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

Misogynist Sentences

4

Hate Speech Sentences

7


Summary


Transcript

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.
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.
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.
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.
00:07:11.340 That's what Democrats do.
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.
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,
00:10:08.120 you know,
00:10:09.320 excommunicated and we need to salt their fields.
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
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,
00:18:20.280 ass kissing,
00:18:21.840 puffing,
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,
00:19:28.840 we just came out of an election in 2022 where we got our ass kicked.
00:19:34.480 And I said,
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?
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.
00:30:14.100 You had a liberal gay reporter that was shot and killed in his home in Philly.
00:30:18.660 You had a far left activist that was stabbed to death by a deranged stranger in Brooklyn,
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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00:35:48.340 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.
00:36:33.760 Holy crap.
00:36:34.540 If a Democrat congressman
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.
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
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?
00:41:20.640 If you believe him, his defense is I'm dumber than a box of rocks.
00:41:26.000 And I think a fire alarm is a doorknob.
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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