Verdict with Ted Cruz - November 07, 2026


The Road Back After a Historic Collapse

Election Disaster： How We Rebuild

Episode Stats


Length

39 minutes

Words per minute

152.58

Word count

6,092

Sentence count

321

Harmful content

Toxicity

22

sentences flagged

Hate speech

16

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.
00:00:04.440 Fall is here, and so are the comforting flavors at Eggsmart.
00:00:07.740 Try the Rustic Mushroom and Swiss Burger Melt on Grilled Sourdough,
00:00:11.640 loaded with savory mushrooms and melted Swiss cheese,
00:00:14.700 served with gravy for dipping.
00:00:16.500 See eggsmart.ca for details.
00:00:20.060 Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty.
00:00:22.100 We've been trying to figure out how to describe
00:00:23.820 what is Armstrong and Getty on demand for many years.
00:00:26.580 I'm going to give it a shot.
00:00:27.580 So most media is either agenda-driven
00:00:29.620 or they're so shallow and boring don't learn anything anyway we try to get to the bottom of
00:00:35.260 the stories that are shaping our worlds and help you understand what's actually happening so give
00:00:40.100 it a try sometime entertaining and you learn something where do i tune in listen to armstrong
00:00:43.920 and getty on demand on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts
00:00:48.880 hey it's drew franklin from nfl cover zero the 2026 season is underway and we are loving football
00:00:57.140 on tv here's what you can expect from the podcast in our second season i would suggest for these
00:01:02.220 preseason games i think they should do what they do on the nfl draft you know when coverage of the
00:01:08.040 nfl draft is basically for moms and they're just like hey he has a dog named spark listen to nfl
00:01:16.900 cover zero on the iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast
00:01:21.420 welcome it is verdict with senator ted cruz ben ferguson with you it's nice to have you with us
00:01:28.020 on the week in review we all know what it's going to be about the drastic change in america from
00:01:34.600 election day so what caused such a big defeat for republicans what can we learn from it and
00:01:41.080 where do we go from here senator cruz and i break it down for you so you know exactly what happened
00:01:46.760 It's the Week in Review, and it starts right now.
00:01:50.420 Well, look, Tuesday was a bloodbath, and it is a message from the voters.
00:01:56.080 The voters are pissed off.
00:01:58.100 They're angry.
00:02:00.140 A great many voters, at the end of the day, their lives have been harder the last couple of years.
00:02:09.040 Yeah.
00:02:09.380 It's been harder to pay the rent.
00:02:11.540 It's been harder to pay the mortgage.
00:02:12.920 It's been harder to feed the kids.
00:02:14.540 It's been harder to buy groceries.
00:02:15.700 It's been hard to fill the tank. Every expense in life has gotten harder and people are angry.
00:02:23.520 And they express that rage really in a volcanic rage on Election Day.
00:02:30.300 And I will say a lot of us who are engaged in the political world professionally, we knew the Election Day was going to be bad.
00:02:38.960 Yeah.
00:02:39.040 We knew that it was likely, very likely we're going to lose the House. And we knew it was likely we're going to lose the Senate.
00:02:45.700 that being said and to be clear i said on this podcast there's a very real chance that we could
00:02:52.100 lose as many as 10 senate seats i said that on this pod yeah i also said
00:02:58.680 we could end up losing every single statewide election in texas now i gotta say when i said
00:03:07.500 that i don't think a lot of people believe me that they sort of viewed it as okay that's that's
00:03:13.860 just you know ringing the alarm bell trying to scare people that can't really happen and then
00:03:20.160 holy cow and and i was i was looking at the numbers i was like this is this is bad i'm seeing
00:03:24.940 a wave growing and it's getting bigger and it's getting bigger and it's getting bigger and it's
00:03:28.300 taller than the buildings and holy cow it keeps getting so i'm seeing that yeah and and and i'm
00:03:34.360 trying to say let's not have this happen let's let's show up let's vote let's vote against this
00:03:40.320 uh but as bad as i thought it was going to be
00:03:45.020 tuesday was worse yeah um i thought we were going to lose the senate
00:03:51.680 we could lose 10 or 11 senate seats we're still waiting on on mississippi and alaska to be decided
00:03:59.620 i hope we hold on to those two but it is his we're already at 54 democrats we could be at 56
00:04:08.620 that is generationally damaging yeah that that means by the way explain why that's generationally
00:04:19.780 damaging when you get up to 54 55 56 i want you to answer that this is generational harm that
00:04:25.420 can be done if the democrats do get to 55 56 uh votes in the senate explain why that is that is
00:04:33.080 so different than if it was 51 52 well look senate races are very different from house races
00:04:39.500 house races every two years all 435 house races are on the ballot so we can get obliterated we
00:04:47.300 could lose 300 seats in the house and the next year we could pick up 100 of those back now that
00:04:53.280 that's a bigger swing that typically happens but the point is every single one of them is on the
00:04:58.520 ballot every two years. The Senate is different. We have six-year terms in the Senate. So every
00:05:04.340 two years, only a third of the Senate is on the ballot. That means two years from now,
00:05:10.660 all of the losses we had this election, we can't turn any of them around. We can turn
00:05:15.840 zero of them around. It will take six years to have the chance to turn them around. So we lost
00:05:22.340 races in bright red states, Kansas. Kansas has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932.
00:05:32.400 Yeah. We'll flip Kansas the next time around. We will flip if we lose Mississippi. I don't know
00:05:38.300 if we are going to or not. I hope we don't. But if we lose Mississippi, we'll flip it in six years.
00:05:42.760 I believe we will flip Texas in six years. There are a bunch of red states we will flip,
00:05:47.360 but we don't get to flip it 2026 that election's done we're not going to be able to flip it in
00:05:52.540 2030 because they're not on the ballot we're not going to be able to to to 2028 rather they're not
00:05:57.760 on the ballot we're not gonna be able to flip it in 2030 they're not on the ballot we have to wait
00:06:01.520 till 2032 which is a really long time long time yeah it is it's a long time south carolina south
00:06:09.120 carolina just selected a democrat we'll flip south carolina back but for six years we're going
00:06:14.540 have a democrat and so retaking the majority in the senate is very very difficult the map is less
00:06:21.660 favorable in two years we've got to win in some more purple and blue states now we might we're
00:06:27.000 going to make i i think 2028 is going to be a really good republican year ironically because
00:06:34.480 2026 was such a bad republican year yeah that that the democrats who are in power
00:06:41.000 they're going to overreach these guys they are drunk on their own power they are high on their 0.90
00:06:48.360 own supply the radicals are running the democrat party the marxist and islamist are in charge
00:06:54.600 and they believe they have a mandate now by the way they ran the whole campaign on affordability 0.91
00:07:00.660 yep and and prices and now they're all about subpoenas and attack and rage and socialism 0.66
00:07:06.960 and islamism and dei and and and we're gonna get a trans your kids yeah like it is everything they
00:07:16.060 talked about in the election is going to be forgotten and i gotta say the voters who were
00:07:22.240 annoyed at four dollar gas they're going to be really annoyed after two four six years of
00:07:29.360 democrat policies when you see six dollar gas eight dollar gas ten dollar gas because that's
00:07:34.020 what the democrats want yep one of the big differences republicans want gas prices to be
00:07:39.000 lower democrats want them higher why because they want they want to ban gasoline engines they want
00:07:46.580 to force us all to drive little priuses and and and so the people who were pissed and understandably
00:07:54.380 pissed and said i'm mad at you i'm voting the other side every issue they were mad about
00:07:59.340 is going to get worse
00:08:01.340 but it's going to take some time
00:08:03.980 to turn this around.
00:08:04.780 The good news is
00:08:05.520 we are going to turn this around.
00:08:07.500 I am optimistic.
00:08:08.800 I believe Texas will be red again
00:08:10.760 and we're going to flip the country.
00:08:12.700 We're not going to socialism.
00:08:14.840 Now, if you want to hear
00:08:15.740 the rest of this conversation,
00:08:17.280 you can go back and listen
00:08:18.640 to the full podcast
00:08:19.840 from earlier this week.
00:08:21.700 Fall is here
00:08:22.520 and so are the comforting flavors
00:08:24.260 at Eggsmart.
00:08:25.140 Try the new caramel apple pie pancakes,
00:08:27.680 fluffy buttermilk pancakes
00:08:29.160 topped with warm cinnamon apples, rich caramel drizzle, and whipped topping.
00:08:33.460 See eggsmart.ca for details.
00:08:37.980 Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty.
00:08:40.020 We're Armstrong and Getty.
00:08:41.100 We've been trying to figure out how to describe
00:08:42.820 what is Armstrong and Getty on demand for many years.
00:08:45.620 I'm going to give it a shot.
00:08:46.540 So most media is either agenda-driven,
00:08:48.700 so they intentionally leave parts out or they lie to you,
00:08:50.780 or they're so shallow and boring,
00:08:53.120 you don't learn anything anyway.
00:08:54.920 We try to get to the bottom of the stories that are shaping our worlds
00:08:57.960 and help you understand what's actually happening.
00:09:00.920 The Armstrong and Getty Show, practically perfect in every way.
00:09:04.000 Yeah, I really like you guys' show.
00:09:05.360 I've been listening for over 10 years.
00:09:07.200 And I'll always be an avid listener and better informed for it. 0.63
00:09:10.120 The show is a collection of silly, serious, and irreverent musings of the day.
00:09:14.800 Hilariously balanced with more than just a pinch of sarcasm.
00:09:19.100 Whether it's on the left or the right, 1.00
00:09:20.760 if somebody does something or says something stupid, 0.99
00:09:23.580 they're going to call it out, and I love that. 0.99
00:09:25.640 I love it.
00:09:26.360 Keep up the great work.
00:09:27.080 I'm rocking with A&G.
00:09:28.320 So give it a try sometime.
00:09:29.540 Entertaining and you learn something?
00:09:30.720 Where do I tune in?
00:09:31.540 Listen to Armstrong and Getty on demand on the iHeartRadio app,
00:09:34.580 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:09:39.600 Football's back.
00:09:40.900 Hey, it's Drew Franklin from NFL Cover Zero.
00:09:43.380 Enjoy the NFL season while listening to NFL Cover Zero.
00:09:46.600 We have storylines, predictions, and lots of silliness.
00:09:49.500 Here's what you can expect from the podcast in our second season.
00:09:52.620 When you meet people and you say your job's a sports announcer,
00:09:56.180 It's always interesting to see what the first thing they say is.
00:09:59.940 I did have one of the more difficult questions, though.
00:10:04.060 He sits next to me and he sees I'm on my computer and he goes, big sports fan.
00:10:10.220 And I was like, yeah, actually.
00:10:11.760 And he goes, what do you think about my Jaguars this year?
00:10:15.400 I realized, like, no one's ever asked me that question ever about anything.
00:10:20.280 And I was like, Duval.
00:10:23.040 Listen to NFL Cover Zero on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:10:34.300 Now on to story number two.
00:10:36.580 This is an important show today, and the senator wanted to talk directly to so many of you about the future of this country and what just happened.
00:10:44.760 It is going to be a little different than we normally do a show.
00:10:47.640 And so with that being said, Senator, I know you've been thinking a lot about this election
00:10:52.280 and you have a lot on your mind. I do. History was made last night. For months, we were saying
00:10:58.880 that 2026 was the most consequential midterm election of our lifetimes. Unfortunately,
00:11:06.220 we were right. Sometimes history is to be celebrated. Other times it is to be mourned.
00:11:13.120 always it must be reckoned with.
00:11:17.660 2026 was not simply a blue wave.
00:11:21.400 It was a blue tsunami. 0.99
00:11:23.540 It was an ass kicking. 0.98
00:11:26.480 It was not simply a bad 2006 midterm election. 0.98
00:11:31.200 It was a Watergate-level repudiation.
00:11:36.780 What happened and why?
00:11:39.700 What are the consequences?
00:11:40.740 and where on earth do we go from here? When all the votes were counted, the problem wasn't
00:11:48.660 turnout. Instead, our voters, Republicans, Libertarians, Independents, showed up and vote
00:11:56.100 and rejected our candidates, voting Democrat instead. We've lost the House. We've lost the
00:12:05.940 Senate, when all is said and done, we will have lost eight to ten Senate seats. We lost in
00:12:13.020 historically red states like South Carolina and North Carolina, Kansas and Iowa. We lost in purple
00:12:21.180 states like Michigan and New Hampshire and Georgia. And we just barely won by just a single point
00:12:30.060 in bright red states like Florida and Louisiana. And then there's Texas. Nowhere are the consequences
00:12:41.680 of this election greater than Texas. In the Lone Star State, we lost every single statewide
00:12:51.360 election. For weeks, I had been publicly warning on this podcast that we were in very real
00:12:59.760 danger of losing everything in Texas. Far too few believed that was possible. I am very, very sorry
00:13:10.420 that it came to pass. Texas has not had a Democrat governor since 1994. We haven't had a Democrat
00:13:20.320 senator since 1993. Now we'll have both. Why were the results so overwhelming? Pundits and analysts
00:13:32.600 will break down the results for weeks or months or even years to come, but several things are
00:13:38.100 already evident today. Years ago, the very best political advice I ever got was from Heidi.
00:13:46.460 She said, it's not about you.
00:13:49.540 It's about them.
00:13:50.980 It's about their kids, their families, their hopes, their dreams, their futures.
00:13:57.400 Too many politicians forget that.
00:14:01.600 Take the state of Kansas, for example.
00:14:03.880 A state that has not elected a Democrat senator since 1932.
00:14:11.200 It just did.
00:14:13.240 Here's what exit polling showed were the top issues in Kansas.
00:14:18.100 Number one, cost of living, energy and groceries.
00:14:21.580 That was listed as number one by 30.6% of voters.
00:14:26.460 Corruption, number two, 18.5%.
00:14:30.960 The cost of the Iran war, 10.1%.
00:14:36.060 The candidates are terrible, 7.9%.
00:14:41.460 The Canada trade war, 7.6%.
00:14:47.200 The GOP didn't do enough to support Trump, 6.6%.
00:14:54.340 Republicans didn't pass the Save America Act, 5.6%.
00:15:00.760 Trump's focus on monuments, 5.5%.
00:15:06.240 and data centers and AI, 3.8%. The top issue, cost of living, is very real. Too many in politics
00:15:20.220 dismissed it. They didn't understand. They pointed to the macro numbers showing the stock market
00:15:26.600 soaring, median income at record highs, and poverty at record lows. Those data are true,
00:15:33.480 but they don't tell all of the story here are some stats that are a lot more real and personal
00:15:41.320 spam Hormel's process meat substitute broke record sales selling 113 million cans last year
00:15:55.860 that is nearly as much spam as was sold during the entirety of World War II.
00:16:05.540 29% of Americans have used, by now, pay later, for groceries this year.
00:16:14.660 That's double the share just two years ago.
00:16:18.500 In August, banks repossessed 42% more homes than they did last year.
00:16:25.860 In 2024, car repossessions topped 2.3 million above the 2009 peak in the middle of the great
00:16:38.380 financial crisis. In 2025, 6% of 401k holders took hardship withdrawals, paying penalties.
00:16:49.300 That is a record and triple the norm. And here's one that's really stunning.
00:16:55.860 Americans made more than 75 million paid plasma donations in 2026.
00:17:05.300 That's another record.
00:17:07.400 That means 200,000 Americans every single day with a needle in their arm just to pay for groceries.
00:17:16.420 That is very real pain from real Americans.
00:17:20.460 and too many Republican politicians seem like they didn't understand or they didn't care.
00:17:27.460 Food is too high. Gas is too high. Diesel is too high. Insurance is too high. Life is too high.
00:17:35.360 Tariffs have made everything too expensive and the Iran war has dragged on too long. 0.87
00:17:43.460 It should have been brief, decisive, and over. 0.90
00:17:49.020 It needs to end. 0.52
00:17:51.780 And we should never, under any circumstances, give the Ayatollah billions of dollars.
00:17:59.260 There's a very real economic disconnect.
00:18:04.240 Our K-shaped economy is a yawning divide.
00:18:09.300 Last year, we saw the world's very first trillionaire, a modern-day Thomas Edison,
00:18:17.040 at the very same time that millions were struggling to feed their families.
00:18:22.660 Data centers being constructed were turning billionaires into centibillionaires,
00:18:29.340 while simultaneously the average American's electricity bill went up 30% in the last five years.
00:18:36.900 understandably people were pissed off and elected republicans didn't do enough to address their very
00:18:46.480 real pain so what do we do now we need to listen and respond we need to champion economic policies
00:18:59.680 that make a real difference in working people's lives.
00:19:05.580 And we need to deal with the consequences.
00:19:09.380 Texas is blue.
00:19:12.960 That is a hard sentence to utter.
00:19:17.280 But Texas, today at least, is blue.
00:19:22.680 As we sit here today,
00:19:24.520 I am the only statewide elected Republican
00:19:27.720 who remains in Texas. That's not something I ever thought I would say.
00:19:35.300 We can be certain that the Democrats in Austin and in Washington will overshoot.
00:19:44.780 In Texas, they will try to raise taxes dramatically. They may even try to adopt a
00:19:52.880 state income tax, or even a California wealth tax. They will try to shut down the energy industry,
00:20:01.420 destroying jobs across our state. They will embrace the radical transgender agenda. 1.00
00:20:09.480 They will persecute those they perceive to be enemies, especially Elon Musk. 0.93
00:20:16.600 And in Washington, they will attack Trump every single day, constantly.
00:20:27.020 Impeachment, hearings, subpoenas, his family, cabinet members, business leaders, open persecution, and nonstop retaliation.
00:20:37.880 Make no mistake, nationally, the radicals are in charge. 0.58
00:20:43.500 The communists and the Islamists who have taken over the Democrat Party have now taken over the United States Congress. 0.66
00:20:52.300 They will be unleashed. 0.99
00:20:56.460 Sadly, that means many Americans will be hurt.
00:21:03.420 Texans will be hurt.
00:21:06.220 Their assault on business will make Texas a much less attractive place to start or grow a small business.
00:21:15.460 Texas will become more like California.
00:21:20.260 If they succeed in halting all new investment into AI, the economic results will be dramatic.
00:21:31.020 Over $700 billion in new projects are scheduled to start in the next year.
00:21:37.680 If the Democrats shut them all down, our country will very likely go into a recession.
00:21:45.840 That will suit the Democrats just fine.
00:21:48.280 They'll just blame it all on Donald Trump.
00:21:52.920 In the next two years, we need to do two things.
00:21:56.920 one fight the madness i will work with democrats when they're willing to be reasonable last night
00:22:08.760 i called james tallarico i congratulated him on his very impressive victory
00:22:13.260 it was a pleasant conversation and i told him that i looked forward to working with him
00:22:19.140 to try to benefit texas so if there are things like flood relief for the hill country
00:22:25.520 or trying to get the Space Academy to Texas, he and I will work together.
00:22:31.660 But if the newly elected radicals push policies that hurt Texas, raising taxes, destroying jobs,
00:22:41.360 opening the border, releasing violent criminals, threatening our children, undermining our
00:22:48.120 constitutional rights. I will fight with all of my strength to defend Texas and to defend the
00:22:57.400 Constitution. And number two, we need to rebuild. Getting behind policies that directly benefit
00:23:07.880 the constituents we lost. There's a complicated story, no doubt, of what happened on election day.
00:23:15.600 But as I see it, the key constituencies we lost were blue-collar voters, what had rightly
00:23:23.480 become the core base of our party. Evangelical Christians who didn't show up with the same
00:23:31.580 numbers and fervor as prior elections. Farmers and ranchers. Tragically, we alienated rural 0.80
00:23:43.020 America. Young people who excitedly had voted Republican in 2024 and who shifted hard blew
00:23:52.960 this cycle. And of course, Hispanics. For Hispanics, there's a strong overlap with 0.97
00:24:02.680 young people and blue-collar workers. In 2024, just two years ago, I was proud to carry Hispanics
00:24:11.600 statewide in Texas by six points. And we swung the Rio Grande Valley red for the first time 0.52
00:24:19.260 in a century. It can be done. But in this election, those Hispanic voters overwhelmingly
00:24:30.100 went back Democrat. We have got to turn that around. And for young people, 0.77
00:24:38.680 We need to be the party of the future.
00:24:41.580 We need to champion policies that expand their future.
00:24:45.960 Our two single biggest legislative accomplishments of the past two years,
00:24:51.400 Trump accounts and the school choice tax credit,
00:24:55.320 which will unleash tens of billions of dollars in new scholarships for kids,
00:25:01.080 are generationally powerful.
00:25:04.140 I was proud to author both of those transformational policies.
00:25:10.960 And yet too few candidates all across the country ran on that record.
00:25:16.040 Too few voters were even aware of what we'd accomplished for their kids and their future.
00:25:22.080 But we need to build.
00:25:23.640 We need to expand to continue creating a new investor class for hundreds of millions of Americans.
00:25:31.580 help everyone every American become an owner to have real skin in the game to create new
00:25:42.060 generations of capitalists ready to reject socialism people voted as they did because
00:25:51.500 they were angry ironically the Democrats that they elected are going to advance policies that
00:25:58.220 will make affordability worse.
00:26:02.100 The Democrats want gas prices higher.
00:26:06.380 They want to ban gasoline engines altogether.
00:26:11.160 Their extreme environmental mandates
00:26:13.780 will drive up food prices
00:26:15.900 and the prices of everything else.
00:26:18.880 But hear me now,
00:26:21.000 we will bring Texas back.
00:26:25.760 I am filled with hope and optimism.
00:26:31.720 Texas will be red again.
00:26:36.920 We have not suddenly become a bunch of tofu-eating, gun-banning, tutu-wearing, pinko-kami liberals.
00:26:46.960 That ain't us.
00:26:49.000 Texas is still Texas.
00:26:52.280 We will rebuild as a true blue-collar party,
00:26:57.060 not by embracing socialism,
00:26:59.920 but by being real free-market conservatives,
00:27:04.480 the way we built the Texas economic miracle in the first place.
00:27:11.580 And we will build and rebuild America as well.
00:27:16.900 When the zealots overreach, and they will,
00:27:21.520 We will stand ready to lead in the direction of freedom, of prosperity, of safety and security and common sense.
00:27:35.860 We will return to a new dawn of freedom in America.
00:27:43.560 It is dark right now, but it is always darkest before the dawn.
00:27:49.620 and morning is coming.
00:27:53.840 That is my fervent prayer
00:27:56.380 and that is my commitment to you.
00:28:01.160 As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation
00:28:04.260 on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast
00:28:07.560 from earlier this week to hear the entire thing.
00:28:10.660 Fall is here and so are the comforting flavors at Eggsmart.
00:28:14.460 Warm up with a comforting hot spiced apple cider
00:28:17.100 packed with the taste of autumn in every sip.
00:28:19.620 Available for a limited time.
00:28:21.940 See eggsmart.ca for details.
00:28:26.720 Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong. He's Joe Getty.
00:28:28.800 We're Armstrong and Getty.
00:28:29.880 We've been trying to figure out how to describe
00:28:31.600 what is Armstrong and Getty on demand for many years.
00:28:34.360 I'm going to give it a shot.
00:28:35.120 So most media is either agenda-driven,
00:28:37.480 so they intentionally leave parts out or they lie to you,
00:28:39.560 or they're so shallow and boring,
00:28:42.160 you don't learn anything anyway.
00:28:43.700 We try to get to the bottom of the stories that are shaping our worlds
00:28:46.740 and help you understand what's actually happening.
00:28:49.620 The Armstrong and Getty Show, practically perfect in every way.
00:28:52.780 Yeah, I really like you guys' show.
00:28:54.140 I've been listening for over 10 years.
00:28:55.980 And I'll always be an avid listener and better informed for it. 0.63
00:28:58.980 The show is a collection of silly, serious, and irreverent musings of the day.
00:29:03.580 Hilariously balanced with more than just a pinch of sarcasm. 0.99
00:29:07.800 Whether it's on the left or the right, if somebody does something or says something stupid, 0.99
00:29:12.340 they're going to call it out. 0.99
00:29:13.400 And I love that.
00:29:14.440 I love it.
00:29:15.120 Keep up the great work.
00:29:15.960 I'm rocking with A&G.
00:29:17.080 So give it a try sometime.
00:29:18.120 Entertaining and you learn something?
00:29:19.520 Where do I tune in?
00:29:20.320 Listen to Armstrong and Getty On Demand on the iHeartRadio app,
00:29:23.360 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:29:28.360 Football's back.
00:29:29.680 Hey, it's Drew Franklin from NFL Cover Zero.
00:29:32.160 Enjoy the NFL season while listening to NFL Cover Zero.
00:29:35.380 We have storylines, predictions, and lots of silliness.
00:29:38.300 Here's what you can expect from the podcast in our second season.
00:29:41.380 When you meet people and you say your job's a sports announcer,
00:29:44.960 It's always interesting to see what the first thing they say is.
00:29:48.720 I did have one of the more difficult questions, though.
00:29:52.840 He sits next to me and he sees I'm on my computer and he goes, big sports fan.
00:29:59.000 And I was like, yeah, actually.
00:30:00.540 And he goes, what do you think about my Jaguars this year?
00:30:04.180 I realized, like, no one's ever asked me that question ever about anything.
00:30:09.060 And I was like, Duval.
00:30:11.800 Listen to NFL Cover Zero on the iHeartRadio app,
00:30:16.620 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:30:23.040 I want to get back to the big story,
00:30:25.440 number three of the week you may have missed.
00:30:27.560 All right, Senator, so you put out this big statement.
00:30:30.240 You got a lot of feedback.
00:30:31.880 I've been traveling the country.
00:30:33.500 You've been around a lot of people
00:30:35.060 talking about what happened on Tuesday.
00:30:37.180 I think it's pretty clear that this may be
00:30:40.240 one of the easiest problems that we've ever had in politics to fix. The people were blunt about
00:30:48.440 why Republicans lost. They felt like they were not listened to. They felt like they were left
00:30:53.840 behind. They were struggling economically. They didn't care where the stock market was. It was,
00:30:59.300 can they put food on the table? Can they send their kids to good schools? Can they have a better life?
00:31:04.960 That's what it really came down to. Well, it may be an easy problem to fix,
00:31:08.840 but it's not a quick problem to fix. This is going to take some time. And I got to say,
00:31:14.600 the statement we just played is what I put out the day after the election. And it was when
00:31:18.840 everything was just raw and we were sort of stunned. You and I are now sitting here a couple
00:31:24.300 of days later. And in Texas, I've traveled around a bit. I've spent much of the day in Abilene at
00:31:32.600 Dias Air Force Base. I've been in Houston. And I got to say, what I'm seeing in Texas is people
00:31:40.680 that are just stunned. They're almost in disbelief. Look, there was rage. There was
00:31:45.560 rage that produced this election result. But there are also a lot of Texans and a lot of
00:31:50.920 Americans that were like, okay, we knew it was going to be a rough election, but holy cow,
00:31:55.680 we did not anticipate this you know i went this afternoon in in the best buy i wear an aura ring
00:32:03.500 by the way i'm going to take a digression you want to hear i'm rarely that persuasive but but
00:32:09.960 one thing i'm pretty proud of myself for being persuasive on yeah i actually convinced heidi to
00:32:14.780 let me use this aura ring and replace my wedding ring with it yeah and you know my wedding that's
00:32:21.060 pretty hard to do by the way so so look my wedding ring was just a simple gold band and and i wanted
00:32:26.480 to have an aura ring and frankly i want an aura ring because i used to wear a fitbit and i i like
00:32:31.260 getting like your sleep data and you're walking and all that but i also like wearing a watch like
00:32:36.920 it's sort of like i like looking at watch and and i don't there was a period where i wore a fitbit
00:32:41.260 and a watch and just looks goofy to wear two things so i'm like all right i don't want to wear
00:32:44.480 a fitbit and watch so i want to wear a watch and so an aura ring like gives you a chance to do all
00:32:48.980 the fitbit stuff but like do it on a ring but i didn't want to wear two rings like i didn't want
00:32:53.840 an aura ring and a wedding ring so you're not a big jewelry guy i don't see you blinging like that
00:32:58.060 i think that was a good call by the way yeah look i i am actually under my shirt wearing a gigantic
00:33:03.040 gold medallion like mr t but it actually says cruise it's crusted out in diamonds i've seen it
00:33:08.140 it's like it kind of you you wear it out when you're playing basketball but keep going uh you
00:33:12.960 know it's i i only do it when i'm dunking on you ben yes well that's never happens that means he
00:33:18.580 doesn't have the gold chain but keep going listen given that i have a three inch vertical yes i can
00:33:25.100 dunk on a six foot six foot tall yeah an eight foot rim is really stretching it like i have done
00:33:31.480 it on an eight foot rim not by much yeah um so anyway my aura ring was not working like the
00:33:40.340 stupid thing is not syncing with my phone it's really irritating because i don't know if you
00:33:45.760 know competitive people which you and i are like i go to sleep and i literally wake up and grab my 0.97
00:33:50.240 phone i'm like how did i do did i sleep well yeah you want to see the quality of the sleep i'm with
00:33:55.340 you get a good score you're like all right look at that rim deep sleep all right good job yeah and
00:33:59.880 then bad night you're like oh wow that that sucked okay why why did i not sleep well that night and
00:34:05.280 for two weeks it hadn't synced so i went to best buy and and because that's where i bought the aura
00:34:10.620 ring and i'm like okay can you make it work and they looked at it and they ended up it's broken
00:34:15.160 so the damn thing is broken but fortunately i bought it a year ago and so it's still under
00:34:20.080 warranty so or no way that never works that way well done on that but by the way okay we're taking 0.98
00:34:25.840 a complete aside so i had an aura ring before but as you know i play hoops twice a week yeah and
00:34:32.380 my left ring finger i keep jamming it's like the one finger out of 10 that when i play hoops
00:34:38.480 i have jammed this like 30 times and so my knuckles just swole up because you keep jamming 0.88
00:34:46.440 it gets bigger and so i had a ring that i could no longer get over my damn finger and so there
00:34:52.500 was like two months where i was wearing it as a pinky ring and i felt like joe pesci 0.68
00:34:55.720 yeah and i'm like do you think i'm funny i amuse you what about me is funny and i got tired of
00:35:01.980 wearing a pinky ring because i'm not a mobster so i wanted a new ring irritatingly enough aura
00:35:08.760 does not have a thing like if your ring no longer fits they won't let you trade in for a bigger one 0.83
00:35:13.420 yeah so these things are like 500 bucks and i'm like okay i'm not buying another damn ring
00:35:18.820 yeah the one that looks like the wedding ring that like replaces the gold one it's there you're
00:35:23.180 right it's like 500 bucks yeah so so i'm sitting there going i don't want to buy a new one i'm
00:35:28.320 hate wearing a pinky ring and so what i ended up doing last christmas is i went to catherine my
00:35:32.320 youngest daughter and i said how would you like an aura ring for christmas she's like oh yeah i'd
00:35:37.140 love it so i gave her my old aura ring which she wears on her index finger and it's it fits you
00:35:44.420 re-gifted hold on but yeah i re-gifted but i told her no no i told her this is the one i'm wearing
00:35:50.760 got my finger it won't fit i want to buy a bigger one and she's like yeah i would like so i gave her
00:35:56.740 my old one she knew it was my old one and then i was like okay i i could buy my daughter the ring
00:36:01.300 so i bought bought her the ring and i got me the bigger one and got her the little one but anyway 0.79
00:36:05.680 the damn thing broke and the beauty of it is i didn't know this i actually googled today how long 0.92
00:36:10.520 is the warranty in an aura ring and the warranty is a year because i bought it for christmas you 0.98
00:36:16.820 you're under the deadline i bought it i think december maybe late november but it's early
00:36:21.800 november so i went in i'm still under the warranty and so i went into best buy to like
00:36:25.720 hey the damn thing doesn't work and they're actually they're sending me a new one so it's 0.97
00:36:28.980 like under warranty they're sending me a brand new one i'm like hot diggity damn how often does 0.99
00:36:32.300 that work and i didn't buy the like extended warranty i just like yeah it's the one year thing
00:36:37.220 so anyway i went into best buy i literally had three different people come up to me and they
00:36:44.140 were almost like shell-shocked they're like oh my god what what happened to our state i had one woman
00:36:50.920 who was almost in tears yeah and that's a sentiment and as I said I was up in Abilene
00:36:58.500 at Dias Air Force Base and there are people that are just like what happened yeah and I get the
00:37:05.820 shock people are just like that they don't understand but more than anything I want to
00:37:12.020 give comfort to our listeners it is always darkest before the dawn that's how I closed
00:37:17.340 the podcast on wednesday yeah it's dark right now it's depressing right now like
00:37:22.520 it sucks i am the only republican statewide elected official in texas that is not
00:37:28.540 i liked it when we were all republican yeah right i i wanted to be the most conservative 0.97
00:37:34.900 the strongest republican but i had a lot of friends and colleagues and we were all fighting
00:37:38.060 together for our state like that's how i liked it yeah i believe listen texas is not lost our
00:37:44.980 values are the same who we are are the same and and remember look politics is pendulums
00:37:51.220 so so you can be like oh dear god the country's lost we're all going to die
00:37:55.980 the democrats will overshoot we will bring texas back i give you my word texas will be red again
00:38:04.300 i will i i'm pouring every breath every strength in my body into making that happen and texas
00:38:11.260 and the country will be red again we are going to prevail again we are not going to socialism
00:38:18.160 and you know why because of the men and women who listen to verdict because of the common sense
00:38:23.920 conservative values so be depressed be pissed be angry great but then resolve yourself to go to work
00:38:31.780 because let me be very serious we have a country to save as always thank you for listening to
00:38:38.660 verdict with senator ted cruz ben ferguson with you don't forget to download my podcast and you
00:38:43.320 can listen to my podcast every other day you're not listening to verdict or each day when you
00:38:46.800 listen to verdict afterwards i'd love to have you as a listener to again the ben ferguson podcast
00:38:51.780 and we will see you back here on monday morning hey i'm jack armstrong he's joe getty we've been
00:38:56.780 trying to figure out how to describe what is armstrong and getty on demand for many years
00:39:00.980 i'm gonna give it a shot so most media is either agenda driven or they're so shallow and boring
00:39:06.500 You don't learn anything anyway.
00:39:08.280 We try to get to the bottom of the stories that are shaping our worlds
00:39:11.320 and help you understand what's actually happening.
00:39:14.280 So give it a try sometime.
00:39:15.540 Entertaining and you learn something?
00:39:16.800 Where do I tune in?
00:39:17.620 Listen to Armstrong and Getty on demand on the iHeartRadio app,
00:39:20.640 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:39:25.580 Hey, it's Drew Franklin from NFL Cover Zero.
00:39:28.260 The 2026 season is underway, and we are loving football on TV.
00:39:32.520 Here's what you can expect from the podcast in our second season.
00:39:35.140 I would suggest for these preseason games, I think they should do what they do on the NFL draft.
00:39:41.640 You know, when coverage of the NFL draft is basically for moms and they're just like, hey, he has a dog named Spartan.
00:39:50.580 Listen to NFL Cover Zero on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.