Verdict with Ted Cruz - Trudeau Gets Trucked

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.560 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.420 Following up on the Supreme Court decision, a number of Republicans, as you know, and

00:00:08.660 as you've been asked about, have spoken out about the president's pledge to pick a black

00:00:14.460 woman for the high court. 0.96

00:00:16.180 How do you respond specifically to Ted Cruz, who overnight called it offensive, a defense

00:00:21.600 of the black women that he made that pledge?

00:00:23.720 Well, here's what I would say first.

00:00:25.760 Just over a year ago, the previous president also promised to select a woman for the Supreme

00:00:30.900 Court.

00:00:31.780 Not only were there no complaints about choosing a nominee from a specific demographic from

00:00:36.820 the same corners, but there was widespread praise of now Justice Barrett on those grounds,

00:00:41.320 with Republican lawmakers widely highlighting that they thought this was positive for women

00:00:46.780 in America.

00:00:47.660 So take Senator Cruz himself.

00:00:49.640 He had no objection to Donald Trump promising he'd nominate a woman in 2020.

00:00:53.480 Repeat, no objection at all.

00:00:56.360 In fact, he praised her on these grounds during praised her on these grounds, the nominee.

00:01:01.040 During her confirmation hearing, Senator Cruz said, quote, I think you're an amazing role

00:01:04.780 model for little girls.

00:01:06.360 What advice would you give little girls? 1.00

00:01:09.820 When President Reagan honored his campaign pledge to place the first woman on the court, 0.92

00:01:13.580 he said it symbolized the unique American opportunity.

00:01:16.200 There is no outcry around that.

00:01:18.280 The president's view is that after 230 years of the Supreme Court being in existence, the

00:01:24.280 fact that not a single black woman has served on the Supreme Court is a failure in the process,

00:01:29.700 not a failure or a lack of qualified black women to serve as Supreme Court justices. 1.00

00:01:35.460 This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is brought to you by Thompson Cigar.

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00:05:34.240 Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:05:36.080 I'm Michael Knowles.

00:05:37.660 And Liz, am I correct to assume that there is going to be even more content for the

00:05:44.580 Verdict Plus subscribers after the show?

00:05:47.580 You are correct to assume that.

00:05:49.140 Thank you, Michael.

00:05:49.740 Thank you, Senator, for having me back on.

00:05:51.520 I'm excited to introduce today the cloakroom on Verdict Plus.

00:05:55.320 This is only for Verdict Plus subscribers.

00:05:57.600 You can join us over there, verdictwithtedcruz.com slash plus.

00:06:01.160 It's a brand new series with Senator Ted Cruz, co-hosted by me, Liz Wheeler.

00:06:05.260 Basically, I'm going to pick his brain like I would in a strategy session.

00:06:09.680 It's a behind-the-scenes peek into details of what goes on in D.C.,

00:06:13.320 just like the actual cloakroom of the Senate.

00:06:15.900 Today, we're going to talk about how to apply a constructed foreign policy

00:06:20.220 to a real-life situation like Ukraine.

00:06:22.420 We're going to talk about Whoopi Goldberg, and we're going to talk about Tom Brady.

00:06:25.540 Again, you can join us, verdictwithtedcruz.com slash plus.

00:06:28.860 In fact, to get a one-month free trial on your annual subscription,

00:06:32.340 you can use the promo code cloakroom.

00:06:34.720 That is promo code cloakroom at verdictwithtedcruz.com slash plus

00:06:38.720 for a one-month free trial on your annual subscription.

00:06:42.000 That sounds absolutely magnificent, Liz.

00:06:44.260 I can't wait to head over there.

00:06:45.640 And I know the new show is going to be a huge success.

00:06:47.980 And then after that, we are, of course, going to launch a show

00:06:50.520 with the Senator and the Cactus.

00:06:52.920 We are going to – and then we're going to have a show with me and you

00:06:55.880 and the Cactus without the Senator.

00:06:57.740 There is a lot of content for you over there at Verdict Plus,

00:07:01.140 so please head on over, subscribe.

00:07:03.360 Do not hesitate to join today.

00:07:05.700 Liz, we will see you a little bit later.

00:07:07.780 Senator First, you are in trouble again.

00:07:11.640 You've gotten us both in trouble again.

00:07:14.360 Verdict, some weeks ago, was I think the first podcast in American history

00:07:19.580 to be referenced during a White House press briefing.

00:07:25.160 Now I think we're also the second podcast in history to be referenced

00:07:28.920 because of your comments on this show about the Supreme Court nominee.

00:07:35.640 You know, I got to say the media and Democrats are really phenomenal.

00:07:40.860 So we saw our last podcast, we talked a lot about the Supreme Court,

00:07:44.940 and you and I talked about how it is offensive that Biden threw down

00:07:49.500 that the only criterion he would look for in nominating a replacement 0.78

00:07:53.820 for Justice Breyer is that it had to be a black woman. 0.94

00:07:57.340 And the media lost their mind.

00:07:58.960 I mean there were stories all over the country with media reporters

00:08:01.840 saying this is terrible.

00:08:03.700 And, you know, you look at Jen Psaki there. 1.00

00:08:05.900 She actually engages in the logical sleight of hand, 0.73

00:08:10.100 or actually the illogical sleight of hand the left does often,

00:08:13.060 because she says, well, if you don't support a quota,

00:08:16.840 then you don't like whoever it is,

00:08:19.100 whatever the characteristic is about the person

00:08:21.440 that they're putting a quota in place.

00:08:23.280 So, for example, she says, well, when Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett,

00:08:28.840 you said she was a great role model for little girls.

00:08:31.240 Well, of course she is.

00:08:32.160 The fact that you're saying someone's a woman and a mom

00:08:36.320 and an amazing scholar and an amazing judge,

00:08:39.000 yes, she is a woman. 1.00

00:08:40.660 We are aware of that.

00:08:41.840 You know, do I think Clarence Thomas's life story growing up

00:08:46.820 as a poor kid, an African-American in pinpoint Georgia,

00:08:51.720 overcoming poverty is an amazing story?

00:08:54.860 Absolutely, yes.

00:08:56.660 But here's the weird thing.

00:08:59.300 Democrats today, the modern left,

00:09:01.280 and this includes all of the corporate media,

00:09:03.940 they embrace discriminating based on race.

00:09:07.080 They believe in discriminating based on race.

00:09:09.940 So there's a difference between nominating someone who's a woman 0.86

00:09:13.700 or nominating someone who's a black man

00:09:15.380 or nominating someone who's a black woman 0.99

00:09:16.620 and saying at the outset, in this instance,

00:09:20.260 94% of Americans are categorically ineligible.

00:09:24.340 It doesn't matter what their qualifications are.

00:09:27.260 I, Joe Biden, won't consider them.

00:09:28.960 I mean, you know, it's interesting, Michael.

00:09:31.220 If anyone else tried to do this in your business,

00:09:34.940 let's say you're running a business, let's say Daily Wire puts up an ad.

00:09:39.140 We're looking for a copy editor.

00:09:43.200 Only black women need to apply or only Native American men need to apply 0.53

00:09:47.080 or only white guys need to apply. 0.94

00:09:48.740 Right.

00:09:48.820 It would be obviously illegal.

00:09:50.860 It would be obviously wrong.

00:09:53.240 And what Biden is doing here, and it's amazing.

00:09:56.760 Look, he could have done the exact same thing,

00:09:59.860 said we're going to look for qualified jurists for someone with a great record, 0.90

00:10:03.980 and then nominated someone who happened to be a black woman. 1.00

00:10:07.240 And that would perhaps have been a wonderful thing.

00:10:10.800 But you know one of the tells that shows that Biden actually really doesn't care

00:10:15.580 about crossing that threshold.

00:10:18.680 Do you know who is one of the very few people on planet Earth

00:10:22.500 to have ever filibustered a black woman nominated to be a federal judge?

00:10:28.280 I think I know the answer, but who?

00:10:30.760 That would be Joseph Biden.

00:10:32.540 So when George W. Bush nominated Janice Rogers Brown, 0.71

00:10:36.260 an incredibly qualified jurist, to the D.C. Circuit,

00:10:39.640 the Federal Court of Appeals, what did Joe Biden do?

00:10:41.880 He filibustered not once, twice.

00:10:43.900 Not only Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer did it.

00:10:49.280 Dick Durbin did it.

00:10:51.060 The Democrats all stood together and said, 0.64

00:10:53.420 not that black woman, uh-uh, 1.00

00:10:55.020 because she actually believes in the Constitution. 0.86

00:10:58.020 We want a left-wing activist. 1.00

00:11:00.600 And it's bizarre that it has become an article of faith among the left,

00:11:06.940 that discriminating based on race, doing it explicitly at the beginning,

00:11:11.280 we are only looking at black women. 0.98

00:11:13.720 That almost takes on like this religious significance to them.

00:11:19.920 They believe in it.

00:11:22.000 And I got to say, you know, I'm reminded of something Chief Justice Roberts said.

00:11:27.680 He said, it's a sordid business, this divvying us up by race and drawing distinctions.

00:11:32.980 Look, when we were putting this podcast together, I was looking for a host,

00:11:36.180 but I didn't say, give me an Italian Yalie.

00:11:38.940 I said, let's find a host.

00:11:42.060 Look, an Italian Yalie, I would have, that would have limited the field somewhat.

00:11:46.140 We would have landed on you nonetheless.

00:11:48.300 It did.

00:11:48.880 It's true.

00:11:49.600 You know, I don't think anyone has ever put out a call for an Italian Yalie.

00:11:52.940 They usually, they say, no, thank you, need not apply.

00:11:55.320 But that's true because it was colorblind and degree-blind casting.

00:12:00.120 I got to do it.

00:12:01.260 And I think your point is really important here,

00:12:04.240 which is Joe Biden could have fulfilled his campaign pledge

00:12:08.260 and just happened to have nominated a black woman. 0.75

00:12:11.960 But what he did was so crass. 0.96

00:12:13.760 It was so tactless.

00:12:16.140 And if it were any other industry, it would be illegal to say,

00:12:20.560 I'm taking 94% of Americans out of the running here. 0.98

00:12:23.820 If you look at public polling, people don't like this.

00:12:26.700 The majority of Americans think that Joe Biden should have considered all of the nominees,

00:12:30.960 even if he ended up with a black woman in the end.

00:12:34.620 So I think the proof of the pudding there is in the taste.

00:12:36.860 Yeah, 76% of Americans disagree with what Biden's doing.

00:12:41.340 And let's take, for an example, because Psaki and the media,

00:12:43.900 this is their talking point they're going to is,

00:12:46.260 ooh, Trump did this with Amy Coney Barrett.

00:12:48.220 Well, actually, no, he didn't.

00:12:50.060 So what they're referring to is that Trump at a rally just a few days before he announced

00:12:54.780 Amy Coney Barrett's nomination, said he's going to nominate someone and she's a woman.

00:13:01.260 Well, yes, he was aware she was a woman. 0.67

00:13:03.520 So once he decided who he was going to nominate, he acknowledged that she was a woman.

00:13:08.760 But if you think about how Trump did this,

00:13:10.840 Trump did it in a way there's never been a president who's done it this way.

00:13:13.600 He put out a list, a detailed, specific list of potential Supreme Court nominees

00:13:18.820 while he was still a candidate for president.

00:13:21.340 He had 21 names honored initially.

00:13:23.940 Then he supplemented that list.

00:13:26.200 He added 10 more names.

00:13:27.480 And in fact, we've talked about on the podcast how the 10 more names he added

00:13:30.660 were a condition of my endorsing Trump.

00:13:34.120 He added Mike Lee to that list.

00:13:36.500 And he added Neil Gorsuch to that list.

00:13:38.880 That was the second list.

00:13:39.900 And then he put out a third list where, among others, he stuck me on it.

00:13:43.620 So I think the third list got much, much weaker.

00:13:45.840 The quality dropped dramatically.

00:13:47.840 Recipitously.

00:13:48.540 But look, Trump's lists, they were racially diverse.

00:13:53.940 They had men, women. 0.84

00:13:55.260 They had folks of all sorts of different races.

00:13:57.780 But they were jurist-selected because Trump believed they would be faithful to the Constitution.

00:14:03.960 They had a jurisprudential outlook that would protect the Bill of Rights.

00:14:08.240 And in this instance, Amy Coney Barrett was the third nomination Trump had made.

00:14:15.300 So when Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh, he had interviewed Amy Coney Barrett.

00:14:20.520 He had sat down and interviewed her.

00:14:22.020 So she didn't get that slot.

00:14:23.800 But he knew he liked her.

00:14:25.620 In fact, I talked to Trump at the time.

00:14:27.300 And even after Kavanaugh, he was like, she's going to be the next one.

00:14:30.900 She's really good.

00:14:33.240 As far as I know, Joe Biden hasn't interviewed anyone.

00:14:35.980 He doesn't know who any of the potential candidates are.

00:14:39.180 He's just said, if you're not fitting my racial category and gender category, you are ineligible.

00:14:47.460 So Merrick Garland, no matter how good Merrick Garland might be in his interview with Joe Biden,

00:14:53.020 he's the wrong skin color. 0.56

00:14:54.260 And today we had a hearing in the Judiciary Committee.

00:15:00.400 One of Biden's nominees is an Asian American woman who's been nominated to be a federal judge. 0.99

00:15:08.060 And she wrote in law school.

00:15:11.300 She was actually in law school with me a year behind me.

00:15:13.120 I didn't know her in law school, but she was a year behind me in law school. 0.83

00:15:15.280 She wrote this article that is really radical, that is actually blasting Asian Americans

00:15:21.360 who oppose discrimination against Asian Americans.

00:15:26.860 She calls them neoconservative Asian Americans.

00:15:30.160 And she explains that really woke Asian Americans should embrace Harvard and Yale

00:15:36.660 and other elite schools discriminating against Asian Americans,

00:15:40.860 that that's really a sign of being woke.

00:15:42.280 And my opening question, Michael, to her was, is racial discrimination wrong?

00:15:49.200 Now, that ought to be a really simple question to answer.

00:15:52.320 Is racial discrimination wrong?

00:15:54.120 Absolutely.

00:15:54.800 Hell, yes.

00:15:56.700 She refused to answer it.

00:15:58.760 She wouldn't answer it.

00:15:59.980 She said, well, the Supreme Court has said blah, blah.

00:16:02.620 I said, no, no, no, no, no.

00:16:03.320 I'm asking you, is it wrong?

00:16:05.900 And by the way, she wouldn't defend her article.

00:16:09.020 She just said, well, I don't know what I was thinking.

00:16:10.900 I said, I didn't ask you what you were thinking.

00:16:12.380 Do you agree with what you said?

00:16:14.740 She wouldn't answer it.

00:16:15.780 It's much the same thing.

00:16:17.560 The far left supports as a matter of principle discriminating based on race.

00:16:23.320 And it's weird.

00:16:24.780 It's and it's really look, it's the same thing that's in critical race theory.

00:16:28.820 Again, they believe race is the defining characteristic.

00:16:32.800 And if they can discriminate based on race and it suits their politics, they're all for it.

00:16:37.300 So this is playing out as I think a lot of us expected it would, which is the left has come out.

00:16:43.660 Joe Biden has come out in favor of explicit racial discrimination.

00:16:47.700 And conservatives have objected to that and said racial discrimination is a bad thing.

00:16:51.840 And then the Democrats have come back and said, well, you're racists. 0.96

00:16:54.800 If you oppose racial discrimination, you're racists and you hate black ladies or whatever. 0.99

00:16:58.780 OK, we all knew that was going to happen. 0.99

00:17:01.160 That is that is the playbook.

00:17:02.420 They can't fire you for saying you're elected by the people of Texas.

00:17:06.240 So unfortunately for them, you're you're in your job for the time being.

00:17:10.760 They can fire other people who have said exactly the same thing.

00:17:15.580 And you saw it happen at Georgetown Law School.

00:17:18.840 Ilya Shapiro is a libertarian lawyer.

00:17:21.440 I believe you're friends with him.

00:17:22.780 I think, you know, Ilya.

00:17:24.280 Ilya has been around a long time.

00:17:26.700 He's a very well-known lawyer.

00:17:27.940 He came out and made almost the same sort of comment.

00:17:31.120 He said, this is bad.

00:17:31.820 We shouldn't be choosing people based on race and sex.

00:17:34.060 We should just choose the best available candidate.

00:17:36.420 He has been placed on administrative leave.

00:17:39.480 There are struggle sessions going on in the law school at Georgetown right now.

00:17:43.340 There is a crying session hosted by the dean of the law school.

00:17:48.360 It looks like they're going to fire Ilya at this point.

00:17:52.020 What has happened to to American law schools?

00:17:55.360 Let me just start by saying there should never be a crying session.

00:18:00.920 At any university or any law school.

00:18:03.680 It reminds me of a league of their own.

00:18:06.100 There's no crying in baseball.

00:18:08.040 And if you want to be a lawyer, don't be crying.

00:18:10.980 Like, if you disagree with what Ilya said, argue against it.

00:18:15.660 Yeah.

00:18:15.720 I know Ilya well.

00:18:16.980 He's a very smart lawyer.

00:18:18.420 He's a libertarian.

00:18:19.240 He's been with Cato forever.

00:18:20.760 He's a scholar.

00:18:21.820 He's well-respected.

00:18:22.940 I don't know how Georgetown screwed up and hired him in the first place because he's not a radical leftist.

00:18:26.960 And I thought they insisted you must be a radical leftist to get hired.

00:18:30.460 But they did. 0.98

00:18:31.000 And actually, it's more ridiculous even than you described. 0.83

00:18:36.340 So Ilya was arguing that Biden should nominate the most qualified left of center judge. 0.83

00:18:42.220 And he advocated someone in particular.

00:18:43.820 He advocated Sri Srinivasan.

00:18:45.980 So Sri Srinivasan is the chief judge of the D.C. Circuit.

00:18:48.900 I know Sri.

00:18:49.380 Sri and I clerked together on the Fourth Circuit.

00:18:51.820 He's very smart, very talented Supreme Court litigator, was a Supreme Court clerk.

00:18:56.920 Sri is an Indian-American liberal Democrat judge.

00:19:04.460 And Ilya argued, well, he'd be a great choice for Biden to nominate. 0.98

00:19:11.640 And then Ilya had a stupid phrase because he said he shouldn't go with a lesser nominee. 0.99

00:19:17.640 And he used the word lesser. 1.00

00:19:18.720 It was a badly phrased tweet.

00:19:20.780 Right.

00:19:21.100 And what happened is the left said, well, you're saying all African-American women are lesser. 1.00

00:19:26.640 And it's like, well, no, he didn't say that.

00:19:28.560 He said he thought that Sri was the most qualified nominee.

00:19:33.300 Therefore, every other nominee would be a lesser nominee.

00:19:36.560 But I'm sorry.

00:19:37.800 That's logic and reason. 0.97

00:19:40.320 And the woke mob, they're ready to burn you to the ground.

00:19:44.820 They don't want to engage.

00:19:47.920 It is.

00:19:50.660 It's amazing that they want to cancel you.

00:19:54.160 And look, I think Ilya may well be fired for it.

00:19:57.700 They put him on unpaid administrative leave.

00:20:00.960 You know, what does it say that our law schools don't believe in anything resembling free speech,

00:20:06.200 that you can get fired for your job by arguing for a liberal Democrat to be nominated to the Supreme Court,

00:20:12.320 which is what Ilya did?

00:20:13.140 That the very idea of considering people based on their qualifications is now anathema to the left.

00:20:22.620 It is a vicious, I mean, cancel culture is alive and well. 1.00

00:20:28.380 If they could cancel me, they would.

00:20:32.640 The only reason they can't is that I'm elected by 29 million Texans.

00:20:36.840 And so that they – and you think of the interorum effect it has.

00:20:43.400 Not only is Ilya potentially losing his job, but every other professor that's terrified to open their mouth.

00:20:51.560 Right.

00:20:51.800 Every other person in their job that the mob will come and say fire them. 0.98

00:20:56.120 It really is ridiculous.

00:20:59.920 Well, I give the student radicals – I give them a little bit of credit actually. 0.79

00:21:03.960 Credit at least for their honesty.

00:21:05.680 I don't give them credit for sobbing in front of their dean and demanding people's heads on pikes. 1.00

00:21:09.780 No, no, you can't say heads on pikes.

00:21:11.580 Remember Steve Bannon in a podcast said we want heads on pikes and they accused him of calling for murder.

00:21:17.260 For murder. 0.54

00:21:17.780 Remember, the nutty people are really nutty, so you can't use that phrase anymore. 0.88

00:21:22.760 You're right. 0.92

00:21:23.300 Only metaphorical pikes and figurative heads.

00:21:27.280 But what the student asked was, listen, this guy Ilya Shapiro, he's a lecturer at Georgetown Law and he's the director of the Center for the Constitution.

00:21:37.520 Seems like an unobjectionable sort of place.

00:21:40.480 But he advocates an originalist position on interpreting the Constitution.

00:21:44.460 And what the student asked was, why do we need this?

00:21:48.720 Why do we need this center?

00:21:50.180 Why do we need this perspective?

00:21:51.920 Why do we need originalism to be taught at Georgetown Law?

00:21:54.700 And I thought it was actually a pretty good question in that the law school overwhelmingly is leftist.

00:22:01.040 The law school does not teach students, generally speaking, that originalism is a good or valid interpretive principle.

00:22:08.880 They're trying to churn out leftist lawyers.

00:22:12.160 And so why do they need it?

00:22:15.040 Why does Georgetown, a left-wing law school, need to have these pesky conservatives making all the students cry? 0.97

00:22:21.440 Well, I mean that's the view of a lot of the left.

00:22:23.920 And I'll give you at least one reason.

00:22:25.580 Let's assume you don't care about intellectual diversity.

00:22:28.120 Let's assume you don't care about learning anything other than the orthodoxy and propaganda that you're being spoon-fed.

00:22:33.520 Presumably, at least some of the students at Georgetown Law want to practice law.

00:22:40.140 They would actually like to be practicing lawyers.

00:22:42.760 And presumably that means they'd like to go in a courtroom and argue to judges that the judges should do what is in their client's interest.

00:22:50.060 I can tell you there are a heck of a lot of judges in the district courts and the courts of appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court that believe, I think quite rightly, that the text of the Constitution and the text of the statute is controlling.

00:23:01.200 And that, you know, that the original understanding of that text has, at a minimum, a major interpretive weight.

00:23:12.600 You can disagree on how much weight, and there are disagreements among judges.

00:23:16.540 But if you've got a law school that is graduating lawyers who don't know what originalism is, who don't know how to argue on originalist bases, you're going to graduate crappy lawyers.

00:23:27.240 You're going to graduate lawyers who don't know how to actually litigate in court, and part of the problem is in some of these law schools, they're okay with this because you've got a bunch of deans and professors in ivory towers who don't actually engage in the practice of law, and it's just all politics for them instead.

00:23:46.580 Well, that is a sort of silver lining.

00:23:48.360 I hope that Ilya can keep his job, but if he can, and if the cancel culture mob really claims all these originalist scalps, at least the next generation of liberal lawyers will not perform very well in front of conservative judges.

00:24:00.680 And, Michael, I'll point out also, so the left's game, they say at the outset we're going to discriminate based on race.

00:24:07.920 In this case, we know Joe Biden is going to nominate a black woman.

00:24:10.500 We also know from the pattern of Biden's nominees that the odds are overwhelming whoever he nominates will be a radical left-wing activist because most of the judicial nominees Biden's made this past year have been radical left-wing activists.

00:24:23.680 But we also know the next step in this game. 0.98

00:24:26.380 They're going to say anyone that opposes the radical left-wing activist is a racist and sexist who hates black women. 0.87

00:24:33.340 That's their gameplay, and I mentioned, you know, when Joe Biden and the other Democrats filibustered Janice Rogers Brown, she was a black woman, but of course there they just didn't want a constitutionalist. 0.94

00:24:44.900 There's another example.

00:24:46.060 Same time they filibustered Janice Rogers Brown, Joe Biden also filibustered a guy named Miguel Estrada.

00:24:52.860 Miguel Estrada is an Hispanic, an amazing Supreme Court advocate, Supreme Court clerk.

00:24:58.800 George W. Bush nominated him to the D.C. Circuit.

00:25:01.820 The Democrats had a real tough problem because Miguel was unquestionably qualified, and there was nothing in his record that was disqualifying.

00:25:11.500 And actually, one of the Democratic staffers for Ted Kennedy wrote a memo to Ted Kennedy on the Judiciary Committee along with Joe Biden.

00:25:21.040 The Democratic staffer says, we must defeat Miguel Estrada.

00:25:25.840 Why?

00:25:27.620 Because he is Hispanic.

00:25:29.880 I'm quoting there.

00:25:31.160 They say we must defeat him because he is Hispanic, and it was widely anticipated if Miguel had been confirmed to the D.C. Circuit that Bush would put him on the Supreme Court and he would be the first Hispanic ever on the Supreme Court.

00:25:43.620 And so not only are Democrats willing to discriminate based on race when they're favoring someone who meets their ideology, they are even more eager to discriminate on race against someone who disagrees with their ideology.

00:26:00.640 And there was Joe Biden filibustering an Hispanic, and there was Joe Biden filibustering an Hispanic, incredibly qualified nominee.

00:26:06.160 Now, is it because I think he hates Hispanics? 0.92

00:26:08.960 No. 0.65

00:26:09.720 He's a leftist who hates anyone who disagrees with his orthodoxy and is willing to divide based on race.

00:26:15.640 And he believes in his heart, like most Democrats, that discriminating based on race if they think the cause is righteous and just is a good thing.

00:26:26.300 And I think it is a terrible thing in America to discriminate on race, period.

00:26:31.100 Well, I hope Ilya Shapiro can make it through.

00:26:34.160 They're trying to cancel him.

00:26:35.120 There is an even more prominent person than a libertarian law professor who's got a cancel attempt on him right now.

00:26:42.220 That would be not a conservative, not even really, I think, a libertarian.

00:26:46.860 That would be a left winger, a guy who supported Bernie Sanders.

00:26:52.020 Joe Rogan, who has been up in backed into a corner now.

00:26:56.880 He's got some of the most powerful voices of the 1970s coming after him.

00:27:02.040 We're talking Neil Young.

00:27:03.340 We're talking Joni Mitchell.

00:27:04.720 People who at one time actually were somewhat relevant.

00:27:08.480 And it looks like he's actually sort of on the ropes.

00:27:13.160 So I got to say, Michael, just at the outset, who knew Neil Young was still alive?

00:27:19.160 Who knew Joni Mitchell was still alive?

00:27:22.220 You know, Graham Natch, Peter Frampton.

00:27:24.560 I mean, we've got every geriatric rocker who was playing when I was in diapers and you were a twinkle in your daddy's eye.

00:27:34.420 That's that's when these guys had their heyday.

00:27:36.840 And I got to say, I think it's funny as hell that a bunch of 70 and 80 year old rock and roll stars from prior eras got more press this week than they've had in 30 years.

00:27:53.720 And what they're saying is bizarre.

00:27:56.260 They're saying we really don't like that that many people are listening to Joe Rogan.

00:28:01.180 And I think maybe they have a plan here, which is nobody wants to listen to their songs.

00:28:05.060 So if they get big tech to ban the things that they're actually listening to, maybe you'll have no more choice but to listen to their songs because they'll be the only things left.

00:28:15.080 I mean, it really is. 0.94

00:28:17.880 Asinine.

00:28:18.600 Neil Young and and Crosby, Stills and Nash went on a free speech tour in 2006.

00:28:24.100 That was the name of the tour.

00:28:25.080 And I think people are beginning to wake up to this fact that maybe they weren't so much in favor of free speech.

00:28:31.640 Maybe they just wanted to smash whatever standards existed of the day and they wanted to just install their own standards.

00:28:38.220 And now Joe Rogan is contradicting that.

00:28:40.580 So they are the the defenders of the entrenched power.

00:28:43.740 But the thing that's crazy to me is, as you say, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, these people have not been relevant in decades.

00:28:49.860 And yet they do seem to be potentially getting Joe Rogan not to back down, but to permit a disclaimer on his controversial episodes to get more left wing guests on.

00:29:03.920 I mean, it does seem that they're that they really are putting a lot of pressure on.

00:29:08.240 Well, you raise a very good point.

00:29:10.060 I'd say two things in response.

00:29:11.400 One, I hope Rogan doesn't give in.

00:29:14.560 I mean, look, he's got it's been reported like a hundred million dollar contract with Spotify.

00:29:19.040 A hundred million dollars is a lot of leverage.

00:29:21.100 I mean, he has shown a lot of courage, a lot of boldness.

00:29:24.300 But but I have to assume Spotify, they haven't given in yet.

00:29:28.340 But but to the extent I mean, Spotify is kind of at the intersection of big tech and Hollywood music.

00:29:35.300 So you've got to assume everyone in that world is arguing surrender, surrender, surrender, surrender, give in to the woke mob.

00:29:42.600 And and and I do think it will do real damage to free speech if Rogan knuckles under, because what people will say is if they could force Rogan to comply.

00:29:54.380 How does anyone else have a chance?

00:29:57.400 But but you bring up the hundred million dollars, Senator, let's say you're Joe Rogan.

00:30:01.360 And look, Joe Rogan seems like a perfectly principled guy, but let's say he weren't.

00:30:05.500 Let's say he's totally unscrupulous and he's looking at that big paycheck.

00:30:09.000 Sure, it would be a big blow to the American free speech tradition if he backs down.

00:30:14.880 But what about numero uno?

00:30:16.680 What about Joe Rogan?

00:30:17.840 What what what incentive does he have not to just give in here?

00:30:21.380 Look, the only incentive is integrity that his viewers listen to him because they they believe he's speaking from the heart and he's telling the truth.

00:30:29.280 And I got to say, you know, any time you you sell out for cash and you're intimidated when you give into the mob, it does lessen your credibility.

00:30:37.780 And I want to give him a lot of props.

00:30:39.420 He has shown a ton of courage.

00:30:40.980 I also think, you know, he he it really got his attention when CNN went after him for ivermectin.

00:30:48.220 He has become a fantastic defender of free speech.

00:30:53.200 I think that's really important.

00:30:55.300 And and one thing that is important, I think, for Rogan to understand, everyone else to understand.

00:31:00.600 Is when the mob comes after you, it's not even about the topic you were about.

00:31:04.580 So we were talking a minute ago about Biden's Supreme Court nominee.

00:31:08.200 I sent a tweet today, somewhat tongue in cheek, which was simply Candace Owens for Supreme Court.

00:31:16.300 But, you know, if Biden said it must be a black woman, you and I both know Candace.

00:31:20.880 We like Candace. 0.85

00:31:21.700 She is both black and female.

00:31:23.800 Well, according to the less stated criterion, she is an obvious choice.

00:31:29.420 And it's funny, like the Twitter verse and their media stories written about my my tweet.

00:31:34.380 We're like, oh, my God, Cruz thinks Candace Owens.

00:31:36.640 As far as I know, I don't think Candace is a lawyer. 0.99

00:31:38.660 She isn't a lawyer. 1.00

00:31:39.340 I don't know about it.

00:31:40.140 I am assuming if she has the qualifications to be a Supreme Court justice, I am unaware of those.

00:31:49.340 But and she's a fantastic podcast host and thinker and and provocateur. 0.95

00:31:56.760 We're illustrating the idiocies of the left.

00:32:00.740 But but what I've enjoyed is since that tweet. 0.99

00:32:04.560 Watching leftist explain, no, no, no, not that black woman, you can oppose people and we oppose her because she's conservative. 1.00

00:32:13.380 We can hate on her. 0.98

00:32:15.740 We mean only leftist black women. 0.99

00:32:18.560 And it is it's all ideology.

00:32:21.680 It's all politics.

00:32:23.240 Race is part of the politics.

00:32:24.920 But anyone on the wrong side to go after.

00:32:26.900 And so Rogan may think, OK, well, if I are it, I've had some some doctors on my show who are skeptical of some of the things they're saying about covid.

00:32:36.220 So I'll have some people on the other side who say, believe whatever St.

00:32:40.120 Fauci says and maybe the mob will be satiated.

00:32:43.620 The mob will never be satiated.

00:32:45.860 That is the nature of the mob.

00:32:48.620 And when when when they see they can bow you into submission, they'll come back again and again and again.

00:32:56.120 I think that's the fear.

00:32:57.320 You know, Rogan is speaking to and for a wide variety of Americans.

00:33:05.080 It's not rock ribbed right wing Republicans, probably not very many of them at all.

00:33:08.920 I think it's ordinary people, maybe some disaffected liberals, maybe some leftists, for goodness sakes.

00:33:14.220 He endorsed Bernie Sanders.

00:33:15.260 So he's got he's got leftists in there, too.

00:33:17.060 And he he's speaking like the kind of guy who is not ideologically rigid.

00:33:24.360 And I think that's part of why he's been able to amass such a huge audience.

00:33:28.620 And I agree.

00:33:29.960 I think so far he's played this pretty smart.

00:33:33.520 Yeah, I agree.

00:33:34.260 This is a big fear.

00:33:35.320 Do not show them your neck.

00:33:36.800 Do not give in.

00:33:37.940 You will never.

00:33:38.940 I assume I'm not saying anything that Joe doesn't already understand, but you will not win the moment that you start to appease them. 0.99

00:33:46.740 You're dead. 0.86

00:33:47.600 You're going to be dead in the water, I guess, figuratively again, too. 0.99

00:33:50.200 I don't want hateful rhetoric in junior high.

00:33:52.520 If you give in to the bullies, they take your lunch money tomorrow, too.

00:33:55.320 And the next day and the next day.

00:33:56.740 That principle was true then.

00:33:57.960 And it's true now.

00:33:58.800 That's right.

00:33:59.220 And, you know, Rogan is actually important to conservative sites on the future.

00:34:04.500 We've talked a lot on this show about how when I was a kid, the character caricature of the GOP was that it was rich uncle.

00:34:10.620 Penny bag, smoking a cigar, shilling for corporations, keeping the working man down.

00:34:15.940 And that that is not the case anymore.

00:34:17.940 You're seeing you're seeing it just in exit polling.

00:34:20.760 You're seeing it in the lawn signs and people's yards.

00:34:23.640 And you're seeing it in the behavior of Democrats who are now very clearly the party of the global elite.

00:34:29.340 And Republicans have positioned themselves as the party of the working man.

00:34:32.420 My question is, why is it that Americans who have such a history of loving freedom and fighting back, why is it that we are currently being outdone by America's hat, our polite, lovely neighbors to the north, the Canadians, where Canadian truckers by the thousands are showing up to the nation's capital and protesting these draconian vaccine mandates?

00:34:55.120 What's going on with the Americans? 0.51

00:34:56.760 It is absolutely awesome.

00:34:59.320 God bless the Canadian truckers.

00:35:01.200 And I will say, look, look, I love the you know, we were just talking about Joe Rogan.

00:35:06.100 I love big, bald, angry, working class people who are pissed off and fighting back. 1.00

00:35:12.160 That that is that is awesome.

00:35:15.520 Yeah.

00:35:15.720 The Canadian truckers, those convoys are spectacular.

00:35:19.380 Watching Justin Trudeau run away.

00:35:22.260 I had fun tweeting out.

00:35:24.020 Someone did a mashup of Simpsons videos where there was an old Simpsons episode that had Homer driving a truck.

00:35:30.460 And he gets in a convoy and he gets in a convoy and then they cut to Trudeau as prime minister of Canada crawling out the window to run away.

00:35:37.420 And, you know, it actually says something that there were a bunch of fact checkers today who fact checked that Simpsons mashup said it's actually not factually correct that the Simpsons predicted the Canadian truckers because these were two different episodes that someone put together. 0.99

00:35:55.280 And I'm just like, you guys are nimwits and idiots and the Canadian truckers. 1.00

00:36:01.460 Look, they're standing up for freedom. 1.00

00:36:03.400 And, you know, a year ago, we listened to people pontificate online very solemnly.

00:36:12.300 The truck drivers are heroes in America.

00:36:15.380 We also listened to them to say doctors and nurses and police officers and firefighters.

00:36:20.580 They're heroes for America.

00:36:22.220 All these people are being persecuted right now.

00:36:25.060 Right.

00:36:25.600 The totalitarian left wants to fire those truck drivers.

00:36:30.220 They want to fire doctors and nurses and cops and firefighters and soldiers and sailors and Navy SEALs.

00:36:36.420 Why?

00:36:36.660 Because they won't knuckle under their COVID mandates and vaccine mandates.

00:36:41.800 They won't obey their totalitarian dictates.

00:36:45.920 And I got to say, those Canadian truckers are awesome.

00:36:51.320 And they're fighting for American freedom in a way we all should be doing.

00:36:58.020 We could take a lesson from you.

00:36:59.720 There is an irony that the left for over 100 years said workers of the world unite.

00:37:04.600 And now the workers of the world have united.

00:37:06.860 And their leaders, like Justin Trudeau, are running as far as they possibly can.

00:37:11.380 There's a Trudeau-shaped hole in the wall where he once was because he doesn't want to face the crowd.

00:37:16.660 So I will say the Canadian truckers, when they drove their convoy in and they protested, they did it very politely.

00:37:22.840 And having been born in Calgary, I will say the Canucks, God bless them, are wonderfully polite.

00:37:28.420 But, you know, in this instance, they are warriors for freedom.

00:37:32.980 And their message is being heard not just throughout Canada, but throughout America and across the world, hopefully.

00:37:40.240 So this raises an important question.

00:37:42.200 We're running a little late, and so we're not going to get into a ton of mailbag.

00:37:45.220 But I do want to get into one mailbag question that came up from Eudaimonia.

00:37:50.300 It was this, the pseudonym, the good old ancient Greek references here in our mailbag.

00:37:56.560 Very educated audience.

00:37:59.220 He asked, what concrete policies are the – is the GOP going to put forward to – now that the GOP is positioning itself as the workers' party?

00:38:11.020 So is it simply that the GOP is saying, doors open, you're welcome to come in, but we're not going to change anything about the way that we look at economic issues, social issues?

00:38:20.020 We're not actually going to change the policy.

00:38:21.820 We just want you to vote for us.

00:38:23.060 Or is there going to be some kind of substantive shift in what the GOP is actually offering?

00:38:28.540 So I think we've seen pretty significant shifts, and I think Trump played a big part in that.

00:38:33.360 Number one, we're the party of jobs.

00:38:34.960 You want a job, you ought to be a Republican.

00:38:37.720 We're the party of small businesses.

00:38:39.160 We're the party of energy.

00:38:40.760 Joe Biden and the Democrats hate energy.

00:38:43.200 They hate oil.

00:38:43.760 They hate gas.

00:38:44.600 They hate coal.

00:38:45.600 They're destroying jobs across the country.

00:38:47.480 They're shutting down pipelines.

00:38:48.760 They're putting people out of work.

00:38:50.880 We're the party of keeping small businesses open.

00:38:53.020 You look at Biden and the Democrats.

00:38:54.460 They're happy to shut down a restaurant, a bar.

00:38:57.140 They're happy to shut down anyone who won't comply with their mandates.

00:39:01.100 We're the party of opportunity.

00:39:03.000 Democrats are shutting down schools.

00:39:04.660 We're keeping schools open.

00:39:05.780 We want to give you a school choice.

00:39:06.940 We want to give you opportunity.

00:39:07.960 Immigration is critical to this.

00:39:10.620 Democrats are the party of open borders.

00:39:12.420 When you have millions of people coming illegally into this country, they're driving down wages. 1.00

00:39:16.880 They're hurting working men and women.

00:39:18.240 You want to help protect jobs, you stop illegal immigration. 0.89

00:39:22.840 And I think every single policy the Democrats embrace, ask yourself what San Francisco and Manhattan billionaires want.

00:39:33.800 That's what Democrats support.

00:39:36.680 100% straight down the board.

00:39:39.420 And ask yourself, every policy that Ohio steel workers or Texas truck drivers support, those are the policies that Republicans, I think, ought to be supported, including, by the way, protecting free speech and religious liberty in the Second Amendment.

00:39:55.640 Democrats want to take away the guns of working men and women across this country.

00:39:59.660 It is a radically anti-worker agenda.

00:40:03.700 And I will say one of the things I think Republicans have gotten better at, but they're still too much of, is corporate cronyism, giving in to big business.

00:40:14.080 Look, when it comes to big business, big business has gone woke.

00:40:17.620 For too long, Republicans behaved that whatever big business wanted, they listened to.

00:40:22.360 I think Trump helped break that.

00:40:24.020 I think we have shifted.

00:40:26.680 You know, the giant companies are fine.

00:40:28.400 I don't have anything against them.

00:40:29.540 But they don't need any favors from me.

00:40:31.000 They don't need any favors from government.

00:40:32.320 They don't need any subsidies.

00:40:33.500 They don't need any mandates to benefit them.

00:40:36.940 We ought to be the party of the little guy, of the small business owner, of the worker.

00:40:41.420 And Democrats are the party of taking away your job.

00:40:44.440 And I think that's playing out in a very, very real way.

00:40:47.060 Now, I do, because some of those things the GOP has talked about for a long time, but especially when you're talking about the big corporations, that would be a shift.

00:40:54.920 When I was a kid, the GOP was the party of helping out every gigantic corporation.

00:40:59.960 They would assist them in shipping jobs overseas and getting sweetheart deals from the government.

00:41:06.180 Corporate welfare.

00:41:07.740 Of total corporate welfare.

00:41:09.240 And that is a big shift.

00:41:11.220 And it does tie into the small businesses, too.

00:41:13.260 Because if the GOP is going to be the party of the big, woke, multinational corporations, then sort of by definition, they're not the party of the small businesses.

00:41:21.880 So that shift is very important.

00:41:23.740 As you say, keeping jobs here.

00:41:26.240 And Democrats are the party of corporate welfare today.

00:41:29.300 They embrace it openly.

00:41:31.000 Yeah, that's very important.

00:41:32.600 And as you say, too, this idea that when you have two million illegal aliens pouring across the border, that's going to depress wages.

00:41:38.780 And it's not going to depress Mark Zuckerberg's wages or I guess Mark Zuckerberg's capital gains.

00:41:43.060 I don't think he makes most of his money from his salary.

00:41:45.300 It's going to depress wages for working class Americans. 1.00

00:41:48.780 And so that's a big shift.

00:41:50.260 If the Democrats are going to be the party of more and more and more and more immigration, then the Republicans really can offer something different there as well.

00:41:57.680 That was a good answer.

00:41:58.920 That really – all right.

00:41:59.960 That makes me hopeful for the future, Senator, even as we're all getting canceled, even as we're going to get radical leftist judges all over the courts.

00:42:08.180 There does seem to be some hope looking ahead to 2022 and 2024.

00:42:13.620 But we've got to leave it there.

00:42:14.780 You know, one thing you can do to really express your enthusiasm, not merely for the upcoming elections, but for this very show, is to go get some merch, everybody.

00:42:25.320 We've got superb merch.

00:42:27.220 I don't have my hat on me right now.

00:42:29.620 Hats sometimes make my head look like a peanut.

00:42:32.040 But this hat is so good looking that I have to wear it.

00:42:34.760 It is our famous cactus microphone hat.

00:42:37.460 You can get that.

00:42:38.140 Some really great T-shirts.

00:42:40.360 Some have expressions coined by Lindsey Graham, for goodness sakes.

00:42:43.300 What is a podcast?

00:42:44.220 We've got a lot of Verdict merch.

00:42:45.960 You can get that at verdictwithtedcruz.com slash shop.

00:42:50.880 And especially if you have a non-peanut shaped head, the hats will look really, really good on you.

00:42:57.200 Really wonderful stuff over there.

00:42:58.560 And then you can stick around and head on over to the Verdict Plus community and check out more content from the senator and from Liz.

00:43:04.560 But as for me, Michael Knowles, that's all I've got right now.

00:43:07.260 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:43:08.880 This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is being brought to you by Jobs Freedom and Security Pack,

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00:43:29.980 In 2022, Jobs Freedom and Security Pack plans to donate to conservative candidates running for Congress

00:43:36.380 and help the Republican Party across the nation.

00:43:40.220 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:43:42.500 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - February 05, 2022

Trudeau Gets Trucked

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