Speaker 1: Big breaking news and the Hunter Biden fiasco with the
Speaker 1: Biden family. We're gonna have that for you in just
Speaker 1: a moment. Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz and
Speaker 1: I am the new co host, Ben Ferguson here with
Speaker 1: you today. We have a lot to talk about, Senator
Speaker 1: obviously in the in the news world, but this is
Speaker 1: a moment that is an honor for me. I am
Speaker 1: beyond excited to get to co host your podcast with
Speaker 1: you and do this with Premiere Networks with iHeart. We're
Speaker 1: going to be expanding for everyone listening to three days
Speaker 1: a week, which is going to be so much fun
Speaker 1: I think for the Verdict audience here and something that's
Speaker 1: been important to you to be able to get to
Speaker 1: expand this and reach more people. Well, Ben, that's exactly right.
Speaker 1: And the expansion is going to change the format a
Speaker 1: little bit in that two of the three are going
Speaker 1: to be audio podcasts, so we're going to do video
Speaker 1: where the objectives is going to be to continue to
Speaker 1: do video once a week, but two of us, including
Speaker 1: obviously this one, are going to be audio only and
Speaker 1: that's one of the ways we're going to expand the
Speaker 1: coverage and hopefully connect with a lot more folks that
Speaker 1: are looking for the inside scoop, looking to understand what
Speaker 1: actually is happening and what it means. You know, It's
Speaker 1: so I think important now for us to be able
Speaker 1: to go around the media and go directly to the audience,
Speaker 1: which is I think one of the reasons why your
Speaker 1: podcast has exploded and why it made sense to expand
Speaker 1: it to three days a week. And you and I
Speaker 1: are so much aligned, I think, with our goal and
Speaker 1: our objective. I started in radio for people that don't
Speaker 1: know me when I was twelve years old. It was
Speaker 1: my mission field. I started in TV on Bill O'Reilly's
Speaker 1: show on Fox when I was seventeen years old and
Speaker 1: have been doing TV and radio ever since. And I
Speaker 1: have my own podcast, my own national syndicated show, and
Speaker 1: it's you and I have that same mission, which is,
Speaker 1: I think, to change hearts and minds of a mayor
Speaker 1: kins with facts and the real story behind some of
Speaker 1: these the ridiculous headlines and the propaganda of the left.
Speaker 1: I jokingly say that, you know, my job is to
Speaker 1: make liberals go insane with facts and figures each and
Speaker 1: every day. And I love my job because for me,
Speaker 1: this is my mission field very much the same way
Speaker 1: I think you believe God put you on earth to
Speaker 1: stand up for values, traditional values, for the sanctity of life,
Speaker 1: for the Constitution, for the Second Amendment, part of the
Speaker 1: reason why you obviously went to law school. Well, I
Speaker 1: will say the only problem with that that that mission
Speaker 1: there is I think liberals start out insane, and so
Speaker 1: really the only thing you're doing in the exposing their
Speaker 1: mental illness. I don't know if you happen to see
Speaker 1: yesterday on Twitter the video of this this crazy lady
Speaker 1: who has stolen money from two little kids in their
Speaker 1: lemonade stand and she's wearing a mask and the father
Speaker 1: is asking her please give back the money to my children,
Speaker 1: and this lady is just berating him. But you are
Speaker 1: endangering us because these children are selling selling lemonade, and
Speaker 1: you shouldn't be allowed to sell lemonade, and you need masks.
Speaker 1: And it was a level of COVID paranoia that was
Speaker 1: just you watched it, and it was interesting, Ay, she
Speaker 1: wasn't taking it that this was not she believed this
Speaker 1: in the core. You know, if they had been injecting
Speaker 1: a bola into the neighborhood cats, she would not be
Speaker 1: more worked up, but be she felt an absolute entitlement.
Speaker 1: I'm going to take these children lemonade stand money, and
Speaker 1: at the end of it, she gets the money back
Speaker 1: because he very calmly demands that she do so. And
Speaker 1: then she knocks the whole stand over and knocks the
Speaker 1: lemonade over, and it gets a mental illness at that
Speaker 1: point when you think, as a busybody that you have
Speaker 1: the right to control somebody else and if they don't
Speaker 1: comply with your paranoia that then you can use force
Speaker 1: to force them to comply. You've done this and seen
Speaker 1: this on college campuses. You do a ton of college
Speaker 1: campus speaking. I do some of as well, And even
Speaker 1: in the college campus world, we've seen these massive, I
Speaker 1: think changes with just personalities. Where it used to be
Speaker 1: you could go in and you could have a grand
Speaker 1: debate and there would be people that would prepare right
Speaker 1: look forward to the opportunity to question you or to
Speaker 1: question me on a certain topic or issue. And now
Speaker 1: there is no longer a grand debate. With many on
Speaker 1: the left, it's just scream at you and tell you
Speaker 1: a name, call you're big at racist, homophobes, NFO. The
Speaker 1: list goes on and on and on and on on,
Speaker 1: and they just go, you know, now we're domestic terrorists.
Speaker 1: Now we are we are a cult. We're a domestic
Speaker 1: terrorists organization that is a threat to democracy. We see
Speaker 1: Democrats running on that, doubling down, and many of these
Speaker 1: laces we saw in the Senate race in Ohio where
Speaker 1: they're doubling down the Democrats. They're saying that they believe
Speaker 1: that if you support conservatives people like the MAGA movement,
Speaker 1: that you are a threat to our nation and should
Speaker 1: be treated like you are a domestic terrorists organization no
Speaker 1: different than al Qaeda. Well look, President called half the
Speaker 1: country fascist or semi fascist. I will say though, that
Speaker 1: this podcast so far has managed to cut through some
Speaker 1: of that, and that the campus tour, as we've done,
Speaker 1: you know, we've seen a number of liberal students come
Speaker 1: and show up, and they come to the front of
Speaker 1: the line and they ask their questions, and we've had
Speaker 1: very little We had at University of Wisconsin Madison, on
Speaker 1: one leftist kind of run up and screamed fu and
Speaker 1: then scamper off and I kind of chuckled the courage
Speaker 1: of your convictions. But you know, beyond that, we have
Speaker 1: not had the rudeness of instability. That's a good thing.
Speaker 1: So but all right, there's a lot of breaking news.
Speaker 1: But before we do that, I want to drill down
Speaker 1: a little bit. A lot of the Verdict listeners I
Speaker 1: assume know who you are, have seen you on TV,
Speaker 1: have listened to you on radio or your podcast, But
Speaker 1: there only some of the Verdict listeners who don't know you.
Speaker 1: You and I go back a decade from when I
Speaker 1: first ran First Sented. I think we met back in
Speaker 1: twenty eleven, and your story is pretty remarkable, and so
Speaker 1: I just want to take a minute to kind of
Speaker 1: walk folks through your history. Now. You kind of casually
Speaker 1: mentioned that that you started on radio when you were twelve,
Speaker 1: which is a pretty crazy and wild thing. Yeah, Ben,
Speaker 1: maybe tell the story of like how the heck that happened,
Speaker 1: because most twelve year olds don't don't get on the radio.
Speaker 1: You know, my life took an interesting turn, and I'll
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about myself so people know kind
Speaker 1: of what got me to do what I'm doing now.
Speaker 1: We were hit when I was very young by a
Speaker 1: drunk driver, and that drunk driver died, and thank goodness,
Speaker 1: what we lived. I grew up in a family that
Speaker 1: was law enforcement, that my dad was a police officer.
Speaker 1: When when actually we were hit by that drunk driver,
Speaker 1: he wasn't with us. It was my mom and my
Speaker 1: sister and I And that gave me, I think, an
Speaker 1: instant kind of life purpose at a very young age,
Speaker 1: because I realized how quick life could be taken away,
Speaker 1: and I paid attention to stuff. I was home when
Speaker 1: that car accident. I was like five years old. I
Speaker 1: was five, but it was my first vivid memory because
Speaker 1: I remember um the impact. I remember my mom. You know,
Speaker 1: we all had our seat belts on, but we had
Speaker 1: the lap seat belts. They didn't in the back seat
Speaker 1: have yet those shoulder straps. And the whiplash broke my
Speaker 1: sister's collar bone from the snap back of the impact
Speaker 1: of the wreck. He hit us going over a hundred
Speaker 1: and he didn't have a seat belt on. He went
Speaker 1: through the passenger window of his car as he turned sideways.
Speaker 1: At the very last moment, we hit his passenger door
Speaker 1: and he hit our windshield, and I remember getting out
Speaker 1: of the car and my mom's head had hit the
Speaker 1: windshield and there was blood coming down her face, and
Speaker 1: I just wanted to get to my mom, and I
Speaker 1: remember running out of the back door and I couldn't
Speaker 1: I had to walk over his body and I couldn't
Speaker 1: get her door open. And a man came along. To
Speaker 1: this day, I still think it was God's intervention, and
Speaker 1: he said he grabbed me and took me the back
Speaker 1: of the car and he said, I've got this, and
Speaker 1: he got my sister out and he got my mom out,
Speaker 1: and then they rushed us all to the hospitals and
Speaker 1: even separate us, and I'm you know, my sister and
Speaker 1: I went to the children's hospital and she went to
Speaker 1: the adult the met the trauma center. And that moment
Speaker 1: was a moment where I think I realized and didn't
Speaker 1: take for granted life. And having that moment was a
Speaker 1: blessing in disguise because it made me, at a very
Speaker 1: young age, realize how important it was to stand up
Speaker 1: against right and wrong. My dad laughs to this day
Speaker 1: that when I was a little kid after that, he
Speaker 1: was a police officer and we would be in Kroger
Speaker 1: and I would see somebody senator buying beer and I
Speaker 1: would tell my dad, like, I need you to Dad,
Speaker 1: arrest him. Because I was very literal, I didn't understand.
Speaker 1: You know, I saw a beer and thought that guy's
Speaker 1: gonna drink it and they're gonna hit my car and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna die. And my dad was he had to
Speaker 1: explain to me, like laws and I can't arrest him
Speaker 1: for buying beer. It's okay to buy beer. And he
Speaker 1: talked about consumption. He talked about what the law says
Speaker 1: and how you can't get behind the wheel if you've
Speaker 1: been drinking in this blood alcoho level, which back then
Speaker 1: was a one point zero before they changed it to
Speaker 1: zero point eight. And so that had that impact where
Speaker 1: I was paying attention, I think to more things because
Speaker 1: I wanted to understand how this country worked and how
Speaker 1: laws worked. So you fast forward to eleven, twelve years old.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting in the back of the blue four aerostarred
Speaker 1: van and that was one ugly van by the way
Speaker 1: that Ford made, and my mom was listening to talk radio.
Speaker 1: Now this is before talk radio became more conservative. This
Speaker 1: is before Hannity or back right. It was Limba just
Speaker 1: kind of come onto the scene. But a lot of
Speaker 1: news talk stations had liberal shows and conservative shows, and
Speaker 1: there was a liberal host, a city council member in
Speaker 1: my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. And in that in my hometown,
Speaker 1: she was screaming about the school lunch program and the
Speaker 1: contract with America in nineteen ninety four. And this contract
Speaker 1: there was part of it was a school lunch program.
Speaker 1: And you may remember this, Richard Gephart hold up a
Speaker 1: bottle of ketchup and he said, is this what conservatives
Speaker 1: are going to call a vegetable? And she continues to
Speaker 1: say that Republicans are going to starve kids and it
Speaker 1: was going to be their only hot meal a day gift.
Speaker 1: Part mean the cash up or himself? Yeah right exactly,
Speaker 1: yeah bingo, yeah, exactly exactly. And so I'm in the backseat.
Speaker 1: My mom's school teacher, right, and then she's teaching us homeschool,
Speaker 1: and I said, Mom, there's no way that anyone would
Speaker 1: do that to children, and she immediately perked up. Right,
Speaker 1: this is a you know, a school mom's dream. She's like, well, honey,
Speaker 1: how do you know that. I'm like, mom, I can't
Speaker 1: think that any adult would take away a child's lunch.
Speaker 1: And she said, well, why don't you call our congressman
Speaker 1: and get a copy of the bill and you can
Speaker 1: read it I'll help you read it and you can
Speaker 1: see if you're right. So I did. I called Ed Bryant,
Speaker 1: who was our congressman at the time. He facts the
Speaker 1: bill to my dad's facts machine with that old roller
Speaker 1: facts paper right that falls on the ground. You have
Speaker 1: to put it back in order. And I read the bill,
Speaker 1: and sure enough, she lied to her audience, and I
Speaker 1: I found out that the Republicans wanted to increase school
Speaker 1: lunch funding by three point seven percent and Republicans wanted
Speaker 1: to increase it by like four point three percent, and
Speaker 1: the Democrats were calling the difference in their two numbers
Speaker 1: the cut, even though both were clearly increasing school lunch funding.
Speaker 1: And I called her and we got into this big
Speaker 1: debate and I said to her. She was yelling at me,
Speaker 1: and I said, ma'am, I said, have you read the bill?
Speaker 1: And she said, well, no one reads the bills. And
Speaker 1: I said, well I did, and maybe you should before
Speaker 1: you go on the radio and lie to people. And
Speaker 1: it just blew up another show. It was. It was
Speaker 1: one of those moments. It just happened. And I read
Speaker 1: her the bill on the air and told her why
Speaker 1: she was wrong, and I was great. At one point
Speaker 1: does she say, wait a second, are you twelve? Like like,
Speaker 1: how does that come out? My voice had not changed yet.
Speaker 1: It was pretty clear that I would, you know, I had.
Speaker 1: I had not yet at the full puberty yet, and
Speaker 1: so it was, you know, the high, little squeaky kid voice.
Speaker 1: And she was like, how old are you? I mean,
Speaker 1: she's yelling at me and I'm like twelve years old.
Speaker 1: I said, ma'am, I'm twelve. And so this other show
Speaker 1: that came on the afternoons heard this call and they
Speaker 1: went on the radio and drive time at like five
Speaker 1: o'clock and they played the phone call and they said,
Speaker 1: whoever this kid is, if anyone knows who ben is,
Speaker 1: please tell them we're talking about and we want to
Speaker 1: talk to him on the radio. So my mom and
Speaker 1: dad's home phone starts ringing from friends that are listening.
Speaker 1: They're like, they're talking about Benjamin on the radio. And
Speaker 1: so I called in and they put me on the
Speaker 1: air and they're like asking me about the bill and
Speaker 1: reading the bill and just they were kind of enamored
Speaker 1: with this idea of a young person getting involved. And
Speaker 1: they're like, have you ever seen a radio studio? And
Speaker 1: I was like, no, ma'am, no sir. And they were like, well,
Speaker 1: put your mom on the phone and this is all
Speaker 1: live on the air. And I hand the phone back
Speaker 1: to my mom. Now, can you bring your son down
Speaker 1: here tomorrow and let him see the studio. My mom's
Speaker 1: like sure, So I go down there. They're gonna have
Speaker 1: me as a guest for ten minutes, and the first
Speaker 1: break we went to. One of the hosts looks at
Speaker 1: me and she goes, you're dying to talk, aren't you.
Speaker 1: I said yes, ma'am, and she goes, next time you
Speaker 1: have something important to say, raise your hands. So I
Speaker 1: did and I was on for an hour and a half.
Speaker 1: The phone lines were jammed and they're like, this is weird.
Speaker 1: Can you come back tomorrow? I was like, after as
Speaker 1: my parents, So my parents drive me back down the
Speaker 1: next day. I'm on for another hour. They had me
Speaker 1: come back a week later, and then literally they hired
Speaker 1: me a week after that at four twenty five an
Speaker 1: hour minimum wage at the time, and I've been doing
Speaker 1: radio ever since. Fell in love with it because radio,
Speaker 1: for a younger person, people didn't judge you based on
Speaker 1: what they saw right your age. It didn't look at
Speaker 1: you and think you don't. You can't have an opinion
Speaker 1: because you could hide behind the microphone and they would
Speaker 1: listen to what you said. And it was a great equalizer.
Speaker 1: And once I realized that I could be judged by
Speaker 1: the content of what I was saying and not because
Speaker 1: of how babyface I looked, I knew this was what
Speaker 1: I was going to do, probably for the rest of
Speaker 1: my life. And so you went from there to going
Speaker 1: on TV. Yeah, I was, how did that happen? I
Speaker 1: was so I was. I did a hit that was
Speaker 1: like a news piece that happened to show up. I
Speaker 1: think it was on CNN, and it was about getting
Speaker 1: out the vote and young people voting. And that was
Speaker 1: right when MTV was doing Rock the Vote and Bill
Speaker 1: O'Reilly had just come over to Fox News channel had
Speaker 1: just launched, and there was a guy from Memphis, Tennessee,
Speaker 1: who was I think his producer at the time, and
Speaker 1: called me and said, hey, he wants to have you on.
Speaker 1: Um there's this new channel called Fox News now on
Speaker 1: cable in Memphis. Fox News wasn't even available yet, so
Speaker 1: their pitched to me and Bill O'Reilly and I laugh
Speaker 1: about this every time we see each other. When he
Speaker 1: comes out with a new book and you know, come
Speaker 1: on my show. And we always laugh because the pitch
Speaker 1: senator was was, Hey, we have this host who's the
Speaker 1: former host of Inside Edition, and he'd really like to
Speaker 1: have you on a show. And so I did the show.
Speaker 1: We sparred, we fought, it went, it went really well,
Speaker 1: and then that was the hit. That was it. They
Speaker 1: started having me back on a regular basis, and I
Speaker 1: started doing other shows at Fox and Shepherd Smith and
Speaker 1: Gibson show back when he was there. I mean, we're
Speaker 1: talking about the old lineup, no cavudo, and it took
Speaker 1: that one hit with the guy who used to host
Speaker 1: Inside Edition, as they described it. And I remember doing
Speaker 1: the show and no one could watch it. Right, your
Speaker 1: parents are proud of you. You're seventeen. They want to
Speaker 1: see it because no one could see it, and so
Speaker 1: they fed ax me a VHS no, a beta tape.
Speaker 1: It was a beta tape of the appearance. So we
Speaker 1: had to find a friend who had a beta machine
Speaker 1: so we could even watch it. Wow. And by the way,
Speaker 1: for a lot of our podcast listeners, you may not
Speaker 1: know what a beta tape is. You know, the very
Speaker 1: beginning of being able to play movies at home. You
Speaker 1: had two different types. You had a VHS cassette and
Speaker 1: you had Beta, which was son of Sony Beta Max,
Speaker 1: and they were competing size and Beta was a little
Speaker 1: bit smaller, and VHS went out. It was a battle
Speaker 1: to see who would be the market dominant, and Beta
Speaker 1: got crushed and went away. So it's you have to
Speaker 1: be at a certain age to know what the heck
Speaker 1: of Beta Max or a beta is. And then that
Speaker 1: later became DVDs, and then that later became Blu rays.
Speaker 1: And now you know, our kids probably won't know what
Speaker 1: DVDs or Blu rays are because it'll all be streaming
Speaker 1: and who knows, it'll be virtual in about ten minutes.
Speaker 1: Oh exactly. It's the world has changed, and the and
Speaker 1: the ability to reach people, it's changed drastically over the
Speaker 1: last time. I remember when I started radio, we had
Speaker 1: the eight tracks and you would hit the button and
Speaker 1: the eight track would play during the commercial breaks. When
Speaker 1: I started, I mean I was twelve, and then they
Speaker 1: gave you a big magnet that you would demagnetize the
Speaker 1: tape so you could rerecord over it. That's how long
Speaker 1: I've been in this business. So okay, so you're doing radio,
Speaker 1: you're doing TV, you're a teenager. You go off to
Speaker 1: college at Old Miss on a tennis scholarship. Now, I
Speaker 1: guess you you're a pretty hardcore tennis player. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: started playing tennis. My aunt was a racquetball player, and
Speaker 1: so she was sponsored and she used to send Ectlon
Speaker 1: racquetball rackets to me for holidays and I would go play.
Speaker 1: And this tennis coach walked up to me as he
Speaker 1: saw me hitting on a racquetball court, and he's like,
Speaker 1: hey man, why don't you play a sport that other
Speaker 1: people actually play? And he goes, why don't you try tennis?
Speaker 1: And I was like okay, And so I went out
Speaker 1: and hit a few balls with him, and he saw
Speaker 1: that I had, I guess, you know, some talent and
Speaker 1: he was like all right, he was like, you need
Speaker 1: probably get into tennis clinic. And so I started fell
Speaker 1: in love with a game understood very quickly. My parents
Speaker 1: didn't have a lot of resources, and I knew I
Speaker 1: needed a scholarship to go to college and tennis was
Speaker 1: gonna be my way to pull that off. And I
Speaker 1: played in college and absolutely fell in love with the game.
Speaker 1: Got to see the world and play overseas and meet
Speaker 1: really interesting and cool people, and you know this playing
Speaker 1: you put your basketball guy obviously, And I got to
Speaker 1: play in high school and just have that team sport
Speaker 1: and taking a little bit of a break from the
Speaker 1: politics and the radio and TV. And I would still
Speaker 1: drive back and forth from Old Miss. I'd still fill
Speaker 1: in on radio for guys like Michael Reagan, Ronald's son
Speaker 1: and Gee Gordon Lyddie, Oliver North and some others like that.
Speaker 1: So I was able to keep my hand in the
Speaker 1: political world. But having that break and just to be
Speaker 1: a college student and a college athlete is something I
Speaker 1: tell kids all the time. If you're passionate about sport
Speaker 1: and you get to play, play it to the highest level.
Speaker 1: I've never talked to anybody that regretted playing in college.
Speaker 1: I have a lot of friends that regretted not playing
Speaker 1: in college because maybe they didn't get a scholarship to
Speaker 1: the university they wanted to go to, so they're like,
Speaker 1: all right, well I'll just give up on the dream.
Speaker 1: And almost I mean, I don't know anybody that's ever
Speaker 1: told me they you know, if you have that ability
Speaker 1: to play, I think at that level you run with
Speaker 1: it and you do it because you'll never forget those
Speaker 1: moments with those teammates. And I think there's also something
Speaker 1: cool about sports, like there's a very small window senator,
Speaker 1: you know this where you can get to play it,
Speaker 1: and it's based on age. At the highest level. It's
Speaker 1: so fun to keep playing later in life. But when
Speaker 1: you get to play at peak physical condition at that
Speaker 1: age where you can maximize your potential, it's a very
Speaker 1: small window. And getting to play at that level was
Speaker 1: was something if I could go back and do it again,
Speaker 1: I'd do it all over again. Well, and Ben and
Speaker 1: you had size and speed and strength and talent, all
Speaker 1: things sadly I was lacking. So so you know, you
Speaker 1: very kindly threw threw me a bone of Oh, you're
Speaker 1: a basketball player. I was a mediocre high school player,
Speaker 1: and I still play today, and I'd say I'm still
Speaker 1: right about the level of a mediocre high school player.
Speaker 1: Um So, so you know, it was a very different
Speaker 1: experience from from being a varsity athlete at a major
Speaker 1: university and competing at the top level. But but one
Speaker 1: of the things I think is interesting, So you're you're
Speaker 1: a varsity athlete, you're you're in a fraterner. You're a
Speaker 1: big man on campus. But then you're also jumping on
Speaker 1: airplanes and flying to New York City and going on
Speaker 1: TV and on Fox at the same time. What was
Speaker 1: that Like it was you know back then, um when
Speaker 1: I was in college, So it was college two thousand
Speaker 1: and two thousand and four. Satellite. You know how we
Speaker 1: can do TV now you just grab that. You know,
Speaker 1: they do it by satellite. The cost is very inexpensive
Speaker 1: now compared to what it was in two thousand. So
Speaker 1: if you were going to do TV, you got on
Speaker 1: a plane and I would literally run, you know, haul
Speaker 1: it from Oxford, Mississippi, to Memphis, get on a plane,
Speaker 1: fly to New York to do TV and then come back.
Speaker 1: And then you know, people around campus figured it out right,
Speaker 1: like this is weird. You're doing TV, but you're also
Speaker 1: you know, hanging out at lunch, and it was it
Speaker 1: was pretty funny, you know, it was it was hilarious
Speaker 1: to see their reaction of like, hold on a second,
Speaker 1: you're the same guy that's screaming on Saturdays at the
Speaker 1: football game and Sunday morning you're doing the Sunday morning
Speaker 1: talk shows. This is weird, And I was lucky I
Speaker 1: got to experience both of the exact same time. And
Speaker 1: I also it turned into me seeing bias at the
Speaker 1: first first level I've ever seen bias from adults, you know,
Speaker 1: from people in positions of power against young people. And
Speaker 1: that was the most shocking. I almost failed a class.
Speaker 1: And you're gonna laugh when I tell you which class
Speaker 1: I failed. It was a four hundred level class and
Speaker 1: it was literally entitled Editorial and opinion writing. If there
Speaker 1: is any class editor that I should pass, it would
Speaker 1: be editorial and opinion writing. And I had this professor
Speaker 1: those who can do those who can't teach, Oh, so
Speaker 1: tell me. I assumed the professor was some wild eyed leftist, oh,
Speaker 1: hardcore left. And I walked in the first day. He
Speaker 1: knew exactly who I was, He knew exactly what I did.
Speaker 1: And it was my senior year and I would had
Speaker 1: just signed a book deal with William Morrow Harper Collins
Speaker 1: to write a book, and so it had been written
Speaker 1: about it was you know, it is obviously a big
Speaker 1: deal writing your first, you know, big book. And I
Speaker 1: was doing a ton of TV then and I walked
Speaker 1: in and it was game on and he would do
Speaker 1: entire lectures, basically yelling directly at me in the class. Well,
Speaker 1: this class had three papers that you wrote that were
Speaker 1: a third a third to thirty year grade. Well, if
Speaker 1: you felt one of them, do the math. It's not good.
Speaker 1: So you're gonna it's gonna be bad. And so I
Speaker 1: did my first again editorial and opinion writing. I did
Speaker 1: my first piece, and he gave me an f and
Speaker 1: I went to the head of the department and I said, now,
Speaker 1: was your first piece. Was it an editorial or was
Speaker 1: it writing about editorial? Write? No, it was like literally
Speaker 1: write an editor like an opinion piece. So I think
Speaker 1: I wrote about the Second Amendment and he failed me,
Speaker 1: and it looked like he got hammered and then spilled
Speaker 1: the red ink. I've never seen more red ink and
Speaker 1: writing on a paper. And so I went to the
Speaker 1: head of the department and I was like, look like,
Speaker 1: it's obvious this dude has it out for me. And
Speaker 1: they're like, well, he's tenured, and he's a senior, he's
Speaker 1: been here, he's a premier. He's written for all of
Speaker 1: these magazines and newspapers, and you know, I can't overrule him.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, all right, fine, and I know what's
Speaker 1: gonna come. I'm gonna write the second one. He's gonna
Speaker 1: fail me. Second one comes. Sure enough, he gives me
Speaker 1: a D. And I went back and I'm like, to
Speaker 1: the head of the department, I said, okay. I said, now,
Speaker 1: now you're really screwing with my life. Like I have
Speaker 1: to have this class to graduate. It's if this grade stands,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna fail the class, which means i'd have to
Speaker 1: come back and take this class in another semester. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be gone. I'm going to the Bush campaign like
Speaker 1: I'm out of here and this could really screw up
Speaker 1: my life. And they're like, I'm sorry. So I ended
Speaker 1: up going to the chancellor of the university and he
Speaker 1: said there was nothing he could do, and I said,
Speaker 1: all right, well, I just want to give you a
Speaker 1: heads up. I'm gonna go on. I think it was
Speaker 1: on Fox, and I said, I'm going to tell my story.
Speaker 1: And then the whole thing changed. Senator will hold on
Speaker 1: a second, let's see I can come of a compromise, said, well, ho,
Speaker 1: you just told me. You just told me a second
Speaker 1: ago you can't compromise, and that you're just got to
Speaker 1: stand with this decision because well, what are you proposing.
Speaker 1: I said, take my name off the papers, given a
Speaker 1: three different professors in three different departments, and let them
Speaker 1: grade it, and if they failed me, I'll accept the grades.
Speaker 1: And they all came back with a's. And that changed it.
Speaker 1: But that was the moment that I really was. I
Speaker 1: became angry, and I was like, I've got to keep
Speaker 1: doing this because what if you didn't have that threat
Speaker 1: of being able to expose them on national TV? If otherwise,
Speaker 1: and this is what's happening, I think on college campuses,
Speaker 1: as so many kids now are health hostage, they can't
Speaker 1: speak out, they stay quiet, they sit on their hands,
Speaker 1: they write what they think these professors want them to say,
Speaker 1: instead of having a grand debate. And that's where we've
Speaker 1: I think, how we've gotten to the point where we
Speaker 1: are in this country right now where it's basically indoctrination,
Speaker 1: no longer a grand debate. That's exactly right, and that's
Speaker 1: why verdickt is something very very different. Look. I think
Speaker 1: we are going to have a fun and amazing time
Speaker 1: doing this show together, doing a three days a week now,
Speaker 1: doing it regularly so that folks can count on it
Speaker 1: to come out, and I think it's gonna be it's
Speaker 1: gonna be a different vibe than Michael and I had.
Speaker 1: Michael as a sort of Yale academic brought brought a
Speaker 1: very kind of conservative Catholic vibe that was fun, and
Speaker 1: I think you and I have a very different vibe
Speaker 1: that it's going to be interesting and engaging and help
Speaker 1: help get really to the bottom of the issues that
Speaker 1: are happening right now. And I'm going to give people updates.
Speaker 1: I'm going to try to work on your tennis game.
Speaker 1: People don't know this yet, but we're gonna we're gonna
Speaker 1: secretly prepare air you for greatness in the tennis World's
Speaker 1: that's part of that's part of my new mission Field Senator.
Speaker 1: We gotta get that elbow right and then and then
Speaker 1: I promise we're not going to lose if we play
Speaker 1: doubles together. So I actually I have tennis elbow, which
Speaker 1: Ben knows, and given how lousy my tennis game is,
Speaker 1: I don't even deserve to have tennis elbo like like
Speaker 1: that suggests you have some monocum of skill or maybe
Speaker 1: my skill so bad that's why I have tennis elbow.
Speaker 1: But anyway, Ben gave me this this like basically little
Speaker 1: electro shock, saying that your warm and it shocks it.
Speaker 1: And and I'm not sure if it actually helps or
Speaker 1: if he's just screwing with me and wants to see
Speaker 1: how frequently shot myself. But I'm doing it regularly and
Speaker 1: I will confess it is actually helping. So that is
Speaker 1: that's been an interesting experience as well. I stated a
Speaker 1: holiday and Express last night. Senator, Hey, you know, give
Speaker 1: you electroid shock afterwards, there's gonna be some physical therapist
Speaker 1: out there. Isn't gonna be yelling at the at their
Speaker 1: phone right now, going do it, Senator. It's a Tensis machine.
Speaker 1: Do it. It'll work. So yeah, you're gonna now you're
Speaker 1: gonna get filled with tweets coming to you on advice
Speaker 1: on how to do it. Well, I will confess it.
Speaker 1: It has made it made it sell a little bit better. Good.
Speaker 1: That's what That's what I like to hear. I want
Speaker 1: to ask you about some of the big news of
Speaker 1: the day that I that I think is shocking. There
Speaker 1: is some new audio that has been released on Hunter Biden,
Speaker 1: and it is shocking audio of Hunter begging for cash
Speaker 1: to go, claiming it's for rehab. He is begging his
Speaker 1: brother's widow who he ended up dating, hooking up with
Speaker 1: whatever after his brother died, begging her for points reward
Speaker 1: points from a credit card as he's claiming he's going
Speaker 1: to check and a rehab and send her. When I
Speaker 1: listened to this and this just came out, there was
Speaker 1: two things that shocked me. One, I genuinely have compassion
Speaker 1: and feel bad for Hunter Biden because it's obvious he's
Speaker 1: an addict. He's addicted, and this is right around the time,
Speaker 1: just weeks before his gun purchase. But there was something
Speaker 1: else in this audio that I think was so disturbing
Speaker 1: to me, and that is at one point, well, he's
Speaker 1: begging her for these points, and she's like, no, I'll
Speaker 1: send you to rehab. I'll do it, I'll book your ticket,
Speaker 1: but I'm not giving you this to you because she
Speaker 1: knows it's going to be used, I think for drugs,
Speaker 1: drug abuse. He says, well, give it to my uncle,
Speaker 1: and then she says no to that, and then he says,
Speaker 1: well give it to my dad. And it was such
Speaker 1: an eye opening moment for me that I think just
Speaker 1: tells you about Joe Biden and James Biden, and the
Speaker 1: fact that they knew that he was a struggling addict
Speaker 1: and they exploited it. They sobered him up for the
Speaker 1: moments they needed him to get the deals done and
Speaker 1: the corruption and keep the money flowing to their family.
Speaker 1: I want to play this for you and get your reaction,
Speaker 1: and I'll do it. No, Honey, I don't want you
Speaker 1: to know where I'm going. It's very important that if
Speaker 1: you want, you won't give me my money. Honey, Holly,
Speaker 1: please give the money. I mean, it's just points. I'm
Speaker 1: not even asking pose. I'm asking you from my point
Speaker 1: care you don't care. I will do it all, okay, here,
Speaker 1: how about this? Not you? Okay? You give it to No, No,
Speaker 1: give it to my Give it to my uncle, Jimmy. No,
Speaker 1: give it to my uncle, Jimmy. What's the difference now? Why?
Speaker 1: I don't care. I'll do it. Give it to my dad.
Speaker 1: You're not using it. Give it to my dad. It's
Speaker 1: really important to me that you don't know. Give it
Speaker 1: to my dad. I figure a place either wise, don't
Speaker 1: ask me again. I can't pay for the place. Other wise,
Speaker 1: you're killing Why are you doing this? No? Center, you
Speaker 1: hear that and I have it made me sad. If
Speaker 1: you've ever known somebody that's become addicted to drugs, whether
Speaker 1: it's illegal drugs like this or prescription drugs, I have
Speaker 1: compassion for people are struggling. And I hear that, and
Speaker 1: he basically is saying, send it to my uncle, and
Speaker 1: she says no, because she obviously doesn't trust certain the uncle.
Speaker 1: And then he says, give it to my dad, And
Speaker 1: she doesn't even trust her own father in law to
Speaker 1: do the right thing and to actually make him go
Speaker 1: back to rehab instead of just giving him access to
Speaker 1: what you know, his next fix. Here. I've never felt
Speaker 1: more compassion for him as a human being than this
Speaker 1: tape that just came out. Yeah, look, that's that's really
Speaker 1: hard to listen to. That. That's someone who is clearly hurting,
Speaker 1: clearly is led, and is living a very troubled life.
Speaker 1: He's an addict, and and all of us have known
Speaker 1: addicts in our lives. My older sister, Marian tragically died
Speaker 1: of an overdose, and addiction is a cruel and horrific disease,
Speaker 1: and he's clearly in the throes of it, the desperation
Speaker 1: in his voice, and he one who's had loved ones
Speaker 1: dealing with this has heard that desperation before. I'll tell you.
Speaker 1: Listening to it, what it reminded me of was was
Speaker 1: Rayleiota's character and Goodfellows when he was an addict and
Speaker 1: he's begging his wife again. It was the same same
Speaker 1: back and forth of begging his wife and the panic.
Speaker 1: But you're right that it also illustrates that that is
Speaker 1: his wife believes that that neither his uncle nor his
Speaker 1: father are going to do anything about it, That that
Speaker 1: you couldn't trust giving the points or given the money
Speaker 1: to Dad, that they wouldn't just turn around. And presumably
Speaker 1: at least you know, you you infer from listening to
Speaker 1: that that that she thinks they're going to give it
Speaker 1: to him and let him buy drugs with it rather
Speaker 1: than ensure that he gets in rehab. And that you know, Look,
Speaker 1: if if Hunter Biden were Hunter Jones or Hunter Smith,
Speaker 1: he would be someone who had a very troubled life
Speaker 1: and and and you would want to see him get help,
Speaker 1: But it wouldn't be news his conversation. Conversations like this
Speaker 1: wouldn't be talked about. What's different is his father's president
Speaker 1: of the United States, and the evidence that has come
Speaker 1: out of number one, his father, his father's official position
Speaker 1: being used essentially to immunize him from the crimes that
Speaker 1: he's committing. But number two, the very significant evidence of
Speaker 1: his father being directly involved in corruption makes it a
Speaker 1: matter not just of a private son who is struggling
Speaker 1: with addiction, but of a question of public corruption that
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, this has never been
Speaker 1: about Hunter Biden. This is about Joe Biden. This is
Speaker 1: about the president and what he's willing to do, and
Speaker 1: those questions. You know, I think that that recording only
Speaker 1: ample by those questions. You know, it's amazing how they're
Speaker 1: trying to act like Hunter Biden's business dealings can be
Speaker 1: separated from his father and his uncle and the big
Speaker 1: guy getting ten percent. You know, I part of my background.
Speaker 1: I own a gun range and a gun store and
Speaker 1: a barbecue restaurant. And if my dad was, you know,
Speaker 1: giving a massive government contract to my gun range right
Speaker 1: for law enforcement, that's a conflict of interest and that
Speaker 1: obviously would be a massive problem. I know that right
Speaker 1: at the basic level. Yet NBC News Today came out
Speaker 1: and said, well, there's nothing wrong, nothing illegal with Hunter
Speaker 1: Biden taking money from foreign governments, acting like immediately that
Speaker 1: that's a closed case. I want you to hear this.
Speaker 1: This was on MSNBC, their NBC reporter saying this earlier.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people who evade taxes or never
Speaker 1: prosecuted criminally, so that's going to be a big issue
Speaker 1: in this case in terms of like corruptionplic of interest.
Speaker 1: We've never heard a hint that that was that there
Speaker 1: were potential criminal charges there. Because under Biden wasn't an officeholder,
Speaker 1: it was perfectly legal for him to take money from
Speaker 1: foreign governments as long as it wasn't he wasn't inappropriately
Speaker 1: giving them information from his family or something. There's no
Speaker 1: hint of that. There's no hint of that. I mean,
Speaker 1: NBC News looks at you in a straight face and
Speaker 1: you've seen it. You've seen all the data that's come out,
Speaker 1: you've seen just all the suspicious activity reports on their
Speaker 1: bank accounts, and they say, in their actual words, there's
Speaker 1: nothing here, there's nothing that says that any of this
Speaker 1: was nefarious. And they say it with a straight face.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what worries so many Americans is
Speaker 1: they truly believe, Oh my gosh, they're gonna get away
Speaker 1: with this. I mean, if they just nail Hunter Biden
Speaker 1: with tax issues and they just nail with a gun issue,
Speaker 1: those are technically the two issues, Senator that you probably
Speaker 1: cannot connect to his father and all the other stuff
Speaker 1: that they act did is that they should be charging
Speaker 1: him with. If they don't, then he's going to basically
Speaker 1: walk away with a slap on the wrist with the alibi.
Speaker 1: And I think it's clear as a family knew it. Well,
Speaker 1: we can say it's a drug addict, so you shouldn't
Speaker 1: be hard on him. Yeah. Look, the obviously DJ is
Speaker 1: leaking like a sieve right now and projecting that they
Speaker 1: are going to in nit Hunter Biden on a tax
Speaker 1: claim at a gun plant charged those are I'm glad
Speaker 1: to see it on one side, and in that the
Speaker 1: laws should be blind and the fact that his daddy
Speaker 1: happens to live in government housing on Pennsylvania Avenue should
Speaker 1: not give him a get out of jail free card
Speaker 1: that nobody else has. But it's it's disturbing for the
Speaker 1: same reason, which is that what they're leaking suggests they're
Speaker 1: not looking at the corruption. They're not looking at whether
Speaker 1: the corruption from Ukraine or the corruption from China, and
Speaker 1: in particular that they're not looking at the connections to
Speaker 1: his dad. The reason any one should care is because
Speaker 1: of his father. And you know, the clip you just
Speaker 1: played for from NBC is truly absurd because takes something
Speaker 1: like boris mine and every time we talk Barisma, that
Speaker 1: brings us back to the very beginning of verdict launched
Speaker 1: on the first day of impeachment, when we talked about
Speaker 1: Barisa a lot. Hunter Biden was given a job at
Speaker 1: Barisma where they paid him eighty three thousand dollars every
Speaker 1: single month. Now, what expertise does he have. He doesn't
Speaker 1: speak Ukrainian, he doesn't know anything about oil and gas,
Speaker 1: He has no relevant expertise. He had one qualification and
Speaker 1: one qualification only, which is that he carried the DNA
Speaker 1: of being the son of the sitting vice president at
Speaker 1: the time. And so NBC, well, there's no question of
Speaker 1: corruption or anything. Really, why does the Ukrainian gas company
Speaker 1: pay him that money? What are they getting? And by
Speaker 1: the way, Hunter Biden, his father je Biden, then the
Speaker 1: vice President, was the point person for the Obama administration
Speaker 1: on Ukraine, so it was literally bribing essentially the family
Speaker 1: of the lead US policy person. And I'll tell you
Speaker 1: one thing to understand. Okay, Look, if you're a foreign government,
Speaker 1: let's say you're the Ukrainian government. Let's say you're communist China,
Speaker 1: and you're trying to influence a US decision maker. Now,
Speaker 1: if you just show up and hand Joe Biden a
Speaker 1: paper bag full of cash, you could try to do that.
Speaker 1: But that's a little clunky and a little obvious and transparent.
Speaker 1: Even the shills at MSNBC might have a hard time
Speaker 1: explaining that one away. But there's a second way you
Speaker 1: do it, which is listen the video you played or
Speaker 1: the audio you played of Hunter talking to his wife.
Speaker 1: It is clear that Hunter Biden was a financial burden
Speaker 1: to his entire family. He was a financial burden to
Speaker 1: his dad. His dad, I am sure, spent hundreds of
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, trying to
Speaker 1: take care of his very troubled son. And look, we
Speaker 1: all respect that you should do what you can to
Speaker 1: help help your children, especially when they're troubled. But by
Speaker 1: Barisma giving Hunter Biden eighty three thousand dollars a month,
Speaker 1: what they did is they took that obligation off of
Speaker 1: Joe Biden's palace sheets. In other words, he didn't have
Speaker 1: to support Hunter Biden because lo and behold, the Ukrainians
Speaker 1: are doing it for him. And then later on in
Speaker 1: China the private equity deals, and that he didn't China
Speaker 1: multi billion dollar deals. You've got indications there, including as
Speaker 1: you noted that the ten percent for the big guy.
Speaker 1: Let's be clear, the big guy. He is not talking
Speaker 1: about some of his back It's talking about Joe Biden.
Speaker 1: And once again it is highly disturbing that DJ it
Speaker 1: doesn't seem has even the slightest interest in looking anything
Speaker 1: that could implicate Joe Biden. This is all about finding
Speaker 1: a fall guy and with an alibi, with an alibi,
Speaker 1: Phil and I mean, look, you and I both have
Speaker 1: compassion for Hunter. When you listen to that tape. Don't
Speaker 1: think that tape's not going to be played if they're
Speaker 1: in a court, when people are on a jury, A're
Speaker 1: gonna say this guy, this poor guy's an addict. He's
Speaker 1: addicted to drugs. Okay, yeah, he broke the law, but
Speaker 1: maybe we'll give him a little compassion here. That's been
Speaker 1: their game plan the whole time, even when they brought
Speaker 1: out Joe's sister when she did the morning show Sunday
Speaker 1: Morning Show, CBS This Morning or whatever it was several
Speaker 1: months back. She clearly laid out the plan for the family,
Speaker 1: and that was he may have done something wrong back
Speaker 1: in the day, but he was an addict, so it's
Speaker 1: not his fault. And that's always been the alibi, which
Speaker 1: meant they could exploit him and get even to do
Speaker 1: more insane deals. And I think you and I and
Speaker 1: this is something the American you will have to ask themselves.
Speaker 1: This Hunter Biden exists as a businessman in any of
Speaker 1: these capacities, whether it's with you know, Chinese Communist Party
Speaker 1: and the oil and gas deals with Bob Olenski, the
Speaker 1: whistle blower about their deals with Russian olagarchs, and the
Speaker 1: former mayor of Russia's wife giving him millions of dollars
Speaker 1: with him being a defense attorney for more than a
Speaker 1: million dollars for a guy that's going to prison and
Speaker 1: missing in China or Barisma. Does any of that happen,
Speaker 1: forget his last name, Hunter Biden. Does any of that
Speaker 1: happen without his father being involved in those deals? I
Speaker 1: would argue it's impossible to separate Joe Biden and James
Speaker 1: Biden from any of this. Look, I think that's right,
Speaker 1: and I think DJ is once again being partisan and political.
Speaker 1: And what I fear is that this is also being
Speaker 1: done for a very explicitly partisan purpose, which is that
Speaker 1: Merrick Garland has decided if we indict Hunter Biden, then
Speaker 1: he can turn around and indict Donald J. Trump, And
Speaker 1: I think that is his objective at this point is
Speaker 1: to say, Gus, we're not political. Look, we indicted THEO
Speaker 1: who is so plainly guilty and recorded videos of it
Speaker 1: and put it out to the world, and we could
Speaker 1: only not indict him if we ignored it. But it's
Speaker 1: all about having the Look how even handed we are.
Speaker 1: We're doing both sides for people that are angry, and
Speaker 1: I would be in this category center you hear this,
Speaker 1: And if the DOJ doesn't do a special prosecutor, if
Speaker 1: we don't get real indictments, just these two kind of
Speaker 1: slap on the risk indictments that insulate the president. What
Speaker 1: does justice look like if you guys take control of
Speaker 1: the Senate, if Comber takes control, you know, in the
Speaker 1: leadership role there in the House, to investigate you know.
Speaker 1: Congressman Comber said that Hunter Biden quote is a national
Speaker 1: security threat who may be compromise, who may have compromised
Speaker 1: the president. And that's what he says. They're going to
Speaker 1: look out in the House side. But what does justice
Speaker 1: look like if we don't get these indictments? Can you guys,
Speaker 1: you know, get a special prosecutor? Or? Is that no?
Speaker 1: Because the president is Joe Biden. Is there anything that
Speaker 1: you guys can actually do when you're investigating him to
Speaker 1: go back and force a DJ or the FBI or
Speaker 1: law enforcement do their job if they don't do it
Speaker 1: the first time around. Well, I think the election matters
Speaker 1: powerfully because having a majority gives you the ability to
Speaker 1: then convene hearings, and those hearings there has been essentially
Speaker 1: zero oversight of the Biden administration. With Democrats in charge
Speaker 1: of Congress. They put partisan politics above everything else, so
Speaker 1: they don't want to know the answers to any of
Speaker 1: these things. I think we are extremely likely to see
Speaker 1: a Republican House, and I think there's a good chance
Speaker 1: we'll see a Republican Senate. If and when that happens,
Speaker 1: I think we will see I hope and believe vigorous
Speaker 1: hearings examining all sorts of issues. The corruption, the corruption
Speaker 1: going straight to the top, Joe Biden, his involvement in it,
Speaker 1: doctor Fauci, the origins of COVID, the Wuhan Institute of Virology,
Speaker 1: the ding from the NIH forgative function research, all of that,
Speaker 1: The involvement with Big Pharma in the administration's policy, the
Speaker 1: involvement with the teachers unions in the administration's in defensible policies.
Speaker 1: There are so many topics that are screening for oversight.
Speaker 1: I think we will see hearings on every one of
Speaker 1: those topics. Those hearings may involve subpoenas if witnesses refuse
Speaker 1: to attend. Having the majority means you can issue subpoenas
Speaker 1: and use legal compulsion to make witnesses attend. You can
Speaker 1: have lawyers who engage the investigations. But you asked, can
Speaker 1: Congress appoint a special prosecutor? And the answer to that
Speaker 1: is no. Under our constitution, we have separation of powers
Speaker 1: and only the executive can execute the laws. So the
Speaker 1: questions of prosecution, it is only article to the President
Speaker 1: the Attorney General that have the authority to indict anyone
Speaker 1: to prosecute anyone to bring a case risk. The legislature
Speaker 1: can pass laws that need the President's signature to become law,
Speaker 1: and Congress can hold hearings and shine a light. So
Speaker 1: I had been calling for two years for a special
Speaker 1: prosecutor to look at Hunter Biden, for a special prosecutor
Speaker 1: to look at Anthony Fauci. This administration lasts that off.
Speaker 1: They don't care that they are going to be corrupt
Speaker 1: and political, and they do not care with the majority.
Speaker 1: What the hearings can do is shine a light and
Speaker 1: put pressure. But at the end of the day, the
Speaker 1: only person with the authority to appoint a special prosecutor
Speaker 1: is the Attorney General of the United States. And so
Speaker 1: that's one of the reasons why I believe one of
Speaker 1: the first orders of business should be impeaching Merrick Garland.
Speaker 1: The degree to which he has turned J into a
Speaker 1: partisan nest of hornets, working on behalf of the White House,
Speaker 1: working on behalf of the dn SEE, I think has
Speaker 1: profoundly compromised the integrity as a partment of Justice and
Speaker 1: the FBI, And as an alumnus I worked at the
Speaker 1: DOJ in two thousand and one, that is both very sad,
Speaker 1: but it's also incredibly dangerous. I want to switch gears
Speaker 1: real quick before we run out of time today to
Speaker 1: gas prices. Senator JP Morgan CEO came out earlier today
Speaker 1: in an interview and he said this about American oil production,
Speaker 1: as he also said we're headed into a recession if
Speaker 1: we're not already there. That obviously made a Wall Street
Speaker 1: perk up. But I want you to hear what he
Speaker 1: had to say about America with oil production. America needs
Speaker 1: to play a real leadership role. America is the swing producer,
Speaker 1: not Saudi Arabia. And we should have gotten that right
Speaker 1: story in March. It's almost too late to get it
Speaker 1: right because obviously there's the longer term investments. America needs
Speaker 1: to play a real leadership role. You rarely see CEOs
Speaker 1: come out in this way, and this happens, and you
Speaker 1: tweeted this out. Valerio has now fired back with facts
Speaker 1: after the California government is going to investigate oil and
Speaker 1: gas companies for the gas price spikes there that are
Speaker 1: hitting seven eight dollars a gallon in some parts of
Speaker 1: California because the California Energy Commission, and obviously this is political.
Speaker 1: Right before the elections, wrote executives at five oil and
Speaker 1: gas companies Centerer, demanding answers for sharp price increases, and
Speaker 1: basically the vice president for state government affairs at Valerio said, Okay,
Speaker 1: you want to know what's happening, Fine, we'll tell everybody.
Speaker 1: He said, California, for Valero, is the most expensive operating
Speaker 1: environment in the country and quota very hostile regulatory environment
Speaker 1: for refining. He also said California policymakers have knowingly adopted
Speaker 1: policies with the express intent of eliminating the refinery sector.
Speaker 1: Valero said California requires refiners to pay very high carbon
Speaker 1: cap and trade fees and burden gasoline with a cost
Speaker 1: of low carbon fuel standards, saying, quote, with the backdrop
Speaker 1: of these policies, not surprisingly, California has seen refineries completely
Speaker 1: closed or shut down major units. And he said when
Speaker 1: you shut down refinery operations, you limit the resilience of
Speaker 1: the supply chain, saying, don't blame us for this. You
Speaker 1: guys have isolated this market. You guys have destroyed this market.
Speaker 1: You guys have made us to produce a unique blend
Speaker 1: of gasoline, and now you want to investigate us while
Speaker 1: you set up this entire thing. You're I'm glad finally
Speaker 1: some companies are speaking out like this. I think it's
Speaker 1: really important to see companies pushing back. You know. The
Speaker 1: letter continues and it goes right out the California regulators.
Speaker 1: In the letters from Valero, says, quote from the perspective
Speaker 1: of a refiner and fuel supplier, California is the most
Speaker 1: challenging market to serve in the United States for several
Speaker 1: additional reasons. California regulators have mandated a unique blend of
Speaker 1: gasoline that is not readily available outside of the West Coast.
Speaker 1: California is largely isolated from fuel markets of the Central
Speaker 1: and eastern United States. California has imposed some of the
Speaker 1: most aggressive and thus expensive and limited environmental regulatory requirements
Speaker 1: in the world. California policies have made it difficult to
Speaker 1: increase refining capacity and it prevented supply projects to lower
Speaker 1: operating costs of refineries. It is a great example of
Speaker 1: just responding with facts, and this is we're seeing this
Speaker 1: nationally with the radicals, the Green New dealal radicals and
Speaker 1: the Biden administration, and California is the Wuhan virus epicenter
Speaker 1: of the craziness that is in the Biden administration. All
Speaker 1: of these nutty ideas originated in California, with the crazies there.
Speaker 1: It is the reason people are fleeing California in droves.
Speaker 1: But when it comes to energy, the reason gas prices
Speaker 1: are so high nationally five dollars, six dollars, even seven
Speaker 1: dollars a gallon is because Joe Biden and the people
Speaker 1: he appointed want gas prices to be high. They promised
Speaker 1: Joe Biden on the campaign trail, promised that he would
Speaker 1: end drilling on federal lands, both onshore and offshore, and
Speaker 1: they have bent over backwards trying to do that. They
Speaker 1: have put in place dozens of rules and regulations and
Speaker 1: policies designed to make it harder to develop oil and
Speaker 1: gas in the United States. They shut down the Keystone Pipeline,
Speaker 1: They shut down exploration in anwar the incredibly resource rich,
Speaker 1: very small section of Alaska. They shut down new leases
Speaker 1: in offshore drilling where they're vast reserves. In the Golf
Speaker 1: of Mexico. They're not giving new leases there. They are
Speaker 1: not granting permits for pipelines, they're not granting hermits for refineries.
Speaker 1: And not only that they're cutting off the funds to
Speaker 1: pay for exploration. They're two avenues. To fund a new
Speaker 1: exploration project, you'd neither have debt or equity. The Biden
Speaker 1: banking regulators are hammering banks not to lend oil and
Speaker 1: gas projects. And on the equity side, the Biden appointeeds
Speaker 1: to the SEC are hammering hammering efforts to raise equity
Speaker 1: to fund that. Also, if you have no capital, you
Speaker 1: can't drill. And so what's happening. The bad guys are
Speaker 1: getting rich. Russia's getting rich, or Rand's getting rich. Venezuela
Speaker 1: is getting rich because they're producing and by the way,
Speaker 1: they pollute a lot more than America does. So so
Speaker 1: the Biden zealots are shutting down are hurting the environment
Speaker 1: at the same time. And as bad as all of
Speaker 1: that is, California takes all of that and does it
Speaker 1: on steroids. So when you pay seven bucks a gallon
Speaker 1: in California, I guess you could be grateful, because in
Speaker 1: a year they want you to pay ten bucks a gallon.
Speaker 1: And it's this is the direct result of policies passed
Speaker 1: by people who don't give a damn about your life.
Speaker 1: They don't care about your kids, They don't care about
Speaker 1: working people being unable to afford to get to work
Speaker 1: or get to school. This is a religion for them,
Speaker 1: and the consequences of their policy that's for little people
Speaker 1: to worry about. It doesn't trouble their pretty little hits. Senator,
Speaker 1: we're often running with Verdict. As I said earlier, I'm
Speaker 1: looking really forward to doing this with you three days
Speaker 1: a week. It's going to be fun for everybody listening.
Speaker 1: I will say it every time. Make sure you hit
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Speaker 1: write us a review, and Senator, it's going to be
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. It's an honor to get spend
Speaker 1: time with you talking about these issues. And this is
Speaker 1: gonna be, as I said, a exciting expansion with premiere
Speaker 1: with iHeart and exciting expansion to do this three days
Speaker 1: a week. And I can't tell you how excited I
Speaker 1: am personally. We're gonna have a lot of fun. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be a blast. That's it for this edition of
Speaker 1: Verdict with tech CRUs we'll see you back here literally
Speaker 1: in a couple of days.