Verdict with Ted Cruz - Will Tanks Roll In Ukraine？

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.520 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.120 We are in the early stages of a new presidential administration,

00:00:08.480 which can only mean one thing.

00:00:10.480 Russia is planning to invade a sovereign state. 0.51

00:00:13.800 According to news reports, according to defense ministers abroad,

00:00:17.400 the tanks could start rolling in as little as a month.

00:00:20.900 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:22.160 The holidays are right around the corner, and we know gifting is tricky.

00:00:37.220 Omaha Steaks makes it easy to send friends and family what is sure to be an unforgettable gift.

00:00:43.020 Go to omahasteaks.com and enter the code CACTUS into the search bar

00:00:46.940 to order the perfect gift package.

00:00:49.280 This special holiday offer includes over 20 entrees to share with friends and family this holiday season.

00:00:56.240 Some fan favorites are the bacon-wrapped filet mignons,

00:00:59.540 gourmet jumbo franks,

00:01:01.260 chicken breasts,

00:01:02.300 sides,

00:01:02.980 and desserts.

00:01:04.360 Plus, you'll save over 50% and get 8 free burgers by typing CACTUS into the search bar.

00:01:10.640 These burgers are basically a steak between buns,

00:01:13.660 and 8 of them are totally free with this offer.

00:01:16.600 Visit omahasteaks.com,

00:01:18.360 enter CACTUS into the search bar,

00:01:20.720 and save over 50% when you order the perfect gift package.

00:01:24.920 Plus, get 8 free Omaha Steaks burgers.

00:01:28.740 Incredible flavor,

00:01:30.100 incredible value,

00:01:31.500 100% guaranteed.

00:01:33.880 That's omahasteaks.com,

00:01:35.840 and enter CACTUS into the search bar.

00:01:38.820 Verdict with Ted Cruz is sponsored by Stamps.com.

00:01:42.140 If you're looking for ways to skip the trip to the post office and dodge all that hectic holiday shopping traffic,

00:01:47.620 why not save time and money with Stamps.com?

00:01:50.360 Stamps.com lets you compare rates,

00:01:52.520 print labels,

00:01:53.160 and access exclusive discounts on UPS and USPS services all year long.

00:01:58.200 Here at Soundfront,

00:01:59.520 we use Stamps.com to send you merch like that sweet,

00:02:02.620 sweet cactus hat to do business on the road and to save time and money.

00:02:06.220 It just makes sense,

00:02:07.380 especially if your business sends more mail and packages during the holidays.

00:02:11.080 Whether you're selling online,

00:02:12.420 or running an office,

00:02:13.800 or a side hustle,

00:02:15.080 Stamps.com can save you so much time,

00:02:17.460 money,

00:02:17.620 and stress during the holidays.

00:02:19.160 And get discounts on post office and UPS shipping services without making the trip.

00:02:23.680 Discounts you can't find anywhere else,

00:02:25.380 like up to 40% off USPS rates,

00:02:28.080 and 76% off UPS.

00:02:30.740 Going to the post office instead of using Stamps.com

00:02:32.920 is kind of like taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

00:02:35.420 If you spend more than a few minutes a week dealing with mail and shipping,

00:02:38.880 Stamps.com is a lifesaver.

00:02:40.360 So save time and money this holiday season with Stamps.com.

00:02:43.660 Sign up with promo code VERDICT for a special offer that includes a four-week trial,

00:02:47.520 free postage,

00:02:48.220 and a digital scale.

00:02:49.200 No long-term commitments or contracts.

00:02:51.000 Just go to Stamps.com,

00:02:52.360 click the microphone at the top of the page,

00:02:53.840 and enter code VERDICT.

00:02:56.160 VERDICT with Ted Cruz is also sponsored by American Hartford Gold.

00:03:00.140 I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed everything is getting expensive.

00:03:03.660 We are in the biggest economic crisis since 2008,

00:03:06.380 with a government that's printing trillions and trillions of dollars.

00:03:09.880 Consumer prices are the highest we've seen in 30 years.

00:03:12.820 Inflation is certainly here to stay.

00:03:15.180 And if the government continues its out-of-control printing and spending,

00:03:18.660 the dollar could continue its freefall and lose its coveted role as a world reserve currency.

00:03:23.520 So how do you protect your money, your retirement, and your savings?

00:03:26.860 Well, American Hartford Gold can show you how to hedge your hard-earned savings against inflation

00:03:31.280 by helping you diversify a portion of your portfolio into physical gold and silver.

00:03:35.660 They'll even help move your existing IRA or 401k out of the volatile stock market into a precious metals IRA.

00:03:42.680 And they make it easy.

00:03:43.760 They're the highest-rated firm in the country,

00:03:45.320 with an A-plus rating from the Better Business Bureau and thousands of satisfied clients.

00:03:49.460 And if you call them right now,

00:03:50.820 they will give you up to $1,500 of free silver on your first qualifying order.

00:03:55.640 So don't wait.

00:03:56.620 Call them right now.

00:03:57.340 Call 855-768-1883.

00:04:00.620 That's 855-768-1883.

00:04:03.600 Or text CACTUS to 65532.

00:04:06.680 Again, that's 855-768-1883.

00:04:09.920 Or text CACTUS to 65532.

00:04:12.900 Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:04:15.260 I am Michael Knowles having deja vu all over again.

00:04:18.560 Hold on just a second, Michael.

00:04:19.780 Hold on just a second.

00:04:20.540 Let me jump in here because I think there's another very important topic that we might want to

00:04:24.580 touch on right here at the top of the show.

00:04:26.700 So if I may, Senator, Jimmy Kimmel, can we address this for just a second?

00:04:31.860 Because Jimmy Kimmel has been going after you for about a week now.

00:04:35.660 Yes, we're laughing because our viewers are probably aware of this. 0.88

00:04:39.900 He's been tweeting out some kind of disturbing, disgusting images of you.

00:04:45.380 What do you make of this?

00:04:46.420 What is going on here?

00:04:47.700 Well, look, Jimmy may be a Russian communist.

00:04:52.900 At a minimum, he's clearly disturbed.

00:04:55.060 And, you know, I'm kind of reminded of the Mean Girls meme.

00:05:00.220 You're kind of obsessed with me.

00:05:02.800 Every night, Jimmy Kimmel seems to be hitting me in his monologue. 0.97

00:05:06.720 He put out this really horrific Photoshopped image of my head on this fat dude's naked body 0.86

00:05:14.960 who is straddling an enormous hot dog, which I don't know if this is like some homoerotic fantasy he has. 0.88

00:05:22.920 It's a little frightening.

00:05:24.220 I guess I should be flattered that it is a ginormous hot dog.

00:05:27.700 But I don't understand why this exists in the Twitter sphere.

00:05:32.020 I will say, though, that I do have a standard policy, which is every time Jimmy hits me,

00:05:37.000 and it seems to be a regular occasion, I respond by simply observing that when Jimmy and I last saw each other,

00:05:46.980 we played basketball.

00:05:48.220 We played one-on-one hoops.

00:05:49.620 And long and short of it, and actually long of it because it was a really long and ugly game, 1.00

00:05:54.760 but the long and short of it is I kicked his ass. 0.99

00:05:57.340 And so I've had some fun putting out a highlight video entitled Buckets and Blocks 0.99

00:06:03.180 that consists of me hitting jump shots, driving to the lane, driving left, driving right, scoring on him.

00:06:11.000 And then the Blocks are just rejecting the hell out of his shots, one after the other after the other.

00:06:17.920 A few times I fouled the hell out of him, too.

00:06:20.640 But it is a wonderful reminder that, and by the way, that game came to pass.

00:06:28.800 We actually raised $80,000 for charity to play that game.

00:06:33.980 But neither one of us wanted to lose, and, well, one of us did.

00:06:38.260 And Jimmy seems to be having a really hard time getting over it.

00:06:42.500 Yeah, this is a pretty extreme case of sour grapes.

00:06:45.260 I think mixing that with his ideology and, man, like, I think the word you used is correct.

00:06:50.340 It was pretty disturbing, pretty disgusting, the things that he's posting on Twitter.

00:06:54.180 It's, you know, I have to say the game was interesting because he didn't have a sense of humor about it.

00:07:03.160 He was, like, really serious.

00:07:06.140 And, like, when we walked out on the court, we played at TSU, Texas Southern University.

00:07:10.840 6,000 people came out to watch the game.

00:07:13.380 I mean, and it was as we're walking out there, he comes out to confetti cannons and, like, loud music.

00:07:20.380 And we had, you know, Gus Johnson and Isaiah Thomas were broadcasting the event.

00:07:25.180 But as we're walking out, he turns to me and says, prepare to be humiliated.

00:07:32.140 And it was not in jest.

00:07:36.820 It was like Ivan Drago in Rocky IV going, you know, if he dies, he dies.

00:07:43.880 That was essentially his sentiment.

00:07:46.360 And I think he thought he was going to have a great time dominating me.

00:07:53.360 And that is not, in fact, what happened.

00:07:55.400 Now, I will say one of the ESPN announcers had a point.

00:07:59.820 He said, if Dr. Naismith had seen what happened here tonight, he would have invented a different game.

00:08:07.520 It was an ugly game of basketball.

00:08:11.520 But a W is a W is a W.

00:08:14.720 And poor Jimmy's got to live with that the rest of his life.

00:08:17.760 Yeah, well, I think that's where we leave that.

00:08:19.980 I mean, he can do his sour grapes on Twitter, but you've always got that win in your pockets.

00:08:24.040 All right, Liz, we'll see you back at the end of the show to get into the mailbag.

00:08:28.520 And, frankly, I see why you had to get to that topic first, because as disturbing as the invasion by Russia of another country is, 0.96

00:08:39.740 nothing could possibly be as disturbing as that photo on the hot dog from Jimmy Kimmel's account.

00:08:45.260 So we will see you at the end of the show.

00:08:47.420 Now, Senator, into another disturbing topic.

00:08:50.340 This is real.

00:08:51.220 I mean, this is not just more media hype about something.

00:08:55.200 We know that Vladimir Putin invaded Georgia during the Bush administration.

00:08:59.260 We know he invaded Crimea during the Obama administration.

00:09:02.980 Now it appears that he is poised to go into Ukraine again.

00:09:08.820 How credible is this?

00:09:10.300 What does the timeline look like?

00:09:11.580 And why are we supposed to care?

00:09:13.780 What are we supposed to do about it?

00:09:15.000 Yeah, so it is very credible.

00:09:17.720 The timeline is short.

00:09:19.180 So there are right now over 100,000 Russian troops massed on the border of Ukraine.

00:09:25.200 And those numbers are growing.

00:09:26.520 They're growing on a daily basis.

00:09:28.160 And the Biden administration over the past several days has declassified documents that suggest we could see an invasion of Ukraine as early as the beginning of next year, as January or February of next year.

00:09:41.780 You know, there are several points, and this stuff is complicated.

00:09:47.980 But, you know, in many ways we're getting back to really the origins of verdict when we started.

00:09:52.740 You know, our very first episode in the basement in the bowels of D.C. on the first impeachment trial was explaining Ukraine and Burisma and impeachment and natural gas and all of that.

00:10:07.640 And you remember one of our first episodes, you said, all right, well, what is Ukraine?

00:10:10.240 Let's start with that.

00:10:11.480 You know, Ukraine is a country.

00:10:13.080 It is a country that is to the west of Russia.

00:10:17.800 It is a country that used to be to the part of the Soviet Union.

00:10:21.540 And when the Soviet Union broke out, it's one of many countries that became its own independent country.

00:10:28.500 Why does Russia want to invade Ukraine?

00:10:30.640 The simple answer, Vladimir Putin has been very candid about it.

00:10:33.560 He has said that he considers the dissolution of the Soviet Union to be the single greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century.

00:10:41.620 He wants to reassemble the Soviet Union.

00:10:44.060 He has images of Russian greatness and Soviet greatness, and he wants to restore that.

00:10:50.900 And that means he wants to conquer his neighbors.

00:10:53.160 Now, why is this happening now?

00:10:56.740 Some of it is testing a new president, and you're absolutely right that Russia and all of our enemies test a new president.

00:11:02.360 Some of it is a response to Biden's incredible weakness and ineffectiveness in Afghanistan and the disastrous withdrawal and surrender there, which we have talked about on verdict, made every enemy of America much more likely to engage in aggression against us because they took a measure of the man in the Oval Office and determined Joe Biden is unlikely to do anything about it.

00:11:27.120 But there's another cause here, which we've talked about before on verdict, but I think it is worth drilling down in some detail.

00:11:34.580 And that cause of this Russian hostility is a decision Joe Biden personally made to surrender to Russia on Nord Stream 2, a natural gas pipeline that Russia is building from Russia to Germany.

00:11:51.480 And in that decision, Biden took what had been a foreign policy victory that we had won, and he turned it into a loss.

00:12:00.960 And that is the direct but-for cause of why Russia is prepared to invade Ukraine.

00:12:08.900 Now, let's start with what does a pipeline have to do with Ukraine?

00:12:15.540 Because that's not immediately evident to someone who is analyzing it and thinking through it.

00:12:21.320 Well, I remember I had this thought when you brought it up, Senator, and we've talked about it a little bit on this show, but I would like, because things seem to be coming to a head, so I do want to be able to understand this.

00:12:31.640 But I think there's this question of, as Barack Obama said, why do I care if Russia exerts influence in its traditional sphere of influence?

00:12:42.160 What do I care about Ukraine?

00:12:45.260 I don't know anything.

00:12:46.000 Most people, as you point out, probably don't even know where Ukraine is on a map.

00:12:49.200 And what does it have to do with this pipeline?

00:12:51.800 I guess I care about pipelines because I care when gas goes through the roof like it is doing right now.

00:12:56.880 But where is the interest for the average American citizen? 0.97

00:13:03.400 So Vladimir Putin is a bully. 1.00

00:13:06.400 He's a thug. 1.00

00:13:07.800 He's a tyrant. 1.00

00:13:09.260 He commits murder and torture and lies and oppression on a regular basis. 0.99

00:13:16.080 And he wants to dominate his neighbors.

00:13:19.740 He wants to rebuild the Soviet Union.

00:13:21.720 Now, look, we spent decades fighting a Cold War.

00:13:25.000 The Soviet Union was a very dangerous adversary. 0.52

00:13:28.560 It's not in America's interest to see Putin rebuild the Soviet Union.

00:13:32.840 It's not in America's interest to see an enemy who wants to defeat us get stronger and more powerful.

00:13:39.840 When it comes to energy, there's a second component of it, which is that Putin uses energy to blackmail Europe,

00:13:48.620 to force Europe to do what he wants.

00:13:52.640 And, you know, there's a phrase that John McCain used to use that I think is a really apt phrase, 1.00

00:13:58.040 which is that Russia is a gas station with a country attached,

00:14:03.480 which is the source of Putin's money that he uses to pay his army,

00:14:11.900 to buy his tanks, to buy his missiles, to develop the nuclear weapons he has pointed at you right now in Nashville,

00:14:19.560 pointed at every major country in America.

00:14:22.300 The source of that money is energy, selling oil and gas.

00:14:26.220 Now, 2014 was the last time Putin invaded Ukraine,

00:14:31.260 and he invaded a section of Ukraine called Crimea.

00:14:37.120 But then he stopped.

00:14:38.660 He didn't go all the way into Ukraine.

00:14:41.200 He didn't invade the entire country.

00:14:42.820 He didn't go into the capital, which, you know, the capital, everyone used to pronounce it Kiev.

00:14:47.920 Kiev, and now it's considered, I guess, more enlightened to pronounce it Kiev.

00:14:54.000 So I have to refer to one of my favorite dinners as Chicken Kiev.

00:14:57.680 Apparently.

00:14:58.180 Not Chicken Kiev.

00:14:59.880 Apparently, whether it's one syllable or two, I will leave that to the linguists.

00:15:03.980 But the reason he didn't march into all of Ukraine is right now the principal route that Russia uses to get its natural gas to Europe

00:15:18.080 is going through Ukraine, is pipelines that go right through the middle of Ukraine.

00:15:23.820 And Ukraine makes a bunch of money on these pipelines because it's how they send Russian gas to Europe

00:15:29.360 to heat their homes, to provide energy for their homes.

00:15:32.020 And, right, so Putin faced the risk if he sent tanks into the heart of Ukraine, if he invaded Kiev,

00:15:42.700 that those pipelines could be destroyed, that they could lose their ability to get their gas to market,

00:15:48.380 and it protected Ukraine's safety and security.

00:15:53.460 So what did Putin do in response?

00:15:55.940 Well, the very next year, 2015, is when he began building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

00:16:00.820 And basically what he said is, all right, I don't want to have to go through Ukraine to get my gas to Europe,

00:16:06.660 so let's build a pipeline that goes underwater and goes directly from Russia to Germany,

00:16:12.440 that cuts Ukraine out of the process, so then we can march into Ukraine and they can't do a damn thing about it. 0.58

00:16:20.660 Well, he began building that pipeline.

00:16:23.340 It took a lot of time.

00:16:25.180 As we got to 2019, the pipeline was nearly complete.

00:16:31.500 And I have been the leading voice, the leading actor in the Senate to stop this pipeline, 1.00

00:16:38.540 because this pipeline, if built, if online, gives Putin billions of dollars to attack Americans, attack our allies.

00:16:47.100 I want Putin weak, and I want him not aggressive and hostile.

00:16:51.740 So in the summer of 2019, I introduced legislation in the Senate to sanction the companies that were building Nord Stream 2.

00:17:03.620 It was bipartisan legislation.

00:17:06.020 I got brought together Republicans, Democrats, passed it through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,

00:17:11.480 passed it through the entire Senate, passed it through the entire Congress, and President Trump signed it into law.

00:17:17.740 Now, here's something amazing, Michael.

00:17:20.500 They were building the pipeline.

00:17:22.240 They were actively rushing, trying to complete the pipeline.

00:17:24.840 It was about 90 percent complete.

00:17:26.380 When President Trump signed the sanctions into law, they stopped building the pipeline that day, not the next day, not a week later, not a month later,

00:17:38.140 the day the sanctions were signed into law.

00:17:41.100 And they were designed because they would have bankrupted any company that continued to build the pipeline.

00:17:45.780 So what happens next?

00:17:47.800 This is December of 2019.

00:17:50.380 The pipeline lays dormant for over a year.

00:17:53.960 By the way, one of the talking points today is, well, it was 90 percent done.

00:17:59.280 It was 90 percent done.

00:18:00.300 Well, that's true.

00:18:01.700 But a 90 percent done pipeline is zero percent done.

00:18:06.440 It doesn't work till you connect both ends and turn it on.

00:18:10.540 Unless the unless the oil is going to jump out and make it that last 10 percent, then it's useless.

00:18:16.220 Yep.

00:18:17.040 So for over a year, we had defeated this pipeline.

00:18:21.600 We had won.

00:18:22.460 It was a massive bipartisan victory over Russia. 0.59

00:18:26.440 It was a victory for Europe. 0.97

00:18:27.500 It was a victory for Ukraine.

00:18:28.660 It was a victory for America. 0.84

00:18:31.080 Then Joe Biden comes to office and the Biden foreign policy team.

00:18:38.180 Number one, their view towards bullies and enemies of America is weakness, is weakness towards the Taliban and Afghanistan, weakness towards the Chinese communists, weakness towards Iran and weakness towards Russia.

00:18:52.200 But number two, they really elevate Germany in their foreign policy.

00:18:58.600 You know, I've joked that that that the Biden foreign policy team has votive candles of Angela Merkel under their beds at night, that they just they they they worship Merkel for whatever reason.

00:19:11.740 And Germany wants the pipeline.

00:19:13.740 And Germany wants the pipeline.

00:19:15.240 So.

00:19:15.920 Biden reversed course and surrendered on these sanctions and here it's really quite amazing.

00:19:22.600 The pipeline is stopped the day Trump signs the sanctions in December of twenty nineteen.

00:19:31.060 Joe Biden is sworn into office January 20th, twenty twenty one.

00:19:36.080 Do you know what day Biden Putin begins building the pipeline again?

00:19:40.640 What day?

00:19:40.900 What you've what you've what you've drawn here that I did not appreciate before it.

00:19:52.980 Obviously, I understood there's some connection here between this pipeline and and what Russia is doing in Ukraine.

00:19:57.900 But the pipeline is a symbol.

00:20:00.580 It's a physical representation of the imperial ambitions of Vladimir Putin.

00:20:05.580 The the whole point of the pipeline, other than saving a little bit of money, I guess, is to free up Russia to go pursue whatever imperial ambitions it has in Ukraine.

00:20:16.700 So you kill the pipeline, you kill or at least seriously dampen the imperial ambitions.

00:20:22.580 And if you give the OK on the pipeline, you are tacitly giving the OK on Russia going into Ukraine.

00:20:28.880 And, Michael, that's exactly right.

00:20:30.880 And it's a point that I made repeatedly.

00:20:33.440 It's a point that that senators, both Republicans and Democrats, made over and over and over again.

00:20:40.340 It's also a point that was made by Ukraine and Poland.

00:20:43.300 So this summer, when when Biden formally surrendered to Putin and waived the sanctions that were part of U.S. law,

00:20:50.920 Ukraine and Poland put out a joint statement condemning that decision and saying giving in to Nord Stream 2 creates a grave security threat against Ukraine and Central Europe,

00:21:07.320 because once the pipeline is on, Putin can can drive the tanks in into Ukraine and not worry about whether they destroy their pipeline or not because he has another way to get the gas to market.

00:21:21.900 The amazing thing is, so where are we now on the pipeline?

00:21:24.880 The pipeline is now complete.

00:21:26.120 So so Biden surrendered, allowed Putin to complete it, but it's not on yet.

00:21:30.340 And the reason it's not on is before it can be turned on, it has to go through certification.

00:21:35.300 It has to go through the final regulatory approval in Europe before they can turn the pipeline on.

00:21:42.500 Which means Biden can stop this right now if he simply follows the law.

00:21:47.520 So he has waived the sanctions.

00:21:49.500 He could revoke the waiver.

00:21:51.240 And so, you know, earlier today, we had testimony in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from Victoria Nuland, who is the undersecretary of state.

00:21:58.760 And I asked her directly, could President Biden today impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2 by simply revoking his waiver?

00:22:07.600 She said, yes, he could do it today. 0.94

00:22:09.620 If you want to stop Russian tanks from driving in for in to Ukraine and conquering them, Joe Biden needs to bring out a damn pen and piece of paper and impose the sanctions that Congress has mandated. 0.95

00:22:24.480 But he doesn't want to do it. 0.95

00:22:26.320 And so Democrats are playing the blame game.

00:22:29.260 It's amazing.

00:22:30.700 You know, you asked, why should we care about Ukraine?

00:22:33.880 Listen, let me be clear.

00:22:35.900 We shouldn't send American troops to go defend Ukraine.

00:22:39.400 I have no interest in sending American soldiers or sailors or airmen or Marines to be in harm's way to go fight the Russian army.

00:22:46.880 That's a bad idea.

00:22:49.040 But we've got enormous leverage.

00:22:51.260 These sanctions are using American economic power to stop military tyrants from dominating Europe and threatening America.

00:23:02.140 And we should use them.

00:23:03.220 We should also be providing lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine. 0.98

00:23:08.740 Ukraine wants to defend themselves.

00:23:11.100 But Russia's got a lot better weaponry, a lot better equipment than Ukraine does.

00:23:18.740 And Ukraine, I went and visited Ukraine back in 2014 and went to the Maiden Square where you had protesters who were being shot in the square when they were standing up.

00:23:31.480 And the people of Ukraine want to be allied with America.

00:23:35.640 They want to be allied with the West.

00:23:37.260 They want to be allied with Europe.

00:23:38.640 They don't want to be subject to Putin and Russia's domination.

00:23:43.340 And it's in our interest for them to be an ally.

00:23:46.140 But you know what?

00:23:48.160 Joe Biden and the Democrats canceled the sale of lethal defensive military equipment to Ukraine.

00:23:55.440 So they're not even helping the Ukrainians defend themselves. 0.57

00:23:59.300 And if Biden doesn't change course, I think it is the odds are high that within 90 days, Russia will have invaded and sadly in all likelihood conquered Ukraine and taken a major step towards reassembling the Soviet Union because Joe Biden is too weak to stand up to Putin.

00:24:21.860 It is astounding.

00:24:24.940 This is a scary prospect, obviously, but it's very important and people should bookmark this episode if you're listening to it because what you're saying is right now it's not too late.

00:24:34.360 Joe Biden can't just say, well, whoopsie-daisy, there was nothing I could do.

00:24:37.260 It is not too late.

00:24:38.620 There are actually concrete measures you could take right now that could stop this, that could prevent this next step in Russia's imperial ambitions.

00:24:45.820 As usual, of course, we're running late, but I do have to get to one story before we get to the mailbag.

00:24:50.360 And it's on this very same point of not too late.

00:24:52.900 There are things we can do right now to maintain our way of life and protect our freedoms and our rights.

00:24:59.080 There was a move by Democrats, and unfortunately some Republicans I saw went along with this during the debate over the National Defense Authorization Act,

00:25:08.320 that would draft women, that would create this system where women could be drafted potentially to go die overseas. 1.00

00:25:18.480 We touched on it when this was being debated on the show.

00:25:21.300 I just had a visceral reaction to it.

00:25:24.220 I thought this is so disgusting. 0.58

00:25:26.340 This is so backwards.

00:25:27.880 What kind of a country America is basically safe, basically wealthy, basically secure, and we're going to drag our daughters and send them overseas and draft? 1.00

00:25:38.440 I thought what reasonable person could ever get behind this, but it looked like it was a done deal.

00:25:43.680 And then just in the past few days, you and some of your colleagues sponsored and co-sponsored an amendment to rip this out of the NDAA, and that appears to be successful.

00:25:55.920 Well, look, that's exactly right, and it's for over a decade there's been this effort to try to make girls and women subject to the draft,

00:26:06.300 subject to being forced into the military against their wishes, and it is driven by the Democrats.

00:26:13.260 The Democrats emphatically want to be able to draft our daughters, and sadly there are a bunch of compliant Republicans that are scared to stand up to it.

00:26:22.100 They think, oh, well, if I say we shouldn't draft our daughters, somehow I don't like women. 1.00

00:26:27.340 What utter garbage. 1.00

00:26:29.080 Listen, I've got two daughters. 0.99

00:26:31.180 If my girls want to serve in the military, God bless them. 1.00

00:26:34.500 I will encourage them.

00:26:35.420 I will cheer them on.

00:26:36.460 That is a choice that is open to them.

00:26:38.120 If they decide they want to serve in that capacity, bravo.

00:26:42.880 That's their choice.

00:26:43.900 But there's a difference between opening up our military, we have men and women who serve honorably voluntarily,

00:26:51.840 and forcibly conscripting a woman and putting her in harm's way when there are real biological differences between men and women.

00:27:01.380 And to force women into the military, into combat against their wishes, is putting them at real risk. 0.92

00:27:11.780 Are there some women that are badasses? 1.00

00:27:13.840 Are there some women that could whip your butt or whip my butt? 1.00

00:27:17.460 Sure. 1.00

00:27:18.860 But probably not every woman.

00:27:24.240 I'm confident, Michael, there is at least some woman who you could beat arm wrestling. 0.99

00:27:28.160 I hope so.

00:27:29.180 I appreciate your confidence in me, Senator.

00:27:30.880 I'm not totally sure, but thank you for the compliment.

00:27:34.180 I'm with you.

00:27:35.120 I believe in you on that.

00:27:37.420 But, you know, this battle, and I got to say, it was really looking bad that the Democrats were ramming this through,

00:27:47.320 that half of the Republicans were surrendering on this.

00:27:50.380 And there's a long history on this issue.

00:27:52.000 So I got to tell you, I've been fighting against this for nine years.

00:27:55.780 And on the Senate Armed Services Committee, you know, one of the biggest proponents of drafting our daughters was John McCain.

00:28:03.880 John McCain loved the idea.

00:28:05.880 And he was chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

00:28:08.360 I was on the Armed Services Committee.

00:28:09.600 And I would battle him.

00:28:10.880 I'd argue and yell.

00:28:12.480 And McCain would curse at you.

00:28:14.100 I mean, he was – he had a temper, and he would yell and curse, and we had some epic battles.

00:28:18.820 I seem to recall he said some not very polite things about you on occasion every now and again.

00:28:24.860 He called me a wacko bird.

00:28:27.000 I thought that was particularly nice.

00:28:28.880 In fact, I had some activists who gave me a baseball cap with wacko bird written on it in a picture of Daffy Duck.

00:28:36.620 But – so what would happen every year in the Senate Armed Services Committee is he would fight for it, ram it through, and he would get enough Republicans to go along with the Democrats that he would succeed in that.

00:28:50.940 But I would work with conservatives in the House, and we'd pull it out.

00:28:55.620 And so I won those battles year after year after year, much to his volcanic rage.

00:29:01.280 He was furious about it.

00:29:02.900 So there's an interesting story on this, Michael.

00:29:05.460 Well, so beginning of 2017, Donald Trump's the new president.

00:29:10.940 He nominates to be the general counsel of the Army, a guy named Ryan Newman.

00:29:16.560 Now, Ryan is a great guy.

00:29:18.820 He was my chief counsel in the Senate.

00:29:22.060 Ryan was a West Point graduate, served in the Army, was a captain in the Army.

00:29:26.980 Ryan clerked on the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Alito.

00:29:31.640 Ryan was a student of mine at the University of Texas Law School.

00:29:35.000 So when I was teaching Supreme Court litigation, he was one of my very best students.

00:29:39.860 And so I was very enthusiastic when President Trump nominated Ryan to be the general counsel of the Army.

00:29:48.460 So Ryan's hearing, his confirmation hearing is set.

00:29:53.100 The day before his hearing, he goes in to meet with the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, John McCain.

00:29:58.680 And he sits down in McCain's office and McCain asks him, says, Ryan, what are your views on drafting women?

00:30:09.240 And Ryan gave exactly the right answer for a lawyer nominated to that job.

00:30:17.100 And he says, Senator, that that is a policy decision for Congress to make.

00:30:22.600 Congress is elected to make that policy decision.

00:30:25.240 If I was confirmed as general counsel of the Army, I would implement whatever policy decision Congress made, which is exactly the right answer. 0.92

00:30:32.360 And McCain looks at him and goes, bullshit, I want your personal views.

00:30:41.920 And Ryan says, well, sir, personally, I think it's a bad idea. 0.99

00:30:48.660 McCain looks at him and says, get the hell out of my office.

00:30:52.160 Throws him out of his office.

00:30:53.400 Wow.

00:30:53.480 Cancels his hearing the next day.

00:30:57.980 And for the next couple of months, McCain refused to have a hearing with him.

00:31:01.840 And ultimately, the Trump White House withdrew the nomination.

00:31:06.320 And they named him instead deputy general counsel at the Department of Defense, which doesn't require a Senate confirmation.

00:31:12.720 So McCain was so pissed off about the fact that I had been leading the fight for years against his efforts to draft our daughters that he torpedoed an incredibly qualified guy's nomination to be general counsel of the Army because he was mad at him and he was really mad at me.

00:31:32.740 And I got to say, you know, John McCain was an incredible war hero, but he may be rolling over in his grave because once again, we've beaten the efforts of the bad guys to try to draft our daughters and force them into combat.

00:31:47.280 That is great stuff.

00:31:48.240 You know, I'm sure having Professor Cruz on the old CV may not have helped your friend very much in this meeting with Senator McCain.

00:31:54.960 But but this is this is really great stuff.

00:31:57.480 And I didn't know that I didn't realize that McCain had been pushing so hard for that.

00:32:01.000 There are a number of Republicans who were pushing for it.

00:32:04.460 Frankly, I found it disqualifying.

00:32:06.520 I just I felt if you were of the view that we should forcibly draft America's daughters, you just don't get it.

00:32:13.880 There's just something has gone wrong in your political vision.

00:32:17.020 I did not think that we were going to be able to get it out this time.

00:32:21.260 I thought that the Democrats had succeeded.

00:32:23.140 And so seriously, I mean this.

00:32:25.180 I hate I hate to give a sincere compliment on the show, but great stuff.

00:32:30.040 Just kudos.

00:32:31.140 Thank you.

00:32:31.700 Great stuff.

00:32:32.520 I am so glad that you and some of your colleagues were able to pull this out and do the right thing.

00:32:37.480 Absolutely wonderful.

00:32:38.780 Should we bring this?

00:32:39.500 This is too nice.

00:32:40.320 I feel I feel awkward being this nice.

00:32:42.300 Shall we bring Liz back on?

00:32:43.940 Absolutely.

00:32:44.520 A little bit of mailbag before we go.

00:32:45.820 By the way, speaking of someone who could beat both of us arm wrestling, Liz. 1.00

00:32:53.020 Well, well, we'll have to we'll have to save that at least for episode 100.

00:32:56.700 We can't we can't pull that out in episode 98.

00:32:58.700 But, Michael, you might have to continue to feel awkward for just another second because I do have to echo what you were saying.

00:33:03.900 Senator Cruz, on behalf of my daughter, I thank you for fighting this fight.

00:33:07.860 It's the right thing to do.

00:33:08.820 And it's a politically incorrect fight in, you know, this era of critical gender theory that the left is trying to force on all of our children.

00:33:16.840 But I sincerely I sincerely thank you for fighting this fight on behalf of America's daughter and my own daughter.

00:33:22.360 That being said, we have great questions from our verdict plus community tonight from our subscribers over on verdict plus and anybody who is not already a subscriber on verdict plus.

00:33:33.520 We have a great deal between now and Christmas.

00:33:35.720 You can become an annual subscriber for the very low, very cheap amount of money, fifty six dollars a year.

00:33:41.480 This is basically the cheapest that you'll ever see it.

00:33:43.360 So please join us over there if you want exclusive access to the senator to be able to ask questions to Michael and to the senator on on these episodes.

00:33:50.780 So, Senator Cruz, the first question is, of course, from for you from Flo Brenton.

00:33:56.240 This is a pretty interesting one.

00:33:57.660 She says, I love verdict, but right now Nancy Pelosi is abusing her position with her January 6th Soviet style commission. 1.00

00:34:05.460 The DOJ is at her beck and call.

00:34:08.020 I cannot enjoy the entertainment of verdict, Flo says, while our Constitution is being torn to shreds and not a single Republican congressman or senator stepping up to the plate to protect us.

00:34:16.180 This is disgraceful.

00:34:17.560 It's time to take care of business.

00:34:18.780 So, Senator Cruz, my question is, how do you address this anger that's not just felt by Flo, but by the American people regarding how the Democrats are handling handling the January 6th commission?

00:34:29.680 Well, listen, Flo is exactly right that what Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are doing is a sham.

00:34:34.740 It is a political kangaroo court.

00:34:38.400 This is a commission set up in Congress that is all Democrats.

00:34:44.400 And then when when Kevin McCarthy, the leader of House Republicans, named some Republicans to it, Nancy Pelosi said, no, you can't have the Republicans you want.

00:34:54.980 And so she she put Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger on there instead, which when you have a Democratic speaker picking who she wants. 1.00

00:35:05.300 Let me tell you, the conclusions are already decided.

00:35:08.260 This is a political operation.

00:35:10.660 The conclusions are that every Republican in America is a terrorist and the only hope for America is for Democrats to rule us as our benevolent dictators for the next thousand years.

00:35:24.020 That's the conclusion of the Nancy Pelosi, January 6th commission that is designed to be the conclusion.

00:35:30.460 It is the purpose of the show trial and it is consistent with the abuse of power we've seen from the Democrats.

00:35:38.600 You know, I will say Flo's question talked about the Department of Justice and their abuse of power.

00:35:43.080 And you're right that this is an incredibly political Department of Justice.

00:35:47.600 I can tell you that that I for I for one am doing everything humanly possible to try to hold DOJ to account, to hold the attorney general to account, to shine a light on their abuse of power, to shine a light on on their partisan and political witch hunts and persecution of people for their their political views, including free speech.

00:36:10.420 Whether it is targeting parents for going to school boards and speaking out or targeting people on January 6th who engaged in peaceful protest that is protected by the Constitution.

00:36:22.840 Violence is not if someone engaged in violence on January 6th or any other day of the year.

00:36:28.400 If you violently assault a police officer, I don't care if your politics are right wing or left wing.

00:36:34.180 I don't care where you fall.

00:36:35.420 If you engage in violence, you should be prosecuted.

00:36:38.240 But the Democrats are cynically using those that did engage in violence as an excuse to target and go after the political speech of millions of Americans they just happen to disagree with.

00:36:51.260 And it is a total abuse of power.

00:36:53.120 And I agree we need to do everything we can to hold them accountable.

00:36:55.580 It is disappointing, too, I think, to see, you know, the Republicans, Cheney and Kinzinger acting like Democrats when they have a responsibility to their constituents and to the American people to make sure that the DOJ isn't abusing their power, but they're they're not living up to that responsibility.

00:37:11.260 So the next question is from our tried and true friend here on Verdict.

00:37:16.020 This is Real Truth Cactus.

00:37:17.800 She asks, what happened at the school in Michigan was terrible.

00:37:21.260 I do think on a legal level, it is strange that they're pursuing charges against the parents.

00:37:25.420 She asks, has this ever been done before?

00:37:28.060 Do you think it will set a legal precedent to press charges against the parents of children who commit violent acts?

00:37:33.240 Well, it's a good question, and we don't know all of the facts of what happened there.

00:37:38.760 It was a horrific school shooting of yet another troubled teenage boy who took a gun to school and open fired on his classmates.

00:37:46.460 And we've seen far too many of those horrifically across the country.

00:37:51.320 I've seen too many of those in the state of Texas.

00:37:54.240 I was at the Santa Fe High School just outside of Houston on the morning of that horrific shooting.

00:38:00.540 And Santa Fe High School is less than an hour from my house.

00:38:03.480 So I was there within minutes after the shooting.

00:38:06.400 And it was it remains one of the worst things I've ever seen in my life.

00:38:10.940 We've seen far too many of these.

00:38:14.840 Whether the parents can and should be held to account depends on the facts and circumstances of what happened.

00:38:20.840 And it also depends on what the state law is.

00:38:23.180 My understanding is in this circumstance that the parents had purchased the firearms, had kept them in an unlocked drawer, I believe, where their teenage son could access them.

00:38:39.280 And it also appears from some of the back and forth that the parents had good reason to know or at least very seriously suspect that this was a deeply troubled child who could well be a danger to others.

00:38:53.460 And if those are the facts, I think there are a lot of states, Michigan and others, where parents could be held liable if you, you know, I'm a gun owner, but I keep our firearms locked up because I don't want our kids accessing our firearms.

00:39:09.440 And I think responsible gun owners, that that's what we do is we don't want to see children, particularly young children, playing with guns, having an accidental shooting.

00:39:20.860 Lots of bad things can happen when kids have have access and unrestricted access to guns, all the more so depending on the facts of what the parents knew about their son.

00:39:31.840 And if there were from the early discussions, the texts that were going back and forth between the shooter and his mom, it certainly seems like the parents knew that this was a very unstable and very dangerous kid.

00:39:49.160 And I would say that that there's a fairly longstanding principle, certainly of civil liability, but even of criminal liability if you are recklessly allowing firearms to fall into the hands of a child under your care who you have reason to know is a danger to others.

00:40:10.080 Senator, that answer was absolutely outrageous because you have violated the rule of modern political discourse.

00:40:17.920 You didn't make it completely reductive and simplistic.

00:40:21.320 And so I think what everyone is expecting is you need someone to say absolutely 100 percent ban all guns, repeal the Second Amendment and throw anyone who owns a gun in the clink.

00:40:29.800 Or, you know, you can do whatever you want with your gun and you can leave 20 rifles on the roof of your home and with big signs that say, come take this rifle right here.

00:40:37.960 But of course, that's not the case. There is such a thing as prudence and our liberties require that we exercise them with prudence.

00:40:45.100 And so I think that's a terrific way to view it. And it's obviously it's going to change state by state.

00:40:50.440 And political activists are going to try to exploit these events as often they do to score whatever ideological point they have.

00:40:57.360 But but what's much more interesting than those shallow ideological points are the details or the facts and the questions of prudence.

00:41:04.320 Right. Because the mother, the mother allegedly texted her son, don't do it.

00:41:08.260 As soon as she heard it on the news, the father reportedly called called the police and reported that his gun was missing.

00:41:14.020 He said he suspected that it was his son that was shooting. So these parents had some awareness.

00:41:17.320 It also should spark the conversation, not just about the laws that are currently on the books, but how should this be handled?

00:41:23.160 If parents are aware of this, are they culpable? Should they be liable? What should what should the laws be?

00:41:29.040 And that's a policy discussion that politicians should have, as well as talking about the diversionary, the diversionary policies that some of these schools have implemented.

00:41:36.800 When they see red flags from these students, including violent drawings and violent comments and how they handle that outside of the criminal justice system.

00:41:44.420 Now, look, I think that's exactly right. And you look at some of these shootings, you look at the shooting in Parkland in Florida, and there were all sorts of warning signs that that shooter.

00:41:54.960 And by the way, one one thing is a consistent policy matter. I do. I will not say the names of any of these shooters, these evil bastards who commit mass murder.

00:42:04.480 They want their names to go down in infamy. And I very consciously will never repeat their names because I'm not interested in giving them that infamy. 0.98

00:42:11.900 But the Parkland shooter. There were multiple interactions with law enforcement and, Liz, you pointed out a policy that politicians have put in place, that when you had people that engage in acts of violence and threats against fellow students and the schools cover it up and the schools don't report it to law enforcement and the schools don't treat it seriously.

00:42:36.120 It has the potential of escalating and putting the lives of other students at real risk.

00:42:41.900 Right. And that'll be that'll certainly be interesting to watch unfold in the case of what happened in Michigan, because the student apparently had had had been called into the office for making violent comments.

00:42:52.040 And the school told his parents to get him counseling. Now, we don't know all the details of whether that should have been escalated to law enforcement, but there were certainly those red flags.

00:42:58.900 Senator, the next question is from Brent. Brent asks about a video that has gotten quite a bit of attention online.

00:43:07.040 It's of Congressman Dan Crenshaw throwing shade at the Freedom Caucus.

00:43:12.280 Like I said, this has made the rounds. Interesting comments from Congressman Crenshaw here.

00:43:17.160 What is your what is your stance on this video, on the comments from Congressman Crenshaw?

00:43:21.160 Well, listen, I've seen the video. I don't agree with what Dan had to say.

00:43:26.460 I like Dan. I like him personally. I think he's he's talented.

00:43:31.120 I'm certainly grateful for his his service to our nation.

00:43:34.300 He lost an eye defending the nation. I'm grateful for that.

00:43:38.280 And he's a charismatic guy. He's he's got a sense of humor.

00:43:40.760 He's got some some verve and he's willing to fight.

00:43:43.420 All of those are good things. You know, in this video, he's he's singing the praises of Adam Kinzinger and he's crapping all over the Freedom Caucus.

00:43:53.200 I think that's pretty misguided. I think Kinzinger has gone completely off the rails.

00:44:00.420 And there's a reason that he's not running for reelection because Kinzinger couldn't get reelected.

00:44:04.200 And and I think the Freedom Caucus, they are consistently the strongest conservatives in Congress.

00:44:12.160 And, you know, it's there is a particular contempt that that that some congressional moderates have for for conservatives who actually follow through on their promises.

00:44:25.580 And, you know, it was interesting. I think the the phrase that Dan used, he said, well, there are performance politicians and there are legislators.

00:44:33.280 It is always a problem whenever you see someone. Use a word like legislator and their voice always drops an octave.

00:44:42.220 I don't know why, but it's much more serious when it's a legislator.

00:44:45.980 What they mean is someone who's going to cut a bunch of deals with Democrats and give in.

00:44:50.640 What they mean are the kind of Republicans who voted with the Democrats on the big infrastructure bill that just came in.

00:44:58.080 That's what they mean. And actually, the other phrase, he didn't use it, but I was kind of surprised.

00:45:02.840 He didn't. The other phrase that that you see congressional mods they love to use is they say there are workhorses and show horses. 0.89

00:45:10.740 And what's a show horse? A show horse is anyone who actually does what they promised their constituents they would do as compared to the workhorses.

00:45:20.660 Who suck up to the Democrats and do what the Democrats want them to do.

00:45:23.940 And, you know, look, I guess it is easy sometimes for people to fall into that rhetoric.

00:45:31.480 I think Dan was wrong in this one.

00:45:33.800 There's also just an easy trap that unfortunately some I know a number of my conservatives of conservative friends have fallen into, which is.

00:45:43.040 And especially this is true in D.C., you you start to to believe the things that you hear everyone talking about.

00:45:51.120 And so if if you hear constantly that Liz Cheney is this great Republican leader or Adam Kinzinger, even more ridiculous, if you hear it enough and you're surrounded by it, you kind of start to believe it.

00:46:02.200 Or at least some people do. And I just think that as you said, Senator, a little earlier when we were talking about the January 6th committee, the purpose of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger in Congress right now is to do what Democrats want them to do.

00:46:16.680 They might have an R next to their name, but their actual utility at the crucial fights is to act as the sort of court jesters in the kingdom of liberalism.

00:46:26.120 That's why they'll go on CNN. They won't generally go on the conservative channels.

00:46:30.560 And so it's it. Talk about a performance that we're seeing. Talk about showboating that that to me is the most spectacular, sensationalist performance of them all.

00:46:41.940 And you can see it on CNN. And when when you look at the Republicans who are constantly on CNN bashing other Republicans, that to me, those are the real the real performance.

00:46:50.600 Well, and their their purpose is is even more than that. It's to be a beard. It's to cover up what's going on.

00:46:57.120 This is a kangaroo court and and they're there because they have an R after their name. 0.99

00:47:02.180 And it's to dress it up as something it is not so so that it has some modicum of credibility.

00:47:10.560 And listen, the reality of it is going to be Kinzinger is not running for reelection because he couldn't get reelected.

00:47:17.200 I think Liz Cheney is extremely likely to be beaten in her primary because she has basically told Republicans and conservatives in the state of Wyoming, piss off. 0.99

00:47:28.300 And and I think in a little over a year, both of them will be regular contributors on MSNBC.

00:47:34.880 And so they're auditioning for MSNBC right now. And and and that's that's not exactly that that is not exactly worthy of dropping your voices to your voice, two octaves and calling them great legislators as a result.

00:47:51.600 That's right. This is the feeling you have. It's like when when you see a friend of yours making any kind of decision that you don't think is a great one.

00:47:57.980 You say, no, Dan, get away from Kinzinger. Don't don't do it. Don't don't don't believe the lies because we're talking about truth and lies.

00:48:06.500 I generally find that when I tune into CNN, I'm seeing a lot of lies. And when I tune into CNN, I tend to see a lot of Adam Kinzinger.

00:48:14.120 You know what you're not saying when you tune into CNN? Chris Cuomo.

00:48:19.520 It's too soon, Senator. It's too soon. But oh, my goodness.

00:48:23.320 So it's also the only reason that I'm the only reason I'm grateful for videos like this is because it shows us as the voters, the true character of the people who are supposed to represent us.

00:48:31.860 So it better informs our vote. So I'm disappointed in in what Crenshaw said, of course.

00:48:36.840 But it does it does show us a little bit of his decision making process or his judgment.

00:48:40.820 And for better or for worse, we do need to know that as the voters on that note,

00:48:44.780 if there is anybody on a college campus across the country who wants to bring verdict with Ted Cruz, the senator with Michael Knowles to their campus this coming spring, submit your application by December 15th.

00:48:56.960 You can apply at yaf.org slash verdict. That is yaf.org slash verdict to bring verdict live to your college campus.

00:49:04.880 It's a great old time. December 15th is the deadline, though. So submit those applications very, very soon.

00:49:10.680 Excellent. Thank you, Liz. And Senator, I am so glad that you got to the most delightful news story where there's a lot of heavy news stories today,

00:49:19.820 you know, talking about what's going on in Russia, how there a little bit of hope there is still time maybe to stop things.

00:49:25.880 If Biden will stand up and do it, the winds that we've had where we're pulling some of our conservative friends back from the precipice.

00:49:32.460 But the most delightful story is that the House of Cuomo has fallen.

00:49:37.080 And so it's, you know, it reminds us there's always a little silver lining in the storm clouds of politics.

00:49:42.660 Michael, I will note one of my favorite words, foreign words, is schadenfreude, the German word for taking pleasure in the suffering of others.

00:49:53.460 And I'll suggest perhaps a slight tweak to that, which is let us revel in schadenfreude, taking joy in the suffering of Fredo Cuomo, the troubled younger brother who I believe was last seen in a rowboat on Lake Tahoe saying Hail Mary.

00:50:14.300 And now he is on CNN no more a legislator, a basketball champion and a linguist as well.

00:50:24.760 Senator, thank you very much. I'm Michael Knowles. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:50:28.020 So I tried to get the great and powerful Jay Hay to draw a cactus on the vestiboard for this little bit that we're doing, but he could not produce.

00:50:46.340 So let me just tell you, we have a 20% off sale on the Verdict merch store right now.

00:50:51.220 You can get one of those sweet, sweet cactus hats.

00:50:54.100 I would put one on for you to model it, but I'm a little vain of my hair today.

00:50:57.340 I think I'm having a pretty good hair day, so I didn't want to mess it up.

00:50:59.540 But go over to verdictwithtedcruise.com slash shop, and if you use the promo code Santa, then you will get 20% off the entire shop between now and Christmas.

00:51:09.560 20% off. That's a really good deal.

00:51:11.560 We have T-shirts. We have cactus merch. We have hats.

00:51:15.220 We have all kinds of cool stuff over there.

00:51:17.160 Between now and Christmas, you get the great deal, 20% off.

00:51:19.800 If you use the promo code Santa, then, I don't know, in the meantime, maybe the great and powerful Jay Hay will figure out how to put a T-shirt or a cactus. 0.81

00:51:27.340 But while he's figuring that out, I invite you, join us, verdictwithtedcruise.com slash shop, to buy really cool merch.

00:51:35.480 You get 20% off if you use the promo code Santa at checkout.

00:51:38.300 That's actually pretty good.

00:51:46.380 This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is being brought to you by Jobs, Freedom, and Security Pack, a political action committee dedicated to supporting conservative causes, organizations, and candidates across the country.

00:51:59.900 In 2022, Jobs, Freedom, and Security Pack plans to donate to conservative candidates running for Congress and help the Republican Party across the nation.

00:52:08.800 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:52:12.040 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - December 09, 2021

Will Tanks Roll In Ukraine？

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript