Speaker 1: Welcome.
Speaker 2: It is verdict of Center, Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you.
Speaker 1: The big announcement drop.
Speaker 2: Senator Joe Biden announced with a massive live event, huge
Speaker 2: audience at a sold out auditorium that he was running
Speaker 2: for president of the United States of America today for
Speaker 2: re election. It was a big crowd. Let's just just
Speaker 2: kidding now, none of that happened. It was a video
Speaker 2: that probably took about one hundred hours to edit. You
Speaker 2: watched the video Center, Your initial reaction to this lackluster announcement.
Speaker 3: Well, they had three minutes for him to read from
Speaker 3: a teleprompter. I'm sure it took one hundred takes to
Speaker 3: get him to read those three minutes. And his three
Speaker 3: minutes were let's keep getting the job done. And I
Speaker 3: got to say, that is a weird message. I mean,
Speaker 3: you look at the last two years, the disaster of
Speaker 3: what is unfolded under Joe Biden. Take the economy. We
Speaker 3: have the worst inflation of our lifetime. So you have
Speaker 3: to go back to when you were sparkle in your
Speaker 3: daddy's eyes and I was a little kid to find
Speaker 3: a time when the inflation was this bad. You have
Speaker 3: crime rates exploding, across the country, murder rates, carjacking rates
Speaker 3: all over the country. You have the worst illegal immigration
Speaker 3: in the history of our nation. You have a relentless
Speaker 3: assault on our constitutional rights, on religious liberties, on the
Speaker 3: Second Amendment, on the rights to life. And then as
Speaker 3: bad as the domestic policy is, as bad as the
Speaker 3: foreign policy is, you have a national security policy that
Speaker 3: is an utter disaster. Every single region of the world
Speaker 3: is worse. We are facing the first major land war
Speaker 3: in Europe since World War Two, facing China stronger, North
Speaker 3: Korea stronger, I Ran stronger, Cuba stronger, Nicaragua stronger, every
Speaker 3: enemy of America stronger. And what does Joe Biden say,
Speaker 3: give me four more years, Let's do more of this?
Speaker 3: Like holy cow, how could you possibly want more of this?
Speaker 3: This is if Madison Avenue put together an ad campaign
Speaker 3: that had zero to do with substance. It could not
Speaker 3: have been more apropos for this announcement video than what
Speaker 3: we saw today.
Speaker 2: I rarely laugh at late night anymore, and you and
Speaker 2: I have talked about that before on this show. But
Speaker 2: last night someone sent me the clip of Jimmy Fallon
Speaker 2: and he said this idea that you know, let's get
Speaker 2: the job done like this slogan. He's like, you've had
Speaker 2: over fifty years man, and the audience died, laughing. A
Speaker 2: liberal audience sitting in the you know, with Jimmy Fallon,
Speaker 2: He's like, how much more time do you need to
Speaker 2: get the job done? You've been in office for fifty
Speaker 2: plus years. And real polling is backing up that joke
Speaker 2: in the sentiment of that CBS News poll has a
Speaker 2: new pull out, and the question was things in the
Speaker 2: US are out of control. Seventy two percent of responding
Speaker 2: said that things in the US are out of control.
Speaker 2: Reasons that you think things are out of control seventy
Speaker 2: one percent said Joe Biden, seventy five percent US culture
Speaker 2: and values, eighty five percent the economy, and eighty eight percent.
Speaker 1: State of US politics.
Speaker 2: The fact that seventy one percent say the top answer
Speaker 2: among those who are thinking the reasons out of control
Speaker 2: seventy one percent state's Joe Biden. The other thing that
Speaker 2: I think is going to be very interesting to see
Speaker 2: how this plays out is saying Biden is among the
Speaker 2: reason things are out of control. Thirty three percent of
Speaker 2: Democrats are responding said they believe the reason why things
Speaker 2: are out of control is because the guy they voted for,
Speaker 2: Joe Biden, is the president of the United States of America.
Speaker 2: You've run for election. You look at internal poll numbers.
Speaker 2: If you're Joe Biden right now or his team, and
Speaker 2: you see thirty three percent of your own party saying this,
Speaker 2: how concerned you have to be.
Speaker 4: They should be very concerned. Listen.
Speaker 3: Joe Biden was first elected to the Senate in November
Speaker 3: of nineteen seventy two. In November nineteen seventy two, I
Speaker 3: was one year and eleven months old. I was not
Speaker 3: even two. I was I assume, still wearing diapers.
Speaker 4: Then you weren't.
Speaker 1: Alive then I was not eighty one baby.
Speaker 3: I don't remember November of nineteen seventy two, but Joe
Speaker 3: Biden charged in to Washington. You know, it's interesting trivia question.
Speaker 3: You know how old Joe Biden was when he's elected
Speaker 3: a Senate.
Speaker 1: How old was he?
Speaker 3: So the constitutional minimum to be a senator is thirty
Speaker 3: years old. Take a guess how old Joe Biden was.
Speaker 1: I'm going to guess right A thirty, then twenty nine.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 3: He was elected at twenty nine and he turned thirty
Speaker 3: before he was sworn in. So he was a young guy.
Speaker 3: But he was a young guy when I was in
Speaker 3: diapers and you weren't alive. And he has been there
Speaker 3: since forever, like nineteen seventy two, he was there before
Speaker 3: disco like, and he's been doing this forever. And he's like,
Speaker 3: let's finish the job. Seriously, can you screw America any more?
Speaker 4: Please?
Speaker 3: Do not finish the job of screwing America. And I'm
Speaker 3: gonna ask a question, And I say this slightly tongue
Speaker 3: in cheek, but not much. If you're objective, If you
Speaker 3: sat down and said I've got a plan, I want
Speaker 3: to spend two years, I want to destroy this nation,
Speaker 3: then what would you have done differently than Biden and
Speaker 3: the Democrats have done.
Speaker 2: If you're going to destroy the country, you do exactly
Speaker 2: what his administration has done, and they've done it to perfection.
Speaker 3: Look, it's actually a bizarre question because what we've seen,
Speaker 3: the assault on jobs, the regulatory assault, the assault on
Speaker 3: US oil and gas production, the assault on our national security,
Speaker 3: opening up our borders and creating the worst illegal immigration
Speaker 3: in history, the assault on law enforcement. Where do you
Speaker 3: think this crazy crime came from? Democrats? Saying defund the police,
Speaker 3: Democrats supporting George Soros, DA's releasing violent criminals from jail,
Speaker 3: The assault on our fundamental constitutional rights, the assault on
Speaker 3: America as an institution, the assault on the Constitution, the
Speaker 3: assault on the Bill of Rights, the assault on look
Speaker 3: every enemy of America. Israel is a strong ally of America.
Speaker 3: Biden spent to years undermining Israel relentlessly. The United Kingdom
Speaker 3: is a strong ally of America. Biden spent two years
Speaker 3: undermining the UK. China is an enemy of America. Biden
Speaker 3: spent two years giving weakness and appeasement to China. Russia
Speaker 3: is an enemy of America. Biden spent two years giving
Speaker 3: weakness and appeasement to Russia, including waving sanctions on Nordstream two.
Speaker 3: I say this in all seriousness. If your objective was
Speaker 3: to destroy the nation, I don't know what else you
Speaker 3: would do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a great point.
Speaker 2: And the White House, by the way, they seemed lost
Speaker 2: as well about how they even got to the point
Speaker 2: where Joe Biden officially decided to run for reelection. I
Speaker 2: want to play that for you. Before we get that, though,
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Speaker 2: of the day eight seven eight Patriot Center. There was
Speaker 2: something also that happened that was very weird, and that
Speaker 2: was at the White House.
Speaker 1: White House Press.
Speaker 2: Secretary on the day that Biden announces he is gonna
Speaker 2: run for reelection. This is her response to like, how
Speaker 2: did he get to this decision?
Speaker 1: She didn't have an answer.
Speaker 5: Again, going to be very careful here at twenty twenty
Speaker 5: four election, I actually don't have anything to share like
Speaker 5: behind the scenes on his decision making. I think the
Speaker 5: President spoke to this himself when he was asked before
Speaker 5: today about his intention to run and his plans to run,
Speaker 5: And so I will refer you back to what he
Speaker 5: has said more explicitly when he had those interviews. So
Speaker 5: I don't again don't want to say much more than.
Speaker 1: That, say much more than that. Center.
Speaker 2: It's almost like he didn't even know that he was
Speaker 2: running for reelection. They just threw they're a video together
Speaker 2: and said save these lines. And as the White House
Speaker 2: staff didn't even know about it either.
Speaker 3: Look The reason that I think Biden is running for reelect.
Speaker 4: I've actually thought for a year Biden would not run
Speaker 4: for reelect.
Speaker 3: Because he is so obviously diminished. He's too old to run.
Speaker 3: The overwhelming majority of Americans know that he's too old
Speaker 3: to run his We talked about it in the last pod.
Speaker 3: Just even in the last two years, his mental faculties
Speaker 3: have declined massively. The reason that I think Biden announced
Speaker 3: that he's running this week is I think something has
Speaker 3: happened in the last sixty days, which is that I
Speaker 3: think Democrats believe Donald Trump is going to be the nominee,
Speaker 3: and that's changed. I think sixty days ago Democrats did
Speaker 3: not believe Trump was going to be the nominee. But
Speaker 3: the last two months have been very good for Trump politically.
Speaker 3: They have been not that great for Ron De Santis politically.
Speaker 3: The Santus's numbers have gone down. Trump's numbers have gone up,
Speaker 3: and I think where Democrats are if they thought they
Speaker 3: were facing a new nominee, anyone, frankly who is not
Speaker 3: Donald Trump. I think Democrats with jettison Joe Biden, they'd say, Okay,
Speaker 3: this guy, we need someone who actually can count to
Speaker 3: ten and not get lost at about number six. But
Speaker 3: I think what Democrats have said they believe Trump's going
Speaker 3: to be the nominee and they hate Trump. They live
Speaker 3: in a world where everyone they knows hates Trump, and
Speaker 3: so their view, I think is okay, if Trump is
Speaker 3: the nominee, We're not gonna run on Joe Biden's record.
Speaker 3: We're not gonna talk about Joe Biden's record. We're not
Speaker 3: gonna talk about anything for the last four years. All
Speaker 3: we're going to talk about is our guy is not Trump.
Speaker 3: That's their whole campaign, and by the way, they did
Speaker 3: that in twenty twenty, they'll do it even more. I
Speaker 3: think they're playing right now is Joe Biden will not
Speaker 3: leave the White House for the entirety of the campaign.
Speaker 3: They'll hide him in the basement.
Speaker 2: COVID this time Senator to hide him with. I mean
Speaker 2: that was they don't have time.
Speaker 4: That they don't care.
Speaker 3: This last cycle twenty twenty two, they didn't have COVID,
Speaker 3: and yet Katie Hobbs, the governor of Arizona, never did
Speaker 3: a debate. Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, never did
Speaker 3: a debate. They hid from the process. I believe if
Speaker 3: the electoral race is Joe Biden versus Donald Trump, Biden
Speaker 3: will leave the White House three times in the next
Speaker 3: two years. They'll hide him in the basement. They'll put
Speaker 3: out a periodic video like this little video where they
Speaker 3: have lots of time he can read a teleprompter and
Speaker 3: when he gets life right, yeah, proof of life. Yes,
Speaker 3: that's exactly that. And then he'll do one or two
Speaker 3: debates where they'll pump him full of enough drugs that
Speaker 3: he will seem marginally competent. He'll give a speech at
Speaker 3: the Democrat convention, and that'll be it.
Speaker 2: Behind the scenes, by the way, so people know, well,
Speaker 2: I'm going to pull back the curtain. Usually is the
Speaker 2: Senator and I we will go over the show beforehand,
Speaker 2: and I'll play him the audio clips that I'm thinking
Speaker 2: about playing, so we're all set to go for you guys.
Speaker 2: Every once in a while, I hold one back because
Speaker 2: I don't want you to be able to pre plan
Speaker 2: for this too much. This is a real clip Senator
Speaker 2: from the White House Press briefing today on a question
Speaker 2: does the President plan to serve all eight years? Listen
Speaker 2: to the White House Press Secretary's response to that question.
Speaker 1: President plan to serve.
Speaker 3: All eight years.
Speaker 5: I'm just not going to get ahead of the president.
Speaker 5: That's something for him to decide. I'm just not going
Speaker 5: to get ahead of it. And there's a twenty twenty
Speaker 5: four campaign, anything related to that, I would refer you
Speaker 5: to that.
Speaker 2: All right, I'm going to get your raw reaction to
Speaker 2: that one.
Speaker 3: Like Coley cow has there ever been a president? Imagine
Speaker 3: Donald Trump's press jerry being asked that. Imagine George W.
Speaker 3: Bush's press secretary being asked that. Imagine Barack Obama's press
Speaker 3: secretary being asked that imagine George W. Bush's press secretary
Speaker 3: being imagined asked that it says something that even Karine
Speaker 3: John Pierre, who has now reached the Hall of Fame
Speaker 3: for lying from the West White House press briefing room,
Speaker 3: She's like, oh, I can't answer that because she can't
Speaker 3: say with a straight face, this is a guy who
Speaker 3: can't find his shoes. She can't say that five six
Speaker 3: years from now, he'll still be president. This is all
Speaker 3: about they hate Trump. The entire Democrat strategy. There is
Speaker 3: no policy strategy. Look, they can't run on ideas. The economy,
Speaker 3: They've screwed it all up. Safety and security. They've screwed
Speaker 3: it all up, the courts, They've screwed it all up,
Speaker 3: foreign policy, national security, They've screwed it all up. Their
Speaker 3: entire campaign is our guy is not Donald Trump. By
Speaker 3: the way, their new epithet Maga Republicans, which is a bizarre.
Speaker 3: I'm sure they focus group that like crazy. It all
Speaker 3: comes down to weird Democrats, we hate Trump.
Speaker 4: That is their entire message.
Speaker 3: I think the key to winning the key to winning
Speaker 3: the presidential the key to winning the Senate this time around.
Speaker 3: The key to winning a bigger majority in the House
Speaker 3: is to focus on ideas and issues people care about.
Speaker 3: Focus on how you make people's lives better, and it's
Speaker 3: not about screaming Maga Republicans want to destroy the Republic.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The White House was also asked, and I want to
Speaker 2: know your reaction. Do you think the media is going
Speaker 2: to be tougher on a candidate Biden. This was a
Speaker 2: question at the White House Press briving today about the
Speaker 2: present's horrendous economic record, the rising prices, foods, basic services,
Speaker 2: the list goes on and on, and some of the
Speaker 2: White House is completely out of touch. Response to that
Speaker 2: basic question as well, so Americans.
Speaker 6: Are seeing when we talk about the economy, he did generally,
Speaker 6: the Americans are seeing energy prices up twenty four percent,
Speaker 6: including electricity since President by the took office. Food prices
Speaker 6: are up eighteen percent in the last two years. Manufacturing
Speaker 6: lost jobs for the last two months in a row,
Speaker 6: and inflation is outpacing wages for twenty six months in
Speaker 6: a row. How does the President then sell to the
Speaker 6: American people to keep going with these economic policies.
Speaker 5: So look, again, going to be careful about twenty twenty
Speaker 5: four anything that's related. No, No, I'm going to answer your question.
Speaker 5: You okay, I'm going to answer your question. Just want
Speaker 5: to be because you said moving forward, So just want
Speaker 5: to be very careful here. Look, the President always is
Speaker 5: very clear when he talks about the economy. He always
Speaker 5: says one of the things that he says very frequently
Speaker 5: is that when it comes to inflation, when comes to
Speaker 5: a lowering cost, that is a priority for him, and
Speaker 5: he has shown to do that. And if you talked
Speaker 5: about inflation, annual inflation has fallen over the last five months.
Speaker 5: It is moderating. That is something that we seen from
Speaker 5: the data that has come out. Wages are higher than
Speaker 5: they were nine months ago. Incomes are up and consumer
Speaker 5: spending is strong.
Speaker 2: But he under I mean you can hear her just
Speaker 2: rambling on their senator he had a horrendous record on
Speaker 2: the economy, and she's like, no, no, he understands.
Speaker 1: He's doing a really good job.
Speaker 3: And understand clearly, if God forbid, Biden is reelected, everything
Speaker 3: will get worse. Mark my words, if Biden's re elected,
Speaker 3: let me be clear, I don't think he will be
Speaker 3: I think he will be defeated. I think the American
Speaker 3: people are fed up with the path we're on. But
Speaker 3: if he is re elected, we will see ten dollars
Speaker 3: a gallon gasoline. Remember this point. I hope that in
Speaker 3: a couple of years you and I are not on
Speaker 3: verdict saying let's replay the clip from this day, because
Speaker 3: if we hit ten dollars a gallon gasoline, understand, that's
Speaker 3: what the Green New Deal zelots in this administration want.
Speaker 3: We are facing the most fundamental assault. Listen, I get
Speaker 3: up every morning and I literally jump out of my bed.
Speaker 3: And when I come home, when I land in Texas,
Speaker 3: when I'm in the airport, when I'm in a shopping mall,
Speaker 3: when I'm in a restaurant. People come up to me
Speaker 3: and they're like, holy cow, what's going on? And my
Speaker 3: sort of standard line I laugh. I say, look, we're
Speaker 3: in a crazy time. As they say in the military world,
Speaker 3: it is a target rich environment. But as I joke
Speaker 3: about that, the reality is I've never seen it this
Speaker 3: crazy and my entire lifetime. The reason I jump out
Speaker 3: of bed in the morning is I feel like I
Speaker 3: am going to the Roman colisseum and I'm fighting fighting
Speaker 3: the barbarians, like these lunatics, these Marxists, radicals and the
Speaker 3: Democrat Party. They hate America. They believe the Constitution is immoral.
Speaker 3: They may believe the Bill of Rights is im moral.
Speaker 3: They want to tear it down. That's a fight worth fighting.
Speaker 3: We're not fighting bent over little stuff. We're not fighting
Speaker 3: over little details. We're not fighting over whether the top
Speaker 3: marginal tax rate is one percent higher one percent lower.
Speaker 3: We're fighting over whether America remains a free enterprise country
Speaker 3: or a socialist country. We're fighting over whether we have
Speaker 3: a border or or our nation is invaded. We're fighting
Speaker 3: over whether the Bill of Rights remains the fundamental liberties
Speaker 3: of Americas or those rights are given up. That is
Speaker 3: a fight worth fighting.
Speaker 2: You mentioned illegal immigration, and I think that's going to
Speaker 2: be a very center point of this election, especially with
Speaker 2: Trump being the front runner. He's obviously going to go
Speaker 2: back to border security and building the wall. The White
Speaker 2: House pre Secretary also got herself in trouble today when
Speaker 2: she was asked about the White House's failure at the border.
Speaker 1: Take a listen.
Speaker 5: So the SET Department and the Department of Homeland Security
Speaker 5: will have more to share soon, as you know. The
Speaker 5: Department of Homeland Security shared their plan back in January,
Speaker 5: and we have seen from the data, we have seen
Speaker 5: that the unlawful immigration is down, and so what they
Speaker 5: have put forth forth in their protocol and their processes
Speaker 5: is working. But they will have more to share in
Speaker 5: the upcoming days or weeks.
Speaker 2: Just center, that's a lie. You've said this one hundred
Speaker 2: times on this show. You've said it on five News
Speaker 2: Channel heard lie. Yeah, six point three man, illegal immigrants
Speaker 2: acrossed the border since Biden took office, and the White
Speaker 2: House presentcretery, and I'm going to give you the quote
Speaker 2: exactly quote. Unlawful immigration is down. She said that the
Speaker 2: White House podium today, lying to the American people.
Speaker 3: Every month, we are setting records for the highest rate
Speaker 3: of illegal immigration in history, month after month after month,
Speaker 3: over six million people across illegally. Kareem John Pierre from
Speaker 3: the White House and look, the White House is hallowed ground.
Speaker 3: There's an obligation to the American people to tell the truth.
Speaker 3: She stands there and lies on Joe Biden's behalf. She claims,
Speaker 3: as she said before, people aren't just walking across the border. Yes,
Speaker 3: they are every day right now, whatever time of day
Speaker 3: you're listening to this podcast, they're walking across the border
Speaker 3: because they're doing it every minute of every hour of
Speaker 3: all twenty four hours a day, every single day. And
Speaker 3: she knows that, and she is lying. It is horrific.
Speaker 3: Our country is being assaulted. And listen, I don't get
Speaker 3: angry about this stuff often, but I am pissed off.
Speaker 1: And courly, Senator, you're not the only one.
Speaker 2: Seventy percent of Americans don't want Joe Biden to run,
Speaker 2: yet here we are. He is the nominee for the
Speaker 2: Democratic Party. I want to move on to another important issue,
Speaker 2: and that is an issue that there's a letter that
Speaker 2: is going out from you, Senator and Representative Jim Jordan's
Speaker 2: about the failure of the San Francisco Fed to watch
Speaker 2: what was happening with Silicon Valley Bank. Before we get
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Speaker 2: Let's talk about Silicon Valley Bank, and let's do a
Speaker 2: quick recap of what happened with Silicon Valley Bank for
Speaker 2: everybody so they understand why you are sitting this letter
Speaker 2: the San Francisco FED regarding this big tech liberal bank failure.
Speaker 3: Well, Silicon Valley Bank had enormous assets primarily from venture
Speaker 3: capital firms in Silicon Valley, big tech firms that support
Speaker 3: Democrats that are exceedingly liberal. Silicon Valley Bank did not
Speaker 3: pay attention to fiscal stability, did not pay attention to
Speaker 3: actually having sound balance sheets. Indeed, here's an amazing thing.
Speaker 3: Silicon Valley Bank for eight months did not have a.
Speaker 4: Chief risk officer.
Speaker 3: They literally didn't fill that position, so their balance sheet
Speaker 3: was filled with government bonds.
Speaker 4: That had an enormous.
Speaker 3: Maturity risk because the FED had jacked up interest rates
Speaker 3: so much that the bonds were worth much less than
Speaker 3: Silicon Valley Bank had paid for them. But nobody at
Speaker 3: Silicon Valley Bank was actually looking at the books and
Speaker 3: trying to protect their financial stability because instead, you know
Speaker 3: what they did have. They did have a Diversity, Equity
Speaker 3: and Inclusion officer. They did focus on ESG in environmental
Speaker 3: and social goals. They were focused on left wing virtue signaling,
Speaker 3: but not on actually watching the deposits, the deposits of
Speaker 3: their depositors. Now, it's one thing to have some Silicon
Speaker 3: Valley bankers who lose sight, but who are the regulators
Speaker 3: who's in charge of watching the fox and the henhouse. Well,
Speaker 3: in the case of Silicon Valley Bank, it was the
Speaker 3: San Francisco Office.
Speaker 4: Of the Federal Reserve.
Speaker 3: They were the bank regulators that had supervisor authority, and
Speaker 3: the San Francisco Office of the Federal Reserve didn't do
Speaker 3: a damn thing, sat there while Silicon Valley Bank had
Speaker 3: this enormous exposure, this enormous risk. By the way, the
Speaker 3: San Francisco Office of the Federal Reserve was engaged in
Speaker 3: the same nonsense, the same esg, the same DEI, the
Speaker 3: same politically correct virtue signaling instead of doing their damn job.
Speaker 3: So I'm the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee.
Speaker 3: I sent an oversight letter announcing an investigation into the
Speaker 3: San Francisco Fed's oversight a Silicon Valley Bank. The San
Speaker 3: Francisco Fed essentially said, go jump in a lake. We're
Speaker 3: not going to answer your questions. So I just recently
Speaker 3: teamed up with Jim Jordan. Jim is in the House
Speaker 3: of Representatives. He is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee,
Speaker 3: and so the two of us together are demanding of
Speaker 3: Silicon Valley Bank answer our questions. Did you know about
Speaker 3: this exposure? If so, why didn't you act? If you
Speaker 3: didn't know, why the hell weren't you doing your job?
Speaker 3: Why were you asleep at the switch? I can tell
Speaker 3: you Ben. On top of that, I've also joined This
Speaker 3: is going to surprise you. I've joined in bipartisan legislation
Speaker 3: with Elizabeth Warren to make the regional offices of the
Speaker 3: Federal Reserve subject to FOYA subject to the federal laws
Speaker 3: that makes them under the oversight of Congress and the
Speaker 3: American people.
Speaker 4: Right now they're exempt from Foyle.
Speaker 3: And I got to say, it's an amazing thing that
Speaker 3: Elizabeth Warren and I are on the same page saying,
Speaker 3: these fed banks that are laughing at Congress, that are
Speaker 3: laughing at the American people, that are saying, we are
Speaker 3: unaccountable even though a multi billion dollar cluster just unfolded
Speaker 3: on our watch.
Speaker 4: We need to hold them to account.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's important legislation. Now, the question is who's going
Speaker 2: to block it and why. There are a lot of
Speaker 2: Democrats that wanted to protect Silicon Valley Bank because they
Speaker 2: were also a lot of the people that had their money.
Speaker 1: There were big donors of Democratic Party apps.
Speaker 2: Is that going to be part of the politics that
Speaker 2: plays out in this unquestionably?
Speaker 3: And look, the dynamic we're in right now is Silicon
Speaker 3: Valley Bank. The Biden administration ran to step in and
Speaker 3: do a multi billion dollar bailout. Why because the depositors
Speaker 3: were overwhelmingly politically well connected left wing Democrats. They were
Speaker 3: supporters of Joe Biden, they were supporting of the Democrats
Speaker 3: and the Senate and the Democrats.
Speaker 4: In the House.
Speaker 3: And so immediately the White House said, all right, we
Speaker 3: got your back. You're fully covered. And by the way,
Speaker 3: when they covered that, they covered it from funds that
Speaker 3: are paid by everyone else's banks. So if you're not
Speaker 3: a politically well connected venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, if
Speaker 3: you're a main street if you run a dry cleaner,
Speaker 3: if you have a restaurant, if you have a car dealership,
Speaker 3: if you have a small business in main street America,
Speaker 3: you're paying for the Democrat bailout of Democrat donors. And
Speaker 3: the press, of course doesn't want to cover that, but
Speaker 3: it is completely indefensible how they've decided. All right, if
Speaker 3: you're a well connected Democrat, we got your back. And
Speaker 3: by the way, one of the really negative consequences of
Speaker 3: this is we're seeing a flight of capital of individuals,
Speaker 3: of small businesses that have invested in have their deposits
Speaker 3: in community banks, smaller and mid sized banks, and a
Speaker 3: very significant number of those depositors are taking their money
Speaker 3: out and moving it to one of the gigantic banks
Speaker 3: because the lesson they've taken from Joe Biden's response to
Speaker 3: this is if you're a giant bank that's too big
Speaker 3: to fail, all the deposits will be guaranteed. But if
Speaker 3: you're a mid sized or smaller bank, you're out of lock.
Speaker 3: And one of the great strengths of our economy is
Speaker 3: the thousands upon thousands of community banks we have. You
Speaker 3: look at other countries where they have three, four, five
Speaker 3: giant banks that bank everyone America is blessed. We've got thousands,
Speaker 3: tens of thousands of banks at the community level, and
Speaker 3: Joe Biden is happy to bankrupt all of them and
Speaker 3: to benefit his buddies on Wall Street. The handful of
Speaker 3: giant banks.
Speaker 2: Quickly for re for context point here, Senator, People that
Speaker 2: don't realize how the FDIC is supposed to work and
Speaker 2: ensuring your depositors, your deposits.
Speaker 1: It's only up to a certain amount of money.
Speaker 2: And what happened with Silicon Valley Bank is it turned
Speaker 2: from a certain amount of money to unlimited money. And
Speaker 2: that's the reason why you mentioned A lot of people
Speaker 2: are saying, all right, well, if I'm in a community
Speaker 2: bank or a smaller bank or a regional bank that
Speaker 2: doesn't have the political connections to these types of bailouts,
Speaker 2: I'm at much higher risk with my deposits than if
Speaker 2: I go to a woke bank or a massive bank
Speaker 2: like many are switching over because you're not supposed to
Speaker 2: have unlimited funds secured in these banks. That's the whole
Speaker 2: point of having an up to amount.
Speaker 3: Correct, right, No, that's exactly right. When the FDIC was established,
Speaker 3: initially the threshold was one hundred thousand, that your deposits
Speaker 3: up to a hundred thousands are guaranteed by the FDIC,
Speaker 3: guaranteed by the government. That was in recent years upped
Speaker 3: from a one hundred thousd to two hundred and fifty thousand.
Speaker 4: Now two hundred and fifty thousand dollars is a lot
Speaker 4: of money.
Speaker 3: Most of us don't have that much money and cash
Speaker 3: and a bank, But the FDIIC guarantees to everyone, whatever
Speaker 3: bank you're at, if you have two hundred and fifty
Speaker 3: thousand dollars or less, your your deposits are guaranteed. What
Speaker 3: happened at Silicon Valley Bank is you had depositors, both
Speaker 3: individuals and companies that had millions of dollars, that had
Speaker 3: tens of millions of dollars, that had hundreds of millions
Speaker 3: of dollars, and the federal government stepped in and said,
Speaker 3: never mind the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars limit,
Speaker 3: We're going to guarantee all of it, even though the
Speaker 3: depositors didn't pay attention when their bank went eight months
Speaker 3: without a risk officer, when their bank was not watching
Speaker 3: the stability of their balance sheets. And listen if instead
Speaker 3: of Silicon Valley Bank, this were Texas Oil and Gas Bank,
Speaker 3: this were a bank that that that that that provided
Speaker 3: capital and liquidity to oil and gas drillers. The ode
Speaker 3: that the Biden administration would guarantee those deposits are zero
Speaker 3: points zero percent. This was political favoritism. This was if
Speaker 3: you were political allies and donors to Democrats, we got
Speaker 3: your back, and if not, you're screwed. And by the way,
Speaker 3: if you're neither, if you're just an ordinary individual or
Speaker 3: small business, you know what, the fees that your bank
Speaker 3: pays into the FDIIC are going to go up to
Speaker 3: pay for the bailout of these Democrat donors.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's almost like the response that you mentioned the
Speaker 2: banks that if it was a bank in Texas that
Speaker 2: was dealing with orang gas, they'd be treated like the
Speaker 2: people were in Pennsylvania when you had that train derailment.
Speaker 1: It was all it was Trump country. It's conservative.
Speaker 2: We don't have to worry about them, and that's why
Speaker 2: so many people, like you said, are switching banks right now.
Speaker 1: That's also not good for the system.
Speaker 2: I want to go to something else as well that
Speaker 2: I think people need to know about and get on
Speaker 2: the radar screen, and that is the Biden Administration's on
Speaker 2: religious liberty is continuing, and I want you to get
Speaker 2: people the update about that. Before I get to that, though,
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Speaker 2: thirty five percent off center. Let's talk about the Biden's
Speaker 2: war on religious liberty. It is unfortunately been a theme
Speaker 2: of their administration virtually the entire time, and now you
Speaker 2: are demanding answers after Walter Reed Medical Center. I had
Speaker 2: the privilege of going there back when I was working
Speaker 2: with the Bush administration to watch President Bush go and
Speaker 2: see our men and women in uniform that have been
Speaker 2: fighting our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Speaker 1: It is an incredible facility.
Speaker 2: And you're now demanding answers because Walter Reed Medical Center
Speaker 2: has ended a contract with a Catholic group.
Speaker 1: Fill its in on that well.
Speaker 3: Walter Reed Medical Center is one of the premier military
Speaker 3: hospitals in America and in the world, and we have
Speaker 3: a great many of our veterans who are injured, who
Speaker 3: are ill, who are treated at Walter Reed.
Speaker 4: Now, one of the ass.
Speaker 3: Of our military hospitals is that they have pastoral care.
Speaker 3: They have pastoral care because, look, people who are facing
Speaker 3: horrific injuries, people who are facing life threatening illnesses. They
Speaker 3: are naturally thinking about end of life. They're thinking about
Speaker 3: the fate of their soul, and that has been an
Speaker 3: important part of caring for our veterans, caring for our
Speaker 3: active duty military from the beginning of the United States.
Speaker 4: Well, Walter Reed right.
Speaker 3: Now today does not have any Catholic pastoral care. So look, Ben,
Speaker 3: you and I are not Catholics, but there are millions
Speaker 3: of Catholics in America. There are great many Catholics in
Speaker 3: our military. Walter Reed had a contract with the Holy
Speaker 3: Name College, Friary, with a Catholic pastoral care organization that
Speaker 3: provided if you were a Catholic, you were a service member,
Speaker 3: your activity, you were a veteran, you're at Walter Reed,
Speaker 3: and you needed to pray with the priest, you were
Speaker 3: facing death, you wanted your last rites. They would have
Speaker 3: a priest who would show up and provide Catholic pastoral care.
Speaker 3: And what did the Biden administration do it It declined
Speaker 3: to renew its contracts. So right now there is no
Speaker 3: Catholic pastoral care at Walter Reed. That is outrageous. And
Speaker 3: by the way, Joe Biden says he's a Catholic. Like
Speaker 3: explain to me. Why the hell a president who says
Speaker 3: he's a Catholic would preside over an administration that allows
Speaker 3: Walter Reed, a premier military hospital to have zero Catholic
Speaker 3: pastoral care. It is wrong. And listen, do I think
Speaker 3: Biden knows about this?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: I don't think Biden knows what day it is. I
Speaker 3: don't think he knows what's going on. So I don't
Speaker 3: think this is his personal decision. But I think the
Speaker 3: zealous he's put in his administration hate people of faith.
Speaker 3: What it is the Democrat Party, when faced with a conflict,
Speaker 3: they have elevated the radical transgender ideology above all other groups.
Speaker 3: And so, because people of faith often have concerns about
Speaker 3: embracing either the radical transgender ideology or the radical abortion
Speaker 3: on demand ideology, the Democrat Party has decided faith is
Speaker 3: no longer acceptable.
Speaker 4: You know, you think back to John F. Kennedy. John F.
Speaker 3: Kennedy, a Democrat president, would have been chased out of
Speaker 3: the Democrat Party today because he was an observant Catholic.
Speaker 3: He believed in his faith, he defended principles of his faith.
Speaker 3: That is no longer allowable. And so I've sent a
Speaker 3: letter in my oversight capacity in the Senate to Walter Reid, saying,
Speaker 3: why do you no longer have Catholic pastoral care? Our
Speaker 3: servicemen and women deserve that. If they are Catholic, they
Speaker 3: deserve to have a priest. If they're facing the end
Speaker 3: of life, they deserve to have last rites from a
Speaker 3: Catholic priest. And if the Biden administration valued religious liberty
Speaker 3: and religious faith, they would fix this, and they'd fix
Speaker 3: this yesterday.
Speaker 1: As much money as we spend.
Speaker 2: You look at the national debt right now, and I
Speaker 2: go back to this, if they claim this is about money,
Speaker 2: right look at the national debt clock right now. We
Speaker 2: were at thirty one trillion, seven hundred and six billion,
Speaker 2: seven hundred and two million. That's ninety four thousand dollars
Speaker 2: per debt per citizen or two hundred and forty seven
Speaker 2: thousand per taxpayer. Don't tell me we can't afford this.
Speaker 2: And my point is apparently this administration can afford anything
Speaker 2: and everything and run the debt up to the point
Speaker 2: that I just mentioned.
Speaker 1: What is their excuse? Have you gotten one yet?
Speaker 3: So I have not yet gotten an answer from Walter Reed,
Speaker 3: but I'll bet dollars to donuts it's not about money.
Speaker 3: They don't care about money. This is an administration that
Speaker 3: spent seven trillion dollars last year. They've blown the budget out.
Speaker 3: No amount of money matters to them. This is about
Speaker 3: faith doesn't matter to them. And the problem is they
Speaker 3: fill this administration not just the cabinet level, but at
Speaker 3: the sub cabinet level with zealots who despise faith. And
Speaker 3: so if you ask a radical left wing zealot who
Speaker 3: hates faith, who hates Catholics, should we renew our contract
Speaker 3: with the Catholic Pastoral Care Group, their answer is, of
Speaker 3: course no, And it's not money. They don't care about
Speaker 3: money at all. If you ask them, do you support
Speaker 3: creating a giant pile of money, pouring gasoline on it
Speaker 3: and lighting it on fire, they'd probably say yes. This
Speaker 3: is about not valuing faith, not valuing people of faith,
Speaker 3: and having a deep seated animosity of faith, and that
Speaker 3: is really inconsistent with who we are as an American people.
Speaker 2: Last thing doesn't deal with politics, Senator, I'm learning this
Speaker 2: about you. This is my first season doing this podcast
Speaker 2: with you during the NBA playoffs, which means you're a
Speaker 2: night I'll staying up late who do you like so far?
Speaker 2: And you better at least mention my my hometown Memphis Grizzlies.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm gonna confess honestly. So I love hoops.
Speaker 1: You play several times a week. People may not know that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I play twice a week. I play typically. I
Speaker 3: play Sunday evenings in Houston with some good friends of mine,
Speaker 3: and then I play usually Tuesday afternoons. You and I
Speaker 3: are recording this late Tuesday evening. I will be playing
Speaker 3: at seven thirty in the morning. On Wednesday, from seven
Speaker 3: thirty to nine thirty.
Speaker 4: I'll play.
Speaker 3: I typically play twice a week, once a week in Houston,
Speaker 3: once a week in DC.
Speaker 4: And listen.
Speaker 2: And that's your workout, that's your exercise. This is that
Speaker 2: your passion.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I go to the gym and I
Speaker 3: left also, but I much prefer I like sports. I
Speaker 3: get bored. I hate running. Running bores me. I feel
Speaker 3: like a gerbil on a treadmill. I like competition. You
Speaker 3: and I play tennis. We played tennis a number of times.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately Ben is a thousand times better than I am
Speaker 3: because he was actually like a college tennis player at
Speaker 3: Old Miss. But I enjoy it. I'm a very mediocre
Speaker 3: tennis player. I am a slightly less mediocre basketball player.
Speaker 3: I was an Okay, I was. I was a mediocre
Speaker 3: high school varsity basketball player, and I would say at
Speaker 3: fifty two, i've maintained those skills about the same. But
Speaker 3: I got to tell you, the truth of the matter
Speaker 3: is I am a diehard Houston Rockets fan. The Rockets
Speaker 3: are out of it, and so I'm vaguely watching the playoffs,
Speaker 3: but I don't really give a damn if the Rockets
Speaker 3: aren't in it. It's like I'll watch the finals when
Speaker 3: they happen, but I'm not watching the You know you
Speaker 3: sent me a text the other day saying, holy craft,
Speaker 3: did you see Jimmy Butler's numbers? And I saw Sports
Speaker 3: Center for a minute and I watched.
Speaker 4: A little bit of it.
Speaker 3: But if the Rockets aren't in it, I find it.
Speaker 3: I'm hard pressed to watch the playoffs.
Speaker 2: Look will adopt you, no problem. Grizzlies will adopt you
Speaker 2: for the playoffs. We're down right now to the Lakers,
Speaker 2: and I know you can't be a big Lakers fan.
Speaker 2: So tomorrow night, if you're bored, you should be rooting
Speaker 2: for my hometown Grizzlies.
Speaker 4: There you go.
Speaker 2: I like it, Senator, always a pleasure. Don't forget we
Speaker 2: do the show Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. Make sure you
Speaker 2: get that subscriber auto download button so that you get
Speaker 2: every single episode, and we will see you back here
Speaker 2: in a couple of days