Speaker 1: It's Verdict live from Arizona at the Goldwater Institute Dinner Welcome.
Speaker 2: Center.
Speaker 3: Good to be with you.
Speaker 1: We are here in Arizona Goldwater Institute. An amazing dinner
Speaker 1: with an incredible crowd that many people will hear in
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Speaker 3: Thank you guys for having us. And we've got a
Speaker 3: lot to talk about tonight.
Speaker 1: And we're also going to get some Q and A
Speaker 1: in here from the audience, which is one of your
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Speaker 2: Will that look mad? That's exactly right. And let me
Speaker 2: say Goldwater Institute is an amazing institution. It is the
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Speaker 1: We're you mentioned school choice, and we're gonna get to that.
Speaker 1: We're also gonna get some breaking news that deals with
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court. But before we get to that, let's
Speaker 1: start and talk about what's going on in Israel right now.
Speaker 1: There has been over the last twenty four to forty
Speaker 1: eight hours, a pretty significant shift, especially from the media
Speaker 1: in this country and also around the world, and more
Speaker 1: calls for a quote humanitarian ceasefire. It is frustrating when
Speaker 1: you see this, because it's clear that Israel is having
Speaker 1: to defend itself from.
Speaker 3: These horrific terrorists.
Speaker 1: We've heard even more about their atroses, including putting children
Speaker 1: in ovens, babies and ovens that were found. We know
Speaker 1: that they beheaded infant children. And yet the media is
Speaker 1: now trying to put pressure not on the Terrace, but
Speaker 1: on Israel to just say pause so that many of
Speaker 1: these terrats would not be brought to justice, which I
Speaker 1: think for many we agree should be that they are
Speaker 1: taken off the face of this earth.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, Ben, as you know, this has been a battle,
Speaker 2: and it's been a battle with the Biden administration from
Speaker 2: the very beginning of this war. This war began on
Speaker 2: October seventh with a grotesque act of atrocities. The attacks
Speaker 2: of Hamas were the worst attacks on the state of
Speaker 2: Israel in over fifty years. On October seventh, it was
Speaker 2: the single grit greatest mass murder of Jews in any
Speaker 2: single day since the Holocaust, and Hamas terrorists, the death
Speaker 2: squads went house to house, murdering every person in that house,
Speaker 2: seeking out civilians, murdering elderly people, murdering women, murdering children,
Speaker 2: violently raping women and little girls, dragging them into the streets,
Speaker 2: and murdering, beheading and burning alive infants. It has been sick,
Speaker 2: it has been grotesque. Over fourteen hundred Israelis have been murdered.
Speaker 2: Over two hundred Israelis are held hostage right now. And
Speaker 2: not only was this one of the worst attacks on
Speaker 2: Israel in history, this is also one of the worst
Speaker 2: terrorist attacks on the United States in history. On that day,
Speaker 2: thirty one Americans were murdered. They're roughly a dozen Americans
Speaker 2: that are held hostage right now. And I want to say,
Speaker 2: at the outset, it is critic that we should be
Speaker 2: unequivocal that America stands squarely with the state of Israel.
Speaker 3: Amen.
Speaker 1: It's also shocking, I think to so many people that
Speaker 1: there is such a divide right now on the issue
Speaker 1: of Israel within the Democratic Party. When you talk about
Speaker 1: the atroces that you just mentioned, it should be a
Speaker 1: pretty easy political moment, I would argue, and ten, fifteen,
Speaker 1: twenty years ago this would not have been hard. How
Speaker 1: is it that so many Democrats are not just screwing
Speaker 1: it up. It's they are actually advocating for the terrorist organization,
Speaker 1: for those supporting the terrorist organization, and we're witnessing it
Speaker 1: in the streets in America, We're witnessing it on college campuses.
Speaker 3: We're witnessing it.
Speaker 1: All over the world, whether it's in Berlin, whether it's
Speaker 1: in France, whether it's at the Opera House in Australia.
Speaker 1: There are large groups of people in countries all over
Speaker 1: the world and college campuses that are advocating for Hamas
Speaker 1: and the Palacinians.
Speaker 2: Look, it has been tragic to watch that on the
Speaker 2: far left today there is a blatant strain of hatred
Speaker 2: for Israel and virulent anti anti Semitism. We see it
Speaker 2: the House of Representatives in the SQUAD and the Squad
Speaker 2: are viciously anti Israel. You and I on this podcast
Speaker 2: talked about the video Overshidah Talib walking down the halls
Speaker 2: of the house when being asked, what do you think
Speaker 2: about women and children being raped? What do you think
Speaker 2: about infants being murdered? And she refused to answer. And
Speaker 2: I will say it has been tragic to watch college
Speaker 2: campuses across this country as vicious anti Semitism has broken out.
Speaker 2: This week, I saw a video form Mi alma mater
Speaker 2: from Harvard of a Jewish student being harassed, being threatened,
Speaker 2: being surrounded by angry protesters screaming shame, shame, shame. Look.
Speaker 2: I called on Harvard any student doing that to another
Speaker 2: student should be expelled immediately. But let me say something else, Ben,
Speaker 2: because unfortunately, it's not just the radicals in the house.
Speaker 2: It's not just the radicals on university campuses. The Biden
Speaker 2: administration from the very beginning of this war has systematically
Speaker 2: undermined Israel. When the war began on October seventh, early
Speaker 2: in the morning, at three in the morning, the State Department,
Speaker 2: the Office of Palestinian Affairs tweeted out they said, we
Speaker 2: condemned the attack of Amas, but we urge both sides
Speaker 2: to engage in no retaliation, no military acts. Violence solves nothing.
Speaker 2: This is literally as Israel is having terrorists murder that
Speaker 2: night upwards of a thousand Israelis. The US State Department said, Israel,
Speaker 2: don't respond at all, do nothing, do not strike back
Speaker 2: at the terrorists. Now, my staff and I we spotted
Speaker 2: that tweet at three in the morning, and we condemned
Speaker 2: it loudly. I said, look, everyone involved in drafting this tweet,
Speaker 2: everyone involved in approving it, should be fired. The State
Speaker 2: Department within hours deleted the tweet. The next day, Tony
Speaker 2: Blink and the Secretary of State set out another tweet.
Speaker 2: He said he had just talked with the Turkish Foreign
Speaker 2: Minister and they had agreed that it was imperative to
Speaker 2: have a cease fire. Understand that the words cease fire listen.
Speaker 2: Hamas does not intend to have a ceasefire until they
Speaker 2: murder every Jew they can find. That's when they intend
Speaker 2: to stop. Prime Minister net Yaho has rightly said that
Speaker 2: they are going to utterly eliminate Hamas. And every time
Speaker 2: you hear a Democrat or the media saying the words
Speaker 2: cease fire, what they are saying is protect Hamas. And
Speaker 2: stop Israel for Retalia. Right now, the US Secretary of
Speaker 2: State Tony Blincoln is in Israel, and he went there
Speaker 2: to argue for what he called a quote humanitarian pause.
Speaker 2: Now that's just fancy Orwellian speak for a ceasefire. What
Speaker 2: he's saying is Israel, please don't kill the terrorist. He's
Speaker 2: also arguing, Israel, please give fuel to the terrorists. So
Speaker 2: in the Gaza Strip, many of the Hamas terrorists are
Speaker 2: in tunnels that they have dug underground. Those tunnels are ventilated,
Speaker 2: they are powered by fuel generators. And so Israel has said,
Speaker 2: we're cutting off your fuel. What is the Biden State
Speaker 2: Department saying, send fuel in there. The reason Israel's cutting
Speaker 2: off the fuel is to get the terrorists out of
Speaker 2: the tunnels so they can kill the terrorists who are
Speaker 2: targeting and murdering civilians. And I got to say, and
Speaker 2: this is something. So in the last three weeks this podcast,
Speaker 2: we've done a deep dive on what's happening in Israel,
Speaker 2: examining the atrocities that were carried out, but also examining
Speaker 2: the complicity of the Biden administration. It is funding this attack.
Speaker 2: It has flowed over one hundred billion dollars to Iran,
Speaker 2: who planned and directed this attack. But not only that,
Speaker 2: on this podcast, we've explained how the corporate media is
Speaker 2: an integral part of Hamasa's war plan. We had a
Speaker 2: podcast episode that was entitled CNN is Hamasa's air force,
Speaker 2: So is MSNBC, so is ABC. It's scary attack, It's terrified. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And we went through a dozen different clips, including we
Speaker 2: played one on this podcast.
Speaker 3: By the way, go back and down with this.
Speaker 1: If you didn't, if you did not get to hear this,
Speaker 1: this is why I love doing the show with you,
Speaker 1: because we take time and we pulled all these clips
Speaker 1: and we.
Speaker 2: Played them and you can't get anywhere else.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no one else is playing this, and we put
Speaker 1: it back to back to back to back, so you
Speaker 1: can watch the American media defend this terrorist organization well.
Speaker 2: And one of the most stunning is CNN had a
Speaker 2: spokesperson for the Palestinians who went on CNN and said
Speaker 2: Hamas only attacks military targets, they never attack civilians, and
Speaker 2: the Israelis deliberately target civilians and CNN sat there as
Speaker 2: they utterly lied. They aired globally terrorist propaganda, which is
Speaker 2: exactly opposite of the truth that I'll point out. Not
Speaker 2: only is it the case that Hamas deliberately was murdering civilians,
Speaker 2: and by the way, they don't keep this a secret.
Speaker 2: They videoed themselves and put the videos out for the world.
Speaker 2: They're proud of it. But not only that, the Israelis
Speaker 2: go to extraordinary lengths, more than any military on the
Speaker 2: face of the planet, to avoid civilian deaths. Now, tragically,
Speaker 2: we know there will be Palestinians civilian deaths, but the
Speaker 2: reason for that is Hamas deliberately using human shields. They
Speaker 2: want Palestinian civilians to die. So, for example, they put
Speaker 2: their military headquarters in the basement of a hospital. They
Speaker 2: put missiles in kindergarten classrooms because when the Israelis take
Speaker 2: out military targets, they want there to be dead Palestinians
Speaker 2: because they then know Hamas knows they're not strong enough
Speaker 2: to defeat Israel. But their plan is for the useful
Speaker 2: idiots in the global media to take those images and
Speaker 2: demonize Israel, which is why it is so important to
Speaker 2: speak out and speak the truth.
Speaker 1: One of the things about being here, and they go
Speaker 1: on anste for this event, is we get to talk
Speaker 1: about a subject that's really important that I know many
Speaker 1: of you care about, and that's an issue at the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court. There is a really important week coming up
Speaker 1: that deals with the Supreme Court center and I want
Speaker 1: you to talk about this. A vote that's coming up
Speaker 1: in judiciary and it's not being covered by anyone, yep.
Speaker 1: And it's going to have or could have major consequences.
Speaker 1: And part of this is the left's clear vision to
Speaker 1: change or all to the Supreme Court and how the
Speaker 1: American people look at it, how they view it. It
Speaker 1: undermining the Supreme Court, undermining directly justices, influencing justice.
Speaker 3: We saw this with Roe v.
Speaker 1: Wade and the leaking of that document beforehand. We saw
Speaker 1: how the Left allowed them to go after these Supreme
Speaker 1: Court justice at their homes and no one was held
Speaker 1: accountable for that either.
Speaker 2: So the Left has been engaged in a multi year
Speaker 2: systematic effort to undermine and delegitimize the Supreme Court. They
Speaker 2: view it as the one institution of government they don't
Speaker 2: have a stranglehold on it, yeah, and so their intention
Speaker 2: is to destroy the Court. And it has featured things
Speaker 2: including Chuck Schumer standing on the steps of the Court,
Speaker 2: threatening justices by name and saying if you do not
Speaker 2: rule the way he wants them to, that you have
Speaker 2: unleashed the whirlwind and you will pay the price. We saw,
Speaker 2: we saw the leak of the Supreme Court Dobbs decision.
Speaker 2: We then also have seen week after week, month after month, angry,
Speaker 2: violent protesters outside the homes of Supreme Court justices. Now
Speaker 2: it's a federal crime to protest at the home of
Speaker 2: a federal judge trying to influence the outcome of an election.
Speaker 1: Let's just say that again, because I don't think people
Speaker 1: realize that of any federal judge.
Speaker 2: Yes, Supreme Court, you can't go and threaten a federal
Speaker 2: judge at their home. It's a federal crime. Now, the
Speaker 2: Biden Justice Department, you know how many people they prosecuted
Speaker 2: for violating that law. Zero, not a single one. Now
Speaker 2: it got so bad. There was one lunatic that traveled
Speaker 2: from California all the way to Bethesda, Maryland. He brought
Speaker 2: a gun, he brought a knife, he brought duct tape,
Speaker 2: and he came there to murder Justice Brett Kavanaugh. He
Speaker 2: was apprehended. He's being proper acuted for attempted murder. But
Speaker 2: every night and he should be. But every night the
Speaker 2: people who are committing criminal offenses in front of the
Speaker 2: justices houses trying to intimidate them. The Biden Department of
Speaker 2: Justice Merrick Garland refuses to follow federal law. So the
Speaker 2: latest iteration in the Democrats' efforts to undermine the Supreme
Speaker 2: Court is they have been targeting a smear campaign directed
Speaker 2: at Clarence Thomas. Now I know Justice Thomas very well.
Speaker 2: I believe Justice Clarence Thomas is an American hero. He's
Speaker 2: an extraordinary man. He's a brilliant man. Actually, I want
Speaker 2: to take a digression.
Speaker 3: It's so funny.
Speaker 2: By the way, I want to tell you a fun
Speaker 2: story about Justice Thomas. So, I was a law clerk
Speaker 2: at the Supreme Court from nineteen ninety six to nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety seven. And when I was clerking at the Court,
Speaker 2: i clerked for Chief Justice William Renquist. I got to
Speaker 2: know Justice Thomas very well, and at the time two
Speaker 2: stories about Justice Thomas. Number one. One of my co
Speaker 2: clerks is a guy named Rick Guarded. He's a professor
Speaker 2: of law Notre Dame, and Rick and his wife had
Speaker 2: had tutored a young African American kid in Arkansas, the
Speaker 2: year before. His name was Carlos. He was a seventh grader.
Speaker 2: And Rick and Nicole said, okay, we want to fly
Speaker 2: Carlos to Washington, d C. He'd never left Arkansas, I
Speaker 2: had never seen it, and they said, we want to
Speaker 2: bring him there. And so Carlos came. And Rick sent
Speaker 2: an email to all nine Supreme Court Justices and he said, Hey,
Speaker 2: this kid my wife and I tutored is coming. Would
Speaker 2: you be willing to meet with him? Two said yes,
Speaker 2: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Clarence Thomas now Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Speaker 2: It was very nice of her to meet with him,
Speaker 2: and they had a conversation, but look, it was a
Speaker 2: little stilted. She was very prim She was very proper.
Speaker 2: She was like a librarian. And for a kid who
Speaker 2: grew up in rural Arkansas, it was difficult to understand
Speaker 2: and really connect with Sirs Ginsburg, but it was very
Speaker 2: gracious of her to say yes. The other who said
Speaker 2: yes was Clarence Thomas now Clarence Thomas grew up in Pinpoint, Georgia.
Speaker 2: Pinpoint is a tiny rural town in Georgia. He grew
Speaker 2: up in abject poverty and he sat there talking with Carlos.
Speaker 2: He spent over an hour with his seventh grade kid
Speaker 2: talking with him. At the end of the discussion, Carlos
Speaker 2: the Supreme Court didn't mean a whole lot to him.
Speaker 2: But Justice Thomas had a picture of himself with Troy Acoman.
Speaker 2: He's a huge Dallas Cowboys fan, and that impressed Carlos, like, wow,
Speaker 2: that's a big deal.
Speaker 3: You know, Aikman, that's it, You're in.
Speaker 2: And Justice Thomas saw how impressed he was, and he
Speaker 2: had on his desk he had a ticket to the
Speaker 2: Super Bowl encased in loose sight and signed by Emmett Smith,
Speaker 2: and he grabbed it off his desk. He said, Carlos,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna give you this ticket. But he said, I
Speaker 2: want you to promise me you're gonna get a's in
Speaker 2: school next year. And Carlos, with wide open eyes, nodded
Speaker 2: and said, yes, sir, I will. That's one day that
Speaker 2: was never reported, that was never commented. There were no
Speaker 2: cameras there. That's who Justice Thomas is. Here's the second story.
Speaker 2: So my college roommate and best friend other than Heidi,
Speaker 2: it's a guy you know, well, David Panton. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: he is Jamaican. He is an extraordinary guy. And he
Speaker 2: was president of the Harvard Law Review. So the first
Speaker 2: black president of the Harvard Law Review was a guy
Speaker 2: named Barack Obama. I'm not sure what he went on
Speaker 2: to do after that.
Speaker 3: You can google it if you need to check that
Speaker 3: out later.
Speaker 2: The second black president of the Harvard Law Review was
Speaker 2: my old roommate, David Pantom And so David, when I
Speaker 2: was clerking, he said, look, I'd really love to meet
Speaker 2: Justice Thomas. And so I asked the Justice, Hey, my
Speaker 2: roommate's president the Law Review. Would you be willing to
Speaker 2: meet with him? He said sure, So they came. David
Speaker 2: came up, and the two of them sat and I
Speaker 2: sat in on the meeting. They spent again about an
Speaker 2: hour hour and a half talking got along famously. Justice
Speaker 2: Thomas wanted David to come clerk for it. And and David,
Speaker 2: David is is in private equity, he's gone into business,
Speaker 2: and and and David says that. David says, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: I leave. He's Jamaican. So there's this lilting Jamaican accident.
Speaker 2: He goes, no, no, no, I leave law to the smart people.
Speaker 2: And Justice Thomas leans forward and says so do I,
Speaker 2: And it was just I'm sitting there like, Holy cow,
Speaker 2: how am I sitting there watching this extraordinary exchange?
Speaker 3: By the way, it's sad, not because this is the
Speaker 3: best part about doing this show.
Speaker 2: Both brilliant both.
Speaker 3: This is the best part about doing this show.
Speaker 1: I get to pull back the curtain. You are obsessed
Speaker 1: with basketball. People may not realize that you play at
Speaker 1: least what twice a week?
Speaker 2: I play twice a week. Obsessed is strong?
Speaker 1: You love that. It's your It is your thing. Clarence
Speaker 1: Thomas likes basketball.
Speaker 2: He does He did you ever play? Did y'all ever play? Sadly,
Speaker 2: I didn't because his wife Jenny won't let him anymore.
Speaker 2: He hurt his knee. He used to play. We begged
Speaker 2: him to come out and play now Byron White, Yeah,
Speaker 2: who was Okay, here's an interesting bit of trivia. Sorry
Speaker 2: we're taking a total diggression. But the fun thing about
Speaker 2: a podcast is we can do that, all right, So
Speaker 2: let's do a little bit of history. World War two.
Speaker 2: A boat known as PT one O nine is sunk
Speaker 2: in World War Two. An intelligence report is written that
Speaker 2: describes in the sinking of p T one O nine,
Speaker 2: incredible heroism from a young sailor by the name of
Speaker 2: John Fitzgerald Kennedy. And this intelligence report described Kennedy as
Speaker 2: an incredible hero. Fast forward twenty years and JFK's president,
Speaker 2: JFK appointed one and only one person to the Supreme Court.
Speaker 2: Do you know who that was? I don't Byron White.
Speaker 2: Do you know who wrote the intelligence report?
Speaker 3: Iron White?
Speaker 2: That is the Supreme Court? I guess right, the absolute truth. Now.
Speaker 2: Byron White is someone that I think would only exist
Speaker 2: in like a fictional Tom Wolf book. Byron White was
Speaker 2: second in the balloting for the Heisman Trophy. Byron White
Speaker 2: was first in his class at Yale Law School. And
Speaker 2: the same year he was first in the class in
Speaker 2: the Yale Law School, he led the NFL in rushing. Wow, Like,
Speaker 2: holy cow, who does that? And so when I clerked,
Speaker 2: Byron White was retired, he was like eighty and he
Speaker 2: used to play play hoops with the law clerks. And
Speaker 2: so at the Supreme Court there's a basketball court, and
Speaker 2: and the basketball court it's at the top and and
Speaker 2: so the floor of the court is the ceiling of
Speaker 2: the courtroom. So they don't let you during an argument
Speaker 2: because you can literally hear the dribbling through the ceiling.
Speaker 3: And it's nickname the Supreme Court.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no, no, that's what I was told.
Speaker 3: Now, all right, that's wrong, all right, I was told.
Speaker 2: I was told the Supreme Court.
Speaker 3: All right, what is it?
Speaker 2: It's nickname is the highest court in the lamb.
Speaker 3: Oh well, okay, there you go.
Speaker 2: But Byron White used to play, and he was, look
Speaker 2: the guy led the NFL in rushing. He was a
Speaker 2: massive guy, and apparently he'd play with pencil neck law
Speaker 2: clerks and he would fowl like crazy and just throw
Speaker 2: him down nothing. He would do whatever, be a foul,
Speaker 2: and he would just brutalize them. When I was clerking,
Speaker 2: he was like eighty, so we couldn't get him to play.
Speaker 2: But I just shook his hands and like his fingers
Speaker 2: were the diameter of a quarter. I mean, it was weird.
Speaker 2: So he didn't play anymore. And sadly Justice Thomas didn't
Speaker 2: play anymore when I was there either, because Ginny wouldn't
Speaker 2: let him because he hurd his knee playing.
Speaker 3: When you clerked.
Speaker 1: Last question on this and then we'll get back to
Speaker 1: this vote this week. But I got to ask what
Speaker 1: was the coolest part about clerking in the Supreme Court.
Speaker 2: Being part of the decision making. So I clerked for
Speaker 2: Chief Justice Renquist. He was an extraordinary man. He was someone.
Speaker 2: He was born in Milwaukee. He was born in a
Speaker 2: blue collar family. He enlisted in the army in World
Speaker 2: War Two, so he was a sergeant. He was a
Speaker 2: weather observer in North Africa during World War Two. It's
Speaker 2: one of the really cool things. I've always loved that
Speaker 2: the Chief Justice the United States was not an officer.
Speaker 2: He was an enlisted man. And years later we was
Speaker 2: serving on the Court. Lewis Powell, who served with him,
Speaker 2: was a colonel in World War Two, and Powell used
Speaker 2: to say, you know, I outrank you, and the Chief
Speaker 2: Justice would say, oh, not anymore. But Renquist was spectacularly brilliant.
Speaker 2: So he had a purely photographic memory at a level
Speaker 2: I've never seen anyone else. So here's an amazing story.
Speaker 2: So Renquist graduated from Stanford Law School. He was first
Speaker 2: in his class at Stanford. In the same class was
Speaker 2: Sanderday O'Connor. She was third in her class at Stanford.
Speaker 2: I've always wondered what happened to the poor schlaboo second. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So renquists and O'Connor dated. They dated in law school
Speaker 2: and they actually he asked her to marry him.
Speaker 3: Are you king?
Speaker 2: She said no. Now, as y'all know, Saturday O'Connor came
Speaker 2: back to Arizona, was an Arizona legend, was the Senate
Speaker 2: majority leader here in the state of Arizona. And they
Speaker 2: served together, and she and her husband and he and
Speaker 2: his wife were friends for fifty years. They were very
Speaker 2: close friends. A great story from Saturday O'Connor. So when
Speaker 2: she was Sader day and she was dating John O'Connor,
Speaker 2: she describes in her autobiography how she brought this this
Speaker 2: young Stanford law student she was dating back to meet
Speaker 2: her dad on the ranch. And she said that day
Speaker 2: dad just happened to be castrating calves.
Speaker 3: Just happened to.
Speaker 2: Because she writes in the book, I wonder if he
Speaker 2: was trying to send the message.
Speaker 1: That's like gun cleaning night in the South. Have a
Speaker 1: daughter having a date.
Speaker 2: Right As the father of two daughters, I find that.
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Speaker 1: Let's talk about this week in DC because it's important
Speaker 1: what's going on and explain what the plan is for
Speaker 1: the Democrats and what they're trying to accomplish.
Speaker 2: So the Democrats are intending to issue subpoenas for three people,
Speaker 2: for Harlan Crowe, for Leonard Leo, and for Robin Arkley
Speaker 2: the second now all three of them. Harlan Crowe is
Speaker 2: a very successful businessman in Texas. Leonard Leo is a
Speaker 2: very close friend who who has helped lead the Federalist
Speaker 2: Society for thirty years. I've known Leonard Leo for thirty years.
Speaker 2: He's been actively involved in fighting to confirm conservative Supreme
Speaker 2: Court justices for thirty years. The purpose of this subpoena
Speaker 2: is there is a concerted smear campaign directed at Justice Thomas.
Speaker 2: And so you've seen the stories about Justice Thomas flew
Speaker 2: on a private plane. Justice Thomas was the guest at
Speaker 2: the vacation home of a billionaire, and so he must
Speaker 2: be corrupt. Now, I'm going to tell you two things
Speaker 2: about that smear campaign. Number One, it is utterly and
Speaker 2: completely hypocritical in that if you look at the numbers
Speaker 2: from two thousand and four to twenty eighteen, the Justice
Speaker 2: is disclosed, how many trips do you think they took
Speaker 2: the nine justices? No idea one, three hundred and six.
Speaker 3: That's a hell of a lot of travel.
Speaker 2: That's nine people. They travel a lot. Six of the
Speaker 2: Supreme Court's nine members received paid trips to Europe in
Speaker 2: twenty fourteen, including Berlin, London, Zurich. Uh Justice Stephen Bryer
Speaker 2: was repeatedly flowed around by the billionaire Pritzker family from Chicago,
Speaker 2: by the way, one of whom is the Democrat governor
Speaker 2: of Illinois. Right now, Justice Sonoma or likewise flew all
Speaker 2: over the place. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg flew all over
Speaker 2: the praise. Justice Bryer took more reimbursed trips two hundred
Speaker 2: and nineteen than any other member from two thousand and
Speaker 2: four to twenty eighteen. And the attack that's directed Clarence Thomas. Look,
Speaker 2: if you want to argue Supreme Court justices shouldn't be
Speaker 2: able to fly on trips or on private planes, fine.
Speaker 2: If you want to talk about rules that apply to everyone,
Speaker 2: that's fine, that's a reasonable conversation. What's not reasonable is
Speaker 2: to say, we're going to attack Clarence Thomas for doing
Speaker 2: the same thing the other eight justices are doing, and
Speaker 2: we're going to hypocritically apply rules to him that don't
Speaker 2: apply to anyone else. Now, let me tell you something
Speaker 2: on top of that, which is this smear campaign is
Speaker 2: funded by and is driven by, in particular Pro Publica.
Speaker 2: That has been the organizations that's putting out all of
Speaker 2: these attack pieces. Now, who is Pro Publica funded by.
Speaker 2: I'm going to quote from the Daily Caller quote nonprofit
Speaker 2: news outlet Pro Publica, which published multiple stories detailing Supreme
Speaker 2: Court Justice Clarence thomas alleged ethics violations, has many of
Speaker 2: the same donors as multiple groups actively campaigning for Thomas
Speaker 2: to be investigated or resigned. The Sandler Foundation, which launched
Speaker 2: Pro Publica in two thousand and seven and is the
Speaker 2: News outlet's largest donor, has given it almost forty million
Speaker 2: dollars since twenty ten for general support. The Sandler Foundation
Speaker 2: is also given over seven point five million dollars to
Speaker 2: the Campaign Legal Center since twenty fifteen and over six
Speaker 2: million dollars to the America Constitutional Society for general support
Speaker 2: since twenty ten. Those are all rabid left wing organizations.
Speaker 2: So understand, this smear campaign is driven by left wing billionaires,
Speaker 2: and it is funded to delegitimize the Supreme Court. And
Speaker 2: in particular, the left hates Clarence Thomas, and they hate
Speaker 2: him with an intensity that is different from any other
Speaker 2: conservative justice. Look. I knew Anton and Scalia very well.
Speaker 2: He was brilliant, He was an extraordinary justice. He was
Speaker 2: every bit as conservative as Clarence Thomas. And yet the
Speaker 2: left did not keep contempt on Anton and Scalia the
Speaker 2: way they do Justice Thomas. The left's view is for
Speaker 2: a black man to dare to be conservative is an
Speaker 2: unacceptable crime, is something that has to be punished. The
Speaker 2: left refers to They do magazine covers with pictures of
Speaker 2: Clarence Thomas as an uncle Tom sitting at the feet
Speaker 2: of antonin Scalia. It is bigoted, it's racist, it's a lie,
Speaker 2: it's im moral, and this viciousness directed at Clarence Thomas.
Speaker 2: These subpoenas we're going to vote on this week in
Speaker 2: the Judiciary Committee. The Democrats are going to have the
Speaker 2: votes to issue them from Judiciary. But the good news
Speaker 2: is they don't have legal force unless they get sixty
Speaker 2: votes on the floor of the Senate, and the chances
Speaker 2: of that happening.
Speaker 3: Are zero, Thank goodness for that.
Speaker 1: Before we get into Q and A, I want to
Speaker 1: ask you one other thing, and it's the issue, and
Speaker 1: I have a feeling a lot of people are going
Speaker 1: to like this idea here school choice. I am a
Speaker 1: huge proponent of school choice. It's been something that you
Speaker 1: have been a champion of for years, but it's also
Speaker 1: become in many circles they say a third rail. Don't
Speaker 1: touch it, don't talk about it, don't deal with in politics.
Speaker 1: Do you believe in this next election cycle that Conservatives
Speaker 1: can win on the issue of school choice and how
Speaker 1: would they best do that nationwide?
Speaker 3: Look?
Speaker 2: I think absolutely yes, I am There is no domestic
Speaker 2: issue I care about more than school choice. I think
Speaker 2: school choice is the civil rights issue of the twenty
Speaker 2: first century. And listen. It is worth noting that school
Speaker 2: choice has been around from the dawn of time. The
Speaker 2: rich and the middle class have always had school choice.
Speaker 2: If you were a student at the Bethesda Public Schools
Speaker 2: in Maryland, Bethesa's, this very wealthy suburb of Washington, d c.
Speaker 2: If that school had a fifty percent dropout rate, if
Speaker 2: among the students that remained there fewer than half of
Speaker 2: them graduated reading at grade level, If drug dealers were
Speaker 2: walking in the hallways, if little girls were getting sexually
Speaker 2: assaulted in the bathrooms, the Bethesda Public schools would be
Speaker 2: empty immediately. Because the parents, they are rich, so they
Speaker 2: would do one of two things. They would either write
Speaker 2: checks and pay tuition at a private school, or they
Speaker 2: would move to another neighborhood that had a better public school,
Speaker 2: and they would exercise choice through choosing where to live.
Speaker 2: That's what the rich have always been able to do.
Speaker 2: That's what the upper middle class have always been able
Speaker 2: to do. It is low income Americans. It is single
Speaker 2: moms and inner cities who are trapped with failing schools
Speaker 2: and those numbers I've described are true in school, after school,
Speaker 2: after school in this country, and it predominantly hurts low
Speaker 2: income kids, It hurts African American kids, it hurts Hispanic kids,
Speaker 2: and the Democrat Party is bought and paid for by
Speaker 2: the teachers' unions. If you look at African American communities
Speaker 2: or Hispanic communities, systematically, sixty seventy as much as eighty
Speaker 2: percent of African American parents, as much as sixty seventy
Speaker 2: eighty percent of Hispanic parents support school choice. I believe
Speaker 2: every child in America deserves a right to have access
Speaker 2: to an excellent education, regardless of their race, of their ethnicity,
Speaker 2: of their wealth, of their zip cost. So to say,
Speaker 2: we are sitting in actually an extraordinary place because I
Speaker 2: want to say to the men and women here, thank
Speaker 2: you for your leadership. Arizona has led the nation in
Speaker 2: providing choice to your students. It has been extraordinary, It
Speaker 2: has been inspirational, it has been powerful, and the Goldwater
Speaker 2: Institute has been pivotal in making that happen. And if
Speaker 2: you look nationally, the two states at the front of
Speaker 2: this fight have been Arizona and Florida. And I will
Speaker 2: say something you and I are both Texans, and look Texans.
Speaker 2: We are known for being quiet and for our humility.
Speaker 2: Look ause Texans. I hate that there is anything Texans
Speaker 2: are not leading on, but when it comes to school choice,
Speaker 2: Texans have been lagging behind. And I can tell you
Speaker 2: there's a major battle playing out in the Texas legislature
Speaker 2: right now. We have the single best moment we have
Speaker 2: ever had in our lifetimes to pass real and meaningful
Speaker 2: school choice in Texas. The Governor Greg Abbott has said
Speaker 2: he's going to keep pat calling special sessions until they
Speaker 2: pass it. And I'll tell you something that I do
Speaker 2: in Texas that is unusual. Ben So, virtually every US
Speaker 2: Senator stays out of state primaries in their own state.
Speaker 2: And the reason is getting involved in a primary in
Speaker 2: your own state is just stupid. It hurts you that
Speaker 2: if you make an endorsement in your own primary. In
Speaker 2: a primary in your state, the rule of thumb is
Speaker 2: you get half of their friends and you get all
Speaker 2: of their enemies. I don't do that. I regularly endorse
Speaker 2: in primaries, to the best of my knowledge. I don't
Speaker 2: know another US Senator that does. To the best of
Speaker 2: my knowledge, ninety nine of my colleagues do not. And
Speaker 2: I endorse in lots of primaries in Texas. And here's
Speaker 2: how I have my staff prepare an Excel spreadsheet of
Speaker 2: every vote that a state legislator has cast on school choice.
Speaker 2: And my rule is, if you voted in favor of
Speaker 2: school choice, and you're otherwise relatively conservative, you're quite likely
Speaker 2: to get my support. If you've voted against choice, the
Speaker 2: chances of getting my support are essentially zero. And it
Speaker 2: is very likely that I will indorse your primary opponent.
Speaker 2: And when I do that, I don't do it. Jet
Speaker 2: I come in and I cut radio and TV ads
Speaker 2: and I come in.
Speaker 1: You're accusing a lot of things. You going gently into
Speaker 1: political time is not one of them.
Speaker 2: So the stakes are too high. And so we had
Speaker 2: last election cycle seven runoffs with the teachers unions on
Speaker 2: one side and me on the other, and we beat
Speaker 2: them in a majority of those races. And the reason
Speaker 2: I do that, and listen, it hurts me politically to
Speaker 2: do that. I am losing votes when I do that.
Speaker 2: But the reason I'm doing that is that I want
Speaker 2: for the state legislators, when they're thinking about what do
Speaker 2: I do on this, for it to be a carrot
Speaker 2: and stick that if there is a Republican House member
Speaker 2: that's on the fence, do I support it? Do I not?
Speaker 2: I want them to say, you know, I really don't
Speaker 2: want crews to screw around in my primary. So maybe
Speaker 2: I'll just do the right thing and I'll tell you something.
Speaker 2: And it's something than why I'm so inspired by the
Speaker 2: men and women in this room. When I was first
Speaker 2: elected to the Senate in twenty twelve, here's what I
Speaker 2: told Heidi. I said, sweetheart, if when I die, if
Speaker 2: my tombstone says Ted played a meaningful role in bringing
Speaker 2: about school choice to every child in Texas and every
Speaker 2: child in America, I will die a very very happy man.
Speaker 3: Amen to that. So we really get to do this.
Speaker 3: I want to say thank you our show.
Speaker 1: We have amazing, amazing sponsors that allows you this Patriot
Speaker 1: Mobile is here tonight. I want to say a big
Speaker 1: shout out to those guys for being here. If you
Speaker 1: haven't checked them out, they're phenomenal. They do great work
Speaker 1: and really give people an alternative. So thank you guys
Speaker 1: for being here as well. And I saw that I
Speaker 1: heard an amen out there.
Speaker 2: I knew.
Speaker 3: I was like, I know that voice so that's I.
Speaker 1: Got it right right, you're out there, yes, say there
Speaker 1: he is, all right, there we go. All right, so
Speaker 1: let's go to the Q and a real quick we'll
Speaker 1: get if you'll say your name at the beginning and
Speaker 1: where you live, and then we'll go there.
Speaker 3: Go ahead.
Speaker 5: Hi, Hi, Senator, I'm Mark Folker from Las Vegas. A
Speaker 5: few weeks ago, J. Powell, Chairman of the FED, was
Speaker 5: asked if the Federal Reserve was going to issue a
Speaker 5: central bank digital currency, and his response was that would
Speaker 5: have to be authorized by Congress. So my question is,
Speaker 5: when legislation is introduced to authorize a central bank digital currency,
Speaker 5: what will be the response in Congress?
Speaker 2: Thank you so, Mark, thank you for that question. For
Speaker 2: anyone who didn't hear he asked about the Federal Reserve
Speaker 2: potentially issuing a central bank digital currency and how Congress
Speaker 2: would respond if legislation was issued, I'll tell you I
Speaker 2: am passionately opposed to any central bank digital currentsy and
Speaker 2: in fact, Mark, I have introduced legislation to prohibit the
Speaker 2: FED from ever issuing a central bank digital currency. When
Speaker 2: it comes to bitcoin, when it comes to cryptocurrency generally,
Speaker 2: I am very bullish on bitcoin. I'm personally an investor
Speaker 2: in bitcoin. I have a standing by order. I buy
Speaker 2: bitcoin every Monday on an automatic by order. That's just
Speaker 2: my meager resources, that's what that's part of our investment.
Speaker 2: I think bitcoin is an extraordinary number one hedge against inflation,
Speaker 2: but number two. Look, I love bitcoin for the same
Speaker 2: reason that collectivists and statists hate it, which is that
Speaker 2: it cannot be controlled. Communist China has banned bitcoin. China
Speaker 2: hates bitcoin for the same reason Elizabeth Warren and hates
Speaker 2: bitcoin because they cannot control it. The left wants to
Speaker 2: control your finances, and they want to monitor every monetary
Speaker 2: exchange you have. Including the original version of the so
Speaker 2: called Build Back Better Bill, which I called Build Back Broke,
Speaker 2: required your bank to report to the federal government every
Speaker 2: single transaction you made in excess of four hundred dollars.
Speaker 2: That meant every mortgage payment, that meant every car payment
Speaker 2: with inflation, that damn near man, every time you filled
Speaker 2: up your gas tank. I think it is insane. The
Speaker 2: federal government has no business monitoring the financial transactions of
Speaker 2: a free people. I will tell you also, I am
Speaker 2: a big proponent Texas is becoming an oasis for bitcoin
Speaker 2: and cryptocurrency mining. That people are coming to Texas to
Speaker 2: be free. It is a benefit to have low cost,
Speaker 2: abundant energy, and if that's one thing Texas has, we
Speaker 2: have a lot of it. I will say I'm glad J.
Speaker 2: Powell says that I have asked him in my office
Speaker 2: about a central bank digital currency. What he said in
Speaker 2: my office sounded pretty good. Now, it worries me sometimes
Speaker 2: that when J. Powell is talking to Democrats what he
Speaker 2: says doesn't sound pretty good. And so I remain worried
Speaker 2: the Fed will try to do this on their own.
Speaker 2: But I can tell you if they do, I will
Speaker 2: lead the fight against it. And I don't think the
Speaker 2: federal government should ever get in that business.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, next up, tell us your name.
Speaker 4: Hi. I'm Jenny Simpson from Paradise, Sallya, Arizona. My question is, Senator,
Speaker 4: when are you going to convince the rest of the
Speaker 4: Senate that without border security, we don't have any US security?
Speaker 3: Amen?
Speaker 2: Jenny, Amen, Amen, Amen, thank you for that question. I
Speaker 2: tell you we talked about where we're going to talk
Speaker 2: about security in the border or not, and I told
Speaker 2: him Ben, we're in Arizona. The chances that we go
Speaker 2: through Q and A without talking about border security or
Speaker 2: zero Look, it is an absolute manifest disaster. Y'all know
Speaker 2: that you deal with it every day. In Texas, we
Speaker 2: know that we deal with it every day. I was
Speaker 2: down at our southern border last week. I went there
Speaker 2: Thursday night of last week. I went to the midnight
Speaker 2: muster with the Border Patrol agents, where I said to
Speaker 2: all of the agents, thank you, thank you, thank you
Speaker 2: for your heroism for defending this nation, even when you
Speaker 2: have political nincom poops who are undermining you every single day.
Speaker 2: I then went out on midnight patrol with the border Patrol,
Speaker 2: which I've done many, many times. Every time you go
Speaker 2: out on midnight patrol, within minutes you encounter groups of
Speaker 2: illegal aliens. Karine Jean Pierre said at a White House briefing,
Speaker 2: people are not just walking across our southern border. It's
Speaker 2: not happening. Now, there's a technical term for what she
Speaker 2: just did there. That is called a lie. It is
Speaker 2: not a point of view, it is not spin, it
Speaker 2: is not advocacy. It is a brazen, flat out lie.
Speaker 2: And I responded, actually on this podcast, I said, Kareem
Speaker 2: John Pierre, come with me to the southern border. Let's
Speaker 2: go out and in one hour, I promise you, we
Speaker 2: will encounter illegal aliens, because over eight million have crossed
Speaker 2: since Joe Biden became president. Now, let me tell you something.
Speaker 2: One of the last times I was there, a reporter
Speaker 2: asked me, said, well, aren't the policies of Democrats much
Speaker 2: more compassionate and humane on immigration than you mean, old
Speaker 2: Republicans who want to secure the border. And I just
Speaker 2: started laughing, and I said, you know who doesn't believe
Speaker 2: that anymore? The Democrats. I said, where's Joe Biden, Where's
Speaker 2: Kamala Harris? Where is a single Democrat senator? None of
Speaker 2: them come to the border. And there's a reason for that,
Speaker 2: because you cannot see what is happening. You cannot see
Speaker 2: the dead bodies. Last year, eight hundred and fifty three
Speaker 2: migrants died crossing illegally into this country. Texas farmers and
Speaker 2: ranchers find dead bodies on their property every single day.
Speaker 2: They do the same thing here in Arizona. You cannot
Speaker 2: see the children who have been brutalized by human traffickers.
Speaker 2: You can't see the women who've been sexually assaulted. You
Speaker 2: can't see the more than one hundred thousand drug overdoses
Speaker 2: last year, seventy percent of which came from Chinese Fetanah.
Speaker 2: You can't see that and argue this is humane or compassionate.
Speaker 2: It is a disaster. And we're seeing blue state governors
Speaker 2: and mayors, people like Mayor Erica Adams in New York
Speaker 2: City declaring an emergency and saying illegal immigration is destroying
Speaker 2: New York City. New York City has nine million people.
Speaker 2: They've had roughly one hundred and ten thousand illegal immigrants.
Speaker 2: Adams blames that madman down in Texas, by which I
Speaker 2: think he means Governor Greg Abbott. Frankly, I was offended.
Speaker 2: He didn't mean me, Like, what do I have to do.
Speaker 1: I'm sure we can get a reporter to ask that
Speaker 1: question if like clarify right.
Speaker 2: I don't disagree with him that one hundred and ten
Speaker 2: thousand illegal immigrants threatens to destroy New York City. But
Speaker 2: my question is, if that's true, what the hell do
Speaker 2: you think eight million is doing for Texas at Arizona
Speaker 2: and the rest of the southern border.
Speaker 3: Amen.
Speaker 2: So I can tell you periodically I bring my colleagues down.
Speaker 2: So on Thursday I brought five senators down to the
Speaker 2: southern border to see firsthand what is happening. The Democrats
Speaker 2: quite simply do not care. It is the fault. This
Speaker 2: crisis is man made. Joe Biden created it, Kamala Harris
Speaker 2: created it, and every single Democrat senator created it. And
Speaker 2: they could stop it tomorrow. So I cannot promise you
Speaker 2: that I'm going to change their view, but I can
Speaker 2: promise you I will continue doing everything humanly possible to
Speaker 2: tell the American people the nightmare, the national security disaster
Speaker 2: that they are creating. The San Diego Customs of Border
Speaker 2: Patrol last week put out a written memo directing border
Speaker 2: patrol to be on guard for Hamas and Hesbala terrorists
Speaker 2: crossing our southern border.
Speaker 1: Changed his words this week, saying he's terrified over this.
Speaker 2: This is our last podcast. On Wednesday, we played Christopher Ray,
Speaker 2: the director of the FBI, his words before Congress where
Speaker 2: he said, there's a real risk of a Hamas attack
Speaker 2: in the United States right now, and I am sorry
Speaker 2: to say I think we are at a greater risk
Speaker 2: today of a major terrorist attack in America than at
Speaker 2: any point since September eleventh, And as long as Joe
Speaker 2: Biden and the Democrats keep an open border, we are
Speaker 2: jeopardizing the safety of every American in our country.
Speaker 1: One final question real quick and we'll wrap it up.
Speaker 6: Hello, Senator, my name's Matt mcill I'm from Alexander, Virginia.
Speaker 6: We have a common mentor and Chuck Cooper.
Speaker 2: Oh fantastic.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: So my question for you is about Citizens United versus FEC.
Speaker 6: So you know, this is something that Chuck and I
Speaker 6: worked on together going back I don't know, way back
Speaker 6: to two thousand and two. So all of a sudden,
Speaker 6: after the Supreme Court's decision in two and ten, thirteen
Speaker 6: years later, it's suddenly controversial again. Just wondering if you
Speaker 6: could explain to why it's controversial and where you stand
Speaker 6: on that.
Speaker 3: Please, thank you.
Speaker 2: So it is a great question. I will say that
Speaker 2: the gentleman who just asked, he said that he had
Speaker 2: worked with Chuck Cooper. Chuck Cooper was my very first
Speaker 2: boss that I worked for after Clerky for Chief Justice Requist.
Speaker 2: He's one of my closest friends and mentors. He's one
Speaker 2: of the top Supreme Court and constitutional lawyers in the country.
Speaker 2: The question was about Citizens United, and I have a
Speaker 2: crazy radical view, which is we should protect free speech.
Speaker 2: Free speech matters. You know what Citizens United was about.
Speaker 2: So if you look at the case, Citizens United is
Speaker 2: a nonprofit organization that made a movie that was critical
Speaker 2: of Hillary Clinton, and the Obama administration wanted to go
Speaker 2: after and find and punish this nonprofit organization for daring
Speaker 2: to make a movie that was critical of a politician.
Speaker 2: And it went all the way to the US Supreme Court,
Speaker 2: and actually at the US Supreme Court there's an exchange
Speaker 2: where Justice Alito asked the Obama Justice Department, under your
Speaker 2: theory that the government can punish a movie maker for
Speaker 2: making a movie critical of a politician, could the federal
Speaker 2: government also ban books? Would you have the authority to
Speaker 2: ban books you didn't like that criticized politicians? And the
Speaker 2: Obama Justice Department said yes, yes, that's exactly what we're
Speaker 2: arguing for the Supreme Court and Citizens United quite rightly
Speaker 2: upheld the First Amendment and said Americans have a right
Speaker 2: to speak and to speak about politics, and the government
Speaker 2: can't criminalize you and me speaking about politics. Now, I've
Speaker 2: been in the set at eleven years. I've spent the
Speaker 2: last eleven years, I've spent all of my adult life
Speaker 2: fighting to defend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Speaker 2: My time in the Senate in particular, I've been passionate
Speaker 2: defending a free speech. In the wake of Citizens United,
Speaker 2: the Democrats introduced a constitutional amendment to repeal the free
Speaker 2: speech protections of the First Amendment. Now you probably don't
Speaker 2: know that because the news didn't cover it. The first
Speaker 2: version of the constitutional amendment they introduced is an amendment
Speaker 2: that would give Congress plenary power, which means blanket power,
Speaker 2: total authority to regulate any expenditure of money that involves politics.
Speaker 2: That means if a little old lady goes to home
Speaker 2: depot and buys a poster board and a stick and
Speaker 2: puts up aside on her front yard, that says, Joe
Speaker 2: Biden is a dumbass, that the federal government could make
Speaker 2: it a felony and lock her up and put her
Speaker 2: in jail. That also means, by the way, the federal
Speaker 2: government could lock up Simon and Schuster, could lock up
Speaker 2: a movie producer, could lock up anyone who engages in
Speaker 2: speech the federal government didn't like. It also means, by
Speaker 2: the way, they could lock up any union organizer who
Speaker 2: spends even a dollar trying to organize people at a union.
Speaker 2: I led the fight against it. At the time, I
Speaker 2: was the ranking member on the Constitution's subcommittee, the Senate
Speaker 2: Judiciary Committee. You can go online and watch. I debated
Speaker 2: al Franken when he was a Senator before he resigned
Speaker 2: in disgrace. Really a sad day for me, I asked
Speaker 2: al Franken. I said, I've got three simple questions. Should
Speaker 2: the federal government be able to ban books, yes or no?
Speaker 2: Should the federal government be able to ban movies, yes
Speaker 2: or no? And should the federal government be able to
Speaker 2: criminalize the NAACP. Because after the Democrats retreated from their
Speaker 2: first version of the amendment, they shifted to another version.
Speaker 2: They said, well, this is only true for corporations. Well,
Speaker 2: you know what, Paramount Pictures is a corporation under their amendment.
Speaker 2: You could ban movies. Simon and Schuster's a corporation under
Speaker 2: their amendment. You could ban books, and the NAACP is
Speaker 2: a corporation. Under their amendment, they could criminalize membership in
Speaker 2: the NAACP. We were in the Senate, I introduced a
Speaker 2: substitute amendment to replace every word of their amendment with
Speaker 2: word for word the First Amendment to the Bill of
Speaker 2: Rights of the Constitution. Every single Democrat voted. Now we
Speaker 2: went to the Senate floor. I led the debate on
Speaker 2: the Senate floor. I had a poster board behind me.
Speaker 2: So they had tried to do this previously, and there
Speaker 2: had been lions of the left who spoke out against it,
Speaker 2: Ted Kennedy. Ted Kennedy said, when Democrats tried to do
Speaker 2: this in a previous decade, we haven't amended the Bill
Speaker 2: of Rights in two hundred years, and now is no
Speaker 2: time to start. I had a picture of Ted Kennedy
Speaker 2: behind me in that quote. My dad, whom I adore,
Speaker 2: who was an exile from Cuban, came to America seeking freedom.
Speaker 2: My dad called me terrified. He's like, my god, you've
Speaker 2: got Ted Kennedy behind you. It's like, what has happened
Speaker 2: to my son? He's gone native. In the past, there
Speaker 2: had been Democrats that believed in free speech. We voted
Speaker 2: on it in twenty fourteen. Do you know how many
Speaker 2: Democrats voted against repealing the free speech protections of the
Speaker 2: First Amendment?
Speaker 3: How many?
Speaker 2: Zero? Wow, not a single Democrat. Every Democrat lined up
Speaker 2: for taking away free speech. By the way, that fall
Speaker 2: on Constitution Day, the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia invited
Speaker 2: me to debate a Democrat on their amendment to repeal
Speaker 2: the free speech protections of the First Amendment. I immediately accepted.
Speaker 2: They invited Dick Durbin, the author of the amendment. He
Speaker 2: said no. They invited Sheldon Whitehouse, one of the leading advocates.
Speaker 2: He said no. They invited Al Franken, one of the
Speaker 2: leading advocates. He said no. They invited Chuck Schumer, one
Speaker 2: of the leading advocates. He said no. No Democrat was
Speaker 2: willing to show up. So I went to Philadelphia, an
Speaker 2: audience about seven hundred people, and I basically debated myself. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I presented their arguments, and I'm very pleased to say
Speaker 2: I kicked their ass.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for having us here. It
Speaker 1: was well worth the flight down here to Arizona. Thanks
Speaker 1: to Goldwater Insto for having us.
Speaker 3: Don't forget.
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Speaker 1: that auto download button, the follow button depending on where
Speaker 1: you download Verdict. Also remember on Saturdays we have our
Speaker 1: weekend review where we grab some of the issues you
Speaker 1: may have missed a little bit deeper in each episode,
Speaker 1: and we put that out there for you as well,
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