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Speaker 1: The Senator has been back in DC all week. There

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Speaker 1: is some bombshell news that's just come out about Mike

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Speaker 1: Flynn and the Russia investigation. But best of all, we're

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Speaker 1: going to be taking your questions live on this special

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Speaker 1: Ask Us Anything episode a Verdict, So send your questions

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Speaker 1: in now. We're gonna be taking them from Twitter using

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Speaker 1: the hashtag verdict. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. Welcome

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Speaker 1: back to Verdict. How many times can I say verdict

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Speaker 1: in one minute? I guess we'll find out. I'm Michael Knowles.

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Speaker 1: I'm joined as ever by the Senator. Senator. Before we begin,

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Speaker 1: I gotta tell you your hair today looks excellent. Have

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Speaker 1: you have you done something new with it? Well? As

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Speaker 1: it so happens, I got a haircut this morning. I

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Speaker 1: got on a plane first thing this morning, and it

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Speaker 1: flew to Dallas and went to Shelley Luther, who, as

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Speaker 1: you know, she has a hair salon, and she was

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Speaker 1: sentenced insanely to seven days in jail for daring to

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Speaker 1: open a hair salon during the coronavirus crisis, and she

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Speaker 1: spent two nights in jail and then yesterday, thankfully, the

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Speaker 1: Texas Supreme Court unanimously ruled that she'd be released, and

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Speaker 1: so I got on a plane and flew up there

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Speaker 1: today to get a haircut. Well, she obviously did a

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Speaker 1: very good job. The hair looks good, and more importantly,

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Speaker 1: I think it's good to send that message out. There

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Speaker 1: have been a lot of oversteps during this whole lockdown,

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Speaker 1: pastors getting arrested and things like that. But I think

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Speaker 1: Shelley Luther she might take the cake. You know, she's

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Speaker 1: just dares to try to put some food on the

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Speaker 1: table for her kids, and some judge in Dallas decides

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Speaker 1: she's got to go to the slammer for seven days. Well,

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Speaker 1: you know, it really was outrageous, and if you haven't

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Speaker 1: seen it, i'd encourage folks watch the video of her sentencing.

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Speaker 1: I watched that when it came down, and the judge,

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Speaker 1: who was an elected Democrat in Dallas, he demands of her.

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Speaker 1: He says, apologize to the elected officials who issued these edicts,

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Speaker 1: and if you apologize to them, I won't send you

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Speaker 1: to jail. And to her credit, she says, I can't apologize.

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Speaker 1: I can't apologize for wanting people, wanting the people who

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Speaker 1: worked for me to be able to feed their kids.

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Speaker 1: I can't apologize for that. And you know, it was impressive.

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Speaker 1: She was not angry, she wasn't disrespectful, she was just

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Speaker 1: very matter of fact saying, look, these folks, they need

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Speaker 1: to feed their kids. They're hurting. And I gotta say

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Speaker 1: it is ridiculous. Elected officials don't have the right to

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Speaker 1: demand to the people apologize to me, that's not the

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Speaker 1: way it works in the United States. We work for

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Speaker 1: the people, not the other way around. And the arrogance

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Speaker 1: of our benevolent overlords demanding an apology from the citizenry,

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Speaker 1: it was ridiculous. I tweeted that out a couple of

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Speaker 1: days ago, how absurd it was. And I was really

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Speaker 1: glad to get a chance to meet her in person.

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Speaker 1: I'd never met her um and uh now now, my

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Speaker 1: dad and my cousin they had spoken to her boyfriend

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Speaker 1: on the phone when she was in jail. They had

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Speaker 1: actually prayed with with him on the phone, and my

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Speaker 1: cousin talked with Shelley just right when she got out

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Speaker 1: of jail. But I wanted to be there just to say, look,

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Speaker 1: we stand with you, and and and it is wrong

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Speaker 1: particularly you know what, you've got local officials that are

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Speaker 1: releasing violent criminals from jail because they say coronavirus, we

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Speaker 1: don't want it to spread. So they're releasing murderers, they're

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Speaker 1: they're releasing rapists and child molesters. But god forbid, you

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Speaker 1: have a hairdresser, Well, we need to lock her up

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Speaker 1: because she's not properly kissing the asses of the politicians

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Speaker 1: that that that that are issuing decrees. I was a

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Speaker 1: little pissed off. You can tell fair enough. I think

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Speaker 1: you should be. And I think it sends a great statement.

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Speaker 1: If we had a whole country full of Shelley Luther's,

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Speaker 1: I think probably the culture would be a whole lot healthier.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of unfair sentencing, there's another. And actually, hold on,

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Speaker 1: before we shifted that, I want to make one other

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Speaker 1: point that I made. We did a press conference afterwards,

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Speaker 1: and it's a point I made, but I haven't seen

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Speaker 1: in any of the coverage and it doesn't strike me

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Speaker 1: as entirely accidental. Which is listen, I hadn't had a haircut,

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Speaker 1: as you know we've been doing this. I'd had a

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Speaker 1: haircut in three months. Yeah, I was getting to be

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Speaker 1: that Smalls kind of tiger king. It was, Heidi said,

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Speaker 1: I was bringing mullets back, and you know, look, I

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Speaker 1: was going more for a BG's thing, but but Joe

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Speaker 1: dirt is an underappreciated look, so I'll go either way

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Speaker 1: on that. But you know, it was interesting this week

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Speaker 1: we were back in DC in the Senate, and I

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Speaker 1: couldn't help but look around at my colleagues, and it

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Speaker 1: sure looked like most of them had gotten a haircut.

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Speaker 1: And it's just kind of interesting for those who are

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Speaker 1: defending people's freedom. Fine, but we're seeing some politicians posture

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Speaker 1: how to how terrible it is, and and and and

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Speaker 1: and and it was a good thing that she should

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Speaker 1: be locked up. Well, it's just an interesting question who's

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Speaker 1: gotten a haircut? And how right haircuts? For me? But

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Speaker 1: not for thee as the prevailing wisdom, I think, Well,

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Speaker 1: what was it Bill de Blasio said when he went

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Speaker 1: to the gym after shutting down the gyms, Well, I've

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Speaker 1: got to stay healthy, like like, oh okay, not not

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Speaker 1: the people and and and look, it's also easy to

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Speaker 1: mischaracterize this. Nobody is saying that that that that that

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Speaker 1: everyone should just behave business as usual and ignore ignore

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Speaker 1: the epidemic, ignore the crisis. You know, Shelley at her

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Speaker 1: hair salon when when I got my hair cut, I

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Speaker 1: was wearing a mask. I was wearing gloves. She was

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Speaker 1: wearing a mask. All of the stylists that worked for

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Speaker 1: were wearing masks. They use disinfectant. They wipe down the

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Speaker 1: seat before I sat down. The stylists used disinfectant on

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Speaker 1: her hand. They're trying to be sad if they're trying

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Speaker 1: to use common sense measures to mitigate the spread of

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Speaker 1: the virus, but they're also trying to trying to let

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Speaker 1: these stylists be able to feed their kids, right right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, being able to feed your family is important

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Speaker 1: to public health as well. And you know, you have

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Speaker 1: the Shelley Luther case that was obviously this gross miscarriage

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Speaker 1: of justice and then luckily got overturned yet another one

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Speaker 1: on the national level, which just came out yesterday. This

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Speaker 1: was the case of Michael Flynn. He was selected by

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Speaker 1: President Trump to become the National Security Advisor. He was

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Speaker 1: then we were told, a traitor to his country, he

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Speaker 1: colluded with Russia. He was going to go to jail,

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Speaker 1: people told us. And then the dj dropped the case

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Speaker 1: yesterday and Michael Flynn, from what we can tell totally exonerated. Well,

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Speaker 1: obviously don't have a law degree. What was going on here?

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Speaker 1: What does this mean for the DOJ, for the Obama administration,

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Speaker 1: for politics? Look that there are a couple of things

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Speaker 1: at play here. One, Michael Flynn is a decorated general

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Speaker 1: and he as a leader until he was fired by

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Speaker 1: the Obama administration because he had the courage to resist

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Speaker 1: some of their willingness to just whitewash and and and

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Speaker 1: cover up radical Islamic terrorists and be apologists for Islamism.

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Speaker 1: He lost his job for that. But but it's interesting

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Speaker 1: that you know, there's been a lot said about the

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Speaker 1: deep state. The deep state despises him for that, and

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Speaker 1: what has come out recently about the prosecution has really

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Speaker 1: been disgraceful. How the Department of Justice, the FBI. I mean,

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Speaker 1: they were politicized at a level under Barack Obama that's

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Speaker 1: never happened before. They were turned into political weapons. And

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Speaker 1: I got to say the notes that have been released

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Speaker 1: of the senior folks going after Flynn, where they say

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Speaker 1: say the objective was to get him to lie h

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Speaker 1: that so that we can either convict him for lying

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Speaker 1: or get him fired. Right, get him fired. I mean

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Speaker 1: it was I gotta say, I commend Bill Barr. What

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Speaker 1: Bill Barr has done, frankly takes backbone because the media

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Speaker 1: is savaging because he came in as Attorney General and

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Speaker 1: said he was going to follow the law and there

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Speaker 1: was going to be accountability, and he directed a US

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Speaker 1: attorney to review this case, and all of these records

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Speaker 1: that had been hidden were suddenly made public, and and

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Speaker 1: and and Barr made the determination, DIOJ made the determination

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Speaker 1: that there was not sufficient evidence. What this was was

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Speaker 1: a phishing expedition. Yeah, where they wanted to get rid

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Speaker 1: of Flynn. And you know, they were getting ready to

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Speaker 1: close the case until Peter Struck, this hard partisan dam

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Speaker 1: who as all of these you know, nasty partisan text

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Speaker 1: back and forth with with a woman with whom he

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Speaker 1: was having an affair. Peter Struck said, keep keep the

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Speaker 1: case open. And what's interesting about it when they went

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Speaker 1: to interview Michael Flynn. You know, Komey has been bragging

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Speaker 1: about how he convinced them. I don't know, you don't

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Speaker 1: need a lawyer, You don't need a lawyer, you don't

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Speaker 1: need to tell the White House counts. No, we're just chatting. No, big,

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Speaker 1: you know, just hanging out and it was an old

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Speaker 1: fashioned game of entrapment. And by the way, the alleged

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Speaker 1: predicate for this is the Logan Act. Now look, most

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Speaker 1: people don't know what the Logan Act is. I'll tell you.

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Speaker 1: The Logan Act is uttering complete garbage. It is a

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Speaker 1: bill that is ostensibly in the US Code that that

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Speaker 1: makes it a crime for a private citizen to interact

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Speaker 1: and conduct foreign policy with with with foreign leaders. Here's

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Speaker 1: the problem. In two centuries, it has been enforced zero times,

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Speaker 1: and there's a reason for it. There's no constitutional basis

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Speaker 1: for it, and it is something that that is routine.

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Speaker 1: I guarantee you today, Michael, I guarantee you John Kerry

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Speaker 1: violated the Logan Gact. Certainly he did by the Logan

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Speaker 1: Act as a crime. Because John Kerry runs around bragging

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Speaker 1: about how he's telling the Iranians, don't worry, we'll come

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Speaker 1: back to the deal. Ignore. Ignore President Trump's foreign policy.

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Speaker 1: You have Democrats all the time who run around and

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Speaker 1: engage in foreign policy in folks out of office. And

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Speaker 1: let's be clear. So the alleged violation for Flynn, it's

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Speaker 1: important to understand this. He's a retired general. He's just

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Speaker 1: been named the incoming national security advisor for the new president.

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Speaker 1: This is after the presidential election, so the incoming national

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Speaker 1: security advisor is putting his team together to come in

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Speaker 1: and lead the president's national security team. And what they

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Speaker 1: were allegedly investigating him is that he talked to the

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Speaker 1: Russian ambassador. I guarantee you every single national security advice

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Speaker 1: going back to the staff of George Washington, was talking

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Speaker 1: to our allies and our enemies that that's actually what

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Speaker 1: you want leaders in government to do. And so it

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Speaker 1: was an assinine phishing expedition based on a laughable claim,

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Speaker 1: and it was all the entire game was, well, let's

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Speaker 1: get him on tape and then let's interview him and

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Speaker 1: see if he says something that contradicts what he says

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Speaker 1: on tape. And and I got to say, look, prosecutors

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Speaker 1: have played that game all the time. There's a reason

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Speaker 1: in trapment is not allowed because because you're just trying

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Speaker 1: to you're trying to set up what's called a perjury trap.

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Speaker 1: And it was obvious that that these partisan, these partisans

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Speaker 1: who who were at the helm of DJ and FBI,

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Speaker 1: that that was the game they were playing. And it

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Speaker 1: wasn't law enforcement. And I think Bill Barr showed a

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Speaker 1: lot of courage for saying we're going to follow the

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Speaker 1: law and not let this be just just a a

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Speaker 1: partisan hammer. Right the way you can tell in the

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Speaker 1: notes that were released from the FBI, the way you

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Speaker 1: can tell that this wasn't even just a regular you know,

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Speaker 1: investigation or entrapment is that phrase, or get him fired.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't just we're gonna see if we catch him

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Speaker 1: in a lie, or we'll get him to admit it

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Speaker 1: was that, or get him fired. They had a political

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Speaker 1: interest in getting this appointee removed. So it's great that

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Speaker 1: this is coming to light, I know that. And there's

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Speaker 1: an old crudge, there's I mean, remember he had been

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Speaker 1: fired from the Obama administration. They didn't like that he

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Speaker 1: they were mad at him, and and and that that

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Speaker 1: was evidenced by by the partisan attack. That's right. So

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Speaker 1: we're and of course the irony of all of this

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Speaker 1: yeah for being partisan. I mean, I mean, it is

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Speaker 1: the biggest case of projection because he says that Apartment

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Speaker 1: of Justice is not going to be a partisan cudgel.

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Speaker 1: They accuse him of being partisan, and it's it's it's

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Speaker 1: a game, and I think a lot of people are

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Speaker 1: sick of that game. Absolutely. So we've got about a

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Speaker 1: million questions here from the viewers. Obviously this is live,

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Speaker 1: so send your questions in now on Twitter with the

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Speaker 1: hashtag verdict. First one is from Rhino Dino. I don't

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Speaker 1: think that's his name at birth. I think that's the

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Speaker 1: Twitter name. When does an executive's emergency power? Yeah, there's

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Speaker 1: some colleagues of mine that go by that. From Rhino

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Speaker 1: Dinah's that is true. It's a little long in the

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Speaker 1: tooth in that institution. When does an executive's emergency power

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Speaker 1: overstep the constitution? Are there any rights that are absolute

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Speaker 1: regardless of circumstance. Should there be a way for the

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Speaker 1: legislature of the state or federal government to end a

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Speaker 1: state of emergency or a lockdown? I suppose. So. Look,

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Speaker 1: that's a that's a complicated question, and even the question

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Speaker 1: an executive there's a difference between the president, a governor,

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Speaker 1: a mayor in times of emergency. The constitutional law has

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Speaker 1: always given some degree of discretion and some degree of

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Speaker 1: deference to emergency powers that are short term, that are temporary,

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Speaker 1: that are designed to address the emergency. Now you can

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Speaker 1: go too far. So for example, there's the famous steel

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Speaker 1: seizure cases where the federal government tried to seize steel mills.

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Speaker 1: In the Supreme Court said, no, you can't do that.

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Speaker 1: That's going too far. You know, when it comes to pandemics,

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Speaker 1: there is the authority to quarantine people, and that's that's

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Speaker 1: actually got a long history and pedigree. Now you think

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Speaker 1: about it. In an ordinary case, the government can't come

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Speaker 1: along and say, Michael, we're going to lock you in

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Speaker 1: one place and not let you go for something that

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Speaker 1: you didn't do. Like normally, to be locked up, you

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Speaker 1: got to do something, You got to break the law

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Speaker 1: to be locked up. Quarantines are an accepted exception into

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Speaker 1: that if you have a contagious disease and or a

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Speaker 1: threat to others. But you know what we're seeing where

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Speaker 1: it crosses the line. We're seeing it every day in

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Speaker 1: the course of this crisis. We're seeing it was Shelley

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Speaker 1: Luthor locking someone up seven days in jail for cutting hair.

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Speaker 1: That's ridiculous. We're seeing it in Colorado with the dad

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Speaker 1: who was who was playing softball with a six year

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Speaker 1: old daughter in a public park and they threatened to

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Speaker 1: give him a ticket. There Pennsylvania, where they gave a

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Speaker 1: woman a ticket for driving a car. She didn't violate

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Speaker 1: any laws by the way, she was driving a car alone,

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Speaker 1: She posed no public health threat to anyone, and yet

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Speaker 1: she got a ticket. We saw the governor of New Jersey,

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Speaker 1: a Democrat, who said, well, figuring out the constitution, that

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Speaker 1: that's above my pay grade. Well, no, actually, as governor

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Speaker 1: of New Jersey, the oath you take is an oath

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Speaker 1: to uphold the Constitution. It's not above your pay grade.

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Speaker 1: So are there are exceptions and for example, in times

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Speaker 1: of war a president it can suspend habeas corpus, but

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Speaker 1: in limited circumstances. And what the Supreme Court has said

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Speaker 1: is that the power of the government is at its

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Speaker 1: height when the executive and the legislature are joined together,

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Speaker 1: because they're a check on each other, right, And so

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Speaker 1: that doesn't mean it's unlimited, but it is at its

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Speaker 1: highest point when they are working together, and you have

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Speaker 1: multiple branches of government together. They are at the lowest

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Speaker 1: point at the federal level, where the executive is on

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Speaker 1: one side and the legislature is on the other because

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Speaker 1: those two are in conflict. And what's interesting, Look, this

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Speaker 1: crisis reveals character and they're just a lot of petty

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Speaker 1: authoritarians running around, right. Many of them are Democrats, but

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Speaker 1: not all. And they just like power. You know, California,

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Speaker 1: I sent out a video of that. You know, they

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Speaker 1: pulled out bulldozers and filled a skate park with sand

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Speaker 1: to stop teenagers from skating. And I took the chance

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Speaker 1: to tweet out and said, okay, skaters, this this is

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Speaker 1: what big government lefties want to do. They want to

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Speaker 1: take away your freedom and this is stupid. And by

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Speaker 1: the way, it would have been perfectly fine for them

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Speaker 1: to insist on social distancing. Say, listen, we're in the

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Speaker 1: middle of a public health crisis. You need to spread

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Speaker 1: out a little bit. But the idea that you can't

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Speaker 1: go outside, that you can't go to the beach, that

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Speaker 1: you can't paddleboard, that you can't go jogging, all of

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Speaker 1: that is an overreach. And it's an overreach because people

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Speaker 1: are statists, are gonna status that's what they do, and

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Speaker 1: that's not right. And there's I guess the question a

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Speaker 1: lot of people are asking is is there some hard

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Speaker 1: and fast rules. So you know, the government is allowed

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Speaker 1: to fill the skate park with sand, but it's not

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Speaker 1: allowed to stop the paddle boarder. I mean, obviously there's

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Speaker 1: no way you could control for all of these details.

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Speaker 1: So how do we know when the government's gone too far?

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Speaker 1: It listened. There is no magic rule on it. You've

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Speaker 1: got the Bill of Rights and so for example, all right,

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Speaker 1: let's take religious liberty. Yeah, religious liberty is a hard

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Speaker 1: question in this circumstance because, for example, churches, Um, Heidi

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Speaker 1: and I go to First Baptist Church in Houston. It's

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Speaker 1: a big church. My pastor is a good friend. Our

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Speaker 1: church hasn't met in person for two months. Yeah, it's

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Speaker 1: really strange. I mean, we do our family. We do

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Speaker 1: church on Sunday mornings where we I log on on

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Speaker 1: my phone and and and put it on the TV

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Speaker 1: and we watch it in our living room. Hum. Now,

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Speaker 1: the church is planning to start meeting at the end

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Speaker 1: of the month, and I've talked with with our pastor

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Speaker 1: about it. He doesn't want to spread the disease. He

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Speaker 1: doesn't want to contribute to people getting sick or losing

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Speaker 1: their lives. That's I think that's a reasonable common sense

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Speaker 1: judgment for pastors to make. We've seen Bill de Blasio

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Speaker 1: where he threatened if a church or synagogue dares meet,

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Speaker 1: I will shut you down permanently. Yeah. Who the hell

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Speaker 1: are you to shut a church or synagogue down permanently?

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Speaker 1: And by the way, Nablasio also, you know he showed

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Speaker 1: up at the funeral of a revered rabbi to personally

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Speaker 1: disburse the crowd and then send out this tweet threatening

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Speaker 1: the Jewish community. You know why exactly is he singling

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Speaker 1: out the Jewish community again? I mean that you start

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Speaker 1: to reveal the willingness to persecute people because of faith. Yes,

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Speaker 1: you can, you can work to protect public safety. But

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Speaker 1: when you start signaling it, singling out faith and religious

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Speaker 1: exercise or speech and punishing what you don't like, that's

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Speaker 1: when you clearly cross the line. Right now, speaking of

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Speaker 1: some maybe clearer steps we could be taking, this comes

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Speaker 1: in from Aunt Betty. What actions are being taken right

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Speaker 1: now to remove Chinese Communist Party sponsored programs in higher

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Speaker 1: education and public school rules, Confucius schools and jong Su.

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Speaker 1: I don't even know what those are. I do know

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Speaker 1: that the Chinese government has infiltrated some educational institutions. There

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Speaker 1: are there steps to remove them. So there are so

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Speaker 1: Confucius institutes have been established at universities all over the country,

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Speaker 1: and they're typically funded by the Chinese government, and they

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Speaker 1: serve as propaganda arms that they serve as efforts that

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Speaker 1: they offer universities help on Chinese language instruction. Yeah. And

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Speaker 1: and China's approach is they use their vast economic resources

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Speaker 1: a little bit like a drug dealer going to a

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Speaker 1: junior or high where they say, you know, hey, kid,

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Speaker 1: let me give you a free sample. Yeah. So Chinese

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Speaker 1: communists go to universities and say the same thing. Hey,

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Speaker 1: we'll give you really cheap or even free Chinese language instruction.

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Speaker 1: Isn't this great? And all you have to do is

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Speaker 1: let us conduct espionage on your campus and and let

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Speaker 1: us let us push propaganda. So Tianamen Square, Nope, never

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Speaker 1: heard of it. There is no Eneman Square. So the

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Speaker 1: question is is there anything we can do? Yes. So

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Speaker 1: several years ago I introduced and passed legislation on the

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Speaker 1: Senate Armed Services Committee, got bipartisan support, and got it

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Speaker 1: written into law, a restriction and a prohibition on Department

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Speaker 1: of Defense funding if a university has a Confucius institute

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Speaker 1: on campus, and it was like, look, we're not going

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Speaker 1: to send your d D money if you've got an

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Speaker 1: outlet for the Chinese government right there. And that legislation

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Speaker 1: that I authored and passed into law has resulted in

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Speaker 1: over a dozen of those confucious institutes shutting down. I'll

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Speaker 1: give you another example is actually legislation I just introduced

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Speaker 1: this week. Phoenix TV. It is a TV station owned

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Speaker 1: by the Chinese government. Do you remember the exchange. It

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Speaker 1: was a couple of weeks ago at a White House

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Speaker 1: press conference. There was that report, this reporter and she

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Speaker 1: was questioning the president and I got to give President

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Speaker 1: Trump credit here. He said, you know who do you

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Speaker 1: work for? China? She goes, no, no, no, Hong Kong.

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Speaker 1: And I don't know if he had been brief beforehand

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Speaker 1: or if he just had good instincts on the moment,

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Speaker 1: But it turns out yes, in their name it's Hong Kong,

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Speaker 1: but it's controlled by the Chinese government and it is

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Speaker 1: a propaganda outlet. And in the US, so that same company,

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Speaker 1: Phoenix TV, purchased a radio station in Mexico which has

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Speaker 1: a huge transmitter pointed north, pointed at the United States,

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Speaker 1: and they changed it from a Spanish language station to

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Speaker 1: a Chinese language station, and they put in an application

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Speaker 1: at the FCC to broadcast into the US. Now, two

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Speaker 1: years ago, in twenty eighteen, I sent a letter to

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Speaker 1: the FCC saying, don't let a propaganda station owned by

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Speaker 1: the Chinese government broadcast propaganda into the US, and the

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Speaker 1: FCC denied them their license. Now, unfortunately, the way it

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Speaker 1: works under the FCC is they even though they'd been denied,

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Speaker 1: they appealed and they got a provisional license while the

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Speaker 1: appeals pending. So right now you're in California. This TV

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Speaker 1: station is broadcasting, saturating southern California. At times it makes

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Speaker 1: it all the way up to northern California Chinese language

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Speaker 1: propaganda through the radio waves. And so I introduce legislation

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Speaker 1: to eliminate the provisional appeal and say, look, if it's

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Speaker 1: if it's controlled by a foreign government broadcasting in a

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Speaker 1: foreign language, we're not going to be simple patsies and

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Speaker 1: let them pump propaganda into our country. And so that's

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Speaker 1: legislation I just filed this week. Right, that's actually some

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Speaker 1: concrete work that's being done it. You know, sometimes everything's

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Speaker 1: been so vague in this lockdown. Those are real steps

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Speaker 1: that are being taken, and hopefully there's more on the horizon.

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Speaker 1: This question from Magoo asks about another concrete step. Do

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Speaker 1: you think there will be another stimulus to help those

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Speaker 1: who are waiting for unemployment? I'd much rather be working

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Speaker 1: though hashtag verdict. Do you think there's another going to

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Speaker 1: be another infusion of cash and people's bank accounts? Maybe? So.

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Speaker 1: We've passed a total of four different bills in response

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Speaker 1: to this major bills in response to this crisis. They

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Speaker 1: were numbered Bill one, Bill two, Bill three, and then

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Speaker 1: kind of Bill three point five that was supplementing the

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Speaker 1: paycheck Protection Plan. The big one was Bill three, the

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Speaker 1: Cares Act. All told, all four of those bills have

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Speaker 1: been nearly three trillion dollars, a whole lot of money. Well,

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Speaker 1: we're now back in session. The Senator is back in session.

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Speaker 1: We were back this week. I was in DC all

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Speaker 1: week and it is being vigorously debated what Congress should

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Speaker 1: do next. And I got to say, they're wildly different views.

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Speaker 1: So the Democra crats want to spend trillions more, and

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Speaker 1: they've got a couple of things they're pushing to do. One,

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Speaker 1: they're trying to do their whole partisan wish list that

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Speaker 1: they tried to do on all the past legislation, things

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Speaker 1: like codifying the Green New Deal, things like um like

426
00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:20,359
Speaker 1: changing election standards nationally to benefit Democrats at the polls.

427
00:25:20,400 --> 00:25:24,119
Speaker 1: They're pushing that hard. But their biggest priority seems to

428
00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:28,640
Speaker 1: be bailouts for big blue states that have huge pension

429
00:25:28,760 --> 00:25:32,919
Speaker 1: liabilities that long preceded this crisis. Have nothing to do

430
00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:36,400
Speaker 1: with coronavirus, but but the Democrats want to use that

431
00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:40,760
Speaker 1: to bail the states out. Anyway, what I've been arguing,

432
00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:42,600
Speaker 1: and what a fair number of Republicans have been saying,

433
00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:46,480
Speaker 1: is slow down here. We've spent three trillion dollars. And

434
00:25:46,520 --> 00:25:48,800
Speaker 1: by the way, it's not like the money sitting there

435
00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:52,040
Speaker 1: an evolved. We're just borrowing it, right, We're borrowing it

436
00:25:52,119 --> 00:25:54,760
Speaker 1: and racking up the credit card. We're not going to

437
00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:58,199
Speaker 1: get out of this crisis through debt. We're not going

438
00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:00,560
Speaker 1: to get out through borrowing. The only way to get

439
00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:02,720
Speaker 1: out it's to restart the economy, and to do so,

440
00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:05,640
Speaker 1: I think the next bill should be a recovery bill.

441
00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:09,840
Speaker 1: It should focus on tax reform and regulatory reform. As

442
00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:14,280
Speaker 1: small businesses are starting to open up, small businesses like

443
00:26:14,359 --> 00:26:17,840
Speaker 1: Cherry Loo hair salon, we ought to be lessening the

444
00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:21,320
Speaker 1: tax burden, the regulatory burden, making it easier for those

445
00:26:21,359 --> 00:26:25,399
Speaker 1: businesses to survive and thrive. That's the only thing powerful

446
00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:30,160
Speaker 1: enough to actually turn this around. We can't borrow enough

447
00:26:30,200 --> 00:26:32,560
Speaker 1: money in Washington and spend enough money to get there,

448
00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:36,400
Speaker 1: and so at this point, I think it's very much

449
00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:39,359
Speaker 1: in flux what Congress will do. But this debate is

450
00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:42,680
Speaker 1: live and raging right now. Well, especially because the country

451
00:26:42,720 --> 00:26:45,800
Speaker 1: that we most often borrow from happens to be China.

452
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:49,200
Speaker 1: And one of the consequences of this pandemic is we're

453
00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:51,520
Speaker 1: now trying to decouple ourselves a little bit from China.

454
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,080
Speaker 1: You can't do that if you keep taking all of

455
00:26:54,119 --> 00:26:55,600
Speaker 1: their money, you know. I also want to take a

456
00:26:55,840 --> 00:26:58,320
Speaker 1: moment just to thank all of the listeners. I just

457
00:26:58,359 --> 00:27:01,480
Speaker 1: saw this number come across the screen. We have now

458
00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:06,240
Speaker 1: had five million, more than five million audio downloads alone,

459
00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:09,280
Speaker 1: just the audio from the podcast. I don't think Senator

460
00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:11,800
Speaker 1: I felt confident going in, but I didn't feel that confident.

461
00:27:11,840 --> 00:27:14,080
Speaker 1: I don't think either of us thought that the show

462
00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:17,440
Speaker 1: would would go that big and be listened to by

463
00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:19,239
Speaker 1: that many people. So thank you so much. You can

464
00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:23,080
Speaker 1: always subscribe at Apple Podcasts or Google Play or Stitcher

465
00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:25,160
Speaker 1: or I don't If you ask us nicely, we'll send

466
00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:27,920
Speaker 1: an audio casset with a carrier pigeon to your house,

467
00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:30,800
Speaker 1: you know, get it anywhere on the internet, and please

468
00:27:30,840 --> 00:27:34,800
Speaker 1: send your questions in with hashtag verdict. This question comes

469
00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:38,800
Speaker 1: in from Mahi. Is that like the Hawaiian fish? I

470
00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:41,840
Speaker 1: don't know. How do you feel about Andrew Cuomo's handling

471
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:44,679
Speaker 1: of the situation. It seems to me like other states

472
00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:48,480
Speaker 1: suffered as a result of Cuomo's into Blasio's handling, And

473
00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:54,040
Speaker 1: I'm from the Bronx by the way, Look, I don't

474
00:27:54,080 --> 00:27:57,880
Speaker 1: know Cuomo personally. I do think New York has had

475
00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:01,359
Speaker 1: a incredibly hard run of it. What's happening in New

476
00:28:01,440 --> 00:28:06,920
Speaker 1: York City is horrific. I think Cuomo has been markedly

477
00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:09,920
Speaker 1: better than Deblasio. That's not a very high bar. But

478
00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:14,600
Speaker 1: de Blasio has been so overeager, so willing to put

479
00:28:14,600 --> 00:28:21,240
Speaker 1: the jack boot on, that has really been dismaying. I've

480
00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:24,840
Speaker 1: seen a fair amount written about Cuomo's decision to send

481
00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:28,160
Speaker 1: people to nursing homes and to force nursing homes to

482
00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:32,960
Speaker 1: take people with coronavirus. And obviously many of the deaths

483
00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:39,720
Speaker 1: that have occurred nationally have occurred in nursing homes. More

484
00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:42,080
Speaker 1: than half of the deaths in the US from COVID

485
00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:44,520
Speaker 1: nineteen have occurred in New York and New Jersey, and

486
00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:47,239
Speaker 1: so that that really is the locus of that, and

487
00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:52,720
Speaker 1: it's horrific. I don't want to throw rocks at Cuomo

488
00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:55,600
Speaker 1: in the midst of a crisis like this. I do

489
00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:58,640
Speaker 1: think there will be serious questions asked, especially about the

490
00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:04,640
Speaker 1: nursing home issue. But in a time of crisis, we

491
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:09,920
Speaker 1: ought to be coming together and solving the public health

492
00:29:09,960 --> 00:29:14,560
Speaker 1: crisis and also solving the economic catastrophe that has come

493
00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:16,520
Speaker 1: hand in hand with that. Yeah, I agree. I think

494
00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:19,360
Speaker 1: that's probably a good impulse to try to bring people together.

495
00:29:19,400 --> 00:29:21,440
Speaker 1: I just think a lot of people it's not even

496
00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:24,600
Speaker 1: that they're upset with Andrew Cuomo specifically, it's that they're

497
00:29:24,680 --> 00:29:28,400
Speaker 1: upset at the double standard, the hypocrisy. You know, Andrew Cuomo,

498
00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:30,800
Speaker 1: who maybe he did an okay job, maybe he didn't.

499
00:29:30,800 --> 00:29:33,120
Speaker 1: I don't know. There's some evidence that he didn't. He's

500
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:36,120
Speaker 1: being hailed as the great hero of coronavirus, and yet

501
00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:38,960
Speaker 1: other governors or the president who have done at least

502
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:41,800
Speaker 1: as good a job as Cuomo did are being pilloried for,

503
00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:43,960
Speaker 1: you know, just destroying the whole country. It's it's that

504
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:49,240
Speaker 1: double standard. I think it's very difficult for people to swallow. Well, listen,

505
00:29:49,280 --> 00:29:52,520
Speaker 1: I think one of the biggest shifts in the age

506
00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:57,080
Speaker 1: of Trump is the utter fraud of the media has

507
00:29:57,080 --> 00:30:02,000
Speaker 1: been exposed. Yeah, you remember three, three or four years ago,

508
00:30:02,080 --> 00:30:05,640
Speaker 1: people used to argue, oh, the media isn't biased, and

509
00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:13,280
Speaker 1: somebody argues that even lefties you can't watch the media.

510
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:19,440
Speaker 1: They hate Trump so much. I mean Trump derangement syndrome.

511
00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:21,640
Speaker 1: I mean they twitch and foam at the mouth and

512
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:24,840
Speaker 1: anything he does. Look, there are things that Trump does

513
00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:26,600
Speaker 1: that I wish he didn't do. The things he says

514
00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:30,120
Speaker 1: I wish you didn't say. But when the media is

515
00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:33,360
Speaker 1: just the only thing they can do is scream orange

516
00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:37,840
Speaker 1: man bad, Orange man bad, it starts to get ludicrous.

517
00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:43,720
Speaker 1: And when the media is just a willing shill for

518
00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:51,360
Speaker 1: Chinese communist propaganda, so I it pisses me off every

519
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:54,120
Speaker 1: time I see the media saying, oh, so and so

520
00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:57,760
Speaker 1: country has has has a worst case of coronavirus than China.

521
00:30:57,960 --> 00:30:59,880
Speaker 1: Well that's only because they're doctoring their numbers of the

522
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:02,960
Speaker 1: lying to us. And the story that was the most

523
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:07,840
Speaker 1: ridiculous was was CNN did a story so the Chinese government,

524
00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:11,920
Speaker 1: their military propaganda site put out a story that says

525
00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:16,440
Speaker 1: the Chinese military is dealing with coronavirus much better than

526
00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:22,160
Speaker 1: the American military. And CNN wrote a whole story saying

527
00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:24,480
Speaker 1: the Chinese military is doing a better job than the

528
00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:29,760
Speaker 1: American military with coronavirus. Source the government website from the

529
00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:34,360
Speaker 1: Chinese Communist government, and it was literally they're repeating Chinese

530
00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:41,640
Speaker 1: communist propaganda and it so of course the media bestill

531
00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:46,560
Speaker 1: my beating heart. These democratic governors are wonderful, and every

532
00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:51,680
Speaker 1: Republican governor, the president, you know, apparently they were all

533
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:54,920
Speaker 1: in the wet market in Wuhan, and Donald Trump is

534
00:31:54,960 --> 00:31:58,520
Speaker 1: personally responsible for this virus, as the media tells. Look,

535
00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:02,280
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's the double standard and hypocrisy is

536
00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:04,640
Speaker 1: a little ridiculous. Sure, and I think you're probably right.

537
00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:06,680
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people are tuning them out.

538
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:09,560
Speaker 1: This from Cheyenne the Wolf, who I think as a person,

539
00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:12,160
Speaker 1: but that's the Twitter name. How do we get the

540
00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:16,520
Speaker 1: churches open again? I think that frankly, from my perspective,

541
00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:18,120
Speaker 1: that's the question on top of my mind. I think

542
00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:22,240
Speaker 1: that's true for a lot of people. So I did

543
00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:27,920
Speaker 1: last weekend. I went and did an interview, did a

544
00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:30,760
Speaker 1: podcast with my pastor. And I actually feel kind of bad, Michael.

545
00:32:30,760 --> 00:32:33,040
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm confessing infidelity to you. Yeah, what

546
00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:38,560
Speaker 1: the heckcast I you know, so I hadn't admitted that

547
00:32:38,600 --> 00:32:41,120
Speaker 1: to you that But anyway, the pastor said, come to

548
00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:44,280
Speaker 1: the church, and we did. We did, Uh said, it's

549
00:32:44,320 --> 00:32:46,800
Speaker 1: probably forty five minutes an hour. We talked back and forth,

550
00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:50,200
Speaker 1: and you know, it's interesting in our church. What the

551
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:52,160
Speaker 1: pastor did. He sent out an email to all the

552
00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:54,680
Speaker 1: members and said, what do you think where what's the

553
00:32:54,800 --> 00:33:02,560
Speaker 1: right balance of when are you comfortable coming back? Look,

554
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:09,240
Speaker 1: we've seen I think it will vary geographically. It needs

555
00:33:09,280 --> 00:33:13,000
Speaker 1: to be based on sound science and medicine. So, for example,

556
00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:17,320
Speaker 1: New York City, the infection rate and the fatalities there

557
00:33:17,120 --> 00:33:20,880
Speaker 1: are are horrific, and I think it makes sense for

558
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:24,560
Speaker 1: people to be have much more rigorous standards trying to

559
00:33:24,640 --> 00:33:27,160
Speaker 1: enforce social distancing in New York City right now. There

560
00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:29,680
Speaker 1: are other parts of the country with the numbers are

561
00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:35,239
Speaker 1: much less. We've seen local officials abusing their power. So

562
00:33:35,360 --> 00:33:39,640
Speaker 1: Tennessee and Mississippi, both instances you had people that are

563
00:33:39,640 --> 00:33:43,120
Speaker 1: actually Kentucky and Mississippi. Both instances you had people who

564
00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:47,960
Speaker 1: went to church, went to church in their cars, were

565
00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:50,160
Speaker 1: listening to the pastor over the radio, so they didn't

566
00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:51,800
Speaker 1: get out of their cars. They were all parked together

567
00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:54,640
Speaker 1: in the parking lot listening to the service over the radio.

568
00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:57,400
Speaker 1: But they wanted to be parked together, and and and

569
00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:00,680
Speaker 1: the politicians sent in police to ticke at them all.

570
00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:05,920
Speaker 1: Now that's just absurd, that's just abusive. But let me

571
00:34:05,960 --> 00:34:14,360
Speaker 1: give a different encouragement, which is the church is not

572
00:34:14,440 --> 00:34:18,560
Speaker 1: a building. The church is not bricks or mortis one

573
00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:20,880
Speaker 1: of the things when I did the podcast with my

574
00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:23,080
Speaker 1: pastor last week, I was saying, look, this is an

575
00:34:23,080 --> 00:34:25,680
Speaker 1: opportunity for the church, an opportunity for the church to

576
00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:37,120
Speaker 1: show show the love of Jesus, show to show care

577
00:34:37,200 --> 00:34:41,279
Speaker 1: and concern and to help others, to help you know,

578
00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:45,480
Speaker 1: elderly people who are alone, who are isolated, they need love,

579
00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:48,160
Speaker 1: they need people to reach out to them. Maybe not physically,

580
00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:51,120
Speaker 1: but they need to not feel alone and scared. There's

581
00:34:51,160 --> 00:34:55,879
Speaker 1: so many people who are understandably scared of their own mortality,

582
00:34:56,440 --> 00:35:02,839
Speaker 1: and this is an opportunity for the church, I think,

583
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:06,520
Speaker 1: not to worry about the physical building, but to worry

584
00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:10,080
Speaker 1: about the community we're in and to be the church,

585
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:12,800
Speaker 1: to be the body of Christ and show that love

586
00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:20,759
Speaker 1: that I think is is much much more important than

587
00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:26,000
Speaker 1: the exact date and time we're able to gather in

588
00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:28,719
Speaker 1: large groups. Again, sure that's true, and that date and

589
00:35:28,760 --> 00:35:31,200
Speaker 1: time will be different, you know, as you say, for

590
00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:34,520
Speaker 1: different places, and as it should be. Maybe if if

591
00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:36,399
Speaker 1: we could all take a little note of federalism out

592
00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:38,319
Speaker 1: of this pandemic, that wouldn't be the worst thing in

593
00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:42,160
Speaker 1: the world. Absolutely from the seer, this might be the

594
00:35:42,200 --> 00:35:46,040
Speaker 1: most important question yet, what number guard do you use

595
00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:48,680
Speaker 1: for your beard? I assume that question is to you,

596
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:54,760
Speaker 1: not to me. I don't know, is the short answer.

597
00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:57,640
Speaker 1: So I bought this this beard tremor right. So I

598
00:35:57,680 --> 00:36:03,279
Speaker 1: first grew the beard Thanksgiving, not last Thanksgiving, but Thanksgiving before,

599
00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:05,680
Speaker 1: and I just went on Thanksgiving break and I usually

600
00:36:05,719 --> 00:36:09,520
Speaker 1: on holiday don't shave, and at the end of vacation

601
00:36:09,560 --> 00:36:13,120
Speaker 1: I usually shave and I just came back and decide,

602
00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:15,080
Speaker 1: all right, what the heck I'm not going to And

603
00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:19,200
Speaker 1: I'd like to say it was some profound statement or

604
00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:21,000
Speaker 1: and it was just kind of a hadn't grown a

605
00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:22,920
Speaker 1: beard since law school, and I figured, all right, this

606
00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:31,080
Speaker 1: would be fun. And I gotta say. My campaign manager

607
00:36:31,640 --> 00:36:35,239
Speaker 1: sends me this email when he sees this picture of

608
00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:38,120
Speaker 1: me circulating around with sort of the whispy beginnings of

609
00:36:38,120 --> 00:36:44,040
Speaker 1: a beard, and he's just like, worst decision. Really. He

610
00:36:44,600 --> 00:36:49,239
Speaker 1: was anti beard, hard anti beard, and so I kind

611
00:36:49,239 --> 00:36:54,200
Speaker 1: of taunted him and we I am not surrounded by

612
00:36:54,280 --> 00:36:58,680
Speaker 1: yes man, let me say that it is. It is.

613
00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:02,160
Speaker 1: We all hold our own well. So the beard started

614
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:07,000
Speaker 1: growing in and then it started getting fairly unruly, and

615
00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:11,480
Speaker 1: I was doing some some press interview. It was a

616
00:37:11,600 --> 00:37:14,799
Speaker 1: Sunday show at my house, and like like, the team

617
00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:17,640
Speaker 1: started getting upset that the beard was a little too

618
00:37:17,719 --> 00:37:22,439
Speaker 1: duck dynasty for their taste, and so they they asked

619
00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:24,600
Speaker 1: a young guy to run over to the house and

620
00:37:24,760 --> 00:37:27,400
Speaker 1: buy a beard trimmer and be like, here, trimmed that

621
00:37:27,480 --> 00:37:31,239
Speaker 1: damn thing. And I'd never trimmed a beard. I'm like,

622
00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:34,000
Speaker 1: I don't know, So I just I got a beard trimmer,

623
00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:36,439
Speaker 1: And they have different clips that you clip on the thing,

624
00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:39,880
Speaker 1: and so I just clipped on whatever the biggest one is,

625
00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:43,319
Speaker 1: So the long ish whatever the longest clip is that

626
00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:45,560
Speaker 1: fits on the beard trimmer, that's the one I used

627
00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:50,520
Speaker 1: and cut it down some. And you know, I'm imagining

628
00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:53,040
Speaker 1: so so I don't know what number is the short age.

629
00:37:53,080 --> 00:37:55,399
Speaker 1: I'm imagining if you hadn't trimmed it by now, you'd

630
00:37:55,440 --> 00:37:58,560
Speaker 1: you'd look like one of those Russian Orthodox priests. And

631
00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:01,160
Speaker 1: then some crook at the FBI might accuse you of

632
00:38:01,160 --> 00:38:02,920
Speaker 1: colluding or something. I don't know. I mean, I think

633
00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:05,280
Speaker 1: it's probably lucky that you were able to trim that beard.

634
00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:09,520
Speaker 1: So I've I ever told you. A good friend of

635
00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:13,200
Speaker 1: mine who was used to be on my senate staff,

636
00:38:13,520 --> 00:38:16,080
Speaker 1: um he had right about when I grew the beard.

637
00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:20,920
Speaker 1: He had left and was living in Jerusalem, and was

638
00:38:20,920 --> 00:38:24,040
Speaker 1: was it was it yeshiva yea? And he sent me

639
00:38:24,080 --> 00:38:26,520
Speaker 1: an email he said a friend of his was a

640
00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:30,399
Speaker 1: rabbi who had seen a picture of the beard. He said,

641
00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:35,120
Speaker 1: the beard has a Rabbinical and Talmudic look to it

642
00:38:36,680 --> 00:38:40,560
Speaker 1: that will bring peace to the Middle East and put

643
00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:45,279
Speaker 1: the fear of God in the enemies of Israel I

644
00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:47,880
Speaker 1: like cracked up. There's a real email, And so I

645
00:38:47,920 --> 00:38:50,480
Speaker 1: actually literally cut and pasted it and I tweeted it out.

646
00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:53,040
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, this may be a bit much. I'm

647
00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:56,520
Speaker 1: not sure about I'm glad you're like the beard, but

648
00:38:56,640 --> 00:38:59,160
Speaker 1: but it did at least make me laugh. Wow, that's great.

649
00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:01,320
Speaker 1: I would probably at that line in my Twitter bio.

650
00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:06,280
Speaker 1: That's a very very good feedback. Nevertheless, from John James.

651
00:39:06,880 --> 00:39:10,360
Speaker 1: With thirty trillion dollars in debt, two hundred trillion dollars

652
00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:13,799
Speaker 1: in obligations, and one hundred trillion dollars in state debts,

653
00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:17,360
Speaker 1: how will we ever get our finances in order when

654
00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:20,520
Speaker 1: the GOP as well as the Democrats keep kicking the

655
00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:24,160
Speaker 1: can down the road. Look at it. It is a

656
00:39:24,239 --> 00:39:27,719
Speaker 1: massive problem. It was a massive problem three months ago,

657
00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:33,760
Speaker 1: and now it's even worse. We've spent three trillion dollars

658
00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:38,000
Speaker 1: in just a couple of months. And the problem is

659
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:42,840
Speaker 1: it's a bipartisan problem in the Senate. For in ordinary times,

660
00:39:42,880 --> 00:39:47,319
Speaker 1: for any trillion dollars spending bill, you get all the Democrats,

661
00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:49,799
Speaker 1: and you get half to two thirds of the Republicans.

662
00:39:50,440 --> 00:39:54,239
Speaker 1: There maybe twenty of us that try to hold a

663
00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:56,640
Speaker 1: lot and try to push back, but but those votes

664
00:39:56,680 --> 00:40:02,799
Speaker 1: are usually about eighty twenty. The only way you will

665
00:40:02,840 --> 00:40:08,720
Speaker 1: get that is with presidential leadership. And there are areas

666
00:40:08,760 --> 00:40:12,439
Speaker 1: where the president has been vigorous and aggressive. He didn't

667
00:40:12,520 --> 00:40:16,160
Speaker 1: run in twenty sixteen promising to cut spending. He didn't

668
00:40:16,239 --> 00:40:21,920
Speaker 1: run campaigning against debt, and so when the president is

669
00:40:21,960 --> 00:40:24,200
Speaker 1: supporting it, that makes it easy for a whole bunch

670
00:40:24,200 --> 00:40:26,560
Speaker 1: of Republicans to support it, and all the Democrats always

671
00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:30,960
Speaker 1: support spending. The answer in terms of how we turn

672
00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:33,920
Speaker 1: it around, I'd say a couple of things. One you

673
00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:36,560
Speaker 1: need presidential leadership that's willing to take it on. But two,

674
00:40:36,600 --> 00:40:39,439
Speaker 1: you've got to have economic growth. So if you look

675
00:40:39,480 --> 00:40:43,719
Speaker 1: at the numbers, you look at all the variables that

676
00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:48,400
Speaker 1: go into our federal budget, there is only one first

677
00:40:48,560 --> 00:40:51,880
Speaker 1: order variable, which is there's only one variable that has

678
00:40:51,920 --> 00:40:56,240
Speaker 1: just just a dramatic impact, and it is economic growth.

679
00:40:57,640 --> 00:41:01,440
Speaker 1: If we're at anemic level of growth, if we're at

680
00:41:01,719 --> 00:41:03,839
Speaker 1: one and two percent growth, which is what we had

681
00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:08,400
Speaker 1: for the Obama administration for eight years, with anemic growth,

682
00:41:08,480 --> 00:41:14,399
Speaker 1: you can't solve this problem with robust growth, three four

683
00:41:14,600 --> 00:41:18,640
Speaker 1: five percent growth. The debt becomes much easier to solve.

684
00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:22,880
Speaker 1: If you look at the last time the federal deficit

685
00:41:22,920 --> 00:41:25,560
Speaker 1: went to zero and we actually had a surplus. It

686
00:41:25,640 --> 00:41:28,920
Speaker 1: was after twelve years of Reagan Bush. It was after

687
00:41:28,960 --> 00:41:32,680
Speaker 1: twelve years of cutting taxes, reducing regulations, and the economic

688
00:41:32,719 --> 00:41:35,160
Speaker 1: growth was such that when it got to Bill Clinton,

689
00:41:35,239 --> 00:41:39,800
Speaker 1: Bill Clinton inherited a four trillion dollars surplus that wasn't

690
00:41:39,840 --> 00:41:44,440
Speaker 1: that long ago. And it was the incredible economic growth

691
00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:48,479
Speaker 1: that came from tax reform and reg reform. A little

692
00:41:48,480 --> 00:41:51,840
Speaker 1: bit of a Johnny one note, growth, growth, growth, and

693
00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:54,600
Speaker 1: you get it from tax reform and reg reform. Now

694
00:41:55,960 --> 00:42:00,879
Speaker 1: we're in we're in a situation economic this country hasn't

695
00:42:00,880 --> 00:42:06,080
Speaker 1: seen since the Great Depression. It's frightening is this is

696
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:10,080
Speaker 1: thirty three million Americans have lost their job in two months.

697
00:42:10,360 --> 00:42:14,919
Speaker 1: We had we had strong growth until three months ago. Yeah,

698
00:42:16,120 --> 00:42:18,359
Speaker 1: we've got to turn it around. I will say as

699
00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:23,719
Speaker 1: we start shifting the conversation into a growth conversation. Look,

700
00:42:23,719 --> 00:42:27,160
Speaker 1: when you're shoveling cash out the door by the trillions,

701
00:42:28,280 --> 00:42:34,319
Speaker 1: that's kind of naturally the democrats playing field. If you're

702
00:42:34,360 --> 00:42:37,839
Speaker 1: a status if you're a socialist, shoveling cash, you'd love

703
00:42:37,960 --> 00:42:42,080
Speaker 1: to do if we start shifting into the recovery debate,

704
00:42:42,120 --> 00:42:44,080
Speaker 1: which is where I think we should be. How do

705
00:42:44,160 --> 00:42:47,080
Speaker 1: we bring growth back? How do we bring those jobs back?

706
00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:51,120
Speaker 1: That then is a conservative or a libertarian's battlefield where

707
00:42:51,160 --> 00:42:53,279
Speaker 1: the only way to do it is tax reform and

708
00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:56,200
Speaker 1: reag reform. And so if we can get growth up,

709
00:42:57,719 --> 00:43:03,279
Speaker 1: and for someone who says, well it seems hopeless, I mean,

710
00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:05,960
Speaker 1: things are so bad as is it? Just are we doomed?

711
00:43:08,040 --> 00:43:13,640
Speaker 1: From World War Two to the present, GDP growth has

712
00:43:13,680 --> 00:43:18,279
Speaker 1: averaged about three point three percent a year from two

713
00:43:18,320 --> 00:43:20,960
Speaker 1: thousand and eight to twenty twelve. Under Barack Obama it

714
00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:23,879
Speaker 1: averaged zero point nine percent a year, less than one

715
00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:28,920
Speaker 1: percent over four years. The last four year period before

716
00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:33,160
Speaker 1: that we're GDP growth average less than one percent was

717
00:43:33,200 --> 00:43:35,240
Speaker 1: seventy eight to eighty two. Is coming out of Jimmy

718
00:43:35,239 --> 00:43:39,920
Speaker 1: Carter YEP. And what happened then? What happened then, and

719
00:43:40,040 --> 00:43:42,080
Speaker 1: by the way, what produced it in both instances was

720
00:43:42,120 --> 00:43:46,160
Speaker 1: high taxes, high regulation, strangly small businesses, and growth becomes anemic.

721
00:43:46,840 --> 00:43:50,839
Speaker 1: Now Reagan comes in in eighty one, cuts taxes, simplifies

722
00:43:50,880 --> 00:43:55,640
Speaker 1: the tax code, repeals job killing regulations. We go from

723
00:43:56,360 --> 00:44:00,120
Speaker 1: four years of GDP growth less than one percent. Do

724
00:44:00,120 --> 00:44:02,839
Speaker 1: you know what GDP growth was in nineteen eighty four?

725
00:44:03,800 --> 00:44:12,680
Speaker 1: I don't remember. Seven point two percent. Man, those are

726
00:44:12,840 --> 00:44:17,160
Speaker 1: crazy numbers, and we did that. That's what fueled the

727
00:44:17,280 --> 00:44:21,879
Speaker 1: incredible growth. By the way, JFK. JFK campaigned on five

728
00:44:21,920 --> 00:44:25,400
Speaker 1: percent GDP growth and then he cut taxes and repealed regulations,

729
00:44:25,400 --> 00:44:28,319
Speaker 1: and we got five percent GDP growth. You want to

730
00:44:28,320 --> 00:44:30,960
Speaker 1: turn the debt around, the only thing strong enough to

731
00:44:31,040 --> 00:44:34,040
Speaker 1: do it is the incredible engine of the American free

732
00:44:34,120 --> 00:44:37,360
Speaker 1: enterprise system and its growth. Growth. Growth has got to

733
00:44:37,400 --> 00:44:39,480
Speaker 1: be our fun right, and we're not going to be

734
00:44:39,520 --> 00:44:41,520
Speaker 1: able to get there if we're a lockdown for two years.

735
00:44:41,520 --> 00:44:44,200
Speaker 1: So I think that's another reason to be eager to

736
00:44:44,280 --> 00:44:48,239
Speaker 1: start to lift some of these lockdowns from Joe. Joe

737
00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:52,360
Speaker 1: wants to know do you think central banks issuing digital

738
00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:56,600
Speaker 1: cryptocurrency will lead to the government keeping us from buying

739
00:44:56,640 --> 00:45:02,959
Speaker 1: and selling? It's a question. I know absolutely nothing about it. Yeah,

740
00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:07,279
Speaker 1: I gotta admit I don't know much about that question either. Look,

741
00:45:07,320 --> 00:45:11,360
Speaker 1: when it comes to the FED, I am nervous about

742
00:45:11,400 --> 00:45:14,839
Speaker 1: the FED. I'm nervous about unchecked power I've long been

743
00:45:15,320 --> 00:45:18,319
Speaker 1: a co sponsor of audit the FED legislation. I think

744
00:45:18,360 --> 00:45:24,880
Speaker 1: we need to audit the FED. Right now, the FED

745
00:45:25,040 --> 00:45:28,440
Speaker 1: is doing a lot to provide liquidity to all sorts

746
00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:32,240
Speaker 1: of players in the economy. I'm glad if that helps

747
00:45:32,280 --> 00:45:35,719
Speaker 1: our helps our economy make it through this. But I

748
00:45:35,760 --> 00:45:39,040
Speaker 1: suspect they're going to be some ugly components there that

749
00:45:39,080 --> 00:45:49,080
Speaker 1: will come out later. And so the cryptocurrency world, you know, bitcoin,

750
00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:52,280
Speaker 1: I have to admit, I like, I have some friends

751
00:45:52,320 --> 00:45:55,319
Speaker 1: that have gotten into the bitcoin world, and I'm all,

752
00:45:55,360 --> 00:45:59,920
Speaker 1: I'm quite libertarian, so I'm like, great, knock yourself out.

753
00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:01,560
Speaker 1: A couple who are like, hey, you know, you ought

754
00:46:01,560 --> 00:46:05,200
Speaker 1: to put a thousand dollars into this, and I don't

755
00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:10,080
Speaker 1: entirely understand it. Yeah, Like I just they've tried to

756
00:46:10,120 --> 00:46:13,000
Speaker 1: explain it to me, and I'm like, okay, I'm not sure.

757
00:46:13,080 --> 00:46:15,319
Speaker 1: And so I don't, like, I don't have that much

758
00:46:15,360 --> 00:46:17,399
Speaker 1: money to invest to begin with, but but I don't

759
00:46:17,440 --> 00:46:19,680
Speaker 1: like to put put money I have in something that

760
00:46:19,719 --> 00:46:22,799
Speaker 1: I don't don't fundamentally understand. And it seems to be

761
00:46:23,040 --> 00:46:25,680
Speaker 1: very volatile and some people it's gone way up, and

762
00:46:25,719 --> 00:46:28,640
Speaker 1: then usually things that can go way up really fast.

763
00:46:28,640 --> 00:46:34,840
Speaker 1: You can go way down really fast. So I don't know.

764
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:42,320
Speaker 1: I will say, when it comes to policy makers regulating

765
00:46:42,400 --> 00:46:46,240
Speaker 1: things like cryptocurrency, I think most of the federal government

766
00:46:46,239 --> 00:46:51,040
Speaker 1: doesn't know what it's doing yet is not sure Yeah,

767
00:46:51,080 --> 00:46:53,799
Speaker 1: what the right answer is. I don't doubt there's some

768
00:46:53,840 --> 00:46:58,360
Speaker 1: big government folks that want to take over everything with it.

769
00:46:58,440 --> 00:47:05,120
Speaker 1: Is there a role for combating fraud and money laundering?

770
00:47:05,239 --> 00:47:10,359
Speaker 1: And sure? But I don't know, is the short sure? Well,

771
00:47:10,640 --> 00:47:14,040
Speaker 1: I'm basically with youth senator, including on the investment front.

772
00:47:14,200 --> 00:47:16,960
Speaker 1: I spoke to George Gilder, who I think he was

773
00:47:17,280 --> 00:47:21,040
Speaker 1: the most cited writer by Ronald Reagan during his entire presidency.

774
00:47:21,040 --> 00:47:23,759
Speaker 1: George Guilder, very very insightful guy, and he wrote this

775
00:47:23,760 --> 00:47:27,040
Speaker 1: whole book about how blockchain, you know, the essence of

776
00:47:27,400 --> 00:47:30,520
Speaker 1: bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Blockchain is the future of the Internet.

777
00:47:30,680 --> 00:47:33,680
Speaker 1: And I have no doubt that he's He's right, But

778
00:47:34,160 --> 00:47:36,759
Speaker 1: I don't understand it either. It certainly doesn't appear to

779
00:47:36,800 --> 00:47:39,600
Speaker 1: be happening right now. And so obviously the government is

780
00:47:39,600 --> 00:47:41,719
Speaker 1: going to weigh in on this more as it develops,

781
00:47:41,800 --> 00:47:46,840
Speaker 1: and in the meantime, there's a tendency you know the

782
00:47:46,880 --> 00:47:50,160
Speaker 1: famous story of the Emperor's new clothes, where the Emperor's

783
00:47:50,280 --> 00:47:55,040
Speaker 1: riding naked down the street because because some unscrupulous tailors

784
00:47:55,080 --> 00:48:00,920
Speaker 1: convinced him they had invisible thread, and everyone was afraid

785
00:48:00,960 --> 00:48:03,239
Speaker 1: to say, this guy's naked, he's not wearing anything. Like

786
00:48:03,320 --> 00:48:07,160
Speaker 1: groupthink can be really dangerous. And you look at like

787
00:48:07,320 --> 00:48:12,160
Speaker 1: Hollands the tulip bulbs that like there was an investment

788
00:48:12,239 --> 00:48:15,560
Speaker 1: mania where everyone wanted tulip bulbs, and so happens. I

789
00:48:15,640 --> 00:48:18,560
Speaker 1: bought Heidi some purple tulips yesterday, and I don't know

790
00:48:18,560 --> 00:48:21,120
Speaker 1: why I thought of the tulip bulbs, but they became

791
00:48:21,160 --> 00:48:25,239
Speaker 1: incredibly valuable, like like flower bulbs, Like why would you

792
00:48:25,320 --> 00:48:28,439
Speaker 1: be spending tons of money on flower bulls? I don't

793
00:48:28,480 --> 00:48:31,640
Speaker 1: get it, but it became everyone was afraid to say

794
00:48:31,680 --> 00:48:34,400
Speaker 1: the emperor has no clothes, and everyone wanted tullibubs. And

795
00:48:34,440 --> 00:48:36,879
Speaker 1: then they went way up and then they collapsed. And

796
00:48:36,920 --> 00:48:40,320
Speaker 1: I do think there are tendencies people are scared to

797
00:48:40,360 --> 00:48:43,840
Speaker 1: say they don't understand something, and that that can be

798
00:48:43,880 --> 00:48:47,400
Speaker 1: a very dangerous place to get involved. I'm still waiting

799
00:48:47,400 --> 00:48:49,759
Speaker 1: for my beanie babies to shoot right back up through

800
00:48:49,760 --> 00:48:52,239
Speaker 1: the roof I'm going to be a wealthy man when

801
00:48:52,280 --> 00:48:54,560
Speaker 1: that happens. It's probably just right around the corner. And

802
00:48:54,680 --> 00:48:59,440
Speaker 1: that in the Tulips as well. This question from Cbe.

803
00:49:00,480 --> 00:49:03,840
Speaker 1: I am a waitress. My governor's orders are a slap

804
00:49:03,880 --> 00:49:06,880
Speaker 1: in the face to me. Mister Cruz, what is the

805
00:49:06,920 --> 00:49:10,359
Speaker 1: most effective way, in your opinion, to end these restrictions.

806
00:49:10,640 --> 00:49:14,160
Speaker 1: I've heard people say called the doj the Supreme Court

807
00:49:14,200 --> 00:49:16,839
Speaker 1: refused to hear the Pennsylvania case. I'm not quite sure

808
00:49:16,880 --> 00:49:21,160
Speaker 1: what that's referring to. For people who can't work at all,

809
00:49:21,239 --> 00:49:23,799
Speaker 1: you know, like a waitress simply cannot work during this

810
00:49:24,440 --> 00:49:27,600
Speaker 1: Obviously it's much more urgent to restart the economy than

811
00:49:27,640 --> 00:49:30,839
Speaker 1: for people who can work from home. Should they write

812
00:49:30,840 --> 00:49:33,080
Speaker 1: to their congressmen? I mean, what is best for them

813
00:49:33,120 --> 00:49:37,560
Speaker 1: to do right now? So did c me say where

814
00:49:37,600 --> 00:49:42,640
Speaker 1: she was? No? Okay, Look, I mean it's it's harder

815
00:49:42,680 --> 00:49:45,080
Speaker 1: because it's varying state by state, and some of it

816
00:49:45,200 --> 00:49:49,680
Speaker 1: is depending on the facts and circumstances. If the infection

817
00:49:49,840 --> 00:49:54,120
Speaker 1: is really bad and widespread, then then the restrictions will

818
00:49:54,160 --> 00:49:56,839
Speaker 1: probably be around for a while. I think there's also

819
00:49:56,880 --> 00:50:00,319
Speaker 1: a pretty sharp difference here between Republicans and democra rats.

820
00:50:00,320 --> 00:50:03,480
Speaker 1: So if you're in she mentioned Pennsylvania. Look, if she's

821
00:50:03,520 --> 00:50:07,080
Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania, they have a democratic governor. Yeah, and you're seeing.

822
00:50:08,320 --> 00:50:11,200
Speaker 1: Part of the messed up thing about where we are

823
00:50:11,239 --> 00:50:17,720
Speaker 1: today is everything in life seems to be defined based

824
00:50:17,760 --> 00:50:21,640
Speaker 1: on what you think about Donald Trump. And it's it's weird.

825
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:25,080
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean it's so so. For Democrats who

826
00:50:25,080 --> 00:50:31,399
Speaker 1: hate Trump, everything is about Trump and it's just and

827
00:50:31,400 --> 00:50:36,200
Speaker 1: and so this virus, this pandemic, it's all his fault.

828
00:50:36,520 --> 00:50:39,440
Speaker 1: And their view is everything's got to stay shut down forever.

829
00:50:39,640 --> 00:50:44,320
Speaker 1: And we're seeing democratic politicians that are saying, until there's

830
00:50:44,360 --> 00:50:48,560
Speaker 1: not one case, yeah, right, we'll just shut down everyone forever. Look,

831
00:50:49,520 --> 00:50:51,759
Speaker 1: that's a little nuney and Okay, I'm sorry you don't

832
00:50:51,800 --> 00:50:54,000
Speaker 1: like Trump, but but that's that doesn't make any it's

833
00:50:54,000 --> 00:50:57,400
Speaker 1: just impossible. Look to be fair. On the flip side,

834
00:50:58,400 --> 00:51:01,399
Speaker 1: there are folks who loved Trump who I think are

835
00:51:01,480 --> 00:51:05,040
Speaker 1: too quick to dismiss this pandemic as it's a hoax.

836
00:51:05,080 --> 00:51:09,319
Speaker 1: It's not real. This thing's real. It's dangerous. People are

837
00:51:09,400 --> 00:51:12,440
Speaker 1: dying and we need to treat it seriously. And I

838
00:51:12,480 --> 00:51:14,600
Speaker 1: gotta say where I am and where I think most

839
00:51:14,680 --> 00:51:20,160
Speaker 1: Texans are is let's use common sense, Let's treat it seriously.

840
00:51:20,280 --> 00:51:24,480
Speaker 1: Let's let's do what we can to slow and stop

841
00:51:24,520 --> 00:51:26,880
Speaker 1: the spread of the virus. But let's not at the

842
00:51:26,960 --> 00:51:32,719
Speaker 1: same time strangle small businesses and destroy people's livelihood. So Texas,

843
00:51:32,840 --> 00:51:36,640
Speaker 1: we we just rolled out. So for example, CB said

844
00:51:36,640 --> 00:51:41,000
Speaker 1: she's a waitress. We've now Texas has laid out guidelines

845
00:51:41,000 --> 00:51:43,480
Speaker 1: that has allowed restaurants to reopen. Now they're reopening at

846
00:51:43,480 --> 00:51:48,440
Speaker 1: twenty five percent capacity. So Sunday night, Heidi and I

847
00:51:48,520 --> 00:51:49,840
Speaker 1: and the girls we went out to dinner for the

848
00:51:49,880 --> 00:51:51,480
Speaker 1: first time. We hadn't been out to dinner and I

849
00:51:51,520 --> 00:51:54,279
Speaker 1: don't know two three months, and so we went out.

850
00:51:54,320 --> 00:51:59,840
Speaker 1: We went out to sushi, which the girls love. Heidi,

851
00:52:00,280 --> 00:52:02,759
Speaker 1: I actually like sushi too, although Fred of mine was laughing,

852
00:52:02,840 --> 00:52:05,440
Speaker 1: went your first meal, you went out for bait. But

853
00:52:05,719 --> 00:52:10,000
Speaker 1: well yeah, um, but now look, we we wore masks

854
00:52:10,040 --> 00:52:12,080
Speaker 1: into the restaurant. You had to take them off. You

855
00:52:12,080 --> 00:52:15,840
Speaker 1: obviously can't eat with a mask on. But all the

856
00:52:15,960 --> 00:52:19,960
Speaker 1: tables were spread apart, pretty far apart um. And it's

857
00:52:20,000 --> 00:52:23,680
Speaker 1: at twenty five percent capacity. And the plan hopefully if if,

858
00:52:23,719 --> 00:52:27,080
Speaker 1: if the numbers supported in Texas. What the governor's laid

859
00:52:27,120 --> 00:52:30,000
Speaker 1: out is to shift to fifty percent capacity and then

860
00:52:30,120 --> 00:52:33,839
Speaker 1: keep keep going to you till you get up that

861
00:52:34,000 --> 00:52:36,680
Speaker 1: very state by state. I gotta say, if if if

862
00:52:36,719 --> 00:52:40,040
Speaker 1: CB is in a blue state with a Democratic governor

863
00:52:40,080 --> 00:52:42,040
Speaker 1: who is focused on I hate Trump and want to

864
00:52:42,040 --> 00:52:45,640
Speaker 1: stay shut down forever, you know, my advice might be

865
00:52:46,640 --> 00:52:51,279
Speaker 1: moved somewhere. Yeah, right where where you don't have politicians

866
00:52:51,280 --> 00:52:53,920
Speaker 1: who are as crazy. I've been thinking about that everyday.

867
00:52:53,960 --> 00:52:58,440
Speaker 1: Senator from Quentin, do you think that China should just

868
00:52:58,560 --> 00:53:01,240
Speaker 1: cancel the debt that we owe them since they've cost

869
00:53:01,480 --> 00:53:03,680
Speaker 1: the US trillions? That seems like a simple answer to

870
00:53:03,719 --> 00:53:07,760
Speaker 1: the debt one? Why can't we do that? Oh? Look,

871
00:53:08,000 --> 00:53:14,719
Speaker 1: if I had a magic wand sure, um, they're not

872
00:53:14,800 --> 00:53:19,200
Speaker 1: going to Um. We need to deal with them seriously.

873
00:53:19,320 --> 00:53:23,920
Speaker 1: But there's some folks saying, okay, let's seize Chinese assets. Okay,

874
00:53:24,760 --> 00:53:27,480
Speaker 1: but look, when you're dealing with foreign policy, right we

875
00:53:27,520 --> 00:53:29,239
Speaker 1: seize a bunch of Chinese assets, you know what they're

876
00:53:29,280 --> 00:53:31,160
Speaker 1: gonna do. They're gonna see a bunch of American assets

877
00:53:31,200 --> 00:53:35,520
Speaker 1: like you know, you know that that's that is a

878
00:53:35,640 --> 00:53:38,920
Speaker 1: dangerous road to go down. So would I love it.

879
00:53:39,040 --> 00:53:41,440
Speaker 1: You know if if I'd also love it, if my

880
00:53:41,480 --> 00:53:44,600
Speaker 1: mortgage company forgave my death, that'd be nice. So yes,

881
00:53:45,040 --> 00:53:49,240
Speaker 1: But would it would I love it? Of course I would.

882
00:53:49,320 --> 00:53:53,000
Speaker 1: Do I really have any ability to make it happen? No, um.

883
00:53:54,239 --> 00:53:56,279
Speaker 1: When it comes to China, I think of it in

884
00:53:56,320 --> 00:53:59,719
Speaker 1: phases number one. We need a real accounting. We need

885
00:53:59,760 --> 00:54:02,200
Speaker 1: a real accounting of their responsibility. You and I have

886
00:54:02,239 --> 00:54:04,680
Speaker 1: talked at length on this podcast. We were among the

887
00:54:04,719 --> 00:54:08,560
Speaker 1: first to talk about how the preponderance of the evidence

888
00:54:08,680 --> 00:54:11,560
Speaker 1: is this virus likely came from one of the two

889
00:54:11,640 --> 00:54:17,360
Speaker 1: Chinese labs in Wuhan that was studying coronaviruses derived from bats.

890
00:54:17,960 --> 00:54:20,759
Speaker 1: One of those labs was three hundred yards from the

891
00:54:20,800 --> 00:54:25,319
Speaker 1: wet market in Wuhan where this outbreak occurred. By the way,

892
00:54:25,400 --> 00:54:29,000
Speaker 1: the nearest bats we know of that have have comparable

893
00:54:29,080 --> 00:54:33,200
Speaker 1: viruses are a thousand miles away in caves in China. Right.

894
00:54:33,760 --> 00:54:39,200
Speaker 1: Not only that, we know that the Chinese government demanded

895
00:54:39,239 --> 00:54:45,040
Speaker 1: of these labs they destroy their samples. Now, when you destroy,

896
00:54:45,080 --> 00:54:48,080
Speaker 1: you when you destroy evidence that raises an inference, and

897
00:54:48,080 --> 00:54:50,480
Speaker 1: by the way, courts do this all the time. If

898
00:54:50,520 --> 00:54:53,000
Speaker 1: you destroy avidace, you're in litigation, you go destroy adace,

899
00:54:54,239 --> 00:54:57,640
Speaker 1: that raises an inference that the evidence would have revealed

900
00:54:57,719 --> 00:55:02,319
Speaker 1: something damning to use something that shows your responsibility. The

901
00:55:02,320 --> 00:55:05,600
Speaker 1: fact that they destroyed those samples does a lot. And

902
00:55:05,840 --> 00:55:08,960
Speaker 1: let me say something also, So there are lots of

903
00:55:09,600 --> 00:55:12,320
Speaker 1: people pretending to be learned saying, oh, the evidence is

904
00:55:12,360 --> 00:55:17,560
Speaker 1: all circumstantial. Yea, that's actually true. Most people, Michael, who

905
00:55:17,560 --> 00:55:20,160
Speaker 1: are not lawyers, don't know the difference between circumstantial and

906
00:55:20,160 --> 00:55:27,040
Speaker 1: direct evidence. Direct evidence is let's say an eyewitness, if

907
00:55:27,160 --> 00:55:30,759
Speaker 1: I see you point a gun at somebody and shoot them,

908
00:55:30,760 --> 00:55:34,000
Speaker 1: and I testify I saw Michael shoot so and so

909
00:55:34,160 --> 00:55:38,840
Speaker 1: that's direct evidence. Circumstantial evidence. Let's say you've gone to

910
00:55:38,880 --> 00:55:43,360
Speaker 1: the opera and you're watching the opera and suddenly you

911
00:55:43,480 --> 00:55:45,839
Speaker 1: see an you hear a gunshot, you see a man

912
00:55:46,000 --> 00:55:50,080
Speaker 1: leap from the balcony holding a gun saying six semper

913
00:55:50,120 --> 00:55:56,000
Speaker 1: turannis and run off. Now that's all circumstantial evidence that

914
00:55:56,040 --> 00:55:58,560
Speaker 1: you just saw John Wilkes Booth shoot Abraham Lincoln. But

915
00:55:58,600 --> 00:56:02,600
Speaker 1: if you didn't see it, that is circumstantial. By the way,

916
00:56:02,640 --> 00:56:06,960
Speaker 1: people get convicted on circumstantial evidence all the time. It

917
00:56:07,080 --> 00:56:11,719
Speaker 1: is simply looking to the circumstances and drawing reasonable inferences

918
00:56:13,040 --> 00:56:20,400
Speaker 1: the evidence we have, and it suggests the most rational

919
00:56:20,560 --> 00:56:24,840
Speaker 1: assessment is this lab, one of these two labs or

920
00:56:24,920 --> 00:56:30,640
Speaker 1: both was studying this virus and presumably it escaped accidentally.

921
00:56:31,880 --> 00:56:34,880
Speaker 1: And the media fact checkers that try to refute this,

922
00:56:34,920 --> 00:56:37,640
Speaker 1: what they keep saying is there's no evidence this was

923
00:56:37,640 --> 00:56:43,279
Speaker 1: a bioweapon released deliberately. Well do even as bad as

924
00:56:43,320 --> 00:56:47,600
Speaker 1: the Chinese are, right, Okay, maybe look at anything's possible.

925
00:56:47,640 --> 00:56:50,680
Speaker 1: But I agree that there is not evidence that they

926
00:56:50,880 --> 00:56:56,319
Speaker 1: released a bioweapon to kill their own own people. But

927
00:56:56,440 --> 00:56:59,400
Speaker 1: we do know that they were studying bat coronaviruses in

928
00:56:59,640 --> 00:57:04,560
Speaker 1: these labs right there where the outbreak occurred. Let's start

929
00:57:04,560 --> 00:57:09,440
Speaker 1: with a real accounting was the novel coronavirus in those labs?

930
00:57:09,480 --> 00:57:11,719
Speaker 1: What were the safety protocols? We know also the State

931
00:57:11,760 --> 00:57:17,320
Speaker 1: Department had two internal wires before this crisis, raising concerns

932
00:57:17,360 --> 00:57:21,160
Speaker 1: about the shoddy security protocols and actually warning that the

933
00:57:21,760 --> 00:57:24,200
Speaker 1: security was so shoddy it could lead to a global

934
00:57:24,240 --> 00:57:30,120
Speaker 1: pandemic of coronavirus. That sounds kind of relevant. Yeah, we

935
00:57:30,240 --> 00:57:34,800
Speaker 1: also know for a fact that the Chinese government covered

936
00:57:34,800 --> 00:57:36,680
Speaker 1: it up, that they suppressed it, that they hit it,

937
00:57:37,200 --> 00:57:41,520
Speaker 1: and so I think we should start with a serious accounting,

938
00:57:41,640 --> 00:57:44,800
Speaker 1: driven by US, driven by third parties, driven by other countries,

939
00:57:45,040 --> 00:57:48,720
Speaker 1: to ascertain it's clear China's directly responsible. We need to

940
00:57:48,720 --> 00:57:52,960
Speaker 1: get the facts. The harder question will be then, therefore, what,

941
00:57:55,440 --> 00:57:59,280
Speaker 1: yes they should pay, how they should pay? To be honest,

942
00:57:59,320 --> 00:58:01,160
Speaker 1: we're going to be addling with them. I don't think

943
00:58:01,200 --> 00:58:03,959
Speaker 1: they're going to pull out a checkbook willingly anytime soon.

944
00:58:04,560 --> 00:58:06,439
Speaker 1: So we're going to have to figure that out back

945
00:58:06,440 --> 00:58:09,200
Speaker 1: and forth. And one of the things that will make

946
00:58:09,280 --> 00:58:13,440
Speaker 1: us more able to be vigorous in solving that is

947
00:58:13,520 --> 00:58:16,360
Speaker 1: decoupling from China. So much of our supply chain right

948
00:58:16,360 --> 00:58:19,200
Speaker 1: now is dependent on China. So many of our life

949
00:58:19,200 --> 00:58:23,480
Speaker 1: saving medicines are manufactured in China. I am fighting hard

950
00:58:23,760 --> 00:58:27,360
Speaker 1: to bring that manufacturing back to the US so that

951
00:58:27,400 --> 00:58:29,560
Speaker 1: they don't have the ability to do what they threatened

952
00:58:29,600 --> 00:58:32,160
Speaker 1: to do during this crisis, which has cut off life

953
00:58:32,240 --> 00:58:37,120
Speaker 1: saving medicines and kill Americans. As long as we're intertwined

954
00:58:37,160 --> 00:58:42,920
Speaker 1: with them, the ability to lean in is constrained and dangerous.

955
00:58:43,480 --> 00:58:45,720
Speaker 1: But let's start with a full accounting, and at the

956
00:58:45,760 --> 00:58:49,160
Speaker 1: same time, let's be decoupling. That's such an important point.

957
00:58:49,160 --> 00:58:52,040
Speaker 1: It seems like common sense. There's no such thing as

958
00:58:52,040 --> 00:58:55,280
Speaker 1: a free lunch. Right, So I've lost audio. You've lost me.

959
00:58:56,280 --> 00:58:58,760
Speaker 1: I wonder if the rest of the audience can hear me.

960
00:58:58,920 --> 00:59:01,440
Speaker 1: But it's a good thing that, Michael, you're such a

961
00:59:01,440 --> 00:59:05,280
Speaker 1: good actor, because the next question is going to have

962
00:59:05,360 --> 00:59:08,640
Speaker 1: to be mine. See. I don't know if you can

963
00:59:08,680 --> 00:59:11,080
Speaker 1: hear me, but can you do a box? Yes, I

964
00:59:11,120 --> 00:59:15,160
Speaker 1: would say for the next question. Okab still I have

965
00:59:15,280 --> 00:59:18,600
Speaker 1: zero audio. I'll, i'll, I will learn sign language before

966
00:59:18,680 --> 00:59:21,560
Speaker 1: the next episode. But until then, I will take that

967
00:59:21,840 --> 00:59:26,880
Speaker 1: as a providential sign, either from the heavens above or

968
00:59:27,320 --> 00:59:30,560
Speaker 1: from the Chinese government you know that's tapping into our

969
00:59:30,720 --> 00:59:33,440
Speaker 1: streams or anything in the middle, that that will have

970
00:59:33,440 --> 00:59:35,480
Speaker 1: to be the end of this episode. Almost at one

971
00:59:35,480 --> 00:59:38,520
Speaker 1: hour by the dot, I'm back, Senator, you're back. You know.

972
00:59:38,720 --> 00:59:41,320
Speaker 1: I have a theory that it was the Chinese government

973
00:59:41,360 --> 00:59:43,880
Speaker 1: hacking into our streamline because they didn't like all the

974
00:59:43,880 --> 00:59:46,880
Speaker 1: things that you were saying. I think that's right. By

975
00:59:46,920 --> 00:59:49,440
Speaker 1: the way, could you hear me? Yes, I could hear you,

976
00:59:49,600 --> 00:59:52,600
Speaker 1: and I guess you couldn't understand my sign language. In

977
00:59:52,640 --> 00:59:56,960
Speaker 1: my miming, I must say you know, for someone that

978
00:59:57,040 --> 01:00:01,200
Speaker 1: makes a living in Hollywood as an actor, an exceptionally

979
01:00:01,320 --> 01:00:06,520
Speaker 1: poor box. You know. I'm just listen, Senator. You say

980
01:00:06,560 --> 01:00:09,080
Speaker 1: you don't surround yourself with yes men. Clearly I don't

981
01:00:09,120 --> 01:00:13,360
Speaker 1: surround myself with yes men either. I take your constructive criticism.

982
01:00:13,960 --> 01:00:16,439
Speaker 1: You know, though, what's amazing is that audio cut out

983
01:00:16,760 --> 01:00:20,320
Speaker 1: almost exactly at one hour, so we I think we've

984
01:00:21,120 --> 01:00:24,160
Speaker 1: exhausted not even one tenth of the questions, but we'll

985
01:00:24,200 --> 01:00:27,080
Speaker 1: have to save the rest for the next episode. In

986
01:00:27,080 --> 01:00:30,480
Speaker 1: the meantime, Senator, I look forward to hopefully seeing you

987
01:00:30,520 --> 01:00:33,400
Speaker 1: in person one of these days sometime soon. We'll have

988
01:00:33,400 --> 01:00:35,840
Speaker 1: to wait and see as we reopen. I'm Michael Knowles.

989
01:00:35,880 --> 01:00:37,680
Speaker 1: This is verdict with Ted Cruz.