Shocking Audio Shows Hunter Biden BEGGING For Money From Family, plus Gas Prices Soaring Under Govt. Regulations.
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Summary
Ted Cruz and Ben Ferguson introduce their new co-hosted podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz. Ted and Ben discuss the latest in the Hunter Biden scandal and how to deal with it. They also discuss Ted's new venture with Premier Networks, expand the Verdict podcast to 3 days a week, and talk about the need for a Grand Debate.
Transcript
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Big breaking news in the Hunter Biden fiasco with the Biden family.
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We're going to have that for you in just a moment.
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It is Verdict with Ted Cruz and I am the new co-host, Ben Ferguson, here with you today.
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We have a lot to talk about, Senator, obviously, in the news world, but this is a moment that
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I am beyond excited to get to co-host your podcast with you and do this with Premier
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We're going to be expanding for everyone listening to three days a week, which is going to be
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so much fun, I think, for the Verdict audience here and something that's been important to
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you to be able to get to expand this and reach more people.
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And the expansion is going to change the format a little bit in that two of the three are
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So we're going to do video where the objective is going to be to continue to do video once
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But two of the three, including obviously this one, are going to be audio only.
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And that's one of the ways we're going to expand the coverage and hopefully connect with a
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lot more folks that are looking for the inside scoop, looking to understand what actually is
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You know, it's so, I think, important now for us to be able to go around the media and
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go directly to the audience, which is, I think, one of the reasons why your podcast has exploded
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and why it made sense to expand it to three days a week.
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And you and I are so much aligned, I think, with our goal and our objective.
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I started in radio for people that don't know me when I was 12 years old.
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I started in TV on Bill O'Reilly's show on Fox when I was 17 years old and have been
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And I have my own podcast, my own national syndicated show.
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And it's you and I have that same mission, which is, I think, to change hearts and minds
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of Americans with facts and the real story behind some of these, the ridiculous headlines
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I jokingly say that, you know, my job is to make liberals go insane with facts and figures
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And I love my job because, for me, this is my mission field, very much the same way I
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think you believe God put you on earth, to stand up for values, traditional values, for
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the sanctity of life, for the Constitution, for the Second Amendment, part of the reason
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Well, I will say the only problem with that mission there, Ben, is I think liberals start
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And so really, the only thing you're doing is exposing their mental illness.
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I don't know if you happened to see yesterday on Twitter the video of this crazy lady who
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had stolen money from two little kids in their lemonade stand.
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And the father is asking her, please give back the money to my children.
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And this crazy lady is just berating him that you are endangering us because these children
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are selling, selling lemonade and you shouldn't be allowed to sell lemonade and you need masks.
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And it was a level of COVID paranoia that was just, you watched it and it was interesting.
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You know, if they had been injecting Ebola into the neighborhood cats, she would not be
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I'm going to take these children's lemonade stand money.
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And at the end of it, she gives the money back because he very calmly demands that she
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And then she knocks the whole stand over and knocks the lemonade over.
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And it's a mental illness at that point when you think as a busy body that you have the
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And if they don't comply with your paranoia, that then you can use force to force them to
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You've done this and seen this on college campuses.
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And even in the college campus world, we've seen these massive, I think, changes with just
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personalities where it used to be you could go in and you could have a grand debate and
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there would be people that would prepare, right?
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Look forward to the opportunity to question you or to question me on a certain topic or
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And now there is no longer a grand debate with many on the left.
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It's just scream at you and tell you and name call.
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You're a bigot, racist, homophobe, xenophobe.
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The list goes on and on and on and on and on.
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And they just go, you know, now we're domestic terrorists.
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We're a domestic terrorist organization that is a threat to democracy.
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We see Democrats running on that, doubling down in many of these places we saw in the
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Senate race in Ohio, where they're doubling down.
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The Democrats, they're saying that they believe that if you support conservatives, people like
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the MAGA movement, that you are a threat to our nation and should be treated like you
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are a domestic terrorist organization, no different than Al Qaeda.
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Well, look, the president called half the country fascist or semi-fascist.
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I will say, though, that this podcast so far has managed to cut through some of that.
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And at the campus tours we've done, you know, we've seen a number of liberal students come
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and show up and they come to the front of the line and they ask their questions.
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We had at University of Wisconsin-Madison, one leftist kind of run up and scream,
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And I kind of chuckled, ah, the courage of your convictions.
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But, you know, beyond that, we have not had the rudeness of the incivility.
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So, but, all right, there's a lot of breaking news.
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But before we do that, I want to drill down a little bit.
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A lot of the verdict listeners, I assume, know who you are, have seen you on TV, have listened
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But there are some of the verdict listeners who don't know you.
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You and I go back a decade from when I first ran for Senate.
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I think we met back in 2011, and your story is pretty remarkable.
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And so I just want to take a minute to kind of walk folks through your history.
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Now, you kind of casually mentioned that you started on radio when you were 12, which is
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Ben, maybe tell the story of, like, how the heck that happened, because most 12-year-olds
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You know, my life took an interesting turn, and I'll talk a little bit about myself so
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people know kind of what got me to do what I'm doing now.
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We were hit when I was very young by a drunk driver, and that drunk driver died, and thank
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I grew up in a family that was law enforcement.
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When actually we were hit by that drunk driver, he wasn't with us.
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It was my mom and my sister and I, and that gave me, I think, an instant kind of life purpose
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at a very young age, because I realized how quick life could be taken away, and I paid
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And how old were you when that car accident was?
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I was five, but it was my first vivid memory, because I remember the impact.
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I remember my mom, you know, we all had our seatbelts on, but we had the lap seatbelts.
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They didn't, in the back seat, have yet those shoulder straps, and the whiplash broke my sister's
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collarbone from the snapback of the impact of the wreck.
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He hit us going over 100, and he didn't have his seatbelt on.
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He went through the passenger window of his car as he turned sideways at the very last moment.
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We hit his passenger door, and he hit our windshield.
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And I remember getting out of the car, and my mom's head had hit the windshield, and
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there was blood coming down her face, and I just wanted to get to my mom.
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And I remember running out of the back door, and I couldn't, I had to walk over his body,
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I still think it was God's intervention, and he said, he grabbed me and took me to the back
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And he got my sister out, and he got my mom out, and then they rushed us all to the hospitals
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And we, you know, my sister and I went to the children's hospital, and she went to the
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And that moment was a moment where I think I realized and didn't take for granted life.
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And having that moment was a blessing in disguise, because it made me at a very young age realize
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how important it was to stand up against right and wrong.
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My dad laughs to this day that when I was a little kid after that, he was a police officer,
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and we would be in Kroger, and I would see somebody, Senator, buying beer, and I would
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tell my dad, like, I need you to, Dad, arrest him.
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I didn't understand, you know, I saw beer and thought that guy's going to drink it, and
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they're going to hit my car, and I'm going to die.
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And my dad was, he had to explain to me, like, laws.
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He talked about what the law says and how you can't get behind the wheel if you've been
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drinking in this blood alcohol level, which back then was a 1.0 before they changed it
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And so that had that impact where I was paying attention, I think, to more things, because
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I wanted to understand how this country worked and how laws worked.
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I'm sitting in the back of the blue Ford Aero-starred van, and that was one ugly van,
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Now, this was before talk radio became more conservative.
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This was before Hannity or Beck, right, where it was Limbaugh had just kind of come onto
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But a lot of news talk stations had liberal shows and conservative shows, and there was
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a liberal host, a city council member in my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.
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And in that, in my hometown, she was screaming about the school lunch program and the contract
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And this contract, there was, part of it was a school lunch program, and you may remember
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this, Richard Gephardt held up a bottle of ketchup, and he said, is this what conservatives
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And she continued to say that Republicans were going to starve kids and it was going to
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And then she's teaching us homeschooling, and I said, Mom, there's no way that anyone would
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I'm like, Mom, I can't think that any adult would take away a child's lunch.
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And she said, well, why don't you call our congressman and get a copy of the bill and
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I'll help you read it and you can see if you're right.
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I called Ed Bryant, who was our congressman at the time.
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He faxed the bill to my dad's fax machine with that old roller fax paper, right?
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And I found out that the Republicans wanted to increase school lunch funding by 3.7 percent.
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And Republicans wanted to increase it by like 4.3 percent.
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And the Democrats were calling the difference in their two numbers the cut, even though
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both were clearly increasing school lunch funding.
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And I called her and we got into this big debate.
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And I said, ma'am, I said, have you read the bill?
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And maybe you should before you go on the radio and lie to people.
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And I read her the bill on the air and told her why she was wrong.
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At one point does she say, wait a second, are you 12?
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It was pretty clear that I would, you know, I had not yet hit the full puberty yet.
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And so it was, you know, the high little squeaky kid voice.
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And so this other show that came on the afternoons heard this call.
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And they went on the radio in drive time at like 5 o'clock.
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And they said, whoever this kid is, if anyone knows who Ben is,
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So my mom and dad's home phone starts ringing from friends that are listening.
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They're like, they're talking about Benjamin on the radio.
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And they're like asking me about the bill and reading the bill.
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And just they were kind of enamored with this idea of a young person getting involved.
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And they're like, have you ever seen a radio studio?
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And they were like, well, put your mom on the phone.
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They're like, can you bring your son down here tomorrow and let him see a studio?
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They're going to have me as a guest for 10 minutes.
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And the first break we went to, one of the hosts looks at me and she goes, you're dying
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And she goes, next time you have something important to say, raise your hand.
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And then literally they hired me a week after that at $4.25 an hour, minimum wage at the
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And I've been doing radio ever since, fell in love with it because radio for a younger
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person, people didn't judge you based on what they saw, right?
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They didn't look at you and think you don't, you can't have an opinion because you could
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hide behind the microphone and they would listen to what you said.
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And once I realized that I could be judged by the content of what I was saying and not
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because of how baby face I looked, I knew this was what I was going to do probably for the
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I did a hit that was like a news piece that happened to show up.
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I think it was on CNN and it was about getting out the vote and young people voting.
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And that was right when MTV was doing rock the vote.
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And Bill O'Reilly had just come over to Fox News channel, just launched.
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And there was a guy from Memphis, Tennessee, who was, I think, his producer at the time
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and and called me and said, hey, he wants to have you on.
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There's this new channel called Fox News now on cable in Memphis.
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So their pitch to me and Bill O'Reilly and I laugh about this every time we see each
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other when he comes out with a new book and, you know, come on my show.
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And we always laugh because the pitch senator was was, hey, we have this host who's the former
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host of Inside Edition and he'd really like to have you on a show.
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They started having me back on a regular basis.
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And I started doing other shows at Fox and Shepard Smith and a Gibson show back when he
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I mean, we're talking about the old lineup, Neil Cavuto.
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And it took that one hit with the guy who used to host Inside Edition, as they described
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And I remember doing the show and no one could watch it.
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They want to see it because no one could see it.
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So we had to find a friend who had a beta machine so we could even watch it.
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And by the way, for a lot of our podcast listeners, you may not know what a beta tape is.
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You know, when the very beginning of being able to play movies at home, you had two different
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You had a VHS cassette and you had beta, which was Sony Betamax.
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And they were competing size and beta was a little bit smaller and VHS won out.
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It was a battle to see who would be the market dominant and beta got crushed and went away.
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So it's you have to be of a certain age to know what the heck a Betamax or a beta is.
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And then that later became DVDs and then that later became Blu-rays.
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And now, you know, our kids probably won't know what DVDs or Blu-rays are because it'll
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all be streaming and who knows, it'll be virtual in about 10 minutes.
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It's the world has changed and the ability to reach people has changed drastically over
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I remember when I started radio, we had the eight tracks and you would hit the button
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and the eight track would play during the commercial breaks.
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When I started, I mean, I was 12 and then they gave you a big magnet that you would demagnetize
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So you're doing radio, you're doing TV, you're a teenager.
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You go off to college at Ole Miss on a tennis scholarship.
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Now, I guess you're a pretty hardcore tennis player.
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My aunt was a racquetball player and so she was sponsored and she used to send Ectalon racquetball
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racquets to me for holidays and I would go play and this tennis coach walked up to me
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as he saw me hitting on a racquetball court and he's like, hey man, why don't you play
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And so I went out and hit a few balls with him and he saw that I had, I guess, you know,
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He was like, you need to probably get in a tennis clinic.
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And so I started, fell in love with the game, understood very quickly, my parents didn't
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have a lot of resources and I knew I needed a scholarship to go to college and tennis was
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And I played in college and absolutely fell in love with the game, got to see the world
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and play overseas and meet really interesting and cool people.
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And you know this, playing, you put your basketball guy, obviously, and I got to play
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in high school and just having that team sport and taking a little bit of a break from the
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And I would still drive back and forth from Ole Miss.
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I'd still fill in on radio for guys like Michael Reagan, Ronald's son, and G Gordon Liddy,
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So I was able to keep my hand in the political world, but having that break and just to be
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a college student and a college athlete is something I tell kids all the time.
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If you're passionate about sport and you get to play, play it to the highest level.
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I've never talked to anybody that regretted playing in college.
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I have a lot of friends that regretted not playing in college because maybe they didn't
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get a scholarship to the university they wanted to go to.
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So they're like, all right, well, I'll just give up on the dream.
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And almost, I mean, I don't know anybody that's ever told me that, you know, if you have that
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ability to play, I think at that level, you run with it and you do it because you'll never
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And I think there's also something cool about sports.
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Like there's a very small window, Senator, you know this, where you can get to play it
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But when you get to play at peak physical condition, at that age where you can maximize
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And getting to play at that level was something, if I could go back and do it again, I'd do it
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Well, and Ben and you had size and speed and strength and talent, all things, sadly, I
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So, you know, you very kindly threw me a bone of, oh, you're a basketball player.
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I was a mediocre high school player and I still play today and I'd say I'm still right about
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So, you know, it was a very different experience from being a varsity athlete at a major university
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So you're a varsity athlete, you're in a fraternity, you're a big man on campus, but then you're
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also jumping on airplanes and flying to New York City and going on TV and on Fox at the
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It was, you know, back then when I was in college.
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Satellite, you know, how we do TV now, you just grab that, you know, they do it by satellite.
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The cost is very inexpensive now compared to what it was in 2000.
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So if you were going to do TV, you got on a plane and I would literally run, you know,
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haul it from Oxford, Mississippi to Memphis, get on a plane, fly to New York to do TV and
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And then, you know, people around campus figured it out, right?
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You're doing TV, but you're also, you know, hanging out at lunch.
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You know, it was it was hilarious to see their reaction of like, hold on a second.
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You're the same guy that's screaming on Saturdays at the football game and Sunday morning.
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I got to experience both at the exact same time.
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And I also it turned into me seeing bias at the first first level I've ever seen bias
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bias from adults, you know, from people in positions of power against young people.
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And you're going to laugh when I tell you which class I failed.
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And it was literally entitled editorial and opinion writing.
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If there is any class editor that I should pass, it would be editorial and opinion writing.
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And I had this professor, those who can do those who can't teach.
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Oh, so tell me, I assume the professor was some wild eyed leftist.
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And I would had just signed a book deal with with William Morrow, Harper Collins to write
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It was, you know, is obviously a big deal writing your first, you know, big book.
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And he would do entire lectures basically yelling directly at me in the class.
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Well, this class had three papers that you wrote that were a third, a third, a third
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And so I did my first again editorial and opinion writing.
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I did my first piece and he gave me an F and I went to the head of the department and
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Was it an editorial or was it writing about editorial writing?
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No, it was like literally write an editorial, like an opinion piece.
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So I think I wrote about the Second Amendment and he failed me and it looked like he got
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I've never seen more red ink and writing on a paper.
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And so I went to the head of the department and I was like, look, like, it's obvious this
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And they're like, well, he's tenured and he's senior.
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He's written for all of these magazines and newspapers.
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And I went back and I'm like to the head of the department.
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I said, OK, I said, now now you're really screwing with my life.
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Um, it's if this grade stands, I'm going to fail the class, which means I'd have to come
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I'm going to Bush campaign like I'm out of here.
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So I ended up going to the chancellor of the university and he said there was nothing he
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And I said, all right, well, I just want to give you a heads up.
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Well, you just told me you just told me a second ago you can't compromise and that you're
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I said, take my name off the papers, give them to three different professors in three
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And they all came back with A's and that changed it.
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But that was the moment that I really was, I became angry and I was like, I've got to
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keep doing this because what if you didn't have that threat of being able to expose them
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If otherwise this, and this is what's happened, I think on college campuses is so many kids
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They write what they think these professors want them to say instead of having a grand debate.
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And that's where we've, I think how we've gotten to the point where we are in this country
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right now, where it's basically indoctrination, no longer a grand debate.
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And that's why verdict is something very, very different.
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Look, I think we are going to have a fun and amazing time doing this show together, doing
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it three, three days a week now doing it regularly.
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And I think it's going to be, it's going to be a different vibe than, than Michael and
00:25:42.340
Michael is a sort of Yale academic brought, brought a very kind of conservative Catholic
00:25:50.380
And I think you and I have a very different vibe that it's going to be interesting and
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engaging and help, help get really to the bottom of the issues that are happening right
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People don't know this yet, but we're going to, we're going to secretly prepare you for
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That's, that's part of that's part of my new mission field, Senator.
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And then, and then I promise we're not going to lose if we play doubles together.
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So I actually, I have tennis elbow, which Ben knows.
00:26:19.560
And, and given how lousy my tennis game is, I don't even deserve to have tennis elbow.
00:26:23.740
Like, like that suggests you have some modicum of skill or maybe my skill is so bad.
00:26:30.280
So, but, but anyway, Ben gave me this, this like basically little electro shock thing
00:26:35.960
that you strap on your forearm and it shocks it.
00:26:39.080
And, and I'm not sure if it actually helps or if he's just screwing with me and wants
00:26:43.100
to see how frequently I'll shock myself, but I'm doing it regularly and I will confess
00:26:48.680
So, so that is, that's been an interesting experience as well.
00:26:54.380
I stated a Holiday Inn Express last night, Senator, you know, give you an electrode shock
00:26:58.300
afterwards and there's going to be some physical therapist out there.
00:27:01.160
Isn't going to be yelling at the, at their phone right now.
00:27:06.520
So yeah, you're going to, now you're going to get filled with tweets coming to you on
00:27:14.440
It has made it, made it feel a little bit better.
00:27:20.280
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Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:27:49.360
I want to ask you about some of the big news of the day that, that I, that I think is shocking.
00:27:57.860
There is some new audio that has been released on Hunter Biden, and it is shocking audio of
00:28:06.180
Hunter begging for cash to go claiming it's for rehab.
00:28:10.400
He is begging his, his brother's widow, who he ended up dating, hooking up with, whatever, after his brother died,
00:28:22.960
begging her for points, reward points from a credit card, as he's claiming he's going to check into rehab.
00:28:30.800
And Senator, when I listened to this, and this just came out, there was two things that shocked me.
00:28:35.680
One, I genuinely have compassion and feel bad for Hunter Biden, because it's obvious he's an addict, he's addicted.
00:28:43.180
And this is right around the time, just weeks before his gun purchase.
00:28:47.240
But there was something else in this audio that I think was so disturbing to me.
00:28:51.680
And that is, at one point, well, he's begging her for these points, and she's like,
00:28:57.500
No, I'll send you to rehab. I'll do it. I'll book your ticket.
00:29:01.680
But I'm not giving this to you, because she knows it's going to be used, I think, for drugs.
00:29:06.140
Drug abuse. He says, Well, give it to my uncle.
00:29:09.580
And then she says no to that. And then he says, Well, give it to my dad.
00:29:15.640
And it was such an eye-opening moment for me that I think just tells you about Joe Biden and James Biden.
00:29:22.260
And the fact that they knew that he was a struggling addict, and they exploited it.
00:29:27.760
They sobered him up for the moments they needed him to get the deals done and the corruption and keep the money flowing to their family.
00:29:35.280
Hey, I want to play this for you and get your reaction.
00:29:39.340
No, honey. I don't want you to know where I'm going. It's very important to me.
00:29:49.580
I'm not even asking you for points. I'm asking you for my points.
00:30:10.880
It's really important to me that you don't know.
00:30:16.180
Don't ask me again. I'm hanging up and I'm not going to talk to you again.
00:30:18.080
I can't pay for the place otherwise. You're killing me.
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If you've ever known somebody that's become addicted to drugs,
00:30:29.740
whether it's illegal drugs like this or prescription drugs,
00:30:33.500
I have compassion for people that are struggling.
00:30:40.940
And she says no because she obviously doesn't trust the uncle.
00:30:45.780
And she doesn't even trust her own father-in-law to do the right thing
00:30:49.640
and to actually make him go back to rehab instead of just giving him access to
00:30:55.940
I've never felt more compassion for him as a human being than this tape that just came out.
00:31:07.460
clearly is led and is living a very troubled life.
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00:31:18.140
My older sister, Marion, tragically died of an overdose.
00:31:34.780
anyone who's had loved ones dealing with this has heard that desperation before.
00:31:40.120
I'll tell you, listening to it, what it reminded me of was Ray Liotta's character in Goodfellas.
00:31:46.740
When he was an addict and he's begging his wife again.
00:31:49.800
It was the same back and forth of begging his wife and the panic.
00:31:55.240
But you're right that it also illustrates that his wife believes that neither his uncle nor his father
00:32:04.620
That you couldn't trust giving the points or giving the money to dad,
00:32:10.980
And presumably, at least, you know, you infer from listening to that,
00:32:14.920
that she thinks they're going to give it to him and let him buy drugs with it
00:32:20.960
And that, you know, look, if Hunter Biden were Hunter Jones or Hunter Smith,
00:32:30.520
he would be someone who had a very troubled life and you would want to see him get help.
00:32:37.660
His conversation, conversations like this wouldn't be talked about.
00:32:43.000
What's different is his father's president of the United States.
00:32:46.720
And the evidence that has come out of, number one, his father's official position
00:32:56.140
being used essentially to immunize him from the crimes that he's committing.
00:33:02.640
But number two, the very significant evidence of his father being directly involved in corruption
00:33:09.720
makes it a matter not just of a private son who is struggling with addiction,
00:33:20.140
That at the end of the day, this has never been about Hunter Biden.
00:33:24.500
This is about the president and what he's willing to do.
00:33:28.820
And those questions, you know, I think that recording only amplify those questions.
00:33:36.180
You know, it's amazing how they're trying to act like Hunter Biden's business dealings
00:33:41.220
can be separated from his father and his uncle and the big guy getting 10 percent.
00:33:47.620
You know, I part of my background, I own a gun range and a gun store and a barbecue restaurant.
00:33:52.920
And if my dad was, you know, giving a massive government contract to my gun range, right,
00:33:58.900
for for law enforcement, that's a conflict of interest.
00:34:08.940
Yet NBC News today came out and said, well, there's nothing wrong, nothing illegal with
00:34:15.500
Hunter Biden taking money from foreign governments acting like immediately that that's a closed
00:34:27.600
There's a lot of people who evade taxes or never prosecuted criminally.
00:34:31.460
So that's going to be a big issue in this case.
00:34:33.140
In terms of like corruption, conflict of interest, we've never heard a hint that that was that
00:34:38.260
there were potential criminal charges there because Hunter Biden wasn't an office holder.
00:34:43.500
It was perfectly legal for him to take money from foreign governments as long as it wasn't
00:34:48.720
he wasn't inappropriately giving them information from his family or something.
00:34:55.120
I mean, NBC News looks at you with a straight face and you've seen it.
00:35:01.560
You've seen just all the suspicious activity reports on their bank accounts.
00:35:06.160
And they say in their actual words, there's nothing here.
00:35:11.700
There's nothing that says that this was nefarious.
00:35:16.100
And I think that's what worries so many Americans is they truly believe, oh, my gosh, they're
00:35:21.680
I mean, if they just nail Hunter Biden with tax issues and they just nail him with a gun
00:35:26.280
issue, those are technically the two issues, Senator, that you probably cannot connect to
00:35:32.520
his father and all the other stuff that they actually did is that they should be charging
00:35:38.180
If they don't, then he's going to basically walk away with a slap on the wrist with the
00:35:44.360
Well, we can say he's a drug addict, so you shouldn't be hard on him.
00:35:48.120
Yeah, look, the obviously DOJ is leaking like a sieve right now and projecting that they
00:35:55.920
are going to indict Hunter Biden on a tax claim and a gun claim charge.
00:36:01.180
Those are I'm glad to see it on one side and that the law should be blind.
00:36:08.440
And the fact that his daddy happens to live in government housing on Pennsylvania Avenue
00:36:12.940
should not give him a get out of jail free card that nobody else has.
00:36:17.680
But it's it's disturbing for the same reason, which is that what they're leaking suggests
00:36:26.180
They're not looking at whether the corruption from Ukraine or the corruption from China.
00:36:30.100
And in particular, that they're not looking at the connections to his dad.
00:36:34.360
The reason anyone should care is because of his father.
00:36:39.520
And, you know, the the clip you just played for a minute from NBC is truly absurd because
00:36:47.580
And every time we talk Burisma, that brings us back to the very beginning of verdict launched
00:36:55.020
Hunter Biden was given a job at Burisma where they paid him eighty three thousand dollars
00:37:14.500
He had one qualification and one qualification only, which is that he carried the DNA of being
00:37:20.500
the son of the sitting vice president at the time.
00:37:23.420
And so NBC, well, there's no question of corruption or anything.
00:37:27.000
Really, why does the Ukrainian gas company pay him that money?
00:37:32.120
And by the way, Hunter Biden's father, Joe Biden, then the vice president, was the point
00:37:37.560
person for the Obama administration on Ukraine.
00:37:40.520
So it was literally bribing essentially the family of the lead U.S. policy person.
00:37:50.420
OK, look, if you're a foreign government, let's say you're the Ukrainian government, let's
00:37:53.860
say you're communist China and you're trying to influence a U.S. decision maker.
00:37:58.920
Now, if you just show up and hand Joe Biden a paper bag full of cash, you could try to do
00:38:05.940
But that's a little clunky and a little obvious and transparent.
00:38:08.840
Even the shills at MSNBC might have a hard time explaining that one away.
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00:38:15.660
But there's a second way you do it, which is, listen, the video you played or the audio
00:38:20.580
you played of Hunter talking to his wife, it is clear that Hunter Biden was a financial
00:38:30.260
His dad, I am sure, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, trying
00:38:41.160
And look, we all respect that you should do what you can to help help your children, especially
00:38:47.300
But by Burisma, giving Hunter Biden $83,000 a month, what they did is they took that obligation
00:38:57.900
In other words, he didn't have to support Hunter Biden because, lo and behold, the Ukrainians
1.00
00:39:04.400
And then later on in China, the private equity deals that he did in China, multi-billion dollar
00:39:12.200
deals, you've got indications there, including, as you noted, the 10% for the big guy.
00:39:20.360
The big guy is not talking about someone who's fat.
00:39:26.980
And once again, it is highly disturbing that DOJ, it doesn't seem, has even the slightest
00:39:34.360
interest in looking into anything that could implicate Joe Biden.
00:39:37.820
And this is all about finding a fall guy and I with an alibi, with an alibi, a fill.
00:39:45.520
And I mean, look, you and I both have compassion for Hunter when you listen to that tape.
00:39:49.800
Don't think that tape's not going to be played if they're in a court when people are on a jury
00:39:54.700
are going to say, this guy, this poor guy's an addict.
00:39:58.500
OK, yeah, he broke the law, but maybe we'll give him a little compassion here.
00:40:03.680
Even when they brought out Joe's sister, when she did the morning show, Sunday morning
00:40:08.620
show, CBS This Morning or whatever it was, several months back, she clearly laid out the
00:40:16.180
And that was, he may have done something wrong back in the day, but he was an addict, so
00:40:22.020
And that's always been the alibi, which meant they could exploit him and get even to do more
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00:40:28.100
And I think you and I, and this is something the American people have to ask themselves.
00:40:31.400
Does Hunter Biden exist as a businessman in any of these capacities, whether it's with,
00:40:35.920
you know, Chinese Communist Party and the oil and gas deals, with Bob Alinsky, the whistleblower
00:40:41.560
about their deals, with Russian oligarchs and the former mayor of Russia's wife giving him
00:40:47.040
millions of dollars, with him being a defense attorney for more than a million dollars for
00:40:51.020
a guy that's going to prison and missing in China, or Burisma.
00:40:59.220
Does any of that happen without his father being involved in those deals?
00:41:03.680
I would argue it's impossible to separate Joe Biden and James Biden from any of this.
00:41:10.820
And I think DOJ is once again being partisan and political.
00:41:15.180
And what I fear is that this is also being done for a very explicitly partisan purpose,
00:41:20.140
which is that Merrick Garland has decided if we indict Hunter Biden, then he can turn around
00:41:29.160
And I think that is his objective at this point is to say, gosh, we're not political.
00:41:33.700
Look, we we indicted the guy who who is so plainly guilty and recorded videos of it and
00:41:39.700
And we could only not indict him if we ignored it.
00:41:43.160
But it's all about having the look how even handed we are.
00:41:46.380
We're doing both sides for people that are angry.
00:41:54.600
And if the DOJ doesn't do a special prosecutor, if we don't get real indictments, just these
00:42:01.780
two kind of slap on the wrist indictments and insulate the president.
00:42:05.660
What is justice look like if you guys take control of the Senate?
00:42:10.740
If Comer takes control, you know, in the leadership role there in the House to investigate, you know,
00:42:16.060
Congressman Comer said that Hunter Biden, quote, is a national security threat who may be
00:42:20.600
compromised, who may have compromised the president.
00:42:23.960
And that's what he says they're going to look at in the House side.
00:42:26.580
But what is justice look like if we don't get these indictments?
00:42:30.680
Can you guys, you know, get a special prosecutor or is that no, because the president is is Joe
00:42:36.980
Is there anything that you guys can actually do when you're investigating him to go back and
00:42:41.560
force the DOJ or the FBI or law enforcement do their job if they don't do it the first time around?
00:42:46.320
Well, I think the election matters powerfully because having a majority gives you the ability
00:42:55.880
There has been essentially zero oversight of the Biden administration with Democrats in
00:43:01.680
They put partisan politics above everything else.
00:43:04.320
So they don't want to know the answers to any of these things.
00:43:06.520
I think we are extremely likely to see a Republican House.
00:43:10.120
And I think there's a good chance we'll see a Republican Senate if and when that happens.
00:43:14.040
I think we will see, I hope and believe, vigorous hearings examining all sorts of issues, the
00:43:22.500
corruption, the corruption going straight to the top, Joe Biden, his involvement in it, Dr.
00:43:28.640
Fauci, the origins of COVID, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the funding from the NIH for data
00:43:37.040
function research, all of that, the involvement with with big pharma in the administration's
00:43:43.720
policies, the involvement with the teachers unions in the administration's indefensible
00:43:49.100
There are so many topics that are screaming for oversight.
00:43:53.000
I think we will see hearings on every one of those topics.
00:43:58.340
If witnesses refuse to attend, having the majority means you can issue subpoenas and and and use
00:44:07.220
You can have lawyers who engage in investigations.
00:44:09.980
But you asked, can Congress appoint a special prosecutor?
00:44:16.020
Under our Constitution, we have separation of powers and only the executive can execute the
00:44:23.140
So the questions of prosecution, it is only Article two, the president, the attorney general that
00:44:30.340
have the authority to indict anyone, to prosecute anyone, to bring a case.
00:44:34.880
Congress, the legislature can pass laws that need the president's signature to become law
00:44:42.240
and Congress can hold hearings and shine a light.
00:44:45.680
So I have been calling for two years for a special prosecutor to look at Hunter Biden, for
00:44:55.660
They don't care that they are going to be corrupt and political and they do not care with the
00:45:03.220
What the hearings can do is shine a light and put pressure.
00:45:06.920
But at the end of the day, the only person with the authority to appoint a special prosecutor
00:45:16.500
And so that's one of the reasons why I believe one of the first orders of business should be
00:45:21.300
impeaching Merrick Garland, the degree to which he has turned DOJ into a partisan nest of hornets
00:45:30.540
working on behalf of the White House, working on behalf of the DNC, I think has profoundly
00:45:37.980
compromised the integrity of the Department of Justice and the FBI.
00:45:41.560
And as an alumnus, I worked at the DOJ in 2001.
00:45:45.300
That is both very sad, but it's also incredibly dangerous.
00:45:52.040
I want to switch gears real quick before we run out of time today to gas prices.
00:45:56.220
Senator JP Morgan, CEO, came out earlier today in an interview and he said this about American
00:46:05.360
oil production, as he also said, we're headed into a recession if we're not already there.
00:46:12.700
But I want you to hear what he had to say about America with oil production.
00:46:19.160
America is the swing producer, not Saudi Arabia.
0.72
00:46:22.320
And we should have gotten that right during March.
00:46:25.180
It's almost too late to get it right because obviously these are longer term investments.
00:46:35.080
And this happens, and you tweeted this out, Valero has now fired back with facts after
00:46:41.480
the California government is wanting to investigate oil and gas companies for the gas price spikes
00:46:48.400
there that are hitting $7, $8 a gallon in some parts of California because the California
00:46:53.880
Energy Commission, and obviously this is political right before the elections, wrote executives
00:46:59.480
at five oil and gas companies that are demanding answers for sharp price increases.
00:47:05.640
And basically, the vice president for state government affairs at Valero said, OK, you want
00:47:14.640
He said California for Valero is the most expensive operating environment in the country
00:47:19.980
and, quote, a very hostile regulatory environment for refining.
00:47:23.920
He also said California policymakers have knowingly adopted policies with the express intent of
00:47:35.440
Valero said California requires refiners to pay very high carbon cap and trade fees and
00:47:42.040
burden gasoline with a cost of low carbon fuel standards, saying, quote, with the backdrop
00:47:47.980
Not surprisingly, California has seen refineries completely close or shut down major units.
00:47:55.540
And he said, when you shut down refinery operations, you limit the resilience of the supply chain,
00:48:07.460
You guys have made us produce a unique blend of gasoline.
00:48:10.100
And now you want to investigate us while you set up this entire thing?
00:48:14.940
You're I'm glad finally some companies are speaking out like this.
00:48:19.180
I think it's really important to see companies pushing back.
00:48:22.440
You know, the letter continues and it goes right at the California regulators.
00:48:26.020
It's a letter from Valero says, quote, from the perspective of a refiner and fuel supplier,
00:48:31.200
California is the most challenging market to serve in the United States for several additional
00:48:37.100
California regulators have mandated a unique blend of gasoline that is not readily available
00:48:43.780
California is largely isolated from fuel markets of the central and eastern United States.
00:48:50.340
California has imposed some of the most aggressive and thus expensive and limiting environmental
00:48:58.240
California policies have made it difficult to increase refining capacity and it prevented
00:49:04.180
supply projects to lower operating costs of refineries.
00:49:08.160
It is a great example of just responding with facts.
00:49:12.720
And this is we're seeing this nationally with with with with the radicals, the Green New
0.96
00:49:20.320
And California is is the the Wuhan virus epicenter of the craziness that is in the Biden administration.
00:49:31.220
All of these nutty ideas originated in California with the crazies there.
00:49:37.080
It is the reason people are fleeing California in droves.
00:49:41.340
But when it comes to energy, the reason gas prices are so high nationally, five dollars, six dollars, even seven dollars a gallon is because Joe Biden and the people he appointed want gas prices to be high.
00:49:55.360
They promised Joe Biden on the campaign trail promised that he would end drilling on federal lands, both onshore and offshore.
00:50:03.720
And they have bent over backwards trying to do that.
00:50:06.480
They have put in place dozens of rules and regulations and policy designed to make it harder to to to develop oil and gas in the United States.
00:50:16.580
They shut down the Keystone Pipeline, they shut down exploration in Anwar, the incredibly resource rich, very small section of Alaska.
00:50:24.320
They shut down new leases in offshore drilling with the vast reserves in the Gulf of Mexico.
00:50:37.080
And not only that, they're cutting off the funds to pay for exploration.
00:50:43.040
There are two avenues to fund a new exploration project.
00:50:49.400
The Biden banking regulators are hammering banks not to lend oil and gas projects.
00:50:56.100
And on the equity side, the Biden appointees to the SEC are hammering, hammering efforts to raise equity to fund that.
00:51:15.040
Venezuela's getting rich because they're producing.
00:51:17.400
And by the way, they pollute a lot more than America does.
00:51:20.940
So so the Biden zealots are shutting down, are hurting the environment at the same time.
00:51:25.740
And as bad as all of that is, California takes all of that and does it on steroids.
1.00
00:51:30.440
So when you pay seven bucks a gallon in California, I guess you can be grateful because in a year they want you to pay 10 bucks a gallon.
00:51:38.920
And this is the direct result of policies passed by people who don't give a damn about your life.
00:51:50.120
They don't care about working people being unable to afford to get to work or get to school.
00:51:54.720
This is a religion for them and the consequences of their policy.
00:52:02.540
It doesn't trouble their pretty little heads.
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00:52:07.620
As I said earlier, I'm looking really forward to doing this with you three days a week.
00:52:16.820
Make sure you hit that little forward arrow on your phone and share this on your social media.
00:52:22.760
Whatever social media you're on, please write us a five star review that helps us reach more people and change hearts and minds when you write us a review.
00:52:33.860
It's an honor to get to spend time with you talking about these issues.
00:52:37.180
And this is going to be, as I said, a exciting expansion with Premier, with iHeart, an exciting expansion to do this three days a week.
00:52:46.300
And I can't tell you how excited I am personally.
00:52:51.620
That's it for this edition of Verdict with Ted Cruz.
00:52:54.060
We'll see you back here literally in a couple of days.