Verdict with Ted Cruz - November 06, 2021


The Republic Ain’t Over Yet


Episode Stats

Length

45 minutes

Words per Minute

180.75757

Word Count

8,227

Sentence Count

527

Misogynist Sentences

10

Hate Speech Sentences

8


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.340 Guaranteed human.
00:00:04.180 The Republic ain't over yet.
00:00:07.900 A major Republican victory in Blue, Virginia.
00:00:12.860 This week, Glenn Youngkin defeats Terry McAuliffe.
00:00:17.540 The race came down not so much to personalities, but to a simple question.
00:00:22.160 Who has the right to raise your kids?
00:00:25.920 Who has the right to education?
00:00:28.000 What will the future of our country be?
00:00:32.320 And the election victory gave Republicans something that we have not had in a very, very long time.
00:00:39.000 In one word, hope.
00:00:41.120 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.
00:00:48.560 Verdict with Ted Cruz is brought to you by Stamps.com.
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00:02:02.000 You know, I was already on cloud nine.
00:02:05.140 I was already feeling pretty good after that victory last night.
00:02:08.240 And now I'm feeling even better and equally disoriented because we've been doing this show now for two years.
00:02:15.380 And that is the first time that we've ever made any money on this show.
00:02:19.420 That's the first time I've ever heard from a sponsor.
00:02:21.940 This just coming off of our wonderful VERDICT live tour in Wisconsin and Texas and Washington, D.C.,
00:02:28.400 where we were joined by our friend Liz Wheeler.
00:02:30.980 And Liz, now you're reading ads for us.
00:02:34.320 And what are you doing?
00:02:35.800 Are you actually putting this show on sustainable financial footing?
00:02:39.900 Yes, Michael.
00:02:40.440 I like to think of myself as the breadwinner here in this situation.
00:02:43.800 It's my honor and my privilege to be here.
00:02:46.020 Thank you for inviting me to join you.
00:02:47.800 You may notice something different about the pod, which is we just finished our campus tour.
00:02:52.880 Liz was part of the tour and was fantastic.
00:02:55.980 And by popular demand, people really enjoyed Liz being part of the conversation.
00:03:01.140 So she's now formally part of the podcast.
00:03:04.240 And so, Liz, thank you for being on the road with us with VERDICT, but thank you for being
00:03:08.160 part of the pod going forward as well.
00:03:10.440 Oh, it's my pleasure, Senator.
00:03:11.660 It's actually an honor to be here having these conversations with you and with Michael.
00:03:16.280 So thank you for including me.
00:03:17.600 Thank you for the invite.
00:03:18.700 And, you know, Liz, you picked a pretty good time to join the show because this is your first
00:03:22.500 sort of official episode here, you know, not as part of one of these live events.
00:03:28.180 And it happens to be the greatest day for Republicans in recent memory.
00:03:32.900 And, Senator, I know that you were there last night.
00:03:35.940 You were at the Yunkin Victory Party.
00:03:37.900 You called this early on.
00:03:39.620 I remember you had been providing quite a bit of help to the Yunkin campaign very,
00:03:44.000 very early on when people said there's no way that the Republicans are going to take
00:03:47.280 back Virginia.
00:03:48.200 And then what happened last night?
00:03:49.900 We all got a little bit of hope.
00:03:51.140 Yeah, look, last night was fantastic.
00:03:54.140 It was a big damn deal for the country.
00:03:57.460 It was a big damn deal for Virginia, but for the whole country.
00:04:00.000 And Glenn Youngkin is someone I've known a long time.
00:04:02.660 I've known a number of years.
00:04:03.880 He's a friend.
00:04:04.680 His wife, Suzanne, is a friend.
00:04:06.820 They actually have a ranch in Texas.
00:04:08.400 Heidi and I have stayed on their ranch in Texas and floated in the river on inner tubes
00:04:13.400 with a cold beer and a hot summer's day.
00:04:18.200 And Glenn is someone I endorsed Glenn early in this race.
00:04:23.240 I endorsed him in the primary.
00:04:24.680 It was a big contested primary and went out and campaigned for Glenn.
00:04:27.880 I spent two days on the road.
00:04:29.760 In fact, the last two days of the primary, I was on the road barnstorming the state of
00:04:34.600 Virginia with Glenn and we did rallies all over the state.
00:04:38.080 It's a little bit crazy.
00:04:39.220 Uh, there were in that primary, about 50,000 people voted in that primary.
00:04:44.700 We did the math.
00:04:45.980 About 5,000 of those people came to our rallies those last two days.
00:04:50.160 So about 10% of the actual voters in the primaries came and saw us at our rallies, uh, in person.
00:04:57.200 And, and he ended up winning, winning the primary.
00:05:00.440 Big part of the reason I backed him is, is that I believed he was by far the strongest
00:05:04.420 candidate to win in November.
00:05:06.260 And we needed to win in November.
00:05:07.620 Last night, Heidi and I were both at the election party.
00:05:10.820 It was awesome.
00:05:11.720 The room was rocking.
00:05:13.180 Uh, and, and it was fairly beautiful seeing the, uh, uh, kind of dazed stupor and rage from
00:05:21.500 the Terry McAuliffe camp, uh, as they realized that, that, that, that the monarchy to which
00:05:27.120 he wanted to resume, uh, ruling his subjects in the Commonwealth of Virginia, that, that,
00:05:32.680 that, that somehow a funny thing happened on, on the way to, to, to, to the election booth,
00:05:37.580 which is the voters said no and hell no.
00:05:41.380 And Virginia now has a Republican governor, which is a powerful canary in the coal mine.
00:05:47.600 And it re it really shows, I think what's to come November of next year in 2022.
00:05:52.820 Liz, I know you like me were waiting up until after midnight last night, because I don't
00:05:59.000 know, I call it cynical.
00:06:01.100 I had this fear that, uh, around three in the morning, there would be an undisclosed number
00:06:06.100 of ballots that suddenly appeared in Fairfax County or something like that.
00:06:10.020 But, but no, they, they called it by the end of the night and we finally got to go to bed.
00:06:14.900 We did, which was amazing.
00:06:16.580 But I mean, I don't know about you, but make no mistake.
00:06:19.420 It seemed like the Democrats were teeing something up in Fairfax County.
00:06:23.080 Glenn Youngkin just, uh, pulled out such an enormous victory that they knew that they
00:06:26.600 didn't stand a chance even with, uh, perhaps re-scanning ballots.
00:06:29.820 But here's the thing.
00:06:31.420 Here's the thing.
00:06:31.920 I think the biggest takeaway about this election is the strength of parents.
00:06:36.080 I mean, you had Barack Obama, you had Kamala Harris, you had Stacey Abrams, all campaigning
00:06:40.840 for McAuliffe.
00:06:41.580 And yet parents in the state of Virginia still defeated him.
00:06:45.360 The strength of parents is stronger than the strength of the entire Democratic Party.
00:06:49.200 Well, that is a wonderful thing.
00:06:51.020 And I know, I know that we're going to be hearing more from some of the, uh, Verdict
00:06:55.820 Plus members a little bit later.
00:06:58.260 So, uh, you're going to be fielding questions for them and then we'll have you back on to,
00:07:03.120 uh, to, to hear from all the wonderful people who are, who are supporting this show.
00:07:07.000 Yes, I've been looking around on Verdict Plus and there are some great questions.
00:07:11.120 I'm looking forward to hearing both of your answers a little bit later on.
00:07:14.460 Anybody who's listening to this or watching this who wants to participate in Verdict Plus,
00:07:18.720 go to verdictwithtedcruise.com slash plus.
00:07:21.560 Submit your question.
00:07:22.520 We'll try to get as many answered as we can.
00:07:25.080 That is verdictwithtedcruise.com slash plus.
00:07:28.120 Michael, Senator, I will see you in a few minutes.
00:07:30.500 Oh, excellent.
00:07:30.960 We'll see you a little bit later.
00:07:32.100 Senator, Senator, you bring up an aspect of this race that I know a lot of, uh, conservatives
00:07:39.060 sometimes they, they, they, they don't really seem to understand, which is, uh, call it the
00:07:44.160 Buckley rule that, that you, you vote for the most right, viable candidate.
00:07:49.100 And you said you felt not only is Glenn Youngkin a good guy, but that he was the kind of candidate
00:07:53.820 who could win in Virginia.
00:07:56.240 Yeah, look, I mean, we need candidates who can win.
00:07:58.560 And, and you look at Glenn, the campaign they ran, and, and by the way, Glenn's political
00:08:03.300 team was my political team.
00:08:04.840 It was my senior people that were running his campaign.
00:08:08.440 And, and, and Glenn, uh, is pro-life.
00:08:12.500 He's pro-Second Amendment.
00:08:13.940 He ran on securing the border.
00:08:15.900 He, he ran a conservative campaign and, and he ran on school choice.
00:08:19.820 He leaned in aggressively on school choice.
00:08:22.340 You know, Ralph Northam, the Democrat, who's, who's one of the most radically pro-abortion
00:08:27.400 governors in the country.
00:08:28.520 In fact, who, and we've talked about this on the pod before, you know, Ralph Northam
00:08:32.440 has talked about post-birth abortion, which, which is horrifying at a whole different level
00:08:38.860 in terms of where the left is on these issues.
00:08:41.680 Youngkin ran a disciplined campaign that number one, he didn't get drawn into, to personality
00:08:47.920 politics.
00:08:48.460 So the whole attack of the Terry McAuliffe crew was that Glenn Youngkin is Donald Trump.
00:08:54.060 That, that, that, that was sort of their one card and their other card was he's a racist
00:08:58.000 because all Republicans are racist.
00:08:59.240 That, that was it.
00:08:59.920 That's all they had to say.
00:09:01.560 And, and, and I think McAuliffe was shocked that the race was competitive.
00:09:06.460 He assumed it would just be a cakewalk and a coronation and, and no Republican could win
00:09:12.440 in, in Virginia.
00:09:13.980 And, and I think what McAuliffe did, he really focused on issues that, that mattered to people
00:09:18.940 across the state.
00:09:19.780 And he got, you know, Biden won Virginia by double digits.
00:09:23.240 And, and that means there were a whole bunch of voters who, uh, in 2020 pulled the lever
00:09:28.460 for Joe Biden, who in 2021 pulled the lever for Glenn Youngkin.
00:09:33.000 That, that, that, that's a big deal.
00:09:34.900 And I think there are lessons to be learned about, about how Youngkin did that.
00:09:38.720 And, and he focused on issues, uh, that matter.
00:09:42.680 It turns out that, that, that suburban moms, uh, don't like it when you abolish the police.
00:09:48.400 They don't like it when you endanger their families, when you endanger their kids.
00:09:52.820 And it turns out that suburban moms like it even less when you treat parents as, as domestic
00:10:00.120 terrorists.
00:10:00.780 When, when you, uh, say as, as McAuliffe did that, that, that, that, that, that, that parents
00:10:07.440 should have no role in deciding what their kids are taught in schools.
00:10:10.800 And, and, and it, you know, the old joke that a gaffe is when a politician tells you what
00:10:15.380 he actually thinks, look, McAuliffe said that in a debate and the Youngkin campaign did a
00:10:20.000 great job of, of jumping on it and running with it.
00:10:24.380 And, you know, at the victory party last night, I mean, it was rocking, but, but there were
00:10:29.280 signs all over the place.
00:10:30.660 There were signs, women for Trump, uh, for, uh, women for Youngkin.
00:10:34.800 There were signs, Democrats for Youngkin.
00:10:37.480 Uh, there were signs, parents for Youngkin's.
00:10:39.560 And I, I think they did a very good job in particular of mobilizing moms who, who don't
00:10:46.400 want critical race theory taught to their kids, who don't want school boards that cover
00:10:51.220 up sexual assaults and rapes in the bathrooms and, and, and who don't want arrogant politicians
00:10:57.860 that view the moms and dads as domestic terrorists.
00:11:01.640 And, and that, that, uh, that I think decided the race and won the race last night.
00:11:06.660 You know, people are, are going to be fighting now over what the big issue was.
00:11:11.240 Some people are saying it's because Trump wasn't involved.
00:11:14.580 Some people are saying it's because Trump was involved.
00:11:16.560 Some people are saying it's because of critical race theory.
00:11:19.120 Some people are saying it's because of the COVID lockdown.
00:11:21.640 Some people are saying it's, you know, this, that, and the other thing, people with their
00:11:24.500 own interests in politics and on the right are trying to claim the victory.
00:11:29.040 Do you have a sense being so close as you were to the race, what, what the number one
00:11:34.140 issue was really, was it really education?
00:11:36.400 Was it just a reaction against Joe Biden?
00:11:38.560 Do you have any sense?
00:11:39.900 So I, I think it varied as the campaign moved forward.
00:11:42.740 And so early on, I think the COVID lockdowns were a big issue.
00:11:46.180 People didn't like the COVID lockdowns.
00:11:47.780 They didn't like small businesses being shut down.
00:11:49.580 They didn't like schools being shut down.
00:11:51.280 And so Glenn was campaigning on let's reopen businesses, reopen schools.
00:11:55.520 That resonated.
00:11:56.480 Um, I, I, I think people didn't like Ralph Northam was dumbing down the schools, was dumbing
00:12:02.860 down, uh, advanced education for students and, and, and was saying, we're not going to
00:12:07.500 teach advanced education anymore in Virginia schools.
00:12:10.300 And Glenn campaigned on, yes, we are.
00:12:12.920 Our kids deserve to have advanced courses and, and, and the ability to, to learn and achieve
00:12:19.280 excellence.
00:12:19.820 That, that was, uh, powerful.
00:12:22.180 Glenn campaigned on school choice and he did so early on.
00:12:24.940 And I think school choice is a winning issue for Republicans.
00:12:27.720 I think it is a powerful issue.
00:12:29.680 If you look at Youngkin's numbers, he went up with African-Americans.
00:12:32.760 He went up with Hispanics.
00:12:34.080 He went up with Democrats.
00:12:35.860 He, he went up with women.
00:12:37.540 I mean, he went up across the board.
00:12:39.700 Um, the media want to make it all about Trump.
00:12:43.760 Um, I think Youngkin did a good job.
00:12:45.620 Trump endorsed him.
00:12:46.580 Youngkin welcomed the Trump endorsement, was glad to have it.
00:12:49.640 Uh, but didn't want to make the entire election about the personality.
00:12:54.940 Donald J.
00:12:55.800 Trump.
00:12:56.020 There, there are many people, you, you and I included who are supporters of the president,
00:13:00.420 uh, who, who recognize that he did extraordinarily good things as president, but to win, Youngkin
00:13:07.460 needed some voters in Virginia and in particular suburban women in Virginia who voted against
00:13:14.760 Trump.
00:13:15.800 Youngkin needed them to switch their votes to him.
00:13:17.880 And I think he did that.
00:13:19.680 You know, the campaign did a very smart job of the first several months.
00:13:23.740 They focused on Glenn's story, on who he was and, and defining him, telling his story.
00:13:28.440 You know, he grew up in Virginia, grew up in modest circumstances.
00:13:32.400 Um, he, he went to Rice and, and, and played, uh, played basketball, uh, four years at Rice, uh, and met
00:13:39.260 his wife, Suzanne is a Texan.
00:13:41.200 She went to SMU.
00:13:42.380 Um, and then he had a career in business and an incredibly successful career in business
00:13:46.840 where he was a CEO.
00:13:48.040 And I think the campaign did a good job of defining who Glenn was so that when Terry McAuliffe
00:13:53.840 came in at the back end and said, he's Donald Trump, he's Donald Trump.
00:13:56.580 People were like, well, no, he's not.
00:13:58.160 He's, he's, he's that guy.
00:14:00.240 And, and, and that was, that was valuable to, to, to define his own life story, what he
00:14:07.820 believes and, and to certainly welcome and embrace the support from Trump supporters,
00:14:12.740 but not make it just a personality referendum.
00:14:16.380 I think that was smart.
00:14:17.880 I then think the, the, the second phase of, of, of the election really shifted hard to
00:14:25.420 parents and schools.
00:14:27.440 And, and, and I think Loudoun County played a pivotal part in this victory had the horrific
00:14:34.280 events that transpired in Loudoun County not happened.
00:14:37.880 Uh, I think the odds are very good.
00:14:39.700 Terry, Terry McAuliffe would be the next governor of Virginia that, that, that Loudoun and McKinney,
00:14:43.240 we've talked about it before on the, on the pod.
00:14:45.120 We, we talked about it on our campus tour, but in terms of Virginia, I think a lot of
00:14:51.680 parents were offended to be treated as domestic terrorists, to be dismissed, to be, to be
00:14:58.440 ridiculed, to have their concerns just, just sidelines.
00:15:03.900 And, and I think the arrogance of the far left, what was, was parents are, you guys don't
00:15:11.960 matter.
00:15:12.300 And I think there were a lot of parents in particular moms in Virginia, uh, that didn't
00:15:17.240 appreciate it.
00:15:18.020 And, and last night's election that played a really pivotal part in it.
00:15:21.980 Yeah.
00:15:22.160 You know, this, this actually brings up, uh, another aspect of the past few weeks.
00:15:27.520 And I'd like to bring Liz in for this, cause I do, I do want to get to our mailbag, but
00:15:31.320 I would ask Senator, we're talking about law and order and the supposed moderates out there.
00:15:35.540 Uh, you grilled Merrick Garland, the supposedly moderate judge who's the, the attorney general
00:15:42.200 now for Joe Biden, you, uh, grilled him.
00:15:45.140 And I think we would be very remiss if we didn't talk about it.
00:15:48.920 So, yeah, Michael, that's right.
00:15:50.480 Uh, last week Merrick Garland testified in front of the Senate judiciary committee and,
00:15:54.800 and I, um, took the opportunity to question him very gently.
00:15:59.640 Um, but, but, but, but to really hold him to account for, for what I think is the politicization
00:16:06.500 of the department of justice, you know, at his confirmation hearing Garland said that,
00:16:11.460 that, that he would not allow DOJ to become what had become under Barack Obama, which was
00:16:15.860 a political weapon used to target the, the enemies, uh, of the white house.
00:16:21.880 And, and in this instance in particular, I think, um, that's exactly what Garland allowed
00:16:28.180 it to happen.
00:16:28.840 And, and so, you know, I began with this, this letter from the National Association of
00:16:33.300 School Boards.
00:16:33.840 And I said, look, dude, you know, General Garland, do you know how many instances are cited in
00:16:38.360 this letter?
00:16:38.740 The letter was the basis of his direction to the FBI and his memo.
00:16:42.740 He said, no, I don't know how many.
00:16:44.480 And I said, well, I just did a quick count right here.
00:16:46.460 There are 20 of them.
00:16:48.140 Uh, do you know how many of them are violent or arguably violent on their face?
00:16:51.800 He said, no, I don't know that either.
00:16:53.160 I said, well, there's a reason you don't know that because you didn't give a damn to check.
00:16:56.140 You didn't look, your staff didn't look.
00:16:58.180 No one investigated.
00:16:59.360 From my quick examination of the letter here, it appears five of them, uh, on their face
00:17:04.300 may have been violent.
00:17:05.420 That means 15 of them were not.
00:17:08.200 Now, 15 of them were expressing speech.
00:17:11.560 Sometimes parents who were mad, who were expressing vigorous speech, but they were engaged in activity
00:17:17.060 protected by the first amendment.
00:17:19.040 And, and I put it, I said, look, DOJ senators, we've sent letters to DOJ that, that for months
00:17:26.420 you ignore, you don't care what we have to say.
00:17:28.600 You just utterly ignore when we write the Department of Justice.
00:17:31.380 And yet when, when these well-connected Democrats who are working with the White House demand that
00:17:38.060 you go after parents and target them, five days later, you snap your fingers and you direct
00:17:43.940 the FBI to do it.
00:17:45.260 And, and the heat on the National Association of School Boards was so great.
00:17:50.800 They actually withdrew the letter.
00:17:52.600 They apologized for it.
00:17:53.800 They're having, you know, local chapters resign from their organization.
00:17:58.600 Um, and they said they were embarrassed by the letter.
00:18:01.140 They withdrew it.
00:18:01.860 And I, I asked the attorney general, well, are you, are you embarrassed?
00:18:04.960 Do you have any, uh, do you have the same integrity, the same sense of shame that the
00:18:10.720 National Association of School Boards did?
00:18:13.100 And he, and Garland was like, no, no, no, no, no.
00:18:15.140 I, I apologize for nothing.
00:18:17.420 There was nothing that intimidated parents.
00:18:19.300 And it's like, really, really?
00:18:21.360 You think sending the FBI to go after parents that that's not intimidating, that doesn't chill
00:18:26.400 their speech.
00:18:27.020 That doesn't, uh, frustrate our democratic process.
00:18:31.020 And, and it really was striking.
00:18:34.000 I think both the arrogance that Garland conveyed, but simultaneously the cluelessness and, and,
00:18:42.360 and one component of that, look, Garland has been a judge for 24 years.
00:18:47.380 He hasn't had anybody question him in 24 years.
00:18:51.000 He's not faced a single difficult question.
00:18:53.760 He's not had anyone scrutinize what he says or does to be honest.
00:18:58.420 He probably hasn't had anyone say an unkind word to him in 24 years, federal judges, particularly
00:19:05.180 judges on the DC circuit, the second highest court in the land, everybody who interacts
00:19:10.700 with them kisses their behinds all day long.
00:19:15.200 And I think Garland was willing to play the political hack and give the white house what
00:19:20.020 they wanted, and it never even occurred to him that he would face scrutiny or oversight
00:19:26.040 from anyone else.
00:19:27.620 And, and he said, well, lawyers who would read this memo would understand the Supreme
00:19:31.680 Court case law of this case and the other case.
00:19:34.060 I'm like, I'm sorry, mom doesn't understand that.
00:19:37.540 Parents aren't reading Supreme Court cases.
00:19:40.120 You're the attorney general.
00:19:41.420 You don't think sending a memo to the FBI, to the men in black, the G-men to go target
00:19:47.740 parents as intimidation, then you are being clueless.
00:19:52.620 You're not doing your job as attorney general and you're allowing DOJ to be politicized.
00:19:58.180 And I think that was, it was shameful, but it was also, it played a real role in, in the
00:20:08.740 victory in Virginia last night.
00:20:10.700 Now with that, Liz, you're, you're, you're back now.
00:20:14.380 Do we, do we have any questions from the mailbag from Verdict Plus?
00:20:17.880 We do.
00:20:18.460 And by the way, I think you're exactly correct on how serious Merrick Garland's behavior,
00:20:23.280 how much of an impact it had in Virginia.
00:20:25.060 It's almost inarguable that it didn't.
00:20:27.620 And you played a really big role in that.
00:20:29.140 So I know that our, our, our country appreciates that, especially parents of young children
00:20:33.100 who don't want their kids indoctrinated.
00:20:35.220 So anybody who's not part of Verdict Plus, I invite you to join us over there at
00:20:39.040 verdictwithtedcruz.com slash plus.
00:20:41.640 You'll get exclusive access to the Senator himself.
00:20:44.480 A lot of your questions will be answered just like right now.
00:20:47.600 There are some great questions.
00:20:48.920 While I tee these up, I do want to skip the line and ask you a question myself.
00:20:53.220 And that is, there's a rumor in the United States Senate that you lost a wager on the
00:20:57.880 floor of the Senate.
00:20:58.540 Can you confirm, Senator, whether this is true or false?
00:21:03.120 Oh, that's painful.
00:21:04.260 It is very painful.
00:21:05.460 So, so tragically, my Astros lost the World Series and we lost last night.
00:21:12.920 And, and, and, and I will say, you know, so Tuesday night, I, I truly was bittersweet
00:21:18.440 because I was at the Yunkin election party.
00:21:20.300 We were celebrating the victory.
00:21:21.560 It looked like a victory all night long, but on my phone, I was watching the live stream
00:21:25.940 of game six of the World Series and the Braves were just whipping our asses.
00:21:30.560 It wasn't even close.
00:21:32.100 First couple of innings were pretty good.
00:21:33.680 Then we were down three, nothing.
00:21:35.160 Then we were down six, nothing.
00:21:36.460 Then we were down seven, nothing.
00:21:37.760 And so I'm miserable watching it, but really happy for Virginia and the country.
00:21:42.820 Um, but it, it gets even worse because I had a, a, a wager, uh, with John Ossoff, the new
00:21:50.280 Senator from Georgia, uh, over who would win the World Series and, and the stakes of the
00:21:55.440 wager.
00:21:55.700 Now that I've lost, sadly, um, I'm going to have to deliver Texas barbecue and Scheinerbach
00:22:01.940 beer, uh, to his entire staff.
00:22:04.360 And so we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll treat them to lunch and, and give them Texas barbecue
00:22:08.080 and beer.
00:22:09.140 Um, and it's okay.
00:22:10.000 Cause they don't really have barbecue in Georgia.
00:22:11.620 I'll get some grief for that comment.
00:22:12.980 Um, but even worse, I I'm going to have to wear a Braves Jersey, which, which, which it
00:22:19.360 already burns.
00:22:20.140 I can feel the pain from doing so.
00:22:22.260 Um, this is my third World Series wager, uh, two years ago in 2019, I had a bet with, with
00:22:28.360 Tim Kaine over the Astros and the Nationals.
00:22:31.280 Sadly, I lost that one.
00:22:32.500 And so I delivered to Tim the barbecue, the beer, and I wore a Nats, uh, Jersey.
00:22:37.500 But two years before that in 2017, I had a wager with Kamala Harris and, and Kamala delivered,
00:22:44.060 uh, uh, California wine and sees chocolate.
00:22:47.360 And she live streamed it as, as she was wearing, uh, Astros gear.
00:22:52.320 And, and so I got to say, winning the bet is a lot more fun than losing the bet.
00:22:56.900 And, and so I'm not looking forward to paying up to Ossoff.
00:22:59.580 I will do so.
00:23:00.520 And I talked to him tonight about it.
00:23:01.780 I said, look, I'll do so.
00:23:03.440 And I'll do so cheerfully, but, but be forewarned.
00:23:06.160 I'm going to be bitching about it at the same time.
00:23:08.460 Well, we look forward to seeing, you know, at least images, if not videos of this over on
00:23:12.880 verdict plus, I know we're sorry that you lost the wager, but we do want a little
00:23:17.260 peek into this, a little peek into, um, this tradition that you've set.
00:23:21.220 And Liz, I do have to say there is something exquisite that the world series was between
00:23:27.800 Texas and Georgia, two States that passed voter integrity laws after major league baseball
00:23:33.940 yanked the all-star game out of Atlanta because Georgia passed, uh, Georgia, uh, voter integrity
00:23:39.960 laws.
00:23:41.100 I love the fact that the world series trophy, that major league baseball had to present it
00:23:46.120 in Atlanta.
00:23:47.500 They have, they had to, they had to go to the commissioner had to go to games in Houston
00:23:51.500 and Atlanta.
00:23:52.420 And, and, and it is all I can say is karma is a bitch that it really is a beautiful, beautiful
00:23:58.660 thing.
00:23:59.640 It is.
00:24:00.020 It is.
00:24:00.460 I mean, that's poetic justice if I ever heard it.
00:24:02.440 Okay.
00:24:02.740 We have a lot of great questions tonight.
00:24:04.100 I want to get to Nancy's question first.
00:24:05.840 And this, this, I think speaks a little bit to, um, the demographic that won the election
00:24:10.800 for Glenn Youngkin in Virginia.
00:24:12.020 Nancy asks, please explain the difference between suburban voters and working class voters.
00:24:17.200 She says she's both.
00:24:18.900 Yeah.
00:24:19.080 So that, that's a very good question.
00:24:20.700 And, and, and it goes right to the heart of two demographic trends that are playing out
00:24:26.160 in the country that have played out for the last several years.
00:24:29.560 Uh, one is working class voters, the blue collar voters, uh, who have been moving right.
00:24:35.840 And, and, and those are truck drivers, steel workers, construction workers, uh, cops, firefighters,
00:24:43.540 the, the men and women with calluses on their hands, the people that work at factories, um,
00:24:48.560 union members, um, they've been moving right.
00:24:51.960 That's moved Midwestern states more Republican as a consequence.
00:24:56.680 Simultaneously, you have suburban voters, voters who live not in the inner cities of, uh,
00:25:01.840 but who live in the suburbs surrounding big cities.
00:25:05.920 And in particular, suburban women, you have, you know, they used to be called soccer moms.
00:25:10.840 Um, and, and, and women who live in the suburbs, historically, the suburbs have been Republican.
00:25:17.660 Um, in Texas, for example, the suburbs around our cities, the way Texas has historically voted,
00:25:23.140 the big cities are bright blue.
00:25:24.720 Uh, the suburbs have been red donuts surrounding the big cities.
00:25:29.440 And then the rural areas voted Republican as well.
00:25:31.700 And that, that combination kept Texas reliably Republican.
00:25:36.900 Well, in the last few years, the suburbs have turned purple.
00:25:40.640 They're not blue, but they've turned purple.
00:25:42.380 And a number of suburban voters, particularly suburban women, uh, had begun voting Democrat.
00:25:47.140 And, and, and, and a number of suburban women, uh, were not fans of president Trump.
00:25:52.140 And, and, and it was really a personality referendum, uh, with, with some suburban women voters.
00:25:58.620 Uh, what we saw in Virginia is the working class voters stayed with Youngkin, but at the same
00:26:06.400 time, he brought some of those suburban women who had shifted Democrat, he brought them back
00:26:11.620 to the Republican tally.
00:26:12.820 And if we bring both of those together, that that's really a winning coalition.
00:26:17.140 It is.
00:26:17.860 And, uh, if only we could continue this, this sweet, sweet victory that we've been reveling
00:26:22.140 in all day on the Republican side, I think that would be great.
00:26:25.780 Okay.
00:26:26.000 The next question is the username of this individual is software nugget, uh, who asks, I was just
00:26:30.880 watching some of clips of you, Senator Cruz on YouTube and wondering why you use the terms
00:26:35.240 biological male and biological female, as if there are other types instead of just male
00:26:40.540 and female.
00:26:41.540 You know, look, it's, it's a good question.
00:26:43.660 And I guess I would say it is a nod towards modern discussion that, that you've got the,
00:26:49.540 the, the, the left who bizarrely insists that if I say I'm a woman, I am a woman.
00:26:55.160 And just the act of declaring, I am woman, hear me roar, transforms me into being a woman.
00:27:02.580 And there's so much language police today that when you refer to a male or female, given how
00:27:11.420 the media covers it, given the sort of bizarre language games that we play, there is arguably
00:27:17.200 some ambiguity.
00:27:18.220 And, and, and, and so when I use the phrase, a biological male, I mean, someone that's got
00:27:23.520 a Y chromosome and, and has, has got the, the, the equipment that makes a male, a biological
00:27:30.580 female, you got two X chromosomes, uh, you have the equipment that makes you female.
00:27:35.480 I, I'm just trying to describe the, the, the hardware and the genes.
00:27:39.560 I'm not speaking necessarily about what you believe, what you want to be, what gender,
00:27:46.180 whether male, female, or any of the, what, what is it?
00:27:49.020 Facebook has 57 different genders.
00:27:50.980 I don't even understand all the different worlds of genders.
00:27:53.240 People say they are.
00:27:54.680 Um, I get the point, but it, but for me, at least it's the clearest way to convey, um, in
00:28:02.020 this bizarre language Orwellian world we live in, what it is I'm trying to convey.
00:28:08.200 I, I do not use the term biological male or biological female because I, I do fear that
00:28:14.400 it grants the premise that there are other kinds of males, you know, you're a spiritual
00:28:17.820 male or a psychological male or something like that.
00:28:20.100 But I, I do understand the, the prudential reason that people are doing it.
00:28:24.280 It is to, to draw this distinction.
00:28:28.460 First of all, it is to meet people where they are.
00:28:31.380 It is to sometimes to avoid certain bans on big tech platforms that will forbid you from
00:28:37.060 referring to a man who thinks that he's a woman as a man.
00:28:40.360 I mean, there are all of these prudential and instrumental reasons to do that.
00:28:45.540 But yes, I do think ultimately the way we're going to win is, is by watching that language
00:28:50.180 very, very closely and, uh, recognizing that even when we appear to be opposing the new
00:28:57.740 politically correct jargon, sometimes we can, we can inadvertently be accepting some of
00:29:02.780 their premises. And so, you know, they say it's, it's good to be blunt and straight talking and
00:29:08.780 call a spade a spade. And yes, I think we ought to call a man, a man and a woman, a woman.
00:29:13.860 Well, there you go. And for anybody who wants to submit questions, um, for our next episode,
00:29:18.480 for the mailbag on that episode, please go over to verdict with tedcruz.com slash plus
00:29:23.640 supporters exclusively have the option to submit questions for Michael Knowles and Senator Ted Cruz.
00:29:29.020 All right. This next question is actually one of my favorite questions. I'm very excited to hear
00:29:32.840 your answer. This is what they ask Senator. What three government agencies would you most like to
00:29:39.100 abolish?
00:29:40.080 Number one, the IRS. Um, I think the IRS is a tool of oppression. Um, I think it is a, a tool of intrusion
00:29:48.820 into privacy. You can see with, with the Bernie Sanders budget, the Democrats are, are trying to use
00:29:54.260 the IRS to monitor every financial transaction any American engages in, uh, over $600. I would shut
00:30:02.000 down the IRS. I would padlock it. Um, I think we ought to have a simple flat tax where you fill out
00:30:08.280 your taxes on a postcard. I've introduced, I've, I've laid out the details of a, of a flat tax and how
00:30:13.880 you could operate it. That would be incredibly simple that virtually the entirety of the IRS would
00:30:18.740 become irrelevant and unnecessary. So that would be number one, very close. Second would be the
00:30:24.060 federal department of education. I think the federal department of education, uh, has been used
00:30:29.480 to, uh, try to impose national curriculum standards to try to, to, uh, violate and trample upon the
00:30:40.040 authority of local jurisdictions to run their own schools. I don't think we need a, a, a federal
00:30:45.120 government trying to set local curricula. Um, as for the third ones, uh, there are a number of
00:30:52.080 different ones you can, you can point to. I'd probably point to the department of commerce as
00:30:56.140 third. Um, the department of commerce is, is, is a big grab bag of all sorts of different, whether it
00:31:02.920 is corporate welfare and cronyism or all sorts of different components. There's some elements of
00:31:07.940 the department of commerce that are necessary. For example, the census bureau constitution actually
00:31:13.060 requires the federal government to conduct a census every 10 years. We still need a census bureau. So
00:31:17.900 you could move the census bureau somewhere else. You don't need the whole commerce department to do
00:31:22.180 it. Um, there are other elements of the commerce department. There are some essential functions in
00:31:26.680 it. You know, I got to say, Liz, I think back to 1995. So 1995, I just graduated from law school
00:31:33.900 and I was a law clerk, uh, in Northern Virginia was clerking for judge, uh, Michael Ludig, who was at the
00:31:40.700 time, the strongest conservative, uh, federal appellate judge in the country. And it was at the
00:31:46.180 time of, of the Newt Gingrich, the Republican revolution had just happened. And then you remember
00:31:50.680 there was, there was a government shutdown at the time and only essential workers, uh, federal workers
00:31:56.420 were allowed to go to work. And I remember the department of commerce at the time put out a press
00:31:59.740 release that they said 70% of our workers did not come into work. Only 30% came in, but they said,
00:32:06.880 fear not all essential functions were carried out. And I remember laughing at the time and saying,
00:32:12.100 great, you've just put out a press release saying you only need 30% of your staff that 70% can be
00:32:17.180 dismissed tomorrow. If all the essential functions can be done with 30% of your staff, we can save some
00:32:23.360 real money. So that, so that's, that, that, that's an initial stab at three agencies.
00:32:28.720 And listen, I like any answer that essentially encompasses the idea of abolishing the administrative
00:32:32.940 state once and for all. And I think, uh, those answers are pretty good. All right, Michael,
00:32:37.240 now, same question to you. What three government agencies would you most like to abolish?
00:32:42.660 Well, these days I'd like to go after the occupational safety and health administration.
00:32:47.940 I don't really like that. This sort of little known agency that is now enforcing this, uh,
00:32:53.140 draconian vaccine mandate on everybody. That would be one that I think, uh, should go.
00:32:58.800 So people often will say, you know, the energy department and that's all well and good,
00:33:03.040 but I'd, I'd like to get rid of some of these more obscure offices. You know, I'd, I'd like to
00:33:09.020 get rid of the, uh, within each office. I would like to get rid of the, you know, deputy assistant,
00:33:15.400 deputy director, assistant of diversity and inclusion and equity. I'd like to get into that.
00:33:20.000 And then really even beyond abolishing these agencies and departments, I want to take them over.
00:33:27.120 Okay. We've been talking about cutting all these agencies for a long time, but I, I think that
00:33:33.220 assuming we're not going to be able to do that all that successfully, I want to go in, get our
00:33:38.360 own guys in there and then start wielding the government on the happy occasions that the people
00:33:43.720 give us political power to ends that are good and just and moral and right and more favorable to
00:33:49.880 conservatives. Well, that, that may be easier said than done, although I certainly agree with you.
00:33:54.400 All right. I'm looking on verdict plus now. Um, all of the great people over on verdict plus
00:33:58.540 have been submitting questions and here's a question, Michael, for you. This is the question
00:34:04.100 is the quote unquote common good branch of conservatism actually conservative. Is it
00:34:10.060 constitutional? This question comes from Nancy. Yes, of course it is by definition. You know, a,
00:34:15.620 a Republic comes from the res res publica, right? The things we have together, the things that are in
00:34:22.500 common. The, uh, constitution is pretty clear. It's, uh, to provide the blessings of liberty for
00:34:29.100 the American people to provide for the general welfare. And though the whole point of self
00:34:33.780 government is that we are going to exercise our judgment and our prudence, uh, to have a better
00:34:40.420 country for all of us. We don't just live as these individualized atoms floating in free space. We have a
00:34:45.860 country together. And so we need to have things in common and, and, you know, this didn't used to be
00:34:51.860 controversial. I mean, this, this was the understanding of not just the founding fathers,
00:34:57.260 but of statesmen from time immemorial. And I think one thing that we've made a mistake in,
00:35:02.940 in recent decades is we have put the cart before the horse. That phrase blessings of liberty here,
00:35:07.620 I think is pretty important. Liberty is wonderful. True liberty, especially as wonderful and individual
00:35:13.480 liberty and the liberty of localities is all wonderful, but it's an instrument. It's not an
00:35:18.980 end unto itself. It is an instrument towards something. When the, when the framers of the
00:35:23.080 constitution tell us that they are trying to give us the blessings of liberty, they are acknowledging
00:35:28.460 something that, that we all used to know, which is that our liberty is not just so that we can sit
00:35:33.880 at home and say, by golly, I'm free, but it's so that we can have a good country so that we ourselves
00:35:38.100 can flourish, our families can flourish, our communities can flourish, and ultimately our nation can flourish.
00:35:42.920 It's, it's deeply, deeply conservative. And the denial of the common good or of the good or this
00:35:50.340 hyper-focus on emancipation and liberation or whatever, that really historically comes from
00:35:55.720 the left much more than it comes from the right or from conservatives. This, this is almost part two,
00:36:00.820 I think, of the great conversation that we had at Catholic university that, that spoke to the
00:36:06.960 definition of liberty and, um, how that is inherently, I guess you, you posited that it,
00:36:12.220 it includes the common good. Um, it was a great debate. Okay. So one more question that we have
00:36:19.340 here is a very good question, very pertinent to the time that we are in right now. And this comes
00:36:25.620 also from Verdict Plus from the username Cracklin. He says, should government leaders be making decisions
00:36:31.300 about mandates that they or their family will heavily profit from. Is that a legal or ethical
00:36:36.520 conflict of interest? Certainly it would be. If, if a government official stands to reap a huge sum
00:36:44.040 of money because of some policy that he's foisting onto the public, that would be a major conflict of
00:36:50.360 interest. And it relates to another problem we have in Washington DC, which is people, legislators in
00:36:56.620 Washington DC, forcing mandates on their constituents that they do not abide by themselves. And as Senator
00:37:02.740 Cruz has alluded to this a number of times with the, some of his Democrat colleagues over there
00:37:07.780 and, and, and pro mask and pro mandate, uh, Democrats throughout our politics who demand one thing of
00:37:16.440 all of us. And then when you catch them at a party or catch them at a restaurant or catch them out on the
00:37:21.100 street or, or even when they think the cameras are off, uh, they, they will not be following that
00:37:25.500 themselves. And so I think there needs to be a lot of accountability. A lot of the debate that we've
00:37:30.160 had here on the lockdown mandates and, and the rest of it have focused on ideology, philosophy,
00:37:38.280 the science, and all of these ideas. But there is just a basic, basic level of corruption that you've
00:37:43.580 got to watch out for too. You do not want your politicians of any party being crooked, corrupt, and,
00:37:49.240 and, uh, uh, abusing the public trust for their own private gain. And so it's something we
00:37:54.900 absolutely need to watch out for, especially during this massive power grab of the, the last
00:38:00.340 592 some odd days of 15 days to slow the spread. Right. And I think maybe the last 20 months since
00:38:07.280 the beginning of COVID more Americans than ever before have understood, have firsthand tangible
00:38:12.660 knowledge of what it means when government officials are corrupt. All right. This question
00:38:16.020 is just for the Senator. Um, Andrew John asks after the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races,
00:38:22.880 just how tense is the air among Senate Democrats from your perspective?
00:38:27.880 You know, it's interesting. They ought to be freaking out. I think it varies. Um,
00:38:34.460 the hard left, their response to the elections is doubling down. Uh, their response, whether it's
00:38:41.640 Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren or AOC, they say the reason they lost Virginia is they weren't
00:38:47.800 radical enough. They needed to be even more extreme. They needed to ram through Bernie Sanders'
00:38:52.240 socialist budget. Um, they needed to be more, spend more money, be more radical, be more crazy.
00:38:58.220 That's that, that that's why they didn't win. I've got to think there's some Democrats that realize
00:39:02.860 that's crazy talk. Uh, but if they do, they're not saying it. I will say this morning in the Senate
00:39:08.420 Foreign Relations Committee, um, I went round and round with, uh, Bob Menendez from New Jersey and
00:39:14.680 Tim Kaine from Virginia. And we were fighting, uh, on the State Department and foreign policy. And in
00:39:21.420 particular, the Biden administration is withholding $130 million of military aid to Egypt in order to try
00:39:30.360 to force Egypt to release, uh, 16 prisoners who are currently incarcerated. Um, and, and, and they
00:39:38.680 won't publicly identify who those 16 prisoners are. And so I'm trying to force the administration
00:39:44.120 to name the 16 prisoners to make it public. And I've asked them, uh, are they affiliated with the
00:39:49.740 Muslim Brotherhood? Are they terrorists? Are they anti-Semites? Are they, are they, uh, anti-American?
00:39:55.360 What's their history? And the Biden administration doesn't want to, because I think they can't defend,
00:40:00.560 uh, the radicals that they're trying to get released. And, and so we were going back and
00:40:05.640 forth and, and at the hearing, uh, you know, Tim Kaine made a reference to accountability. And I,
00:40:10.600 I laughed and said, you know, Senator from Virginia referenced accountability while I was in his state
00:40:15.740 last night. And, and we had some accountability because the voters of Virginia elected a Republican
00:40:20.840 governor. And I would note the chairman of the committee, uh, Senator Menendez,
00:40:24.440 his state right now is basically tied in the gubernatorial race. And they've, they've since
00:40:29.300 narrowly called it for the Democrat. Um, but that's some real accountability. It's accountability
00:40:34.840 for the extreme policies of this administration. And, uh, at least in that hearing, boy, they did not
00:40:41.580 like it. You could see the fury and rage and, and there's nothing Democrats like less than when the
00:40:48.960 voters hold them accountable. And, and, uh, I will be shocked if there are not some moderate Democrats
00:40:54.360 right now behind closed doors, just freaking out, but, but at least publicly, they're not expressing
00:41:01.380 it all that much. Well, I think we've all seen the video of Kamala Harris, vice president Harris,
00:41:06.520 uh, while she was on the campaign trail for Terry McAuliffe saying that the state of Virginia,
00:41:11.780 this gubernatorial race was going to be a bellwether, not just for 2022, but for 2024.
00:41:16.500 My question to you is, do you believe that this is accurate? Is the victory for Republicans
00:41:21.160 in Virginia, a bellwether of what's to come? Very much so. Um, I, I think that's why Virginia
00:41:26.860 matters so much. When I was barnstorming the state of Virginia, when I was campaigning with
00:41:31.000 Glenn Youngkin, that's something I said, uh, at, at every rally we did, I said, listen, Virginia
00:41:36.820 is a bellwether. And I pointed out the last time we had something like this was, was 2009,
00:41:43.780 Barack Obama became president. Uh, he, he was a radical leftist. He ran through Obamacare.
00:41:49.720 He ran through Dodd-Frank. Um, and, and, and it was, he went far too left. And the very next
00:41:57.560 election that occurred was 2000, uh, was, was, was 2010. And it was the, uh, Virginia gubernatorial,
00:42:04.220 or it was 2009, the Virginia gubernatorial election. It's the off cycle year and, uh, and
00:42:10.980 New Jersey. And in that year, Bob McDonnell won a Republican in Virginia and, and Chris Christie
00:42:17.140 won a Republican in New Jersey. Republicans won both of those elections and it presaged
00:42:22.440 the 2010 Republican title wave, uh, that was coming. And, and, and, and it really set that
00:42:30.200 up. I, I, I think last night was similar to the victory in Virginia shows 2022 is going
00:42:36.520 to be a very, very good election. And if Democrats keep doubling down on radical leftist policies,
00:42:42.340 I think it also presages 2024, which I believe is going to be a very, very good election again.
00:42:48.940 Michael, same question to you.
00:42:50.880 You know, it was a great relief last night when, when the Republicans won this election
00:42:56.300 and, and did very well elsewhere outside of Virginia as well, because I think so many
00:43:01.000 of us were so depressed. We thought the system is just rigged and there are going to be ballot
00:43:06.400 drops at three o'clock in the morning. A water pipe is going to burst and we're just not going
00:43:10.080 to win any elections again. And, and this has this reinforcing effect because if you think
00:43:15.600 that it's not possible for you to win elections, then you're less likely to turn out, you're
00:43:19.120 less likely to register, you're, you're less likely to do those things. And so it'll become
00:43:22.840 a self-fulfilling prophecy. So I, I do think it, it reminded us the Republic's not dead yet.
00:43:28.700 There is still a chance Republicans can still win. It's really, I totally agree. I don't think
00:43:34.300 this bodes well for Democrats in 2022 or 2024 either. Now we've got, we've got two things
00:43:41.240 ahead of us. One, we've got to make sure the Republicans we just elected actually do something
00:43:45.060 and have a record of accomplishment. And as Senator Cruz knows well, sometimes his squishier
00:43:51.960 colleagues out there are not, not so good at that. And it's really the stalwarts who, who
00:43:56.520 hold firm. So we got to do that. We got to keep up the focus. We've got to keep up the
00:43:59.900 excitement. And I think this is so strange for, for conservatives. We actually might have
00:44:06.220 a whole lot to look forward to in the coming elections. Liz, it is so wonderful for you to
00:44:11.620 join us, for you to join us obviously on the tour in person and digitally as well. Now we've
00:44:16.840 got to leave it there, but before we go, since we so enjoyed being on the road for a verdict
00:44:21.800 live and seeing all of you all around the country, we're doing it again. We are partnering
00:44:26.180 with YAF again next semester for the verdict live spring tour. If you want us to come to
00:44:32.980 your school, then apply at yaf.org slash verdict. You can submit an application there, whether
00:44:40.700 you are at some nice, wonderful conservative Christian school, or maybe you're among the
00:44:44.880 purple hairs at UC Berkeley, wherever you are applied today. We look forward to seeing
00:44:49.460 you next time. We look forward to seeing you in person, but until then I'm Michael Knowles.
00:44:54.320 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.
00:45:24.320 Help the Republican Party across the nation.
00:45:27.520 This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.