Verdict with Ted Cruz - Who Is To Blame For The GOP Losing The Senate？ We Explain WHY We Must Delay The Senate Leadership Elections And Why The GA Runoff Is Still Critically Important!

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.600 Welcome.

00:00:05.360 It is Verdict with Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:08.760 Senator, the elephant in the room, we have officially lost the Senate, the ability to

00:00:14.740 pick up the Senate.

00:00:16.100 And there are a lot of Americans that are going to be tuning in to you this morning

00:00:20.040 and they want to know who is to blame for this.

00:00:23.720 There are a ton of people arguing over this right now that's saying it's Mitch McConnell's

00:00:28.880 fault.

00:00:29.120 No, no, no.

00:00:29.560 It's Donald Trump's fault for picking candidates like Dr. Oz or and then it's not even his

00:00:33.860 fault.

00:00:34.140 It's his wife's fault. 0.99

00:00:35.040 And everybody's trying to figure out how do you put this in a box?

00:00:38.420 And I think it's so important to get your take on this.

00:00:41.180 What happened?

00:00:42.300 How did this happen?

00:00:43.360 And who's to blame for it?

00:00:45.700 Well, Ben, let me start off by saying I am so pissed off.

00:00:49.720 I cannot even see straight.

00:00:52.200 We had an extraordinary opportunity.

00:00:55.120 We had a generational opportunity.

00:00:57.140 This should have been a fundamental landslide election.

00:01:02.460 We should have won the House and the Senate.

00:01:04.380 We should have a 30, 40, 50 vote majority in the House.

00:01:08.060 We should have 53, 54, 55 Republicans in the Senate. 0.97

00:01:12.380 And instead, holy crap, the Democrats keep the Senate.

00:01:17.620 Worse than that, the Democrats potentially grow their majority in the Senate. 0.99

00:01:22.840 Worse than that.

00:01:23.760 Yes, we take the House, but at best, we're going to take the House with a couple of seats.

00:01:29.940 Maybe there is an outside chance we lose the House.

00:01:33.560 I don't think we will.

00:01:34.560 I think the numbers are enough that we will hold on to the House.

00:01:37.700 But it's going to be a majority of 219, 220, 221, 222.

00:01:43.340 218 is a majority.

00:01:45.360 So we're going to be looking at a 2, 3, 4 vote majority at best.

00:01:51.540 The rage Americans are feeling across this country.

00:01:56.500 The rage that I'm feeling, there are almost not words to describe it.

00:02:00.640 Because this opportunity was screwed up. 0.90

00:02:03.920 It was screwed up badly. 0.96

00:02:05.900 And the people are going to pay the price are the American people. 0.98

00:02:08.200 The country is screwed for the next four years because of this.

00:02:13.000 We're going to see horrible left-wing judges confirmed for the next two years because of this. 1.00

00:02:19.280 We're going to see judges taking away our free speech rights, our religious liberty rights, our Second Amendment rights.

00:02:25.500 It is an enormous missed opportunity.

00:02:30.300 And I got to say, it is hard to describe my feelings as anything other than rage right now.

00:02:35.540 Senator, before we get into some of the exit poll data that I think really tells you a lot about where the American mindset was going into Election Day,

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00:04:14.860 One of the things that I still think is so shocking is the exit poll data did show

00:04:19.760 that Americans were very concerned over the issues of the economy.

00:04:25.080 They were very concerned over inflation.

00:04:28.220 They were very concerned over parental rights.

00:04:31.640 They were very concerned over all of these types of issues that clearly leaned to the Republican

00:04:37.600 candidates.

00:04:39.140 Yet, on election day, we still see, and Democrats were as shocked as anybody.

00:04:46.240 They were expecting a bloodbath, Senator.

00:04:49.260 Yes.

00:04:49.600 And then they went on TV this weekend on the Sunday shows,

00:04:52.480 and they were basically sitting there in total disbelief.

00:04:56.160 They were actually saying out loud,

00:04:58.540 we cannot believe how well the Democrats did comparing it to how bad the economy was

00:05:06.580 and how low the president's approval rating was and how low the Democrats' approval rating was as a party.

00:05:11.560 Look, the Democrats had assumed they were going to get utterly obliterated in the House,

00:05:17.600 and the Democrats thought they would lose the Senate.

00:05:20.240 And on every objective indicia, they should have.

00:05:24.700 The top issues, a large majority of Americans believe we're on the wrong track.

00:05:29.680 They believe the economy is terrible, but they believe Joe Biden is doing a terrible job.

00:05:33.640 The top three issues in the country, number one, inflation, number two, crime, number three, illegal immigration.

00:05:39.700 Democrats are disastrous on all three of them.

00:05:43.680 And yet, at the end of the day, look, one of the patterns we have out of this election,

00:05:47.960 incumbents by and large won across the board.

00:05:51.480 So the voters came in. 1.00

00:05:52.700 We said, we think it's all crap. 0.99

00:05:54.580 Let's vote for the guy we got right now. 0.99

00:05:56.940 And so a whole bunch of incumbents prevailed,

00:05:59.940 despite the voters recognizing their lives had gotten a lot worse,

00:06:05.480 and yet they reelected the same people who did this.

00:06:09.700 In terms of whose fault it is,

00:06:13.520 this is going to be a discussion we're going to have for weeks and months going forward.

00:06:19.680 I think there is plenty of blame to go around.

00:06:23.680 Everybody bears some of the blame.

00:06:25.860 But I will tell you,

00:06:28.760 look, the issue right now that I think is critical,

00:06:35.140 the Republican Senate has a leadership election scheduled for Wednesday,

00:06:41.120 two days from now.

00:06:42.020 It would be insane if we reelect the same leadership two days from now.

00:06:51.800 If we say, hey, nothing happened.

00:06:54.380 Everything's good.

00:06:56.120 Keep rowing off the waterfall.

00:06:58.580 Crash into the rocks.

00:07:00.000 Everything's awesome.

00:07:00.780 Listen, if you have the number one team in the nation and you get crushed and you get crushed and you get crushed,

00:07:05.760 you know what happens?

00:07:06.560 They fire the coach.

00:07:08.660 The idea that we would have leadership elections on Wednesday is insane.

00:07:13.960 I can tell you I have publicly called for delaying the leadership elections in the Senate

00:07:18.560 until at a minimum after December 6th, which is when the Georgia runoff is.

00:07:23.720 Because at this point, we don't even know who the Republican conference is.

00:07:27.760 Sadly, we know it's a minority.

00:07:30.780 So at best, we're going to have 50 senators.

00:07:34.380 And with Kamala Harris as the vice president, that means the Democrats will have a majority.

00:07:41.120 But we don't know who the senator from Georgia is.

00:07:43.760 It could be Herschel Walker.

00:07:45.360 We don't know who the senator from Alaska is.

00:07:47.580 There's still, it's going to be a couple of weeks before they reallocate the ranked choice voting.

00:07:53.100 So we don't know who the senator from Alaska will be.

00:07:56.740 And yet what is happening is the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, is trying to force through a vote on Wednesday.

00:08:04.100 Now, one of the things to understand, people ask, well, gosh, what's a Republican leader election like?

00:08:12.160 And I have to admit, when I first arrived here 10 years ago, I didn't know what it would be like.

00:08:15.940 I went to my first one.

00:08:17.240 So they do it deliberately immediately after the election.

00:08:20.760 And the people that vote, the old retiring senators don't vote.

00:08:24.780 So the people who vote in a leadership election are all of the new senators coming into the new Senate.

00:08:30.020 So you show up.

00:08:31.280 When I showed up there in 2012, I'm a baby senator.

00:08:35.200 They put you in a little temporary office down in the basement.

00:08:38.260 You have like three little offices with a bunch of people packed in there.

00:08:42.240 You don't know what you're doing.

00:08:43.640 You don't even know where the men's room is.

00:08:45.200 And you immediately walk in and have to vote on leader.

00:08:47.800 And they do that because they don't want the freshmen, who are the least, they have the least hooks in them at that point.

00:08:55.140 They don't want them to be able to organize and vote against any existing leadership.

00:08:59.580 So they try to force a leadership vote through before you have a chance to do anything.

00:09:04.260 The first leadership election I went to in 2012, I was amazed.

00:09:11.380 I kind of sat back and said, oh, this should be interesting.

00:09:13.280 And I assumed the Republican leader, who was Mitch McConnell then, would stand up and give a speech and say, hey, here's what I want to do.

00:09:22.700 In 2012, Barack Obama had just been reelected to a second term.

00:09:26.820 We'd had a really disappointing election like this one.

00:09:29.340 I'd gotten elected.

00:09:30.220 I was one of the few bright spots, at least from my perspective, not necessarily from Mitch's or the Democrats' perspective.

00:09:37.000 But, you know, I was waiting for a Republican leader to lay out a vision of here's how we're going to fight against Obama.

00:09:45.280 Here's what we're going to do to press back against these disastrous policies.

00:09:50.700 Then it will amaze you.

00:09:52.740 At leadership elections, the leaders don't give speeches.

00:09:55.460 They don't lay out agendas.

00:09:56.720 They don't say what they intend to do.

00:09:58.180 They say absolutely zero about their plans going forward.

00:10:04.080 Instead, what happens is a shocking, by the way, because if it's a leadership election, you would think.

00:10:09.560 And this is the first time I'm learning about this.

00:10:12.140 I thought for sure there was a, hey, here's why I still think I should be the leader, Mitch McConnell.

00:10:17.440 Right.

00:10:17.720 This is what we're going to do.

00:10:18.860 This is what we're going to how I'm going to do things.

00:10:21.200 This is and then would answer questions.

00:10:23.000 You're saying that will not happen on Wednesday and does not happen in the past either.

00:10:26.920 So I can tell you in the past it has never happened.

00:10:30.920 And look, you point out, think back to like when you and I were in junior high, student council elections.

00:10:38.140 Sure.

00:10:38.500 So someone would stand up and say, elect me to student council.

00:10:41.680 And if you do, I'll have chocolate ice cream in the cafeteria.

00:10:45.920 Like they'd have some promise of what they're going to do.

00:10:49.300 And you'd be like, oh, OK, I like that.

00:10:50.920 I'll vote for you.

00:10:52.200 I naively came in and said, OK, I assume that's what the leader elections are like.

00:10:56.900 They don't give any speeches at all.

00:10:58.400 Instead, other senators stand up and give nominating speeches.

00:11:02.300 And the nominating speeches are like are these epic poems composed to the leaders.

00:11:10.480 And so I've been there 10 years.

00:11:14.040 I have never voted for or against Mitch McConnell.

00:11:16.640 Why is that?

00:11:17.460 No one's ever run against him.

00:11:19.200 And every election has been a vote by acclamation.

00:11:21.960 In other words, he's just been adopted by acclamation.

00:11:24.140 We've never had to cast a vote.

00:11:25.160 But my first year, I saw that I was like, OK, this is really bizarre.

00:11:31.180 But then two years later, 2014, I'd been in the Senate for two years.

00:11:35.880 Something new developed, which is in 2014, for the first year, Mitch McConnell created a super PAC.

00:11:42.320 And Mitch's super PAC raises and spends about $300 million every two years to elect Senate Republicans.

00:11:50.960 I remember sitting there in 2014, two years into my term in the Senate, amazed and horrified.

00:11:59.880 In fact, texting Mike Lee, the wonderful conservative from Utah and my closest friends.

00:12:05.900 This is terrible because today, Mitch McConnell is the single largest donor to every single Republican senator, almost without exception.

00:12:15.800 He doesn't give to my campaigns.

00:12:17.040 He didn't give a penny to Mike Lee's campaign.

00:12:21.720 Six years ago, he didn't give a penny to Ron Johnson's campaign.

00:12:25.740 But Mitch, for most of the Republicans in the Senate, Mitch is spending $10 million, $20 million, $30 million, as much as $40 million on their races.

00:12:35.500 So most of the Republicans are scared to cross him.

00:12:39.000 I do think this cycle, it may be different.

00:12:43.840 So I have publicly called for delaying the leadership elections from Wednesday till after the Georgia runoff, which is on December 6th.

00:12:52.360 Several other Republican senators are called for the same.

00:12:55.820 Mike Lee is called for the same.

00:12:57.880 Ron Johnson is called for the same.

00:12:59.600 Josh Hawley is called for the same.

00:13:04.680 Cynthia Lummis is called for the same.

00:13:06.640 Actually, Marco Rubio is called for the same, which surprised a lot of people.

00:13:10.140 That was an unusual development.

00:13:11.920 Just a few hours ago, Lindsey Graham called for delaying the elections. 1.00

00:13:17.820 We're starting to see several Republicans lean out and call for that.

00:13:21.880 That being said, the response of Republican leadership is not only no, but hell no, we will vote, shut up and vote.

00:13:31.800 Is that because they're afraid you guys are going to organize or because and is it also they're afraid that as each day goes by,

00:13:39.720 more and more Americans will sound off and talk to their elected officials about why they don't want Mitch McConnell to be the leader?

00:13:49.420 Yes, yes, yes.

00:13:53.340 Listen, I think if you look back at the record of success, just like with a football coach where you would fire a football coach if the team loses when they should have won.

00:14:02.940 We should have won.

00:14:04.900 And I got to say, Mitch's philosophy as leader is to snuggle up to the Democrats and work with the Democrats.

00:14:12.240 You know, you look at what happens when the Democrats have a majority in the Senate, when the majority leader is Harry Reid or Chuck Schumer.

00:14:22.600 They don't cozy up to Republicans when Republicans had a majority in the Senate under Trump.

00:14:28.980 The Democrats didn't want to work with us.

00:14:33.160 They voted no and hell no on everything.

00:14:36.580 The difference is when Republicans have the majority, our current leadership believes it's a good idea to pass bill after bill after bill with all the Democrats and with 10 or 12 or 15 Republicans.

00:14:48.380 And so they end up organizing a small crew of Republicans to suck up to the Democrats and give the Democrats legislative wins.

00:14:56.780 And by the way, Ben, the Democrats never, ever, ever do this.

00:15:01.180 When we have the majority, they're not 10 or 12 Democrats who come give us wins.

00:15:05.480 No, they just vote hell no on everything.

00:15:07.700 And I got to say that I think there is a need for a real reassessment of is this a good strategy for the next two years?

00:15:18.680 I think the American people expect us to fight against these disastrous policies from the Democrats, the policies that are producing rampant inflation and out of control gas prices and crime that is skyrocketing in open borders.

00:15:33.380 And our current leadership, my single biggest disagreement with Mitch McConnell over the last 10 years is over and over and over again when it comes to can we stand up to Barack Obama or Joe Biden?

00:15:48.180 His answer is no.

00:15:49.640 And I believe the answer is yes, that we ought to stand and fight not on everything.

00:15:54.140 Look, if you fight on everything, you're not being smart.

00:15:56.340 You're not being strategic.

00:15:57.420 You're not actually fighting a real fight.

00:15:58.900 I think you pick real significant fights that matter and then you develop a strategy to really fight on it.

00:16:06.460 So, for example, I think we ought to fight an epic knockdown drag out fight over stopping the Democrats from funding 87,000 new IRS agents to harass and intimidate and persecute Americans and their political enemies.

00:16:21.660 Now, to do that, we will have to draw a line in the sand and say we will not fund them.

00:16:26.760 Here's what will happen next, Ben.

00:16:28.900 The Democrats and the media will say Republicans are shutting down the government because the only way to do it is on a government funding bill.

00:16:35.880 Sure.

00:16:36.740 If past this prologue, our current leadership will agree with the Democrats and the media and say, yeah, Republicans are shutting down the government.

00:16:45.040 It's terrible.

00:16:45.700 So let's fund the IRS agents. 0.94

00:16:47.940 I think the American people are pissed with Republicans behaving like jellyfish.

00:16:56.420 We need to stand up and fight.

00:16:58.500 And so one of the big reasons to delay the election is to have time to have a real debate about what our strategy should be.

00:17:07.140 And it ought to be a strategy that involves every Republican, not one leader as dictator.

00:17:12.960 One of the things that I think so many Americans are going to want to have an answer to, Senator, is if you take a step back, who's to blame for some of the candidate selection that's got us into this situation that we're in now?

00:17:35.160 Well, some of the losses, I think, were lack of funding from Mitch McConnell.

00:17:39.420 I think you would probably agree with me in that one.

00:17:41.880 But the other part of this is we had some really bad candidates that were picked.

00:17:47.280 Dr. Oz screams at the top of my list.

00:17:50.640 And I want to get your take because so many Americans I've talked to over the last couple of days, they're trying to figure that part of this out of the math equation of how we screwed this up so badly.

00:17:59.680 So, look, we had some candidates who were not very good candidates.

00:18:04.800 Mitch McConnell said that two months ago.

00:18:07.680 I disagreed with him strongly at the time, not in the fact of it.

00:18:11.540 Yes, there were some candidates who were not great candidates, but it's really dumb for the Republican leaders to take a two by four to them while they're running. 0.99

00:18:20.120 Once there are damn nominees, like, don't stand up and kneecap them while they're running. 0.94

00:18:26.020 But the time to have done that was in the primaries to elect candidates who are real and serious candidates. 0.99

00:18:33.300 And you take Pennsylvania.

00:18:34.360 Listen, I was all in for Dave McCormick.

00:18:36.540 I went, I campaigned for Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania the first week he announced.

00:18:40.520 I campaigned with Dave all over the state.

00:18:43.000 If Dave McCormick had been our nominee, he would have won Pennsylvania.

00:18:48.440 And we would have been, I hope, on a path to a Republican majority.

00:18:52.080 He was clearly the strongest conservative who can win.

00:18:59.940 And yet he didn't win.

00:19:02.180 And Trump came in at the end, endorsed Dr. Oz, did big rallies for Dr. Oz, and actually stood up on the rally podium and blasted McCormick,

00:19:12.260 which is amazing given that he offered Dave McCormick the position of Deputy Secretary of Defense.

00:19:18.480 And Dave's wife was the Deputy National Security Advisor to Donald Trump in the Trump White House.

00:19:25.800 But that had a real effect.

00:19:29.160 And I got to say, if we had come together as a party and said we need to win this race

00:19:34.260 and we need a serious and real candidate to do so, we would be celebrating a victory instead of a loss.

00:19:41.220 But that's not what happened.

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00:20:14.540 Let's deal with Walker.

00:20:16.380 There's a lot of people.

00:20:17.640 And you look at Georgia.

00:20:18.720 That's the last place we're really in a fight.

00:20:21.140 You and I were just out there on his campaign bus two days after the election.

00:20:29.840 He's in this runoff.

00:20:31.220 And I'm really worried, Senator, that there's going to be a lot of people in this country

00:20:36.340 that are going to now think, well, because we don't have the majority, right,

00:20:40.440 or the chance that the majority anymore in the Senate, that this race is pretty much who cares what really happens, right?

00:20:47.040 Because they're going to have control of the Senate, so so be it.

00:20:50.800 That is not the case at all.

00:20:52.380 And I need you to explain to everybody why this election in Georgia is still so extremely important.

00:21:00.580 Yeah, it's a great question.

00:21:02.080 And I want to say to everyone who listens to this podcast, I want to call on you to do two things.

00:21:08.440 Number one, the battle this week to delay the leadership election in the Senate is hugely important.

00:21:15.300 I mentioned to you the senators that have called publicly for delaying it.

00:21:18.740 Me, Mike Lee, Ron Johnson, Josh Hawley, Rick Scott, Cynthia Lummis, Marco Rubio, and Lindsey Graham.

00:21:31.920 If your senator is not on that list, pick up the phone today and call your senator

00:21:39.560 and call on them to delay the majority election, the leadership election until after the Georgia runoff.

00:21:50.040 That is hugely important.

00:21:52.180 And the only way this will change, the only way that election gets delayed

00:21:54.720 is if a gazillion phone calls come in to Senate Republicans in the next 48 hours.

00:22:02.580 But secondly, the question you asked, Ben, about Georgia.

00:22:07.400 There is a tendency among activists, among donors to say,

00:22:10.560 well, gosh, if the Democrats have the majority no matter what, Georgia doesn't matter.

00:22:16.300 That is absolutely wrong.

00:22:18.680 And let me explain why.

00:22:20.380 So as you know, right after the election, we go to the runoff.

00:22:24.280 The very first call the Herschel Walker campaign made was to me and my team.

00:22:29.000 And they asked me to come rally with Herschel.

00:22:31.620 I was there on Thursday, two days after the election, for the kickoff rally of the runoff.

00:22:37.620 We had over 3,000 people come out.

00:22:39.440 We had enormous energy.

00:22:40.700 It was fantastic.

00:22:42.500 But let me tell you why.

00:22:44.280 This is an important message to hear.

00:22:46.560 This is why the Georgia runoff matters immensely,

00:22:51.160 even though Democrats are going to have the majority regardless.

00:22:55.180 And the reason is as follows.

00:22:56.260 If we lose Georgia, the Democrats will be at plus one in the Senate.

00:23:03.660 In other words, they will go from 50 Democrats to 51 Democrats.

00:23:07.900 Why does that matter?

00:23:09.260 Because the last two years, the Democrats tried repeatedly to end the filibuster.

00:23:13.700 They had 48 votes to end the filibuster.

00:23:18.320 They were blocked by two Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

00:23:24.960 Those two stopped them from ending the filibuster.

00:23:28.320 Between the two, I think Sinema was the far stronger.

00:23:32.560 I think Manchin would have rolled over, but Sinema provided the backbone to stop Manchin from rolling over on that.

00:23:39.680 And I base thought, listen, I've served in the Senate for 10 years with Joe Manchin.

00:23:44.780 Prior to the last two years, 100% of the time, when the stakes were high and Chuck Schumer put the pressure on,

00:23:53.420 Manchin gave in and did what Schumer wanted.

00:23:56.340 Always, 100% without exception, Manchin was never the deciding vote.

00:24:01.500 It was Sinema that changed the whole dynamic because she came in and had some backbone, 0.99

00:24:05.800 and suddenly it was like, wow, they're really not ending the filibuster.

00:24:09.700 Now, you might say, okay, why do I care about ending the filibuster?

00:24:13.200 Here's what the Democrats want to do if they end the filibuster.

00:24:16.100 Number one, they will pass S-1, the Corrupt Politicians Act,

00:24:20.240 which would strike down every voter integrity law in the country,

00:24:23.600 would strike down every photo ID law in the country,

00:24:26.040 it would legalize ballot harvesting all across the country,

00:24:28.800 it would immediately register to vote millions of illegal aliens,

00:24:32.280 it would register to vote felons all across this country.

00:24:35.920 It is designed to ensure that Democrats can never lose again.

00:24:42.100 The second thing they would do is add two new states to the Union,

00:24:45.780 the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

00:24:47.700 They're doing that.

00:24:48.420 They want to do that because it would add, they believe,

00:24:51.580 four new Democrat senators so that they believe Republicans could never take the Senate again.

00:24:56.720 The third thing they would do is grant citizenship and voting rights to every illegal alien in America.

00:25:05.060 10, 15, 20 million, we don't know the exact number, but a big number.

00:25:09.820 Again, they would do that to seize power forever.

00:25:12.520 And the fourth thing they would do is pack the United States Supreme Court,

00:25:17.000 add four new left-wing Democrats to the Supreme Court,

00:25:21.220 take it from nine justices to 13,

00:25:24.400 which would critically injure and take away our constitutional rights to free speech,

00:25:31.660 to religious liberty, to the Second Amendment.

00:25:33.540 It would strike down school choice all across the country.

00:25:38.360 I believe if the Democrats win in Georgia,

00:25:41.700 and they have a 51-vote majority,

00:25:44.040 that Joe Manchin will fold under the pressure from Chuck Schumer,

00:25:47.960 and they will end the filibuster.

00:25:49.240 And I've got to say, look, Ben,

00:25:52.440 by my nature, I'm a deeply optimistic person.

00:25:57.660 But if they go down that road,

00:26:00.600 I don't know how we come back from it.

00:26:03.860 Well, and Democrats have shown no restraint at all

00:26:07.220 in undermining the rules or the laws

00:26:11.080 or even the procedures with our government or our country.

00:26:15.680 I mean, they knew when they were impeaching Donald Trump

00:26:17.780 that they were trying to overthrow the will of the people

00:26:19.560 on a dossier that they knew that their party,

00:26:22.340 the Democratic National Committee,

00:26:23.680 and Hillary Clinton paid for. 1.00

00:26:25.200 They knew when they were trying to overthrow the will of the people

00:26:27.380 that it was done on information they created out of thin air.

00:26:32.180 So if they're willing to do that,

00:26:34.540 I think they're more than willing to do

00:26:35.980 exactly what you're describing right now,

00:26:37.560 which 10, 15 years ago would have been,

00:26:39.880 you would say, I think, unimaginable.

00:26:42.680 Yet now I think this is their reality.

00:26:46.340 The Democrats, their priority is staying in power.

00:26:49.680 Everything else is secondary.

00:26:51.700 They care about staying in power.

00:26:53.480 Notice the legislative agenda that I said they'd pass

00:26:55.900 if they end the filibuster.

00:26:57.480 The Corrupt Politician Act is to stop voters

00:27:00.120 from voting Democrats out of office.

00:27:02.340 Making D.C. and Puerto Rico states 0.78

00:27:04.700 is to put more Democrats in the Senate.

00:27:07.420 Giving illegal aliens the right to vote

00:27:09.240 is to elect more Democrats.

00:27:11.300 Packing the Supreme Court is to give them control

00:27:13.540 over all three branches of government.

00:27:15.840 They believe in power.

00:27:17.580 They don't believe in democracy.

00:27:19.340 One of the great ironies,

00:27:21.400 just about every single attack

00:27:23.520 the Democrats use on Republicans,

00:27:26.060 is what, in fact, they are doing.

00:27:29.540 And so, listen, I would ask the folks

00:27:32.260 who listen to this podcast,

00:27:33.940 you guys are passionate believers in our country.

00:27:37.800 You are standing up and fighting.

00:27:39.240 I know you're angry.

00:27:40.860 You're demoralized.

00:27:41.760 You're frustrated.

00:27:42.680 How did we blow this?

00:27:44.600 I promise you that that frustration

00:27:48.560 is volcanic on my part.

00:27:51.640 Two things I would ask you to focus on.

00:27:54.140 Number one, pick up the phone

00:27:56.400 and call your senator and get your senator. 0.74

00:27:59.640 Every Republican senator needs to hear

00:28:01.700 from thousands upon thousands

00:28:03.460 of their constituents.

00:28:05.040 Delay the leadership elections.

00:28:06.640 Let's have real leaders

00:28:07.920 who actually stand and fight and deliver.

00:28:11.700 Number two, Georgia matters enormously.

00:28:15.900 And if you are in Georgia,

00:28:17.340 make sure you turn out.

00:28:18.980 Make sure you turn your friends out,

00:28:20.500 your family out.

00:28:21.520 If you have friends and family in Georgia,

00:28:23.480 call them.

00:28:25.000 It is about turnout.

00:28:26.040 And then it's also about fundraising.

00:28:27.680 It's about supporting.

00:28:29.480 Well, and that was going to be the last thing

00:28:31.160 I was going to ask you,

00:28:32.120 which I think is probably the most important center.

00:28:34.840 Money is going to be needed in Georgia.

00:28:37.340 And Democrats are now betting on Republicans

00:28:40.120 and conservatives being,

00:28:41.840 in essence, demoralized

00:28:43.620 over what just happened

00:28:45.040 to the point where they just don't give.

00:28:47.880 Democrats are fired up

00:28:49.400 because they had one hell of a midterm

00:28:51.100 that they didn't expect.

00:28:52.460 It's like they've won the game,

00:28:54.440 in essence, right?

00:28:55.320 Come back out of nowhere.

00:28:56.880 They want this seat in Georgia 0.53

00:28:59.380 and they think they can grab it

00:29:01.760 and they think they have

00:29:02.800 what they need to grab this seat

00:29:04.920 and they're going to be able

00:29:06.480 to raise a ton of money

00:29:07.720 because they feel like

00:29:08.660 there's some sort of momentum here for them.

00:29:11.640 If Republicans don't give,

00:29:14.860 we're going to lose this thing

00:29:16.060 because we just get out,

00:29:17.740 the money is out raised.

00:29:19.800 And you already talked about that,

00:29:21.100 just, I call it corruption

00:29:22.600 in the Republican Party.

00:29:24.000 I mean, do we have any indication

00:29:25.580 that Mitch McConnell's going to open up

00:29:27.280 his purse strings

00:29:27.980 and give some real money

00:29:28.960 to Herschel Walker?

00:29:30.280 Oh, look, I'm sure he will raise money

00:29:32.320 and invest in the race.

00:29:33.740 But if you look at this last cycle,

00:29:35.500 Mitch McConnell pulled the money

00:29:37.520 out of Arizona.

00:29:38.460 We could have won Arizona.

00:29:39.700 We nearly won Arizona.

00:29:41.260 And abandoning Blake Masters

00:29:42.580 was indefensible.

00:29:44.460 Why did that happen?

00:29:45.460 I got to ask you

00:29:46.220 because everybody is going to say

00:29:47.940 the same thing I am right now.

00:29:49.820 Explain to me, Senator,

00:29:51.380 why in a race 0.58

00:29:52.260 where the polling showed

00:29:53.300 that we had a legitimate chance

00:29:54.700 of winning there.

00:29:55.700 Why did he pull out

00:29:57.340 that money from Masters

00:29:59.380 who desperately needed it?

00:30:02.000 Because Masters said

00:30:03.180 he would vote against Mitch McConnell.

00:30:05.220 And so Mitch would rather be leader

00:30:07.760 than have a Republican majority.

00:30:11.700 If there's a Republican who can win

00:30:13.740 who's not going to support Mitch,

00:30:15.620 the truth of the matter is

00:30:17.260 he'd rather the Democrat win.

00:30:19.040 So he pulled all the money

00:30:20.000 out of Arizona.

00:30:20.700 He put $9 million into Alaska.

00:30:23.480 In Alaska, we've got an election 0.93

00:30:25.180 between Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, 0.99

00:30:27.780 and Kelly Chewbacca, a Republican.

00:30:29.700 One of the two is going to win.

00:30:31.460 Right now, Chewbacca is leading in the polls.

00:30:35.160 She is endorsed

00:30:36.380 by the Alaska Republican Party.

00:30:38.920 But she said she'd vote against Mitch,

00:30:41.560 whereas Lisa Murkowski 1.00

00:30:43.740 will vote for Mitch.

00:30:44.700 And so Mitch spent $9 million

00:30:46.280 in essentially the primary in Alaska.

00:30:49.160 Now, it may be that Murkowski wins

00:30:51.560 because they have this weird

00:30:52.660 rank-choice voting there.

00:30:54.140 So the Democrat got a handful of votes.

00:30:56.320 Those Democrat votes will be reassigned.

00:30:58.460 And you have to assume

00:30:59.700 all the Democrats are going to vote

00:31:00.920 for Lisa Murkowski,

00:31:01.920 which may give her the win. 0.97

00:31:03.700 But $9 million in Alaska,

00:31:06.160 look, Alaska has a very small population.

00:31:09.440 $9 million is like setting off

00:31:11.600 an atom bomb.

00:31:14.160 Yeah.

00:31:14.320 That was $9 million

00:31:16.040 that was not spent in Arizona.

00:31:17.680 If that $9 million had been spent in Arizona,

00:31:20.900 Blake Masters probably would have won

00:31:22.500 and we would be on the road

00:31:23.900 to a Republican majority.

00:31:26.120 But Mitch made a decision.

00:31:29.040 It's more important to him

00:31:30.480 to have Republicans who will back him

00:31:33.380 than it is to have 51 Republicans.

00:31:35.940 I understand why.

00:31:39.460 There's a certain selfishness

00:31:40.820 that justifies that.

00:31:41.900 It just doesn't make any sense

00:31:43.060 if you give a damn about the country.

00:31:45.340 Mitch also pulled all the money

00:31:46.540 out of New Hampshire.

00:31:47.400 Don Bulldog,

00:31:48.720 look, he ended up losing

00:31:49.900 by a significant margin,

00:31:51.820 but Maggie Hassan,

00:31:52.680 the Democrat,

00:31:53.420 was way under 50%,

00:31:55.540 was vulnerable.

00:31:56.600 And a big part of the reason

00:31:57.660 Bulldog lost

00:31:58.600 is he got massively outspent

00:32:00.240 and had no resources.

00:32:01.160 I think there needs to be

00:32:04.560 a real discussion

00:32:05.460 about where dollars are invested.

00:32:08.900 I think we will see

00:32:10.320 significant dollars invested in Georgia,

00:32:12.460 but I'm worried

00:32:13.280 that people will be demoralized

00:32:14.780 and say it doesn't matter.

00:32:16.980 And if you say it doesn't matter,

00:32:19.200 that's how you get 51 Democrats.

00:32:21.660 That's how they nuke the filibuster. 1.00

00:32:23.140 That's how they enact

00:32:24.300 the republic-ending changes

00:32:28.160 that destroy our democracy.

00:32:29.960 And so I get that you're pissed,

00:32:33.520 but go to TeamHerschel.com,

00:32:36.300 TeamHerschel.com,

00:32:37.440 TeamHerschel.com.

00:32:39.020 Make a contribution.

00:32:40.300 If you're in Georgia,

00:32:41.480 show up, work.

00:32:42.860 Let's win that seat.

00:32:44.720 But also, today...

00:32:48.240 Call your senators.

00:32:49.320 You gotta call your senators

00:32:50.460 on that leadership vote, too.

00:32:51.940 By the way,

00:32:52.720 do you know that the Democrats

00:32:54.020 are voting the first week of December?

00:32:57.460 So the Democrats have the sense

00:32:59.240 to delay because they're like,

00:33:00.500 gosh, Raphael Wardock

00:33:01.480 ought to be able to vote.

00:33:03.140 We shouldn't have a vote

00:33:04.360 until we know who's in the conference.

00:33:05.620 That actually makes

00:33:06.480 enormous common sense,

00:33:08.300 and yet the Republican leadership

00:33:09.480 is like,

00:33:10.220 screw the voters.

00:33:11.640 Doesn't matter who's in the conference. 0.97

00:33:13.260 We're voting now.

00:33:14.800 It makes no sense

00:33:16.580 other than as an exercise

00:33:18.700 of raw political power.

00:33:20.580 And yet there are

00:33:23.100 acolytes

00:33:24.380 of Mitch McConnell

00:33:26.140 who are going on

00:33:26.900 national television

00:33:27.920 saying,

00:33:28.680 vote for Mitch

00:33:30.160 and let's vote now.

00:33:31.580 I gotta say,

00:33:32.580 I just disagree with that.

00:33:34.180 It's truly incredible.

00:33:35.700 Make those phone calls.

00:33:37.020 Call your senator,

00:33:37.900 the switchboard,

00:33:38.760 202-221-3121.

00:33:41.860 You can also Google

00:33:42.860 your senator's name

00:33:43.740 directly online

00:33:44.660 and get their number,

00:33:45.760 but you need to be calling

00:33:46.700 your senators this week here.

00:33:48.500 It is important also.

00:33:50.120 Make sure that you share this podcast.

00:33:52.840 Hit that little forward error.

00:33:53.980 Put it everywhere you know

00:33:54.900 on social media.

00:33:55.700 Forward it in a text message

00:33:56.760 to your family and friend.

00:33:58.360 And Senator,

00:33:58.720 you and I had a funny conversation

00:34:00.280 this week.

00:34:01.160 We tell people

00:34:01.900 make sure you hit

00:34:02.460 that subscribe button.

00:34:03.540 We want to make it clear.

00:34:05.060 All that means

00:34:06.000 when you hit that

00:34:06.500 auto-download or subscribe button

00:34:07.780 is that you get the show

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00:34:20.200 It just guarantees

00:34:20.940 that you're going to get

00:34:22.320 the three episodes every week.

00:34:23.540 You and I were laughing

00:34:24.300 because people were asking,

00:34:25.160 like, wait,

00:34:25.500 when I hit subscribe,

00:34:26.800 do I have to pay something?

00:34:28.440 You do not.

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00:34:30.680 this podcast.

00:34:31.720 So download it.

00:34:32.680 Hit that subscribe

00:34:33.400 or auto-download button.

00:34:34.460 Senator,

00:34:35.100 I appreciate your leadership.

00:34:36.820 I know you're exhausted

00:34:37.660 from this election.

00:34:39.300 Like you said,

00:34:40.160 you should be mad.

00:34:41.060 It's demoralizing,

00:34:42.160 but we still have this fight

00:34:43.400 in Georgia

00:34:43.920 and that's where people

00:34:45.260 need to get involved.

00:34:46.300 TeamHerschel.com.

00:34:48.300 That's TeamHerschel.com.

00:34:49.540 And we will see you guys

00:34:50.780 back here again

00:34:51.800 on Wednesday morning.

00:34:53.760 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:34:56.200 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - November 14, 2022

Who Is To Blame For The GOP Losing The Senate？ We Explain WHY We Must Delay The Senate Leadership Elections And Why The GA Runoff Is Still Critically Important!

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