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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Summary
Ted Cruz and Ben Ferguson discuss the big stories of the week. First, Donald Trump says no longer will America be the piggy bank for the United Nation, and now they re freaking out over funding. We ll explain exactly what s changed and how much money it could save you. Also, a major media merger involving Netflix could also mean foreign money coming in from overseas, from the Middle East. And finally, the Save America Voting Act. It s a very big deal to secure our elections, and every Democrat in Congress seems to be against it.
Transcript
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.
00:00:21.220
We'll explain exactly what's changed and how much money it could save you.
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.
00:00:48.280
And every Democrat in Congress seems to be against it.
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.
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.
00:01:25.080
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.
00:01:48.520
So you talked about cutting off funding for, as you said, quote, woke crap all over the world.
00:01:54.180
I think that's the new motto of the United Nations.
00:01:57.640
The United Nations woke crap all over the world.
00:02:03.660
Quote, the United Nations is going broke and needs member nations to stump up cash.
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?
00:03:00.820
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.
00:03:43.080
By the way, I'm going to confess a really stupid thing I did.
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.
00:03:54.860
Lake Powell is an amazing, have you ever been to Lake Powell?
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.
00:04:11.200
And so, my in-laws, for 30 years, have had a houseboat there.
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.
00:04:37.080
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.
00:04:45.740
And, you know, you get up and jump in the water.
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.
00:05:11.380
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.
00:05:19.780
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.
00:05:35.820
A DVD of Team America because Heidi doesn't like movies very much.
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.
00:05:50.560
But I took her to see Team America and she laughed so hard she couldn't breathe.
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.
00:06:11.240
But every third or fourth word is a curse word.
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.
00:06:37.200
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?
00:06:41.780
Or did she laugh as hard as she laughed when y'all were at the movie together?
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.
00:07:06.960
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.
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.
00:08:08.260
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.
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.
00:08:36.280
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.
00:08:55.860
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.
00:09:16.880
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.
00:09:28.380
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.
00:09:41.080
The European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats.
00:09:44.760
The Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories.
00:09:50.120
The Global Community Engagement Resilience Fund.
00:09:59.460
I mean, now you know why he said we're going to get rid of all of them, right?
00:10:05.080
Many of them, by the way, are like people that hate America on top of that.
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.
00:10:29.740
The UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination.
00:10:37.780
Look, you and I and most people on planet Earth have no idea what any of these do.
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.
00:11:07.600
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.
00:11:17.880
And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:11:21.640
Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers.
00:11:27.380
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.
00:11:38.700
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.
00:12:01.000
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.
00:12:11.520
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,
00:12:26.340
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.
00:12:38.400
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.
00:13:08.480
And so we had a hearing this week in the Senate Judiciary Committee with the CEO of Netflix
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?
00:13:47.280
I have no idea of the history of this land, of where we're sitting today.
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?
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?
00:15:34.400
We would fail pushing apolitical view or propaganda.
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.
00:16:03.600
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.
00:16:27.300
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.
00:16:36.880
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?
00:16:51.060
Look, let me ask you, do you think CNN is 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.
00:17:17.660
They have no independence other than hating Donald Trump, which is why their viewership numbers have plummeted, because they don't actually report news.
00:17:28.220
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.
00:17:56.720
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.
00:18:32.860
$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?
00:18:40.460
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?
00:18:54.380
Yeah, look, I'm very worried about woke Hollywood.
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.
00:19:27.740
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.
00:19:50.200
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.
00:20:22.080
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.
00:20:44.040
Listen, I ask these guys, are we on stolen land?
00:20:50.600
They're not willing to say America is legitimate.
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.
00:21:19.880
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.
00:21:29.860
And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:21:33.940
Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers.
00:21:39.640
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.
00:22:10.640
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.
00:22:22.840
And if you want to know who to blame, look at the Democratic Party.
00:22:29.020
And there isn't a single Democrat that had his blessing to vote in favor of this thing.
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.
00:22:50.100
And then actually, President Trump has changed it.
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,
00:23:18.000
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
00:23:46.260
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,
00:24:15.280
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.
00:24:26.600
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.
00:24:40.420
And I called it Jim Crow 2.0, and the right wing went nuts all over the Internet.
00:24:46.940
What they're trying to do here is the same thing that was done in the South for decades,
00:24:54.480
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.
00:25:10.380
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.
00:25:22.340
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.
00:25:45.660
This was CNN's own words breaking down the support for voter ID based on race.
00:26:00.700
Seventy six percent of black Americans favorite.
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.
00:26:26.180
She's 76 percent of blacks, 82 percent of Latino, 85 percent of white.
00:26:33.720
Look, the American people overwhelmingly support photo ID to vote because it's a common sense step.
00:26:41.600
You have to have a photo ID to get her an airplane.
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.
00:26:55.360
And by the way, I will say, look, Schumer using the rhetoric about Jim Crow.
00:27:01.720
It was the Democrats who enacted the Jim Crow laws.
00:27:05.000
It was his party, the Democrats who created the KKK.
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.
00:27:29.460
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.
00:28:11.740
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.
00:28:45.140
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.
00:29:08.100
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?
00:29:46.040
They literally went down the recommendations of the Carter-Baker Commission on how to stop voter fraud, and they reversed them all.
00:29:53.080
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.
00:30:11.560
The Carter-Baker Commission said unequivocally, ballot harvesting invites, it encourages voter fraud.
00:30:23.960
By the way, explain ballot harvesting to people that don't understand that terminology.
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.
00:30:48.640
So, okay, Mr. Jones, who are you going to vote for?
00:30:53.220
And you can have one operative collecting hundreds of ballots.
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?
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.
00:31:12.160
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.
00:31:37.760
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.
00:31:53.460
I don't want to see a bunch of racist Democrats putting laws in place that hurt minorities like they did before.
00:32:02.960
So it's a combination of encouraging fraud and using scary rhetoric.
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.
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.
00:32:45.060
Now, we don't make the Democrats talk and talk and talk and fill the airspace.
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,
00:33:10.120
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.
00:33:37.360
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.
00:33:54.680
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.
00:34:11.640
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.
00:34:23.920
And without getting those seven to get us to the perfect number of 60.
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.
00:34:42.000
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.