Verdict with Ted Cruz - The Cost Of Coronavirus

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.420 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.740 The stock market is tanking, businesses are closing, and whole cities are locked down.

00:00:11.020 Even though we are socially distanced by about 3,000 miles,

00:00:15.200 the senator is here to help us break down the coronavirus chaos.

00:00:19.540 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:27.220 Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:29.220 I'm Michael Knowles.

00:00:30.680 Senator, I'm sorry that we are still so socially distanced,

00:00:34.760 but thank you so much for taking time to break this down.

00:00:38.340 I have about a million questions for you, and we only have about 25 minutes.

00:00:42.380 So let's get right into it.

00:00:44.060 The whole country basically has come to a standstill.

00:00:46.940 People are being locked down and laid off,

00:00:49.680 and nobody has any idea what is coming out of Washington.

00:00:53.000 You've been there for about two days.

00:00:54.860 What's happening?

00:00:55.980 Well, you and I are certainly socially distanced.

00:00:58.800 We're about 3,000 miles apart.

00:01:00.500 You're enjoying sunny California, which is right in the heart of the challenges we're

00:01:07.680 seeing from the coronavirus.

00:01:10.380 I would note, by the way, that even though you are in California,

00:01:14.840 will you promise everyone that you're not going to burst into your rendition of Imagine

00:01:20.460 and start singing?

00:01:21.940 You know, luckily, I'm apparently not enough of a celebrity to have made it to that compilation.

00:01:27.960 That, frankly, was more sickening than the virus, as far as I can tell.

00:01:31.640 You know, Senator, I think people are familiar with what's going on at the state and local level.

00:01:35.660 My own city of L.A. is basically locked down.

00:01:38.560 San Francisco is literally locked down now.

00:01:40.760 But I think what people are more confused about is what's happening at the federal level.

00:01:44.520 I've heard that there is a three-part plan that's going to be coming out of Washington.

00:01:48.860 You're going to be voting on it.

00:01:50.820 So can you give us some of the specifics?

00:01:53.400 Well, that's right.

00:01:54.340 This has been voted on, and it will be voted on in three parts and maybe more.

00:01:58.440 The first piece was over two weeks ago.

00:02:01.640 Congress passed $8.3 billion in emergency appropriation focused on really health resources

00:02:07.880 and getting the health resources to combat this pandemic.

00:02:11.020 The next element was something we voted out just recently, and it was focused on paid sick leave.

00:02:18.820 It was focused on replenishing unemployment compensation,

00:02:22.140 and it was also focused on coronavirus testing and providing people with free testing.

00:02:29.020 And so that just voted out.

00:02:31.400 Both of those passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

00:02:34.680 Both of those I supported, although I will say on the sick leave one,

00:02:40.280 I had real concerns with the bill we passed because it puts a mandate on small businesses

00:02:45.720 to provide paid sick leave, and then it sets up a fairly complicated tax credit system

00:02:51.320 to reimburse the small businesses.

00:02:54.160 I am very concerned that's going to result in putting additional regulatory burden on small

00:02:59.840 businesses that could drive some of them out of business, that could lead small businesses

00:03:04.920 to lay people off.

00:03:06.540 It's why I and most of the Republicans supported an amendment that would have changed it and would

00:03:12.020 have instead relied on the unemployment compensation system.

00:03:15.700 But the Democrats voted party line against that to kill that.

00:03:19.780 And so I ended up supporting it along with 89 other senators because it made a significant

00:03:26.600 and material improvement.

00:03:27.960 So is this social distancing?

00:03:30.220 I mean, even the fact that the senators aren't buddy-buddy right now and they're not glad-handing,

00:03:34.860 is that making the negotiations more difficult?

00:03:36.720 Well, you know, it's hard to say because on the third tranche, and so we passed one and

00:03:43.920 two, part three is really focused on the economy.

00:03:46.440 Okay.

00:03:46.900 And part three, by all expectations, is going to be massive.

00:03:51.500 I mean, we're hearing numbers of a trillion dollars.

00:03:54.040 We're hearing 1.2, 1.3 trillion.

00:03:57.120 Wouldn't surprise me if it was bigger than that.

00:03:59.280 Wow.

00:03:59.520 The way it's proceeded, so Mitch McConnell this afternoon filed a bill that's sort of

00:04:06.840 the beginning template for it.

00:04:08.680 And up to this point, there's been very little negotiation with Democrats on it.

00:04:13.200 So what all is in it?

00:04:14.840 We had lunch today, the Senate Republicans.

00:04:18.260 We had like a three-hour lunch talking about this.

00:04:21.200 By the way, we've shifted where we have lunch.

00:04:23.100 We had lunch in a really big room where senators could sit further away from each other spread

00:04:28.260 out.

00:04:28.680 I mean, that's one of the dynamics we've done.

00:04:30.640 Instead of, we normally have lunch in the Capitol, we move to one of the Senate office

00:04:34.200 buildings where it's a bigger room so we could be spread out further apart.

00:04:40.000 If you look at the elements of the bill that Mitch McConnell filed, there are several different

00:04:46.400 elements.

00:04:46.720 The individual elements, so this is just American citizens.

00:04:50.800 It's designed to send every American adult $1,200, a check for $1,200.

00:04:59.300 If you earn $75,000 or less as an individual or $150,000 or less as a couple, and actually

00:05:07.600 it phases to zero at $95,000.

00:05:10.940 So an individual that earns $100,000 under what was filed today gets nothing.

00:05:15.820 If you make $95,000 or less, you would get a check, and you'd also get $500 per child.

00:05:23.440 That's one component, and that's a big component.

00:05:25.620 It's an expensive component.

00:05:26.660 That sounds like the Andrew Yang component, maybe.

00:05:29.100 I mean, we had that one Democratic candidate talking about sending checks to Americans.

00:05:33.000 Are the Republicans adopting this sort of idea now?

00:05:35.460 So they're not, but there is a difference in that this is in response to a disaster and

00:05:43.740 an emergency.

00:05:44.320 So no one on the Republican side, what Andrew Yang was talking about doing is sending a

00:05:48.040 $1,000 check every month to everybody, just over and over and over again.

00:05:52.400 That's a very different world than responding to a disaster.

00:05:58.460 I mean, we've seen in the past, in terms of responding to disaster, giving people individual

00:06:03.560 relief.

00:06:04.040 Now, look, we had a pretty vigorous debate about, is the right solution sending people

00:06:09.900 checks?

00:06:10.960 Is that, you know, it's designed right now to be means tested.

00:06:16.680 So Democrats who might want to demagogue it, I've heard some saying, well, you're sending

00:06:21.760 money to millionaires.

00:06:22.700 Well, that's not true.

00:06:24.240 Under this bill, nobody who earns more than $95,000, who earned more than $95,000 in 2019.

00:06:30.300 So the way it works, it uses 2019 income because the IRS has those data.

00:06:36.160 So if you earn more than $95,000 as an individual or more than $190,000 as a couple, then you're

00:06:44.020 phased out and you don't get anything.

00:06:45.280 You know, that's not, that's certainly not a perfect system.

00:06:51.780 It means it misses some people.

00:06:53.500 If someone, let's say someone last year earned $300,000 and they've been laid off in the last

00:07:00.060 couple of weeks.

00:07:01.540 Under this existing system, they wouldn't get anything on the individual side.

00:07:05.020 On the other hand, someone who is doing well, I can tell you, I got an email yesterday from

00:07:13.560 a woman who's 85 years old, is a two-time cancer survivor.

00:07:16.640 She sent me an email saying, gosh, this idea of sending checks to everyone doesn't make 0.79

00:07:20.360 any sense.

00:07:21.760 She's on social security.

00:07:23.020 She says, I don't, I don't need a check.

00:07:25.240 This should be targeted at people who are in greater need than I am.

00:07:28.820 And, and, and it was signed Eleanor Dara.

00:07:31.160 And by the way, that's my mom.

00:07:32.160 She sent me what she called a constituent email, uh, which, which I kind of laughed

00:07:36.940 at the email, but she was quite serious.

00:07:40.540 Um, that's one big component of it.

00:07:44.680 Okay.

00:07:45.020 Um, another big component of it is focused on businesses.

00:07:49.180 So if you look at the economic effect, the economic effect of this is, is, is devastating.

00:07:54.680 Right.

00:07:55.280 And, and I am very worried, you know, Michael, I would not be surprised next week or the week

00:08:00.780 after to see job numbers, to see over a million jobs lost.

00:08:05.660 Wow.

00:08:06.080 I can tell you the last several days I have been on the phone with CEOs over and over

00:08:10.320 and over again.

00:08:11.300 I, I probably talked to six, seven CEOs in the last 24 hours.

00:08:15.300 Every CEO I talked to is making layoffs and making big layoffs.

00:08:20.320 I mean, I know, I know these numbers, I've just talked to people personally who have lost

00:08:24.780 their jobs even in the last week.

00:08:26.760 And I'm not a U S Senator, you know, I'm just talking to people on the street.

00:08:29.900 So it's, it seems like it's going to be a massive effect on employment figures.

00:08:33.740 It is undoubtedly going to be, there are some sectors, you look at the travel sectors, um,

00:08:40.340 airlines, airlines are being devastated.

00:08:42.060 I've, I've spoken with, with, with pretty much every CEO from the major airlines in the

00:08:46.620 last two weeks.

00:08:48.040 Um, they're losing billions every month.

00:08:52.080 Their planes are sitting on the runways.

00:08:54.460 Um, you know, when I flew up to DC Wednesday morning, yesterday morning, plane was empty.

00:09:02.560 I think there may be 15 people on my plane.

00:09:04.560 I mean, I sat where I was sitting.

00:09:06.700 There was nobody next to me.

00:09:07.760 There was nobody in the row in front of me.

00:09:09.180 There was nobody in the row behind me.

00:09:10.380 I was sort of chuckling going, well, social distancing isn't hard if there's nobody on

00:09:14.300 the plane.

00:09:14.820 Right.

00:09:14.980 Yeah.

00:09:15.140 It sort of, it sounds sort of nice, uh, in isolation, probably not good if the whole

00:09:18.680 industry tanks, uh, you know, hotel CEOs.

00:09:21.840 I've talked to hotel CEOs, multiple hotel CEOs who are telling me they're seeing in various

00:09:26.660 properties, things like 6% occupancy rates.

00:09:30.940 Wow.

00:09:31.300 Um, so that's massive.

00:09:33.460 If you look at energy and listen for Texas in particular, we have this combined with the

00:09:38.880 Saudis coming after us and flooding the global market with oil, which is driving the price 1.00

00:09:45.240 of oil way, way down.

00:09:46.740 So the energy sector, energy producers are getting devastated.

00:09:50.900 I talked with two different, uh, energy CEOs, both of whom told me one told me he had taken

00:09:56.180 11 rigs offline.

00:09:57.380 Another told me he'd taken 10 rigs offline.

00:09:59.540 Both of these CEOs said they'd laid off over 5,000 people in the last week.

00:10:03.960 So it's, um, it sounds as though we're going to get some sort of bailout, both for individuals

00:10:09.900 and for companies.

00:10:11.140 I don't see any world in which we don't.

00:10:13.480 How should conservatives feel about this?

00:10:15.540 You know, I remember the bailout from the financial crisis under Barack Obama.

00:10:19.640 None of us were happy about that.

00:10:21.220 Is this different?

00:10:22.360 How should we be looking at it?

00:10:24.040 Look, that is a hard question.

00:10:25.820 And it's a question conservatives are thinking about and debating, but, but, but let me say

00:10:29.640 there are important differences between this and TARP, uh, the biggest one.

00:10:35.700 And, and, and, and, and I opposed TARP.

00:10:37.920 I think it was a mistake.

00:10:38.800 I think, I think that we should not have the federal government in the business of bailing

00:10:44.380 out corporations.

00:10:45.260 But in that instance, the financial meltdown was caused in significant part, uh, by, by

00:10:51.820 the conduct of the financial sector.

00:10:54.120 And so I think a lot of people rightly felt, wait a second, these guys are going to a casino.

00:10:59.100 They're gambling with the house's money.

00:11:01.700 If they win, they get rich and fly in a private jet.

00:11:04.040 And if they lose, the taxpayer comes and bails them out.

00:11:06.260 I mean, it, it, it, it, it was, it felt like a rigged system.

00:11:11.500 It's worth pointing out.

00:11:12.580 This is very different.

00:11:13.660 I mean, I mean, you know, if you're, if you own a hotel, it's not your fault.

00:11:18.080 There's a global pandemic.

00:11:19.100 You didn't do anything, you know, to cause this.

00:11:22.900 It's not through the deliberate, uh, steps of any of these business owners.

00:11:28.600 And, and there's a second distinction, which is a great many of these harms are caused by

00:11:34.500 government orders.

00:11:36.000 So, so let's take an airline.

00:11:38.680 If you're an airline CEO, if you're, you know, my cousin, uh, is, is married to a

00:11:43.640 pilot for, for, for, for Delta, one of the big, bigger airlines.

00:11:46.820 Look, if you're a pilot, you're a flight attendant, you work for an airline, the government has

00:11:51.840 ordered a bunch of your planes grounded.

00:11:54.080 You can't fly to Asia anymore.

00:11:55.440 You can't fly to Europe anymore.

00:11:57.700 Um, those are very real consequences of government orders.

00:12:02.360 We're seeing cities all over the place, shutting down restaurants, shutting down bars.

00:12:06.800 Look, if you own a small business, you own a restaurant and suddenly the, the, the city

00:12:10.600 government has said, your customers can't come in.

00:12:14.020 That's not your fault.

00:12:15.180 Maybe you're running a great restaurant.

00:12:16.620 And suddenly the government is, is effectively shutting you down.

00:12:21.800 Hopefully you can do takeout.

00:12:23.340 Yeah.

00:12:23.440 Uh, but it's, uh, the effect of all of that, you know, there is an analogy, look, as a conservative

00:12:30.180 is thinking through this, the constitution, the bill of rights has what's called the takings

00:12:34.920 clause.

00:12:35.900 The takings clause, it provides that, that private property property shall not be taken

00:12:41.540 for public use without just compensation.

00:12:44.260 The, the classic example, uh, is if the city or state comes and takes your house and knocks

00:12:49.720 your house down to build a freeway.

00:12:51.160 Well, you know what, they can do that.

00:12:52.720 They have eminent domain.

00:12:53.720 That is a power government has to take your home for you. 0.88

00:12:56.640 Yeah.

00:12:57.140 But if they do it, they got to pay you.

00:12:58.720 They don't have the right to take your home, build a freeway through it and not pay you

00:13:03.720 anything.

00:13:05.240 There is a reasonable analogy.

00:13:07.260 It's not exactly the same, but from the perspective of a bar owner, a restaurant owner, from the

00:13:12.640 perspective of, of, of an airline or a hotel or all of the folks that are feeling the

00:13:17.120 consequence.

00:13:17.960 Now, why is government doing this?

00:13:19.740 It's doing it for a public purpose.

00:13:22.540 It's doing it for public health.

00:13:23.880 It's doing it to keep people safe.

00:13:26.120 But I do think there is a conservative justification for compensating businesses, for compensating

00:13:34.500 job creators, for the harms that are caused by the government in response to a disaster.

00:13:40.620 That's a great point.

00:13:41.540 And I think the next thing that will pop into a lot of people's minds, it certainly popped

00:13:46.060 into my mind is I don't want to have to be responsible for paying for that when this

00:13:51.060 problem was caused by the Chinese government.

00:13:53.840 Is there any way now when we're looking at who's responsible?

00:13:56.700 I mean, there was a statistic I saw today that if it was a study out of the University of

00:14:01.480 Southampton, if China had acted one week earlier, not covering it up, but actually to stop it,

00:14:07.620 they could have reduced the spread by 66 percent.

00:14:10.220 Two weeks, they could have reduced it by 86 percent.

00:14:13.180 Three weeks, they could have reduced the spread by 95 percent.

00:14:16.960 It seems to me China has to pay. 0.62

00:14:19.600 Is there any way that there will be consequences for that Chinese government?

00:14:23.560 You know, I hope so.

00:14:25.820 I think the point you're making is exactly right, that the Chinese communist government

00:14:30.240 bears a lot of fault for suppressing information.

00:14:34.020 If you look at you look at the doctor, the first doctor who was the whistleblower, who was

00:14:39.120 reprimanded for shining a light on what was happening.

00:14:41.940 Now, he has tragically died from the coronavirus that he was trying to draw attention to.

00:14:48.640 And the Chinese communist government did everything they could to keep this a secret, to suppress

00:14:55.460 information about it.

00:14:56.800 And I'll tell you, their conduct has gotten even worse because Chinese government officials 1.00

00:15:01.020 are now actively going out trying to promote the notion that this came from the United States.

00:15:07.000 I saw that. 1.00

00:15:08.180 What utter and complete garbage. 1.00

00:15:12.340 But but they're engaged in a propaganda war. 0.99

00:15:16.060 And I got to say, listen, there will be a time for assigning blame and for accountability.

00:15:22.480 Our first priority needs to be the crisis, both the global health pandemic and the economic

00:15:28.040 crisis.

00:15:29.320 But after this is all said and done, there needs to be some real accountability.

00:15:34.340 There needs to be some real examination of the behavior of the Chinese government that

00:15:39.240 contributed that contributed to thousands of deaths worldwide, that contributed to thousands

00:15:44.400 of deaths in China.

00:15:46.260 And and I got to say, you know, who's not going to engage in that examination?

00:15:50.980 The American press.

00:15:52.500 This is the problem.

00:15:53.380 The behavior of the American press on this has been that too many of them are acting like

00:16:01.520 employees of the communist government of China, that they're engaged in active propaganda.

00:16:07.240 Look, you watch these White House news conferences where we're facing a global pandemic.

00:16:12.340 We're facing the threat of potentially millions of jobs lost.

00:16:15.620 And you see these reporters like flailing their arms in the air and saying, my God, Mr.

00:16:20.780 President, you said China virus.

00:16:23.240 How terrible. 0.98

00:16:24.220 Who the hell cares? 0.99

00:16:25.520 Can you focus on, you know, just once I want someone to like slap one of these reporters 0.99

00:16:30.820 and say, Jim Acosta, people are dying. 0.80

00:16:34.520 Stop whining.

00:16:35.460 Imagine like like focus on the facts and substance.

00:16:39.960 But listen, the amount of money.

00:16:43.600 That the media has vested in China.

00:16:47.880 Is massive.

00:16:49.620 They want to sell their products.

00:16:51.560 They want to sell their ads.

00:16:52.780 They want access to China.

00:16:54.540 Ironically, look, China this week throughout of China, American journalists throughout the

00:16:59.700 New York Times, throughout the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, they said,

00:17:02.620 journalists, get out of China.

00:17:04.860 I went on Twitter and defended the New York Times.

00:17:07.580 When's the last time you ever seen me do that?

00:17:09.220 It's truly the apocalypse.

00:17:09.920 That is not a normal position for me.

00:17:11.100 But it's worth pausing and asking, why do you think the Chinese government is throwing the

00:17:19.720 New York Times out of China?

00:17:21.260 They're obviously.

00:17:22.440 Even though their reporters behave like shills, like they're on the payroll of the Chinese 1.00

00:17:27.840 government trying to.

00:17:29.660 I mean, they're just freaking out.

00:17:32.580 Now, by the way, all the press called it the Wuhan virus for two months and then suddenly

00:17:36.920 repeating the words Wuhan virus.

00:17:38.620 Now, I don't particularly care.

00:17:39.980 I'll call it the coronavirus.

00:17:41.500 I'll call it whatever.

00:17:42.420 I'm interested in stopping it.

00:17:44.400 Yeah.

00:17:44.600 But I do think that there will come come a stage where there needs to be accountability.

00:17:48.660 And we need to ask about what are the governmental policies that contributed to the deaths and

00:17:56.300 to what will end up being trillions of dollars of economic cost in the United States and worldwide.

00:18:02.680 And I certainly would like to see some real accountability, but I think it needs to be after

00:18:09.020 the crisis is passed.

00:18:10.300 That's a good point.

00:18:10.960 And we need to ask because the press certainly will not.

00:18:13.360 You know, I wonder what those those press people, those journalists would have said during

00:18:18.300 the Spanish flu.

00:18:19.140 They might have said that was racist as well. 0.74

00:18:21.320 I I see what you're saying when they throw the media out of China.

00:18:26.400 Obviously, there would seem to be some more to the cover up even than we've already seen.

00:18:31.060 And I really like this point.

00:18:33.400 I've wondered, is is the press just covering up for China because they're fellow travelers

00:18:37.500 or is it because there's also a financial incentive there as well?

00:18:41.720 Really excellent point.

00:18:43.360 I think it is almost entirely about money.

00:18:47.680 Do you remember last fall when when the Houston Rockets general manager tweeted out this this

00:18:53.180 innocuous tweet about Hong Kong?

00:18:55.220 Right.

00:18:55.700 And the NBA went into conniption fits, falling on their faces and apologizing to Chairman Mao

00:19:01.800 and Mother China. 0.96

00:19:02.480 I mean, it was ridiculous. 0.95

00:19:04.700 I remember.

00:19:05.920 And it ain't complicated.

00:19:07.520 The NBA makes millions of dollars.

00:19:09.940 And so they were groveling because China freaked out.

00:19:12.520 I mean, look, they are so sensitive to public opinion that, by the way, China made Daryl 0.98

00:19:19.940 Morey famous.

00:19:21.000 I'm I'm a diehard Rockets fan, so I knew Daryl Morey, but you didn't.

00:19:24.300 I'll bet you.

00:19:25.220 I did not.

00:19:25.980 20 bucks.

00:19:26.280 You'd never heard of Daryl Morey until he sent that tweet and China freaked out.

00:19:31.060 That's right.

00:19:31.640 That's right.

00:19:32.060 Um, it it shows the weakness of the regime.

00:19:36.020 I mean, think about it.

00:19:37.240 They literally have government officials on their official Twitter accounts saying the

00:19:43.140 U.S.

00:19:43.580 Army brought this virus into China.

00:19:47.380 I mean, I mean that there's a reason they're pushing this this this propaganda.

00:19:51.540 I wish and I wish they had put the I wish they had put those resources that they're spending

00:19:56.760 now on the propaganda.

00:19:58.160 I wish they had put it into stopping the virus.

00:20:00.600 You know, we've got one.

00:20:01.700 And let me let me make another point, Michael.

00:20:03.460 Yeah.

00:20:03.820 So so there it is undoubtedly true that the communist government of China had direct responsibility

00:20:09.440 for suppressing information, for keeping it secret, for delaying the world knowing about

00:20:14.460 it and and by the way, the World Health Organization, which in many ways acts as an apologist for

00:20:20.040 the Chinese government of the communist government in China, repeated their misinformation as late

00:20:26.060 as January.

00:20:26.620 The World Health Organization was saying that that that this coronavirus can't be transmitted

00:20:32.920 by human to human contact.

00:20:34.940 Really?

00:20:35.260 I didn't even I didn't know that they were repeating Chinese propaganda in January.

00:20:41.580 So there needs to be real inquiry into that.

00:20:44.460 Look, there also has to be a serious inquiry and into the question, is there any correction

00:20:52.020 a connection between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and and this virus?

00:21:00.400 So the Wuhan Institute of Virology is one of 32 level four research labs that is researching

00:21:08.180 highly contagious diseases.

00:21:09.700 There are 32 on the face of the planet.

00:21:12.260 Um.

00:21:14.460 There has not been any evidence publicly of connection between that institution and and

00:21:21.180 this virus.

00:21:21.920 But what we do know is there are only 32 level four labs on planet Earth.

00:21:26.660 There are over 4000 cities on planet Earth that have 100,000, uh, 100,000 or more people

00:21:34.760 living in of all the cities on planet Earth.

00:21:37.480 It certainly raises some questions why the outbreak occurs, where there is a government

00:21:44.020 lab controlled by the government of China that is doing research and not just doing research

00:21:48.800 into infectious diseases.

00:21:51.800 It's doing research into Corona viruses that have been transmitted through bats.

00:21:56.360 Now, I want to be clear.

00:21:58.900 So here's where the media has been super defensive is when anyone asked this question, the media

00:22:04.120 like the Washington Post did this big hit piece saying this is a crazy conspiracy theory because

00:22:09.200 they say, and I've been told by multiple scientists this, there's no evidence that this virus was

00:22:16.200 constructed in a lab.

00:22:17.840 Listen, I have no reason to doubt that that's what the scientists have told me, and I don't

00:22:21.160 know about DNA sequencing.

00:22:22.700 I'm not a scientist.

00:22:23.340 So I'll take their word for it that that that on the face of it, the characteristics of this

00:22:28.240 virus appear to have occurred naturally.

00:22:30.940 But the question that needs to be asked on the back end is, is this if this is a naturally

00:22:36.640 occurring virus, was this naturally occurring virus being stored at at the government, the

00:22:43.000 Chinese government's research lab in Wuhan?

00:22:46.160 And was it somehow accidentally transmitted?

00:22:49.000 That is a natural question to ask.

00:22:51.360 And you know who's not going to be forthcoming with the answers to that?

00:22:54.480 The Chinese communist government, of course, is going to take real scrutiny to ask those

00:22:59.920 questions, and those are reasonable questions.

00:23:03.060 But you know what?

00:23:05.120 Devoting too much energy to those questions today is not productive for dealing with the

00:23:10.120 crisis we have today, which is stopping the pandemic and then dealing with with the economic

00:23:15.000 chaos and suffering that that's occurring as a result.

00:23:18.540 Because the way the media has framed it, the media has said either you accept the story

00:23:24.860 that it was just an accident, the virus came from a bad batch of bat soup, or you're 0.95

00:23:29.840 a wacky conspiracy theorist who's saying that this was a bioweapon.

00:23:33.580 Nobody's asking the secondary question that you are.

00:23:36.120 You know, I'm no probability expert, but the coincidence that this happened in Wuhan is

00:23:40.880 is pretty jarring.

00:23:42.260 And is there a chance that this virus was being stored at that lab?

00:23:46.080 How did it get out?

00:23:46.920 Let me give a comparable example.

00:23:48.460 If there was some outbreak of some exceptionally rare disease outside the CDC labs in Atlanta,

00:23:54.560 don't you think people would ask, well, was that exceptionally rare disease being studied

00:23:59.520 there?

00:23:59.860 And did something happen?

00:24:01.000 Was there some sort of mistake or accidental transmission?

00:24:04.460 Now, maybe not, but it's a natural question to ask.

00:24:08.840 And the Chinese government's cover up makes it all the more important to ask that question.

00:24:16.640 Senator, we have about 30 seconds left, but I have to get to this question we got from

00:24:20.500 Classical Conservative on Twitter.

00:24:23.000 Question is, when can people start getting back to work?

00:24:26.740 Do we know?

00:24:27.660 You know, we don't know.

00:24:28.600 And that's a very frustrating thing.

00:24:30.500 I've asked CDC that over and over again.

00:24:32.760 I've asked scientists that and doctors that over and over again.

00:24:35.360 And they don't know about the spread of this disease.

00:24:37.720 And there are a couple of problems.

00:24:38.880 Number one, we know how many confirmed cases there are, but we don't know if it is much

00:24:45.620 more widespread.

00:24:46.360 I guarantee you we're going to see in the next week the numbers skyrocket in the U.S.

00:24:50.620 because we're testing many more people.

00:24:52.300 So there are people who are infected right now that just we haven't found out yet.

00:24:57.640 And what I've been focused on in terms of addressing this pandemic is four priorities.

00:25:03.420 Number one, testing, making testing more readily available and making it more accurate.

00:25:08.180 And I've laid out a whole series of specific concrete steps the administration can take to do

00:25:13.280 that.

00:25:14.180 Number two is protective gear.

00:25:15.540 And if you protective gear, whether masks or gloves or disinfectant, that especially our

00:25:20.460 first responders, our health care professionals that are interacting with people who are sick,

00:25:24.640 we need to make sure we have enough protective gear.

00:25:26.960 And I've laid out again a whole series of steps we can do that.

00:25:30.080 Number three is health capacity and equipment that we need to make sure our hospitals can handle

00:25:37.840 a surge if we do see the number of people infected with this virus surge dramatically,

00:25:43.380 and that we have critical equipment, things like ventilators.

00:25:46.400 And you look at what's happening in Italy.

00:25:49.760 Italy has socialized medicine.

00:25:51.980 And Italy's health care system has been overwhelmed.

00:25:55.820 And you read some of the accounts that they're making triage decisions that are horrifying triage

00:26:01.620 decisions where they have multiple patients in very acute respiratory failure, and they don't have

00:26:07.940 enough ventilators.

00:26:08.660 And they're making the decision of essentially, we're going to provide life-saving care to

00:26:13.140 you, but we don't have the equipment to save your life.

00:26:15.240 Right.

00:26:15.380 Nobody wants to see America in that situation where there are people being denied life-saving

00:26:20.620 equipment.

00:26:21.120 Now, as I've talked to physicians, we're in a much better position than Italy is in terms

00:26:27.860 of how many ventilators we have, but we need to do much more to make sure we have the equipment

00:26:33.620 in place to make sure anyone that is really sick gets the care they need.

00:26:39.640 And then the fourth critical priority area is focusing on cures.

00:26:44.100 And I've introduced legislation to streamline the FDA approval process so that we can move

00:26:50.760 more quickly through it with vaccines, with treatments, and ultimately a cure for COVID-19,

00:26:58.240 the disease caused by the coronavirus.

00:27:00.080 I think in terms of the pandemic, those should be our priorities.

00:27:03.540 Great priorities.

00:27:04.180 And it is actually a bit of a relief to hear that Italy is not just a crystal ball into America's

00:27:09.080 future, because I think there have been some reports that that's exactly where we're headed.

00:27:12.880 It's good to know that that very likely is not the case, though there's obviously still

00:27:16.880 a lot of uncertainty.

00:27:18.260 One certainty, though, is that we are out of time now and we will certainly be back to

00:27:23.620 keep covering more as the situation is changing all of the time.

00:27:27.480 I'm Michael Knowles.

00:27:28.680 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:27:30.080 This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is being brought to you by Jobs, Freedom, and Security

00:27:42.460 PAC, a political action committee dedicated to supporting conservative causes, organizations,

00:27:47.920 and candidates across the country.

00:27:50.000 In 2022, Jobs, Freedom, and Security PAC plans to donate to conservative candidates running for

00:27:55.560 Congress and help the Republican Party across the nation.

00:27:58.880 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:28:01.800 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - March 20, 2020

The Cost Of Coronavirus

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