Verdict with Ted Cruz - January 01, 2024


WE'RE BACK! Analyzing Why Colorado & Maine Decisions Barring Trump WILL BE Reversed


Episode Stats


Length

36 minutes

Words per minute

167.49124

Word count

6,105

Sentence count

423

Harmful content

Misogyny

6

sentences flagged

Toxicity

2

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is back from the holidays and ready to talk about the Democratic decision to kick Donald Trump off the ballot in Colorado and Maine, and why it will be overturned by the Supreme Court in January.

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.
00:00:05.360 Well, let me first start off by saying Happy New Year.
00:00:08.760 Welcome to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.
00:00:11.100 Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:12.320 Senator, Happy New Year's to you and your family.
00:00:15.360 It's nice.
00:00:16.020 We had a little time off during the holidays,
00:00:17.820 and I know you got to spend some great time with your family and your kids,
00:00:22.740 and I know you got some pretty good Christmas gifts as well.
00:00:25.820 So Merry Christmas to you, your family, and Happy New Year as well.
00:00:30.000 We have got a lot to chat about that has been happening,
00:00:34.100 and let's start with this story.
00:00:36.700 Democrats trying to kick Donald Trump off the ballot in Colorado, in Maine,
00:00:40.920 and this has been unfolding really over the holidays.
00:00:44.260 Well, Ben, good to be back with you.
00:00:45.880 Happy New Year.
00:00:46.940 I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a wonderful New Year's,
00:00:51.340 and we are starting now 2024.
00:00:53.220 I will say looking back over 2023, what an absolute dumpster fire of a year.
00:00:58.420 What a mess it has been.
00:01:01.640 What a disaster it's been on the southern border.
00:01:04.120 What an absolute assault it's been on the rule of law.
00:01:08.240 Donald Trump indicted four different times as Democrats engage in lawfare,
00:01:13.200 trying to fight through the courts what they cannot beat at the ballot box.
00:01:18.880 I have to say the decisions in Colorado and Maine are the most grotesque assaults on democracy
00:01:28.260 that I have ever seen in my life.
00:01:31.880 You know, there is an irony.
00:01:33.740 There's an irony with leftists.
00:01:35.100 They always, always, always accuse you of the thing it is they are in fact doing.
00:01:40.820 It has become this ostentatious virtue signal for anyone on the left to say we must defend democracy.
00:01:49.020 We must save democracy.
00:01:50.580 Usually they flick their hair back and let the wind blow their hair a bit as they are saving democracy.
00:01:56.960 And yet, we see partisan Democrats directly attacking democracy.
00:02:05.460 What is democracy?
00:02:06.220 Democracy is a process through which the people vote and their wishes are enacted.
00:02:11.140 Now, technically speaking, we're not a democracy.
00:02:13.220 We're a democratic republic.
00:02:14.960 In other words, the voters vote to elect representatives, hence a republic.
00:02:20.140 But we are built on democratic principles, which is that the will of the people is sovereign.
00:02:28.180 And what the Democrats have done in both Colorado and in Maine is said to hell with the voters.
00:02:35.700 We don't care about democracy.
00:02:37.600 We don't care what the voters want.
00:02:39.420 We know better.
00:02:40.860 We hate Donald Trump so much, the voters are not allowed to vote for him.
00:02:46.160 But that is, it's never happened in our nation's history.
00:02:51.940 It is a level of partisanship and weaponization and cynicism and abuse of power that is truly unprecedented.
00:02:59.600 And it is also legally frivolous.
00:03:01.740 I'm here to tell you right now, these decisions will be reversed.
00:03:07.800 I put the odds of these decisions being reversed at 100%.
00:03:12.220 When we get to November of this year, if Donald Trump is the Republican nominee, his name will be on the ballot.
00:03:21.000 Donald Trump's name will be on the primary ballot in every state.
00:03:24.620 And no partisan Democrat is going to succeed in removing his name from the ballot and keeping it off.
00:03:31.720 That is my prediction right now.
00:03:33.180 I believe the U.S. Supreme Court will take this case.
00:03:36.960 I think they will overturn.
00:03:39.060 They will reverse the Colorado decision.
00:03:40.960 I think they will do so swiftly.
00:03:43.060 And I think there is a very real possibility they do so unanimously.
00:03:46.580 I hope they do so unanimously.
00:03:48.820 I don't know if the left-leaning judges on the court would be willing to do so, but they should.
00:03:54.340 It would be the right thing to do.
00:03:55.800 And I think there's a reasonable prospect that we get a 9-0 decision from the U.S. Supreme Court reversing the Colorado decision
00:04:03.740 and making clear that if you don't like Donald Trump, the answer is go beat him at the ballot box,
00:04:09.960 not go to your friendly Democrat-in-your-pocket Secretary of State just to pull him off the ballot and prevent the voters from voting for him.
00:04:17.780 Which brings us to Maine, and let's talk about Maine's Democratic Secretary of State.
00:04:24.840 You talk about being friendly.
00:04:26.800 She actually tweeted out at one point back in January the 4th of 2022, so two years ago in essence,
00:04:34.900 the fundamental right of any American citizen to vote freely, fairly, and to have their vote counted is the premise of our democracy.
00:04:45.140 The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are not values to be compromised away, and that is what she tweeted out.
00:04:53.200 Now, what's shocking about this is we've now found out more about this Democrat Secretary of State.
00:04:58.480 Number one, she is not elected by the people. 0.98
00:05:00.780 She's elected by the legislature, and explain a little bit about that, because there's been some people that have been saying,
00:05:06.180 like, this woman wasn't even elected by the people. 0.69
00:05:08.600 That's how they do it in Maine, but she also, the reason why she said she wanted to take Trump on the ballot 1.00
00:05:14.040 was mainly from what she described in the filings as from being from YouTube videos.
00:05:20.740 Yeah, look, different states select secretaries of state differently.
00:05:25.420 Some states, the voters elect the secretary of states.
00:05:28.780 Other states, in Texas, for example, the governor appoints the secretary of state.
00:05:34.120 So the secretary of state in Texas is not elected.
00:05:37.040 The secretary of state is appointed by the governor.
00:05:39.500 In Maine, they have a rather odd hybrid system where the state legislature elects the secretary of state.
00:05:46.760 Now, the legislature elected her.
00:05:49.500 Shanna Bellows is her name.
00:05:50.740 She's a Democrat.
00:05:51.640 She's a partisan Democrat.
00:05:52.880 She was the executive director of the ACLU in Maine.
00:05:59.460 And actually, interestingly, she's not a lawyer.
00:06:02.520 She doesn't have a law degree. 0.86
00:06:03.640 She's never been to law school.
00:06:04.760 And she purported to make a definitive determination of what the Constitution, of what the 14th Amendment, Section 3, means, what it holds,
00:06:14.960 and make a determination that Donald Trump has engaged in insurrection.
00:06:21.100 That decision will not stand.
00:06:24.640 She didn't follow anything resembling due process that any court of law would recognize.
00:06:29.040 And I think what the next step will be that this is being challenged in Maine state court.
00:06:36.680 It goes to a Maine trial court initially, and then it could be appealed to the Maine Supreme Court.
00:06:41.520 I think there's a very good chance the Maine trial court reverses it.
00:06:44.600 I don't know the particular judge it'll be in front of.
00:06:47.940 But the right decision would be to reverse it to the Maine trial court.
00:06:51.420 But what's really going to decide this is the Colorado appeal.
00:06:55.540 If I am right that the Supreme Court will take the Colorado case and they will decide it quickly,
00:07:01.280 that determination is going to be conclusive on Maine as well.
00:07:04.940 So when you look at where this is moving forward, and I want to talk the politics of this for a second,
00:07:09.840 what this seems to be is Democrats moving to what I describe as phase two of their radical, you know,
00:07:18.140 get rid of our Constitution, our freedoms, our democracy.
00:07:21.520 As she described, quoting her, the fundamental rights of any American citizens to vote freely, fairly,
00:07:27.660 and have their vote counted, right?
00:07:29.780 It is the core premise of our democracy.
00:07:32.500 Except if you go back to 2016, Senator, look at what Democrats did.
00:07:37.140 They tried to overthrow the will of the people by impeaching Donald Trump using a dossier they knew was created by the Democrats.
00:07:42.640 It was paid for by the Democrat National Committee and paid for by Hillary Clinton's campaign.
00:07:47.200 That's an that's a fact, undisputed fact. We know that now.
00:07:50.820 In fact, they were even fined for for misappropriating money with with how they paid for that dossier.
00:07:57.180 Democrats that were trying to impeach the president then because they didn't like who the people chose knew they were impeaching the president off of off of basically a story that they created out of thin air.
00:08:07.440 So now that didn't work. They move on to phase two, which is all right.
00:08:11.660 Well, we can't trust that you're going to pick the candidate that we approve of.
00:08:16.800 So we're going to take that candidate off the ballot.
00:08:19.920 This seems to be phase two of this juncture now, which is all right.
00:08:24.540 Forget the past impeachment.
00:08:26.340 We're going to get rid of your guy even before you have a chance to vote for him.
00:08:29.840 And this is happening in dozens of states around the country.
00:08:32.640 They're looking to do the same thing. How concerning should we be as voters that this is literally that slippery slope?
00:08:38.900 Look, this is utterly brazen.
00:08:40.960 And it's it's the full manifestation of a pattern that has been unfolding for years.
00:08:46.540 And as you know, I talk about it at length in the last two books I wrote.
00:08:50.440 I wrote a year ago.
00:08:52.580 I wrote a book called Justice Corrupted, how the left has weaponized the legal system.
00:08:57.180 That breaks down in detail how the radical left turned our legal system into an offensive weapon to to try to attack their political opponents and destroy their political opponents.
00:09:09.660 And then my latest book that just came out in the last couple of months is called Unwoke, how to defeat cultural Marxism in America.
00:09:16.780 And it likewise describes how the cultural Marxist have seized the institutions of our government, the institutions of culture, journalism, education, colleges, K through 12, education, entertainment, sports, science.
00:09:31.940 It goes through all of them.
00:09:33.680 If you look at government under Barack Obama, we saw the federal government weaponized against the enemies of the White House.
00:09:44.740 Under Barack Obama, the IRS began attacking conservatives and Tea Party groups.
00:09:49.160 Under Barack Obama, the FBI, the DOJ and the CIA began to be weaponized to attack their political enemies.
00:09:55.280 But then when Donald Trump got elected, it shattered the brains of leftists.
00:10:01.220 They did not imagine that that was even remotely possible.
00:10:05.080 It could not happen.
00:10:06.020 They were certain that Hillary was going to be anointed, was going to be coronated, and they would continue their control, their stranglehold on the federal government.
00:10:16.540 When the voters had something different to say about it, when the voters said, no, we don't want that and elected Donald Trump, we saw for four years.
00:10:24.880 You want to talk about assaults on democracy.
00:10:26.640 We saw, number one, right after the election, multiple Democrats object to the certification of Donald Trump.
00:10:33.880 So, by the way, every Democrat, every media person who says it's an insurrection, it's an insurrection, because they objected to the election, ignores the fact that the Democrats had objected in 2001, had objected in 2005, and had objected in 2017.
00:10:49.800 Every time a Republican had been elected in the 2000s, Democrats had objected, they'd done the same thing.
00:10:56.060 But not only that, and by the way, one of the objectors was Jamie Raskin, ironically, one of the impeachment managers.
00:11:02.500 He himself was claiming that it was an insurrection when he had, in fact, objected on the floor of the House to Trump's first election as president.
00:11:13.280 But if you look at what the DOJ and the FBI and the CIA and the alphabet soup of federal agencies did when Trump was president, it was an assault on democracy.
00:11:26.940 Why is that?
00:11:27.640 Well, democracy says that the voters get to choose, and the voters elected Donald Trump in 2016.
00:11:33.060 But yet the hard partisans who had burrowed into senior career positions at DOJ and the FBI and the rest of the agencies, they hated Trump.
00:11:42.540 And they spent four years trying to undermine, trying to attack, trying to destroy the democratically elected president of the United States.
00:11:51.840 That is an assault on democracy.
00:11:53.860 That is reflecting a contempt for democratic values.
00:11:57.300 That is saying, I, the career bureaucrat, know better who the president should be than the pesky voters, and I'm going to abuse my government power to try to destroy the officeholder that the voters elected.
00:12:10.700 Well, that angry, hateful lashing out that we saw in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, that we saw with Russia, Russia, Russia, that we saw with the Steele dossier, that we saw with the relentless attack, the newest manifestation is what is happening in Colorado and what is happening in Maine.
00:12:31.300 If you look at Colorado, the Colorado Supreme Court has seven members, all Democrats, they've been appointed by Democrat governors in Colorado.
00:12:42.320 Interestingly, it was a 4-3 decision from the Colorado Supreme Court.
00:12:46.100 The four justices who were in the majority, none of them went to school in Colorado.
00:12:52.220 They all went to Harvard and Yale.
00:12:54.220 The three justices who went to law school in Colorado all dissented.
00:12:58.820 And it shows you something about just how radicalized the elite schools have been.
00:13:04.780 Actually, one of those four justices is a woman I went to law school with. 0.92
00:13:08.000 I was on the law review with her.
00:13:09.500 I knew her well.
00:13:10.660 She was a partisan Democrat then.
00:13:13.260 But I got to say, where she and her three other liberal justices are now, it is breathtaking because they are saying, we don't care what the voters want in Colorado.
00:13:27.680 The Secretary of State in Maine is saying, I don't care what the voters want in Maine.
00:13:33.320 I hate Trump so much, you cannot vote for him.
00:13:37.780 That has no precedent in our nation's history.
00:13:41.320 For more than 10 years, Patriot Mobile has been America's only Christian conservative wireless provider.
00:13:47.660 They stand behind their values, and they stand behind exceptional service.
00:13:53.160 They're an example of putting the cause ahead of profit, and that is why I am proud to partner with them.
00:13:59.400 Patriot Mobile is extending their Black Friday deal with the Every Friday Matters deal.
00:14:04.640 And you can get a free smartphone when you switch today.
00:14:09.060 Patriot Mobile offers dependable nationwide coverage, giving you access to all three major networks,
00:14:15.140 which means you get the same coverage you've been accustomed to without funding the radical left.
00:14:21.720 Now, when you switch to Patriot Mobile, you're supporting free speech, religious freedom, the sanctity of life,
00:14:27.440 our veterans and first responders.
00:14:29.480 And more than just that, they are actually a 100% U.S.-based company with customer service teams that make switching easy.
00:14:38.100 So you can keep your same number you have right now.
00:14:41.140 You can keep your existing phone, or for a limited time, get a free smartphone from Patriot Mobile.
00:14:46.940 Go to PatriotMobile.com slash Ferguson, or call them 972-PATRIOT.
00:14:52.240 Use the promo code FRIDAY76.
00:14:55.540 That's FRIDAY76.
00:14:57.260 Again, get a free smartphone with promo code FRIDAY76.
00:15:00.900 That's the limited time offer.
00:15:02.140 Join me.
00:15:02.640 Make the switch today.
00:15:03.940 At PatriotMobile.com slash Ferguson.
00:15:06.120 That's PatriotMobile.com slash Ferguson, or 972-PATRIOT.
00:15:10.820 You look at these moving forward and continuing assault on our democracy, it brings me to phase three.
00:15:19.000 And you warned about this in your book.
00:15:20.520 You alluded to it a second ago, but I want to dive into this more.
00:15:23.620 Democrats, if they don't get their way on Election Day, then they try to impeach a conservative.
00:15:27.740 Then if another candidate comes out they find threatening, now they're just going to try to take them off the ballot.
00:15:31.740 But if that doesn't work and the Supreme Court, you know, shuts it down 9-0 or 8-1 or whatever 7-2, then I think we can all agree, stage three would be, okay, well, the next time we have a chance to pack that court, which is what you warned about in your book, then we're just going to pack the court until we get the votes we need.
00:15:49.440 So then we can kick people off ballots anywhere we want to in America.
00:15:52.480 Am I crazy to think that's where we're going?
00:15:55.040 You're not crazy, and it is exactly where we're going.
00:15:58.100 The Democrats, they believe the ends justify the means.
00:16:01.700 They have convinced themselves Donald Trump is Hitler.
00:16:03.720 And therefore, in order to stop Hitler, anything, anything, anything is justified. 0.98
00:16:08.460 And destroying norms, destroying the principle that the voters decide elections, that's perfectly okay from their perspective.
00:16:16.920 Destroying the rule of law, destroying the Supreme Court.
00:16:19.720 Look, you've seen Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice and Democrats in the Senate wage war on the U.S. Supreme Court, trying to delegitimize the court, trying to destroy trust because they don't like the rulings coming from the court.
00:16:32.980 And it's perfectly acceptable.
00:16:34.840 They apparently have no compunction.
00:16:37.520 No tiny voice in them says, well, maybe our country is worse off.
00:16:42.340 They don't have that voice.
00:16:43.960 They don't respond to it.
00:16:45.400 Instead, they're willing to do whatever it takes because they're convinced with a messianic zeal.
00:16:53.280 It's a zealotry that is reminiscent of the fervor of a religious zealot, of a fanatic.
00:17:04.080 It has become their life purpose to hate and attack Donald Trump and to destroy every institution in America, if necessary, to stop Donald Trump.
00:17:15.280 When this news broke of Maine's top elected official removing Trump from the 2024 primary ballot, the shocking part was in the devil and the details of the decision on why they decided to do it.
00:17:29.020 They, of course, said, oh, well, it was January the 6th, insurrection.
00:17:32.260 But they actually cited YouTube videos, which is one of the reasons why to kick them off the ballot.
00:17:38.960 And even on CNN, they couldn't get this past their own commentators who said this.
00:17:43.920 Listen carefully.
00:17:44.540 An interesting discussion, an interesting take from the main secretary of state here.
00:17:50.020 The 14th Amendment, Section 3, says in plain text that if you shall have engaged in insurrection, you can't be in office.
00:17:59.340 She takes that to mean that if she determines that Donald Trump engaged in insurrection, he can't be on the main primary ballot.
00:18:05.920 Is it that simple?
00:18:06.680 No, it's not that simple.
00:18:07.640 So clearly, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment says engaged in insurrection, you're out.
00:18:12.020 We all have that.
00:18:12.600 The complicated part, and where we are going to see this play out in the courts, is who gets to decide and by what process.
00:18:19.900 Now, it's important to know, and in the ruling, the secretary of state we just heard from says she's basically following the same legal reasoning as the Colorado Supreme Court did last week.
00:18:28.300 And she says in her ruling, if this gets struck down in Colorado, we're out of luck, too.
00:18:32.920 So she's basing it on the same legal argument.
00:18:35.100 Let me sort of lay out the arguments, both sides.
00:18:36.860 And by the way, it's worth saying, we're all theorizing here.
00:18:39.220 We're in legally unknown territory.
00:18:41.320 The argument against is, first of all, the 14th Amendment, Section 5, says Congress has the authority to pass laws to implement this.
00:18:48.960 They did.
00:18:49.520 They passed the criminal law.
00:18:50.780 And the argument is that means Congress, not the states.
00:18:53.820 But perhaps, and this is the argument that the main secretary of state in Colorado made, the states can do it, too.
00:18:58.760 If that's true, then Section 2, Question 2, is were the processes, were these hearings fair?
00:19:06.940 Did they comport with due process?
00:19:08.500 And I think there's a question there with regard to what Maine did.
00:19:11.440 Because if you look at the hearing, and she details this in the ruling, they heard from one fact witness, a law professor.
00:19:18.060 She based her ruling on a lot of documents, but also YouTube clips.
00:19:22.640 I mean, Senator, also YouTube clips and one witness who is a law professor.
00:19:29.900 I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it's probably a liberal law professor they found to make the argument.
00:19:35.040 And so now that's enough that we can just say, yep, you can't vote for the candidate you want to choose, that the Republican Party chooses because we think he's a threat to the Democratic Party.
00:19:42.880 So therefore, you don't have the option like this is the world we live in now in 2024, you know, and it's interesting that that legal commentator on CNN is very liberal. 0.89
00:19:53.640 But but even he is saying this is ridiculous.
00:19:56.100 Look, the text of the 14th Amendment, Section 3, here's what it says.
00:20:00.200 It says, quote, no person shall be a senator or representative in Congress or elector, a president and vice president or hold any office, civil or military under the United States or under any state.
00:20:11.660 Who, having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress or as an officer of the United States or as a member of any state legislature or as an executive or judicial officer of any state to support the Constitution of the United States shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same or given aid and comfort to the enemies thereof.
00:20:32.300 But Congress may, by a vote of two thirds of each house, remove such disability.
00:20:37.140 Now, this was passed right in the wake of the Civil War, and it was designed to stop people who had fought in the Confederate Army from from serving in in government office.
00:20:46.900 That if you had been part of an army waging war, a civil war, look, at the end of the day, the Civil War killed over six hundred thousand Americans.
00:20:55.640 It was a war that waged on for four years.
00:20:58.420 It was the bloodiest war in American history.
00:21:00.660 And the 14th Amendment concluded if you were a Confederate soldier, you were not going to be a senator, a congressman.
00:21:08.340 You were not going to be president.
00:21:09.880 You were not going to be a federal officer.
00:21:11.120 That was written into law.
00:21:13.000 Now, it is it defies reason, logic and facts to suggest that Donald Trump standing up and giving a speech on January 6th in which he urged people to be peaceful, not to be violent, was somehow equivalent to leading a brigade in the Civil War and and fighting a war.
00:21:38.360 By the way, insurrection.
00:21:40.240 So the central question here is whether or not Donald Trump is guilty of engaging in insurrection.
00:21:46.820 Now, we don't entirely have to theorize on this.
00:21:49.440 Actually, the United States Congress has defined insurrection.
00:21:52.480 So there is a statute.
00:21:54.040 The statute is 18 U.S.C. Section 2383.
00:21:57.440 It is entitled Rebellion or Insurrection.
00:22:00.480 Here's the definition of it.
00:22:01.620 So this is defined and it's defined specifically with regard to the 14th Amendment.
00:22:30.500 That if you're convicted of this under the terms of the statute, you're disqualified under the 14th Amendment.
00:22:36.840 Now, interestingly enough, Jack Smith is literally trying to throw the book at Donald Trump.
00:22:42.540 He has brought two different indictments, one in Florida, one in D.C.
00:22:46.980 Jack Smith is Javert.
00:22:48.640 He is he is pursuing Jean Valjean and he will not stop no matter what.
00:22:54.580 Jack Smith has demonstrated that he is not constrained by the bounds of law.
00:22:59.960 When he went after Bob McDonnell, the Republican governor of Virginia, when he indicted him and ended up destroying his political career, that ended up being reversed unanimously by the Supreme Court.
00:23:10.440 Nine to nothing, actually eight to nothing, because one of the justices was recused.
00:23:14.480 But the fact that it was lawless did not stop Jack Smith.
00:23:18.600 Well, you know what?
00:23:19.940 Jack Smith has not indicted Donald Trump under 18 U.S.C. Section 2383.
00:23:26.200 He has not charged him with insurrection.
00:23:28.720 Donald Trump is not charged with insurrection in any court of law anywhere in the country.
00:23:33.380 And there is a reason.
00:23:34.360 Even a rabidly partisan, obsessed prosecutor like Jack Smith, even in an incredibly friendly venue like the District of Columbia with a very left wing judge and with a jury pool that voted 94 percent Democrat.
00:23:49.620 Even there, Jack Smith and his team no doubt concluded we don't have the evidence to charge Trump with insurrection.
00:23:58.640 Now, what did the main secretary of state say?
00:24:01.420 Evidence, evidence.
00:24:02.260 Evidence, I look at a YouTube video, I, you know what?
00:24:05.300 Gosh, everyone on TV says insurrection.
00:24:07.360 It must be an insurrection because every Democrat I know screams insurrection when they look at Trump.
00:24:13.140 It is a lawless determination.
00:24:15.640 And that's why, that's one of the many reasons why I believe the Supreme Court will reverse the Colorado Supreme Court.
00:24:22.600 And as I said, I think there's a very good chance they'll do so unanimously.
00:24:27.160 Canadian women are looking for more, more of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders. 0.99
00:24:32.260 And the world are out of them.
00:24:33.280 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:24:37.240 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:24:38.420 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:24:39.700 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:24:43.360 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:24:49.140 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:24:52.360 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:24:56.420 All right.
00:24:58.520 So let's move into the politics and the timing of this year.
00:25:02.680 We're very close now to getting into the primaries.
00:25:07.420 We're talking about Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina Center.
00:25:10.680 You know this map and this calendar and how important it is when you ran for president.
00:25:15.160 And this could linger on with this over Donald Trump's head with state after state trying to kick him off the ballot.
00:25:22.340 How long could we have to wait until the Supreme Court gets involved?
00:25:26.240 And then how long would we have to wait for the ruling for this to come down?
00:25:29.640 Are we weeks or months?
00:25:30.760 How long could this, how does this play out at the Supreme Court?
00:25:33.540 Well, the appeal is already pending at the Supreme Court.
00:25:36.160 So last week, last Wednesday, the Colorado Republican Party asked the Supreme Court to overturn the Colorado Supreme Court's decision.
00:25:44.340 So that the initial appeal papers have been filed in the interim.
00:25:49.440 Trump's name is on the ballot and and in Colorado.
00:25:53.240 And that was under the terms of the Colorado Supreme Court decision, which which is it.
00:25:58.640 They stayed their own decision pending appeal.
00:26:01.220 They recognized the massive consequences of it.
00:26:04.540 So the primary in Colorado is on March 5th.
00:26:08.540 And so right now, Trump's name is on the March 5th ballot with the appeal filed.
00:26:15.500 The court could act exceptionally quickly.
00:26:18.180 The court could act in a matter of days or weeks.
00:26:21.680 And there are times for emergency appeals that the court schedules a very expedited briefing schedule, schedules, oral arguments and issued a decision.
00:26:29.280 I hope they do that.
00:26:30.660 Look, there's a chance they take their time and let it play out because the Colorado Supreme Court decision is stayed.
00:26:39.860 And so they could say, well, look, he's going to be on the ballot.
00:26:42.220 So there's no urgency or exigency.
00:26:44.980 And by the way, in Maine, there's a good chance the Maine courts overturn the Maine secretary of state's decision.
00:26:51.480 If that happens, then then there is no immediate threat to the voters being denied the ability to to elect the candidate of their choice.
00:27:00.860 I hope the court doesn't doesn't slow down or doesn't take their time doing it.
00:27:06.140 I hope they resolve this quickly.
00:27:07.740 I think it's important to have clarity nationally.
00:27:11.840 But the court has the ability.
00:27:15.020 There are times where it has briefed and heard argument and issues decisions within a matter of days.
00:27:20.900 So it has the ability to move very quickly during Bush versus Gore during those 36 days when we had multiple recounts in Florida.
00:27:29.880 As as you'll recall, I was part of the legal team that was litigating Bush versus Gore.
00:27:34.420 I was down in Tallahassee representing George W. Bush in those 36 days.
00:27:39.160 We went to the U.S. Supreme Court twice.
00:27:41.280 And and within that period, briefed out the case, had oral argument and had decisions two different times from the U.S. Supreme Court within those 36 days.
00:27:50.360 So when the court wants to, it can move exceptionally fast.
00:27:55.700 I would note also that that between the two, look, in terms of the general election, the odds are not great that Colorado is going to be a swing state.
00:28:08.720 And Joe Biden won Colorado by about 14 points last time.
00:28:14.400 And and so it's it's Colorado is not anticipated to be a swing state in November.
00:28:19.840 Maine, interestingly enough, is so Maine has an unusual way of allocating its electoral votes.
00:28:27.180 Maine has a total of four electoral votes and two of them go to the winner of the state.
00:28:32.040 And then one goes to the winner of one congressional district and another goes to the winner of another congressional district.
00:28:37.320 So Maine has two congressional districts.
00:28:39.940 What's interesting about that is even though Maine has been a reliably Democrat state in presidential elections for some time,
00:28:48.180 one of the two congressional districts in Maine quite regularly will vote for Republicans.
00:28:53.260 And so Trump won one electoral vote out of Maine.
00:28:56.900 He had one of the districts he won.
00:28:58.360 The other three he lost.
00:28:59.320 And and that could easily happen again.
00:29:02.800 And listen, if this election was close, it could literally come down to that single electoral vote in Maine deciding the outcome.
00:29:11.760 And so the decision in Maine is quite consequential.
00:29:15.500 It's also consequential going forward.
00:29:18.000 Do other states, in particular swing states, make the same determination?
00:29:21.300 Do you see bigger states, a Pennsylvania, a Michigan, a Wisconsin?
00:29:26.800 Do you see states like that that are very much in play, that very much could go either way?
00:29:32.720 Do you see them engage and try to follow this pattern?
00:29:35.780 And if these left wing partisans were to succeed in removing Trump from the ballot,
00:29:42.740 I think the risk would be very high that you would see other bigger and more consequential swing states following that pattern.
00:29:50.200 Now, I don't think that's going to happen because they're not going to succeed.
00:29:53.180 And by the way, there's an obvious escalation at some point.
00:29:57.880 If the left weaponizes the legal system to such an extent that they try to remove the Republican nominee from the general election ballot,
00:30:06.600 you are likely to see red states reciprocate and and try to remove the Democrat nominee from the ballot.
00:30:14.000 That this can be a mutually assured destruction, which is one of the reasons I don't think there's any chance the Supreme Court allows this Colorado decision to go into effect
00:30:26.000 because it undermines the ability of the voters to choose who they want as president.
00:30:33.220 And that is as foundational to democracy in our country as as anything there is.
00:30:38.040 Let me tell you about Augusta Precious Metals.
00:30:40.500 If you've seen the headlines lately, you know what's going on with the economy.
00:30:44.060 Third highest deficit in history, the highest rate of debt we've ever seen in this country on credit card debt.
00:30:50.420 The digital dollar sparking uncertainty is another headline.
00:30:54.080 And as you know, what's going on in the Middle East.
00:30:56.900 We're living in an unpredictable world, but gold is still gold.
00:31:01.120 It's weathered many storms, and that's exactly why I've invested in physical gold.
00:31:07.000 It's tangible.
00:31:08.040 It's real.
00:31:08.600 And it helps me sleep at night.
00:31:10.360 Now, there are a lot of different companies you can call, but I want you to know about Augusta Precious Metals,
00:31:14.600 because if you have an IRA or a 401k, then it's time that you learn about the benefits of a gold IRA from Augusta Precious Metals.
00:31:23.340 That is where I bought my gold.
00:31:26.160 They're exceptional, honest, and they answer all of your questions.
00:31:30.540 In fact, they do a free sit-down with you, one-on-one, and answer all of your questions about gold.
00:31:37.620 So, all you have to do is call them, 877-4-GOLD-IRA.
00:31:45.060 That's 877-4-GOLD-IRA, and you can do a one-on-one meeting with their experts and ask all the questions about gold for you.
00:31:55.900 They're also online at AugustaPreciousMetals.com.
00:31:58.900 That's AugustaPreciousMetals.com or 877-4-GOLD-IRA.
00:32:06.040 Finally, on this, there's the political ramifications of this.
00:32:10.500 There's a lot of conservative voters now that are very upset.
00:32:13.440 I've heard from more people that are not necessarily big fans of Donald Trump that are now like, the hell with this.
00:32:22.400 I'm going to stand behind Donald Trump because this is just so egregious.
00:32:26.180 Do you think the Democrats overplayed their hand here politically and the backfire could be catastrophic to them?
00:32:32.440 Or by the time we get to Election Day, will a lot of this just be forgotten?
00:32:37.900 Well, I think politically this benefits Trump in the primary.
00:32:43.080 You know, rewind.
00:32:43.900 Go back to our early podcasts last year when the first Trump indictment, when the Alvin Bragg indictment came down.
00:32:52.800 You and I went on air, and right after that indictment, I went on this podcast, and I told the podcast viewers, I said, Donald Trump will go up 10 points in the polls as a result of this.
00:33:04.260 That was a prediction I made immediately after the indictment came down.
00:33:08.140 A week later, Donald Trump was up 10 points in the polls.
00:33:12.120 And by the way, he's never come down since.
00:33:13.880 If you look at a year ago, the poll numbers had a much more competitive race between Trump and DeSantis a year ago.
00:33:20.760 And then the first indictment came, and then the second, and then the third, and then the fourth.
00:33:24.500 And Trump's numbers went up and up and up, and everyone else's numbers went down.
00:33:28.500 And I think one of the effects is, in a Republican primary, people rallied around Trump.
00:33:33.140 Look, when the Colorado Supreme Court decision came down, all of Trump's opponents immediately denounced it, which you had to do it.
00:33:39.400 It was a lawless abuse of power.
00:33:42.340 However, I also think the Democrats are quite fond of that.
00:33:46.560 Every single Democrat in elected office wants Trump to be the nominee.
00:33:53.140 But at the same time, so they are happy with helping Trump in the primary because that's the outcome they want.
00:33:59.680 In the general, assuming this Colorado decision is overturned, assuming the main decision is overturned, it could backfire.
00:34:08.260 You could see some independent and swing voters get ticked off.
00:34:11.620 In a state like Maine that has independence, that might have some lasting legacy.
00:34:16.420 In a state like Colorado that has some independence, that might have some impact as well.
00:34:20.700 I have not seen any evidence that this abuse of power is hurting Democrats in a general election.
00:34:29.680 It may be the case, but one of the challenges is that the media is so utterly corrupt that they're, by and large, not reporting on it.
00:34:40.060 But I would tell listeners a verdict.
00:34:41.900 Anytime you're talking with leftists who are arguing and they're trotting out language like,
00:34:48.120 we must save democracy, you know, it's a great opportunity to say, oh, save democracy.
00:34:53.660 You mean like Colorado, like Maine, like preventing the voters from actually voting for the candidate they want to vote for?
00:34:59.560 Explain to me how exactly it's saving democracy to stop the voters from voting for the candidate they want to vote for. 0.96
00:35:07.980 And I don't know of a leftist who can argue against that other than to just jabber, you know, Trump is evil, Trump is evil, Trump is evil, rather than actually engage in reason and logic.
00:35:19.400 And so I'm not convinced this abuse of power will have a massive-ish impact on turnout in November.
00:35:28.200 But I do think it helps Trump in the primaries.
00:35:30.660 It's going to be a very interesting 2024, obviously.
00:35:35.000 We are going to cover it all for you here on Verdict.
00:35:37.440 And Happy New Year to you and your family, everyone of you that are listening.
00:35:40.620 Don't forget to hit that subscribe button, that auto-download button, or on Apple, the follow button.
00:35:45.340 As the algorithms have changed a lot at the end of this year.
00:35:48.660 So make sure you check and see if you have follow if you're listening on Apple.
00:35:52.600 Share this podcast on social media wherever you are.
00:35:55.700 We are looking forward to bring you a lot of information.
00:35:58.580 This is going to be a very active year.
00:36:01.100 So thank you for spending time with us on your new year.
00:36:03.560 Happy New Year to each and every one of you, Senator.
00:36:05.100 Happy New Year to you as well.
00:36:06.420 And I know you want to say to all the listeners again, Happy New Year to them.
00:36:10.320 Happy New Year and may 2024 be an extraordinary year for our nation.
00:36:14.580 May God bless you and your family and may God continue to bless the United States of America.
00:36:19.900 We'll see you back here on Wednesday morning.
00:36:23.420 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:36:26.300 Guaranteed Human.