Speaker 1: Welcome.
Speaker 2: It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with
Speaker 2: you as well, and we have got a loaded show
Speaker 2: for you. The NAACP doesn't want you to go to Florida,
Speaker 2: specifically if you are African Americans, saying it's unsafe on
Speaker 2: the same exact week that Ronda Sants is announcing is
Speaker 2: going to run for president. Yeah, there's no coincidence there
Speaker 2: at all. Also, mothers standing up and saying no to
Speaker 2: target coming after children. And now it looks like we're winning,
Speaker 2: just like there was big victories with bud Light and
Speaker 2: finally am Radio. Yes, it may be sticking around for
Speaker 2: a little while longer in your vehicles.
Speaker 1: We're going to give you an update on that.
Speaker 2: But first, Senator, let's get back to this big story,
Speaker 2: and that is the NAACP came out with I think,
Speaker 2: which was one of the most disgusting warnings about Florida,
Speaker 2: clearly political and saying they have a travel advisory to
Speaker 2: Florida the exact same week that Rhonda Santis is announcing
Speaker 2: he's running for president. What's funny about this is there
Speaker 2: are actually several NAACP top executives that live in Florida,
Speaker 2: I'm curious, are they going to sell their houses right away?
Speaker 3: Well, it was obviously partisan, it was obviously political, and
Speaker 3: it's sad to see what's happened to the NAACP. You know,
Speaker 3: I have to say this topic sparked something of a
Speaker 3: Twitter war, and I think it's worth it for listeners
Speaker 3: of the pod to walk through the Twitter war. So
Speaker 3: when the NAACP issued its quote travel advisory for the
Speaker 3: state of Florida over the weekend saying that Republican Governor
Speaker 3: Ronda Santis's policies constitute an all out of tack on
Speaker 3: Black Americans and other minorities, I responded and said, quote,
Speaker 3: this is bizarre and utterly dishonest. In the nineteen fifties
Speaker 3: and sixties, the NAACP did extraordinary good helping lead the
Speaker 3: civil rights movement. Today, doctor King would be ashamed of
Speaker 3: how profound. Only they've lost their wib now. That comment
Speaker 3: triggered a whole bunch of leftists, including one very lefty
Speaker 3: professor at Maelma Mater Guid named Kevin Cruz kr Us,
Speaker 3: who says, quote, in nineteen sixty five, doctor King called
Speaker 3: for a national boycott of the state of Alabama, saying
Speaker 3: that Democratic Governor George Wallace's policies constitute constituted a quote
Speaker 3: reign of terror against black Americans. Well, from there, Norm Ornstein,
Speaker 3: who's the big lefty Democrat commentator, said, quote guests who
Speaker 3: would have been first in line to filibuster against the
Speaker 3: Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act? Yes, Ted Cruz,
Speaker 3: ooh they got me now. So I responded to Norm Ornstein,
Speaker 3: and I said, quote nonsense, That shameful filibuster was led
Speaker 3: by Democrats, your party, My party, The Republicans proudly voted
Speaker 3: for the Civil Rights Act in much higher percentages than
Speaker 3: the racist Dems. Now here's where it gets interesting. This
Speaker 3: great scholar of American history, this learned analyst on all
Speaker 3: things concerning race, Alexandria Keeja Cortes, sends the following tweet,
Speaker 3: why don't you go ahead and tell people what happened
Speaker 3: to the parties?
Speaker 1: After that?
Speaker 3: Ted, Well, I'm never one to turn down a kind
Speaker 3: invitation from someone trying to be helpful to discussion, So
Speaker 3: I happily replied, and I tweeted AOC and I said sure.
Speaker 3: And what follows is a seven tweet thread which, if
Speaker 3: you will indulge I'm going to walk you through sure. First,
Speaker 3: the DEM Party founded the KKK. Then the DEM Party
Speaker 3: wrote Jim Crow Laws. Then the DEM Party filibustered the
Speaker 3: Civil Rights Act. Weet number two. Today, the DEM Party
Speaker 3: filibuster's school choice, trapping millions of Black kids and failing schools. Today,
Speaker 3: the DEM Party pushes abolishing the police, which results in
Speaker 3: many more black lives murdered. Today, the DEM Party voted
Speaker 3: against my bill to stop DC from throwing forty percent
Speaker 3: of black kids out of schools because of the vas mandate.
Speaker 1: Tweet number three.
Speaker 3: The Republican Party was founded to oppose slavery. Our first
Speaker 3: president Republican President was Abraham Lincoln, who won the Civil
Speaker 3: War and ended slavery. It was Republicans who voted for
Speaker 3: the Civil Rights Act in a much higher percentage than
Speaker 3: racist Democrats. Tweet number four. Today we produced the lowest
Speaker 3: African American unemployment ever under the Trump economic boom. Today
Speaker 3: we produce the lowest African American poverty levels ever under
Speaker 3: the Trump economic boom. Tweet number five Today. In twenty seventeen,
Speaker 3: I passed the largest expansion of federal school choice ever,
Speaker 3: making five twenty nine plans cover k through twelve over
Speaker 3: the objection of every single Senate Democrat Tweet number six. Also,
Speaker 3: just two years ago, the Democrat governor of Virginia had
Speaker 3: put the photo of a man dressed as a KKK
Speaker 3: Klansman on his personal yearbook page. And today the sitting
Speaker 3: Democrat President, Joe Biden gave in twenty eleven a flowery
Speaker 3: eulogy for an exalted cyclops of the KKK and final
Speaker 3: tweet tweet number seven. And to add all that the
Speaker 3: Democrat Party aggressively supports open borders, which has led to
Speaker 3: the deaths and brutal assaults of thousands of Hispanics, and
Speaker 3: AOC somehow can't team seem to find her white pantsuit
Speaker 3: to cry over their suffering sinator.
Speaker 2: It's amazing how easy it is for the left to
Speaker 2: play the race card, and I love the fact that
Speaker 2: you had that Twitter thread with her. I also think
Speaker 2: this is going to clearly be part of the strategy
Speaker 2: for the Democratic Party going into this next election cycle.
Speaker 2: It seems to be the strategy that they're going to
Speaker 2: use no matter what, on anybody that they see as
Speaker 2: a threat a conservative that's up and coming. The fact
Speaker 2: that the NAACP has now done this. They've not put
Speaker 2: out a travel warning to places like New York City,
Speaker 2: San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago, my hometown of Memphis. They haven't
Speaker 2: put out travel warnings to any of these other top
Speaker 2: crime cities. They haven't done it in Baltimore, even in Washington,
Speaker 2: d C. But they're doing it for an entire state
Speaker 2: of Florida because they don't like the guy who's the governor,
Speaker 2: and they don't like he's about to announce he's running
Speaker 2: for president, so therefore we're going to label him a racist.
Speaker 2: And sure enough, it worked because in a lot of
Speaker 2: the news stories in the last twenty four hours, they're like, well,
Speaker 2: Ron De Santis is going to announce he's running for president,
Speaker 2: and the NAACP has said it's not safe for African
Speaker 2: Americans to go to Florida. Tiger Woods lives in Florida.
Speaker 2: I don't think he's going to be moving anytime soon.
Speaker 3: And vast numbers of African Americans are moving to Florida
Speaker 3: because Florida has been an oasis of freedom. Just like Texas,
Speaker 3: Texas and Florida, people are moving, they're voting with their feet.
Speaker 3: They're leaving Democrat states like New York, like California, like Illinois.
Speaker 3: They're fleeing in vast numbers and coming to states like
Speaker 3: Texas and Florida. And Democrats hate that and listen. As
Speaker 3: I said in my initial tweet, I really do respect
Speaker 3: the NAACP. What they did in the nineteen fifties and
Speaker 3: sixties standing up against segregated schools, which coincidentally had been
Speaker 3: put in place one hundred percent of the times by
Speaker 3: Democrat politicians. What they did litigating Brown versus Board of
Speaker 3: Education at the Supreme Court and an ending segregation that
Speaker 3: was historic. What they did fighting the civil rights movement,
Speaker 3: what they did in sit ins, what they did at
Speaker 3: lunch counters, what they did in marches, what they did
Speaker 3: with Doctor King and nonviolent protests. There's a reason in
Speaker 3: my office in the Senate for over a decade I've
Speaker 3: had a bust of Doctor King directly across from my desk.
Speaker 3: It was extraordinary, and it is sad to see the
Speaker 3: current leadership who they're just Democrat partisans. They're not pretending
Speaker 3: to be concerned. If they actually cared about civil rights,
Speaker 3: the NAACP would join me in leading the fight for
Speaker 3: school choice, in leading the fight to say every African
Speaker 3: American child in this country has a right to access
Speaker 3: quality education, and we're not going to accept politicians trapping
Speaker 3: our kids in failing schools. We're not going to accept
Speaker 3: African American kids in schools where children aren't learning, where
Speaker 3: they don't have literacy, where they're dropping out of schools,
Speaker 3: where they're drug dealers in the hallways, where where little
Speaker 3: girls are being violently assaulted in the bathrooms. They would
Speaker 3: have righteous indignation and rage, but they don't have any
Speaker 3: of that. Instead, they are simply partisans. And I got
Speaker 3: to say aoc her response to this look at typifies
Speaker 3: the response of many hyperpartisan Democrats that are suffused in
Speaker 3: ignorance but also supremely sure that the corporate media will
Speaker 3: never report on what they're saying. So I actually think
Speaker 3: what she typed in, why don't you tell us Ted
Speaker 3: what happened to the parties after that? That it never
Speaker 3: occurred to her that I would accept her invitation. Now,
Speaker 3: I got to say you and I are recording this
Speaker 3: late in the evening Tuesday night. To date, AOC has
Speaker 3: not responded. She's quietly shut her mouth. This may be
Speaker 3: the first time in history AOC has failed to respond
Speaker 3: to something. We'll see if she rises to the occasion
Speaker 3: or not. She may do some sort of cancuon insult
Speaker 3: or something that's the typical leftist like oh, yeah, your mama,
Speaker 3: so maybe that's coming, but she won't respond on the
Speaker 3: substance because she can't. And let me tell you something else, Ben,
Speaker 3: So there's some lefties on Twitter that are like, oh,
Speaker 3: your staff researched this and wrote this Twitter thread. Let
Speaker 3: me be clear, and you spent a lot of time
Speaker 3: with me. You know exactly where this thread came from.
Speaker 3: I read the idiotic tweet from AOC and I sat
Speaker 3: in the car. In fact, I delayed a meeting to
Speaker 3: sit there on my phone and type out each of
Speaker 3: these seven responses because I was so pissed at her dishonesty.
Speaker 3: Because the Democrat party record on race is shameful and
Speaker 3: they eagerly lie to the American people about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they do.
Speaker 2: And I seeing you, by the way, I've witnessed you
Speaker 2: in the zone, and when there's something that catches you
Speaker 2: like this, it is don't talk to me until I'm
Speaker 2: done moment. And I'm glad that you owned it this way,
Speaker 2: and I agree with you. I doubt she responds with
Speaker 2: anything substantive at all.
Speaker 3: If she does respond, yeah, if she does respond, it'll
Speaker 3: be some sort of ad hominem attack that is just
Speaker 3: personal and nasty, and her legions of left wing Twitter
Speaker 3: followers will all immediately coo ooh, you got him by
Speaker 3: saying something nasty. But what she won't do is respond substantively.
Speaker 3: What she won't do is dispute the point. Look, the
Speaker 3: incumbent Democrat president gave a glowing eulogy of a self
Speaker 3: declared exalted Cyclops of the ku Klux Klan. Now the
Speaker 3: Democrats live in this bizarre fiction, which is they admit
Speaker 3: from eighteen sixty to eighteen seventy to eighteen eighty to
Speaker 3: eighteen ninety to nineteen hundred to nineteen ten to nineteen
Speaker 3: twenty to nineteen thirty to nineteen forty to nineteen fifty
Speaker 3: to nineteen sixty their party were a bunch of bigoted raceists,
Speaker 3: who hated African Americans, who founded the clans, who engage
Speaker 3: in lynching, who discriminated, who put in segregated schools, and
Speaker 3: were horrible, vicious bigots. And they also admit from eighteen
Speaker 3: sixty to eighteen seventy to eighteen eighty to eighteen ninety,
Speaker 3: nineteen hundred to nineteen ten to nineteen twenty to nineteen
Speaker 3: thirty to nineteen forty to nineteen fifty nineteen sixty, the
Speaker 3: Republican Party was founded to end slavery, was fighting for
Speaker 3: civil rights, was fighting against the Democrat bigots, and was
Speaker 3: the one leading those efforts for more than a century.
Speaker 3: Now here's the weird Democrat fiction that all of these
Speaker 3: historically illiterate leftists insists on Twitter. They say, well, yeah,
Speaker 3: that's all true. But in nineteen in the nineteen sixties,
Speaker 3: the two parties magically switched places, and suddenly all of
Speaker 3: these evil, vicious, bigoted Democrats became Republicans. And suddenly, by
Speaker 3: the way, so the way their narrative works, all of
Speaker 3: the noble Republicans who were fighting racism apparently decided to
Speaker 3: become the old racist Democrats, which is a really weird like,
Speaker 3: how exactly does that work? You know, I just wish
Speaker 3: I was in the Party of Bull Connor. I'd feel
Speaker 3: better about race if Bull Connor and I were alied,
Speaker 3: Like what on earth? It's a bizarre idea. And by
Speaker 3: the way, virtually all of those Democrats stayed Democrats their
Speaker 3: whole lives. You didn't actually see the South shift to
Speaker 3: Republican until the nineteen eighties, of the nineteen nineties, of
Speaker 3: the two thousands. And it shifted really because the Democrat
Speaker 3: Party abandoned working class voters and abandoned cultural sanity. But
Speaker 3: none of that. Democrats can't be bothered with it. They
Speaker 3: just sooom. There's a fairy godmother that came from Cinderella
Speaker 3: waved her wand and suddenly the bigoted clan founding Democrats
Speaker 3: became noble Democrats. And if that's true, why did Joseph
Speaker 3: Robinette Biden praise and give a flowery eulogy to brd
Speaker 3: Robert Byrd was the Senate Majority Leader. He was a
Speaker 3: Democrat Senate and he was a quote Exalted Cyclops of
Speaker 3: the ku Klux said, by the way, the clan gives
Speaker 3: idiotic names to their idiotic racist positions. But Robert Bird
Speaker 3: got that because he was a recruiter for the clan.
Speaker 3: He called up people and said, hey, I'm a bigoted
Speaker 3: Clans member, wouldn't you like to be one?
Speaker 1: Two?
Speaker 3: And he became a Democrat senator. Then he became the
Speaker 3: Senate Majority leader for Democrats, and then Joe Biden stood
Speaker 3: up and said, the exalted Cyclops.
Speaker 1: For the clan.
Speaker 3: He was my mentor in the Senate. I'm sorry, AOC.
Speaker 3: You don't get to pretend that the history of bigotry
Speaker 3: in your party that extend to the current resident of
Speaker 3: the Oval Office has magically disappeared.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Great point, center, great point.
Speaker 2: I also want to talk about something else that's happened,
Speaker 2: and that is I am so happy and encouraged to
Speaker 2: watch what's happened with bud Light, and the sales have
Speaker 2: declined now they're off about twenty five percent year over
Speaker 2: year because people are standing up saying they've had enough.
Speaker 2: This is now turned into a bud Light two point
Speaker 2: zero situation at Target stores. And before we get into
Speaker 2: that story, I want to tell you about our friends
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Speaker 2: seven eight Patriot Center. You've been watching and it's been
Speaker 2: very interesting to see and it makes me happy to
Speaker 2: watch concernervatives that are organizing to the point where Target
Speaker 2: has had to hold an emergency meeting over their LGBTQ
Speaker 2: plus merchandise for Pride Month, and some of their stores
Speaker 2: they're even moving these displays from the front of the
Speaker 2: store to other areas of the store because in some
Speaker 2: of their quote Southern locations, because they're trying to avoid
Speaker 2: the customer outrage that bud light and as they described it,
Speaker 2: apparently the bud light situation. Many Target locations across the
Speaker 2: country are featuring a massive area I'm talking about real
Speaker 2: square footage of June Pride Month displays. On an annual basis,
Speaker 2: they've gotten bigger and bigger, but this year they seem
Speaker 2: to have crossed a line that many mothers are saying no.
Speaker 2: This includes tuck friendly bathing suits so young boys can
Speaker 2: look like girls wear girls bathing suits for quote transgendered people,
Speaker 2: and they are also having a line of gender fluid
Speaker 2: outfits on top of the fact that they also brought
Speaker 2: an artist to design these children clothing items and different
Speaker 2: things for Pride mont One of those designers artists is
Speaker 2: a well known Satanist who says that Satan is actually
Speaker 2: the party of trans people and he is proud to
Speaker 2: be working with Target and to be designing many of
Speaker 2: these outfits for you. To put your kids in them. Now,
Speaker 2: moms are standing up. I know this has to make
Speaker 2: you happy as well.
Speaker 3: Well. Ben, As I listened to you describe this, my
Speaker 3: first reaction is, Oh, come on, this is a babylon
Speaker 3: Bee story right that this can't actually be real. Like
Speaker 3: when you threw in the Satanist thing, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3: nobody could be that ridiculous. Look, we saw bud Light
Speaker 3: when they we discovered they had no idea who their
Speaker 3: customers were, and they frankly looked down on them and
Speaker 3: thought they were a bunch of ignorant oaths, and so
Speaker 3: they wanted instead to get some new, young, woke teenagers
Speaker 3: drinking bud Light. That has backfired on them, I think mightily. Now, Target, listen,
Speaker 3: it would be nice if big corporations just stayed out
Speaker 3: of politics, just didn't engage. Just if beer companies made
Speaker 3: beer and sold us beer. If Target made lots of
Speaker 3: inexpensive stuff that you need around the house and sold
Speaker 3: it to us, it would be nice if they didn't,
Speaker 3: if Disney wasn't preaching their woke agenda day and day out.
Speaker 3: But at a minimum, is it too much to ask
Speaker 3: that they leave our kids alone?
Speaker 1: Look?
Speaker 3: When I saw what Target was doing. At first, I
Speaker 3: was skeptical. I'm like, okay, fine, So if they've got
Speaker 3: some gay pride stuff that people who were gay or
Speaker 3: lesbian want to wear, okay, they're customers too. If they
Speaker 3: want to buy a rainbow shirt, okay, that's fine. But
Speaker 3: you know what, They're not marketing rainbow shirts to adults
Speaker 3: who choose or identify as gay. They're marketing marketing it
Speaker 3: to children, little children. They're literally selling onesies, onesies for
Speaker 3: babies that have queer pride flags and slogans covering them. Now,
Speaker 3: the last I checked, a baby doesn't know what the
Speaker 3: hell he or she is. And any parent that looks
Speaker 3: at their one year old and said I've decided you're gay.
Speaker 3: That doesn't say anything about the baby. That says everything
Speaker 3: about the adult projecting that on that infant. And they're
Speaker 3: marketing these Look, I gotta admit, you showed this to me.
Speaker 3: I've never seen this before. You showed me the bathing suits,
Speaker 3: the tuck bathing suits. That's just weird. But I guess
Speaker 3: it would be one thing. Look it, frankly would be
Speaker 3: a weird thing if Target we're selling tuck bathing suits
Speaker 3: for adults. I'd be a little skeptical of Okay, why
Speaker 3: is that commanding shelf space instead of at some specialty store.
Speaker 3: But they're selling these quote tuck bathing suits for three
Speaker 3: year olds. Yeah, three year olds, boys who apparently mommy
Speaker 3: and daddy have told them that they're dingling is a
Speaker 3: bad thing and they need to hide it as a
Speaker 3: three year old. And I got to say, I look
Speaker 3: at this, and my reaction is leave our kids the
Speaker 3: hell alone. And then you throw in Ben that it's
Speaker 3: literally a guy who calls himself a Satanist to design this.
Speaker 3: And let's be clear, you're not calling him a Satanist.
Speaker 3: I'm not calling him a Satanist. I don't know if
Speaker 3: this clown worships Satan or not. He's calling himself a Satanist,
Speaker 3: he says, Yep, that's me. I worship the devil. Like,
Speaker 3: at some point did anyone at Target say, hey, maybe
Speaker 3: hiring the Satanists to design queer clothing for three year
Speaker 3: olds and to encourage them to hide their genitalia and
Speaker 3: and bind them back.
Speaker 2: Just look at this guy's actual words. He said on
Speaker 2: his own social media that clearly Target could have checked
Speaker 2: out if they and they probably did quote Satan loves
Speaker 2: you and respects who you are lgb t q I
Speaker 2: A plus people are so often referred to as being
Speaker 2: a practice Scott with Satan instead. That is who they
Speaker 2: hired tot to for Gay Pride Month at Target. And
Speaker 2: it's not just there and like you said, it's about
Speaker 2: the kids and leaving our kids the hell alone.
Speaker 1: You click if you go to Target dot com. And
Speaker 1: I think people.
Speaker 2: Need to see this for themselves because when you see it,
Speaker 2: you'll be out age. Go to Target, like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I first heard the story. I'm like that, that's nutty.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Go to Target dot com slash Pride and there's children's
Speaker 2: books for I'm talking about like one year olds.
Speaker 1: One of them is Dotson.
Speaker 2: It's a it's a book for young young children, not
Speaker 2: not like six and eight year olds, like we're talking
Speaker 2: about little like baby color like flip hard book, those
Speaker 2: hard pages short book. Dotson My Journey to Growing Up
Speaker 2: Transgender illustrations by and then it has the name of
Speaker 2: the person. There's the net right next to that. Bye
Speaker 2: bye binary. It's a book. It's a board book. Now
Speaker 2: board book is for young young we're talking about one
Speaker 2: year olds. Another board book, the pronouns book, and it
Speaker 2: shows a bunch of gay pride stuff and pronouns.
Speaker 3: So ben Ben, I want to ask a serious question.
Speaker 3: I want to ask a serious question the left, whether
Speaker 3: elected Democrats or lefties on Twitter, they lose their mind
Speaker 3: when anyone uses the word people that are grooming young children?
Speaker 3: What else is this if not grooming? When you're talking
Speaker 3: about one in two and three year olds, binga, I
Speaker 3: don't even know how you'd defend this or argue to
Speaker 3: the contrary. And I don't want them selling T shirts
Speaker 3: for three year olds a little boy saying I want
Speaker 3: to get jiggy with a woman like I don't want
Speaker 3: them selling fishnet stockings and stripper clothes to four year
Speaker 3: old girls like you know. This reminds me of in
Speaker 3: Florida the law they call that don't say gay law,
Speaker 3: And my reaction was always, it's not that don't say
Speaker 3: gay law, it's the don't say sex law, like with
Speaker 3: little kids, with three year old, four year old, five
Speaker 3: year old, six year old. I don't want the schools
Speaker 3: talking about gay sex. I don't want them talking about
Speaker 3: straight sex. I'd like them to teach reading, writing, and
Speaker 3: arithmetic and leave our kids alone. And my view is
Speaker 3: the same of Target that they ought to stay out
Speaker 3: of the sex business all to together. If they're selling
Speaker 3: kids swimsuits, they ought to have swimsuits with the Dallas
Speaker 3: Cowboys on them. They ought to have swimsuits with a
Speaker 3: mermaid on them, or a unicorn or a transformer. But
Speaker 3: they shouldn't be trying to turn the kids into transformers.
Speaker 3: Just let kids be kids. And you know what's infuriating
Speaker 3: is some senior official or multiple senior executives at Targets
Speaker 3: signed off on this campaign and thought it was a
Speaker 3: good idea to sexualize our children.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I tell everybody that's listening right now, go look at
Speaker 2: it for yourself, Target dot com slash Pride, and you'll
Speaker 2: understand how much of an important issue they've gone all
Speaker 2: in on this. If you click on the book section
Speaker 2: for the children's books, for example, just to put it
Speaker 2: in perspective, there are fifty one pages of propaganda books,
Speaker 2: hardcore books pushing your children Beyond the gender binary, hard
Speaker 2: Book for Kids, Bye Bye Binary, the pronoun book Mama
Speaker 2: and Mommy and Me in the Middle. I mean, the
Speaker 2: list goes on and on of how they're trying to indoctrinate.
Speaker 1: Look at it.
Speaker 2: And I will say this to all the moms out
Speaker 2: there that are really exposing Target, thank you for doing it.
Speaker 2: I just say that personally watching people stand up for
Speaker 2: their kids is amazing. I think a lot of people
Speaker 2: were inspired during COVID to start standing up for their
Speaker 2: kids in a different way, and I think it's that
Speaker 2: may be the best part of this story is mothers
Speaker 2: and fathers and grandparents and grandmothers are paying attention now
Speaker 2: like never before after what we found out where they
Speaker 2: were teaching our kids in our schools. And this is
Speaker 2: another example of the success we have as conservatives when
Speaker 2: we stick together.
Speaker 3: Ben, let me ask my one more question. You know,
Speaker 3: one thing I noticed about all the press stories on
Speaker 3: this is it says that Target is reconsidering this in
Speaker 3: their othern stores. Now, I'm gonna say I find that amazing.
Speaker 3: I certainly believe that that parents in Texas and Florida
Speaker 3: and other store places in the South are unhappy about this.
Speaker 3: But is it really the case that parents in New
Speaker 3: York are happy about this, that that in the Midwest,
Speaker 3: that that in Nebraska they think it's a good idea
Speaker 3: for Target to be sexualizing our kids. If they're just
Speaker 3: addressing this in the South, I find it hard to
Speaker 3: believe that that in in many states, but maybe in
Speaker 3: San Francisco, maybe in the most aggressively left wing places
Speaker 3: in the country, but in most of the country, I
Speaker 3: think parents don't want sex of any kind, straight or gay,
Speaker 3: being thrust upon their kids. And and and it's remarkable
Speaker 3: that Target thinks it's only the ignorant Rube Southerners in
Speaker 3: their view that care about this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's pandering, and that's why we've got to keep
Speaker 2: it up no matter where you live, like you said,
Speaker 2: all over the country, because it's just an emergency meeting
Speaker 2: that we were described for southern states. And to be clear,
Speaker 2: they're just moving the merchandise from the front of the store,
Speaker 2: where it was prime shopping location, back into the sections
Speaker 2: where the stuff, you know, would normally go, like the
Speaker 2: children's section, the adult section of clothing, instead of having
Speaker 2: this massive amount of square footage they're doing at the
Speaker 2: front of the store. This is pandering. Don't be hoodwinked
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Speaker 2: back to the buying issue.
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Speaker 2: there was a big victory that took place this week.
Speaker 2: You were instrumental in it. A lot of people may
Speaker 2: not know about this, so I want you to give
Speaker 2: a little bit of the background. There are a lot
Speaker 2: of car manufacturers that we're going to get rid of
Speaker 2: AM radios. AM radio is something that a lot of
Speaker 2: people rely on in emergencies. AM radio in the signal
Speaker 2: of AM is very different than FM, and when there's
Speaker 2: outages and cell phones go down, whether it be in
Speaker 2: tornadoes or natural disasters, or terrorism attack herebon Forbid, or hurricanes,
Speaker 2: AM radio has the ability to reach people with the
Speaker 2: crank AM radios that you have that you don't even
Speaker 2: need power for. They were looking at taking these out
Speaker 2: of cars, and it looks like now we've had a
Speaker 2: victory where we one manufacturer saying, hey, we now understand
Speaker 2: this safety side of things. We're going to keep them
Speaker 2: in our automobiles. Tell people a little bit more about that.
Speaker 3: Well, that's exactly right. There were multiple big car manufacturers
Speaker 3: that we're talking about taking am radio out of cars,
Speaker 3: and there are lots of downsides of that. Number one,
Speaker 3: as you noted, is the downside of emergencies and a hurricane,
Speaker 3: in a tornado, in a time of emergency, you often
Speaker 3: have FM stations going down, and much of our emergency
Speaker 3: broadcast system is designed to go out over AM radio,
Speaker 3: so it would place people unable to hear the essential
Speaker 3: communications during an emergency. But Man, I also think more
Speaker 3: broadly than that, I think there's a reason that big
Speaker 3: car companies were open to taking down AM radio, which
Speaker 3: is AM radio is where a lot of talk radio
Speaker 3: is found, and talk radio is overwhelmingly conservative. And let's
Speaker 3: be clear, big business doesn't like things that are overwhelmingly conservative.
Speaker 3: If the only source of your news is watching CNN
Speaker 3: or MSNBC or even the big networks, your news is
Speaker 3: going to skew hard left talk radio, and whether it
Speaker 3: was Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity or Mark Levin or
Speaker 3: Ben Ferguson goes out and has an enormous impact over
Speaker 3: AM radio. I think that was a major reason why
Speaker 3: you were seeing multiple car companies move in that direction.
Speaker 3: And the consequence, an awful lot of people listen to
Speaker 3: talk radio when they're driving to work or they're driving home,
Speaker 3: and so removing AM radio means that people wouldn't do it.
Speaker 3: By the way, this also impacts farms and ranches, rural
Speaker 3: and agricultural listeners, where there are a lot of places
Speaker 3: where you're out in the country where AM radio stations
Speaker 3: can be the only choices you have to hear what's
Speaker 3: going on on agmatters or music or talker news. And
Speaker 3: so what I did I joined with Ed Markey. Ed
Speaker 3: Markey is a liberal Democrat from Massachusetts, maybe one of,
Speaker 3: if not the most liberal senator in the entire US Senate,
Speaker 3: and Ed Markey and I together introduced legislation that would
Speaker 3: mandate that car manufacturers include AM radio on their cars,
Speaker 3: that they not remove the ability of customers to listen
Speaker 3: to AM radio because in my view, as I said,
Speaker 3: it was an effort at censorship to silence conservative voices. Well,
Speaker 3: I got to say number one, for Ed Markey and
Speaker 3: me to introduce a bill together in the world of
Speaker 3: Washington is a pretty shocking thing, because look, Markey and
Speaker 3: I agree on very very little. And the most conservative
Speaker 3: member of the Senate along with one of the if
Speaker 3: not the most liberal member of the Senate, joining together.
Speaker 3: I think that kind of freaked a lot of observers
Speaker 3: out in Washington. It may have made them think it
Speaker 3: was a sign of the apocalypse. And what happened yesterday
Speaker 3: was a big deal. The CEO Ford Motor Company, and
Speaker 3: Ford was one of the companies that said they were
Speaker 3: going to pull AM radio. The CEO of Ford Motor
Speaker 3: Company sent out a tweet and I will read it
Speaker 3: to you. After speaking with policy leaders about the importance
Speaker 3: of AM broadcast radio as a part of the emergency
Speaker 3: alert system, we've decided to include it on all twenty
Speaker 3: twenty four Ford and Lincoln Motor Company vehicles. For any
Speaker 3: owners of Ford Electric vehicles without AM broadcast capability will
Speaker 3: offer a software update. So that is a terrific victory.
Speaker 3: And look I hope with Ford making this decision, the
Speaker 3: other car makers will follow suit because that ensures that
Speaker 3: customers have choices. And I actually view this very similar
Speaker 3: to the fight we had earlier this year where DirecTV
Speaker 3: had deplatformed Newsmax. I I engage vigorously to press Direct
Speaker 3: TV to put Newsmax back on air, because I think
Speaker 3: customers deserve the right to choose to watch Newsmax if
Speaker 3: they want. I know a lot of Texans enjoy watching Newsmax.
Speaker 3: I enjoy watching Newsmax. And when you have giant corporations
Speaker 3: deciding we're only going to allow left of center news
Speaker 3: to be consumed, that's a real problem. I viewed the
Speaker 3: removal of AM radio from cars in a similar light,
Speaker 3: and so we have a lot to celebrate. Ford is
Speaker 3: a huge seller of cars. So congratulations to Ford on
Speaker 3: doing the right thing. Your customers appreciate it, and I
Speaker 3: think it'll be rewarded in the marketplace.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, and I'm one of those obviously do
Speaker 2: a radio show on AM and have my virtually my
Speaker 2: entire life since I was started at twelve. But for me, yes,
Speaker 2: I was terrified of the aspect of the censorship that
Speaker 2: you just mentioned, but if you know anything about AM radio,
Speaker 2: it saves lives when they're our natural disasters, and that
Speaker 2: for me far it was part of the shock I
Speaker 2: think of this plan as so many of these car
Speaker 2: makers were really just lockstep one after another. Yeah, we're
Speaker 2: not going to offer and we're not going to offer
Speaker 2: AY and we're not going to offer AM anymore. And
Speaker 2: by the way, it costs nothing just to put just
Speaker 2: so people understand AM radio.
Speaker 1: Technology and cars.
Speaker 2: Is I mean, we're talking pennies to put it in
Speaker 2: if you're already putting in all the other FM technology,
Speaker 2: et cetera. And that's where it was like, Okay, not
Speaker 2: only do they seem to not understand the safety aspect
Speaker 2: of this, but is it about censorship? And that's why
Speaker 2: I'm so glad you guys got together to do this.
Speaker 2: I have to ask you, how did this alliance between
Speaker 2: the two of you happen and what was his mindset
Speaker 2: about this going in?
Speaker 3: Well, look, and I'll say the boycott on AM radio
Speaker 3: started with electric vehicle manufacturers who argued that the electric
Speaker 3: vehicle technology interfered with the AM radio antenna and the
Speaker 3: signal and it caused interference. Now, technologically on an electric vehicle.
Speaker 3: It's relatively simple to solve by understanding is with a
Speaker 3: quite inexpensive shield, you don't have the interference. But they
Speaker 3: didn't want to add the shield, and so they were
Speaker 3: removing AM radio. And when it was limited to a
Speaker 3: couple of electric vehicle manufacturers or models, it was still
Speaker 3: a pretty small presence in the marketplace. What had happened
Speaker 3: now is that more and more big manufacturers were extending
Speaker 3: this more broadly, and we were facing a very real
Speaker 3: scenario where a significant percentage of new vehicles sold would
Speaker 3: not have AM radio at all, and that would be
Speaker 3: a real problem from an emergency response perspective and a
Speaker 3: real problem from a censorship perspective. So I'll tell you
Speaker 3: Markey reached out to me. I'm the ranking member on
Speaker 3: the Senate Commerce Committee, and Ed is on the Senate
Speaker 3: Commerce Committee. I don't know what his motivation was, but
Speaker 3: I look for many Democrats, they are in favor of
Speaker 3: all sorts of mandates, and so they're often willing to
Speaker 3: mandate that a manufacturer provide all sorts of things. As
Speaker 3: a general matter, I'm pretty skeptical of mandates and so
Speaker 3: on many things we don't see eye to eye. But
Speaker 3: in this instance, the emergency response factor persuaded me, and
Speaker 3: the viewpoint discrimination targeting talk radio in particular, that moved
Speaker 3: me significantly. I don't want to see important voices in
Speaker 3: free speech silenced, and I think pulling AM radio out
Speaker 3: of automobiles would have done that, And so I agreed
Speaker 3: to sign on and the two of us rolled it
Speaker 3: out together. And I think the fact of our legislation
Speaker 3: played a pivotal role in forcing Ford to change its policy,
Speaker 3: and I hope that other car manufacturers will follow suit.
Speaker 2: One other thing that's really cool about the history of
Speaker 2: AM radio. The first first station in history to be
Speaker 2: programmed for African American programming is still on AM radio
Speaker 2: only in my hometown of Memphis, and CWDA and the
Speaker 2: many African American radio stations in America also came together
Speaker 2: over the last several weeks as well to demand that
Speaker 2: amstay because it's part of history, it's a part of
Speaker 2: their business. They have invested in these radio stations and
Speaker 2: bought them, and it was really nice to see so
Speaker 2: many different people come together. Let me lastly remind you
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Speaker 2: just got to ask you one other question, and that
Speaker 2: is are you watching the NBA Finals that you do?
Speaker 2: Have you picked a tea team at the end of
Speaker 2: this or have you totally checked out?
Speaker 3: Look To be honest, once, once the Rockets are out
Speaker 3: of it, I tend not to follow it terribly closely.
Speaker 3: My rule on sports is that I root for any
Speaker 3: Texas team against any non Texas team. But I'm a
Speaker 3: die hard Rockets fan and listen, this past season was
Speaker 3: not a good Rocket season. That's a rebuilding season. They
Speaker 3: have a bunch of young players and I think they
Speaker 3: have have great talent. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: the Rockets aren't in it, The Spurs aren't in it,
Speaker 3: the Mavericks aren't in it. So I haven't watched it close.
Speaker 3: I've watched a couple of the games. I do think
Speaker 3: the NBA was really really hoping for a Lakers Celtics matchup. Yes,
Speaker 3: the basketball gods decided that was not what was going
Speaker 3: to happen. You know, I'll probably watch some of the
Speaker 3: finals and I'll enjoy it, but but without the Rockets
Speaker 3: in it, I'm not following it right.
Speaker 2: I gotta tell you, I gotta tell you I loved
Speaker 2: watching the Nuggets sweep the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Senator.
Speaker 2: That was I was hoping you were going to go
Speaker 2: there at the beginning of your response, because watching the Lakers,
Speaker 2: I'm just not a fan of the Lakers get swept
Speaker 2: by the Nuggets was a blast to watch.
Speaker 3: I listen, Lebron James my last re election campaign, he
Speaker 3: endorsed against me. He showed up in Texas wearing a
Speaker 3: Beato O'Rourke hat, and and so I have to admit,
Speaker 3: no part of me is weeping that Lebron is going
Speaker 3: to be watching the finals on TV. You know that's
Speaker 3: you know karma. Karma has a wonderful uh sense of humor.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 3: I will say this on a light note that I
Speaker 3: think you'll like. I've spent the last three days, as
Speaker 3: you know, in New York City. I've been doing fundraising
Speaker 3: meetings and also doing a bunch of media interviews for
Speaker 3: the past several days. And I was having lunch in
Speaker 3: a nice New York restaurant yesterday, and as I was
Speaker 3: walking through the restaurant, the bartender stop me and he said, Ted,
Speaker 3: I love the podcast. I listened to it three days
Speaker 3: a week, and he said today's podcast? So this was Monday,
Speaker 3: he said, was awesome. I listened to it this morning already.
Speaker 3: His name was Salvatory. And I was having dinner with
Speaker 3: a gentleman, a friend of mine who is older, who
Speaker 3: was asking me, what exactly is a podcast like? Like,
Speaker 3: who listens to it? I don't understand. Explain this to me,
Speaker 3: and so I asked Salvatory. I said, Salvatory, can I
Speaker 3: ask you something? Will you come with me to my table?
Speaker 3: And I introduced Salvatory to my friend. I was having
Speaker 3: dinner and I said, would you just tell my friend
Speaker 3: what you said? And and and and he tells him
Speaker 3: it and my friend said, so are you from Texas?
Speaker 3: Are you? And I'm laughing, but no, he's the bartender
Speaker 3: here in Manhattan who listens to Verdict three days a week.
Speaker 3: That happens every day as I travel across Texas and
Speaker 3: travel across the country. So I want to say to
Speaker 3: our Verdict listeners, you guys are awesome and Salvatory. If
Speaker 3: you're listening and listening to the end, you rock and
Speaker 3: I appreciate you.
Speaker 2: There you I love it, don't forget down with this podcast.
Speaker 2: We do it Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, and if there's
Speaker 2: big breaking news, we even throw in special pods in between.
Speaker 2: Make sure you hit that share button and share this
Speaker 2: on social media and we will see you back here
Speaker 2: in a couple of days