Speaker 1: Welcome.
Speaker 2: It is Verdict with Ted Cruz and the week in
Speaker 2: Review Ben Ferguson with you. And these are the major
Speaker 2: stories that you may have missed that we talked about
Speaker 2: this week. First up, Donald Trump now responding to an
Speaker 2: Iranian plot to take his own life and why do
Speaker 2: we only find out about this after election day? We'll
Speaker 2: dive into that in just a moment. Also, Kamala Harris
Speaker 2: blew through a billion dollars with her campaign, and she
Speaker 2: made a lot of people rich in the process. So
Speaker 2: why is it that so many celebrities took major paychecks
Speaker 2: from donors instead of quote doing the right thing to
Speaker 2: support Kamala will break down the money and who got rich. Also,
Speaker 2: the purpose of secret ballot for selecting the Senate majority leader, Well,
Speaker 2: what actually happened behind the scenes? Center Cruse and I
Speaker 2: break down exactly how that vote took place. It's the
Speaker 2: Weekend Review and it starts right now. You hear this
Speaker 2: plot and you sit there and you go, how on
Speaker 2: earth has the Biden Hearris administration allowed Iran to get
Speaker 2: to this point where they can just easily go out
Speaker 2: into the United States of America knock on people's doors
Speaker 2: in America get away with this and not hold them
Speaker 2: accountable for any of this while they're also attacking Israel.
Speaker 2: And the question is number one, let's start with the
Speaker 2: real political aspect of this. What is a Trump administration
Speaker 2: response seed to be with this. I'm not saying because
Speaker 2: they were targeting Trump. I'm saying the president of the
Speaker 2: United States of America, regardless of who that person is,
Speaker 2: should never allow Ran to feel this comfortable on American
Speaker 2: soil to do this, much less plan to take out
Speaker 2: our president or a former president of the United States
Speaker 2: of America.
Speaker 3: Well, election day was a fantastic day for America. It
Speaker 3: was fantastic day for everyone who wants to see jobs,
Speaker 3: who wants to see border security, who wants to see
Speaker 3: national security enhanced. But it was a terrible, terrible day
Speaker 3: for the Ayatola and the Iranian Malahs. Four years Joe
Speaker 3: Biden and Kamala Harris, with a support of every Democrat
Speaker 3: in Congress, they have funneled over one hundred billion dollars
Speaker 3: to Iran. It's not just that Biden Harris allowed Iran
Speaker 3: to do this, they paid for it. One hundred billion
Speaker 3: dollars is a lot of money. I'm here to tell
Speaker 3: you that is going to end. In January of next year.
Speaker 3: The Trump administration is going to cut off the money.
Speaker 3: That's going to be the beginning. And I expect serious
Speaker 3: consequences for Iran repeatedly trying to murder President Trump. I
Speaker 3: don't know what those consequences will be, but I guarantee
Speaker 3: you the Iatolas are the Iotola and the Mullahs are deeply,
Speaker 3: deeply worried and scared and the brazenness of this. And
Speaker 3: look understand, the Justice Department knew about this. They deliberately
Speaker 3: did not make it public until after election day. I
Speaker 3: think they had a judgment, well, gosh, if people know
Speaker 3: that Iran is like actively trying to murder Trump, if
Speaker 3: they know the details of this, that's going to end
Speaker 3: up benefiting Trump's let's just keep it quiet and well
Speaker 3: Trump one.
Speaker 2: So then it was cover your ables. Is that a
Speaker 2: fair way of describing this?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 3: And no. I mean, look, they had to file the
Speaker 3: complaint at some point, so they're prosecuting these folks, So
Speaker 3: it was inevitable that it would be filed, because you
Speaker 3: can't prosecute them without filing the indictment and bringing charges.
Speaker 3: The timing the fact that they did not say anything public. Look,
Speaker 3: DOJ has long standing rules that you're not supposed to
Speaker 3: do anything to interfere in an election. I would say
Speaker 3: that that foiling an assassination attempt by a foreign government
Speaker 3: is not DOJ doing something to interfere with an election.
Speaker 3: It is instead DJ doing its job. And I think
Speaker 3: the public has a right to know that. But and
Speaker 3: so I think their decision to bury it and listen
Speaker 3: under Joe Biden, this Biden Department of Justice, if there's
Speaker 3: one thing they know how to do, it is leak.
Speaker 3: Merrick Garland and his team, they leak like crazy when
Speaker 3: the story. When the story suits them politically, they give
Speaker 3: it to all their buddies in the press. This thing
Speaker 3: stayed absolutely silent until after election day. They also kept
Speaker 3: silent uh the the murder attempt of the US citizen
Speaker 3: by Iran, because it also shows the incredible weakness of
Speaker 3: this administration, just how much they've had boldened Iran that
Speaker 3: they feel that they can carry out attempted murder plots
Speaker 3: on US soil. It is a real demonstration of the
Speaker 3: basic principle that that weakness invites hostility. In this case,
Speaker 3: Iran was only emboldened by Joe Biden, Kamala Harris's weakness.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Fox News when they reported on this, it
Speaker 2: was very interesting to see how they report it. And
Speaker 2: I want to play this people, and I want you
Speaker 2: to think about why you didn't know this before Election day.
Speaker 4: Listen, the Justice Department unsealing criminal charges in a thwarted
Speaker 4: Iranian plot to kill President elect Donald Trump in the
Speaker 4: lead up to this week's election. Welcome everybody. I'm deal cabudo.
Speaker 4: There's still a lot we don't we know about this,
Speaker 4: but David spun piecing together what we do, David.
Speaker 6: Neil, we know it's just another threat coming from Iran
Speaker 6: directed at President elect Donald Trump. The man that authorities
Speaker 6: are looking for is a fifty one year old who
Speaker 6: is allegedly working with the Iranian regime on a plan
Speaker 6: to kill Trump.
Speaker 5: His name is Farhad Shakiri.
Speaker 6: Authorities believe he's in Iran right now as I speak
Speaker 6: to you. According to a criminal complaint on Seal today,
Speaker 6: Shakiri demanded large sums of money for working on this
Speaker 6: plot to kill Trump over the past few months. At
Speaker 6: stated in a complaint, Shakiri indicated to an Iran Iranian
Speaker 6: government official that this would cost a huge amount of money.
Speaker 6: In response, the Iranian officials said, we have already spent
Speaker 6: a lot of money, so the money's not an issue.
Speaker 6: In a statement from FBI Director Christopher Ray, he says
Speaker 6: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated foreign terrorist organization,
Speaker 6: has been conspiring with criminals and hitmen to target and
Speaker 6: gun down Americans on US soil, and that simply won't
Speaker 6: be tolerated. Thanks to the hard work of the FBI,
Speaker 6: their deadly schemes were disrupted.
Speaker 2: By the way they said. And this is the part
Speaker 2: I want to ask you. They said it was won't
Speaker 2: be tolerated. I'm not sure I believe that based on
Speaker 2: what we know now. It seems like we've been tolerating
Speaker 2: Iran basically doing whatever the hell they want to do
Speaker 2: for quite some time in the world.
Speaker 3: Well, that's right. And look, it's important to understand a
Speaker 3: lot of the press when they talk about Donald Trump's
Speaker 3: foreign policy, they mischaracterize it. There are a lot of
Speaker 3: folks that characterized Trump as an isolationist. That's not remotely
Speaker 3: the case. I mean, part of the reason Iran is
Speaker 3: so angry is because remember Trump took out he killed
Speaker 3: General Solomony. General Solomony was responsible for orchestrating the murder
Speaker 3: of over six hundred American servicemen and women. He was
Speaker 3: one of the leading terrorists in the world, and Iran's
Speaker 3: the leading state sponsor of terrorism, and Donald Trump took
Speaker 3: him out. Donald Trump also enforced the oil sections, pulled
Speaker 3: out of the Iran deal, brought the Iranian economy to
Speaker 3: its knees, cut off their money, had the regime ready
Speaker 3: to topple. That is strength what Trump rightly did. And
Speaker 3: by the way, on all of those steps, I was
Speaker 3: urging Trump to proceed to vigorously defend us against Iran.
Speaker 3: What Trump also did, though, is he did not get
Speaker 3: us in foreign wars. It is amazing how the weakness
Speaker 3: and appeasement of the left gets it exactly backwards. They're
Speaker 3: eager to get us and mesh and foreign wars all
Speaker 3: over the world, but they're not willing to be strong
Speaker 3: against people who actually are trying to kill us. And
Speaker 3: in this instance, there are going to be very very
Speaker 3: real consequences for Iran. The first will be economic. Their
Speaker 3: money is going to disappear, but there's going to be
Speaker 3: consequences that are a lot more real world than just
Speaker 3: dollars and cents.
Speaker 1: Finally center some breaking news.
Speaker 2: I just want to get your quick thoughts on this
Speaker 2: because it's an interesting story and it's really just a
Speaker 2: sad story. I think it's a such a sad story
Speaker 2: for the people that are hurting, who were needing the
Speaker 2: help of their government. It has come out now that
Speaker 2: a FEMA official ordered relief workers to deliberately and purposely
Speaker 2: skip the houses of people that have been affected by
Speaker 2: the hurricane that had Trump signs up. A whistle blower
Speaker 2: came forward, so it's almost unbelievable to think that somebody
Speaker 2: in the federal government would think that's okay. I'm actually,
Speaker 2: by the way, not surprised, unfortunately, that there are people
Speaker 2: in this Biden Harris government that would say, screw those
Speaker 2: that are Trump supporters and don't give them government aid
Speaker 2: even after a hurricane.
Speaker 1: Yet this did happen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this story, it's a story of an incredible abuse
Speaker 3: of power and just a brazen partisanship that sadly it
Speaker 3: typifies what has happened throughout the Biden Harris administration. I
Speaker 3: want to give credit to the Daily Wire. The Daily
Speaker 3: Wire broke this story. It also illustrates how so called
Speaker 3: mainstream media, the corporate meet does not actually report on
Speaker 3: real news. It took the Daily Wire to make this public.
Speaker 3: It's also the Daily Wire that broke the stories in
Speaker 3: Loudon County couple of years ago about the teenage girl
Speaker 3: who was sexually assaulted in the bathroom by the boy
Speaker 3: wearing a skirt, because again, the corporate media wouldn't report
Speaker 3: on it.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 3: In this instance, the Daily Wire reported that that instructions
Speaker 3: were given to FEMA workers that said, and they actually
Speaker 3: have screenshots of the instructions that say, quote implement best practices.
Speaker 3: No one goes anywhere alone, avoid homes advertising TRUMP, practice
Speaker 3: de escalation and preventative measures. Communicate with and follow the rules.
Speaker 3: Bring a towel with yourself in the field. Frequent breaks,
Speaker 3: and drink water. Avoid high salt diets and coffee. Coconut
Speaker 3: water is a fast way to replenish your electrolytes quickly.
Speaker 3: So this is written instructions for emergency emergency workers who
Speaker 3: are dealing with the aftermath of a hurricane a natural disaster,
Speaker 3: and they are told in writing avoid homes advertising TRUMP. Now, Now, look,
Speaker 3: this only happens when you absolutely normalize the weaponization of
Speaker 3: government against the enemies of your regime. This is this
Speaker 3: particular individual was caught, and this person's been fired. Now,
Speaker 3: of course she's been fired, she should have been fired.
Speaker 3: But the broader question was what kind of culture was
Speaker 3: there that made you think you should explicitly say hey,
Speaker 3: and and I mean these are this is providing put
Speaker 3: it in right.
Speaker 2: Comfortable enough to put it in writing. Yep, yeah, wonder
Speaker 2: what else is in writing that that that is exactly right?
Speaker 2: And you know, one of the employees who was one
Speaker 2: of the whistleblowers said, quote, I know their short staff.
Speaker 2: I thought we could go help and make a difference.
Speaker 2: When we got there, we were told to discriminate against people.
Speaker 2: It's almost unbelievable to think that somebody in the federal
Speaker 2: government would think that's okay. The employee said that it
Speaker 2: felt wrong to discriminate against Trump supporters when they were
Speaker 2: at their most vulnerable.
Speaker 5: Quote.
Speaker 3: I volunteered to help disaster victims, not discriminate against them.
Speaker 3: It didn't matter if people were black, white, Hispanic, for Trump,
Speaker 3: for Harris. Everyone deserves the same amount of help. That
Speaker 3: would be actually the government doing its job. But sadly,
Speaker 3: too many in the Biden Harris administration. Too many on
Speaker 3: the left that they have convinced themselves Trump is hitler.
Speaker 3: Anyone who supports him as garbage, and therefore you can
Speaker 3: do anything possible to go after them. It's a really
Speaker 3: sad example of just how weaponized this administration's gotten.
Speaker 2: I hope this inspires others if there are other stories
Speaker 2: out there, other emails and things in writing like this
Speaker 2: that will be brought forward. I am glad by the
Speaker 2: way that the woman's been fired, But the question that
Speaker 2: I have to ask after that is, well, were there
Speaker 2: any laws broken?
Speaker 1: And I hope they look at that as well well.
Speaker 3: And Ben and Ben, let me let me say, if
Speaker 3: you go into the story, there are photos from the
Speaker 3: cysts the federal relief workers used to track the homes
Speaker 3: they visited, and it showed that they followed the written guidance.
Speaker 3: Several addresses were marked as quote not able to access property,
Speaker 3: with listed explanations such as quote Trump sign, no entry
Speaker 3: per leadership, quote per leadership, no stop Trump flag quote
Speaker 3: Trump sign end quote Trump sign, no contact per leadership.
Speaker 1: This was.
Speaker 3: Yes, it was carried out by supervision that the name
Speaker 3: of the individual is someone Marnie Washington is the one
Speaker 3: who issued this order. Marnie Washington has been fired, but
Speaker 3: this was an organization where this order was.
Speaker 5: Par for the course.
Speaker 2: Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
Speaker 2: you can go back and listen to the full podcast
Speaker 2: from earlier this week. Now onto story number two, Senator.
Speaker 2: One other story is Donald Trump is getting his cabinet
Speaker 2: together and making appointments. That has not gotten a lot
Speaker 2: of attention is the take out the trash everybody throwing
Speaker 2: everybody under the bus in the Biden camp, the Harris camp.
Speaker 2: We find out she blew through a billion dollars. She's
Speaker 2: upside down in debt. They're begging for money with text
Speaker 2: messages to liberals saying we need your help with accounting
Speaker 2: of the votes and give money. Now, I wish I
Speaker 2: was joking, but I'm not, and I don't know. Someone
Speaker 2: said eighteen twenty million upside down. And then we found
Speaker 2: out where a lot of the donations actually went. The
Speaker 2: donations were going to celebrities. Oprah's had to come out
Speaker 2: after there was a million dollar check given to her
Speaker 2: Quote production company for production of a one day sit
Speaker 2: down interview that we many people saw on TV with Oprah.
Speaker 2: It doesn't cost a million dollars to produce that, but
Speaker 2: that was the price tag. And then we found out
Speaker 2: that there were a lot of celebrities that were being paid.
Speaker 1: To act like they loved Kamala Harris.
Speaker 2: And there are some Democratic donors that are livid right
Speaker 2: now over the price tag on this.
Speaker 3: You know, there's a terrific article in the Spectator World
Speaker 3: entitled Kamala Harris ran the Fry Festival of Campaigns and
Speaker 3: it points out that Trump's campaign spent roughly four hundred
Speaker 3: and eighty eight million dollars and Kamala spent more than
Speaker 3: a billion, So she outspent Trump more than two to one.
Speaker 3: And Kamala's campaign ended up twenty million dollars in debt. Well,
Speaker 3: it turns out where did that money go. Well, one
Speaker 3: of the things that went to is they paid many
Speaker 3: of the quote unquote celebrities who supported her. We were
Speaker 3: getting paid and getting paid significant sums. So for example,
Speaker 3: remember the Call Me Daddy podcast? Yeah, well apparently the
Speaker 3: campaign spent upwards of six figures to build a custom
Speaker 3: set for her appearance on the podcast, and the podcast
Speaker 3: netted only eight hundred thousand downloads. Less than a million downloads. Look, Ben,
Speaker 3: you and I we have roughly a million unique listeners.
Speaker 3: If she wanted eight hundred thousand downloads, I'll tell you,
Speaker 3: Kamala right now, even though you've lost Ben and I
Speaker 3: will invite you on Verdict right now. We will welcome you.
Speaker 3: We will not charge you to build a set, so
Speaker 3: you can save all your money. And you paid Oprah
Speaker 3: a million dollars for production costs, we will charge you
Speaker 3: for production costs on Verdict. What do you think fifty bucks?
Speaker 1: Sure? I think I took a fair price. Fifty bucks.
Speaker 3: Fifty bucks will get you a very nice coffee cup
Speaker 3: with some Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. That's what we'll spend
Speaker 3: the fifty bucks on. And you can reach the same
Speaker 3: number of people all right. By the way, she also
Speaker 3: turned down Joe Rogan, so call me daddy. Got eight
Speaker 3: hundred thousand dowarsad, How how many do you think Joe
Speaker 3: Rogan's interview.
Speaker 1: Of Donald Trump got a lot more than that?
Speaker 5: Forty seven million?
Speaker 1: Wow, that's a lot. That's a lot.
Speaker 3: So there were also seven swing state concerts with expensive performers,
Speaker 3: and it turns out every one of them they got
Speaker 3: a price. It is the world's oldest profession and they
Speaker 3: are charging for it. So who are the performers that
Speaker 3: got paid millions of dollars? Katie Perry, Lady Gaga, John
Speaker 3: bon Jovi, Ricky Martin.
Speaker 2: Hold On, you're telling me none of these people were
Speaker 2: like doing it for free because they were all in
Speaker 2: for Kama.
Speaker 1: They wanted to get paid.
Speaker 3: Show me the money. They ended up spending more than
Speaker 3: twenty million dollars on event production alone. Oprah, as you noted,
Speaker 3: charged a million dollars and and they went so far
Speaker 3: into debt that the campaign allegedly had to scrap Alanis Morisset.
Speaker 3: They were planning to do a lon of Morris set
Speaker 3: and they said, no, okay, we can't afford her anymore.
Speaker 5: Nevermind.
Speaker 3: I mean, it is truly stunning, and you've got to wonder,
Speaker 3: Like I gotta say, I don't get paying millions of
Speaker 3: dollars for celebrities to fake endorse someone she spent paid
Speaker 3: money to.
Speaker 5: What Beyonce?
Speaker 1: Well, let's go over the big ones.
Speaker 2: This is coming from Fox and I'm gonna play this
Speaker 2: this audio.
Speaker 1: Take a listen.
Speaker 2: This is again from Fox, as they were going through
Speaker 2: how much cash was spent.
Speaker 7: I can't get over these numbers. Ten million dollars for
Speaker 7: Beyonce to step up and back Kamala Harris publicly, five
Speaker 7: million for Megan the Stallion, three million for Lizzo, one
Speaker 7: point eight million for em and M is that.
Speaker 2: Those numbers are unbelievable if you just look at them.
Speaker 2: And I was like, hold on a second, and I
Speaker 2: went back and watched that clip a couple of different times,
Speaker 2: because you've got them.
Speaker 1: Ten million for Beyonce.
Speaker 2: If you're a donor and you wrote a big check Meghan,
Speaker 2: this Stallion, five million, Lizzo three million and one point
Speaker 2: eight million, I called on, I just raised all this
Speaker 2: money for you, and this is how you spent it.
Speaker 3: Look, I gotta say I've run a bunch of campaigns.
Speaker 3: I ran my first campaign for Senate in twenty twelve.
Speaker 3: I ran my next campaign for president in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3: We won twelve states all over the country. I ran
Speaker 3: my next campaign for Senate again in twenty eighteen, and
Speaker 3: I just finished running my most recent campaign for Senate
Speaker 3: reelect a third term in twenty twenty four. I can
Speaker 3: tell you, in the whole time, I've never paid any
Speaker 3: one a million dollars for anything. I don't think we
Speaker 3: paid any entertainers. I don't know of any entertainers we paid.
Speaker 3: Maybe at some point we paid five or ten grand
Speaker 3: for someone performing at some party. I'm not aware of it,
Speaker 3: but I can tell you this. Look our stars, now,
Speaker 3: to be clear, the stars we have at our events
Speaker 3: are are international, supermodeled, global talents like Ben Ferguson.
Speaker 5: And I gotta tell you.
Speaker 2: Want that ten million dollar payday once in my career,
Speaker 2: like oh yeah, beyondest, Yeah yeah, I'm all in for
Speaker 2: the cause, but I just seed ten million to make
Speaker 2: it happen.
Speaker 5: Okay, Ben, To be clear, we don't pay you ten dollars.
Speaker 1: No, that's.
Speaker 5: Look, I'm a fiscal conservative, damn it.
Speaker 3: If you want to be there and you believe in
Speaker 3: saving the country, stand up and save the country.
Speaker 5: And if not, get the hell out.
Speaker 3: But like, what is it with these lefties who ironically
Speaker 3: they want to put socialists in office, who make it
Speaker 3: impossible for people to earn a living, and yet they're
Speaker 3: such capitalists that they're like, show me the money to
Speaker 3: do it. I mean, there is an intense hypocrisy on this.
Speaker 2: I believe this, and I'm not just saying this because
Speaker 2: this moment in this headline, But I'm being dead serious.
Speaker 2: This could be a huge problem for Democratic cants moving
Speaker 2: forward because when you see this type of abuse campaign
Speaker 2: finance money from donors, those same donors, somebody's going to
Speaker 2: be asking them for money and four years or less
Speaker 2: than four years from now.
Speaker 3: And I'm the next time Beto O'Rourke, Collin all Red
Speaker 3: jumps on a stage with with Willie Nelson, Everyone's going
Speaker 3: to ask how much you pay him?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: How much of my money did that I gave you?
Speaker 2: Did you just give him for that thirteen minutes of
Speaker 2: him singing?
Speaker 3: It's it's an question, and it undermines the entire credibility
Speaker 3: that I'm here because I love America so much and
Speaker 3: you've got to vote for this candidate.
Speaker 5: Look, I'll give you an example in the presidential race.
Speaker 3: So one of the cooler people that I got to
Speaker 3: meet and spend time with was Phil Robertson, you know
Speaker 3: from Duck Dynasty.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and here was I mean massive back in
Speaker 2: the day, like unbelievable star.
Speaker 5: Huge star.
Speaker 3: And so so he invited me to Monroe, Louisiana to
Speaker 3: come stay at his place, and I went out duck
Speaker 3: hunting with Phil, which, by the way, ranks among the
Speaker 3: cool things I've ever gotten to do. And we went
Speaker 3: to the duck blind. We're there at four in the morning. Look,
Speaker 3: I like to hunt in Texas. I gotta be careful
Speaker 3: about what I say because there's so many really serious
Speaker 3: hunters that I can't overstate. I go hunting a couple
Speaker 3: times a year. I enjoy it, but I'm not someone
Speaker 3: who like lives and breathes it. Phil in that duck blind,
Speaker 3: I have never seen a person who is a better
Speaker 3: shot with a shotgun. He would drop birds at a
Speaker 3: distance that I wouldn't pick up my gun. They were
Speaker 3: too far away. I'm like, yeah, if the duck flies
Speaker 3: over here, I'll shoot it, but I can't shoot it
Speaker 3: way over there. And he would just boom, and then
Speaker 3: the dogs would swim out and grab the duck and
Speaker 3: bring it back. And Phil, I'll tell you So I
Speaker 3: went there and spent the day when hunting with him.
Speaker 3: He recorded an ad for our campaign that we put out.
Speaker 3: It remains one of my favorite ads we've ever done.
Speaker 3: I'm all like wearing camo grease paint and I'm in
Speaker 3: the duck blind with Phil.
Speaker 5: It was really cool.
Speaker 3: But Phil, it was during the Iowa Caucuses and we asked, Phil,
Speaker 3: will you come to Iowa and campaign with me? And Phil,
Speaker 3: for something like forty years, had not missed a single
Speaker 3: day of duck season. He'd been out there every single
Speaker 3: day for four decades, and we'd invited him to come.
Speaker 3: And that morning he went to the blind at four
Speaker 3: in the morning and he's sitting there in the blind
Speaker 3: and I guess you know, it weighed on his heart.
Speaker 3: I can't do this today. I need to go fight
Speaker 3: to save America. And Phil left the blind and he
Speaker 3: went and hopped on a plane and he flew to
Speaker 3: Iowa and he did a big rally with me in Iowa.
Speaker 3: And I told him then, I'm like, Phil, I am
Speaker 3: beyond humboldt that you missed the first day of duck
Speaker 3: season in forty years to be here in campaign alongside me. Now,
Speaker 3: I didn't write m a damn check to do that.
Speaker 3: I just said, if you gave.
Speaker 2: Him beyond save money, you know you're like, oh, and
Speaker 2: by the way, here's ten million dollars.
Speaker 3: No. No, I just said, come help save America. And
Speaker 3: it meant a lot like for him to miss it,
Speaker 3: and that day we were literally touch and go. We
Speaker 3: didn't know who's going to come, but it meant a
Speaker 3: big deal when he came. If you're paying Beyonce ten
Speaker 3: million dollars, I mean my good I mean goodness, who
Speaker 3: would she not endorse for ten million dollars?
Speaker 2: As before, If you want to hear the rest of
Speaker 2: this conversation on this topic, you can go back and
Speaker 2: dow the podcasts from earlier this week to hear the
Speaker 2: entire thing.
Speaker 1: I want to get back to the big story number
Speaker 1: three of the week you may have missed.
Speaker 2: So what is that? What is the purpose of the
Speaker 2: secret ballot? Is that just so people can vote their
Speaker 2: conscience and there's not so much you know, hoophar? Is
Speaker 2: it to keep it more efficient? What's the what's or
Speaker 2: is it just traditions? What's behind that?
Speaker 5: Look?
Speaker 3: Some of it is because you've got to work with
Speaker 3: these people. Remember, the Senate's a small place. They're fifty
Speaker 3: three of us, and and so you know, if you're
Speaker 3: voting against the person who's your leader, that is a
Speaker 3: small and awkward dynamic. So I would have liked the
Speaker 3: ballot to be public. I would have absolutely supported making
Speaker 3: it public. It's why I announced that I was voting
Speaker 3: for Rick Scott, because I wanted to tell the voters.
Speaker 3: But most of the senators don't, So I don't know.
Speaker 3: I know some of the centers, some of the senators
Speaker 3: chose to say who they were voting for. But I'd
Speaker 3: say at least half the senators I have no idea
Speaker 3: how they voted. They didn't say, they haven't publicly said.
Speaker 3: And there is a dynamic when you're dealing with a
Speaker 3: small enough group of people that you've got to after
Speaker 3: the election, you've got to turn around and work not
Speaker 3: just with whoever won, but whoever lost.
Speaker 5: So I think that's some of the history.
Speaker 3: It's always, to the best of my knowledge, it has
Speaker 3: always been a secret ballot, and because of that dynamic,
Speaker 3: and the other Senate leadership votes are secret ballot as well.
Speaker 3: And look two years ago, in twenty twenty two, had
Speaker 3: the first contested leadership ballot in sixteen years and two
Speaker 3: years ago, Rick Scott challenged Mitch McConnell, and I was
Speaker 3: the point of the spear. So the beginning of that
Speaker 3: battle two years ago, the very first thing that happened
Speaker 3: as I stood up and I made a motion to
Speaker 3: delay the election for a month, so we were voting
Speaker 3: two years.
Speaker 2: We did a great show on this it's all coming
Speaker 2: back to me now that you can go back and
Speaker 2: listen to, because I think, if I'm not mistaken, we
Speaker 2: did it like it two in the morning after the
Speaker 2: voting had taken place, and you'd come out and told
Speaker 2: this story. I would encourage everybody if you want to
Speaker 2: go back and listen to this episode. Like you said,
Speaker 2: it's like two years ago, and it was a big
Speaker 2: fight then, and like you said, you were the one
Speaker 2: leading that the tip of the spear on it.
Speaker 3: Yep, and it was two years ago. It is always
Speaker 3: the week after the election now. By the way, Republican
Speaker 3: leadership does that because the people who vote are the
Speaker 3: senators who will be the senators for the next two years.
Speaker 3: So the brand new baby senators who were just elected
Speaker 3: they vote. The senators who are retiring or leading the
Speaker 3: Senate they don't vote. And part of the reason they
Speaker 3: do that is because they want the brand new baby
Speaker 3: senators not to know what they're doing, to be just
Speaker 3: in their basement office, not to know where the men's
Speaker 3: room is, and they don't want newly elected senators to
Speaker 3: rock the vote. It's designed. It's actually a pretty cynical thing.
Speaker 3: It's designed not to not to challenge the status quo.
Speaker 3: So two years ago I made a motion, Look, twenty
Speaker 3: twenty two should have been a fantastic election for Republicans.
Speaker 3: We should have won the Senate. We should have we
Speaker 3: should have grown our majority in the House. It should
Speaker 3: have been a fantastic election. And it was a lousy election.
Speaker 3: And I stood up and said, listen, we ought to
Speaker 3: delay this this vote by a month, and we ought
Speaker 3: to spend the month next month talking about why we
Speaker 3: got our asses kicked, Like what's going wrong? And I
Speaker 3: turned them at McConnell I said, listen, for the last
Speaker 3: two years, we had a handful of Republicans team up
Speaker 3: with the Democrats to pass the Democrats' priorities. Now, maybe
Speaker 3: that's a good idea. Someone here can make the argument
Speaker 3: why that's a good idea. I think it's dumb as hell.
Speaker 3: But if you want to make the argument it's a
Speaker 3: good idea, we ought to talk about it. What I
Speaker 3: could tell you that is objectively true is the Democrats
Speaker 3: never do that. Like when we had Trump was president,
Speaker 3: we had a Republican Senate Republican House. There was not
Speaker 3: a single bill we passed that consisted of all the
Speaker 3: Republicans and a handful of Democrats joining us. They opposed everything,
Speaker 3: and by the way, for the next two years, I
Speaker 3: think they will as well. So I said, look, we
Speaker 3: ought to debate. Whatever we did didn't work. We ought
Speaker 3: to debated, and so I laid out. I gave a
Speaker 3: forty five minute speech. I looked at Mitch McConnell and
Speaker 3: I said, tell me, over the next two years, what
Speaker 3: are you willing to fight over? I said, listen, you
Speaker 3: and I may disagree. There are a lot of things
Speaker 3: I think we should fight over. They're not for you,
Speaker 3: But is there anything? Is there one thing you're willing
Speaker 3: to fight on over the next two years. By the way,
Speaker 3: Mitch refused to answer that question. We ended up after
Speaker 3: I made the motion to delay the vote. I ended
Speaker 3: up getting sixteen votes for that motion. I needed twenty five,
Speaker 3: so we had forty nine Republicans, so I needed twenty
Speaker 3: five for a majority, So I fell nine votes short.
Speaker 3: Those sixteen votes were the first votes ever cast against
Speaker 3: Mitch McConnell, and that was very consequential after that, Rick Scott,
Speaker 3: because I failed to delay the election. Rick Scott ran
Speaker 3: against Mitch. I voted for Rick. I was quite vocal
Speaker 3: about it, and Rick got ten votes, and so that's
Speaker 3: what happened. I was one of those ten. By the way,
Speaker 3: after the votes, Mitch McConnell exacted retribution on the senators
Speaker 3: who opposed him. So, for example, the Commerce Committee, both
Speaker 3: Rick Scott and Mike Lee used to be on the
Speaker 3: Commerce Committee, and Mitch McConnell uses his authority as the
Speaker 3: GOP leader to throw them both off the Commerce cat
Speaker 3: Many Eric Schmidt from Missouri who also voted against Mitch.
Speaker 3: Eric Schmidt wanted to be on Judiciary, and Mitch used
Speaker 3: his authority to orchestrate blocking him from being on Judiciary.
Speaker 3: So there was there was There were real punitive measures
Speaker 3: that were implemented attacking the people that dared stand up
Speaker 3: to McConnell. So this time around, Rick Scott did better
Speaker 3: than he did two years ago. Two years ago he
Speaker 3: got ten votes. This time he got thirteen votes, so
Speaker 3: we picked up three more votes. I don't know who
Speaker 3: those three more votes were. I was one of those thirteen,
Speaker 3: as i'd been one of those ten, but Rick did
Speaker 3: not prevail, and then ultimately Thune prevailed on the second ballot,
Speaker 3: so Thune will be the majority leader going forward.
Speaker 2: So let's talk about Thune for just a second. What
Speaker 2: do people need to know about him that maybe they
Speaker 2: don't know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, listen, I like Johonthune. I've worked with him. I've
Speaker 3: worked with Thune, I've worked with Korn, and I've worked
Speaker 3: with three. I mean, the Senate is a small place.
Speaker 3: It's a collegial place. If you want to actually accomplish
Speaker 3: every anything, you've got to deal with and and work
Speaker 3: cooperatively with your colleagues. John Thune is from South Dakota.
Speaker 3: You know, he's a tall, good looking college athlete. He
Speaker 3: was a college basketball player.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 3: Thune and I, you know, used to he works out
Speaker 3: every morning in the gym, and he's he's very fit.
Speaker 3: I would work out at the same time he was,
Speaker 3: and it was kind of embarrassing because he would lift
Speaker 3: a lot more weight than I could lift, and he
Speaker 3: would he would be like pumping iron. And it's sort
Speaker 3: of humbling to watch Thune because he's just you know,
Speaker 3: he's a he's a man in his early sixties who's
Speaker 3: in really good shape. Look, Thune, I was not surprised
Speaker 3: Thune one, because he's very well liked by his colleagues.
Speaker 3: Thune is affable, he's he's a good guy. He's just
Speaker 3: he's not a jerk. He's not he's everyone likes him.
Speaker 3: It's just I mentioned before, the Senate is a little
Speaker 3: bit like a junior high. You know, thun would win
Speaker 3: the class president election. It's and a lot of it
Speaker 3: is the kind of small, little personal dynamics that play
Speaker 3: out on that. But as I said, I was not
Speaker 3: surprised Thoon won. I will say a lot of the
Speaker 3: Trump world was freaking out saying, oh, Thuon hates Donald
Speaker 3: Trump and he's going to oppose everything Trump wants to do.
Speaker 3: I think those concerns were overstated. Listen, John Thune is
Speaker 3: majority leader in every senator is excited that we have
Speaker 3: a Republican White House, Republican Senate, Republican House, and we
Speaker 3: are really focused on delivering results and delivering on our
Speaker 3: promises to the voters. And so I think Thune as
Speaker 3: leader is going to focus on working very closely with
Speaker 3: President Trump uh to to confirm his cabinet appointments to
Speaker 3: move forward. Now, it doesn't necessarily mean that the Senate
Speaker 3: is going to be a rubber stamp for one hundred
Speaker 3: percent of everything that comes from the White House. Uh.
Speaker 3: And it's not the Senate's job to be a rubber
Speaker 3: stamp for everything that comes from the White House. Under
Speaker 3: the Constitution, the Senate is supposed to have a role,
Speaker 3: a role of on nominations, advice and consent, a role
Speaker 3: of check and balance. But but I can tell you
Speaker 3: that the sort of folks and I had multiple calls
Speaker 3: from Trump's team very worried, Okay, is is Thun going
Speaker 3: to fight us in everything we're doing?
Speaker 5: And I was like, Okay, I no, I.
Speaker 7: I So.
Speaker 5: So today I had an hour long.
Speaker 3: Meeting, UH with with Thune as the new majority leader
Speaker 3: and with all the committee chairs, and the entire meeting
Speaker 3: was talking about, Okay, how are we going to move
Speaker 3: forward with with with tax reform, with extending the Trump
Speaker 3: tax cuts, with with with regulatory reform, with unleashing energy,
Speaker 3: with securing the border. How are we going to move
Speaker 3: the legislative agenda so we can deliver big, big wins
Speaker 3: in in the next year. And that was that was
Speaker 3: the focus from Thune and every committee chairman. So I
Speaker 3: think I understand. Look I voted for Rick Scott because
Speaker 3: I think Rick was offering the greatest change. But at
Speaker 3: the end of the day, to prevail, you've got to
Speaker 3: be able to get a majority of the Republican Senators,
Speaker 3: and Rick did not.
Speaker 2: As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Sentner,
Speaker 2: Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to deal
Speaker 2: with my podcast and you can listen to my podcast
Speaker 2: every other day you're not listening to Verdict or each
Speaker 2: day when you.
Speaker 1: Listen to Verdict.
Speaker 2: Afterwards, I'd love to have you as a listener to
Speaker 2: again the Ben Ferguson podcasts, and we will see you
Speaker 2: back here on Monday morning.