Speaker 1: Welcome.
Speaker 2: It is Verdict with Center Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you, Senator,
Speaker 2: You're back in Washington, d C. My, oh my, how
Speaker 2: things have changed since the last time you were in
Speaker 2: DC before election Day.
Speaker 3: Well, I've been back in d C the entire week.
Speaker 3: I'm actually back in Texas right now, you and I
Speaker 3: are talking. It's eleven o'clock Thursday night. I just got
Speaker 3: back to Texas this evening. But this was the first
Speaker 3: week back in d C since the election, and I
Speaker 3: got to say, it's a remarkable time that there is
Speaker 3: an enormous energy, There's an enormous enthusiasm, and the people
Speaker 3: are really excited. People are excited about President Trump coming
Speaker 3: back in the White House. People are excited about the
Speaker 3: new administration. People are excited about a Republican Senate and
Speaker 3: a Republican House. And it's interesting you look at the Democrats.
Speaker 3: The Democrats are shell shocked. They're just that they have
Speaker 3: a difficult time believing what has happened, and they're just
Speaker 3: kind of looking around like, you know, Okay, wow, We're
Speaker 3: in a whole new world. And so it was a
Speaker 3: really good week. It was a consequential week. We got back,
Speaker 3: we had. The very first thing we did is dove
Speaker 3: into leadership elections for the new majority leader, and the
Speaker 3: very first majority leader was elected in eighteen years and
Speaker 3: so on the podcast today, I'm going to bring inside
Speaker 3: of that that I'm going to tell you about what's
Speaker 3: going on in the Senate. We're going to break all
Speaker 3: of that down. We're also going to break down a
Speaker 3: major terrorist arrest that happened. And you're in my hometown, Houston, Texas,
Speaker 3: so we're going to talk about all that.
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Speaker 2: mentioned it in the opening there, the mood you've gone
Speaker 2: back to Washington and been from the majority to the minority.
Speaker 1: It's not fun. Yeah, But when you lose the White House.
Speaker 2: You lose this, you lose the the Senate, and you
Speaker 2: thought you might be able to pick up the House
Speaker 2: Democrats and you don't get that either. And the Republicans
Speaker 2: have a very secure apparatus around you. That's a really
Speaker 2: bad day for Democrats when they go back to Washington.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I can tell you in the Senate at least
Speaker 3: the Senate Democrats were walking around just shell shocked that
Speaker 3: they were not expecting what happened on election Day.
Speaker 4: And and and it's it's tough.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: I've been there. I've been there when we had the
Speaker 3: majority and lost it, and that's sucks. But but this
Speaker 3: this was just a thumping across the board. We also
Speaker 3: had this week, uh, this week is the orientation for
Speaker 3: newly elected senators. So we had Jim Justice for West Virginia.
Speaker 4: He was there.
Speaker 3: We we had Tim Sheehey from Montana, he was there.
Speaker 3: We had Bernie Moreno from Ohio, he was there. And
Speaker 3: we had Dave McCormick from Pennsylvania.
Speaker 4: He was there.
Speaker 3: So we've got four new Republican senators, all of whom
Speaker 3: were there, and and that that that that's what flipped
Speaker 3: the Senate. So it was good to see them. They
Speaker 3: were excited to be there. And then they're starting the
Speaker 3: whole process of orientation. I will tell you, the Senate's
Speaker 3: an interesting place. So you get elected, and you show
Speaker 3: up and you and you have a week of orientation
Speaker 3: and you do all these different little sessions where they
Speaker 3: talk about the ethics rules, they talk about all all
Speaker 3: the ways it operates, they talk about staffing up your office,
Speaker 3: and and you're put in a little basement office as
Speaker 3: a newly elected senator elect and and you know, it's
Speaker 3: it's kind of an interesting place because the Senate, there
Speaker 3: are one hundred senator offices.
Speaker 4: There are one hundred senators.
Speaker 3: You would think it would be fairly quick and efficient
Speaker 3: to assign each one of the senators the senator offices. Well,
Speaker 3: this is an aspect where I mean, there are a
Speaker 3: lot of ways in which the US Senate is not
Speaker 3: even like a high school. It's like a junior high.
Speaker 3: It's basically mean girls. And one of the ways is
Speaker 3: the new senators basically get hazed, where you get stuck
Speaker 3: down in a tiny basement office for several months. And
Speaker 3: mind you, there are fully empty Senate offices. Once we
Speaker 3: get to January and the old guys have left, they're
Speaker 3: fully empty Senate offices, but it takes several months to
Speaker 3: assign them. And so the new guys are there, they're
Speaker 3: kind of looking around, they're sort of blinking, starry eyed,
Speaker 3: and I remember it, well, you're like, holy crap, what
Speaker 3: am I doing here? And you go to the initial
Speaker 3: lunches and one of the first things you have to
Speaker 3: do as a senator is you have to decide, okay,
Speaker 3: what committees do I want to be on? And so
Speaker 3: you send a formal letter to the to the leader
Speaker 3: of your party saying, here are the committees I want
Speaker 3: to be on, and each senator actually senators, it's a
Speaker 3: it's a lot better the committee asignment process, and the
Speaker 3: Senate is much much better than the House. The way
Speaker 3: it operates is that every newly elected senator is guaranteed
Speaker 3: to what are called A committees and one B committee,
Speaker 3: and you can with some regularity beyond even a fourth
Speaker 3: or a fifth committee as well. So The A committees
Speaker 3: are the major committees that have the broadest jurisdiction. The
Speaker 3: B committees are less consequential committees. They have less authority.
Speaker 3: And the way it works is you can accrue seniority
Speaker 3: on two A committees and one B committee. So for me,
Speaker 3: my two A committees are the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science,
Speaker 3: and Transportation and the Senate Judiciary Committee. And so when
Speaker 3: I first got elected in twenty twelve, as I have
Speaker 3: brand new baby senator, I sent in a letter and said, okay,
Speaker 3: here are the two A committees. I want Commerce and
Speaker 3: I want Judiciary.
Speaker 4: And my B.
Speaker 3: Committee is the Rules Committee, and so I have seniority
Speaker 3: on the Rules Committee as well. Now you can also
Speaker 3: with some frequency get a third A committee and the
Speaker 3: third A committee you're on, but you don't accruse seniority,
Speaker 3: so you're not climbing up the ranks. You're not in
Speaker 3: the line to be a chairman. So my third A
Speaker 3: committee for the first six years in the Senate was
Speaker 3: the Senate Armed Services Committee. So I was on Senate
Speaker 3: Armed Services, a great committee. I enjoyed it very much.
Speaker 3: And then I shifted over to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Speaker 3: Foreign Relations is my third A committee, so I don't
Speaker 3: recruse seniority. So I will never be Chairman of Foreign
Speaker 3: Relations because I have no seniority on the committee and
Speaker 3: you're only allowed to accrue on two a's and one b.
Speaker 3: But because I chose Judiciary and Commerce, that's why in
Speaker 3: this new Senate I will be the chairman of the
Speaker 3: Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, because I crude
Speaker 3: enough seniority that I am now the most senior Republican
Speaker 3: on the Commerce Committee.
Speaker 4: And by the.
Speaker 3: Way, that is a huge damn deal. The Commerce Committee
Speaker 3: has jurisdiction.
Speaker 2: And that's what was going to ask you, is is
Speaker 2: people ask they say, Okay, they see chairmanship, and they're like,
Speaker 2: does that mean more TV time? Does that mean that
Speaker 2: you're a spokesman in the sense for the committee or
Speaker 2: does that mean you actually have power?
Speaker 1: So explain what that looks like.
Speaker 3: It is massive and transformation, and I'll confess I didn't
Speaker 3: fully understand that until all right, So for the last
Speaker 3: two years, I've been the ranking member on the Senate
Speaker 3: Commerce Committee. Now, now what does it mean to be
Speaker 3: the ranking member? You're the senior Republican, but you're in
Speaker 3: the minority. That is a massive shift. So the last
Speaker 3: two years have been enormously consequential. And I'm about to
Speaker 3: be the chairman of the Commerce Committee cause we're in
Speaker 3: the majority now. Now what does it mean when you're
Speaker 3: and the Commerce Committee is an a committee? It is
Speaker 3: a major committee. So when you become the ranking member,
Speaker 3: which I did two years ago, of the Commerce Committee,
Speaker 3: one of the consequences is your budget goes up dramatically.
Speaker 3: So to give a sense, as a Senator from a
Speaker 3: large state, a state like Texas, I had for the
Speaker 3: first ten years in the Senate about sixty five staff members.
Speaker 3: So I have roughly thirty to thirty five in DC
Speaker 3: and thirty to thirty five in Texas. So that's the divide.
Speaker 3: You have about half in d C. They're your policy staff,
Speaker 3: your communications staff, your administrative staff.
Speaker 4: That's in DC. And then in Texas.
Speaker 3: I've got regional offices all over the state in the
Speaker 3: major cities, and I've got constituent Service teams in Texas
Speaker 3: that help thirty million Texans.
Speaker 4: So if you're a.
Speaker 3: Veteran and you're dealing with the VA and you've got issues,
Speaker 3: you call into my Constituent Service team and we help
Speaker 3: help veterans, We help seniors with Social Security, We help
Speaker 3: people whose passports have expired.
Speaker 4: We get people who are, like you.
Speaker 3: Know, getting ready to take a family vacation in tomorrow
Speaker 3: and they realize, oh crap, my passport's expired, and we
Speaker 3: helped them get a passport. So we you as a senator,
Speaker 3: and you get a little bit larger budget, a little
Speaker 3: bit larger staff if you're a large state. In Texas
Speaker 3: obviously is a large state. So for ten years, I had,
Speaker 3: like I said, between sixty and sixty five staff members.
Speaker 3: When I became the ranking member of the Commerce Committee,
Speaker 3: my staff expanded by about a third, so I have
Speaker 3: roughly one hundred staff members now. So I have I
Speaker 3: think thirty eight staff members on the Commerce Committee. So
Speaker 3: it dramatically changes your effectiveness because I mean literally, my
Speaker 3: DC staff more than doubled. And what it means is
Speaker 3: that I've got staff members now for every subcommittee on
Speaker 3: the Commerce Committee. So for example, I've got on my
Speaker 3: team a railroad lawyer who is an expert in the
Speaker 3: law concerning railroads. I've got an expert on aviation because look,
Speaker 3: the Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over aviation. It has curisdiction
Speaker 3: over communications, it has jurisdiction over railroads, it has jurisdiction
Speaker 3: over space, it has jurisdiction over just a vast array.
Speaker 3: And I will say it is a force multiplier. When
Speaker 3: you have that team, you're able to.
Speaker 4: Engage on.
Speaker 3: I would say five x or ten x as many
Speaker 3: issues because every other member of the Commerce Committee. When
Speaker 3: I was on the Commerce Committee for ten years, I
Speaker 3: had like one or two staffers that were on Commerce.
Speaker 3: If you have one or two staffers versus thirty eight,
Speaker 3: it just limits how deep you can dive into issues,
Speaker 3: how many things you can engage in. When you've got
Speaker 3: an expanded team, you can engage in oversight, you can
Speaker 3: put out reports. You just have the ability to drive
Speaker 3: much more of an agenda. There's a second aspect of it,
Speaker 3: which is when bills are being attached to other moving vehicles. So,
Speaker 3: for example, you have something like the National Defense Authorization Act.
Speaker 4: The NDAA passes every year.
Speaker 3: It authorizes our entire military. It's a hugely consequential bill
Speaker 3: because it passes every year. It is often basically a
Speaker 3: Christmas tree where you will get dozens or even hundreds
Speaker 3: of other bills attached to it that have nothing to
Speaker 3: do with defense, and it's just a moving vehicle that
Speaker 3: people attach their bills.
Speaker 4: Now, the way the center out.
Speaker 2: With the pork is that where the pork gets pulled
Speaker 2: in it, it's.
Speaker 3: Actually not really about pork. That pork happens more in
Speaker 3: an appropriation's bill and an omnibus bill, which is doing spending.
Speaker 3: But this is just a vehicle for different bills that
Speaker 3: that are often good and reasonable ideas, and different people
Speaker 3: will attach them to a moving vehicle. But the way
Speaker 3: the Senate operates is any bill that is within the
Speaker 3: Commerce Committee jurisdiction cannot be attached to the NDAA or
Speaker 3: to anything else without the sign off of the chairman,
Speaker 3: who's been Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, for the last.
Speaker 4: Two years, and the sign off of the ranking member.
Speaker 3: So I have an absolute veto if any other Senator
Speaker 3: has any bill within our jurisdiction that they want to
Speaker 3: attach to a moving vehicle, they cannot do so without
Speaker 3: my sign off. That gives an enormous amount of leverage.
Speaker 3: And so the last two years, like I passed a
Speaker 3: ton of legislation because frankly, I use that leverage to say, hey,
Speaker 3: that's great. You want your bill to move. I want
Speaker 3: you to agree to my bill on this. I want
Speaker 3: you to agree to doing this. And so it gives
Speaker 3: you the ability because you can show anything down within
Speaker 3: the jurisdiction of your committee. It gives you the ability
Speaker 3: to negotiate some major victories for Texas, some major free
Speaker 3: market victories, some major victories for job creation. And so
Speaker 3: that was a huge shift. And I will say when
Speaker 3: you become the chairman, I okay. I've only been the
Speaker 3: incoming chairman for a couple of days, so I don't
Speaker 3: really know. I will have much more of an assessment
Speaker 3: of that six months from now, but I think it
Speaker 3: is five x, if not ten x more consequential.
Speaker 2: So the question is for everybody listening, is okay, what
Speaker 2: will get done because of this?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: This is part of the payoff of the election getting
Speaker 2: the Senate to be in the majority of the Republicans.
Speaker 2: So paint the picture for people to understand not only
Speaker 2: is this yes, powerful, but what does this now mean
Speaker 2: that we can get done that Maybe in the last
Speaker 2: Congress there was no chance in how of certain things
Speaker 2: getting done.
Speaker 3: So look, my number one priority in the Senate is jobs.
Speaker 3: I'm focused on jobs, jobs, jobs, economic growth. I want
Speaker 3: more jobs. I want more jobs in Texas. I want
Speaker 3: more opportunity in Texas. I want higher wages in Texas.
Speaker 3: If you want jobs, the two most effective levers to
Speaker 3: produce jobs are tax reform and regulatory reform. That every
Speaker 3: time you reduce taxes, you simplify the tax code, You
Speaker 3: reduce and repeal job killing regulations, small businesses expand, and
Speaker 3: you get more jobs. The Commerce Committee, as I said,
Speaker 3: has jurisdiction over forty percent of the US economy. So
Speaker 3: if you care about jobs, there are very few positions
Speaker 3: in Washington that have greater leverage, greater ability to impact
Speaker 3: jobs in the state of Texas than chairmen of the
Speaker 3: Senate Commerce Committee. And so what will get done? So,
Speaker 3: for example, one of my big priorities is going to
Speaker 3: be spectrum. So right now, there's an enormous amount of
Speaker 3: spectrum that the government owns and controls kifa off the market.
Speaker 3: I want to move it to the private sector. Why
Speaker 3: because when you move spectrum to the private sector, it
Speaker 3: creates tens or even hundreds of thousands of jobs, and
Speaker 3: it unleashes tens or hundreds of billions of dollars of investment.
Speaker 3: That spectrum enables five G enables expanding wireless, enables new
Speaker 3: technology apps.
Speaker 4: That is, if you.
Speaker 3: Care about jobs, opening up spectrum for the private sector,
Speaker 3: and the way the government does it, it has an
Speaker 3: auction for the spectrum, so you free up at an
Speaker 3: area of spectrum, and then you have a public auction
Speaker 3: and companies pay billions of dollars to the federal government
Speaker 3: to acquire a portion of spectrum and then to market
Speaker 3: something to consumers, and so it ends up being a
Speaker 3: massive area of investment and expansion of jobs. That's going
Speaker 3: to be a huge priority. Another huge priority for me
Speaker 3: is artificial intelligence. The Democrats want to regulate the hell
Speaker 3: out of artificial intellig leigence. They want to create essentially
Speaker 3: a European style prior approval system where any innovation in
Speaker 3: AI you got to go to the federal government first.
Speaker 4: That's a terrible idea.
Speaker 3: It's an idea that is almost perfectly designed to ensure
Speaker 3: that America loses the battle for AI and and we
Speaker 3: fall behind the rest of the world. Well, as chairman
Speaker 3: of the Commerce Committee, I'm not going to let that happen.
Speaker 3: I want to maintain a very light touch regulatory environment
Speaker 3: where innovation is driven from the private sector. Because I
Speaker 3: think AI, and we'll talk about this more. We'll we'll
Speaker 3: have additional podcasts that go deeper into AI. But I
Speaker 3: think AI has a potential and in fact, I think
Speaker 3: it will be the same sort of transformational technology that
Speaker 3: the development of the Internet was twenty five years ago.
Speaker 3: And in fact, several months ago, I wrote an op
Speaker 3: ed with with Phil Graham, former Senator from Texas, and
Speaker 3: I did something that would surprise some people, but Phil
Speaker 3: and I together we praised a Democrat president and we
Speaker 3: praised Bill Clinton. So Bill Clinton was president during the
Speaker 3: really formation of the Internet, and Bill Clinton signed an
Speaker 3: executive order that was a very light touch regulatory footprint
Speaker 3: on the Internet and the growth of it, and it
Speaker 3: allowed private companies to develop and innovate and the consequence
Speaker 3: of that, so it's actually striking. In nineteen ninety three,
Speaker 3: the economy of the United States of America was almost
Speaker 3: exactly the same size as the economy of the European Union.
Speaker 3: The EU took a dramatically different approach. They took a
Speaker 3: prior approval approach where they said, Okay, our government has
Speaker 3: to approve whatever you're doing on the Internet. Now fast
Speaker 3: forward thirty years, what are the consequences. Today, the American
Speaker 3: economy is fifty percent larger than the EU, So we
Speaker 3: went from essentially one hundred percent to one hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty percent. The biggest driver of that is the rise
Speaker 3: of technology. You look at the Internet. Virtually every major
Speaker 3: big tech company in the world is headquartered in the
Speaker 3: United States and is driving massive job creation. Now, big
Speaker 3: tech also has abuses, and I focused on that a lot,
Speaker 3: and that's going to be a big focus of the
Speaker 3: Commerce Committee as well. But that job creation, that wealth creation,
Speaker 3: that innovation is hugely consequential. What Biden did he entered
Speaker 3: an EO an executive order on AI that basically modeled
Speaker 3: what the European Union did.
Speaker 4: It was a heavy.
Speaker 3: Handed government prior approval mechanism that I think if that
Speaker 3: stayed the law, it would seed leadership to the rest
Speaker 3: of the world and we would fall behind China and
Speaker 3: the rest of the world in the development of AI.
Speaker 3: I think that'd be catastrophic because AI is going to
Speaker 3: be every bit as transformative at technology as the Internet was.
Speaker 3: And I want America to leave at battle. And so
Speaker 3: that is a big, big consequence for the Commerce Committee.
Speaker 3: To other areas, I'll mention they're going to be huge priorities.
Speaker 4: Energy.
Speaker 3: Energy is massively important. You want to reduce inflation. Energy
Speaker 3: as an input to just about every aspect of inflation.
Speaker 3: You want jobs. America is the energy superpower of the world.
Speaker 3: We need to be energy dominant. And Donald Trump that's
Speaker 3: a huge priority for him, and that's going to be
Speaker 3: a huge priority for me as chairman of the Commerce Committee.
Speaker 3: And I'll say one other topic, and we'll talk about
Speaker 3: this also in a subsequent podcast, but sports and college athletics.
Speaker 3: You and I both love college sports. Right now, the
Speaker 3: current world of college sports is the wild West, name
Speaker 3: image and likeness, open transfer portals. It is I think
Speaker 3: endangering the future and viability of college athletics. I think
Speaker 3: Congress needs to step in and legislate. When the Democrats
Speaker 3: were in the majority, it just wasn't a priority for them.
Speaker 3: It will be a priority. We are going to address it.
Speaker 3: As chairman. I can convene hearings. I'm in charge of
Speaker 3: every hearing the Commerce Committee has. I invite the witnesses
Speaker 3: for the hearings. I can call up markups. I can
Speaker 3: decide what bills get marked up. And what bills don't
Speaker 3: and it gives you the ability to drive an agenda
Speaker 3: that is just qualitatively different.
Speaker 2: That's going to be a very interesting topic, especially my
Speaker 2: ears per cup as a former college athlete, because there
Speaker 2: does have to be a happy medium. But you're right,
Speaker 2: it has become the wild West. So how do we
Speaker 2: make it where you also are protecting the athletes and
Speaker 2: sports the integrity of the game. And that's going to
Speaker 2: be something very fun to watch as we continue this
Speaker 2: next year. I also want to ask you about the
Speaker 2: Senate election, because my, oh my, did that blow up
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Speaker 2: vote real quick. I got angry when I get angry,
Speaker 2: I tweeted in all caps because there was a list
Speaker 2: that was put out and this list was such a
Speaker 2: joke because it had so many things that were wrong.
Speaker 2: It had Thune voting for cornin. The list was, as
Speaker 2: I said.
Speaker 1: A lie.
Speaker 2: I thought it was a lie to divide the Republican Party.
Speaker 2: It was a lie to get Republicans to go after
Speaker 2: one another. It wasn't an an accurate list. There was
Speaker 2: a lot of them that were accurate, but that was
Speaker 2: like captain obvious accuracy, like of course this person was
Speaker 2: going to vote for this.
Speaker 1: One at X, Y, and Z.
Speaker 2: But the list itself, when you got down to it,
Speaker 2: was a list that I think was just put out
Speaker 2: there to rile up an anger Conservatives feeling like, oh,
Speaker 2: they're already getting screwed after this election day, and they're
Speaker 2: not listening to conservative voters. They're not listening to Magat supporters,
Speaker 2: they're not listening to Trump supporters. And at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, it was a lie and it was
Speaker 2: done just to divide, and it made me furious.
Speaker 1: Your reaction.
Speaker 2: All right, So let's get into the Senate vote for
Speaker 2: who was going to be the majority leader. And this
Speaker 2: was a vote that really, I think took up a
Speaker 2: lot of oxygen on social media and there were a
Speaker 2: lot of people that had a lot of opinions about it.
Speaker 2: So let's just talk about what actually happened and how
Speaker 2: the debate went. And people were saying, it isn't even fair.
Speaker 2: Is that a fair assessment? I don't think so. From
Speaker 2: what I saw, I want you to tell to everybody
Speaker 2: how this went down.
Speaker 4: Sure.
Speaker 3: So there were three candidates who were running for Majority leader,
Speaker 3: and this is the first time we've had a maj
Speaker 3: already a leader election in eighteen years. That was when
Speaker 3: Mitch McConnell was elected eighteen years ago. We had a
Speaker 3: contestant and a new leader elected this week. The three
Speaker 3: candidates were John Thune. John Thune is the current Republican Whip,
Speaker 3: so the number two official he was running. John Cornyan
Speaker 3: was running, my fellow Texas Senator who was the previous
Speaker 3: Republican whip. He had been the whip before Thun, and
Speaker 3: the Republican Conference has term limits in place, so John
Speaker 3: Cornyn spent six years as the whip and after six
Speaker 3: years he had to step down his whip, so he
Speaker 3: was whipped for six years and then Thune was is
Speaker 3: the current whip and he's so the two of them
Speaker 3: were running. And then the third candidate running was Rick Scott.
Speaker 3: Rick Scott, Senator from Florida. And it was a very
Speaker 3: contested election. A lot of the Trump Maga world got
Speaker 3: behind Rick Scott, got very vocally behind Rick Scott.
Speaker 4: I supported Rick Scott. I publicly supported Rick Scott.
Speaker 3: And and I will tell you that the dynamics of
Speaker 3: the election. So, so the way it works it is
Speaker 3: you go into the election happens in the old Senate Chamber.
Speaker 3: So the old Senate Chamber is where the Senate used
Speaker 3: to meet before the current Senate Chamber was built. It's
Speaker 3: a much smaller room. It's a historic room. It's where
Speaker 3: many of the great lions of the Senate, like like
Speaker 3: met and debated. And so so that's where we always
Speaker 3: have our leader elections. And you're in there, and it's
Speaker 3: it's it's senators are in there, and and what happens
Speaker 3: is you have each of the three nominees. There are
Speaker 3: nominating speeches. There's a senator who stands up and nominates
Speaker 3: one of the three people. There's a second senator who
Speaker 3: stands up and gives a seconding speech, and then the
Speaker 3: person who's being nominated gives a speech. And so for
Speaker 3: each of the three you had those speeches and it
Speaker 3: took quite a while, I mean the speeches senators. Senators
Speaker 3: are not known for their brevity, uh so they were
Speaker 3: pretty long winded speeches. And then we had a few
Speaker 3: questions and Senator to ask several questions. On Tuesday night
Speaker 3: before the vote, we also had a forum that that
Speaker 3: where we asked vigorous questions of all three of the candidates.
Speaker 3: And then you vote. You vote, and it's by secret ballot.
Speaker 3: They hand out these little little cards and you check
Speaker 3: you checked either Thun, Cornn or Scott. So I checked Scott.
Speaker 4: I voted.
Speaker 3: And the way it works is that everyone votes and
Speaker 3: you have to get a majority to be elected, but
Speaker 3: whoever is third gets eliminated. So we had the first
Speaker 3: vote and on the first vote, Rick Scott was third,
Speaker 3: and so Rick Scott was eliminated. And then there was
Speaker 3: a second round of balloting just between Thun and Cornyn,
Speaker 3: and on the second round of balloting, Thun won, and
Speaker 3: so Thune is now the majority leader.
Speaker 2: Now, so what is that What is the purpose of
Speaker 2: the secret ballot is that just so people can vote
Speaker 2: their conscience and there's not so much you know, hoop a.
Speaker 2: Is it to keep it more efficient? What's or is
Speaker 2: it just tradition? What's behind that?
Speaker 4: 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. There are
Speaker 3: fifty three of us, 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. So I think
Speaker 3: that's some of the history, it's always, to the best
Speaker 3: of my knowledge, it has always been a secret ballot.
Speaker 3: And because of that dynamic, and the other Senate leadership
Speaker 3: votes are secret ballot as well. And look two years ago,
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty two, we had the first contested leadership
Speaker 3: ballot in sixteen years and two years ago, Rick Scott
Speaker 3: challenged Mitch McConnell, and I was the point of the spear.
Speaker 3: So the beginning of that battle two years ago, the
Speaker 3: very first thing that happened as I stood up and
Speaker 3: I made a motion to delay the election for a month,
Speaker 3: so we were voting two years.
Speaker 1: We did a great show on this.
Speaker 2: It's all coming back to me now that you can
Speaker 2: go back and listen to, because I think, if I'm
Speaker 2: not mistaken, we didn't like it two in the morning
Speaker 2: after the voting had taken place, and you'd come out
Speaker 2: and told this story. I would encourage everybody if you
Speaker 2: want to go back and listen to this episode. Like
Speaker 2: you said, it's like two years ago, and it was.
Speaker 2: It was a big fight then, and like you said,
Speaker 2: you were the one leading that the tip of the
Speaker 2: 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, two
Speaker 3: should have been a fantastic election for Republicans. We should
Speaker 3: have won the Senate. We should have we should have
Speaker 3: grown our majority in the House. It should have been
Speaker 3: a fantastic election. And it was a lousy election. And
Speaker 3: I stood up and said, listen, we ought to delay
Speaker 3: this vote by a month, and we ought to spend
Speaker 3: the month next month talking about why we got our
Speaker 3: asses kicked, like what's going wrong? And I turned to
Speaker 3: Mitch McConnell i said Listen, for the last two years,
Speaker 3: we had a handful of Republicans team up with the
Speaker 3: Democrats to pass the Democrats' priorities. Now, maybe that's a
Speaker 3: good idea. Someone here can make the argument why that's
Speaker 3: a good idea. I think it's dumb as hell. But
Speaker 3: if you want to make the argument it's a good idea.
Speaker 3: We ought to talk about it. What I could tell
Speaker 3: you that is objectively true is the Democrats never do that.
Speaker 3: Like when we had Trump was president, we had a
Speaker 3: Republican Senate, Republican House. There was not a single bill
Speaker 3: we passed that consisted of all the Republicans and a
Speaker 3: handful of Democrats joining us. They opposed everything, and by
Speaker 3: the way, for the next two years, I think they
Speaker 3: will as well. So I said, look, we ought to debate.
Speaker 3: Whatever we did didn't work. We had are debated, and
Speaker 3: so I laid out. I gave a forty five minute speech.
Speaker 3: I looked at Mitch McConnell and I said, tell me,
Speaker 3: over the next two years, what are you willing to
Speaker 3: fight over? I said, listen, you and I may disagree.
Speaker 3: There are a lot of things I think we should
Speaker 3: fight over. They're not for you, but is there anything.
Speaker 3: Is there one thing you're willing to fight on over
Speaker 3: the next two years. By the way, Mitch refused to
Speaker 3: answer that question. We ended up after I made the
Speaker 3: motion to delay the vote. I ended up getting sixteen
Speaker 3: votes for that motion. I needed twenty five, so we
Speaker 3: had forty nine Republicans, so I needed twenty five for
Speaker 3: a majority, So I fell nine votes short. Those sixteen
Speaker 3: votes were the first votes ever cast against Mitch McConnell,
Speaker 3: and that was very consequential.
Speaker 4: After that, Rick Scott.
Speaker 3: Because I failed to delay the election, Rick Scott ran
Speaker 3: against Mitch.
Speaker 4: I voted for Rick.
Speaker 3: I was quite vocal about it, and Rick got ten votes,
Speaker 3: and so that's what happened.
Speaker 4: I was one of those ten.
Speaker 3: By the way, after the votes, Mitch McConnell exacted retribution
Speaker 3: on the senators who opposed him. So, for example, the
Speaker 3: Commerce Committee, both Rick Scott and Mike Lee used to
Speaker 3: be on the Commerce Committee, and Mitch McConnell uses his
Speaker 3: authority as the GOP leader to throw them both off
Speaker 3: the Commerce Committee. Eric Schmidt from Missouri, who also voted
Speaker 3: against Mitch. Eric Schmidt wanted to be on Judiciary, and
Speaker 3: Mitch used his authority to orchestrate blocking him from being
Speaker 3: on Judiciary. So there was there was there were real
Speaker 3: punitive measures that were implemented attacking the people that dared
Speaker 3: stand up to McConnell. So this time around, Rick Scott
Speaker 3: did better than he did two years ago. Two years
Speaker 3: ago he got ten votes. This time he got thirteen votes,
Speaker 3: so we picked up three more votes. I don't know
Speaker 3: who those three more votes were. I was one of
Speaker 3: those thirteen, as i'd been one of the ten. But
Speaker 3: Rick did not prevail, and then then ultimately Thune prevailed
Speaker 3: on the second ballot.
Speaker 4: 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 John Thune. I've worked with him.
Speaker 3: I've worked with Thune, I've worked with Corn and I've
Speaker 3: worked with Rick Scott. I mean, the Senate is a
Speaker 3: small place. It's a collegial place. If you want to
Speaker 3: actually accomplish anything, you've got to deal with 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. You know thuone and I,
Speaker 3: you know, used to He works out every morning in
Speaker 3: the gym and he's he's very fit. I would work
Speaker 3: out at the same time he was, and it was
Speaker 3: kind of embarrassing because he would lift a lot more
Speaker 3: weight than I.
Speaker 4: Could lift, and he would he would be like pumping
Speaker 4: iron and it's sort of humbling to watch.
Speaker 3: Thune because he's just, you know, he's a he's a
Speaker 3: man in his early sixties who's in really good shape.
Speaker 4: Look Thune.
Speaker 3: I was not surprised thun one, because he's very well
Speaker 3: liked by his colleagues. Thune is affable, he's a good guy.
Speaker 3: He's just he's not a jerk. He's not he's everyone
Speaker 3: likes him. It's just I mentioned before, the Senate is
Speaker 3: a little bit like a junior high. You know, Thune
Speaker 3: would win the class president election. It's and and a
Speaker 3: lot of it is the kind of small, little personal
Speaker 3: dynamics that play out on that. But but as I said,
Speaker 3: I was not surprised thun One. I will say a
Speaker 3: lot of the Trump world was was freaking out, saying, oh,
Speaker 3: thun hates Donald Trump and he's going to oppose everything
Speaker 3: Trump wants.
Speaker 1: To do.
Speaker 3: I think those concerns were overstated. Listen, John Thune is
Speaker 3: majority leader in every Senator is excite 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 to confirm his cabinet appointments to move forward. Now,
Speaker 3: it doesn't necessarily mean that the Senate is going to
Speaker 3: be a rubber stamp for one hundred percent of everything
Speaker 3: that comes from the White House. And it's not the
Speaker 3: Senate's job to be a rubber stamp for everything that
Speaker 3: comes from the White House. Under the Constitution, the Senate
Speaker 3: is supposed to have a role, a role of on nominations,
Speaker 3: advice and consent, a role of check and balance. But
Speaker 3: I can tell you that the sort of folks and
Speaker 3: I had multiple calls from Trump's team very worried, Okay,
Speaker 3: is Thon going to fight us in everything we're doing?
Speaker 4: And I was like, Okay, I no.
Speaker 3: I I. So today I had an hour long meeting
Speaker 3: uh with with Thun as the new majority leader, and
Speaker 3: with all the committee chairs and the entire meeting was
Speaker 3: talking about, Okay, how are we going to move forward
Speaker 3: with with with tax reform, with extending the Trump tax cuts,
Speaker 3: with with with regulatory reform, with unleashing energy, with securing
Speaker 3: the border. How are we going to move the legislative
Speaker 3: agenda so we can deliver big, big wins uh in
Speaker 3: in in.
Speaker 4: The next year.
Speaker 3: And and that was that was the focus from Thune
Speaker 3: and every committee chairman. So so I I think I understand. Look,
Speaker 3: I voted for Rick Scott because I think Rick was
Speaker 3: offering the greatest change, But at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: to prevail, you've got to be able to get a
Speaker 3: majority of the Republican senators, and Rick did not.
Speaker 2: Yeah, great point, And I love that you you explained
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Speaker 2: there was some news, and I'm glad that this is
Speaker 2: a successful story in the sense that we got a terrorist,
Speaker 2: but it's also a very concerning story coming out of
Speaker 2: Houston of a man planning a attack, an ISIS style attack,
Speaker 2: and the FBI's arrested a man for direct ties to
Speaker 2: ISIS and a terror plot.
Speaker 3: Well, that's right, it was a very disturbing story. A
Speaker 3: texasman was arrested on Thursday after he attempted to support
Speaker 3: ISIS and plan a terrorist attack on American soil. And
Speaker 3: all of this happened in Houston, Texas. So twenty eight
Speaker 3: year old by the name of a Nas Sayid, and
Speaker 3: he was searching for ways to commit violent acts on
Speaker 3: behalf of the Islamic State in Houston. He's been charged
Speaker 3: with attempting to provide material support to a terrorist group.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: He was arrested as an apartment complex, and he said
Speaker 3: while he while while in custody, he admitted to researching
Speaker 3: how to conduct an attack on local military recruiting centers.
Speaker 3: He offered his home as a sanctuary for ISIS operatives.
Speaker 3: He bragged that he would commit a nine to eleven
Speaker 3: style attack if he had the resources. And he was
Speaker 3: attempting to produce ISIS propaganda and and and that this
Speaker 3: is a very dangerous world and and and I will
Speaker 3: say it has gotten only more dangerous after four years
Speaker 3: of weakness from Joe Biden, Kamala Harrison, the White House.
Speaker 3: I am glad that that that this alleged terrorist was arrested,
Speaker 3: that that a terrorist attack was stopped, and I think
Speaker 3: it is critically important going forward that we be vigorous.
Speaker 3: I I am deeply worried. We've talked a lot of
Speaker 3: this podcast about my belief that we are at a
Speaker 3: greater risk of a major terrorist attack today than we've
Speaker 3: been any time since nine to eleven, and that this
Speaker 3: arrest this week just underscores that risk.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this is the reason why it was such
Speaker 2: an election your issue. And again, this is good news
Speaker 2: that the person was caught, but it's also concerning to
Speaker 2: see this happening after an Afghan man in Oklahoma ploted
Speaker 2: an election day tarror attack in the US on behalf
Speaker 2: of ice as the Justice Department saying that as well.
Speaker 2: So we're seeing more of these headlines. Let's hope we
Speaker 2: keep getting them before they're able to act. Don't forget
Speaker 2: we do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Hit that
Speaker 2: subscriber auto download button so you do not miss an episode,
Speaker 2: and also grab my podcast on those in between days,
Speaker 2: the Ben Ferguson Podcasts. I'll keep you updated on the
Speaker 2: latest breaking news there as well, and the Senator. I
Speaker 2: will see you back here on Saturday for our week
Speaker 2: in review.