Verdict with Ted Cruz - The UN has Their Hat Out, Why the Netflix Merger is paramount in Entertainment & Americans Agree on Voter ID Week In Review

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.340 Welcome.

00:00:05.080 It is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:06.720 Weekend review.

00:00:07.800 Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:08.980 And here are the big stories that we talked about this week that you may have missed.

00:00:12.660 First up, Donald Trump says no longer will America be the piggy bank for the United Nations.

00:00:18.620 And now they're freaking out over funding.

00:00:21.220 We'll explain exactly what's changed and how much money it could save you.

00:00:25.660 Also, a major media merger involving Netflix.

00:00:29.780 And it could also mean foreign money coming in from overseas, from the Middle East, if Netflix doesn't get the deal.

00:00:37.400 So what does it mean for you as a consumer?

00:00:40.380 We'll have that for you as well.

00:00:42.080 And finally, the Save America Voting Act.

00:00:45.000 It's a very big deal to secure our elections.

00:00:48.280 And every Democrat in Congress seems to be against it.

00:00:51.660 Why?

00:00:52.180 We'll break it down.

00:00:53.080 It's the Weekend Review, and it starts right now.

00:00:56.640 There is a big scandal that is taking place at the United Nations.

00:01:00.800 But it's a type of scandal that you and I should love and celebrate. 0.90

00:01:06.640 And that is the U.N. is angry right now that there's not enough money for them to do all their woke crap all over the world, the simplest way I can describe it.

00:01:17.180 And they're really upset because the number one fund of the U.N. has been the United States of America.

00:01:21.940 Donald Trump has said, no more.

00:01:25.080 We're not going to just give you this blank check and fund all this stuff.

00:01:29.420 And now the U.N. Secretary General is freaking out and saying, we need desperate money now or things are going to have to be shut down.

00:01:37.280 And this on top of the fact that Trump has also taken the U.S. out of 66 globalist organizations and treaties as well.

00:01:46.100 Saving American taxpayer dollars are being wasted. 0.87

00:01:48.520 So you talked about cutting off funding for, as you said, quote, woke crap all over the world. 0.72

00:01:54.180 I think that's the new motto of the United Nations. 0.99

00:01:57.640 The United Nations woke crap all over the world. 0.97

00:02:00.940 Let me read from our article in Breitbart. 0.98

00:02:03.660 Quote, the United Nations is going broke and needs member nations to stump up cash.

00:02:09.440 Lots of it.

00:02:10.100 That is the plea from Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez, who fears the globalist body is at risk of, quote, imminent financial collapse due to their member states not paying their dues.

00:02:22.040 The former leader of the Portuguese Socialist Party said Friday the U.N. faces a financial crisis which was, quote, deepening, threatening program delivery.

00:02:31.140 And money could run out as soon as July, leaving the unaccountable globalist cabal destitute.

00:02:36.480 Such is the financial drama unfolding at U.N. headquarters in Geneva.

00:02:41.440 Signs of a warning situation have reportedly been put up everywhere.

00:02:45.680 In an almost desperate attempt to save cash, the escalators are regularly turned off and the heating turned down, the BBC reports.

00:02:53.780 By the way, how much money do you save turning the escalators off?

00:02:57.520 Like, like that's really.

00:02:58.640 Exactly.

00:02:59.480 That's a little amazing.

00:03:00.820 So Gutierrez sent a missive out to all 193 member states, outlining his fears and pleading that they had to honor their mandatory payments or overhaul the organization's financial rules to avoid collapse.

00:03:13.060 It comes after the U.N.'s largest contributor to the United States refused to contribute to its regular and peacekeeping budgets and withdrew from several agencies it called a, quote, waste of taxpayer dollars.

00:03:23.580 These include the U.N.'s population agency and the U.N. treaty that establishes international climate negotiations.

00:03:30.540 And I got to say, reading this, it reminds me of, I actually think one of the funniest movies ever made was Team America World Police.

00:03:38.800 You ever see Team America?

00:03:39.780 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:03:40.820 Okay.

00:03:41.360 It's absolutely hysterical. 0.99

00:03:43.080 By the way, I'm going to confess a really stupid thing I did. 0.94

00:03:45.980 So, several years ago, I was vacationing with Heidi and with the girls and with my in-laws, Heidi's parents. 0.93

00:03:52.460 And they have a houseboat on Lake Powell.

00:03:54.860 Lake Powell is an amazing, have you ever been to Lake Powell?

00:03:58.120 I have not.

00:03:58.980 You've told me about it.

00:04:00.060 It's on my bucket list now.

00:04:01.860 Like, holy cow.

00:04:02.880 So, Lake Powell is the southern part of the Grand Canyon and basically envisioned the Grand Canyon dammed up and filled halfway with water.

00:04:10.460 That is Lake Powell.

00:04:11.200 And so, my in-laws, for 30 years, have had a houseboat there.

00:04:15.760 And you go out on the houseboat and they tow.

00:04:18.920 You tow a ski boat.

00:04:20.100 You tow typically one or two jet skis.

00:04:22.460 You go out into the water.

00:04:24.120 And it's amazing.

00:04:25.480 So, my in-laws are not fancy.

00:04:28.620 So, their houseboat does not have a working air conditioner.

00:04:31.580 So, you go out typically in the middle of the summer where it's, you know, 100, 110 degrees.

00:04:35.720 No A.C.

00:04:37.080 You sleep on the roof of the houseboat under the stars.

00:04:40.180 By the way, your cell phone doesn't work at all.

00:04:44.020 You have no internet.

00:04:45.740 And, you know, you get up and jump in the water.

00:04:47.820 You bathe in the lake.

00:04:49.340 You go out water skiing.

00:04:50.820 You get on a jet ski.

00:04:51.920 And you can go down these finger canyons.

00:04:54.140 Ben, I've got to say, you go down a finger canyon, it is breathtaking.

00:04:56.900 You can go down it where on each side you can put your hand out and touch the side of the cliff.

00:05:03.940 Yeah, that's on my bucket list.

00:05:05.420 That just sounds amazing.

00:05:06.560 A couple hundred feet of just red sandstone.

00:05:10.120 And you're in this sliver.

00:05:11.380 You can go in far enough that you've got to jump off the jet ski, swim around, and turn the jet ski around because you don't have room to turn it around.

00:05:17.780 So, it's an awesome thing to do.

00:05:19.780 So, one time a decade ago, Heidi and I are going out with our parents.

00:05:24.860 And we decided, so they do have a little TV on the houseboat with a DVR player.

00:05:30.060 And we decided to bring...

00:05:31.780 I know where this is going.

00:05:33.820 All right, I'm with you now.

00:05:35.360 Keep going.

00:05:35.820 A DVD of Team America because Heidi doesn't like movies very much.

00:05:41.040 I love movies.

00:05:41.920 Like, I grew up, my parents both loved movies.

00:05:43.880 So, like, I would go out with my mom and dad and we'd go see movies every week and we'd love movies.

00:05:48.300 Heidi grew up, she never went to the movies.

00:05:50.560 But I took her to see Team America and she laughed so hard she couldn't breathe.

00:05:55.660 So, we're like, all right, let's bring it. 0.73

00:05:56.680 And this was, I got to say, an incredibly stupid thing to do, Ben, because I forgot that Team America, it's, okay, so it's puppets and it's done by the South Park guys. 0.94

00:06:11.240 But every third or fourth word is a curse word. 0.99

00:06:15.200 I mean, it's F-bombed.

00:06:16.720 It is a relentless...

00:06:18.580 And I'm sitting there playing this.

00:06:21.120 We turned it on with my in-laws and they're just looking in utter horror as it's just curse, curse, curse, curse, curse.

00:06:29.280 We didn't watch 10 minutes of it before we turned it off and said, oh, sorry about that.

00:06:32.840 I really got to apologize.

00:06:34.880 Now, here's my question, though.

00:06:37.200 Did your wife do what my wife would do in that scenario, act like she's shocked that you brought this movie and showed it? 1.00

00:06:41.780 Or did she laugh as hard as she laughed when y'all were at the movie together?

00:06:44.440 That's the real question.

00:06:45.580 She sort of laughed, but we remembered how funny the movie was.

00:06:49.680 But we hadn't internalized, there's just, if you deleted every profanity in the movie, the movie would be 30% shorter.

00:06:58.480 Like, it just, and part of what I like about Team America is it mocks both sides.

00:07:04.360 So it's not a conservative movie.

00:07:05.940 It's not a liberal movie.

00:07:06.960 Like, it makes fun of both sides in a way that is really funny.

00:07:11.500 But I don't advise, particularly if, you know, my in-laws, I mean, they were Christian missionaries.

00:07:17.760 They're wonderful people, but they don't curse, and they may have seen more curse words in those 10 minutes we played than they had in the past 10 years before that.

00:07:29.380 So, my whole point of this is there's a scene in Team America where you have, part of the theory is that Kim Jong-un is the dictator of North Korea, which is of course true, but he's a puppet in Team America.

00:07:44.520 And he is seeking to attack the world, and it's all, Team America World Police is trying to fight Kim Jong-un. 0.68

00:07:54.940 But anyway, the United Nations sends Hans Blix, who, Hans Blix, most of our listeners are too young to remember, but Hans Blix was a weapons inspector for the United Nations.

00:08:07.980 Yeah.

00:08:08.260 And the U.N. sends Hans Blix to Kim Jong-un to go tell him to stop developing weapons of mass destruction, and Kim Jong-un ends up feeding the puppet Hans Blix to sharks who eat him. 0.54

00:08:22.980 And at one point, right before he gets fed the sharks, Hans Blix says, you must stop what you're doing.

00:08:29.200 And if you do not stop what you're doing, the United Nations is going to send you a really stern letter.

00:08:35.100 Yeah.

00:08:36.280 I have to say, as I'm reading the cries from the Secretary General, I keep envisioning Hans Blix in Team America saying, give us money, or we will send you a really stern letter saying, give us money.

00:08:52.620 It's entirely accurate, exactly where we are.

00:08:55.860 And that's why the part about this is so funny is the president said he was going to do it.

00:08:59.720 You elect me, I'm going to get rid of all this stuff.

00:09:01.980 I'm going to get rid of the wasting of your tax dollars.

00:09:05.380 And it's not just the U.N. that's freaking out now.

00:09:07.960 You've got this list of 66 globalist organizations and treaties that he's also, by the way, we're not giving you money there either.

00:09:16.660 Yeah.

00:09:16.880 So the list of 66, by the way, so as Ben and I were prepping for this show, we're talking about the list of 66.

00:09:22.160 And I asked him, I said, hey, what are the 66?

00:09:25.260 And he's like, I don't know.

00:09:26.600 And you sent me this whole document.

00:09:28.380 I'm not going to read them all, but I'm just going to read some of the topics.

00:09:31.280 So number one is the 24-7 carbon-free energy compact.

00:09:35.000 We withdrew from that.

00:09:35.880 The Colombo Plan Council.

00:09:37.300 The Commission on Environmental Cooperation.

00:09:39.640 Education Cannot Wait.

00:09:41.080 The European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats.

00:09:44.760 The Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories.

00:09:48.140 The Freedom Online Coalition.

00:09:50.120 The Global Community Engagement Resilience Fund.

00:09:52.560 The Global Counterterrorism Forum.

00:09:53.900 The Global Forum on Cyber Expertise.

00:09:56.460 That's the first 10.

00:09:57.560 There are another 56 that come.

00:09:59.460 I mean, now you know why he said we're going to get rid of all of them, right?

00:10:03.140 Like, we're just not going to fund this stuff.

00:10:05.080 Many of them, by the way, are like people that hate America on top of that.

00:10:08.300 That's right.

00:10:08.960 All right.

00:10:09.140 Let me read the last 10.

00:10:11.060 So numbers 56 through 66.

00:10:13.360 We withdrew from the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

00:10:18.120 We withdrew from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

00:10:21.220 The UN Human Settlements Program.

00:10:23.380 The UN Institute for Training and Research.

00:10:25.300 UN Oceans.

00:10:26.100 UN Population Fund.

00:10:27.640 UN Register of Conventional Arms.

00:10:29.740 The UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination.

00:10:32.400 The UN System Staff College.

00:10:33.820 The UN Water.

00:10:34.760 And the UN University.

00:10:36.700 All of that.

00:10:37.780 Look, you and I and most people on planet Earth have no idea what any of these do. 0.99

00:10:42.240 But we were sending millions of dollars to this garbage.

00:10:44.760 And there is a reason why Hans Blix is floating in the water, having been eaten by sharks from Kim Jong-un, because stern letters from the United Nations don't do a whole lot.

00:10:58.540 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.

00:11:04.640 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:11:07.600 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:11:11.720 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk Podcast.

00:11:15.420 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:11:16.640 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:11:17.880 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:11:21.640 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers.

00:11:25.180 All at different stages of their journey.

00:11:27.380 So, if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:11:30.360 Listen to the Honest Talk Podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:11:36.400 Now on to story number two.

00:11:38.700 A very interesting media merger and antitrust conversation that took place in Washington, D.C.

00:11:46.780 You came in and asked questions on this of the two companies that were there talking about this.

00:11:52.700 I actually, and I rarely do this, and I don't even think I told you this.

00:11:55.720 I wrote an op-ed about this for foxnews.com.

00:11:59.860 You can go and read it there.

00:12:01.000 But what I was talking about was from a national security standpoint, and my headline was,

00:12:05.420 Reagan would tell Americans to watch this Netflix merger hearing closely.

00:12:10.200 And I said, here's why.

00:12:11.520 And I went through, my biggest concern with this merger is one of safety and security,

00:12:17.500 because I want to know that the majority of things that are being made are being made in America,

00:12:21.600 and that China doesn't get influence over us. 0.97

00:12:23.440 And that's the questions I asked.

00:12:26.340 What really worried me about this merger was how much foreign money they're saying,

00:12:31.480 and it's in the billions that could be coming into this deal from the Middle East.

00:12:36.040 That concerned me as well.

00:12:38.400 You asked a lot of questions about this, and there's also a lot of conservatives like you and I

00:12:42.700 that are frustrated with some of the programming that Netflix have.

00:12:45.520 But at least I'm like, they're wanting to keep this production in America,

00:12:49.320 and they're wanting to expand it in America, whereas on the other side of it,

00:12:53.000 my concern to Paramount is they're taking foreign money from the Middle East.

00:12:56.680 I don't like that influence, and I certainly don't want China to take influence as well.

00:13:01.600 Yeah, this is a massive merger.

00:13:03.720 It's $83 billion.

00:13:04.680 And I'm deeply concerned about it.

00:13:08.480 And so we had a hearing this week in the Senate Judiciary Committee with the CEO of Netflix

00:13:12.600 and a senior executive from Warner Brothers.

00:13:15.260 Give a listen to the questioning that I asked them.

00:13:18.300 I and many others on this committee have been concerned for a long time about censorship,

00:13:23.000 censorship in the media and censorship in Hollywood.

00:13:26.520 But there already seems to be only one acceptable political view.

00:13:34.600 Actually, I want to ask, did either of you all watch the Grammys this week?

00:13:38.300 I did not.

00:13:39.360 Just the tail end of it.

00:13:40.900 One simple question.

00:13:42.360 Are we right now on stolen land?

00:13:47.280 I have no idea of the history of this land, of where we're sitting today.

00:13:50.820 Nor do I, Senator.

00:13:51.820 So that speaks volumes that neither of you are willing to say, hell no, we're not on stolen land.

00:13:57.420 And I will say at the Grammys, when you see an entertainer say, nobody is illegal while we're on stolen land.

00:14:03.180 And then you see entertainers leap to their feet, clapping so excitedly at the notion that America is fundamentally illegitimate,

00:14:11.100 it starts to convey that the entertainment world is deeply corrupt.

00:14:16.420 And I will point out that same singer, who says no one is illegal on stolen land, promptly went back to her $14 million mansion,

00:14:23.720 and somehow that stolen land she wasn't concerned about, just the United States of America.

00:14:29.180 Look, Netflix has long been a left-wing company.

00:14:35.760 Your founder, Reed Hastings, is one of the biggest Democrat donors in the country,

00:14:39.320 including giving millions recently to the massive gerrymander in California,

00:14:44.720 making it one of the most gerrymandered states in the Union,

00:14:47.360 because your founder desperately wants a Democrat House of Representatives.

00:14:52.320 Susan Rice from the Obama White House is on your board of directors.

00:14:56.040 You guys gave $50 million to the Obamas, as far as I can tell, to produce no discernible content whatsoever.

00:15:02.120 However, how would you tell a Texan sitting at home to feel comfortable? 0.94

00:15:06.860 CNN is already a dumpster fire.

00:15:09.600 There's nothing resembling objectivity.

00:15:11.720 There's nothing resembling journalism anymore.

00:15:16.020 How are people at home, how should they feel even remotely confident that if this merger happens,

00:15:22.200 the combined entity would not simply be a propaganda outlet pushing one particular political view

00:15:29.080 with much greater market power than you have now?

00:15:32.940 Well, sir, we would fail.

00:15:34.400 We would fail pushing apolitical view or propaganda.

00:15:38.060 We deliver entertainment to consumers.

00:15:41.180 Our consumers see our business pretty much the way they see America.

00:15:45.120 About 40 percent conservative, about 40 percent liberal, about 20 percent don't know.

00:15:49.620 But when they turn on TV, they're tuned in to be entertained.

00:15:53.420 And if we fail to entertain them by trying to promote propaganda or anything other than entertainment, we fail.

00:16:00.500 Mr. Campbell, same question to you.

00:16:03.600 We have a very broad range of content across not only HBO Max but all of our platforms that we need to appeal to all audiences.

00:16:12.500 Our content ranges from Hard Knocks from the NFL to shows like Deadliest Catch and Gold Rush.

00:16:19.280 It's a very broad collection of programming that represents broad interests across America.

00:16:25.020 You have a wide range of programming on HBO.

00:16:27.300 Name one program that is designed to appeal to conservatives.

00:16:30.720 We don't design our programming to appeal to any...

00:16:32.780 I can think of a lot that are designed to go to liberals.

00:16:34.740 Name one.

00:16:36.880 None of our shows are designed to go to any political group that is designed to appeal to...

00:16:41.840 Really, John Oliver is not designed to appeal to a certain group?

00:16:46.240 It's a program that for which there's...

00:16:49.520 You just said none of your program is.

00:16:51.060 Look, let me ask you, do you think CNN is fair and balanced?

00:16:54.880 I do believe CNN is a fair and balanced.

00:16:56.820 So when CNN showed riots and fires behind them and you put a chyron, mostly peaceful but fiery protest, was that journalism?

00:17:05.780 Sir, I'm not involved with CNN, and in fact, they're not part of this transaction, but they have an independent editorial board.

00:17:14.780 They have independent news gathering.

00:17:16.280 We don't direct...

00:17:17.040 They're only...

00:17:17.660 They have no independence other than hating Donald Trump, which is why their viewership numbers have plummeted, because they don't actually report news.

00:17:25.380 They instead engage in very biased propaganda.

00:17:28.220 And I will say, the truest words you said a minute ago is when you said, with respect to Mr. Sarandos, well, he and I see the world in very much the same way.

00:17:37.580 That is exactly the problem, that in the world of journalism, it should not be propaganda.

00:17:44.240 In the world of entertainment, there is a reason why entertainers who are even slightly right of center get blackballed in Hollywood.

00:17:52.980 Writers get blackballed in Hollywood.

00:17:55.020 Actors get blackballed in Hollywood.

00:17:56.720 And I've heard nothing today to give me any confidence that this merger would do anything other than make that problem much, much worse.

00:18:05.120 Senator, this is one of those subjects, it's the reason why I decided to write an op-ed, because it does matter.

00:18:10.160 When companies get big and they have as much influence as Paramount does or as Netflix does, it is concerning that the propaganda, as you described, that can be put out, that can fundamentally shape this country.

00:18:22.520 It's why you invoked Ronald Reagan in the op-ed that I wrote at FoxNews.com.

00:18:26.060 And there's also the concern of foreign influence coming in.

00:18:30.060 I don't want American movies being paid for.

00:18:32.860 $24 billion in Middle East funding scares the hell out of me, because what are they going to say you can and can't do?

00:18:38.460 I go back to Top Gun Maverick.

00:18:40.460 There was a simple patch, a Taiwan patch on his jacket, and they banned that movie from China, period, full stop.

00:18:48.280 Well, if that money's coming in, what else could not be made because of that?

00:18:52.580 That worries me as well.

00:18:54.380 Yeah, look, I'm very worried about woke Hollywood.

00:18:57.140 It has gone so leftist.

00:18:59.000 It is engaged in so much indoctrination.

00:19:01.840 It is trying to silence views that are pro-America, silence views that are conservative, silence views that are pro-freedom.

00:19:08.400 And listen, this merger, it's not going to go through unless the Department of Justice signs off on it.

00:19:16.980 And the Department of Justice has to approve the merger and say that it does not create a monopoly.

00:19:21.920 It does not increase monopoly power.

00:19:25.180 I think there are very real concerns.

00:19:27.740 This hearing was the beginning of the scrutiny for it.

00:19:30.920 I expect to see more scrutiny, more questions asked about this massive merger.

00:19:36.360 But I don't want to see even bigger market power pushing a pro-Democrat, pro-leftist, anti-American agenda.

00:19:44.900 And I'm very concerned that's what's happening right now.

00:19:48.620 Final question on this.

00:19:50.200 When do the consumers find out what happens here?

00:19:54.100 How long until we get an answer of who gets to buy what?

00:19:57.680 Yeah, typically this process takes months to years.

00:20:02.180 And so the Department of Justice has to assess whether this is allowed to go forward.

00:20:08.080 The FCC may well engage as well in signing off on this.

00:20:12.840 I'm the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.

00:20:14.600 I expect to be quite engaged in this process.

00:20:17.280 So it will take some time.

00:20:18.720 At a minimum, it's several months.

00:20:20.680 It could be upwards of a year.

00:20:22.080 And the consequence, if this merger happens, it is really significant.

00:20:27.680 For news, and it's really significant for entertainment.

00:20:30.680 And by the way, I think entertainment in many ways is more important than news.

00:20:35.100 We get so much of what we understand about the world from entertainment.

00:20:38.960 Reagan understood that.

00:20:40.100 They're allowing a massive left-wing monopoly. 0.96

00:20:44.040 Listen, I ask these guys, are we on stolen land?

00:20:48.380 Neither one of them could say no.

00:20:50.600 They're not willing to say America is legitimate.

00:20:54.900 No, this is not stolen land.

00:20:57.440 That's how woke and lefty and disconnected these people are.

00:21:01.840 And they want to have even more power over the entertainment that you're allowed to consume in your home.

00:21:08.360 As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic,

00:21:12.660 you can go back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing.

00:21:17.740 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:21:19.880 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:21:23.980 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:21:27.740 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:21:28.920 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:21:29.860 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:21:33.940 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers.

00:21:37.460 All at different stages of their journey.

00:21:39.640 So, if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:21:42.860 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:21:48.620 I want to get back to the big story, number three of the week you may have missed.

00:21:52.900 All right, Senators, so let's talk about the SAVE Act.

00:21:55.960 It was brought up and it was a part of the discussion, the debate, even with a partial government shutdown.

00:22:02.040 There are a lot of conservatives that I've talked to this past week.

00:22:05.200 They don't understand why this hasn't happened already.

00:22:07.920 It's already come out of the House before.

00:22:10.640 And the big question is, why can't we just pass it right now?

00:22:13.960 I think there's a lot of misinformation on this.

00:22:16.520 And it's not a 50 plus one vote to get this done.

00:22:19.980 It is 60 votes you need to get this done.

00:22:22.840 And if you want to know who to blame, look at the Democratic Party.

00:22:26.060 They have dug in.

00:22:27.380 Chuck Schumer's made it very clear.

00:22:29.020 And there isn't a single Democrat that had his blessing to vote in favor of this thing.

00:22:32.640 He's calling it Jim Crow 2.0.

00:22:35.900 Well, the SAVE Act, which was initially introduced in the House of Representatives by Chip Roy,

00:22:40.820 my former chief of staff, the SAVE Act requires proof of American citizenship to register to vote.

00:22:48.160 It's common sense legislation.

00:22:50.100 And then actually, President Trump has changed it.

00:22:53.340 And President Trump did two changes.

00:22:55.060 Number one, he wanted to change the name from the SAVE Act to the SAVE America Act.

00:22:59.920 So now the president is calling it the SAVE America Act.

00:23:02.740 Number two, he wanted to add to it not just proof of citizenship to register to vote,

00:23:07.540 but also a requirement of photo ID to vote.

00:23:11.640 We've done that.

00:23:12.720 I'm a sponsor of the SAVE America Act.

00:23:15.500 I think it makes absolute sense.

00:23:18.000 But the challenge is that the Democrats are dug in and are rabidly opposing it.

00:23:25.020 And under the Senate rules, it takes 60 votes to move forward.

00:23:29.460 And right now, we can anticipate every Senate Democrat voting no.

00:23:33.580 Now, we're going to break down where public opinion is on this,

00:23:38.460 and then I'm going to tell you the strategy that I'm urging John Thune and Republican leadership to do

00:23:44.260 to get this done in the Senate.

00:23:46.260 But first of all, let's just cover where the polling is.

00:23:49.580 I want you to give a listen to actually something pretty remarkable.

00:23:52.900 I want you to listen to Chuck Schumer actually on Morning Joe, so on MSNBC,

00:24:00.860 being questioned about just how much support there is for the SAVE America Act.

00:24:07.040 So, Leader Schumer, this talk about election security has revived discussions of the SAVE Act,

00:24:13.000 which you have said you oppose.

00:24:15.280 Proponents of it say that it's, you know, to have ID, to prove U.S. citizenship, to be able to vote.

00:24:20.240 Though some of the claims they make, to be clear, are overstated.

00:24:23.900 We know there's not widespread election fraud.

00:24:26.600 But polling does suggest, there's a new Pew Research poll,

00:24:29.580 that 95% of Republicans, but also 71% of Democrats, like this idea.

00:24:35.940 So why do you not?

00:24:37.880 It's Jim Crow 2.0. 0.82

00:24:40.420 And I called it Jim Crow 2.0, and the right wing went nuts all over the Internet.

00:24:45.740 That's because they know it's true.

00:24:46.940 What they're trying to do here is the same thing that was done in the South for decades,

00:24:51.980 to prevent people of color from voting.

00:24:54.480 For instance, if you change, you're a woman who got married and changed your last name,

00:25:00.180 you won't be able to show ID and you'll be discriminated against.

00:25:03.280 If you can't find a birth certificate or a proper ID, you'll be discriminated against.

00:25:08.580 This is vicious and nasty.

00:25:10.380 And I said to our Republican colleagues, it will not pass the Senate.

00:25:13.700 You will not get a single Democratic vote in the Senate.

00:25:16.600 We're not reviving Jim Crow all over the country.

00:25:20.200 Now, Senator, look, I actually believe him.

00:25:22.340 I think it's very clear he's shot multiple shots, big ones across the bow of every Democrat in the Senate.

00:25:28.380 You are not going to give the Republicans this victory.

00:25:31.520 The part, though, there that he talks about being Jim Crow, he's not listening to African-Americans in this country

00:25:36.880 because more than 70 percent in a poll that was put out by CNN that they were talking and they were mentioning that same poll there.

00:25:44.500 And I want to play it.

00:25:45.660 This was CNN's own words breaking down the support for voter ID based on race.

00:25:52.760 Take a listen to this.

00:25:53.880 Take a look here.

00:25:55.620 Favorite photo ID to vote.

00:25:57.060 Eighty five percent of white people favorite.

00:25:59.180 Eighty two percent of Latino.

00:26:00.700 Seventy six percent of black Americans favorite.

00:26:03.400 So the bottom line is this.

00:26:05.060 Voter ID is not controversial in this country.

00:26:08.440 A photo ID to vote is not controversial in this country.

00:26:11.400 It is not controversial by party and it is not controversial by race.

00:26:15.140 The vast majority of Americans agree with Nicki Minaj that, in fact, you should have a photo ID to be able to vote.

00:26:21.280 So you listen to him and again, go back to this.

00:26:24.920 Seventy eight.

00:26:25.780 I'm sorry.

00:26:26.180 She's 76 percent of blacks, 82 percent of Latino, 85 percent of white.

00:26:31.300 And that's coming from CNN, Senator.

00:26:33.720 Look, the American people overwhelmingly support photo ID to vote because it's a common sense step.

00:26:39.300 You have to have a photo ID to drive a car.

00:26:41.600 You have to have a photo ID to get her an airplane. 0.61

00:26:43.600 You have to have a photo ID to buy a beer at a bar.

00:26:46.800 You have to have a photo ID to go to an R-rated movie.

00:26:50.080 You have to look, they know it is popular.

00:26:55.360 And by the way, I will say, look, Schumer using the rhetoric about Jim Crow.

00:26:59.360 There is an irony in that it was his party.

00:27:01.720 It was the Democrats who enacted the Jim Crow laws. 0.80

00:27:05.000 It was his party, the Democrats who created the KKK. 0.94

00:27:08.520 It was his party, the Democrats that kept the system of segregation in for decades.

00:27:15.240 He uses this rhetoric because the Democrats do not care that Democrats overwhelmingly supported voters.

00:27:23.380 They don't care that African-Americans and Hispanics support it.

00:27:26.160 They have a partisan position.

00:27:27.920 They are for voter fraud.

00:27:29.460 The other question I want to ask you is, why are Democrats so opposed to it if it's not about cheating?

00:27:37.240 Because if whites are at 85, Latinos at 82, and blacks at 76, I'm not sure there's that many subjects.

00:27:43.360 In America, you could get this type of consensus on, including Republicans and Democrats,

00:27:48.360 those that identify as Republicans and Democrats also overwhelmingly agree this is a good thing.

00:27:52.880 Yeah, look, the American people overwhelmingly support photo ID to vote.

00:27:58.200 The Democrats are not opposing this because their base is telling them to oppose it.

00:28:02.880 As we talked about, 71 percent of Democrats, voters, think photo ID to vote is a good idea.

00:28:08.900 They're opposing it for two reasons.

00:28:11.740 Number one, they're opposing it, I believe, because voter fraud is a real and persistent problem,

00:28:17.640 and they count on voter fraud to help them win elections.

00:28:19.940 And so they don't want photo ID because they want cheating.

00:28:24.180 If you look at the Democrats, when they have control over elections,

00:28:27.460 they put in place policies that expand voter fraud.

00:28:32.840 And by the way, look, if you're not inclined to believe me, you might say, okay, Cruz is being a Republican.

00:28:39.300 Although if you're not inclined to believe me, I am wondering why you're listening to Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:28:44.040 But set that aside.

00:28:45.140 If you're not inclined to believe me, maybe you would believe Democrat President Jimmy Carter.

00:28:52.300 Because Democrat President Jimmy Carter joined with former Republican Secretary of State James Baker.

00:28:59.840 They chaired what was called the Carter-Baker Commission, studying voter fraud.

00:29:03.740 They concluded voter fraud is real.

00:29:05.400 It is a problem.

00:29:06.160 It has changed the outcome of elections.

00:29:08.100 And they recommended a series of steps to prevent voter fraud.

00:29:11.940 They recommended, number one, limiting the use of mail-in ballots because mail-in ballots make it easier to cheat.

00:29:18.840 They recommended, number two, requiring photo ID to vote because that makes it harder to cheat.

00:29:24.620 They recommended, number three, prohibiting ballot harvesting,

00:29:27.920 prohibiting paid political operatives being able to collect the ballots of others because that invites voter fraud.

00:29:35.560 Well, Ben, do you know what the position is now of Chuck Schumer and every congressional Democrat?

00:29:39.680 It is to oppose any type of voter ID.

00:29:44.580 It's worse than that.

00:29:46.040 They literally went down the recommendations of the Carter-Baker Commission on how to stop voter fraud, and they reversed them all.

00:29:52.900 Wow.

00:29:53.080 So the Carter-Baker Commission said if you want to stop voter fraud, limit mail-in ballots.

00:29:58.060 The Democrat want mail-in ballots in every election.

00:30:01.060 The Carter-Baker Commission said require photo ID.

00:30:04.300 The Democrats are adamantly opposed to photo ID.

00:30:08.020 And the most pernicious, ballot harvesting.

00:30:11.560 The Carter-Baker Commission said unequivocally, ballot harvesting invites, it encourages voter fraud.

00:30:17.940 What is the position of Democrats?

00:30:19.740 They want ballot harvesting.

00:30:21.340 They have made a political decision.

00:30:23.960 By the way, explain ballot harvesting to people that don't understand that terminology.

00:30:29.880 It's been used a lot, but what does it mean?

00:30:31.920 So let's take a state like California.

00:30:34.240 Ballot harvesting is legal in California.

00:30:36.160 What it means is you could have a paid political operative, someone who works for the Democrats, go to a nursing home.

00:30:42.300 Go to a nursing home and fill out the ballots with the elderly people, with them, and take their ballots. 0.75

00:30:48.640 So, okay, Mr. Jones, who are you going to vote for?

00:30:50.880 Who are you going to vote for?

00:30:51.560 Let's do it together.

00:30:52.480 They take the ballots.

00:30:53.220 And you can have one operative collecting hundreds of ballots.

00:30:56.900 Why does that invite fraud?

00:30:58.400 Well, let's say you're sitting there and Mr. Jones votes for Donald Trump.

00:31:04.060 If you're an unscrupulous operative, you know what you do? 0.95

00:31:06.540 You take that ballot and throw it in the trash.

00:31:08.420 Like, nobody checks to see if you send them in.

00:31:11.260 If you turn it in, yeah.

00:31:12.160 And by the way, if you have, say, in nursing homes, people with dementia, people that are not there,

00:31:17.460 if you're sitting there filling out their ballot with them, you can just vote for the Democrat.

00:31:21.760 And so it sets up a way for paid operatives to cheat, and it makes it very easy to cheat.

00:31:30.880 The Democrats have made a political decision.

00:31:34.140 They are for election fraud.

00:31:37.760 Secondly, though, Chuck Schumer, when he says it's Jim Crow 2.0,

00:31:45.040 I think they view this issue as a way to gin up the extremes in their base and to scare people.

00:31:51.440 Look, Jim Crow 2.0 would be bad.

00:31:53.460 I don't want to see a bunch of racist Democrats putting laws in place that hurt minorities like they did before.

00:31:59.380 And it's all about scary rhetoric.

00:32:02.960 So it's a combination of encouraging fraud and using scary rhetoric.

00:32:08.300 Now, here's the question, Ben.

00:32:10.120 How do we get this done?

00:32:11.560 If the Democrats are adamantly going to oppose it, and I'll tell you what I am urging,

00:32:15.740 the other Republican senators, what I'm urging our leadership is we should nuke what's called the zombie filibuster. 0.95

00:32:23.480 What does that mean?

00:32:24.660 So under the Senate rules, it takes 60 votes to end debate.

00:32:28.460 And it used to be, for most of the history of the Senate, to do a filibuster,

00:32:32.760 you had to stand up and talk and talk and talk.

00:32:35.560 You remember back in 2013 against Obamacare, I did a 21-hour filibuster and talked for 21 hours straight.

00:32:42.940 That used to be how you had to do it.

00:32:45.060 Now, we don't make the Democrats talk and talk and talk and fill the airspace. 0.78

00:32:49.700 We just let them vote.

00:32:51.480 No, no, I'm voting to filibuster.

00:32:53.940 And once I say I'm filibustering, we're done.

00:32:55.880 We can force them, one after the other, to stand up, to stand up, to keep talking, to keep talking, to keep talking,

00:33:03.560 and make the filibuster really painful.

00:33:06.740 Now, there's another side of it, though.

00:33:10.120 The Democrats can keep challenging whether we have a quorum on the Senate floor.

00:33:16.020 What that means is that we've got to be able to produce 50 bodies.

00:33:20.480 We've got to have at least 50 Republican senators who can show up on the Senate floor and demonstrate a quorum.

00:33:25.880 So it is painful for both the majority and the minority.

00:33:30.240 And right now, it's not clear that we have 50 Republicans who support doing this.

00:33:36.300 I am making the case.

00:33:37.360 This week, I made the case vigorously to my Republican colleagues.

00:33:41.680 Mike Lee is making the case vigorously to our Republican colleagues.

00:33:45.380 Rick Scott is making the case vigorously to our Republican colleagues.

00:33:49.400 But it's not clear if we have 50 or not.

00:33:52.260 If we don't have 50, we can't do it.

00:33:54.680 And so I think we ought to make it incredibly painful for Democrats and do everything we can to try to push them to the point of exhaustion.

00:34:05.100 And if they get to that point, then we can pass the Save America Act.

00:34:09.280 Yeah.

00:34:09.420 By the way, I've been saying this on TV.

00:34:11.640 I think it's really important that Republicans explain that we're in favor of this,

00:34:15.740 but we have to have 10 Democrats to get this thing done.

00:34:20.440 Sorry, excuse me.

00:34:21.260 Seven, I should say.

00:34:22.240 Seven Democrats to get this thing done.

00:34:23.920 And without getting those seven to get us to the perfect number of 60.

00:34:28.160 And understand, we will get zero.

00:34:30.680 We're not going to get seven.

00:34:31.800 We're not going to get one.

00:34:33.440 Every Democrat will follow Schumer's orders on this.

00:34:36.320 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.

00:34:41.080 Ben Ferguson with you.

00:34:42.000 Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day.

00:34:45.660 You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.

00:34:49.020 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.

00:34:52.540 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.

00:34:55.220 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:34:58.800 Guaranteed human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - February 07, 2026

The UN has Their Hat Out, Why the Netflix Merger is paramount in Entertainment & Americans Agree on Voter ID Week In Review

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