Verdict with Ted Cruz - Shocking Audio Shows Hunter Biden BEGGING For Money From Family, plus Gas Prices Soaring Under Govt. Regulations.

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.700 Big breaking news in the Hunter Biden fiasco with the Biden family.

00:00:11.260 We're going to have that for you in just a moment.

00:00:13.940 Welcome.

00:00:14.480 It is Verdict with Ted Cruz and I am the new co-host, Ben Ferguson, here with you today.

00:00:20.800 We have a lot to talk about, Senator, obviously, in the news world, but this is a moment that

00:00:26.340 is an honor for me.

00:00:27.480 I am beyond excited to get to co-host your podcast with you and do this with Premier

00:00:34.780 Networks, with iHeart.

00:00:36.900 We're going to be expanding for everyone listening to three days a week, which is going to be

00:00:42.160 so much fun, I think, for the Verdict audience here and something that's been important to

00:00:47.860 you to be able to get to expand this and reach more people.

00:00:51.260 Well, Ben, that's exactly right.

00:00:52.560 And the expansion is going to change the format a little bit in that two of the three are

00:00:57.300 going to be audio podcasts.

00:00:58.420 So we're going to do video where the objective is going to be to continue to do video once

00:01:03.100 a week.

00:01:03.560 But two of the three, including obviously this one, are going to be audio only.

00:01:07.860 And that's one of the ways we're going to expand the coverage and hopefully connect with a

00:01:13.380 lot more folks that are looking for the inside scoop, looking to understand what actually is

00:01:18.400 happening and what it means.

00:01:19.880 You know, it's so, I think, important now for us to be able to go around the media and

00:01:24.840 go directly to the audience, which is, I think, one of the reasons why your podcast has exploded

00:01:29.860 and why it made sense to expand it to three days a week.

00:01:33.800 And you and I are so much aligned, I think, with our goal and our objective.

00:01:39.380 I started in radio for people that don't know me when I was 12 years old.

00:01:44.640 It was my mission field.

00:01:46.020 I started in TV on Bill O'Reilly's show on Fox when I was 17 years old and have been

00:01:52.460 doing TV and radio ever since.

00:01:54.660 And I have my own podcast, my own national syndicated show.

00:01:58.280 And it's you and I have that same mission, which is, I think, to change hearts and minds

00:02:03.320 of Americans with facts and the real story behind some of these, the ridiculous headlines

00:02:10.280 and the propaganda of the left. 0.81

00:02:11.900 I jokingly say that, you know, my job is to make liberals go insane with facts and figures

00:02:17.320 each and every day.

00:02:18.340 And I love my job because, for me, this is my mission field, very much the same way I

00:02:23.440 think you believe God put you on earth, to stand up for values, traditional values, for

00:02:28.300 the sanctity of life, for the Constitution, for the Second Amendment, part of the reason

00:02:31.920 why you obviously went to law school.

00:02:34.160 Well, I will say the only problem with that mission there, Ben, is I think liberals start 0.96

00:02:38.780 out insane. 1.00

00:02:39.660 And so really, the only thing you're doing is exposing their mental illness. 0.98

00:02:44.620 I don't know if you happened to see yesterday on Twitter the video of this crazy lady who 1.00

00:02:51.660 had stolen money from two little kids in their lemonade stand.

00:02:56.200 And she's wearing a mask.

00:02:57.940 And the father is asking her, please give back the money to my children. 0.86

00:03:03.780 And this crazy lady is just berating him that you are endangering us because these children 1.00

00:03:08.620 are selling, selling lemonade and you shouldn't be allowed to sell lemonade and you need masks.

00:03:13.340 And it was a level of COVID paranoia that was just, you watched it and it was interesting.

00:03:19.680 A, she wasn't faking it.

00:03:21.180 This was not, she believed this in the core.

00:03:25.600 You know, if they had been injecting Ebola into the neighborhood cats, she would not be

00:03:30.780 more worked up.

00:03:31.940 But B, she felt an absolute entitlement.

00:03:34.360 I'm going to take these children's lemonade stand money.

00:03:36.740 And at the end of it, she gives the money back because he very calmly demands that she

00:03:40.680 do so.

00:03:41.220 And then she knocks the whole stand over and knocks the lemonade over. 1.00

00:03:44.500 And it's a mental illness at that point when you think as a busy body that you have the

00:03:51.320 right to control somebody else.

00:03:53.140 And if they don't comply with your paranoia, that then you can use force to force them to

00:03:58.600 comply.

00:03:59.440 You've done this and seen this on college campuses.

00:04:02.000 You do a ton of college campus speaking.

00:04:03.820 I do some as well.

00:04:05.020 And even in the college campus world, we've seen these massive, I think, changes with just

00:04:10.560 personalities where it used to be you could go in and you could have a grand debate and

00:04:15.820 there would be people that would prepare, right?

00:04:18.560 Look forward to the opportunity to question you or to question me on a certain topic or

00:04:22.820 issue.

00:04:23.420 And now there is no longer a grand debate with many on the left.

00:04:27.280 It's just scream at you and tell you and name call. 1.00

00:04:30.060 You're a bigot, racist, homophobe, xenophobe. 1.00

00:04:31.840 The list goes on and on and on and on and on. 1.00

00:04:33.800 And they just go, you know, now we're domestic terrorists.

00:04:36.400 Now we are a cult.

00:04:38.380 We're a domestic terrorist organization that is a threat to democracy.

00:04:42.980 We see Democrats running on that, doubling down in many of these places we saw in the

00:04:47.080 Senate race in Ohio, where they're doubling down.

00:04:50.500 The Democrats, they're saying that they believe that if you support conservatives, people like

00:04:55.140 the MAGA movement, that you are a threat to our nation and should be treated like you 0.87

00:05:00.480 are a domestic terrorist organization, no different than Al Qaeda. 0.97

00:05:03.600 Well, look, the president called half the country fascist or semi-fascist.

00:05:07.480 I will say, though, that this podcast so far has managed to cut through some of that.

00:05:12.660 And at the campus tours we've done, you know, we've seen a number of liberal students come

00:05:17.820 and show up and they come to the front of the line and they ask their questions.

00:05:21.340 And we've had very little.

00:05:23.440 We had at University of Wisconsin-Madison, one leftist kind of run up and scream,

00:05:28.300 F you, and then scamper off. 1.00

00:05:30.560 And I kind of chuckled, ah, the courage of your convictions.

00:05:34.120 But, you know, beyond that, we have not had the rudeness of the incivility.

00:05:38.960 That's a good thing.

00:05:39.960 So, but, all right, there's a lot of breaking news.

00:05:42.320 But before we do that, I want to drill down a little bit.

00:05:45.560 A lot of the verdict listeners, I assume, know who you are, have seen you on TV, have listened

00:05:50.200 to you on radio or your podcast.

00:05:51.940 But there are some of the verdict listeners who don't know you.

00:05:56.220 You and I go back a decade from when I first ran for Senate.

00:05:59.940 I think we met back in 2011, and your story is pretty remarkable.

00:06:04.380 And so I just want to take a minute to kind of walk folks through your history.

00:06:09.160 Now, you kind of casually mentioned that you started on radio when you were 12, which is

00:06:15.120 a pretty crazy and wild thing.

00:06:18.140 Yeah.

00:06:18.460 Ben, maybe tell the story of, like, how the heck that happened, because most 12-year-olds

00:06:23.340 don't get on the radio.

00:06:24.720 You know, my life took an interesting turn, and I'll talk a little bit about myself so

00:06:31.600 people know kind of what got me to do what I'm doing now.

00:06:36.300 We were hit when I was very young by a drunk driver, and that drunk driver died, and thank 0.84

00:06:42.320 goodness we lived.

00:06:44.180 I grew up in a family that was law enforcement.

00:06:47.400 My dad was a police officer.

00:06:49.200 When actually we were hit by that drunk driver, he wasn't with us.

00:06:52.420 It was my mom and my sister and I, and that gave me, I think, an instant kind of life purpose

00:06:57.920 at a very young age, because I realized how quick life could be taken away, and I paid

00:07:03.220 attention to stuff.

00:07:04.880 I was homeschooled.

00:07:05.420 And how old were you when that car accident was?

00:07:08.100 I was like five years old.

00:07:09.960 I was five, but it was my first vivid memory, because I remember the impact.

00:07:16.180 I remember my mom, you know, we all had our seatbelts on, but we had the lap seatbelts.

00:07:20.840 They didn't, in the back seat, have yet those shoulder straps, and the whiplash broke my sister's 1.00

00:07:26.340 collarbone from the snapback of the impact of the wreck.

00:07:28.980 He hit us going over 100, and he didn't have his seatbelt on.

00:07:32.460 He went through the passenger window of his car as he turned sideways at the very last moment.

00:07:38.420 We hit his passenger door, and he hit our windshield.

00:07:40.720 And I remember getting out of the car, and my mom's head had hit the windshield, and

00:07:45.080 there was blood coming down her face, and I just wanted to get to my mom.

00:07:48.540 And I remember running out of the back door, and I couldn't, I had to walk over his body,

00:07:52.760 and I couldn't get her door open.

00:07:55.360 And a man came along to this day.

00:07:58.500 I still think it was God's intervention, and he said, he grabbed me and took me to the back

00:08:04.420 of the car, and he said, I've got this.

00:08:06.180 And he got my sister out, and he got my mom out, and then they rushed us all to the hospitals

00:08:09.880 and even separate us.

00:08:11.000 And we, you know, my sister and I went to the children's hospital, and she went to the

00:08:15.240 adult, the med, the trauma center.

00:08:17.300 And that moment was a moment where I think I realized and didn't take for granted life.

00:08:24.880 And having that moment was a blessing in disguise, because it made me at a very young age realize

00:08:30.780 how important it was to stand up against right and wrong.

00:08:33.440 My dad laughs to this day that when I was a little kid after that, he was a police officer,

00:08:37.200 and we would be in Kroger, and I would see somebody, Senator, buying beer, and I would

00:08:41.660 tell my dad, like, I need you to, Dad, arrest him.

00:08:44.200 Because I was very literal.

00:08:45.540 I didn't understand, you know, I saw beer and thought that guy's going to drink it, and

00:08:48.380 they're going to hit my car, and I'm going to die.

00:08:50.080 And my dad was, he had to explain to me, like, laws.

00:08:55.620 Son, I can't arrest him for buying beer.

00:08:57.440 It's okay to buy beer.

00:08:58.500 And he talked about consumption.

00:08:59.980 He talked about what the law says and how you can't get behind the wheel if you've been

00:09:04.020 drinking in this blood alcohol level, which back then was a 1.0 before they changed it

00:09:08.440 to 0.8.

00:09:09.260 And so that had that impact where I was paying attention, I think, to more things, because

00:09:15.740 I wanted to understand how this country worked and how laws worked.

00:09:18.940 So you fast forward to 11, 12 years old.

00:09:21.540 I'm sitting in the back of the blue Ford Aero-starred van, and that was one ugly van,

00:09:27.120 by the way, that Ford made.

00:09:28.480 And my mom was listening to talk radio.

00:09:31.740 Now, this was before talk radio became more conservative.

00:09:34.240 This was before Hannity or Beck, right, where it was Limbaugh had just kind of come onto

00:09:39.260 the scene.

00:09:40.340 But a lot of news talk stations had liberal shows and conservative shows, and there was

00:09:44.580 a liberal host, a city council member in my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.

00:09:48.840 And in that, in my hometown, she was screaming about the school lunch program and the contract 0.95

00:09:54.920 with America in 1994.

00:09:57.980 And this contract, there was, part of it was a school lunch program, and you may remember

00:10:02.440 this, Richard Gephardt held up a bottle of ketchup, and he said, is this what conservatives

00:10:10.280 are going to call a vegetable?

00:10:12.620 And she continued to say that Republicans were going to starve kids and it was going to

00:10:15.940 be their only hot meal a day that they were...

00:10:17.920 And did Gephardt mean the ketchup or himself?

00:10:21.320 Yeah, right.

00:10:21.840 Exactly.

00:10:22.400 Yeah.

00:10:22.740 Bingo.

00:10:23.260 Yeah.

00:10:24.480 Exactly.

00:10:25.920 Exactly.

00:10:26.640 And so I'm in the back seat.

00:10:28.420 My mom's school teacher, right?

00:10:29.640 And then she's teaching us homeschooling, and I said, Mom, there's no way that anyone would

00:10:34.160 do that to children. 0.82

00:10:35.580 And she immediately perked up, right?

00:10:37.800 This is a school mom's dream.

00:10:40.560 She's like, well, honey, how do you know that?

00:10:42.260 I'm like, Mom, I can't think that any adult would take away a child's lunch.

00:10:47.080 And she said, well, why don't you call our congressman and get a copy of the bill and

00:10:51.960 you can read it?

00:10:52.700 I'll help you read it and you can see if you're right.

00:10:55.360 So I did.

00:10:56.220 I called Ed Bryant, who was our congressman at the time.

00:10:59.540 He faxed the bill to my dad's fax machine with that old roller fax paper, right?

00:11:04.220 That falls on the ground.

00:11:05.200 You have to put it back in order.

00:11:06.600 And I read the bill.

00:11:08.020 And sure enough, she lied to her audience.

00:11:10.720 And I found out that the Republicans wanted to increase school lunch funding by 3.7 percent.

00:11:17.180 And Republicans wanted to increase it by like 4.3 percent.

00:11:20.140 And the Democrats were calling the difference in their two numbers the cut, even though

00:11:25.640 both were clearly increasing school lunch funding.

00:11:28.640 And I called her and we got into this big debate.

00:11:32.000 And I said to her, she was yelling at me.

00:11:34.240 And I said, ma'am, I said, have you read the bill?

00:11:36.540 And she said, well, no one reads the bills.

00:11:38.240 And I said, well, I did.

00:11:39.560 And maybe you should before you go on the radio and lie to people.

00:11:43.040 And it just blew up.

00:11:44.880 Another show.

00:11:46.100 It was one of those moments.

00:11:47.460 It just happened.

00:11:48.380 And I read her the bill on the air and told her why she was wrong.

00:11:51.200 And I was great.

00:11:52.040 At one point does she say, wait a second, are you 12?

00:11:55.820 Like, how does that come out?

00:11:57.900 My voice had not changed yet.

00:12:00.060 It was pretty clear that I would, you know, I had not yet hit the full puberty yet.

00:12:05.900 And so it was, you know, the high little squeaky kid voice.

00:12:09.140 And she was like, how old are you?

00:12:10.640 I mean, she's yelling at me.

00:12:11.700 And I'm like 12 years old.

00:12:12.760 I said, ma'am, I'm 12.

00:12:14.300 And so this other show that came on the afternoons heard this call.

00:12:18.860 And they went on the radio in drive time at like 5 o'clock.

00:12:22.000 And they played the phone call.

00:12:23.800 And they said, whoever this kid is, if anyone knows who Ben is,

00:12:27.800 please tell him we're talking about it.

00:12:29.260 We want to talk to him on the radio.

00:12:30.480 So my mom and dad's home phone starts ringing from friends that are listening.

00:12:34.540 They're like, they're talking about Benjamin on the radio.

00:12:37.360 And so I called in.

00:12:38.760 And they put me on the air.

00:12:39.780 And they're like asking me about the bill and reading the bill.

00:12:42.520 And just they were kind of enamored with this idea of a young person getting involved.

00:12:46.320 And they're like, have you ever seen a radio studio?

00:12:48.320 And I was like, no, ma'am, no, sir.

00:12:50.000 And they were like, well, put your mom on the phone.

00:12:52.260 And this is all live on the air.

00:12:54.100 And I hand the phone back to my mom.

00:12:56.080 They're like, can you bring your son down here tomorrow and let him see a studio?

00:12:58.700 My mom's like, sure.

00:12:59.580 So I go down there.

00:13:00.400 They're going to have me as a guest for 10 minutes.

00:13:02.280 And the first break we went to, one of the hosts looks at me and she goes, you're dying

00:13:06.200 to talk, aren't you?

00:13:07.040 I said, yes, ma'am.

00:13:07.740 And she goes, next time you have something important to say, raise your hand.

00:13:10.200 So I did.

00:13:11.240 And I was on for an hour and a half.

00:13:13.520 The phone lines were jammed.

00:13:15.500 And they were like, this is weird.

00:13:16.820 Can you come back tomorrow?

00:13:17.820 I was like, I have to ask my parents.

00:13:19.060 So my parents drive me back down the next day.

00:13:21.400 I'm on for another hour.

00:13:23.120 They had me come back a week later.

00:13:24.420 And then literally they hired me a week after that at $4.25 an hour, minimum wage at the

00:13:29.560 time.

00:13:30.640 And I've been doing radio ever since, fell in love with it because radio for a younger

00:13:35.940 person, people didn't judge you based on what they saw, right?

00:13:39.940 Your age.

00:13:40.540 They didn't look at you and think you don't, you can't have an opinion because you could

00:13:43.980 hide behind the microphone and they would listen to what you said.

00:13:47.720 And it was a great equalizer.

00:13:49.140 And once I realized that I could be judged by the content of what I was saying and not

00:13:54.480 because of how baby face I looked, I knew this was what I was going to do probably for the

00:13:59.280 rest of my life.

00:14:00.360 And so you went from there to going on TV.

00:14:04.040 Yeah, I was.

00:14:05.500 I was.

00:14:05.920 And how did that happen?

00:14:07.040 I was.

00:14:07.600 So I was.

00:14:08.360 I did a hit that was like a news piece that happened to show up.

00:14:13.320 I think it was on CNN and it was about getting out the vote and young people voting.

00:14:18.360 And that was right when MTV was doing rock the vote.

00:14:21.680 And Bill O'Reilly had just come over to Fox News channel, just launched.

00:14:26.200 And there was a guy from Memphis, Tennessee, who was, I think, his producer at the time

00:14:32.340 and and called me and said, hey, he wants to have you on.

00:14:37.440 There's this new channel called Fox News now on cable in Memphis.

00:14:41.320 Fox News wasn't even available yet.

00:14:43.120 So their pitch to me and Bill O'Reilly and I laugh about this every time we see each

00:14:47.300 other when he comes out with a new book and, you know, come on my show.

00:14:50.180 And we always laugh because the pitch senator was was, hey, we have this host who's the former

00:14:56.780 host of Inside Edition and he'd really like to have you on a show.

00:15:01.540 And so I did the show.

00:15:03.600 We sparred.

00:15:04.420 We fought.

00:15:05.080 It went it went really well.

00:15:06.680 And then that was the hit.

00:15:08.020 That was it.

00:15:08.500 They started having me back on a regular basis.

00:15:10.520 And I started doing other shows at Fox and Shepard Smith and a Gibson show back when he

00:15:15.640 was there.

00:15:15.920 I mean, we're talking about the old lineup, Neil Cavuto.

00:15:18.500 And it took that one hit with the guy who used to host Inside Edition, as they described

00:15:22.960 it.

00:15:23.120 And I remember doing the show and no one could watch it.

00:15:26.180 Right.

00:15:26.320 Your parents are proud of you.

00:15:27.420 You're 17.

00:15:28.180 They want to see it because no one could see it.

00:15:29.840 And so they FedEx me a VHS, no, a beta tape.

00:15:33.880 It was a beta tape of the appearance.

00:15:35.580 So we had to find a friend who had a beta machine so we could even watch it.

00:15:40.300 Wow.

00:15:40.560 And by the way, for a lot of our podcast listeners, you may not know what a beta tape is.

00:15:45.860 You know, when the very beginning of being able to play movies at home, you had two different

00:15:52.900 types.

00:15:53.320 You had a VHS cassette and you had beta, which was Sony Betamax.

00:15:58.380 And they were competing size and beta was a little bit smaller and VHS won out.

00:16:02.940 It was a battle to see who would be the market dominant and beta got crushed and went away.

00:16:07.200 So it's you have to be of a certain age to know what the heck a Betamax or a beta is.

00:16:12.480 And then that later became DVDs and then that later became Blu-rays.

00:16:16.280 And now, you know, our kids probably won't know what DVDs or Blu-rays are because it'll

00:16:20.620 all be streaming and who knows, it'll be virtual in about 10 minutes.

00:16:24.220 Oh, exactly.

00:16:25.220 It's the world has changed and the ability to reach people has changed drastically over

00:16:30.440 the last time.

00:16:31.120 I remember when I started radio, we had the eight tracks and you would hit the button

00:16:35.440 and the eight track would play during the commercial breaks.

00:16:38.320 When I started, I mean, I was 12 and then they gave you a big magnet that you would demagnetize

00:16:43.280 the tape so you could re-record over it.

00:16:46.560 That's how long I've been in this business.

00:16:49.000 Okay.

00:16:49.420 So you're doing radio, you're doing TV, you're a teenager.

00:16:53.060 You go off to college at Ole Miss on a tennis scholarship.

00:16:56.560 Now, I guess you're a pretty hardcore tennis player.

00:16:59.160 Yeah, I started playing tennis.

00:17:00.820 My aunt was a racquetball player and so she was sponsored and she used to send Ectalon racquetball

00:17:09.400 racquets to me for holidays and I would go play and this tennis coach walked up to me

00:17:14.740 as he saw me hitting on a racquetball court and he's like, hey man, why don't you play

00:17:18.420 a sport that other people actually play?

00:17:21.660 And he goes, why don't you try tennis?

00:17:23.660 And I was like, okay.

00:17:24.680 And so I went out and hit a few balls with him and he saw that I had, I guess, you know,

00:17:30.140 some talent and he was like, all right.

00:17:32.000 He was like, you need to probably get in a tennis clinic.

00:17:35.800 And so I started, fell in love with the game, understood very quickly, my parents didn't

00:17:41.500 have a lot of resources and I knew I needed a scholarship to go to college and tennis was

00:17:46.700 going to be my way to pull that off.

00:17:48.660 And I played in college and absolutely fell in love with the game, got to see the world

00:17:53.860 and play overseas and meet really interesting and cool people.

00:17:57.820 And you know this, playing, you put your basketball guy, obviously, and I got to play

00:18:01.660 in high school and just having that team sport and taking a little bit of a break from the

00:18:08.240 politics and the radio and TV.

00:18:09.640 And I would still drive back and forth from Ole Miss.

00:18:11.800 I'd still fill in on radio for guys like Michael Reagan, Ronald's son, and G Gordon Liddy,

00:18:16.760 Oliver North and some others like that.

00:18:19.280 So I was able to keep my hand in the political world, but having that break and just to be

00:18:24.620 a college student and a college athlete is something I tell kids all the time.

00:18:29.200 If you're passionate about sport and you get to play, play it to the highest level.

00:18:34.140 I've never talked to anybody that regretted playing in college.

00:18:37.920 I have a lot of friends that regretted not playing in college because maybe they didn't

00:18:43.840 get a scholarship to the university they wanted to go to.

00:18:46.480 So they're like, all right, well, I'll just give up on the dream.

00:18:48.680 And almost, I mean, I don't know anybody that's ever told me that, you know, if you have that

00:18:52.800 ability to play, I think at that level, you run with it and you do it because you'll never

00:18:58.040 forget those moments with those teammates.

00:19:00.580 And I think there's also something cool about sports.

00:19:02.740 Like there's a very small window, Senator, you know this, where you can get to play it

00:19:07.440 and it's based on age at the highest level.

00:19:10.800 It's so fun to keep playing later in life.

00:19:13.040 But when you get to play at peak physical condition, at that age where you can maximize

00:19:19.560 your potential, it's a very small window.

00:19:21.880 And getting to play at that level was something, if I could go back and do it again, I'd do it

00:19:26.380 all over again.

00:19:27.040 Well, and Ben and you had size and speed and strength and talent, all things, sadly, I

00:19:34.400 was lacking.

00:19:35.320 So, you know, you very kindly threw me a bone of, oh, you're a basketball player.

00:19:39.940 I was a mediocre high school player and I still play today and I'd say I'm still right about

00:19:45.320 the level of a mediocre high school player.

00:19:47.860 So, you know, it was a very different experience from being a varsity athlete at a major university

00:19:56.480 and competing at the top level.

00:19:58.740 But one of the things I think is interesting.

00:20:00.640 So you're a varsity athlete, you're in a fraternity, you're a big man on campus, but then you're

00:20:06.780 also jumping on airplanes and flying to New York City and going on TV and on Fox at the

00:20:12.500 same time.

00:20:13.020 What was that like?

00:20:14.260 It was, you know, back then when I was in college.

00:20:17.460 So it was college 2000, 2004.

00:20:20.880 Satellite, you know, how we do TV now, you just grab that, you know, they do it by satellite.

00:20:25.540 The cost is very inexpensive now compared to what it was in 2000.

00:20:29.800 So if you were going to do TV, you got on a plane and I would literally run, you know,

00:20:34.640 haul it from Oxford, Mississippi to Memphis, get on a plane, fly to New York to do TV and

00:20:40.780 then come back.

00:20:41.580 And then, you know, people around campus figured it out, right?

00:20:44.760 Like, this is weird.

00:20:46.060 You're doing TV, but you're also, you know, hanging out at lunch.

00:20:50.060 And it was it was pretty funny.

00:20:52.360 You know, it was it was hilarious to see their reaction of like, hold on a second.

00:20:56.960 You're the same guy that's screaming on Saturdays at the football game and Sunday morning.

00:21:02.660 You're doing the Sunday morning talk shows.

00:21:05.480 This is weird.

00:21:06.720 And I was I was lucky.

00:21:08.680 I got to experience both at the exact same time.

00:21:11.080 And I also it turned into me seeing bias at the first first level I've ever seen bias

00:21:20.040 bias from adults, you know, from people in positions of power against young people.

00:21:27.600 And that was the most shocking.

00:21:29.500 I almost failed a class.

00:21:31.580 And you're going to laugh when I tell you which class I failed.

00:21:34.320 It was a 400 level class.

00:21:38.120 And it was literally entitled editorial and opinion writing.

00:21:42.780 If there is any class editor that I should pass, it would be editorial and opinion writing.

00:21:52.800 And I had this professor, those who can do those who can't teach.

00:21:58.540 Oh, so tell me, I assume the professor was some wild eyed leftist.

00:22:02.980 Oh, hardcore leftist.

00:22:04.620 And I walked in the first day.

00:22:07.140 He knew exactly who I was.

00:22:09.820 He knew exactly what I did.

00:22:12.580 And it was my senior year.

00:22:14.500 And I would had just signed a book deal with with William Morrow, Harper Collins to write

00:22:19.420 a book.

00:22:20.340 And so it had been written about.

00:22:22.240 It was, you know, is obviously a big deal writing your first, you know, big book.

00:22:26.380 And I was doing a ton of TV then.

00:22:29.140 And I walked in and it was game on.

00:22:31.380 And he would do entire lectures basically yelling directly at me in the class.

00:22:36.060 Well, this class had three papers that you wrote that were a third, a third, a third

00:22:42.020 of your grade.

00:22:42.900 Well, if you fail one of them, do the math.

00:22:45.100 It's not good.

00:22:46.320 You're going to it's going to be bad.

00:22:48.080 And so I did my first again editorial and opinion writing.

00:22:52.320 I did my first piece and he gave me an F and I went to the head of the department and

00:22:58.080 I said, now was your was your first piece?

00:23:01.100 Was it an editorial or was it writing about editorial writing?

00:23:04.420 No, it was like literally write an editorial, like an opinion piece.

00:23:08.000 So I think I wrote about the Second Amendment and he failed me and it looked like he got

00:23:13.660 hammered and then spilled the red ink.

00:23:16.140 I've never seen more red ink and writing on a paper.

00:23:20.460 And so I went to the head of the department and I was like, look, like, it's obvious this

00:23:24.520 dude has it out for me.

00:23:25.760 And they're like, well, he's tenured and he's senior.

00:23:27.420 He's been here.

00:23:27.860 He's premier.

00:23:28.620 He's written for all of these magazines and newspapers.

00:23:31.420 And, you know, I can't overrule him.

00:23:33.760 And I'm like, all right, fine.

00:23:35.360 And I know what's going to come.

00:23:36.640 I'm going to write the second one.

00:23:37.700 He's going to fail me.

00:23:38.540 Second one comes.

00:23:39.500 Sure enough, he gives me a D.

00:23:41.240 And I went back and I'm like to the head of the department.

00:23:44.420 I said, OK, I said, now now you're really screwing with my life.

00:23:48.280 Like, I have to have this class to graduate.

00:23:50.280 Um, it's if this grade stands, I'm going to fail the class, which means I'd have to come

00:23:57.880 back and take this class in another semester.

00:24:00.040 I'm going to be gone.

00:24:01.140 I'm going to Bush campaign like I'm out of here.

00:24:03.780 And this could really screw up my life.

00:24:05.900 And they're like, I'm sorry.

00:24:06.880 So I ended up going to the chancellor of the university and he said there was nothing he

00:24:12.560 could do.

00:24:13.340 And I said, all right, well, I just want to give you a heads up.

00:24:15.640 I'm going to go on.

00:24:16.620 I think it was on Fox.

00:24:17.980 And I said, I'm going to tell my story.

00:24:19.440 And then the whole thing changed, Senator.

00:24:22.140 Well, hold on a second.

00:24:23.440 Let's see if we can come to compromise.

00:24:24.920 Well, you just told me you just told me a second ago you can't compromise and that you're

00:24:31.120 just got to stand with this decision as well.

00:24:32.840 What are you proposing?

00:24:33.660 I said, take my name off the papers, give them to three different professors in three

00:24:37.940 different departments and let them grade it.

00:24:41.120 And if they fail me, I'll accept the grades.

00:24:43.420 And they all came back with A's and that changed it.

00:24:46.360 But that was the moment that I really was, I became angry and I was like, I've got to

00:24:51.740 keep doing this because what if you didn't have that threat of being able to expose them

00:24:56.300 on national TV?

00:24:57.620 If otherwise this, and this is what's happened, I think on college campuses is so many kids

00:25:02.040 now are held hostage.

00:25:03.600 They can't speak out.

00:25:05.060 They stay quiet.

00:25:06.060 They sit on their hands.

00:25:07.400 They write what they think these professors want them to say instead of having a grand debate.

00:25:12.420 And that's where we've, I think how we've gotten to the point where we are in this country

00:25:15.680 right now, where it's basically indoctrination, no longer a grand debate.

00:25:20.620 That's exactly right.

00:25:21.900 And that's why verdict is something very, very different.

00:25:25.060 Look, I think we are going to have a fun and amazing time doing this show together, doing

00:25:30.800 it three, three days a week now doing it regularly.

00:25:33.960 So, so that folks can count on it to come out.

00:25:37.240 And I think it's going to be, it's going to be a different vibe than, than Michael and

00:25:41.720 I had.

00:25:42.340 Michael is a sort of Yale academic brought, brought a very kind of conservative Catholic

00:25:49.220 vibe that was fun.

00:25:50.380 And I think you and I have a very different vibe that it's going to be interesting and

00:25:54.340 engaging and help, help get really to the bottom of the issues that are happening right

00:25:58.060 now.

00:25:58.700 And I'm going to give people updates.

00:26:00.080 I'm going to try to work on your tennis game.

00:26:01.660 People don't know this yet, but we're going to, we're going to secretly prepare you for

00:26:04.960 greatness in the tennis world.

00:26:06.980 That's, that's part of that's part of my new mission field, Senator.

00:26:10.420 We got to get that elbow right.

00:26:12.040 And then, and then I promise we're not going to lose if we play doubles together.

00:26:16.240 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.

00:26:29.080 That's why I have tennis elbow.

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

00:26:47.580 it is actually helping.

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.

00:27:03.260 Go do it, Senator.

00:27:04.560 It's a TENS machine.

00:27:05.620 Do it.

00:27:05.940 It'll work.

00:27:06.520 So yeah, you're going to, now you're going to get filled with tweets coming to you on

00:27:10.200 advice on how to do it.

00:27:13.000 Well, I will confess it.

00:27:14.440 It has made it, made it feel a little bit better.

00:27:17.180 Good.

00:27:17.560 And that's what I, that's what I like to hear.

00:27:20.280 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected 1.00

00:27:24.700 leaders, and the world around them.

00:27:26.460 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:27:30.180 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:27:31.360 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:27:32.600 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists,

00:27:37.720 athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:27:42.080 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:27:45.320 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.

00:29:38.180 And I'll do it.

00:29:39.340 No, honey. I don't want you to know where I'm going. It's very important to me.

00:29:43.700 You won't give me my money, Hallie.

00:29:45.940 Hallie, please give me the money.

00:29:47.840 I mean, it's just points, honey. It's points.

00:29:49.580 I'm not even asking you for points. I'm asking you for my points.

00:29:51.640 I don't care.

00:29:53.040 You don't care about my points?

00:29:53.800 I will do it all for you.

00:29:55.240 I will do it all for you.

00:29:56.820 Okay, here. How about this?

00:29:58.120 Not you, okay?

00:29:59.500 You give it to...

00:30:00.860 No.

00:30:01.160 No.

00:30:01.640 Give it to my Uncle Jimmy.

00:30:03.720 No.

00:30:04.360 Give it to my Uncle Jimmy.

00:30:05.340 What's the difference?

00:30:05.900 No.

00:30:06.320 Why?

00:30:06.800 I don't care. I'll do it if you want it.

00:30:08.000 Give it to my dad.

00:30:08.680 If not, you're not using it.

00:30:09.640 Give it to my dad.

00:30:10.140 I said no.

00:30:10.880 It's really important to me that you don't know.

00:30:12.180 Give it to my dad.

00:30:12.720 I don't care.

00:30:13.500 I can't pay for the place otherwise.

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. 0.97

00:30:20.760 Why are you doing this?

00:30:21.560 No.

00:30:22.580 Senator, you hear that and I have...

00:30:24.920 It made me sad.

00:30:26.080 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.

00:30:36.040 And I hear that.

00:30:37.500 And he basically is saying,

00:30:39.400 send it to my uncle.

00:30:40.940 And she says no because she obviously doesn't trust the uncle.

00:30:44.560 And then he says, give it to my dad.

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

00:30:53.340 what, you know, his next fix here.

00:30:55.940 I've never felt more compassion for him as a human being than this tape that just came out.

00:31:02.420 Yeah.

00:31:03.020 Look, that's really hard to listen to.

00:31:05.180 That's someone who is clearly hurting,

00:31:07.460 clearly is led and is living a very troubled life. 0.99

00:31:11.800 He's an addict.

00:31:14.300 And all of us have known addicts in our lives.

00:31:18.140 My older sister, Marion, tragically died of an overdose.

00:31:22.140 And addiction is a cruel and horrific disease.

00:31:29.100 And he's clearly in the throes of it.

00:31:31.580 The desperation in his voice,

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.

00:31:46.240 Yeah.

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

00:32:02.140 are going to do anything about it.

00:32:04.620 That you couldn't trust giving the points or giving the money to dad,

00:32:09.120 that they wouldn't just turn around.

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

00:32:19.200 rather than ensure that he gets in rehab.

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.

00:32:35.940 But it wouldn't be news.

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,

00:33:16.520 but of a question of public corruption.

00:33:20.140 That at the end of the day, this has never been about Hunter Biden.

00:33:23.420 This is about Joe 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.

00:34:02.620 And that obviously would be a massive problem.

00:34:05.600 I know that right at the basic level.

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

00:34:21.300 case.

00:34:21.920 I want you to hear this.

00:34:22.920 This was on MSNBC.

00:34:24.380 Their NBC reporter saying this earlier.

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.

00:34:52.320 There's no hint of that.

00:34:53.200 There's no hint of that.

00:34:55.120 I mean, NBC News looks at you with a straight face and you've seen it.

00:34:59.040 You've seen all the data that's come out.

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.

00:35:14.340 And they say it with a straight face.

00:35:16.100 And I think that's what worries so many Americans is they truly believe, oh, my gosh, they're

00:35:20.660 going to get away with this.

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

00:35:37.860 him with.

00:35:38.180 If they don't, then he's going to basically walk away with a slap on the wrist with the

00:35:41.360 alibi.

00:35:42.280 And I think it's clear his family knew it.

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

00:36:24.560 they're not looking at the corruption.

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

00:36:45.520 take something like Burisma.

00:36:47.580 And every time we talk Burisma, that brings us back to the very beginning of verdict launched

00:36:52.200 on the first day of impeachment.

00:36:53.520 We talked about Burisma a lot.

00:36:55.020 Hunter Biden was given a job at Burisma where they paid him eighty three thousand dollars

00:37:02.040 every single month.

00:37:05.700 Now, what expertise does he have?

00:37:07.380 He doesn't speak Ukrainian.

00:37:09.360 He doesn't know anything about oil and gas.

00:37:12.260 He has no relevant expertise.

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?

00:37:31.020 What are they getting?

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.

00:37:48.120 And I'll tell you one thing to understand.

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

00:38:05.760 that.

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. 0.91

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

00:38:26.480 burden to his entire family.

00:38:28.540 He was a financial burden to his dad.

00:38:30.260 His dad, I am sure, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, trying

00:38:38.560 to take care of his very troubled son.

00:38:41.160 And look, we all respect that you should do what you can to help help your children, especially

00:38:46.540 when they're troubled.

00:38:47.300 But by Burisma, giving Hunter Biden $83,000 a month, what they did is they took that obligation

00:38:56.040 off of Joe Biden's balance sheet.

00:38:57.900 In other words, he didn't have to support Hunter Biden because, lo and behold, the Ukrainians 1.00

00:39:03.400 are doing it for him.

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.

00:39:19.700 Let's be clear.

00:39:20.360 The big guy is not talking about someone who's fat.

00:39:24.480 It's talking about Joe Biden.

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.

00:39:57.400 He's addicted to drugs.

00:39:58.500 OK, yeah, he broke the law, but maybe we'll give him a little compassion here.

00:40:01.880 That's been their game plan the whole time.

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

00:40:14.660 plan for the family.

00:40:16.180 And that was, he may have done something wrong back in the day, but he was an addict, so

00:40:20.500 it's not his fault.

00:40:22.020 And that's always been the alibi, which meant they could exploit him and get even to do more 0.87

00:40:26.700 insane deals.

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.

00:40:55.180 Does any of that happen?

00:40:57.080 Forget his last name, Hunter Biden.

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.

00:41:09.100 Look, I think that's right.

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

00:41:27.460 and indict Donald J. Trump.

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

00:41:38.820 put it out to the world.

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.

00:41:50.180 And and I would be in this category, Senator.

00:41:53.620 You hear this.

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

00:42:36.380 Biden?

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

00:42:51.960 to then convene hearings and those hearings.

00:42:55.880 There has been essentially zero oversight of the Biden administration with Democrats in

00:43:00.800 charge of Congress.

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

00:43:48.140 policies.

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.

00:43:56.260 Those hearings may involve subpoenas.

00:43:58.340 If witnesses refuse to attend, having the majority means you can issue subpoenas and and and use

00:44:04.720 legal compulsion to make witnesses attend.

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?

00:44:13.900 And the answer to that is no.

00:44:16.020 Under our Constitution, we have separation of powers and only the executive can execute the

00:44:22.800 laws.

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

00:44:50.480 a special prosecutor to look at Anthony Fauci.

00:44:53.500 This administration laughs that off.

00:44:55.660 They don't care that they are going to be corrupt and political and they do not care with the

00:45:01.820 majority.

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

00:45:14.140 is the attorney general of the United States.

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.

00:46:09.740 That obviously made Wall Street perk up.

00:46:12.700 But I want you to hear what he had to say about America with oil production.

00:46:17.040 America needs to play a real leadership role.

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.

00:46:29.480 America needs to play a real leadership role.

00:46:32.000 You rarely see CEOs come out in this way.

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

00:47:11.300 to know what's happening?

00:47:12.320 Fine.

00:47:13.040 We'll tell everybody.

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

00:47:32.340 eliminating the refinery sector.

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

00:47:46.840 of these policies.

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,

00:48:00.620 saying, don't blame us for this.

00:48:03.220 You guys have isolated this market.

00:48:05.440 You guys have destroyed this market.

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

00:48:35.920 reasons.

00:48:37.100 California regulators have mandated a unique blend of gasoline that is not readily available

00:48:42.520 outside of the West Coast.

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

00:48:55.860 regulatory requirements in the world.

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

00:49:18.340 Deal radicals in the Biden administration.

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.

00:50:30.140 They're not giving new leases there.

00:50:32.040 They are not granting permits for pipelines.

00:50:34.540 They're not granting permits for refineries.

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.

00:50:47.380 You'd neither have debt or equity.

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.

00:51:07.220 Also, if you have no capital, you can't drill.

00:51:09.800 And so what's happening?

00:51:11.260 The bad guys are getting rich.

00:51:12.640 Russia's getting rich.

00:51:13.700 Iran's getting rich. 0.53

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.

00:51:48.860 They don't care about your kids. 0.99

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.

00:52:00.540 That's for little people to worry about.

00:52:02.540 It doesn't trouble their pretty little heads. 0.98

00:52:05.620 Senator, we're off and running with verdict.

00:52:07.620 As I said earlier, I'm looking really forward to doing this with you three days a week.

00:52:12.280 It's going to be fun for everybody listening.

00:52:14.960 I will say it every time.

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.

00:52:31.860 And Senator, it's going to be a lot of fun.

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.

00:52:49.080 We're going to have a lot of fun.

00:52:50.500 It's going to be a blast.

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.

00:52:56.560 This is an iHeart podcast.

00:52:59.200 Guaranteed human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - October 12, 2022

Shocking Audio Shows Hunter Biden BEGGING For Money From Family, plus Gas Prices Soaring Under Govt. Regulations.

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