Verdict with Ted Cruz - November 13, 2024


Strong Trump Cabinet Comes Together, plus Kamala had to PAY Celebrities to Stand beside Her


Episode Stats


Length

50 minutes

Words per minute

169.28595

Word count

8,621

Sentence count

618

Harmful content

Misogyny

10

sentences flagged

Toxicity

18

sentences flagged

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Ted Cruz and Ben Fergusons discuss Trump's Cabinet picks and what to expect in the next couple of months. They also talk about the Democratic Party's corruption problem and why you should switch to a conservative cell phone company.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.540 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.560 Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:09.880 And Senator, it is a victory dance.
00:00:13.340 It's got some meat and potatoes with it.
00:00:15.920 Donald Trump putting together his cabinet.
00:00:18.920 And it is, well, making the media light their hair on fire.
00:00:22.460 And a lot of conservatives that voted for Donald Trump are liking the payoff.
00:00:26.140 There's consequences when you win.
00:00:28.380 And when you lose, especially if you're a Democrat today.
00:00:32.760 Well, change is on the way.
00:00:34.440 And the change is coming, as Trump would say, bigly.
00:00:38.560 We are seeing major nominations for cabinet members, for senior officials in the White House.
00:00:44.840 We're going to go through all of those, give you a sense of where the new administration is coming out,
00:00:50.080 give you a sense of what to expect in the next two months.
00:00:52.520 And then in January, when the new Congress is sworn in, and then when the new president is sworn in.
00:00:57.060 We're also going to tell you a particularly, I just think, funny story about how utterly corrupt today's Democrat Party is.
00:01:05.680 About how they paid millions and millions of dollars for their celebrity, quote, endorsers.
00:01:10.900 That Kamala was basically in the business of purchasing fake endorsements. 0.97
00:01:15.260 And I got to say, the fake endorsements, they didn't work, but they sure did spend a lot of money giving Hollywood celebrities cash to pretend they had political views and to hope that that would move voters' votes.
00:01:30.760 Yeah, it was a lot, a lot of cash, and donors aren't happy about it.
00:01:35.040 We're going to break that down as well.
00:01:36.700 I want to tell you about Patriot Mobile.
00:01:38.540 If you have a cell phone, and 99% of you listening right now do, how would you like to know that every time you make a call, every time you send a text,
00:01:46.080 you're actually making a difference and standing up for your conservative Christian values?
00:01:50.460 Well, you may not realize with the big mobile provider that you're paying right now, they're actually doing the opposite of that with your money.
00:01:57.000 Big Mobile has been giving massive donations to democratic causes, candidates, and organizations for years.
00:02:06.480 Extreme organizations, organizations that are paying for abortions right now.
00:02:11.100 And that is exactly why over a decade ago, Patriot Mobile was started.
00:02:14.900 There was a group of conservatives that said it's ridiculous that our money is going to fight against what we believe in and our values.
00:02:20.540 And they said, we're going to start our own company.
00:02:22.440 And not only do they do it, but they have grown it to something that's truly incredible.
00:02:27.020 Now, in 2024, you don't have to worry about logistics like you used to 10 years ago.
00:02:31.540 You don't have to worry about coverage issues because in 2024, everybody is using the same networks and the same towers.
00:02:38.040 So you get the same coverage you used to without the woke extreme agenda of the left.
00:02:43.060 And then this is the part I love the most about Patriot Mobile and why I want you to switch and join me as a customer.
00:02:49.020 Because when you make a phone call and when you pay your bill, you're making a difference because they take about 5% of your bill every month.
00:02:56.320 And they give it back to conservative causes that stand up for our First and Second Amendment rights, the rights of unborn babies.
00:03:03.680 And they stand with our military, our veterans, our first responders, and our wounded warrior heroes.
00:03:09.080 So I know when I pay my bill, not only am I paying for a bill I'm going to have every month, I'm making a difference.
00:03:14.760 Make the switch and I'm going to give you one month free service right now.
00:03:18.320 Go to PatriotMobile.com slash verdict.
00:03:21.380 That's PatriotMobile.com slash verdict.
00:03:25.420 PatriotMobile.com slash verdict or call them 972-PATRIOT.
00:03:29.620 That's 972-PATRIOT.
00:03:31.320 Or PatriotMobile.com slash verdict and get one month free.
00:03:34.520 So, Senator, this is an interesting list of all these different positions that have been filled by Trump early on.
00:03:43.520 You and I were talking before the show.
00:03:45.720 We actually know these people.
00:03:48.120 I know several of them very well.
00:03:49.580 You know them well also.
00:03:52.820 And I actually want to start with a really important post.
00:03:56.560 And that is the ambassador to Israel.
00:03:59.440 And former governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, is getting that position.
00:04:03.840 That one made me grin from ear to ear.
00:04:07.120 Well, Mike Huckabee will do a terrific job in that regard.
00:04:11.040 Huckabee obviously was governor of Arkansas, but also was a Baptist pastor for many years.
00:04:16.820 And Mike loves Israel.
00:04:19.180 He loves the people of Israel.
00:04:20.860 He loves the Jewish people.
00:04:23.160 He has been an outspoken advocate for Israel.
00:04:25.960 And I think it will be an appointment that he will enjoy profoundly.
00:04:30.240 It will be markedly different from how things have been under the last four years.
00:04:34.420 And I think it shows just how important changing the page on the Biden-Harris abandonment of Israel will be.
00:04:42.900 Because Mike Huckabee will stand unshakably with the state of Israel.
00:04:47.240 And that's going to be also President Trump's view, is to stand unshakably with Israel. 0.60
00:04:52.880 It's why under the Trump administration in the first term we saw peace flower in the Middle East.
00:04:58.460 It's why we saw war break out in the Middle East, because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris undermined Israel and sent billions of dollars to our enemies.
00:05:06.800 It's a great appointment.
00:05:08.000 And, you know, as you're looking at the appointments that have come out, let's start with the White House.
00:05:13.600 So the White House are the kind of core team right around the president.
00:05:17.360 First appointment that was announced is the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles.
00:05:21.520 Now, who is Susie Wiles? 1.00
00:05:23.080 Susie Wiles is President Trump's campaign manager.
00:05:26.480 She's been a political operative forever.
00:05:29.540 She's going to become the first woman to serve as a White House chief of staff. 0.99
00:05:33.520 And Susie is someone who has worked for – she ran Rick Scott's campaign when he ran for governor.
00:05:44.720 She ran Ron DeSantis' campaign.
00:05:47.500 And, in fact, if you go way back, she was deputy director during Reagan's 1980 campaign.
00:05:54.820 So she's a longtime political operative.
00:05:57.220 I'll tell you, I know Susie a little bit.
00:05:58.980 I don't know her very well, but her reputation is someone who's very effective, who doesn't like the limelight, is not out seeking to be in front, is not looking for a bunch of glowing media profiles.
00:06:12.200 We saw that on election night when Donald Trump tried to get her to talk, and she wouldn't do it.
00:06:16.460 She went to the back of the stage.
00:06:20.140 It was like she walked up, said hello, and then left.
00:06:22.460 I mean, that tells you.
00:06:23.060 Have you ever seen that in all of politics?
00:06:25.220 Have you ever seen that?
00:06:25.900 No, everybody's usually clamoring to get in front of a microphone and talk and have their moment in the sunshine.
00:06:32.420 And it was very clear there.
00:06:33.760 I think her body language that night was, we've got work to do.
00:06:38.560 Like, yeah, we just won.
00:06:39.500 But now the work begins, and that is her type of focus and also really her M.O. for her entire career.
00:06:46.580 Look, Susie's reputation is as a serious person who gets things done. 0.97
00:06:50.600 That's a good thing.
00:06:51.620 I will tell you, objectively speaking, Trump's 2024 campaign was by far his best run campaign.
00:06:59.380 It wasn't even close.
00:07:00.320 It was much, much better than how the 2016 campaign was run, and it was much, much better than how the 2020 campaign was run.
00:07:06.780 There was greater organization.
00:07:09.240 There was greater discipline.
00:07:10.400 There was better execution.
00:07:11.640 It just, they played at a different level.
00:07:13.920 So that's a strong opening appointment.
00:07:16.280 Now, right behind it is the deputy chief of staff, the deputy chief of staff for policy, and that's Stephen Miller.
00:07:22.920 Now, Stephen is someone I know very, very well.
00:07:25.880 Stephen used to be a Hill staffer.
00:07:28.840 He was Jeff Sessions' top person on immigration policy when Sessions was a senator, was a colleague of mine.
00:07:37.120 Sessions was one of the leading immigration hawks in the Senate.
00:07:42.080 And Stephen is smart as hell.
00:07:45.920 He knows the substance of immigration law exceedingly well.
00:07:50.500 And I'm confident there's not going to be literally a single person in the administration more committed to securing the border than Stephen Miller.
00:07:57.760 He wakes up focused on that.
00:07:59.960 That is his priority.
00:08:01.400 He is someone who, he was in, in the first Trump White House.
00:08:06.400 He was helping drive those policies, but from a lower profile position, deputy chief of staff for policy is a big deal.
00:08:14.100 I'm glad Stephen is in that job.
00:08:15.680 I think he'll do a very good job.
00:08:17.560 Well, let's talk about, when you expand out from there to some of the other positions,
00:08:22.140 Donald Trump is putting together, I think, a team of people that he trusts, that he feels like is ready to go to work.
00:08:31.320 Another example of that is the deep state.
00:08:33.680 We know what the deep state has done to conservatives.
00:08:36.720 We know what the deep state has done to Donald Trump and the people around him.
00:08:39.660 And someone that we both know well, a Texan, has been named CIA director in John Ratcliffe, former congressman from Texas in the Dallas area.
00:08:54.200 This is a big appointment, obviously, an important one, but also someone that saw from within in his last administration just how corrupt the deep state could be.
00:09:03.820 Yeah, I'm very glad with this pick.
00:09:05.720 John Ratcliffe is a good friend of mine.
00:09:07.560 He's someone I know very well.
00:09:08.780 He's someone who, candidly, I urge the Trump administration to appoint to this position.
00:09:13.900 I think John is a good choice.
00:09:15.820 You know, John was in the first Trump administration.
00:09:19.760 He was he was a member of Congress and then he was the director of national intelligence.
00:09:24.460 And he really did an effective job taking on the deep state and at a level that is exceptionally rare.
00:09:33.260 It's hard to do.
00:09:34.680 And John showed a seriousness.
00:09:36.320 He'd been a U.S. attorney before the Department of Justice.
00:09:39.280 He he has demonstrated a courage to take on embedded bureaucrats who are fighting against the president, fighting against the agenda of the president.
00:09:49.840 And I think really fighting against the national interest.
00:09:52.880 And sadly, after years of Obama and now Biden, you have hardcore leftists who have burrowed into two senior positions.
00:10:01.420 And they don't view their roles in those positions as as carrying out the policy priorities of the elected president.
00:10:09.260 They don't view the the role of those positions as as following the instructions that they're given.
00:10:16.800 And rather, they view their role as fighting against presidents they hate and policies they hate.
00:10:22.860 And I think John is a serious guy who is going to be well positioned to to try to turn that around.
00:10:31.880 Look, turning CIA around is not easy, but I think John is a very, very good choice.
00:10:36.840 As I said, he was one of the people that I've already leaned in.
00:10:40.580 And I urged the transition team to make exactly this appointment.
00:10:43.960 So I think it's an excellent one. Let's talk about D.O.D.
00:10:47.900 Traditionally, it's been someone that's been a little bit older at the Department of Defense.
00:10:53.660 It's so funny how quick these things happen and how things can change.
00:10:58.200 You and I were at the that the Republican convention and the night of the of Trump's acceptance speech, that final night afterwards,
00:11:07.700 I went on to host Fox Nation with the guy who's now been appointed, Pete Hedgeth, as a secretary of defense.
00:11:16.720 Jesse Waters and Fox tonight.
00:11:18.740 They were just talking about how much they love this guy, how much how well they know him,
00:11:23.580 how he's an individual that has not only served his country in Iraq and Afghanistan,
00:11:27.760 but he's also Ivy League educated, very smart guy, family man, actually lives in Tennessee and would go up to New York on the weekends to host Fox and Friends weekend.
00:11:39.020 And and all of a sudden, I think he shocked the world.
00:11:41.880 Trump did when he said, hey, I'm appointing Pete as secretary of defense, saying no one loves America more than Pete does.
00:11:48.900 And he understands war. He understands how powerful it can be, how hard it can be, how disruptive it can be and how it can hurt people's families and American soldiers as well.
00:11:59.420 And and this is a guy that says, I don't want to start wars, I want to end wars, referring to Trump.
00:12:03.900 Pete's been to war in both of these countries in our lifetime and seen a lot.
00:12:08.600 Well, that's right. And Pete's someone who's a friend to both of us.
00:12:12.280 I like Pete personally. I consider him a friend. I think he does a great job.
00:12:16.400 You know, Pete's background. He was an infantry captain in the Army National Guard and he did tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
00:12:25.480 And he ended up earning two bronze stars.
00:12:29.620 He is currently one of the co-hosts for Fox and Friends weekend.
00:12:34.180 And and he has been since his military service, he has been in the media world more than anything else,
00:12:39.700 including writing an important book on taking on the woke DOD culture.
00:12:47.260 Look, this is a nomination that is going to get some pushback.
00:12:51.580 The Democrats are going to fight against this one.
00:12:53.920 I'm predicting a real battle because typically defense secretaries are people who've spent 30, 40, 50 years
00:13:04.300 either in the military running major military operations or running major logistical corporations, running big institutions.
00:13:14.100 And Pete does not have that background.
00:13:16.740 So I expect Democrats to attack him for that.
00:13:19.380 That being said, I assume that Trump has nominated Pete because he is in particular focused on
00:13:26.620 taking on the generals who were involved in the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal that was utterly disastrous.
00:13:34.640 He has also been really courageous and outspoken, fighting to eliminate the woke initiatives that have taken over the military.
00:13:44.700 And so I think Pete at DOD will do something very similar to what Ratcliffe is going to do at CIA,
00:13:52.380 which is he's going to come in with with a real mission of clearing out the hardcore partisans who burrowed into senior career positions.
00:14:02.000 I think that's a good thing.
00:14:03.080 But but I would also anticipate at his confirmation hearings, I think we'll see some fireworks.
00:14:08.340 I think we'll see some Democrats going after Pete.
00:14:11.160 And so so that'll that'll be a fight I expect in the Senate.
00:14:13.620 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders and the world around them. 0.97
00:14:20.620 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:14:24.440 I'm Jennifer Stewart and I'm Catherine Clark.
00:14:26.740 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:14:36.240 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:14:39.240 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:14:43.620 Let's talk about the arming this audience.
00:14:48.340 This is one of the reasons why I love this show is because we get to get people some of the talking points that they may not hear anywhere else.
00:14:56.860 And you look at Pete in his nomination.
00:14:59.380 You said there's going to be fireworks.
00:15:00.620 We've already seen a lot of this happen on social media over the last, I don't know, six, seven hours since this broke.
00:15:06.600 And they're like, he's unqualified.
00:15:09.220 You look at Pete.
00:15:10.800 He graduated from Princeton.
00:15:13.720 And then he has a graduate degree from Harvard.
00:15:17.460 He's an army combat.
00:15:19.480 Wait, let me stop you, Ben.
00:15:21.600 So you're saying, I just want to understand as an Ole Miss grad, you're saying it is a good thing to have a degree from Princeton and Harvard.
00:15:29.680 But I just want to specify exactly the meets and bounds of what you're saying.
00:15:34.260 All right.
00:15:34.500 I feel like I'm auditioning now for a job in the administration.
00:15:37.500 Let me clarify my remarks.
00:15:39.700 What I'm saying is it's not necessarily a bad thing to go to an Ivy League school, but obviously common sense and going to a Southern school.
00:15:47.620 And the charm with that is phenomenal as well. 0.94
00:15:49.720 Ben, I didn't get a chance to compliment you on the record for the ass-kicking that Ole Miss unleashed on Georgia. 0.80
00:15:57.800 Thank you. 0.91
00:15:58.400 I was waiting for the text.
00:15:59.900 I really was.
00:16:00.620 I thought for sure I was going to get a text from you about that game because it was unbelievable.
00:16:05.500 Like, holy cow.
00:16:06.660 You got reason to be pretty proud.
00:16:08.840 I knew you were in that moment thinking, man, that would have been fun to go to that school.
00:16:12.620 When you rushed the field at the end, you pulled out a goalpost.
00:16:15.200 Have y'all ever done a goalpost at the Ivy League school before?
00:16:18.280 I'm curious.
00:16:19.400 See, we don't actually score goals, so we don't have goalposts.
00:16:23.400 Fair enough.
00:16:25.480 So we go to the 50-yard line and we play chess.
00:16:28.600 It's a very different game.
00:16:29.940 We do it in pads, but it's chess nonetheless.
00:16:32.900 You know they say the biggest day at a football stadium at a Ivy League school is graduation day when you guys are actually getting graduated.
00:16:38.900 You know that, right?
00:16:39.560 Like, that's the most attended day there is.
00:16:41.100 All right, so I will tell you, when I was in college, George Schultz was the Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan, and he's a Princeton grad.
00:16:53.020 And the rumor, which everyone acknowledges, is that George Schultz had on his rear end a tattoo of a Princeton Tiger. 0.99
00:17:01.920 And so Schultz would come to Princeton football games, and if you went to the stadium, you would see the band would line up in the shape of Schultz's ass. 0.99
00:17:15.440 Are you serious? 0.99
00:17:16.240 And the mascot would go and lay down on one cheek.
00:17:20.780 And I remember thinking as a 19-year-old, all right, you have really made it in life when your rear end is on the 50-yard line of your alma mater.
00:17:29.700 Add an Ivy League alma mater at that.
00:17:31.520 That's a valid point.
00:17:33.460 Valid, valid point.
00:17:35.040 But you look at Pete.
00:17:36.320 He graduated Princeton and then graduated degree from Harvard.
00:17:40.060 Harvard, the guy's an Army combat veteran who did tours, and again, this is where I arm this audience with the facts, Guantanamo Bay, check that mark, that box, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
00:17:53.420 And as you mentioned earlier, for his actions on the battlefield, he was decorated with not one but two bronze stars, as well as a combat infantryman's badge to boot.
00:18:03.600 Now, I tonight had an interesting text message from a warrior, a SEAL Team 6 member, who said it's about blanking time that America has someone that went to war, understands modern warfare, understands PTSD, and advocates for those that are mentally wounded in our armed forces like Pete has done for years.
00:18:29.460 I don't care what anybody says, I'll re-enlist, and I will go back, and I would stand under this man.
00:18:37.220 I think there's a lot of military veterans that have that mentality as well.
00:18:41.960 Well, and I'll say this.
00:18:44.120 Pete does not have the traditional criterion that many prior DOD secretaries have of 20, 30, 40 years experience running massive, multi-thousand,
00:18:58.280 hundred-thousand-person organizations.
00:19:00.780 And being DOD secretary is incredibly complicated because talk about, like, turning a battleship doesn't even begin.
00:19:08.920 That analogy is not even close to how complicated it is.
00:19:12.100 That being said, what Pete brings, in addition to being a combat veteran himself, is he brings experience calling out the ideological rot that Barack Obama and Joe Biden put into our military.
00:19:29.180 And so I think, Pete, there's a reason I drew the analogy between Pete and John Radcliffe, which is I think both of them, the latter has shown, and I think the former will show, a willingness to take on the corruption that is damaging the institution they've been sent to.
00:19:48.900 That courage, that clarity, that is rare, and it's one of the reasons why I think the left is going to attack him and attack him really hard.
00:19:56.440 Let me ask one other question about this.
00:19:59.200 Does this mean that there's a real chance, and we haven't talked about this in a few months, so I think it's the perfect time to go back and really talk about this,
00:20:08.000 is the reinstatement of men and women in our military that were kicked out because they refused to get vaccinated.
00:20:16.140 With the Republicans sitting over the House, and that's official, we haven't actually gotten to mention that on the show,
00:20:21.380 so let's just have that little moment of victory, that Republicans retain the House, we have the Senate, we have the presidency.
00:20:29.460 Is there a chance that those men and women that were kicked out of our military could actually come back in?
00:20:34.580 Is that an issue you think will come up in January?
00:20:37.940 I hope and pray that it does.
00:20:39.640 As you know, Ben, I am the author of the legislation that ended the vaccine mandate in the military.
00:20:49.600 The Biden administration had thrown out thousands, if not tens of thousands, of active-duty military members,
00:20:56.420 and I drafted the legislation that Congress passed into law that ended that COVID vaccine mandate.
00:21:03.560 It made sense.
00:21:04.820 We got it done.
00:21:05.460 I tried very, very hard to make the end of the vaccine mandate retroactive.
00:21:12.180 In other words, there were some 10,000 servicemen and women who'd been thrown out to say,
00:21:16.980 look, if you're no longer requiring it, you ought to let back in the people you threw out, 1.00
00:21:21.780 particularly when we've got a shortage of servicemen and women. 0.82
00:21:25.640 These are very experienced.
00:21:26.960 In some cases, you're talking about SEAL team members, Army Rangers,
00:21:30.480 very experienced, highly trained military men and women who were thrown out unceremoniously,
00:21:36.780 in many instances thrown out with a less than honorable discharge,
00:21:40.520 so they received less in terms of pension and benefits.
00:21:44.800 And I'll tell you, when I've fought for that, we have not been able to get that legislation to pass.
00:21:52.200 Every single Democrat, all of them, voted no.
00:21:55.040 They voted no.
00:21:57.120 We're not going to allow those who were thrown out of the military for not getting the COVID vaccine
00:22:01.560 back into the military, even though today the military doesn't require it anymore.
00:22:06.240 And sadly, we had two Republicans who also voted no, which was really frustrating.
00:22:12.020 What was the reasoning behind that?
00:22:13.180 Did they give it the time?
00:22:14.200 Because I don't remember.
00:22:15.020 So the two Republicans were Mitt Romney, Mitt will be gone, and then Mike Rounds.
00:22:21.140 And I'm frustrated.
00:22:22.320 I don't know why.
00:22:23.440 I disagreed with it.
00:22:24.720 I really was arguing forcefully.
00:22:28.460 I do have some real optimism going forward.
00:22:31.200 We'll get this fixed.
00:22:32.000 I think with the Republican House and Senate,
00:22:34.200 I'm going to fight very hard to get that in the next iteration of the NDAA.
00:22:38.900 The NDAA is the National Defense Authorization Act.
00:22:41.360 I also am going to press the Department of Defense, if they can, just to do it unilaterally.
00:22:48.620 I'm pretty sure they can, although I say this, I have not studied the legal questions.
00:22:53.240 So that is an instinct rather than the result of a studied analysis.
00:22:58.800 But when Pete is confirmed as Defense Secretary, I'm going to urge Pete that he at the outset says,
00:23:06.520 if you've been discharged for failure to get this vaccine, you are invited to be readmitted and returned to your old rank and your old position.
00:23:14.900 I want to talk to you real quick about keeping your family safe.
00:23:18.580 And if you carry a firearm, you know that that's your motive to protect yourself and your family.
00:23:23.620 But what happens if you have to actually use that firearm to protect yourself?
00:23:27.900 What happens if you're up against an activist DA that cannot stand people just like you that exercise their Second Amendment right?
00:23:35.400 Well, you're at risk of losing everything.
00:23:38.020 And that is why over 800,000 Americans are members of the USCCA.
00:23:44.440 Now, I've had to use my firearm to save my life.
00:23:47.160 I had to pull the trigger.
00:23:48.240 And I can tell you, I wish I would have known more about what my rights were in the moments after that incident took place.
00:23:57.000 Well, you don't have to worry if you're a member of the USCCA, because not only will you get access to their Protector Academy, which teaches you vital skills like precision shooting and how to fortify your home against criminals.
00:24:09.640 But you also get access to the 24-7 critical response team and the included benefit of self-defense liability insurance to make sure that you and your family are prepared for anything.
00:24:25.540 And for a limited time, if you text the word America right now, text the word America to 87222, you're going to get the USCCA's free life-saving concealed carry and family defense guide, plus a chance to win $1,700 to buy any self-defense gear you need before it's too late.
00:24:50.000 So, what are you waiting on?
00:24:52.120 Text the word America right now to 87222.
00:24:57.260 That's the word America.
00:24:59.280 Text it to 87222 right now.
00:25:03.380 Senator, there's an interesting, and I want to get your take on this because it went viral when it happened.
00:25:10.940 Donald Trump has selected Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the Department of Government Efficiency.
00:25:20.620 Now, I was asked the question right after this broke on social media.
00:25:24.600 Wait, is that even an actual department of the US government or is this made up?
00:25:30.380 I laughed.
00:25:31.940 Wait, there's a lot of people that actually want to know what is this?
00:25:35.100 Does it exist?
00:25:35.940 Is this something new?
00:25:37.160 And how big of a deal it is that Donald Trump picked the Tesla CEO and ex-owner Elon Musk and an entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, to lead this Department of, quote, government efficiency?
00:25:51.200 Well, it is not currently a government agency.
00:25:54.520 I don't think it's an accident that Department of Governmental Efficiency spells out DOGE since Elon is a very vocal supporter of the DOGE coin cryptocurrency.
00:26:05.260 I think that was quite deliberate.
00:26:09.180 Listen, I'm very glad that Elon is going to play a critical role in the administration, focusing on making government work more effectively and more efficiently.
00:26:19.700 I'm glad Vivek is, too.
00:26:20.940 He's a very smart guy.
00:26:21.940 I know them both very well.
00:26:23.780 I'll tell you, I spent 30 minutes on the phone with Elon this week talking about precisely this mission, how you make government operate more effectively.
00:26:33.740 And Elon is dealing right now with there is a major difference between government agencies and the private sector.
00:26:43.000 There are lots of differences.
00:26:44.900 And, you know, one of the things I pointed out, there's a fantastic economist, a man named Ludwig von Mises, who was one of the founding fathers of the Austrian School of Economics, brilliant man, wrote a lot of different things.
00:26:59.420 But he wrote a book called On Bureaucracy and von Mises and On Bureaucracy.
00:27:04.680 What he argued is that inevitably you have people who come from the private sector who come into government and they say, we're going to make government more efficient.
00:27:13.400 We're going to make it operate like a business.
00:27:15.600 And von Mises argued that is always, always, always doomed to failure.
00:27:19.980 And he explained why he said, listen, government lacks the essential element of any private enterprise, and that is the profit motive.
00:27:31.560 And the analogy he uses, he says, okay, look, Ben, let's say you have a private company.
00:27:37.560 You have, say, a barbecue restaurant in Memphis.
00:27:41.860 If you're running your barbecue restaurant in Memphis, every single employee at the restaurant is motivated by the profit incentive.
00:27:52.460 If the janitor, the guy who is sweeping up the spilled barbecue sauce in the restaurant, if he comes to you and says, Mr. Ferguson, I've got an idea that can reduce our costs by 10% and that can increase revenues by 5%.
00:28:10.420 So my guess is, A, Ben, you'd listen to him.
00:28:13.640 You'd be like, okay, I want to hear that idea.
00:28:16.100 Yeah.
00:28:16.240 My guess is, number two, if his idea was right, that guy ain't going to be sweeping floors any longer.
00:28:24.980 He is immediately going to get a promotion because for him and everyone else at the restaurant, the incentive is the profit motive.
00:28:34.280 That unifies the incentives of everyone in the private sector.
00:28:37.920 In contrast, and this is what von Mises argues in On Bureaucracy, in government there is no profit motive.
00:28:44.140 And, in fact, the incentives are precisely the obverse.
00:28:48.640 Let's say you're running a particular office in a government agency and you've got a million people who are receiving $10 billion in benefits.
00:29:03.140 Your incentives are not to reduce the number of people receiving those benefits.
00:29:09.360 Your incentives are not to reduce the amount of benefits they're receiving.
00:29:14.040 Instead, what are your incentives in government?
00:29:16.320 Your incentives in government are to increase the 1 million people to a million five or 2 million.
00:29:24.160 Your incentives are to increase the $10 billion in benefits to $15 billion or $20 billion.
00:29:30.320 Your incentives are to take your, say, 1,000 people that work for you and increase it to 2,000 or 3,000.
00:29:38.640 All of your incentives, not only are they not aligned on the profit motive, they are exactly the opposite of the profit motive.
00:29:45.020 So, actually, I recommended to Elon he read the book.
00:29:47.340 He did not know the book.
00:29:48.500 And we spent about 30 minutes talking about how do you change this beast that is government.
00:29:55.640 You're never going to make it quick and nimble.
00:29:57.100 I also talked about the fact that a huge problem with government is that you cannot fire government employees, generally speaking.
00:30:07.420 There are civil service protections in place that if you try to fire someone, you have litigation.
00:30:12.860 It's very difficult.
00:30:14.300 And I pointed out to Elon, look, when you went into Twitter, you fired, what, 60% of the employees?
00:30:20.900 That is a flexibility that you have and what it means.
00:30:24.580 And I tried to lay this out to him as well.
00:30:27.720 So, I said, listen, at Tesla, SpaceX, my guess is you have very, very few employees who wake up every day with their mission in life being to stop you,
00:30:38.080 to frustrate the objectives of the company and to try to make them fail.
00:30:43.400 And if you did have any employees that were doing that, you'd fire them because they work for you and that'd be it.
00:30:48.860 In government, particularly with the deep state, there are literally thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of deep state employees
00:30:57.080 who wake up every day with their objective, their mission being to stop everything Donald Trump is trying to accomplish.
00:31:06.920 And so, I'm really glad that Elon is doing this, and I think Vivek is very smart.
00:31:11.940 I think Vivek will add to that.
00:31:15.140 We will get some good results out of it, but it is going to be an incredibly important and an incredibly challenging endeavor.
00:31:22.380 And I'll say Elon is as smart a person as I have ever encountered.
00:31:28.880 And look, I've been blessed.
00:31:31.240 I've actually run in some circles where I've known some freakishly smart people, including people like Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia.
00:31:39.760 And Elon is just another level in terms of brilliance.
00:31:44.440 So, I'm excited to see what he can do in this role.
00:31:48.340 But it is going to be, I think his instinct is going to be to break some China. 0.99
00:31:53.060 And we'll see how that plays out in the government world.
00:31:57.200 Yeah, in the government world is a key point there.
00:31:58.900 Let's talk about one of the most important appointments, and that is Tom Homan.
00:32:04.380 And there are so many conservatives that voted for Donald Trump, so many Americans that voted for Donald Trump because they want a secure border.
00:32:12.160 He is the former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director.
00:32:16.200 He has now been named Trump's border czar, tasked with cracking down on immigration and overseeing the southern border, the northern border as well.
00:32:25.880 And he said this on Fox yesterday.
00:32:29.520 And look, I've seen some of these Democratic governors say they're going to stand in the way.
00:32:34.220 They're going to make it hard for us.
00:32:36.440 Well, I know a suggestion.
00:32:38.440 If you're not going to help us, get the hell out of the way, but we're going to do it.
00:32:41.180 So, if we can't get assistance from New York City, and we may have to double the number of raises we send in New York City.
00:32:48.900 Because we're going to do the job.
00:32:50.560 We're going to do the job without you or with you.
00:32:53.520 It's very clear Democrats are already gearing up to fight against the government and deportations.
00:32:58.580 He has said their number one goal is what you and I mentioned on this show.
00:33:02.640 I think it was even before Election Day.
00:33:04.580 They're going to go after the criminals first.
00:33:06.440 They're going to go after the people that have already had due process and have been told that they are to be deported from this country.
00:33:15.360 And, again, this is where I love doing the show.
00:33:18.560 Let's remind listeners and arm you guys with the facts.
00:33:23.220 When you hear the left say it's inhumane to deport people, do not forget Barack Obama deported more than 3 million illegal immigrants while he was president.
00:33:33.940 So, this idea that we are doing a million plus that are felons, that have been convicted of crimes, that have already had due process, don't fall for this.
00:33:42.160 Because remind all of the people that say otherwise, Barack Obama deported more than 3 million illegal immigrants when he was president.
00:33:51.500 So, Tom Homan is a serious guy.
00:33:54.360 He cares passionately about defending this nation, securing our borders.
00:33:58.000 I am very, very happy that Trump has named him border czar.
00:34:01.560 He also named Christy Noem, the governor of South Dakota, to be the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
00:34:07.840 Homan and Noem will work hand in hand.
00:34:10.160 I think that's going to be very effective.
00:34:12.140 Tom Homan understands the border.
00:34:14.440 He understands what it takes to secure the border.
00:34:18.420 And I think he is going to be the point person driving the agenda.
00:34:22.560 As I predicted before, but I want people to hear this.
00:34:25.800 It's November.
00:34:27.400 We are still facing an invasion at our southern border.
00:34:30.260 We are going to secure the border, and it is not going to take a year.
00:34:35.200 It's not even going to take six months.
00:34:36.700 It will be done by January and February of next year.
00:34:40.760 And in February, Ben, I want you to play this clip back.
00:34:46.460 And either we're going to say the results are in, Cruz was right, or hold me to account and say, okay, it didn't happen.
00:34:54.000 What went wrong?
00:34:54.560 But either way, that's my prediction.
00:34:57.720 And I think Tom Homan is going to be driving the effort to get that done.
00:35:01.440 And I also think Stephen Miller, as deputy chief of staff, will be driving it alongside him.
00:35:06.740 I'm very optimistic about what we're going to get done on that front.
00:35:10.240 And finally, when we're talking and there's more names are going to come out,
00:35:12.960 and we will continue to let you know what we think about them and how exciting this moment is.
00:35:17.920 But there's one of your colleagues in the Senate, someone you know very well.
00:35:23.300 There was a lot of people that were on the short list.
00:35:25.720 I say a lot.
00:35:26.880 A lot that you and I knew that were floated for the short list for Secretary of State.
00:35:31.820 I was paying very close attention to this one, as I know you were.
00:35:36.460 And the nominee is going to be your colleague, the Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio.
00:35:43.720 Yeah, I think this is terrific.
00:35:45.180 I think Marco is going to do a good job.
00:35:47.420 He is focused on foreign policy quite a bit his entire time in the Senate.
00:35:52.720 Marco is smart.
00:35:53.560 He cares about foreign policy.
00:35:55.080 He cares about standing up to communists, especially in Cuba.
00:35:57.940 He cares about standing up to communists in China.
00:36:02.560 Marco is more interventionist on foreign policy than I am.
00:36:07.020 But that being said, he cares deeply about it.
00:36:09.500 And so I think he is more interventionist on foreign policy than Trump is.
00:36:13.900 And at the end of the day, Trump is going to make the decisions.
00:36:16.640 But I think Marco is someone who is diplomatic.
00:36:19.560 He is articulate.
00:36:20.580 He will be a very effective diplomat for America.
00:36:25.240 I think it's a great choice.
00:36:26.560 I think it's a natural fit.
00:36:28.400 I will tell you.
00:36:29.580 So I sent Marco a text tonight, which I'll go ahead and read to you what I sent him.
00:36:36.940 I sent Marco the following text.
00:36:39.500 Congrats, sir. 0.97
00:36:40.860 A big damn deal. 0.95
00:36:43.540 You join an historic roster, including John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, 0.96
00:36:50.240 James Madison, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John Calhoun, William Jennings Bryan, Charles Evans Hughes, Henry Stimson, George Marshall, Dean Acheson, John Foster Dulles, Dean Rusk, Henry Kissinger, George Schultz, and James Baker.
00:37:14.420 Truly rarefied air.
00:37:17.880 Every Cuban is deeply proud. 1.00
00:37:20.440 And then I finished it with, and I'm confident at least that you'll kick the ass of Hillary and John Kerry. 0.99
00:37:28.280 Yeah, low bar, but I couldn't agree with you more on that one, right? 0.99
00:37:34.380 It's I have no idea.
00:37:36.600 I have no doubt.
00:37:37.220 I should say that Marco was going to laugh when he reads that last part of the text.
00:37:40.360 So he did laugh, and he responded.
00:37:43.720 All right, I will almost never out my colleague's text, but I think Marco would forgive me for this.
00:37:49.980 His response was, he said, there is hope for the Cuban caucus.
00:37:54.040 And then he sends me a story from Latin Times.
00:37:57.900 Social media users launched campaign to get Pitbull appointed to Marco Rubio's Senate seat.
00:38:03.520 Ron DeSantis has only one choice, and I could only respond to that.
00:38:08.040 Spectacular.
00:38:09.120 You've got to love it.
00:38:10.360 I want to tell you about the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
00:38:13.820 Last week, Americans voted in one of the most consequential elections in our history.
00:38:19.120 And with all that's happening, we know that the support of Americans like you means so much to the people of Israel, especially now.
00:38:26.120 This past year, not only have we seen the war rage on in the Holy Land,
00:38:30.560 but we've also seen an alarming rise in anti-Semitism.
00:38:34.840 This is why I'm a proud partner of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
00:38:39.600 They have been building bridges between Christians and Jews for over 40 years.
00:38:45.060 And since that time, they have been on the ground helping the vulnerable and providing security for Jews in both Israel and Ukraine.
00:38:52.860 Thank you for your support during this critical time, because so many of you have stepped up and your gifts have helped the fellowship provide not only food and necessities,
00:39:01.520 but also security for those most in need.
00:39:04.980 Standing with Israel and the Jewish people has never meant so much.
00:39:08.380 And if you've not gotten involved, please take a look at what you can do to help.
00:39:13.640 Go to supportifcj.org.
00:39:16.820 That's supportifcj.org.
00:39:20.640 To learn more and to make a gift now.
00:39:23.080 That's supportifcj.org.
00:39:25.940 You can also call them to give at 888-488-IFCJ.
00:39:31.080 That's 888-488-IFCJ or 4325.
00:39:38.140 Senator, one other story is Donald Trump is getting his cabinet together and making appointments.
00:39:43.360 One of the things that has not gotten a lot of attention is the take out the trash, everybody throwing everybody under the bus in the Biden camp, the Harris camp.
00:39:57.640 We find out she blew through a billion dollars.
00:39:59.920 She's upside down in debt. 0.94
00:40:01.360 They're begging for money with text messages to liberals saying, we need your help with the counting of the votes and give money now.
00:40:08.000 I wish I was joking, but I'm not.
00:40:09.700 And they're, I don't know, someone said 18, 20 million upside down.
00:40:13.980 And then we found out where a lot of the donations actually went.
00:40:18.620 The donations were going to celebrities.
00:40:22.120 Oprah's had to come out after there was a million dollar check given to her, quote, production company for production of a one day sit down interview that we many people saw on TV with Oprah.
00:40:34.180 It doesn't cost a million dollars to produce that, but that was the price tag.
00:40:38.340 And then we found out that there were a lot of celebrities that were being paid to act like they loved Kamala Harris.
00:40:46.120 And there are some Democratic donors that are livid right now over the price tag on this.
00:40:52.140 You know, there's a terrific article in The Spectator World entitled Kamala Harris ran the Fry Festival of campaigns.
00:40:59.320 And it points out that Trump's campaign spent roughly 488 million dollars and Kamala spent more than a billion.
00:41:08.180 So she outspent Trump more than two to one.
00:41:11.320 And Kamala's campaign ended up 20 million dollars in debt.
00:41:15.860 Well, it turns out, where did that money go?
00:41:19.460 Well, one of the things that went to is they paid many of the quote unquote celebrities who supported her were getting paid and getting paid significant sums.
00:41:31.560 So, for example, remember the Call Me Daddy podcast?
00:41:35.360 Yeah.
00:41:35.540 Well, apparently the campaign spent upwards of six figures to build a custom set for her appearance on the podcast. 0.98
00:41:44.540 And the podcast netted only 800,000 downloads, less than a million downloads.
00:41:50.560 Look, Ben, you and I, we have roughly a million unique listeners.
00:41:55.180 If she wanted 800,000 downloads, I'll tell you, Kamala, right now, even though you've lost, Ben and I will invite you on verdict right now.
00:42:03.040 We will welcome you.
00:42:05.060 We will not charge you to build a set so you can save all your money.
00:42:08.340 And you paid Oprah a million dollars for production costs.
00:42:11.800 We will charge you for production costs on verdict.
00:42:14.920 What do you think?
00:42:15.320 Fifty bucks?
00:42:16.240 Sure.
00:42:16.820 I think that's a fair price.
00:42:19.300 Fifty bucks.
00:42:20.380 Fifty bucks will get you a very nice coffee cup with some Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee.
00:42:26.660 That's what we'll spend the fifty bucks on.
00:42:29.120 And you can reach the same number of people.
00:42:31.760 All right.
00:42:32.000 By the way, she also turned down Joe Rogan.
00:42:35.740 So call me, daddy got 800,000 downloads.
00:42:37.840 How many do you think Joe Rogan's interview of Donald Trump got?
00:42:41.440 A lot more than that.
00:42:43.380 Forty seven million.
00:42:45.020 Wow.
00:42:45.620 That's a lot.
00:42:47.000 It's the only way to put it.
00:42:48.040 That's a lot.
00:42:49.000 So there were also seven swing state concerts with expensive performers.
00:42:56.180 And it turns out every one of them, they got a price.
00:42:58.900 It is the world's oldest profession and they are charging for it.
00:43:02.120 So who are the performers that got paid millions of dollars?
00:43:06.040 Katy Perry.
00:43:07.580 Lady Gaga.
00:43:08.920 Jon Bon Jovi.
00:43:10.500 Ricky Martin.
00:43:11.720 Hold on.
00:43:12.060 You're telling me none of these people were like doing it for free because they were all in for comma.
00:43:16.040 They wanted to get paid that show me the money.
00:43:19.800 They ended up spending more than 20 million dollars on event production alone.
00:43:24.800 Oprah, as you noted, charged a million dollars.
00:43:28.020 And and they went so far into debt that the campaign allegedly had to scrap Alanis Morissette.
00:43:38.440 They were planning to do Alanis Morissette.
00:43:40.240 And they said, no, OK, we can't afford her anymore. 1.00
00:43:42.520 Never mind.
00:43:43.560 I mean, it is truly stunning.
00:43:45.580 And you've got to wonder, like, I got to say, I don't get paying millions of dollars for celebrities to fake endorse someone.
00:43:55.920 She spent paid money to what Beyonce. 1.00
00:43:59.080 Let's go over the big ones.
00:44:00.680 This is coming from Fox.
00:44:02.340 I'm going to play this.
00:44:03.580 This audio.
00:44:04.640 Take a listen.
00:44:05.580 This is again from Fox as they were going through how much cash was spent.
00:44:11.280 I can't get over these numbers.
00:44:13.440 Ten million dollars for Beyonce.
00:44:15.580 To step up and back Kamala Harris publicly.
00:44:19.720 Five million for Megan Thee Stallion.
00:44:21.940 Three million for Lizzo.
00:44:23.860 One point eight million for Eminem.
00:44:26.200 Those numbers are unbelievable.
00:44:29.380 If you just look at them and I was like, hold on a second.
00:44:33.140 And I went back and watched that clip a couple of different times because you look at him.
00:44:37.940 Ten million for Beyonce.
00:44:39.320 If you're a donor and you wrote a big check, Megan Thee Stallion, five million.
00:44:45.120 Lizzo, three million.
00:44:46.120 Eminem, one point eight million.
00:44:47.140 You're like, hold on.
00:44:47.700 I just raised all this money for you and this is how you spent it.
00:44:51.900 Look, I got to say, I've run a bunch of campaigns.
00:44:54.960 I ran my first campaign for Senate in 2012.
00:44:57.540 I ran my next campaign for president in 2016.
00:45:01.720 We won 12 states all over the country.
00:45:03.820 I ran my next campaign for Senate again in 2018.
00:45:06.940 And I just finished running my most recent campaign for Senate reelect a third term in 2024.
00:45:14.980 I can tell you in the whole time, I've never paid anyone a million dollars for anything.
00:45:19.500 I don't think we paid any entertainers.
00:45:22.880 I don't know of any entertainers we paid.
00:45:25.060 Maybe at some point we paid five or ten grand for someone performing at some party.
00:45:29.160 I'm not aware of it, but I can tell you this.
00:45:31.920 Look, our stars, now to be clear, the stars we have at our events are our international supermodel global talents like Ben Ferguson.
00:45:45.040 And I got to tell you.
00:45:46.620 I just want that $10 million payday once in my career.
00:45:49.360 Like, oh yeah, Beyonce, yeah, yeah.
00:45:50.860 I'm all in for the cause, but I just need $10 million to make it happen.
00:45:55.040 Okay, Ben, to be clear, we don't pay you $10.
00:45:57.220 No, that's... 0.99
00:45:58.600 Look, I'm a fiscal conservative, dammit. 0.99
00:46:02.020 If you want to be there and you believe in saving the country, stand up and save the country. 0.99
00:46:05.240 And if not, get the hell out.
00:46:06.640 Amen.
00:46:06.960 Like, what is it with these lefties who, ironically, they want to put socialists in office,
00:46:14.120 who make it impossible for people to earn a living,
00:46:17.180 and yet they're such capitalists that they're like, show me the money to do it.
00:46:21.260 I mean, there is an intense hypocrisy on this.
00:46:26.300 I believe this, and I'm not just saying this because of this moment in this headline,
00:46:30.340 but I'm being dead serious.
00:46:31.820 This could be a huge problem for Democratic candidates moving forward,
00:46:35.140 because when you see this type of abuse of campaign finance money from donors,
00:46:40.960 those same donors, somebody's going to be asking them for money in four years,
00:46:44.820 or less than four years from now.
00:46:46.780 And I'm sure they're going to have a lot of questions.
00:46:48.280 The next time Beto O'Rourke, or call it All Red, jumps on a stage with Willie Nelson,
00:46:55.220 everyone's going to ask how much you pay him.
00:46:57.540 Yeah.
00:46:57.960 How much of my money that I gave you did you just give him for that 13 minutes of him singing?
00:47:04.140 It's a fair question.
00:47:06.160 And it undermines the entire credibility that I'm here because I love America so much,
00:47:11.700 and you've got to vote for this candidate.
00:47:13.460 Look, I'll give you an example in the presidential race.
00:47:15.920 So one of the cooler people that I got to meet and spend time with was Phil Robertson,
00:47:21.840 you know, from Duck Dynasty.
00:47:23.220 Oh, yeah.
00:47:23.620 And he was, I mean, massive back in the day, like unbelievable star.
00:47:28.420 Huge star.
00:47:29.260 And so he invited me to Monroe, Louisiana, to come stay at his place.
00:47:33.900 And I went out duck hunting with Phil, which, by the way, ranks among the coolest things I've ever gotten to do.
00:47:38.600 And we went to the duck blind, we're there at four in the morning.
00:47:42.200 Look, I like to hunt.
00:47:43.820 In Texas, I've got to be careful about what I say because there's so many really serious hunters that I can't overstate.
00:47:51.060 I go hunting a couple times a year, I enjoy it, but I'm not someone who, like, lives and breathes it.
00:47:56.960 Phil, in that duck blind, I have never seen a person who is a better shot with a shotgun.
00:48:02.380 He would drop birds at a distance that I wouldn't pick up my gun.
00:48:06.520 They were too far away.
00:48:07.420 I'm like, yeah, if the duck flies over here, I'll shoot it, but I can't shoot it way over there.
00:48:10.780 And he would just boom, and then the dogs would swim out and grab the duck and bring it back.
00:48:15.760 And Phil, I'll tell you, so I went there and spent the day, went hunting with him.
00:48:21.460 He recorded an ad for our campaign that we put out.
00:48:25.100 It remains one of my favorite ads we've ever done.
00:48:27.820 And I'm all, like, wearing camo grease paint, and I'm in the duck blind with Phil.
00:48:32.200 It was really cool.
00:48:33.760 But Phil, it was during the Iowa caucuses, and we asked Phil, will you come to Iowa and campaign with me?
00:48:43.560 And Phil, for something like 40 years, had not missed a single day of duck season.
00:48:50.080 He'd been out there every single day for four decades.
00:48:52.900 And we'd invited him to come, and that morning he went to the blind at four in the morning.
00:49:00.220 He's sitting there in the blind, and I guess, you know, it weighed on his heart.
00:49:05.520 I can't do this today.
00:49:06.660 I need to go fight to save America.
00:49:08.180 And Phil left the blind, and he went and hopped on a plane, and he flew to Iowa, and he did a big rally with me in Iowa.
00:49:13.960 And I told him then, I'm like, Phil, I am beyond humbled that you missed the first day of duck season in 40 years to be here and campaign alongside me. 0.93
00:49:27.080 Now, I didn't write him a damn check to do that. 0.94
00:49:29.740 I just said— 0.96
00:49:30.800 If you gave him Beyonce money, you know, you're like, oh, and by the way, here's $10 million.
00:49:34.640 No, no, no.
00:49:35.300 I just said, come help save America.
00:49:37.240 And it meant a lot, like, for him to miss it, and that day we were literally touch and go.
00:49:43.360 We didn't know if he was going to come.
00:49:45.620 But it meant a big deal when he came.
00:49:48.760 If you're paying Beyonce $10 million, I mean, my goodness, who would she not endorse for $10 million?
00:49:56.180 No, it's a very fair question, and it's like, would any of these celebrities have showed up for her if she wasn't paying them not tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands, but literally millions of dollars?
00:50:09.420 I think it's going to be a very interesting talking point in politics moving forward.
00:50:13.160 It's like, is anyone that's actually endorsing these Democrats or celebrities not on the take?
00:50:17.620 Is it all just a massive payday they get a chance at every four years?
00:50:21.000 And it's going to be interesting to see how that is dealt with a couple years from now when Democrats are on stage again with a bunch of famous people, and they're going to have to now answer questions about it.
00:50:32.320 It's going to be really fun.
00:50:34.360 Don't forget, we do this podcast Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
00:50:37.680 On those in-between days, grab my podcast.
00:50:40.200 I'll keep you updated on the latest breaking news on the cabinet positions as well.
00:50:43.540 Download the Ben Ferguson podcast there.
00:50:46.680 And Senator Cruz and I will see you back here on Friday morning.
00:50:51.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:50:54.460 Guaranteed human.