Verdict with Ted Cruz - Swalwell Quits as Scandal Rips, Can Republicans Reconcile behind Reconciliation & the Tax Plan Sending NYC Packing Week In Review

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.620 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.260 Welcome.

00:00:04.920 It is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:06.400 Week in Review.

00:00:07.700 Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:08.800 And here are the stories that we talked about this week that you may have missed.

00:00:11.880 First up, Eric Swalwell ends his campaign.

00:00:15.660 We predicted it.

00:00:16.980 He's now not only out of the governor's race, but out of Congress.

00:00:20.520 We'll give you the details.

00:00:22.080 Also, why is it so difficult for the GOP to unify behind a reconciliation bill?

00:00:28.220 We'll explain that to you as well.

00:00:30.940 And finally, Mundani saying what we all expected.

00:00:35.240 Another massive tax hike in New York City.

00:00:37.920 Going after those, he says, that aren't paying their fair share.

00:00:41.880 It's the Week in Review, and it starts right now.

00:00:45.320 And I want to move on to this other story.

00:00:47.600 The headline that broke on Sunday evening, and I'm going to read this headline from CNN.

00:00:52.680 Eric Swalwell ends campaign for California governor after sexual misconduct allegations.

00:00:59.940 He said Sunday he would withdraw from the California governor's race

00:01:02.680 in the wake of allegations of sexual misconduct that led to a nearly immediate campaign collapse.

00:01:08.340 As staffers quit on him, prominent Democrat supporters now urging him to drop out.

00:01:13.640 He then put out a statement on X saying,

00:01:15.300 I am suspending my campaign for governor to my family, staff, friends, and supporters.

00:01:20.660 I'm deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I've made in my past.

00:01:26.620 Then he says, I will fight the serious false allegations that have been made,

00:01:31.420 but that's my fight, not a campaign's.

00:01:36.400 After that, we found out even more about what's happening,

00:01:39.860 and that is the Manhattan District Attorney's Office

00:01:41.900 has opened a criminal investigation into sexual assault allegations.

00:01:46.060 The key claim is a former staffer alleges assault in 2024.

00:01:50.660 in apparently new york and another earlier incident in 2019 prosecutors are reportedly

00:01:57.180 reviewing evidence asking for additional witnesses to come forward as the ap put it and that is the

00:02:03.240 most serious legal exposure right now because it could lead to criminal charges and then you have

00:02:08.040 multiple sexual misconduct allegations at least four women have accused swalwell of misconduct 0.98

00:02:13.360 ranging from sexual assault rape allegations unwanted contact sending explicit images and one

00:02:19.660 allegation claims the accuser was too intoxicated to consent. He has denied all those allegations

00:02:27.180 calling them false and politically motivated. What's even more shocking is now I think it's

00:02:32.420 50 of his former staffers have come out against him saying he needs to resign and basically

00:02:40.680 defending one another saying he's a terrible guy. There's two parts of the story center. One

00:02:45.420 how the hell the Democratic Party protect this guy for this long? And two, why are all the

00:02:51.800 Democrats now turning against him? It's because they're afraid they're going to lose the governor's

00:02:55.640 race in California. Well, just a week ago, this guy was the front runner among the Democrats to

00:03:03.000 be the next governor of California. I was actually in California this weekend. I spoke at the

00:03:09.060 California Republican Convention. So I was there when this was breaking. And you could see

00:03:14.900 look it was clear when this story broke everyone knew Swalwell's gubernatorial campaign was over

00:03:21.400 the instant it broke. The breadth and volume of this is this is not just one allegation it's

00:03:28.240 multiple allegations it's allegations of a pattern of misconduct a pattern of repeated

00:03:34.080 sexual harassment of multiple employees. One staffer who was interviewed by CNN

00:03:39.840 uh alleged that twice uh she got very very drunk with him and and that he had sex with her

00:03:48.980 not only without her consent but over her vigorous resistance and objection if that is true that is

00:03:56.820 rape uh that is criminal conduct that is criminal conduct for which anyone who commits it should

00:04:02.780 should be prosecuted and go to jail uh there are a number of points that are obvious like

00:04:09.220 number one this was so widespread to see 50 swalwell staffers come out against him

00:04:15.680 strongly suggest everybody knew now you asked me right before before we recorded this pod

00:04:23.060 did i know this look to be honest i i don't hang out with democrat house members i'm not

00:04:27.860 particularly privy to the gossip among Democrats. So the rumors are true that you alienate yourself

00:04:33.720 from Democratic Radical House members. I just am glad we cleared that up. Those are not my peeps.

00:04:39.920 So I have no idea what the gossip was about this guy. But given how widespread this is,

00:04:46.900 the allegations, I think it is impossible that it was not common knowledge, that there were not a

00:04:53.100 lot of Democrats who knew this guy was doing this, that this was a pattern of conduct,

00:04:57.560 and that suggests that they all covered it up, they all looked the other way. When he was an

00:05:02.740 attack dog, attacking Republicans, attacking President Trump, attacking Brett Kavanaugh, 0.74

00:05:08.860 they were perfectly happy to have him be the attack dog. And you're right, what has changed

00:05:14.680 is the Democrats are in a panic because you've got multiple Democrats running for governor in

00:05:19.560 California, and you have two Republicans running for governor in California, and California has

00:05:24.680 this weird jungle primary where there's not a Democrat primary and a Republican primary.

00:05:30.180 Everyone runs on the same ballot, and the top two vote-getters make it to the general election.

00:05:36.440 And so there was a possibility, not a likelihood, but a possibility that the top two vote-getters

00:05:43.200 could be the two Republicans. And I will say for Democrats, their heads would explode if they went

00:05:49.080 to the general election, and it were 100% certainty that the next governor of California

00:05:54.360 was going to be a Republican. But there were multiple polls that had come out that showed

00:05:58.300 the two Republicans as one and two. And part of the reason is that you had multiple Democrats

00:06:04.000 splitting the vote. And you had Eric Swalwell and Katie Porter, both a former House member and

00:06:11.340 current House member, slugging it out. You've also got Tom Steyer, the billionaire who is spending

00:06:17.240 millions and millions of dollars trying to buy the nomination and so you had democrats splitting

00:06:23.460 their votes that was helping the republicans and suddenly i think democrats saw a partisan value

00:06:30.100 to getting rid of swalwell and they took him out ruthlessly now now ben i want to point to you the

00:06:36.940 tell you can tell any democrat if they're just being a partisan hack by the following

00:06:46.960 tell are they calling for him to suspend his gubernatorial campaign yep or are they calling

00:06:54.900 for him to resign from congress yeah it's just a gubernatorial campaign that's the tell they don't

00:07:00.840 want him to resign no no no don't resign because look republicans barely have a two-vote majority

00:07:06.980 they want swalwell there they don't want to jeopardize the majority also they're perfectly 0.96

00:07:11.180 happy to have a serial sexual harasser, even a rapist, as long as they get partisan advantage. 0.98

00:07:18.880 Now, the momentum is shifting. It would not surprise me if Swalwell is out of Congress 0.90

00:07:23.960 by the end of the week, because this is getting a lot of momentum.

00:07:26.940 You talk about the second tell. The other tell is those that are calling for him to resign are

00:07:32.000 saying, well, he should resign and a Republican should also resign that has allegations against

00:07:36.480 him in the Republican side. So they get rid of one of the Republicans. And that's the only reason

00:07:40.820 why they're saying it now is, well, all right, I'll call for both of them to resign.

00:07:45.460 Look, and by the way, I could see that potentially happening. The Republican, the facts

00:07:50.780 around him are really pretty ugly. He's not running for reelection because they are so ugly 0.97

00:07:56.560 and disturbing. And so it would not shock me to see both of them resign. And that's an outcome I

00:08:04.820 could see the House getting to. But it's been fascinating that virtually every Democrat who's

00:08:09.960 come out with this big bold statement they've said suspend the campaign but they haven't said

00:08:14.500 resign from congress now yeah it is it's going to be interesting to see how this ends but i think

00:08:20.200 you are not far off i i think they want to finish him off and be done with him and they knew all

00:08:25.760 this and the only reason why they they defended him indefinitely they they pushed him to be the

00:08:31.220 guy in california and then they turned on him when they realized that a republican could win

00:08:35.560 that is the only reason why we're hearing about any of this and and also the media you just want

00:08:40.800 to talk about hypocrisy senator the way that the media the the liberal media i mean this was on the

00:08:45.900 morning shows that the meet the press the face the nations that whatever the hell the other one's

00:08:51.620 called like they were cnn was wall-to-wall on this they were covering it like it was a republican

00:08:57.620 who had done something but it was a democrat more of their own and they were like yeah we got to get

00:09:02.320 rid of him. Because if we don't get rid of him, what happens next? Well, then the Republican can

00:09:06.140 win. So, you know, who cares about the victims here? This is all about the politics, as you

00:09:11.200 described in a moment ago. It is. And I'll point out, there is a second Democrat House member,

00:09:18.100 Shelia Cherflius-McCormick of Florida, who should also be expelled from Congress. 0.99

00:09:24.780 uh she has the ethics committee which is bipartisan declared her guilty on 25 out of 1.00

00:09:33.040 27 ethics charges uh from stealing up to five million dollars of fema money so she is likely

00:09:43.060 going to jail for stealing millions of taxpayer dollars and yet the democrats are amazingly 0.87

00:09:49.860 silent you've got an alleged serial sexual harasser and potentially even serial rapist 0.98

00:09:58.480 and an embezzler and thief and their city they're going oh we're great having both of them there 0.70

00:10:05.460 because you know partisan power matters more than anything and by the way can't make the press on

00:10:10.640 the coverage of of of uh trephileus mccormick almost all the press coverage there's actually

00:10:18.480 very little coverage but what little there is they almost all leave out that she's a democrat

00:10:23.220 that they just that fact never mind just just just nothing to see here now if you want to hear

00:10:29.480 the rest of this conversation you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week

00:10:34.820 now on to story number two by the way why would they not agree the 10 years and my cynical uh

00:10:41.380 view is always i'm going to go there first is it because they'd want it to be an election year

00:10:45.940 issue within the next 10 years so therefore they're saying hey let's fight on this a couple

00:10:49.820 years again no it's not that it's it's you like how cynical politics has made me sir i just want

00:10:55.500 to be clear yeah like immediately i'm like i could see somebody like i don't i don't want to i like

00:10:59.940 this issue i want i want it to come up every couple years so i can fight over it yeah look

00:11:04.500 that there's a natural instinct of essentially playing small ball and and this is the outcome

00:11:10.360 of negotiations between John Thune, Lindsey Graham and the White House. And I think the White House

00:11:16.740 is playing small ball, too. And so I am urging the White House, let's go 10 years. Let's up the

00:11:21.620 budget. I've made this case to the White House. They're not there yet. And so they're focused on

00:11:26.660 the challenge right in front of us rather than the challenge tomorrow. But here's the big case

00:11:31.280 that I made. And I leaned in really aggressively. I said, listen, we should do a reconciliation

00:11:38.080 bill we should fund ice do it for 10 years we should fund cbp do it for 10 years we should up

00:11:42.640 the budgets but we shouldn't limit it to just those two we should do a much broader reconciliation

00:11:50.620 bill in the case i made to my colleagues i said this is the last meaningful chance we will have

00:11:56.240 to pass republican priorities and there's a very real chance right now it's substantially more

00:12:04.440 likely than not that we will lose at least the house in november we may lose the senate too

00:12:09.160 if that's right then we have just the remainder of 2026 to pass conservative victories because

00:12:17.260 starting next year the house will be nothing but all impeachment and all investigations all the

00:12:21.960 times and so we will not be able to pass conservative priorities so my case to my

00:12:26.220 colleagues was we ought to take this up and use reconciliation just like we did last year on the

00:12:31.700 4th of July where we passed the working families tax cut and had a massive number of conservative

00:12:36.560 victories, we ought to do it again. And I suggested there are a lot of things we can do. So for

00:12:39.900 example, I have a bill called Keep America Flying that says the Democrats will never again be able

00:12:46.480 to shut down civilian air traffic. So they won't be able to defund air traffic controllers. They

00:12:54.080 won't be able to defund the TSA. They won't be able to defund the federal workers that are

00:12:59.080 critical to keep planes in the air. By the way, September 30th, budget funding is going to expire

00:13:04.620 again. Right now, the Democrats are going to force another shutdown. 100 percent. I will wager

00:13:09.440 right before the elections, they will force a shutdown. I think we are idiots to do nothing 1.00

00:13:17.260 to prevent them. But the problem is a lot of folks in Congress just look an inch in front of their 1.00

00:13:22.340 nose and they can't look 10 inches in front of their nose. So if we're headed to a shutdown in

00:13:27.740 september we'd be morons not to do something to forestall it so one of the things we can do is

00:13:32.560 make sure that the the four-hour lines at airports the people missing their flights for spring break 0.68

00:13:38.120 that doesn't happen again we could pass funding that says we're going to keep planes flying

00:13:43.300 democrats no longer get to destroy your vacation or destroy your work trip just because they're mad

00:13:49.040 that i think makes a lot of sense uh what i've urged is we ought to do things that make sense

00:13:54.740 for the economy. So, for example, an idea that I have been pushing hard is indexing capital gains

00:14:02.260 to inflation. So the way it works, let's say 10 years ago, you bought a stock for $100.

00:14:09.840 And in the course of 10 years, inflation has driven the cost of that stock to $200.

00:14:16.320 Now, if that's all inflation, you don't have any meaningful gain. But if you sell that stock at

00:14:22.180 $200, you pay capital gains tax on the difference between $100 and $200. And that's a phantom gain.

00:14:29.160 And so what I believe is you ought to index capital gains to inflation, which means

00:14:33.900 whatever the inflation is, you raise the basis, you raise the cost of whatever it is you've

00:14:40.020 invested. That would have a massive positive stimulus effect for the economy. And affordability

00:14:46.600 is a huge issue for the voters it has an enormous impact on housing so here's what's interesting if

00:14:53.940 you have a house let's say you bought a house and the house is appreciated massively in value

00:14:58.860 same principle is true if you sell it if the appreciation is due to inflation you pay taxes

00:15:04.600 on that yeah and so what happens is a lot of people don't sell their house when you die if

00:15:11.600 you pass your house on to your kids the basis steps up which means your kids take it not at

00:15:18.220 the cost you paid but whatever the the cost is when they inherit it so that capital gains tax

00:15:23.340 disappears when you die what it results in particularly in high-tax states is people

00:15:29.460 holding on to houses a really long time and not selling them here's an amazing question ben

00:15:35.200 california which has among the highest taxes in the country yes what percent of hopes do you think

00:15:42.880 are passed on at death in other words are held on to so long because the the the capital gains tax

00:15:49.500 would be so high i'm not gonna i'm gonna totally guess i would say at least 40 now i may be wrong

00:15:56.020 but i know people that they get they that's how they got their parents house for the same reason

00:16:00.780 you just described it so you are wrong that's a little too aggressive it's about 25 percent but

00:16:05.560 25 percent insane by the way because like in texas what is it three percent four percent it's much

00:16:11.480 lower i don't know the texas number but it's much lower and and the consequence let's say you have

00:16:16.800 a family that has a bunch of kids they buy a big house and they raise their kids in it and then

00:16:20.900 their kids graduate go off into the world you've just got an older retired family now many like an

00:16:28.480 older, retired couple doesn't need a big house with a bunch of bedrooms, in a normal world, 0.54

00:16:33.800 they would sell that house. They'd put it on the market and they'd buy like they'd buy a smaller 0.93

00:16:37.880 little townhome or condo. They'd buy something that is more appropriate to their stage in life.

00:16:42.700 But especially in California and other high tax states, they don't do that because their tax bill

00:16:47.500 would be huge. So the effect of this would be to lower the cost of housing for people that are

00:16:53.560 buying. What it means is a young married couple that wants to buy that first house. If there were

00:16:58.400 more houses on the market it would drive the prices down and they could afford it more so

00:17:02.100 that's an example of something we can do i also suggested we could plus up the school choice

00:17:07.840 provisions we could plus up uh the trump account provisions there are lots of things uh ron johnson

00:17:14.180 has advocated for the shutdown fairness act uh which says that number one when there's a shutdown

00:17:20.560 all essential workers will be paid number two there's another bill that says we won't have

00:17:24.520 shutdowns in the case that you don't have funding you will continue at the prior levels or maybe

00:17:29.680 you'll ratchet down slightly my point look what i stood up to my colleagues and i said listen

00:17:35.280 i am not today advocating for any one particular policy and i told them the story so back in 2018

00:17:43.940 uh we had a republican house a republican senate we had a republican president donald trump

00:17:50.640 And in August of 2018, I gave a presentation to the Senate Republicans, and it was a PowerPoint about 50 pages long.

00:17:57.480 And I called it Carpe Diem, seize the day.

00:18:01.020 And I went through in the last hundred years what had happened every time the Democrats had had the House, the Senate and the White House.

00:18:09.660 And they passed fundamental transformations of this country.

00:18:13.320 They passed the New Deal.

00:18:15.100 They passed the Great Society.

00:18:16.880 They passed Obamacare and Dodd-Frank.

00:18:18.380 Like when they have control, they push the pedal to the metal and they floor their socialist left wing plans.

00:18:25.360 Republicans, we are piddly. We don't do nearly as much.

00:18:28.360 We did the working families tax cut. That was a big, big victory.

00:18:32.100 But we haven't done a whole lot since then.

00:18:35.000 And the case I made in 2018, as I said, we ought to take up another reconciliation.

00:18:40.400 It was the vehicle for the biggest legislative victories we have.

00:18:43.820 and I had a chart that I put together of like 50 bills that different Republican senators had

00:18:48.660 introduced. And I said, listen, I'm not being crazy. I'm not saying we should pass all 50 of

00:18:53.180 these. I'm saying, let's pick five. My case was not, we should do something specific. My case

00:19:00.760 was simply, we should do something. And I turned to my colleagues. When I said it in 2018, I talked

00:19:07.620 in particular to the class of 2014. There was a big class, nine new senators, Republicans were

00:19:13.240 elected in 2014 and i said listen you guys if we don't take this opportunity we had 183 days left

00:19:22.480 in the congress this may be the last opportunity you ever get to pass meaning meaningful legislation

00:19:29.560 we lose the house you're done no more legislation forget about it if that's the case don't we have

00:19:36.180 an urgency to do something. And as I look back at my entire tenure in the Senate, the most

00:19:44.100 indefensible legislative decision was Mitch McConnell's decision in 2018 not to take up

00:19:49.760 another reconciliation. And I fear that we're repeating the mistake. And by the way, so look,

00:19:56.160 for the last couple of months, I have been searching around for how do we do another

00:20:00.160 reconciliation? I've been making this case for a while. But I've said what we need is a tentpole

00:20:06.140 What do I mean by a tentpole? I mean an idea that is big enough, that is bold enough, that is important enough that it will unify 50 Republicans in the Senate and 218 Republicans in the House because because we have really narrow majority.

00:20:18.800 So you've got to have something big enough that everyone gets behind.

00:20:22.300 Then you could have other provisions carry along if you have a tentpole.

00:20:27.640 In my view, ICE and CBP are the tentpole.

00:20:31.860 There is not a Republican. I don't care if you're the most rock rip conservative or completely squishy mod.

00:20:39.100 No Republican wants to vote against funding ICE and CBP.

00:20:43.120 Yeah, that is a tentpole that can carry the rest of it.

00:20:46.200 And so that's the case I'm making to my colleagues right now.

00:20:49.240 The White House is not on board. And my intention is I'm going to make this case to President Trump directly.

00:20:54.220 I have not done so yet. Today was the beginning of it, making it to my colleagues in the Senate.

00:20:59.480 But I think this is a decision. Do we swing for the fences and get victories, economic victories that we can campaign on and win elections in November?

00:21:10.080 Or do we play small ball? And by the way, one of the things that leadership is saying is, no, no, we'll do another reconciliation after this.

00:21:16.560 Well, you know what? The next reconciliation will fail because without a tentpole, without something like ICE and CBP, you ain't getting 50 and you ain't getting 218

00:21:26.460 because the Republicans will scatter on all sorts of different grounds.

00:21:29.960 So you've got to have something big enough to bring them together,

00:21:32.820 and then we can win real victories.

00:21:35.560 That's the case I'm trying to make to my colleagues.

00:21:38.620 Yeah, it's going to be really interesting how this plays out, and you're right.

00:21:42.160 I think Americans are like, what are you doing for me right now?

00:21:44.800 I wish all the Republicans would understand that and be bold like you described it.

00:21:49.420 We'll see if that happens.

00:21:51.180 Otherwise, some of your colleagues may not be your colleagues after the election this coming November.

00:21:55.900 And, Ben, by the way, one of the things that I'm also urging my colleagues to include is election integrity, to include as much of the Save America Act as we can.

00:22:04.700 Now, it is limited because of reconciliation.

00:22:07.700 There are rules under statute as to what you can include in reconciliation.

00:22:11.520 It has to be budgetary and not policy.

00:22:14.540 And so how you get – you can't get the full Save America Act in reconciliation, but you can get election integrity provisions.

00:22:22.340 You can, for example, condition federal grants, for example, the Help America Vote Act grants, which are grants that go to help fund elections.

00:22:30.700 You can condition those on election integrity. You can condition those. You can take those away from Sanctuary City.

00:22:37.040 So I'm arguing we ought to be using like let's take this opportunity to pass legislation that Republicans agree with.

00:22:44.360 Let's win victories. Let's not give up the chance to win victories.

00:22:48.680 As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic,

00:22:52.880 you can go back and download the podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing.

00:22:58.000 I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.

00:23:02.380 I want to move on to something else that I think is a really interesting issue as well,

00:23:05.700 and it's happening in New York City.

00:23:08.360 We'll go back to the tax issue a little bit, but Donnie there, man, what a guy.

00:23:13.080 He is just all hardcore all the time, touting a new $500 million a year tax on luxury second homes.

00:23:21.740 That's just one of his new ideas to steal from the rich and give to the poor.

00:23:25.600 Yeah, play the video because you really got to listen to this guy.

00:23:29.300 When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich.

00:23:34.360 Well, today, we're taxing the rich.

00:23:36.620 I'm thrilled to announce we've secured a pied-à-terre tax, the first in New York's history.

00:23:40.820 This is an annual fee on luxury properties worth more than $5 million, whose owners do not live full-time in the city.

00:23:47.300 Like for this penthouse, which hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin bought for $238 million.

00:23:53.080 This pier-de-tear tax is specifically designed for the richest of the rich,

00:23:56.640 those who store their wealth in New York City real estate, but who don't actually live here.

00:24:00.160 But even so, they're able to reap the huge financial rewards of owning property in, dare I say, the greatest city in the world.

00:24:05.900 And most of the time, these units are sitting empty, since, again, they don't actually live here.

00:24:10.820 This is a fundamentally unfair system that hurts working New Yorkers.

00:24:14.560 Now, it's coming to an end.

00:24:16.460 This tax will raise at least $500 million directly for the city.

00:24:20.680 It'll help fund things like free childcare, cleaner streets, and safer neighborhoods.

00:24:24.520 As mayor, I believe everyone has a role to play in contributing to our city.

00:24:28.580 And some, a little bit more than others.

00:24:31.220 Happy Tax Day, New York.

00:24:33.100 If you're trying to run every person out of New York City that has any amount of money,

00:24:38.860 this is a plan to do it.

00:24:40.220 But I don't think he minds doing that because he's also obsessed with, like, free rent and rent control and having rents come down and saying, I'm for the poor guy, not the rich guy.

00:24:50.280 So if you haven't actually watched that video, you should watch it.

00:24:55.620 Mandani is so gleeful.

00:24:58.380 He is smarmy.

00:24:59.500 He is snarky.

00:25:01.140 He this is vengeful and vindictive.

00:25:04.800 And understand, this is what the left is. 0.87

00:25:07.340 they they hate people who are successful look there's a there's a hypocrisy we talked about

00:25:12.880 tom steyer is a billionaire um you know there's a hypocrisy because they're also funded by the rich

00:25:18.560 but at the same time ken griffin who he attacks by name uh happens to be a republican that's not

00:25:24.780 an accident that he's attacking him by name yeah that was on purpose and and i gotta say by the

00:25:30.080 way number one the vindictiveness of him to go go after that uh there are a whole lot of people that

00:25:36.300 saw that and picked up the phone and called a realtor and said get me the hell out of here

00:25:40.880 i'm headed to texas i'm headed to florida um and and and i gotta say let's just take ken griffin 0.88

00:25:48.260 look i hope ken griffin number one sells the damn place yeah but but number two i just pulled out

00:25:54.300 my phone and i googled ken griffin is the ceo of citadel a big big financial firm i just googled 0.95

00:26:01.240 And how many people does Citadel employ in New York City?

00:26:05.560 And the AI overview that came up said as of late 2025, Citadel employs approximately 1,300 to 1,500 people in New York City.

00:26:16.740 The headquarters is in Miami.

00:26:18.880 They moved from Chicago down to Miami.

00:26:20.420 Yeah, and a lot of people moved there for this exact reason, by the way.

00:26:22.240 I have friends that moved to Miami because when COVID happened and then the taxing stuff, it was a one-two punch.

00:26:27.780 And they were like, let's get the hell out of here because they're sick and tired of paying these taxes.

00:26:30.900 There was executives who said, I want to work for you.

00:26:33.340 I don't want to work for you in New York City anymore.

00:26:35.400 Look, I hope Ken Griffin decides to close Citadel's New York office and move all 1,500 employees out of New York City.

00:26:43.960 Because apparently Mondami thinks people that run companies and employ 1,500 people are not doing anything beneficial for the city.

00:26:51.620 Instead, they're villains that he wants to gleefully attack.

00:26:55.420 And I really, I would, I think it would be a beautiful response.

00:27:02.160 And by the way, look, Democrats did this to Elon Musk.

00:27:05.040 You know, Elon used to have seven homes in California.

00:27:07.940 He employed thousands and thousands of Californians.

00:27:11.940 And Democrats hated him so much.

00:27:15.160 Look, during COVID, when we had the COVID lockdowns, I called Elon on the phone.

00:27:19.540 He was still a Californian at the time.

00:27:21.000 And I said, Elon, come to Texas.

00:27:25.420 california they're a bunch of communists they hate you you're not a communist and there was

00:27:33.440 actually a state senator in california who tweeted if i remember right she tweeted get the f out

00:27:40.180 to elon yeah and you know what he did he came to texas he moved to texas and he moved tesla to

00:27:45.940 texas he moved spacex to texas he's moved his companies to texas he's moved the jobs to texas

00:27:51.560 And by the way, Texas is booming. Elon is employing a lot of Texans with really high paying jobs.

00:27:58.600 You know, this is Mondani is trying to his zealotry.

00:28:04.300 You watch this video and if you can get out of New York City, you will.

00:28:08.660 But but here's Mondani telling you that he just doesn't think anyone will leave.

00:28:11.960 Give a listen to Mondani explaining his views.

00:28:14.100 and so for all of the discussion of the imagined exodus that would take place were we to tax the

00:28:22.380 wealthiest new yorkers by the appropriate amount i say imagined because before i was a mayor i was

00:28:27.580 a state legislator and i was part of an effort to increase taxes on millionaires at that time

00:28:31.760 we were told the same thing then and what we find now is that we have more millionaires today than

00:28:36.480 we did at that time even after having passed that tax and so for all of that conversation about this

00:28:41.760 imagined exodus, we have to reckon with the very real exodus that we are seeing in the

00:28:47.760 city, an exodus of working class people, an exodus of those who cannot afford to live

00:28:53.700 here, and for many who work here, who now find their residence in Jersey City or in Connecticut

00:28:59.600 or in Pennsylvania, anywhere else where their dollar can go a little bit further. And we've

00:29:04.240 seen just in in a snapshot from 2000 to 2020, the city lost 200,000 of its black residents.

00:29:14.500 That is the cost of inaction. And so that also speaks to the urgency of this conversation and

00:29:19.720 this advocacy. And it is a representation of the fact that while this is a global issue,

00:29:24.780 it is also very much a local issue here in New York City.

00:29:28.520 I love the globalism aspect of this. Right. It's like, well, I mean, it's a global issue,

00:29:32.160 too like let's let's spread this globally but it's also a new york issue i i i when they say

00:29:37.740 crazy things like this believe them this is what and understand when he says it's a global issue

00:29:43.560 he means he wants to take money from all americans and give it to people in other countries uh read

00:29:50.000 us he wants to redistribute the wealth within america then he wants to redistribute america's

00:29:54.300 wealth to everybody else because every other country on planet earth is poorer than the united

00:29:58.640 states and and most are are much poorer in fact there was a recent poll in the united kingdom

00:30:06.460 where they asked british people where they thought the united kingdom ranked

00:30:12.040 versus u.s states in income per person and and what do you think brit brit said what was it what

00:30:19.960 is it so they answered that they thought they came in seventh that that that the the uk income

00:30:26.120 in the U.K. was wealthier than 43 states.

00:30:29.740 Do you know where they actually fall?

00:30:31.940 Where are they?

00:30:33.060 Dead last.

00:30:34.300 Really?

00:30:35.300 The United Kingdom has lower income per person

00:30:38.220 than every single state in America. 0.90

00:30:41.100 Number 50, I'm sorry, is Mississippi. 0.95

00:30:44.660 That's all right.

00:30:45.800 Mississippi is 50. 0.87

00:30:47.100 I'm glad you pointed that out, though. 0.77

00:30:48.760 But it's still ahead of the U.K., so we've got that.

00:30:52.560 It is.

00:30:53.700 And by the way, when British people find out the truth, 27% are shocked, 22% are concerned, 15% are disappointed or embarrassed, and only 14% are motivated for change.

00:31:07.000 Look.

00:31:07.240 That's it.

00:31:08.440 Mondani, he means it.

00:31:11.860 And I will say it's interesting contrasting his comments with Kathy Hochul, the Democrat governor, who we talked about at a prior podcast.

00:31:20.080 We played her pleading with wealthy New Yorkers who have fled to come back.

00:31:25.420 And she says, come back. Why?

00:31:27.220 Because our social programs are super expensive and we need you to come back so we can tax the hell out of you to pay for the spending that I want to do.

00:31:35.580 And it literally is. I don't think there's one human being who would be persuaded by that argument.

00:31:41.300 But I do want to say one thing to wealthy New Yorkers who don't like the new taxes that are coming. 0.99

00:31:47.940 If you vote Democrat, stay and take your damn medicine. 1.00

00:31:52.120 If you vote to put these clowns in office, you are not welcome in Texas. 1.00

00:31:55.760 Don't come to our state. 1.00

00:31:57.060 Don't bring your disease to us.

00:31:59.960 Look, Steven Spielberg, he fled California to get away from Gavin Newsom's wealth tax.

00:32:06.020 He moved to New York City.

00:32:08.240 Well, you know what?

00:32:09.880 Spielberg, enjoy the new taxes.

00:32:12.560 If you wanted to go from one communist to another, that's fine. 0.99

00:32:14.960 But don't come to a red state if you're going to vote for this garbage in our states. 0.98

00:32:18.820 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. 0.98

00:32:24.020 Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day.

00:32:27.680 You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.

00:32:30.940 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.

00:32:34.780 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - April 18, 2026

Swalwell Quits as Scandal Rips, Can Republicans Reconcile behind Reconciliation & the Tax Plan Sending NYC Packing Week In Review

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