Verdict with Ted Cruz - March 05, 2025


Trump ROCKS State of the Union, while Democrats RAGE in Fury


Episode Stats


Length

35 minutes

Words per minute

171.8201

Word count

6,031

Sentence count

477

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged

Toxicity

9

sentences flagged

Hate speech

5

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Ted Cruz and Ben Fergusons discuss the Democratic response to President Trump's State of the Union address and what it says about the current state of the country. Ted and Ben also discuss what they think of the Democratic reaction to the president's remarks.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.660 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.240 I love it when we get to have a joint address to Congress,
00:00:08.940 the State of the Union, and Senator Cruz and I get to do a combined podcast.
00:00:13.160 Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:16.340 And for my audience, you're going to hear the same show on the Ben Ferguson podcast.
00:00:19.920 So welcome to you guys as well.
00:00:22.300 Senator, you just left.
00:00:23.680 I'm curious. For a joint address, do you call your show Ben Ferguson with Ted Cruz?
00:00:28.480 That's right. Ben Ferguson with Ted Cruz.
00:00:30.580 That's a great audible. I'm digging that right there.
00:00:33.560 There you go. I'm just trying to help you out.
00:00:36.620 I like that. It's a Ben Ferguson podcast with Ted Cruz.
00:00:40.980 We'll get a sign made, get a logo done.
00:00:44.320 I'm sold. I'm sold.
00:00:46.080 You just left the Joint Session Center, and it was one hell of a night.
00:00:50.440 If there's anything you can say, Democrats pretty much stood for nothing at all.
00:00:55.280 Well, look, this is where doing the podcast is fun.
00:00:58.160 It is 1228 in the morning.
00:01:00.140 I just got home to my D.C. apartment about five minutes ago and just left the State of the Union.
00:01:07.100 And the State of the Union, I got to say, it was, I think, a spectacular State of the Union address from President Trump.
00:01:12.840 It's the fifth one he's given.
00:01:14.220 I think it was triumphant.
00:01:15.540 I think it was positive.
00:01:16.640 I think it was forward looking.
00:01:17.700 I think it emphasized exactly what you and I predicted in Monday's pod that he was going to emphasize.
00:01:24.700 It emphasized promises made, promises kept, the victories we've seen in the first month and a half of the presidency.
00:01:32.200 But I got to say, all of that was overshadowed in many ways by the utterly disgraceful behavior of the Democrats.
00:01:43.480 It was something I've never seen before.
00:01:47.600 It was shocking.
00:01:49.360 It was disrespectful.
00:01:50.700 It was defiant.
00:01:51.960 It was delusional.
00:01:53.180 We're going to break it all down.
00:01:54.340 We're going to break down the best parts of the speech, the best things President Trump had to say.
00:01:58.040 And we're going to talk about what it indicates, that today's Democrat Party stands for nothing, applauds for nothing, does not cheer on America.
00:02:08.860 It is something never before seen at a State of the Union address.
00:02:13.220 We're going to break it down and what it means.
00:02:14.820 Yeah, it was truly an incredible night.
00:02:16.980 And like you said, I think it's probably the best speech the president's ever given.
00:02:20.120 I want to tell you real quick about our friends over at the IFCJ.
00:02:24.040 After more than a year of war, terror, and pain in Israel,
00:02:27.500 all of Israel is brokenhearted after learning of the tragic deaths of the Beavis children who were held hostage in Gaza.
00:02:35.680 And so many are still hurting throughout the Holy Land.
00:02:39.040 Where the need for aid is unfortunately continuing to grow.
00:02:44.280 That is where the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has stepped in.
00:02:48.820 And you have stepped in to help support the families of the hostages and other victims of the October 7th terror attacks.
00:02:56.120 And with your help, IFCJ has provided financial and emotional help to hostages and their families and to those healing and rebuilding their broken homes and broken bodies.
00:03:07.160 But the real work is really just beginning.
00:03:10.420 Now, your gift will help provide critically needed support to families in Israel whose lives continue to be destroyed by terror and uncertainty as Israel remains surrounded by enemies.
00:03:21.620 You can give a gift to bless Israel and her people and have a real impact today by visiting supportifcj.org.
00:03:32.120 That's one word, supportifcj.org.
00:03:36.340 Now, you can also call them 888-488-IFCJ.
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00:03:50.820 Senator, I want to start with what stole the show.
00:03:54.220 You mentioned it a second ago.
00:03:55.960 And you, I know, probably had a mental list in your head in the room.
00:04:01.260 I was making notes on my phone and putting them out on X.
00:04:05.140 Of all the things that Democratic lawmakers couldn't stand up to honor, it's a long list.
00:04:12.620 Yeah, but look, let's start with the very beginning of the night.
00:04:16.400 The very beginning of the night is when the president walks onto the floor of the Senate and he's introduced the president of the United States.
00:04:26.520 And not a single Democrat stood.
00:04:31.640 Not a single Democrat applauded.
00:04:33.260 Now, Ben, listen, I've been to 13 State of the Union addresses.
00:04:37.840 I've gone to every one since I got elected to the Senate.
00:04:40.240 And I actually love going to the State of the Union.
00:04:42.220 There's a pageantry to it.
00:04:43.560 There's something amazing.
00:04:45.040 It's more fun when your guy's in office.
00:04:47.200 It's more fun when you get to cheer on your own party.
00:04:50.020 But I go when the Democrats are in office.
00:04:52.560 And I got to tell you, every single time Joe Biden walked in, every single time Barack Obama walked in, I stood up and I applauded.
00:05:03.780 Not because I agreed with their agendas.
00:05:05.400 Their agendas were disgraceful and disastrous.
00:05:07.220 But because I respect the office of President of the United States and I respect the American people.
00:05:13.200 And I have never once seen the opposing party refuse to applaud for the president.
00:05:22.140 Understand what a break with tradition that is.
00:05:25.260 Even in past years, the Democrats applauded at the outset for the president of the United States until tonight.
00:05:33.260 And the entire night, I guess I'm actually grumpy with the Democrats because they've stolen my favorite game to play at the State of the Union.
00:05:42.240 By the way, I know this game and that's why I'm laughing right now because it was a great game you created years ago.
00:05:48.740 Yeah, and we've talked about it in the pod before.
00:05:50.740 So the State of the Union address, look, if your party's in power, it's, you know, I joke.
00:05:56.780 It's like I actually was sitting with Dave McCormick, the new senator from Pennsylvania, who's, you know, an Army veteran.
00:06:03.380 And I said, all right, Dave, this is going to be like PT in the Army.
00:06:06.400 Get ready for Jane Fonda aerobics. 0.99
00:06:08.800 You're going to pop up and down and up and down.
00:06:10.600 And imagine the president's wearing leg warmers and you're just going to be doing nothing but every four words standing up and applauding.
00:06:17.260 And that's what we did.
00:06:18.400 I got to say, you know, my thighs are killing me from just doing squats all night.
00:06:26.040 But I want to see the stats, by the way, on your aura ring.
00:06:28.560 I want to know what's the calorie burn during the longest State of the Union ever with Donald Trump speaking.
00:06:35.140 Now, that's real intel I need.
00:06:37.560 So I don't know.
00:06:38.800 I could look at it in a second.
00:06:39.920 And I don't know if they count as steps because we're not moving.
00:06:41.960 We're just standing and sitting and standing and sitting and standing and sitting.
00:06:44.080 But what I like doing during the State of the Union is watching the opposing party and picking out like a couple of senators or House members and typically the more moderate ones and watching them agonize over what to applaud or what to stand for.
00:06:58.520 And in the past, you know, I'd look at like a Joe Manchin and, you know, he would be, you know, America is great.
00:07:05.020 And you'd see a few Democrats applaud for that even stand.
00:07:09.520 We support the troops.
00:07:11.220 And they'd kind of agonize.
00:07:12.380 OK, I guess I could support the troops.
00:07:14.400 But then they'd go back and forth.
00:07:17.060 Tonight, they stood for nothing. 0.99
00:07:20.940 So they stood, they did not stand for Jocelyn Nungary's mother, the 12-year-old beautiful girl raped and murdered in Texas by illegal immigrants. 0.96
00:07:35.320 They would not stand for Alexis.
00:07:37.020 They did not stand for Lake and Riley's mother and sister.
00:07:41.640 They did not stand for a 13-year-old kid surviving brain cancer. 0.92
00:07:49.520 Like, how do you not like, like, OK, I'm a crazy partisan who hates Trump.
00:07:54.580 But, OK, 13-year-old kid surviving brain cancer wants to be a cop.
00:07:58.520 Like, like, literally every single State of the Union address that has been given from the beginning of time,
00:08:06.180 every person on the floor would have stood for the 13-year-old kid or survived brain cancer.
00:08:12.440 Zero Democrats stood.
00:08:14.060 I looked at them.
00:08:15.340 And by the way, that was, was it emotional in there because I was watching it.
00:08:19.520 And I got choked up watching it.
00:08:21.120 And there was a lot of people that were texting me like, dude, I'm crying right now.
00:08:24.640 Because when you see a little kid and how big his eyes got, you may not have been able to see it from the floor because they zoomed in.
00:08:31.460 But when they said, we're going to make you an agent, his eyes got so big, he clearly didn't know it was going to happen.
00:08:39.400 His dad didn't know either.
00:08:41.320 And it was just one of those get a lump in your throat, choke up moments.
00:08:45.540 So I will say it was emotional.
00:08:47.380 But it was true when you were in the chamber.
00:08:50.020 We couldn't see the kid's facial expressions.
00:08:52.220 It was just too far away that you couldn't see it.
00:08:54.520 So I saw his facial expressions for the first time about a half hour ago when I did Hannity.
00:09:00.000 And Sean played the close-up.
00:09:02.100 And so I could see, you know, I mean, I saw the kid and it was beautiful.
00:09:05.200 And we were cheering.
00:09:05.860 And like when, you know, Trump made him an honorary Secret Service agent, that was really cool.
00:09:09.740 But you're right.
00:09:10.940 The close-up of his facial expressions was really powerful.
00:09:14.480 And he's a Texan.
00:09:15.800 D.J. Daniel is a Texan.
00:09:17.800 You had Alexis Nungaria was a Texan. 0.98
00:09:20.880 But it was amazing.
00:09:22.660 Look, the Democrats did not stand.
00:09:25.140 They didn't stand for cutting taxes.
00:09:26.660 They didn't stand for no taxes on tips.
00:09:29.160 They didn't stand for automakers building new manufacturing plants in America.
00:09:35.420 They didn't stand for steel workers.
00:09:37.520 I mean, they didn't stand for Border Patrol agents.
00:09:40.520 It was, they didn't stand for a kid going to West Point whose father was a police officer killed in the line of duty.
00:09:51.620 And the president admitted him to West Point in the middle of the speech, which was a pretty amazing moment, too.
00:09:57.280 So, like, I, it was, but, but I will say this is actually a, there was one thing the entire night they stood and clapped for.
00:10:07.000 Do you know what it was?
00:10:08.340 What was that?
00:10:09.960 They stood and clapped for giving hundreds of billions of dollars to Ukraine.
00:10:14.600 There you go.
00:10:15.440 I knew there was a moment there.
00:10:16.700 And I, but the, the, the, the, the feet I saw, you could hear the room get louder, but I wasn't sure if they were standing for it.
00:10:24.600 And so that was the moment.
00:10:26.180 So not everyone stood, but a number of them stood.
00:10:28.760 A number of them pulled out Ukrainian flags.
00:10:31.000 None of them had American flags, but a number of them pulled out Ukrainian flags.
00:10:34.000 And, and, and I got to say, look, you could have disagreements about the war on Ukraine, but what the hell does it say about Democrats that they will cheer for Ukraine, but not for America?
00:10:43.400 You go back to what you said about those emotional moments.
00:10:47.360 There was also moments in there that were good for the American people.
00:10:52.560 Yes.
00:10:53.060 And, and just policies.
00:10:54.740 I mean, you can't clap for tax cuts.
00:10:57.480 You can't clap for a secure border, which was something, by the way, they said that they were in favor of.
00:11:01.540 Remember when they were like, well, it's us that we're in favor of it.
00:11:04.760 It's U.S. still workers.
00:11:06.540 They couldn't clap for, for, you know, the, I go back to the West point for a moment.
00:11:11.860 That was another emotional moment where you've got a young man that's getting into West point who had a tragedy in his family life and they wouldn't stand for that.
00:11:20.500 And then the capture of terrorists, by the way, that one actually made me angry.
00:11:25.440 Responsible for murdering service, 13 servicemen and women in Afghanistan, capturing the terrorists, and they're not happy to capture the terrorists.
00:11:33.100 People who killed.
00:11:33.900 By the way, let's, can we play that clip because it's an important one.
00:11:36.780 Just, this is what the president said.
00:11:39.020 It's not hard to clap for this or stand for this.
00:11:41.980 It should be like a universal everyone stand moment of our country.
00:11:46.920 Tonight, I am pleased to announce that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity.
00:11:54.900 And he is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice.
00:12:00.960 I mean, that, that was, by the way, breaking news to 99.9% of the people I'm assuming in the room.
00:12:07.500 Certainly to me, I didn't know that.
00:12:09.040 To you.
00:12:09.280 Okay.
00:12:09.500 So I was wondering if you guys knew that before.
00:12:11.360 No.
00:12:11.480 Because it seemed like that people, everybody was kind of caught off guard.
00:12:14.060 Like that was new to everyone.
00:12:16.060 And yet the president says it.
00:12:18.000 You can hear half the rumor up.
00:12:19.400 The other half's like, nope, nope, nope. 0.79
00:12:20.780 A guy, terrorists, it kills Americans that we're bringing back to America. 1.00
00:12:23.560 Nope.
00:12:23.880 It's under Donald Trump.
00:12:25.160 Can't cheer.
00:12:25.520 And listen, I was looking over at the Democrats and repeatedly turning to the folks around me, just saying, what the hell is wrong with these people?
00:12:33.060 Like it is.
00:12:34.080 How do you not cheer for that?
00:12:36.060 And I think the answer is they're so filled with hate.
00:12:40.860 This is now the party of hate and rage.
00:12:43.720 And they hate Donald Trump.
00:12:45.580 They hate Elon Musk.
00:12:47.240 And they're just, and they hate the voters that elected Donald Trump.
00:12:52.580 And so there always were points.
00:12:57.440 Listen, in Democrats' State of the Union addresses, there have been a number of things that I applauded for.
00:13:02.880 If they say something that I agree with, I happily applaud for.
00:13:05.780 If they, you know, anytime they talk about supporting the troops.
00:13:09.160 By the way, at a State of the Union, so the Supreme Court never, never applauds other than they applaud at the beginning.
00:13:13.920 So the Supreme Court applauds traditionally at the president of the United States when he's introduced.
00:13:19.780 And that's typically the only thing they applaud for.
00:13:22.580 The joint chiefs, they usually do the same thing.
00:13:25.980 They'll applaud at the introduction of the president of the United States.
00:13:28.580 But I'll tell you, the joint chiefs, they applauded at the kid when he was admitted to West Point.
00:13:32.800 And it was, I noticed that the general's applauding, and yet not a Democrat would.
00:13:37.760 And I got to say, Ben, there was a lot in this speech to applaud for.
00:13:41.860 As I said, I think this is the best speech President Trump has ever given.
00:13:45.780 And so I was happy and enthusiastically applauding.
00:13:48.700 Now, if you did not have two hours to listen to the speech tonight, if you didn't actually watch it, we've tried to help you out on this podcast.
00:13:56.080 So we have a montage where we've selected some of the key moments of the speech.
00:14:01.220 And it's a little over three minutes, so it's not very long.
00:14:03.760 So if you didn't have two hours, here's three minutes that sums up the best moments from President Trump's State of the Union address tonight.
00:14:12.140 I return to this chamber tonight to report that America's momentum is back, our spirit is back, our pride is back, our confidence is back, and the American dream is surging bigger and better than ever before.
00:14:29.160 And we have ended weaponized government, where, as an example, a sitting president is allowed to viciously prosecute his political opponent, like me.
00:14:40.920 How did that work out?
00:14:43.220 Not too good.
00:14:44.680 Not too good.
00:14:45.240 Within hours of taking the oath of office, I declared a national emergency on our southern border,
00:14:51.240 and I deployed the U.S. military and border patrol to repel the invasion of our country.
00:14:59.420 And what a job they've done.
00:15:01.460 As a result, illegal border crossings last month were by far the lowest ever recorded.
00:15:09.280 Ever.
00:15:12.000 To unshackle our economy, I have directed that for every one new regulation,
00:15:19.160 ten old regulations must be eliminated, just like I did in my very successful first day.
00:15:27.440 And I have stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America.
00:15:33.880 It's back.
00:15:36.180 We've ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion policies
00:15:42.160 all across the entire federal government and, indeed, the private sector and our military.
00:15:53.380 And our country will be woke no longer.
00:15:57.840 However, I also signed an executive order to ban men from playing in women's sports.
00:16:06.700 And in the near future, I want to do what has not been done in 24 years.
00:16:13.760 Balance the federal budget.
00:16:15.620 We're going to balance it.
00:16:16.520 1.3 million people from ages 150 to 159 and over 130,000 people,
00:16:28.620 according to the social security databases, are age over 160 years old.
00:16:38.700 We have a healthier country than I thought, Bobby.
00:16:41.720 Including, to finish, 1,039 people between the ages of 220 and 229,
00:17:06.100 1 person between the age of 240 and 249,
00:17:10.620 and 1 person is listed at 360 years of age.
00:17:17.580 More than 100 years.
00:17:19.540 More than 100 years older than our country.
00:17:26.800 But we're going to find out where that money's going,
00:17:30.200 and it's not going to be pretty.
00:17:31.760 I mean, this speech, to go back to what you said at the beginning,
00:17:38.920 number one, it did not feel long.
00:17:41.560 And there's an art when you're speech writing
00:17:44.260 that you want to be done before people are ready for you to be done.
00:17:49.120 Yep.
00:17:49.380 This speech did not seem long.
00:17:51.400 I want to know what it felt like when you were in the chamber, number one.
00:17:55.700 But two, like, the president came in and just brought the heat,
00:18:01.300 and I think the American people are going to respond to this.
00:18:04.040 So, look, I thought it was a terrific speech.
00:18:05.860 As I said, it was optimistic.
00:18:07.020 It was positive.
00:18:08.120 It was focused on results.
00:18:09.360 The results that the president has been producing
00:18:11.940 and Republicans have been producing in just over 40 days.
00:18:16.220 I mean, it really is incredible.
00:18:18.700 It was also a funny speech.
00:18:20.360 Like, that whole litany going through the people on Social Security
00:18:24.520 over 120 and over 200 years and over 300 years old,
00:18:29.260 every line of it was funny.
00:18:31.060 He had a whole litany.
00:18:32.860 He went through doge and the wasteful spending.
00:18:37.100 That was just hysterical.
00:18:40.480 And by the way, we're cracking up laughing all the Republicans.
00:18:43.700 No Democrat laughed.
00:18:44.620 Like, even on the funny lines as he goes through,
00:18:47.520 they support every bit of waste possible.
00:18:51.360 And just across the board.
00:18:53.900 Now, in terms of the length,
00:18:54.900 so this was the longest State of the Union in history.
00:18:58.380 And I'll tell you, so I was sitting with Tommy Tuberville from Alabama.
00:19:03.720 I was sitting with Josh Hawley from Missouri.
00:19:06.000 And I was sitting with Dave McCormick from Pennsylvania.
00:19:08.720 By the way, how does that work?
00:19:10.140 How do you decide who you sit with?
00:19:11.360 Does it just happen organically?
00:19:12.780 Or you guys text each other before, and you're like, hey, let's hang out?
00:19:15.620 No, no, no.
00:19:16.000 You just kind of, we all, all the senators gather on the Senate floor,
00:19:19.540 and then we walk from the Senate floor over to the House floor across the Capitol,
00:19:23.960 and we walk in together, and the House saves the front seats for the Senate.
00:19:29.680 And so they actually give the best seats to the Senate, which is nice of the House to do.
00:19:33.540 And so there are a whole bunch of seats, I presume 100 seats, that are kept in the front,
00:19:40.480 and they have little placards on the seats that say, reserved for a senator.
00:19:44.940 But other than leadership, like John Thune and the elected leadership,
00:19:50.900 they have seats that are reserved specifically for them.
00:19:53.240 But for everyone else, it's just senator, and you can sit wherever you want.
00:19:56.600 And so just as you walk in, you take the open seat.
00:19:59.280 So it's a little bit happenstance.
00:20:01.720 But as we were preparing, we actually had a friendly wager on how long the speech was going to go.
00:20:10.620 So I bet that it was going to go 93 minutes, so an hour and 33 minutes.
00:20:18.980 Josh Hawley, who was sitting next to me, bet it was going to go an hour and 37 minutes.
00:20:23.180 Ah, okay. Plan a little bit of Price is Right.
00:20:26.640 A little Price is Right.
00:20:28.260 Tommy Tuberville and Dave McCormick both bet an hour and 40 minutes.
00:20:35.980 So we were all in the same neighborhood, and actually the one who won was Hawley.
00:20:40.480 So it was, in fact, an hour and 38 minutes.
00:20:43.540 So I was five minutes off, but Josh was only one minute off.
00:20:46.640 And if he'd got another minute, McCormick and Tuberville would have won.
00:20:50.540 But it was, so it was interesting that those were the four of our wagers.
00:20:54.980 How did you guys pick that number, by the way?
00:20:56.700 Did you see enough beforehand or excerpts or themes?
00:21:01.160 No, no.
00:21:01.300 You know, or just pure gut?
00:21:03.540 We had not seen a text of it at all.
00:21:05.880 It's just knowing Donald Trump and having been to State of the Union addresses before.
00:21:10.080 Look, I mean, we knew it was going to be about an hour and a half, maybe a little bit more.
00:21:14.000 And so that, we knew he had a lot to say.
00:21:17.920 It was not going to be a short speech.
00:21:19.900 But it didn't feel long.
00:21:21.860 You're right.
00:21:22.300 I mean, it was, there was storytelling in it.
00:21:24.360 It was funny.
00:21:25.340 It was relating powerful moments.
00:21:28.640 And then, as I said, the antics of the Democrats really, look, including, sadly, Al Green, congressman from here in my hometown, Houston, 0.98
00:21:39.060 who stood up and just made a complete ass of himself. 0.93
00:21:42.220 Yeah, I was going to ask you on that one, because it played on TV like it was very clearly pre-planned. 0.98
00:21:50.600 And for people that don't know him, this is the guy that he's now called for trying to impeach the third time he led impeachment the first second.
00:21:56.980 That's like his thing.
00:21:58.660 And so as soon as the president's elected, it's like, oh, yeah, yeah, we've got to impeach this guy and we're going to call for impeachment.
00:22:03.920 It played on TV like it was 100% pre-planned by him to do that.
00:22:09.060 Or maybe even the Democratic Party.
00:22:10.500 I don't know if they were involved in this, just his own brainchild.
00:22:13.680 What was it like being there, though?
00:22:16.160 So, look, I think everyone was shocked.
00:22:18.780 Shocked and not shocked.
00:22:19.920 We expected the Democrats to misbehave and engage in antics.
00:22:25.660 I didn't expect that they would refuse to applaud for anything.
00:22:28.660 And I've never seen there have been a couple of instances where where House members have have called out like like have, you know, Joe Wilson famously said, said when Obamacare said you when Obama said, I think it was on Obamacare.
00:22:44.380 If you want your health and church, you can keep it.
00:22:46.280 And Joe Wilson famously called out, you lie.
00:22:49.680 And that was a big deal that that one congressman called out two words was a big deal that people still talk about a decade later.
00:22:57.380 And by the way, the media totally freaked out the entire night afterwards.
00:23:00.780 Like, I can't believe to do this.
00:23:02.300 He shouldn't be in Congress.
00:23:03.320 Should he resign?
00:23:04.380 I mean, and then tonight, nothing from the mainstream media on this one.
00:23:08.320 And look, he stood up.
00:23:10.500 He interrupted the speech.
00:23:11.880 And by the way, I don't know.
00:23:13.740 Could you hear what he was saying?
00:23:15.820 No, we could not.
00:23:17.120 It just I thought it very interesting that it looked like Speaker Johnson was ready in case this happened because he looked down to read the words he was reading about the rules.
00:23:25.580 Yes. So so what he was saying, it's interesting what he got mad at.
00:23:29.980 He got mad when Trump said, I've got a mandate from the election.
00:23:34.480 And Al Green stood up and he was yelling, saying, you don't have a mandate.
00:23:38.160 You do not have a mandate.
00:23:39.460 And it was the Democrats are in absolute denial.
00:23:45.180 They're in denial that the election happened.
00:23:47.520 Look, the facts are straightforward.
00:23:49.480 Trump, of the seven swing states, he won all seven.
00:23:53.620 He won the popular vote.
00:23:55.580 In this country, something that that Republicans haven't done for 20 years.
00:23:59.460 He won a Republican House and a Republican Senate.
00:24:02.940 Any way you look at it, that's a mandate.
00:24:05.340 And yet that's what Al Green was screaming about.
00:24:08.320 And he kept on screaming and interrupting the president.
00:24:10.820 The president finally had to stop.
00:24:12.020 I mean, he was standing right in the middle and just screaming and trying to yell over the president.
00:24:16.860 And and the speaker gaveled him down and said, listen, if you don't maintain decorum, the sergeant at arms will remove you.
00:24:24.600 And Al Green kept on yelling.
00:24:26.220 And so the sergeant at arms removed him.
00:24:28.900 And and by the way, the speaker said tonight on Hannity that Al Green is likely going to be censured by the House of Representatives, which which I think is unsurprising, because if you if you disturb an official proceeding like that, that's that's the natural remedy.
00:24:45.820 It's incredible.
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00:26:54.160 Senator, I want to go back to one other point that we mentioned earlier, but I think it's important to kind of expand on it.
00:27:01.140 And it was a shocking moment of just either completely out of touch or this Democratic Party, I guess you could just say, is in a sense just completely lost.
00:27:13.500 You had not a single Democrat applaud Peyton McNabb, who suffered brain damage after a volleyball spiked by a trans person, a man acting like a woman, ended her hopes of a college career.
00:27:28.860 That's how significant the injury was.
00:27:31.660 And it made her retire and also took potentially like a scout, changed her life forever.
00:27:39.140 And they couldn't even clap for her.
00:27:42.820 No, not a Democrat clapped for her, not one.
00:27:45.500 And by the way, just this past week, every single Democrat in the Senate voted against protecting girls from boys competing in sports.
00:27:55.480 Every one of them.
00:27:56.440 And, you know, in the campaign, look, listen, in my reelection campaign, Colin Allred claims, I don't support boys playing in girls sports.
00:28:05.300 Well, every Senate, except the fact that he voted for it over and over and over again.
00:28:10.040 Every single Senate Democrat, when they're on reelection campaigns, they tell the voters, I don't support boys and girls sports.
00:28:15.760 And yet every single one of them just voted for it and not a one of them applauded.
00:28:20.160 I mean, it's the simple reality of how extreme their party is.
00:28:26.020 Now, I will tell you one thing that was particularly meaningful to me was all the Texans whom President Trump honored tonight, including Alexis Nungary, the mom of Jocelyn.
00:28:39.160 Now, Alexis was going to be my guest tonight.
00:28:41.100 Every senator gets one guest.
00:28:42.980 And I had invited Alexis.
00:28:44.260 She was coming up as my guest.
00:28:45.860 And then the president invited her.
00:28:47.660 So she went and she was sitting with Melania Trump.
00:28:52.160 I was really grateful for her being invited by the president to come there.
00:28:58.640 And then right next to Melania Trump was Elliston Berry. 1.00
00:29:02.420 And Elliston Berry is someone, also another Texan, who was the inspiration for the Take It Down Act.
00:29:08.160 So Elliston Berry is a 15-year-old girl from North Texas, from Alito, who, when she was 14 and a freshman in high school, a boy, a classmate of hers took an innocent social media picture of her and used artificial intelligence to create a deep, fake, naked image of her that appeared to be real, but it was fake, and then sent it to her classmates.
00:29:33.360 And she was the inspiration for my legislation, the Take It Down Act, which passed the Senate unanimously.
00:29:41.940 And by the way, how many times have you been involved in legislation that was passed unanimously in your career in the Senate?
00:29:48.580 A lot of times.
00:29:49.720 I passed 101 different pieces of legislation into law.
00:29:54.740 A number of them were unanimous.
00:29:56.240 The Senate often, if you do the work, you can bring people together and pass something.
00:30:01.180 And actually, just yesterday, the first lady, Melania Trump, came to the Capitol, first time she has his first lady, the second term, supporting the Take It Down Act. 0.54
00:30:10.240 And we did a roundtable, which we're going to talk about significantly more on Friday's pod, but we did a roundtable where Melania Trump heard from Elliston Berry, heard from other victims of non-consensual intimate images, and called on the House to pass the Take It Down Act.
00:30:25.800 And President Trump tonight called on the House to pass the Take It Down Act.
00:30:29.340 So I was really glad the two people directly next to Melania Trump to her left were two Texans, Elliston Berry and Alexis Nungary, and that made me very happy.
00:30:41.720 That may have been one of the best parts of the night.
00:30:44.460 Let's talk about what this looks like moving forward.
00:30:47.940 I think the president's speech is going to play very well with the American people.
00:30:52.660 I think it's going to help with momentum moving forward.
00:30:55.040 I also do think that the American people, in the way they were watching this on TV, saw the shocking moments when they wouldn't stand for children that were, you know, murdered by illegal immigrants, their families, police officers dying in the line of duty, it was on the list. 0.98
00:31:14.340 I mean, you look at all of this, bringing an American hostage home from Russia, by the way, they wouldn't stand for that.
00:31:20.040 That was another moment we left out earlier.
00:31:22.320 Were you shocked by that as well?
00:31:24.060 Well, and you and I covered Mark Fogel coming back.
00:31:27.600 We covered that on the podcast when it happened.
00:31:32.460 That was one of the multiple times I turned to the folks around me and I'm like, what the hell is wrong with these people? 0.94
00:31:39.560 Like, how do you not, this is not partisan, this is not, I get that they don't cheer for, you know, conservative ideas because they're all wacko lefties. 0.57
00:31:49.880 But how do you not cheer for things that are just unambiguously good and it's today's Democrat Party, it's a combination.
00:31:58.800 They become the party of hate and rage and they're in denial.
00:32:03.100 They don't know how to respond to this election other than to fume and glare.
00:32:09.500 And I got to say, if you're an elected Democrat, how do you think this is a good message to the American people?
00:32:17.540 We hate everyone and everything.
00:32:20.060 That's the Democrats.
00:32:20.960 It's like, I don't get that.
00:32:23.420 No, I don't either.
00:32:24.380 So what happens now?
00:32:25.780 This is my prediction.
00:32:27.760 I think the president's approval rating is going to stay solid.
00:32:31.760 And in certain categories, support on certain issues will actually rise coming out of this State of the Union.
00:32:37.460 I think this is going to continue the momentum on, on things like Doge and even in some of the issues that we're talking about that are tough ones, whether it's dealing with Mexico and cartels or tariffs or Canada and fentanyl.
00:32:51.940 The list goes on and on.
00:32:53.440 I think same thing on Ukraine funding.
00:32:57.020 I think this could catapult him to even greater near term success.
00:33:02.080 That's a lot of political capital that obviously you want.
00:33:05.400 Your prediction.
00:33:07.460 Look, I agree with you.
00:33:08.920 I think the American people are going to be happy with this speech.
00:33:12.500 They're going to be happy with the results.
00:33:14.460 The American people are happy with successes for America.
00:33:17.320 And we're getting on the border, seeing illegal immigrations and illegal boarding crossings drop over 90 percent.
00:33:23.960 That's an unambiguous victory.
00:33:26.380 On energy, seeing energy production going up, seeing regulations being repealed, seeing wasteful spending being eliminated.
00:33:34.500 Those are unambiguous victories.
00:33:36.200 In terms of jobs, he went through the investments, the investments on new investments, whether from Oracle or Apple or car companies bringing new factories here.
00:33:46.760 Those are big wins.
00:33:48.320 Those are the sorts of things.
00:33:49.580 Those are the sorts of things, frankly, when Joe Biden talked about if he would, you know, he had Democrats in their speeches would talk about a new factory.
00:33:56.520 And you know what?
00:33:57.520 The Republicans would all stand and cheer because, hey, a new factory in America is a good thing.
00:34:01.540 And we even if we don't support many, if not most, of Biden and Obama's policies, we cheer for the American people.
00:34:09.940 I think that the president's message was really strong.
00:34:14.860 But I also think the contrast with the Democrats made it even stronger.
00:34:19.080 And so I think this was a good night for America, but but but not a good night for today's Democrat Party.
00:34:28.140 Yeah, great point.
00:34:30.100 It's always fun to get to do a joint pod.
00:34:32.480 So wherever you're listening right now, make sure you hit that subscribe or auto download button, whether it's Verdict with Ted Cruz or the Ben Ferguson podcast with Ted Cruz.
00:34:40.440 We got to get a logo made for that one.
00:34:42.420 It's always a pleasure.
00:34:43.480 I love these nights.
00:34:44.280 It's when I love doing the show the most, especially when we get to watch things like this and react.
00:34:47.960 So hit that subscribe auto download button as well.
00:34:51.480 And the center and I will see you back here.
00:34:53.440 Center and I will see you on Friday on Verdict.
00:34:55.160 And I'll see you on my show tomorrow.
00:34:57.540 So make sure you download that on the in between days.
00:34:59.860 And we'll see you back there tomorrow and Friday.
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