Verdict with Ted Cruz - Will We Ever Return to Normal？

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.140 Lockdowns.

00:00:06.320 Executions.

00:00:07.440 Men in dresses. 0.83

00:00:09.240 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:16.300 I want to be very clear.

00:00:18.080 Those things will not be occurring on Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:21.240 We will be discussing those topics.

00:00:23.540 I'm just being real clear.

00:00:24.980 I ain't dressing in drag for you, Mike.

00:00:26.280 No, we'll do a lot for ratings, but we won't do that.

00:00:29.540 I want to thank, of course.

00:00:30.420 I'll let you, dressing in drag. 0.98

00:00:32.300 I don't know.

00:00:33.260 I've got to renegotiate my contract here.

00:00:35.460 We do want to thank all of the subscribers.

00:00:37.740 One thing is this is always my fault.

00:00:40.840 I run out of time.

00:00:41.920 We don't get to enough mailbag questions.

00:00:43.300 So I want to start the show today with a mailbag question.

00:00:46.820 This is one that has been on my mind quite a lot from Matthias.

00:00:51.860 Senator and Mr. Knowles, when will we be able to return to normal?

00:00:57.620 The masks, the lockdowns, the other stuff is just driving me nuts.

00:01:03.240 Are we in the new normal?

00:01:05.780 No.

00:01:07.140 You know, as they say about kidney stones, this too will pass.

00:01:14.120 This insanity will end.

00:01:15.800 You know, a couple months ago, I did a TV interview where I said, I guarantee you, if Joe Biden wins the presidential election, the week after the election, COVID will be cured.

00:01:31.760 You got in a lot of trouble for this.

00:01:33.960 Well, actually, at the time I gave the interview, I mean, it aired, but it didn't get a lot of attention.

00:01:38.780 And then last week, it seemed every lefty journalist in America discovered it and went on TV ranting and raving about it.

00:01:46.460 I saw it.

00:01:47.200 I said, why, where did they dig this up?

00:01:49.000 Are they all on an email chain together?

00:01:50.640 There clearly is a, you know, commie reporters of America listserv that they're all on because the word went out that we're pulling up this two-month-old interview.

00:02:05.020 Look, I think, well, to be clear, Joe Biden has not been elected president yet.

00:02:12.800 He may be when this litigation is over, but it's still being litigated.

00:02:16.120 But it's interesting, I think, for some Democrats, there was no doubt as COVID was going on.

00:02:24.840 And let's be clear, COVID is a real virus.

00:02:28.400 It is serious.

00:02:29.160 It can be life-threatening.

00:02:30.280 And all of us have taken significant steps to try to keep people safe.

00:02:33.900 But there was no doubt there were a lot of Democratic politicians using this crisis for political advantage by decreeing shutdowns, shutting down churches, exercising extraordinary power.

00:02:52.600 What's interesting is some of those Democratic politicians, they're still doing it.

00:02:59.300 And I don't know.

00:03:00.560 It's almost like they have Stockholm syndrome or something, that they've repeated it so many times that they've convinced themselves.

00:03:08.120 But there's two sides to it because I agree.

00:03:11.060 And I actually want to give you a little credit here.

00:03:14.220 Your prediction – I know you'll resist that.

00:03:16.960 Your prediction was right.

00:03:18.080 And what was it, three days or something after the election, we have the announcement of a vaccine, 95% effective.

00:03:24.300 And what a crock.

00:03:25.980 What an – okay, that pissed me off.

00:03:28.620 Pfizer literally the week after the election said, hey, look, we've cured it now.

00:03:32.880 Convenient.

00:03:33.360 We have a vaccine.

00:03:34.480 And it's like – I'm trying to keep this PG-rated, so I'm not going to say actually what I wanted to say there.

00:03:43.160 But they couldn't have announced it the week before the election?

00:03:45.680 No.

00:03:45.860 Of course they could have.

00:03:46.760 And it's – look, it's big pharma being totally in the tank for the Democrats.

00:03:54.580 I mean it was nakedly political that – by the way, not only that, the media mocked President Trump for saying we will have a vaccine in November or December.

00:04:03.680 This is ridiculous.

00:04:04.440 It's impossible.

00:04:05.360 And of course we have it the week after the frigate election.

00:04:08.700 And that's not the extent of the politicization.

00:04:12.000 You have a lockdown happening again.

00:04:14.240 And the reason I bring up this question from the guys –

00:04:15.580 And Pfizer said, by the way, it's the science.

00:04:18.060 That's why we announced it.

00:04:19.400 Well, they're right.

00:04:20.020 It's a scientific fact.

00:04:21.040 There was an election on November 3rd.

00:04:22.420 That was the science driving.

00:04:23.860 The reason I bring this question up about the normal is we're locking down again, and yet you have, for instance, the L.A. supervisor coming out and saying we need to lock down.

00:04:33.740 We need to close down restaurants. 0.97

00:04:35.180 It's a matter of safety.

00:04:36.480 And then hours later, going to a restaurant.

00:04:39.300 We have my governor, Mr. Nussolini, in office out there who says –

00:04:44.400 Just to be clear, he's not your governor anymore.

00:04:45.940 That's right.

00:04:46.840 Oh, talk about Stockholm syndrome.

00:04:48.360 I keep going back to the California days.

00:04:51.000 Right.

00:04:51.300 I left La La Land.

00:04:53.360 He decrees all of these mandates and then goes to a very fancy restaurant, the French Laundry, and has a nice meal.

00:05:00.820 And it goes on for a long time.

00:05:01.820 No distancing.

00:05:02.660 No masks.

00:05:03.400 There are a lot of other politicians who are saying one thing and doing another.

00:05:07.200 By the way, Gavin Newsom, when he was at the French Laundry having this fancy dinner, my understanding is he was with a bunch of not just lobbyists, but health care lobbyists.

00:05:16.120 That's right.

00:05:16.700 So like this pandemic, we're told you can't go to a restaurant.

00:05:20.480 You can't be with your family for Thanksgiving.

00:05:23.240 The all-powerful police state has spoken.

00:05:27.580 And the hypocrisy, the blatant hypocrisy as they're yucking it up, crammed in a room, having dinner together.

00:05:34.700 Look, the mayor of Austin told the people of Austin, you know, Austin's often described as a blueberry in a bowl of tomato soup.

00:05:47.060 It's the bright blue city in Texas.

00:05:50.860 But the mayor of Austin told everyone, don't go out, stay home this Thanksgiving.

00:05:55.700 You need to stay home.

00:05:56.560 You can't go out.

00:05:57.340 But the news just broke that apparently he literally went from making that announcement, jumped on a private plane, flew to Mexico with a bunch of his buddies.

00:06:07.300 And it is.

00:06:09.640 There's something about it.

00:06:10.820 It's it's it's funny.

00:06:12.160 You know, you kind of laugh about it.

00:06:13.520 It is so infuriating.

00:06:16.340 It is so disrespectful to our intelligence and to our American people who have civil rights. 0.56

00:06:23.560 And to see the politicians saying one thing and then flagrantly disregarding what they've just said is very frustrating.

00:06:30.720 Well, look, they know that the extremes they're advocating are a crock and the fact that they don't obey them.

00:06:38.080 And and of course, in today's politicized world, saying that quickly becomes, oh, my goodness, you don't you don't think we should do anything.

00:06:47.560 We should all like lick each other and just ignore that there's a virus.

00:06:51.680 No, you know, listen, I.

00:06:54.800 All right.

00:06:55.400 All right.

00:06:55.700 Thanksgiving.

00:06:56.260 I was I was with my family with Thanksgiving.

00:06:58.800 My parents are 81 and 86.

00:07:00.580 We try to protect them.

00:07:01.940 We try to try to keep them separated from other folks with some distance.

00:07:06.280 Now, we still allowed them in the house and fed them turkey like like there was you didn't shun your elderly parents on Thanksgiving.

00:07:16.380 By the way, that is one of the cruelest aspects of this COVID lockdown is particular seniors who've been alone, who've been isolated.

00:07:25.380 Isolated, you know, the people who have passed from from COVID or from other things who passed alone because hospitals won't let families in.

00:07:40.060 I mean, I mean, that's those are heartbreaking tragedies.

00:07:44.260 Well, you know, NBC News just released this report.

00:07:47.080 They said, shocking report.

00:07:48.720 Elderly people who have been kept alone and away from all of their loved ones are dying of loneliness.

00:07:53.620 And you say, you know, some people could have told you that.

00:07:57.000 Actually, we did tell them that.

00:07:58.220 You know, they call the people who take these other considerations into their mind.

00:08:02.500 They call them science deniers.

00:08:04.500 I like to call those people philosophy deniers or theology deniers or family deniers.

00:08:10.140 There are other aspects that you've got.

00:08:11.700 Science deniers.

00:08:12.580 And science deniers.

00:08:13.840 Like, let's be clear.

00:08:15.200 If you have elderly people and they don't go to the doctors and they don't get checkups for their heart and they don't get other medical conditions treated and they're alone and depressed, really bad things happen.

00:08:24.620 That's called science.

00:08:26.000 Like this is the left only believes in science when it suits their political agenda.

00:08:33.440 Any science that is inconvenient for that is not science.

00:08:36.160 Well, you know, one scientific fact that is new is that, you know, men can become women at just the mere mention of it.

00:08:43.300 And there was a big story that came out.

00:08:45.460 An actress who I didn't even recognize, Ellen Page, is now identifying as a man, Elliot Page.

00:08:50.560 But you have a tie-in to this story, which is that back during the 2016 campaign, this woman, I don't think you recognized her.

00:08:59.360 She approached you and had an impromptu debate that went viral.

00:09:03.660 I remember the video.

00:09:04.560 I didn't remember it was her.

00:09:05.400 So I was at the Iowa State Fair.

00:09:07.340 This is 2015 or 2016.

00:09:09.520 Yeah.

00:09:10.080 And I was actually grilling pork chops.

00:09:13.040 By the way, a bit of advice, if anyone listening to this podcast ever plans to run for president, since presidential races are getting so crowded, we may have lots of listeners who are going to run for president.

00:09:23.100 One bit of advice that I was given is never, ever, ever eat the corndog.

00:09:28.120 And this is very good advice.

00:09:32.240 So both Rick Perry and Michelle Bachman fell afoul of it.

00:09:35.520 Yeah.

00:09:36.080 And you got photographs that, let's just say, were not the photographs they were hoping to characterize their campaign.

00:09:44.920 No, not flattering.

00:09:46.180 And my press secretary in 2016 was Rick Perry's press secretary four years earlier.

00:09:52.380 And at the Iowa State Fair, we were walking through and she looked over and pointed at like a corndog stand and she said, that's where it happened.

00:10:03.780 So don't eat corndogs, but you can eat a pork chop on a stick.

00:10:08.760 It doesn't create the same phallic imagery.

00:10:11.980 No, no, not at all.

00:10:13.780 And so I was grilling pork chops and I was eating a pork chop on a stick.

00:10:17.180 I was like enjoying the Iowa State Fair.

00:10:19.400 As one does.

00:10:20.180 And this actress, who I later learned was named Ellen Page, came up to me and started engaging me and started with a film crew that was there.

00:10:28.280 And she was this young woman who began arguing with me about gay rights.

00:10:33.360 And it was fine.

00:10:34.280 I had a perfectly fine conversation.

00:10:35.880 And then I discovered afterwards that she was this actress that was running around filming these things.

00:10:40.540 And, you know, I have to admit there's a Netflix series that she's in called The Umbrella Academy, which I've watched both seasons.

00:10:52.360 And it's pretty – I watch a lot of – I like superhero movies.

00:10:58.660 I like sci-fi.

00:11:00.820 I like – I watch a lot of things.

00:11:03.060 But Umbrella Academy is pretty good.

00:11:04.240 Yeah.

00:11:04.900 And –

00:11:05.320 This is something I've noticed with conservatives is we can enjoy the work, particularly artwork, made by radical leftists, even if we don't like their politics.

00:11:15.460 Well, and the alternative is don't enjoy any music.

00:11:19.180 Don't watch any sports.

00:11:20.440 Don't ever go to the theater.

00:11:22.040 Don't go to any movies.

00:11:23.080 Don't watch TV.

00:11:24.140 Look, I get that those worlds are – at least the people who are vocal and outspoken are almost all leftists.

00:11:30.420 But, you know, I like theater.

00:11:33.640 I like movies.

00:11:34.220 I like TV.

00:11:34.840 I like sports.

00:11:35.680 I, you know, I like video games.

00:11:37.600 Yeah.

00:11:37.740 And you don't have to embrace the politics of the people producing it.

00:11:41.700 There does seem to be an irony, though, that the left is always talking about how there are too many straight white men.

00:11:46.500 Let me just say for the record, this is the second time today I've seen proof that Michael is a New Yorker.

00:11:53.480 Earlier he said, coffee, and there was a W in it.

00:11:56.980 And just a moment ago you said, twawking.

00:11:59.500 I know.

00:12:00.120 This is really –

00:12:01.080 I'm sorry.

00:12:01.380 I just had the –

00:12:02.320 You can take the boy out of New York.

00:12:03.820 You can't take the New York out of the boy.

00:12:05.480 Anyway, this did occur to me, though, that Hollywood is always talking about how –

00:12:11.120 Now you're self-conscious about it.

00:12:12.120 Now I know.

00:12:12.760 I am.

00:12:13.040 I'm going to start talking about how things are horrible as well.

00:12:16.620 Hollywood is always talking about how there are too many straight white men in the movies. 1.00

00:12:22.160 So it would seem that this news story about this actress who now identifies as a man would run afoul of their own orthodoxy.

00:12:29.360 But as you point out, they don't – the left doesn't really seem to care about these points they make, whether it's on science, whether it's on gender theory.

00:12:37.400 It seems as though if the left did not have double standards, they would have no standards at all.

00:12:42.700 Years ago I was doing – I was on Squawk Box, which by the way is a great show.

00:12:48.100 It's one of my favorite shows to do on CNBC and – because you get in really substantive interviews.

00:12:53.660 And I've done a couple times where I've done the whole hour and talked about all sorts of things.

00:12:58.100 But I was on one time and it was the day of or the day after Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, came out as gay.

00:13:06.760 Yeah.

00:13:06.920 And so one of the liberal hosts there asked, well, what do you think about that?

00:13:11.160 I'm like, I don't think anything of it.

00:13:13.740 He's like, well, what do you mean you don't think – aren't you upset?

00:13:15.860 Surely you stay up at night thinking about this question.

00:13:18.540 And I'm – you know, I reached in my pocket.

00:13:20.860 I said, look, Tim Cook is in charge of making my iPhone.

00:13:23.720 I want him to keep making really cool iPhones because I love my iPhones.

00:13:26.960 And beyond that, like, what do I care?

00:13:28.980 Yeah.

00:13:32.280 And that made no sense to them.

00:13:34.300 Yes, of course.

00:13:34.860 No, it is this obsession and they sort of project that onto the rest of us.

00:13:41.420 We're going to get a lot more of that if Joe Biden does ascend to the presidency.

00:13:46.200 You know, we started the show with that question about the new normal.

00:13:48.740 It seems that now the definition of normal has changed.

00:13:52.440 You know, I mentioned men in dresses, but things have gotten way, way crazier than that.

00:13:56.500 And by the way, on that whole men in dresses things, I have to admit prior to this week I had absolutely no idea who this Harry Styles guy was.

00:14:04.860 And Candace Owen, I'm a big fan of.

00:14:07.460 I like her.

00:14:07.880 Yeah, yeah.

00:14:08.240 And she got in this Twitter dispute.

00:14:10.640 And I was kind of like, OK, so some dude was on the cover of, what is it, Vogue, I think?

00:14:15.740 Yeah, I guess.

00:14:16.500 In a dress.

00:14:17.280 And I'm like, all right, who is he?

00:14:18.480 And I Googled him to try to figure out who is this guy.

00:14:20.980 And apparently he's like, I guess, in some boy band or singer or something.

00:14:24.220 I guess.

00:14:24.820 Some movie.

00:14:25.420 I don't know.

00:14:26.580 And the back and forth, it's like, all right, you want to wear dresses?

00:14:30.740 Knock yourself out.

00:14:31.520 By the way, you know, people have been, you know, the Romans wore togas.

00:14:34.980 I don't care.

00:14:36.320 But the whole thing seems kind of silly.

00:14:39.700 It does seem silly.

00:14:40.820 And it seems almost like a distraction because, sure, that's – it's definitely – it's a little weird.

00:14:45.480 The magazine cover is a little weird.

00:14:46.860 But the shifting of normal that I am much more concerned with is the shifting of normal that we could get if we have a Biden administration.

00:14:55.440 They're already telling us they want mandates to wear the masks everywhere.

00:14:59.160 They want a lockdown of the whole economy.

00:15:01.900 Are you suggesting if Biden's sworn in that he'll wear a dress?

00:15:05.360 I think I'd rather wear the dress than be forced to lock down and wear the mask all the time.

00:15:10.500 You know what?

00:15:12.000 Whoever's sworn in on January 20th, I can guarantee you the person swearing him in will wear a dress.

00:15:16.860 Well, that's a very good point.

00:15:20.940 That's true.

00:15:21.500 And that's perfectly normal.

00:15:22.720 Yeah.

00:15:23.180 All black, could be a man.

00:15:24.600 Absolutely.

00:15:26.260 What can we look forward to in terms of the lockdown policy?

00:15:31.740 Do you have any sense of this?

00:15:32.840 I want it to be clear.

00:15:34.240 You made a good point at the top of the show.

00:15:35.600 This is a hypothetical.

00:15:36.760 We still don't have a president-elect.

00:15:38.760 The electors haven't voted.

00:15:39.680 There's a contested election.

00:15:40.540 There's a legal process.

00:15:41.260 If the Trump disputes do not succeed, how bad is it going to be with regard to the new normal?

00:15:50.540 So I genuinely don't know.

00:15:52.180 Listen, I think if Joe Biden is sworn in as president, they want an economic recovery.

00:15:58.320 They want to see something come back.

00:15:59.940 I mean, it's why I always said everything will be magically cured.

00:16:04.960 And thankfully, the reports we've gotten on vaccines, you know, they're reporting, what, 95% effectiveness or greater.

00:16:11.900 And so I would love to see a vaccine that's really effective where life can go back to normal.

00:16:16.840 I do fear some of these little tin pot dictator Democrats, they've discovered the power to control businesses, lives, to tell you who you can have at your dinner table for Thanksgiving. 0.94

00:16:29.940 Yeah.

00:16:31.960 People don't give up power lightly.

00:16:33.880 Right.

00:16:34.540 And so, you know, and I think it'll vary place by place.

00:16:40.080 So Texas, Texas has opened up substantially.

00:16:44.020 Now, we've still got people who are sick and we're dealing with it and confronting the crisis.

00:16:48.940 But kids are back in school.

00:16:51.360 Most people are back at work.

00:16:52.860 And so you're seeing some places that are moving the right way.

00:16:56.060 The Californians of the world, the New Yorks of the world, I don't know.

00:17:00.920 Right.

00:17:01.280 Right.

00:17:02.000 And I suppose that is the realistic possibility that we at least have to consider is that we're going to have this Biden administration and maybe different states are going to react differently.

00:17:12.800 And so I do want to go to this worst case scenario.

00:17:16.740 So I'll give another example.

00:17:17.600 We were talking earlier about the arts.

00:17:20.220 You know, Eric Clapton and Van Morrison came out with this thing to stop the lockdown.

00:17:25.080 Yeah.

00:17:25.520 And they said, you're destroying the arts.

00:17:27.180 And I don't know their politics, but I sent out a tweet praising them and saying, look, good for you for having the guts to stand up and say this.

00:17:36.220 And you look at the arts.

00:17:37.640 I mean, there is an irony that these groups that are overwhelmingly leftists are being utterly destroyed right now by these policies.

00:17:48.820 Broadway.

00:17:49.720 Oh, yeah.

00:17:50.220 Broadway's done.

00:17:50.720 I love Broadway.

00:17:51.640 It's been shut down for six months.

00:17:53.160 And if you're a mega superstar, you'll be fine.

00:17:57.700 I mean, if you've got a home in Malibu and you've got $50 million in the bank, you'll weather the storm.

00:18:04.180 But, you know, what about all the lighting guys?

00:18:06.300 What about the set designers?

00:18:07.760 What about the makeup artists?

00:18:08.840 What about a regular run of the mill Broadway actor?

00:18:11.460 I mean, you probably can't even afford a cup of coffee right now.

00:18:13.500 Yeah.

00:18:13.800 That's how bad it is.

00:18:14.640 You know, look, if you're in the chorus line of cats, a good friend of mine, Michael Berry, who, you know, talk show host, very good friend of mine, owns a country western bar in Houston called the Redneck Country Club.

00:18:30.040 Great place.

00:18:30.940 I've had multiple election night parties there.

00:18:34.000 Michael shut it down.

00:18:35.300 He shut it down because of COVID.

00:18:36.560 And they've been driven out of business.

00:18:37.800 And it was a great institution.

00:18:41.560 But there are a lot of family restaurants, two, three generations that have been obliterated, bars, live event venues.

00:18:51.400 And the weird thing is, so Democrats, when I responded, like praising Clapton and Van Morrison for saying, stop destroying the music industry.

00:19:03.420 Lefties came back at me and said, well, no, no, no, just send them a government check.

00:19:07.800 How about instead of printing money and just sending everyone government checks, you actually allow people to work, to do their jobs, to perform their art?

00:19:17.880 I think we will get there eventually.

00:19:20.520 But I do – the radicals have been unleashed.

00:19:27.920 And how we get there could be bumpy.

00:19:30.400 Well, and I feel as though I'm the sort of pessimist in this episode just because I want to prepare for the worst.

00:19:36.360 The legal challenges are going to play out on the election.

00:19:38.160 But I want to prepare for the worst.

00:19:39.780 I've noticed also some people in the government are making preparations in case it is a Biden administration.

00:19:45.840 The honey badger, our friend, the attorney general, Bill Barr, has been behind the scenes sort of making some changes in particular to the way that the death penalty will be carried out.

00:19:56.860 And I think it hasn't gotten a lot of play in the media, but it would appear that the attorney general is ramping up justice over the next month or two.

00:20:07.220 Well, the Department of Justice is doing something really quite radical, which is enforcing the law.

00:20:12.080 So listen, on the question of capital punishment, reasonable minds can differ.

00:20:15.880 Americans are on both sides of that issue.

00:20:18.200 What you can't differ about is what current law is.

00:20:22.080 Current law in a number of states, the death penalty is the ultimate punishment.

00:20:28.260 And under federal law, the death penalty is the ultimate punishment.

00:20:31.040 And there are, I think it's 53 or 54 federal inmates on death row.

00:20:37.460 During the Obama-Biden administration, they just slow played him and wouldn't carry out the execution.

00:20:43.940 Right.

00:20:44.020 They just said, never mind the law.

00:20:45.920 Now, these are people, and these are people who, you know, terrorists who have committed horrific crimes.

00:20:52.820 This is not someone selling marijuana on the side of the road.

00:20:55.760 I mean, these are horrific criminals.

00:20:57.620 You know, these are people, so I wrote an op-ed this week on Fox News talking about this and going through some of the cases.

00:21:05.340 One fellow who horrifically, systematically tortured his two-year-old daughter and ultimately murdered her, who committed just horrible crimes.

00:21:14.020 You know, one of the Boston bombers is on federal death row.

00:21:18.840 Now, that case is being litigated and challenged.

00:21:21.540 The white supremacist who murdered nine African-Americans at the Mother Emanuel AME church is on federal death row.

00:21:30.940 And you know what?

00:21:31.620 The Obama-Biden administration, they slow walk and don't enforce the law.

00:21:34.580 And so Barr simply scheduled executions.

00:21:40.240 The left is going nuts, going, how dare you actually?

00:21:42.980 And these are people convicted by a jury pursuant to the law.

00:21:45.620 And so what I urge Bill Barr to do before he leaves is for every single eligible capital murderer on federal death row, schedule an execution.

00:21:54.580 Right.

00:21:55.200 Schedule it now, which means if Joe Biden becomes president and he puts lefty activists into the Department of Justice, that if they want to ignore the law, they've got to cancel the execution.

00:22:07.940 It changes the onus, and I hope he does that.

00:22:11.340 That's a great idea.

00:22:12.080 And, you know, they would have to explain for each case why they are going to let this person escape justice.

00:22:19.440 You know, if we do have a Biden administration, we're probably going to hear a whole lot of talk about social justice.

00:22:25.460 You're good to get some real justice in there as well.

00:22:28.680 And look, you know, there's we've seen a lot of, sadly, race baiting from the left.

00:22:34.820 You know, you look at the white supremacist who, Charleston, South Carolina, went into the church, prayed with the parishioners, and then pulled out a gun and shot them.

00:22:47.440 That's the embodiment of evil.

00:22:49.220 You know, when I was SG in Texas, Solicitor General, I dealt with a lot of violent crime and murderers, and the worst are those that hurt kids.

00:23:00.760 Who, I mean, there's just a circle of hell for, like, adults that, and I got to say, working in law enforcement, people do horrible, horrible things.

00:23:12.820 And I think the death penalty is, I believe, appropriate and just and the right punishment for the very worst crimes.

00:23:20.720 I entirely agree.

00:23:22.420 And if Joe Biden disagrees, if the Democrats disagree, then man up and change federal law.

00:23:28.400 Right.

00:23:28.600 But don't just refuse to enforce the law.

00:23:30.860 Right.

00:23:31.140 Of course.

00:23:31.700 Of course.

00:23:32.240 There's retributive, deterrent effects, rehabilitative, I say, because hanging concentrates the mind.

00:23:38.700 And if you're going to make a contrary argument, they have to make that argument.

00:23:43.060 Now, going on this theme of, let's say, there's a Biden administration, I do want to get to one mailbag question, because this is going to be important if it ends up the case.

00:23:53.160 From Florida conservative, if Biden becomes president, what can and will the Senate GOP do to influence the Biden cabinet and keep out the worst possible choices?

00:24:04.940 So I'm hopeful that if we keep a Republican Senate, that we will have a significant moderating effect on any potential Biden administration.

00:24:14.280 If Democrats win in Georgia and Schumer's majority leader, they will confirm the most radical nominees you can imagine.

00:24:23.720 I actually think that's one of the reasons why we've seen a handful of Biden nominees put forward.

00:24:28.660 But we haven't seen most of them.

00:24:30.620 And I have a suspicion that they're holding, holding off to see what kind of Senate they're going to have.

00:24:37.800 Right.

00:24:38.400 Because, look, it takes.

00:24:42.520 50 votes plus the VP to confirm someone.

00:24:46.780 Are there going to be some bad nominees if we have a Biden presidency that I will vote against?

00:24:52.980 Yes.

00:24:53.260 And will some of those get confirmed because some wobbly Republicans will join with the Democrats in voting for them?

00:24:59.240 Yes.

00:24:59.640 Yeah.

00:25:00.500 But with a Republican majority, I think we will be able to stop the most extreme and the worst.

00:25:06.340 And, you know, a few days after the election, there were stories because Republicans shocked the press by not losing the Senate, by winning a lot of these close contested Senate races.

00:25:16.160 You know, there's a big article in Politico about how the Biden team was going to have to be much more centrist because they'd have to get them through a Republican Senate.

00:25:25.220 And so there's a deterrent effect of who can be nominated that that is meaningful.

00:25:33.160 And will there be bad nominees?

00:25:35.160 Anyways, I'm sure they would put forward, but they'd be a lot better with a Republican Senate than with a Democratic Senate.

00:25:44.780 Right. There are all these questions about what is the new normal.

00:25:47.800 Is the new normal movie stars men wearing dresses?

00:25:51.480 Is the new normal these lockdowns?

00:25:52.860 Is the new normal politicians disregarding their own mandates?

00:25:55.940 Is the new normal – who's the president going to be?

00:25:58.040 We still have to figure that out.

00:25:59.380 A lot is up in the air.

00:26:00.800 However, that is going to be decided within the next couple of weeks, next month or so.

00:26:06.360 And that could radically shape our country for not just for two years or four years.

00:26:10.860 We're talking about generational shifts.

00:26:14.020 The most consequential thing is if the Democrats succeed in packing the U.S. Supreme Court.

00:26:19.160 I think that does fundamental structural damage.

00:26:21.980 I hope it doesn't happen.

00:26:23.080 Yeah.

00:26:23.780 If we keep a Republican Senate, it won't happen.

00:26:26.620 If Democrats take the Senate, I believe it will.

00:26:28.560 Well, let's hope things remain normal, whatever that word is to mean.

00:26:33.260 We'll have to leave it there.

00:26:34.820 I'm Michael Knowles.

00:26:35.880 This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:26:37.500 This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is being brought to you by Jobs Freedom and Security

00:26:51.680 Pack, a political action committee dedicated to supporting conservative causes, organizations,

00:26:57.120 and candidates across the country.

00:26:58.860 In 2022, Jobs Freedom and Security Pack plans to donate to conservative candidates running

00:27:04.520 for Congress and help the Republican Party across the nation.

00:27:08.740 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:27:11.040 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - December 08, 2020

Will We Ever Return to Normal？

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript