Verdict with Ted Cruz - November 06, 2024


Victory-TRUMP WINS! And the Senate!! And (Hopefully) the House!!!


Episode Stats


Length

43 minutes

Words per minute

169.06895

Word count

7,335

Sentence count

636

Harmful content

Misogyny

9

sentences flagged

Toxicity

28

sentences flagged

Hate speech

8

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Ted Cruz and Ben Fergus Ferguson join me to talk about the incredible win for Ted Cruz in his re-election campaign against Colin Allred in Tuesday night's election. They also talk about why we haven't talked much about his race and why we should have.

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.
00:00:02.480 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.820 Welcome.
00:00:06.860 It is a fabulous day in America.
00:00:09.800 It's Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you,
00:00:13.180 and Senator Donald Trump trumped them all.
00:00:16.060 The Democrats, the globalists, the deep state, the fake news,
00:00:20.540 the fake polls, even the assassins.
00:00:23.120 And now we have a very different day in America.
00:00:26.580 It is an extraordinary day in America.
00:00:30.620 You and I are here at 1.11 p.m. on Wednesday, right after the election.
00:00:37.300 And last night was simply a spectacular night.
00:00:41.760 It was an election that defied all the pundits, that defied all the analysts,
00:00:47.360 and that transforms America and transforms the world.
00:00:52.000 I'm reminded of 1984.
00:00:53.680 It's morning in America again.
00:00:55.060 It is that again.
00:00:56.580 I believe God has answered our prayers for our nation, and I am so grateful.
00:01:02.600 Donald Trump has been reelected president in what has to be the most remarkable comeback
00:01:08.000 in political history.
00:01:10.620 I'm also very, very grateful that Republicans have taken a majority of the Senate,
00:01:16.880 and we've got a real chance at it being a sizable majority in the Senate.
00:01:19.860 That included me getting reelected, which didn't suck at all, and we'll talk about that as well.
00:01:28.880 And it looks like we've got a real shot at Republicans holding the House.
00:01:32.540 That is the one that is not clear and determined right now, but hopefully we will hold the House as well.
00:01:38.920 That will make a big, big difference if we do.
00:01:41.440 It is an incredible day.
00:01:44.760 Yeah, it really is.
00:01:46.220 And we get to finally talk about your race.
00:01:48.280 I'll explain that in a moment.
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00:03:19.680 Senator, there's just one headline that I do have to start with
00:03:23.680 because this is just such a fun one for me.
00:03:26.580 And we can explain why we haven't actually talked about your race on verdict.
00:03:30.820 Because everywhere I go, people are like,
00:03:32.180 why are you guys not talking about this race against Allred?
00:03:35.120 And I can explain it in person.
00:03:36.740 I couldn't talk about it on the show.
00:03:38.140 You couldn't either.
00:03:39.620 But let's just put it in perspective here.
00:03:42.960 Republicans were closer to flipping New York
00:03:46.040 than Democrats were to flipping Texas,
00:03:49.320 even though the entire Democratic machine came after you
00:03:53.420 and tried to unseat you.
00:03:55.560 That didn't work.
00:03:56.500 It was a massive victory for you last night.
00:03:58.680 Almost a 10-point victory.
00:04:00.280 Congratulations.
00:04:01.040 A million-vote difference between you and your opponent.
00:04:03.440 So let's just tell people for a second here
00:04:05.960 why this is something we haven't talked about here.
00:04:08.740 Yeah, look, we had an incredible victory at my race last night.
00:04:12.460 You and I were both at the victory party past three in the morning.
00:04:16.000 It was a remarkable outcome.
00:04:18.280 And regular listeners of the podcast,
00:04:20.500 you guys have noticed that a word I have never once said
00:04:24.160 on this podcast is Allred.
00:04:27.420 I've never mentioned Colin Allred.
00:04:28.800 I've never talked about my race even once.
00:04:31.160 We have talked about issues.
00:04:32.600 We talk about issues a lot.
00:04:34.140 We have talked about the presidential race.
00:04:36.980 We've talked about Senate races.
00:04:38.240 We've talked about other races.
00:04:39.240 But we have never talked about my race.
00:04:41.220 And that was because if we had talked about my race on this podcast,
00:04:45.380 it would have prompted complaints to the FEC.
00:04:48.720 I don't think they would have succeeded,
00:04:49.840 but it would have prompted complaints.
00:04:51.180 And we decided that we didn't want to unnecessarily give a basis for a complaint.
00:04:56.340 And so we just didn't talk about the race at all.
00:04:57.960 I got to say, it was mildly schizophrenic, however,
00:05:01.400 because I'd go and do any other interview.
00:05:03.540 I'd go on Fox News.
00:05:04.600 I'd go on talk radio.
00:05:05.620 I'd go do something else.
00:05:07.100 I'd go on a different show.
00:05:09.680 And I'd talk about my race all the time because I was in the middle of the race.
00:05:12.760 Yeah.
00:05:13.120 Yeah.
00:05:13.520 You get to go on my show.
00:05:14.720 And we could talk about it, but not on verdict.
00:05:16.980 And I know our listeners found that odd.
00:05:19.840 And it was just it was avoiding in any potential legal peril.
00:05:23.540 We just didn't talk about it.
00:05:24.580 But now that it's over, the race is done.
00:05:26.480 And wow, what a night we had last night.
00:05:31.240 As you noted, we won by nearly 10 points.
00:05:35.020 We won by a million votes.
00:05:37.760 I mean, it was an extraordinary victory.
00:05:40.360 It was a victory across the board.
00:05:42.960 And one of the amazing, amazing outcomes was what happened in South Texas
00:05:50.860 and what happened with Hispanics.
00:05:54.220 And NBC News is reporting that I won Hispanics statewide by six points.
00:06:01.800 That is a big, big deal.
00:06:04.980 You want to talk about a transformation.
00:06:07.040 And we saw South Texas counties and a region of the state that has been bright blue for 100 years
00:06:15.080 is rapidly, rapidly turning red.
00:06:18.980 We had major victories throughout South Texas to win Hispanics statewide by six points is transformational.
00:06:28.260 And I believe what we did in South Texas with this election
00:06:31.360 and what Donald Trump did in South Texas with this election, I think, is generationally transformative.
00:06:38.160 And in fact, my prediction is in the next year, we will see many, many elected South Texas Democrats
00:06:46.560 switching parties, leaving their party and joining the Republican Party.
00:06:50.700 And I think once it starts, it's not going to be one or two.
00:06:53.400 It's going to be an avalanche.
00:06:54.540 I think they're all looking around and you hear these conversations down in the valley.
00:06:59.440 Wait, are we all Republicans now?
00:07:02.220 And it is it's it's a big, big deal for Texas.
00:07:06.840 And it's a big deal nationally.
00:07:09.060 It's nationally as well.
00:07:10.480 And I want to go back to something that happened and it goes back to what we've talked about here.
00:07:16.740 Why Donald Trump won last night, why you won last night came down to the basic issues, 1.00
00:07:22.480 which is it's the economy, stupid. 1.00
00:07:24.700 It is safety. 1.00
00:07:25.820 It is about saying yes to our kids instead of having to say no, whether that's when you go to the grocery store
00:07:32.320 or if they want to go outside in front of your house and play.
00:07:35.300 These were the basic issues and the elitists in the media and the Harris campaign refused to stop dictating to Americans
00:07:43.400 and actually listen to Americans.
00:07:45.880 And you went all over the state and we listened to voters.
00:07:49.700 And what their concerns were was, I don't feel like I'm secure.
00:07:54.120 I don't feel like that we're heading the right direction.
00:07:57.140 I don't feel like my kids are safe.
00:07:59.460 I don't feel like my grandparents or my parents are safe.
00:08:02.680 And I want to live in a in a society where I can say yes to my kids at the grocery store.
00:08:08.500 Yes, to going to events.
00:08:10.060 Yes, to having that birthday party instead of saying no, no, no all the way.
00:08:14.120 And as Fox News described it, they said the most important issue facing the country with exit poll data was the economy.
00:08:23.340 Thirty nine percent said it was economy.
00:08:25.840 Twenty percent then said it was immigration, which also deals with fentanyl and deals with the crime. 0.53
00:08:31.640 Here's how they described it.
00:08:33.220 News voter analysis could tell the story of this night and tell the story of the election.
00:08:37.900 Just a reminder, different than exit polls, we ask voters, over one hundred and twenty thousand of them all over the country, all 50 states leading up to and on Election Day, different from exit polls.
00:08:50.620 And right now I can start to begin to give you our key findings and takeaways from what we ask voters.
00:08:57.220 This is really to give you an idea of not only how they voted, but why.
00:09:01.380 Early in the evening, we can't reveal how they broke down to the candidates, but we can reveal how they're feeling.
00:09:07.080 We asked about the direction of the country.
00:09:09.580 This number is key.
00:09:10.940 Those who feel like the country right now is moving in the wrong direction.
00:09:14.740 Seven out of ten American voters.
00:09:17.580 This is ten points higher than it was in 2020, just four years ago.
00:09:22.040 If you were to break this down, also new technology, our heat map.
00:09:26.040 You can see some of those darker areas on the heat map, especially those sunbelt states.
00:09:30.740 This is where they don't like how the country is heading or where it's heading.
00:09:34.900 And that could be very revealing as we continue to watch the election results throughout the night.
00:09:40.000 Another top finding.
00:09:41.480 We know the economy has been key and Americans just haven't been feeling good about their finances.
00:09:47.720 We asked about their family's financial situation.
00:09:50.660 And look at this.
00:09:51.680 While 13 percent say they're getting ahead, 56 percent holding steady, 31 percent of respondents said they feel like they're falling behind.
00:10:00.600 That's more than three in 10 voters also perspective.
00:10:04.620 That's 13 points worse than it was just four years ago when it was at 18 percent. 1.00
00:10:10.180 You listen to that, Senator, and it's the economy, stupid. 1.00
00:10:13.580 That is what mattered. 1.00
00:10:14.600 And the Democrats did not listen to the American people.
00:10:17.920 Well, it was certainly the economy, but but more broadly, it was also it was the border.
00:10:23.500 It was inflation.
00:10:25.200 It was safety and crime.
00:10:27.740 And it was chaos.
00:10:29.380 I mean, listen, the Biden-Harris record is a train wreck.
00:10:34.680 Everything they've done.
00:10:35.700 There's a reason Kamala never talked about anything they've done.
00:10:37.940 She ran as the change candidate because she sure as heck couldn't run on her record. 0.99
00:10:42.000 And you know what?
00:10:42.580 The American people said to hell with that.
00:10:45.000 We want change, as you just played, seven in 10 Americans said we want to change the path we're on.
00:10:50.200 Well, we just did.
00:10:51.420 And you look at the results of Trump's win.
00:10:55.320 The seven swing states, as we sit here today at now 1.22 p.m., Trump has won five of those seven swing states.
00:11:05.980 He won North Carolina.
00:11:07.700 He flipped Georgia.
00:11:09.080 Georgia went for Biden.
00:11:10.100 This time it went for Trump.
00:11:11.520 He flipped Pennsylvania.
00:11:13.100 Pennsylvania went for Biden.
00:11:14.280 This time it went for Trump.
00:11:15.820 He flipped Wisconsin.
00:11:17.660 It had previously gone for Biden.
00:11:19.340 This time it went for Trump.
00:11:20.820 And he flipped Michigan.
00:11:23.480 Previously it went for Biden.
00:11:25.400 This time it went for Trump.
00:11:26.480 And right now Trump is leading in Arizona and Nevada, the other two.
00:11:30.640 So they haven't called those states yet.
00:11:32.480 But there's a very real possibility that Trump will win seven out of seven swing states, winning everywhere.
00:11:39.460 The current count is he has 291 electoral votes.
00:11:43.480 He only needs 270 to win.
00:11:45.080 Kamala Harris has 223.
00:11:46.800 And I'll tell you, every bit as astonishing and powerful and transformational is Trump won the popular vote as of the current count by nearly 5 million votes.
00:11:59.860 The current count, according to CNN, is 71,883,795 votes for Trump and 67,006,864 votes for Kamala.
00:12:11.420 That is 50.9 percent compared to 47.4 percent.
00:12:15.960 That is historic, a big, big transformation.
00:12:21.380 And it is changing America.
00:12:25.940 The stock market is exploding, going crazy.
00:12:28.520 Bitcoin is soaring.
00:12:30.200 Like people are jubilant and it is changing the world.
00:12:34.380 And the reason why they're jubilant is because they understand now what's coming back.
00:12:38.220 No one in uncertainty is what causes markets to have instability.
00:12:44.600 Everybody, not just, I think, in this country. 0.64
00:12:47.860 And also crazy-ass socialists destroying your companies, taxing you out of existence, putting in crushing regulations that destroy your ability to make a profit. 0.93
00:12:55.860 All of that hurts, too. 0.95
00:12:57.400 Yeah, but you look at where we are.
00:12:59.280 I don't know if we've ever had this moment before where it is so crystal clear, the agenda of Donald Trump, that it's going to be brought to Washington, D.C.
00:13:08.360 There is a clear mandate to drain the swamp.
00:13:10.620 There's a clear mandate to change the way government works.
00:13:12.760 There's a clear mandate to work with Congress on securing the border.
00:13:16.580 There's a clear mandate in the Senate.
00:13:18.040 It looks like there's going to be a clear mandate in the House.
00:13:20.360 And there's a mandate that obviously investors are responding to.
00:13:25.740 There's also a clear mandate that's coming to the border and other countries and the Middle East and oil and gas and all of these things.
00:13:34.480 And that's the reason why I think you're seeing these massive gains on Wall Street is there's just a moment today where Americans took a deep breath.
00:13:41.960 They went out and they voted.
00:13:43.480 They declared what they wanted. 0.99
00:13:45.240 Damn be the media and their lack of influence and trying to lie to you, trying to take out Trump, as we mentioned in the beginning. 0.98
00:13:51.400 There is a mandate now to go back to what this country looked like in 2016 when Donald Trump went in the White House, except this time it's even more clear what he's going to do. 0.98
00:14:02.100 Well, and we're going to see a number of big changes early on.
00:14:05.080 The biggest thing that we will see immediately is the border.
00:14:09.120 And I have said this before, but I'm going to say it again.
00:14:12.220 We will secure the border and it's going to be fast.
00:14:15.280 It's not going to take a year.
00:14:16.580 And I don't think it's going to take six months.
00:14:18.140 I think we will do it in January and February.
00:14:21.340 And the reason I say that is that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did all this damage through unilateral executive action, which means Trump can undo it through unilateral executive action.
00:14:32.440 And the most important determinant is what happens when you arrest an illegal immigrant. 0.69
00:14:38.160 And if you put them on a plane and you fly them home, the numbers plummet and they plummet immediately.
00:14:42.720 And on January 20th, that's going to happen.
00:14:44.540 And in fact, I think we're going to see the numbers.
00:14:46.560 We may see the numbers fall even before Trump is sworn in, although there might there might also be a surge in November and December.
00:14:55.120 I am worried that we'll see a surge of illegals trying to rush across the border right before Trump gets here.
00:15:00.060 But but as soon as Trump is in office, we are going to see the border be secured.
00:15:05.160 You were at our election night party last night.
00:15:08.520 We had a packed house.
00:15:10.760 We had we had north of a thousand people there, incredible energy in the middle of my my victory speech.
00:15:16.720 The crowd began chanting, build the wall, build the wall, to which I responded.
00:15:21.020 We will. We are going to do that now.
00:15:23.400 Whether Congress goes along is a different question because the Democrats are still going to have enough votes in the Senate to filibuster legislation.
00:15:32.260 And it will be interesting to see if congressional Democrats have learned anything from this ass kicking.
00:15:40.180 Let's be clear. That's what this election was, was an ass kicking across the board. 0.97
00:15:46.140 And I'll be very curious next week. I'll be in in in D.C. 0.75
00:15:50.220 I'll see my colleagues. I'll be very curious if any Democrats are looking around going maybe being wild eyed leftist communist America hating lunatics is not a path to victory. 0.93
00:16:03.260 I don't know if they'll say that or not. They might double down and, you know, you know, start, you know, dig in even harder. 0.56
00:16:11.740 I don't know. They do hate Trump's guts. So they're probably just losing their minds right now. 0.85
00:16:17.940 Well, they're losing their minds on social media. And by the way, didn't the Democrats want to get rid of the filibuster?
00:16:22.640 Can we go back to that just for a second? Oh, they absolutely did. Now they all love it.
00:16:26.820 And now I will say that let's not take for granted that we know the outcome in the House.
00:16:33.660 And that right now is the most consequential question that is outstanding.
00:16:38.440 Ben, it is a big, big difference whether Republicans, whether we keep the majority in the House or we lose it.
00:16:46.420 And the House is still very much in the balance. It could go either way.
00:16:50.280 Mike Johnson, the speaker, is saying that that he thinks that we'll hold on to the House, that the votes are there.
00:16:55.180 But there's still a bunch of races that are outstanding. We don't know right now.
00:16:59.300 And let me tell you why it's such a big deal.
00:17:02.100 Let's say the Democrats take a majority in the House by one vote.
00:17:05.520 I don't want that to be the case. But if that happens, it decreases by a factor of 100 what we can accomplish in the next two years.
00:17:16.040 And here is why. Because I mentioned securing the border. Trump can do that unilaterally.
00:17:21.300 We'll also see big national security victories.
00:17:24.680 I think we will see in the next year both of the wars come to an end.
00:17:28.060 I think the Ukraine war will come to an end. Russia will suffer a loss.
00:17:31.480 There'll be some negotiated outcome that is a loss for Russia, but it will end.
00:17:36.480 And I believe the war in Israel will end as well. And Israel will defeat Hamas as a result of that.
00:17:42.060 All of that Trump can do essentially unilaterally as commander in chief.
00:17:47.800 However, for legislation to pass, you've got to get it through the House and Senate.
00:17:52.300 And the big kahuna is the 2017 tax cuts that are expiring. Most of them are expiring next year.
00:18:00.660 If we have both the House and Senate, we will be able to take up what is called budget reconciliation.
00:18:06.340 Budget reconciliation, the most important thing about that is it is an avenue around the filibuster.
00:18:11.920 So it is a way that we can pass budget and tax and economic legislation without the Democrats being able to stop it.
00:18:21.300 And so if we have the House, we'll do a budget reconciliation.
00:18:25.900 We will extend the tax cuts. I think we'll make them bigger and bolder.
00:18:30.700 And beyond that, I think we will see serious reg reforms.
00:18:35.060 I think we will see advances on energy.
00:18:37.040 I think budget reconciliation opens a lot of legislative victories if we can do it.
00:18:43.700 If the Democrats have the House, even by one vote, they'll refuse to do reconciliation.
00:18:50.040 And so it will mean, look, we'll have to negotiate something on the tax cuts.
00:18:55.260 But but they become the economic policy becomes massively less good if the Democrats have the House.
00:19:04.020 So I am hopeful that we have it.
00:19:06.220 And I hope we actually have a decent majority in the House, although I think that's probably unlikely.
00:19:09.840 I think it is if we have a majority, I think it is likely that it's going to be an excruciatingly small majority in the House.
00:19:15.940 So that'll be frustrating and have its own challenges.
00:19:18.460 But it is a binary flip of the switch.
00:19:21.480 If the Democrats have the House, our ability to legislate grinds to a halt.
00:19:29.220 Yeah, no doubt about it.
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00:21:24.660 Senator, let's also just talk about, I think the silent majority was sick and tired of being dictated to and yelled at and called Hitler and called garbage. 0.72
00:21:36.840 I think that played into this race.
00:21:39.500 For the first time, a Republican has won the popular vote in two decades, 20-plus years.
00:21:45.660 If that doesn't feel like vindication, I don't know what is.
00:21:49.280 But this was a moment where Americans stood up to the media.
00:21:52.540 They stood up to the Taylor Swift's and the Beyonce's and the George Clooney's of the world and all these radicals in the media and said, no, no, no, I'm not going to be quiet.
00:22:03.620 I'm not going to be told I'm a racist or a bigot because I stand up for my traditional values.
00:22:07.680 And you're not going to bully me anymore.
00:22:09.540 This is massive.
00:22:10.640 I think you're exactly right. 1.00
00:22:13.840 It turns out it is a bad electoral strategy to insult and condescend and treat the voters like crap. 0.99
00:22:22.040 And that's what the Democrats look. 0.99
00:22:23.740 In the last two weeks, you had Kamala Harris launch their strategy of calling Donald Trump Hitler. 0.99
00:22:29.880 You then had Joe Biden calling half of America pieces of garbage. 0.97
00:22:34.220 And you then had Mark Cuban on behalf of Kamala Harris, her top surrogate, go out and insult women and say there are no smart and strong women voting for Donald Trump. 0.99
00:22:44.680 That combination.
00:22:45.700 Look, I got to tell you, I've run in a lot of elections.
00:22:50.340 I've never found that insulting the voters is a smart electoral strategy.
00:22:55.500 And it was a little bizarre to see the Democrats go all in on that.
00:22:59.860 Yeah, it didn't work.
00:23:00.800 And it was a failure there.
00:23:02.160 Let's talk about what happens in the Senate, because I think this goes back to how important it was with your race and the fact that you were able to win by such a large margin over Allred.
00:23:13.140 There was an incredible amount of money.
00:23:14.760 We didn't talk about this on verdicts, as we mentioned earlier, but there was an incredible amount of money.
00:23:19.880 And Chuck Schumer, you were his number one target.
00:23:22.200 They came after you.
00:23:23.500 They basically kind of pulled away from this race a little bit financially after you just wiped him during the debate.
00:23:30.300 Congratulations on that.
00:23:31.620 Something we didn't get to talk about on the show.
00:23:33.260 But if people are bored and they're junkies like I am and you want to watch one hell of a debate, go watch Senator Cruz and the Allred debate.
00:23:39.280 It was unbelievable.
00:23:40.800 And that shifted the race financially.
00:23:42.980 But the amount of money that came in from outside to try to turn Texas into a liberal state.
00:23:50.260 But at the end of the day, Republicans are closer to flipping New York than than Texas.
00:23:56.020 And that is a data point as well that I think you've got to look at.
00:23:59.940 Yeah, no, no, that's exactly right.
00:24:01.920 I will say the debate.
00:24:03.240 The debate was ridiculous fun.
00:24:05.580 I loved that debate.
00:24:07.160 I had a lot of fun doing it.
00:24:08.320 And I think it went well, I will look this race. 1.00
00:24:13.900 Chuck Schumer was explicit that I was his number one target in the country and they flooded cash into the state of Texas.
00:24:22.840 This race was the single most expensive Senate race in the entire country.
00:24:27.340 It will end up being nearly a quarter billion dollars.
00:24:32.300 Nearly two hundred and fifty million dollars will have been spent on both sides in this race.
00:24:38.100 That ain't cheap.
00:24:40.580 Schumer poured well over a hundred million into the race.
00:24:45.080 And I got to say, one of my more fun things that I enjoyed doing last night at the election night speech is I took the opportunity to thank Schumer.
00:24:53.560 I said, thanks, Chuck.
00:24:54.500 Uh, we may have won a couple more Senate seats tonight because you you wasted so much money in the state of Texas. 0.95
00:25:00.920 So I appreciate that.
00:25:02.560 And and and it I got to say, I guarantee you there are some Democrats who are who are second guessing that who are questioning.
00:25:09.560 Did that make any sense just to pour the money into Texas and and lose the states they lost?
00:25:16.300 Canadian women are looking for more, more of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders and the world around them. 0.70
00:25:22.480 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:25:26.480 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:25:27.580 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:25:28.800 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:25:38.300 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:25:41.520 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:25:45.580 You talk about the Senate agenda moving forward.
00:25:49.800 Obviously, the border is going to be something very quick, but there are some new ideas that have come out of this Trump campaign that connected with voters.
00:25:56.820 A great example is Elon Musk and Trump talking about, hey, retired people should be completely tax exempt.
00:26:03.260 They've already paid their taxes.
00:26:04.440 We need to stop taxing Social Security benefits.
00:26:06.920 Some of these common sense things, what are the chances that some of these ideas that connected with the American people, no taxes on tips is another example, will turn into a reality if we have the House and the Senate?
00:26:21.600 Or is that still going to be a really tough thing to get done?
00:26:24.720 Look, if we have the House, I think we'll get it done.
00:26:27.040 No taxes on tips.
00:26:29.120 I'm the author of that legislation in the Senate.
00:26:31.220 When I introduced it, it was interesting.
00:26:33.940 It's bipartisan legislation.
00:26:35.820 Both of the Democrat senators from Nevada joined almost immediately.
00:26:39.420 They told me 25 percent of the workers in Nevada are tipped workers.
00:26:43.400 And so they jumped on immediately.
00:26:47.960 If we have the House, I think it will be part of the tax cuts.
00:26:51.420 No taxes on tips.
00:26:53.020 I also think we'll get it done.
00:26:54.660 No taxes on Social Security.
00:26:56.240 That is a little bit harder to do because in terms of the budgetary cost, it's not cheap.
00:27:01.220 And so the negotiations back and forth, there'll be some bumps on that.
00:27:05.560 But the president is pushing for it.
00:27:07.140 I'm strongly in favor of it.
00:27:08.400 I think we'll get it done as part of the tax cuts.
00:27:11.020 Both of those are big, big, important policy ideas.
00:27:15.400 And listen, in terms of the Senate, let's break down where we stand on the Senate right now.
00:27:19.360 So we went into last night with the Democrats having a 51-49 majority.
00:27:25.460 As of right now, Republicans have 52.
00:27:28.040 So we have three pickups that are clear.
00:27:31.220 One of them is West Virginia.
00:27:32.900 We knew that was 100 percent.
00:27:34.700 And so Jim Justice, the governor, is going to now be the senator.
00:27:39.400 He's going to replace Joe Manchin.
00:27:41.000 The Democrats basically conceded West Virginia.
00:27:43.380 Once Joe Manchin wasn't running, there wasn't a Democrat alive who could win West Virginia.
00:27:47.160 They conceded that.
00:27:48.560 The two others that we have won are Montana and Ohio.
00:27:53.240 Montana was John Tester.
00:27:54.540 Montana's a bright red state.
00:27:55.900 And Tim Sheehy just beat Tester.
00:27:58.280 That's a victory we thought was quite likely.
00:28:01.920 And it happened.
00:28:03.200 Montana is too red a state to be represented by a Democrat.
00:28:08.480 Ohio, likewise.
00:28:09.660 Sherrod Brown was beaten by Bernie Moreno last night.
00:28:13.740 That's a great victory.
00:28:15.080 That was a hard-fought victory.
00:28:17.060 I'll tell you, Sherrod Brown and John Tester are two of the very best politicians in the country.
00:28:21.960 You don't get elected counter to the way your state generally votes unless you're really, really talented.
00:28:29.600 And, you know, John Tester with a flat-top haircut and eight figures, he seemed like a big old fat Montana rancher that just was a regular guy.
00:28:37.380 And it got him elected even when Trump was carrying the state and Republicans were carrying the state in past years.
00:28:43.000 The same is true in Ohio where Sherrod Brown seemed like just a regular guy at the Union Hall.
00:28:49.160 And there were voters in Ohio that were voting Donald Trump, Sherrod Brown.
00:28:52.900 Now, both Brown and Tester vote like communists.
00:28:56.640 They vote like Chuck Schumer.
00:28:59.260 But they're very good character actors.
00:29:02.080 And when they're back at home, they pretended not to.
00:29:04.600 Those two victories ensure that we have the majority in the Senate.
00:29:09.060 And then on top of that right now, we have four other possibilities.
00:29:13.540 We had one hard loss.
00:29:15.640 We did not win Wisconsin.
00:29:16.980 We were leading a good chunk of the night.
00:29:19.140 Eric Hovde was narrowly leading Tammy Baldwin.
00:29:23.120 Wisconsin's now been called for the Democrats.
00:29:25.320 So assuming those numbers are right, it looks like we did not win Wisconsin in the Senate,
00:29:31.040 although Trump won Wisconsin in the presidential.
00:29:33.060 Right now, we have a shot at winning Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, and Arizona.
00:29:41.760 And all of those are uncalled right now.
00:29:44.300 And here are the numbers.
00:29:45.940 Pennsylvania, right now, Dave McCormick, the Republican, is leading 48.9 percent to 48.5 percent.
00:29:55.020 So it's really, really close.
00:29:57.600 Michigan, Michigan, Michigan, right now, the Democrat is leading 48.6 percent to 48.3 percent.
00:30:07.280 So we are down by 0.3 percent.
00:30:10.620 Both Pennsylvania and Michigan, 97 percent of the vote is in.
00:30:14.740 Nevada, Nevada right now, the Republican, Sam Brown, is leading 47.5 percent to 47 percent.
00:30:24.280 That would be a flip if we won Nevada.
00:30:28.660 88 percent of the vote is in there.
00:30:30.980 And then Arizona.
00:30:32.920 Arizona right now, this is probably the – it's the furthest distance we have to have to climb.
00:30:39.020 The Democrat is leading 50.4 percent to 47.7 percent.
00:30:44.760 So it's three points that we need to pick up, almost three points.
00:30:48.720 Now, only 63 percent of the vote is in in Arizona, and it's Maricopa County.
00:30:54.940 It's the suburbs of Phoenix that are still counting.
00:30:59.100 So, look, it is certainly possible that we win Arizona.
00:31:03.140 Trump has won Arizona.
00:31:04.620 But three points is a bigger margin to close than the other states.
00:31:07.920 And so all four of those we're going to wait and see.
00:31:10.860 Let's talk finally about the takeaways from the media.
00:31:14.540 And I'll go back to what I said earlier.
00:31:17.260 Donald Trump trumped them all.
00:31:19.200 He trumped the Democrats.
00:31:20.580 He trumped the globalists.
00:31:21.860 He trumped the deep state.
00:31:23.920 He trumped the news media.
00:31:25.860 They're still having meltdowns this morning.
00:31:29.160 The view – the girls on The View, the ladies on The View came out wearing black like it was a funeral. 1.00
00:31:34.800 Mental health crisis.
00:31:36.920 MSNBC's O'Donnell trashes the founding fathers.
00:31:39.920 Called the Electoral College voter suppression this morning.
00:31:43.020 Joy Reid at MSNBC said, Florida's extreme right-wing fascist state now officially.
00:31:50.320 Van Jones came out and started playing the race card and the gender card.
00:31:54.820 Jon Stewart had a total meltdown on his show.
00:31:58.460 And this is just what we're seeing in the moments after a Trump victory.
00:32:05.900 It's like they didn't learn their lesson.
00:32:08.560 I mean, you would think they would take away and go, okay, what did we do wrong?
00:32:11.660 They're not stopping.
00:32:14.260 You know, look, we'll see what happens.
00:32:17.460 I think there right now there's a lot of blaming of Kamala for being a terrible candidate. 0.99
00:32:22.520 There's a lot of blaming of Joe Biden for having been essentially unconscious for several years.
00:32:30.100 I don't see the Democrats right now taking responsibility for, gosh, we advocated an agenda that was horrible for America.
00:32:42.700 You know, there used to be Senate moderates among the Democrats.
00:32:47.440 I don't know of any Senate moderates left.
00:32:51.260 The only two arguable ones were Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
00:32:54.840 They're both gone.
00:32:56.280 And so that dynamic, you know, you look at, I would love to see some Democrats recalibrate and say, let's move to the middle.
00:33:07.560 Well, but I think right now they're just emoting.
00:33:11.360 They're just engaged in a combination of rage and shock and disbelief.
00:33:19.120 Look, you know, you and I talked about Mark Halperin, who used to be the head of political news at ABC, did an interview with Tucker Carlson where Halperin said that he thought there would be real mental health crises and violence from the left if Trump won.
00:33:35.960 That he was laying out the case that those of us not afflicted with Trump derangement syndrome do not understand just how much of a meltdown this will be.
00:33:48.100 Look, I hope we don't go there, but I do think I don't see many Democrats willing to repent and change their ways.
00:33:59.240 No, I couldn't agree with you more.
00:34:01.440 I want to want to ask you another question also about Elon Musk in just a second.
00:34:06.220 But first, let me tell you about my friends over at Berna.
00:34:09.320 If you want to be able to protect yourself and your family, but maybe you're at work at a place where you can't carry a firearm or maybe you have a child that's 18 or a mother or a grandmother doesn't feel comfortable carrying a gun.
00:34:22.400 Well, you've got to check out Berna.
00:34:24.860 Now, I have this and I'm a gun owner.
00:34:26.820 I had to pull the trigger and use a firearm to protect my life.
00:34:29.600 But I love knowing that a Berna is an option now.
00:34:34.140 It is a less lethal pistol launcher.
00:34:36.880 Berna can save two lives and it is a great complement to owning a firearm.
00:34:41.840 If you or your family is in a situation where you feel threatened, then you can start with less lethal.
00:34:47.700 It is legal in all 50 states.
00:34:50.360 There are no permits or background checks needed.
00:34:52.660 And I own this and I got them from my wife, my sister-in-law, my mother-in-law, my mom, and my sister.
00:34:59.380 The Berna is the answer because it's designed to be easily used by all age groups 18 and older.
00:35:05.540 The Berna launcher has powerful deterrents like tear gas and kinetic rounds with a 60-foot range.
00:35:14.340 One shot can incapacitate attackers for up to 40 minutes.
00:35:17.660 It is used by government agencies and law enforcement around the country.
00:35:21.900 And more than a half million units have been sold with more than 14,000 four-and-a-half-star reviews.
00:35:27.820 So if you want to know that you can always protect yourself and you want to have options, especially for young people, 18 and older,
00:35:36.240 maybe you've got a daughter that's living by herself, visit Berna, that's B-Y-R-N-A, dot com slash verdict.
00:35:45.420 You're going to get 10% off your purchase, B-Y-R-N-A, dot com slash verdict, for 10% off your purchase.
00:35:54.980 That's Berna.com slash verdict, 10% off, B-Y-R-N-A, dot com.
00:36:00.520 All right, let me ask you this question.
00:36:02.220 You've actually met and chatted with Elon Musk.
00:36:05.580 There is something different that's happening right now, and that's the people around Trump.
00:36:09.980 There's a very good chance that Elon Musk could be involved in the Trump administration on a real level.
00:36:16.960 We see him bring in people like RFK Jr.
00:36:19.240 We see him bring in different minds that traditional politicians have not done.
00:36:24.600 How significant could it be to have a guy like Elon Musk coming in and looking at accountability and efficiency
00:36:32.300 with the United States government, which is clearly bloated?
00:36:35.720 And this is something he's really good at.
00:36:38.740 Yeah, look, Elon is extraordinary.
00:36:40.780 I know him well.
00:36:41.760 He's become a friend.
00:36:42.620 I've spent a lot of time with Elon.
00:36:45.140 I'll tell you, there are smart people you encounter in life.
00:36:49.340 Elon is next level. 0.95
00:36:50.940 I mean, there's just, the guy is frigging brilliant. 0.68
00:36:54.220 And he knows how to run a company.
00:36:56.140 Like, you look at the incredible success he has, whether it's Tesla, whether it's SpaceX, whether it's the Boring Company, whether it is X.
00:37:07.940 Like, he has an ability to run a company.
00:37:10.900 And by the way, many of those companies are, like, really precise manufacturers.
00:37:16.980 You look at SpaceX, where they're manufacturing rocket ships with precision within, like, a tenth of an inch or less.
00:37:25.140 I mean, it is.
00:37:26.420 And I've been down to, like, their factory in Boca Chica down by Brownsville in the southern tip of Texas.
00:37:31.840 I mean, it is remarkable.
00:37:32.840 They're churning out a rocket ship a month, and they just built it out of nothing.
00:37:36.680 I mean, it is.
00:37:37.420 It's incredible.
00:37:39.840 And Elon is all in.
00:37:42.140 We saw him pour himself into this election at the end.
00:37:45.900 I think it made a difference.
00:37:46.900 I think he made a difference in Pennsylvania, where he really devoted a lot of time and energy and money and personal credibility.
00:37:53.540 And I think it will be significant, his impact on the federal government.
00:37:57.920 Now, there are structural impediments to having efficiency in government.
00:38:03.700 And so I don't think people should think we're suddenly going to be in nirvana and everything will be solved,
00:38:10.280 because in a company, Elon can walk in and fire anyone he wants.
00:38:15.520 And by the way, when he bought Twitter, he fired a whole bunch of the folks there and all the woke radicals.
00:38:20.540 He basically said, bye-bye, you're out of here.
00:38:23.060 In the federal government, that is much, much harder to do.
00:38:25.740 You've got civil service protections that enables career bureaucrats to burrow in. 1.00
00:38:31.840 I think we will see the Trump administration take on the career bureaucracy in a way that has never, ever happened before.
00:38:39.400 That's a big deal.
00:38:40.340 I expect Elon to play an important role in that.
00:38:43.040 But I don't want to understate the legal barriers, the bureaucratic barriers, that it is not like just coming into a company where you have the ability to give anyone a pink slip.
00:38:56.080 But the bureaucracy will fight back.
00:38:59.480 And by the way, in the first Trump term, we saw the deep state wage war on Donald Trump.
00:39:05.280 I very much hope the team coming in understands much, much better just how dangerous the foe is they're facing of the radical leftist who burrowed into the federal government
00:39:17.940 and that they're better, better prepared and ready to take them on.
00:39:21.100 Yeah, no doubt about it.
00:39:23.460 And by the way, saving free speech by buying X, just so people know how biased I would say the media is,
00:39:32.940 and I'm talking about the media you have control over, Facebook.
00:39:35.800 We were comparing last night many conservative influencers, and Senator, you're going to find this interesting.
00:39:42.320 From October the 9th through November the 5th, the reach that I had on Facebook was down 83.6% as a conservative on Facebook in the month leading up to election day.
00:40:01.220 And there were quite a few other conservatives.
00:40:04.180 I was talking earlier with Meghan McCain about this, and we opened up our analytics, our insights on our public pages.
00:40:11.700 And again, I'm looking at it right now, 83.6%.
00:40:16.580 That's how much they turned off the faucet to free speech of conservative influencers on Facebook, on Meta, on Instagram in the last 30 days before the election.
00:40:28.700 So the liberals had free flow of intel and information and their side, and conservatives were throttled almost 85%.
00:40:38.160 I just think that's interesting to see what Elon Musk did to save.
00:40:42.860 Freedom of speech on X, he didn't do that there.
00:40:45.900 He let everybody talk.
00:40:47.360 God bless America when it comes to that.
00:40:49.380 Your final thoughts to all the listeners of Verdict, all those that came out and voted for you.
00:40:53.920 I know you want to say something to them as well.
00:40:56.020 Look, to the listeners of Verdict, you guys are amazing.
00:40:59.060 You're the most informed.
00:41:00.140 You're the most engaged.
00:41:01.360 You care about our nation.
00:41:02.880 You're fighting to save our nation.
00:41:05.080 And everyone in Texas who worked so unbelievably hard.
00:41:08.980 Look, this was a battle, I believe, about keeping Texas, Texas, my race.
00:41:13.960 The money, the media, everything that came in against us.
00:41:18.400 If you live in Texas, by the way, thank God the ads are over.
00:41:22.720 I mean, you couldn't turn on your TV without every second or third ad being an attack ad just hammering the living daylights out of me.
00:41:30.300 And the people of Texas, I'll tell you, it was inspirational.
00:41:32.780 You came out on the road with me.
00:41:33.980 We did a 53-stop bus tour all across the state of Texas.
00:41:39.660 Over 9,000 miles we covered.
00:41:41.680 We did rallies everywhere.
00:41:43.340 And it was incredible.
00:41:44.940 The people, and you're just ordinary people, students, senior citizens, single moms, Hispanics, African Americans, just Texans standing up and saying, we want to keep Texas, Texas.
00:41:58.520 We want low taxes, low and reasonable regulations, lots of jobs.
00:42:02.920 We want security.
00:42:03.900 We want the border secure.
00:42:06.000 We want to support law enforcement.
00:42:07.340 We want criminals in jail.
00:42:08.580 We want to defend our freedom.
00:42:10.120 We want free speech, religious liberty, the Second Amendment.
00:42:12.440 All of that was on the ballot last night, and I want to say it is breathtaking, the Texans that came out for me.
00:42:19.220 And nationally, the people who supported the campaign, who contributed to the campaign, thank you, thank you, thank you.
00:42:26.720 And the people who supported Donald Trump, who supported Senate candidates and House candidates across the country, you helped change America.
00:42:36.180 And I believe pull it back from the brink of destruction.
00:42:40.040 And I just want to say thank you to the incredible patriots who together saved America last night.
00:42:48.160 I will say this, too.
00:42:49.820 The work has just begun.
00:42:52.060 I promise you we're going to be fighting hard for you guys.
00:42:54.780 This is just the beginning.
00:42:56.560 Don't forget we do this show Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
00:42:59.040 Share this podcast wherever you can on social media, especially now that it works for conservatives again.
00:43:04.740 Share it.
00:43:05.800 Share it everywhere.
00:43:07.200 And don't forget, grab my podcast, the Ben Ferguson podcast.
00:43:10.400 I'll keep you up to date on those in-between days as well.
00:43:14.220 So grab that. 0.99
00:43:15.460 And the Senate and I will see you back here on Friday morning.
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