 And I said, well, all right, are you guys pressing Europe to do so?

00:24:16.740 And she drug her feet. 0.72

00:24:18.720 But basically what she said is, no, we're not pressing them to do so.

00:24:22.160 Here's why they're not pressing them to do so.

00:24:23.760 Because the only way they could get Europe to stop importing natural gas and oil is to ramp up U.S. production to replace that natural gas and oil.

00:24:36.560 We've got the reserves to do it.

00:24:37.960 We have the resources to do it.

00:24:39.320 But, for example, right now in the Biden administration, there are pending six separate applications to export liquid natural gas.

00:24:50.200 Biden administration is just sitting on them.

00:24:52.340 The State of the Union last week, I pulled Tony Blinken, the Secretary of State, aside.

00:24:56.640 I said, if you want to do something to hurt Putin, Biden ought to go on national television and sign, approve those applications instantaneously in the morning.

00:25:06.660 I asked Toria Nuland today, is the administration going to do that?

00:25:10.160 And she, hummina, hummina, hummina, wouldn't answer that question.

00:25:12.400 Because the answer is no.

00:25:13.880 They don't want to produce more here, which means they're fine with Europe continuing to import from Russia.

00:25:21.580 And as long as that happens, Putin has a revenue stream to fund war in Europe.

00:25:28.020 And sadly, that's what's happening.

00:25:29.320 And it's why also they're incoherently saying, go to Venezuela and go to Iran.

00:25:34.860 Let me mention one other thing that is truly incoherent.

00:25:37.640 So today, President Biden announced the boycott on Russian oil and gas.

00:25:45.540 Also, this week is expected that Biden will announce a new deal with Iran.

00:25:53.860 They are in Vienna right now negotiating a new deal with Iran.

00:25:58.320 It was expected to come out several days ago.

00:26:00.720 And then there was suddenly a wrinkle thrown in at the last minute, which is the Russians came in in the last couple of days and said, well, now, hold on a second. 0.50

00:26:08.720 You're not getting a deal with Iran if it's going to impact us negatively.

00:26:12.340 Are these sanctions you're putting on us going to impact Iran?

00:26:15.760 And I'll tell you what Biden and their administration said.

00:26:18.120 No, no, no, no, no, no.

00:26:19.000 You know, we love the Ayatollah so much.

00:26:22.980 You don't worry, Vlad.

00:26:25.160 These sanctions aren't going to impact you at all with Iran.

00:26:29.860 So literally the results of the Iran deal, and I think we will get it in the next day or two, are going to be that Russia and Putin will make billions off of Iran.

00:26:40.740 And they're somehow exempted from everything they announced today.

00:26:45.140 We'll make billions off of Iran, not just in oil and gas. 0.57

00:26:49.000 But also they want to make Russia the leading nuclear authority for Iran, which will benefit it enormously.

00:26:58.060 And Russia wants to sell Iran billions in weapons and missiles and weaponry to attack their neighbors. 0.54

00:27:04.680 So Biden is simultaneously sanctioning Russia and subsidizing Russia with the Iran deal.

00:27:11.700 It is completely incoherent.

00:27:14.820 They know it, but it's where their ideology takes them.

00:27:18.140 Right, right.

00:27:18.980 They've been pushing for this Iran deal ever since they got the first one, and then it went away.

00:27:23.700 And so that was always going to happen, even if it contradicts other parts of the policy.

00:27:29.160 So I guess this brings us to the war in Ukraine.

00:27:31.800 You met with President Zelensky.

00:27:33.780 He piped in to the U.S. Senate.

00:27:37.260 What happened?

00:27:37.960 So he did.

00:27:38.760 We had this weekend, we had a video conference call.

00:27:42.660 And so it was on computer and it was kind of cool.

00:27:46.640 He's in, you know, kind of combat, a combat T-shirt in an underground and undisclosed bunker.

00:27:52.600 And we were all asked, do not put out anything publicly about this call until after the call.

00:27:57.600 Obviously, his location is a closely guarded secret, that if Putin and the Russians could kill him, they would.

00:28:04.100 And he started the call by telling all of us, this may be the last time you ever speak to me or ever hear from me.

00:28:09.160 And he is leading a war and doing a remarkable job of it.

00:28:15.000 You know, when the Biden administration tried to evacuate him, Zelensky said, look, I need ammunition.

00:28:20.640 I don't need a ride.

00:28:23.520 The conversation with Zelensky was a very interesting conversation.

00:28:27.000 He said several things.

00:28:28.680 One thing he said clearly and unequivocally, he said if the United States had imposed sanctions on Nord Stream 2 last year, Putin would not have invaded Ukraine.

00:28:41.160 He said it flat out.

00:28:42.420 And every member of Congress heard it on that call.

00:28:45.860 Well, as we've talked about ad nauseum, that's what I was fighting tooth and nail for.

00:28:50.540 And Biden didn't want to enter those sanctions.

00:28:52.940 He wanted to capitulate to Putin, which is why we have the biggest war in Europe since 1945, since World War II.

00:29:01.640 This is a big deal, Senator.

00:29:03.280 Yes.

00:29:03.760 Because, you know, we've said it.

00:29:06.060 You know, we hate to say we told you so.

00:29:07.900 No, we don't.

00:29:08.460 We actually kind of like that.

00:29:10.520 Although it's a serious topic, but a very serious topic.

00:29:14.780 But that's why it's so important, though, is this this was an issue that, yes, you saw pretty clearly.

00:29:19.680 A lot of other conservatives saw it, too, and said, you know, this is a big deal, guys.

00:29:23.660 You think this is just a little tit for tat with Putin.

00:29:26.020 It's not.

00:29:26.660 This could be the difference between war and peace.

00:29:29.540 And so you were calling for that sort of thing.

00:29:31.620 And yet when we talk about it, it sometimes it can sound as though it's just a cheap partisan shot.

00:29:37.400 This isn't a cheap partisan shot.

00:29:38.980 You've got the president of Ukraine himself saying exactly what we said on this show weeks and months ago.

00:29:46.380 This Nord Stream 2 pipeline was the difference between war and peace.

00:29:51.320 It is why Putin did not invade Ukraine in 2019 or 2020.

00:29:56.620 And it's why he did invade Ukraine this year, because in 2019 and 2020, we had the sanctions legislation that I'd authored and that Trump had signed.

00:30:05.020 And in 2021, Biden waived those sanctions and gave a multibillion dollar generational gift to Putin and an invitation, a golden ticket, come invade Ukraine.

00:30:15.780 And Biden took him or Putin took him up on it.

00:30:19.700 So that was one piece that I thought was very important that Zelensky said.

00:30:24.760 Zelensky also said, you know, a number of us asked, what do you need most?

00:30:30.980 And what he needs most is weapons.

00:30:34.240 And he needs stingers and he needs javelins.

00:30:37.580 And we've been providing him some.

00:30:39.620 The Biden administration has dragged their feet.

00:30:41.640 They've been very slow on it.

00:30:42.880 Um, twice last year in April and December, they froze military aid to Ukraine because they were trying to pressure Ukraine to concede and make it to appease Russia.

00:30:54.020 Um, they finally were guilted into it.

00:30:57.380 And so we're providing them some javelins and stingers, which they're using to perform far better in the war than Putin expected.

00:31:04.400 But what Zelensky said he needs more than anything else are fighter jets.

00:31:08.060 And he said, listen, control of the air is critical.

00:31:11.920 And he says, right now, Russia has control of the air.

00:31:14.520 And he says, we need the jets.

00:31:15.920 But he also said, we've got the pilots.

00:31:18.320 Ukrainian pilots are ready to fly them.

00:31:20.940 But we need the jets.

00:31:22.380 And so what what he was what he was urgently asking us for is if if you provide the fighter jets for us, we can fly in combat.

00:31:31.820 We can defeat the Russian jets. 0.95

00:31:34.080 Now, what is striking is in the Senate, there is almost universal agreement that providing Ukraine with fighter jets is incredibly important.

00:31:49.520 Republicans agree on that and Democrats agree on that.

00:31:52.000 And I've been in meetings with multiple senators, both DNR, pounding the heck out of the Biden administration.

00:32:00.740 Here's the curious thing.

00:32:01.880 You know who doesn't agree with that?

00:32:03.720 The Biden administration.

00:32:05.840 They don't want to provide Ukraine with jets and where it has real bite.

00:32:11.340 And so the jets that the Ukrainian pilots know how to fly are MiGs, you know, where they're part of the Soviet Union.

00:32:19.000 Remember, remember the Soviet MiGs?

00:32:21.100 Remember the movie Top Gun, the MiG that flies upside down and flips the bird at Tom Cruise?

00:32:26.060 So those are the jets that the Ukrainian pilots are trained on.

00:32:32.080 There are a whole bunch of MiGs in Poland because Poland also was was controlled by the Soviet Union.

00:32:38.440 So they've got MiGs. 0.97

00:32:39.440 And so the natural solution was for Poland to allow Ukraine to use the MiGs. 0.82

00:32:46.980 And let Ukrainian pilots fly and combat use them. 0.89

00:32:51.920 Well, Poland was asking, saying, hey, that's fine with us. 0.94

00:32:56.400 But will the U.S. backfill?

00:32:58.100 Will you will you provide us with F-16 so that we're not left with no jets to protect our country, which was a reasonable request?

00:33:04.900 If they're going to step up and help out their neighbor, then then the U.S. should help.

00:33:09.440 And what is amazing, the Biden administration really, really didn't want this to happen.

00:33:16.760 So the Biden administration's public stance was Poland can do what it wants.

00:33:23.040 Poland is a sovereign country.

00:33:24.820 You decide if you want to give them MiGs or not.

00:33:28.620 It's up to you.

00:33:29.140 We don't have any views.

00:33:30.120 You know, Joe Biden, no view at all on whether or not Ukraine should get the fighter jets to defend their people against Russia invading and conquering them.

00:33:37.720 We don't have a view of the Biden White House.

00:33:39.380 It's up to you, Poland. 1.00

00:33:40.480 I can tell you, I've been beating up the Biden admin saying, why aren't you urging Poland to do that?

00:33:46.860 Why aren't you saying, sure, we will make sure the F-16s are available for you to backfill, make this happen.

00:33:53.420 This is what Zelensky said he needs.

00:33:55.380 It's what both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate have said let's make happen.

00:33:58.980 Well, Poland, I think, got frustrated because the Biden White House was clearly playing a game.

00:34:04.780 They were saying, hey, we said Poland can do it, but, you know, the Poles, they're just not helping. 1.00

00:34:09.720 Those temperamental Poles don't want to help the Ukrainians. 1.00

00:34:13.500 Isn't that a shame?

00:34:14.900 So Poland today did something really quite extraordinary, which is they flew the MiGs to a U.S. Air Force base.

00:34:24.500 They said, all right, here are the MiGs.

00:34:26.000 They're yours.

00:34:26.580 They're yours.

00:34:27.120 Do what you want.

00:34:27.720 So they just called Biden's bluff because he's saying, oh, it's the Poles.

00:34:33.320 They don't want to give them.

00:34:34.060 They're like, here, they're yours.

00:34:35.220 We're happy for Ukraine to take them. 0.99

00:34:36.720 So now the Biden admin is like, oh, crap. 0.97

00:34:41.080 Now we have the MiGs that they want. 0.93

00:34:43.120 So the Pentagon put out today, no, no, no, we're not going to let the Ukrainians have these MiGs.

00:34:50.300 So now the Polish MiGs that Ukraine wants and needs, the Biden admin is saying, no,

00:34:56.720 we won't provide you with those fighter jets.

00:34:59.940 It's consistent with what they have done for years, for over a year and actually going back to Obama prior to that, starving the Ukrainians of military assistance because they're afraid of angering Putin.

00:35:12.880 Now, is there a legitimate fear here, though, that if you're trying to get the MiGs from Poland to Ukraine, you're probably not going to tow them across the border.

00:35:22.280 You're going to fly them in. 0.93

00:35:23.400 And so you're flying into contested airspace.

00:35:25.440 Is there is there a fear that Russia shoots down one of these planes and all of a sudden we're we're in a full on war between NATO and Russia?

00:35:35.840 So, of course.

00:35:36.720 And and and that's why we've talked about this at length.

00:35:39.920 That's why I strongly oppose America imposing a no fly zone on Ukraine, because the way you impose a no fly zone is you put your fighter jets up in the air with a promise to shoot down anyone else who's up in the air.

00:35:53.720 And that is inviting direct combat between American troops and Russian troops.

00:35:59.240 And that is an incredibly dangerous powder keg that I think would be really foolhardy to risk.

00:36:06.220 What we should be doing is providing the weaponry to let Ukrainians defend themselves.

00:36:10.720 So what Ukraine is perfectly happy to do is send their pilots to the planes and put Ukrainian pilots in the plane and let them fly back. 0.92

00:36:20.060 So, listen, if the Russians shoot them down with the Ukrainian pilot, that's part of warfare. 0.94

00:36:24.040 They can shoot at each other. 0.77

00:36:25.140 And that's right. 0.82

00:36:26.040 That is they're going to be in combat. 0.92

00:36:27.920 It's anticipated that the Russians will shoot at the Ukrainians and the Ukrainians will shoot at the Russians. 0.74

00:36:32.540 What I don't want is the Russian shooting at Americans. 1.00

00:36:35.600 And and the Biden admin has this weird view that, well, we're giving them. 0.97

00:36:42.180 Stinger missiles and javelins, which they're using to shoot down planes and to shoot tanks and to kill Russian soldiers.

00:36:48.300 But somehow providing them with planes is different from a stinger or a javelin.

00:36:53.340 And I'm not sure how that distinction makes any difference.

00:36:57.060 If we're providing the weapons that are killing Russian soldiers, whatever degree of complicity Putin wants to put on us, we got already.

00:37:05.120 Right.

00:37:05.240 Right. And the reality.

00:37:08.080 So what Biden is arguing publicly.

00:37:11.080 Is Ukraine doesn't need jets.

00:37:13.560 No, no.

00:37:14.500 When Zelensky told every member of Congress what I need more than anything is fighter jets, he doesn't really mean it.

00:37:20.440 He doesn't need jets and we're not going to provide it.

00:37:23.320 And it's their orientation is weakness.

00:37:28.320 They believe Russia will win.

00:37:30.040 They're consigned to a Russian victory. 0.96

00:37:33.100 So they're already managing the loss.

00:37:35.880 And they don't have any vision.

00:37:40.160 That Ukraine can or should win. 0.93

00:37:43.880 And it is reminiscent of the 60s and 70s when Democrats viewed the Soviet Union as as as the answer was detente, which I've joked is French for surrender.

00:37:55.920 The Biden administration cannot envision this, that our objective here should be Putin loses and Ukraine remains a free country.

00:38:04.040 Now, we're not going to send American soldiers to make that happen.

00:38:06.400 But the two weapons we have are, number one, military equipment so the Ukrainians can fight and defend their own homeland.

00:38:13.560 And number two, using energy aggressively to cut off Putin's revenue streams.

00:38:20.320 Biden is too scared and timid to fully use either one of those.

00:38:26.000 Well, the the message from Zelensky seems clear enough and it's not being filtered through the White House.

00:38:30.860 You heard it from him directly.

00:38:32.440 I do want to turn from the foreign sphere to the domestic sphere for a second.

00:38:36.400 You also met with Joe Biden's Supreme Court nominee this week, someone who actually, you know, from all the way back in your law school days.

00:38:46.000 Yeah. So I met with Ketanji Brown Jackson.

00:38:47.900 I've known her. She was she was a year behind me in law school. 1.00

00:38:51.100 So I was class of 95 at Harvard Law School.

00:38:53.480 She was class of 96.

00:38:55.620 We're both in the law review together.

00:38:57.400 So the law review has a total of 80 students on it.

00:39:00.900 They're 42nd year students and 43rd year students.

00:39:05.620 And so she was she was a 2L when I was a 3L. 1.00

00:39:08.900 And so we were on it together and I knew her and we were friendly with each other.

00:39:12.880 We weren't close. We weren't particularly friends.

00:39:14.780 But, you know, 80 students is not that many.

00:39:16.900 And you basically the building that the law review is in is called Gannett House.

00:39:21.240 And basically the law review editors are all nerds that are in Gannett House all the time studying and working.

00:39:28.020 And so I knew her.

00:39:29.240 And in law school, she was friendly.

00:39:32.740 She smiled a lot.

00:39:34.180 She was well thought of.

00:39:35.200 She was well liked.

00:39:35.880 I mean, she was she was a capable, smart, well liked law student.

00:39:41.060 And, you know, I sat down and met with her just under an hour in my office today.

00:39:47.540 And I would say all of that, you know, by all appearances has continued.

00:39:52.320 She she personally can be very charming. 1.00

00:39:56.120 She smiles and laughs easily.

00:39:58.480 She's very bright.

00:40:00.340 She's very capable.

00:40:02.740 We spent a lot of time talking about talking about her experience in law school,

00:40:07.320 talking about her experience clerking on the Supreme Court.

00:40:09.760 She clerked for Justice Breyer.

00:40:11.820 I clerked for Chief Justice Rehnquist.

00:40:13.480 We're a couple of years apart clerking, but we talked about that experience.

00:40:16.940 We talked about why she wanted to be a judge.

00:40:19.320 We talked about her jurisprudential approach.

00:40:22.060 But, you know, we saw this in her confirmation hearing for the D.C. Circuit.

00:40:26.540 She's very guarded in what she'll say about her jurisprudential approach.

00:40:29.800 She has not she doesn't have the kind of paper trail that some Supreme Court nominees have, 1.00

00:40:36.740 where they said bunches of things that are clearly incriminating.

00:40:40.280 In some ways, it reminds me of John Roberts.

00:40:43.740 You know, John Roberts, when he was nominated to be chief justice,

00:40:46.700 he had lived an entire life being very careful with what he said

00:40:51.660 so that there was nothing you could point to that would be disqualifying to go to go to the court.

00:40:57.820 And Ketanji reminds me in some ways about that.

00:41:00.260 She has been very careful in what she said.

00:41:03.880 Now, I still expect we'll have a vigorous confirmation hearing, but but she is going to be.

00:41:10.480 I think she is charming and will acquit herself well in the hearing.

00:41:17.040 And we'll see what what I expect to be a vigorous examination of her record. 0.64

00:41:23.460 And we'll see what the outcome is from there.

00:41:27.820 So you're saying that she is going to be a tough nominee to beat.

00:41:33.440 Look, particularly given that.

00:41:36.680 Barring something.

00:41:38.780 A big smoking gun that nobody knows about now.

00:41:42.660 Every Democrat will vote for her. 1.00

00:41:44.460 So if nothing else happened and they got all the Democrats, she'd get confirmed.

00:41:47.900 Right.

00:41:48.040 You'd have to think there's a real likelihood that several Republicans vote for her.

00:41:53.780 I mean, the natural people you would start to think about would be Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski.

00:41:59.560 Mitt Romney would be someone who is certainly a possibility.

00:42:03.540 Lindsey Graham voted for her last time, 0.98

00:42:05.840 although he's mad that Biden didn't pick the South Carolina judge he wanted.

00:42:10.480 So maybe Lindsey votes no. 0.99

00:42:12.940 And for that matter, I could see a retiring Republican senator or two voting for her.

00:42:18.840 So that's the dynamic coming in.

00:42:21.860 There are some in Republican leadership that are saying, well, don't pick a fight.

00:42:26.940 Don't just just just kind of let this go forward.

00:42:30.040 I got to say what what I'm urging the conference is, listen, we shouldn't get nasty and personal.

00:42:36.200 We shouldn't behave like the Democrats did on Brett Kavanaugh.

00:42:40.460 We shouldn't engage in personal slurs and slander.

00:42:43.600 But we ought to have a vigorous process that questions her on the record because these issues matter.

00:42:51.900 And I think most of the Republicans agree with that, but maybe not everybody.

00:42:56.940 Well, I do like the idea that we will not be grilling her and saying, Ketanji, do you still like beer?

00:43:02.940 You know, that that that seems unfit for the process.

00:43:07.640 So I'll tell you a couple of interesting just moments from from meeting in my office.

00:43:16.380 Number one, when she was there, I offered her and everyone there some Cuban coffee as as as a Cuban American.

00:43:23.860 I sometimes when people come to my office, we make Cuban coffee and she turned down the Cuban coffee, which I got to say anyone that turns down coffee. 0.84

00:43:31.340 I'm highly suspect. Yeah, I enjoyed the Cuban coffee.

00:43:36.240 And that, by the way, for the the crazy fact checkers, that was tongue in cheek.

00:43:42.860 Secondly, interestingly enough, so so her handler.

00:43:47.780 Her Sherpa is Doug Jones.

00:43:50.160 So Doug Jones was former Democratic senator from Alabama.

00:43:53.920 You know, Doug's a nice guy. He served with all of us.

00:43:56.040 Two interesting points about Doug.

00:44:01.320 Number one, at the beginning of the Biden administration, they stopped using the word Sherpa because Sherpa was culturally insensitive to Nepal or whatever.

00:44:14.540 Like but apparently now with Doug, they're calling him the Sherpa again.

00:44:18.540 So it's hard to keep track of the politically correct dictionary.

00:44:23.520 Doug Jones is not Nepalese. Last time I checked, you know, Doug joked and said that that his friends back home were saying, are you a shepherd now?

00:44:32.200 So which which I believe that that that struck me as quite quite plausible.

00:44:37.780 Secondly, and I didn't didn't plan on this, but as I'm sitting there talking to Katanji,

00:44:43.800 we're both in in chairs and in between us as a table with with a bust of Winston Churchill that I always have in my office.

00:44:52.420 And I look over, we're actually talking about Martin Luther King.

00:44:56.120 And I look over at the table between us and I start laughing and said, well, this was not planned.

00:45:02.040 But but actually, Doug Jones is the only senator whose signature I have in this office and sitting on the table next to the bust of Winston Churchill is a printed copy of Martin Luther King's letter from a Birmingham jail.

00:45:17.800 And when Doug was in the Senate, he started a tradition of reading the entirety of letter from a Birmingham jail on the floor of the Senate.

00:45:30.400 And he did it as a bipartisan. He invited six senators to participate.

00:45:34.320 And so I participated a couple of different years in reading a portion from the letter from a Birmingham jail, which is such a powerful, moving piece.

00:45:43.480 And I had read it in school, but it had been decades since I reread it and just having the chance, A, to reread it, but B, to read it out loud, to hear the words out loud.

00:45:54.800 And one of the things people forget about the letter from a Birmingham jail, it is directed, it is addressed.

00:46:00.740 Do you know to whom it's addressed?

00:46:02.440 I don't remember now.

00:46:03.280 To the members of the clergy, because Dr. King was also Reverend King.

00:46:08.140 And it is a letter to Christian pastors to stand up against racism and stand up against evil.

00:46:16.600 And there's a great portion in it where he says the church and leaders in the church, we should be a thermostat and not a thermometer.

00:46:26.180 In other words, we shouldn't just reflect the temperature of those around us,

00:46:30.880 but rather the leaders of the church should be influencing those around us with truth and with justice.

00:46:37.180 And it's incredibly powerful.

00:46:38.800 So I had the bound copy of the letter from Birmingham jail that Doug gave me and signed.

00:46:43.620 And it just, it always sits in my office.

00:46:45.580 I didn't put it out there because he was coming, but I did kind of laugh and said, well, for whatever reason, Doug, you're the one guy whose signature is sitting in here.

00:46:53.680 Now, before we move on, I know there's a lot to talk about on Cloak Room.

00:46:57.820 I do have to ask you this.

00:46:59.160 This is just the eternal optimist in me.

00:47:02.000 You've known this woman for a long time.

00:47:05.000 You just met with her.

00:47:06.140 It looks like she's going to make it through to the court.

00:47:09.620 Historically, Republican-nominated justices have disappointed the presidents who have nominated them.

00:47:16.480 That has generally not been the case with Democrat-nominated justices.

00:47:20.840 But you say, look, there's basically no paper trail here with Ketanji.

00:47:24.160 Is there any chance that it will turn out that this Supreme Court nominee is a secret conservative who's going to give us good, proper votes on the bench and lots of conservative jurisprudence?

00:47:37.820 No.

00:47:37.960 Okay, fair enough.

00:47:40.860 And by the way, Michael, you will be interested.

00:47:43.080 I actually asked her that question.

00:47:44.920 Did you?

00:47:45.240 And what I said is I said, listen, let me tell you a perspective that millions of conservatives have across the country.

00:47:52.840 I said all across the country, the perspective is when Democrats nominate justices, their justices 100% of the time in the big cases vote exactly like the Democrats want them to, without favor.

00:48:07.480 And Republicans, when Republicans nominate justices, we're terrible at it.

00:48:14.040 And more than half of Republican nominees vote against conservative principles over and over and over again.

00:48:22.800 And I'd asked her previously about justices growing in office.

00:48:26.420 And I said, it seems when a justice grows in office, it's always in one direction.

00:48:30.600 It's always to the left.

00:48:32.220 No one ever grows more conservative.

00:48:34.200 And her answer, she basically is like, no.

00:48:37.580 And I said, what do you think about that?

00:48:39.080 I said, there are millions of people that believe that.

00:48:40.720 What's your reaction to that is how I asked the question.

00:48:43.560 And she's like, no, no, I don't see that at all.

00:48:46.260 She just kind of pleaded ignorance.

00:48:48.100 I don't know what you're talking about.

00:48:49.760 I have no views about that at all.

00:48:51.740 And it is part and parcel of the game that Biden nominees play at every confirmation hearing where they're like, no, no, I have no views on that.

00:49:04.020 No, never thought of that.

00:49:05.060 No, I have no idea.

00:49:06.080 No, I don't know anything about that.

00:49:07.400 See no evil here now.

00:49:08.720 Yeah.

00:49:09.020 Right.

00:49:09.440 Right.

00:49:09.860 You know, that's.

00:49:12.680 So that was her response.

00:49:14.500 But I asked her that question.

00:49:17.000 And let me put it this way.

00:49:19.380 In Dumb and Dumber, they said one in a million.

00:49:23.480 So you're saying I got a chance.

00:49:24.900 I got a chance.

00:49:26.580 In this instance, it ain't one in a million.

00:49:29.280 Well, I at least there is clarity.

00:49:34.180 I am sorry to hear that.

00:49:35.640 I'm glad you asked the question.

00:49:37.180 I'm glad that any hope that I had has been totally quashed.

00:49:41.800 And I don't need to even entertain that any further.

00:49:45.200 Now, you had another meeting this week that I believe you're going to be getting into on the cloakroom with our friend Liz Wheeler.

00:49:51.480 Liz, is that right?

00:49:52.460 That is correct.

00:49:53.200 Hi, Michael.

00:49:53.700 Hi, Senator.

00:49:54.200 By the way, I love hearing about the behind the scenes stuff that's happening.

00:49:57.960 I love hearing about your conversations with Katanji Brown Jackson.

00:50:01.020 And we're going to get into even more behind the scenes stuff over on the cloakroom on Verdict Plus.

00:50:05.300 You can join us at verdictwithtedcruise.com slash plus.

00:50:08.540 I have a promo code for you.

00:50:09.900 If you use the promo code cloakroom, obviously, what else is it going to be?

00:50:13.420 You get one month free on your annual subscription.

00:50:15.680 That is the first month free.

00:50:16.660 We're going to be talking about the senators meeting with the leaders of the people's convoy, which is the American version, obviously, of the truckers convoy, the freedom convoy, and what exactly went down in that meeting.

00:50:28.200 Because the truckers have some very interesting concerns, reasons why they have not yet gone into D.C.

00:50:33.260 And so we are going to be talking about that tonight and a couple of great questions from the Verdict Plus community.

00:50:38.740 Again, you can join us on Verdict Plus, verdictwithtedcruise.com slash plus, and use promo code cloakroom.

00:50:46.680 I can't wait.

00:50:47.320 I can't wait to hear about it.

00:50:48.420 I hope it went better than the meeting with the future Supreme Court justice.

00:50:53.340 Yes, I hope so, too.

00:50:55.560 I'll have to tune in.

00:50:56.960 In the meantime, I'm Michael Knowles.

00:50:58.640 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:50:59.840 This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is being brought to you by Jobs, Freedom, and Security Pack, a political action committee dedicated to supporting conservative causes, organizations, and candidates across the country.

00:51:20.820 In 2022, Jobs, Freedom, and Security Pack plans to donate to conservative candidates running for Congress and help the Republican Party across the nation.

00:51:31.220 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:51:33.540 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - March 10, 2022

Oil & Gas(lighting)

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