SCOTUS Throws a Tariff Curveball, Did SOTU move the Needle & 2 Olympians-Patriotism vs. Paycheck Week In Review
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Summary
Ted Cruz and Ben Ferguson discuss the latest Supreme Court ruling, the impact of President Trump's State of the Union speech, and the incredible story of two different Olympians with hearts in different places, one skating for America and the other skating for China.
Transcript
00:00:09.440
And these are the stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week.
00:00:12.740
First up, Donald Trump still moving forward with tariffs, even after there was a ruling
00:00:20.520
And did he actually get advice from a Supreme Court justice?
00:00:27.780
It moved the needle for Donald Trump with Americans, including some Democrats.
00:00:36.820
And finally, an interesting story out of the Olympics.
00:00:39.840
Two different Olympians with hearts in different places.
00:00:46.160
And the other one saying, yeah, I may have grown up here, but I'd rather skate for China.
00:00:53.960
It's the Weekend Review, and it starts right now.
00:00:56.640
All right, I want to move on to another issue, and we made predictions on this show.
00:01:01.540
This is why I should say you made predictions on this show.
00:01:10.940
Senator, you made a prediction about the Supreme Court on tariffs.
00:01:18.120
She goes, I listened to the show when you were making your predictions, because 99% of the time,
00:01:22.380
Ted's right on the Supreme Court, and he made a prediction he thought it was going to go the
00:01:27.420
It didn't, but there was also something interesting in there.
00:01:30.640
Brett Kavanaugh wrote basically in there, and I found this incredibly interesting,
00:01:35.400
that, hey, what we're saying you did, you can't necessarily do it that way.
00:01:41.680
It reminded me almost of, like, Obamacare, when they're like, well, if you do it this
00:01:46.020
way, then you can get away with it, but the way you're doing it, don't keep doing it that
00:01:51.100
It was like a roadmap for him to still have tariffs, still have the power that the presidency
00:01:54.960
needs to do this, and you saw the president jump all over that with a 10% saying, this
00:02:00.340
I don't know if this is as big of a defeat as Democrats and media are trying to make it
00:02:04.340
out to be, and the president's instant response, I think, proves he still has a ton of power.
00:02:08.880
Well, listen, I'm going to start by eating crow.
00:02:13.780
I did make a prediction on this podcast, and I make a lot of predictions on this podcast,
00:02:18.320
and we've never tallied the number, but I think we're north of 80%, maybe even north
00:02:24.340
I'm going to give you credit, so it's above 90, because I make sure I give you a hard time
00:02:27.560
when you're wrong, and that's not very often, so this is on that sheet, but, you know.
00:02:32.220
And by the way, we don't make small and mild predictions.
00:02:36.000
I mean, we make bold and aggressive predictions, and in 2024-
00:02:43.960
I predicted that Joe Biden would not be the nominee a year before it happened and said they
00:02:52.180
He is not going to be on the ballot in November, and the corporate media made fun of me like
00:03:02.280
We broke down in March and April of the beginning of COVID.
00:03:07.040
I laid out the evidence that the COVID virus escaped from a Chinese government lab right
00:03:12.300
at the beginning, and the predictions that we laid out there, the evidence we laid out
00:03:19.420
So I made a prediction that the Supreme Court 5-4 would uphold the president's use of terrorists.
00:03:27.600
What actually happened is 6-3, the court struck it down.
00:03:30.800
I also predicted that John Roberts would write the majority opinion.
00:03:34.620
I guess that did prove technically accurate, but he wrote the majority opinion going the
00:03:40.500
Here's why I thought the court was going to uphold the president's tariffs, and I said
00:03:47.420
There have been hundreds of billions of dollars of tariffs collected, and the court is reluctant
00:03:55.880
And I did say, if the court were deciding this issue a year ago, right at the beginning of
00:04:01.040
the Trump administration, I said, I think they'd come out the other way.
00:04:04.780
But after a year plus, after this being central to the economic and foreign policy agenda of
00:04:12.160
the president, I thought the court would not struck it down.
00:04:16.620
But at the end of the day, I don't think it matters a whole lot.
00:04:23.380
I don't think the consequences of this decision are going to be all that much.
00:04:27.900
What the court decided narrowly is that one particular statute, IEPA, does not give the
00:04:38.120
Now, mind you, IEPA gives the president the authority to, quote, regulate importations.
00:04:43.920
And so the majority opinion concluded, the president can ban an import from a country,
00:04:51.880
can say, we will import zero German cars into America.
00:04:57.860
But he can't say, we're going to charge a dollar for each one of those German cars.
00:05:04.960
And I got to say, the dissents, Justice Kavanaugh wrote the lead dissent.
00:05:11.140
And I think the dissents get the much better of the argument that the words that Congress
00:05:20.320
And Justice Thomas had an originalist dissent where he goes through, in the foreign policy
00:05:26.320
area in particular, the ability to import goods from other countries was never viewed
00:05:32.560
It was a privilege the government allowed you to do.
00:05:34.620
And in fact, tariffs were a major tool government used to regulate importation from other countries.
00:05:47.180
There are so many other statutes that allow the president to impose tariffs that I think
00:05:57.000
He's going to have to do a little bit more work.
00:05:58.540
It's going to require some more legal proceedings.
00:06:01.860
We saw immediately the president announced a 10 percent tariff on every country.
00:06:09.180
But I think at the end of the day, the president will continue to use tariffs as a critical part
00:06:16.340
And I hope and we've talked about this on verdict before.
00:06:19.400
I hope that he uses tariffs as leverage to open up foreign markets.
00:06:24.300
I don't want a world where we have high tariffs for everyone.
00:06:26.600
But I do think tariffs are very powerful leverage.
00:06:30.800
And I think the president has ample authority to continue using them.
00:06:35.380
When it happened, there was two people that were really celebrating two groups.
00:06:39.060
I should say, the Democratic Party and China and China was really celebrating this.
00:06:45.740
And then they were talking about buying soybean crops from other countries instead of America.
00:06:49.320
And that was like one of the big things that really blew up in the media and on social media.
00:06:54.520
And then you have the same excitement from the Chinese Communist Party as you did from the Democratic Party.
00:07:00.240
That tells me an awful lot about this tariff war issue.
00:07:04.960
This is just to Democrats, not about what's best for America,
00:07:10.280
not about saving American jobs or American manufacturing,
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protecting that or bringing jobs back to this country in manufacturing
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and bringing back American businesses to our soil.
00:07:22.620
And they're on the same team with China on this one.
00:07:32.420
One of the reasons I didn't think the court would do what they did
00:07:34.700
is you've got hundreds of billions of dollars of tariffs that's going to be collected.
00:07:41.080
Everyone that's paid the tariffs is going to look at, do I go back?
00:07:46.200
It's going to vary in terms of whether they filed a timely protest to the tariffs.
00:07:51.800
I think some of those tariffs, the litigation result is going to be no.
00:07:56.760
You can't get it back because you didn't timely protest it.
00:07:59.720
Some of the people who paid tariffs will have timely protested it.
00:08:03.620
And so there's a very good chance this is going to cost American taxpayers billions of dollars,
00:08:08.700
maybe even tens of billions of dollars or more.
00:08:17.060
But in terms of the president's ability to do this,
00:08:19.660
so let me walk through some of the different statutes that are available.
00:08:23.060
There is, number one, section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930.
00:08:27.100
That's actually the Smoot-Hawley Act, which authorizes the president to impose tariffs of up to 50%
00:08:33.360
on imports from any country that, quote, discriminates against U.S. businesses.
00:08:40.860
The statute is vague, and it is short, and no president has used this authority.
00:08:46.600
So it's uncharted area, but it remains on the statute book.
00:08:50.500
Another area, which is where the president went pretty much immediately,
00:09:02.860
Section 122 gives the president the power to impose duties of up to 15% for up to 150 days
00:09:09.900
in order to address, quote, large and serious balance of payments deficits.
00:09:15.080
Congress has to vote to extend them past the 150-day limit, or else the duties expire,
00:09:22.220
but the president is able to reissue them on expiration.
00:09:27.800
This is what the president used as a result immediately to impose the 15% tariff.
00:09:38.220
Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 authorizes the U.S. trade representative to investigate
00:09:44.720
and act upon results of an investigation revealing unfair trade practices.
00:09:53.640
In 2024, the Biden administration opened three investigations under Section 301
00:09:59.820
and determined that the countries had violated the provisions there.
00:10:08.740
That's also what, in Trump's second administration, U.S. trade representative's office has opened
00:10:14.960
a 301 investigation into Brazil and China, and they're considering one for Korea.
00:10:23.020
It's a little slower, but it gives more potent tariff authority.
00:10:25.800
There is also Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962,
00:10:32.300
and that allows the president to impose restrictions on goods and imports.
00:10:37.860
And following an investigation, if it's found that the imports, quote,
00:10:47.600
So Trump has used that for steel imports and aluminum imports.
00:10:51.460
In 2025, he expanded steel and aluminum tariffs, increasing the aluminum rate to 25 percent,
00:11:01.340
To date, the Trump administration has launched 12 different Section 232 investigations,
00:11:09.900
And then there's finally Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974,
00:11:13.900
which permits temporary safeguard tariffs to protect domestic industries from serious injury
00:11:24.960
Trump has used Section 201 to put tariffs on solar cells, on modules, and in residential washing machines.
00:11:32.240
Look, the long and short of it, you guys don't need to memorize all those different section numbers.
00:11:36.500
The point is, there are a bunch of different federal laws that give the president a bunch of authority to impose tariffs.
00:11:46.340
The lawyers and the administration will work a little bit harder, as Justice Kavanaugh said in dissent.
00:11:53.840
well, you check the wrong box and you pick the wrong statute, so these tariffs don't apply.
00:11:58.700
But the bottom line is going to be the president's going to be able to get there using other means.
00:12:03.220
Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
00:12:06.260
you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.
00:12:12.920
More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.
00:12:17.080
And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:12:23.240
And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:12:26.980
Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers,
00:12:32.420
So, if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:12:35.940
Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:12:44.000
The question that I have, as a proper conservative who is always looking for the downside of things,
00:12:53.920
do you think, I think universally the speech was viewed as quite good, quite effective,
00:12:59.440
does it make a meaningful difference in the midterms?
00:13:20.460
That it's all about him, and he doesn't know when to, you know, the mean tweets,
00:13:24.520
and when to shut up, and the things that irritate those that can stay home.
00:13:29.720
Watching his demeanor tonight, he came across in such a way of like,
00:13:35.520
these guys don't want this, these guys don't put you first,
00:13:40.280
He also was giving incredible accolades and awards,
00:13:44.320
and the U.S. hockey team, there was momentum there.
00:13:50.580
It was the guy who was flying the helicopter to the Chinook,
00:13:59.600
I actually think that if you are a moderate voter,
00:14:03.720
someone, maybe a Republican that traditionally stays home during the midterms,
00:14:08.020
I actually think that this speech landed with you more than any other speech of Trump,
00:14:14.960
I think it also is going to land on the economic issues,
00:14:19.320
of him reminding the no tax on tips, the no tax on overtime.
00:14:26.440
Those are things that I actually think will, you know,
00:14:29.560
they've been hammering him on all these approval ratings at 40 this,
00:14:44.140
I'm doing this because I want to fix the country.
00:14:46.640
And other speeches haven't come across that way always.
00:14:51.400
in that I think the message tonight was the record of the last year.
00:14:58.140
And the record of the last year, I believe, is objectively phenomenal.
00:15:04.660
We've never had a year where we've accomplished even a fraction
00:15:08.660
of what has been accomplished in the last year.
00:15:11.940
I mean, it is staggering, and he did a good job.
00:15:13.920
You know, we talked about on the last pod how I spent 30, 40 minutes on the phone
00:15:22.140
And one of the things we talked about was messaging for the midterms.
00:15:25.780
And I said, listen, we need to focus on results,
00:15:32.000
securing the border, 99% drop in illegal crossings.
00:15:37.900
And then I encouraged him a message that's not getting the attention it should
00:15:52.940
There are literally thousands of Americans who are alive today
00:15:56.360
because Trump was elected and Republicans won Congress.
00:16:02.400
And I was really happy, like, the first 20 minutes of the speech
00:16:09.800
And going through murder rates and crime rates and D.C. rates
00:16:16.400
that crime rates had plummeted in D.C. and New Orleans
00:16:22.700
And the Democrats were furious that fewer people are being murdered.
00:16:26.300
They wouldn't stand up en masse for murder declining.
00:16:29.560
You know, this, I was looking at the polls, an aggregate of the polls
00:16:32.540
from just January and February leading into this.
00:16:35.320
And to be fair, the pro-murder community in America is pretty small.
00:16:39.620
Look, it's a constituency, but it's not the one you want.
00:16:42.800
And so I was looking at this aggregate of polls,
00:16:49.580
And the hard fact, I spoke to some members of Congress about this today,
00:16:53.600
the hard fact is Republicans are underwater on the economy,
00:16:58.940
I think you could turn it around, but right now we're a little bit underwater.
00:17:03.060
On health care, Democrats always win on health care.
00:17:05.380
And on defensive democracy, it's kind of a contrived category.
00:17:12.360
So the ones that we're winning on right now, quite decisively,
00:17:15.620
are immigration and border enforcement, even more so.
00:17:23.460
So the key, it seems to me, is, one, that tells you people are concerned about safety.
00:17:28.820
And two, if you can tie all of that together, the crime relates, obviously, to illegal immigration.
00:17:39.660
All the way to the fact that you have six months consecutive decline on housing prices coinciding with mass deportation.
00:17:45.580
With two million people being deported, and that's just less demand.
00:17:49.040
You know, by the way, like a couple of weeks ago, the Houston Chronicle had a front page story
00:17:53.520
that said murder rates in Houston have declined 18%.
00:17:59.560
And Heidi showed me the article because she knew it pissed me off.
00:18:06.220
The article, the Chronicle, says nobody can figure out why.
00:18:11.980
The experts we talk about have no idea why the murder rate is dropping.
00:18:15.460
And it, like, doesn't occur to them that arresting and deporting murderers and gangbangers will reduce the murder rate.
00:18:30.120
But yet, to Democrats, that makes no sense to them.
00:18:37.100
But I also liked on No Tax on Tips that he had the mom, who was the waitress, stand up.
00:18:43.900
And he said, between No Tax on Tips and No Tax on Overtime, she's going to take home $5,000 more this year than last year.
00:18:55.720
And by the way, the Democrats wouldn't applaud for her.
00:18:57.820
Like, the mom waiting tables, they're not rooting for her.
00:19:08.120
So, nuts and bolts, you know, if this was a speech, obviously geared at the midterms,
00:19:16.660
If we can keep message discipline of focusing on it, yes.
00:19:20.460
By the way, yesterday morning, you and I have been talking about this.
00:19:26.220
And you talk about the reason why I think this one sticks.
00:19:30.140
There is a very real sense that Republican leadership have our act together for once that we haven't had in a long time.
00:19:40.340
Speaker Johnson understands he basically has a one-person majority.
00:19:45.980
He does not want to have, and President Trump doesn't want to have, the Democrats take over the House.
00:19:53.780
And I think they're working so well together the same way, Senator, that you work so well with the president.
00:19:58.880
There does seem to be that we're actually on the same team for once.
00:20:02.520
I've not experienced that many times in my life in the Republican Party.
00:20:07.740
We always want to screw it up when we get power.
00:20:09.820
There's different people jockeying for positions.
00:20:12.420
There does seem to be a little bit of momentum now that we're on the same team going to the midterms.
00:20:16.460
That's the other reason I think this speech will continue in the momentum, because you have Johnson and others advocating.
00:20:23.580
To play devil's advocate, we're a very divided country.
00:20:27.980
And so, the people who hate Trump, still hate him after this speech.
00:20:36.460
And so, I do think, Ben, you focused on the right area, which is the people who voted for him in 24, but may be demoralized by the press narrative that has been driven.
00:20:48.780
And to the extent this focuses them on, wow, we're winning some big, big victories.
00:20:55.260
I also really liked, look, the no tax on tips emphasis, I liked because I wrote that bill.
00:21:01.260
And I really liked his emphasis on the Trump accounts, because as you guys know, I wrote that too.
00:21:09.640
Sorry, I actually have to pause here, because I'm sitting in the upper part of the gallery to the right, if you're the president, pointing.
00:21:17.080
And you didn't get, everyone was standing up at certain moments.
00:21:24.720
I think they didn't quite process what the Trump accounts meant.
00:21:30.000
The Trump accounts, I think, are such a white pill.
00:21:34.780
Focusing on families, which is an existential issue.
00:21:41.180
I'm like, professionally, I'm supposed to follow this closely.
00:21:43.180
Honestly, I did not know that you were pushing the Trump accounts.
00:21:51.340
In fact, do you want to hear the story of the origin of the Trump accounts?
00:21:58.480
So, they originated from a poker game in Vegas.
00:22:06.860
And so, we're sitting at the Bellagio at 3 in the morning, and Phil Hellmuth, who's one
00:22:13.140
of the greatest poker players to have ever lived, Phil would tell you he is the greatest
00:22:16.840
poker player to ever live, and he's got a real argument to it.
00:22:20.920
He's got, I think, 15 bracelets, so it's crazy.
00:22:26.220
So, we're sitting there playing poker, and he asks me, he says, hey, do you know Brad
00:22:34.760
And he's a very successful venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, and he has this idea that
00:22:47.400
And I said, hey, that sounds like something I'd be really interested in.
00:22:51.840
And so, Phil pulls out his phone, and he puts together a text thread and connects me and
00:23:01.120
The next week, Brad gets on a plane, flies to D.C., comes to my office and pitches the
00:23:12.100
I immediately called my policy team in and said, let's start drafting this.
00:23:18.820
Now, Brad has said, for months, he had talked to a bunch of other senators, and none of them
00:23:25.480
He talked to them, and they'd all kind of nod and be like, yeah, yeah, that's a great
00:23:39.580
And it is literally the case that if Phil Hellmuth does not connect me with Brad Gerstner April
00:23:47.900
a year ago, there are no Trump accounts, and the kids of America do not have trillions
00:23:54.340
in investments, which is what they're going to have through Trump accounts.
00:23:57.580
As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go
00:24:02.120
back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing.
00:24:05.860
Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their
00:24:12.920
And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:24:19.040
And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:24:22.800
Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of
00:24:28.540
So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:24:31.540
Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:24:35.860
I want to get back to the big story, number three of the week you may have missed.
00:24:42.140
All right, Senator, let's talk about the Olympics.
00:24:44.480
There were so many cool stories out of the Olympics.
00:24:47.700
Obviously, celebrating hockey, that kind of took everything over when that happened.
00:24:52.120
But there were some other really incredible and important stories in these Olympics.
00:24:57.600
And one of them that just is something we got to talk about is involved not only China, but
00:25:04.180
also America's gold medalists who won in figure skating.
00:25:10.740
Well, look, we obviously have the incredible victory of winning the gold in both men's hockey
00:25:18.040
Again, I got to say that moment was extraordinary at the State of the Union.
00:25:21.600
It was wonderful to see the men's gold winning Olympic hockey team there.
00:25:30.460
But there's also a story that got some coverage.
00:25:32.660
But I think it's worth going back and focusing because it was a powerful contrast.
00:25:38.100
It was a contrast between Alyssa Liu and Eileen Gu.
00:25:53.800
Let's start with Alyssa, because Alyssa's story is extraordinary.
00:25:57.140
And I want to read from a tweet from a fellow named Afshine Amrani.
00:26:02.300
I don't know who this person is, but I thought the way he wrote it was very effective.
00:26:14.380
In 1989, Arthur Liu fled China as a political refugee after the Tiananmen Square massacre.
00:26:22.200
He came to America with nothing but a dream for a free life.
00:26:26.900
Decades later, his daughter Alyssa Liu became the face of Team USA.
00:26:33.100
Before the 2020 Beijing Olympics, the FBI uncovered a brazen spying operation.
00:26:43.600
The Chinese government tried to stalk them on U.S. soil.
00:26:50.700
Pressure her to turn her back on the country that gave her family refuge.
00:26:54.480
The FBI had to give them 24-7 security just so she could compete.
00:27:08.380
She walked away from the sport for two years to find her soul again.
00:27:20.420
In a flawless performance to Donna Summer's MacArthur Park, Alyssa Liu just did the impossible.
00:27:30.020
The first American woman to win individual gold in 24 years.
00:27:39.580
She skated for the freedom her father risked everything for.
00:27:47.420
She won for the flag that protected her family when the world felt small.
00:27:55.580
Now, I got to say, I want to give listeners some background into this show.
00:28:00.260
Now, the way you and I record this pod is we sit down right before recording it, and we go through all the stories that are in the news.
00:28:07.860
We say, all right, what do we want to talk about?
00:28:10.940
Like, you and I don't know what we're going to say.
00:28:16.860
And I want everyone to know Ben is like, no, no, no.
00:28:38.900
So my dad's, you know, from up north, and that was like one thing.
00:28:42.060
They would take us skating his kids, and then we would skate on the ponds.
00:28:50.760
I basically wobble around the skate rink and hold onto the walls the whole time.
00:28:55.340
Like, four-year-olds come skating past me and are like, get out of the way.
00:29:02.280
I can picture this, and I believe you completely that you're not overselling that point at all.
00:29:07.200
I'm not, but let's just say for the record, I can kick your ass at basketball.
00:29:12.440
And to be clear, I've broken your finger playing basketball.
00:29:16.680
The kicking the A part, at some point we might need a one-on-one game just so the audience knows the score here.
00:29:23.280
Look, you've got mass and strength, but I'm just saying you can't shoot to save your life.
00:29:32.820
Look, some of it is as the child of a refugee from Cuba.
00:29:43.120
And listen, there's a contrast with her and Eileen Gu.
00:30:04.120
The Chinese communist government said, we will give you millions of dollars to compete for China.
00:30:12.340
Like some reports have been upwards of six million plus.
00:30:21.500
Now, I got to say, in the conservative media, there's been a world of hate pounded and dumped on Eileen.
00:30:37.540
I mean, look, if I were in college, no one – there have been reports she received, like, $14 million.
00:30:47.480
And there is something of a tradition in the Olympics.
00:30:51.720
You think about the NBA, where you have all these stars.
00:30:55.480
You know, Victor Wembenyamu in the NBA competes for France.
00:31:04.080
They have lots of people who are from other countries.
00:31:08.880
They're not like you're a horrible human being.
00:31:15.960
The reason why this one's different is when you grow up in America and you do everything in America and you're a part of this country and this country supports you, and then because someone throws money at you, you defect to communist China.
00:31:31.600
That's the difference between if you come into the league from another country and you play in the NBA and then you go back to, like, when I played tennis, a lot of the guys from smaller countries would go back and play Davis Cup or the Olympics for their team.
00:31:44.600
Like, there was teammates of mine that made their Olympic team.
00:31:46.660
They were from, you know, Kazakhstan or smaller nations, and they were the best in their country.
00:31:53.260
But when you're in America and you're an American citizen, then you're like, all right, I'm literally defecting and going to go do this for China, and it's solely for a big payday.
00:32:03.200
From an athlete's standpoint, I get the money, but it is different than if you're in the NBA and you're from France like Marc Gasol and Pau Gasol, and they go and play against the USA in that game.
00:32:15.460
To be clear, the Gasols are from Spain, not France.
00:32:20.600
Look, we Latins don't like when you call us French, like that it's getting it wrong.
00:32:34.380
So it is different when you go and play for the country you were born and grew up in.
00:32:39.620
Both Alyssa and Eileen were born in and grew up in America, so that is different.
00:32:44.800
That being said, there was some real vitriol directed at Eileen, and listen, she's a 20-year-old
00:32:54.860
I don't have anger towards her, but my view is simple.
00:33:05.940
You can do that, but you know what you're saying?
00:33:10.140
I want 1.3 billion people in China to root for me, and I want to beat the United States
00:33:19.900
I'm going to root for the athletes that say I'm competing for America.
00:33:23.780
I thought people were a little bit overwrought in condemning Eileen Gu.
00:33:30.440
I don't know her at all, and she's a talented athlete, and she's, you know, a 20-year-old
00:33:36.480
But she made the decision she wants the Chinese to root for, and she does not want America
00:33:41.800
And to be clear, when she made that decision, she's saying, I want the United States of
00:33:50.020
And the contrast with Alyssa Liu, she was offered millions of dollars.
00:33:56.800
Senator, I also think just a really cool part of the story is Alyssa Liu's father.
00:34:02.560
But like, this is a guy that sacrificed everything, had to flee the country, comes to America.
00:34:11.040
He is literally being attacked and still being hunted by the Chinese government to the point
00:34:17.880
And on top of that, stays focused to make his daughter an Olympic gold medalist while
00:34:24.260
having to look over his shoulder to the point where the FBI had to give them protection.
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By the way, if they took the money, I'm assuming they wouldn't need protection anymore, right?
00:34:39.400
And I will say one aspect of this story that I really like.
00:34:43.420
According to the Internet, according to Twitter, apparently Alyssa Liu is politically liberal.
00:34:49.000
And so leftists are like, you conservatives can't cheer her on because she is allegedly woke.
00:34:54.500
I don't know if she's politically liberal or not, but you know what?
00:34:58.080
She competed for America when she was standing there.
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She's cheering for America, and I'm cheering for her.
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And I don't give a damn if she votes for Barack Obama or Joe Biden.
00:35:12.880
She's an American, and I'm proud to cheer her on.
00:35:15.240
As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:35:21.140
Don't forget to download my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast every other day
00:35:24.720
if you're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.
00:35:28.160
I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.
00:35:31.900
And we will see you back here on Monday morning.