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Speaker 1: a week ago there was a campaign from a liberal

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Speaker 1: student in the Yale Daily News. Maybe you saw it,

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Speaker 1: I don't know. There was a campaign to convince people

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Speaker 1: Yale University. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. This episode

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Speaker 1: a nish dot com slash cactus. I love Yale. This

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Speaker 1: is my alma mater. I love Yale. I don't know

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Speaker 1: if my alma mater loves me quite so much, but

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Speaker 1: I love it, and I'm so dismayed when I see

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Speaker 1: Yale at the forefront of shutting down speech. Just last week,

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Speaker 1: a Kristen Wagoner, a conservative lawyer, was shouted down at

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Speaker 1: Yale Law School. This is supposed to be the number

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Speaker 1: one law school in America. Someone actually said in the

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Speaker 1: room a Yale law student, I'll fight you, b I tch.

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Speaker 1: That's the kind of discourse we're seeing here. I remember

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Speaker 1: some years ago there was a gal we call her

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Speaker 1: Shrieking Girl, an undergraduate screaming at her professor saying, this

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Speaker 1: is not an intellectual space. This is supposed to be

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Speaker 1: a place of comfort and home for me. Senator, what's

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Speaker 1: going on in the IVY League. Well, Michael, I'm very

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Speaker 1: glad to see that they're teaching spelling at Yale. And

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Speaker 1: I will say, you know, it's it's you have been

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Speaker 1: longing to come back here for the two and a

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Speaker 1: half years we've been doing this podcast. We went on

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Speaker 1: the road. We did a campus tour last year, and

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Speaker 1: I have to say I still remember we were at

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Speaker 1: Catholic University in Washington, d C. And afterwards a student

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Speaker 1: comes up and ask you, Michael, to cite and to

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Speaker 1: recite rather Dante's Inferno in the original Italia. This is true.

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Speaker 1: This is two of you proceeded to do so almost

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Speaker 1: in three part harmony. And so my question is number one,

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Speaker 1: can you do it again? At number two? What are

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Speaker 1: the students at Yale going to ask you today, Senator?

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Speaker 1: When I was an undergrad graduate here and I was

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Speaker 1: a single man, I had to let it's hard to believe.

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Speaker 1: I had to learn some Italian poetry because look, I

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Speaker 1: wasn't on the football team. Okay, I didn't have It

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Speaker 1: was the best I could. Yale has a football team,

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Speaker 1: all right, I had to get something the football tea. Guys,

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Speaker 1: they're the only conservatives at the whole school. So all right,

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Speaker 1: fair enough, but I did. The question is a really

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Speaker 1: good one, Senator, which is, okay, if you're at Catholic

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Speaker 1: you they have you recite Dante? What do they have

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Speaker 1: you recite at Yale? And I fear the answer is,

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Speaker 1: I don't know Fuco Ibraham Kendy. These days, I don't

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Speaker 1: know Robin DeAngelo. It isn't this state of American higher education.

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Speaker 1: Though we're all having fun here together tonight, no one

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Speaker 1: has busted down the door yet and yelled, any four

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Speaker 1: and five letter words at us, the state of American

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Speaker 1: higher education? Okay, it's it's only here that profanities are

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Speaker 1: five letter words. Well, no, the one arts goes to

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Speaker 1: eleven is that we just put extra lines some in French,

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Speaker 1: you know. But the state of American higher education, yeah,

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Speaker 1: is in It is in a sorry state. So what happened.

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Speaker 1: We're supposed to be with the elites. We're supposed to

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Speaker 1: be with the future leaders. Everyone who matriculates at Yale

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Speaker 1: is told you're going to be president for three terms.

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Speaker 1: You're the greatest person in the world. And yet why

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Speaker 1: are our elites doing such a poor job of things? Look,

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Speaker 1: higher education has embraced the idea that the school is

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Speaker 1: about not challenging you, is about making you comfortable. The

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Speaker 1: whole point of a university is to make you uncomfortable.

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Speaker 1: The whole point of a university is to challenge you

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Speaker 1: with ideas. Posit as a crazy idea that when you

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Speaker 1: enter college at eighteen, every idea you believe maybe is

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Speaker 1: not fully formed and you don't entirely under understand the

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Speaker 1: entirety of the universe. If that's true, the most im

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Speaker 1: poor and value of college is encountering others who challenge

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Speaker 1: your ideas, who challenge your assumptions, who make you think

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Speaker 1: and and look. I mean, when I went to school,

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Speaker 1: I had a lot of professors who I disagreed with profoundly.

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Speaker 1: I thought it was very useful to hear their worldview,

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Speaker 1: hear what they're saying, because at the end of the day,

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Speaker 1: most of the stuff you learn in college you're not

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Speaker 1: going to do for your career. I mean most of

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Speaker 1: the you know, you know, think how many classes you

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Speaker 1: had in college that are useful to being a world

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Speaker 1: class podcaster? Stopic, get out of here, plush. You know.

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Speaker 1: I did take bartending at Princeton. That has been useful.

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Speaker 1: That's a hard skill. But look, at the end of

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Speaker 1: the day, what you're learning is how to think. And

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Speaker 1: if you're only encountering ideas you agree with, then by definition,

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Speaker 1: you're not learning how to think. That that's the most

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Speaker 1: pernicious part of it at all, is that training people

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Speaker 1: in group think, training people you cannot think different Fritenly,

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Speaker 1: you know, Galileo was told the same thing. It didn't

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Speaker 1: work out well. Science, philosophy, literature, they're all about challenging assumptions,

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Speaker 1: challenging what you think and the very dynamic that you have.

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Speaker 1: And look what happened to Yale Law School. What's sad

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Speaker 1: about that is it's not unusual. Yeah, you see it

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Speaker 1: happening at universities all over the country where speakers come in.

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Speaker 1: I mean, in that instance, Kristen Wagner, who was there,

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Speaker 1: is a Supreme Court advocate who had just won a

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Speaker 1: case by a vote of seven to two at the

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Speaker 1: US Supreme Court. Now I get it. The students at

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Speaker 1: Yale Law School. They didn't like that case. They didn't

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Speaker 1: like that case. They were upset about it. So instead

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Speaker 1: of coming in and saying, well, you know what, I

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Speaker 1: think the justice has got it wrong. You know what

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Speaker 1: I think, I think the Constitution says something. And instead

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Speaker 1: of doing what one would imagine Yale lawyers would be

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Speaker 1: capable of doing, which is presenting arguments and reasoning, they

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Speaker 1: instead try to exercise the Heckler's veto and just screen

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Speaker 1: down anyone who disagrees. That's not just harmful on the

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Speaker 1: particular issue that they're not hearing the other side, it's

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Speaker 1: harmful for thinking in life. And I got to tell you,

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Speaker 1: when you come out of school, most places you work

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Speaker 1: are not safe spaces. Most bosses are not going to

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Speaker 1: be overly worried about injuring your fragile feelings. And so

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Speaker 1: I think the point of education is prepare you for life,

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Speaker 1: and that means encountering things that make you uncomfortable, that

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Speaker 1: make you doubt, that make you question. That's really what

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Speaker 1: an education is all about. I joked when your former

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Speaker 1: or not classmate, but fellow Harvard law graduate, judge Katangi Jackson,

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Speaker 1: when she failed to answer the question what is a woman?

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Speaker 1: When she laughed, she said, can I answer? Of course

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Speaker 1: I can't answer that question. I'm not a biologist. When

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Speaker 1: she did that, my first thought was, only someone with

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Speaker 1: two degrees from Harvard could be so stupid as to

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Speaker 1: not know what a woman is. And and so I

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Speaker 1: don't know. I mean, as you say, there are these

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Speaker 1: problems at all of the universities, but to me, it

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Speaker 1: seems more. It actually seems more pronounced in the Ivy League,

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Speaker 1: these supposedly prestigious institutions, where it seems that whatever you

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Speaker 1: see about free speech on other campuses. Yale Law School

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Speaker 1: is supposed to be the top law school in the country,

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Speaker 1: screaming profanity is at a lawyer for having an open discussion.

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Speaker 1: How do you fix that? I don't want to sound

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Speaker 1: like the old man. Back in my day things were better,

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Speaker 1: but things really do seem to have gotten worse. Michael.

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Speaker 1: One of the things I love about you, as I'm

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Speaker 1: confident since you were five years old, you've been the

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Speaker 1: old man yelling get off my lawn. And I came

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Speaker 1: out of the womb with a cigar in my teeth.

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Speaker 1: You know, hair parted. Yes, your mother's still ticked off

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Speaker 1: about it hurts. It hurts, YEA. Look, we need to be,

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Speaker 1: particularly in the so called elite institutions, willing to think

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Speaker 1: for ourselves. You're right. Schools like Yale, the students are

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Speaker 1: told all the time you are the leaders of the world.

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Speaker 1: You are the future Bill Clinton's of the world. The

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Speaker 1: kid who wrote that op ed calling for people to

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Speaker 1: boycott us, he said, there is a great power and

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Speaker 1: responsibility that comes with being a Yale and the kid

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Speaker 1: is eighteen years old. This is what This is what

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Speaker 1: these students are told. Look, and I think it's part

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Speaker 1: of why, if anything, the censorship is greater, because the

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Speaker 1: fear is greater at an institution like this. Every student

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Speaker 1: here worked your tail off. Since you were in kindergarten.

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Speaker 1: You were struggling with the perfect attendance. You were struggling

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Speaker 1: to put the apple on the teacher's desk, you were

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Speaker 1: struggling to be in student council and drama and debate

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Speaker 1: and football and underwater basket we don't even know what,

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Speaker 1: but but it was. You know. Look, you recall the

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Speaker 1: speech that it seems deans give about their a gazillion

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Speaker 1: valedictorians in the world, we turn half of them down,

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Speaker 1: and that when you get into a place like you now,

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't know, but I would imagine today there's a

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Speaker 1: sense of relief of okay, all right, I've made it.

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Speaker 1: But there's also a sense of terror of O crap,

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Speaker 1: like like like what if I lose it? What if

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Speaker 1: I anger the gods of Yale? Yeah, although I don't.

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure God or man are allowed it yet,

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Speaker 1: you know, no more mostly mostly demons and people of

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Speaker 1: unspecified gender. Yeah, but but but but look, it is,

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Speaker 1: when you've worked very hard for something, you're often afraid

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Speaker 1: to lose it. And if you're afraid to lose it,

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Speaker 1: you don't want to take risks um all right, I

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Speaker 1: remember coming out of coming out of law school, coming

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Speaker 1: out of a clerkship. So I clerked for a judge

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Speaker 1: in the Court of Appeals clerk to on the Supreme Court,

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Speaker 1: I'm clerking for Chief Justice Ranquist, which who was an

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Speaker 1: amazing friend and amazing boss. And I remember coming out,

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Speaker 1: you got thirty six Supreme Court law clerks coming out,

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Speaker 1: and almost all of them were unbelievably risk averse. They

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Speaker 1: were going to big, fancy law firms because that's the

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Speaker 1: next blue chip thing to do, unless you go become

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Speaker 1: law professors and train other people to continue to perpetuate

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Speaker 1: the cycle. I remember when I came out, I went

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Speaker 1: to a little bitty law firm. It had six lawyers,

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Speaker 1: it was nine months old, and I thought it was fascinating.

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Speaker 1: Listening to a lot of my co clerks and they

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Speaker 1: were like, well, wait, that's really risky. Why would you

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Speaker 1: do that. You don't know if this firm is going

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Speaker 1: to survive. You don't know if it'll go under. And listen,

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Speaker 1: when I was looking for a law firm, I was

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Speaker 1: looking for lawyers. I wanted to work for lawyers that

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Speaker 1: I wanted to come carry their briefcase and just you

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Speaker 1: know the way Abraham Lincoln learned to be a lawyer

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Speaker 1: was literally carrying a briefcase and studying and apprenticing under someone.

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Speaker 1: That's still the best way to become a lawyer. And

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Speaker 1: I remember the other clerks said, well, what if it

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Speaker 1: goes bankrupt or, like the lead lawyer at the firm

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Speaker 1: is a guy named Chuck Cooper, one of the top

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Speaker 1: Supreme Court lawyers of the country, a very dear friend.

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Speaker 1: And they said, well, you know, Chuck Cooper could become

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Speaker 1: the US Solicitor General in another Republican administration. He could

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Speaker 1: become the top lawyer for the government for the United

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Speaker 1: States in front of the the Preme Court. I remember thinking,

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Speaker 1: a Okay, why is it a bad thing if your boss,

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Speaker 1: when you're brand new and starting your career, goes on

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Speaker 1: to become the top lawyer for the United States of

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Speaker 1: America in the Supreme Court? And why would you want

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Speaker 1: to work for someone who wouldn't be considered for that job? Right?

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Speaker 1: And fine, if it's a little bitty law firm and

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Speaker 1: it's nine months old, if they go bankrupt in a year,

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Speaker 1: you know what, I felt confident I could get another job,

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Speaker 1: Like if there's any value to working your tail off

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Speaker 1: and trying to build some academic credentials in a history.

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Speaker 1: It was like, look, I don't think I'm unemployable. Yea,

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Speaker 1: it took politics to make me unemployable. But that I

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Speaker 1: remember being fascinated at the mindset of the clerks that

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Speaker 1: they had worked so hard that risk terrified them. And

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Speaker 1: I think you see that manifested at universities across the country.

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Speaker 1: But I think the Ivy League it is more intense

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Speaker 1: because there's more fear of the risk and the uncertainty.

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Speaker 1: I've seen exactly that. I remember it when I was

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Speaker 1: in college, not that I guess it was ten years

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Speaker 1: ago now, but I as far as I can tell

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Speaker 1: visiting campuses, things remain the same. The students at these

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Speaker 1: name brands schools. You know, ten years ago Joe Biden

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Speaker 1: was vice president. That's true according to Obama. Still is

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Speaker 1: that's a good point. So gosh, now you're bringing me

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Speaker 1: back to the worst memory I have in college. I

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Speaker 1: just got their freshman year. I'm so excited to need

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Speaker 1: you to share all. No, No, it's not that much.

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Speaker 1: It's not that one door. No. I had just gotten

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Speaker 1: here and it was the two thousand and eight election,

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Speaker 1: and I thought, oh, this is going to be great.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna have such a great time on campus. And

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Speaker 1: then then Obama wins and three thousands people. I don't

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Speaker 1: know that. Thousands of people come out. They're celebrating. You

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Speaker 1: see wafts of marijuana clouds coming up from the Green

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Speaker 1: people drinking, and in a dorm on Old Campus one

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Speaker 1: of the freshman dorms is me and about six other

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Speaker 1: Republicans just drinking vodka out of the handles, say oh,

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Speaker 1: no things, everything's going downhill. But I did notice this

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Speaker 1: with the conservatives. It's actually very similar to your preparation

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Speaker 1: routine for the podcast. It's true, if it ain't broke,

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Speaker 1: don't fix it. You know, it's obviously worked a long time.

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Speaker 1: I noticed this with the campus conservatives. They're willing to

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Speaker 1: wear the bow tie. Generally, they're willing to go and

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Speaker 1: advocate for lower taxes and deregulation, maybe even smaller government.

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Speaker 1: But on a lot of say cultural issues, the issues

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Speaker 1: that the ruling elite really don't want you to touch,

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Speaker 1: they won't touch them either. They'll sometimes say things like

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Speaker 1: I'm a conservative, but I'm not that kind of a conservative. No, no,

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Speaker 1: I'm still a fashionable one. And I think it's to

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Speaker 1: protect the job at Goldman Sachs. I think it is

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Speaker 1: that same risk aversion that you're describing. Look, I think

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Speaker 1: you're right, and I think you see in the conservative

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Speaker 1: world generally people being cautious and risk averse. And part

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Speaker 1: of it is, Look, everyone likes to be liked, particularly

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Speaker 1: young people. I mean, there's a reason peer pressure is

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Speaker 1: a thing. Right. You know, you're at college, you want

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Speaker 1: to go out, you want to have a good time.

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Speaker 1: You know, ideally you'd like to find someone you think

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Speaker 1: is attractive, and you know, see what happens. Although I

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Speaker 1: remember when I showed up as a college freshman, there

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Speaker 1: was there was a T shirt that was popular. It

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Speaker 1: said on the front sex Kills and on the back

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Speaker 1: it said come to Princeton, Live Forever. There's a lot

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Speaker 1: of truth to that, but look, people are there is

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Speaker 1: no doubt the positive peer pressure when I was in school,

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Speaker 1: when you were in cool, but even more so today

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Speaker 1: that if you take an unpopular position, you risk being denigrated,

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Speaker 1: you risked being ostracized. And so people opt at a

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Speaker 1: minimum to just shut up about it, yea, to just say,

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Speaker 1: you know what, I'm going to keep my views quiet.

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Speaker 1: How you come through that, I think is one of

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Speaker 1: the real testing aspects of education, right right, can you

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Speaker 1: withstand that or like the vast majority, do you just

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Speaker 1: kind of go along, go with the flow, go along

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Speaker 1: with the crowd, and lose whatever principle you might have had.

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Speaker 1: This does bring us to your colleague, senator in the

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Speaker 1: United States Senate. You're Republican, colleagues, we have just confirmed

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Speaker 1: a woman that you say is the most radical Supreme

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Speaker 1: Court justice in the history of this country. I agree.

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Speaker 1: The woman can't well, sorry, the person cannot tell you

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Speaker 1: what a woman is. And she is supportive of critical

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Speaker 1: race theory, talks about the founders of that movement by name.

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Speaker 1: She has lauded the sixteen nineteen project, which says America

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Speaker 1: is evil from the very beginning. It's based on a

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Speaker 1: false thesis about slavery. So this woman is very far

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Speaker 1: to the left. And yet when I looked at the

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Speaker 1: Senate confirmation hearings over who was grilling Katangi Jackson, it

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Speaker 1: was you and Josh Hawley and Tom Cotton a little bit,

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Speaker 1: and that was pretty much it. And all of the

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Speaker 1: other Republican Senators were sitting there twiddling their thumbs and

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Speaker 1: in some cases actually encouraging this woman who's now the

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Speaker 1: furthest left judge we've ever had on the court. What

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Speaker 1: gives well, look, risk, aversion doesn't end when you're twenty one.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't end when you're in college. It doesn't end

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Speaker 1: when you're in grad school. It doesn't end when you

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Speaker 1: start your first job. And in the world of politics,

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Speaker 1: if you dare to take on the oar the doxy,

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Speaker 1: you get demonized. I promise you. In the what twenty

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Speaker 1: minutes we've been sitting here, there have been a thousand

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Speaker 1: tweets telling me to go do things that are anatomically impossible.

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Speaker 1: Good night, everybody. Look it is And if you're a

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Speaker 1: Republican senator, it is not complicated that this nomination was

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Speaker 1: an historic first. Anytime a Republican opposes a Democratic Supreme

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Speaker 1: Court nomination, you are certain to be vilified by the media.

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Speaker 1: All the more so if that nominee happens to be

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Speaker 1: the first African American woman nominated the court. It means

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Speaker 1: going into it, you know, to a certainty, if you

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Speaker 1: say anything, if you say good morning, you'll be called

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Speaker 1: a racist, you'll be called a sexist, You'll be demonized.

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Speaker 1: And look, today's Democrats, that's their opening line to begin with,

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Speaker 1: no matter what you say. But in this context, I

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Speaker 1: can tell you among the Republican Senators, most of them

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Speaker 1: went into this nomination scared of their own shadow. They

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Speaker 1: didn't want to be held up as the modern day clansmen,

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Speaker 1: which if you said any critical question, that was the

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Speaker 1: attack that was coming on top of that. Look, why

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Speaker 1: is it we care about who's on the Supreme Court?

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Speaker 1: This is something I cared deeply about. I think a

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Speaker 1: lot of Americans care deeply about it. The reason I

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Speaker 1: believe we care about it is the Supreme Court has

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Speaker 1: been the institution throughout history that has played the most

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Speaker 1: pivotal role for protecting our fundamental rights, for protecting free speech,

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Speaker 1: for protecting religious liberty, for protecting the right to keep

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Speaker 1: in bear arms, for protecting our safety and security of

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Speaker 1: our families, by ensuring that the criminal laws are enforced.

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Speaker 1: You know, this was one that I'll confess I felt

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Speaker 1: conflicted about it. I've known Katangi for thirty years. We

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Speaker 1: were in law school together. We were one year a

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Speaker 1: part in law school, were on the law of you together.

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Speaker 1: She is someone that on a personal level, she's very smart,

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Speaker 1: she's charming, she has an easy smile. Everybody who knows

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Speaker 1: her likes her. But at the end of the day,

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Speaker 1: a Supreme Court nomination is not about whether someone is

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Speaker 1: smart or talented, or whether you like them. It is

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Speaker 1: about what their record are, what their record is, and

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Speaker 1: what kind of job they will do in the position.

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Speaker 1: And as I examined her record, I came to the

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Speaker 1: conclusion that a record demonstrated that she will be the

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Speaker 1: furthest left of any of the justices that have ever

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Speaker 1: served on the Court. Now there's some people that want

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Speaker 1: Actually that to me is comforting. It's comforting that there's

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Speaker 1: that many people applauding, because that suggests that there's a

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Speaker 1: wide difference of opinion in this room. I think that's fantastic.

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Speaker 1: I'm actually glad for everyone who applauded there, because if

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Speaker 1: you're left of center, thank you for coming out, thank

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Speaker 1: you for being part of a conversation. If you're starting

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Speaker 1: from a perspective that you don't agree with me, if

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Speaker 1: you're starting from a perspective that you don't agree with Michael,

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Speaker 1: then it is wonderfully and refreshingly open minded that you're

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Speaker 1: here and willing to have this conversation that you don't

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Speaker 1: start from the perspective of I can't hear you. That's

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Speaker 1: very positive, But I do think in the confirmation now

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Speaker 1: Justice Jackson, her record was far out of the mainstream.

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Speaker 1: And it's worth pointing out too, because now President Biden

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Speaker 1: is trying to suggest that this was the most vicious

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Speaker 1: attack on any Supreme Court nominee in history. When Brett

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Speaker 1: Kavanaugh was up, they called him a a rapist without

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Speaker 1: any evidence whatsoever, and because of the testimony of a

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Speaker 1: woman who contradicted herself many times, and whose testimony was

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Speaker 1: contradicted by everyone who was even supposedly around her at

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Speaker 1: the time, by another woman who certainly never met Breck

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Speaker 1: Havanaugh ever, and by a felon lawyer who's currently doing

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Speaker 1: time for wire fraud. So CNN said he could be

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Speaker 1: the Democratic presidential nominator, right, a fellon lawyer who may

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Speaker 1: still become the Democrat nominee someday. And so you had

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Speaker 1: that with the Katanshie Jackson confirmation process. You Senator and

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Speaker 1: a couple of your colleagues just quoted her court opinions. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, it reminds me of one of my favorite

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Speaker 1: podcasts you and I did was oh over a year

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Speaker 1: ago with a Fellowdaymeric Weinstein, who's a very bright man,

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Speaker 1: brilliant man, but he's politically left of Senate, and we

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Speaker 1: had a long pod with a pretty vigorous discussion on

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Speaker 1: lots of issues. But I remember the topic of Supreme

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Speaker 1: Court nominations came up and he made a point. He said, well,

426
00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:02,520
Speaker 1: they're nasty, but everybody doesn't. Both sides do it, you know,

427
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:06,720
Speaker 1: it's just the nature of politics. And as you'll recall,

428
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:08,359
Speaker 1: and by the way, i'd encourage you that that's a

429
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:10,359
Speaker 1: fun podcast to go back and listen to, because we

430
00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:15,560
Speaker 1: had some very i think substantive discussions and disagreements, respectful

431
00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:18,000
Speaker 1: and civil. But the point I made to him, as

432
00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:21,800
Speaker 1: I said, look, that's not true. If you look at

433
00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:27,080
Speaker 1: the really nasty confirmations, the confirmations that got personal and ugly,

434
00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:31,480
Speaker 1: it's only one party that does this. Whether it was

435
00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:36,159
Speaker 1: Robert Bourke, whether it was Clarence Thomas, or whether it

436
00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:39,920
Speaker 1: was Brett Cavanaugh. It has been the Democrats that go

437
00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:44,440
Speaker 1: into the gutter with the kind of personal attacks that

438
00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:49,439
Speaker 1: those confirmation hearings featured, and Republicans have not. And I

439
00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:52,119
Speaker 1: don't believe will engaged in that before we get to

440
00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:54,480
Speaker 1: the wonderful leftists in the room, who will get a

441
00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:57,480
Speaker 1: chance to ask questions and perhaps try to refute things

442
00:26:57,480 --> 00:26:59,840
Speaker 1: that we've said. We always have this rule. If you

443
00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:01,600
Speaker 1: disagree with us, you get to cut to the front

444
00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:05,280
Speaker 1: of the line. This really doesn't jibe with my authoritarian tendencies,

445
00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:07,240
Speaker 1: but we deal with it. We let it happen. It's fine,

446
00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:09,480
Speaker 1: it's fine. So we will get to that before that, though,

447
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:13,199
Speaker 1: I do want to close out this issue of the confirmation.

448
00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:18,880
Speaker 1: Where was the conservative movement? So look, it's a very

449
00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:22,119
Speaker 1: good question. This past week I sat down with a

450
00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:24,440
Speaker 1: number of leaders of the conservative movement, and I got

451
00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:29,159
Speaker 1: to say, the movement, most of the organization's right of center,

452
00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:33,800
Speaker 1: were largely absent from the fight over Katani Brown Jackson,

453
00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:39,040
Speaker 1: and I think the reasons were a couple of fold One,

454
00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:42,560
Speaker 1: I think conservative groups and organizations, just like a lot

455
00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:48,840
Speaker 1: of Republican senators, were terrified at being vilified for daring

456
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:52,440
Speaker 1: to oppose the first African American woman nominated the court,

457
00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:56,040
Speaker 1: so they didn't want to have the fight. Secondly, there

458
00:27:56,119 --> 00:27:59,560
Speaker 1: is a reasoning that many people found persuasive, which is

459
00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:03,679
Speaker 1: that Justice Jackson was nominated to replace Stephen Briar. Stephen

460
00:28:03,720 --> 00:28:07,679
Speaker 1: Briar is a left of center justice, and so the

461
00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:11,240
Speaker 1: argument went, you're replacing one left of center justice for another.

462
00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:14,840
Speaker 1: It doesn't change the underlying balance of power on the court,

463
00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:19,320
Speaker 1: so it's not worth the fight. Now, I'm not convinced

464
00:28:19,359 --> 00:28:23,440
Speaker 1: that's right. I will say, of the left leaning justices

465
00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:28,919
Speaker 1: on the Court, Briar has been the most conservative of

466
00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:32,080
Speaker 1: the liberals, which is not to say remotely conservative, but

467
00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:34,560
Speaker 1: to give an example, you know, one of the cases

468
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:37,760
Speaker 1: that I litigated when I was Slicitor General of Texas

469
00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:42,320
Speaker 1: was a case called Van Ord versus Texas, Van Orden

470
00:28:42,400 --> 00:28:46,880
Speaker 1: versus Perry, rather and Van Ordon versus Perry was challenging

471
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:49,880
Speaker 1: the display of the Ten Commandments monument on the state

472
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:53,120
Speaker 1: capitol grounds, and that case went all the way to

473
00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:54,880
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court. At the end of the day, the

474
00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:58,720
Speaker 1: Supreme Court upheld Texas's monument by a vote of five

475
00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:01,840
Speaker 1: to four. Now, what's interesting in that case, as I

476
00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:04,480
Speaker 1: had spent thousands of hours getting ready for that case,

477
00:29:04,520 --> 00:29:07,880
Speaker 1: and we'd written our brief trying to really just mind

478
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:11,160
Speaker 1: meld with Sandra Day O'Connor, who Justice O'Connor, at the time,

479
00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:13,600
Speaker 1: was the swing vote on the cord and so I

480
00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:16,360
Speaker 1: tried to put every argument in fact that you know,

481
00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:19,880
Speaker 1: one of the lawyers in my office asked, They said, Ted,

482
00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:24,200
Speaker 1: is it possible to be too obsequious to Justice O'Connor,

483
00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:28,640
Speaker 1: And I said, no, it is not. I want the

484
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:32,520
Speaker 1: most common words in this brief to be O'Connor comma jay.

485
00:29:33,360 --> 00:29:37,560
Speaker 1: I want them more common than and or THEE. And

486
00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:40,560
Speaker 1: if we can put an oil portrait of Justice O'Connor

487
00:29:40,560 --> 00:29:42,720
Speaker 1: on the cover of our brief, I think that would

488
00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:47,160
Speaker 1: be tasteful and appropriate. Well, I tried to pitch those

489
00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:50,480
Speaker 1: all of those arguments. Every argument I aimed at Justice

490
00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:54,440
Speaker 1: O'Connor missed, and she voted to strike down the monument.

491
00:29:54,600 --> 00:29:57,920
Speaker 1: And yet, amazingly, the arguments that I aimed at Justice

492
00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:02,600
Speaker 1: O'Connor found hurtle ground was Stephen Bryer, and Justice Bryer

493
00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:06,479
Speaker 1: was our necessary fifth vote. We won five four because

494
00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:11,360
Speaker 1: Steve Brier voted to uphold the Texas Ten Commandments monument. Now,

495
00:30:11,400 --> 00:30:15,880
Speaker 1: I will say we were replacing who was the most

496
00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:20,160
Speaker 1: conservative of the left leaning justices with a justice who

497
00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:22,440
Speaker 1: I believe and to be honest, you can only assess

498
00:30:22,560 --> 00:30:25,720
Speaker 1: these things after a decade or two, so we'll know

499
00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:29,880
Speaker 1: sometime in the future whether this prediction is right. But

500
00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:32,920
Speaker 1: based on her record, I think she will prove to

501
00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:36,440
Speaker 1: be the furthest left of those justices. That's a meaningful shift,

502
00:30:37,960 --> 00:30:41,720
Speaker 1: but I got to tell you it was amazing. So

503
00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:45,000
Speaker 1: we're engaged in this confirmation hearing, and normally in a

504
00:30:45,080 --> 00:30:48,960
Speaker 1: judicial confirmation hearing, particularly a Supreme Court fight, there's an

505
00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:52,800
Speaker 1: ecosystem on right and left that rise up. So when

506
00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:57,160
Speaker 1: Brett Kavanaugh was nominated, there's all these left leaning groups

507
00:30:57,160 --> 00:31:01,440
Speaker 1: that are funded with millions of dollars that are attacking him,

508
00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:03,720
Speaker 1: that are funding attacks by the way, that are sending

509
00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:06,920
Speaker 1: protesters to Washington to show up in the hearing and

510
00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:11,120
Speaker 1: scream and yell and yell at senators and elevators. There's

511
00:31:11,280 --> 00:31:14,560
Speaker 1: an elevator we call the Jeff Flake Memorial Elevator because

512
00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:18,400
Speaker 1: it's where these protesters who were on the payroll of

513
00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:25,440
Speaker 1: a leftist organization screamed at him. I'm glad that you

514
00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:28,280
Speaker 1: didn't see conservatives hiring people just to scream and yell

515
00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:31,880
Speaker 1: and throw a fit. But they also engage in research

516
00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:35,160
Speaker 1: and what was fascinating so when the issue about her

517
00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:43,160
Speaker 1: Lenian sentences came up, the first response that Democrats had was, well,

518
00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:47,600
Speaker 1: a lot of federal judges sentence defendants, particularly defendants in

519
00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:52,600
Speaker 1: child pornography cases, to below the federal sentencing guidelines. And

520
00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:55,560
Speaker 1: that argument is actually a reasonable argument if you look

521
00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:58,000
Speaker 1: just at the first iteration of the back and forth,

522
00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:01,160
Speaker 1: they had a reasonable point with some some real basis

523
00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:04,800
Speaker 1: for it. The next iteration of the argument, however, was

524
00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:09,400
Speaker 1: she was not just sentencing below the guideline. She was

525
00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:14,880
Speaker 1: sentencing far, far, far below what the prosecutor was asking

526
00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:18,600
Speaker 1: for any in each case, every case where she had discretion,

527
00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:22,600
Speaker 1: she went way below the prosecutor. And then, as we're

528
00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:29,320
Speaker 1: talking about it amidst Republican senators, several Republican senators asked

529
00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:33,760
Speaker 1: the question, well, how does her sentencing compare to other

530
00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:36,719
Speaker 1: federal judges across the country. It's a good question. It

531
00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:40,680
Speaker 1: was a reasonable question I asked my team. Initially, I said, look,

532
00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:45,160
Speaker 1: surely someone is doing comprehensive research on a record this

533
00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:48,520
Speaker 1: ought to be available. So my team reached out to

534
00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:54,160
Speaker 1: the likely organizations that would be doing this research. Nobody

535
00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:56,760
Speaker 1: had done any research. You know that it had the

536
00:32:56,920 --> 00:33:00,080
Speaker 1: situation been reversed, the left would have a dossier, and

537
00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:03,600
Speaker 1: they did. They did for Neil Gorsuch, they did for

538
00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:06,360
Speaker 1: Amy Coney Barrett, they did for Brett Cabnaugh. For all three,

539
00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:09,440
Speaker 1: massive amounts of money were spent. The failure of the

540
00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:12,800
Speaker 1: conservative movement. The movement did nothing to inform any one

541
00:33:12,840 --> 00:33:15,760
Speaker 1: of the facts of this very disturbing The movement should

542
00:33:15,760 --> 00:33:18,840
Speaker 1: have come up with all the fodder for the tough questions. Now,

543
00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:21,920
Speaker 1: speaking of tough questions, I want to get some tough

544
00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:24,120
Speaker 1: questions from the audience. Shall we bring out our friend

545
00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:40,000
Speaker 1: Liz Wheeler to field the questions. Welcome back, Thank you,

546
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:42,160
Speaker 1: thank you. I just want to say I noticed that

547
00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:44,240
Speaker 1: when you were throwing the merch out at the beginning,

548
00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:45,840
Speaker 1: the hats and the shirts, that you didn't have enough

549
00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:47,959
Speaker 1: for the whole audience. So I just want to let

550
00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:50,920
Speaker 1: everyone know if you use my promo code live, you

551
00:33:50,920 --> 00:33:54,080
Speaker 1: can get ten percent off on the Verdict with Ted

552
00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:57,880
Speaker 1: Cruz dot com slash shop on the Merch store. This

553
00:33:57,960 --> 00:34:01,080
Speaker 1: is what we call a shameless plug. But I gotta

554
00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:04,000
Speaker 1: say one of the coolest things that set up here

555
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:07,000
Speaker 1: that I just saw shortly before we started filming is

556
00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:10,440
Speaker 1: somehow we've gotten to be able to project the cactus

557
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:13,120
Speaker 1: on the wall, which I just think is is really cool.

558
00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:15,440
Speaker 1: We've never done that before, so whoever came up with

559
00:34:15,440 --> 00:34:17,719
Speaker 1: that that was very clever. They're going to paint it

560
00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:21,279
Speaker 1: afterward as a monument to this show, and then we'll

561
00:34:21,320 --> 00:34:24,400
Speaker 1: all be prosecuted for vandalism. I think it's very complimentary

562
00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:28,279
Speaker 1: to the chandeliarly. So are we ready for some questions? Yes?

563
00:34:28,520 --> 00:34:31,640
Speaker 1: And the rule really does stand. I know I joked

564
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:34,640
Speaker 1: sincerely about how much I hate the rule, but if

565
00:34:34,680 --> 00:34:36,640
Speaker 1: you disagree with us, you really are allowed to cut

566
00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:38,719
Speaker 1: to the front of the line. So just indicate that

567
00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:40,400
Speaker 1: up there and we look forward to hearing from you.

568
00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:45,960
Speaker 1: William F. Buckley Junior used to say a conservative is

569
00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:52,080
Speaker 1: someone who stands athwart history, yelling stop. Does this definition

570
00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:56,800
Speaker 1: still apply to today's political climate? Ooh, good question. Something

571
00:34:56,800 --> 00:35:00,120
Speaker 1: that has misunderstood about that statement is he was speaking

572
00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:03,200
Speaker 1: about history with a capital H. He was speaking about

573
00:35:03,239 --> 00:35:06,920
Speaker 1: the Marxist conception of history as a science that can

574
00:35:06,960 --> 00:35:09,880
Speaker 1: be known with certainty, and it comes from a popular

575
00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:12,040
Speaker 1: line from the left, which is I have seen the

576
00:35:12,080 --> 00:35:15,480
Speaker 1: future and it works. And so Buckley is responding to

577
00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:18,040
Speaker 1: that and saying, no, whatever you think the future is,

578
00:35:18,239 --> 00:35:20,799
Speaker 1: we are going to stand athwart that yelling stop. And

579
00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:24,640
Speaker 1: so this statement is perfectly right inasmuch as Buckley is

580
00:35:24,680 --> 00:35:27,520
Speaker 1: saying in the nineteen fifties, the conservative is one who

581
00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:30,640
Speaker 1: is stopping communism, and he brought together a coalition of

582
00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:34,520
Speaker 1: three disparate groups, the traditionalists who hated the iconoclasm and

583
00:35:34,560 --> 00:35:38,040
Speaker 1: atheism of the Soviet Union, the libertarians who hated the collectivism,

584
00:35:38,239 --> 00:35:41,879
Speaker 1: and the warhawk Democrats, for lack of a better word,

585
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:45,360
Speaker 1: the people who hated the USSR as imperial ambitions. And

586
00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:47,360
Speaker 1: those three groups didn't have a whole lot in common,

587
00:35:47,480 --> 00:35:49,680
Speaker 1: but they had a common enemy, and so they fought

588
00:35:49,719 --> 00:35:52,000
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union and they won. I mean, for all

589
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:54,759
Speaker 1: that we knocked that coalition today, it was successful and

590
00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:56,799
Speaker 1: it did win the Cold War. So I think he

591
00:35:56,880 --> 00:35:59,680
Speaker 1: was perfectly right at the time to say that the

592
00:36:00,080 --> 00:36:02,880
Speaker 1: land Wall fell thirty years ago. And conservatives who are

593
00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:06,400
Speaker 1: just playing reruns of the nineteen eighties on YouTube. Frankly,

594
00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:09,800
Speaker 1: I myself sometimes do it as comfort food, you know,

595
00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:12,239
Speaker 1: I'm I go in on a cozy night and play

596
00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:14,600
Speaker 1: old Reagan clips. But that isn't going to cut it.

597
00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:18,600
Speaker 1: I'm confident with your wife. That's very romantic it say honey,

598
00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:22,600
Speaker 1: just one more please. You know, Ronald Reagan and Bill

599
00:36:22,640 --> 00:36:26,280
Speaker 1: Buckley fought their battles and now they're resting. Let them rest.

600
00:36:26,440 --> 00:36:29,080
Speaker 1: Don't dig up their bodies and try to revivify them.

601
00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:32,160
Speaker 1: Learn from them. I mean, that's something that we're trying

602
00:36:32,160 --> 00:36:34,080
Speaker 1: to do here at the Buckley Program, right. The William F.

603
00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:36,640
Speaker 1: Buckley Junior Program at Yale isn't about playing the hits

604
00:36:36,640 --> 00:36:38,879
Speaker 1: from the eighties or the seventies of the sixties. It's

605
00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:42,920
Speaker 1: about applying timeless principles and an understanding of the conservative

606
00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:47,279
Speaker 1: tradition to the real circumstances today. So, Michael, I have

607
00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:52,839
Speaker 1: to say, I'm deeply disappointed that we are in New Haven, Connecticut.

608
00:36:53,560 --> 00:36:58,040
Speaker 1: We're at your alma mater. You just got asked question

609
00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:02,960
Speaker 1: about William Buckley, and you sat up straight, No, you're right,

610
00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:07,839
Speaker 1: and argued in plain, clearly enunciated English. Could you try

611
00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:11,759
Speaker 1: it again? And answered appropriately. Well. I'll be joined for

612
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:16,520
Speaker 1: the full hour today by Senator Ted Cruise. If I

613
00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:19,759
Speaker 1: do not do my William of Buckley Junior impression, he

614
00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:22,839
Speaker 1: will smash me in my damn face. I will stay

615
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:25,680
Speaker 1: plots stood too? Does that do it very nice? Is that?

616
00:37:25,680 --> 00:37:28,520
Speaker 1: Thank you very much? Thank you? Than true for sure?

617
00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:35,040
Speaker 1: And this is demonstration before it became a podcaster, Michael

618
00:37:35,160 --> 00:37:38,880
Speaker 1: was a frustrated actor and before that half a wasp.

619
00:37:38,960 --> 00:37:40,440
Speaker 1: So I've been tree. You know, I've been trying my

620
00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:43,759
Speaker 1: blue blood accent for a while. Yea, all right. Our

621
00:37:43,800 --> 00:37:46,239
Speaker 1: next question is actually going to be from Verdict Plus.

622
00:37:46,320 --> 00:37:48,600
Speaker 1: If you are a subscriber on Verdict plus this community,

623
00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:52,040
Speaker 1: you get exclusive access to ask the Senator questions, not

624
00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:55,160
Speaker 1: just not just in live events, but on a regular basis.

625
00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:57,120
Speaker 1: That's where we also host the Cloakroom. So this next

626
00:37:57,200 --> 00:38:02,080
Speaker 1: question is from username godzill the rules. This is a question, Senator.

627
00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:04,600
Speaker 1: I picked it because of the question I promised, not

628
00:38:04,680 --> 00:38:07,080
Speaker 1: because of the user name. That was just part of it. Senator,

629
00:38:07,160 --> 00:38:10,000
Speaker 1: if Republicans take the House, who would be the speaker?

630
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:14,839
Speaker 1: It's a good question. I think the answer probably will

631
00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:19,719
Speaker 1: be Kevin McCarthy. I will say this, I stay out

632
00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:23,280
Speaker 1: of speaker elections. I've got enough battles on the Senate

633
00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:27,000
Speaker 1: side of things. You know, back when I arrived in

634
00:38:27,040 --> 00:38:32,000
Speaker 1: the Senate, John Bayner was the speaker. Bayinner and I

635
00:38:32,320 --> 00:38:36,080
Speaker 1: friends yeah. Yeah. Let me just just say we had

636
00:38:36,120 --> 00:38:43,279
Speaker 1: pretty significant differences of opinion. To put it mildly, I

637
00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:46,680
Speaker 1: think it is likely that McCarthy, if there's a majority,

638
00:38:46,719 --> 00:38:49,480
Speaker 1: will be speaker. Now it's not clear he will stay speaker.

639
00:38:50,160 --> 00:38:52,160
Speaker 1: The job of Speaker of the House is a very

640
00:38:52,239 --> 00:38:56,280
Speaker 1: difficult job. It is like hurting cats. There is wide

641
00:38:56,320 --> 00:39:00,880
Speaker 1: disagreement among Republicans, and I think if there's discontent in

642
00:39:00,920 --> 00:39:04,320
Speaker 1: the ranks, he could be replaced. But I think given

643
00:39:04,360 --> 00:39:07,360
Speaker 1: that he's been Republican leader in the minority, given that

644
00:39:07,400 --> 00:39:10,200
Speaker 1: he's working very hard to take the majority, I would

645
00:39:10,239 --> 00:39:13,600
Speaker 1: be surprised if House Republicans didn't at least given the

646
00:39:13,600 --> 00:39:16,439
Speaker 1: first crack at leading. And if he does a good job,

647
00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:21,160
Speaker 1: then presumably he'll stay speaker. Well, conservative critics would say

648
00:39:21,200 --> 00:39:25,520
Speaker 1: that he leans to establishment and that he's not based enough.

649
00:39:26,040 --> 00:39:30,319
Speaker 1: What say you to I love Liz, how you phrase that?

650
00:39:30,560 --> 00:39:34,400
Speaker 1: You know? Some conservative critics might say, you know conservative

651
00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:40,000
Speaker 1: critics whose name rhyme with wiz Leely Perhaps that's the

652
00:39:40,040 --> 00:39:41,759
Speaker 1: fun part of moderating the questions as I get to

653
00:39:41,800 --> 00:39:44,960
Speaker 1: throw my own in. So look, I had been through

654
00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:48,400
Speaker 1: now multiple Republican leaders in the House when I arrived

655
00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:55,879
Speaker 1: at was John Bayner. Bayner loathed conservatives. There are conservatives

656
00:39:55,880 --> 00:39:57,680
Speaker 1: in the House, and it was interesting because he had

657
00:39:57,719 --> 00:40:01,959
Speaker 1: started out as a relative tively conservative House member before

658
00:40:02,040 --> 00:40:05,239
Speaker 1: he began climbing the wrongs of leadership. But by the

659
00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:07,959
Speaker 1: time he was speaker, I would I would encounter House

660
00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:10,520
Speaker 1: Republicans who would just tell me about He'd walk up

661
00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:13,120
Speaker 1: to them at on the floor and just say, f

662
00:40:13,320 --> 00:40:19,239
Speaker 1: you like to their faith. And Bayner's kind of an

663
00:40:19,640 --> 00:40:23,200
Speaker 1: interesting fellow, and that he's had all sorts of interesting

664
00:40:23,239 --> 00:40:25,760
Speaker 1: things to say about me. He's described me as Lucifer

665
00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:30,000
Speaker 1: in the flesh. He's described me as the most miserable

666
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:33,040
Speaker 1: son of a bitch he's ever worked with. And the

667
00:40:33,080 --> 00:40:36,600
Speaker 1: irony is, I've never worked with him, so I don't

668
00:40:36,640 --> 00:40:39,120
Speaker 1: know John Baynard my whole life. I have not spoken

669
00:40:39,160 --> 00:40:42,920
Speaker 1: fifty words to banter. So it's kind of a curious thing.

670
00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:45,200
Speaker 1: And so he came out with a book recently that

671
00:40:45,840 --> 00:40:50,960
Speaker 1: I think nobody read, although when he was recording his

672
00:40:51,200 --> 00:40:53,520
Speaker 1: video for it, he did a video of the audio

673
00:40:53,560 --> 00:40:57,200
Speaker 1: book and he's drinking copious amounts of red wine and

674
00:40:57,280 --> 00:40:59,920
Speaker 1: chain smoking, and in the middle of the video he's

675
00:41:00,120 --> 00:41:02,879
Speaker 1: reading a segment of the book completely unrelated. He looks

676
00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:06,319
Speaker 1: in the camera and says, fu ted Cruz, like in

677
00:41:06,360 --> 00:41:10,600
Speaker 1: the middle of the video. And so a friend of

678
00:41:10,640 --> 00:41:12,640
Speaker 1: mine gave me this book. It may have been the

679
00:41:12,680 --> 00:41:17,719
Speaker 1: one copy purchased. And so I did what's called the

680
00:41:17,760 --> 00:41:21,040
Speaker 1: Washington read. So the Washington read. As you take a book,

681
00:41:21,080 --> 00:41:22,920
Speaker 1: you go look in the index to see what they

682
00:41:22,960 --> 00:41:24,719
Speaker 1: say about you, and you go skim through to figure

683
00:41:24,719 --> 00:41:27,200
Speaker 1: out whatever. So I did that, said, all right, let's

684
00:41:27,239 --> 00:41:30,040
Speaker 1: see what he asked to say. And what was fascinating.

685
00:41:30,560 --> 00:41:33,560
Speaker 1: He actually describes why he loves me so much. And

686
00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:38,880
Speaker 1: he said, look, when Cruz arrived in January of twenty thirteen,

687
00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:43,239
Speaker 1: he said, the crazies among the House Republicans, by which

688
00:41:43,280 --> 00:41:48,520
Speaker 1: he means the Conservatives, they had been largely beaten down

689
00:41:49,640 --> 00:41:54,160
Speaker 1: and Cruz got there and he convinced them. Suddenly they

690
00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:58,680
Speaker 1: believed they could fight for something. Suddenly they believed they

691
00:41:58,680 --> 00:42:03,120
Speaker 1: could do something. And he said, that made my life miserable.

692
00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:08,799
Speaker 1: So that was bainer when it started. Ultimately, I think

693
00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:14,080
Speaker 1: he was so antagonistic to conservatives it cost him the speakership.

694
00:42:14,120 --> 00:42:18,080
Speaker 1: He was toppled. Ultimately, the next speaker was Paul Ryan

695
00:42:19,200 --> 00:42:25,160
Speaker 1: Paul Ryan was substantially less antagonistic to conservatives than Bayiner. Now,

696
00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:28,040
Speaker 1: Paul had been in Washington a long time. Paul had

697
00:42:28,080 --> 00:42:33,960
Speaker 1: been When he arrived, he was a young Turk charging

698
00:42:34,000 --> 00:42:36,640
Speaker 1: the castle. And I think after twenty years, the Paul

699
00:42:36,719 --> 00:42:39,480
Speaker 1: Ryan twenty years into it was very different from the

700
00:42:39,480 --> 00:42:43,319
Speaker 1: Paul Ryan who had at first arrived in Washington. But

701
00:42:43,560 --> 00:42:47,520
Speaker 1: Paul had a better relationship with conservatives in the House.

702
00:42:48,160 --> 00:42:50,560
Speaker 1: He was no longer one of them, but it was

703
00:42:50,760 --> 00:42:57,239
Speaker 1: less actively antagonistic than Bayer had been. You now have

704
00:42:57,360 --> 00:43:01,120
Speaker 1: McCarthy and McCarthy. It's interesting, I think idea logically, Kevin

705
00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:04,480
Speaker 1: is the most moderated three. If you actually look at

706
00:43:05,520 --> 00:43:08,719
Speaker 1: where Kevin's personal views are, he's the least conservative of

707
00:43:08,719 --> 00:43:12,799
Speaker 1: the three. But he also is the least antagonistic to

708
00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:17,960
Speaker 1: House conservatives. And right now I would say House conservatives

709
00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:20,440
Speaker 1: get along with him pretty well. Now, in some ways,

710
00:43:20,480 --> 00:43:23,439
Speaker 1: it's easier to get along with the leader of House

711
00:43:23,480 --> 00:43:26,120
Speaker 1: Republicans when you're in the minority. When you're in the

712
00:43:26,120 --> 00:43:30,680
Speaker 1: minority and everyone's voting no, there are fewer fracture lines

713
00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:35,399
Speaker 1: for disagreement. I think we're more likely to find disagreement

714
00:43:36,760 --> 00:43:40,200
Speaker 1: next year if we see Republican majorities in both houses.

715
00:43:40,239 --> 00:43:45,200
Speaker 1: Look the singular cause of the disagreements I've had with

716
00:43:45,239 --> 00:43:48,400
Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell, and Mitch and I have battled like crazy

717
00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:52,479
Speaker 1: in the Senate. The major cause of those has been

718
00:43:53,040 --> 00:43:56,239
Speaker 1: on the question of how much can we stand up

719
00:43:56,560 --> 00:43:59,759
Speaker 1: and fight the agenda, whether a Barack Obama or Joe

720
00:43:59,760 --> 00:44:05,520
Speaker 1: Bia and so with McCarthy, I think time will tell

721
00:44:06,160 --> 00:44:11,080
Speaker 1: how he navigates those waters. I'm less concerned about where

722
00:44:11,080 --> 00:44:16,480
Speaker 1: he personally is ideologically, and I'm more concerned if and

723
00:44:16,520 --> 00:44:20,000
Speaker 1: when he becomes a speaker, with how he leads and

724
00:44:20,120 --> 00:44:22,560
Speaker 1: whether I'm a big believer. When you got the majority,

725
00:44:22,560 --> 00:44:24,440
Speaker 1: you got to do something with It doesn't mean you

726
00:44:24,440 --> 00:44:28,520
Speaker 1: fight everything. If you fight everything, you're fighting nothing. But

727
00:44:28,640 --> 00:44:31,920
Speaker 1: it does mean that you pick some issues that matter

728
00:44:32,040 --> 00:44:34,399
Speaker 1: that you care about, and you stand up and fight

729
00:44:34,440 --> 00:44:36,640
Speaker 1: and make a difference. And I think if Kevin does that,

730
00:44:37,520 --> 00:44:39,640
Speaker 1: he'll be more likely to keep the job, and if

731
00:44:39,640 --> 00:44:43,479
Speaker 1: he doesn't, he may not. Right, my name is Maya Cook.

732
00:44:44,360 --> 00:44:46,800
Speaker 1: Good evening, Senator, Cuz, thank you so much for coming

733
00:44:46,840 --> 00:44:49,280
Speaker 1: to Yale this evening. And I think in the spirit

734
00:44:49,320 --> 00:44:53,160
Speaker 1: of the Buckley Programs, celebration of intellectual diversity. I wanted

735
00:44:53,200 --> 00:44:55,400
Speaker 1: to take a moment to celebrate our newest addition to

736
00:44:55,400 --> 00:44:57,160
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court of the US. Who I know, we've

737
00:44:57,160 --> 00:45:01,080
Speaker 1: already talked about Justice Jackson. You're here tonight, though in

738
00:45:01,120 --> 00:45:04,080
Speaker 1: the name of fostering intellectual diversity in academic spaces. It

739
00:45:04,080 --> 00:45:06,480
Speaker 1: would appear to me that you already recognize the importance

740
00:45:06,520 --> 00:45:09,600
Speaker 1: of new perspectives. And as a young woman, seeing Justice

741
00:45:09,680 --> 00:45:13,759
Speaker 1: Jackson on the Supreme Court is invigorating, truly, And on

742
00:45:13,760 --> 00:45:16,839
Speaker 1: Tuesday it baffled me that you would ask such flagrantly

743
00:45:17,080 --> 00:45:22,120
Speaker 1: racist questions to this exceedingly well qualified candidate. Your colleagues

744
00:45:22,160 --> 00:45:26,480
Speaker 1: in the GOP promised a respectful and dignified hearing for

745
00:45:26,680 --> 00:45:28,799
Speaker 1: Justice Jackson, and to me, you did not uphold this.

746
00:45:29,520 --> 00:45:32,040
Speaker 1: So today I wanted to create a space where you

747
00:45:32,160 --> 00:45:34,600
Speaker 1: might be able to challenge your own thinking, as prudent

748
00:45:34,680 --> 00:45:38,560
Speaker 1: scholars often do. So I'm here to ask you what

749
00:45:38,640 --> 00:45:42,280
Speaker 1: are two nice comments you can give about recent nominee

750
00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:55,880
Speaker 1: Justice Jackson's judicial experience. Besides from she has an easy smile. Yeah. Well,

751
00:45:56,480 --> 00:45:59,319
Speaker 1: let me start by thanking you for being here and

752
00:45:59,520 --> 00:46:05,799
Speaker 1: thank you for asking a substantive, important question, Thank you

753
00:46:05,880 --> 00:46:08,279
Speaker 1: for engaging in a conversation. I think we all would

754
00:46:08,320 --> 00:46:13,240
Speaker 1: be better off if we engage in substantive conversations. There's

755
00:46:13,239 --> 00:46:18,680
Speaker 1: a lot to praise about Judge Jackson. She is very

756
00:46:18,760 --> 00:46:24,200
Speaker 1: very bright, she is very very accomplished, she is very talented.

757
00:46:25,480 --> 00:46:29,719
Speaker 1: She has an impressive and inspiring personal story. I will say,

758
00:46:30,360 --> 00:46:34,000
Speaker 1: sitting listening to her opening remarks where she described her

759
00:46:34,040 --> 00:46:38,360
Speaker 1: personal story, she described her parents journey, you had to

760
00:46:38,400 --> 00:46:43,760
Speaker 1: be dead not to be inspired by that journey and listen.

761
00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:45,920
Speaker 1: I will say, more broadly, if you look at the

762
00:46:45,960 --> 00:46:48,439
Speaker 1: history of our country, if you look at the history

763
00:46:48,480 --> 00:46:54,200
Speaker 1: of our country on race, it is absolutely inspiring to

764
00:46:54,200 --> 00:46:57,120
Speaker 1: see an African American woman serving on the Supreme Court.

765
00:46:58,960 --> 00:47:02,680
Speaker 1: I will also point out that when it comes to

766
00:47:02,760 --> 00:47:06,520
Speaker 1: issues of race, I think both the press and the

767
00:47:06,600 --> 00:47:12,360
Speaker 1: modern left are hypocritical on this question, that they only

768
00:47:12,440 --> 00:47:16,359
Speaker 1: define someone as black, or they only define someone as

769
00:47:16,400 --> 00:47:22,120
Speaker 1: Hispanic if they agree with them ideologically. So Clarence Thomas

770
00:47:22,120 --> 00:47:25,239
Speaker 1: has been on the Court for decades. Clarence Thomas is

771
00:47:25,239 --> 00:47:31,040
Speaker 1: a black man. The Left hates him. They despise Clarence Thomas.

772
00:47:31,040 --> 00:47:33,000
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you, by the way, the treatment of

773
00:47:33,040 --> 00:47:36,879
Speaker 1: Clarence Thomas on the left is markedly different than say

774
00:47:36,920 --> 00:47:42,360
Speaker 1: antonin Scalia. Antonin Scalia was brilliant. He and Justice Thomas

775
00:47:42,400 --> 00:47:47,239
Speaker 1: were every bit as conservative. And yet the vitriol that

776
00:47:47,400 --> 00:47:54,640
Speaker 1: was heaped on Clarence Thomas nasty racist language from the left.

777
00:47:55,800 --> 00:47:59,720
Speaker 1: There was one magazine cover that that showed Clarence Thomas

778
00:48:00,360 --> 00:48:04,920
Speaker 1: as an uncle Tom sitting at Scalia's feet. I think

779
00:48:05,040 --> 00:48:07,960
Speaker 1: was racist and disgusting. And listen, I will say this

780
00:48:08,000 --> 00:48:11,400
Speaker 1: as an Hispanic man, As an Hispanic man, Jorge Ramos

781
00:48:11,480 --> 00:48:14,239
Speaker 1: went on television in Spanish and described me as a

782
00:48:14,280 --> 00:48:21,080
Speaker 1: traitor to my race for daring. Okay, look, that says

783
00:48:21,120 --> 00:48:23,800
Speaker 1: something about the view of the left that they're telling

784
00:48:23,880 --> 00:48:27,399
Speaker 1: you you have one way to view things in one

785
00:48:27,480 --> 00:48:31,440
Speaker 1: way only, and if you don't, we'll demonize and attack you.

786
00:48:32,280 --> 00:48:36,080
Speaker 1: So look. And by the way, in terms of having

787
00:48:36,800 --> 00:48:41,799
Speaker 1: the first African American woman on the Supreme Court, there

788
00:48:41,880 --> 00:48:44,399
Speaker 1: was an opportunity for this to happen twenty years ago.

789
00:48:45,239 --> 00:48:48,560
Speaker 1: There's a judge named Janice Rogers Brown. Janice Rogers Brown

790
00:48:48,840 --> 00:48:51,800
Speaker 1: was a Supreme Court justice on the California Supreme Court.

791
00:48:52,520 --> 00:48:56,720
Speaker 1: George W. Bush nominated Janice Rogers Brown to the DC Circuit.

792
00:48:56,719 --> 00:48:59,480
Speaker 1: At the beginning of beginning of his presidency, he nominated

793
00:49:00,040 --> 00:49:05,400
Speaker 1: Judge Brown in the DC Circuit. The Democrats filibuster Judge Brown.

794
00:49:06,160 --> 00:49:08,920
Speaker 1: That filibuster was led by a guy named Joe Biden.

795
00:49:09,800 --> 00:49:13,560
Speaker 1: It also included people like Chuck Schumer. It included Pat lagh,

796
00:49:13,600 --> 00:49:18,800
Speaker 1: He included Diane Feinstein, they Philip The reason they filibustered

797
00:49:19,440 --> 00:49:24,120
Speaker 1: Judge Janice Rogers Brown is because she was a black woman,

798
00:49:24,960 --> 00:49:28,560
Speaker 1: but she was also conservative and they did not want

799
00:49:28,600 --> 00:49:31,400
Speaker 1: her to go to the Supreme Court, and they succeeded

800
00:49:31,400 --> 00:49:34,680
Speaker 1: in filibusting her. They delayed her nomination for a couple

801
00:49:34,719 --> 00:49:37,080
Speaker 1: of years until it finally went through. She finally went

802
00:49:37,120 --> 00:49:42,319
Speaker 1: to the DC Circuit. Now, everyone who was rumphing in

803
00:49:42,360 --> 00:49:47,080
Speaker 1: the media that if you oppose an African American woman

804
00:49:47,320 --> 00:49:52,239
Speaker 1: who's a qualified judge, you're a racist. Precisely zero of

805
00:49:52,280 --> 00:49:58,440
Speaker 1: them thought it was racist for Democrats, including Joe Biden,

806
00:49:58,480 --> 00:50:01,560
Speaker 1: to filibuster Annis Rodgers Brown. By the way, there was

807
00:50:01,600 --> 00:50:06,080
Speaker 1: another nominee that Bush put forward, a guy named Miguelistrata mcguel.

808
00:50:06,680 --> 00:50:11,880
Speaker 1: It's an incredibly qualified Supreme Court advocate. He was nominated

809
00:50:11,880 --> 00:50:16,279
Speaker 1: the DC Circuit as well. The Democrats philibustered him. If

810
00:50:16,320 --> 00:50:20,480
Speaker 1: you read the memos that were leaked from Ted Kennedy's lawyers,

811
00:50:21,120 --> 00:50:24,480
Speaker 1: Here's what Ted Kennedy's lawyers said about Miguelistrata. They said,

812
00:50:25,680 --> 00:50:33,399
Speaker 1: we must stop him quote because he is Hispanic. That's

813
00:50:33,400 --> 00:50:36,120
Speaker 1: what Ted Kennedy's lawyers said in writing. Now, I'm going

814
00:50:36,160 --> 00:50:41,120
Speaker 1: to suggest to you, if you oppose somebody because of

815
00:50:41,160 --> 00:50:46,799
Speaker 1: their race, that is the definition of racist. And look,

816
00:50:46,800 --> 00:50:50,759
Speaker 1: I'll point out in your question you said that my

817
00:50:50,960 --> 00:50:56,320
Speaker 1: questioning of Judge Jackson was you use the term racist. Listen.

818
00:50:56,920 --> 00:51:01,200
Speaker 1: Racism is a horrific evil in this country. It is

819
00:51:01,320 --> 00:51:06,799
Speaker 1: also an insult that the left tosses around casually. I

820
00:51:06,880 --> 00:51:09,279
Speaker 1: would welcome if you look at the questions I asked

821
00:51:09,360 --> 00:51:15,560
Speaker 1: Judge Jackson. Every single question I asked her concerned her record,

822
00:51:16,320 --> 00:51:21,560
Speaker 1: either her record as a judge sentencing defendants before her,

823
00:51:22,600 --> 00:51:28,239
Speaker 1: or her record writing academic materials and law reviews, or

824
00:51:28,280 --> 00:51:32,600
Speaker 1: her record giving speeches to law schools. All of that

825
00:51:32,800 --> 00:51:36,440
Speaker 1: is the job of the Senate in the advice and

826
00:51:36,520 --> 00:51:43,799
Speaker 1: consent process. And so respectfully, I could not disagree more

827
00:51:43,920 --> 00:51:46,920
Speaker 1: deeply when you say it is racist to examine a

828
00:51:47,080 --> 00:51:51,279
Speaker 1: judge based on their record. If the Democrats wanted to

829
00:51:51,280 --> 00:51:57,360
Speaker 1: oppose Janice Rogers Brown because they opposed conservatives. You know,

830
00:51:57,480 --> 00:52:00,520
Speaker 1: do you think the Democrats were all sexist when they

831
00:52:00,600 --> 00:52:03,560
Speaker 1: voted party line against Amy Coney Barrett. I'm willing to

832
00:52:03,600 --> 00:52:08,359
Speaker 1: bet you don't, because she's not a liberal woman. So

833
00:52:09,400 --> 00:52:12,160
Speaker 1: you can't have it both ways, which is that when

834
00:52:12,160 --> 00:52:16,800
Speaker 1: a Democratic nominee has a certain characteristic, anyone who opposes

835
00:52:16,800 --> 00:52:19,600
Speaker 1: them as racist or sexist or what have you. But

836
00:52:19,760 --> 00:52:23,760
Speaker 1: when a Republican nominee has those characteristic it's open season

837
00:52:23,800 --> 00:52:26,920
Speaker 1: and you can go after them full force, and the

838
00:52:27,040 --> 00:52:31,520
Speaker 1: left is righteous in doing so. The standard should be

839
00:52:31,560 --> 00:52:34,040
Speaker 1: the same, and I'm going to suggest what the standard

840
00:52:34,080 --> 00:52:37,560
Speaker 1: should be is we should examine people based on their

841
00:52:37,600 --> 00:52:42,360
Speaker 1: actual record and whether into what extent that record demonstrates

842
00:52:42,440 --> 00:52:46,040
Speaker 1: they will defend the constitutional rights of all Americans. I

843
00:52:46,040 --> 00:52:59,200
Speaker 1: think that's what people care about. Mika. I do want

844
00:52:59,200 --> 00:53:01,840
Speaker 1: to add one thing, as a young professional woman similar

845
00:53:01,840 --> 00:53:07,400
Speaker 1: to you, I do want to speak to however you

846
00:53:07,440 --> 00:53:11,560
Speaker 1: identify um. I do think it's important to look at

847
00:53:11,600 --> 00:53:14,600
Speaker 1: exactly what happened with Katanji Brown Jackson as it relates

848
00:53:14,680 --> 00:53:17,200
Speaker 1: to the progress that women have made in our country.

849
00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:20,239
Speaker 1: And by that, I mean how Joe Biden has taken

850
00:53:20,320 --> 00:53:23,360
Speaker 1: us backwards in the progress that we have made moving

851
00:53:23,360 --> 00:53:27,319
Speaker 1: away from sexism. Because when conservatives say that Katanji Brown

852
00:53:27,400 --> 00:53:30,239
Speaker 1: Jackson was nominated by Joe Biden because of her race

853
00:53:30,280 --> 00:53:33,120
Speaker 1: and because of her gender, we're not inferring that. Joe

854
00:53:33,120 --> 00:53:35,520
Speaker 1: Biden said that himself. He said he was going to

855
00:53:35,600 --> 00:53:38,600
Speaker 1: nominate someone because she was a woman, and because she

856
00:53:38,719 --> 00:53:43,840
Speaker 1: was a black woman. And as women, ourselves as minorities,

857
00:53:44,000 --> 00:53:47,080
Speaker 1: this should be extremely insulting to us. It reduces us

858
00:53:47,120 --> 00:53:51,920
Speaker 1: to tokens. It is tokenism, it's racial tokenism, and it's

859
00:53:52,000 --> 00:53:55,840
Speaker 1: it's sexism. And this is this is the fundamental problem

860
00:53:55,840 --> 00:53:59,240
Speaker 1: with the idea of equity right. It leaves women wondering

861
00:53:59,440 --> 00:54:01,960
Speaker 1: did I get the job based on my qualifications and

862
00:54:02,040 --> 00:54:04,440
Speaker 1: my resume, or did I get the job because I

863
00:54:04,480 --> 00:54:06,359
Speaker 1: am part of a gender quota, because I have been

864
00:54:06,360 --> 00:54:09,839
Speaker 1: reduced to my genitalia. And so I would challenge young

865
00:54:09,880 --> 00:54:13,640
Speaker 1: women to reject what Joe Biden has done. I would

866
00:54:13,760 --> 00:54:17,760
Speaker 1: challenge young women to acknowledge that this is actually racial

867
00:54:17,800 --> 00:54:21,680
Speaker 1: discrimination and gender discrimination. And the people who lose the

868
00:54:21,719 --> 00:54:24,799
Speaker 1: most are women who not only are they left to

869
00:54:24,800 --> 00:54:27,839
Speaker 1: wonder about themselves? Their co workers and their colleagues are

870
00:54:27,880 --> 00:54:31,080
Speaker 1: also left to wonder did this woman? Did this black

871
00:54:31,080 --> 00:54:35,200
Speaker 1: woman achieve what she achieved based on her merits or

872
00:54:35,360 --> 00:54:42,920
Speaker 1: because of the color of her skin or her gender? Hello,

873
00:54:43,640 --> 00:54:47,600
Speaker 1: my name is Evan M. Assuming that would end global hunger,

874
00:54:47,920 --> 00:54:58,120
Speaker 1: would you pilate another man? Actually, I do have an

875
00:54:58,120 --> 00:55:00,400
Speaker 1: answer to this, all right? I act? Do you think

876
00:55:00,440 --> 00:55:03,520
Speaker 1: it is better that the alien answer this? You know,

877
00:55:03,560 --> 00:55:06,240
Speaker 1: there's a line and there's a line of American psycho

878
00:55:06,320 --> 00:55:08,680
Speaker 1: about that Yale thing. I think that's when our questioner

879
00:55:08,760 --> 00:55:13,920
Speaker 1: is alluding to a Like a typical left wing undergraduate,

880
00:55:14,000 --> 00:55:18,520
Speaker 1: you are engaging in consequentialist ethics. You are attempting to

881
00:55:18,960 --> 00:55:23,480
Speaker 1: justify flavorantly immoral behavior to achieve a good end. And

882
00:55:23,880 --> 00:55:27,080
Speaker 1: I tell you, my friend, the ends do not justify

883
00:55:27,120 --> 00:55:35,440
Speaker 1: the means. Absolutely absolutely not. I am curious with that,

884
00:55:35,600 --> 00:55:38,759
Speaker 1: young fellow. If it would solve world hunger, would you

885
00:55:38,840 --> 00:55:49,160
Speaker 1: vote for Donald Trump? All right? Hello, Senator Cruz. My

886
00:55:49,239 --> 00:55:51,640
Speaker 1: name is pre and I'm a community college transfer student

887
00:55:51,680 --> 00:55:54,799
Speaker 1: and current undergrad junior at Yale. Are you aware of

888
00:55:54,840 --> 00:55:57,759
Speaker 1: the radical left protests occurring on the popular mobile game

889
00:55:57,800 --> 00:56:00,439
Speaker 1: among us, what are you doing to protect our youth

890
00:56:00,520 --> 00:56:06,520
Speaker 1: from this and other online indoctrination? So I'll confess I'm

891
00:56:06,560 --> 00:56:12,239
Speaker 1: not and you don't say, all right, so among us?

892
00:56:12,280 --> 00:56:14,360
Speaker 1: I've played it a couple of times with my daughters

893
00:56:16,719 --> 00:56:19,640
Speaker 1: and it's sort of fun. But but if there's a

894
00:56:19,760 --> 00:56:23,279
Speaker 1: radical protest on it, I don't know about it. You

895
00:56:23,400 --> 00:56:25,799
Speaker 1: always surprise me. I haven't even heard of this, and

896
00:56:25,920 --> 00:56:28,560
Speaker 1: you're totally hip to the jib of this game. Well

897
00:56:28,719 --> 00:56:32,240
Speaker 1: you know it, You know when you have a thirteen

898
00:56:32,280 --> 00:56:34,920
Speaker 1: year old and eleven year old and the look. I

899
00:56:34,960 --> 00:56:39,799
Speaker 1: grew up driving from Lagory at Yale. I played video

900
00:56:39,840 --> 00:56:42,839
Speaker 1: games the whole way here, so so, but I did

901
00:56:42,880 --> 00:56:46,040
Speaker 1: not play among us. So if there is a protest,

902
00:56:46,239 --> 00:56:50,320
Speaker 1: I don't know about it. All right. Our next question,

903
00:56:50,360 --> 00:56:52,520
Speaker 1: I could pretend is from Verdict plus, but it's actually

904
00:56:52,560 --> 00:56:55,920
Speaker 1: my question. I want to hear your discussion of this topic.

905
00:56:56,200 --> 00:56:58,279
Speaker 1: There was a piece that was published today by David

906
00:56:58,360 --> 00:57:02,480
Speaker 1: French regarding the anti groomer bill, the parental Rights and

907
00:57:02,560 --> 00:57:04,600
Speaker 1: Education Bill in Florida. The left calls of the Don't

908
00:57:04,640 --> 00:57:08,320
Speaker 1: Say Gay bill. He accuses conservatives of being anti free speech.

909
00:57:08,400 --> 00:57:12,200
Speaker 1: In fact, he calls conservatives hypocrites for trying to control

910
00:57:12,360 --> 00:57:16,320
Speaker 1: what teachers are instructing children in the classroom, given that

911
00:57:16,400 --> 00:57:20,479
Speaker 1: conservatives generally support free speech. So my question to both

912
00:57:20,480 --> 00:57:23,520
Speaker 1: of you is, our conservatives hypocrites when it comes to

913
00:57:23,560 --> 00:57:26,760
Speaker 1: these parental rights and education bills? Are Are we hypocrites

914
00:57:26,880 --> 00:57:30,800
Speaker 1: because we don't want the kindergarten teachers to trans the kids?

915
00:57:30,880 --> 00:57:35,120
Speaker 1: That's the question? Yes, Okay, I don't think so. I

916
00:57:35,160 --> 00:57:38,400
Speaker 1: don't think it's in the free speech tradition of America

917
00:57:38,840 --> 00:57:41,880
Speaker 1: to preach transgenderism to five year olds. I have a test.

918
00:57:42,120 --> 00:57:45,560
Speaker 1: It's the what would Washington do test? If you talk

919
00:57:45,600 --> 00:57:48,720
Speaker 1: to the founding fathers, you said, do you believe that

920
00:57:48,760 --> 00:57:51,760
Speaker 1: you founded this country to protect the sacred right of

921
00:57:51,840 --> 00:57:56,000
Speaker 1: weirdos to indoctrinate five year olds into transgenderism and other

922
00:57:56,000 --> 00:57:58,560
Speaker 1: assorted ideologies. I don't think they would have said yes,

923
00:57:58,600 --> 00:58:03,560
Speaker 1: By golly, that's why we fought the revolution. What about slavery?

924
00:58:03,680 --> 00:58:06,160
Speaker 1: I don't think they're teaching a lot about slavery in kindergarten,

925
00:58:06,160 --> 00:58:10,600
Speaker 1: which is probably probably a good thing. But what would

926
00:58:10,600 --> 00:58:14,520
Speaker 1: the founding father Well, it's a good question. Any fathers

927
00:58:14,520 --> 00:58:16,000
Speaker 1: say about slavery, Well, you want to repeat it? Just

928
00:58:16,040 --> 00:58:18,320
Speaker 1: because it was in the microphone. So folks, the question

929
00:58:18,440 --> 00:58:21,760
Speaker 1: was what would the founding fathers say about slavery? And frankly,

930
00:58:21,800 --> 00:58:23,360
Speaker 1: the answer is, we'd be here all night because a

931
00:58:23,400 --> 00:58:26,600
Speaker 1: lot of them vigorously opposed slavery. Some of them own slaves.

932
00:58:26,720 --> 00:58:29,320
Speaker 1: Some of the ones who own slaves recognize the moral

933
00:58:29,360 --> 00:58:31,120
Speaker 1: problem with slavery and wanted to end it, and they

934
00:58:31,160 --> 00:58:33,760
Speaker 1: set up ways for it to end through the constitution,

935
00:58:33,920 --> 00:58:36,640
Speaker 1: and there were vigorous debates. The country almost fell apart.

936
00:58:36,680 --> 00:58:38,960
Speaker 1: We almost didn't get a constitution because of that issue.

937
00:58:39,480 --> 00:58:41,920
Speaker 1: So the answer is it's complicated and would be interesting,

938
00:58:42,080 --> 00:58:44,480
Speaker 1: but that wasn't the question. I was asked the question

939
00:58:44,640 --> 00:58:48,680
Speaker 1: on David French saying that conservatives are hypocrites regarding free

940
00:58:48,720 --> 00:58:52,000
Speaker 1: speech because we don't we don't want kindergarteners learning about transgenderism.

941
00:58:52,440 --> 00:58:56,040
Speaker 1: Is silly to me, because one, kindergarten classrooms are not

942
00:58:56,120 --> 00:58:59,520
Speaker 1: exactly a rollicking free marketplace of ideas where we're discovering

943
00:58:59,560 --> 00:59:03,360
Speaker 1: new scientific technologies and things like that. No, you're learning

944
00:59:03,400 --> 00:59:07,920
Speaker 1: your ABC's. But furthermore, even on this issue of academic freedom,

945
00:59:07,960 --> 00:59:11,280
Speaker 1: there is there is no right of a teacher to

946
00:59:11,280 --> 00:59:16,280
Speaker 1: teach whatever that teacher wants in a classroom specifically to kindergarteners.

947
00:59:16,680 --> 00:59:19,000
Speaker 1: It's funny to hear that kind of a question here

948
00:59:19,280 --> 00:59:22,360
Speaker 1: at the William F. Buckley Junior Program. The Conservative movement

949
00:59:22,600 --> 00:59:25,520
Speaker 1: was founded with a book called God and Man at Yale.

950
00:59:25,560 --> 00:59:29,120
Speaker 1: Everyone remembers the title, few people remember the subtitle, which

951
00:59:29,160 --> 00:59:32,320
Speaker 1: is The Superstitions of Academic Freedom, which he put in

952
00:59:32,360 --> 00:59:35,600
Speaker 1: scare quotes. He said that academic freedom is a hoax,

953
00:59:35,840 --> 00:59:39,000
Speaker 1: that it's a superstition that was merely instrumental for the

954
00:59:39,080 --> 00:59:41,120
Speaker 1: left to get rid of all of the old norms.

955
00:59:41,280 --> 00:59:44,520
Speaker 1: He quotes the former Yale president Charles Seymour, who says

956
00:59:44,600 --> 00:59:48,440
Speaker 1: that skepticism has utility only when it leads to conviction.

957
00:59:48,520 --> 00:59:51,000
Speaker 1: Later on, Bill Buckley is having a debate with Leo

958
00:59:51,160 --> 00:59:54,280
Speaker 1: Chern on firing Line. Buckley said, I do not want

959
00:59:54,280 --> 00:59:56,680
Speaker 1: a more open society. I want the society to be

960
00:59:56,720 --> 01:00:02,520
Speaker 1: considerably more closed. He's used the phrase epistemological optimism, by

961
01:00:02,560 --> 01:00:04,960
Speaker 1: which he meant that we can know certain things, we

962
01:00:04,960 --> 01:00:08,760
Speaker 1: can settle certain things. And Buckley said he it felt

963
01:00:08,760 --> 01:00:11,600
Speaker 1: no desire to protect the rights of a Nazi or

964
01:00:11,640 --> 01:00:16,080
Speaker 1: of a communist. David French infamously defended drag Queen's story

965
01:00:16,120 --> 01:00:19,480
Speaker 1: hour on the suggestion that if we don't protect the

966
01:00:19,560 --> 01:00:21,920
Speaker 1: right of drag queens to jiggle around for little kids,

967
01:00:22,280 --> 01:00:24,160
Speaker 1: then by golly, they might not let us go to

968
01:00:24,240 --> 01:00:27,120
Speaker 1: church on Sundays. And well, first of all, the Left

969
01:00:27,200 --> 01:00:29,920
Speaker 1: has prevented us from going to church on Sundays for

970
01:00:29,960 --> 01:00:33,080
Speaker 1: about the past two years with the COVID lockdowns. But

971
01:00:33,400 --> 01:00:37,120
Speaker 1: even beyond that, if we can't tell the difference between

972
01:00:37,240 --> 01:00:40,280
Speaker 1: tworking for little kids in skimpy outfits at the library

973
01:00:40,600 --> 01:00:43,360
Speaker 1: and a pastor preaching the Gospel on Sunday, then we

974
01:00:43,400 --> 01:00:46,640
Speaker 1: do not possess the rational faculties and the moral conscience

975
01:00:46,720 --> 01:00:57,480
Speaker 1: to govern ourselves. So I've got a different take on

976
01:00:57,480 --> 01:01:03,000
Speaker 1: the matter. And one of the reasons this podcast can

977
01:01:03,040 --> 01:01:05,880
Speaker 1: be interesting and fun is that Michael and I have

978
01:01:07,640 --> 01:01:13,720
Speaker 1: fairly different worldviews. Michael is very Burkian. He is very

979
01:01:13,760 --> 01:01:18,160
Speaker 1: comfortable with tradition, he is very comfortable with lack of change.

980
01:01:20,880 --> 01:01:24,200
Speaker 1: I was amazed to see you disagree in any way

981
01:01:24,240 --> 01:01:28,240
Speaker 1: with Buckley standing athwart and by the way, thwarts a

982
01:01:28,280 --> 01:01:32,360
Speaker 1: word used far too rarely in life. Athwart history, yelling,

983
01:01:32,680 --> 01:01:39,760
Speaker 1: yelling stop. I'm far more libertarian. I am far more

984
01:01:40,000 --> 01:01:44,000
Speaker 1: live and let live. When it comes to free speech,

985
01:01:44,520 --> 01:01:48,400
Speaker 1: I ambrace free speech, and I embrace free speech not

986
01:01:48,480 --> 01:01:50,800
Speaker 1: just for people I agree with, but for people I

987
01:01:50,840 --> 01:01:55,160
Speaker 1: disagree with. I ambrace free speech. You know you mentioned

988
01:01:55,160 --> 01:01:57,960
Speaker 1: for Nazis and communists. I think Nazis and communists have

989
01:01:58,120 --> 01:02:03,120
Speaker 1: free speech rights. Now, reasonable people ought to disagree with

990
01:02:03,240 --> 01:02:06,800
Speaker 1: Nazis and communists, we ought to battle them with more

991
01:02:06,920 --> 01:02:10,040
Speaker 1: free speech. But I very much agree with John Stuart

992
01:02:10,080 --> 01:02:13,560
Speaker 1: Mill that the best cure for bad speech is more speech.

993
01:02:14,320 --> 01:02:22,200
Speaker 1: And so I think academic freedom actually matters, and even

994
01:02:22,240 --> 01:02:27,000
Speaker 1: academic freedom for people who are nutty. That being said, though,

995
01:02:27,000 --> 01:02:29,040
Speaker 1: I think the Florida law the other states that are

996
01:02:29,040 --> 01:02:33,240
Speaker 1: considering laws is markedly different, which is that if a

997
01:02:33,320 --> 01:02:36,400
Speaker 1: state is going to have a public school system, it's

998
01:02:36,440 --> 01:02:39,600
Speaker 1: going to set curriculum that is inherent in the process

999
01:02:39,960 --> 01:02:43,320
Speaker 1: of having a school system. And if you're setting curriculum,

1000
01:02:43,360 --> 01:02:45,800
Speaker 1: you're making a choice of what is included in the

1001
01:02:45,800 --> 01:02:50,040
Speaker 1: curriculum and what is excluded in the curriculum, and making

1002
01:02:50,120 --> 01:02:53,720
Speaker 1: that choice is not in and of itself a violation

1003
01:02:53,760 --> 01:02:58,240
Speaker 1: of free speech. You're necessarily sorting what do we think

1004
01:02:58,240 --> 01:03:02,400
Speaker 1: it is imperative our kids learn. And the Florida bill.

1005
01:03:02,800 --> 01:03:05,240
Speaker 1: You know, it was interesting the opponents of the bill,

1006
01:03:05,280 --> 01:03:08,680
Speaker 1: they dubbed it that don't say gay bill. And yet

1007
01:03:08,720 --> 01:03:11,720
Speaker 1: the bill provided that that for kids that were pre

1008
01:03:11,880 --> 01:03:16,680
Speaker 1: kindergarten through third grade, that you should not discuss questions

1009
01:03:16,680 --> 01:03:20,400
Speaker 1: of sexuality. Look, pre kindergarten kids are three and four

1010
01:03:20,480 --> 01:03:24,760
Speaker 1: years old, and I think it is perfectly reasonable for

1011
01:03:24,800 --> 01:03:27,600
Speaker 1: a state to say we want kids in pre k

1012
01:03:27,800 --> 01:03:32,440
Speaker 1: and k to be learning reading and writing and arithmetic,

1013
01:03:33,160 --> 01:03:35,280
Speaker 1: and they shouldn't be talking about sex. And by the way,

1014
01:03:35,320 --> 01:03:38,800
Speaker 1: I don't want straight teachers talking about straight sex to

1015
01:03:38,920 --> 01:03:44,160
Speaker 1: four year old from kindergarten. Like you know, kids go

1016
01:03:46,200 --> 01:03:48,960
Speaker 1: to kindergarten to learn, to play blocks, to learn, to

1017
01:03:49,000 --> 01:03:52,000
Speaker 1: get some basic education. And by the way, the Florida

1018
01:03:52,120 --> 01:03:56,840
Speaker 1: law ended at third grade. At fourth grade it was hey, Katie,

1019
01:03:56,840 --> 01:03:58,720
Speaker 1: bar the door, you know, you know, bring out the

1020
01:03:58,840 --> 01:04:02,160
Speaker 1: S and M. Let's get exploded. So apparently at age

1021
01:04:02,280 --> 01:04:06,840
Speaker 1: nine all was good. But prior to age nine, And

1022
01:04:06,960 --> 01:04:11,400
Speaker 1: what's fascinating, I think the cultural left jumped the shark

1023
01:04:11,480 --> 01:04:16,400
Speaker 1: on this because you saw many political democrats, You saw

1024
01:04:16,440 --> 01:04:19,400
Speaker 1: the corporate media all excited don't say gay. You saw

1025
01:04:19,480 --> 01:04:24,040
Speaker 1: Hollywood all chanting gay, gay gay, which I gotta say,

1026
01:04:24,320 --> 01:04:26,440
Speaker 1: is not an act of bravery to chant gay in

1027
01:04:26,520 --> 01:04:34,960
Speaker 1: Hollywood mandatory, Actually it is. But what's interesting is if

1028
01:04:35,000 --> 01:04:38,640
Speaker 1: you look at the polling of parents of Floridians who

1029
01:04:38,800 --> 01:04:41,080
Speaker 1: read the terms of this law, which is let's not

1030
01:04:41,200 --> 01:04:46,320
Speaker 1: teach little bitty kids about sex, the overwhelming majority of

1031
01:04:46,360 --> 01:04:50,640
Speaker 1: Floridians agreed with it, including the majority of Democrats in Florida.

1032
01:04:50,920 --> 01:04:54,640
Speaker 1: So it's the cultural elites who are like, how dare

1033
01:04:54,720 --> 01:04:58,240
Speaker 1: you silence these brave truth tellers. You can do all

1034
01:04:58,240 --> 01:05:01,640
Speaker 1: the brave, brave truth telling you one outside of the

1035
01:05:01,720 --> 01:05:07,120
Speaker 1: kindergarten classroom. Ye. Now, as usual, we're running extremely late.

1036
01:05:07,200 --> 01:05:09,880
Speaker 1: This is every episode of the show. But before we go,

1037
01:05:09,920 --> 01:05:11,439
Speaker 1: I do want to get to one more question. Let's

1038
01:05:11,440 --> 01:05:15,640
Speaker 1: do two question. Whoever's next in line? Go ahead, sir,

1039
01:05:15,840 --> 01:05:18,240
Speaker 1: Thank you, Hello, Senator Cruz, thanks for coming out. I

1040
01:05:18,240 --> 01:05:20,920
Speaker 1: really appreciate you being here making the trip. My name

1041
01:05:20,960 --> 01:05:24,120
Speaker 1: is Jamark Simon and my question for you, Senator Cruz,

1042
01:05:24,360 --> 01:05:27,200
Speaker 1: is so, according to the Texas Tribune, you refused to

1043
01:05:27,240 --> 01:05:32,200
Speaker 1: certify the Arizona presidential election results, But most Republicans like

1044
01:05:32,200 --> 01:05:35,520
Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell, have admitted that Joe Biden. One, do you

1045
01:05:35,520 --> 01:05:38,680
Speaker 1: think Joe Biden legitimately won the twenty twenty election? Why

1046
01:05:38,680 --> 01:05:51,120
Speaker 1: are I not? Okay? Great question. Look, Joe Biden is

1047
01:05:51,160 --> 01:05:55,800
Speaker 1: indisputably the president of the United States today. Now there

1048
01:05:55,800 --> 01:05:59,400
Speaker 1: are those in the media world that love to go

1049
01:05:59,440 --> 01:06:04,400
Speaker 1: around to Republicans and ask variants of the following question,

1050
01:06:04,880 --> 01:06:08,200
Speaker 1: do you agree the twenty twenty election was fair and

1051
01:06:08,440 --> 01:06:12,840
Speaker 1: straight and everything was above board? And the answer that

1052
01:06:13,000 --> 01:06:17,120
Speaker 1: is no. In the twenty twenty election, there were widespread

1053
01:06:17,280 --> 01:06:21,160
Speaker 1: allegations of voter fraud. If you looked at polling at

1054
01:06:21,200 --> 01:06:27,480
Speaker 1: the time, thirty nine percent of Americans, nearly half believe

1055
01:06:27,640 --> 01:06:32,400
Speaker 1: the election had been stolen. That is very disturbing for

1056
01:06:32,480 --> 01:06:36,320
Speaker 1: anyone that wants to see the American people have faith

1057
01:06:36,320 --> 01:06:42,080
Speaker 1: in our democratic system. As we were going to January sixth,

1058
01:06:43,000 --> 01:06:47,160
Speaker 1: under legislation called the Electoral Count Act, if a House

1059
01:06:47,240 --> 01:06:51,640
Speaker 1: member and a Senator objects to the counting of electoral votes,

1060
01:06:51,680 --> 01:06:54,360
Speaker 1: the two chambers split up into separate chambers, we have

1061
01:06:54,440 --> 01:06:59,080
Speaker 1: two hours of debate and we vote on it. And

1062
01:06:59,240 --> 01:07:03,200
Speaker 1: I spent days and weeks struggling about how to vote.

1063
01:07:03,600 --> 01:07:05,880
Speaker 1: And here was my thinking. As I struggled with it

1064
01:07:07,120 --> 01:07:10,040
Speaker 1: if I vote no, if I voted against an objection,

1065
01:07:11,520 --> 01:07:13,960
Speaker 1: that will be heard and that will be understood by

1066
01:07:14,080 --> 01:07:18,880
Speaker 1: tens of millions of Americans. As my saying, voter fraud

1067
01:07:19,000 --> 01:07:21,720
Speaker 1: isn't real, it doesn't exist, it's not a real problem,

1068
01:07:22,600 --> 01:07:25,439
Speaker 1: and that is not what I believe. That is emphatically

1069
01:07:25,480 --> 01:07:27,640
Speaker 1: the opposite of what I believe. So I didn't like

1070
01:07:27,720 --> 01:07:32,760
Speaker 1: that option. On the other hand, to simply object to

1071
01:07:32,760 --> 01:07:35,600
Speaker 1: the certification of the election because your guide didn't win,

1072
01:07:35,640 --> 01:07:39,040
Speaker 1: because the candidate you're supporting didn't win, I think that's

1073
01:07:39,080 --> 01:07:43,200
Speaker 1: completely unprincipled and indefensible. So I didn't like that option.

1074
01:07:44,120 --> 01:07:46,560
Speaker 1: And so I'm looking at these two options going both

1075
01:07:46,600 --> 01:07:51,080
Speaker 1: of these options suck. So I did what lawyers often do,

1076
01:07:51,200 --> 01:07:54,160
Speaker 1: which is try to study history to see if there

1077
01:07:54,200 --> 01:07:58,280
Speaker 1: are any press precedents from which we can draw insight.

1078
01:07:59,320 --> 01:08:03,240
Speaker 1: And as i history, I focused in particular on the

1079
01:08:03,240 --> 01:08:07,320
Speaker 1: presidential election of eighteen seventy six. That was an election

1080
01:08:07,360 --> 01:08:11,920
Speaker 1: between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden. Now, in that election,

1081
01:08:11,920 --> 01:08:14,520
Speaker 1: it was a very close election. It was a nasty,

1082
01:08:14,640 --> 01:08:19,840
Speaker 1: divisive election. In that election, there were serious allegations of

1083
01:08:19,920 --> 01:08:24,320
Speaker 1: voter fraud in three different states. And what did Congress

1084
01:08:24,360 --> 01:08:27,639
Speaker 1: do facing that at those allegations of voter fraud. Congress

1085
01:08:27,680 --> 01:08:30,440
Speaker 1: didn't throw their hands in the air and say, Okay,

1086
01:08:30,800 --> 01:08:34,160
Speaker 1: there's nothing we could do. This is terrible, but we're powerless.

1087
01:08:34,160 --> 01:08:38,519
Speaker 1: Oh well, that's not what Congress did. What Congress did

1088
01:08:38,680 --> 01:08:43,080
Speaker 1: is they appointed what they called an electoral commission. It

1089
01:08:43,120 --> 01:08:48,040
Speaker 1: consisted of five House members, five senators, and five Supreme

1090
01:08:48,040 --> 01:08:52,840
Speaker 1: Court justices. And that electoral commission conducted an audit of

1091
01:08:52,840 --> 01:08:56,880
Speaker 1: the election results in the three challenge states and examined

1092
01:08:56,960 --> 01:09:01,160
Speaker 1: the actual evidence and made determinations about the allegations of

1093
01:09:01,240 --> 01:09:04,840
Speaker 1: voter fraud. The more I looked at it, the better

1094
01:09:04,960 --> 01:09:08,639
Speaker 1: that precedent seemed to me. And so as we were

1095
01:09:08,680 --> 01:09:11,200
Speaker 1: heading into January, first, I was headed back to DC.

1096
01:09:11,360 --> 01:09:14,080
Speaker 1: Initially I was just going to announce this is what

1097
01:09:14,120 --> 01:09:16,760
Speaker 1: I think we should do, and i'd actually typed up

1098
01:09:16,840 --> 01:09:20,439
Speaker 1: a two page statement. Was on Southwest Airlines flying from

1099
01:09:20,439 --> 01:09:23,280
Speaker 1: Houston back to DC and with my laptop typed up

1100
01:09:23,280 --> 01:09:26,760
Speaker 1: a two page statement. But then as I thought about it,

1101
01:09:26,800 --> 01:09:30,320
Speaker 1: I decided, you know, it would be better not to

1102
01:09:30,360 --> 01:09:35,280
Speaker 1: do this alone, but to try to assemble a coalition together.

1103
01:09:36,080 --> 01:09:38,760
Speaker 1: And so I began visiting with other senators, and in

1104
01:09:38,800 --> 01:09:42,240
Speaker 1: the next twenty four hours a total of eleven senators

1105
01:09:42,280 --> 01:09:45,479
Speaker 1: joined together and we put out a joint statement in

1106
01:09:45,600 --> 01:09:47,519
Speaker 1: which we said we were going to object to the

1107
01:09:47,560 --> 01:09:51,400
Speaker 1: results of the election in order to call for the

1108
01:09:51,439 --> 01:09:56,000
Speaker 1: appointment of an election commission to conduct an emergency ten

1109
01:09:56,120 --> 01:09:59,120
Speaker 1: day audit. Now, if that happens on January sixth, it

1110
01:09:59,200 --> 01:10:02,679
Speaker 1: means the audit be completed before January twentieth, So wouldn't

1111
01:10:02,680 --> 01:10:07,560
Speaker 1: delay the inauguration and have a determination on the allegations

1112
01:10:07,560 --> 01:10:11,599
Speaker 1: of voter fraud. I continue to believe if Congress had

1113
01:10:11,640 --> 01:10:15,919
Speaker 1: done this, you would have much greater confidence in the election.

1114
01:10:15,960 --> 01:10:17,920
Speaker 1: And as I stood on the Senate floor and you

1115
01:10:17,960 --> 01:10:19,880
Speaker 1: can watch, I gave a five minute speech on the

1116
01:10:19,920 --> 01:10:23,120
Speaker 1: Senate floor advocating for this. I turned to the Democrats

1117
01:10:23,120 --> 01:10:26,240
Speaker 1: and I said, look, all of you insist on TV

1118
01:10:26,439 --> 01:10:29,519
Speaker 1: there is no voter fraud. It doesn't exist. Well, if

1119
01:10:29,560 --> 01:10:35,080
Speaker 1: you're right, you should welcome the election Commission, because presumably

1120
01:10:35,080 --> 01:10:37,640
Speaker 1: if the evidence doesn't back up the claims, that's what

1121
01:10:37,720 --> 01:10:41,040
Speaker 1: the commission will determine. And you know, Senator, there is

1122
01:10:41,080 --> 01:10:44,719
Speaker 1: actually one other historical tidbit here. I know you mentioned

1123
01:10:44,760 --> 01:10:47,559
Speaker 1: the first Caveman election where they elected the Grand poobab.

1124
01:10:48,200 --> 01:10:50,400
Speaker 1: Joe Biden was actually at that election. Did you know

1125
01:10:50,479 --> 01:10:53,040
Speaker 1: that he was? He was in the Caveman Senate and

1126
01:10:53,240 --> 01:10:57,920
Speaker 1: no item. This seems like a reasonable proposal that you're describing,

1127
01:10:58,240 --> 01:11:01,479
Speaker 1: and it continues to be It continues to be trotted

1128
01:11:01,479 --> 01:11:04,280
Speaker 1: out in the media as evidence that Republicans don't accept

1129
01:11:04,320 --> 01:11:07,280
Speaker 1: election results. There is another irony to that, which is

1130
01:11:07,320 --> 01:11:10,040
Speaker 1: a poll some months ago showed that a higher percentage

1131
01:11:10,080 --> 01:11:12,879
Speaker 1: of Democrats don't believe the results of the twenty sixteen election.

1132
01:11:13,080 --> 01:11:16,000
Speaker 1: Then Republicans disbelieve the results of the twenty twenty election.

1133
01:11:16,160 --> 01:11:18,160
Speaker 1: It is true. Hillary Clinton went all over the country

1134
01:11:18,200 --> 01:11:21,000
Speaker 1: saying the election was stolen. The election was stolen. Stacy

1135
01:11:21,080 --> 01:11:24,160
Speaker 1: Abram still says she is the sitting governor of Georgia

1136
01:11:24,400 --> 01:11:27,479
Speaker 1: and president of Earth too, according to start. Okay, that's true.

1137
01:11:27,520 --> 01:11:30,360
Speaker 1: All right, that was just annoying. All right, let's do

1138
01:11:30,479 --> 01:11:36,280
Speaker 1: one final question. Thank you, sir, Senator Cruz, thank you

1139
01:11:36,320 --> 01:11:39,200
Speaker 1: for coming. My name is Nicola Ryan Schreiber. And in

1140
01:11:39,200 --> 01:11:41,519
Speaker 1: the year nineteen seventy one, the US moved off the

1141
01:11:41,560 --> 01:11:46,160
Speaker 1: gold standard, and ever since, the centralization of power around

1142
01:11:46,280 --> 01:11:49,160
Speaker 1: the ability to print money has been the greatest power

1143
01:11:49,439 --> 01:11:52,960
Speaker 1: essentially on Earth, and power creups and absolute power crups absolutely.

1144
01:11:53,200 --> 01:11:55,720
Speaker 1: And what I have been dismayed to see that is

1145
01:11:55,760 --> 01:12:00,320
Speaker 1: that most conservatives, where they claim to say that they

1146
01:12:00,360 --> 01:12:02,519
Speaker 1: want smaller government, at the moment that they have their

1147
01:12:02,920 --> 01:12:06,040
Speaker 1: hand on the money printer, they let money printer go burr.

1148
01:12:06,479 --> 01:12:10,400
Speaker 1: And this is consistent in the last fifty years. And

1149
01:12:10,439 --> 01:12:13,519
Speaker 1: so I'm curious now, with the creation of the hardest

1150
01:12:13,560 --> 01:12:16,479
Speaker 1: money that has ever been created, Bitcoin, how would you

1151
01:12:16,520 --> 01:12:21,280
Speaker 1: feel about moving to a bitcoin standard. So, look, that

1152
01:12:21,760 --> 01:12:23,759
Speaker 1: is a great question, and thank you for that question.

1153
01:12:24,360 --> 01:12:26,200
Speaker 1: Let me take a couple of pieces of it. There's

1154
01:12:26,200 --> 01:12:28,760
Speaker 1: no doubt that when the United States moved off the

1155
01:12:28,800 --> 01:12:34,799
Speaker 1: gold standard, it facilitated a massive inflation of our currency.

1156
01:12:35,720 --> 01:12:39,200
Speaker 1: It made it easier for government to print money and

1157
01:12:39,280 --> 01:12:43,440
Speaker 1: for politicians. Look, it's actually easy to reach a bipartisan

1158
01:12:43,479 --> 01:12:46,439
Speaker 1: deal in Washington. The way you do it is you

1159
01:12:46,479 --> 01:12:48,320
Speaker 1: sit down with everyone in the room and we say

1160
01:12:48,320 --> 01:12:50,000
Speaker 1: we'll spend a billion for you, billion for you, a

1161
01:12:50,040 --> 01:12:51,640
Speaker 1: billion for you, a billion for you. You get to

1162
01:12:51,680 --> 01:12:55,760
Speaker 1: a trilia, you're done. And on that deal you get

1163
01:12:55,800 --> 01:12:58,080
Speaker 1: all the Democrats and you get half to two thirds

1164
01:12:58,120 --> 01:13:02,559
Speaker 1: of the Republicans, and in the Senate they're consistently about

1165
01:13:02,640 --> 01:13:08,800
Speaker 1: twenty of us who object to excessive spending, who try

1166
01:13:08,840 --> 01:13:13,760
Speaker 1: to fight for spending restraint, but sadly you often see

1167
01:13:14,400 --> 01:13:19,760
Speaker 1: the vote about eighty to twenty. The massive spending in

1168
01:13:19,840 --> 01:13:23,559
Speaker 1: Washington is what is fueling the inflation that is hurting

1169
01:13:23,560 --> 01:13:27,400
Speaker 1: the American people so profoundly right now, and it is

1170
01:13:27,439 --> 01:13:30,120
Speaker 1: one of the things that is fueling the move to bitcoin.

1171
01:13:30,240 --> 01:13:32,360
Speaker 1: And as you may know, I am a huge proponent

1172
01:13:32,400 --> 01:13:36,200
Speaker 1: of bitcoin. I'm a huge proponent of cryptocurrency. I think

1173
01:13:36,240 --> 01:13:39,880
Speaker 1: it is an incredibly important innovation. I think one of

1174
01:13:39,920 --> 01:13:43,519
Speaker 1: the reasons I personally am an investor in bitcoin, one

1175
01:13:43,560 --> 01:13:46,240
Speaker 1: of the reasons that you were seeing people move to

1176
01:13:46,280 --> 01:13:50,520
Speaker 1: bitcoin is exactly what you said as a hedge to inflation,

1177
01:13:51,360 --> 01:13:56,879
Speaker 1: that bitcoin by design cannot go over twenty one million bitcoin.

1178
01:13:57,640 --> 01:13:59,920
Speaker 1: It's a finite sum. And at the end of the day,

1179
01:14:00,040 --> 01:14:03,360
Speaker 1: a currency is a means of exchange in a way

1180
01:14:03,400 --> 01:14:07,280
Speaker 1: of setting value of one item visa v Another item.

1181
01:14:07,360 --> 01:14:11,280
Speaker 1: And one of the ways to understand inflation is if

1182
01:14:11,920 --> 01:14:15,400
Speaker 1: an apple is a dollar and a banana is two dollars,

1183
01:14:16,320 --> 01:14:20,040
Speaker 1: and you double the number of dollars on planet Earth. Then,

1184
01:14:20,200 --> 01:14:22,880
Speaker 1: roughly speaking, you would expect the apple to be two

1185
01:14:22,920 --> 01:14:24,680
Speaker 1: dollars in the banana to be four dollars. Now, the

1186
01:14:24,720 --> 01:14:28,840
Speaker 1: math doesn't work out exactly the same, but that's the principle,

1187
01:14:29,000 --> 01:14:32,679
Speaker 1: is that currency gives the relative values of one girder

1188
01:14:32,760 --> 01:14:37,400
Speaker 1: service visa v another. When you have politicians devaluing everyone's

1189
01:14:37,400 --> 01:14:41,559
Speaker 1: goods and services, they look for other ways to store value.

1190
01:14:41,560 --> 01:14:44,519
Speaker 1: It's why people in times of inflation are drawn to gold,

1191
01:14:44,600 --> 01:14:47,040
Speaker 1: or drawn to silver, or drawn to real estate or

1192
01:14:47,080 --> 01:14:51,960
Speaker 1: commodities other hard assets as it hedges to inflation. So

1193
01:14:52,000 --> 01:14:56,000
Speaker 1: I am a big proponent a bitcoin. I think the

1194
01:14:56,200 --> 01:15:02,040
Speaker 1: single greatest threat to bitcoin and crypto is Washington politicians

1195
01:15:02,120 --> 01:15:05,439
Speaker 1: screwing it up, and it is a very real threat.

1196
01:15:05,960 --> 01:15:08,720
Speaker 1: You asked if I would support our going to it

1197
01:15:08,760 --> 01:15:12,600
Speaker 1: as as legal tender. Look, I'm not looking for the

1198
01:15:12,760 --> 01:15:16,439
Speaker 1: government to make the choice to supplant the dollar. I

1199
01:15:16,520 --> 01:15:18,400
Speaker 1: know there are a lot in the bitcoin community that

1200
01:15:18,520 --> 01:15:21,080
Speaker 1: believe it will inevitably go that way, and if it does,

1201
01:15:21,240 --> 01:15:25,160
Speaker 1: I'm fine with that too, But I don't think you

1202
01:15:25,200 --> 01:15:29,840
Speaker 1: should have a government mandate to make it so. But

1203
01:15:29,960 --> 01:15:33,919
Speaker 1: I think it is important. I think the bitcoin community

1204
01:15:33,920 --> 01:15:39,720
Speaker 1: in the crypto community writ large is an incredibly blossoming industry.

1205
01:15:39,880 --> 01:15:43,799
Speaker 1: China just shut it down. Texas is becoming ground zero

1206
01:15:43,920 --> 01:15:47,519
Speaker 1: for bitcoin and crypto. I want to welcome everyone to Texas,

1207
01:15:48,439 --> 01:15:53,360
Speaker 1: and I think, I actually think the bitcoin world is

1208
01:15:53,360 --> 01:15:55,800
Speaker 1: at a fork in the road, an awful lot like

1209
01:15:56,160 --> 01:16:00,559
Speaker 1: big tech was about fifteen years ago. We're big tech

1210
01:16:00,600 --> 01:16:03,559
Speaker 1: in Silicon Valley. It could have gone one road to

1211
01:16:03,720 --> 01:16:08,120
Speaker 1: being a libertarian utopia. Lead me alone, let us be

1212
01:16:08,280 --> 01:16:10,479
Speaker 1: free and innovate, or it could have gone the road

1213
01:16:10,520 --> 01:16:16,920
Speaker 1: it shows, which is a woke, scolding, censoring, socialist mob,

1214
01:16:17,920 --> 01:16:21,800
Speaker 1: and unfortunately it shows the latter. My hope is that

1215
01:16:21,880 --> 01:16:26,080
Speaker 1: bitcoin and crypto chooses the former, and so I think

1216
01:16:26,120 --> 01:16:30,960
Speaker 1: we ought to be looking for ways to encourage innovation

1217
01:16:31,040 --> 01:16:35,240
Speaker 1: and development in bitcoin and crypto more broadly. Now, I

1218
01:16:35,280 --> 01:16:37,040
Speaker 1: want to thank you. That was an excellent question. I

1219
01:16:37,080 --> 01:16:39,720
Speaker 1: want to thank everyone out there who had questions. I

1220
01:16:39,760 --> 01:16:42,000
Speaker 1: want to thank our Verdict plus community. I want to

1221
01:16:42,040 --> 01:16:45,080
Speaker 1: thank Carol Brown and the Irving Brown Lecture series. I

1222
01:16:45,120 --> 01:16:47,760
Speaker 1: want to thank the William F. Buckley Junior Program at Yale.

1223
01:16:47,840 --> 01:16:50,280
Speaker 1: I want to thank Young America's Foundation. I want to

1224
01:16:50,280 --> 01:16:52,639
Speaker 1: thank our friend Liz Wheeler, host of the Liz Wheelers

1225
01:16:52,680 --> 01:16:55,080
Speaker 1: Show and Cloak Room over a Verdict plus. Senator, I

1226
01:16:55,160 --> 01:16:56,800
Speaker 1: always want to thank you and I want to thank

1227
01:16:56,840 --> 01:16:59,360
Speaker 1: everyone who has tuned in here in the room. I

1228
01:16:59,400 --> 01:17:02,360
Speaker 1: want to thank everyone who's tuned in on YouTube. This

1229
01:17:02,479 --> 01:17:04,479
Speaker 1: has been a wonderful time with all of you. Ye

1230
01:17:04,520 --> 01:17:07,000
Speaker 1: thank you. So I'm Michael Michael Ols. This is Verdict

1231
01:17:07,000 --> 01:17:19,559
Speaker 1: the Ted Cruise. This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz

1232
01:17:19,760 --> 01:17:22,719
Speaker 1: is being brought to you by Jobs, Freedom and Security Pack,

1233
01:17:22,880 --> 01:17:27,720
Speaker 1: a political action committee dedicated to supporting conservative causes, organizations,

1234
01:17:27,800 --> 01:17:31,360
Speaker 1: and candidates across the country. In twenty twenty two, Jobs

1235
01:17:31,400 --> 01:17:34,920
Speaker 1: Freedom and Security Pack plans to donate to conservative candidates

1236
01:17:34,960 --> 01:17:38,759
Speaker 1: running for Congress and help the Republican Party across the nation.