Speaker 1: For the first time in probably seventeen hundred years, Christians
Speaker 1: around the world will not be permitted to celebrate Easter
Speaker 1: in public. What is a country founded on religious liberty
Speaker 1: supposed to do when the government locks the churches? This
Speaker 1: is Verdict with Ted Cruz. Welcome back to Verdict with
Speaker 1: Ted Cruz and Happy Easter. I'm Michael Knowles, Senator. Sorry,
Speaker 1: we can't be a celebrating today together or at a
Speaker 1: safe social distance. I think I am not exaggerating here
Speaker 1: when I say this might be the first time since
Speaker 1: the Diocletian Persecution that Christians have not been able to
Speaker 1: go to their churches on Easter. Is that an exaggeration? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I gotta say it is so commonplace to
Speaker 1: have podcasts talking about the Diocletian Persecution. I mean, I
Speaker 1: mean it really I'm worried that we're going to run
Speaker 1: into the traffic online. That's true, stright through the roof, right.
Speaker 1: We you and I have never seen anything like this
Speaker 1: in our lifetimes. And it's you know, all of us
Speaker 1: were doing everything from home. Yeah, and whether that's church,
Speaker 1: whether that's work, whether that's time with the family, it
Speaker 1: has good aspects to it, and it also makes people
Speaker 1: pretty stir crazy. This, I think is the big issue
Speaker 1: for people. I think for a while, people like taking
Speaker 1: a few days off work. Obviously that got real old,
Speaker 1: real fast when people lost their jobs. I think people
Speaker 1: actually for the first few days of this shutdown, we're
Speaker 1: kind of excited. It was something new, it was dangerous.
Speaker 1: Maybe we were all going to band together again. That
Speaker 1: kind of got real old, real fast. The one thing
Speaker 1: that I think was always a sticking point was the churches.
Speaker 1: The government closing down the churches. To my mind, that's
Speaker 1: unprecedented in the United States. Is that what you're hearing
Speaker 1: and seeing as well? I mean, is that just a
Speaker 1: different category. Look, it's a hard challenge because if you have,
Speaker 1: as we do, a pandemic, a public health outbreak, there
Speaker 1: is precedent for quarantining laws, there's precedent for preventing large gatherings.
Speaker 1: You know, I will say it, in this time of crisis,
Speaker 1: you know, people's real character comes out, who they are
Speaker 1: comes out. And I got to say, some of these
Speaker 1: democratic politicians are just jackbooted thugs. I mean, they're authoritarians
Speaker 1: that they believe in the power of the state. So
Speaker 1: you know, bild de Blasio, mayor of New York. Now,
Speaker 1: listen to New York has got it worse than than
Speaker 1: anywhere else in the country. It is horrific, the deaths
Speaker 1: that have happened there, the infections, people are scared. I
Speaker 1: get all of that. But de Blasio said, listen, if
Speaker 1: any church or synagogue meets, we're going to come after
Speaker 1: you and we will permanently shut you down. Now, who
Speaker 1: the hell are you to permanently shut a church or
Speaker 1: synagogue then? And I actually understand saying okay, you can't
Speaker 1: have a public gathering. You know what my church is doing.
Speaker 1: We're meeting virtually. Yeah, I think that actually makes good sense.
Speaker 1: But you see some of these political leaders just eager
Speaker 1: to strip away liberty and they seem to have a real,
Speaker 1: real animosity to faith. That's right if you if you
Speaker 1: look at New York. I mean, that's exactly the right
Speaker 1: example where it's not de Blasio saying we're going to
Speaker 1: shut you down for the whole of this pandemic. You
Speaker 1: are not going to be allowed back into your building,
Speaker 1: pastor until afterwards. But that's not where they stopped it.
Speaker 1: They actually said we will permanently shut you down. And
Speaker 1: he actually singled out churches and synagogues. He didn't go
Speaker 1: after any other faith groups. He just went after churches
Speaker 1: and synagogues. How convenient. You know. It's not just de
Speaker 1: Blasio though. It's going on around the country and even
Speaker 1: for the people. I know a lot of conservatives where
Speaker 1: we want to keep our rights, but we're obviously willing
Speaker 1: to entertain some quarantine. Pennsylvania, they arrested a woman for
Speaker 1: driving her car. Oh my god, you know, driving your car.
Speaker 1: You're not violating social distancing. You're sitting in your own
Speaker 1: damn car, like like, this is not a police state, right,
Speaker 1: And and you're seeing, you know, North Carolina that they
Speaker 1: invest arrested David Benham. David David Jason Benham. The Bennam
Speaker 1: brothers are friends of mine. They're great guys. Um. So
Speaker 1: the North Carolina governor, a Democrat, determined that that elective
Speaker 1: abortions are essential, and so that abortion clinics could gather,
Speaker 1: they could all get together. And so the Bennam brothers
Speaker 1: went outside and and and wanted to provide pregnancy counseling,
Speaker 1: wanted to peacefully h tell moms that we're coming in
Speaker 1: that we're considering abortions. You know, they're alternatives. If if
Speaker 1: you want to pursue adoption, here are some of the
Speaker 1: resources available to you. Right, And and they sent the
Speaker 1: police to arrest them. And actually the video I tweeted
Speaker 1: out the video. I did encourage you to watch that
Speaker 1: video because, uh, you know, David is he said, Look,
Speaker 1: we're being peaceful. He's very calm, he's not angry, he's
Speaker 1: not they're not harassing anyone. He said, we're six feet away,
Speaker 1: we're not gathering, we're not leading social distancing. But but
Speaker 1: if the governor is going to say that that the
Speaker 1: abortion is essential, that the doctors and all the staff
Speaker 1: can gather there more than ten people in public, then
Speaker 1: how can that be essential? But yet the counseling of
Speaker 1: pregnancy alternatives is not equally essential to And it's interesting
Speaker 1: the officers are arresting him, and you could see the
Speaker 1: officers are reluctant, and David, to his credit, he's praising
Speaker 1: the officers. He said, listen, thank you for your service.
Speaker 1: Particularly now, I mean he's polite, he's praising them, and
Speaker 1: it just shows Look, and I don't want to make
Speaker 1: this partisan. And if there are are Republicans doing it,
Speaker 1: I will happily call them out too. It just seems
Speaker 1: to be it's the democratic governors and the Democratic mayors
Speaker 1: that that in that instance, you know, he's he's hard
Speaker 1: pro abortion and hard and anti pro life, and and
Speaker 1: and so it's not if you want to say neither
Speaker 1: of them are essential. Fine that I actually understand that determination.
Speaker 1: But you can't pick one side and silence those that
Speaker 1: would try to give it so ironic, and it totally
Speaker 1: gives away the game where they say, if you gather
Speaker 1: together to procure an abortion, that will not endanger your life.
Speaker 1: And let me tell you something, abortion one hundred percent
Speaker 1: of the time in danger's life. They say, no, that
Speaker 1: won't endanger your life. But if you go and offer
Speaker 1: some counseling, you also gathered together, that will endanger your life.
Speaker 1: It's so backwards, it's such a power grab. You know,
Speaker 1: certain states have made exceptions, and you know, in Colorado
Speaker 1: they arrested a dad for playing t ball with his kids.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's nutty. I spoke last night to a
Speaker 1: Nevada state legislator who was complaining the Nevada governor has
Speaker 1: shut down golf courses. Now I gotta say, Michael, it's
Speaker 1: hard to think of a sport more situated to social distancing. Listen,
Speaker 1: if you're with it, if you're closer than six feet,
Speaker 1: you ain't doing it right right like you ever, Like,
Speaker 1: I'm all for acting sensibly to protect the public safety.
Speaker 1: But but there's some that are just eager to put
Speaker 1: on that jackboot and it's scared. Now, what do you
Speaker 1: make of these different states? I mean, some states they've
Speaker 1: been arresting pastors if they try to hold services. Other
Speaker 1: states have made an exception for religious services, and and
Speaker 1: you know at various state by state. Luckily we haven't
Speaker 1: had one national, one size fits all policy for this.
Speaker 1: I mean, how is that going to play out even
Speaker 1: after the pandemic's over. Listen, our law has always respected
Speaker 1: religious liberty. The First Amendment protects religious liberty. I think
Speaker 1: we should should do everything possible to protect people's right
Speaker 1: of faith. At the same time, I think the responsible
Speaker 1: thing to do is to act to protect the community.
Speaker 1: So so my church, Ide and I are members of
Speaker 1: a First Baptist church in Houston. It's a big, big church.
Speaker 1: We've been going to church virtually online. Our pastor made
Speaker 1: the very I think, very sensible decision to say We're
Speaker 1: not going to bring people together and have thousands of
Speaker 1: people in a sanctuary while there's a global pandemic going on.
Speaker 1: And you know, I will say, as it's Easter Easter,
Speaker 1: you know, you Easter Sunday. From for as long as
Speaker 1: I can remember, we would always go to church on
Speaker 1: Easter Sunday, that's and celebrate the Jesus. But it's worth
Speaker 1: also remembering, you know, for those of us who are Christians,
Speaker 1: the church is not a building. The church is not
Speaker 1: bricks or mortars. So I'm I'm sad not to be there.
Speaker 1: It's nice to be able to sing and have the
Speaker 1: music in person. It's nice to be able to worship together.
Speaker 1: But it actually has been beautiful. So what we do
Speaker 1: every Sunday morning is we come down, come down to
Speaker 1: the living room and we put we put the live
Speaker 1: stream of our church up up up on the TV,
Speaker 1: and Heidi and the girls and I just the four
Speaker 1: of us in the living room and we'll watch and participate.
Speaker 1: You know, we have to kind of drag the girls
Speaker 1: out of bed, and you know, it's nice. I'll have
Speaker 1: a cup of coffee and I'll confess I've done church
Speaker 1: sometimes and my slippers normally did same here. I'm ashamed
Speaker 1: to say, but I did. But you know it's interesting.
Speaker 1: Number One, I was talking to my pastor earlier this week.
Speaker 1: He said that that that the viewership has gone through
Speaker 1: the roof, that a ton of people are logging on
Speaker 1: and watching it online who wouldn't necessarily come in person.
Speaker 1: And it is interesting because we're ending up having much
Speaker 1: longer conversations with our girls about about the sermon, about
Speaker 1: what's going on. You know, if you're in church, you
Speaker 1: don't want to talk talk in church and bother people.
Speaker 1: If you're in your living room, you can talk to
Speaker 1: each other and you can say, hey, what do you
Speaker 1: think about what he just said? And you know, you
Speaker 1: can have conversations that flow out of it. That that
Speaker 1: are you know, what the Bible said is that is
Speaker 1: the Church is the body of believers, is everyone who
Speaker 1: is a Christian? That we're the church, not the building.
Speaker 1: Um and and so even though East Easter Sunday, most
Speaker 1: of us are not going to be at a physical church.
Speaker 1: If if we are giving thanks for Jesus's resurrection, that
Speaker 1: we're celebrating Easter and the church is celebrating and and
Speaker 1: and I hope also listen. This is a time, you know.
Speaker 1: I remember back when Hurricane Harvey hit Texas and it
Speaker 1: was devastating in Texas, second costless natural disaster in US history,
Speaker 1: and it was really amazing to see the churches all
Speaker 1: throughout Texas, especially on the Gulf Coast, coming out and
Speaker 1: helping people, helping people whose homes had been destroyed. Everything
Speaker 1: they had was lost. And it was a time when
Speaker 1: the church was doing what the church should. The church
Speaker 1: should be helping people, people in need, people who are
Speaker 1: scared people. You know our church, we've had one member
Speaker 1: of a woman in our eighties who died of COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen and you know, the ministry for seniors. It's hard
Speaker 1: for seniors to be isolated. And this is a time,
Speaker 1: I hope and I believe the church is doing more
Speaker 1: to help people who are scared, who are in need,
Speaker 1: even if we don't gather in person. It's much more
Speaker 1: important for the church to reflect the love of Jesus
Speaker 1: than to stand in one particular building, right. And I
Speaker 1: think there's something else going on here too with regard
Speaker 1: to the pandemic, which is people always think about Easter,
Speaker 1: but you forget that you don't get Easter without Good Friday.
Speaker 1: This is a reminder. This whole season of Lent, which
Speaker 1: by the way, has corresponded exactly with the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaker 1: Lent begins and you get ashes on your head if
Speaker 1: you're a Catholic or a certain other denominations, and they say, remember, man,
Speaker 1: you are dust to dust, you shall return. And it's
Speaker 1: very easy in modern life to forget that someday, eventually
Speaker 1: we're all going to die. We might not die from
Speaker 1: the coronavirus, let's hope, but we will die eventually. And
Speaker 1: that reminder that, you know, I think it was doctor
Speaker 1: Johnson said, hanging concentrates the mind. You know, when you
Speaker 1: look death straight in the face, it focuses you on
Speaker 1: the bigger questions. In a way, locking down the churches
Speaker 1: might have a pretty positive effect on religion in the country.
Speaker 1: It also brings families together, whether you whether you like
Speaker 1: it or not. Look, Caroline said, you know, I can't
Speaker 1: stand it. I've been in this house for a month,
Speaker 1: and I mean and she's eleven, and I'm like, sweetheart,
Speaker 1: I know we all had we're like ready to jump
Speaker 1: out the windows. But there have also been so every
Speaker 1: day Heidi and I. We've had had had lunch with
Speaker 1: the girls. We've had dinner with the girls. That's never
Speaker 1: happened in the whole time we've been a family. We've
Speaker 1: never had and and I'll tell you one thing we've started.
Speaker 1: So we've started doing a couple of things. When we
Speaker 1: go for walks every evening, um sometimes family walks, we
Speaker 1: walk the dog. Sometimes it's just tidy in me, but
Speaker 1: like the whole neighborhood is out walking and and it's
Speaker 1: like like Central Houston. Now it's we're six feet apart.
Speaker 1: We stay, we stay at a distance, but it's like
Speaker 1: Central Houston became Mayberry. I mean, it's an amazing thing.
Speaker 1: But something else we've started doing that I wanted to
Speaker 1: do for a long time is every night we're reading
Speaker 1: from the Bible and listen. I've wanted to do that
Speaker 1: regular and we've done it. Sometimes we've done it sporadically,
Speaker 1: but not with real discipline. And part of it is,
Speaker 1: you know, being in the Senate. Typically I get up
Speaker 1: Monday mornings, I fly to DC and I'm gone for
Speaker 1: four days. I come back Thursday night. It's hard as
Speaker 1: a dad if you're in town two three days a week.
Speaker 1: It's hard to sort of have a family discipline of
Speaker 1: after dinner we sit down and read the Bible. And
Speaker 1: and I've I've been like guilty in thinking about it.
Speaker 1: We need to do more of it. And so with
Speaker 1: all this time at home, how do you and I
Speaker 1: just decid all right, we're going to do this. And
Speaker 1: our girls didn't like it. I mean, it was a
Speaker 1: big battle. It was not that this was not mild
Speaker 1: or easy. And so we started with just Matthew chapter
Speaker 1: one and reading three chapters a night. I think the
Speaker 1: first night it took us hour hour and a half
Speaker 1: to get through three chapters. The girls were acting up.
Speaker 1: It was it was a bit of a mess. But
Speaker 1: it's interesting we've gotten through. I think we're like Matthew
Speaker 1: chapter twenty four. Um, so, so we haven't done it
Speaker 1: that long, but it's been been each night and it
Speaker 1: has been really And what's interesting is it just so
Speaker 1: happens we're right now moving into good Friday and Easter,
Speaker 1: like like just just the timing worked out. We didn't
Speaker 1: sit down and planet like this. But but you know,
Speaker 1: last Sunday was was Palm Sunday and we were we
Speaker 1: were reading in Matthew where it talks about Palm Sunday
Speaker 1: and Jesus riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey.
Speaker 1: And by the way, my pastor said something very interesting
Speaker 1: that I didn't know. I don't know if you knew.
Speaker 1: Did you know that Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter,
Speaker 1: was the day traditionally in Judaism when they selected the
Speaker 1: lamb to be sacrificed. I did not know that. I
Speaker 1: had never heard that. Our pastor said that this last Sunday,
Speaker 1: and I thought that was fascinating because a lot of
Speaker 1: what we've been talking about with the girls was the
Speaker 1: parallel with Passover and and and and the entire story
Speaker 1: of Passover, which we kind of take digressions as we're
Speaker 1: reading the Bible to say, Okay, the people of Israel
Speaker 1: were in captivity in Egypt, and and the ten plagues,
Speaker 1: and so Catherine sang a song on the ten plagues
Speaker 1: like that that that struck Egypt. But but you know
Speaker 1: we were talking about, you know that for the Angel
Speaker 1: of Death to pass over your home, that you had
Speaker 1: to put the lamb's blood on the side of the door,
Speaker 1: on the top, and and and that that that that
Speaker 1: is what Easter is all about, is that Jesus was
Speaker 1: the Lamb sacrificed for us, and the passover Lamb Jesus
Speaker 1: was that same sacrifice and that story. Having the opportunity
Speaker 1: to talk about it at this time we're Easter's at home,
Speaker 1: it has made it, I think, in many ways more
Speaker 1: meaningful than being in a big service for the converse. So,
Speaker 1: you know, this is something that my wife and I
Speaker 1: have been doing too in our little one bedroom apartment.
Speaker 1: I think probably my greatest risk of death right now
Speaker 1: is not any pandemic. It's going to be murder when
Speaker 1: my wife finally snaps. But if that doesn't happen, you know,
Speaker 1: in the meantime, what we've been doing, especially because we're Catholics,
Speaker 1: so we have certain icons and religious images around and
Speaker 1: when we go to church now, the church is at
Speaker 1: the kitchen table, and we live stream it in from
Speaker 1: our priests who's down in southern California, and it's just
Speaker 1: him on a live stream, and it really focuses you
Speaker 1: on these images. So it's just my wife and I
Speaker 1: sitting in kitchen chairs. You know, there's no smells and bells,
Speaker 1: there's no beautiful music going on. It's really just us
Speaker 1: contemplating some of these images, listening to these words, listening
Speaker 1: to these prayers, and you know, it does remind you
Speaker 1: when Jesus says, when you pray, go into your innermost closet,
Speaker 1: you know, do it in solitude and really make it
Speaker 1: about that connection to God. And it just gives you
Speaker 1: another sense when you go and pray the Rosary at
Speaker 1: night and it's just the two of you and everybody's
Speaker 1: quiet and no one's outside. In a way, it really
Speaker 1: amplifies your prayer and your spiritual connection to God, even
Speaker 1: when you can't go into your own church. Well, and
Speaker 1: and I'll say this this also cuts across face. So
Speaker 1: some good friends of ours who are who are neighbors
Speaker 1: who are Jewish, and they celebrated this week their Passover Sader,
Speaker 1: which which ordinarily they would do with the whole extended family.
Speaker 1: And they were telling me, Okay, so we're just doing
Speaker 1: it with you know, mom and dad. And they have
Speaker 1: a daughter who's really close friends with Caroline, and they
Speaker 1: have a son is a little bit younger, and they said,
Speaker 1: what they're doing is just they're face timing on I
Speaker 1: think iPads with their extended family. So with parents and sisters.
Speaker 1: You know they're not you know, most of us are
Speaker 1: not seeing our parents. My dad's eighty one, my mom's
Speaker 1: eighty five. I've seen either one of them and over
Speaker 1: a month because I'm not going to jeopardize their health.
Speaker 1: But it is interesting, even a passover Satyer. You know,
Speaker 1: I've been to a lot of sators and they're wonderful
Speaker 1: and fun. But you think of them as you know,
Speaker 1: big groups of multi generational extended family, and with technology,
Speaker 1: you can even do that if it's just a few
Speaker 1: of you and you're trying to socially distance, you can
Speaker 1: still you can still have a wonderful faith and family
Speaker 1: experience together. And I suspect we'll look back at these.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't surprise me if when our girls are grown
Speaker 1: they look back to this time of spending day after
Speaker 1: day and week after week together as a family as
Speaker 1: some of their favorite time ever. Now they wouldn't admit
Speaker 1: that now, right who, but it it is. You know,
Speaker 1: Caroline is in our front yard right now, building a
Speaker 1: little bit of a treehouse and a tree and you know,
Speaker 1: coming and pulling me out of I'm on conference calls
Speaker 1: with work and doing all just I'm in the middle
Speaker 1: of what basically a teletour across Texas, like meeting talking
Speaker 1: with all different communities. But like Caroline comes comes yesterday
Speaker 1: and says, you know, Dad, we need your help to
Speaker 1: cut the lumber. I'm not very handy, but but thankfully
Speaker 1: I have told her, okay, no power tools. As an
Speaker 1: eleven year old, I don't want severed digits. So I
Speaker 1: got the jig saw and managed to cut the board
Speaker 1: without in fact severing any of my digits. So that
Speaker 1: was good. But it's kind of right in the middle
Speaker 1: of the day. It's like, like, come to the garage
Speaker 1: and let's cut lumber to build the treehouse. There's something
Speaker 1: really nice about that. I've noticed the same thing as
Speaker 1: you mentioned with your friends in the Passover Sader people,
Speaker 1: family members, old friends that I have not called in
Speaker 1: a long time. Now, we're just doing calls because that's
Speaker 1: what people are doing. I mean, it's and speaking of
Speaker 1: connecting with people virtually. I know we've only got a
Speaker 1: few minutes left, but I do want to get to
Speaker 1: some of the mail bag because we've got some very
Speaker 1: important questions here. Probably this is the most important one
Speaker 1: that I've read in weeks. Senator Amber does Ted think
Speaker 1: Joe Exotic should be pardoned? I'm serious, I want his opinion.
Speaker 1: Michael can answer to Senator, what's your answer? Well, I
Speaker 1: will say I cracked up laughing that this week at
Speaker 1: the White House Press conference, they asked if Joe Exotic
Speaker 1: should be should be pardoned, and and President Trump, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure he knew what was going on, but said yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll have to look at that. And then that was
Speaker 1: that was pretty durn funny. You know, I've got a
Speaker 1: pet theory. Yeah that that that that the prospect of
Speaker 1: Joe Exotic being pardoned is why Obama delayed endorsing Joe
Speaker 1: Biden because you know, look, I apparently Joe Exotic ran
Speaker 1: for president in twenty sixteen against against me. I didn't
Speaker 1: know it at the time, against Trump. So who knows,
Speaker 1: maybe Joe Exotics on the ballot in twenty twenty and
Speaker 1: Obama's holding the the endorsement back uh waiting for the
Speaker 1: Tiger King endorse. This is the most brilliant political insight
Speaker 1: I have seen in so long. I am now, I
Speaker 1: don't know my feelings on Joe Exotic getting a pardon,
Speaker 1: other than I indorse Barack Obama endorsing Joe Exotic. So
Speaker 1: I guess that means we got to spring him from
Speaker 1: the slammer. A very good point, Senator. Next question from Peter,
Speaker 1: is there any evidence that China purposely delayed and lied
Speaker 1: in their report in order to tank the world economy
Speaker 1: considering that theirs was already in shambles. So that's an
Speaker 1: interesting question. There is absolutely evidence that China purposely delayed
Speaker 1: and that they covered up that when the Wuhan outbreak
Speaker 1: was ongoing, that that they hid evidence of it, that
Speaker 1: they punished the scientists who were trying to blow the whistle,
Speaker 1: including the doctor who courageously did it anyway and has
Speaker 1: since died of COVID nineteen. You know, I'm not aware
Speaker 1: of any evidence that they did it with the intent
Speaker 1: of tanking the global economy. I think that's probably a stretch.
Speaker 1: Although when it comes to ascribing malign intentions to the
Speaker 1: Chinese communist you almost can't stretch two minds, no limit.
Speaker 1: But you know, I had an I had an old
Speaker 1: boss who was a federal judge who used to say,
Speaker 1: never attribute to malice what you can attribute to incompetence,
Speaker 1: and and listen, I think the Chinese covered it up
Speaker 1: because they were embarrassed, because they didn't want people to know.
Speaker 1: I think there's a very real possibility that this outbreak
Speaker 1: occurred from from some sort of accidental transmission. There were
Speaker 1: two two facilities within miles of the Wuhan Wet Market
Speaker 1: where we think this started. That we're studying coronaviruses in
Speaker 1: bats and um. I haven't seen any evidence that this
Speaker 1: was Look, there's some internet theories that this was manufactured
Speaker 1: and is like bio terrorism. You know. Look, I'm skeptical
Speaker 1: that the Chinese government would release a virus on their
Speaker 1: own people. We've seen tyrannical governments torture and murder their people,
Speaker 1: but doing it deliberately. I've seen no evidence of that.
Speaker 1: What strikes me as entirely plausible is that it was
Speaker 1: a screw up from one of the labs that that
Speaker 1: may have been studying this virus. As I said, we
Speaker 1: know they were studying coronaviruses from bats, and then the
Speaker 1: whole cover up was to hide their embarrassment, to hide there.
Speaker 1: And the reason that matters is if they hadn't covered
Speaker 1: it up, we could have gone in. We could have
Speaker 1: contained this outbreak maybe and found the people who were
Speaker 1: infected and isolated them and dug the contact tracing and
Speaker 1: potentially stopped this outbreak from becoming an epidemic and then
Speaker 1: a pandemic. That if you stop it at the origin,
Speaker 1: it is entirely possible that that that the death swirldwide
Speaker 1: and the trillions of dollars of economic destruction could have
Speaker 1: been covered up if the Chinese had it could have
Speaker 1: been stopped if the Chinese hadn't engaged in this cover up.
Speaker 1: All right, final question, this is maybe the most important
Speaker 1: one ball What are you eating on Easter? And who
Speaker 1: is doing the cooking? You know, it's funny. I don't know.
Speaker 1: So yesterday Heidi and I were taking our walk and
Speaker 1: and and and Heidi's was like, all right, what do
Speaker 1: we want to do for Eastern I'm like, well, what
Speaker 1: do you mean what do you want to do for
Speaker 1: Eastern She's like, well, we need to like do something
Speaker 1: for Eester. I'm like, did your family do like big
Speaker 1: Easter things? And like, I gotta admit my family like
Speaker 1: we would go to church, yeah, and then we just
Speaker 1: come home and hang out as a family. It was
Speaker 1: a Sunday. I mean, we didn't like it wasn't a
Speaker 1: put on the suit and tie. It was I mean
Speaker 1: it was not. And we had this big discussion because
Speaker 1: Heidi kept asking, we no know what do we want
Speaker 1: to do? And I'm like, what do you mean? Do
Speaker 1: like same thing we do? And she's like, all right,
Speaker 1: how about an Easter egg hunt. I'm like, okay, if
Speaker 1: we've done those for our girls. And I think Catherine,
Speaker 1: who's nine, she's more into it than Caroline, is probably
Speaker 1: a little too cool for an Easter egg hunt. But
Speaker 1: I'm like, sure, if you want to get some plastic
Speaker 1: eggs and put candy or money in them, put in
Speaker 1: the backyard, we can do that. But um, so, I
Speaker 1: don't know what we're gonna eat, that's the short answer.
Speaker 1: Will probably Heidi and I are terrible cooks, yeah, although
Speaker 1: Caroline has begun cooking at home, so we haven't figured
Speaker 1: it out. As the short answer, I think we'll do
Speaker 1: a nicer, nicer meal than just cold pizza, right, But
Speaker 1: but I don't know what it'll be, and maybe we'll
Speaker 1: order out. It's literally Heidi is pressing me, saying we
Speaker 1: need to have a big sort of Easter meal. You know,
Speaker 1: most Easters I would have done, like gone to church,
Speaker 1: and then like gone and taking my mom out to
Speaker 1: dinner or something and done like a brunch at a restaurant.
Speaker 1: So we're obviously not going to do that. You can
Speaker 1: always have the mimosas, but you got to do it
Speaker 1: at home. You know. It's funny because I think what
Speaker 1: most people are gonna do is more like what you
Speaker 1: did growing up, which is it'll be the first Easter
Speaker 1: in the pajamas, and frankly, that doesn't sound so bad.
Speaker 1: A nice time to spend with family, obviously, Senator, Happy
Speaker 1: Easter to you, and happy Easter to everybody else who
Speaker 1: is listening. I'm Michael Knowles. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.
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