Verdict with Ted Cruz - October 04, 2023


Speaker Chaos： What It Means & What's Next, plus Crime Surges as Dem Congressman Gets Car-Jacked


Episode Stats


Length

43 minutes

Words per minute

176.55652

Word count

7,614

Sentence count

622

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged

Toxicity

20

sentences flagged

Hate speech

7

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Ted Cruz and Ben Fergus Ferguson react to the vote to remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House of Representatives and what that means for the future of the Republican majority in the House and what they hope for the remainder of the term.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.420 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.440 Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you, and history was made.
00:00:11.600 Kevin McCarthy becomes the first House Speaker in American history to be voted out of the Speaker's job.
00:00:19.480 The vote, 216 to 210, to vacate the chair.
00:00:24.900 Eight Republicans voted with the Democrats to remove him.
00:00:28.700 Those Republicans, Biggs, Bucks, Burchett, Crane, Gates, Good, Mace, and Rosendale.
00:00:36.100 Senator, this is obviously a day of history.
00:00:38.740 It's somewhat not shocking to me because there's been a lot of this, you know, bickering back and forth since Kevin McCarthy got the job.
00:00:47.520 We saw how long it took him to get the job.
00:00:49.840 Your reaction?
00:00:51.740 Well, it's obviously a big, big deal.
00:00:54.800 And I have to say my sentiments today are conflicted.
00:01:00.500 I think I feel like a lot of Republicans, like a lot of conservatives across the country.
00:01:04.340 I think some of the hyperbolic sentiments on both sides of the spectrum are exactly that.
00:01:10.100 They're hyperbolic.
00:01:10.900 I think some of the folks celebrating and dancing on the graves are too excited about this.
00:01:16.980 I think some of the folks mourning and saying the republic is ending are too much in despair.
00:01:23.300 My reaction is as follows.
00:01:25.360 Number one, as I look at the state of the country, House Republicans are about the only thing to be encouraged by.
00:01:33.540 I mean, we've got a disastrous executive branch led by Joe Biden and other zealots on the left who are doing enormous damage to this country.
00:01:41.840 We've got a Senate that is a train wreck.
00:01:44.660 The Chuck Schumer Democrats are disastrous.
00:01:47.680 And so the lone point of hope and optimism in the elected spheres is the Republican House.
00:01:57.260 And so I have to admit, I am sad to see the Republican House in utter disarray and chaos that that that makes me disappointed when we are fighting each other.
00:02:08.280 That means we're not unified and fighting the bad guys.
00:02:11.420 We're not unified and fighting the people who are destroying this country.
00:02:16.520 At the same time, I'm I'm in the place that a lot of people are.
00:02:20.640 I don't know what comes next.
00:02:21.660 I don't know.
00:02:22.740 It certainly appears, as you and I, it is just before midnight, Tuesday night at this point.
00:02:30.920 I have no idea who the next speaker of the House is going to be.
00:02:33.520 It appears right now it's not going to be Kevin McCarthy.
00:02:35.960 I don't know if it's someone else.
00:02:39.420 What I hope is is whoever the speaker of the House is, is going to be a strong conservative leader.
00:02:45.580 And listen, I my job is to represent 30 million Texans in the Senate.
00:02:50.740 So I'm going to stay out of House leadership elections.
00:02:53.040 I'm going to trust that to the members of the House.
00:02:55.580 I'm not going to put my thumb on any particular candidate on one side or the other.
00:03:00.640 But but I will say whoever the speaker is, I hope we have a speaker that is a strong conservative leader.
00:03:07.220 And looking forward, what should we be doing for the remaining three months of 2023 and for next year?
00:03:15.220 I think we ought to be fighting for bold conservative principles.
00:03:19.280 We ought to be taking on the Democrats.
00:03:20.960 We ought to be on the offense.
00:03:22.320 We ought to be on the aggressive.
00:03:23.900 We ought to be prosecuting the case that the Biden agenda is a train wreck, that it's not working, that it's hurting millions of Americans and that there is a better alternative.
00:03:33.160 Now, listen, I've been arguing for over a year that the House Republicans should be more aggressive than they have been.
00:03:42.320 So, for example, I believe we should have impeached Alejandro Mayorkas.
00:03:46.560 I think we should have done so by now.
00:03:49.080 We've talked a lot on this podcast about the utter disaster that our southern border has been.
00:03:54.160 I think it's a mistake that the House has not impeached Mayorkas yet. 0.85
00:03:58.200 That should be an early and top priority of whoever the next speaker is.
00:04:03.160 I think we should have impeached Merrick Garland.
00:04:06.220 I think the absolute lawlessness and politicization of the Department of Justice and the FBI merits impeachment.
00:04:13.160 And my hope is whoever the next speaker is makes those one and two very early on their priority list.
00:04:22.300 I think those are issues that unify Republicans, they unify conservatives, they unify a lot of Americans who don't want lawless chaos and death and sexual assault and drug overdoses and disaster on our southern border.
00:04:36.240 I think they unify people who don't want to see law enforcement turned into a political weapon.
00:04:41.220 I think being on offense is a winning place to be.
00:04:44.760 And beyond that, when it comes to spending, I hope that the House is passing appropriations bills that rein in the out-of-control spending from the Democrats that are causing rampant inflation that's hurting Americans across the country.
00:05:01.240 I think the key to winning is to have bold, optimistic, positive, conservative leadership.
00:05:09.680 And I believe that good policy is good politics.
00:05:12.800 So whoever the next speaker is, I hope that's what we do.
00:05:15.140 There's also the politics of picking the next guy.
00:05:19.040 And there's a lot of people saying, I don't know if I'd want this job right now if there's this type of fighting.
00:05:24.400 There's been several members that I talked to that said there's ideas of picking someone that could be a unifier just to say, hey, I'm not going to run again.
00:05:33.940 But as a unifier to finish out the term, Steve Scalise's name, for example, has been brought up in that capacity of saying, hey, this may be a person that could bring us together.
00:05:44.380 There's someone that's saying, I'm not I don't have the intent to be the speaker after this finishing this term.
00:05:50.160 You guys can pick somebody else afterwards, but let's come back together.
00:05:53.360 Is that a strategy that Republicans should at least look at?
00:05:57.560 Look, the idea that we should have a speaker that's a placeholder, I don't find that very persuasive.
00:06:02.520 We have a majority. Let's have a leader who actually leads.
00:06:05.780 Now, I'm not saying the job is easy.
00:06:08.580 The job is unbelievably hard, particularly when you have such a narrow majority.
00:06:13.860 You have a four vote majority.
00:06:15.440 That means any five Republicans get a wild hair and you can have a revolt on your hand.
00:06:21.600 And the problem is you can have it from the right, from the left, from the middle.
00:06:24.360 You can have it parochially. You can have it geographically.
00:06:26.600 You can have it on any damn basis. 0.98
00:06:28.380 Because it is, I've joked, I'm not sure there are many people I dislike enough to wish that they would be Speaker of the House. 0.98
00:06:35.900 It is an insanely difficult job.
00:06:38.900 Yeah, that's a great way of putting it, by the way.
00:06:40.740 It's like you wouldn't wish this on your worst enemy, in a sense.
00:06:44.100 And it's also very different when you're a Republican.
00:06:47.680 So listen, Nancy Pelosi was the speaker on an incredibly narrow Democrat majority.
00:06:52.140 But Democrats and Republicans are different in many respects.
00:06:55.820 But in Congress, one of the biggest respects is Democrats follow orders.
00:07:00.680 They are collectivists. They are statists.
00:07:02.660 They are good with authority.
00:07:04.620 Whatever the authority says, they crack the whip and every one of them obeys.
00:07:08.940 And like lemmings, they march off the cliff. 1.00
00:07:11.340 That's what Democrats do. 1.00
00:07:12.540 That's a strength of theirs. That's a weakness of theirs.
00:07:15.000 On the Republican side, we're a bunch of individualists.
00:07:18.080 In the Senate, we've got 49 Republicans.
00:07:20.240 If we've got 49 Republicans, we have 55 different agendas.
00:07:23.580 Like, it is incoherent.
00:07:26.460 We're at each other's throats.
00:07:28.140 And part of the challenge with the leadership battle in the House
00:07:31.520 is it's not clear what the demand of the conference is.
00:07:35.960 So look, we had a battle.
00:07:37.440 We came inches from a shutdown.
00:07:39.800 And one of the challenges was knowing,
00:07:42.760 okay, what is the demand of House Republicans
00:07:47.840 to prevent a shutdown, to actually fund government?
00:07:51.980 And if there was a clearly articulated, explicit demand,
00:07:55.620 I don't know what it was.
00:07:56.660 The demands fell roughly into two broad buckets.
00:08:00.960 One was some modicum of fiscal restraint.
00:08:04.800 And look, you and I believe passionately in that.
00:08:06.840 We've seen the most wildly irresponsible federal government spending in history
00:08:11.540 in the last two and a half years under Democrat control.
00:08:15.120 It's driving rampant inflation.
00:08:17.940 It's hurting millions of Americans.
00:08:19.460 And so reigning in,
00:08:20.920 we've seen a 40% increase in discretionary spending
00:08:23.700 in the last three years.
00:08:25.360 COVID was an excuse for the socialist to bankrupt this country.
00:08:29.620 And so the principle of let's have some reasonable modicum of fiscal restraint,
00:08:34.280 that's a good principle.
00:08:35.800 The second broad bucket was doing something significant,
00:08:40.300 meaningful to rein in the utter chaos and disaster of southern border.
00:08:44.680 Now, I agree emphatically with that.
00:08:46.440 It's the worst illegal immigration in our nation's history. 1.00
00:08:48.820 That's a good objective.
00:08:50.180 The problem was after articulating those two broad buckets,
00:08:56.000 what the specific ask is,
00:08:58.520 if you can articulate it, Ben,
00:09:01.080 you're playing closer attention than I am,
00:09:03.960 because I don't know.
00:09:06.240 And it's because you had lots of agendas that were all over the place.
00:09:09.760 Now, I will say,
00:09:10.900 there were some leaders in the House,
00:09:13.700 and I'm going to give a shout out to Chip Roy in particular.
00:09:15.980 As you know, Chip was my old chief of staff.
00:09:18.680 He was my very first chief of staff.
00:09:20.180 He's now a congressman from Texas.
00:09:21.620 I think Chip has done an excellent job trying to fight for,
00:09:26.880 he was fighting for a continuing resolution that was a significant cut in discretionary spending,
00:09:32.260 that had significant steps to rein in the southern border.
00:09:35.540 And unfortunately,
00:09:36.180 they couldn't get a majority of Republicans to support it.
00:09:39.240 Which is, by the way,
00:09:40.240 that was maddening.
00:09:41.980 It was insane.
00:09:43.440 It made no sense.
00:09:45.460 I was proud of the job Chip did.
00:09:49.140 I think we need to have a clear and real vision for Republicans and conservatives in the House.
00:09:56.940 Maybe it will come out of this.
00:09:58.300 So I'm not as despondent as some.
00:10:00.440 You see some voices on TV saying,
00:10:03.560 burn them all down.
00:10:04.620 Everyone who dared oppose McCarthy needs to be, 0.95
00:10:08.120 you know,
00:10:09.320 excommunicated and we need to salt their fields. 0.83
00:10:11.860 I'm like, easy does it, guys.
00:10:13.200 We don't have a big enough majority to be salting anyone's fields.
00:10:16.900 Let's actually focus on what matters,
00:10:19.580 which is saving this country.
00:10:21.360 And I hope that's what's next.
00:10:22.960 I don't know if it is,
00:10:23.880 but I hope it is.
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00:11:48.760 Let me ask you another just perspective question.
00:11:52.760 There does seem to be a frustration and I,
00:11:56.060 I'm in New York today and I'm up here and I'm,
00:12:00.700 you know,
00:12:01.140 I always knew you were a secret lefty.
00:12:03.220 Look at you.
00:12:03.620 That's right.
00:12:03.760 That's right.
00:12:04.360 That's right.
00:12:05.520 Yeah,
00:12:05.820 exactly.
00:12:06.340 Exactly.
00:12:06.580 Hanging in Manhattan,
00:12:07.600 but up here doing TV.
00:12:09.380 All right.
00:12:09.540 All right.
00:12:09.840 Ben,
00:12:10.300 did you mug anyone today?
00:12:11.740 No,
00:12:11.960 I did not.
00:12:12.460 And I made sure that I had,
00:12:13.720 I stayed away from all the crazies.
00:12:15.220 I walked from Fox news back to my hotel,
00:12:17.660 back to Fox news,
00:12:18.640 back to my hotel.
00:12:19.420 I'm like,
00:12:19.640 I'm not,
00:12:20.180 I'm not,
00:12:20.360 I'm not putting up to these people.
00:12:21.460 When in Rome,
00:12:22.280 apparently that's what you got to do in New York city.
00:12:24.340 Yeah.
00:12:24.860 That's just part of like the life here,
00:12:26.460 right?
00:12:26.660 You just randomly mug people.
00:12:28.000 But,
00:12:28.220 but you did at least spray some graffiti on the subway.
00:12:30.640 I assume.
00:12:30.980 Well,
00:12:31.180 I mean,
00:12:31.380 I did,
00:12:31.660 I mean,
00:12:31.780 you gotta do a little bit.
00:12:32.600 I did verdict,
00:12:33.900 right?
00:12:34.100 Just so people would know where to download it.
00:12:35.720 That's all.
00:12:36.220 And no big deal.
00:12:36.840 It's just an ad sign,
00:12:37.720 but,
00:12:38.480 but I was here and there was people that were asking,
00:12:41.020 and it was the same conversation within Fox.
00:12:43.580 And it's interesting when there's big news days to kind of see how people
00:12:45.880 react to it.
00:12:46.960 And we were in the green room.
00:12:48.140 We're chatting about this and there's several other people and I'll keep
00:12:51.060 them rename nameless,
00:12:51.920 but there was a,
00:12:53.020 there was a consensus of why is it that Democrats do such a great job of
00:12:57.600 arguing and fighting and yelling on the house side behind closed doors.
00:13:01.340 And they come out more united.
00:13:02.540 And then it seems like Republicans are having a lot of out of fighting
00:13:05.980 outside of the,
00:13:08.400 of the,
00:13:08.780 of the closed door meetings in the chambers and,
00:13:11.320 and on social media and on Twitter.
00:13:12.660 I mean,
00:13:12.800 you had an example,
00:13:13.560 you had a bring it on tweet from Kevin McCarthy.
00:13:16.120 And then you had,
00:13:17.160 we did,
00:13:17.700 or I did from Matt Gaetz in response,
00:13:19.960 like,
00:13:20.260 okay,
00:13:20.560 let's go.
00:13:21.340 You don't see that from Democrats.
00:13:22.940 And I ask you from a perspective on the Senate side,
00:13:25.640 the Senate seems to work in a very different way where there's people that
00:13:29.860 disagree.
00:13:30.700 You deal with it all the time.
00:13:32.540 But it doesn't seem to play out the same way that it does on the house side.
00:13:36.360 And I think that can actually hurt us as conservatives.
00:13:40.300 You,
00:13:40.500 and I want your perspective because you're there every day.
00:13:43.460 Look,
00:13:44.260 there are differing times.
00:13:46.340 There's no doubt that the house and the Senate are very different bodies.
00:13:49.620 You know,
00:13:49.800 there's an old joke from house Republicans,
00:13:52.180 which,
00:13:52.780 which is that the Democrats are our opponents,
00:13:55.820 but the Senate is the enemy.
00:13:59.320 There's some truth to that.
00:14:00.560 I get that.
00:14:01.220 There is a bicameral tension that is real.
00:14:06.780 The house is more chaotic.
00:14:08.860 It is less unified.
00:14:09.980 It is all over the place.
00:14:10.940 It's 435 people.
00:14:12.440 And so,
00:14:13.080 and,
00:14:13.200 and often the people have not been there very long.
00:14:15.300 You have people from all disparate walks of life.
00:14:17.520 And,
00:14:18.060 and,
00:14:18.180 and there's an ethos where they're nasty to it,
00:14:20.740 nastier to each other.
00:14:21.780 My sense,
00:14:22.380 and I've never served in the house,
00:14:23.460 but my sense is that they literally like in the hallways,
00:14:26.980 we'll say F you to each other in the Senate.
00:14:30.040 That doesn't happen.
00:14:30.900 The Senate is number one.
00:14:32.380 It's just an older body.
00:14:34.140 Listen,
00:14:34.620 I'm,
00:14:34.860 I'm 52 years old and I'm like a young chickadee in the Senate.
00:14:39.280 I've joked,
00:14:40.100 if you ever want to feel young,
00:14:41.420 go to the U S Senate.
00:14:42.640 The median age is like 142.
00:14:44.520 You'll,
00:14:44.760 you'll feel sprightly.
00:14:46.700 Yeah.
00:14:47.160 Um,
00:14:47.820 I mean,
00:14:48.420 there's some truth to that,
00:14:49.540 but there's also just a sense people are there longer.
00:14:52.680 Uh,
00:14:53.160 it's a smaller body.
00:14:54.480 There are only a hundred of us and,
00:14:56.180 and whoever you're fighting today,
00:14:57.920 you may need their vote tomorrow.
00:14:59.840 And so,
00:15:00.960 you know,
00:15:01.640 even the most partisan Democrats are not typically nasty to you just one-on-one
00:15:09.840 because the institution,
00:15:11.020 you have to work with each other going forward.
00:15:13.500 Um,
00:15:14.840 the challenge right now in the house is among the multiple,
00:15:20.860 multiple rebels,
00:15:22.360 there's no natural and uniform and consensus leader.
00:15:29.180 Listen,
00:15:29.740 and in the Senate we had a leadership challenge in November and I was the
00:15:33.540 point of the spear on the leadership challenge in November of last year.
00:15:36.880 We had the first leadership challenge in 16 years to Mitch McConnell as
00:15:40.760 leader.
00:15:41.380 And you got it.
00:15:42.120 You got to go back to your speech because you're going to forget this.
00:15:44.660 And it was,
00:15:45.340 I remember how,
00:15:46.820 and people may have missed this on verdict when you stood up talking about
00:15:51.020 how important it was to pick the right leader.
00:15:52.560 Can you go back to that day?
00:15:53.820 Because this is part of that fighting and,
00:15:56.140 and the grand debate is I would call it behind closed doors.
00:15:59.740 Well,
00:16:01.820 sure.
00:16:02.320 If you look to November of 2022,
00:16:06.400 we had the first leadership challenge to Mitch McConnell in,
00:16:10.920 in history.
00:16:11.580 He's been leader of Republicans for 16 years.
00:16:14.600 It'd never been a leadership challenge.
00:16:16.080 We had that in November,
00:16:17.660 2022.
00:16:18.400 I was the point of the spear.
00:16:19.340 I led that challenge and,
00:16:20.680 and the way Republican leadership challenges work and,
00:16:24.340 and Republican leadership elections work,
00:16:27.060 they happen the week after the general election.
00:16:31.120 So the general election happened and immediately the next week,
00:16:34.100 the very first thing that happens,
00:16:35.820 we have leadership elections.
00:16:36.840 Now there's a reason for that.
00:16:38.180 You have all these brand new baby freshman senators.
00:16:41.320 They come to Washington and,
00:16:43.400 and they don't know what they're doing.
00:16:45.380 They're put in little bitty basement offices before they moved into their real
00:16:49.020 offices.
00:16:50.100 They have no idea what's going on.
00:16:52.600 And,
00:16:52.620 and leadership schedules the election so fast because they don't want any
00:16:56.400 freshmen to get any uppity ideas and decide to challenge any of the
00:16:59.340 leadership.
00:16:59.600 They want them to shut up and vote before they figured out where the men's 1.00
00:17:02.460 room is.
00:17:03.260 So the very,
00:17:04.680 the week after the election,
00:17:05.760 you come together to vote.
00:17:06.700 I remember in 2012,
00:17:07.780 I was newly elected.
00:17:08.960 I show up and I'm like,
00:17:10.020 wow,
00:17:10.300 okay,
00:17:10.520 a Senate leadership election.
00:17:11.600 This is kind of cool.
00:17:12.320 This is going to be interesting.
00:17:13.260 We're going to see debates about what should we as Senate Republicans be
00:17:17.100 doing?
00:17:17.420 What's our agenda?
00:17:18.240 What's our vision?
00:17:19.000 What's our plan?
00:17:19.780 I was really looking forward to it.
00:17:21.580 I got to admit,
00:17:22.320 Ben,
00:17:22.440 I was flabbergasted.
00:17:23.440 I sat down.
00:17:24.440 So the leadership election is always held in the historic Senate chamber.
00:17:28.620 So that's,
00:17:29.340 that's where the Senate used to meet for a hundred years in the Capitol.
00:17:32.260 It's a much smaller billing room,
00:17:34.440 the Senate floor.
00:17:35.680 And,
00:17:36.140 and it's where we go for our leadership elections.
00:17:38.660 And,
00:17:39.040 and,
00:17:39.440 you know,
00:17:40.320 I expected each of the candidates for leadership to stand up and give a
00:17:43.920 speech and say,
00:17:44.520 here's what I want to do.
00:17:45.400 If you elect me,
00:17:46.380 that doesn't happen.
00:17:47.600 I mean,
00:17:47.860 think back to when you and I were in junior high,
00:17:50.700 someone was running for president of the student council in junior high.
00:17:54.560 They'd stand up and say,
00:17:55.620 okay,
00:17:55.980 elect me president of the student council.
00:17:58.120 And I'm going to get chocolate ice cream in the cafeteria.
00:18:00.980 And the students say,
00:18:01.720 Hey,
00:18:01.880 I want chocolate ice cream in the cafeteria.
00:18:03.440 Okay.
00:18:03.560 I'm going to vote for Ben.
00:18:04.360 Great.
00:18:05.460 None of that happens.
00:18:07.300 Instead,
00:18:07.860 the way a Senate leadership election works is you have three or four
00:18:11.680 senators stand up and give nominating speeches,
00:18:14.760 praising the incumbent leadership.
00:18:16.520 And I just,
00:18:17.260 I mean,
00:18:17.580 we're talking effusive, 0.99
00:18:20.280 ass kissing, 0.99
00:18:21.840 puffing, 0.97
00:18:23.760 empty speeches about how amazing the existing leaders are.
00:18:27.620 One after the other,
00:18:28.560 after the other.
00:18:29.340 And then leadership gets elected by acclimation.
00:18:33.520 And the leader gets up and says,
00:18:34.980 thank you very much.
00:18:35.720 All right,
00:18:35.900 moving forward.
00:18:36.500 And there's no,
00:18:37.200 there's not a word of like what we're going to do,
00:18:39.240 what we believe,
00:18:40.000 what we're like,
00:18:40.520 what the plan is.
00:18:41.240 None of that happens.
00:18:41.920 I remember the first time I was sitting there,
00:18:42.960 I'm going,
00:18:43.320 this is weird.
00:18:45.480 All right,
00:18:45.880 well,
00:18:46.000 let's fast forward to 2022.
00:18:48.300 We have the leadership elections.
00:18:51.040 And the very first salvo in the battle is,
00:18:55.020 is I made a motion to delay the elections a month,
00:18:59.320 to delay them until after the Georgia runoff.
00:19:02.660 So you remember there was a runoff for who was going to be the next
00:19:04.720 Senator from Georgia.
00:19:05.960 You and I were there in Georgia with Hershel.
00:19:07.600 We had no idea what was going to happen.
00:19:09.580 Yeah.
00:19:10.020 Well,
00:19:10.480 I stood up and I said two things to my colleagues.
00:19:13.080 I said,
00:19:13.400 number one,
00:19:14.420 listen,
00:19:14.780 if Hershel Walker wins,
00:19:17.000 he deserves a say in who our leader is.
00:19:18.980 If he's going to be one of the senators,
00:19:20.320 he deserves to have input in this.
00:19:21.980 So we ought to wait until December 6th,
00:19:24.460 until we know who the next Senator from Georgia is going to be.
00:19:27.700 But I said,
00:19:28.460 secondly, 1.00
00:19:28.840 we just came out of an election in 2022 where we got our ass kicked. 0.99
00:19:34.480 And I said, 0.99
00:19:35.340 listen,
00:19:35.880 given the absolute disaster that is the Biden administration,
00:19:39.740 the Biden agenda,
00:19:41.920 the Biden record,
00:19:43.700 we should have had a phenomenal election.
00:19:46.900 We should have won the Senate.
00:19:48.420 We should have won a big,
00:19:49.760 big majority in the House.
00:19:51.140 We should be resurgent right now.
00:19:53.840 Instead,
00:19:54.480 we lost the Senate.
00:19:55.740 In fact,
00:19:56.040 we lost ground.
00:19:56.920 We ended up losing a seat in the Senate.
00:19:58.240 And we won a tiny,
00:20:00.700 minuscule four vote majority in the House.
00:20:03.680 And what I said to the conference,
00:20:06.360 I said,
00:20:06.800 listen,
00:20:07.120 in any ordinary organization,
00:20:09.020 in any company in America,
00:20:10.680 if I'm working for a private company and I'm in charge of a division and I lost a hundred million dollars,
00:20:16.580 my boss wouldn't be like,
00:20:17.980 hey,
00:20:18.140 great,
00:20:18.480 great job,
00:20:19.080 Ted,
00:20:19.300 keep doing what you're doing.
00:20:20.360 They'd be like,
00:20:20.820 no,
00:20:21.180 what the hell's wrong? 0.81
00:20:22.840 Let's talk about what you screwed up and let's go fix it.
00:20:25.260 Cause it's not okay to lose a hundred million dollars.
00:20:27.680 Well,
00:20:28.100 we just got clobbered in the last election.
00:20:30.460 I said,
00:20:30.820 we ought to spend the next month talking about and debating what we did right and what we did wrong.
00:20:36.380 And I pointed out further,
00:20:37.440 I said,
00:20:37.780 listen,
00:20:38.320 we just spent the last two years,
00:20:40.860 2021 and 2022 with a handful of Republicans joining with the Democrats to pass the Democrat agenda.
00:20:49.760 I said,
00:20:50.200 listen,
00:20:50.500 maybe that's a good idea.
00:20:51.480 I don't think it is,
00:20:52.540 but,
00:20:52.740 but maybe you could argue it's a good idea,
00:20:54.520 but I can say at a minimum,
00:20:56.560 what is indisputable is the Democrats don't do this.
00:21:01.560 We had two years with a Republican president,
00:21:05.320 Donald Trump and a Republican house and a Republican Senate.
00:21:07.620 And there was not a single bill,
00:21:09.640 not one that the Democrats joined with the Republicans to pass the Republican agenda.
00:21:14.500 So they never,
00:21:15.500 ever,
00:21:15.660 ever do it.
00:21:16.280 And we spent two years doing it.
00:21:18.200 Now,
00:21:18.680 it seems to me that was a really bad electoral strategy,
00:21:21.320 but we ought to discuss that.
00:21:22.440 And if you disagree,
00:21:23.580 let's talk about it.
00:21:25.260 And then when I did secondly,
00:21:26.700 I mean,
00:21:26.900 my speech was,
00:21:27.960 was 45 minutes long,
00:21:29.340 right at the outset.
00:21:30.520 What I did secondly,
00:21:31.720 is I turned to Mitch McConnell in,
00:21:33.300 in the historic Senate chamber.
00:21:34.520 And I said,
00:21:35.040 Mitch,
00:21:35.300 over the next two years,
00:21:38.420 what are you prepared to fight on?
00:21:43.420 Is there anything you're prepared to fight on?
00:21:46.760 I said,
00:21:47.020 listen,
00:21:47.240 there are a lot of things I think we ought to stand up and fight.
00:21:49.460 I think the biggest reason we got clobbered is we didn't stand and fight nearly enough.
00:21:54.180 We didn't stand for anything.
00:21:55.560 And,
00:21:55.940 and that's why we didn't win.
00:21:57.320 But I said,
00:21:58.060 you tell us there may be a dozen things I think we should fight on.
00:22:02.480 Maybe you disagree with me.
00:22:03.600 You don't think we should fight on a dozen things,
00:22:05.200 but is there one over the next two years?
00:22:07.220 Or is the position of Republican leadership?
00:22:09.940 We will surrender.
00:22:10.980 We will roll over.
00:22:11.920 We will grab our ankles on everything.
00:22:13.820 If that's your position.
00:22:15.440 Okay.
00:22:16.600 But let's be honest about it.
00:22:18.760 All right.
00:22:19.680 The end of my 45 minute speech,
00:22:22.700 Mitch McConnell stands up and he gives a speech to the conference.
00:22:27.640 He doesn't address a single question I've asked.
00:22:30.040 He doesn't say anything he's willing to fight on.
00:22:33.880 Instead,
00:22:34.680 he points at a series of senators and he goes,
00:22:36.900 Oh,
00:22:38.060 I gave 20 million to your campaign.
00:22:42.520 I gave 25 million to your campaign.
00:22:47.020 I gave 30 million to your campaign.
00:22:50.520 I gave 35 million to your campaign.
00:22:54.580 That was his whole speech.
00:22:56.520 It was essentially shut up.
00:22:58.820 I spent the money.
00:23:02.660 Now you vote for me.
00:23:04.400 That was the leadership election.
00:23:06.300 We ended up voting.
00:23:08.120 I needed 25 votes to prevail.
00:23:10.460 There were 49 of us.
00:23:11.760 So 25 would win.
00:23:13.360 I got 16.
00:23:15.060 So I fell nine short.
00:23:17.880 Now on one,
00:23:18.420 on one level,
00:23:19.260 that's frustrating.
00:23:20.460 Yeah.
00:23:21.100 On another level,
00:23:22.200 those are the first 16 votes ever cast against Mitch.
00:23:25.360 After that,
00:23:27.100 Rick Scott,
00:23:27.820 my colleague from Florida,
00:23:29.120 ran for leader against Mitch.
00:23:30.740 I voted for Rick.
00:23:32.400 Rick got 10 votes.
00:23:33.740 So 10 votes.
00:23:34.680 Again,
00:23:34.900 those were the first 10 votes cast against Mitch.
00:23:36.920 But the high water mark were the 16 that voted in favor of my motion to delay the leadership election.
00:23:42.760 That's frustrating at one level,
00:23:45.000 but it is also signs that people are recognizing we need to change what we're doing.
00:23:50.780 And I hear that across Texas all the time.
00:23:53.640 I'm not saying we need to burn the place to the ground.
00:23:56.520 I'm saying we need positive,
00:23:59.160 organized,
00:23:59.780 coherent,
00:24:00.520 serious conservative leadership with real objectives,
00:24:03.900 real victories,
00:24:04.760 and a vision that is clearly articulated to the American people.
00:24:08.600 I think that's what a lot of House Republicans are feeling right now.
00:24:11.920 And I think that's what conservatives across the country are feeling.
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00:26:16.260 One more question on this,
00:26:19.440 and that is timing now.
00:26:21.100 How quick should Republicans move to pick the new speaker?
00:26:26.440 The longer this drags out,
00:26:28.200 I think the worse it is.
00:26:29.380 I think it's a bad news cycle.
00:26:30.700 I mean,
00:26:30.840 hell,
00:26:31.540 you know,
00:26:31.980 I still,
00:26:33.540 the timing,
00:26:34.160 and this is just me as a,
00:26:35.740 as a media guy,
00:26:37.220 I was yelling at the TV today when this happened,
00:26:39.380 going,
00:26:39.800 you're making history,
00:26:40.740 getting rid of the speaker for the first time in history of this country.
00:26:43.460 And you couldn't have waited maybe one or two more days.
00:26:46.080 And at least had the media and the coverage beyond Hunter Biden being in federal court today,
00:26:51.560 but you gave them an out and we didn't have to cover that story.
00:26:54.900 He was in federal court today and that just got disappeared.
00:26:57.760 You're going through an impeachment inquiry.
00:26:59.780 I don't know what,
00:27:00.280 what ramifications this may have on that,
00:27:02.300 but how quick should the Republicans move to,
00:27:05.520 to,
00:27:05.800 to fill this spot?
00:27:07.700 Well,
00:27:08.280 listen,
00:27:08.660 the timing was driven by the individual who made the motion to vacate.
00:27:13.420 And,
00:27:13.860 and so if there was a systematic strategy behind it,
00:27:20.580 I'm not aware of it.
00:27:22.920 That's part of the challenge is,
00:27:24.740 is that you don't have a clear,
00:27:28.040 consistent demand that leads to a victory.
00:27:31.360 Um,
00:27:32.500 we'll see what happens.
00:27:33.520 I hope that we do.
00:27:34.580 That's a hard thing to get in part because very few house members will defer to each other.
00:27:39.920 And so you've got lots of people putting out lots of ideas that are all out there in the cacophony.
00:27:46.340 Um,
00:27:46.840 I don't know how long the house will take.
00:27:48.800 And,
00:27:48.920 and listen,
00:27:49.380 I've never served in the house.
00:27:51.080 Um,
00:27:51.520 I'm,
00:27:51.820 I'm not remotely an expert on house procedure.
00:27:53.880 I think they will have a battle there.
00:27:55.580 They're different people right now that seem to be putting themselves forward to be potential speakers.
00:28:01.220 I'm seeing coverage on the news that Steve Scalise is making a run at it.
00:28:05.740 I don't know if that's true.
00:28:06.600 That's at least what was reported on Fox.
00:28:08.960 Um,
00:28:09.520 I was on Hannity tonight.
00:28:11.380 Uh,
00:28:11.800 Jim Jordan was on right before me.
00:28:13.580 It sure seemed like Sean Hannity was trying to talk Jim Jordan into doing it.
00:28:17.800 Jim was noncommittal.
00:28:19.240 He said,
00:28:19.880 that's going to be up for the conference to decide.
00:28:21.740 I don't know if somebody else will be in the mix.
00:28:23.300 I have no idea.
00:28:25.100 I will stay out of it.
00:28:26.840 That's a decision for house Republicans to decide.
00:28:29.860 What I hope is whoever the speaker is.
00:28:32.260 And I don't know if they go back to,
00:28:33.340 to,
00:28:33.600 to Kevin McCarthy again,
00:28:34.720 that,
00:28:35.600 you know,
00:28:35.920 we had what 432 votes for,
00:28:38.760 for Kevin back at the beginning of this conference.
00:28:40.880 So maybe Kevin comes back.
00:28:43.100 That's possible too.
00:28:45.520 Whoever the speaker is,
00:28:47.400 I hope we have a clear,
00:28:51.240 positive conservative vision.
00:28:52.940 And I do think we would be better off,
00:28:56.000 as I mentioned at the outset of this pod,
00:28:58.540 if house Republicans had started off by impeaching Alejandro Mayorkas,
00:29:02.780 the results today might've been different.
00:29:06.600 If we were in the midst of impeaching Merrick Garland,
00:29:10.740 the results might've been different.
00:29:13.320 I do think the combination of number one,
00:29:16.820 the debt ceiling fight where,
00:29:18.340 where conservatives did not get much of anything.
00:29:21.980 And then a clean CR.
00:29:23.740 I do think there was a frustration that was manifested in votes.
00:29:27.720 And,
00:29:27.980 and so I think the way you win elections is by having serious principled fights
00:29:35.900 that matter.
00:29:36.740 It's not easy to do in the house.
00:29:38.220 So I'm not,
00:29:38.900 I'm not diminishing how difficult it is,
00:29:41.600 but I think that's the path to victory.
00:29:43.620 I want to move to something else that obviously got pushed back in the headlines,
00:29:47.020 but it still is important.
00:29:48.520 The crime wave that we're seeing is not just sweeping the nation,
00:29:52.400 but now it's affecting democratic leaders and leaders in the liberal,
00:29:57.660 liberal movement.
00:29:58.580 Like we haven't seen before.
00:30:00.040 And it's happening way more often.
00:30:01.360 I'll give you an example.
00:30:02.680 You have a democratic representative,
00:30:04.180 Henry Queller,
00:30:05.920 who was carjacked at gunpoint in DC.
00:30:09.600 This comes as in just the past,
00:30:11.960 well,
00:30:12.180 it was in a 24 hour period. 0.92
00:30:14.100 You had a liberal gay reporter that was shot and killed in his home in Philly. 0.64
00:30:18.660 You had a far left activist that was stabbed to death by a deranged stranger in Brooklyn, 0.92
00:30:24.460 in front of his girlfriend.
00:30:25.480 You had this democratic congressman who was carjacked at gunpoint in DC by four,
00:30:30.040 African-American men.
00:30:31.700 And yet we have Democrats who have a soft on crime policies that aren't just hurting
00:30:38.180 their neighborhoods that I mentioned,
00:30:39.940 these different spots,
00:30:40.620 but it's hurting people in Texas as well.
00:30:42.820 And almost every house Democrat voted against the Republican efforts to stop the DC week on crime
00:30:50.780 bill,
00:30:51.140 which specifically would have reduced carjacking penalties.
00:30:56.240 This is something that the Democrats,
00:30:58.340 I mean,
00:31:00.120 they voted for us.
00:31:00.820 Aldrich,
00:31:01.180 for example,
00:31:01.940 voted with the Dems on this one.
00:31:03.580 It's shocking to me.
00:31:05.400 Well,
00:31:05.980 listen,
00:31:06.360 crime is out of control in this country,
00:31:07.860 and it's an issue that has people understandably very concerned.
00:31:11.680 I watched tonight the video of the liberal activist in New York at four in the morning being stabbed to death on the streets of New York by a guy that certainly appears deranged.
00:31:23.420 It was horrific to watch.
00:31:53.400 I asked before about four bridges from Texas to Mexico that Henry and I teamed up in and won big legislative victories to build new bridges to Mexico for legal commerce to expand bridges.
00:32:05.040 Henry,
00:32:05.560 as I said,
00:32:06.040 is by far the most conservative of the Texas Democrats.
00:32:08.940 Well,
00:32:09.580 in the last couple of days,
00:32:10.980 Henry was coming to his apartment in D.C.
00:32:13.880 It was 930 at night,
00:32:15.360 and he was getting out of his car,
00:32:16.500 and he was carjacked.
00:32:17.200 He was carjacked by four individuals.
00:32:18.860 They put a gun in his face.
00:32:19.980 They stole the car.
00:32:21.540 They stole his luggage.
00:32:23.580 Presumably,
00:32:23.940 I haven't spoken to Henry since it happened,
00:32:25.840 but you have to assume that with a gun in his face,
00:32:28.420 he was afraid for his life.
00:32:30.100 I mean,
00:32:30.320 that is frightening.
00:32:31.380 My understanding is Henry lives at an apartment building where there are multiple members of Congress who live there.
00:32:38.640 There are apparently multiple members of congressional leadership who live there,
00:32:42.860 which means there are a lot of Capitol Police around there,
00:32:45.020 and at 930 at night,
00:32:46.880 he was carjacked on the streets of D.C.,
00:32:49.740 and then that reflects the crime wave that is sweeping this country.
00:32:53.840 Now,
00:32:54.860 the D.C. City Council,
00:32:57.240 which is populated by left-wing Democrats,
00:33:00.320 they voted to lower the penalties for violent crimes,
00:33:03.540 including carjackings in particular.
00:33:06.560 They voted to lower the sentence from 21 years to seven years,
00:33:13.800 and they voted to lower the sentence from 40 years, if armed, to 15 years,
00:33:19.220 and under the revised code,
00:33:22.400 carjacking is now divided into three gradations,
00:33:25.240 dependent on severity,
00:33:26.760 with the lowest penalties for an unarmed offense
00:33:29.540 ranging from four to 18 years,
00:33:32.400 and the highest penalties from an armed offense
00:33:34.480 ranging from 12 to 24 years.
00:33:37.820 Now,
00:33:38.060 in the Congress,
00:33:38.800 thankfully,
00:33:39.280 the Congress has the ability
00:33:40.480 to rescind any legislation in the District of Columbia,
00:33:44.000 and the reason for that is the Constitution
00:33:45.780 gives Congress total authority over D.C.,
00:33:49.360 unlike a state.
00:33:50.160 We can't rescind laws in Texas or any other state,
00:33:52.880 but D.C. is a federal district,
00:33:54.840 and Congress has plenary authority over it,
00:33:57.300 and so in Congress,
00:33:58.260 we voted to rescind these softened crime laws
00:34:00.900 that lessen the penalties for violent crimes,
00:34:03.260 and the results are horrific
00:34:07.160 as we're seeing carjacking,
00:34:09.420 murders,
00:34:10.020 crime rates skyrocketing in D.C.
00:34:12.360 and all across the country.
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00:35:26.320 You can also text the word BEN
00:35:28.560 to 68592
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00:35:38.660 or AugustaPreciousMetals.com.
00:35:41.380 You also have the White House
00:35:43.440 who was asked about part of this,
00:35:45.480 and I want to play that for everybody.
00:35:47.220 Take a listen.
00:35:48.340 If a member of Congress
00:35:49.520 is not safe
00:35:50.960 on the streets of the nation's capital,
00:35:53.220 who is?
00:35:54.880 Look,
00:35:55.760 we're grateful and relieved
00:35:57.420 that the congressman is unharmed.
00:36:00.040 We understand
00:36:00.720 what communities are going through
00:36:02.280 across the country,
00:36:03.500 not just in D.C.
00:36:05.000 That's why the president
00:36:05.920 took action
00:36:06.560 very early on
00:36:07.480 in his administration
00:36:08.260 to get the American Rescue Plan done
00:36:10.580 without the help of Republicans.
00:36:12.580 That's why
00:36:12.960 every time he puts forward his budget,
00:36:15.160 he makes sure
00:36:15.640 there are billions of dollars
00:36:16.660 to deal with crime.
00:36:17.980 That's just a fact.
00:36:19.260 All you got to look at
00:36:20.020 is what the president
00:36:20.620 has been able to do
00:36:21.580 this past two years.
00:36:22.780 There's always going to be
00:36:24.260 more work to be done,
00:36:25.520 but the fact is
00:36:26.780 the president has taken action.
00:36:29.080 He hasn't taken action.
00:36:30.660 He's done the opposite of that.
00:36:32.360 She didn't have an answer to that. 0.99
00:36:33.760 Holy crap. 0.99
00:36:34.540 If a Democrat congressman 0.99
00:36:35.900 is getting carjacked
00:36:36.840 on the streets of D.C.
00:36:37.920 at 9.30 p.m.,
00:36:39.880 what the heck is the answer?
00:36:41.060 And she's like,
00:36:41.480 no, no, no.
00:36:42.000 No, no.
00:36:42.640 I'm not going to answer that.
00:36:44.200 And what was her answer?
00:36:45.240 Well, you know,
00:36:45.680 Joe Biden's spending
00:36:46.560 a ton of money.
00:36:47.840 Mind you,
00:36:48.480 not actually putting criminals in jail,
00:36:50.440 not supporting police,
00:36:51.420 not doing anything to stop crime,
00:36:53.400 but he's shoveling
00:36:54.720 a whole lot of cash
00:36:55.940 at Democrat special interest groups.
00:36:57.960 He's shoveling
00:36:58.580 a whole lot of cash
00:36:59.560 at deficit spending
00:37:01.260 that's causing rampant inflation.
00:37:02.820 That is her answer.
00:37:03.820 It's an utter non sequitur.
00:37:05.900 And by the way,
00:37:06.580 it's not just Henry Cuellar.
00:37:08.440 Angie Craig,
00:37:09.360 who is a Democrat member
00:37:10.400 of Congress from Minnesota,
00:37:11.700 was assaulted
00:37:12.860 in the apartment of her D.C.,
00:37:15.100 her D.C. apartment
00:37:16.940 in February of this year.
00:37:18.260 And this is a pattern
00:37:20.500 that is happening
00:37:21.300 over and over and over again.
00:37:24.040 Let me give you some stats.
00:37:25.640 Carjackings in D.C.
00:37:26.920 are up 109%.
00:37:30.740 Robberies are up 68%.
00:37:34.320 Theft is up 22%.
00:37:37.740 Homicides are up 38%.
00:37:41.800 And the city is on pace
00:37:43.940 for the deadliest year
00:37:45.260 in two decades.
00:37:46.700 Not only that,
00:37:48.180 nine of the top 10 cities
00:37:49.980 with the highest homicide rights
00:37:51.500 are run by Democrats.
00:37:53.660 27 of the top 30 cities
00:37:55.780 with the highest murder rates
00:37:57.020 are run by Democrats.
00:37:59.340 This is a pattern.
00:38:01.440 And you're saying
00:38:02.160 Corrine Jean-Pierre
00:38:03.160 and the Biden White House
00:38:04.880 utterly dodging responsibilities
00:38:07.480 for their soft on crime policies
00:38:10.480 that are endangering people
00:38:11.980 all across the country.
00:38:13.740 One last question for you.
00:38:15.480 Will Democrats move on this?
00:38:17.220 Because even the White House
00:38:18.340 Presbytery was asked
00:38:19.280 a question of follow-up
00:38:20.560 where she could have
00:38:21.160 kind of gotten a redo.
00:38:22.420 I got to play it.
00:38:23.320 It's too good not to.
00:38:25.640 If President Biden's policies
00:38:26.980 are helping bring crime down,
00:38:29.180 would he be comfortable
00:38:29.900 with somebody borrowing
00:38:31.440 his Corvette
00:38:31.960 and parking it on the street
00:38:33.420 overnight in Southeast D.C.?
00:38:35.120 I'm not going to get
00:38:35.920 into hypotheticals.
00:38:36.880 I'm just going to get
00:38:37.380 into the facts about
00:38:38.180 what this president has done
00:38:39.500 in this president. 0.87
00:38:40.500 I mean, she still screwed it up.
00:38:43.020 Look, of course not.
00:38:44.740 Nobody would.
00:38:45.620 You park your Corvette
00:38:46.460 on the street,
00:38:47.060 it's going to get robbed.
00:38:47.960 It's going to get broken into.
00:38:49.020 It's going to get keyed.
00:38:49.780 It's going to get vandalized.
00:38:51.360 She can't answer that question.
00:38:53.220 And so, you know what
00:38:54.260 she's counting on?
00:38:55.660 Look, that was a question
00:38:57.280 from Fox News.
00:38:59.240 So Fox will cover it.
00:39:01.140 Ben, you worked for years at CNN.
00:39:03.660 Did CNN cover that exchange?
00:39:05.160 Hell no.
00:39:06.580 MSNBC?
00:39:08.280 No.
00:39:09.160 ABC, NBC, CBS?
00:39:11.000 Nope.
00:39:11.820 They know that the corporate media,
00:39:14.300 they are the puppets
00:39:16.480 for the administration.
00:39:18.060 They are the propagandists
00:39:19.180 for the administration.
00:39:20.740 They will repeat the regime line.
00:39:23.580 And so, look,
00:39:25.020 any sane person
00:39:26.540 would say no to the question,
00:39:28.940 would you be happy
00:39:29.840 with your classic Corvette
00:39:33.140 parked on the streets of D.C.?
00:39:34.520 Of course not.
00:39:36.400 Because crime is out of control,
00:39:39.580 and the problem is,
00:39:40.840 look, let me underscore that again.
00:39:43.860 When the D.C. City Council
00:39:45.540 looked at skyrocketing crime rates
00:39:47.400 and said,
00:39:47.780 you know what the answer here is?
00:39:49.520 Let's lower the penalties
00:39:50.700 on violent crime.
00:39:51.560 That's the best solution.
00:39:52.620 We've got too many murderers,
00:39:53.680 too many carjackings.
00:39:56.160 Let's send people to jail 0.98
00:39:57.760 for shorter times
00:39:58.900 for murder and carjacking.
00:40:00.260 That's a great idea.
00:40:01.900 In Congress, thankfully,
00:40:03.240 we overturned that.
00:40:04.600 Why do you think crime
00:40:05.480 is out of control?
00:40:06.460 Yeah, this is the Democratic Party,
00:40:07.840 and this is certainly
00:40:08.600 going to be an issue
00:40:09.320 with the presidential election.
00:40:10.740 Don't forget.
00:40:11.460 Ben, Ben, Ben, hold on.
00:40:12.300 Before we wrap up,
00:40:13.020 I want to ask you
00:40:13.600 a final question.
00:40:14.620 I'm ready.
00:40:15.600 If you're standing by a doorway,
00:40:17.060 and you see a little red box
00:40:19.280 that is three inches by four inches,
00:40:21.280 and it says the word fire on it,
00:40:23.980 and it says,
00:40:25.120 pull this for the fire alarm,
00:40:27.220 my question to you is,
00:40:28.840 is that a doorknob?
00:40:30.440 That is not a doorknob,
00:40:31.840 and that is not a way
00:40:32.940 to exit the building.
00:40:34.400 But how do you know?
00:40:35.340 How do you know, Ben?
00:40:36.620 Seriously.
00:40:37.540 I mean, look,
00:40:38.260 it's not like you...
00:40:39.380 Isn't that insurrectionism 101, right?
00:40:41.600 Like, don't you immediately
00:40:42.500 lock that person up forever?
00:40:44.360 Well, let me ask you this.
00:40:45.620 It's not like
00:40:46.760 you were a high school principal.
00:40:48.700 It's not like you were
00:40:49.680 a high school principal
00:40:50.500 in a high school
00:40:51.120 that had fire alarms.
00:40:52.080 It's not like you were
00:40:52.840 a high school principal
00:40:53.620 in a high school
00:40:54.200 that had fire alarms
00:40:55.100 that had a policy
00:40:56.260 that said,
00:40:56.900 if you, a student,
00:40:58.160 pulls the fire alarm,
00:40:59.860 you will be expelled.
00:41:01.640 Jamal Bowman,
00:41:02.660 the Democrat congressman,
00:41:03.900 was a principal
00:41:04.560 at a high school
00:41:05.560 that had a policy
00:41:06.460 that if you,
00:41:07.720 Ben Ferguson,
00:41:08.380 a student in his high school,
00:41:09.900 pulled the fire alarm,
00:41:10.800 you would be expelled.
00:41:12.020 And yet,
00:41:12.320 what did Jamal Bowman do?
00:41:13.420 oh, I'm going to pull the fire alarm because I want to stop the Republican vote.
00:41:17.880 And why is it his claim? 0.98
00:41:20.640 If you believe him, his defense is I'm dumber than a box of rocks. 0.94
00:41:26.000 And I think a fire alarm is a doorknob. 0.93
00:41:28.220 That is his defense.
00:41:29.680 And that's the best interpretation he can hope for.
00:41:32.640 By the way, I have to ask now because you brought it up.
00:41:35.160 If a Republican would have done that, how fast would they have been kicked out of Congress?
00:41:40.440 And would they have a mugshot at this point?
00:41:43.420 To be honest, I don't think they'd be kicked out of Congress, but I think they might have a mugshot.
00:41:48.400 And my guess is, look, kicking people out of Congress is pretty severe.
00:41:54.460 My guess is the votes won't be there for that.
00:41:56.420 My prediction is they will censure him.
00:41:59.160 I think the votes will be there for censuring him.
00:42:01.580 But it is a criminal offense in the District of Columbia to pull a fire alarm fraudulently.
00:42:06.160 And he is on video doing that.
00:42:08.760 But he is counting on the corporate media to ignore the fact that he was willing to pull a fire alarm to try to stop the Congress from voting on a provision that he didn't like, which, mind you, was a provision to fund the government.
00:42:21.720 And he wanted to force a government shutdown.
00:42:23.860 So he pulled a fire alarm to cause it to happen.
00:42:26.320 But, again, he knew the corporate media would cover for him, and they're doing it right now.
00:42:31.120 Don't forget, we do this podcast three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays.
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