The Cost Of Coronavirus
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Summary
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) joins me to talk about the coronavirus pandemic, the impact on the economy, and what s going on in Washington, D.C. and across the country.
Transcript
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The stock market is tanking, businesses are closing, and whole cities are locked down.
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Even though we are socially distanced by about 3,000 miles,
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the senator is here to help us break down the coronavirus chaos.
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Senator, I'm sorry that we are still so socially distanced,
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but thank you so much for taking time to break this down.
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I have about a million questions for you, and we only have about 25 minutes.
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The whole country basically has come to a standstill.
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and nobody has any idea what is coming out of Washington.
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Well, you and I are certainly socially distanced.
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You're enjoying sunny California, which is right in the heart of the challenges we're
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I would note, by the way, that even though you are in California,
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will you promise everyone that you're not going to burst into your rendition of Imagine
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You know, luckily, I'm apparently not enough of a celebrity to have made it to that compilation.
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That, frankly, was more sickening than the virus, as far as I can tell.
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You know, Senator, I think people are familiar with what's going on at the state and local level.
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But I think what people are more confused about is what's happening at the federal level.
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I've heard that there is a three-part plan that's going to be coming out of Washington.
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This has been voted on, and it will be voted on in three parts and maybe more.
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Congress passed $8.3 billion in emergency appropriation focused on really health resources
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and getting the health resources to combat this pandemic.
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The next element was something we voted out just recently, and it was focused on paid sick leave.
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It was focused on replenishing unemployment compensation,
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and it was also focused on coronavirus testing and providing people with free testing.
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Both of those passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.
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Both of those I supported, although I will say on the sick leave one,
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I had real concerns with the bill we passed because it puts a mandate on small businesses
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to provide paid sick leave, and then it sets up a fairly complicated tax credit system
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I am very concerned that's going to result in putting additional regulatory burden on small
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businesses that could drive some of them out of business, that could lead small businesses
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It's why I and most of the Republicans supported an amendment that would have changed it and would
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have instead relied on the unemployment compensation system.
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But the Democrats voted party line against that to kill that.
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And so I ended up supporting it along with 89 other senators because it made a significant
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I mean, even the fact that the senators aren't buddy-buddy right now and they're not glad-handing,
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is that making the negotiations more difficult?
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Well, you know, it's hard to say because on the third tranche, and so we passed one and
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two, part three is really focused on the economy.
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And part three, by all expectations, is going to be massive.
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I mean, we're hearing numbers of a trillion dollars.
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Wouldn't surprise me if it was bigger than that.
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The way it's proceeded, so Mitch McConnell this afternoon filed a bill that's sort of
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And up to this point, there's been very little negotiation with Democrats on it.
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We had like a three-hour lunch talking about this.
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We had lunch in a really big room where senators could sit further away from each other spread
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Instead of, we normally have lunch in the Capitol, we move to one of the Senate office
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buildings where it's a bigger room so we could be spread out further apart.
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If you look at the elements of the bill that Mitch McConnell filed, there are several different
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The individual elements, so this is just American citizens.
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It's designed to send every American adult $1,200, a check for $1,200.
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If you earn $75,000 or less as an individual or $150,000 or less as a couple, and actually
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So an individual that earns $100,000 under what was filed today gets nothing.
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If you make $95,000 or less, you would get a check, and you'd also get $500 per child.
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That's one component, and that's a big component.
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That sounds like the Andrew Yang component, maybe.
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I mean, we had that one Democratic candidate talking about sending checks to Americans.
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Are the Republicans adopting this sort of idea now?
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So they're not, but there is a difference in that this is in response to a disaster and
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So no one on the Republican side, what Andrew Yang was talking about doing is sending a
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$1,000 check every month to everybody, just over and over and over again.
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That's a very different world than responding to a disaster.
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I mean, we've seen in the past, in terms of responding to disaster, giving people individual
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Now, look, we had a pretty vigorous debate about, is the right solution sending people
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Is that, you know, it's designed right now to be means tested.
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So Democrats who might want to demagogue it, I've heard some saying, well, you're sending
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Under this bill, nobody who earns more than $95,000, who earned more than $95,000 in 2019.
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So the way it works, it uses 2019 income because the IRS has those data.
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So if you earn more than $95,000 as an individual or more than $190,000 as a couple, then you're
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You know, that's not, that's certainly not a perfect system.
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If someone, let's say someone last year earned $300,000 and they've been laid off in the last
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Under this existing system, they wouldn't get anything on the individual side.
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On the other hand, someone who is doing well, I can tell you, I got an email yesterday from
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a woman who's 85 years old, is a two-time cancer survivor.
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She sent me an email saying, gosh, this idea of sending checks to everyone doesn't make
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This should be targeted at people who are in greater need than I am.
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She sent me what she called a constituent email, uh, which, which I kind of laughed
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Um, another big component of it is focused on businesses.
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So if you look at the economic effect, the economic effect of this is, is, is devastating.
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And, and I am very worried, you know, Michael, I would not be surprised next week or the week
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after to see job numbers, to see over a million jobs lost.
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I can tell you the last several days I have been on the phone with CEOs over and over
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I, I probably talked to six, seven CEOs in the last 24 hours.
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Every CEO I talked to is making layoffs and making big layoffs.
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I mean, I know, I know these numbers, I've just talked to people personally who have lost
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And I'm not a U S Senator, you know, I'm just talking to people on the street.
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So it's, it seems like it's going to be a massive effect on employment figures.
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It is undoubtedly going to be, there are some sectors, you look at the travel sectors, um,
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I've, I've spoken with, with, with pretty much every CEO from the major airlines in the
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Um, you know, when I flew up to DC Wednesday morning, yesterday morning, plane was empty.
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I was sort of chuckling going, well, social distancing isn't hard if there's nobody on
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It sort of, it sounds sort of nice, uh, in isolation, probably not good if the whole
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I've talked to hotel CEOs, multiple hotel CEOs who are telling me they're seeing in various
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If you look at energy and listen for Texas in particular, we have this combined with the
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Saudis coming after us and flooding the global market with oil, which is driving the price
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So the energy sector, energy producers are getting devastated.
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I talked with two different, uh, energy CEOs, both of whom told me one told me he had taken
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Both of these CEOs said they'd laid off over 5,000 people in the last week.
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So it's, um, it sounds as though we're going to get some sort of bailout, both for individuals
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You know, I remember the bailout from the financial crisis under Barack Obama.
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And it's a question conservatives are thinking about and debating, but, but, but let me say
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there are important differences between this and TARP, uh, the biggest one.
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I think, I think that we should not have the federal government in the business of bailing
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But in that instance, the financial meltdown was caused in significant part, uh, by, by
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And so I think a lot of people rightly felt, wait a second, these guys are going to a casino.
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If they win, they get rich and fly in a private jet.
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And if they lose, the taxpayer comes and bails them out.
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I mean, it, it, it, it, it was, it felt like a rigged system.
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I mean, I mean, you know, if you're, if you own a hotel, it's not your fault.
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You didn't do anything, you know, to cause this.
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It's not through the deliberate, uh, steps of any of these business owners.
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And, and there's a second distinction, which is a great many of these harms are caused by
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If you're an airline CEO, if you're, you know, my cousin, uh, is, is married to a
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pilot for, for, for, for Delta, one of the big, bigger airlines.
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Look, if you're a pilot, you're a flight attendant, you work for an airline, the government has
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Um, those are very real consequences of government orders.
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We're seeing cities all over the place, shutting down restaurants, shutting down bars.
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Look, if you own a small business, you own a restaurant and suddenly the, the, the city
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government has said, your customers can't come in.
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And suddenly the government is, is effectively shutting you down.
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Uh, but it's, uh, the effect of all of that, you know, there is an analogy, look, as a conservative
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is thinking through this, the constitution, the bill of rights has what's called the takings
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The takings clause, it provides that, that private property property shall not be taken
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The, the classic example, uh, is if the city or state comes and takes your house and knocks
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That is a power government has to take your home for you.
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They don't have the right to take your home, build a freeway through it and not pay you
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It's not exactly the same, but from the perspective of a bar owner, a restaurant owner, from the
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perspective of, of, of an airline or a hotel or all of the folks that are feeling the
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But I do think there is a conservative justification for compensating businesses, for compensating
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job creators, for the harms that are caused by the government in response to a disaster.
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And I think the next thing that will pop into a lot of people's minds, it certainly popped
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into my mind is I don't want to have to be responsible for paying for that when this
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Is there any way now when we're looking at who's responsible?
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I mean, there was a statistic I saw today that if it was a study out of the University of
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Southampton, if China had acted one week earlier, not covering it up, but actually to stop it,
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they could have reduced the spread by 66 percent.
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Two weeks, they could have reduced it by 86 percent.
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Three weeks, they could have reduced the spread by 95 percent.
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Is there any way that there will be consequences for that Chinese government?
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I think the point you're making is exactly right, that the Chinese communist government
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bears a lot of fault for suppressing information.
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If you look at you look at the doctor, the first doctor who was the whistleblower, who was
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reprimanded for shining a light on what was happening.
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Now, he has tragically died from the coronavirus that he was trying to draw attention to.
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And the Chinese communist government did everything they could to keep this a secret, to suppress
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And I'll tell you, their conduct has gotten even worse because Chinese government officials
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are now actively going out trying to promote the notion that this came from the United States.
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And I got to say, listen, there will be a time for assigning blame and for accountability.
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Our first priority needs to be the crisis, both the global health pandemic and the economic
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But after this is all said and done, there needs to be some real accountability.
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There needs to be some real examination of the behavior of the Chinese government that
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contributed that contributed to thousands of deaths worldwide, that contributed to thousands
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And and I got to say, you know, who's not going to engage in that examination?
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The behavior of the American press on this has been that too many of them are acting like
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employees of the communist government of China, that they're engaged in active propaganda.
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Look, you watch these White House news conferences where we're facing a global pandemic.
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We're facing the threat of potentially millions of jobs lost.
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And you see these reporters like flailing their arms in the air and saying, my God, Mr.
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Can you focus on, you know, just once I want someone to like slap one of these reporters
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Imagine like like focus on the facts and substance.
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Ironically, look, China this week throughout of China, American journalists throughout the
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New York Times, throughout the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, they said,
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I went on Twitter and defended the New York Times.
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But it's worth pausing and asking, why do you think the Chinese government is throwing the
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Even though their reporters behave like shills, like they're on the payroll of the Chinese
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Now, by the way, all the press called it the Wuhan virus for two months and then suddenly
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But I do think that there will come come a stage where there needs to be accountability.
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And we need to ask about what are the governmental policies that contributed to the deaths and
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to what will end up being trillions of dollars of economic cost in the United States and worldwide.
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And I certainly would like to see some real accountability, but I think it needs to be after
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And we need to ask because the press certainly will not.
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You know, I wonder what those those press people, those journalists would have said during
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I I see what you're saying when they throw the media out of China.
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Obviously, there would seem to be some more to the cover up even than we've already seen.
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I've wondered, is is the press just covering up for China because they're fellow travelers
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or is it because there's also a financial incentive there as well?
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Do you remember last fall when when the Houston Rockets general manager tweeted out this this
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And the NBA went into conniption fits, falling on their faces and apologizing to Chairman Mao
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And so they were groveling because China freaked out.
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I mean, look, they are so sensitive to public opinion that, by the way, China made Daryl
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I'm I'm a diehard Rockets fan, so I knew Daryl Morey, but you didn't.
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You'd never heard of Daryl Morey until he sent that tweet and China freaked out.
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They literally have government officials on their official Twitter accounts saying the
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I mean, I mean that there's a reason they're pushing this this this propaganda.
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I wish and I wish they had put the I wish they had put those resources that they're spending
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I wish they had put it into stopping the virus.
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So so there it is undoubtedly true that the communist government of China had direct responsibility
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for suppressing information, for keeping it secret, for delaying the world knowing about
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it and and by the way, the World Health Organization, which in many ways acts as an apologist for
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the Chinese government of the communist government in China, repeated their misinformation as late
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The World Health Organization was saying that that that this coronavirus can't be transmitted
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I didn't even I didn't know that they were repeating Chinese propaganda in January.
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Look, there also has to be a serious inquiry and into the question, is there any correction
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a connection between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and and this virus?
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So the Wuhan Institute of Virology is one of 32 level four research labs that is researching
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There has not been any evidence publicly of connection between that institution and and
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But what we do know is there are only 32 level four labs on planet Earth.
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There are over 4000 cities on planet Earth that have 100,000, uh, 100,000 or more people
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It certainly raises some questions why the outbreak occurs, where there is a government
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lab controlled by the government of China that is doing research and not just doing research
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It's doing research into Corona viruses that have been transmitted through bats.
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So here's where the media has been super defensive is when anyone asked this question, the media
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like the Washington Post did this big hit piece saying this is a crazy conspiracy theory because
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they say, and I've been told by multiple scientists this, there's no evidence that this virus was
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Listen, I have no reason to doubt that that's what the scientists have told me, and I don't
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So I'll take their word for it that that that on the face of it, the characteristics of this
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But the question that needs to be asked on the back end is, is this if this is a naturally
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occurring virus, was this naturally occurring virus being stored at at the government, the
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And you know who's not going to be forthcoming with the answers to that?
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The Chinese communist government, of course, is going to take real scrutiny to ask those
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Devoting too much energy to those questions today is not productive for dealing with the
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crisis we have today, which is stopping the pandemic and then dealing with with the economic
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chaos and suffering that that's occurring as a result.
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Because the way the media has framed it, the media has said either you accept the story
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that it was just an accident, the virus came from a bad batch of bat soup, or you're
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a wacky conspiracy theorist who's saying that this was a bioweapon.
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Nobody's asking the secondary question that you are.
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You know, I'm no probability expert, but the coincidence that this happened in Wuhan is
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And is there a chance that this virus was being stored at that lab?
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If there was some outbreak of some exceptionally rare disease outside the CDC labs in Atlanta,
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don't you think people would ask, well, was that exceptionally rare disease being studied
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Was there some sort of mistake or accidental transmission?
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Now, maybe not, but it's a natural question to ask.
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And the Chinese government's cover up makes it all the more important to ask that question.
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Senator, we have about 30 seconds left, but I have to get to this question we got from
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Question is, when can people start getting back to work?
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I've asked scientists that and doctors that over and over again.
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And they don't know about the spread of this disease.
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Number one, we know how many confirmed cases there are, but we don't know if it is much
00:24:46.360
I guarantee you we're going to see in the next week the numbers skyrocket in the U.S.
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So there are people who are infected right now that just we haven't found out yet.
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And what I've been focused on in terms of addressing this pandemic is four priorities.
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Number one, testing, making testing more readily available and making it more accurate.
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And I've laid out a whole series of specific concrete steps the administration can take to do
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And if you protective gear, whether masks or gloves or disinfectant, that especially our
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first responders, our health care professionals that are interacting with people who are sick,
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we need to make sure we have enough protective gear.
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And I've laid out again a whole series of steps we can do that.
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Number three is health capacity and equipment that we need to make sure our hospitals can handle
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a surge if we do see the number of people infected with this virus surge dramatically,
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and that we have critical equipment, things like ventilators.
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And Italy's health care system has been overwhelmed.
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And you read some of the accounts that they're making triage decisions that are horrifying triage
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decisions where they have multiple patients in very acute respiratory failure, and they don't have
00:26:08.660
And they're making the decision of essentially, we're going to provide life-saving care to
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you, but we don't have the equipment to save your life.
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Nobody wants to see America in that situation where there are people being denied life-saving
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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
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in place to make sure anyone that is really sick gets the care they need.
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And then the fourth critical priority area is focusing on cures.
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And I've introduced legislation to streamline the FDA approval process so that we can move
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more quickly through it with vaccines, with treatments, and ultimately a cure for COVID-19,
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I think in terms of the pandemic, those should be our priorities.
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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.
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It's good to know that that very likely is not the case, though there's obviously still
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.
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This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is being brought to you by Jobs, Freedom, and Security
00:27:42.460
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