Verdict with Ted Cruz - The Long Game ft. Governor Scott Walker

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.460 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.200 For the past half century, at least, really, it goes back even further.

00:00:08.760 The left has engaged in a long march through the institutions.

00:00:13.380 They've amassed power in higher education, lower education, the media, big tech, corporate

00:00:20.100 America, the list goes on and on and on.

00:00:23.040 And conservatives have focused, for the most part, on short-term wins to the long-term

00:00:28.380 loss of the culture.

00:00:30.220 All that changes now as the Young America's Foundation announces the long game.

00:00:36.020 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:43.320 Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:45.760 I'm Michael Knowles, joined as ever by Senator Cruz.

00:00:48.540 And we are so delighted to be joined this week by Governor Scott Walker, former governor of

00:00:54.340 the state of Wisconsin and president of the Young America's Foundation.

00:00:57.940 Governor Walker, thank you for being here.

00:00:59.200 Great to be with you both.

00:01:00.420 Scott, welcome.

00:01:01.260 It's a pleasure.

00:01:01.800 Thanks, Ted.

00:01:02.460 I am so excited to hear about this.

00:01:04.860 A long game for conservatives.

00:01:07.480 We always hear about the long march through the institutions and the left steadily winning

00:01:12.360 and winning and winning.

00:01:13.140 And somehow, we always seem to lose the longer struggles, even if we win individual battles.

00:01:18.720 Now, conservatives are going to fight back.

00:01:21.700 How are we going to do it?

00:01:23.040 Well, through a series of things.

00:01:24.620 But for us, it really is about engaging more students and engaging them sooner.

00:01:29.000 And for example, Young America's Foundation is the oldest and largest conservative organization

00:01:34.840 focused on students.

00:01:36.540 It goes all the way back to the 1960s, starting in college campuses across America.

00:01:40.800 But even being at a point where we work with and support students on about 2,000 campuses,

00:01:46.640 that's just not enough.

00:01:47.520 We've got to be on all of them.

00:01:48.820 We've got to be on all 4,000 campuses.

00:01:50.960 We've got to be not only with undergraduates.

00:01:52.840 We've got to be with folks getting their two-year associate degree, the folks that are out

00:01:56.660 ready and hungry to get to work.

00:01:58.400 We've got to be not only in high school, but even in junior high.

00:02:00.760 And increasingly, we've got to start to have the early elements of a program targeted towards

00:02:05.760 not only elementary school students, but particularly their parents, to teach them the values of

00:02:10.200 why America is so exceptional instead of all the hate that they're getting from so many

00:02:14.100 on the left.

00:02:14.660 You know, Senator, before I had ever met you in person, one of the photos that really made

00:02:19.720 me think, I want to meet this guy.

00:02:21.640 This guy has the right idea.

00:02:22.920 I think it was a photo of you from college, and it was election night.

00:02:25.920 And you're there, you've got a cigar, you're tallying the votes.

00:02:29.240 You were, you were not a liberal in college.

00:02:32.100 You were that young conservative from day one.

00:02:34.660 So that was actually law school, and that was election night in 1994.

00:02:38.820 So it was the big Republican takeover of the House.

00:02:41.780 And so I'm at Harvard Law School, and we're having an election night party.

00:02:47.160 And we had results, and that was actually me putting the check mark when George W. Bush

00:02:53.420 beat Ann Richards.

00:02:55.500 And we had a Republican governor in Texas, and it was a big deal.

00:02:58.280 And I'm wearing a Bush quail t-shirt.

00:03:01.060 And look, they're a bunch of pinko libs at Harvard Law. 1.00

00:03:03.840 They were so unhappy.

00:03:05.920 And let me just say, libations were flowing that night, and cigars were lit.

00:03:10.760 And it was a moment of celebration.

00:03:12.460 But those are few and far between today.

00:03:16.680 I mean, how do we turn it around?

00:03:18.500 I think back to when I was in college and law school, and conservatives were outnumbered,

00:03:24.300 but there were at least some of us there.

00:03:26.020 We weren't quite persecuted by death squads at midnight.

00:03:30.440 At times, it feels like that's where colleges are now.

00:03:34.360 How do we change that?

00:03:35.340 Even in the last few years, because certainly in our generation, you and I aren't too far

00:03:39.540 apart.

00:03:39.780 And we think about, yeah, there were left-wing professors for sure, but you could still have

00:03:44.600 a voice, and you certainly weren't going to be run down by your fellow students.

00:03:47.980 Today, I think even more than the professors.

00:03:50.100 Most students are worried about the grief that they get from activist students of just

00:03:54.960 being shut down and pushed out of the conversation entirely, or worse, actually being attacked

00:03:59.900 and villainized and worse along the way.

00:04:03.520 So we've got to show more than anything.

00:04:05.400 And you guys have both been at our conferences before.

00:04:07.880 One of the most important things we show students is they're not alone.

00:04:10.980 And so for the students that are there, it's great.

00:04:12.880 Ron Robinson, the longtime leader of Young America's Foundation, did a great job running a

00:04:18.280 program that was really well-fitted for the students who came to our program to let them

00:04:22.260 know they weren't alone.

00:04:23.180 We just got to reach more.

00:04:24.340 And that means breaking down the barriers.

00:04:25.920 Part of it means in the Legal Route Center, you know about this, fighting the battle in

00:04:29.680 terms of free speech and changing the rules.

00:04:31.980 We've had big victories for even at UC Berkeley, where we shut down the program where they all

00:04:36.560 but made it impossible for a conservative speaker to come up on campus. 0.99

00:04:40.460 We can't just go there.

00:04:41.560 We've got to make it possible on every campus in every part of this country and then flood those 0.88

00:04:46.240 campuses with conservative speakers and programs and opportunities for those students.

00:04:50.380 So right now, YAF is in about 2,000 campuses.

00:04:53.080 Yep.

00:04:53.260 And the goal is to double that.

00:04:54.760 There are about 4,000 universities in the U.S.

00:04:57.200 We want to be at everyone, public or private, college or university.

00:05:01.000 We've got to have a presence in every campus.

00:05:03.340 If we're going to turn the tide because the left isn't conceding any ground, we shouldn't either.

00:05:08.820 Well, and so much of what's missing on the right is storytelling and humor and having fun.

00:05:14.100 And I think there's a huge opportunity right now because the left is so unfun.

00:05:23.060 They're so serious.

00:05:24.740 And I mean, it's almost like Handmaid's Tale.

00:05:28.620 And I actually haven't watched Handmaid's Tale.

00:05:30.420 But it seems like a bunch of Puritans trying to control every aspect of your life. 1.00

00:05:34.520 You must conform or you will be silenced.

00:05:37.560 That seems like a great opportunity for young people who just want to be free.

00:05:41.460 And they want to be free and they want to have fun.

00:05:42.880 And I often say on campus, you know, a great difference between freedom and socialism because

00:05:47.280 it's not conservative or liberal.

00:05:48.420 It's really as fundamental as freedom or socialism is, you know, socialists are like the taxi.

00:05:53.520 You know, where taxis are in cities where they want to control things.

00:05:57.760 They tell the taxi what they can do, when they can do it.

00:05:59.920 Big fee involved.

00:06:00.740 They usually box everybody else out.

00:06:02.460 That's because in those cities, just like in socialist countries, they tell you what to

00:06:06.460 do, when to do it and how to do it because they believe in the government.

00:06:09.480 I said, those of us who believe in freedom, we're like Uber or Lyft.

00:06:11.940 But, you know, Uber or Lyft just cares about getting the passenger and driver from point

00:06:15.900 A to point B safely.

00:06:17.540 I tell the students, you know, as long as you don't hurt the health and safety of your

00:06:20.580 neighbor, go do your own thing. 1.00

00:06:22.140 Live your own life.

00:06:22.980 Well, and an interesting point that nobody knows because it got no press coverage.

00:06:27.300 But Joe Biden's nominee to be deputy secretary of transportation was the head of transportation

00:06:33.880 in New York City.

00:06:35.400 And she spearheaded what was widely called the most draconian crackdown on Uber and Lyft

00:06:41.520 in the country.

00:06:42.160 I remember.

00:06:42.720 Yeah, for sure.

00:06:43.360 Because it was, we got a monopoly with taxi cabs and we don't want these small businesses.

00:06:47.800 We don't want entrepreneurs.

00:06:48.960 And we're going to crush Uber and Lyft.

00:06:51.380 That's who Joe Biden picked to be the number two person of the Department of Transportation.

00:06:56.940 And of course, every Democrat lines up behind them.

00:07:00.500 And it's an example of how today's Democratic Party, their status, their collectivist.

00:07:05.480 You know, I see this point.

00:07:06.700 I totally agree.

00:07:07.780 And I think a lot of what they're doing is unpopular.

00:07:11.020 And we have a naturally better pitch, I think, not just to college students, but to everybody.

00:07:15.740 By the way, Uber and Lyft are both hardcore Democratic companies that support Democrats

00:07:20.200 exclusively while the Democrats are trying to crush them.

00:07:24.060 Get them completely out of business.

00:07:25.220 Because it's like chic to be supporting the party that's trying to drive you out of business.

00:07:29.600 It's a sort of a masochism, I guess.

00:07:32.140 But they're really good at this, right?

00:07:34.600 I mean, the left is so good that they get these companies to support them, even if it

00:07:38.680 hurts their bottom line.

00:07:40.340 And even getting back to the title of this program, the long game, you know, the long march

00:07:44.700 through the institutions was successful because, to quote Antonio Gramsci, that communist theorist

00:07:50.980 who's kind of behind a lot of this.

00:07:52.180 And, you know, does a day go by that you don't quote some obscure communist theorist?

00:07:56.260 Of course.

00:07:56.680 I mean, it's sort of, it's become cliche at this point.

00:07:59.560 Yeah, I actually think they need to put a warning on attending Yale that if you go to

00:08:03.980 Yale, you're going to make these random references that no one other than former Yalies is going 1.00

00:08:09.540 to have any idea what you're talking about.

00:08:10.640 We go for Chinese foods.

00:08:11.720 The rest of us open up, you know, our cookies and see, you know, a nice little saying.

00:08:16.200 At Yale, they give you these great quotes.

00:08:17.640 They give you that.

00:08:18.200 Well, and the problem, too, at Yale is they all love the Italian communist theorists.

00:08:22.000 You know, they're always quoting him very admiringly.

00:08:24.040 What was the, yeah, the answer, the difference between a socialist and that is those who understand

00:08:28.640 a socialist versus those who quote a socialist.

00:08:30.540 Right, they say the socialist reads Karl Marx and the conservative understands Karl Marx.

00:08:36.900 But, you know, I will say, to give the devils their due, the radicals were really right about

00:08:42.080 this, where they said, Gramsci had this point, he said, there's a war of maneuver.

00:08:44.940 It's when you kind of, you know, you advance and you retreat and you fight each other.

00:08:47.880 And that's only effective sometimes.

00:08:50.500 But the war of position, where you just amass the power very subtly, very gradually.

00:08:57.800 Now we're at this point where a lot of the Biden administration's policies, deeply unpopular.

00:09:02.920 We're at this point where a lot of college students, I think, would like to be able to

00:09:06.160 speak, would like to be able to learn.

00:09:08.480 They're not able to do that because the people who hold those positions of power can wield 0.70

00:09:13.520 it.

00:09:13.840 And we as conservatives never seem to be able to do anything about it.

00:09:16.980 Well, and part of it, Michael, is because I think inherently we don't put our faith in

00:09:20.720 the government.

00:09:21.880 So we win elections, do what we say we're going to do, or at least those of us who are

00:09:25.400 successful are, and then move on to the rest of our lives.

00:09:28.200 The left, I mean, everything they do is about power.

00:09:31.240 I mean, even this latest political power move that's the first bill in the House is all about

00:09:36.880 power.

00:09:37.220 All these things are about power.

00:09:39.040 So you can see why their whole life is consumed with it.

00:09:42.940 The wake-up call, I think, for those of us who, it's not enough just to win the battle.

00:09:46.980 We've got to win the battle of the day and the war going ahead.

00:09:51.080 And it's going to take more than just a news cycle, more than a presidential cycle.

00:09:55.180 It really is going to take a long game to get this.

00:09:57.540 Senator, I will speak for you.

00:10:00.520 I'll presume to do that when I say we would certainly like to be very involved with that

00:10:05.220 long game going forward.

00:10:06.020 Well, we've got an exciting announcement tonight, too, because you guys were both super popular

00:10:11.020 at our conference, the Freedom Conference, a live in-person event in the free state of

00:10:15.540 Florida that was just about a month ago.

00:10:18.400 You did the verdict live in front of our students.

00:10:20.140 They absolutely loved it.

00:10:21.820 We'd love for the rest of this year to have you embark at at least a half dozen more opportunities

00:10:26.340 like that.

00:10:26.760 Maybe you can do a Freedom State tour.

00:10:28.080 That would be a great way to go out to college campuses and share the verdict as a way of

00:10:33.080 speaking directly to the college students and then broadcast it all across America.

00:10:37.680 Well, and it's an exciting collaboration.

00:10:39.620 So we're going to be working with Yav, going to six college campuses in the next year,

00:10:43.980 doing verdict live.

00:10:45.640 And so sitting in front of your campus.

00:10:47.940 And actually, we haven't decided on the six campuses yet.

00:10:51.060 So this is a great opportunity for everyone who listens to Verdict, everyone who watches

00:10:55.260 Verdict.

00:10:56.260 Email the mailbag and let us know if you want us to come to your campus.

00:11:00.780 And by the way, we're not looking for Lovefest.

00:11:03.060 We're looking for places where the domineering force of the totalitarian left is a problem

00:11:10.220 and where truth and light are needed and they're needed in darkness.

00:11:15.240 They're needed when lies abound.

00:11:18.320 And so let us know.

00:11:19.400 How do they do that, Michael?

00:11:20.460 So people can email mailbag at verdictpodcast.com.

00:11:24.500 Also, you can tweet us for now.

00:11:26.820 I mean, we're all still on Twitter for now.

00:11:28.200 Who knows how long that will last.

00:11:30.060 Until Trump Facebook Twitter launches.

00:11:32.400 And then you can certainly, I don't know the mechanism there, but certainly you can send

00:11:36.840 it in that way.

00:11:37.320 But please do send in those suggestions.

00:11:39.580 I can't wait because, you know, the left rushes in where angels fear to tread.

00:11:44.840 But in the long run, through their persistence, they've really amassed a lot of power.

00:11:49.100 And so I totally agree with you, Senator.

00:11:50.680 As much as I will get a kick out of going to a lot of conservative schools, I also would

00:11:55.460 like to get to those left-wing campuses and actually try to crack up the left's control

00:11:59.560 there.

00:12:00.200 Speaking of control, by the way, I do have to bring this up with both of you guys.

00:12:03.840 H.R. 1.

00:12:06.580 This is a law.

00:12:08.180 It's a bill that's being floated.

00:12:10.440 I thought it was so absurd and ambitious and radical that it would just be laughed out

00:12:15.820 of the room.

00:12:16.200 We wouldn't have to worry about it.

00:12:18.300 It's a bill that could really threaten our election integrity, the kind of the whole structure

00:12:22.340 of government here.

00:12:23.680 It looks like it's plausible.

00:12:25.760 Well, it shouldn't be.

00:12:27.480 And in anything resembling the merits, it wouldn't be.

00:12:30.480 But right now, Democrats have the White House and both houses of Congress.

00:12:34.780 And it really is the crazies who are driving it.

00:12:37.560 So let's take a minute.

00:12:38.640 One of the things Verdict does is try to help people understand what's really going on.

00:12:43.160 So let's talk a minute about what's in this bill.

00:12:45.820 I mean, even the intro of H.R. 1.

00:12:48.480 I mean, who talks about H.R.s and S.1 like that?

00:12:51.280 But it actually says something.

00:12:53.300 So the 1 means it's the very first bill that Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats introduced

00:12:58.860 in the House.

00:12:59.960 S-1, which is the counterpart, means it's the very first bill that Chuck Schumer and

00:13:04.980 the Democrats introduced in the Senate.

00:13:06.560 And I think it's interesting that their first priority, it wasn't COVID, it wasn't

00:13:11.380 immunizations, it wasn't getting kids back in school, it wasn't reopening the economy.

00:13:15.860 Their first priority, more than anything else, is staying in power.

00:13:19.640 However, and this bill, it's 700 pages long, and it is this massive, it's every bad idea

00:13:25.860 the left has had to lock in their power, rolled up as one.

00:13:29.920 So what does it do?

00:13:31.460 It takes virtually every state law that was passed to protect election integrity, and it

00:13:39.500 strikes them off the books.

00:13:40.820 So a bunch of states have photo ID.

00:13:42.640 You got to have a photo to go vote.

00:13:45.000 H.R. 1 says that's illegal.

00:13:46.340 No more photo ID.

00:13:47.160 You may need one to buy a beer, to get on a plane, to drive a car, but voting, no problem.

00:13:52.780 So it's not just saying you don't need the ID.

00:13:55.720 It's saying you can't have those laws.

00:13:57.680 You can't require it.

00:13:59.060 Wow.

00:13:59.760 It sets them all aside.

00:14:02.280 Not only that, it automatically registers people to vote.

00:14:07.080 Does it automatically.

00:14:08.740 Anytime you interact with the government, so if you're getting welfare benefits, if you're

00:14:11.880 getting unemployment benefits, you're automatically registered to vote.

00:14:14.460 Now, the Democrats know that this will register millions of illegal aliens.

00:14:20.500 That's the intended effect.

00:14:21.680 Then they're locked in.

00:14:22.820 Then they're locked in.

00:14:23.840 And one of the real purposes of this is to get millions of illegal aliens voting.

00:14:28.040 Once they're registered, get them voting.

00:14:30.340 Not only that, but this bill, a bunch of states have very reasonable restrictions on felons voting,

00:14:36.160 on criminals voting.

00:14:36.880 A lot of states have made the decision, you know what, we don't really need murderers casting

00:14:43.560 ballots.

00:14:45.000 This bill strikes aside every one of those laws and says criminals should vote.

00:14:50.360 Murderers should vote. 0.97

00:14:51.600 Rapists should vote. 1.00

00:14:52.580 Child molesters should vote. 0.87

00:14:53.920 And it is designed to ensure that you get millions of illegal aliens and criminals voting because 0.95

00:15:02.020 I think the Democrats quite reasonably have come to the conclusion that if illegal aliens 0.95

00:15:07.020 and criminals are voting, they're going to vote for Democrats and the Democrats could

00:15:10.820 never lose.

00:15:11.400 This is about Democrats being in charge of the federal government for the next hundred years.

00:15:16.220 Now, I know that we were all supposed to believe that Joe Manchin, one of the two semi-moderate

00:15:23.260 Democrats, he was going to hold the line and stop this from going through in the Senate.

00:15:27.760 And there are all these questions about the filibuster and there are all these sorts of

00:15:31.720 things that I think a lot of people just don't pay a lot of attention to the technicalities

00:15:35.320 of.

00:15:35.660 What is the likelihood that this thing gets through the Senate?

00:15:39.120 Oh, I think it's real.

00:15:40.400 I mean, I think from everything, you know, Senator, you know firsthand, but for everything

00:15:43.620 we can see, Manchin is setting the table to say, well, in this one instance, for this

00:15:50.200 particular thing, it's important.

00:15:51.600 It's about election reform, election take, everything that's just the opposite of what

00:15:55.320 it is.

00:15:55.900 And so I'd say anybody watching or listening right now, particularly if you live in West

00:16:00.400 Virginia, Arizona, states like Montana in particular, let, and plenty of others, I mean,

00:16:05.900 there's, I think, competitive seats in Nevada and New Hampshire coming up this next year

00:16:09.700 as well, let your senators in particular know where you stand on this issue.

00:16:14.680 And I would say not just Republican or conservatives, this, if you look at things like voter

00:16:18.840 ideas, you talked about it, wiping out state laws.

00:16:21.300 I signed as governor a measure that had broad base support, not only amongst Republicans

00:16:26.560 and independents, but even a fair number of Democrat voters, not politicians, but people

00:16:32.260 who weren't in office when the polling was out.

00:16:34.680 Not that everything's done by polling, but it just showed that people logically think, hey,

00:16:37.980 if I've got to show an idea, if I'm going to go get an immunization, if I've got to do

00:16:42.080 it to get on a plane, if I've got to do it for all these other things, it's probably a

00:16:45.680 good idea to actually show one to ensure the integrity of the vote.

00:16:48.180 It should be easy to vote, but hard to cheat.

00:16:49.980 They wipe that all out completely.

00:16:51.880 And then on top of everything else, Senator, you said they would take the New York style

00:16:55.900 campaign financing system, which takes taxpayers' money from all of us and then picks the people

00:17:02.100 who will take it.

00:17:02.900 And oh, by the way, they can take a salary on top of that to double on what they're making

00:17:07.280 in the elected office.

00:17:08.120 It is all the really bad ideas.

00:17:10.160 That's why I call it the Crooked Politician Act.

00:17:13.640 But you're right.

00:17:14.580 The H.R.

00:17:15.080 1 is important to know because it's the first priority, which is what we were talking about

00:17:18.200 before.

00:17:18.820 The long game for them is not about ideas.

00:17:21.840 It's about power.

00:17:22.840 Well, and what Scott just said there, I mean, an element of this, it's about welfare for

00:17:26.800 politicians.

00:17:27.340 It says if you raise a dollar as a candidate, the taxpayer gives you six dollars.

00:17:32.440 So it's literally flooding millions of dollars to fund the campaigns of politicians.

00:17:36.980 Because if you think who are the most needy, deserving souls on the planet, clearly they're

00:17:41.940 politicians.

00:17:42.800 Especially these hard times.

00:17:44.060 Yeah.

00:17:44.500 You know, I will say, so Scott and I a week ago were at a gathering of conservative leaders

00:17:49.820 and it was an all day retreat, strategy retreat, looking at the threats facing the country.

00:17:54.240 And we spent probably half the day talking about H.R.

00:17:58.960 1, which we all agreed together, we'll never call it H.R.

00:18:01.520 1 again.

00:18:02.260 Names matter and no one knows what H.R.

00:18:04.140 1 means.

00:18:04.700 And so the consensus in the group, Scott says Crooked Politicians Act.

00:18:08.800 I'm calling it Corrupt Politicians Act.

00:18:10.680 In some ways, corrupt or crooked are both redundant with Politicians Act.

00:18:16.540 But let me ask you in all seriousness.

00:18:19.200 So you were elected statewide in Wisconsin multiple times, a purple state.

00:18:24.600 Right.

00:18:24.880 How would those campaigns have gone if H.R.

00:18:28.060 1, if the Corrupt Politicians Act had been the law?

00:18:30.740 What would that have meant for you?

00:18:32.220 Oh, I think it would have pushed an incredible imbalance.

00:18:35.420 So shift the way so that I don't see a conservative winning, a Republican winning statewide in a state

00:18:41.780 like Wisconsin, any time in our, probably in this next generation, if that law stays intact.

00:18:47.800 So criminals were not a good constituency for you?

00:18:50.560 Exactly.

00:18:51.040 Not at a, particularly considering I didn't do any pardons.

00:18:53.440 Yeah, that's particularly true.

00:18:55.820 But just all the other mechanics, even the photo ID requirement, which again was fairly universal in support out there.

00:19:02.760 And for all the hype and hysteria about how it was going to diminish the ability of people to vote, we've constantly seen growth.

00:19:09.600 The very reporters that ask about how photo ID taken away somehow would change voting were the same ones claiming it was going to diminish the vote,

00:19:20.480 then tell you that this was a record turnout in the last presidential election.

00:19:23.480 You know, an interesting follow-up to the meeting we had is that you and I and a number of others went out to try to communicate to the American people.

00:19:30.120 What Biden and the Democrats want to do is ram this through in the dark of night and get it done so fast no one realizes what happened.

00:19:35.740 And so I think there's a real need to educate people about the threats of this.

00:19:41.340 And so following up, I did a whole numbers of conference calls and Zooms with different groups, including ALEC,

00:19:46.800 which, as you know, is an organization of conservative, libertarian, liberty-loving state legislators.

00:19:53.080 And so I wanted the states to know, you know, in every state, states have passed important election integrity laws,

00:19:58.820 all of which their Democratic senators are preparing to repeal.

00:20:02.760 And so I talked about it.

00:20:04.540 Well, apparently somebody on the call taped the call, which in this line of work you assume is pretty much always happening.

00:20:11.460 Right.

00:20:11.920 And they leaked it to the AP.

00:20:13.760 And so this week, the AP had this breathless story about Cruz says H.R.1 will let millions of illegal aliens and millions of criminals vote.

00:20:25.260 And the funny thing is, like all these lefties begin attacking it.

00:20:29.200 All the press begins attacking it.

00:20:31.200 Nobody actually refuted the substance.

00:20:33.500 Bingo.

00:20:34.000 They didn't even engage in the substance. 0.99

00:20:35.480 They just, oh, what a ridiculous thing. 0.93

00:20:37.220 Of course Democrats don't want to do that. 0.86

00:20:39.380 But when that's what the bill does, what is the, what else would be the point of the bill?

00:20:44.460 Well, and that's their long game.

00:20:45.640 Right.

00:20:45.780 And that goes back, again, why this is so important.

00:20:47.760 Because everything you see setting up with something like this crooked or corrupt politician act is really not just about today's battle.

00:20:55.300 Yeah.

00:20:55.640 It's about looking ahead.

00:20:56.740 Right.

00:20:57.000 It's exactly why we're trying to counter it, not just by engaging in this battle, doing what Ted and I and others are trying to do, speak out about, put the pressure on your senators, let's not let this happen.

00:21:06.080 But it's also why with Young America's Foundation, we're engaging in this long game plan because we know you not only have to win the battle, you've got to win the war for the heart and soul to save this republic.

00:21:16.020 And you don't do that by just doing battle by battle.

00:21:18.660 You've got to have a long game plan going forward.

00:21:21.100 And that's exactly what we're doing.

00:21:21.960 Well, and I do want to hit on this corruption a little bit because that was the first thing I thought of.

00:21:25.760 I said, is it even legal for members of Congress to be totally grabbing all this power over elections?

00:21:32.180 I thought they weren't supposed to be the ones, you know, figuring out the rules of their own elections.

00:21:37.120 What could go wrong there?

00:21:38.700 But the other really corrupt body that, Governor, you have particular experience with that right now is keeping millions of American school kids from getting an education is teacher unions.

00:21:51.400 And I think, is there any greater example of leftist corruption and yet political effectiveness than the teacher unions?

00:21:59.120 If Chicago, the city of Chicago, where, by the way, the Catholic schools have been in session safely and successfully since last fall,

00:22:07.460 if the Chicago school district, where they've been trying for months to get the schools open and the teachers back,

00:22:13.540 if that city was in Wisconsin and not Illinois, they could be open.

00:22:16.720 But because our laws, we got, we changed, we threw out collective bargaining because of that power.

00:22:21.780 I said, people always said it was about unions.

00:22:23.380 It was about budgets.

00:22:24.180 No, it was simple.

00:22:25.500 It was ended up taking power out of the hands of the big government special interests, the union bosses,

00:22:30.560 and putting it back into the hands of the hardworking people and the people they duly elect to run their local and state and ultimately federal government.

00:22:38.000 By putting that power back, they make the decisions, not the union bosses.

00:22:42.140 And sadly, in places like Chicago and many others across the country, the union bosses are making that decision.

00:22:47.340 Probably one of the worst examples, Fairfax County, just outside of our nation's capital.

00:22:51.540 Not only did the union say no, they jumped the line in front of seniors and others to get vaccinated and still said no.

00:22:59.540 Talk about the outrage.

00:23:01.120 They should not be controlling things the American people should be.

00:23:03.700 And, you know, Scott draws a really important distinction that sometimes in discussions gets missed.

00:23:07.980 And it's a distinction between the teachers union bosses and the teachers.

00:23:13.500 Right.

00:23:14.260 There are millions of wonderful men and women who love kids, who go into teaching because they want to make a difference.

00:23:22.040 They want to, they had a teacher or two that impacted their lives and they want to do the same thing.

00:23:27.060 And many of those teachers are held hostage by their union bosses.

00:23:30.540 You know, I, I got, I won't say which teachers, I, I speak to a number of my teachers still, we still stay in touch.

00:23:35.860 And I, for their careers, I won't say which ones because they will write to me and say, I'm just so frustrated with the union leadership and with the administrators and with all, basically all these political rules, which keep me from teaching my students.

00:23:51.900 So, so, so since I outed you as, as a Yale geek earlier in the show, I will admit, so one teacher I had who made a huge difference in my life was Mrs. Lozier.

00:24:02.740 Now, she was my senior high school English teacher and, and a wonderful teacher.

00:24:07.600 And, and she had a policy that, that you lost 10 points on a paper if you had a single misspelling.

00:24:14.100 So, so I still remember senior year, I wrote a, wrote a paper where I was copying a quote and the quote included the word verisimilitude, which, which I even say, it is.

00:24:27.060 And I wrote it on a note card and I didn't know what verisimilitude meant.

00:24:30.940 So, when I wrote it on the note card, I misspelled it and I spelled it instead of V-E-R-I similitude, I spelled it V-E-R similitude.

00:24:39.940 And since I didn't know what the word meant when I put it in my paper, I couldn't tell it was misspelled.

00:24:44.040 She took off 10 and I ended up with a 90 on the paper.

00:24:47.280 I still remember to this day.

00:24:48.860 It's the lowest grade you ever got in school.

00:24:50.740 But, but I, I never forgot the word.

00:24:52.960 I mean, you want to talk about a teacher making a difference, those 10 points to this day.

00:24:56.260 It's true.

00:24:56.700 And when I was in third grade, I had a speech impediment.

00:24:59.120 So, I couldn't even have said that when I was that age.

00:25:02.560 You know, it is funny.

00:25:04.120 There are those moments, I, I hate to admit it even myself, but a few of those,

00:25:07.560 even, even if it's a negative mark, when teachers really care, that's a wonderful thing.

00:25:12.080 And Governor, you did, you did it very well, which is you drew this distinction between crooked union bosses and teachers who were all up.

00:25:20.320 Well, a prime example of that.

00:25:20.900 So, ironically, it ended up involving my kids because the year before I was governor,

00:25:25.360 a young woman in Milwaukee, the biggest school district in the state,

00:25:28.740 was named the Outstanding New English Teacher of the Year.

00:25:31.640 But in 2010, people forget Democrats in my state had cut because the federal government cut aid.

00:25:37.660 The economy was in shambles.

00:25:39.700 Democrats in charge of state government cut aid to local governments, including school districts.

00:25:43.940 So, what did they do under the old union contracts?

00:25:46.480 They laid people off.

00:25:47.820 Who was one of the first to be laid off?

00:25:49.680 This woman named Megan Sampson, who had just got the award for being the best new Outstanding New English Teacher.

00:25:54.980 The irony of ironies was, not long after that, the Wauwatosa School District, which is where my kids were at,

00:26:02.880 picked her up as a teacher.

00:26:04.360 She ended up teaching my kids in high school and was a fabulous English teacher. 0.89

00:26:08.580 I don't know where her politics are at. 0.97

00:26:10.560 Probably wants to be out of the limelight.

00:26:12.280 But it was a prime example of that school district used our reforms and was able to hire someone as exceptional as she was

00:26:19.200 to benefit my kids and all the other kids at that school.

00:26:21.400 So, those are the people we're trying to protect and the students along with them.

00:26:25.840 The union is not looking out for them.

00:26:27.520 They're looking out for what's best for the union bosses and for getting their money.

00:26:31.740 And you think about where we are right now.

00:26:33.920 So, COVID and the COVID lockdown started a year ago.

00:26:37.660 We were told a year ago, flatten the curve.

00:26:40.180 It's just going to be a couple of weeks and then it'll all be over.

00:26:43.380 Right now today, only 40% of school kids across the country are in in-person school five days a week.

00:26:52.060 I mean, that's staggering.

00:26:53.280 More than half of the school kids in America are not in school.

00:26:57.040 They're doing virtual school.

00:26:58.420 Look, with our girls, they're 10 and 12 now.

00:27:00.340 Virtual school was really hard.

00:27:01.460 Our girls, thankfully, are back in person now.

00:27:04.600 But it's amazing what the union bosses are doing.

00:27:08.660 That their argument is, as many of them are saying, give us the vaccinations.

00:27:12.260 Many of them have gotten the vaccinations.

00:27:13.800 Great.

00:27:14.100 I think absolutely teachers should get vaccinated.

00:27:16.940 Give us the vaccinations and we're still not going to teach.

00:27:19.340 And the union bosses are just...

00:27:20.900 Wait a second.

00:27:21.220 And you look at what is happening now.

00:27:25.960 Kids across the country for a year have been falling behind in reading, writing, arithmetic.

00:27:31.580 And I've got to say, Democrats don't seem to care.

00:27:35.860 That should be the eye-opener.

00:27:37.080 And this whole debate, not just in the battle of the moment, but long term, particularly amongst blue-collar working households, where I think that's a huge distinction, where if mom and dad both have to work, particularly if they've got younger kids, and you've got grandma and grandpa who might otherwise have watched the kids, but they can't because they're worried about being adversely affected by exposure.

00:27:57.660 So where do they go?

00:27:58.980 What do they do?

00:27:59.740 I had a cabinet member of mine who, after our terms were up, went and ran a United Community Center, which includes one of the biggest predominantly Hispanic student populations in the state of Wisconsin.

00:28:11.940 And I remember last summer having breakfast with her, asking about how things were, and if she was going to reopen the school then.

00:28:17.260 She said, I have no choice.

00:28:18.340 I have to.

00:28:19.360 These families will lose their mortgage.

00:28:21.460 They will be kicked out into the street if they don't go to work and they can't go to work if their kids aren't in school.

00:28:28.780 I think that's going to be the eye-opener, not only in the terms of, I think it completely reshapes the debate over whether or not we trust parents enough to give them the money that's otherwise controlled by the government to go pick the school that's right for their son or daughter, whether it's in-person or virtual, whether it's government-run or not.

00:28:44.140 But I also think the other thing you saw in all this was so many of the schools, even when they were virtual, would prohibit parents from watching what they were teaching.

00:28:54.560 That should be another red flag for parents all across America that you need to engage, even in the elementary school ages, because what they're teaching you is not what they taught us, and it's not right for your kids.

00:29:05.640 So let me tell a story that kind of brings together several of the themes we've been talking about, which is a couple of weeks ago when we were voting on the big, the $1.9 trillion porculus bill, that only 9% of the bill actually was COVID spending for health care.

00:29:21.660 91% of it wasn't.

00:29:24.100 It included tens of billions of dollars for public schools.

00:29:27.820 I introduced an amendment that was focused on this issue we're talking about, which is getting kids back in school.

00:29:32.400 And my amendment was a very common sense amendment.

00:29:35.380 It was designed to, what it said is, is that public schools can get all this money if they open five days a week.

00:29:42.900 If they're actually teaching, they can get the money.

00:29:46.860 But if they're not teaching, I didn't touch any of their existing money.

00:29:50.100 So under my amendment, they get every penny of the money they get right now.

00:29:53.560 But my amendment simply says you don't get the new money, the additional tens of billions of dollars.

00:29:58.300 If you aren't open and actually doing your job, instead of that new money going to you to not teach the kids, that money instead goes to the kids and the parents, scholarships up to $10,000 per kid.

00:30:13.340 Because if the kids can't get an education at the school they've got, they've got to be able to find an alternative.

00:30:17.980 Absolutely.

00:30:18.280 Now, three epilogues to that.

00:30:21.800 Number one, vote was straight party line.

00:30:25.020 Every Republican supported the amendment.

00:30:26.840 Every Democrat voted no.

00:30:28.060 So it failed 50 to 49.

00:30:31.220 The reason it was 50 to 49, by the way, Dan Sullivan from Alaska had to go.

00:30:35.840 His father-in-law passed, and so he was at a funeral in Alaska.

00:30:38.540 So it would have been 50-50.

00:30:39.620 Instead, it was 50-49.

00:30:41.560 Every single Democrat was the deciding vote.

00:30:44.000 So in the middle of the vote, and this is where it connects before, you were asking about Joe Manchin at H.R.1.

00:30:50.200 So I like Joe.

00:30:51.180 We get along.

00:30:51.820 He's a very nice, very affable guy.

00:30:53.680 I came up to Joe, and I said, Joe, look.

00:30:55.560 I reminded him of, in 2013, my biggest legislative accomplishment was, I'm sorry, not 2013, 2017, when we passed the big tax cut.

00:31:05.480 I introduced the legislation that expanded College 529 savings plans to K-12 education.

00:31:12.040 It's the biggest school choice bill ever to pass Congress.

00:31:15.700 Manchin voted for it for about five minutes, and Chuck Schumer and the Democrats yelled at Manchin, and he went up and flipped his vote.

00:31:22.920 Now, I ended up winning anyway.

00:31:24.800 Mike Pence cast the tie-breaking vote, and so it passed without Manchin's vote.

00:31:30.040 But I reminded Joe.

00:31:31.680 I said, remember in 2017 where you voted for five minutes?

00:31:35.740 You were with me.

00:31:36.420 You were the only Democrat with the courage to do it.

00:31:38.420 Come on, Joe.

00:31:39.880 There are millions of kids right now, inner-city kids, African-American kids, Hispanic kids, that are not learning. 1.00

00:31:47.960 Right.

00:31:48.500 And he just shook his head and said, I can't do it.

00:31:51.960 I just can't do it.

00:31:52.860 And you could see, I don't know what Schumer has in his office, if it's thumbscrews, if it's a medieval rack, but the Democrats are terrified of crossing him, and it failed by a single vote.

00:32:05.540 I'll tell you a final epilogue on that, which is one of the – every Republican voted for my amendment, including Susan Collins.

00:32:12.820 And it was interesting, Susan – so Susan had voted against the 529 bill that I passed, and Susan talked to me, and I was gently encouraging her to support it, and she did.

00:32:25.760 And she said to me afterwards, she said, you know, this is the only school choice bill I've ever voted for in my time in the Senate.

00:32:31.880 Hmm.

00:32:32.780 And I was like, really?

00:32:33.480 And she said, all right, it's limited just now during COVID, during the emergency.

00:32:37.880 I said, yeah.

00:32:38.260 She said, okay, I could support it then.

00:32:40.020 But that's the game changer, I think.

00:32:41.840 If your school shut down, then those kids – if you're not providing the school to them, then you've got to give them an option.

00:32:48.660 And I said, look, I'll take it.

00:32:50.180 Yeah.

00:32:50.720 But –

00:32:51.200 It makes the larger point for sure.

00:32:52.440 That's right.

00:32:52.880 It shows the stakes of the whole issue.

00:32:54.720 And what does it say that none of the Democrats – they don't have an answer to these kids that are stuck at home.

00:33:00.360 They don't have an answer to the parents whose kids are not getting educated.

00:33:02.920 Well, because it all circles back.

00:33:04.780 When you look at all of this, sadly so, because for years there were Democrats I didn't agree with in my state, but I respected.

00:33:11.780 You could work on things.

00:33:13.020 But increasingly, it's all about the power.

00:33:15.780 Yeah.

00:33:16.140 And again, I go back to this theme, but it fits with why we're doing the long game, because for them, they have a long-term strategy.

00:33:23.060 They're willing to ride it out, but they will never break from their power structure.

00:33:27.540 Yeah.

00:33:27.680 It's all about amassing more power and more power and more power.

00:33:30.820 And the only way they give on any of that, if it doesn't affect that, if it does, the teachers' union, it's such a steady stream because they get those automatic dues.

00:33:38.960 I remember when we had our debate, when we had 100,000 protesters occupy our state capitol, not for hours, but for literally weeks, for nearly a month's time, the bottom line was the union bosses would have thrown away – they would have sold their members out for anything.

00:33:54.360 They would have made them pay 100 percent of their pension in health care if only they could keep the automatic dues deduction.

00:34:00.220 Yeah, right.

00:34:00.860 And we gave those teachers, the good, decent public servants who, you're exactly right, overwhelmingly want to teach kids.

00:34:07.480 They got in for all the right reasons.

00:34:09.060 They love children.

00:34:10.040 They want them to do well.

00:34:11.680 When we gave them the chance whether they could choose whether they wanted to be in a union or not, that's when things went from 100 to a couple thousand to 100,000 protesters because the national unions could not let that happen.

00:34:24.380 The bosses wanted their money.

00:34:25.560 And this gentleman will have to leave it here, but it does actually get me quite excited because we will be able to continue this conversation, not just here in this studio.

00:34:35.380 We will be continuing this conversation on the road, on campuses, talking to real students in real life.

00:34:42.520 And tell us your campus.

00:34:43.560 Tell us where you want us to come.

00:34:44.960 Tell us where you want us to come.

00:34:46.900 You can check out more about the long game at yaf.org slash long game.

00:34:51.520 Very easy URL to remember.

00:34:53.400 And you can catch us on the next episode of Verdict.

00:34:55.900 I'm Michael Knowles.

00:34:57.220 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:34:58.600 This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is being brought to you by Jobs Freedom and Security Pack, a political action committee dedicated to supporting conservative causes, organizations and candidates across the country.

00:35:20.220 In 2022, Jobs Freedom and Security Pack plans to donate to conservative candidates running for Congress and help the Republican Party across the nation.

00:35:30.100 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:35:32.400 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - March 24, 2021

The Long Game ft. Governor Scott Walker

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