Verdict with Ted Cruz - Planes, Trains, & FBI Raids

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.700 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.900 Senator, nice to be back with you.

00:00:06.580 We've been, I've seen you a lot this week.

00:00:08.540 Some in D.C., some back here in Houston.

00:00:11.020 And I do think we should explain to people

00:00:13.660 what happened at CPAC.

00:00:16.220 It was supposed to be,

00:00:17.760 and we had dinner the night before.

00:00:19.220 We planned out a big show.

00:00:20.620 Some of that we're going to actually do in today's show.

00:00:23.240 But right before we were to go on stage,

00:00:26.740 there was a vote called in the Senate

00:00:28.420 that was pushed up.

00:00:30.040 You guys, I learned very clearly that they have no clue

00:00:32.600 what your schedule is.

00:00:34.000 And then we said, basically, all right, here's our audible.

00:00:37.080 All the senators have to leave CPAC, go back and vote.

00:00:39.620 We'll have J.D. Vance on the show.

00:00:41.760 And that's kind of how it went down, which was really fun.

00:00:44.640 Yeah, it was entirely inaudible.

00:00:46.200 So we were planning to do the pod from the stage of CPAC.

00:00:50.380 It was going to be you and me.

00:00:51.640 And then we had a vote at 145 that we had to get back for.

00:00:56.480 And so Matt Schlapp came to me and to you and said,

00:00:59.500 look, I got 30 minutes till you guys are telling me you got to leave.

00:01:04.920 And he said, I've got you and I got J.D. Vance.

00:01:08.540 And he said, if you want, I can just cut the time in half,

00:01:11.200 give me 15 minutes each, which is less time than we're supposed to have.

00:01:14.720 Yeah.

00:01:15.500 Or you can somehow combine it.

00:01:17.180 And so you and I looked at each other and we're like, OK, we're going to do a guest.

00:01:20.740 And look, it helps J.D. and I are friends.

00:01:23.560 So but it was.

00:01:24.240 And you campaigned for him, which is I think he actually really enjoyed the fact that it was like it was almost coming full circle.

00:01:29.680 Yeah. No, it was a nice.

00:01:31.460 But we literally didn't know we were doing it until about 10 minutes before we went on stage with him.

00:01:38.800 And J.D. had a whole speech prepared.

00:01:40.440 So I don't know what he was planning to talk about, but he had a speech prepared.

00:01:43.160 And it's like, OK, I'll come on verdict instead.

00:01:45.480 Now, I will say, to give a sense, look, CPAC has a big reach, both for the people in the room, but also for the people watching.

00:01:54.920 So when I invited people, I said, listen, if you want to subscribe to the podcast, I said, pull out your phone and text the word verdict to 24005.

00:02:06.740 Which, by the way, everybody can do right now.

00:02:08.520 If you're watching this podcast, that's the easiest way where you can subscribe to the podcast.

00:02:13.000 It's free.

00:02:13.780 But you did that to the audience.

00:02:15.060 Yeah, I did that to the audience.

00:02:16.580 I told them, pull out your cell phone.

00:02:17.940 And you can see all across the audience, people pull out their cell phone.

00:02:21.160 And I told them, text the word verdict to 24005.

00:02:25.760 And I always repeat it at least twice, 24005.

00:02:29.780 You know how many people sent that text?

00:02:31.680 How many?

00:02:32.460 1,105.

00:02:34.080 That's really cool.

00:02:35.380 And so what you get back is a link to subscribe to the podcast.

00:02:38.800 And so that was, CPAC is always a blast, but I thought it was a good and lively show.

00:02:47.280 And having J.D. made it all the more fun.

00:02:50.500 It was really fun.

00:02:51.360 I got to ask you something else quickly because it was an interesting weekend of news coverage.

00:02:55.320 There was CPAC and there was Club for Growth, their meetings down in Florida.

00:03:00.840 You were one of very few that actually did both because they both are very important to us winning back the White House.

00:03:07.120 And you went to both, which obviously people are like, all right, is the Republican Party divided?

00:03:12.520 Are we going to get our act together and really coalesce and work together these different wings of the party?

00:03:19.940 I came out of CPAC more encouraged.

00:03:22.660 I did not go to Florida with you.

00:03:24.180 Did you come back encouraged saying, we can pull this off?

00:03:26.960 Oh, yeah.

00:03:27.380 And look, the two are very different.

00:03:29.140 I mean, there was a lot of media coverage saying that CPAC was basically Trumpapalooza, that it was a lot of Trump supporters there.

00:03:35.680 And the people speaking at CPAC are mostly closely aligned with President Trump.

00:03:41.540 Club for Growth, a lot of folks were calling it essentially DeSantispalooza.

00:03:46.080 Yeah.

00:03:46.780 And a lot of the folks there are not aligned with President Trump.

00:03:52.160 And I will say I was one of very few people to be at both.

00:03:54.920 And it's, you know, we've got a big diverse party and I'm good friends with President Trump.

00:04:00.820 I'm good friends with Ron DeSantis too.

00:04:02.180 And I'm focused with both of them and everybody else on trying to turn the country around.

00:04:09.420 I think we're in a good place overall heading into the presidential.

00:04:12.880 Was that your take coming out this weekend that, hey, we're going to be okay?

00:04:15.820 Because there's a lot of people that think we're writing doom and gloom stories over the weekend.

00:04:19.720 I didn't see it that way.

00:04:20.780 Yeah, look, we'll see.

00:04:21.940 There's still a whole lot of chaos between now and Election Day.

00:04:25.460 I think Biden is badly off track.

00:04:28.800 And so we've got an opportunity for a huge victory in November of 2024.

00:04:33.820 Republicans got to avoid shooting ourselves in our own rear end.

00:04:37.520 And so hopefully that's what Republicans will do.

00:04:40.600 There was a story we were going to get to talk about at CPAC.

00:04:43.500 We didn't get to play it because obviously we pulled an audible.

00:04:46.300 And it dealt with there was actually two different hearings, not one, but two different hearings that took place on the same day at the same time that were extremely important.

00:04:56.900 Give a little background on that day on Capitol Hill, because one of them was dealing with Garland and you were questioning there.

00:05:04.240 There was another one dealing with the FAA and a major position there.

00:05:08.300 And they were happening at the exact same time.

00:05:10.000 Is that normal?

00:05:10.580 Well, it happens a lot.

00:05:12.000 It's one of one of the stranger things about the Senate is you'll often have multiple hearings going on at the exact same time.

00:05:19.540 I'm on four different committees.

00:05:21.300 I'm on I'm the ranking member of commerce.

00:05:24.160 So the senior Republican on the Commerce Committee.

00:05:26.920 I'm on judiciary.

00:05:27.900 I'm on foreign relations and I'm on rules and administration.

00:05:30.540 So those are the committees I'm on.

00:05:32.860 And frequently you'll have multiple hearings that you have to go back and forth and back and forth.

00:05:37.420 So when you see empty chairs at a hearing, that's sometimes because senators having to run to different buildings.

00:05:43.580 It so happened that the hearing with Merrick Garland was at the exact same time, 10 a.m.

00:05:48.800 on Wednesday, that the confirmation hearing for the Biden's nominee to be administrator of the FAA, really important position in charge of keeping airplanes safe and keeping us safe when we fly home.

00:06:00.940 And what that meant, so judiciary has a rule, which is that that your order of questioning is based on seniority.

00:06:13.500 But it has what's called a gavel rule, which it's seniority for every member present when the gavel comes down.

00:06:21.860 So if you're interesting, if you're not there when the gavel comes down, everyone down dais jumps in front of you.

00:06:29.220 And so I'm fifth in seniority on judiciary.

00:06:33.040 I'm one of the most senior Republicans on judiciary.

00:06:35.720 So that morning what I had to do is I was in judiciary at 10 a.m.

00:06:40.700 And actually Durbin was three minutes late, which was kind of really irritating because I just needed to be there for him to bang the gavel.

00:06:46.840 I was there at gavel, which meant I could speak in my order of seniority and not wait until the very last Republican to ask my questions.

00:06:56.660 So as soon as he banged the gavel, I got up and walked very quickly to a totally different building to the commerce hearing where I was the lead, the senior Republican.

00:07:08.700 And so the commerce hearing had already started with my chair empty, and I made it there by the time I got started.

00:07:15.560 But that that sort of thing happens a lot in the Senate.

00:07:20.480 It is a new challenge with my being now a ranking member on a full committee because I've got greater responsibilities to be there for much more of the hearing than if you're just a member of the committee, you usually show up, do your questions and leave.

00:07:37.320 So as ranker, you try to be there as much as as much as possible.

00:07:42.240 That is an interesting thing that I guess.

00:07:45.360 And is that new that they do that with a gavel or has that been throughout history?

00:07:48.300 It's always been the gavel rule.

00:07:51.340 It's usually pretty easy for me because, look, judiciary, I like the issues.

00:07:56.360 I care about it on any important hearing.

00:07:59.640 I'm usually there at gavel.

00:08:02.320 It's going to be more challenging the next two years because I've got more responsibilities on commerce now.

00:08:08.060 And so I've got to juggle them both.

00:08:09.720 I want to go back to the Garland questioning.

00:08:11.960 There was one part, like I said, we didn't get to cover at CPAC.

00:08:14.660 We want to make sure we hit that day.

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00:09:39.120 All right, I want to play this clip, Senator.

00:09:41.180 It was you and Garland getting into it and a very interesting back and forth.

00:09:47.320 Take a look for everybody watching.

00:09:49.300 We've also seen across the country violent attacks at pregnancy centers.

00:09:54.920 By similar left-wing terrorist groups, including one graffiti of a firebomb building, said Jane was here.

00:10:05.020 There had been attacks all over the country.

00:10:09.040 And yet, the Department of Justice has not brought these violent criminals to justice.

00:10:17.220 You contrast that.

00:10:19.640 If you're a violent criminal and you attack a crisis pregnancy center,

00:10:22.560 that is not a priority in the Biden Department of Justice.

00:10:25.660 Contrast that to Mark Houck, who's a pro-life activist.

00:10:29.060 He's a sidewalk counselor.

00:10:31.860 And he had an altercation with someone who allegedly interfered with his son's personal space

00:10:42.040 and threatened his son, and he pushed him.

00:10:44.120 Now, in an ordinary world, pushing someone would be maybe a simple misdemeanor assault,

00:10:49.100 but not under the Biden Department of Justice.

00:10:51.140 If you're a pro-life activist, what can you expect?

00:10:54.700 Well, in this instance, according to Mr. Houck's wife,

00:11:00.620 two dozen agents clad in body armor and ballistic helmets and shields and a battering ram

00:11:07.260 showed up at his house pointing rifles at his family.

00:11:12.040 Why do you send two dozen agents in body armor to arrest a sidewalk counselor who happens to be pro-life, 1.00

00:11:20.240 but you don't devote resources to prosecute people who are violently firebombing crisis pregnancies?

00:11:27.940 It is a priority of the department to prosecute and investigate and find the people who are doing those firebombings.

00:11:34.280 They are doing it at night and in secret, and we have found one group which we did prosecute.

00:11:40.880 You found one. How many have there been? How many attacks?

00:11:42.720 There have been a lot, and if you have any information specifically as to who those people are,

00:11:46.980 we would be glad to have them.

00:11:49.940 If you're an American, you see this.

00:11:52.200 It's got to scare the hell out of you that there is two separate ways that this Department of Justice is working.

00:11:58.200 Oh, are they Republican? Oh, let's really go after them.

00:12:00.700 They're conservative? Let's go after them.

00:12:02.180 They're a Christian. Let's go after them. 1.00

00:12:03.640 They're a sidewalk counselor.

00:12:05.880 Let's send 20-plus men there like it's the military raiding your home.

00:12:10.100 Well, look, the double standard is obvious.

00:12:15.380 With regard to the bombings and the attacks on crisis pregnancy centers,

00:12:20.780 you heard the attorney general articulate a new rule at the Biden Department of Justice.

00:12:25.840 Apparently, they don't do violent crimes anymore if they happen at night.

00:12:30.600 Yeah, too hard to investigate.

00:12:31.920 You know, your dad, how many years was your dad a cop?

00:12:34.560 I mean, decades. He was in law enforcement and still works for the sheriff's department now.

00:12:38.120 So was it the rule that you only went after criminals if they committed crimes during the daytime?

00:12:43.100 No. In fact, he usually works still nights because that's when the stuff's going down.

00:12:47.100 It's the most asinine statement of, well, gosh, it happened at night. 0.57

00:12:52.200 You know why they haven't had any prosecutions? 0.98

00:12:54.020 Because he doesn't care about this.

00:12:56.440 He is sympathetic to the violent criminals.

00:12:59.680 He made the decision to devote thousands upon thousands of man hours to going after the January 6th protesters.

00:13:07.140 If you're a little old lady who was in the mall on January 6th waving an American flag, 0.94

00:13:11.620 he wants to know everything about you.

00:13:13.820 If there was bank records, if you just happened to be in D.C. during that time,

00:13:16.980 they were saying, well, maybe we should look at those people, too.

00:13:19.660 It is real simple.

00:13:21.620 They aren't bringing prosecutions because it's not a priority because he doesn't care.

00:13:25.680 And, you know, Mark Houck, it's amazing.

00:13:28.700 He offered to turn himself in.

00:13:32.100 His lawyer said, all right, if you're going to prosecute me, my client will turn himself in.

00:13:36.880 But the Biden Justice Department decided, nope, we don't want you to turn yourself in voluntarily.

00:13:43.240 We're sending literally 20-plus FBI agents.

00:13:48.200 And I asked him, the next question I asked that we didn't play there,

00:13:51.600 but I asked him, did you personally authorize that?

00:13:53.780 He claimed he didn't, and this is the pattern Merrick Garland followed at most of the hearing,

00:13:59.240 is just dodging responsibly.

00:14:01.200 Well, it's the FBI that does it.

00:14:02.320 Well, it's the FBI that does it.

00:14:03.600 Well, you know, it's...

00:14:05.160 He's in charge of them.

00:14:06.840 He is in charge.

00:14:07.800 The FBI reports to the Attorney General.

00:14:10.440 The FBI is under the Department of Justice.

00:14:13.400 And I asked him, okay, well, it happened.

00:14:16.040 Do you wish to apologize to Mrs. Houck and to their seven children that were woken up early in the morning

00:14:24.860 by 20-plus FBI agents with rifles pointed at them?

00:14:30.800 And he said, no.

00:14:31.600 No, he doesn't.

00:14:32.180 He doesn't apologize in the slightest.

00:14:34.000 By the way, Houck pushed a guy.

00:14:38.740 You know, they brought the case.

00:14:40.940 Merrick Garland prosecuted it, not personally, but the Department of Justice under it.

00:14:44.420 The jury acquitted him in a matter of minutes. 1.00

00:14:49.140 The jury looked at it and said, this is stupid. 1.00

00:14:51.960 No, we're not going to send a guy to jail for 13 years. 1.00

00:14:56.180 That's what the statute that Merrick Garland went after this sidewalk counselor on 1.00

00:15:02.180 made him liable for up to 13 years, and that's the political double standard we have.

00:15:10.200 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:15:12.120 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:15:16.580 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

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00:15:39.480 There was two things in that back and forth that really stuck out to me.

00:15:43.900 One of them was, he's asking you, if you have evidence, bring it to him.

00:15:48.480 And it was a snarky line.

00:15:50.380 I understood why he said it.

00:15:51.780 But I also think it was one of those, oh, you know what moments.

00:15:54.940 When you watch it afterwards, he walked into basically saying, I'm literally not looking for evidence.

00:16:00.680 By default is what he was basically admitting, saying, if you've got something, give it to me because I don't have it and I'm not looking for it.

00:16:07.460 Well, and look, at the last podcast we did at CPAC, we played my questioning with him about the protesters at the Supreme Court justices' house.

00:16:18.240 He also pled ignorance there.

00:16:22.060 And there he blamed it on the marshals.

00:16:24.580 And this is an interesting – so it is true that there were marshals there to protect the justices.

00:16:30.580 So I'm glad they were there.

00:16:31.720 That was necessary, particularly given that we know someone traveled from California with a gun and a knife and burglary tools to murder Justice Kavanaugh,

00:16:40.560 a leftist, mad about the leaked Dobbs decision, but he tried to avoid responsibility by saying the marshals decide whether to arrest someone.

00:16:51.840 Now, he's right.

00:16:53.080 The marshals on site decide whether to arrest someone.

00:16:56.080 But what he refused to take responsibility for is it is the prosecutor and only the prosecutor who decides whether to charge someone,

00:17:05.700 whether to actually go to a grand jury, seek an indictment, get an indictment.

00:17:12.300 Only Merrick Garland, only the Department of Justice can get a federal indictment.

00:17:18.500 And once again, he says, well, gosh, no one was arrested.

00:17:24.140 These protesters at the justices' houses put up pictures of themselves on social media.

00:17:29.560 They are confessing and they're –

00:17:32.640 To the crimes they committed, which is to influence.

00:17:34.620 They're flaunting it.

00:17:35.100 And the statute is clear.

00:17:36.800 I don't think we've spent enough time on this, so I want you to explain why, not just the Supreme Court, but in general,

00:17:42.800 why we have serious laws about intimidation of judges, of jurors.

00:17:49.700 Why is that in place across all sectors of our legal system?

00:17:54.320 Because we need to have a legal system that operates fairly and free of intimidation.

00:17:59.320 So you've got – it is a federal crime to protest in front of a juror's home in order to influence the outcome of a case.

00:18:08.060 You know, you think about it.

00:18:09.060 Let's suppose you're a mob boss and you find out where the jurors live.

00:18:13.320 And while the jurors are still considering the case, guilty or not, you send a bunch of folks to their home.

00:18:18.420 That's called jury tampering.

00:18:20.860 And you're going to go to jail, quite rightly.

00:18:23.960 You're supposed to anyway.

00:18:25.000 You're supposed to.

00:18:25.980 The same is true for a judge.

00:18:27.600 Look, the protesters were outside the justices' houses before the Dobbs opinion had issued.

00:18:33.520 So there had been a leaked opinion, but the court had not issued the opinion.

00:18:38.280 Any one of those justices could have changed their minds, and that's why the law says, look, you're not allowed to go and try to intimidate judges into changing their rulings.

00:18:51.920 You're not allowed to go try to intimidate jurors into changing how they're going to vote in a case.

00:18:58.380 And Merrick Garland knows all of that.

00:19:00.000 The amazing thing is he was a judge for 24 years.

00:19:03.520 He knows that.

00:19:05.060 He just agrees with the protesters in front of the justices' homes.

00:19:10.280 And he's sympathetic.

00:19:11.760 Agrees is probably too strong, but he's sympathetic to the violent attacks on the crisis pregnancy centers.

00:19:19.080 He's certainly not willing to put serious man hours into trying to find out who did it because it's not important to him.

00:19:27.720 One other thing in you as a lawyer, I go back in my mind to Waco.

00:19:33.520 When I see the government ratchet up the heat or the pressure on this house with these seven kids there, you're putting lives at risk,

00:19:43.940 especially when you have direct communication with the attorney saying, if you're going to prosecute him, he will turn himself in.

00:19:50.440 I'm assuming the reason why they have that communication, you turn yourself in if you're going to be prosecuted,

00:19:57.280 is so that there isn't a misunderstanding or this under siege moment or guns drawn when there doesn't need to be guns drawn

00:20:03.900 because your attorney is going to walk you into a courthouse and book you, and they offered to do it, they didn't do it.

00:20:10.380 And I say Waco because my point is, one bad moment, one accident, one ratcheting up here,

00:20:16.540 you're putting family members at risk now just because you're trying to say, we're the government?

00:20:22.200 Sure.

00:20:22.420 No, no, it's designed to terrorize. 0.56

00:20:26.400 Listen, the Department of Justice has not pointed to any evidence that they had reason to think that Houck was dangerous.

00:20:34.760 You know, if you're going to arrest Tony Montana from Scarface, then you may need 20 agents and rifles and body armor.

00:20:41.240 Like if you're going to a drug dealer or gangbangers or a violent criminal. 0.70

00:20:46.260 Someone that shows that they're willing to kill you.

00:20:47.880 Yeah, look, that's the circumstances where you need that kind of show of force.

00:20:53.340 For a sidewalk counselor who, on all indications, has been not only peaceful but is devoting significant time

00:21:06.000 to trying to save the lives of unborn children, not through violence, but through speech and prayer,

00:21:14.360 the FBI did it to send a statement.

00:21:16.640 Number one, they don't care that they terrorize him and his family.

00:21:21.900 Those children, look, seven kids, you and I are both dads.

00:21:26.140 Imagine how your kids would react to 20 agents and body armor showing up and pointing rifles at them.

00:21:30.960 You'd be terrified.

00:21:32.020 And, you know, I can't imagine that those kids are not having nightmares about it.

00:21:37.920 I mean, that is a very, and by the way, all the neighbors, it's like the perp walk.

00:21:43.180 Look, look, if you're a mob boss, you know what?

00:21:45.900 They may put handcuffs on you and walk you down the street in front of the cameras to get on the news.

00:21:53.000 The FBI did this because they want to send a message.

00:21:56.820 Pro-life activists, we don't like you.

00:21:59.180 And he claimed he didn't personally authorize it.

00:22:05.340 He either, I don't know if he knew about it or not.

00:22:07.820 I didn't, I didn't get a chance to answer, I ran out of time, so I didn't get to ask him if he knew about it or not.

00:22:13.340 He certainly doesn't apologize for it now, and he hasn't changed anything.

00:22:19.160 Because, and what he did is he just blamed the FBI.

00:22:22.080 It's the FBI's decision.

00:22:22.960 It's the FBI decision.

00:22:23.880 They make the decision.

00:22:25.800 Then I'm in charge of them, but whatever.

00:22:28.080 And if they screw it up badly, a reasonable boss, if you didn't know it about it at the time, would tell them, you screwed it up badly, don't do this again.

00:22:38.340 You know what he did, though?

00:22:39.500 He went ahead and prosecuted Hauk, so he didn't think it was screwed up that badly because he thought it was appropriate to go after him on federal charges instead of...

00:22:47.640 And that was directly under his Department of Justice, right?

00:22:50.860 You can separate yourself from the FBI just so people understand the hierarchy here.

00:22:54.520 And you can say, oh, that was the FBI that raided his house.

00:22:57.360 But the decision to prosecute, you can't say that's the FBI's decision.

00:23:01.040 That is the DOJ's decision.

00:23:02.600 And I would wager $100.

00:23:05.240 The prosecutors were fully aware that they were going on that raid early morning.

00:23:12.960 I don't have proof of it, but the way it ordinarily operates in a situation like that, the prosecutor, maybe not the attorney general, but the AUSA, the assistant U.S. attorney handling the case, would know about it.

00:23:25.020 And depending at what level, look, I would love to know who at the Department of Justice signed off on this use of force, who signed off on this prosecution, how far up the chain it went.

00:23:37.580 And if we had a Department of Justice that actually was accountable to the people, we would know the answer to those questions.

00:23:46.740 You know, the questioning from Garland's look, he's offended that senators dare ask him questions.

00:23:57.300 He doesn't want to answer anything.

00:23:59.780 And much less imply they did something wrong.

00:24:01.440 And it is – it's not just that he looks at senators on the Judiciary Committee, which, by the way, is charged with oversight.

00:24:11.480 It is literally our responsibility to engage in oversight over the Department of Justice.

00:24:17.560 And we do that for both Republican and Democrat administrations.

00:24:21.660 But his contempt is really contempt for the American people, because it is saying, you have no right to second-guess me.

00:24:30.060 I will not answer your questions because I don't answer to you.

00:24:35.040 That's really dangerous.

00:24:36.520 Yeah, it's dangerous.

00:24:37.580 And while that was going on, there was another important hearing that was going on that deals with the FAA and another script there.

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00:25:52.080 Senator, you mentioned there was a lot going on the same day.

00:25:55.300 The FAA administrator nominee has become a disaster.

00:25:59.080 And there's also an issue here of public corruption with this individual.

00:26:04.660 But I want to start with just you kind of laying the groundwork for this guy at this hearing.

00:26:10.320 Basic questions.

00:26:11.280 FAA is a big job.

00:26:12.760 Being in charge of it's an even bigger job.

00:26:14.760 And making sure you know, like, what the FAA does, kind of important.

00:26:18.780 Take a look.

00:26:19.900 Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:26:20.700 Mr. Washington, you've emphasized your time as CEO of the Denver Airport, 20 months.

00:26:29.420 Have you ever flown a plane?

00:26:31.920 Thank you for the question, Senator.

00:26:33.380 No, I have never flown a plane.

00:26:35.100 So you weren't a military pilot or a commercial airline pilot?

00:26:38.200 No, Senator.

00:26:39.640 Have you ever worked for an airline?

00:26:41.660 No, Senator.

00:26:43.480 Have you ever worked as an air traffic controller?

00:26:46.260 No, Senator.

00:26:46.820 Have you ever worked for a company that manufactures airplanes?

00:26:49.980 No, Senator.

00:26:51.500 Have you ever worked for a company that fixes airplanes?

00:26:54.340 No, Senator.

00:26:55.900 So for 20 months, you've been in charge of the Denver Airport.

00:27:02.300 You're in charge of the airport's buildings, correct?

00:27:06.340 I am in charge of everything that goes on at that airport.

00:27:09.580 Okay.

00:27:10.040 Well, I'm not sure that's exactly right.

00:27:12.240 You're in charge of parking at the airport.

00:27:15.520 Is that correct?

00:27:16.060 How many parking spaces are there at the Denver Airport?

00:27:18.420 Thousands.

00:27:18.860 Okay, you're in charge of all the shops and restaurants in the airport.

00:27:23.300 How many restaurants are there in the Denver Airport?

00:27:25.520 We have anywhere from 150 to 200 or so.

00:27:30.060 You're in charge of coffee shops and clothing stores and newsstands.

00:27:36.320 You're not in charge of the pilots, are you?

00:27:39.260 No, Senator.

00:27:40.640 You're not in charge of the airplane mechanics, are you?

00:27:43.960 No, Senator.

00:27:44.800 You're not in charge of the air traffic controllers, are you?

00:27:46.720 No, Senator.

00:27:48.720 You're not in charge of any of it.

00:27:51.460 Look, I got to say, this nomination is really astonishing.

00:27:57.600 Look, FAA is a really important position.

00:28:02.140 And if you look back at the people who've been nominated to lead the FAA,

00:28:06.440 under both Democrats and Republicans, they're typically really senior individuals in aviation.

00:28:15.360 Would it be fair to say a nonpartisan nominee?

00:28:19.360 Usually.

00:28:20.120 Yeah.

00:28:20.340 They're usually someone that has 20, 30, 40 years experience in aviation.

00:28:26.320 Many of them have been military pilots.

00:28:27.880 When I asked you, you weren't a military pilot.

00:28:29.800 An awful lot of FAA administrators were military pilots.

00:28:32.880 An awful lot of them were airline pilots or airline captains, have 20, 30 years flying, you know, flying airline jets.

00:28:41.100 Frequently, they have experience in management at an airline.

00:28:46.820 Frequently, they'll have experience dealing with aviation safety.

00:28:53.000 Frequently, they'll have certifications and other experience.

00:28:58.000 It's like, it is a technical position.

00:29:01.580 And in this instance, Phil Washington, he spent over two decades in the military,

00:29:07.760 and I certainly respect his military service.

00:29:10.640 He was, in the military, he was not involved in aviation.

00:29:17.220 So his military service is honorable.

00:29:19.120 It just doesn't have to do to any.

00:29:20.240 It's just irrelevant to this new job.

00:29:21.360 It doesn't have anything to do with planes.

00:29:23.160 And then he was the head of the LA Metro.

00:29:24.900 Now, the LA Metro is buses and trains, and he's an administrator and a bureaucrat.

00:29:34.240 And then he got appointed to be head of the Denver Airport.

00:29:38.260 And look, what the Biden administration is doing here is they've nominated him

00:29:44.340 because some Colorado Democrats care about putting him in this position,

00:29:51.860 and they're treating the FAA as a patronage position.

00:29:56.020 They're treating it as just a spoiled system. 0.92

00:29:58.740 Let's stick a Democrat because this makes Democrat politicians happy. 0.98

00:30:03.260 Both Democrat senators from Colorado came to the committee and introduced him.

00:30:08.120 And this is all about the Denver mayor was there.

00:30:11.060 Big song and dance.

00:30:12.200 This is all about we're giving a favor, a political favor.

00:30:16.200 And you know what, as I put it out, I said, look, if they wanted to nominate him to the Amtrak board,

00:30:23.900 and he was initially considered for the Amtrak board, that would have probably been fine.

00:30:29.400 Like, he might well have gotten bipartisan support to be on the Amtrak board.

00:30:34.120 Okay, fine.

00:30:34.700 He was at the LA Metro, dealt with train issues.

00:30:37.940 That's fine.

00:30:38.620 I mean, the FAA, look, you and I are on planes all the time.

00:30:44.760 When you get on an airplane, you are counting on the FAA to do everything possible to keep you safe.

00:30:51.000 Now, that's not just the air traffic control.

00:30:53.240 That's also the pilot training.

00:30:58.160 That's also airplane manufacturer.

00:31:01.680 It's airplane maintenance.

00:31:03.460 You know, I asked him about the 737 MAX.

00:31:06.480 If you recall, there were two horrific crashes of the 737 MAX.

00:31:10.940 346 people lost their lives in those two crashes.

00:31:14.000 When I got into the technical details about the 737 MAX, and I asked why did those crashes happen,

00:31:21.000 his answer was, I don't know why they happened.

00:31:23.780 And I said, you know what?

00:31:25.620 I believe you.

00:31:26.820 Yeah.

00:31:27.040 I believe you don't know. 0.97

00:31:28.620 And that's a big frigging problem.

00:31:30.660 Because the head of the FAA should know, by the way, the administrator of the FAA who, at the time, 0.74

00:31:37.420 who had been a pilot for, I think, almost 40 years, the 737 MAX was grounded.

00:31:44.300 Now, what happened is, Boeing, with the 737 MAX, had this new system called the MCAS system,

00:31:50.940 that, if you get into some of the technical details, on the front of the 737 MAX,

00:31:58.860 there are two sensors called angle of attack sensors.

00:32:02.440 And one of them, at least in one of the two crashes, it appeared it was sheared off of the plane by a bird strike.

00:32:10.520 A bird hit it and broke the sensor off.

00:32:14.240 And so the result, the MCAS system was sending a message to the plane and automatically turning the nose down,

00:32:22.500 turning the nose down, turning the nose down.

00:32:24.500 And the two crashes that happened, you had relatively inexperienced pilots.

00:32:29.700 They were foreign pilots.

00:32:30.960 They didn't have anywhere near the experience that a U.S. pilot would have.

00:32:35.640 Pilot would have.

00:32:36.040 And the nose went down, down, down, and it just steered the nose into the ground and crashed and killed everyone.

00:32:42.260 And Boeing, unfortunately, did not train the pilots about the MCAS system.

00:32:47.400 So presumably, and in fact, if you listen to the back and forth with the air traffic controllers,

00:32:52.440 the pilots are essentially saying, what the hell's going on?

00:32:54.640 They don't understand why the plane is doing what it's doing.

00:32:58.160 Is automatically going down.

00:33:01.420 They grounded every 737 MAX for months.

00:33:05.120 They changed the system.

00:33:06.540 They changed the training.

00:33:07.700 They went through the training.

00:33:09.560 By the way, I sat down and met with pilots who said, okay, what would you do?

00:33:13.580 And they explained you'd adjust the trim like an experienced pilot.

00:33:16.480 Even if the MCAS was operating, an experienced pilot would know how to fix it.

00:33:21.720 Now, I don't know how to fix it, but an experienced pilot would.

00:33:26.640 And what's interesting is the former FAA administrator, when they allowed the 737 MAX back in the air, 0.97

00:33:32.220 before they did so, he actually went and flew the damn thing. 0.97

00:33:36.500 I mean, that's... 0.99

00:33:37.560 It's a nonpolitical position.

00:33:39.120 Yes.

00:33:39.440 It is a true safety technology, understanding air travel,

00:33:45.280 understanding what the military may need when it comes to airspace,

00:33:48.620 understanding what civilians need, understanding minimum requirements.

00:33:52.020 Look, if you need heart surgery and the hospital tells you, well, hey,

00:33:56.520 this guy's a big donor to the hospital, so we're going to have him do the heart surgery.

00:34:00.340 He's not a doctor, but we really like him.

00:34:03.920 You'd say that's crazy.

00:34:05.260 The FAA needs someone who knows something about airplanes.

00:34:10.440 Will his nomination make it?

00:34:12.100 I mean, the question that you asked, honestly, I didn't think was snarky.

00:34:16.580 It may have come across that way because he didn't answer any of the questions with a yes.

00:34:20.700 It was all, no, I've never done this, I've never done this.

00:34:22.920 I didn't...

00:34:23.680 I was saying it's showing how glaringly bad of a nominee this was.

00:34:28.280 I don't think he'll be confirmed.

00:34:29.680 Really?

00:34:29.920 I...

00:34:30.920 Several Democrats have expressed concerns.

00:34:35.840 And I got to say, look, let's say you're a Democrat senator.

00:34:38.340 And let's say you're up for re-election in 2024, as a whole bunch of them are.

00:34:45.460 Do you really want to cast a vote to confirm an FAA administrator with zero experience in aviation or aviation safety?

00:34:54.800 You know, listen, if, God forbid, in the next two years there's an airline crash.

00:35:00.920 And look, we've had a series of near misses.

00:35:03.940 Recently.

00:35:04.640 This position has not had a Senate-confirmed administrator in a year because the Biden administration doesn't prioritize it.

00:35:12.980 Instead, they're using it as a political benefit, as a gift, a patronage job, rather than saying, look, we ought to have an FAA administrator in there right now who knows what he or she is doing and is examining why are these near misses happening and how can we prevent them from happening.

00:35:29.660 But if you're a Democrat senator and, God forbid, there is an airline crash, do you really want to be going to your voters saying, yeah, I voted to put in place a guy who had no idea what he was doing and now a bunch of people, their lives have been lost?

00:35:47.640 I want to also, I think there's a clip of you that was brilliant, summing up the lack of qualifications, this guy.

00:35:54.360 I want to play that in a moment.

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00:36:57.380 Senator, this one clip of you kind of just talking about like qualifications should matter with this guy.

00:37:02.640 It went viral.

00:37:03.500 I want everybody to see it if you miss it because it's brilliant.

00:37:06.020 Take a look.

00:37:07.100 FAA administrator is a specialized position.

00:37:10.380 I'm not qualified to be FAA administrator.

00:37:12.880 I have no idea how to fly a plane.

00:37:14.020 No one in their right mind would put me in charge of aviation safety because I don't have that experience.

00:37:19.100 I suspect most of the members of this committee are in a similar position.

00:37:22.060 The American people, when they think about aviation safety, when they think about I played in this committee, a Southwest Airlines and FedEx plane almost colliding at Austin's airport.

00:37:35.380 They want an FAA administrator who knows why those planes crash and knows how to fix it to keep them safe.

00:37:44.060 And with all respect, Mr. Washington, it gives no comfort to the flying public that their pilot might be a transgendered witch but doesn't actually know how to prevent the plane from crashing into the ground and killing them. 0.98

00:37:59.560 I believe your record is woefully lacking. 0.97

00:38:04.240 And in fact, you have zero aviation safety experience.

00:38:07.760 And I don't believe you'll have the votes for confirmation as you and I visited about earlier this week.

00:38:13.640 It reminds me so much, by the way, of Mayor Pete, because there's a great headline this week.

00:38:17.940 It says, Pete starts to rethink how he does his job in the wake of the Ohio train disaster.

00:38:24.380 Really, their nominations are so much alike, it's scary.

00:38:27.500 No experience in the job they're about to get.

00:38:30.160 And there are consequences when you get a job you know nothing about.

00:38:33.500 Yeah, look, Pete Buttigieg is wildly unqualified for the job he has.

00:38:38.360 He's a small-town mayor, and we've seen one transportation disaster after another after another.

00:38:42.900 The FAA reports to the Secretary of Transportation.

00:38:46.860 So just like the FBI reports to the Attorney General, the FAA administrator reports to the Secretary of Transportation.

00:38:53.660 So, you know, if Biden's FAA nominee is confirmed, I can imagine the conversation of Phil Washington saying,

00:39:01.980 well, I don't know what this aviation safety is about.

00:39:06.020 And Buttigieg would say, yeah, me neither.

00:39:07.920 Let's go have lunch.

00:39:09.040 Let's look.

00:39:09.660 It is stunning.

00:39:11.920 And it's dangerous.

00:39:13.260 And look, in some ways, this nomination is even more dangerous than Buttigieg's.

00:39:19.460 Look, DOT is at least a big agency, and you assume the components have experts in them.

00:39:27.060 When you're talking about the FAA, the guy running it is supposed to know what the heck he's doing.

00:39:33.480 And Washington doesn't have that background.

00:39:37.360 I'll tell you, there's a whole different concern with Washington.

00:39:41.320 That Pete didn't have, by the way.

00:39:42.720 That we know of, which is when Phil Washington was the head of LA Metro, there is an ongoing public corruption investigation that's happening right now about his time as head of the LA Metro.

00:39:59.420 And in particular, giving a contract to a nonprofit that ended up doing very little to make hundreds of thousands of dollars.

00:40:08.700 And the nonprofit was closely connected with an influential Democrat on the board.

00:40:15.900 And so the investigation that's ongoing, it's not being conducted by some right-wing group.

00:40:23.540 It's the LA Sheriff who executed a search warrant.

00:40:28.480 Now, unlike Biden's DOJ, I don't think the search warrant was executed by 20 agents with machine guns.

00:40:35.820 Sure.

00:40:36.320 But who executed a search warrant seizing the emails and communications from Phil Washington about this appointment.

00:40:42.900 And just recently, the California Attorney General has taken over the investigation.

00:40:49.780 So my office called the staff of the California Attorney General last week, a week before the hearing, and said, okay, what's going on with the investigation?

00:40:59.460 And they said, it's still ongoing.

00:41:01.500 We're actively investigating.

00:41:03.500 And Phil Washington is materially involved in the investigation.

00:41:08.580 And my staff asked, said, well, has anyone talked to you about the investigation?

00:41:14.980 Did the White House talk to you about the investigation?

00:41:17.100 Did the FBI talk to you about the investigation?

00:41:19.400 Did Senate Democrats talk to you about the investigation?

00:41:21.760 They're like, nope, nobody has.

00:41:23.660 No one called.

00:41:24.240 No one cares.

00:41:24.960 So he's literally being investigated right now.

00:41:30.020 And yet the Biden White House is trying to put him in a position without knowing the outcome of the investigation.

00:41:36.300 In which we have a clip about this.

00:41:37.680 Take a look.

00:41:38.780 And it is more than a little troubling.

00:41:42.380 I think it's fair to say California sheriffs, the L.A. sheriff, and the California Attorney General are not Republicans.

00:41:52.060 They're not right-wing activists with an ax to grind.

00:41:55.020 And the fact that this corruption case is ongoing.

00:41:58.820 It's truly remarkable that this committee is considering confirming a nominee in the middle of an ongoing investigation for public corruption.

00:42:10.160 And I am hard-pressed to think of anything more damaging to the FAA than not only confirming someone who is not qualified and has no experience in aviation safety, but secondly doing so while a public corruption case is ongoing, which, according to the terms of the search warrant, implicates you directly.

00:42:32.760 And if it so happened that you ended up indicted as a result of this ongoing investigation, I don't know if that will happen or not.

00:42:40.840 The investigation needs to conclude.

00:42:42.520 What sort of damage would it do to the FAA to have the administrator indicted on public corruption?

00:42:49.680 It's a fair question, by the way.

00:42:51.940 It's an important question.

00:42:53.520 And you would think this administration would have said, let's pump the brakes on this guy.

00:42:57.480 Maybe we pull him off the table, find someone who's qualified, and yet they're like, nope, full speed ahead.

00:43:02.820 Yeah, look, what they need to do, they need to pull this nomination.

00:43:06.400 And they need to nominate someone who's qualified.

00:43:08.820 And if they nominate someone who's qualified, who has real experience in aviation safety, that person is going to get confirmed with a big bipartisan majority.

00:43:17.560 We all want to see someone in the FAA who knows how to make air travel safe.

00:43:24.060 And right now, the Biden White House is putting politics above the safety of you and your kids.

00:43:31.900 Well, well done this week in Washington.

00:43:33.780 I'm glad people know what's going on.

00:43:35.480 And we're getting to expose the stuff that the media is not even covering or talking about.

00:43:39.260 These are two very, very important hearings.

00:43:41.900 For everybody that's watching, don't forget we do the show three days a week.

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Verdict with Ted Cruz - March 06, 2023

Planes, Trains, & FBI Raids

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