Verdict with Ted Cruz - State of the Union Extravaganza

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.620 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.340 Welcome.

00:00:05.040 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:08.480 And it is 1 a.m. in the morning Eastern time after the State of the Union.

00:00:14.520 I want to be very clear that I am doing this show in protest right now because I was on a plane.

00:00:20.780 No, no, let me rephrase that.

00:00:22.980 Senator, true or false, you and I hung out yesterday in your office.

00:00:26.440 We did.

00:00:27.400 And you were in D.C.

00:00:28.640 And I can't help it that you fled Washington during the State of the Union. 0.97

00:00:33.720 And listen, karma is a b***h.

00:00:36.980 And so when you decided you were a little girl and you had to get out of town because the Democrats getting mad at the president were scary. 0.73

00:00:46.460 Yeah, yeah.

00:00:46.880 There was a consequence, which is for those who are watching on YouTube, a coup has occurred.

00:00:53.880 The original co-host of Verdict has returned and seized the seat.

00:00:58.640 To be clear, he has relegated Mr. Ferguson to appearing as a little box on a monitor.

00:01:05.080 Yeah, yeah.

00:01:06.140 We banished Ben.

00:01:07.680 And I saw not just the seat, but I saw the cigar and I said, this is very good.

00:01:12.480 And this has actually become something of a tradition, I've noticed.

00:01:16.640 I've only ever been to two State of the Union directions.

00:01:19.300 By the way, if only T.C. would tell us that there is a tradition, then I wouldn't have gone on a plane at 2 o'clock this afternoon.

00:01:26.280 You could have changed your flight.

00:01:26.840 To then leave Washington, D.C.

00:01:29.500 Like, think about this.

00:01:31.400 Hey, Ben, we should have cigars at the State of the Union and do the show here.

00:01:34.960 Great idea.

00:01:35.940 I'll change my flight.

00:01:37.380 That is how normal people would have done this.

00:01:40.120 Michael and I could have figured this out a year in advance.

00:01:42.940 This happened late on the fly.

00:01:45.540 And so this afternoon, Michael texted me and said, hey, you want to grab cigars after everything tonight?

00:01:53.420 And I was like, well, we have to do the pod.

00:01:56.360 But, aha, I have an idea.

00:01:59.360 And I didn't really want to do the pod and finish at 2 in the morning and then have cigars.

00:02:03.400 And so I'm like, we'll combine it.

00:02:05.180 And by the way, Daily Wire does this great, what is it, late night?

00:02:08.080 What is it called?

00:02:08.760 Backstage.

00:02:09.280 Backstage.

00:02:09.980 So I've done several times, done backstage with them where they sit around and drink scotch and smoke cigars.

00:02:18.900 And so I said, let's bring some backstage. 0.53

00:02:21.000 Backstage, this is like a Marvel Universe crossover where, like, Daily Wire and iHeart are intersecting.

00:02:31.180 This also really, it's kind of a double verdict tradition in that two years ago, I came to my first State of the Union address.

00:02:39.260 It was Biden's State of the Union, the one where they injected him with whatever they injected him with.

00:02:43.360 Oh, yeah.

00:02:43.680 And he yelled for 92 minutes.

00:02:45.460 Oh, yeah.

00:02:45.780 And then afterward, or actually before I'd set it up, I said, hey, Senator, I happen to be in town.

00:02:52.120 Hate to pressure you for a cigar.

00:02:53.480 Same thing.

00:02:54.100 He said, well, okay, we can have a cigar, but you've got to do the podcast first.

00:02:57.340 I said, okay, well, that'll be a lot of fun.

00:02:59.240 And so, of course, it's, you know, midnight, 1 o'clock in the morning.

00:03:01.940 And this really takes us back because when Verdict started, it was always 1 o'clock in the morning, and it was actually not all that far from here in Washington, D.C.

00:03:12.700 Though I noticed the digs have improved a little bit.

00:03:16.800 So we're in a highfalutin cigar bar in D.C.

00:03:19.880 Because it turns out it's actually complicated to find a studio that will let you smoke a cigar.

00:03:26.020 And my team was-

00:03:27.440 By the way, I don't get to light my cigar.

00:03:29.340 That's the part that I'm really chapped about.

00:03:31.740 I did look at my wife, and Senator, you know Anna well, and I was like, what are the chances for the sake of the show and authenticity I could smoke said cigar?

00:03:43.280 I literally did not get an answer.

00:03:45.320 I got the look.

00:03:46.400 And when you're married, you guys both know the look.

00:03:49.760 Each one of our wives all have a look that they give you. 1.00

00:03:54.440 And I was like, okay, I got it.

00:03:55.760 I know how this is.

00:03:56.880 So, yeah.

00:03:57.180 So, Ben, you are thoroughly domesticated.

00:03:59.320 Yes, yes, yes.

00:04:00.060 And it does impugn your manhood.

00:04:02.140 Yes.

00:04:02.540 But, and I'm now going to tell a story on myself.

00:04:05.800 So when Heidi and I were engaged in an apartment in D.C., and I would host poker games.

00:04:12.080 And at the poker games, we would smoke cigars, and we'd do it at my dining room table.

00:04:18.820 And my buddies that would come over and play, they'd be like, dude, how does Heidi let you smoke cigars inside? 1.00

00:04:25.360 And I was in my 20s and stupid. 1.00

00:04:27.340 So I'm like, look, if you're the man of the house, and you want to smoke a cigar, you smoke a cigar in your damn house. 1.00

00:04:36.780 That's right. 1.00

00:04:37.300 And I said it with all the bravado of a young idiot. 1.00

00:04:41.400 Yeah. 1.00

00:04:41.600 Meanwhile, he didn't own said house.

00:04:43.140 It was an apartment.

00:04:44.040 But keep going.

00:04:44.800 I like the story.

00:04:45.680 Yeah.

00:04:46.520 So then we get married.

00:04:47.960 We actually get married 25 years ago, May 27th, 2001.

00:04:51.240 This is our 25th anniversary.

00:04:52.400 Wow.

00:04:52.740 And we come back from our honeymoon, and shortly thereafter, I'm hosting a poker game. 1.00

00:04:58.140 And Heidi says, get the damn cigars out of the apartment. 1.00

00:05:00.980 You will never smoke another one inside again. 1.00

00:05:03.060 And in 25 years, I never have.

00:05:04.940 And so when I say you are domesticated, that's another way of saying you're actually married.

00:05:10.400 Aren't we all?

00:05:11.160 Aren't we all?

00:05:11.940 It's good to be domesticated in a way.

00:05:14.060 There you go.

00:05:14.680 So more of the story is for planning purposes for all the VUIC listeners and watchers.

00:05:19.000 Next year, Michael and I are in charge of programming.

00:05:22.960 Michael, I think we should do the show together, all of us in D.C., and smoke cigars together

00:05:29.340 after, say, the Union.

00:05:30.400 What do you think, Michael?

00:05:31.320 Is that a good idea?

00:05:32.520 That's a great idea.

00:05:34.000 Listen, I'm in.

00:05:35.760 All right.

00:05:36.080 Good.

00:05:36.340 All right.

00:05:36.540 Well, you and I will have a group chat to set it all up in advance, and we will all be

00:05:41.060 one happy family with all of us smoking a cigar.

00:05:43.860 The Ferguson family got bigger over the holidays with a new puppy.

00:05:47.660 And I can tell you, having one dog that is over a decade old and a new dog that's just

00:05:53.460 months old, there's one thing they both have in common.

00:05:56.820 I want them to live a great quality life.

00:05:59.820 And that is exactly why I give them Rough Greens.

00:06:02.940 Now, I've been telling you about my older dog and some of the symptoms that he was having,

00:06:08.220 slowing down and itching and having bad breath, losing interest in playtime.

00:06:13.420 That is just part of the aging process.

00:06:15.820 But it doesn't have to be.

00:06:17.600 And after just a few weeks of Rough Greens, we start to see a real difference.

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00:07:40.600 So, Ben, what did you think of the damn State of the Union? 0.97

00:07:44.080 I actually think it was the best speech Donald Trump has ever given. 0.99

00:07:49.200 I actually thought it was one of the most real and authentic responses from him to the

00:07:55.880 Democrats and how they were acting.

00:07:58.380 I love that he was like, you can't even stand for that.

00:08:01.640 You won't even stand to say American. 0.99

00:08:02.660 He turns to them and said, you guys are crazy. 1.00

00:08:04.800 Yeah, you guys are crazy. 1.00

00:08:06.520 That was like the third most incredible line. 0.99

00:08:08.900 I mean, there were a lot of them.

00:08:10.460 Yeah, but it came across on TV in an amazing way.

00:08:14.960 Did it?

00:08:15.840 Yeah.

00:08:16.160 Oh, I mean, it was just his look, his demeanor.

00:08:19.340 He was looking over at them.

00:08:21.080 I mean, you were there, obviously, so it's going to feel different to you.

00:08:23.740 But like, I'm watching, I'm going, that line landed.

00:08:26.460 And I think the American people probably saw it and they're like, wow, this is going to

00:08:30.140 be really good.

00:08:30.780 So I'm sitting there.

00:08:33.180 It was very kind of Speaker Johnson to invite me.

00:08:36.200 And I'm sitting over the Democrats.

00:08:39.280 So I got a prime view of the Democrats.

00:08:42.880 And the first line that really brought down the House was when President Trump looked over,

00:08:49.380 and it was beautifully written and beautifully executed.

00:08:51.520 He looked over, he said, okay, I want everyone to stand up if you agree with the statement

00:08:57.980 that America should protect Americans, or something to that effect.

00:09:02.540 And not illegals. 0.60

00:09:03.240 Americans first. 0.97

00:09:03.720 And not illegals. 0.60

00:09:04.460 And not illegals. 0.60

00:09:05.300 America, the point of the country.

00:09:06.580 Or over illegals.

00:09:07.600 Yeah.

00:09:09.280 And they refused to stand up.

00:09:11.280 Political malpractice, the likes of which one has rarely seen.

00:09:15.900 And it was a brutal moment.

00:09:18.260 He totally took advantage.

00:09:19.820 Then, so that moment will be played in a million campaigns.

00:09:24.680 Yes, yes.

00:09:25.780 And by the way, it was the longest sustained applause of Republicans.

00:09:30.000 We stood and we applauded and we applauded.

00:09:33.280 And he just looked over.

00:09:34.940 He stepped away from the lantern.

00:09:36.280 With amazement watching them.

00:09:38.980 And the ad writes itself.

00:09:41.560 They're for illegals and not for you. 1.00

00:09:44.480 And they were given that choice.

00:09:46.000 Do you stand with Americans or do you stand with illegals? 0.69

00:09:48.760 And the entire party, no.

00:09:51.980 We're the party of illegal aliens and not the party of Americans. 0.99

00:09:56.460 It was shocking.

00:09:57.440 So then he doubles down on, I'm skipping around a little bit in time because it escalates.

00:10:03.460 Well, by the way, he noticed a trend.

00:10:05.100 He noticed this is going to be the turn of my speech.

00:10:07.220 Like, I don't think he planned it.

00:10:09.100 This whole, like, you guys aren't going to stand for that.

00:10:11.500 It was the moment and then it hit and then it was like, I'm going to keep doing this tonight

00:10:15.960 to show Americans how crazy these guys are on the left.

00:10:20.100 That's how it came across on TV. 0.99

00:10:21.560 Well, he landed it on the transgender ideology. 0.72

00:10:25.560 Yes.

00:10:26.060 The kid who had been trans and it destroyed his family. 1.00

00:10:28.560 And then the kid finally ended up in the right place.

00:10:30.480 And he said, isn't that wonderful?

00:10:33.860 The family's reunited and everyone's flourishing and the Dems wouldn't stand.

00:10:37.480 And that was when he dealt the blow. 0.99

00:10:39.740 He said, these people are crazy. 0.99

00:10:43.340 And that, too, lit it up. 0.89

00:10:45.080 Now, where it got a little dark, but it was the same strategy, it was the same tactic,

00:10:49.000 I suppose, is when he started bringing up violence.

00:10:53.680 And he obviously turns to Erica Kirk, this national hero, perhaps the most sympathetic

00:10:59.620 figure in the entire country, certainly up there.

00:11:02.080 And the Democrats didn't want to stand for Charlie.

00:11:05.660 They didn't want to stand for Erica.

00:11:07.040 Again, that itself is disgraceful.

00:11:09.560 But he even gave them an out.

00:11:11.060 He said, we are a country where we say in God we trust and we reject political violence

00:11:17.300 of all kinds.

00:11:18.800 And I was looking over.

00:11:20.460 Some Democrats stood for that.

00:11:21.740 I'd say more than half.

00:11:23.180 On the political violence, I looked and it was probably 60, 70 percent.

00:11:27.220 Think about that.

00:11:27.940 But a third did not.

00:11:29.020 What an indictment.

00:11:30.040 A third did not.

00:11:30.880 A third would not stand for we reject political violence of all kinds.

00:11:34.960 It was, I felt, a disaster of optics for Democrats and a disaster of morals.

00:11:41.300 Well, and on the we don't stand for political violence, the reason two-thirds stood is Schumer

00:11:45.740 stood.

00:11:46.460 By the way, have you ever noticed how much Chuck Schumer looks like the villain in the Smurfs?

00:11:52.200 What's the name?

00:11:53.080 I don't even remember the name of the villain.

00:11:54.420 Like the curved over, like, you know, he's hunched.

00:11:58.600 He has kind of a hunchback.

00:11:59.800 Maybe Penguin from Batman was what I got.

00:12:02.180 Yeah.

00:12:02.200 There we go.

00:12:03.420 Yeah.

00:12:03.780 Yeah.

00:12:04.720 But he sort of.

00:12:07.220 No, I couldn't agree with you more.

00:12:08.880 By the way, you guys are in there, so you may not know this, so I may break news to you.

00:12:12.820 Did you guys see what Rashid Tlaib was chanting while everyone was chanting USA, USA at one

00:12:19.620 of the points in the speech?

00:12:20.840 No.

00:12:21.280 She was chanting, KKK, KKK, KKK.

00:12:26.300 KKK.

00:12:28.640 Really?

00:12:29.960 Yes.

00:12:30.960 Well, you know, truth in advertising, credit to her. 0.73

00:12:33.960 You guys, I don't know if you can see, but our good friend Steve Guest put it out there.

00:12:38.500 Watch, Democrat Representative Tlaib, she's chanting KKK while everyone else is cheering

00:12:45.060 USA.

00:12:46.700 Well, let's be honest.

00:12:47.980 It's there.

00:12:48.460 The KKK was founded by Democrats. 0.67

00:12:51.380 It was almost exclusively populated by Democrats.

00:12:54.220 Nathan Bedford Forrest, the founder of the Klan, was a delegate, a delegate to the DNC National

00:13:00.600 Convention in 1860.

00:13:01.880 I didn't know that.

00:13:02.420 He was a national delegate.

00:13:03.360 And you look at, the Klan was founded by Democrats, Jim Crow laws were founded by Democrats, segregation

00:13:11.220 was enforced by Democrats.

00:13:13.740 They have been the party of racial bigotry the entire history.

00:13:18.000 And by the way, our party, I mean, we often refer to our party as the party of Lincoln,

00:13:22.260 but we were literally founded to abolish slavery.

00:13:25.200 Right.

00:13:25.500 That's why the Republican Party came together.

00:13:27.840 And by the way, we did.

00:13:29.020 The first Republican president is who signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

00:13:32.460 Well, you know, on racial animus and Rashida Tlaib, did you see, I don't know if you caught

00:13:37.620 this, but when President Trump said, what a wonderful thing, we released all the hostages.

00:13:42.960 We got the hostages released, both dead and alive.

00:13:45.200 We returned even their remains.

00:13:47.080 And most people stood up.

00:13:49.580 I looked, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib were sitting down.

00:13:52.900 Yep.

00:13:53.240 Yeah.

00:13:54.360 And by the way, at one point they heckled when there was a reference to the end of

00:13:58.480 the war in Gaza, they heckled and screamed genocide.

00:14:01.200 I mean, that's who their party is.

00:14:05.120 Well, and look at tonight, there was four Democrat responses.

00:14:08.840 Like, that's not good for your party when you're that broken.

00:14:12.860 There were four.

00:14:13.060 Who were the four?

00:14:14.100 So you had one in Spanish.

00:14:15.780 You had one that was a progressive radical.

00:14:18.160 You had one that was like the next level moderate.

00:14:20.740 And then you had the Virginia governor.

00:14:22.120 You had four official responses tonight.

00:14:24.140 I'm sorry.

00:14:24.620 I'm going to have to disagree with you.

00:14:26.220 I don't even know who they were, but there are four who were progressive radicals.

00:14:29.200 Well, I agree with you.

00:14:31.700 Yes.

00:14:32.340 I'm giving you their official statement, but they literally had, hey, depending on how

00:14:37.980 crazy you are, if you're a Marxist socialist communist or a radical lefty or like the 0.90

00:14:43.040 transgender or maybe just like a normal Democrat, here's all of your responses for you. 0.99

00:14:48.320 And we'll have all of those for you.

00:14:50.100 So right after the State of the Union, I did Hannity.

00:14:52.900 And as I was sitting there waiting to go on, Fox wouldn't put Hannity on air until Spanberger

00:14:58.780 finished her response.

00:15:00.320 So I sit down and put my earpiece in and it's just her voice screeching and loud. 0.99

00:15:05.500 And I turned to Hannity and I said, Sean, I haven't led nearly a wicked enough life to

00:15:13.060 deserve to listen to this.

00:15:14.600 And so I just turned the volume off.

00:15:15.720 I'm like, I can't, there's just a limit to how much pain I can endure.

00:15:21.060 But you know, what's very telling about Spanberger is you had Andy Beshear come out, who is a serious

00:15:27.280 presidential candidate, Kentucky governor.

00:15:28.980 And he said, Spanberger is the model for Democrats in the midterms, which means translation will

00:15:36.560 run, they will run as moderates.

00:15:38.720 It means lie.

00:15:39.280 They'll lie.

00:15:40.000 They'll lie.

00:15:40.660 They'll run as moderates and they will immediately enact the most radical leftist agenda you could

00:15:45.760 maybe imagine.

00:15:47.800 Michael, I love, by the way, I know you're a man of the people and you do all of your own

00:15:51.740 yard work. 0.51

00:15:52.880 But if you, if you lived in Virginia, she's so crazy. 0.99

00:15:56.780 How many people here are wearing French cuffs?

00:15:58.980 Yeah, that would be only that guy right there.

00:16:01.060 I just want to be clear.

00:16:02.280 The one where the big cloud of smoke that just went up in the air, that would be that

00:16:05.880 guy's cufflinks.

00:16:07.520 Yeah, that's the one there.

00:16:09.240 So they're, they're.

00:16:10.220 But look, it is impressive because at Yale he wore a cravat.

00:16:15.200 I'm going more populist as I age.

00:16:18.040 And I will say.

00:16:18.640 Michael had designer jeans before we knew what those were.

00:16:21.680 Okay.

00:16:22.140 But I'm also impressed because Ben at Ole Miss never wore pants.

00:16:25.380 So, so we're kind of reaching a kind of middle ground.

00:16:28.480 It evens out, actually.

00:16:29.980 A man of the people, a man of Prada and Gucci.

00:16:32.840 It just, it is, it is what it is.

00:16:34.660 No, but like in Virginia, they've gone so crazy.

00:16:37.960 They're, they're, they, they literally have laws written right now that she's in favor of

00:16:42.300 to ban gasoline powered weed eaters and blowers.

00:16:46.160 And then they're putting a 10% tax on electric blowers.

00:16:50.140 So they're going to charge you even more to be green.

00:16:53.140 That's Virginia.

00:16:53.980 By the way, I love that the president brought up that to shovel snow in New York

00:17:00.100 under Mondani, you need two forms of ID, which I actually had been advising.

00:17:07.120 I think humor is a really powerful way to drive this point.

00:17:11.000 And I think that, and also the fact that John Ossoff, to get to his rally against photo ID

00:17:17.220 for voting, you had to show an ID.

00:17:19.040 Show a photo, yeah, you had to photo, you had to show a photo ID.

00:17:21.400 Yeah.

00:17:21.700 This, I think, was the key.

00:17:23.200 I mean, really the reason that the, the State of the Union succeeded, and I agree, it was

00:17:28.520 one of Trump's best speeches.

00:17:30.120 The Warsaw speech in the first term was also an excellent speech, but this was up there.

00:17:33.960 And I think the reason it succeeded was the president had to reassure voters who voted

00:17:40.620 for him en masse, you know, he won the popular vote, he had to reassure them that we are still

00:17:45.660 the party of normal, of safety, of flourishing, of sanity, of sanity, where I think some voters,

00:17:56.960 you have this question, after the Minneapolis immigration enforcement, why is it that voters

00:18:02.580 still support mass deportations, but oppose ICE deporting people?

00:18:07.900 You know, that's kind of a contradiction.

00:18:09.540 Why is it that the fundamentals of the economy are looking pretty good?

00:18:13.700 You know, recordized stock market, pretty good inflation, pretty good job numbers, pretty

00:18:17.460 good GDP, could have been better if not for the government shutdown that the Dems gave us.

00:18:21.700 Why is it that they're a little, the voters are a little worried about the economy, but the

00:18:26.380 economy seems to be doing well?

00:18:27.280 Well, it's, it's this fear that we're in a precarious moment.

00:18:31.460 And so I think both sides went into this saying, we want to be the party of stability, of security,

00:18:37.080 of normal, of flourishing.

00:18:38.620 That's why Hakeem Jeffries told the Democrats, hey, be cool.

00:18:42.520 And if you can't be cool, don't show up.

00:18:44.640 You know, I think it's like...

00:18:45.360 Of course, Al Green got thrown out again.

00:18:46.500 Al Green couldn't resist.

00:18:48.600 I...

00:18:48.960 At least he, at least he had a big sign that he got to walk around with, right?

00:18:52.340 He felt, he felt, just apparently he was happy to do that. 0.57

00:18:54.660 So, and his sign said, blacks aren't apes. 0.90

00:18:57.700 Yeah. 0.83

00:18:58.180 And I turned, I was sitting next to Todd Young, and I said, wow, is Al Green protesting Gavin

00:19:03.280 Newsom?

00:19:03.980 Yeah.

00:19:04.420 Yeah.

00:19:05.140 Yeah.

00:19:06.880 Like it, by the way, Gavin Newsom, he's like the perfect Democrat made in the laboratory.

00:19:12.940 Yeah. 1.00

00:19:14.080 An idiot. 1.00

00:19:15.680 Who says racist things. 1.00

00:19:16.820 An open racist.

00:19:18.020 Yeah.

00:19:18.600 Who says racist things.

00:19:19.320 Who goes in front of a crowd of African Americans and goes, I'm just like you. 1.00

00:19:23.120 You're stupid, and I am too. 1.00

00:19:25.020 Unbelievable. 1.00

00:19:26.260 And then he goes in front of whites. 0.81

00:19:26.520 I can't read.

00:19:27.480 He said, I got a 960 on the SAT, which, by the way, Michael got a 960 on the verbal portion

00:19:34.080 of his SAT.

00:19:36.420 Yeah.

00:19:36.700 And yes, I know it's only 800, but still.

00:19:40.000 Yes.

00:19:40.380 I love that you just had to geek out and show all the geeks that you know the max is an 800

00:19:44.280 there, to be clear.

00:19:45.700 I can't remember. 0.98

00:19:46.820 I took the damn thing, and I can't remember what it was. 0.99

00:19:49.300 Did anyone doubt I was a geek? 0.99

00:19:51.340 Yeah, that's, I know.

00:19:52.580 I just, we have to remind you, though, every once in a while.

00:19:55.060 Let's be clear.

00:19:55.980 On things like that, I pop, Michael, mostly because my own vulnerabilities are so glaring

00:20:00.860 on that.

00:20:01.500 No, listen.

00:20:02.340 The admission rate for Princeton, I think you have a 970.

00:20:06.020 Wait, wait.

00:20:06.900 Let's be clear.

00:20:08.000 Both of you know your scores, right?

00:20:10.800 By heart?

00:20:11.600 Yes.

00:20:11.740 What you made?

00:20:12.780 What were you, Michael?

00:20:13.800 Don't lie.

00:20:14.880 It was higher than Gavin Newsom's.

00:20:16.400 I'll tell you that.

00:20:17.000 What?

00:20:17.620 No?

00:20:17.920 What was it?

00:20:18.360 I want to know.

00:20:18.960 I want to know what it was.

00:20:20.140 Do you want to know the irony?

00:20:21.200 I'll tell you the irony of my SAT score.

00:20:22.460 Oh, I can't.

00:20:23.020 This is him delaying the brilliance.

00:20:25.040 Keep going.

00:20:25.580 I did get, on the math and the verbal, I got a perfect score.

00:20:30.720 That's what I was, yeah.

00:20:31.860 However, you don't want to know the irony, there was, at that time, there was a writing

00:20:37.240 thing that they added that was kind of optional or experimental, and the funny thing is, I

00:20:41.720 did not get a perfect score.

00:20:42.700 I actually don't remember the exact, it was less, it was the 680 or something, but the

00:20:47.660 funny thing is, that's the thing I went into, and my most famous book has no words in it.

00:20:52.140 So, it ended up, it ended up working out just fine.

00:20:55.880 Ted, DC, what was yours?

00:20:57.860 Newsom.

00:20:58.920 I am going to decline to answer on the advice accounts.

00:21:01.960 Oh, wow.

00:21:02.780 Because, because I am in elected politics and running around, like, squawking about

00:21:07.620 your SAT score.

00:21:09.180 Did you have two perfect scores out of the three categories, like Michael?

00:21:12.220 I just want to know, wait, can we at least get that?

00:21:13.940 Did you have a perfect score in any of that?

00:21:15.320 I did not, and I did well on the test.

00:21:19.120 But, I am, I'm just telling you, I may not know much about politics, but I am quite certain 0.93

00:21:26.440 it is dumb as hell to say this was my SAT score. 0.58

00:21:31.160 To prove how much of a man of the people I am, I walked in and took the test. 0.93

00:21:37.340 I forgot my calculator, and I looked at the lady that does the test, and I said, what is 0.90

00:21:43.660 the minimum for NCAA requirements?

00:21:46.680 Can I do it without a calculator?

00:21:48.400 And she goes, I'm intrigued to see if you can.

00:21:50.700 And I was above the NCAA minimum without a calculator, and I took it once, and the score

00:21:56.440 came in, and my mom was furious when it came in the mail.

00:21:59.640 She's like, you're taking it again.

00:22:00.720 She was so mad, I forgot my, remember the TI-83 or whatever it was?

00:22:03.980 Like, you know, like the calculator you took with you.

00:22:06.340 And I was like, I forgot it.

00:22:07.720 My mom's an educator. 0.68

00:22:09.100 She was like, you're taking it.

00:22:09.960 I was like, no, I'm not.

00:22:10.540 I'm above the minimum for NCAA requirements.

00:22:12.360 That's all I care about.

00:22:13.140 And that way, I took it once.

00:22:14.380 All right.

00:22:14.860 So, I'm going to tell you a SAT LSAT story.

00:22:18.500 So, when I show up at college, my first job, I worked at Princeton Media Services, videotaping

00:22:26.980 things.

00:22:27.440 And like, I run and operate a video camera and like videotape all sorts of different programs

00:22:31.520 and things.

00:22:31.920 And that paid either seven or eight bucks an hour.

00:22:34.960 And then I got hired by the Princeton Review to teach the SAT, which was a much better job

00:22:40.820 because it paid 15 bucks an hour. 0.95

00:22:42.080 And so, I'm like, hot diggity damn, I can do that math and 15 is better than seven. 0.95

00:22:47.960 So, for like a year or two, I taught the SAT, I guess a year. 0.98

00:22:52.800 And then I'm like, wait, there's no margin in teaching the SAT.

00:22:57.260 I've already taken it.

00:22:58.200 And I knew I wanted to go to law school.

00:22:59.840 So, I went to the course and said, hey, can I teach the LSAT?

00:23:04.120 And so, they paid me to train me to teach the LSAT, which was useful because I had to,

00:23:11.460 in fact, teach the LSAT.

00:23:12.880 So, when I was a sophomore in college, I was teaching the LSAT.

00:23:16.000 And the students would say, well, what score did you get?

00:23:18.140 This sounds like a Somali daycare right now.

00:23:21.300 Well, no, no, it was, there were real classes.

00:23:23.980 But the hysterical story is, so I taught the LSAT for a year.

00:23:28.900 And then, so junior year, we're taking the LSAT.

00:23:32.580 And you guys both know my college roommate.

00:23:34.480 It was my law school roommate.

00:23:35.820 And other than Heidi, my best friend in the world, David Panton.

00:23:38.740 Yeah.

00:23:39.020 Jamaican, incredibly talented, became, Barack Obama was the first black president of the

00:23:46.800 Harvard Law Review.

00:23:48.020 David was the second black president of the Harvard Law Review.

00:23:50.860 So, but when David and I were in college, we're both taking the LSAT. 0.98

00:23:54.300 The night before the LSAT, David and I, like complete morons, did I mention that we were 0.97

00:23:59.720 like 19 or 20, I guess 20? 0.99

00:24:01.480 We stayed up all night playing Nintendo.

00:24:05.140 We literally did not sleep.

00:24:07.160 We pulled an all-nighter playing Mario Brothers on Nintendo.

00:24:11.640 This story checks out, by the way.

00:24:13.900 Okay.

00:24:14.420 The LSAT was in Newark.

00:24:16.500 So I had a, my first car was a green 78 Ford Fairmont.

00:24:21.160 Right.

00:24:21.660 So I drove us to Newark.

00:24:23.120 We take the LSAT.

00:24:25.380 It was at 8 a.m.

00:24:26.620 So we leave at like 6, 630, go sit for the test.

00:24:29.760 It's like four hours or so.

00:24:31.200 So we're coming home, coming back to college at like one in the afternoon.

00:24:35.880 And we're driving back.

00:24:37.000 And I said, so David, how did it go?

00:24:39.400 And he said, well, during one of the sections, I put my head down and fell asleep.

00:24:44.760 And he said, I woke up with two minutes left and I just filled out B for every question.

00:24:52.520 And he turns to me and says, do you think B is the right answer?

00:24:55.760 And so it turns out you can cancel your LSAT score on the spot if you want to.

00:25:01.340 And C went up and just canceled the score.

00:25:03.260 Oh, that's good.

00:25:03.960 And so the poor guy had to take it again.

00:25:05.120 And then he did well the second time he took it.

00:25:07.280 But he literally, I laughed so hard, I almost crashed the car.

00:25:11.140 But I ended up keeping him up all night and making him fall asleep during the LSAT.

00:25:15.880 What if all the answers were B?

00:25:17.840 They could have been.

00:25:18.560 He might have missed out on the perfect score.

00:25:20.300 He could have the perfect score.

00:25:21.720 For the next 60 seconds, can you hit pause on your life and just think about this.

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00:25:34.880 and a lack of opportunity dim their bright futures.

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00:25:57.800 It's a journey from vulnerability to empowerment.

00:26:00.880 And it's sparked literally by your love.

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00:26:23.280 That's Compassion.com to learn more.

00:26:25.880 The Newsom thing is really frustrating.

00:26:29.260 Because right now, he is the leading candidate for the Democrats, I think, without question.

00:26:33.500 And I'm so happy he is, by the way.

00:26:35.000 At the Munich Security Conference, Newsom's still the leading candidate.

00:26:38.600 Yeah.

00:26:38.820 And on the one hand, he has these social media posts where he's sitting there performatively reading Beloved by Tony Morrison.

00:26:46.760 Performatively reading all these books that are supporting him.

00:26:48.440 By the way, are you aware that Newsom lit himself on fire in a social media exchange about verdict?

00:26:55.740 No.

00:26:56.980 So, coming back from Munich, we did a whole show on Munich.

00:27:01.680 Yeah.

00:27:02.420 Lighting up AOC and lighting up Newsom.

00:27:05.160 And Newsom in Munich said,

00:27:08.720 Donald Trump is the first president in history to federalize the National Guard.

00:27:11.900 And so, on verdict, I said, Gavin Newsom is historically illiterate.

00:27:18.240 Yes.

00:27:19.180 Yes.

00:27:20.140 And actually, you talked about it on your show.

00:27:21.980 I defended your use of the English language properly.

00:27:26.240 And so, I said that, and then he tweeted out, he said,

00:27:34.340 Calling someone who's dyslexic illiterate is a new low, even for Cruz.

00:27:41.900 Yeah.

00:27:43.060 And, mind you, who knew he was dyslexic?

00:27:45.500 I didn't know that until he sent out his tweet.

00:27:47.980 I'm a little skeptical to this day, yeah.

00:27:49.620 For a guy that then also claims on a white podcast that he can read a 300-page book in two hours.

00:27:54.640 Don't forget that came out as well.

00:27:56.620 So, so much for being majorly dyslexic, right?

00:27:59.660 But then, so we had, we actually had twin responses.

00:28:04.940 So, my staff came up with a response with a GIF from Zoolander. 0.98

00:28:09.280 And I wrote a response and said something like, I didn't say you couldn't read, you clown. 0.97

00:28:19.240 I said you were historically illiterate because you apparently have no idea about the civil rights movement 0.98

00:28:26.000 and the fact that Eisenhower federalized the National Guard.

00:28:29.900 And this is actually a cool, I think this is the first tweet I've ever sent that was partially written by AI.

00:28:38.060 So, I went to Google and I just typed in Eisenhower federalizing National Guard.

00:28:45.840 Yeah.

00:28:46.260 And instantaneously, several paragraphs pop up that are beautifully researched.

00:28:51.360 And so, I cut and paste one of them that said on date, and I didn't know the date,

00:28:56.240 you know, Eisenhower signed executive order number and I didn't know the executive order number.

00:29:00.680 But it was like this beautifully researched.

00:29:03.300 So, the second half of the tweet, I actually wrote that tweet while playing hoops.

00:29:09.440 So, as you guys know, I play hoops twice a week.

00:29:11.280 So, it was like in between games on my phone.

00:29:14.320 I, like, typed the first half, put it in the AI.

00:29:17.980 Hold on, hold on, hold on.

00:29:18.000 Were you the last?

00:29:18.820 Wait, wait, wait, wait.

00:29:19.400 Time out, time out.

00:29:20.180 I got it.

00:29:20.660 You opened up something there.

00:29:22.280 You said in between games.

00:29:23.920 Were you the odd man out?

00:29:26.100 Yeah, I lost.

00:29:26.520 Did you?

00:29:26.940 I lost.

00:29:27.280 Okay, you lost.

00:29:28.020 I just want to get that on the record, Michael.

00:29:29.580 I lost the game.

00:29:29.660 Did you hear what he said?

00:29:30.820 Michael, can you make sure his mic's working?

00:29:32.240 He just, did he say he lost?

00:29:33.780 I just want to be very clear about that.

00:29:35.020 I think that was recorded, in fact.

00:29:36.660 Okay, got it, okay.

00:29:38.580 Yeah, yeah.

00:29:39.100 I'm glad that we got that.

00:29:40.260 That was worth staying up late for just that right there.

00:29:42.320 Keep going with your story, sir.

00:29:43.560 This is getting good.

00:29:44.900 So, but when I sent my tweet, my social media team was all mad.

00:29:48.920 And they're like, wait, we like our Zoolander tweet.

00:29:52.120 And I said, no, no, no.

00:29:53.560 Put them both out.

00:29:54.840 Yeah.

00:29:55.340 And let's have an experiment.

00:29:57.560 Let's see who wins, who gets more.

00:30:00.140 Like, you've got mine.

00:30:01.260 And, you know, you guys, and so it was close.

00:30:08.240 I only beat them by 250%.

00:30:10.920 So they got, I think, 400,000 engagements, and I got 1.1 million.

00:30:15.960 But I will confess, making an admission on this,

00:30:20.580 although they didn't get nearly the reach,

00:30:24.120 the comments on the Zoolander gift, the people that saw it loved it.

00:30:29.120 I mean, they're just, like, best tweet in the history of the internet.

00:30:32.660 Like, they were.

00:30:33.600 So I think it was a smaller niche audience.

00:30:36.140 Yeah.

00:30:36.660 But the ones it hit, it really hit.

00:30:38.580 That's good.

00:30:39.320 It's almost like as good as when you were the Zodiac Killer.

00:30:42.300 Maybe you still are.

00:30:43.360 But, you know, those never make me not laugh.

00:30:45.980 What do you mean when I was the Zodiac Killer?

00:30:47.600 Yeah, exactly.

00:30:48.320 When did I?

00:30:49.520 I haven't checked the statute of limitations recently.

00:30:52.600 Yeah.

00:30:52.860 But I think you're safe now.

00:30:55.180 So you can.

00:30:55.480 Do you know that in 2016, an actual poll done in the state of Florida

00:31:01.800 found 38% of Floridians believe that I could be the Zodiac Killer?

00:31:08.300 I still believe.

00:31:09.180 Now, to be clear, the Zodiac Killer killed at least five people

00:31:12.520 in Northern California in the late 1960s.

00:31:15.220 I was born in 1970.

00:31:17.540 Yeah, yeah.

00:31:18.760 And yet, nearly half of Floridians believed I could be the Zodiac Killer.

00:31:22.800 Yeah, yeah, that's a pretty obstacle to the Zoltans. 0.88

00:31:26.860 You could have lied about your age.

00:31:28.500 This is how conspiracies begin.

00:31:30.980 I did have one rally where this kid had a sign.

00:31:36.140 He's like 20, and he had a sign that said,

00:31:38.300 Are you the Zodiac Killer?

00:31:40.180 And I went up to him.

00:31:40.980 I put my hand on his shoulder.

00:31:42.200 I said, Son, if I was the Zodiac Killer,

00:31:45.240 would you really want to be here with that sign right now?

00:31:47.760 You know, this actually was the point,

00:31:51.000 which is how we got on to Newsom.

00:31:52.440 The sign, I don't know if you guys saw the memes that were going around.

00:31:56.100 So, I lost a bet on this.

00:31:58.900 I bet that the Democrats would not have a member ejected from the speech.

00:32:03.240 I thought they might have a supporter or some cast or something.

00:32:05.700 Did you actually believe that, though?

00:32:07.760 I didn't think that.

00:32:08.520 I thought they would listen to Hakeem Jeffries and try to chill.

00:32:11.240 But they can't.

00:32:11.680 No way.

00:32:12.020 Al Green has no chill.

00:32:13.180 So, he opens up.

00:32:13.880 By the way, there's a very real chance Al Green loses his Democrat primary a week from now.

00:32:18.720 Really?

00:32:19.160 Yeah.

00:32:19.460 Really?

00:32:20.300 He's actually in jeopardy.

00:32:22.480 And so, I think the antics were partially.

00:32:24.680 Of course, he did his antics last year, like waving his cane.

00:32:28.260 Yeah.

00:32:28.740 Which, like to embody a grumpy old man, like, get off my lawn, you kids.

00:32:34.500 It's perfect.

00:32:35.180 But he made a real optical error, which is he unfurled the sign,

00:32:39.540 which from my angle in the gallery, I could not see.

00:32:42.260 And so, I said, what's he saying? 0.92

00:32:43.680 And I guess the sign said, black people aren't apes. 0.92

00:32:46.700 But the problem was the way he was holding it. 0.96

00:32:48.900 It looked like it said R.

00:32:50.960 It looked like it said R.

00:32:52.360 The one that I saw, and maybe one of those said that too, 0.99

00:32:55.520 the one I saw said, black people rent apes. 0.98

00:32:59.080 Which was like an unfortunate, any way you slice it, these are very unfortunate optics. 0.98

00:33:03.700 And I thought, you know, the Democrat leader in the House asked one thing.

00:33:08.100 He said, hey guys, please don't look crazy.

00:33:12.020 During the speech.

00:33:13.400 And as the president is walking into the room, Al Green unfurls this sign.

00:33:19.400 And I thought, you have the discipline of a fruit fly.

00:33:22.920 Like, there is no chance.

00:33:24.680 They didn't make it five minutes. 1.00

00:33:26.740 They're insane.

00:33:27.380 All right, I have to ask you guys, being there, because one of the best lines of the whole speech,

00:33:31.540 that was just one of those little kind of tit-for-tat lines, but it worked,

00:33:36.740 was when he was talking about insider trading, and then he said Nancy Pelosi's name.

00:33:42.880 And it was amazing on TV, because if you didn't know the story, you immediately went to Google.

00:33:49.660 Every one of us was there.

00:33:51.220 Yeah, and I was too.

00:33:52.620 But like, if you didn't know, and then you saw the reaction, and you heard the hissing,

00:33:58.920 whatever it was in the hall, I don't know exactly what they were saying.

00:34:02.040 It was like, they were like, you can't say her name like that.

00:34:04.920 You know that everybody went and Googled insider trading Nancy Pelosi,

00:34:09.180 and then they learned about the story.

00:34:10.900 Like, they literally helped him sell the story.

00:34:13.560 What was the reaction?

00:34:14.520 Were Democrats mad, or what was the reaction?

00:34:18.100 You were on the floor.

00:34:19.220 Oh, look, they were mad constantly.

00:34:21.480 So is there one?

00:34:22.480 I will say, though, there's a difference from this year and last year.

00:34:26.080 So last year, they went through the entire State of the Union,

00:34:29.140 and they didn't applaud.

00:34:31.640 They didn't applaud when Trump walked in.

00:34:34.220 They didn't applaud for anything.

00:34:35.960 They just sat there stone-faced.

00:34:37.720 And heckled and waved their K-unanimity. 0.98

00:34:42.000 This year, before the State of the Union,

00:34:43.660 I actually went to several Democrats and asked them.

00:34:46.960 I said, okay, are you guys going to applaud for the U.S. hockey team?

00:34:52.740 Like, come on.

00:34:53.780 And they all said yes.

00:34:55.640 In fact, several of them had an expletive.

00:34:58.260 They said, F yes.

00:35:00.220 And I said, look, to be clear,

00:35:02.680 last year you didn't applaud for a kid with cancer.

00:35:06.860 Is that a crazy question?

00:35:08.680 Okay, one of the Democrats, who I actually like,

00:35:11.100 I'm not going to identify him, but he's got a good sense of humor.

00:35:13.520 I said that to him, and he said, yeah, we hate kids with cancer.

00:35:17.500 Which was like, all right, don't argue.

00:35:19.700 Just kind of own it.

00:35:20.840 I'm like, all right, well played.

00:35:23.800 They did it again this year, by the way.

00:35:25.480 There was a little girl who couldn't walk,

00:35:27.420 who now might be able to walk.

00:35:28.480 And it was the same thing.

00:35:29.660 A good chunk of Democrats would not,

00:35:32.580 I guess they were trying to play the stoic card.

00:35:34.300 It did not read, at least from my vantage,

00:35:37.280 I thought it looked really callous,

00:35:39.220 because there was no unity within the party,

00:35:41.260 so there was no clear messaging.

00:35:43.180 You know, look, it all seemed pretty disastrous.

00:35:46.220 The question that I have,

00:35:47.800 as a proper conservative,

00:35:49.780 who is always looking for the downside of things,

00:35:52.280 just to temper my jubilation,

00:35:55.940 do you think,

00:35:57.400 I think universally the speech was viewed as quite good,

00:36:00.800 quite effective.

00:36:01.920 Does it make a meaningful difference in the midterms?

00:36:05.220 Look, I don't know how many.

00:36:07.900 Do you?

00:36:08.520 All right, lay out why.

00:36:09.220 And I'll tell you why.

00:36:10.040 This speech was the things that irritate Republican-slash-moderate voters about Trump,

00:36:22.280 that it's all about him,

00:36:23.960 and he doesn't know when to,

00:36:25.200 you know, the mean tweets,

00:36:26.540 and when to shut up,

00:36:27.740 and the things that irritate those that can stay home.

00:36:31.680 Watching his demeanor tonight,

00:36:33.780 he came across in such a way of like,

00:36:37.540 these guys don't want this,

00:36:39.180 these guys don't put you first,

00:36:41.020 these guys don't do this.

00:36:42.600 He also was giving incredible accolades and awards,

00:36:46.320 and the U.S. hockey team,

00:36:47.440 there was momentum there.

00:36:48.920 It was one after another.

00:36:50.580 It was a hundred-year-old man, a veteran.

00:36:52.600 It was the guy who was flying the helicopter to the Chinook,

00:36:55.360 and telling a story.

00:36:56.400 He was praising what makes America great,

00:36:59.620 and the people that make America great.

00:37:02.020 I actually think that if you are a moderate voter,

00:37:05.740 someone, maybe a Republican,

00:37:06.780 that traditionally stays home during the midterms,

00:37:10.040 I actually think that this speech landed with you

00:37:13.520 more than any other speech of Trump,

00:37:15.180 the way it played on TV.

00:37:16.980 I think it also is going to land on the economic issues

00:37:21.000 of him reminding the no tax on tips,

00:37:23.640 the no tax on overtime.

00:37:25.280 I'm trying to make life more affordable.

00:37:27.480 The gas prices.

00:37:28.480 Those are things that I actually think will,

00:37:31.280 you know,

00:37:31.560 they've been hammering him on all these approval ratings

00:37:33.820 at 40 this or 39 or 38,

00:37:35.640 depending on what poll.

00:37:36.660 I think he gets a bump that actually stays

00:37:38.900 because he landed it so well in the audience,

00:37:42.540 and he looked really calm.

00:37:44.500 He looked really just like,

00:37:46.240 I'm doing this because I want to fix the country.

00:37:48.660 And other speeches haven't come across that way always.

00:37:51.960 Yeah, let me agree with you

00:37:53.420 in that I think the message tonight

00:37:56.280 was the record of the last year.

00:38:00.120 And the record of the last year,

00:38:01.520 I believe, is objectively phenomenal.

00:38:04.360 And I've been in the Senate now 14 years.

00:38:06.620 We've never had a year

00:38:08.220 where we've accomplished even a fraction

00:38:10.680 of what has been accomplished in the last year.

00:38:14.040 I mean, it is staggering,

00:38:15.040 and he did a good job.

00:38:15.940 You know, we talked about on the last pod

00:38:19.340 how I spent 30, 40 minutes on the phone

00:38:22.360 with Trump last week.

00:38:24.240 And one of the things we talked about

00:38:25.740 was messaging for the midterms.

00:38:27.800 And I said, listen,

00:38:29.580 we need to focus on results,

00:38:31.680 on the very real results,

00:38:34.020 securing the border,

00:38:36.800 99% drop in illegal crossings.

00:38:40.300 And then I encouraged him

00:38:42.020 a message that's not getting the attention it should.

00:38:45.940 is the impact on crime.

00:38:48.420 Yes.

00:38:48.720 Amen.

00:38:49.120 Murder rates have dropped 20%.

00:38:51.260 Drug overdose deaths have dropped 20%.

00:38:54.960 There are literally thousands of Americans

00:38:57.380 who are alive today

00:38:58.380 because Trump was elected

00:38:59.520 and Republicans won Congress.

00:39:00.960 It's a great message.

00:39:01.660 Yeah.

00:39:02.120 And that's been lost.

00:39:04.780 And I was really happy,

00:39:06.440 like the first 20 minutes of the speech

00:39:09.220 were laying out that message.

00:39:11.520 Yeah.

00:39:11.820 And going through murder rates

00:39:13.560 and crime rates and D.C. rates

00:39:15.400 and like how unhappy the Democrats were

00:39:18.400 that crime rates had plummeted

00:39:21.180 in D.C. and New Orleans

00:39:22.800 and your hometown of Memphis.

00:39:24.180 Memphis, yeah.

00:39:24.720 And the Democrats were furious

00:39:25.960 that fewer people are being murdered.

00:39:28.320 They wouldn't stand up en masse

00:39:30.120 for murder declining.

00:39:31.720 You know, this,

00:39:32.300 I was looking at the polls

00:39:33.400 and aggregate of the polls

00:39:34.560 from just January and February

00:39:36.600 leading into this.

00:39:37.320 And to be fair,

00:39:37.940 the pro-murder community in America

00:39:39.620 is pretty small.

00:39:40.260 It is.

00:39:41.660 Look, it's a constituency,

00:39:42.760 but it's not the one you want.

00:39:45.000 And so I was looking

00:39:46.100 at this aggregate of polls,

00:39:48.120 Marist, PBS,

00:39:50.100 a handful of others.

00:39:51.620 And the hard fact,

00:39:53.460 I spoke to some members

00:39:54.180 of Congress about this today.

00:39:55.640 The hard fact is

00:39:56.700 Republicans are underwater

00:39:58.320 on the economy,

00:39:59.780 on economic perception.

00:40:01.160 I think you could turn it around,

00:40:03.100 but right now

00:40:03.800 we're a little bit underwater.

00:40:04.980 On health care,

00:40:05.760 Democrats always win on health care.

00:40:07.000 And on defense of democracy,

00:40:10.200 it's kind of a contrived category.

00:40:12.520 But anyway,

00:40:13.520 they win on that.

00:40:14.380 So the ones that we're winning on right now,

00:40:16.320 quite decisively,

00:40:17.620 are immigration

00:40:18.600 and border enforcement,

00:40:21.080 even more so,

00:40:22.360 now the border's shut down,

00:40:23.900 and especially on crime.

00:40:25.940 So the key, it seems to me,

00:40:27.360 is one,

00:40:27.980 that tells you people are concerned

00:40:29.320 about safety.

00:40:30.560 And two,

00:40:31.740 if you can tie all of that together,

00:40:34.640 the crime relates,

00:40:36.280 obviously,

00:40:36.580 to illegal immigration.

00:40:37.800 That's why it's called illegal.

00:40:39.120 And the housing prices, even.

00:40:41.680 All the way to the,

00:40:42.240 you know,

00:40:42.480 the fact that you have

00:40:43.180 six months consecutive decline

00:40:44.920 on housing prices

00:40:46.140 coinciding with mass deportation.

00:40:47.600 With two million people

00:40:48.340 being deported,

00:40:49.000 and that's just less demand.

00:40:50.520 That's right.

00:40:51.020 You know, by the way,

00:40:51.880 like a couple of weeks ago,

00:40:52.980 the Houston Chronicle

00:40:53.900 had a front page story

00:40:55.540 that said murder rates

00:40:58.000 in Houston have declined 18%.

00:41:00.420 Yep.

00:41:01.560 And Heidi showed me the article

00:41:03.260 because she knew

00:41:04.200 it would piss me off.

00:41:05.740 You talked about this

00:41:06.960 the other day.

00:41:07.520 Yes.

00:41:07.740 I love this.

00:41:08.240 The article,

00:41:08.820 the Chronicle says,

00:41:09.980 nobody can figure out why.

00:41:12.220 It's completely inexplicable.

00:41:13.960 The experts we talk about

00:41:15.260 have no idea

00:41:16.280 why the murder rate

00:41:17.020 is dropping,

00:41:17.580 and it, like,

00:41:18.000 doesn't occur to them

00:41:19.220 that arresting and deporting

00:41:21.220 murderers and gangbangers

00:41:22.480 will reduce the murder rate.

00:41:25.020 Like, it's not,

00:41:26.560 this is not rocket science.

00:41:29.100 Yeah.

00:41:29.400 Fewer murderers

00:41:30.240 means fewer murders.

00:41:31.520 But yet,

00:41:33.460 to Democrats,

00:41:35.300 that makes no sense to them.

00:41:36.540 Yeah.

00:41:37.420 And so,

00:41:37.960 that message was good.

00:41:39.220 I also liked on

00:41:40.220 No Tax on Tips

00:41:41.100 that he had the mom

00:41:43.560 who was the waitress 1.00

00:41:44.540 stand up

00:41:45.880 and he said,

00:41:47.080 between No Tax on Tips

00:41:48.200 and No Tax on Overtime,

00:41:50.020 she's going to take home

00:41:52.020 $5,000 more this year

00:41:54.080 than last year.

00:41:54.880 That was real

00:41:55.880 and it's not abstract.

00:41:57.740 And by the way,

00:41:58.180 the Democrats

00:41:58.680 wouldn't applaud for her.

00:41:59.760 Like,

00:41:59.940 like,

00:42:00.160 like the mom waiting tables,

00:42:01.740 they're not rooting for her

00:42:03.020 and they want to take

00:42:04.380 that $5,000 from her.

00:42:05.400 And that's real money.

00:42:06.280 You know,

00:42:06.440 $5,000 is real money.

00:42:08.280 Yeah.

00:42:08.400 It's not some abstraction.

00:42:10.120 Israel is a very hot topic

00:42:12.140 right now

00:42:12.780 and with so many opinions

00:42:14.200 and emotions surrounding it,

00:42:15.780 it can feel hard

00:42:16.680 to know where to start.

00:42:17.960 The Bible tells us,

00:42:19.180 I will bless those

00:42:20.660 who bless you.

00:42:22.020 That isn't just

00:42:22.880 a comforting promise.

00:42:24.360 It's a clear calling

00:42:25.300 from God.

00:42:26.260 And today,

00:42:26.860 with anti-Semitism

00:42:27.820 rising around the world,

00:42:29.520 that calling is more urgent

00:42:31.080 than ever.

00:42:31.940 At a time when Jewish communities 0.98

00:42:33.360 are experiencing

00:42:34.200 more hostility,

00:42:35.480 more threats,

00:42:36.540 and more violence than ever,

00:42:38.180 Christians have a powerful

00:42:39.640 opportunity to respond

00:42:40.720 with God's love to say,

00:42:42.480 you are not alone.

00:42:44.360 When Christians choose 0.90

00:42:45.580 to bless Israel,

00:42:46.640 we're not entering

00:42:47.500 a political issue.

00:42:48.680 We're honoring

00:42:49.440 the root of our faith

00:42:50.720 and standing

00:42:51.540 against hatred.

00:42:52.920 Supporting Israel

00:42:53.700 is more than a belief.

00:42:55.300 It's a biblical mandate.

00:42:56.860 And by partnering

00:42:57.640 with the International Fellowship

00:42:59.500 of Christians and Jews,

00:43:00.800 you can push back

00:43:02.100 against darkness

00:43:02.980 and be a light

00:43:04.200 to God's people.

00:43:05.460 Learn how you can

00:43:06.340 bless Israel 0.97

00:43:07.120 and be blessed in return.

00:43:09.040 Visit ifcj.org today.

00:43:12.120 That's ifcj.org today.

00:43:14.400 Be a blessing.

00:43:15.460 Live in the world.

00:43:16.440 Answer the call.

00:43:17.680 So, nuts and bolts,

00:43:19.320 you know,

00:43:19.600 if this was a speech,

00:43:20.820 obviously geared

00:43:21.620 at the midterms,

00:43:22.920 do you think

00:43:23.560 it moves the needle?

00:43:26.160 If we can keep

00:43:27.060 message discipline

00:43:27.900 of focusing on it,

00:43:28.920 yes.

00:43:29.960 By the way,

00:43:30.540 yesterday morning,

00:43:32.520 you and I

00:43:33.060 have been talking about this.

00:43:33.620 I had breakfast

00:43:34.120 with Speaker Johnson

00:43:34.960 and you talk about

00:43:37.720 the reason why

00:43:38.140 I think this one sticks.

00:43:39.640 There is a very real sense

00:43:42.280 that Republican leadership

00:43:43.780 have our act together

00:43:45.080 for once

00:43:45.840 that we haven't had

00:43:46.780 in a long time.

00:43:48.160 I also think

00:43:49.220 that matters.

00:43:50.320 Speaker Johnson

00:43:50.980 understands he basically

00:43:51.980 has a one-person majority.

00:43:55.460 He does not want

00:43:56.200 to have

00:43:56.760 and President Trump

00:43:58.220 doesn't want to have

00:43:58.940 the Democrats

00:43:59.960 take over the House.

00:44:01.160 It is insanely slim

00:44:02.660 and I think

00:44:04.000 they're working

00:44:04.680 so well together

00:44:05.620 the same way,

00:44:06.300 Senator,

00:44:06.480 that you work

00:44:07.100 so well with the President.

00:44:08.340 There does seem to be

00:44:09.620 that we're actually

00:44:10.420 on the same team

00:44:11.380 for once.

00:44:12.000 I've not experienced

00:44:12.960 that many times

00:44:13.820 in my life

00:44:14.380 in the Republican Party.

00:44:15.700 Like,

00:44:15.940 there's always

00:44:16.380 the infighting.

00:44:17.220 We always want to

00:44:17.760 screw it up

00:44:18.240 when we get power.

00:44:19.380 There's different people

00:44:20.340 jacking for positions.

00:44:22.120 There does seem

00:44:22.960 to be a little bit

00:44:23.680 of momentum now

00:44:24.260 that we're on the same team

00:44:25.220 going to the midterms.

00:44:26.000 That's the other reason

00:44:26.580 I think this speech

00:44:27.380 will continue

00:44:28.080 and the momentum

00:44:28.720 because you have

00:44:29.280 Johnson and others

00:44:29.900 advocating.

00:44:31.440 Look,

00:44:31.920 I hope so.

00:44:33.080 To play devil's advocate,

00:44:35.680 we're a very divided country

00:44:37.480 and so the people

00:44:39.120 who hate Trump

00:44:39.820 still hate him

00:44:41.040 after this speech.

00:44:42.140 For sure.

00:44:42.700 Because they're not

00:44:43.020 actually listening.

00:44:46.240 And so,

00:44:46.940 I do think,

00:44:48.860 Ben,

00:44:49.060 you focused

00:44:49.580 on the right area

00:44:50.560 which is the people

00:44:51.660 who voted for him

00:44:52.780 in 24

00:44:53.320 but may be demoralized

00:44:56.200 by the press narrative

00:44:57.320 that has been driven

00:44:58.260 and to the extent

00:44:59.980 this focuses them on,

00:45:01.740 wow,

00:45:02.180 we're winning

00:45:02.780 some big,

00:45:03.580 big victories.

00:45:04.760 I also really liked,

00:45:06.080 look,

00:45:06.460 the no tax on tips

00:45:07.400 emphasis I liked

00:45:08.380 because I wrote

00:45:08.980 that bill

00:45:10.120 and I really liked

00:45:12.000 his emphasis

00:45:12.620 on the Trump accounts

00:45:14.300 because as you guys know

00:45:15.300 I wrote that too.

00:45:16.940 And the Democrats

00:45:18.180 wouldn't applaud for that.

00:45:19.100 Sorry,

00:45:19.520 I actually have to pause here

00:45:20.660 because I'm sitting

00:45:21.860 in the upper part

00:45:23.260 of the gallery

00:45:23.780 to the right

00:45:24.860 if you're the president

00:45:26.120 pointing

00:45:26.580 and you didn't get,

00:45:28.980 everyone was standing up

00:45:29.760 at certain moments.

00:45:30.900 That was one

00:45:31.340 where I bolted up

00:45:32.420 and other people

00:45:33.440 were kind of slower.

00:45:34.220 I think they didn't quite

00:45:34.900 process what the Trump

00:45:35.780 accounts meant.

00:45:36.720 I'm really into

00:45:38.140 the Trump accounts

00:45:38.860 like the Trump accounts

00:45:40.080 I think are such

00:45:41.340 a white pill,

00:45:43.360 you know,

00:45:43.780 focusing on families

00:45:45.680 which is an existential issue

00:45:47.260 it's so practical

00:45:47.980 and I'm going to

00:45:49.040 confess something

00:45:49.720 I should follow this

00:45:50.540 I'm like professionally

00:45:51.540 I'm supposed to

00:45:52.040 follow this closely

00:45:52.680 I did not know

00:45:54.460 that you were pushing

00:45:56.040 the Trump accounts

00:45:56.940 I wrote it.

00:45:58.680 Unbelievable.

00:45:59.240 I should have known

00:45:59.940 but I didn't know.

00:46:00.840 In fact,

00:46:01.440 do you want to hear

00:46:02.080 the story of the origin

00:46:03.040 of the Trump accounts?

00:46:04.080 It's a cool story

00:46:05.000 I've told it on the pod

00:46:05.900 but not in a while.

00:46:07.960 So,

00:46:08.680 they originated

00:46:10.020 from a poker game

00:46:10.860 in Vegas.

00:46:12.500 So,

00:46:12.900 as you guys know

00:46:13.700 I like poker.

00:46:15.540 By the way,

00:46:15.920 Michael,

00:46:16.280 were you invited

00:46:16.880 to this poker night?

00:46:17.780 I just want to be clear

00:46:18.440 about this.

00:46:19.020 I'm very offended

00:46:19.900 but I'll deal with that later.

00:46:21.880 I was not invited

00:46:23.460 to the poker game.

00:46:23.860 Okay,

00:46:24.000 neither was I.

00:46:24.460 Alright,

00:46:24.740 we're on the same team again.

00:46:25.740 Keep going,

00:46:26.320 Senator.

00:46:26.500 It was a poker game

00:46:27.700 for political donors.

00:46:29.240 If you guys want to

00:46:30.040 write me a check,

00:46:30.880 I'll invite you

00:46:31.540 to the poker game.

00:46:32.400 Okay,

00:46:33.160 so now he's saying

00:46:33.920 we're poor.

00:46:34.600 We're poor people now.

00:46:36.160 Got it.

00:46:36.340 We're just counters over here.

00:46:37.140 You're both rich podcasters

00:46:38.640 so,

00:46:39.060 you know,

00:46:39.420 you ought to be able

00:46:40.300 to write a check.

00:46:41.320 Michael,

00:46:41.680 if you and I ever

00:46:42.540 have a poker game,

00:46:43.600 I think we will

00:46:44.480 organize it next time.

00:46:45.820 We'll invite the center

00:46:46.740 in advance.

00:46:47.300 Do you agree with that?

00:46:48.160 We're very generous people.

00:46:49.280 Yes,

00:46:49.540 we are.

00:46:49.880 We're very kind podcasters.

00:46:51.620 Keep going with your story.

00:46:52.660 Alright,

00:46:53.020 so I do a poker fundraiser

00:46:54.480 typically in April

00:46:55.480 in Vegas.

00:46:56.860 And so,

00:46:57.260 not last April

00:46:58.160 but two Aprils ago

00:46:59.100 I was there

00:46:59.720 and typically

00:47:02.260 several poker pros

00:47:03.560 will come.

00:47:04.120 I'm buddies

00:47:04.480 with a number

00:47:04.840 of the poker pros.

00:47:06.260 And so,

00:47:06.860 we're sitting

00:47:07.420 at the Bellagio

00:47:08.140 at three in the morning

00:47:08.900 and Phil Helmuth,

00:47:10.000 who's one of the

00:47:12.140 greatest poker players

00:47:13.160 to have ever lived.

00:47:14.060 Phil would tell you

00:47:14.760 he is the greatest

00:47:15.640 poker player

00:47:16.540 to ever live.

00:47:17.460 And he's got

00:47:17.840 a real argument to it.

00:47:19.720 He's got,

00:47:20.360 I think,

00:47:20.580 15 bracelets.

00:47:21.680 So,

00:47:21.860 it's crazy.

00:47:23.760 That's a lot.

00:47:25.020 So,

00:47:25.460 we're sitting there

00:47:26.100 playing poker

00:47:26.780 and he asks me,

00:47:27.780 he says,

00:47:28.020 hey,

00:47:28.200 do you know

00:47:29.000 Brad Gerster?

00:47:31.380 And at the time

00:47:32.220 I didn't.

00:47:32.720 I'm like,

00:47:33.040 yeah,

00:47:33.200 who's he?

00:47:33.560 And he's a very

00:47:35.040 successful venture

00:47:36.180 capitalist

00:47:36.820 in Silicon Valley

00:47:39.000 and he has this idea

00:47:40.680 that was called

00:47:41.260 Invest America.

00:47:43.040 And I'm like,

00:47:43.360 what's that?

00:47:43.960 And Phil describes

00:47:44.820 it for a minute.

00:47:46.400 And I said,

00:47:46.960 hey,

00:47:47.160 that sounds like

00:47:48.100 something I'd be

00:47:48.920 really interested in.

00:47:50.640 And so,

00:47:51.480 Phil pulls out

00:47:52.240 his phone

00:47:53.000 and he puts together

00:47:54.440 a text thread

00:47:55.180 and connects me

00:47:56.020 and Brad

00:47:56.480 and says,

00:47:57.600 you two should talk,

00:47:58.920 you would really

00:47:59.340 like each other.

00:48:00.900 The next week,

00:48:02.680 Brad gets on a plane,

00:48:04.320 flies to D.C.,

00:48:05.700 comes to my office

00:48:07.300 and pitches

00:48:08.120 the Invest America accounts.

00:48:10.820 I immediately

00:48:11.600 called my policy team in

00:48:13.020 and said,

00:48:14.060 let's start drafting this.

00:48:15.640 So,

00:48:15.960 we drafted the legislation.

00:48:17.540 Now,

00:48:17.660 Brad has said

00:48:18.320 for months

00:48:19.620 he had talked

00:48:20.220 to a bunch

00:48:20.720 of other senators

00:48:21.340 and none of them 0.72

00:48:22.940 did a damn thing.

00:48:24.140 He talked to them 0.99

00:48:25.240 and they'd all

00:48:25.700 kind of nod

00:48:26.420 and be like,

00:48:27.140 yeah,

00:48:27.280 yeah,

00:48:27.380 that's a great idea

00:48:28.080 and then no one

00:48:28.520 would do anything.

00:48:28.960 We sat down

00:48:30.040 and wrote the bill.

00:48:31.760 That is the bill

00:48:33.520 that is Trump accounts.

00:48:35.460 It was my bill

00:48:36.120 that we wrote

00:48:37.840 and it is literally

00:48:40.800 the case

00:48:41.580 that if Phil Hellmuth

00:48:44.180 does not connect me

00:48:45.280 with Brad Gerstner

00:48:46.240 April a year ago,

00:48:47.900 there are no Trump accounts

00:48:49.420 and the American,

00:48:50.840 the kids of America

00:48:51.840 do not have trillions

00:48:53.140 in investments,

00:48:54.180 which is what they're

00:48:55.160 going to have

00:48:55.480 through Trump accounts.

00:48:56.180 You know,

00:48:56.460 this is the thing

00:48:57.420 I love about this.

00:48:57.760 You know what I heard there,

00:48:58.620 by the way?

00:48:59.140 I heard that,

00:48:59.980 could you imagine

00:49:00.880 the bills that could

00:49:01.820 have been written

00:49:02.520 if you,

00:49:03.980 Michael,

00:49:04.280 and I were there

00:49:05.120 at that table?

00:49:06.220 I know.

00:49:06.820 I mean,

00:49:07.540 the ideas that we could

00:49:09.040 have come up with,

00:49:09.880 we could have cured cancer

00:49:11.300 maybe at this point.

00:49:12.200 We could have ended

00:49:12.740 the 9th and 10th wars

00:49:13.960 that could have added

00:49:14.740 to the record

00:49:15.420 of the State Department.

00:49:16.560 The ending of the Michael

00:49:17.800 and Ben wars.

00:49:18.460 I like this.

00:49:18.980 You know,

00:49:19.300 the thing that I love

00:49:20.800 about the Trump accounts

00:49:22.000 in particular

00:49:22.540 from the Republican

00:49:24.160 coalitional standpoint

00:49:25.460 is, you know,

00:49:26.780 the right always has

00:49:27.760 all these different

00:49:28.340 ideological factions

00:49:29.760 because we're more

00:49:31.000 independent thinkers

00:49:31.720 and the left

00:49:32.680 has progressives

00:49:33.360 and very progressives

00:49:34.160 and John Fetterman,

00:49:35.200 I guess.

00:49:35.780 And we, you know,

00:49:36.420 we kind of have

00:49:36.980 all these divisions.

00:49:37.900 And so one of the divisions

00:49:38.960 that's come about

00:49:39.520 in recent years,

00:49:40.560 last five or ten years,

00:49:41.360 is people who are focused

00:49:42.980 on more of the common good,

00:49:45.360 you know,

00:49:45.540 kind of an Aristotelian

00:49:46.540 view of politics

00:49:47.400 and people who are more

00:49:48.500 focused on the libertarian view

00:49:49.960 that comes from

00:49:50.860 classical liberalism

00:49:51.700 up through, say, Hayek.

00:49:53.080 And what I love

00:49:54.060 about the Trump accounts

00:49:54.940 is it actually marries the two.

00:49:56.920 Yep.

00:49:57.140 It's this beautiful,

00:49:58.500 it just hits this sweet spot.

00:50:00.720 It's good.

00:50:01.160 That, no flattery

00:50:02.580 because I actually

00:50:03.280 didn't even know

00:50:03.900 you were behind it.

00:50:04.700 That is really good stuff.

00:50:06.360 By the way,

00:50:06.720 we had Brad on verdict.

00:50:09.300 No, no,

00:50:09.860 he's come on verdict

00:50:10.820 and talked about

00:50:11.560 the whole idea.

00:50:12.420 That's great.

00:50:12.820 And Brad came up

00:50:14.300 with the idea

00:50:14.840 with his two teenage sons

00:50:16.300 and they spent years

00:50:18.320 pushing it

00:50:19.080 and it,

00:50:21.020 and Brad was there

00:50:22.200 and recognized

00:50:22.760 by the president

00:50:23.300 of the State of the Union.

00:50:25.400 So Brad had put together

00:50:26.900 a CEO's council

00:50:27.900 behind the

00:50:28.660 Invest America accounts

00:50:29.740 and the chairman of it

00:50:31.000 was Michael Dell.

00:50:32.160 And Michael's

00:50:32.800 a good friend of mine.

00:50:33.340 He's a Texan.

00:50:34.000 We spent a lot of time together.

00:50:35.960 And the CEOs

00:50:37.960 had all committed

00:50:38.860 that they would

00:50:40.600 contribute or match

00:50:41.860 to Trump accounts.

00:50:42.560 So there are two accelerators

00:50:43.820 that are written

00:50:44.320 into these Trump accounts

00:50:45.680 that make them

00:50:46.140 even more potent.

00:50:47.600 Number one

00:50:48.360 is that employers

00:50:49.340 could contribute or match.

00:50:50.640 And listen,

00:50:52.360 when Congress passed

00:50:54.640 Section 401k of ERISA,

00:50:58.120 nobody knew

00:50:59.160 how fundamentally

00:50:59.880 they were changing

00:51:00.680 how Americans

00:51:01.300 saved for retirement.

00:51:02.820 Today,

00:51:03.420 there's more than

00:51:04.040 $12 trillion

00:51:04.920 in 401k accounts.

00:51:07.480 Trump accounts

00:51:08.360 are 401ks for kids.

00:51:09.620 So in very short order,

00:51:11.780 you're going to see

00:51:12.280 trillions of dollars

00:51:13.380 in there.

00:51:16.600 The two accelerators,

00:51:18.440 one is that employers

00:51:19.800 can contribute or match.

00:51:21.000 And so all the employers

00:51:22.100 on the CEO council

00:51:23.300 had already committed,

00:51:25.060 we're going to contribute

00:51:25.760 or match.

00:51:26.600 This is going to become

00:51:27.700 a ubiquitous,

00:51:28.520 a standard

00:51:29.340 employee benefit,

00:51:30.720 just like

00:51:31.240 a 401k contribution

00:51:33.300 is a pretty standard

00:51:34.240 employee benefit.

00:51:35.920 You're going to see employers,

00:51:37.100 we're already seeing

00:51:37.620 a bunch

00:51:38.040 who will match

00:51:40.160 or contribute

00:51:40.840 to the Trump accounts

00:51:42.260 of the kids

00:51:42.740 of their employees.

00:51:43.580 So that accelerates

00:51:44.620 massively.

00:51:45.680 The second thing,

00:51:46.540 and we deliberately

00:51:47.320 wrote this

00:51:48.160 so that it can

00:51:49.540 accept philanthropy

00:51:50.680 and it can accept

00:51:51.520 charitable gifts.

00:51:53.380 And as you know,

00:51:55.480 Michael and Susan Dell

00:51:56.560 have given

00:51:57.900 six and a quarter

00:51:59.120 billion dollars

00:52:00.260 and what they've given

00:52:01.840 is $250

00:52:02.920 for America's

00:52:05.180 250th birthday

00:52:06.100 to every child

00:52:09.080 in America

00:52:09.740 under age 10

00:52:11.140 who lives

00:52:13.220 in a zip code

00:52:14.120 where the median

00:52:15.400 income is

00:52:16.020 $150,000 or less.

00:52:17.880 And so we wrote it

00:52:19.080 so you can turn

00:52:19.900 the dials.

00:52:20.700 You can turn

00:52:21.400 the dials geographically,

00:52:22.840 you can turn

00:52:23.640 the dials age-wise,

00:52:24.860 you can turn

00:52:25.240 the dials income-wise.

00:52:27.080 So Michael's done that.

00:52:29.460 Brad Gerstner

00:52:30.380 has given

00:52:33.220 $250

00:52:33.900 to every kid

00:52:35.980 in Indiana

00:52:36.720 under age 5

00:52:38.080 in zip codes

00:52:39.880 with median income

00:52:41.420 of $150,000 or less.

00:52:43.440 And Ray Dalio,

00:52:44.360 the hedge fund billionaire,

00:52:45.640 has sponsored

00:52:46.600 the kids in Connecticut.

00:52:48.080 That's so cool.

00:52:48.720 And I actually

00:52:49.540 have talked

00:52:50.100 to a number

00:52:51.180 of gazillionaires

00:52:51.960 and Michael Dell

00:52:55.740 and Brad

00:52:56.520 are getting on Zooms

00:52:57.760 and talking to people

00:52:58.760 with great wealth.

00:52:59.500 That's awesome.

00:53:00.380 encouraging them

00:53:01.780 to give your resources.

00:53:03.980 And here,

00:53:04.260 Michael and I

00:53:04.660 have talked at length

00:53:05.300 about that.

00:53:05.740 And one of the things

00:53:06.700 that he got excited about.

00:53:09.200 So, look,

00:53:10.720 Michael and Susan

00:53:11.580 have between

00:53:12.340 $100 billion

00:53:13.060 and $200 billion.

00:53:14.360 Like, it's a massive

00:53:15.560 amount of money.

00:53:16.840 And they're smart

00:53:17.920 and responsible.

00:53:19.260 And so they've had

00:53:20.040 serious conversations

00:53:21.260 about how do you

00:53:22.960 give away your fortune.

00:53:24.340 Yeah.

00:53:24.400 And, look,

00:53:27.220 you look at people

00:53:28.260 who've achieved

00:53:28.700 great fortunes.

00:53:29.560 They create a foundation.

00:53:31.280 The foundation

00:53:31.920 gets taken over

00:53:32.780 by a bunch of Marxists

00:53:33.880 who spend all their money

00:53:34.820 undermining everything

00:53:35.640 the founders believed.

00:53:36.620 Every time.

00:53:37.360 Right.

00:53:37.720 Henry Ford

00:53:38.420 is rolling over

00:53:39.120 in his grave.

00:53:40.720 John D. Rockefeller

00:53:41.920 is spitting in his grave.

00:53:45.680 And one of the problems

00:53:47.140 with that much money

00:53:48.600 is it's hard

00:53:50.960 to give it away.

00:53:51.640 Most charities

00:53:52.280 can't take a billion dollars.

00:53:53.620 Like, it's too much money

00:53:54.800 and it swamps them.

00:53:55.940 Yeah.

00:53:56.560 So, Michael and Susan

00:53:58.260 have given

00:53:58.720 $6.25 billion.

00:54:00.760 But they've told me

00:54:02.360 they are contemplating

00:54:03.580 giving much,

00:54:05.280 much more than that.

00:54:06.500 That's so cool.

00:54:07.760 One of the things

00:54:08.660 that's really powerful

00:54:09.580 about these Trump accounts

00:54:10.620 is they're infinitely scalable.

00:54:13.460 Yeah.

00:54:14.520 They could literally

00:54:15.800 absorb the entirety

00:54:17.440 of Michael Dell's fortune

00:54:20.300 and the fortune

00:54:21.140 of every other gazillionaire.

00:54:24.400 And what is really potent

00:54:26.500 is the time value

00:54:28.280 of investing.

00:54:29.020 Look, if someone starts

00:54:30.180 saving or investing

00:54:31.180 when they're 60,

00:54:32.960 it's hard for it

00:54:34.460 to grow and accumulate

00:54:35.740 enough to be

00:54:37.600 really significant

00:54:38.520 by the time they retire.

00:54:40.620 What makes the Trump account

00:54:43.220 so incredibly potent

00:54:44.660 is we're starting

00:54:46.920 at age zero.

00:54:48.080 Yeah.

00:54:48.340 We're starting at babies

00:54:49.660 so you've got

00:54:50.380 a time horizon

00:54:51.500 where the kids

00:54:53.360 of a single mom

00:54:54.440 waiting table

00:54:55.240 Yeah.

00:54:56.000 can accumulate

00:54:57.240 hundreds of thousands

00:54:58.720 and even millions

00:54:59.800 of dollars.

00:55:00.560 Yeah.

00:55:00.960 And so for philanthropy,

00:55:03.000 the math is powerful.

00:55:04.400 If you put another

00:55:05.120 thousand dollars

00:55:06.000 in at the outset,

00:55:06.840 it really, really grows.

00:55:09.760 And so that's something

00:55:10.940 that is going to be

00:55:11.780 really significant

00:55:13.300 to speed these up.

00:55:15.100 And the point, Michael,

00:55:16.500 you made,

00:55:16.960 which got me really excited

00:55:18.760 is we're creating

00:55:21.080 a new generation

00:55:21.800 of capitalists.

00:55:22.400 Amen to that.

00:55:23.440 Every kid

00:55:24.260 will have skin in the game

00:55:26.040 and be an owner

00:55:27.500 of the biggest employers

00:55:28.420 in America.

00:55:28.920 I thought this was

00:55:29.800 a really important point

00:55:30.840 the president touched on.

00:55:32.100 Well, one,

00:55:32.800 the Trump accounts

00:55:33.700 just do that.

00:55:35.400 So it gives people

00:55:36.520 skin in the game.

00:55:37.280 Even when the president

00:55:38.220 pointed out only half

00:55:39.160 of Americans have access

00:55:40.100 to 401ks.

00:55:40.880 Yeah.

00:55:41.360 He said,

00:55:41.780 we want to bring

00:55:43.100 that other half of Americans.

00:55:43.960 Let them opt in

00:55:44.960 to the thrift savings plan.

00:55:46.320 That's an idea

00:55:46.860 I've talked with the president

00:55:47.820 in the White House about.

00:55:48.980 I think it's a brilliant idea.

00:55:50.140 I strongly support it.

00:55:51.900 I'm working on legislation

00:55:52.900 to do that as well,

00:55:53.840 to codify that.

00:55:54.760 Great.

00:55:55.680 Because it's,

00:55:56.720 look,

00:55:56.960 the more you can

00:55:57.980 create investors,

00:56:00.360 get people with equity,

00:56:02.580 and one of the important things

00:56:03.920 about how the administration

00:56:05.940 is designing

00:56:06.880 the Trump accounts app

00:56:08.040 is that it is not

00:56:10.660 going to simply say

00:56:11.880 you've got X dollars

00:56:13.740 in the S&P 500.

00:56:15.140 Yeah.

00:56:15.960 It's going to break down

00:56:17.380 every constituent stock

00:56:19.260 they own within it.

00:56:20.420 That's awesome.

00:56:21.100 So a 10-year-old

00:56:22.000 will be able to see,

00:56:23.200 I own $100 of apples.

00:56:25.020 Yeah.

00:56:25.580 Or Tesla,

00:56:26.860 or Ford,

00:56:27.560 or McDonald's,

00:56:28.940 and they'll see.

00:56:30.280 So a kid won't be rooting,

00:56:33.020 I hate evil corporations,

00:56:34.360 I want them to fail.

00:56:35.240 They're going to be like,

00:56:35.640 wait, I own that corporation.

00:56:36.960 Yes.

00:56:37.200 I want them to do better.

00:56:39.000 That changes

00:56:39.660 their whole world view.

00:56:40.780 It makes them capitalists.

00:56:42.120 You know,

00:56:42.500 even during

00:56:43.620 one of the big crises

00:56:44.700 of capitalism

00:56:45.320 in the early 20th century,

00:56:47.500 where you had

00:56:48.320 real excesses

00:56:49.500 of industrialization

00:56:50.440 that created,

00:56:51.040 you know,

00:56:51.320 like child labor 1.00

00:56:51.940 and all this stuff,

00:56:52.400 there was this movement

00:56:54.360 among serious

00:56:55.520 Christian thinkers

00:56:56.280 to try to resolve

00:56:58.520 these tensions

00:56:59.100 between capitalism

00:56:59.840 and the working poor.

00:57:01.860 And there were all these,

00:57:02.680 Chesterton had a version

00:57:03.680 with Belloc,

00:57:04.760 distributism,

00:57:05.660 and the whole point,

00:57:06.740 and theirs didn't really work,

00:57:08.340 but the whole point was

00:57:09.520 you need people

00:57:10.700 to really have a stake

00:57:13.320 in the society,

00:57:15.160 in following subsidiarity

00:57:16.400 and, you know,

00:57:17.660 all these principles

00:57:18.320 that are so enshrined

00:57:19.220 in the American system, too.

00:57:20.640 And this really does that,

00:57:23.200 where you think,

00:57:23.700 oh, I have a stake

00:57:24.420 in the corporations.

00:57:25.680 I have a stake in this.

00:57:26.560 By the way,

00:57:26.780 I miss geeky,

00:57:28.540 cerebral academic stuff

00:57:29.920 on the pod.

00:57:30.600 I will say

00:57:31.420 the sort of tenor

00:57:32.780 of verdict has shifted.

00:57:34.660 I don't know why.

00:57:35.680 I can't imagine the cause,

00:57:37.200 but I'm just saying,

00:57:38.600 you know,

00:57:39.900 I'm having a waft

00:57:40.920 of nostalgia.

00:57:41.880 There's a little more

00:57:42.660 Chesterton comes in, yes.

00:57:44.540 All the people

00:57:45.160 that just fell asleep,

00:57:46.380 wake back up,

00:57:47.120 I got you back,

00:57:47.880 keep going, okay.

00:57:48.760 All right, all right,

00:57:49.180 wake up now, all right.

00:57:50.320 Our audience level

00:57:52.060 just went like this,

00:57:53.100 but we're back now.

00:57:53.840 They're all awake again.

00:57:54.640 Make your final point,

00:57:55.580 go ahead.

00:57:58.300 This key is really important

00:58:00.600 because this is what

00:58:01.560 really jazzed me about it.

00:58:03.300 I don't like it

00:58:04.560 when the right fractures

00:58:05.520 into a million directions

00:58:06.380 because, you know,

00:58:07.200 I feel for Speaker Johnson.

00:58:09.620 He has the worst job

00:58:10.920 in all of politics.

00:58:12.040 Yes.

00:58:12.280 He has to herd

00:58:12.800 a bunch of cats.

00:58:14.060 They all have

00:58:14.520 all sorts of views.

00:58:15.400 They have all sorts

00:58:15.920 of principles,

00:58:16.780 some of which

00:58:17.120 conflict with each other.

00:58:18.180 And so it's hard

00:58:18.840 to get the right

00:58:19.380 to do anything together.

00:58:21.240 And he is a good

00:58:22.640 and decent man.

00:58:23.800 He's a good friend.

00:58:24.400 He's doing an amazing job.

00:58:25.700 Yeah, he's a wonderful guy

00:58:27.780 and he's doing a great,

00:58:28.700 he happens to also

00:58:29.520 be doing a great job.

00:58:30.680 But I just think

00:58:31.200 what the President

00:58:32.540 was speaking on,

00:58:33.160 especially these kinds

00:58:33.900 of issues,

00:58:34.800 these are the kind

00:58:35.520 of things that can

00:58:36.220 actually rally

00:58:37.340 the right together

00:58:38.060 with moderate voters,

00:58:40.400 frankly,

00:58:40.900 even center-left,

00:58:41.700 who don't want

00:58:42.540 the craziness.

00:58:42.960 Final question

00:58:43.720 for each of you quickly

00:58:44.820 as we are hitting

00:58:45.900 about an hour here

00:58:47.120 in our State of the Union

00:58:48.480 coverage.

00:58:50.340 Over, under,

00:58:52.180 on the midterms now,

00:58:53.900 how much better

00:58:54.720 do you feel

00:58:55.240 going at leaving

00:58:56.340 the end of the night

00:58:57.200 compared to going

00:58:58.040 into the beginning

00:58:58.640 of the speech tonight?

00:58:59.540 How much more optimistic

00:59:00.920 are you that we can

00:59:01.660 hold the House?

00:59:04.800 Hold the House?

00:59:06.740 It's going to be

00:59:07.440 very hard,

00:59:08.180 in my view,

00:59:08.600 to hold the House.

00:59:09.200 I would say,

00:59:11.120 look,

00:59:11.360 I feel,

00:59:11.980 I'll just pick a number,

00:59:13.020 I feel 20% better

00:59:14.580 if the Republicans

00:59:16.160 can stay on message,

00:59:18.400 if the Republicans

00:59:19.260 cannot devolve

00:59:20.140 into petty infighting,

00:59:21.540 if the Republicans

00:59:22.400 can be disciplined

00:59:23.900 in the way

00:59:25.740 they campaign.

00:59:26.960 These are all,

00:59:27.680 you know,

00:59:27.900 if wishes were horses,

00:59:29.500 beggars would ride. 0.59

00:59:30.660 I still think

00:59:31.760 historic headwinds,

00:59:33.160 best of circumstances,

00:59:34.840 the party in power,

00:59:36.080 especially with

00:59:36.460 unified government,

00:59:37.200 loses the House

00:59:37.800 in the midterms.

00:59:38.420 However,

00:59:39.380 I think that the

00:59:40.240 president did

00:59:40.680 every single thing

00:59:42.700 possible

00:59:43.380 to put the party

00:59:45.240 in an advantage

00:59:45.960 heading into November.

00:59:46.540 Senator?

00:59:48.240 And look,

00:59:49.080 my view,

00:59:51.080 right now,

00:59:52.620 the political environment

00:59:54.280 is rough.

00:59:54.920 Yes.

00:59:55.480 If the election

00:59:56.680 were today,

00:59:58.020 it would not be

00:59:59.180 a great outcome.

01:00:00.760 We are nationally

01:00:02.240 in about a

01:00:03.180 D plus six environment.

01:00:04.920 What that means

01:00:05.700 is where polling

01:00:07.580 is nationally

01:00:08.420 is about six points

01:00:09.500 more Democrat

01:00:10.140 than it was

01:00:10.740 on election day

01:00:11.420 in 2024.

01:00:13.020 If we're in a

01:00:14.020 D plus six environment,

01:00:15.800 we lose the House

01:00:17.540 and the Senate

01:00:19.400 is potentially

01:00:20.100 in jeopardy.

01:00:21.220 Crazy.

01:00:22.580 If the election

01:00:23.600 were today,

01:00:24.260 that would be

01:00:24.760 a real possibility.

01:00:26.440 The good news

01:00:27.300 is we got eight months

01:00:28.100 and the substantive

01:00:30.880 record is

01:00:31.700 phenomenally good.

01:00:33.060 It's not just

01:00:33.500 a little bit good.

01:00:34.400 Yeah.

01:00:35.000 It is insanely good.

01:00:37.180 And so tonight

01:00:37.920 was encouraging

01:00:38.860 because Trump

01:00:39.760 focused most

01:00:40.720 of his time

01:00:41.480 on laying out

01:00:43.240 methodically

01:00:44.080 that substantive

01:00:44.880 record

01:00:45.300 and just how

01:00:46.160 good it is.

01:00:47.700 And what we

01:00:48.380 have to do,

01:00:49.360 I mean,

01:00:49.640 I do like

01:00:50.320 that we have

01:00:50.720 eight months.

01:00:52.200 Most Americans

01:00:53.000 don't know

01:00:53.620 all these victories

01:00:54.360 we're winning.

01:00:54.860 Exactly.

01:00:55.240 And so our task

01:00:56.520 is communicate

01:00:58.140 the victories

01:01:00.160 that are making

01:01:00.840 a real difference

01:01:01.900 in people's lives.

01:01:02.980 But the good news

01:01:03.880 is we have

01:01:05.680 a monster amount

01:01:06.840 of substance

01:01:07.420 to talk about.

01:01:08.260 We just need

01:01:08.860 to talk about it.

01:01:09.920 And I think

01:01:11.180 if we make

01:01:11.660 that case,

01:01:13.660 we could certainly

01:01:14.760 keep the House

01:01:16.880 and the Senate

01:01:17.620 and grow our

01:01:18.220 majorities in both.

01:01:18.880 There you go.

01:01:19.700 Michael,

01:01:20.160 next year,

01:01:21.000 say the union,

01:01:21.700 you and I

01:01:22.020 will be hanging out.

01:01:22.820 We'll make sure

01:01:23.380 we invite Senator Cruz.

01:01:24.500 And so we can

01:01:25.640 Maybe we will.

01:01:27.600 Maybe.

01:01:28.040 You're going to make

01:01:28.480 me fly home?

01:01:29.220 We might make you

01:01:30.080 fly somewhere.

01:01:30.760 Exactly.

01:01:31.340 We'll tell you

01:01:32.080 why you're on the tarmac.

01:01:33.160 Don't worry.

01:01:33.700 There'll be plenty

01:01:34.160 of time for you

01:01:34.700 to get off the plane.

01:01:35.680 Don't forget

01:01:36.240 we do this show

01:01:36.860 Monday, Wednesday,

01:01:37.480 Friday.

01:01:37.940 Always a pleasure

01:01:38.580 to have you,

01:01:39.280 Michael,

01:01:40.180 hanging out

01:01:40.720 on a really fun

01:01:41.860 evening.

01:01:43.000 Hit the download

01:01:43.680 auto-subscribe button.

01:01:45.360 You can watch us

01:01:45.960 on YouTube

01:01:46.440 or Facebook as well.

01:01:48.220 The Senate

01:01:48.500 and I will see you

01:01:49.080 back here

01:01:49.540 in a couple of days.

01:01:51.340 This is an

01:01:51.980 iHeart Podcast.

01:01:52.880 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - February 25, 2026

State of the Union Extravaganza

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